Chapter 19: There's No Place Like...?
In the morning at Mew's mountain home, the weather couldn't have been any nice if it tried. The sun beamed perfectly between the mountains, there wasn't a hint of clouds in the sky, but the temperature remained a fair seventy degrees thanks to the cool mountain enclosure.
Groups of birds flocked to the trees and chirped their little feathery hearts out, while herds of billy goats hopped through the lands. This was a fine way for anyone to be woken up by...Anyone, but Mr. Grumpypants himself, Joe Dark.
After yet another tiresome night sleeping on the couch, Joe Dark found his eyes forced open by the ceaseless squabbles of nature outdoors. His heart galloped with irritation as he pulled his head up off the arm of the couch. A soreness in his neck necessitated a quick rub, and he growled at having to do it.
A sharp sizzling sound came from the kitchen and he peered over to find Riku having just flipped scrambled eggs in a pan. He then quickly looked to the dining room table and saw Mew at one of the seats holding a small notepad.
"...Mmmrrr..." The fatigue of sleep couldn't weigh him down for long and he got off the couch not with a spring in his step, but by dragging his feet like anchors.
He braced his neck and cricked his head around. What a lovely way to start the morning. He couldn't even get halfway out of the living room when Mew swerved his head back and greeted him with the usual tomfoolery.
"Good morning sleepyhead!"
"Tsk! You try getting a good night sleep on the couch!" Joe Dark bounced back with his default bitterness. He forcibly pulled an empty chair out and plopped right down with a slumped posture, laying one arm onto the table.
Mew resumed staring at his notepad while Riku walked out of the kitchen carrying a plate in one hand, and using his powers to carry the other two.
When the plate fell before Mew he laid his notepad beside it, rubbed his hands together, and picked up a fork to dig into the plate full of scrambled eggs.
Joe Dark looked at his plate briefly and then picked up his fork, not bothering to look directly at his plate as he scooped some eggs up and put them in his mouth.
"Mmm, delicious!" Mew said, pulling his head back as the flavors shot up into his brain. He then pointed his fork at Riku and remarked, "You did great for your first time Riku!"
Riku smiled a tiny bit, and Joe Dark glared at him while his fork remained in his mouth, "Give me a break, that raccoon would be happy eating dirt."
Riku turned his attention towards him and gave him a little sass, "Don't you have something to say, Joe Dark?"
Joe Dark pulled the fork through his lips and grumbled, "You'll get my thanks when the meal is good..."
After a brief pause he dug his fork into the eggs and strained to put them into his mouth again. He squeezed his eyes shut and a quiet "Mmmm..." slipped out.
Once the three had cleaned half their plates Joe Dark found himself fixated on Mew's notepad. Staring long and hard at it made it impossible for Mew not to notice and butt in.
"Curiosity getting the better of ya Joe?" Mew smiled and picked up the notepad to wave it at him.
"Hmph, no," Joe Dark lied and then tried to stick to his guns with it, "But since you brought it to my attention now, what's the point of it?"
Mew looked down and said, "Its a list of things I still need to get done."
Joe Dark tried to subtly peek at its contents but all he managed to catch was "Help-" before Mew slyly pulled it away.
"Oh, so you do care eh." Mew said, nudging his brows up and down.
"Like hell I do," He pulled back and said in a grumpy manner, "Its none of my business what you do."
Riku got a look at the list himself and said, "You shouldn't push yourself too hard brother. We got a lot done. Take a break."
"Yes, please," Joe Dark said with a stern glare, "Don't go dragging me into another life-or-death battle for the rest of my life."
Mew flipped the notepad shut and rolled his shoulders, "I can't help it. I got an itch I can't scratch."
Joe Dark looked at him smugly and said, "If you're so desperate for something to do why don't you put some more damn beds in this house?"
The "get out of his chair" response was instant, and he snapped his fingers and proclaimed, "That's perfect!"
Joe Dark blinked his eyes and muttered "A-Are you serious?", bringing Mew's pointer finger to his face as he enthusiastically proclaimed, "YES!"
"I'm...going to agree with Joe Dark here," Riku said, as if he could sound anymore forced about it, "There's not enough room in the house for more beds unless you take out all the other furniture."
"THAT'S the problem?" Joe Dark spat in disgust and slapped the back of his right hand on the table, "How about money? I don't even know where the hell you're getting all these eggs from!"
"The store." Mew spoke as a matter-of-fact.
"The store..." Joe Dark dully replied.
