Who are the Real Monsters? by: Elsbeth Ken Umeki will learn that not all monsters come out at night.

Chapter 4
“You know I have been dressing myself for years.”

Katie helped me with my sports coat without comment.

“You know I also have good taste in clothes.”

Katie didn’t say a lot when she set out my clothes for this evening. Of course, she also hadn’t removed this odd satisfied smile from her face.

“Turn around Luv.” She brushed off my jacket as we both stood in front of a full-length mirror. “Very handsome.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks.” However, I did return the smile. Katie made sure I wasn’t going to be an embarrassment tonight. Well, at least in the way I dressed.

“Ken there is a really cool looking car in the driveway for you.” Rebecca came in but stopped. “You look nice; do you have a date or something?”

“Yes, Mistress Rebecca, he does. Do you have your keys, wallet, cellphone? If you’re going to be late call me.”

“Yes mom.”

Katie giggled.

“So, who with?” Rebecca asked and for some reason, there was a little irritation in her voice. I guess she wasn’t allowed to go on dates yet. Realizing that Rebecca didn’t have a high opinion of Sile I just mentioned it was someone I met on the bus. That at least left her guessing as she followed Katie and me down to the carport. I found a half dozen of my cousins drooling over a brand new black BMW 550i convertible.

“What the hell Ken, how did you rate a new car?”

“It’s not exactly his Juro.” Uncle Masanori entered the carport with a set of keys and a pile of papers. Pulling me aside, he passed me everything. “It’s a rather nice care for a seventeen year old Ken. Did you have a car like this in Hawaii?”

“No, I just got my driver’s license recently.” I mostly drove whatever my parents had in the garage at the time. Well there were many nice cars but none of them were mine. “I’m sure it’s my parent’s way of saying sorry we dropped you off in Skogshaven but if you’re going to drive, the Umeki family has to keep up a certain appearance.” The type of car my parents bought didn’t really concern me as long as it had four wheels and was safe to drive; that was enough.

“Sounds like your mother.” My Uncle chuckled. “So who are you seeing tonight? Someone from class?”

“No, I’m taking out Sile Martin.” I looked around. Only Katie knew whom I was taking out to dinner. At that point, I decided it was going to get out anyway but I didn’t raise my voice. “I’m taking her to dinner at Reno’s and then some dancing afterwards.”

“Sile Martin…I see. Where did you meet her?” My Uncle sounded concerned. I really didn’t understand Sile was just the town historian. It must be the age difference. A highly edited version of my meeting didn’t seem to put his mind at ease.

“No worries, we won’t be driving that far Sile mentioned there is some sort of club some place close.”

“The Necropolis”.

“Really? That’s an …interesting name.”

“It’s an interesting place or so I’m told. An acquaintance of Oshun St. Hill is the owner.”

“Who?”

“Agwe mother, so did Sile tell you she wanted to go dancing?” Uncle Masanori had that odd concern in his voice again.

“Actually no, she didn’t agree to go on the date until I mentioned dancing.”

He made that face again. “I see, well be careful tonight.”

“Oh I will; I’m a safe driver. I’ve had enough lessons.” Pulling out of the Shisaa enclosure my Uncle’s obvious concern bothered me. I couldn’t imagine that the club was all that bad, I’m not really into the Goth scene but I did know some people who went to the ‘Salvation’ club in Honolulu pretty regularly. It’s this big BYOB dance club, lots of dancing and plenty of drinking. Uncle Masanori seemed to be overly concerned but compared to my parents’ reaction to most things it was refreshing.

The rest of the week had gone by without incident. Keeping far away from the park, I didn’t see any more Green Hounds or White Children. A number of times I thought about asking someone about these experiences. Asking others at school seemed like a bad idea though. A reputation as a crazy person would make the rest of the year difficult. I thought about asking my Uncle. Would he believe me? I couldn’t believe it myself. What would he have said if I told him I thought my date spoke to me in my head about dancing? Actually, I was afraid that if I did tell someone they would just say that’s normal for Skogshaven.

My date’s appearance immediately cheered me up. Sile walked out of the door dressed in this little sexy green sleeveless lace mesh dress. She might have said something about the car but I sort of missed it. Her smile showed the dress had its desired effect. “You look very nice.”

“You do too.” I stammered as I opened her car door. My brain felt a little fuzzy for a few seconds.

“So, tell me a little about yourself ,Ken.”

