How I was Murdered by a Fox Monster (13 page)

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Authors: M.C Queen

Tags: #love, #horror, #humor, #fantasy, #hot, #teen, #free, #monsters, #guys, #free download

BOOK: How I was Murdered by a Fox Monster
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Hey Itsuki," I whispered. "Do you think that maybe you could
untie me?”


Oh, sorry,” he said like he hadn't noticed. Itsuki magically
pulled a knife out of nowhere and began cutting the bonds. Maybe
sudden knife pulling was another exorcist skill that Akito had
passed on to the others.

Once I was
cut free I sat down against the wall, but maintained my distance to
prevent any awkwardness. I stared into the darkness and attempted
to ease my anxiety which was making my chest relentlessly pound. I
felt better with someone else there, even if that someone was
Itsuki.


It must have been scary right?” Said Itsuki. “Being alone
with the wolves. It's alright to cry.”


Shut up
,” I
hissed.


You don't have to be so angry. If it was me I'd be scared
too.”

I tried to
imagine how an exorcist genius like him could ever feel fear, when
his phone began to flash. He flipped it and stared at the screen.
“OK, they should be here soon,” he said.


How did you find this place? Did you use the glowing paper?”
I asked.


It wasn't hard to find," he said. "There was a giant puddle
of blood outside, and the neighbors were all complaining about
it.”


Oh,” I replied. His reason seemed legitimate enough, but I
couldn't help feeling that there was something odd about his tone
of voice.


Thanks,” I muttered. I didn't know what else I was supposed
to say to my enemy in a situation such as this.


If you don't mind me asking, why are you trying so hard to be
an exorcist? You must have realized by now that it's not easy. If
those wolves were hungry you'd already be dead.”


Why wouldn't you want to be an exorcist,” I smiled. “It's
awesome! You get to fight monsters everyday and you don't have to
go to school or do homework.”


What are you, five?” He scoffed. “That's so
childish.”


Hey, maybe I am five, mentally.”


I suppose that explains everything,” Itsuki sighed and began
tapping his fingers against his knee. “I don't know if you've
realized it, but unlike you, the rest of us don't have much of a
choice. We're either forced into this by our parents or the
exorcist organization. All because of the families we were born
into.”


But that's not so bad, you're lucky. You can do something
special that everyday people can't.”


Maybe so, but I despise it,” he said bitterly.


You despise it? But you're a great exorcist and everyone
knows it.”


Really you think I'm a great exorcist?” He laughed. “This
life ...It's sickening. I never wanted this, I only want to keep my
parents and the organization off my back. But I don't know if I can
take it anymore. I can't chose where I live or where I go to
school. It's like a giant trap that I can't escape. I'll probably
spend the rest of my life fighting Obake until I eventually come up
against one that I can't beat, and then it's the end,” he paused as
though looking for the right words. “It might sound like I'm being
cruel, but I want to tell you this before you get way over your
head, like right now.”

I sat there
and tried to process his words. So Itsuki didn't want to be an
exorcist after all. I always took him for an arse without realizing
that he had issues too.


Have you ever tried to quit?” I asked.


A few times, I even ran away once but my parents found me.
Our organization is so desperate for members to counter the growing
unrest against the Obake, so they can't afford to let anyone go.
That's probably another reason why they allowed you in. It would
have been a different story twenty years ago. Back in the days of
Daisuke Matsumoto it wasn't so hard to leave, but that would be
impossible now.”


I see,” I nodded. It seemed like my adopted brother was
becoming more awesome with each passing day. I wasn't sure how I
was ever going to match up to his reputation, and I was beginning
to feel resentful. “What would you be if you weren't an exorcist?”
I asked.


I don't know. Maybe a doctor, or a lawyer, or just anything
which doesn't involve killing Obake. I'm going to try and get into
a good university and then I'll figure the rest out. Even if my
family's against it I'm just going to go.”


I'm sorry, things must be tough.”


Don't be. What about you Daisuke, do you have any dreams for
the future? If you do you better quit trying to be an
exorcist.”


I haven't really thought about it,” I scratched my head. “To
be honest I think being an exorcist is pretty cool.”


I thought you might say that. You sound just like
Taisei.”


Yeah, if only I'd been born into an exorcist family and
trained from an early age, I could have been awesome by
now!”


Perhaps, but I'm not sure if you'd be passable even if you
began training in kindergarten. You shouldn't lament over stuff
like that.”

"Hey I'd be
awesome!" I protested. "At least I think I would be," I added as an
afterthought. Maybe it was impossible to change how were were born
and raised, but there was still something that I could do about the
future.


Ok I've decided," I said while punching my fist into the air.
"I'm going to train really hard from now on. I'm going to become a
super awesome exorcist and get rid of tones of Obake. That way they
won't need you anymore and you can go to whatever university you
like."


I don't know,” said Itsuki sceptically. “A guy like you? You
don't really seem like the serious type, you'd probably slack
off.”


Shut up. I'm going to become serious from now on,
unbelievably serious, I don't care what anyone else thinks, and
that includes you.”


I'll believe it, when I see it,” he sighed.


Just you watch, I'm a guy who sticks to his word.” I stared
off into the darkness and tried to imagine what it would be like to
be an awesome exorcist. Hopefully I could be just like my step
brother and travel the country exorcising dangerous high level
Obake. I'd become really fit and buff, and tones of chicks would
follow me like magnets. Even if I didn't become super popular, it
wouldn't be so bad if I married someone like Mana when I became old
enough. I was busy day dreaming about how Mana and I would make an
amazing exorcist couple, when I remembered something I'd been
meaning to ask Itsuki.