"Yeah. I got money," Mew whipped out a pointer finger towards his room, "I've had a debit card in there for as long as I lived here."
"...Are you trying to make a joke?" Joe Dark closed his eyes and sighed.
"I'm serious! I don't know how much money's on there but whenever I've felt like mixing it up with my meals I've always had enough to get what I want," Mew cocked a shrug and added, "If there's a limit though I don't want to try and push it."
"And just how many video games am I going to find in your room, paid for with THAT magic card?" Joe Dark dug his hand into the tableside and started to stand only for Riku to calmly hold his arm out and glare at them both.
"Cut it out. Our budget situation aside, there's still the matter of space."
Joe Dark's aggression stalled and Mew plopped back onto his seat, "Yeah, true."
"What's the problem?" Joe Dark scoffed and brushed his right hand towards the ceiling, "There's a second floor. Just use that."
"You've been inside the house. Have you noticed a way up to the second floor?" Mew, admittedly, had a point.
"...Pffft," Joe Dark laid his hand flat and firm on the table and it exuded darkness, "I'll MAKE a way up then."
Mew slapped his hand down on his and faked a smile, "Only if you're willing to pay."
"You're no fun." Joe Dark's darkness faded when he squeezed his fist.
"But hey! That sounds like a fun way to spend the day!" Mew got up, looked at the other two and remarked, "Lets comb the house over, see if there's something we missed that'd let us get to the second floor!"
"Fine by me." Riku stood up, and Joe Dark dragged his ass off the seat after.
"Whatever. I'll play along just to stop the damn neck cramps."
"Cool!" Mew clapped his hands and pointed at Riku, "You can check my room."
Then at himself, "I'll check out here."
And finally to Joe Dark, "And you can go everywhere in-between!"
Mew and Riku split up with little fanfare while Joe Dark stayed behind and cricked his neck around.
"More busy work...Hrmmm..." He dragged his feet towards the hall and looked around. There was a closet for the heater on the left, and the bathroom on the right. Mew's room was dead ahead.
"He can't seriously be expecting to find a hidden compartment in this house..." He slowly glided his hand along the wall and stopped at the right side of the door frame.
"Hrrmmm..." He was thinking about the list Mew was working on. That one word, "Help", caused a certain unimportant mannequin to appear in his head for a brief moment.
His eyes squeezed shut and his head turned right towards his chest. He slowly raised it back up and grumbled, "I never got an answer from her..."
Letting this sink in, he spat out in abject disgust towards himself, "What do I care anyways?"
He turned his hand into a fist and ran his bare knuckles along the wall. The bumps were plentiful and a little rough on his weak skin. So far, nothing stuck out as odd.
But then again, he only got a foot along the wall before taking another break. Melancholy couldn't help but rear their ugly head when he didn't need it.
"This used to be my home," Standing in this hollow hall only brought out indifference, "I had a mother, and a father...A brother..."
Straining his mind did nothing. Not even the faintest of faint memories wanted to have anything to do with him. His fist shook against the wall and he pulled it to his chest to then punch it hard, and grit his teeth.
"Did this place mean nothing to me?!"
It was good that his rage was internalized. Otherwise, he may have missed the sound that shouldn't have been there...An echo, behind the "solid" wall.
"Is everything ok?!" Mew suddenly popped out around the corner and scared the crap outta Joe Dark.
"Jesus!" He placed his hand flat on his chest and fiercely barked at Mew, "Don't scare me like that!"
"You're one to talk!" Mew casually waved his hand around and walked closer, "I heard a 'Thump!' and thought we were under attack!"
He stood beside him and looked at the same wall. Riku joined in a little later. Mew tilted his head and asked, "Sooooo...did you find something?"
"Maybe?" Joe Dark had to be realistic about this, "I heard something on the other side of this wall. But its probably just unused space..."
"Oh..." Mew's face sagged with disappointment, and then he wandered off back to the kitchen. But not before peeking around the corner one brief time to say, "Be a little more careful with your fists then ok?"
Joe Dark sneered and then stuck his tongue out at him after he had already long gone. He shook his head and faced the wall, staring at it with more grandiose than it deserved.
Riku stuck by for a moment to commentate on his findings, "Maybe you're on to something."
"I wouldn't know. This place is a stranger to me." He wound up muttering out loud.
Riku looked at him and Joe Dark quickly sneered his way to say, "Don't you have your own place to look through?"
Riku brushed him off with an only-handed gesture and returned to Mew's room. Joe Dark faced the wall with a fierce look in his eyes, and began to squint.
