Chapter 22: Chapter. 22: Desirable Direction

I woke up to the sun hitting my face. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. I rubbed my eyes trying to clear my vision and soon my eyes landed on a distant white square. A small piece of paper that contrasted with the black coffee table.

I looked to my left — since I had claimed the bed next to the window — and Ash was missing, her bed was neatly folded. Well I remembered her using the bed. It was a bit weird to remember she just slept in the living room of the apartment though…

My phone began buzzing next to me as I let out a yawn. Ash must've left. I picked it up and saw that it was a phone call. Thankfully this time around it didn't quite literally ring or startle me. Ash had taught me how to make it only vibrate.

I answered with a swipe of my thumb.

"Hello?" I looked at the numbers that displayed the caller but I didn't recall. It was a phone number — I knew that much.

"Ah Kaiti," The familiar voice greeted. "I got a call from Ash telling us to postpone or meeting till tomorrow, so I'll see you at the apartment tomorrow at 3."

My brain took a few seconds to process before I nodded. "Okay… Sounds great! Thank you Mr. Sullivan."

"No problem, take care."

Not a second later the phone did a beep— he had hung up. My end disconnected on its own not long after.

I took a few minutes to get out of bed, but eventually got it done. It was relatively cold but I had no pajamas… At the same time I didn't want to sleep with my clothes on. I should probably buy a onesie… It looked rather practical. Well… Maybe?

Getting the paper from the table I noticed writing on it. It was quite curved and fancy— cursive!

Kat, I went to deal with their dumb shit. So I won't be present today. Don't go around trying to turn animals into carpets. It’ll get you arrested.

I tilted my head. I wasn't going to go hunting to make carpets! Well I didn't know how to make a carpet… Though still, I wasn't ever going to resort to violence…

I winced recalling my intent to slice open an ATM should I not get my card back. Well not against living beings anyway.

I put down the note and pondered a bit. I didn't really have anything to do today, maybe go to the park? I could definitely do that. It was a bit weird to actually think of having nothing to do⁠— Well I could also use the internet for more research, though researching wasn’t particularly enjoyable.

Making my decision I found my clothes and paused⁠— the same as always. I sighed before turning to look for my phone and wallet⁠. Oh… As soon as my eyes landed on It all clicked like a mystery being solved. I could just buy more clothes⁠— I didn’t need to go using the same clothes all the time! Magical clothes were nice and all, but I was getting annoyed. I had a whole wardrobe back home…

A short sigh escaped me before I shook my head. There were things that I certainly missed from The Underworld⁠— maybe far and few between, but they were there regardless. Clothes were maybe one of those.

Picking up my clothes I reluctantly got dressed and headed out, making sure to take my wallet and phone with me. The hotel had only given us one card. I had no keys. I shrugged and simply went on my way.

◇ ◇ ◇

The place was crowded, though everyone seemed to be mostly in a fine mood. I had just typed clothing into the map… I aimlessly walked to the place that was called a mall, which seemed like a big building, akin to a colosseum of death, minus the death and the colosseum. Multiple chambers filled the building, each with its own type of business.

Though, I was lost. The sheer volume of people walking around, and the fact that I hardly understood what most things meant was a bit concerning. Electronics? Sure I knew those. Vacuums? I had no idea what those were! Thankfully, finding a clothing store wasn’t too hard.

It was a big shop⁠, though I had realized a peculiar trend. Every single shop had a lot of glass to display objects. Did it never break? Was it reinforced in some type of way? It seemed hazardous.

Slightly concerned for my safety, I entered the clothing store that took about three times more space than the shops around it. Its insides were mostly white with bright lights, puppets and dolls filled the place dressed with different types of clothing. Most were rather new to me⁠— plain, and smooth. While I did have clothing similar to that⁠— like the one I was wearing. It was a bit different.

Mine had minuscule details here and there of embroidery, these ones seemed a lot more simplistic which I liked. I picked a general direction to go since I couldn’t quite tell how the store was divided.

