Beneath Bones and Skin - Chapter Two

     James quietly stared at the blood in confusion. Sure, his general body was kind of weak and frail, and he had coughed often, there hasn’t been any blood, even a little. Alfie tilted his head, James pulling his hand out of his brother’s view so he wouldn’t get too worried. “You okay?” He asked, completely unaware.

     “Yeah,” James answered nervously, “I-I’m fine. Nothing to worry about!” His voice was unusually high pitched to be telling the truth. Reggie came up to him, and pulled on James’s hand to get a look at what he was hiding.

     “Really?” James winced at Reggie’s tone of voice, and at the fact that he was holding onto his arm with the smallest amount of strength that James couldn’t handle either way. As his hand was lifted, the blood that was shone on his hand, although there wasn’t much, trickled down his arm before dripping on the floor. There was a small silence between the three of them, until Alfie finally spoke.

     “T-that’s not normal.” He whispered, James pulling his arm from Reggie and rubbed where it was held. “S-sure you cough a lot, but you’ve never…”

     “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.” James lied, causing Arvo to whine a little and lick his palm that didn’t have the blood on it. Alfie shook his head.

     “You’re not ‘fine,’ James,” He put air quotes over the third word, “We have to call mom and dad.”

     James chuckled nervously, slightly pulling on his shirt collar, “Y-you don’t need to do that. Besides, it’s over now.” James pushed himself up, but wobbled down as he put slight pressure on his foot, and winced sharply.

     Alfie shook his head, “We may be younger than you, but you can still tell us things.” Reggie, still standing, crouched down in front of James, and nodded.

     “We can tell them when they get home.” Reggie said simply, getting James and Alfie’s agreement. “Let’s just enjoy some ‘Super Circuit’ for now, alright?” After he washed off the blood, with Alfie’s help, James made his way onto the couch, Reggie handing him a control and Alfie retrieving the controller he had set down. The TV was powered on still, with the irritating buzzing sound.

     James, controller in hand, readied himself for the game. Super Circuit was a usually popular racing game that used items you get from mystery boxes within the game, that were almost see through and had a question mark in the middle, to get items to mess up other players or NPCs. There were many options to play as, and you could customize your kart and wheels, which all affected your speed, acceleration, handling, and weight.

     James had always chosen a more evened out character, and almost always had beaten his brothers at the game. The music played throughout the living room, and the screen flashed with every press of the button. The screen lit up in a four way split, although there were three players, there wasn’t really a way to evenly split the screen in three ways.

     Before the game started, they had all chosen their characters and their karts, and basically started button mashing for almost thirty minutes before the game had ended. “Oh come on!” Alfie groaned, “I almost won!”

     James laughed, “You’ll never beat the shortcut master!”

     Reggie punched James’s shoulder softly, “It was lucky that you passed the finish line before the Blue Conch got you.” James shook his head.

     “Skill issue.” James said simply with a smirk. His two brothers playfully jumped on top of him, causing the three of them to fall off the couch laughing. James, who had his phone beside him while playing, heard the phone buzz. “Hold on.” He pulled himself up, the earlier pain from his supposed ‘sprained ankle’ was gone, so he easily walked towards his phone.

     He double-tapped the screen to turn the phone on, and read the message, “Looks like I’ll need you boys to help with the kittens we found when we get home after all. There’s about eight of them?”

     “Heh heh, kitties.” James chuckled, “Alfie, Reggie. Mom is gonna need our help with the kittens she told us about.” As he spoke, he sent a simple “:)” to their mother. Alfie looked rather excited, but frowned.

     “How will Arvo act?” He asked, gesturing to the German Shepherd, but in return James shook his head.

     “Arvo’s been trained enough to see cats without chasing them, and he doesn’t get distracted by squirrels all that much.” He murmured, tapping his leg for Arvo to come over so that he could give him a couple pets. Alfie nodded thoughtfully, and stood up from the ground to check his own phone. As Reggie did the same, James realized that the other two seemed to have completely forgotten about the blood while playing.

     I mean, James thought, good not to worry mom and dad I guess? He was mostly just hoping that it wouldn’t happen again, and kept his mind focused on something else. “Well, I’m gonna practice bow an’ arrow for a bit.” He announced, already walking towards his room so no one could answer. Looking around, he remembered that he had put the bow and the arrows in the trunk at the end of his bed. Clicking up the latches, he pulled them out, arrows neatly in the quiver.