He placed his left hand on the wall and glided it towards the left, then moved a little downward. He stopped, closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath. His hand moved on its own to a part of the wall that looked no different from the rest.
In his head, a fuzzy recollection showed him looking at this wall from the perspective of his mother's cradling arms. Her hand pressed down on the wall, and in the present day a "Click" was heard.
He opened his eyes and a square shaped part of the wall was pushed in. He backed away slowly as a split appeared through the center of the square both up and down, and the remainder of the wall slid up into a gap. And behind it, was the staircase the three had been hunting.
Mew sped around the corner and nearly tripped over himself. Then his jaw dropped, "Whoa! Sudden secret passage, hel-lo!"
His loudness got Riku out into the hall in record time, and his jaw dropped a little too.
"How did this get here...?" Asking what was on everyone's mind.
Mew put his hands behind his head and remarked, "Isn't it obvious?"
"Oh god." Joe Dark groaned internally.
Mew grinned and boldly suggested, "Our parents were secret agents! Why else would they have a secret staircase?"
Joe Dark and Riku joined together to glare at him. Mew blinked a couple times then rolled his eyes and threw his arms out, "Or they wanted to hide something important give me a break, spies are cool!"
He was the first to head towards the stairs and Riku went next. Joe Dark stayed in the back and inquired, "Shouldn't you remember who Whiter's parents were?"
"I only remember as much as Alex let me. Our parents didn't seem to be a high priority."
"...Right." Joe Dark grumbled and tucked his hands into his pockets.
One short climb later and they found...utterly nothing! No top secret base. No mind-blowing secret. Not even a folder full of old tax reports. Just a bunch of empty, unused space, and a whole lot of dust.
Mew stepped foot at the top and hollered out "What?!" only for a plume of dust to get sucked into his throat and him to start coughing a lot.
Riku waved his hand around and kicked up a gale to gather all the dust up and toss it into the corner of the room for now. He then patted his brother on the back with his fist until he stopped coughing.
Mew hung forward, laid his hands on his knees, and stared out into the room. Joe Dark finally got to take a look around himself and for once, he shared the same thoughts as Mew.
He didn't know quite what he was expecting, but it was certainly more than this. This room had a high enough ceiling and heat inside so it wasn't meant to act as an attic. And there was a window on the opposite side to enjoy the sights...if this house had been anywhere BUT here.
"Somebody had lived up here." He said.
"Yeah!" Mew waved his hand out and exclaimed, "And they took all the cool stuff with them!"
"Will you quit getting hung up on that?!" Joe Dark exclaimed.
Mew stood up and grumbled for a while with his arms crossed. Riku stepped between the two and surveyed the empty space. He then turned and brushed his hand out at them both.
"It looks like there'd be plenty of space to fit a bed here."
Mew stopped being fussy long enough to give a modicum of serious thought to the idea, "I guess but then again it is very dark here."
He smirked from the right of his mouth, "Not that you'd complain."
Joe Dark folded his arms against his chest and muttered, "We'll just get a light in here too. And drawers, a night stand, the whole she-bang."
Mew blinked hard a couple times and sounded baffled as he asked, "Wait you serious?"
Joe Dark placed a hand on his hip and leaned around as he took in a deep breath and sighed, "Its better than nothing. At least here I'll have some goddamn privacy."
"Fine!" Mew carelessly shrugged and smiled, "If that's what you want I'll accommodate."
Joe Dark turned to him and raised a brow, "Wait, are you serious?"
"Sure! Riku and I can handle the construction work," Mew planted his hands on his back and leaned back to stretch. When his bones cracked he let out a grunt of exertion and merrily proclaimed, "We got plenty of daylight to burn, so lets get right on it!"
He spun around, waved his hand down, and headed down the stairs with Riku shrugging it and following after. Joe Dark froze there, murmuring to his lonesome, "Huh..."
He closed his eyes and turned to face the rest of the room. With the image of it recently imprinted in the back of his mind he thought about that brief snippet of the past that led to him discovering this room.
Nothing came about from trying to push the memories free from within, however. Perhaps they were just as stubborn as he was.
"Grrr..." Joe Dark stomped one foot down and then spun around and made his way for the stairs. He only made it halfway down when he slowed to a stop.
He squeezed his fists in his pockets and his body trembled in resistance against him turning his head back, and the rest of him following suit. He hurried up the stairs and flared his eyes as wide as they'd go.
