“...”

  “...”

  The two stared at each other as they both try to concur the situation at hand.

  There’s a horrid smell coming from the ‘thing’ that is beneath their feet. The ‘thing’ looks disgusting, abnormal even, is it even a living organism? The younger kid makes a joke regarding the ‘thing’, and comparing the appearance to the older kid.

  He got met with a slap across his face.

  Now they both stare at the ‘thing’ while one has a bruise on his cheek. The older kid made a suggestion on what to do with the ‘thing’, but he was pretty ambiguous about what he was trying to do. It's been a good solid hour that both of the boys were looking at the ‘thing’. Right before they were about to leave the house of the kid they were babysitting, they get greeted with a blob slapping the bare ground hard, followed by an agitating screech coming out of it.

  If the younger kid were to speak candidly, without going off tangent, he would swear that it just fell from the sky. No other information provided, other than the fact that he was frolicking around the older kid before he reacted to the blob hitting the concrete ground. The older kid couldn’t report what happened. He was on his phone tapping away with his thumbs, finishing up his school newspaper, before he too also heard the smack from the blob. Both of their attention was averted to the ‘thing’ that was mewling and hiccuping. The blotches of skin toned blob was heaving up and down like a living organism, but it surely didn’t look the part, and the two quarter sized eyes that shone the whites of its eyes rolled down to present its pupils. All three were staring at each other. The ‘thing’ must’ve been embarrassed, or used to being confined to somewhere, for it to start screeching for being stared at for too long.

  An hour and thirty minutes, plus an extra 5 minutes berating the looks of the ‘thing,’ the younger kid poked the side of it. It was slimy and peculiarly left a gasoline like residue on his finger tip.

  The younger kid looking at his stained fingertips blurted out a hushed “ew” and scrunched his face up with grimace. Averting his gaze at his elder friend, they both unanimously decided to take it home with them, albeit they don’t know how to tend to its needs especially since its an organism they haven’t got the faintest clue of.

  The eldest boy cradled the ‘thing’ in his arm wrapped with his school’s uniform sweater.

  From the looks of it, the ‘thing’ seemed to be settled tightly in his sweater, most likely from the warmth enveloping it. The younger boy intently observed the blob hazily closing its eyes, snuggling deeper into the warmth. Simultaneously, the younger boy fervently came up with a brilliant reason behind the ‘things’ appearance.

  “What if someone kidnapped it from the government and dropped it in front of us?”

  The older boy who was cradling the ‘thing’: “that sounds stupid.”

  “But you can’t lie, it sounds probable.”

  “... yeah”

  As they walked to the station, that's when they had to conceal the ‘things’ appearance. If only someone caught them, lest it be a police officer or a passerby, they’ll be confined and put under interrogation. No matter how amiable someone might be, they have to be certain that trouble won’t follow them. Precarious the young boy may be, even he had some sense that what they were carrying had consequences.

  The train ride home was peculiarly tranquil, it wasn’t the regular raucous station it was but it was still evidently packed. Thankfully, the ‘thing’ was sleeping so as to not cause a commotion, and most of the passengers were minding their own business so that was one less endeavor off their shoulders. As the designated train compartment the both boys were in rattled and jerked, the elder boy thought how audacious they were to ride back home with an organism, an organism that might permanently change their lives. For good or bad? He doesn’t know. Contemplating all his life choices, the announcement alerted the two boys it was their stop.

  Now the two boys have to decide who takes care of the ‘thing’ tonight.

  The younger boy didn’t even have to coerce his elder friend to carry it back home with him, the older boy just didn’t believe that his younger friend was the best option to follow the ‘things’ criteria without getting caught with a conspicuously suspicious concoction of a thing. So they both went their separate ways, one without any responsibilities, and one with a shit ton.

  Whatever was imminent, the older boy didn’t want any affiliation with it. The ‘thing’ is already his prior concern and he does not want anymore trouble. No matter how indomitable he is, he’s still a kid.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Back at home, the ‘thing’ continued its slumber, giving its full confide in the elder boy. He could have easily changed his plan and tried to light it on fire to rid them of a burden, but that wasn’t in his nature to do so, nor was it to just ignore it. If the guardianship had switched, the younger boy would’ve been so indolent, either that or, his pretentious attitude would have people concerned and evidently get the two in trouble.

