The midday sun chewed darkness to nothing like a lion eating its prey, not even leaving the bones behind. The sun cleans its bloody paws on the horizons and the shadows of a backyard as if trying to hide shameful evidence. Fuji and Ryoma play on the plate of a being whose stomach was grumbling again.
Fuji serves the ball, "You better hit it back this time."
Ryoma grips the tennis racket tightly and runs towards the ball, missing it once again, "Serve it again Fuji, I can hit it this time!"
Fuji sighs, "That's what you said last time." Even though he complains that playing tennis with his younger brother is boring, he serves it anyway.
Ryoma hits the ball back, "You see, I told you!"
Fuji returns it, "If you can't keep hitting it back it defeats the point of the game."
After a small rally and Fuji giving up on his younger brother, they lay down on the grass. Ryoma takes off his hat and looks up at the sky. "That cloud looks like a dog eating a doll."
Fuji giggles and moves their cat which was licking his face, "Karupin, stop that it tickles." Fuji looks up at the sky, "That doesn't look like a dog Ryoma, it looks like Karupin!"
Ryoma shakes his head stubbornly, "No it doesn't. Karupin wouldn't eat a doll!" Ryoma sits up and puts the Himalayan spotted cat on his lap, "Right Karupin?"
Suddenly, the cat jumps out of his arms runs towards the back of the house. Ryoma stands up and yells, "Wait Karupin!"
Fuji stands up as well and starts running after the cat, "Come on Ryoma, let's look for her."
They run towards the back of the house stopping to look under bushes and behind trees. Once at the back, they see the outside entrance to their basement open. Fuji sighs, "She must have gone to the basement; mom will kill us if Karupin makes a mess."
They walk down the basement stairs and stand in the middle of the dark room. The stairs were the teeth and the room is the mouth of the predator they are inside of. The darkness is like a cage, enclosing them in a trap and stealing their ability to see the light. They stand there looking around for the lost cat but they are really only waiting to be digested. Ryoma squints, "Do you know where the lights are?"
Fuji walks around touching for the light, "No, I can't find them."
An eerie meow breaks the silence in the room, Ryoma looks towards the sound's direction, "Karupin?" Both of them walk towards the cat in order to corner her before she runs away but stop once they see Karupin's face. She had a clown's mask on with a grin that only expressed malice.
Ryoma holds onto the bottom of Fuji's shirt, "Fuji…that doesn't look like Karupin."
Fuji takes Ryoma's hand, "Lets get out of here!" Before they take even two steps, a silver cage encloses them high in the air. They looked like doves trying to peck at a pure silver cage with no hope of escaping. They kept trying, their beaks hurting from the effort, while the villain laughs from what seemed useless but fails to notice the scratch on one of the cage bars.
The masked Karupin and four more who looked exactly like him laugh, "Now who is the one restricted? Trapped? Forced to abide rules? You are!"
Ryoma mumbles, "Why are you doing this Karupin?"
They look up, "WHY? You ask why? Because we are tired of being your pet! Now hush, in a matter of minutes both of you are going to be one of us."
Fuji grips one of the cages bars, "What are you going to do to us?"
The leader laughs, "We are going to permanently attach one of these masks to your beautiful little faces."
Fuji holds Ryoma's hand and whispers to him, "They are going to have to lower the cage to get us out. Once that happens, I'll distract them and you run out. Don't look back, just run to mom. I promise I'll run after you."
Ryoma shakes his head, "No Fuji, what if-
Fuji glares at Ryoma, "No buts', just do what I said."
Ryoma nods his head sadly, "Fine." The group of cats lowers the cage down and as they open the door Fuji pushes them out of the way, "Run Ryoma!"
Ryoma runs away but looks back in time to see his older brother being tied to a chair by the leader. The other four cats come his way to capture him but his eyes never leave the sight of his helpless brother. Tears stream down his eyes like water over spilling from the cup and drowning the drinker. He sees his brother's angelic face giving him a sad but gentle smile. That pure moment changed with a blink and what was looking back at him now was the face of a clown. Ryoma screams to the top of his lungs feeling as if the air were shards working against him.
"Ryoma! Ryoma! Wake up you are having a nightmare!"
Ryoma's eyes flutter open and he sees his brother's worried face, "Huh?" Ryoma gasps and moves away, looking around the room for his cat. "Where is Karupin…and the clown masks?" He touches Fuji's face, "why don't you have a clown face?"
Fuji tilts his head to the side and stares at Ryoma, "Okay…you were dreaming about something really weird."
Ryoma shakes his head, "No but if felt real! And you sacrificed yourself for me! And you turned evil."
Fuji laughs and rustles Ryoma's hair, "it's just a dream Ryoma, I would never turn evil."
Ryoma almost spits out his heart when he see's Karupin walk in the room with her face red, blue and white. "You see Fuji! I told you, Karupin is evil. It wasn't a dream. I'm sorry Karupin; you can eat all the cat food you want!"
Fuji laughs and picks up Karupin, "She was only playing around with mom's make up. Calm down Ryoma."
Ryoma sighs with relief, "Good. " Even though he acted as if he forgot about the dream, ever since that day Ryoma has been giving Karupin more cat food and letting her out when she wants. He could never shake out of his head the thought of his cat being evil. Oh and yea…he developed clown phobia.