Soon I found myself browsing different types of blouses and jeans. Though most of them were bright colors, there were hardly any blacks present. Which was slightly disappointing, I also saw no sign of onesies⁠— were they just uncommon? Well it wouldn’t exactly surprise me.

Analyzing the different clothes I was feeling quite disappointed. Hmm, it’s quite thin… Wouldn’t it rip apart from the slightest movement? They all seemed so fragile and easy to tear apart. Mine weren’t exactly rugged, but at least they were much thicker. Footsteps came my way making me pause.

“Are you looking for something in particular?” A lady came, wearing a vest, she was slightly taller than me and had curly auburn hair. She had dots on her face, a lot of them. Though they didn’t look bad.

“Not really?” I answered somewhat confused. Soon my eyes landed on a nametag at her bosom. Oh, she must’ve worked here. “I don’t really know what I am looking for, to be honest.”

She smiled, though it wasn’t happiness, just a polite gesture. “May I make a few suggestions?”

I nodded to her question. Perhaps she could help me pick out some clothes?

◇ ◇ ◇

Wanda, the worker. Had made numerous suggestions, perhaps a bit overwhelming. Though I didn’t really feel like anything looked bad actually. Unfortunately, I had to decline a lot of the clothes she was giving me. It was mostly because; there were too many of them.

Soon I ended up choosing three sets of clothes, there were two different types of jeans. Two of them were called skinny, and the other one⁠— well it was just jeans. I found it slightly odd, but it didn’t concern me too much.

Among the things to wear for my upper body, one that Wanda had suggested was called a top. It seemed too revealing so I opted out of it. At the same time I wanted some form of protection from scratches. In the end, I also settled for two shirts and one thing called a long sleeve top, which was actually quite different from the tops.

The long sleeve top was a white and seemed quite loose, and the two shirts were supposed to be much more sleek, one white and one yellow with letters.

There was a thing called a blazer that had caught my attention, it reminded me of my coat but shorter. So I took a black one.

“Oh dear.” Wanda spoke as if I had hurt her. “Why do you keep trying to pick black?”

So blood doesn’t show⁠— “I like black.” I answered with a small nod.

Wanda proceeded to shake her head. “You seem to have come straight out of a funeral. You need to change that!”

I found the statement rather confusing, and perhaps a bit upsetting since it reminded me of the funeral home. Though a funeral was still an event held in honor of those who had died, so I didn’t see the issue. In the end, I could only produce a question in confusion.

“Why?”

“Because it makes you look sad and grim!” She answered as if it was obvious.

“Sad and grim?” A murmur left me as I echoed her words through my brain. Does it make me look like that? Suddenly I felt my mood take a downwards swing. I had been looking sad and grim all this time?

“Well no worries, let’s get you changed, okay?” I nodded as she gently nudged me towards the opening that said ‘dressers’.

Soon I was alone inside a small room, the only thing stopping people from seeing me was a thin piece of fabric; a curtain. Though that didn’t matter. So I had been looking like that all this time? A small sigh escaped me. It was slightly shocking and it stung a bit to be quite honest.

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I looked at the pile of clothes and decided to try one. The t-shirt with the skinny type jeans? I doubted for a second before nodding. It seemed like the most simple option. I had to pick between t-shirts but ended up going for the long sleeved top instead.

I took off my clothes and put on the other ones. The jeans were slightly rougher but also comfortable in their own way. And the long sleeved top was⁠— incredibly comfortable. I did expose my collar bone a bit and the straps from my bra, but it was so… comfortable. The texture felt puffy like a cloud.

I looked at myself in the mirror and paused. I looked quite… Human? No no, I just didn’t look grim! I smiled. I quite liked these clothes over my old ones.

◇ ◇ ◇

In the end I had bought the clothes while wearing them. Because apparently I could do that. They just took the papers on them and removed a small black plastic thing. And soon I was on my way. With old clothes in one bag, and new clothes in another bag.

