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FluffandCrunch

Stave One: A Kenji Carol

Dec 25th, 2013
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  1. Hisao was dead, to begin with. Of that, there could be no doubt.
  2. Did Kenji know?
  3. Of course he did, how couldn't he? He was there when it happened. He had seen the fence give way, heard the sound of the concrete, smelled the whiskey on his breath. Hisao had been his only friend, his only ally, his only confidant in the whole wide world.
  4.  
  5. The news of it had shocked the school and everyone in it. Some thought it was a suicide, but the police claimed it was an accident, a misfortune of fate and bad maintenance. Since then the fencing had been replaced and the doorways to the roof was now firmly locked with a heavy pad and dead bolt, though Kenji wasn't sure what was so dead about it. No one was allowed up there now, the accident taking away one of the best lunch spots the school had.
  6.  
  7. It was the focus of much gossip for a few weeks, but like many unpleasant topics, eventually it faded from the mind and was spoken of no more. Everyone forgot, chose to forget or didn't want to be reminded of it, so it was not spoken of or given any mind by anyone except Kenji.
  8.  
  9. Hisao was dead, that must be specifically recalled and remembered or nothing which follows will seem at all strange to you.
  10.  
  11. Once upon a time, of all the good days of the year, on Christmas Eve, Kenji sat hunched over his computer in his small, cold dorm. It was icy and unforgiving outside, snow falling at a constant pace and piling up along streets and walkways leaving nothing untouched, the students long ago having headed to bed in eager anticipation of the day following, preparations made for a school festival which would have all the light and cheer and warmth that Christmas could bring. Not so for Kenji. He kept Christmas in his own way, which was not at all. Having avoided any obligations for the festival, he had spent the time while everyone else prepared in his own dorm, cloistered like a clam, refusing to answer the door. There was no one he wanted to talk to and no one who mattered. The last time he left his room for a festival it had ended poorly so what reason did he have to make such a mistake a second time? While everyone was out and about preparing for the festivities tomorrow, he stayed locked up tight. His room was dark and freezing as he had covered all the heater vents with tin foil and plastic wrap to prevent access into his room which made the air bitter cold, but it was necessary for security's sake. He'd seen the movies, anything could get through an air vent and they were perfect for spy cameras on fiber optic cables to snake through and he wasn't taking any chances. Besides, Kenji liked the dark and it was cheap. The school probably kept track of his electricity use, he had to keep a low profile. The only light was his computer screen casting a dim glow which strained the eyes, illuminating his desk and highlighting a stack of unopened letters and packages, all sent from home and marked 'Merry Christmas', tossed into the trash bin.
  12.  
  13. Christmas was just another day of the year, a particular day, where men were roped into buying useless trinkets for their slave drivers, their pockets picked, spending hard earned money on gifts to placate their feminist taskmasters.
  14.  
  15. Tapping away at the keyboard one stroke at a time, his breath hanging lazily in the air, the over sized buttons just barely visible to his poor eyesight. He leans in close to the screen, making sure he spells everything properly, making his eyes ache and his neck pop with the odd posture, but he doesn't pay the discomfort any mind. It doesn't matter and the strain kept him awake and he still had much to do before heading to sleep. He was right in the middle of a well thought out and detailed response filled with totally accurate facts he got off the Internet to a particularly ignorant patsy of the feminists who was the proprietor of a blog filled with reprehensible female dogma and anti-male propaganda. He'd been arguing with the Admin for a few hours now and Kenji was just beginning to hope he had the upper hand.
  16.  
  17. The wind outside howled and the ice crackled in the tree branches it blew through. Distracted for a moment from his writing, Kenji peers outside his window carefully, drawing aside the heavy curtains he keeps over them at all times. Through the dark and the lamplight along the walkways, he could see stalls set up, half buried in snow and a magnificent tree covered in lights ready for the next day. He thinks about all the people who would be arriving at the school for fun and to enjoy the season. He had done his best to avoid getting involved, but a few students had cornered him as he went into town to buy food for the week and attempted to coerce him into helping out with the project, saying that every student had to do their part especially at this time of year. He'd given them a piece of his mind and sent them packing, commenting that he paid his tuition which supported the school and it's needs for the festival, so he had done his part and for them to leave him alone.
