Dead. I opened the door to my house, I had just bought a toy from a store just down the street. A whole three dollars and fifty cents of allowance for a plush snow fox. I was so proud of myself, because I had cleaned my room and washed the dishes for weeks until I could buy it myself. But as soon as I stepped into the house, I smelled something awfully close to blood mixed with my parents' scent. I rushed to the kitchen and found them, dead. Their bodies ripped open and limbs scattered around the room. The once pristine white walls were now coated with red blood, and my parents' faces were frozen in horrid expressions. I dropped my fox in a pool of the blood and went to their corpses, trying to wake them up, trying to see their smiling faces. I fed them meat to see if they would heal, but it was much too late for them to recuperate from the massacre that had claimed them here. I ran to my room and grabbed my blanket to help keep them both warm. I thought that if I stayed with them, they would get better soon, if I kept them warm, they wouldn't become cold and lifeless. I grabbed my fox from the bloody ground and covered all of us in the blanket as best as I could. Days passed, and all I could do was cry until I fell asleep again. There was nothing left of them now except for my memories. On the last day, I was so hungry. All of the meat that we kept, I had tried to use to help my parents, and was now wasted. I couldn't help but eat. I grabbed my father's arm and started to bite. Suddenly, the door to my house was knocked on and I quickly retreated to under the blanket.
"I know you're there little one." said a deep, calming voice, "There's no need to be afraid. I'm here to help." The voice sounded friendly, but I knew better than to trust friendly voices, as not all of them are as friendly as they seem.
"I'm not coming out until you tell me who you are." I yell at the voice. "My parents told me not to trust someone I don't know." I curled up into a ball and readied my kagune.
"Your parents were smart to teach you that, but now look what happened to them." I started to hear footsteps splashing in the pool of blood that had replaced the floor. "You can call me the director. I am part of an organization that specializes in taking care of orphaned ghouls such as yourself. We raise them to be spies and heroes that make sure nasty ghouls don't hurt people." The footsteps stopped.
"So why are you here?" I asked the voice. "Are you here to take me to this place?"
"Yes I am. In fact, I can help you find who did this." A hand grabbed the blanket and lifted it off of me. I looked to see a large man with so much power that the air felt heavy with his presence. "If you come with me, that is." I couldn't move, I was so intimidated. Was this man human, or ghoul, or something else entirely. "What do you say. Are you willing to come with me?" All I could do was nod. He held out his hand and I took it, clutching my bloodstained fox close to myself.
"Mister director, how did they find us? I mean, the people that killed my parents." I looked up at him as we walked out of the front door.
"I honestly do not know. By the way, what's your name?" He looked down at me, his face so kind, but the power was still there.
"Cerus. I'm nine years old." we walked to a helicopter and I got in. "How old are you sir?"
"Cerus, I don't even know that anymore." He replied getting in the seat next to me and telling the pilot to take off. We flew for what felt like ages until we reached our destination.
We landed on a helipad on top of what looked like a hospital. We both got out of the helicopter and walked through the door being held open for us by a tall man in a white lab coat. He smiled as we passed the threshold, but the Director rushed me along before I could see his face well enough. We went down several flights of stairs before entering a brightly lit, white hallway.
"This whole place is called the compound." The director said as he led me down the hall. "There are about one hundred sixty three other ghouls living here like you. You'll be paired with another child about your age. She's kind of shy at first, but she can handle her own if she has to, remember that." I nodded and followed him into a room with two beds. One was very clean and orderly, while the other looked like it has been slept in for a while.
"Where is she Mister Director?" I asked him, looking around the room for this mysterious girl.
"She's hiding. But don't worry, she'll come out from where she is eventually." The Director started to close the door as he left.
"Wait. I need to wash my fox." I grabbed the door and held it open.
