prompt
Day Three: As if the shadows weren't creepy enough, now they seem to be moving, stretching beyond where the light shouldn't let it reach. In the afternoon sun, the shadows still seem to be climbing; darkness is spreading across the city unnaturally. More than that, now sometimes it feels like you are being forcibly grabbed, like someone is trying to drag you into the darkness.
Before, he had never gone out. Nataniel performed only the most basic duties required of a functioning human being. He went to class, he collected groceries, he kept himself in shape. Otherwise, he liked to be alone. At home. In his room. Enjoying peace, serenity, and seclusion. He didn't consider himself someone who had many (any?) friends because such a thing was not required for someone like him. He wasn't lonely or depressed. He simply didn't want to be bothered with maintaining the niceties required of a relationship of any stripe.
It was too much work.
When he sought out companionship, he did so only for very brief intervals and rarely with intent for it to blossom into more than that. And yet it seemed that it sometimes did.
At this very moment, he was out. Natniel may leave his home only when absolutely necessary, but Rakovanite went out every other night to fulfill his end of the 'bargain' that had brought him into the Negaverse. It was troublesome and time consuming, but not unmanageable. Not not worth the efforts he had to go through to keep his Fettelite as safe as could be managed, under the circumstances...
But it was work. Not just the Negaverse, but the tentative and awkward relationship that had formed between Nataniel and this other boy. It was stressful whether they were together or apart. It was unusual and unfamiliar territory that Nataniel did not always know how to traverse. Fettelite was at his home right now, where Rakovanite would be if he wasn't out servicing the Negaverse's needs. And when he thought of returning there, as he likely should, he felt strangely uncomfortable.
Maybe that was just the environment of the night, though. There was a chill in the air. The residential street he walked along was void of any street lamps. Trees and bushes rustled in a crisp wind. This should all be normal, and yet it felt... eerie, somehow.
Rakovanite moved briskly, as if unwilling to stop. He considered himself observant. Stupid, irrational people were unobservant, yet it took him the span of a full street to realize that he recognized where he was. Even though he seldom invited people into his own home (because what benefit did he gain from that?) he was familiar with the area in part because of someone he had at least a moderate familiarity with.
He'd met Brennon while Nataniel was a junior in high school. He'd had to team up with some freshman and guide him through the practices and expectations of college as a sort of preparatory introduction into higher-level instruction. It had been far from Nat's favorite activity, but he hadn't particularly disliked Brennon.
They didn't meet often, but had opportunity to at least a handful of times in the past eight years. He knew Brennon's apartment complex, anyway.
And had his number.
Rakovanite's deep red gaze flicked toward the building, observing it for a long slow moment before giving a precursory glance that no one was around, and powering down. He pulled out his phone and texted the number, a brief, toneless message: 'I am nearby. Are you busy?' And in the interim of waiting for a response, he started moving toward his old fling's building.
It had been a strange holiday season. Was it just by virtue of what he was now? Nataniel couldn't remember feeling so wary during the fall before... But it felt like darkness was reaching for him. It felt like it was trying to grab and smother him.
He wanted to maintain his composure. He was equipped to take on threats like this now, but in the blackness that surrounded the street, Nataniel ran, fleeing to seek solace from an old companion.
((625))