The park was a ten minute walk away from where I stood, so I just did that instead of taking another taxi. On my trek there I just admired the human world, it was peaceful. Well I knew that. But even among everything, it was just pleasant. The sun was nice, the blue sky was quite pleasant, and the air didn’t constantly reek of death. Well I knew that too. I was still slightly surprised about how much things had changed.

Soon I found myself in the park, walking towards a familiar figure sitting on a bench. The old man still wore his small circular glasses, though he also wore a moss-green sweater.

“Oh, long time no see, Kaiti.” He greeted me with a smile. “You look quite different.”

I enthusiastically nodded as I sat next to him. “Yep, I no longer look grim!”

The Old man let go a laugh. “Indeed you don’t, you don’t look as serious now. It suits you.”

“Eh, you think so?” He nodded in response. “I see…”

We stared at the distance for a few seconds, before The Old man began speaking.

“So what have you been up to this past day or so?”

“It’s only been a day?” I asked in confusion.

The monster had shown up at night, then there was the police investigation. Finally we ate cheesecake and went to deal with the ghouls before Ash revealed ‘that’... Huh? It had truly been one day.

“Kaiti, are you alright?” The Old man asked with concern written on his face. His wrinkled expression was quite a weird sight.

“Ah sorry, lots of things have happened.” I shifted awkwardly before looking at my phone. 3:21 pm. Oh… “Do you want to go to a cafe with me to discuss it? I haven’t eaten yet…” As I finished my sentence I felt my nervousness scale a bit. People normally eat at this hour, right?

“Sure.” I almost let go a sigh of relief.

I stood up before pausing. I had no clue where the cafe I had gone to was. I turned back to the Old man.

“Do you have any suggestions?” He seemed surprised but promptly nodded.

◇ ◇ ◇

As we sat down on a table next to a window I couldn’t help but ask.

“You said you knew where to go eat, not know someone’s house.” I said with confusion. It was a weird house too. Who was named steak? And why would they name their house after it?

“Haha!” The Old man let out a bellied laugh before coughing a bit. “This is a steakhouse Kaiti, a restaurant that mostly serves only steaks.”

Steaks? I twiddled with my fingers a bit. “Do they perhaps serve cheesecake?”

“No?”

Huh? No way, right?

◇ ◇ ◇

They did serve cheesecake. And the Old man couldn’t stop staring as I smugly ate it. Thankfully it didn’t take long before he got over my weird choices.

“So, did something happen this last day?” The Old man asked as he finished munching on a piece of ribeye steak.

“Ah a lot.” I set my spoon down. “So, our apartment is gone. There was a sort of explosion, I guess?” I smiled awkwardly. “Don’t know how it happened, ha…”

“That sounds awful, are you alright?” He asked, pausing his eating, his voice was soft.

I nodded and massaged my temple. “Lots of things have happened, I almost died too… My roommate rescued me.” The Old man’s mood turned sour but simply continued listening to my talk. ”But that’s not the issue, my roommate isn’t really who I thought they were? It’s a bit weird to explain.”

“What makes it hard?” He asked with slight confusion.

I sighed. “Well, ignoring whether you think I am crazy or not. They seem to be from the same place as me. And that’s fine, but it seems that things aren’t as simple as I initially thought?”

The Old man pondered with a small frown. “It sounds to me like you’re leaving a lot of important details out. However, I won’t ask what they are.” He solemnly shook his head and ate a piece of meat. “Things aren’t ever simple, and sometimes decisions must be made. Sometimes there are no right decisions but we do what feels right.”

I paused.

“What feels right?”

He gave me a nod. “What we want as ourselves.”

What I want… I had done something similar yesterday with Ash and the Zoo. I wanted to help Ash overcome her troubles. I didn’t want her to feel obligated to keep hunting monsters. I didn’t like seeing her anger back then. I also wanted to be a Grim Reaper, and make people happy. Make lots of friends.

Doing what I wanted myself…

“I think I know what I want.”

The Old man cracked a smile hearing me. “That’s great.”

I was going to help Ash, and become the Grim Reaper I wanted!

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