"Here, I'll take care of him." He held out his large hand and I placed my bloody fox toy in his palm. "I almost forgot. You may want to clean up. The bathroom is just down the hallway. There's clothes in the drawers under your bed, and food will be served tonight at the end if the hallway." He left the room, shutting the door behind him. I still had so many questions, the realization had just washed over me. I'm away from my house, I went with a stranger to a strange place that I don't know the location of. I fell to the ground and curled up into a ball, shaking. I don't know how long I was in that state, but finally, I heard someone talking.
"Hey!" her voice said. "What's wrong with you? Why are you shaking like that? Are you dying?" she kicked me with her foot and I looked up. She had short, dark brown hair, and her green kagune was rolled up behind her, like some sort of reptilian tail.
"No." I stuttered in response. "I'm still alive."
"Then why are you covered in blood?" She asked me sincerely.
"It's not mine. It's my parents'." I started to tear up. "Someone killed my parents."
"It wasn't you was it?" She leaned closer to me.
"No. Why would I kill them? They're my parents!" I started to get angry at her, and my kagune released. Nine white tails emerged from my tailbone, each with a different series of lightning-like red veins running across the surface.
"Those look cool. They remind me of one of our lessons." She circled me, her tail now unraveled and stiff behind her. "The teachers taught us that there were these great spirits in Japan and one of them had nine tails. They ate people and tried to kill the emperor, but a man killed it and turned it into a stone."
"What was it called, it sounds like a ghoul." I was surprised by her knowledge, despite her being so young.
"It was a nine tailed fox. Her name was something like Tamamo no me." She stood still, contemplating the name.
"But I'm not a girl. I'm a boy." I was a bit confused at her words. Did she think I was a girl?
"It doesn't matter. Your kagune just reminds me of the story." She walked to the door and opened it with her green tail. "Come on, I'll show you where the shower is so you can get that blood off of you. Bring some clothes with you so you can change." She walked out and I opened the drawers under my bed. All of the clothes were plain white t-shirts and blue jeans. I grabbed a change of clothes and hurried down the hall after the girl. She stopped just a few doors away from our room. The door had a blue circle with a stick man and stick woman on it. She turned the handle with her tail and entered the room with me close behind.
We sat with each other, helping to get one another clean. She scrubbed all of the blood off of me as I cried, and I did my best to scrub her arms and back.
"The director said you were shy, but you're not trying to run away or anything." I said while I scrubbed her back with a sponge.
"You're not scary. You're hurt and broken, like me. I saw you on the floor and I felt like I did the same thing before." She seemed sleepy as she lied on the warm tile floor. "I just feel like we're the same, that's why I'm not running away." She stayed like that for a while, allowing me to scrub her back and arms. Once I was done, she sat up, turned off the water, and grabbed us both towels. I dried myself with it and got dressed in the clothes that were under my bed. They seemed heavier than normal, like they weren't regular clothes. We both walked out the doors and my stomach started to growl.
"I'm feeling hungry. Can we eat?" I asked her.
"Okay, the food place is down here." She walked further away from our room to a pair of doors. I followed her in and saw groups of kids my age at different tables. They were talking, laughing, and smiling as if this was their everyday experience. The girl led me to a table away from everyone else, where it was more quiet and bearable. A man with bright red hair walked over to our table and asked us if we were hungry.
"Yes sir." I said politely.
"You don't have to call me Sir. Call me Dragon." He smiled at me, his green eyes reflecting the lights of the room. "You must be the new one they were telling me about. What's your name?"
"My name is Cerus. I'm almost ten." I said nervously.
"Well you're older than Beelee here." He ruffled the girl's hair a little bit. "She's pretty new herself. Aren't you Teelee."
"Stop it. You still creep me out Dragon." She pushed his hand away. "Just bring us food so we can eat."
"Sure thing kiddo." He walked away and went through a door, returning with two small slabs of meat wrapped in paper. "Here you are, just pull back the paper and take a bite. No need to make a mess after taking a shower right?" I unraveled the meat from the top and took a bite. The meat was juicy and sweet, making my mouth flood with flavour. Each bite I took chipped away from the pit in my stomach that had developed within the days since I had found my parents dead. After I finished my meal, I lied my head on the table and fell asleep without crying for the first time in days.