002: The Presages

On the next morning, dawn came earlier than usual. Dim-Dim—who has felt something strange with his body since yesterday—sat up from his bed and touched his forehead; his temperature was normal.

Hm. Weird.

His hand moved down to touch his neck, and then he felt his skin tingling beneath his touch. As if there was a subtle movement there; moving up, up, up slowly, towards his face.

Panicked, he threw off the blanket and leaped to the mirror attached to the wardrobe, then stared carefully at his neck and face. The lantern light give a pale reflection to his face and turn it gray—grayish like bird feathers with its patterns as well. He blinked in surprise, touched his face, and suddenly his face color returned to normal. But he was sure he had glimpsed his eyes turning red.

Could he be turning into a bird? A hawk, maybe?

"Well, that's just crazy!" he said to his reflection in the mirror while laughing. But he tilted his head for a moment, gazing at his reflection for a few more seconds, and after that he left the room.

He was tiptoeing in front of the hanging medicine cabinet in the kitchen; his hand reaching for several new rolls of bandages and a bottle of sealed antiseptic at the bottom of the cabinet—when suddenly the landline on the living room wall rang. His mom, who always slept on the living room sofa, answered the call.

"Damian?" his mother's voice sounded surprised, and Dim-Dim immediately forgot whatever he was doing and ran towards the living room.

"Damian! Damian! Last night we saw you on TV!" Dim-Dim exclaimed excitedly. The kid darted towards the landline and stopped right beside his mother, whose face looked worried.

"What? There are monsters in the forests of Ottawa and Huntsville's?" his mother asked in shock.

Dim-Dim gasped. "Huntsville?" he asked in surprise. "That's very close to us!"

"Can you come home then, Damian?" his mother asked Damian again. Dim-Dim tried to eavesdrop, but couldn't hear Damian's small voice. However, his mother's disappointed expression already explained everything. "Oh, you and your team are stationed in Ottawa, then—ah, good they've stationed one team in Huntsville and one person in Toronto..." his mother said. "And what about your sleep? Are you getting enough rest, dear? Mm-hm... Good... I'm proud of you, you're doing great—Oh, don't worry about Dim-Dim. He's very healthy and eats well. He also misses you very much."

"Let me talk to him! Let me talk to him, Ma!" Dim-Dim exclaimed eagerly, and his mother chuckled softly. "Please!" Dim-Dim added.

"Well, Damian, you hear your little brother's," his mother said, laughed. But when the woman finally handed the landline's handle to Dim-Dim and Dim-Dim quickly pressed it to his ear, he heard his brother whispering quickly, and Dim-Dim's tongue was held.

"... can't talk for long, Ma. Sorry. I have to go now. I love you, Ma. Tell Dim-Dim I miss him too. Bye." Then the phone call ended before Dim-Dim could say anything.

*****

"Hey, guys! There's a Venator at the airport this morning!" a tall, skinny young boy in sportswear just entered the class. It was already 9 in the morning, and they were supposed to play basketball outside today, but it got canceled due to heavy rain. "My sister told me!"

"Don't make things up, Jackie. Why would there be a Venator in our city?"

"Seriously, guys! My sister took her husband to the airport this morning and saw a Venator! She said the Venator was wearing army clothes and had a machine gun on her back!"

His last sentence quickly caught the attention of the other kids around him.

"Machine gun? Cool!"

"Venators can bring weapons to the airport? Awesome!"

"But wait," suddenly a kid that was sitting at the back interjected with a worried tone, and some kids immediately turned towards him, "doesn't that mean there are monsters in our city?"

"Eww, no way!" all the young girls said, almost simultaneously.

One of these young girls suddenly turned to Dim-Dim who had been staring out the window—at the trees whose leaves had started to turn orange, brown, and dark yellow due to chlorophyll deficiency in October— and said, "Your brother is a Venator, right? What did he say about the monster?" She was a beautiful girl with black long curly hair, and her smile looked even more beautiful as she sat on the table not far from Dim-Dim. Her red-socked legs swung slowly as she waited for Dim-Dim's answer.

Dim-Dim turned his head from the window, glanced at the beautiful girl for less than a second, and then shifted his gaze a few inches to her shoulders because he felt uncomfortable staring into her blue eyes. "My brother said there are monsters in the forests of Ottawa and Huntsville," Dim-Dim answered. Then he returned to look out the window.

