What woke me this time was the echo of my bones snapping against the pavement, the sound of my skin tearing like an overstuffed garbage bag, and the warmth of blood against the shapeless mess that used to be my face—interesting, sure, but not something I planned to repeat.
Jumping off a building was officially scratched off my list.
When I opened my eyes, I was back in the hospital bed, my arm still bandaged and hooked up to someone else's blood again. Everything seemed the same, but I knew it wasn't a dream—the paint on the walls looked even more peeled, as if years had passed.
This time, I noticed a clock to my left, barely peeking over the curtains surrounding my bed, old but ticking, teetering on the edge of falling. It read seven in the evening, though its hands spun backward. Someone's bad joke, I guess.
Two minutes ago, I was a pile of meat on the sidewalk; now I was right back where I started. A peculiar smell lingered near me, like nuts or honey, but I wasn't in the mood to play detective and sniff around like a bloodhound.
"Eiji… are you alone?" I recognized Nyar's voice, even if I were deaf—that small silhouette beyond the worn curtains gave her away. She parted them just enough for me to catch one red, glowing eye, a perfect match for the golden sunset slipping through the window.
I propped myself up in bed. "…Looks like I'm not anymore. Don't you think if your sister were around, we'd already be arguing about something?" I let out a faint chuckle.
She stayed put, didn't answer. Her hand slipped through the curtain, pointing to my side. There was a nightstand, straight out of some old geezer's house who didn't know dust clogs the lungs, and on it, a teacup.
"So that's where the smell was coming from."
"You said you liked black tea."
"Yeah," I admitted, eyeing the cup, "though that's not black tea—it's Oolong."
"It's the same thing…"
"No, it's not. The oxidation level's different." I explained as I grabbed the cup, a tricky move with the IV tube in my arm.
"Then don't drink it." She snapped, clearly annoyed, retreating behind the curtain.
"Didn't say I wouldn't like it." I took a sip. Worst tea I'd ever tasted in my life—could've killed me with how bad it was—but I put Herculean effort into not making a face. "You gonna stay there, or you coming in? You ripped your skin off right in front of me—hiding behind a curtain's kinda weird now."
She stepped through and perched at the foot of my bed. "It's awful, isn't it?" she asked, resting her hands on her thighs. Still wearing nothing but my jacket.
"Worst tea I've ever had, and I doubt I'll taste anything worse." I replied.
"But honestly, thanks. If your sister made it, she'd probably think arsenic or something would spice it up."
She stared at me for a second, glanced at her hands, and just nodded. "…I want to try it…" she added, reaching out.
I handed her the cup, and she took it with both hands.
This whole thing felt like the brainchild of some nutcase or someone running on four hours of sleep a day, but whatever the reason, I was starting to feel… comfortable.
Weird, right? Coming from a guy who tried to off himself because life's got nothing worth sticking around for. If someone argued it's just because these two cosmic weirdos decided to look like hot women, I'd have to agree—though that doesn't cancel out the rest.
"Pfffff!" She spat it straight onto the floor and wiped her mouth with the sleeve of my jacket. "This tea's downright repulsive. Humans' obsession with brewing whatever they stumble across is absurd."
"That tea, not all tea. Don't lump it together, Nyar." I shot back, taking the cup again. "Next time, I'll make it, and you'll drink it."
Right after I said that, her eyes snapped to me, brow furrowing like she was dissecting my words. "Next… time?" Her tone was impossible to read. "Is that how humans work?"
"At a basic level, yeah."
"I see… so tea's the way you signal your carnal desires…"
"What?"
"Which means your request for black tea was an indirect invite for a carnal act…"
"That's nowhere near what I meant, Nyar."
"Humans are too simple, after all." She concluded, ignoring every word I'd just said.
I sighed, resigned. "Can't believe an ancient being's got such a shallow take…" I muttered, rolling my eyes. "I've got bigger questions right now, you know."
"Yes, Eiji, I'm fine with carnal contact with you, but there's a catch—my sister."
"Thanks, that's grea—huh? No, I meant the fact that I was a bloody puddle a minute ago and now I'm back in one piece."
"I know, I was just kidding, Eiji."
"No one jokes with a straight face."
"Then I apologize for not getting human interactions." She said, dripping with sarcasm.
"Forgiven." I fired back, even more fake.
I heard the bedframe creak, followed by a slash in the mattress. Something razor-sharp and cold pressed against my back, teasing my skin, daring to cut it open.
"You two sound SO romantic…" a voice echoed through the room, "makes me wanna rip you apart and stitch you into one messed-up lump."
