We had moved many times, never staying in one place, probably to avoid getting found by the exorcists. The house we were at was at least four stories high, it was black painted, large murky windows, the house looked kinda like what you'd see in those Southern Gothic novels and movies, eerie, creeky. The inside was smelly and the air always seemed thick. It was rather dark, and musky inside. It was rather dingy, but it was home. I didn't mind.
My name is Jasdevi, I was bedridden in my room, my body, painfully coated with brutal wounds, I was about five at the time. A kind man with a large grin across his face, grey skin, glasses that concealed his circular eyes. Large rather tilted goblin like ears, he wore rather, halloweenish kind of clothes, a pink laced living umbrella almost always slung over his shoulder. This man had saved my life. He had taken me from the hell of a life I had trapped in the asylum. A place that helps the insane? No such thing in my case. To them, I was a monster. The man who had saved me's name was the Millennium Earl. He had a clan, a family of other people. Just like me.
This story isn't about the Earl or his family. It's about… Him… I'm not quite sure when I met him, but I was in my bed all the time, in my room. I was kept stagnant in bed, suffering by the hour with boredom
Occasionally, the common Noah as they called themselves, would come into my room a few times a day to humor me by giving me a can of Sprite, and a bunch of books. None of which interested me, but seeing as that had been the only thing to entertain me at week one. I was reading one of the book a woman Noah named Lulu Bell gave me, I guess it was a bit interesting, but not enough to keep me content. I looked over as something small and a bit… Furry, was struggling to peer over my bed on it's tiny mouse like tip toes.
I was shocked to see two small amber beady eye's, staring up at me, curiousity peaked in them. Large furry ears sprouted at either side of it's oval shaped head. They sorta looked like Irish Wolf Hound ears, grey and scraggly with long tufts of fur coating the tops like two small mops. It had a cat like nose. It's head, like everything about him seemed to be swelled. His wiry fur was grey as stone. But what I had just described wasn't the strangest feature. His grin, it looked a bit like the Millenium Earl's, a bit more disturbed, sorta like a cheshire cat. His body was small, kinda like a rabbit.
"Hello," it said, it's voice sort of sounded like Golem from Lord of the Rings. But the creature pricked my curiosity.
"Hi… What are you?" I asked curiously, I tilted my head.
"Well… I'm a friend!" He exclaimed happily. I felt my gaze harden, he wasn't my friend. He wasn't known. I had no friends, though the thought of having a friend warmed my heart a bit.
"I have no friends..." I hissed bitterly, a feeling of grief hit me. Hey! We're your friends! Devit, who was one of my halves responded hotly Ya! Hee hee! My other half named Jasdero responded. You two don't count, you're literally part of me… I saw a mental image of the two of them pouting. Jasdero with his stitched lips, waist length blonde hair, grey skin and large golden eyes surrounded by tear drop like black eyeliner markings, and Devitto with his shoulder blade length raven colored hair, normal sized golden eyes, grey skin like his twin, and black eyeliner on his left eye making a crescent moon like marking, and the other eye just being outlined.
"I'm your friend now," the creature said kindly, it's wide grin curled at the corners revealing a kind smile. I felt myself smile, this strange creature wanted to be my friend. "My name is Mr Widemouth." The creature said as he climbed up onto my bed, his cheshire cat grin was very wide as his name stated.
"I'm Jasdevi," I replied a smile across my black painted lips. His visits were every day now, he always disappeared when a Noah came in, he later explained.
"If they see me, they might not let us play anymore." I didn't ask why but I always wondered. Mr Widemouth always sat next to me in bed and would curiously examine my books as if he'd never seen one.
"Where do you go?" I asked curiously I didn't really know why I asked. I just did.
"I live under your bed," Mr Widemouth let out a soft hearty chuckle. I didn't ask anything for like the rest of the day, we just talked he always dived under the bed when Tyki walked in the room with more books and another coke can. Tyki left with a curt nod closing the door behind him like the rest of the Noah always did. I saw Mr Widemouth pop out from under my bed, asking me more about books. This went on for about a week, my wounds were bad so they barely healed. He was always fun to play with. But one day he surprised me.
