Chapter 7
Pursuit
Before Calvin went to bed that night, he called Susie on his phone.
"Hello?" Susie said.
"It's me, Calvin.
"Calvin? What did you want to talk about?" Susie said.
"I want to talk to you tomorrow on the bus. Also, I love you." Calvin said.
"You what?" Susie said, shocked. Calvin hung up after that, not even caring what she was going to say next. He went to sleep and soon met Hobbes in his mind. They were both in his dark place, ready to talk.
"Hobbes? You're here, in my dark place? What is it?" Calvin asked.
"Why did you bring Killer back?" Hobbes asked, angered.
"I brought Killer back to life?" Calvin said, confused.
"You did. I took care of him, though." Hobbes said.
"Did you really?" a voice said from the darkness. Killer walked into Calvin's dark place.
"Why are you here? I thought you were done coercing me!" Calvin said, angered.
"I'm here to slay the Leviathan. Why else?" Killer said. Calvin stepped between Hobbes and Killer.
"I won't let you touch him, not as long as I stand here! Now get out of here before I have to kill you!" Calvin shouted.
"Kill me? You wouldn't kill me, would you?" Killer said, his voice warping. He removed his mask, revealing Susie's face.
"Don't you want me, Calvin? Don't you want to hold me in your arms, to kiss me, to love me?" Killer said. Hobbes was shocked.
"I thought you were Calvin! You had Calvin's face before!" He said.
"The mind works in strange ways, Leviathan. Why don't I take a form you're a little more familiar with?" Killer said. Kill's body morphed into Susie's, which disturbed Hobbes greatly.
"Hey Calvin, can you make this place look like a field again? I loved the way it looked." Susie said.
"Don't listen to her! She's really Killer!" Hobbes said. Calvin turned to Hobbes, angered.
"Hobbes, go away." He said. Hobbes was crushed now. Calvin had been mean with him before, but he never outright told him to go away.
"Go away? Don't you love me? Don't you want me around?" Hobbes said. Susie turned to Hobbes.
"I don't know if I want to be with a man who keeps ratty old plush toys around. Throw away that stupid tiger." She said.
"Susie? I thought you loved me!" Hobbes said.
"Maybe back when I was eight." Susie scoffed. Hobbes looked up at Calvin, who was standing at Susie's side.
"I'm sorry I was mean with you, old buddy, but I need my space. Listen, we can be together later, when Susie isn't around, okay?" Calvin said.
"Okay." Hobbes said. He walked out of the field, saddened. He thought Killer was the one who could hurt him and remove him from Calvin's conscious. It was Calvin who could hurt him much worse than Killer ever could.
"Thanks for getting rid of that tiger. He was a major mood killer." Susie said. She touched Calvin's back, ready to kiss him again.
"Yeah. He is." Calvin said, smiling.
"Good. So… Do you want to chase me?" Susie said. Before Calvin could answer, Susie ran away, laughing. Calvin ran after Susie. She kicked off her shoes as she ran. Calvin had the compulsion to do the same, but his shoes were on too tight. By the time he had removed them, he was blindsided. Susie had tackled him. She was naked now, but anatomically incorrect. She lacked genitals and nipples for reasons Calvin was unsure of.
"Take it off, Calvin! I want to see you without any clothes!" Susie commanded. As Susie said this, the grassy field suddenly grew flowers.
Calvin had a strange feeling that he had never experienced before. He had felt a smaller and much weaker form of it before when he was around Susie, but it felt confined, and chained, like a beast locked away. It was always howling and trying to break free, to tell Calvin who he really was, how he really felt underneath all the layers of traditions that he had been holding onto since childhood. It was like the beast inside Calvin was loose now. There was nothing stopping him from feeling this way now. No nagging voice inside of his head telling him that girls were evil, no thoughts in his head about Susie corrupting Hobbes and being one of the mindless masses of idiots populating Earth, and no cynical thoughts of how she had a lobotomy at an early age.
"The beast is loose." Calvin said. His clothes magically melted away and he began kissing Susie in the middle of the flower field. Strangely enough, Calvin had no genitals either.
Once they were finished kissing, Calvin stood up with Susie following.
"Susie, I love you. You're the only thing that's pure and good in this world. You're like a shining ray of hope in a world populated by tormentors and idiots. I want to be with you." Calvin said. He felt very dirty saying this, like Hobbes was his shining beacon of hope, not Susie.
"You can be with me, Calvin." Susie said.
"Really?" Calvin said, impressed.
"Yes. You just have to chase me. Remember? I'm not real." Susie said.
"That's right. You aren't." Calvin said, saddened.
"Yes. I exist as an idealization of not just Susie, but as a symbol of everything you desire in an emotional and physical relationship. There is a real Susie for you in the real world, though. You can get her. All you have to do is chase your dreams and leave behind your old ways."
Calvin thought for a second.
"I want Susie and I want to move forward. I also don't want to change who I am, to leave behind what I love about myself." Calvin said.
"You need to be true to yourself, Calvin. I agree with that. But are you really a child inside? Are you really a brat who hates girls and society? Or, deep down, are you a lonely teenager, trying desperately to hold onto things that you should have thrown away a long time ago?" Susie asked.
"I don't know." Calvin said, sitting down. He buried his hands in his face, unsure if he was going to cry.
"Killer exists for a reason, Calvin. Maybe what he's doing isn't so bad." Susie said. She left the flowering field, leaving Calvin alone. His dark place reverted back to what it was before, dark and lonely.