Chapter 5: Unfamiliar Face

I opened my eyes slowly, realising that they were still a little out of focus. I remembered the foot I had seen and sat upright, all of the panic suddenly flooding back to me.
“Tim, it’s ok.” I looked to my right, where the voice had come from. It was Victor. He was looking at me worriedly. A tear began to roll down my cheek but I stopped it quickly with the palm of my hand.
“Are you still scared?” Victor asked softly, shuffling closer to me. I nodded, feeling stupid, but I wasn’t going to lie and say I wasn’t scared. He put his hand on my back gently.
“Well, there’s no need to be; I’m here, and you know I would never let anything happen to you.”
“W...where’s Lou?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. Victor pointed. Lou was curled up asleep on the floor next to me; he wasn’t wearing his blazer anymore and I was thinking that he must be cold. Then I realised that my arms were covered with it. I smiled to myself, putting the jumper over him instead.
“I don’t think you should get too friendly with him, Timothy, he makes me feel uncomfortable.” said Victor, shivering.
“I don’t know what you mean, he’s a nice guy.” I lied, chuckling. Victor just looked at me.
“Seriously?” He raised an eyebrow at me. I nodded, smiling.
“He doesn’t give you the creeps? I always feel like he’s...I don’t know...undressing me with his eyes or something.” Victor said seriously, still looking at me. I laughed loudly, shaking my head.
“Who’d want to undress you with their eyes?” I giggled and he pushed my shoulder. He stood up and lifted up his shirt.
“Are you telling me you wouldn’t want to tap this?” he joked, putting on a funny voice. I laughed. This was the side of Victor that nobody but me had seen. Lou rolled over and sat up. Victor pulled his shirt down quickly, sitting back down next to me and pushing his glasses further onto his face. I cleared my throat.
“Have a nice nap?” I asked, smiling.
He yawned, “I could ask you the same thing.”

Victor cleared his throat. “Anyway, are we actually gonna get out of here or are we just gonna sit around and wait for ‘it’ to get us?”

Lou stood up, untucking his shirt and stretching.
“I think judging from how it looks outside it’s probably best we stay in here until I figure out how to stop it.”

“Hang on a second. Until you figure it out? Who’s to say me or Tim can’t?” Victor glared at Lou.

“Can I speak to you in private for a second please, Victor?” Lou asked through gritted teeth, glaring back at him. Victor followed Lou to the other side of the room, his arms folded across his chest. I could hear them whispering to each other but unfortunately couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“Fine, I’ll just stay over here then.” I said to myself quietly, glaring in their direction. I saw Victor nodding in defeat; whatever they had been arguing about it seemed like Lou had won. Lou came back over to where I was but Victor stayed by the window; he didn’t look too happy. I stood up and walked over to him. He leaned his hands on the windowsill and sighed.

“Look at them.” he said, glaring out of the window. I turned to see what he was looking at and shivered, a lump forming in the back of my throat. There were giant creatures walking around outside. Their bodies were human but deformed, their arms were tiny in comparison to their bodies and they didn’t have hands; their legs were like those of insects, long and spindly, making them taller than the school building. I couldn’t properly see their faces from down here but I could make out large, wide-open mouths, and I was sure that if could hear them they would be screaming.

“What’s going on, Victor?” I turned to face him. He didn’t look at me but continued to stare out of the window, the red sky reflecting on his glasses. He opened his mouth to speak; whether it was to answer my question I don’t know because a loud crash from outside the room distracted him. We both spun round to face the door. There was definitely someone, or something, outside the room; I could see its shadow on the ceiling. Lou walked over to the door and started knocking the chairs out of the way angrily.

“I’m ending this.” he said through gritted teeth. Victor and I ran over and grabbed his arms.
“What are you doing?!” I shouted, I was terrified of whatever it was getting in here. He gently lifted my hand off his arm and then quickly shrugged Victor’s off.
“Just let me go out please, I’m going to stop this.” he said, pushing the table away from the door with no effort, despite how long it had taken us to push it before. Victor stood back, “Go ahead.”
I stared open-mouthed at Victor, disgusted that he was just going to let him go out there. Lou opened the door and went out. Victor followed, so I had no choice.

Lou was looking around the corridor. I could’ve sworn I saw him sniff the air. He paced up and down a little, seemingly growing more irritated by the second because he had started kicking things.

I leaned towards Victor, “What’s wrong with him?”
“How should I know?” Victor replied, trying to look uninterested. Lou paced over towards me and Victor. “The smell of blood might draw it out.” he said plainly. He was crazy, he really was. I looked sideways at Victor, hoping that he might do something. Too late. Lou knelt down, picking a small shard of glass from the floor. He stood up and held out his wrist, drawing the sharp glass quickly across his skin. I nearly retched; I felt as if I could hear his skin breaking. He dropped the shard of glass and it made a soft clink on the tiles. He wrapped a finger and thumb around his wrist tightly and squeezed, causing a line of red to run down across his palm and in between his fingers. He gasped, biting his lip.