"I have a secret game we could play, but we have to wait for one of the Noah to come and deposit the books and the coke in your room, they can't know we're playing it, its a secret game then we can play," he said, his large grin seemed larger than usual. I nodded enthusiastically.
After Road left after giving me more coke and books, Mr Widemouth popped up once again. He motioned me to follow him, he opened the door to my room, telling me that I should come with him, I knew I wasn't supposed to leave my bed, but the boredom overwhelmed me and tempted me to the point where I climbed out of bed and followed.
He brought me to the fourth floor in the large house and cracked open a window. And stood on the ledge. "I like to play pretend up here. I like to pretend theres a giant trampoline on the ground and I jump out, and if I pretend JUST hard enough, I bounce right back up just like a feather!" I looked out of the window, and even for a five year old it looked like a long fall, even though I was extremely bored and injured, I still felt a hint of apprehension, I had yet to learn how to control my materialization powers. I considered the possibility.
"It looks a bit…" I paused looking out of the window "far down…" I muttered.
"But that's all part of the fun, it wouldn't be fun if it was a short drop, if it were that way, you may as well jump on a real trampoline," Mr Widemouth persuaded. "You have to pretend really hard though!" I briefly imagined what it would be like to jump out of the window only to bounce back up on a nonexistent trampoline, toying with the idea in my head. It seemed quite tempting but I felt too weary about it to accept.
"I-I don't think I can pretend hard enough… Maybe another time…" I muttered softly, I caught a hint of a snarl appear on Mr Widemouth's face, but it was quickly gone before I could determine if a snarl was really what I saw.
"Okay…" He said glumly. When we came back into my room, he stayed underneath my bed for the rest of the day, quiet as a mouse not even coming out once.
The following morning, he came out holding a small cardboard box, his usual grin frozen back onto his face. I tilted my head at the box he lay on my lap curiously.
"I want to teach you how to juggle," he said brightly, "here's some things you can use for practice," Mr Widemouth said gesturing to the cardboard box "before I start giving you lessons." I looked in the box, the sharp rusted edges of a blade caught my attention. I narrowed my eyes at them knowing the Earl would be furious to find me with them.
"The Earl would kill me!" I exclaimed quickly using my legs to push myself further away from the dangerous objects and against the wall. "I'd be grounded for a year!" I cried.
"It's fun to juggle… With these… I want you to try it." Mr Widemouth said pushing the box towards me.
"I can't I'll get in trouble!" I said and pushed the box back towards him "knives aren't safe to just throw in the air!" I said angrily. Mr Widemouth's smile turned to a scowl. We began to wonder how often he was under us.
We had trouble sleeping after that day, Mr Widemouth often woke me up at night, trying to persuade me to jump, saying he put a real trampoline under the window, a big one, one that I can't see in the dark. I always declined and would try to go back to sleep, my two halves grumbling irritably in my mind, but Mr Widemouth persisted, sometimes he stayed by my side until early in the morning encouraging me to jump. He wasn't so much… fun to play with anymore.
One day, the Earl said I had his permission to go outside and walk around a bit as long as I stayed near the house, happy just to be free to roam the yard, I grinned widely and put on my shoes, bolting for the door, running down stairs, my entire body screaming in pain, but I didn't care, I was finally going to feel the fresh air on my skin. I yearned for the feeling of sunlight warming my face. To my surprise, Mr Widemouth was waiting for me. Great… My halves said in unison.
"I have something, I want you to see!" He said brightly, his grin glued to his face, a bit larger than usual. I must have given him a weird look because he then said "Don't worry, it's safe." He said softly "I promise." Jasdero and Devit warned me against following the creature, telling me they didn't trust it anymore. It wasn't our friend. But I followed, my rebellious nature urging me to follow it to the beginning of a deer trail which ran in the woods behind the house, here I stopped in my tracks when Mr Widemouth stopped. "This. Is an important track." He explained "I've had a lot of friends about your age. When they were ready, I took them down this path to a special place," skepticism wound up in me, squeezing my lungs until I was barely able to breath. Something told me I didn't want to know what was down that path. But another part of me was curious "you, you aren't ready yet. But one day, I hope to take you there." He said, a chill ran down my spine. I headed back to the safety of the house, wondering what kind of place lay beyond that deer trail.