All the kids in the class immediately exclaimed in surprise. "Did he really say those monsters are coming to Toronto, Dim!?" a kid who had been erasing the blackboard asked. Several other kids also asked similar questions.

"What are you guys talking about?" the young girl with black hair who had asked Dim-Dim frowned. "Toronto is a big city. Monsters wouldn't come to a big city."

"They said they appeared in Paris too, ya know?"

"Hey, guys! Guys! This has to be kept secret, but—come here, come here," suddenly a kid sitting in the middle of the class said, and he immediately became the center of attention for the other kids. "My dad said our family magazine isn't allowed to report it—but every month since the appearance of those monsters, there have always been people who suddenly get superpowers. So, like, at first, those guys start feeling weird in their bodies, and then all off a sudden they've got these super cool powers and there are monsters knocking on their door. My dad said the monsters always go after people who get those powers. That's what happened in Paris."

The reactions to the kid's words varied. Some were shocked, some shook their heads in disbelief, but some were fascinated and excited.

"I heard that's why the world government built Safe Cities in England, Germany, France, and New Jersey last year. They're meant to those guys," the kid continued.

Then some of the kids started to fantasize about what they would do if they got superpowers. No one noticed Dim-Dim who was staring panicky at the window next to him.

The young boy dared to swear that just now his reflection in the window was not him but a Copper's Hawk with gray feathers on its upper body and white on its underside. He was still staring at the hawk that was glaring back at him fiercely—when suddenly a girl touched his shoulder.

Dim-Dim turned quickly, and the girl with the beautiful face and black hair grimaced.

"What're you looking at?" she asked while also looking out the window, and Dim-Dim shook his head.

"What do you want, Edel?" he asked softly, and the beautiful young girl smiled. "Do you wanna borrow my dad's animal encyclopedia books again?"

"No. I just wanna say... don't daydream too much, or the monsters might come after you!" Edel said cheerfully, then went to her seat near the classroom door.

*****

After school, Dim-Dim thought about his older brother's words on the landline this morning, about the monsters in Huntsville and Ottawa, and decided that it would be fun to imagine if there were monsters in Toronto—his brother would definitely fly home immediately! So he spent the rest of the day practicing fighting imaginary enemies in the backyard, occasionally checking on the condition of the animals he had treated.

Dim-Dim only realized he had spent hours there when suddenly he heard the sound of the front gate bell ringing, and quickly walked to the front of the house through the pathway next to his house.

Ding! Dong!

"Who is it?" he asked nervously. As he glanced briefly at the sky, it was already dark.

"Um... Clarinassa Clark?" someone answered from behind the gate. A woman's voice.

"I don't know anyone named Clasis-Cla-Caris-Nasa—uh—anyone with that name," Dim-Dim said, struggling to pronounce the name. The woman laughed lightly as if Dim-Dim was joking.

"That's my name, and of course you don't know me because we haven't met before," she said cheerfully. "Can I come in? I was told that I could stay with another Venator relative while in Toronto."

What? She's a Venator?

Dim-Dim quickly opened the gate and then face to face with an adult woman who was only slightly taller than Dim-Dim. She was wearing some sort of purple swim goggles with very thick minus lenses, the swim goggles' strap encircling the back of her head and causing the top of her hair—which was also purple—to bulge like a mushroom. Her Venator uniform, made of very stiff and faded blue fabric with camouflage patterns, was adorned with a heavy black machine gun strapped to her back.

Dim-Dim blinked in surprise. The gossip about a Venator at the airport this morning turned out to be true.

"Wow, I can see the similarities between you and Damian Damisch," the woman said, smiling warmly. She then glanced at the front of Dim-Dim's house with a polite expression and looked back at Dim-Dim. "May I come in to your house?"

*****

Clarinassa Clark was cleaning herself in the bathroom when Dim-Dim's mother instructed Dim-Dim to brew tea in the kitchen.

"Be careful, Dim-Dim, be careful," his mother whispered as Dim-Dim poured boiled water from the kettle into the cups. "Done?"

"Done, Ma," Dim-Dim replied.

