The bitter red rays of sunshine greet him in his face. He rubs his eyes and yawns. His cat, Mellow, who always looks little like a pig, protests on his stomach. He smiles knowingly, "Are we hungry, little guy?"
He takes a deep breath, relaxing himself in the sweet stench of burning flesh. Not that he knows where it comes from, just how it has always been. Mellow jumps down on the floor with the bizarre pattern that seems to twist and turn into nothingness. She meows once again with a noticeable frown, he giggles and climbs out of the bed.
'Remember to walk on the edges of the walls' it tells him.
He hums and carefully tiptoes on the path marked with a check mark. He waves his hand to Mellow to get her to follow him on the safe path, but she doesn't. She gleefully jumps on the huge cross signs as sirens blare through the room distorting his senses. He stops humming and stares at the horrific scene unable to move.
'Move. Move, Move. 𝗠𝗢𝗩𝗘,' his head screams at him knowing if he moves and takes the risk he can save Mellow.
The floor with the bizarre pattern laughs at him. It dissolves and tangles her legs as the cat shrieks and struggles in fear, slowly consuming her stomach, burning down her flesh to bones and leaving the head untouched for him to remember. Like plastic set to fire, the room doesn't smell pleasant anymore. But with the sharp stench of a murderer. Mellow's green eyes lifelessly stare at him or more so glare at him with resentment.
'You couldn't possibly risk yourself for an animal, hm?' it says and he nods his head aggressively.
"Haha, Dummy Mellow…I'll have to find your replacement now," he grumbles to himself, his voice cracking into nothingness.
'Don't let them know,' it says.
"I suppose Chipmunk would do the trick. They never liked each other but now with Mellow gone. I'm sure he'll do just fine."
7:00 AM, exactly the time when the music plays in the background. 'Black Swan,' an odd choice not his favorite but something he can tolerate. Now finally, he can't hear the world around him anymore. Everything will fade into a quiet whir as the distorted piano rings into his ears and lulls him to peace. Nothing is real and nothing matters.
He whistles and quietly makes his way to the bathroom. Of course, he can't wake up the silhouettes downstairs with his loud footsteps as the walls were too thin. The silhouettes always were too violent on nice days.
Last he woke them up by accident, it didn't end well. He remembers losing a limb or two and grimaces as if to mimic pain. Not that he ever did experience pain in this world.
The birds never chirp, and the cars never roar despite the fact he lives on a street surrounded by far too many neon trees. The roads were always odd, stretching to the end of the world but always leading to one place; ⱧØ₥Ɇ.
He twists the tap but no water comes out just like one of those days not that he knows much about days. He groans and puts on his uniform, brushing his hair with his hands and rushes out to the small brown door too small to fit him sometimes.
He opens it and quickly shields his eyes; '฿Ɽł₲Ⱨ₮' maybe a little too bright.
Immediately, pink clouds cover the blazing red sun as if someone hears his thoughts. The sky dims down and he sighs in relief. He walks on the roadside to the School just like every other day. Huge black cars zap beside him, he feels the air blowing but no sound. He wonders, if he were to speak, will he even hear himself?
The elderly woman at the corner of the road stands there as always. She dashes towards him, reaching him far too quickly. She eagerly smiles ear to ear and asks him in her calm voice as the music lowers down letting him hear her.
"How's Mellow?"
He stares at her. "I'm sorry?"
"How's Mellow, darling?" her voice is a high pitched squeak now.
'She didn't know, she couldn't know about mellow. Right?'
He never told her about Mellow. She grins, skipping in front of him like a curious child.
"I didn't hur…hurt her!" he shouts as his mind blanks out and the elderly woman frowns at him.
The head-splitting sirens blast next to him and he winces in pain. The music dulls out and he can hear every single thing around him screeching and blaring, Sarah the Clown grits her teeth and screams at him.
"ĐØ₦'₮ ⱠłɆ!! ĐØ₦'₮ ⱠłɆ!! ĐØ₦'₮ ⱠłɆ!!"
