When my older brother Shon and I turned 15 and 11, monsterkind broke our barrier. As they shattered our dreams of having a monster-free life, grinding them into dust, we spent the next few days just wondering why. The answer never showed itself outright, more so via an experience.
Shon decided the government was responsible. If they had guarded the mountain better, seven humans could not have fallen and our barrier would have stayed standing. I agreed.
Juton said it was objectionable for us to talk about it in a bad way. I asked him what that meant and he said to not talk about it. Shon didn't listen to Juton, offending monsters any chance he got. Over about a week, though, the frequency of his insults depleted. I asked him on sunday, and he told me it's only a slight nuisance.
On Wednesday, as Shon and I were walking down the sidewalk through a walkway of trees, coming from school, we saw a wad of paper, resting in a hole in the ground, right next to a tree. Whoever placed it there had neatly crumpled the paper, if you could even put it that way, and seemed to fit it perfectly in the hole, as if they dug the hole for it.
Shon picked it up, uncrumpled it, read it, crumpled it back up, and placed it in the hole. He wouldn't tell me what it said, and would block me from getting to it. I gave up after about a minute and kept walking.
Our neighborhood is surrounded by trees, with the only ways in and out being the sidewalk path in the back, which leads to the city center, and the main vehicle entrance, which leads to the highway. We came in the sidewalk entrance, taking a sharp right, and then going straight past one house, stopping at the next. This was ours.
Our house.
Juton was sitting on the front porch in his rocking chair, reading a book about snails. As Shon went inside, I walked around to the back of Juton, shaking his chair a little. He greeted me, showing me an interesting fact about snails.
I walked inside.
Shon was doing his homework on the table in dining room, not noticing or addressing me as I walked upstairs, taking a right to open the door to my room. I set my bag down at the foot of my dresser, opening it up to get out my binder and set it down on my desk.
I finished in an hour.
Shon was already outside, but not where I expected him to be. A search leading into our treehouse had no avail as Shon was vacant there. I asked Juton if he knew but he said he did not, so that confrontation was pointless. I took a few laps around the vicinity of our house, but alas, Shon was nowhere to be found.
As I came to to our house front, after making a fourth lap around the house, I spotted him across the street.
Violence against monsters had not been discriminated against, nor was it illegal to kill one. The Humans and Monsters Association (HMA) and the Anti-Monsters Association (AMA) had been quarreling over this topic for about 6 months now, and the HMA had won on the topic over monsters being able to live alongside humans. The AMA, however, had won in the sense that it still was legal to harm and kill them.
Shon was doing that.
(Heavy violence and gore warning for anyone that cares.)
Killing a monster.
I could hear the screams when it started.
I was scared to leave the comfort of this sidewalk. I didn't know if Shon would react to my presence favorably, although I soon had that feeling dissipate and walked across the street.
He was a dinosaur like kid, the monster. Originally what I presumed to be a yellow like color, now stained with red. Shon's hand seemed to be the same shade of red, dripping the color. Shon's head snapped back to face me in an instant which cause me to stumble back, falling to the ground. He asked what I was doing, and fumbling with my words, I spat out I was watching. He mentioned that was good, that I'd learn some valuable information.
The dinosaur tried running away while Shon was distracted, but as a result got the back of his head knocked in. His hair went from yellow to red in a few seconds, showing off the indent Shon's fist made. He grabbed the hair of the kid, stepping on his back and pulling.
The kid's back broke at about the same time the handful of hair was taken from his head. Shon probably smiled, but I couldn't see.
All I saw were screams.
Then I got up and walked away.
When Shon came back into the house, he looked the same as he did when he left. Juton greeted him with a hello, to which Shon returned.
Shon asked what Juton was cooking, and I replied with a burger, Juton following up with a nod. Shon told us to call him when it was ready, then proceeded to walk upstairs.
Silence.
I told Juton he killed one. A monster. Juton was more surprised than angry or disappointed. He said he didn't think Shon had it in him, that he was more liking of monsters.
He said he thought Shon was more innocent than he really was. A sweetheart.
I disagreed.
As Shon came back downstairs when dinner was ready, I noticed a change in his expression of feeling. Whenever he would be in Juton's line of sight, his face would contort, almost shift out of place, to an expression that would be more pleasing to the eye. He would change from sagging eyelids, baggy cheeks, and a scratchy look to a more relaxed, slackened one, if you could even call it that.
Shon would even change his style of walking, schlepping his body when nobody was looking (which meant only me), and correcting his walk to a prompt, straight, proper type when somebody laid eyes on him. It honestly would be more interesting than scary or unsettling. The way he would almost involuntarily know when somebody was looking at him, and how he would instantly change his way of living in that moment. I was inquisitive.