     James slung the quiver around his shoulder and neck, the arrows clattering within as it was set against his back. He led his way through the back door, which was an exit connected to the living room. The target was still set up from the last time he had practiced, which was only a couple days ago. He pulled an arrow from the quiver, and outstretched the bow’s string as the arrow laid in place. He flicked his hand as he aimed, and let go, the arrow flying slightly off of bullseye.

     He readied himself again, making the same actions, but aimed a little more to the right. This time, when he let go, the arrow shot threw and landed in the middle, not perfectly, but it was satisfying to James that he had even hit it. He smiled to himself, and heard a knock on the door beside him. When he looked, seen through the glass window of the door, was Alfie and Reggie making faces at him as he practiced. James sighed, and shook his head with mock disapproval.

     James cut his focus from his brothers to the target, doing the same movements again and again, over and over, hitting the target as close to the dart as possible without knocking the other arrows down. There were various bangs of his siblings trying to get his attention while he practiced, but he ignored them, and only a few minutes went by until James heard the van driving its way back, and a few seconds later, his siblings noticed it too.

     He opened the door to enter inside, and heard the opposite door open from in the kitchen. Bow still in hand and quiver still slung behind on his back, I saw his dad carrying a box, and all he heard was the several meows coming within, and his mom was holding a carrier, with more, aggressive meows. He dropped the bow, and his heart practically melted.

     “Ineedtopetohmygodthewittlebabys.” James muttered with no signs of intelligence. His mom chuckled, setting down the carrier, and walking to the medicine cabinet to grab a few band-aids. “Oh, are you okay?”

     “Yeah, turns out the kittens’ mom had some… disagreements with getting help.” She sighed, putting on the band-aids with an almost unnoticeable wince. The cat that was in the carrier hissed angrily. “Mind helping calm her down a bit?” James straightened his posture in surprise, and nodded, turned to his siblings, and raised his hand in an ‘L’ shape.

     His mom shook her head with a chuckle, and when she was done putting band-aids on her face and arms, she carried the carrier to the guest room, and his dad set up a large cage so he could watch the kittens. James had followed, and closed the door behind him. The room had a single person bed, with a wood nightstand next to it. The nightstand had a single lamp, and an outlet next to it, so that if family or friends were staying over they could charge anything, or do something like reading at nighttime. The walls were a pale, but dark, blueish-gray, to match the gray carpet, which only had a somewhat ugly rug in the center.

     His mom opened the carrier from behind, and in the back, the cat stood hissing, not taking a step outside, but James could still almost see what the cat looked like. The cat was a bright tabby orange, and her paws and nose were white. Her eyes were bright blue and had medium length fur. James tilted his head at the snarling cat, and leaned down so the cat could see him too, and the cat stopped, falling into silence. She seemed more frightened than angry now, pulling her ears back, and her tail fell between her legs.

     James tilted his head, confused. Why would she be scared of me? I might be one of the least scary people anyone will ever meet. Still, James took himself out of view, mostly to avoid the cat’s escalation, and to make sure that his mom hadn’t noticed. His mom just sat there silently, and James began the same, more behind the carrier to not scare the cat. With James behind, and the cat thinking that he was gone, except for his scent, slowly and hesitantly the cat emerged from the carrier, his mom quickly closing it before the cat could run back inside.

     James still stood behind, on the bed, watching every twitch of the cat’s ears and the thumping of every little pawstep. But even though the cat was the same distance away, if not father, James would hear the cat’s pawsteps louder every second. Just a constant pattering as the cat walked around, staying away from James and his mom. Every time the cat thought it had gotten too close, she hissed and bolted in the other direction. But still, the pattering, the thumping. It was all too loud for James, but his mom seemed to be unbothered by the noise entirely. James covered his ears to block out the sound, which helped a little, but not enough in his opinion.

     Instead of telling his mom, he decided to just stay silent and suffer in silence, not wanting to worry her. He kept telling himself, Don’t worry mom. Don’t worry dad. But did he think he didn’t need help? He shook his head with a grunt and shut his eyes tight, the noise beginning to fade ever so slowly. Once it was gone, he asked himself.

     What was that?