'You didn't hurt her. THEY DID. They did, it wasn't you, no it can't be, no, you're ₦Ø₮ ₳ ₥ɄⱤĐɆⱤɆⱤ'
The elderly woman asks again, this time her voice a glitch, "H̵͍̪̳͐̂o̶̙͍̱̘̼̬̹͙̹̖͌w̸̤̥̜̥̯͑͛̀ ̶̡̯͚̦̺̟͖̀̋͂̓͑i̵̛̳̱̝̖̊̀̀̃̔͂͒͝͝ş̸͚̰͉͇͉̾̊ ̶̼̪͌̔̐͝͝Ḿ̴̫͙̲̭̟̤͕͚̮͂E̶̺̜͙͋̋͊̌Ĺ̴̡͇̯̼͓̳̩͈͉̂̋̿̉̐͠L̷͈͖̖̯̅O̶̥̦̓̔̇̃W̸̧̛̤̻̤̑̏͗̓̽,̷̮͋̽̄̈́̈́̐̑̋͊́͜ ̶̖̥̼̳̊̄͂̓͌͑͐͛̆̕d̷̢̪͈̬͈̥͈̉̒͋͆ȃ̶̧͙̱̬̙̝̪͖̞̿͐̚ř̸̰̤̫̫̺̓͋͜ĺ̴̰̖̥̾͛i̴̛̥͚͚̟̻͍̥͗͑͛̈̓͘ñ̶̯̺̟̝͉͗̽̎͋g̵̢͍̩͈̫͍̎͊̒̒?̷̢̫̤̙̭͈̩̬̎̚͝.
He feels eyes, eyes of people he never saw before, people he does not know. Glaring at him, begging him to make a wrong move.
His heart beats faster, faster than the blaring siren. He clenches his shirt. His vision gets warped into flashes of bright lights that zoom in and out of focus. He can't see anything.
He speaks, but doesn't hear himself. He speaks louder this time with tears in his eyes but no sound comes out of his mouth.
The only sounds that fills the air are;
ⱧØ₩ ł₴ ₥ɆⱠⱠØ₩?
ⱧØ₩ ł₴ ₥ɆⱠⱠØ₩?
ⱧØ₩ ł₴ ₥ɆⱠⱠØ₩?
He falls down on the concrete floor, his hands clasping his ears tightly but failing to block out any sound. The cats who look alot like pigs stare at him with remorse in their eyes as if murdered their family, the elderly woman, Sarah the Clown and people, people who sound too much like his classmates. But not the classmates in his school, not the people in this world. They all bore holes into him screaming at him to tell the truth till it all just stops as if someone pushes the stop button on a cassette.
An abrupt silence. The world calms down, the music starts again, the voices go back to a quiet hum and the elderly woman disappears..
It all goes back to ⱧØ₩ ł₮ Ⱨ₳₴ ₳Ⱡ₩₳Ɏ₴ ฿ɆɆ₦.
Everything dissolves in a blur, his memory gets foggy and he finds himself in the classroom not a second late. The board has something written on it with a bright flowery font.
🎀 𝐼𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝒥𝑒𝓃𝓃𝒾𝑒'𝓈 𝒷𝒾𝓇𝓉𝒽𝒹𝒶𝓎 🎀, it reads.
His only two friends, Hansel and Gretel, nudge him to sing along to a birthday song he cannot hear. Everyone is wearing a rabbit mask or something that looks alot like a rabbit, the eyes just holes of black and cheeks with a little too much blush, the whiskers on some of the masks hanging loose. These masks make him feel uncomfortable yet it is normal. They clap and dance and laugh, singing the same song over and over.
He smiles as the cake is reeled in the class. It is a cream colored tower cake with Christmas adorations on it and Jennie's head on top. The blood from her head seeps all around the cake like
syrup.
'It's a ritual for the birthday girl', the voice says as he nods slowly.
A headless Jennie stands next to the cake with a butcher knife giggling as she shows it around. He sees a pair of purple eyes reflecting in the knife.
The eyes that shine brighter than the burning candles on top of the cake. The boy with a small face, wears no mask and stares back at him puzzlingly.
He quickly looks away slightly embarrassed as he feels a light touch on his arm.
"⸮ɘm ɘɘꙅ ᴎɒɔ uoY" the boys speaks oddly as if someone is reading the alphabets backwards but he understands the boy quickly. He nods his head
slowly as the boy gasps in surprise.
"I can hear you too," he says with confusion. He never hears anything when the music plays but he hears the boy all too well.
The candles blow out and the room falls silent, a taunting silence, the boy grips on his shoulder a little too tightly in fear.
The boy's nails dig into his skin making him all too aware of the situation.
The people in rabbit masks stare at them with empty black eyes. The music fades and an ear splitting
noise fills the room.
"ⱧɆ ₭₦Ø₩₴", they whisper.