  18.  
  19. Without a warning, the screen of the computer flashes once, twice, then goes out, plunging the room into full darkness and annihilating three pages of text Kenji had put great effort into.
  20.  
  21. Kenji begins to utter the first syllable of a curse when a curious sound reaches him. Soft and distant at first, like a trip to the recycle bin, the sound of clicking glasses and clinking metal.
  22.  
  23. He heard and felt the building shake with the sound of the front doors of the dorms being thrown open followed by the sounds of other doors being wrenched ajar, the boom distant but getting closer. It came closer and closer, each time drawing nearer and growing in sound and force.
  24.  
  25. Now the doors in his hallways were slammed open and, last of them all, the door next to his, Hisao's room, unused since last he slept in it last, was flung open, setting his walls shaking. Louder still the sound of bottles and metal being dragged, up the stairs, down the hallway, dragging past his room and stopping just outside his door.
  26.  
  27. Then, without so much as a knock, it came through his door and upon it's coming, he saw that it was captive bound and double ironed, a great chain around it's waist emerging from a hole within it's chest, dragging empty whiskey bottles, medical charts, heart monitors and great bottles of pills behind it in a massive and laborious train.
  28.  
  29. “What are you,” asked Kenji, his voice shaking, adjusting and removing his glasses.
  30. “Ask me who I was.”
  31. “Who were you?”
  32. “In life, I was your dorm mate, Hisao Nakai.”
  33.  
  34. Kenji laughs, not feeling any of the bravery the action suggests. “I may be legally blind, but I'm not stupid. If this is a trick to get me out of my room and help with the festival, then you're out of luck. I'm not going anywhere! This is Christmas, not Halloween, ghosts are out of season.“
  35. Dragging the chains behind him, pulling at the one in his chest, the shape draws closer to Kenji “Why do you doubt your senses?”
  36. “Hello!? I'm half blind, I don't trust anything I see! I've been drinking a lot lately, I could be imaging this. I knew I shouldn't have eaten the cafeteria food, I bet that instant noddle bowl went bad. That's the last time I go to that health hazard. I bet it's infested with rats. Or maybe someone slipped me hallucinogenic drugs to try and shake my rock steady sanity. Yeah, that's it. So get out of my room and leave me alone!“
  37.  
  38. The Phantom decks Kenji across the face.
  39.  
  40. “Ow! Dick! Haven't you ever heard not to hit people in glasses?”
  41. “You're being a jerk. Do you believe in me now? I'm here for your benefit.“
  42. “Yeah, then why did you hit me?”
  43. “I had to get you to believe I was who I say I was. You owe me after all. You are kind of responsible for my condition.“
  44.  
  45. Kenji flinches visibly. “Hey, now, that wasn't my fault, okay? It was an accident! The cops said so! Listen, I didn't know it was so dangerous up there. If I had been able to I would have helped, I would have tried to catch you!“ Kenji steps back away from the phantom, his back against the wall. “Is that why you're here? Is this some kind of grudge? Are you going to take revenge? Are you here to kill me?“
  46.  
  47. The phantom, Hisao as Kenji now seems to identify it more and more, shakes his head. “No, I don't blame you for what happened to me. It was my fault, my own doing.“ Hisao picks up one length of chain and hefts it across his shoulder. “This was my doing. I pushed those around me away and dwelled on my own loneliness when there were so many who would have been my friend, including you.“
  48.  
  49. Hisao shuffles over to Kenji's bed and sinks down to the floor, exhausted and tired, his chains and bottles clanking around him in a pile, spilling pills all over the floor. “I was given a second chance and threw it away. I took comfort only in my own loneliness and self pity.“
  50. “Why are you chained? And what's with the booze bottles?”
