Day Before: Beginning of the End

Chapter 9

Anthony's POV

"Oh the pain! This suffering, relentless pain!" I moaned. "This is it Medusa. This is the day that I will no longer enlighten you with my humor or wisdom. This is the day that I die!"

"Oh, you're already doing the world that favor? It's not even my birthday!" Sarah replies, her voice dry and loaded with sarcasm. I stick out my tongue but, being in the back seat while she was driving, she obviously couldn't have seen it.

She agreed to take me home in her car since the lovers already made a blood pact 10 years ago that if they ever had the chance to be alone with each other, they would. My body was sprawled out on the entirety of the back seats, sore as hell from whatever skirmish we just had with whatever the hell those things were. For the most part of the ride, we made our way through the desert and city in silence, both of us unable to formulate the tornado of thoughts in our heads into articulate sentences. The stars outside the window were a nice distracter and these cushioned seats felt nice upon my head. I was pretty much ready to fall asleep…actually I already did.

The nap didn't feel like it took any longer than 5 minutes, but Sarah shook me awake in that apparent time, accidentally touching a fresh bruise and making me yelp awake.

"Sorry." She said with the utmost sincerity; a miracle on her part. "We're here."

It takes me a couple of minutes to fully digest my surroundings. Multiple house lights were on, saturating the normally quiet neighborhood with oranges and yellows originating from the windows. Laughing and chatter was also apparent with music being blasted from several houses (I could hear a mariachi from one house; very nice). Summer really is here I thought to myself.

My own home was the only modestly silent one, like a quiet nerd stuck in a group of rebels. Its lights were also on, but generally in the 1st floor of the house and I could tell that not all of them were on. It was also devoid of music: the only sounds that could be heard were those of the T.V. and the clattering of dishes under running water from an open window. I sighed and picked myself up gingerly, a worrisome Sarah hovering near me.

"You need me to, like, help you to the door or something?" She asked.

I shake my head. "Please, woman. You're making this weirder than it needs to be."

I try for a smile, but even that kind of hurts. She huffs in response, a promising signal that shows that she's not going full on Mom-mode. The silence hangs in the air awkwardly as we both stare at the house. I scan the window for any figures that were foreign to me, but find nothing.

"You're going to ask…right?"

"Of course!" I yell, indignant. "That bastard almost fucking killed me! You think I'm not going to get answers out of him?" She nods silently, the lights making her eyes bright. I tend to not look at her for long (that would be pleading for some snarky remark), but in that moment, I notice how nicely her dark hair falls over her shoulders, realizing just how frightened she really was, just how surreal everything was.

Oh god, I think I'm starting to like her.

I break the silence with my everlasting charm. "So…are you going to unlock the door or do you actually want me to stay in here with you? Cause I have lots of pick-up lines I want to practice."

She blinks twice as if coming out of a trance. "What…? Eww, gross no, get out." A clicking noise is heard throughout the vehicle and I step out, strapping the bag around my shoulder.

"Anthony," she calls out. I turn and meet her eyes, her head sticking out of the passenger window. "Call any of us if anything happens, alright?"

"Calm down, Medusa, it's me! If I can survive being friends with you for several years, I can survive anything! Quit being a freaking mom and get some rest." She does her 'Sarah-equivalent of a middle finger' thing at me in response, making me grin.

She retreats hesitantly into the car and drives away. I wave as she leaves and my smile collapses the instant she turns on the curb. If she's worried for me, I know that things are going to be bad. I take a deep breath and head into the place currently housing the person that almost got me killed.

"I'm home!" I shout, closing the door behind me. I walk into the kitchen, the room to the right of the entrance, and find my mom there, who beams at me.

"Welcome back, birthday boy! Did you enjoy your day?" She asks.

"Is it not obvious with all this?" I return, waving a hand across my face and arms, showcasing the bruises and burns. Gasping, she rushes over me and begins shooting a thousand questions and fussing over me like your typical mother. I wince a couple of times as she grabs my arms and pokes at a few of the more purple colored skin.

"Calm down, it's just the usual teenager stuff! You know, being a rebel, doing the illegal." I finally say as she fusses over how bad my face looks (ow, my self-esteem). She folds her arms and glares at me, obviously not amused.