"Joseph."
His heart skipped a beat as a tender whisper infiltrated his mind. He looked around and felt his skin get colder, shaking him down to the bone.
"...M-Mother?" He muttered not of his own volition.
When he faced forward again he saw a corporeal bed and two figures with faces and legs made of fog laying on top of it. One a woman, the other a man.
The woman held a baby close to her chest and sounded frustrated, "He won't stop crying."
"Have you tried a lullaby?" The man suggested.
"A song? You're better at that, you do it!"
The man's response was unheard, but it prompted the woman to grunt in admission of defeat. She then looked to the baby boy and after some forced coughs began to hum a soothing melody.
Joe Dark laid a hand where his heart was as it skipped another beat. The melody played being one he hummed not too long ago.
"T-That's..." He grit his teeth and ran at the bed. He tripped on a crack in the floorboards and passed right through it, turning it into a cloud of scattering dust before he landed.
Hitting the ground was nothing new for him. But he laid there for an extended period of time staring at his hand and pretending he had a bit of that "dust" gripped in it.
He lightly tapped his fist on the ground and pulled himself up, feeling something wet on his right cheek that he promptly ignored.
"..." He turned the other way and dragged his feet down the stairs, giving the room one last look. When he landed in the hall he looked around and muttered, "Where are those chuckleheads now?"
He heard a light "Thud" from outside and made his way for the front door. Mew had pulled a large chunk of rock from the mountain and placed it down in front of him. Riku meanwhile stood adjacent to him and looked it over.
Joe Dark shut the door behind him and that drew unnecessary attention on him from Mew.
"There you are. Hey I was wondering," Mew pointed at the rock and asked, "Wood or metal?"
"Wood or...metal?" Joe Dark muttered.
"Yeah, for the frame."
"...Wood, I guess." Joe Dark slowly sat down on the steps.
Mew rubbed his chin and held his hand out. He mentally carved up the rock into the shape of a bed frame and pulled the excess away for now. What remained had four posts and a head to lean pillows against. It was a little prettied up, but nothing fancy.
Mew then flicked his wrist out with high energy and snapped his fingers. The stone flashed brown and a second later was now some of the finest mahogany wood this side of the planet.
He then faced Riku and asked, "Whaddya think?"
Riku rubbed his chin and then waved his hand out. The wood flashed brown and transformed into smooth cedar, "That might be sturdier."
"If we're looking for sturdiness then we'd be better off with metal," Mew held his hand out and turned the wood back to mahogany, "This is comfier."
Riku nodded but nevertheless held his hand out and did a quick work on the posts at the end to shave off the inward corners, "Now the mattress will be secure."
"Good call," Mew snapped his fingers and bobbed his head, then turned to the remainder of the rock, "Speaking of the mattress."
Joe Dark hung his hands between his legs and drifted out of focus. His chin pressed up against his chest as he closed his eyes and did nothing but think.
A rainy night. So many drops fell but not a single one hit. It was dark, darker than the blackest black. He was being carried by someone in a hurry. And he was crying.
Faint light entered his purview while he was being lowered to the ground. He suddenly saw a knitted basket at the very edge of his eyes, because that's what he rested in.
The lights were blooming in the air directly above him, getting brighter and brighter and obscuring the face of a woman above him. The woman's mouth moved but the rain overpowered her voice.
At the end of it all she smiled, and ran away...And the baby's cries grew louder, alerting someone nearby to open their door and check on him...
"...!" Joe Dark gasped himself awake and slowly, quietly panted. He then placed a hand over the right side of his face.
"Hello? Earth to Joe?"
Joe Dark looked up and Mew turned around. He suddenly flinched and asked, "Is...everything alright?"
Only then did he noticed that he was scowling, or that more of that wet feeling plagued both his cheeks. He committed to the scowl and let out a blunt scoff.
"J-Just caught some dust in my eye..." He swung his hand down and looked away, "Mind your own damn business."
"...Well, first I gotta know what type of stuffing you want in this mattress."
Joe Dark looked out from the corner of his eye and dryly said, "Cotton."
"Cotton? Simple, but always reliable." Mew then got to work converting the remaining stone to cotton with Riku's aid.
Joe Dark resumed watching once he knew they were ignoring him. But he now had to contend with what he had recalled.
"That's...right..." He laid a hand up against the side of his face and grit his teeth in a painful scowl, "I was...abandoned..."
And suddenly, the struggle to remember anything made sense. But what didn't click was: "Why?"