  51. “I forged this chain of my own free will, as my own burden, unwilling as I was to let others bear it with me. I could have gone out and seen much, helped others and found happiness, but I chose poorly and selfishly. The decisions I made led me to this and now I am forced to walk with this weight around me,“ Hisao says, pointing to the massive chain emerging from his chest, the medication falling around his feet. “I made my condition a burden on myself and others, an excuse for my own bitterness. I kept it secret, refused to face it and turned away any who tried to reach out to me. So I must carry it in death and now see others enjoy the things I could have taken part in, the happiness that once could have been mine. I walk among the school seeing those I should have aided and would have aided me.“
  52. “That's a big ass chain. Have you been traveling since you died?“
  53. “The entire time.”
  54. “You must have seen a lot.”
  55. “Heavy as my burden is, I fly like the wind, seeing everything I once could have partaken in and enjoyed but now am tormented by.“
  56. “That sucks.”
  57. “It totally sucks.”
  58.  
  59. Kenji sits down next to Hisao against the bed. “So, like, is there anything I can do for you? Why are you here?“
  60. “For you. I'm not sure why you can see me now. This is the first time I've been able to communicate with you since I died and I've hanging around you most of the time.“
  61. “Wait, you've been spying on me?”
  62. “Pretty much, yeah.”
  63. Kenji snaps his finger. “I knew it! I knew someone was watching me!”
  64. “Listen, Kenji, I'm here to help, so I've wrangled a few things and I've gotten you a chance to make sure you don't end up like me. You need to stop being such a jerk and go outside or something. Stop being such a shut in.“
  65. “I like being a shut in.”
  66. “So did I and see what happened? Look, this if for your own good and you're not going to get a second chance. You pass this up and next thing you know you'll be drunk on a rooftop taking a dive like I did.“
  67. “Fine, whatever. So what's this chance you're talking about?“
  68. “You're going to be haunted by three ghosts.”
  69. “That is total bullshit! That sounds awful!”
  70. “It's your one shot. Think of the short time I was at Yamaku and didn't do anything about it, failed to make myself a better person with the second chance I was given? Now think about yourself and what you've done in the time you've been here. If my short stay resulted in this chain, imagine what yours will be when you time comes?“
  71.  
  72. Kenji looks down at the links laying all over Hisao and pooling along the floor, the empty whiskey bottles clicking against each other and dragging back out into the hallway.
  73.  
  74. Kenji shudders with the thought. “I'd rather not. Why couldn't you give me some good news? Something comforting?“
  75. “I have none to give. I wasted my chance, but you still have yours. Three ghosts. One at midnight, the next when the clock strikes one and the third, more mercurial and mysterious, in it's own good time.“
  76. "That sounds wicked mysterious."
  77. "It's the rules, I guess."
  78. “Couldn't they just all show up at once and get it over with?“
  79. “Who's the physcopomp here, you or me?”
  80. Kenji grumbles. “You.”
  81. “That's right, so deal with it.”
  82.  
  83. Hisao, with great difficulty, lurches to his feet and gathers his bottles and chains, picking up a few pills and stuffing them into his pocket, kicking a flat lining monitor away from his feet. “You're lucky, Kenji. You're being given something I took for granted. You're still alive, you can make a difference in other people's lives. Don't waste it like I did. I don't think we'll see each other again.“
  84.  
  85. Hisao walks over to the window and it begins to raise a little with each step he takes.
  86. “Hey, Hisao?”
  87.  
  88. Hisao turns back. “Yeah?”
  89. “I'm... I'm really sorry about what happened. I'm sorry you died. You were a pretty cool guy. I liked having you as a friend.“
  90.  
  91. Hisao smiles, the first time since he arrived, and if Kenji remembers correctly, the first time he'd ever seen Hisao with that expression. “Thanks, Kenji. I don't blame you and it was nice knowing you while it lasted.“
  92.  
  93. Hisao seemed to fade and float out into the night sky, leaving only the wind and a few errant snowflakes behind.
  94.  
  95. Cautiously, Kenji creeps up to the window and, very quickly, shuts and locks it, leaving himself once again in the dark with nothing and no sound around him and a whole night ahead.
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