"Now put the tea spoon in the cups."

"Done," said Dim-Dim. He then took a tray and placed three tea cups on it. "I'll take this to the living room, Ma," he said.

After placing the tea cups on the coffee table in the living room, Dim-Dim peeked down the hallway towards the bathroom and observed the Venator once again. The woman had finished her shower and was now wearing pink Doraemon-patterned pajamas. Her wet purple hair dripped onto her shoulders and the floor as she bent down to put on her socks. Without those strange swim goggles, she looked remarkably beautiful.

Dim-Dim looked at the scar on her neck, and the woman suddenly looked in his direction. "Hey, kiddo," she greeted cheerfully. "It's still October, but I already feel cold. Do you feel the same?" she asked casually.

"Th-there's hot tea in the living room, Ma'am," Dim-Dim stuttered.

The woman smiled briefly, then straightened up. "Perfect timing!" she said to Dim-Dim before rushing past him towards the living room.

When they arrived in the living room, Dim-Dim's mother was already sitting on the sofa.

"Thank you for accommodating me to stay at your house, Mrs. Damisch," said Clarinassa Clark.

"Is the government running out of money?" Dim-Dim suddenly asked, and his mother nearly choked on her tea beside him. "Because y—you have to stay here instead of a hotel," Dim-Dim continued timidly because of his mother's reaction.

Clarinassa laughed heartily. "Was it that obvious?" she asked.

Dim-Dim's mother's face and ears turned crimson, and Dim-Dim suddenly felt guilty. "Sorry, Ms. Clark, my son is a curious child," explained Dim-Dim's mother. "But he's very smart. He's third place in school. He didn't mean any harm."

"It's okay, Mrs. Damisch, it's totally okay," said Clarinassa. The young woman then looked at Dim-Dim and smiled broadly. "I love your tea, Dim-Dim. What type of tea is this? How do you make it? How much sugar do you use?"

*****

After dinner, Dim-Dim ushered Clarinassa to his older brother's room. The room was dusty, left untouched for so long.

"How long will you stay here, Ms. Clark?" Dim-Dim asked.

The woman, while struggling to open the rusty windows, replied breathlessly, "Until... yeah—two days from now, maybe? Hah... Until the monsters... leave Canada."

When the windows were finally opened, Dim-Dim still stood at the doorway, his face determined.

Clarinassa turned around and put her hands on her hips. "Alright. Tell me everything you want to know, Kiddo."

For the first time that day, Dim-Dim smiled. "I'm really curious how Venators take down monsters," he said. "Also, what's Safe City, and how do people get superpowers?"

Initially, Dim-Dim thought the woman would laugh at him, or perhaps laugh kindly and say Dim-Dim was mistaken. But she only raised an eyebrow and said, "Did Damian tell you?"

Dim-Dim shook his head quickly. "The rumors are spreading around the school."

The woman briefly glanced at Damian's study desk, covered in a layer of dust and spider webs here and there, and sighed deeply. "Those monsters can be killed in many ways, just like humans. Some shoot them with firearms, some break their legs, some poison them by injecting fluids with high sugar content, and some drown them in highly corrosive liquids. It all depends on the choices made by the Venators."

"And about the Safe City?" Dim-Dim asked again. Not once did his eyes blink while listening to the Venator's explanation.

"Well, it's a city that monsters can't get in," Clarinassa answered. "Filled with the wealthiest people in the world, scientists, Venators, and also humans with superpowers."

Dim-Dim's eyes widened. "How do people get sup—"

"Superpowers? Don't ever hope you get that. The consequence is very awful," Clarinassa interrupted, her expression turned serious. "Those monsters are even thirstier for the blood of humans with superpowers, and mastering those powers is very difficult, and there is no science that can give them proper guidance. Besides, not everyone with superpowers is accepted in Safe City."

"What? Why!?" Dim-Dim asked, puzzled. "Aren't they great people?"

Clarinassa chuckled weakly and shook her head. "Dim-Dim, not all superpowers are great."

"But—"

"Well, I have answered all your questions. Now go to bed," Clarinassa politely ushered him out, and Dim-Dim had no choice but to go to his bedroom and sleep.

It never crossed in his mind that that night would be his last night sleeping at home.