“Victor, stop him.” I whispered. Victor reached out to stop him when there was a flash of black in front of us. Lou stayed where he was but let go of his wrist, which was now bleeding fluently onto the floor. Someone walked round the corner ahead of us and stopped. It was a boy, a little older than us. He had shoulder-length black hair and, much to my amazement, two small, black, furry ears on top of his head, like that of a cat. I blinked a couple of times but my eyes were not deceiving me, they really were there. As he began to walk closer to us I also noticed a long, black tail swishing around behind him. This was definitely a dream.

“I knew it was you.” Lou said plainly, dropping his injured wrist to his side. The boy smiled, stopping in front of Lou.
“I’m glad you remember me.” he chuckled, placing a hand on his waist, he looked up and down Lou’s body, still smiling, then he looked at me. I shivered; his eyes were also like that of a cat, yellow with thin black pupils. He stared at me for a while and I didn’t break eye contact, only to see if he was still looking at me. He didn’t look at Victor though; he returned his attention to Lou.

“Get out of here.” Lou said angrily, holding his wrist. The blood was seeping through his fingers.
“Don’t be so rude, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” he giggled, looking back at me.
Lou looked at me. “Tim, this is...” he started, before the boy butted in.
“Noir.” he said, holding out his hand. I reached out my hand to his, I could feel myself shaking.
He kept hold of my hand without shaking it. His nails were long and sharp. He leaned close to me, taking a deep breath. He smelled my hair. I didn’t know how to feel about that. I looked at the ears on the top of his head, which twitched excitedly. He leaned back, still holding my hand. His nails were digging into my skin a little. He must have seen me looking at his ears.
“They’re real.” he said, “You can touch them if you want.” Lou pulled him away quickly, glaring. The boy only smiled.
“No need to get aggressive, I was only being friendly.” he chuckled. Then his eyes flashed. “But if it’s a fight you want I’ll be happy to oblige.”
“I don’t want a fight, I just want you to get the hell out of here and take your ‘pets’ with you.” Lou said. Noir’s smile fell. He looked suddenly at Victor.
“I think you know why I’m here, ‘Lou’.” he smirked as he said Lou’s name, as if there was something amusing about it. Lou continued glaring at him.
“I don’t give a shit why you’re here, I just want you to leave.” Lou said plainly. Noir walked around Lou, “What if I don’t want to go?” he teased, “What if I’d rather stay here and play.”
“You know what will happen if you fuck with me, Noir.” Lou snarled, staying where he was even though Noir was now stood behind him. Noir giggled. “Such dirty language for someone so loyal. What are you going to do to me then?” He walked back around to Lou’s front. He reached out quickly and grabbed Lou’s wrist, pushing his thumb into the wound. Lou didn’t react.
“Stop trying to be so stoic in front of your friend.” Noir spat, scraping his thumb nail across the line. Lou closed his eyes, “Are you trying to test my patience?” Noir pulled Lou’s wrist up to his face. Lou glared.
“Don’t. You. Dare.” he said slowly. Noir smirked, sticking out his tongue. Lou pulled his wrist back quickly, releasing it from Noir’s grip. He punched Noir so hard I could’ve sworn I heard his nose break. Noir fell back onto the floor, holding his nose. Lou flexed his fingers and cracked his knuckles.
“I warned you. Stupid bastard.” Noir got up onto all fours, growling, showing sharp white teeth. Victor pulled me back out of the way and stood in front of me, but I moved a little to the side so I could still see what was going on.
“I’m going to rip you to shreds, slowly, piece by piece.” Noir snarled , standing up and wiping the blood from his face. Lou smirked, shaking his head. “You know you can’t beat me and yet you always come back so I can humiliate you some more.”
Noir jumped forward, pinning Lou against the wall with his nails. He brought up his knee, which connected with Lou’s stomach roughly. Lou coughed and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. I flinched. How hard did he kick him?

I continued to watch the fight with awe. It was extremely violent and yet neither of them seemed to be very hurt. There was a lot of blood though; I’m not even sure who it was coming from.

“Are you ready to go back?” Lou panted, pushing Noir to the floor and pinning him with his legs. Noir struggled as Lou lifted up his shirt, drawing a symbol on his stomach in blood.
“No! Don’t send me back! Get off me! I can’t go back yet!” Noir punched Lou, making his lip bleed. Lou grabbed his wrists and pinned them above his head, growling.
“You’re going back if I have to drag you there myself!” he placed his free hand on the symbol and closed his eyes, muttering something to himself quickly. Noir screamed and kicked his legs.
“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! HE’S GOING TO PUNISH ME IF YOU SEND ME BACK NOW!” He looked genuinely terrified. Lou didn’t break concentration though, whatever he was doing. Suddenly Noir burst into flames, which, in a few seconds, sunk into the floor and disappeared. Noir was gone. Lou stood up and rubbed his forehead, moving his fringe from his eyes, but they were closed so I didn’t see them. He stumbled over to me and Victor.
“This is going to take a lot of explaining, isn’t it?”