"Sister, were you there this whole time…?"
"Under my bed?" I cutted in.
"…Spying on us?" Nyar finished.
"No! Just waiting for the perfect moment to make my entrance!" Nodens bellowed, crawling out from under the bed, her claws gouging trails in the floor.
That screech filled the room again, same as her first appearance.
She stood up like it was nothing, dusted herself off, and went on. "Couldn't let myself fall behind, you know?" Her eyes flicked to Nyar, then the teacup, then me.
"I tried, but I can't. These things are useless. Eiji, can you check under the bed?" She pointed, then stared at her limbs like she'd just realized they weren't hands. "How'd I end up with this deformity—useful but hideous—while you get to shapeshift however you want, sister?" I heard her grumble as I peeked under the bed.
"It's the price of stealing. Yog's dumb, but not that dumb—he wasn't letting that key slip away without someone paying for it." Nyar answered, inspecting her nails like she'd just gotten a fresh manicure.
"Got it. What do I do with this?" I asked, holding up a pack of rice crackers.
"You said you liked salty snacks." Nodens replied, crossing her arms and avoiding my gaze.
"Rice crackers don't have added salt, Nodens."
Nyar snickered under her breath. I'd bet we were thinking the same thing—Nodens thought she'd one-upped her sister's awful tea, but her cluelessness about human stuff beyond fashion landed her right back at square one. I didn't get why they both bothered fulfilling my offhand request from before I jumped, but you know what? Bland crackers and shitty tea hit the spot just then.
"Can I ask now, or do you have more surprises?" I said, tearing open the cracker pack.
"I'd say the surprises are the answers, Eiji." Nyar remarked, standing to grab the teacup. "I trust you can explain things clearly this time, sister." She shot a look at Nodens before leaving the room.
"The universe is gonna disappear." Nodens said, clenching her claws like she was crumpling paper.
I let my head sink into the pillow. "Cliché and a cheap one. What's next, a power system?" I jabbed.
"Eiji…"
"Why'd you come to me? Why'd you and your sister put me through that dumb 'test'? Trust me, jumping off a building and feeling my body turn to mush isn't a good time."
"I…"
"You could've picked someone else—a terminal patient, a sociopath, I don't know. I'll admit I got carried away 'cause you're easy on the eyes, but now I want answers." I cut her off before she could string a sentence together.
"It's because you're already dead inside."
I was about to eat a cracker but set it back in the pack. "Not news. It's what I'd tell myself staring in the mirror at two a.m… or what I thought when I slit my wrists. Try harder."
"Can you drop that condescending tone already!?" She slammed the wall behind her, and I felt the whole room shake around me. "You've got nothing inside you to lose—that's why your body snaps back to normal in this space, and why THAT didn't come from a person!" She shouted, pointing at the blood bag. "That's my sister's blood… we filled you with our madness. It's easy when someone's so… empty."
"It's not the first time this has happened, Eiji. Not the first time we've used humans as pawns, either. You're not the first, and you won't be the last—just what we found in a pinch." Nyar added.
I hadn't noticed her return; she simply parted the curtains and walked over to Nodens.
"So, just a pawn… and I guess I can't argue anymore, huh?" I said, touching my chest where I could feel the key lodged inside. "I'm kinda disappointed, honestly. I was starting to get along with you two." I tried to lace the words with some bite, but they fell flat.
Nyar spoke plain and sharp. "You're a means to an end. Some of our brothers are bored of humanity threatening to wipe itself out and never following through. They see the same thing every decade, every century, every eon—so they decided to speed it up."
"What, I'm supposed to buy that you two are the good-hearted ones?"
"We want to watch humanity burn out over time. It's more fun to see a ember fade than to smother it with sand."
I'd have fired back with something sharp in another life, but this time was different. The air felt thick, like they were holding an invisible noose around my neck. They couldn't kill me because they needed me, and I couldn't do it myself because I'd just end up back in this room.
"Eiji… listen, we…" Nodens tried to cut in.
"Pawns don't need explanations—just orders." I said, staring up at the ceiling.
"There's a reason for all this, Eiji. It's not what you think…" Nodens reached a claw toward me, gentle-like, probably pity or something close, but her sister grabbed her wrist.
"Some chunks of history are already getting messed up by our brothers' influence. Right now, the anomaly's October 30, 1938."
"Tampering with an event that big… sister…" Nodens' eyes widened as she turned to Nyar.
"Yeah, it's Hastur."
"So, the King in Yellow, huh…" I let it slip out in a sigh, closing my eyes.