UGHHHH THIS WEBSITE IS ANNOYING! it's been doing that thing again where it doesn't update the views! And it's been going on for 3 weeks! Hopefully it fixes soon bc I wanna see the view count :(

Warning: mentions of child abuse + briefly implied domestic abuse

Song: devil town by Cavetown! One of my favourite songs ever and fits this duo rly rly well

Enjoy!

Chapter 112

Devil Town

His parents were fighting again.

Evan burrowed further under his covers. It was safe there. Everything was dark and hot and smelled like laundry detergent. Nobody could hear him spill tears and snot onto his pillows, and he couldn't hear them scream and hit. He could grab his flashlight and page through books where boys like him were swept away on a flying carpet or climbed down a rainbow staircase or opened a secret door in their closet and went on all sorts of fantastic adventures far away from their feuding families.

He got his flashlight from under his pillows and was just about to snatch his stack of chapter books when something hard hit his hand. "Owch!" He rubbed it and sat up, pulling off the covers. His brown hair stuck up in messy tufts.

There was a ripping sound and suddenly the cardboard taped up over the hole in his window was pulled off, and there stood his best friend, Cassidy.

Now he was awake. "Cassidy? What are you doing here?"

She shrugged. "I was bored. C'mon, let's go play."

Evan checked the time. One thirty! But it wasn't like he was going to get any sleep, anyways. "Okay."

Cassidy frowned. "And change out of your pajamas. It's embarrassing running around in the woods in those footie clothes. Like you're a baby or something."

He flushed. "Oh. Sorry." Usually he and Cassidy would plan out their nighttime adventures at the pizzeria, and he'd preemptively wear clothes good for a forest romp. He went into his closet and shut the door, pulling on khakis and a black hoodie with a matching toque. His head always felt wrong when there wasn't something covering it.

"Finally," Cassidy grumbled, helping him out the window. "I was just gonna leave without you." She wore a black-and-white striped sweater and red flannel pajama pants. Her silky black hair was in twin pigtails, her straight bangs brushing her shining golden eyes.

He landed with a thump on the grass. Cassidy was already running down the hill. Evan chose to walk down carefully, like he always did. Michael's friend Patrick had broken an ankle dashing down this hill.

He flicked on his flashlight, shining a beam through the trees before turning it back off. Since they lived so far away from the city, the midnight sky was clear of smog and clouds and the half slice of moon and spatter of stars lit everything in silver.

"Slowpoke!" She called as she crunched through leaves and bracken. "Can't beat a kindergarten girl!"

Sometimes, Evan wondered why he was such good friends with Cassidy when she bullied him just the same as his siblings. But she was probably the only person who liked him for him and not out of familial obligation or a desire for a good grade. She didn't look five, that was for sure. She had sharp, foxlike features and was taller than most people in his grade, which made bullies think she was cool and would back off of Evan.

She crashed on a patch of spongy moss and whooped. "I'm like a cheetah! That was fast!"

He gasped as he tried to collect his breath, flopping down beside her. "Yep, you win. As usual."

"Don't feel bad. I got the blue ribbon on track day, remember?"

Evan remembered. He also remembered getting a purple participation ribbon and hiding it in his bag so his family wouldn't make fun of him. Elizabeth had been steaming mad about Cassidy beating her. He didn't remember what Michael got when he was their age, but it was probably something good.

He gazed at the sky ringed by pointy black treetops. There was a big orangish star close to the moon. He wondered if it was Venus.

Cassidy sighed. "This is boring. Let's play something."

"What do you want to play?"

Her eyes gleamed. "Bears. Magic bears. And we go to a magic bear school cos we're only babies."

"Cubs."

"Whatever. Okay, so I'm a black bear, only I've got a golden face and a golden tail and one of my paws is gold, the left one, and my name is Honey Flame. And I'm a girl bear."

"Hmm." He thought about it. "I'll be a grizzly."

"And?"

"Oh, and I'm a boy bear. My name is Brown."

"That's a stupid name. Name yourself Cinnamon."

"Okay."

She sighed dramatically. "And don't you wanna look special? We're magic bears."

"Fine. Um, I've got darker brown freckles all over my body and a silver star on my forehead, right here."

Cassidy frowned, like she hadn't thought of that. "Wait, can I have a star too? A gold one?"

"Sure."

"Good. So you can pick two powers. Mine are fire and shapeshifting."

"I thought we banned shapeshifting because it gave you too many other powers."

"Oopsie, I forgot," she lied. "Then I'll have fire and wind power."

"I guess…water and invisibility."

"No invisibility. Just elements."

"Earth, then."

"Mm-kay." She got down on her hands and knees. Her grubby fingers dug into the soil like claws. "Now we have to do the ancient roar, and we'll be transformed."

He frowned, copying her pose. "I don't want to wake up my siblings. They'll be angry."