"Illegal? I did not raise my son to be a lawbreaker! I thought Sarah and Lauren would keep you in check! What happened?"

"Well, it's not a birthday if it ain't a party, right?" I laugh and walk to the living room, impolitely ignoring her scolding.

I plunk myself down on the couch, dropping my bag into the seat next to me and rubbing my sore shoulder. My Dad and sister are watching a soccer game on T.V. with ferocious intensity.

"Go, go, go! Kick that bastard if you have to just get the damn ball!"

"C'mon, you call that a kick!? My grandma throws better balls than that piece of shit, let's go!"

"Oh, oh...GOAL!" My dad and sister jump up simultaneously, hugging each other in delight. How embarrassing.

"I'm back." I quip. My sister shrieks and quickly punches my arm out of instinct, right on an already-established bruise. "Ow! What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

"Dude, don't do that you scared the crap out of me," was all she had to say for herself. She glances at me for a split second, goes back to the screen, then double takes and looks at me with an expression of concern. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Just came back from combating a demon apocalypse; what do you think?" I chuckle drily.

"You're so dumb," she responds. She has absolutely no idea of the irony of that comment.

I sigh and look around. So far, no sign of killer psycho Asian relative in sight. My family turn their attention back to the screen.

"Uh, didn't you say someone was coming over?" I ventured.

"What?" My dad asks, taking a swig of beer. "Oh yeah, your cousin. He said he was tired so we're putting him to share a room with you."

"Are you serious!?" I shout, outraged. "It's my birthday and I can't even sleep in my own room in peace?"

"Oh, quit complaining and go say hi to him. He actually mentioned you at one point and asked to be put with you. Have we ever introduced you to him before?"

If you had, I think to myself, I would've already had a grave set for me at that time. I shake my head in response which produces a shrug from my dad, another gulp of alcohol, and more yelling at the soccer team (because they can totally hear him). I breathe another sigh, trudge up the stairs toting the bag, and stop at the door of my own room.

I'm nervous and I find this dumb. Who actually gets worried of going into their own room? What am I to expect when I open the door? Is he going to come at me, brandishing a knife or some other kind of murder weapon? Am I going to find a satanic circle or some weird-ass ritual being set up for me to go up as a sacrifice? I steel myself, holding my bag ready in case I need to whack someone upside the head, and enter the room. I was not ready to witness what I did.

A man turns, just barely putting on a shirt, and we have an awkward stare off. In that moment, I examine the stranger: almost as tall as me, definitely Asian with the eyes, and having very bright, very unnatural blond hair that covered his left eye, like a scene boy. He was thin but lean, apparent with the abs and arms muscles and his face was slightly feminine. My hands slowly crawl up to my own face and cover my eyes. Oh no, he's hot.

"Ah! I was wondering when you would get here!" The man says, bright and cheery and totally not uncomfortable at all.

"Who are you and why are you naked!?" is the only thing I could stammer out, which is very surprising coming from me. He looks down at his own body thoughtfully.

"Technically, I'm not naked; only shirtless. But if that's what you're referring to then I can oblige. I don't see what the big fuss is." He puts on the black V-neck shirt, showing off a defined collarbone. "We're both men after all.

"That," I think out loud, "is the beginning of too many homo scenes in books. Actually...probably of all of them."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

He raises a quizzical eyebrow, which I ignore, and plop down on the bed, letting out a long sigh of relief. I notice a large suitcase off to the corner of the room, very neat and thin, taking up little space. I also notice what seems to be a blanket rolled up to the side, which the man undoes and lays out of the floor.

He notices me staring. "Is there any off chance that you'll allow me the pleasure of sleeping on the bed?"

"Nope." I answer quickly. He lets out a small sigh, most likely expecting the answer (then why ask?) and continues working with the blankets.

"So what's your name?" I inquire, my voice coming off a little more squeaky and childlike than intended.

"Botoku." He answers simply, not looking up from his apparently hard work. The roll finally lays flat and he fishes through his backpack, pulling out a laptop, some papers, and other nerdy things. I give myself a mental face palm; figures the person I feared the most ended up being the biggest geek ever.