  Hearing a buzz coming from his pocket, the elder boy took it out to have his sight land on a text from his younger friend. The younger friend was checking up on him and the ‘thing,’ making sure they both didn’t get into any precarious situations. The older boy just took a quick pic of it in his bed, still wrapped up in his sweater, which consequently roused up his younger friend to listen to his theories about its appearance.

  One of them was that it was a homunculus, either concocted or conceived. This was the first time he ever stated something explanatory, yet it still wasn’t sufficient, what could explain for the gasoline soluble that leaked and penetrated through his sweater. Now that he mentions it, the smell was becoming accursingly rancid.

  God where did this thing come from?

  The elder boy pulled his shirt over his nose to obscure the smell, but it was to no avail, the grotesque smell perturbed his stomach almost making him vomit over himself. The smell wasn’t bad when they were walking with it, so why is it now exuding that disgusting odor?

  The elder boy opened his window to air out his room, swinging his arms to guide the odor out his room, and then getting air freshener to spray his whole room.

  His poor sweater…

  Whatever he was going to do after coming home was now redundant to his schedule, he had to give this organism a shower.

  The perpetual ticking of his clock as he laid down in his bed was agitating him. Why didn’t his elder friend text him back yet? He called him five times and yet no answer.

  Frolicking around in his bed, he had another revelation, what if the ‘thing’ was an experiment? An experiment on a child gone wrong? Many things could be probable for the sudden display of the blob in front of them, like a signal for a venture into the unknown with the protection of the blob, or a solemn request from the thing to give it our duly protection! But yet again, it all conversely connects back to what even is that ‘thing.’

  The younger boy started online shopping, vented his anger at his pillow when something vexed him, and added copious amounts of girly bows in his cart. If he and his older friend were going to give it their full hospitality, then they were going to treat the ‘thing’ like their little sibling!

  Or maybe not.

  At the end of the day the blob was still an anomaly, an unknown organism. Who knows if the ‘thing’ is good or bad, as a matter of fact, who cares if the two are presenting benignity towards the blob, the blob may not elicit the same behavior or even comprehend that it’s being treated nicely, and potentially, kill them both off. It’s pretty ludicrous to even think about being close to that ‘thing,’ plus, there’s no solid evidence that the ‘thing’ has a cognitive mind to accessibly function like a human.

  The young boy looked at a picture of him and his dog together framed on his wall, above his desk.

  ……

  The young boy thought to himself: what if it barks?

  Early in the morning, when both boys went to school, before heading into a periling and tantalizing classroom, the young boy suggested it; then he got called stupid. His elder friend grudgingly suggested that he indulge in something that will conspicuously improve his fried and idiotic brain of his.

  If you looked at the younger boy, you could candidly say that you saw him momentarily reflect upon this suggestion, but that weighted subjective feeling of the proposition going in one ear, and out the other, could be sensed quite frankly easy.

  The younger boy has always been like this. Not like his aloofness was purposely imposed, but more like he never gave a fuck about what was going on in his life. Even when the elder boy asked why he wasn’t more reticent and sophisticated like him; he just said that he didn’t want to be like his family. Rarely does his family occasionally meet up, but when they do, they never unanimously end a discussion. Most of his family are full of pride and conceitful, always being vindictive against opposing ideas even outside of family, and sometimes inflict their ideologies onto him. Caring less made him more elated than before and meeting his elder friend made him feel like the heavens were blessing him for overcoming a great calamity.

  The elder boy discontinued the conversation, afraid to make his friend poignant.

  “I still think it can bark though.”

  “We don’t know if it’s even verbal.”

  He’s true. Not once did the “thing” spoke a coherent sentence, it just screamed.

  Speaking of the ‘thing,’ maybe it wasn’t a good idea to lock it up in his room for the whole day. What if it got hungry?

  An impertinent teacher followed along with their homeroom teacher settled down the chattering class, getting ready to start their new unit. Today wasn't an auspicious day, even though the unempathetic teacher somehow married his girl of five years, it was more… mundane, almost kind of like a dismal dread hovering over the shoulders of everyone in the class.

  As the homeroom teacher started his lesson, that’s when a classmate adjacent to him averted his attention with his pshh.

  The elder boy, of course, looked at him to see what he was bothering him for. And that’s when, he too, felt the dismaying dread on him. His obnoxious classmate, who always bugged him for help, disclosed that there were reports of an infant missing for three weeks being sighted as deformed and obese next to deceased civilians.

  Surely it wasn’t a coincidence that the ‘thing’ was the infant… right? It can’t be. Right?