It was during the first melting season in Winter that we moved to the house on Tennenbom Drive. It was a large stone castle styled mansion, surrounded by a large grassland and positioned upon a hill. I bought it with my state money, after being honorably discharged from the military. We arrived in the morning. Me, Dad, and Brother. Upon opening into the house, we went through a porch-like room and into the reception area that led to the living room. The interior was pretty average. Looking aged in most parts and actually somewhat unfinished in others. Dark green carpets, worn trim, dusty dusty dusty.
Father sighed, as he was so old and spent that he didn't want to do anymore home projects. I nudged him to assure him that he wouldn't have to. I preferred my homes natural. No need to fix something that isn't worth the money to fix, if it isn't broken.
"The air is quite stuffy in here, actually. Think you bought a good house, Akira." Said Keven, setting one of his bags on the table to his left.
"Thanks, I hope it lasts." I responded.
"Wonder how many rooms are in this place, I should pick out a good one." Said father, rubbing his head inquisitively.
"Around 12, ranging from medium size to large. Think you'll have a good time picking." I said.
After we got our bedrooms picked, I moved in my computer and tried several broken internet hook-ups until I found one that actually worked. Which, was in the living room. With no one else around, I kinda sighed and sat solemnly against the wall and looking at the floor. I had nothing to do.
I got bored, later the night. So, I went poking around downstairs. The stairs weren't that bad, actually. They creaked and groaned, but were relatively sturdy. They went down quite a ways. Eventually, I reached a door at the bottom, opened the door, and gasped for air as I sort of fell backwards onto the stairs in phobia. As the heights pushed on my chest, I realized that the house was built over a massive cave system that had been dug through and lined with glass catwalks for people to walk on. Red, blue, green and purple paper lanterns were hung on the walls and ceiling and there were rooms dug out into the cavern walls with stuff in them as well. The ambiance was that of a low high bass rumble, which, made me feel rather uneasy. The ceilings was plastered with pipes and wiring, which lined the walls and went into the floor somewhere below me.
I walked down one of the glass walkways that led to a relatively unlit room to the right. Upon entering, my legging caught itself on a broken chair leg and I fell, right onto the old dusty wooden floor. Dust settling as I open my eyes to view across the floor of a small in-room. Littered with old trash, cuberts, and clad in spider webs. As I scanned to the top of my head I panicked and recoiled backwards, doing whatever I can to get away from the hand sized spiders that seemed to be approaching me, until I realized they were on their backs, hard as concrete and dead as nails. At that moment, a chicken strutted its way into view from the inside of the in-room.
It cackled around, with a rubber police baton strapped to its back as it asked me, "What brings you here? Have you come to defend me from the awful cat who stares?"
I laid there in confusion. Not only did it talk, but it was a bird. I immediately felt like saying no, but I played my polite card and said, "Possibly, why do you have a dildo strapped to you back?"
"Oh, my baton? I keep that for protection." Said the Chicken. He began to pervertedly poke my area between my legs with the baton, snickering quietly.
"Ah, alright." I responded, giving him a look of authoritarian disapproval. To which, he backed off and dashed off into the dusty darkness.
The next morning, I met the cat. He scampered around looking for a way to avoid my veiw, but I caught him. So, he stopped and gave in to my presence. He was a brown and black cat. He had nothing carried on him, as opposed to the chicken. He seemed to know what he was doing, contrary to the chicken... who seemed like he was obviously trying to be somewhere else all the time. The Cat sat there in the dark corner of the room, watching me. In the meantime, Keven walked up to me was I was just sitting down and crossing my leg to use the computer. He was holding the new iPod I got, and didn't seem very happy.
"Keven? Why do you have my iPod?" I asked, pressing the on button for my new crappy desktop PC.
"You came downstairs last night and put it on my chest while I was sleeping, you woke me up Akira." Keven responded.
"I never went downstairs last night." I said, contorting my face in a fixation of confusion.
"Yes you did, you came down, set it on my chest, then smashed it with your fists. I had to pick the glass out of your hand before you went back upstairs." He said, confidently.
"I don't remember any of this, Keven." I said. I didn't know what he was talking about, to be honest.
Keven seemed to be a bit upset about the ordeal, but I couldn't remember it. I'm guessing he dismissed it as a result of my trauma and let it be. The cat nuzzled my leg and drew my attention, and by chance, my brother's attention too. Keven smiled in a slightly disturbing way, like usual, when he sees a cat.
"Stray cat?" Keven asked me, pointing at the fur ball in the corner.
"Seems so."
Keven told me to put his daughter's toy downstairs. I felt dizzy right off the bat, and looked down at Cat. I wasn't sure if it was a god idea, he responded by shaking his head 'no'.