"So, uh..." I try. This guy does not do conversations. "Why are you in the country? Business trip?" He stops for a second, as if contemplating an excuse.

"Yes…a gaming corporation wanted my input in a certain aspect of its upcoming product. I also used that request as an opportunity to travel. Call it childish, but it's been my dream to see the world." He chuckles at that, probably finding it strange. I don't find the humor in it, but whatever floats his boat I guess.

"So this is the first time you've been in El Paso?" I inquire.

"Yes. I intended to come earlier, visit my relatives you know." He said the word relatives kind of awkwardly, like he wasn't used to it.

"So then where have you been?"

"Japan, of course, as well several countries in Europe, Africa, and South America." The tone he uses kind of angers me, saying it as though it's absolutely no big deal to see 20+ different cultures in a lifetime. The furthest I've gone was to Mexico and it's practically the same thing as here, just with a lot more Spanish.

I decided to cut to the chase. "Nice present you gave me." He turned around to put away clothes in my drawers but I could swear he had a massive grin on his face.

"Oh yes! I assumed you received it. I apologize for the extra equipment; I wasn't entirely sure which was to your best liking." I scowled at the back of his blond head.

I dropped the bomb. "Did I mention that it almost killed me and my friends?"

He turned around to face me and the look he gave me was so creepy, I actually sunk further into my bed. He had the same crazed look that the demon Waira had.

He laughs at my reaction. "You had read the letter, had you not? It was a warning; you should've known what was coming."

"Excuse me? Because it's totally fucking normal for demons to just pop out of your everyday cell phone, right? Oh yeah, I see my friend's fairies on a daily basis." I glared at him. So it wasn't a mistake: this man fully intended to kill me with beings from another realm.

"Do not misjudge; I did not entrust you with a DSP just to commit a genocide that I could've done with a lot less risks involved," he said, reading my thoughts supposedly. "I gave it to you to protect you."

Now that just pissed me off.

"Protect me!?" I screamed, jumping off from the bed and standing tall in front of my apparent cousin. "You think that was going to protect me!? Are you actually looking at me or are you just a blind dumbass?" I rolled up the sleeves of my tattered shirt, allowing him vision of my various burns, scrapes, and other injuries. He regarded them with such disinterest, he couldn't tell if he was actually looking or if he really was blind.

He calmly put down my sleeves and carefully laid a hand on my shoulder. "First off, I need you to cease the unnecessary yelling before I even bother to enlighten you. We don't want your family knowing of this." I let out a shaky breath through my nose and sat back down on my bed. He pulls out a nearby chair and sits on it backwards, head resting on his arms and staring at me with as much seriousness as a school counselor.

"Listen closely for I refuse to repeat myself. Something catastrophic is predicted to occur in the coming days, most likely ending in one week from now." I opened my mouth to say something, but he quickly puts up his index finger, cutting me off.

"Listen. I know you were most likely going to ask a stupid question asking, 'What's going to happen?'." He said that in a high pitched voice, no doubt in mockery of me. Douche bag.

He continues. "What exactly it is, I don't know. All I know is that it involves demons crossing over to our world. How? Again, I'm not sure. All I am certain of is that it will happen."

"How the hell are you so sure that some stupid demon apocalypse is supposed to happen? I literally joked about that to my sister a while ago." He lets out a sigh that was the exact same kind that my mom would use: Kids.

"Have you even glanced at the home screen of the DSP app?" I was about to yell at him that Of course I did! But I shut my mouth as I thought back on it and realize that I didn't. He shakes his head in disappointment.

"...By the looks of it, you're going to need all the help you can get."

He slides over to me and reaches into my pocket, pulling out the 3DS that was stuffed in there and ignoring my angry protests. After a bit of random tapping on the screen, he sits next to me and shows me the screen. On the annoyingly bright device is what looks like an e-mail, with the receiver's address (did I put that down?) and the subject on the top screen and the text on the bottom. Where the sender's address was supposed to go was some weird Asian-type text. I look at the rest of the letter on the bottom screen, thinking it was just a weird typo or something as screwy as the app itself but notice that the whole thing is in the same text. Botoku looks at me gravely like I should understand the direness of the situation.