That probably wasn't a good thing.
After getting oddly used to it, knowing it would happen often and sometimes when I didn't surmise or expect it, I began to ask why. Was Shon feeling guilt? I hadn't thought so, after all he did most definitely hate monsters.
I became so interested, I felt more like a researcher or an investigator than his sister.
The thought terrified me.
The following Thursday, as I was sitting in our treehouse reading The Book Thief, he climbed up, sat against the opposing wall, and stared at me, eyes distant. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was understanding me. I didn't understand, but what was to be expected from him in which I would?
He stayed there for a few more minutes before climbing down and walking away. I followed him with my eyes, noting how he would do things like kick the ground or a bush as he walked by it, or pick up a rock and excessively feel it. He was more observative, but also creepier to a naked eye, a random person.
Then, something I never would have thought to happen, happened. In the midst of Shon's complete creepiness and aurora of an unsettling mood, somebody came up to him, greeted him, introduced themselves as Cue, and asked what Shon's name was. Shon replied with a stare, straight into the soul, before spitting out his name, no emotion in his voice at all. Shon wasn't acting proper like he normally does around people, and Cue wasn't taking notice to his behavior.
I climbed down, interested in what exactly was going on. When I got within a couple feet of the duo, Shon snapped his head back to face me, tilting it enough to make it even possible. He turned his whole body around and stared. I tried escaping by eyeing Cue to do something, but he was in another world altogether. Fed up with the awkwardness of the situation, I walked around Shon to introduce myself to Cue, who re-introduced himself, being what looked to be ecstatic about the situation.
Shon turned around, saying hello and looking at me with a face of disappointment. I was scared, and for Cue, this was probably awkward. We stayed like this, me not knowing what to do, Shon staring directly at my face, creeping me out to no end, and Cue not even paying attention to what was going on. I decided to see myself out, and walked back to the base of our treehouse's tree, climbing up and sitting against the far wall. Through the window hole in the wall I could see Cue started talking to Shon again, about what I don't know though.
They started walking away.
Cue said something to Shon, which one way or another, caused him to follow Cue down the sidewalk, towards the neighborhood entrance.
Cue seemed to walk excitedly, bouncing and jumping slightly with every step, while Shon on the other hand, had his entire way of walking revolve around schlepping his body from one place to another. When somebody started to look at him, however, which apparently did not include me or Cue, he would correct himself, standing and walking strictly and straight. Honestly, if he didn't move his arms around in a normal fashion, he'd look like the stereotypical soilder.
I decided to follow them.
They traveled down the sidewalk, Shon kicking at things, Cue whistling absentmindedly. It looked like Cue was just walking and not paying attention to where he was going or how he was getting there. Shon stopped to look at a bush on the lawn of somebody's house, moving his eyes with the bush as it swayed in the wind. Cue stopped and turned on a dime, looking back at Shon. They stayed like this for a few more seconds than I would assume or think to be normal. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Cue asked Shon what he was doing. Shon turned to Cue with his body, head and eyes fixated on the bush, and said that he was wondering about a question he asked himself a long time ago. Cue turned on another dime and kept walking, and after a few seconds, Shon caught up.
After a minute, I walked over and picked up 20 cents.
Cue took another left and Shon followed, stopping occasionally to stare at cracks in the sidewalk cement, kicking them until his shoe started to wear out.
Eventually, Cue had made a circle around the neighborhood, ending up back at our house. Shon stared at him some more, and eventually asked what Cue was doing.
Honestly I thought it was slightly, if not extremely early, to realize something was wrong. Cue didn't speak for a few seconds longer than what seemed normal. His head snapped, as if it was broken and he was trying to put it back in place, away from me.
Shon did the same. They turned their whole bodies this time, walking away from me, directly for the entrance. Cue stopped about 20 meters down the line, and as soon as Shon realized he stopped as well.
The air was tense for a few minutes. Whole minutes were spent with no movement being made. I decided that it would be better if I just left. I turned around, making a walking path away from the hedge I was hiding behind, when something grabbed my shirt collar.
I was pulled at an enormous force through the hedge, which caused me to bleed in several spots. I manage to turn around, as the grip on my shirt was released. As a heap of flesh and bones on the ground, I manage to see it was Cue who grabbed me.
He said, apparently to Shon, to do something about me, a horrible spy.
I chuckled, wondering what Shon could do to me that wouldn't get him in huge trouble.
What he did, though, is what some people might call in street slang, "Some Darth Vader Shit."
I blacked out.