Not very interesting but it was a start. The conversation did pick up once she found out I was rather well travelled. Apparently, she had spent a lot of time in Paris recently; I could tell she really missed it. Our conversation continued as we walked into Reno’s. Reservations made finding a seat painless although it wasn’t exactly packed. We did find out that we had another thing in common. We both like our steaks rare. Want to actually taste the meat, cook it rare. The thought of cremating a perfectly good cut of meat annoyed me to no end. Unlike many other restaurants, if you want the meat still moving Reno’s would be happy to serve it to you. Bell included.

The two of us quickly put away a stack of lettuce wraps, stalks of broccoli, potatoes the size of your head and two twelve ounce New York strip steaks. Now I haven’t been on many dates but for the most part the girls picked the smallest salad and I know they were still hungry by the end of dinner. Sile finished everything but some of the wraps and broccoli. She didn’t really seem to be a green vegetable sort of girl.

“Sile?” Skipping the dessert we did decided to have some coffee when a large well-dressed man approached the table. He looked familiar.

“Good evening, Greg.” Sile took a sip of her coffee without looking up. “All alone tonight?” The large man looked down at me I decided to stand up.

“Ken Umeki.” We shook hands.

“Greg Kincade. You’re in my son Mal’s class aren’t you?”

“Yes sir.” The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Mal’s father looked like he wanted to say something else but didn’t. Sile just sat drinking her coffee with an odd smile on her face.

“Well, have a good night, you two.”

Watching him walk away, I sat back down. “That was…really…really odd.”

“Don’t worry about it, so do you know Mal well?” We talked about Mal for a few minutes while we waited for the check. She was amused that I ran into him at Kosta’s buying double mushroom and cheese pizzas. She was in hysterics when I told her the story about the Schnapps.

“So we’re going to ‘The Necropolis’ my uncle thought that might be where we are going tonight.”

“I hope you don’t mind.”

I laughed. “Why would I mind, I told you dinner and dancing, right?”

The club was located in a section of one of those megastores that sell everything from food to televisions. They seem to do rather well in other towns I wondered why it failed here. Several other smaller stores were planning to open to fill in the rest of the space. “Seems like a good crowd tonight.” A few dozen cars sat in the parking lot and there was a line of people waiting to get into the club. Surprisingly we went straight to the front door.

“Sile.”

“Pavel, busy as always. This is Ken; he is with me tonight.” Most of the time the door attendants were these huge hulking guys but Pavel was short and compact. He seemed the type that could toss a car, if asked. Pavel gave me a once over then let us pass into the club. As the doors opened, the music hit me in the chest like a physical thing. It was dark, with lots of flashing lights but after a few minutes, it wasn’t too bad. Paying for the cover Sile picked up a blue wristband and I put on a white with me being underage.

Out of the darkness, a blue haired young woman in a black and red bustier approached as we passed the edge of the bar. She was beautiful. oozing sexuality at every step. It was intoxicating. Skogshaven seemed to have an inordinate amount of beautiful women. “Sile, sweetie I didn’t expect to see you tonight. Pavel didn’t think you would be back until next weekend.” Her accent was hard to place; a mixture of French and Spanish.

“Nina.” Sile greeted her without any enthusiasm. They gave each other these air kisses on each cheek.

“So who is this scrumpish looking tidbit?” This beauty walked directly up to me sliding her arm through mine. As she talked, she stroked my arm making it hard to concentrate. ”Why he’s almost good enough to eat. Don’t tell me you have a date?”

“Ken Umeki this is Nina Ombre. She’s the owner of ‘The Necropolis’.” Sile introduced us without any emotion in her voice.

Tiny shadow, an interesting name, I wonder if it was her real name. “Nice to meet you.” I tried to pull away but her grip was like steel. Her touch was also really beginning to annoy the hell out of me.

“Oh you’re sweet. See, Sile always comes here all alone. So hard for her to make…friends…in Skogshaven unlike back home. Yes?” She gave Sile a sad pouty face. Pressing her breasts into my arm, she crooned. “Maybe you’d rather be my friend Ken.”

I had enough I broke Nina’s grip and moved next to Sile putting my arm around her waist. “Maybe another time Nina, Sile and I seem to be hitting it off rather well. We had a nice dinner and we thought we would do a little dancing.”

Nina smile left her face as she looked at me confused and then maybe a little concerned. “Yes, well you two have fun tonight.”

It was difficult to see her small form as it disappeared into the shadows, like I said it was a good name. “So what’s her problem?” I wasn’t hard to tell that Sile and Nina wasn’t on the best of terms.

Sile gave me a questing look. “I knew her in Europe, in Paris. So what do you think of her?”

“Nina?” I could still feel her touch on my arm. “She’s a little over the top.”

Sile laughed, reached over and kissed me lightly on the lips. “You are full of surprises; come on let’s dance.”