"...Why the fuck is this in Chinese?" I ask after a bit of silence.

"Japanese," he corrects, irritation evident in his voice. "You just read all that and that's the only thing you have to say?"

I laugh at that. "Read? You actually think I know Japanese?" He frowned.

"Doesn't everybody?" I give him an incredulous look; my turn to sigh now. "Don't you know even a little?" He continued.

I shake my head. "Dude, I live in El Paso. Why would I actually need to know that?"

He pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "OK, OK, fine. I'll read you the text." He moved a little closer to me and, in response, I move a little further. He tries again while I just move again.

"I can see it just fine from this distance, just quit being a creep and read it already." I say after another attempt. He glares at me but does as told.

"The subject of the mail is called 'Future Mail'. Throughout the letter itself you can see various times being posted as well as today's date up at the top. Like here, for instance," He points at the time 21:30. "This is where your summoning was scheduled to happen, and it did."

I thought about that in my head. What time did we do all the fighting? "That time...is the same as 9:30 pm, right?" He nods as if that was obvious.

"I forget that you Americans have entirely different measurements. Rather stupid if you ask me."

"Well, I didn't," I say, ignoring his angry eyes. "So then...what? Was the summoning supposed to happen at that time, even if I hadn't activated the computers?"

He shakes his head. "This was just something predicted, not necessarily something that was supposed to happen."

"Uh, don't you mean 'recorded'?" I think back and remember that Kisuke was nowhere to be found after the incident. I scowl. "That asshole probably..."

"No." Says Botoku with the utmost certainty. "Predicted. Look at the time the mail was sent."

"It says...6:45!?" My jaw drops, who the hell would wake up that early!?...Wait that shouldn't be the main focus.

Botoku nods gravely as I give him a shocked look. "How the hell can one figure out that demons are even real? Let alone actually predicting a summoning."

"The demons are not the issue," he explains. "Those have been here since the beginning of time and been used frequently to change the world. The DSP, on the other hand, is relatively new and since I was not the creator of it, I don't know how exactly the original programmer went about to making such an incredible phenomenon."

"Are you serious?" I didn't know whether to dismiss all the things this guy was saying or to be astounded by the fact that he isn't the one responsible for this thing.

"I have a theory that those responsible for the newsletters are utilizing a demon, or at least some otherworldly being or creature, and posting the results for users with access to this mail to see. Is it a warning of some sort? What are his or her intentions?" It was pretty clear that Botoku was now rambling on and it was making my head hurt.

"OK, hold on there, Einstein." I interrupt, massaging my temples. He stops talking as if just realizing that I was listening the whole time (well sort of). "Before you talk me to sleep, you never answered my question: how the hell were you protecting me?"

He stares at me dumbly for while (very reassuring) then answers. "As I stated before, it seems as though the world is going to fall. I got you the DSP so you could get some early training and not fall victim to the crisis like many of the general populace are predicted to do. I don't guarantee your survival with the next coming days but it was predicted that you would manage the event, and you did." He gives a prideful smile. "Now, you know some of the basics and obtained skills that will no doubt be useful for this situation."

I shake my head in frustration. Demons, DSP, mail that can predict the future. Argh, it's too much! I lay down on the bed and groan.

"Ah, rest is important! I understand." He gets off and puts away all his equipment. "I won't make any promises, but I hope to see you tomorrow."

He turns off the lights and gets comfortable in his sleeping bag, soon softly snoring. God...does he have to sound all bright and cheery about this? I turn to my side and stare at the weird guy who just told me there was going to be some 2012 shit going on soon. His blond hair was so bright, I could still see it clearly even with the lights off. There were way too many questions buzzing around in my head and while he did answer a few, he just really created a lot more. I decided against thinking about and closed my eyes, my body shutting down like it hasn't slept in 5 years.

I. Am. So. Sorry. Man this is so late, my bad. School and real life have been kind of tough on me and I've only been able to work on bits and pieces here and there. Hopefully this chapter clears up some of what the main plot is going to be and spring break is soon to be here, so maybe I'll get back on schedule?

Reviews are appreciated!