"..." He looked up at Mew and Riku hard at work stitching the cotton into a mattress with needles and a whole lot of patience. Mew occasionally nicked his fingers but pressed on with a smile.
"...Hey." He quietly called out to him. Mew looked over his shoulder and hummed.
"What..." Joe Dark bit his lower lip to stall for time, "What do you know about Whiter's parents?"
Mew stood up, his eyes rolling back into his head as he twirled the sewing needle around in his hand, "Not much. Just how they died."
"...H-How-" Joe Dark bit his lower lip again, this time on a more permanent note. He then waved his hand out and turned his head away.
The next few minutes passed by slow and uneventfully. Perfect for thinking. If only there was anything good to think about...
"Hmmm...!"
Joe Dark looked at Mew from the corner of his eyes, then tried to ignore them again.
"HMMM...!"
Joe Dark looked at him a little more intently and saw him tucking his hands in his pockets and hanging his shoulders with a hefty sigh.
Like it or not, he couldn't be ignored. That's just the sort of life Joe Dark lived now.
"What now?" He muttered.
Mew turned aside and awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, "Haha...I just realized we're going to have to put this up in your new room."
Joe Dark looked at the mattress. Even if they had downsized the thing it wouldn't fit through the front door let alone the hall. He then gave Mew a half-assed glare and grumbled.
He lifted himself off the steps and dragged his feet over to the bed. He froze up for a moment with one hand hovering over it.
The bed was without its sheets and pillows but was otherwise complete. No stitch was out of place, the mattress itself being snug within the frame. And just by looking at it Joe Dark felt...safe.
He closed his eyes and waved his hand out to summon a dark rift below the bed, slowly swallowing it up and spitting it out in the center of the attic. He then puffed out a sigh and put his hands in his pockets.
He felt a rough pat on the back and Mew rested his hand down while saying, "Thanks for the save."
"You really can't get stuff done without me." He replied.
Mew gave a closed-eye smile and backed away, crossing his arms with a sense of satisfaction beaming from his face, "There's still a lot to get done, if you want to join in."
"...I'll pass." Joe Dark closed his eyes and hopped into his rift to land beside his new bed. Mew poked his head in after him.
"I'll whip up the bedsheets and pillows next. Anything you want on them?"
Joe Dark was no doubt going to regret this but...
"Do what you want." He then hastily waved his hand up to shut the rift.
He laid one hand on the bed and cautiously pressed down. The mattress molded around his fingers, offering very little resistance. He laid the rest of his body down and stretched out. His feet just avoided falling off the edge.
There was enough room for two people, but he hogged the space in the center all to himself. He laid his hands on his chest, and let his body melt into the cotton. It was like...slowly becoming one with a white cloud on a sunny day. The mattress gave in just enough, and not a centimeter more, to provide him with optimal comfort.
His heart beat slowed down, until he could no longer hear it.
He closed his eyes and felt movement near his cheeks. It was a smile.
He laid there with the weight of the world off his shoulders, even if was just for a little while. His mind unconsciously drifted through the last few days. He had known rest. He had known a reprieve from hunger. And, he had stopped feeling...lonely.
There was a name to put to all this, and his name was...Mew.
"...We were enemies. But he took me into his home...Why?" He raised a hand up and stared at it longingly, "My so-called mother and father discarded me."
He squeezed it into a fist and it shook, "What does he see in me that they didn't?"
A large flannel sheet draped over his body and fell down to cover him up to the shoulders. He lowered his fist and sat up, seeing Mew standing beside his bed and clapping his hands off.
"Came just in time. You looked like you were cold." He smirked and then turned away for the stairs.
Joe Dark looked at the sheet. It was half an inch thick, black, and had a skull pattern on it. Sure, Mew's powers were cheating its creation a little, but that didn't stop it from showing the care that was put into it.
"...Hey, Mew." Joe Dark gripped the edge of the sheet and watched Mew pause at the top of the stairs to look back.
"What's up?"
Joe Dark stared long and hard at the sheet and his mind repeatedly echoed "Thank you" in an attempt to escape. He raised his head and bluntly scoffed at Mew.
"Don't screw up the pillows."
Mew smiled, his eyes arched in a strange way, as if he saw right through him. He then headed down the stairs, waving his hand up in a quick gesture of "You got it".
Joe Dark then sunk under the sheet and decided he'd take a little nap. A nice, simple nap. No rain. No cold. No ground.
This was...home.
Next Time: The Wizard of Bodies