"Your parents fight alot, don't they? Your siblings are prolly already awake. Besides, it doesn't matter. Once we're bears, you won't have siblings." She arched her back like a cat and bared her teeth. "Ready? You hafta roar loud, as loud as you can. Or else it won't work."

Evan wasn't sure if he could do it. His sister probably could. She roared like that on a daily basis.

"I mean it, Evan. I'll disappear to magic bear school without you, and you'll be all alone in the woods at night." Her eyes were big and earnest.

He didn't want to be alone. "Okay, I'll do it."

Cassidy nodded, suddenly serious, then began to pace in a circle, growling ritualistic words in unfamiliar bear tongue that sounded a lot like Thai for some reason. He paced beside her. Wet earth soaked through his shorts. He really hoped he was loud enough.

"Now Evan!" She called, and he gathered all his breath and roared from deep in his stomach. His voice carried through the trees and brought a great gust of wind shuddering through them. He was even louder than Cassidy!

"I'm transforming!" She shouted, gazing at her arms in wonder. "Look, look at my paws!"

Evan waited anxiously for her russet skin to give way to sleek black fur, but it never came. Maybe you could only see your own transformation. But all he could see was his own skinny hands dug into the mulch, white as a polar bear with pillbugs crawling all over them.

"I'm not transforming!" He cried, voice trembling. He'd be all alone in the woods like she said!

"What're you talking about? You roared even louder than me!" She lumbered over and sniffed him curiously. "Smell like a bear to me. Look at yourself! You've got a brown pelt and a shiny silver star on your forehead! You're crazy, Cinnamon!"

"You're not a bear either, Cassidy."

"Who's Cassidy? I'm Honey Flame. And look, look what I can do." She stuck out her hand and twisted it, then bounced up and down. "Did you see that? I lit that bush on fire."

"No, you didn't," he said flatly. "The roar didn't work. Neither of us were loud enough. We aren't magic bears, Cassie."

She sat down beside him, her expression twisted into one of confusion. "We aren't actually bears, Ev. It's just pretend. You knew that, right?"

His eyes prickled with tears. Hot shame rolled down his back. "Y-yeah, of course."

"Oh. You didn't."

The tears spilled over his red cheeks. They tasted like salt and bitterness.

But right then he knew the reason he'd stuck with Cassidy as his best friend. She wrapped her arms around him and let him sob into her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Ev. I didn't mean to make you cry."

"It's okay," he sniffled. He rocked back and forth. That always helped him calm down, though his family usually made fun of him for it. "I guess I just really wanted the magic to be real. My parents were having a really awful fight before you came."

"Oh." She sat back down. "Worse than the other times?"

"Yeah. I think my dad might've tried to kill her," he mumbled. His father usually didn't follow up on his words, though. He hoped she was okay.

"Wow. That is really awful."

"You are lucky to just have your mum," Evan said, drawing circles in the orange pine needles with a stick. "No parents hurting each other. No mean siblings."

"But my mom and I still argue. That's why I came here."

"What were you fighting about?"

"Doesn't matter." She glanced at him. "Has your dad ever hit you?"

He shook his head.

"How 'bout your mom?"

"A few times, but only when I was being bad."

"Same." Cassidy rolled up her sleeve and showed him four crescent-moon shapes on her wrist. "That was when she was dragging me out of bed. She's got really long red nails."

Evan sucked in a breath. "Ouch."

"Then she hit me with her book."

"My mum did too! Only she was so drunk she couldn't even remember doing it."

Cassidy burst into giggles. "Why do they even do that?"

"Maybe they think the knowledge will soak into our heads and make us smarter."

"I can't believe your mom did that to you. Are you adopted?"

"Nope. I don't look like her, though."

"Oh. I was thinking that my mom's okay with hitting me cos I'm not her real kid."

"Really?"

She rolled her eyes. "Duh. I'm from Thailand. That's all the way on the other side of the Earth."

"I know that." He frowned. "If she flew all that way to get you, why does she treat you like that?"

She shrugged. "Dunno. If your dad spent all that time with your mom, why did he try and kill her?"

Evan paused. "Maybe that's why. Maybe he was bored of her."

"Do you think my mom's bored of me?"

"I hope not." An idea came to him. "Maybe she needs a husband."

Cassidy laughed. "That's what I keep saying! But she's never ever had one!"

Evan laughed too.

"Hey, do you still wanna play magic bears? Even if it's just a game?" She asked hopefully.

He smiled. "Sure."

And so, they played magic bears until the sky was milky-pale and the sun had rose, and the two children headed in their opposite directions to face their families and their fears. Though the two were often confused.

A/N

Sort of a shorter chapter but I had this idea and I wanted to write about it.

This was meant to be a two parter on the siblings perspective of the night Clara and William divorced, but I'm going to put Michael and Liz's in the next act!

Have an amazing day/night!

~ghost