A few weeks after I met Mr Widemouth, the Earl had announced to the Noahclan that we'd be leaving to a new house, we'd go by a large truck, me and the Earl would be in the same truck do to my injuries and that he was the strongest of the Noah, the truck was already packed with our belongings. He said we were going to some place called Noah's Ark. I guess that's where they all usually lived. I considered telling Mr Widemouth, but the twins and I, at the age of five, suspected his intentions for us weren't good. So we kept quiet, didn't tell him a thing. We didn't exactly want to find him waiting for us at our new location. Still, I was a bit nervous about going to our new home and I was sure the Earl could see it. So he scheduled mine and his departure earlier than the rest.
Me and the Millennium Earl were in the truck by 4am. He had to help me walk a bit, because my legs were still a tad shaky, which was embarrassing to say the least. I got into the truck with the Earl. My golden eyes seemed to be drawn to the window of that old house, where my room used to be. I felt my eyes widen slightly in shock as I saw Mr Widemouth. Staring at me. That grin just causing me to freeze, but that wasn't what scared me. He had a carving knife in his hand as he waved at me. I didn't wave back. I just looked away quickly w-why is he holding that? I-is he gonna f-follow us? hee… The twins asked me softly in fear. I-I d-don't know I murmured to my halves.
"This early enough? I saw you were uncomfortable." The Millennium Earl said softly. I looked up at him and nodded, doing everything I could not to look back at the window. Then we started to drive. Away from this filthy broken place. Away from the secret place. Away from that room. Away from that bed. Away from Mr Widemouth…
…
It had been quite a few years later when I came back to that house, all that was left was a foundation, it had been bombed a few years earlier and not one soul tried to repair the broken place. I was at least eighteen by now. The Earl had sent me on a mission to retrieve innocence back in the town we had stayed in all those years ago. But I couldn't help the curiosity I felt of that deer trail Mr Widemouth had shown me so many years back. So I managed to bring myself to the back of the house where the deer trail lay, curiosity prying at me and the twins. We walked down the trail. I was constantly on edge, half expecting to pop out of no where and scare the shit out of us. Then again, if he did, we could just kill him. I knew how to properly control my powers now. But… He seemed tied to that house… He had never gone after me, we hadn't seen him since we moved. In fact, I'd almost forgotten about him if it wasn't for this mission. But we all knew he'd never be out of our minds, he was probably the creepiest experienced we encountered. Well, besides that vampire named Krory we had battled a year ago. I started to notice the air seemed thicker, a nervous feeling grasped my shoulder.
I swallowed hard as I neared the special place as he had called it. It was a graveyard. Headstones littered the ground, moss seemed to cover some it they were so old, others had faded writing, but one, was new. My heart seemed to skip a beat when I saw that each grave... belonged to a small child around the age I had been when I met . As I looked around more, every headstone had the name of a child, around my age… I walked over to the newer headstone, I practically felt my heart pounding through my chest, I heard my rapid heartbeats in my ears as I began to read the slightly faded headstone, there it read Jasdevi on the stone, my date of birth was there, no date of death…
I stared at it, not able to look away for some strange reason. Kneeling down, I ran my fingers over the etched stone the carvings of my stone not finished. I wasn't dead. He never took me down here. I was alive... For some reason, I felt anger rise up inside me and my long golden locks sharpened into blades.
"He said he was my friend…" I spat under my breath. "I should have known... we'll never have friends..." My hair shot out and shattered the stone to pieces, my breath coming in short pants. The pieces of marble littered the ground. I knew, that whatever it came to. He was never my friend. He never would have been my friend. I was played with like a toy. I stood, kicking the fragments angrily. With one last look at the shattered headstone, I turned and left. One thing was for sure. I would never forget… Mr Widemouth… Ever.