Later on the fifth night, my and my brother along with two of his friends, went to a movie called 'Urban Respite', a war movie taking place in Vietnam-like setting. The drive there was through the city passed the theater, because Urban Respite was actually large scale play, much like a war reenactment. I felt a bit out of sorts, going back into a location wherein gunfire was heard consistently for hours, due to my previous military career. But, alas, I pulled through, and so did our old beaten car as it drove us past the theater, passed all the Batman billboards and posters on the building walls, and out into the country where the grand play was being held.
The play was hosted in a large field that went on for miles, with several dips in altitude erratically located therein. There was camps set up in these inclines, and this is were viewers of the play were briefed on the situation, and given a role to participate. Keven and his two friend took the roles of machine-gunners. They were assigned a small hole to set up their dummy machine-gun in and shoot holographic targets coming towards them. I didn't have a role, so I simply followed them and listened to them talk about random things.
I eventually got bored and headed back to the nearest tent to listen to the instructor talk about things involving the story of the battle at hand. I nearly fell asleep sitting down at a table, until this one girl who had played the role of a nurse came in and started pestering the instructor. The nurse girl seemed frantic and out of sorts with her surroundings.
The nurse girl would approach slowly and stumble around, "I need help, help me I can't feel my body.'
"I don't know what you're talking about please stand back o I can get to you later." Said the instructor, assuming it was a part of the script.
"I can't see. I can't see-" The nurse girl aid as she stood up straight looking towards the instructor with a blank face.
She eventually started bleeding from the eyes, I observed in interest as her clothes began to fall off, showing that her entire body had been eaten away to the bone and that her head was the only thing left intact. Her soon body gave way and fell to the floor as runny purple jell oozed out of her bones. I then turned my head to the instructor, who seemed to be convulsing and struggling against something of the similar nature. Then, as the other viewers started the same, I bolted. Leaving a tent that would soon become a fleshy mess. I ran to my brother and told him and his friend to go home. I, being the ex-military sergeant, grabbed Keven's hand and took him to the car, as his friends dispersed by other means.
Upon returning home, I was clawed on the leg by Cat, as he surely wanted my attention and to take me away from the reception room into the basement stairwell.
"Get the clothes off, it's on you. It's only supposed to be in the basement." Cat said frantically.
I responded by quickly pulling off all of my clothing and then throwing it into the depths of the cavern floor, over the said of the glass catwalk. I went upstairs to tell my brother the same, he looked at me wondering why I was completely naked, but I just kept telling him and he eventually disposed of his clothes as well. He quickly went to his room to put on new and probably wash up as well. I myself remained unclothed due to the fact that I usually forgot.
Upon father's returning home, he was covered in the purple jell. I started panicking and helped him tear off his clothing and get him into the shower as fast as possible. He was unaware of the dangers, until I told him in the shower. But, I honestly didn't know what the dangers were myself, because all I knew is that it would make your flesh melt off. Which, is why I wanted to talk to the cat in private.
Upon leaving father to finish dressing up, I sealed off the reception room by the Cat's orders. I then followed Cat downstairs into the caverns below. He seemed quite agrovated by the situation, but contained it rather well to avoid being rude. Eventually, we were out of earshot, and I began asking questions.
"Cat, What is this purple jell stuff? Does it make people melt?" I asked.
"Most of the time, yes. Your dad was lucky though, he lives in this house," Cat responded. He stopped in front of a large statue of a man with a sword upon a horse, in the middle of the glass catwalk network, "See, the Jell only eats those who don't live here. Chicken and I are the result of what happens when the homeowners are taken by the gel. They're turned into one animal, no matter how many people lived here, it's always only one animal that is incarnated after the homeowners have been killed by the Jell."
Chicken cackled in with his baton, pointed it at Cat, and said, "This cat is an entire family put into one animal. It resembles their likeness as people. My family was a bunch of cowards, so they got me... a chicken."
The Chicken point the baton at me, "But you- I have no idea what you would be turned into. By all definitions, you're a monster."
"Which is why we can't let you be killed or captured by the Jell, your family is a giving, but you... you're a walking disaster." Said Cat.
I sighed, "I guess I understand why that'd be. "
Cat sat and looked at Chicken, "So, what are we to do?"
Chicken gave him an awkward look, as if he wasn't sure why Cat would ask him that, "I don't think there's anything we can do, really."
I set aside the importance of the situation and asked, "Wait, if you guys are two families incarnated into different animals based on who the families were, then- are those spiders I seen in the room over there anyone?"
The cat giggled hoarsely, "Yeah, those used to be squatters."