Being agile, I’m a good dancer. Sile however was on a totally different level. The thought even crossed my mind to convince her to dance in the upcoming festival. The way Sile’s body moved with the music it was as if the music kept time with her and not the other way around. Even her hair seemed to keep to the beat. Those around her were affected by her dancing as well seemingly dancing in sync. As the night wore on, I felt as if I had been drinking. The energy in the room was electric it became almost a physical thing.

“How you feeling?”

“Great...other than our little welcome, it’s been a lot of fun.” I looked around a lot of the dancer who were with us had already left the club.

Her eyes sparkled pulling me in. “I’m glad, come it’s getting late. We need to go anyway; the crowds that come in later...well it won’t be safe.” Sile didn’t bother to explain as we exited the club. The town seemed different to me as if my senses were heightened. I could smell the changing of the season; I could almost feel the rays of the moon splashing across my skin. For some reason I knew the route I had intended to drive home was no longer safe and took a longer drive around the forest. Somehow, we made it back to her house.

“That was fun, Ken, I had a good time.” Sile and I stood in front of her door.

“Enough to go out with me again?”

“How about Wednesday?”

I laughed. “Excuse me.”

She looked embarrassed. “So what do you know about Skogshaven history?”

“Absolutely nothing.”

“We have another thing in common then.” She giggled. “I need help with some new exhibits. Mostly opening boxes but I do need help with inventory. “

“Sounds good, I’ll bring the steaks.”

Sile wrapped her arms around me and gave me a deep kiss. For a brief moment darkness seemed to encroach upon me and when I opened my eyes, I watched her stumble away as if drunk. I could understand the feeling. By no means was I a stranger to a good kiss, but wow.

All I needed to top the night was to wake up my roommate. Thankfully, there were no incidents on the drive home and I wasn’t pulled over by the police. How do you explain the feeling of drunkenness without drinking? What I really needed to do was unwind but it was too late for a run and working out in the dojo wasn’t a good idea.

Falling into the bathroom, I start to take off my clothes but stopped. “What the hell?” Standing in front of the mirror, I could see in the reflection my body covered in tattoos. One tattoo was etched to my forehead, one on my throat, one over my heart, one on my stomach and one etched over each wrist. A feeling of pure anger almost overwhelmed me. I have never felt such intense hatred before; it was as if it was a different person inside of me. Without thinking, I started to manipulate the tattoo on my right wrist.

Miki covered his mouth in a yawn. It had been a long night. Frank’s kid getting sick didn’t help. Having to clean up the pizza parlor’s kitchen by himself there was no way he was going to get out until after 2am. A shadow moving across the top of one of the closed stores made him jump. He suddenly realized that Skogshaven could be pretty spooky at two in the morning. “Probably a stray cat.” He laughed and made his way to his car.

Miki stopped. His little red Honda sat under one of the few lights in the parking lot. He couldn’t believe his sight. A cute Japanese girl, wearing a real schoolgirl uniform was sitting on the hood of his car. As he approached he almost lost his mind, she was also wearing cat ears. The whole cosplay thing was too good to be true only the fact that she was flipping through one of his sketchbooks kept him from totally geeking out.

“Hi, can I help you?”

“Oh, there you are Miki, why are you getting out so late tonight?”

“Frank’s son got sick. Do I know you?”

“My name is Kimiye.”

“Are you related to the Shisaa family?” Miki took a step back he thought that her eyes changed color. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“You’re a really good artist, are you thinking of doing this for a living?”

Miki stood there stunned it was as if she was reading his mind. Melissa his old girlfriend didn’t think that he could get a ‘real’ job as an artist. He was planning on going to an art school in Boston after graduation, if his parents were willing to pay for it.

Suddenly she looked around, her head going back and forth. “Miki, it’s time to go home…Now” She passed him the book and slid across the hood to stand in front of the passenger door. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

“Yea, sorry.” Without thinking, he opened the door to this strange girl. He slipped into the driver’s seat. “Are you going home with me?” Miki looked at his passenger who was sitting there with a funny smile on her face. “I mean do you want me to drop you off someplace.”

“Let’s go, Miki.” He quickly started the car and began the long drive home. He was surprised when she started to give him directions; taking him a different way than he normally went. “So what happened with Melissa?”

“Oh well, we have been going out since our sophomore year.” He didn’t know why he told her, this stranger with cat ears but he felt better doing it. All of his recent worries fell away. Next thing he knew he looked up and found himself in front of his house. Once the car came to a stop, she slid into his lap.

“Miki, trust me you’ll find a girl one day that will share your dreams.” She reached up and kissed him. Miki felt as if his body had caught on fire.

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

 © Copyright - Elsbeth2011/2012