Wait,” I said. “You never told me what was really going on
between you and Mana?”


I can't believe that you're still hung up on Mana, all
because she was the first girl to talk to you at
school.”


Shut up, Mana and I have a deeper
spiritual connection than you can ever
realize!
 
So do you like her
?”


Maybe I do, maybe I don't, but I'm not handing her over to
anyone soon. You'll probably just play around and crush her
self-confidence.”


So you do like her! If you didn't you wouldn't say such
possessive shit.”


Maybe I do, but that's my secret,” he winked.

"Liar!" I
gave him a shove and Itsuki almost toppled over. “Ok I'll cut a
deal with you,” I said. “If one of us doesn't survive this the
other guy can have Mana.”


Are you sure you want to do that, what's going to stop me
from killing you now and taking Mana for myself?”


But I know you won't do that, you're the type of guy who has
morals and stuff.”


Hmp
, but
maybe I'm just
 
an Obake in disguise,
” he dropped his
voice and began to make scary ghost noises, which looked pretty
lame for a serious guy like him.

I punched him
in the arm.“Don't be stupid! As if an Obake would want to go to
high school.”
Itsuki
laughed “No, I don't think they could-”
He was cut
off by a sudden crash outside our room. It sounded like something
large breaking, and I assumed the wolf Obake had heard us fooling
around and were coming to devourer us both. I grabbed onto Itsuki's
arm for dear life and pressed my back against the wall in an
attempt to appear as small as possible. I must have gripped on
pretty desperately because he hissed in pain. I prayed that this
wasn't the end. I was only fifteen and there was so much I wanted
to do with my life, but even if I didn't die in that grim house I
was only delaying the inevitable..

 

Chapter
14

 

Bang!
Crash!
I winced at
every noise outside the room and dreaded the moment when the wolves
would come bursting through the door. I could see Itsuki staring at
the window formulating an escape plan (I wish I thought of that).
He reached for his pocket to grab something, until we heard the
voice of a familiar high school girl shrieking “oh no, I stepped in
dog shit!”


That sounded like Kurumi,” Itsuki muttered.


That's them, let's go!” I yelled.

We jumped to
our feet and headed to the door. I grabbed the handle and attempted
to burst through like a scene from an action movie, only to find
that the door was firmly locked.
The wolves
were better prepared than I originally expected. I stood there
fumbling with the door while listening to what was going down in
the next room.


EXORCISTS! IT'S THE EXORCISTS!” Came a muffled yell through
the door.


Hey! What's the time Mr Wolf?!”


Taisei! This isn't the time!” Yelled Akito. What followed was
a series of banging and crashing noises, followed by yells of pain.
It sounded like my fellow exorcists weren't having an easy
time.


Not the leg, not my leg!” I couldn't tell if it was a friend
or foe crying out in pain.


Hey! We're in here! Let us out!” I yelled as I banged on the
door.


It's useless, they can't hear you,” said Itsuki. “Stand
back,” he pulled out a strip of paper from his pocket. It was
already painted with a small seal. He stood a meter from the door
and stared at the space between it like he was calculating the
distance. “Maybe a small one should be enough to do it.”

He began to mutter a chant full of words I couldn't
understand. He may have said
 
gobboly gobbly boo
boo
 
for all I
knew, but the paper began to light up brightly and spark. The same
familiar ball of lightning began to emerge from the page (although
smaller this time) and headed straight towards the door. Itsuki
must have underestimated his strength because he also took out most
the wall as well.

Both our room
and the next were engulfed in a cloud of dust from the explosion. I
could make out faint shadows of people until the dust finally
settled enough to see Akito and the rest of the exorcists armed and
ready, and staring at us with their mouths wide open in shock.
Souta's constantly open and shut like he was attempting to say
something, but his voice refused to work.


Hey,” coughed Taisei through the dust. “You really like
showing off don't you?”


As expected of Itsuki,” muttered Mana.

I quickly
discovered that Itsuki's explosion not only freed us from our
imprisonment, but it also took out the wolf Obake who had been
standing on the other side of the wall in their process of fleeing.
They had been electrocuted by the lightening, and then crushed
under fragments of the wall.

Like Itsuki couldn't get any cooler, the stupid
jerk.
 
I
thought.

If I had been
my usual antagonistic self I would have ranted about how Itsuki
barely did anything, but I was overwhelmingly grateful that he
saved my life. I decided that it was time to give the guy a break,
and I skillfully kept my mouth shut while the others re-accounted
Itsuki's awesomeness.


And then we had them in the corner and suddenly boom!” Yelled
Kiyori.


Way to go man,” said Taisei while nudging him in the
ribs.

Souta took a
look at my head from where the wolf knocked me out. I always
wondered what Souta's purpose was in the group, but I discovered
that he was the one with all the medical know-how.
"My fathers a
doctor," he cheerfully told me. "He was going to be an exorcist,
but then an Obake bit off his foot.”
My mouth
dropped open in horror. “That's great Souta,” I said
nervously.


Now that I think about it, he was about your age as well,” he
added.

If I wasn't
already feeling traumatized enough, that was enough to cap it off.
I sat there in shock contemplating how I could have lost limbs,
when finally Nina took pity on me. She sat beside me and inspected
the damage as Souta wrapped me up.


Are you sure you're alright?” She asked kindly.


Yes,” I did my best to appear like I was suffering. “I almost
died several times tonight, and my head may be in unimaginable
pain, but I feel that I will live through this.”

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