A Fox's Hostility

by Brandon Varnell

  ***

  Lindsay had not slept well last night. She had tossed and turned all night long, suffered from nightmares, and woken up several times. When she’d woken up that morning, her body had become completely tangled in her bed sheets.

  That morning hadn’t been much better. She’d stubbed her toe after getting out of bed, slipped on a bar of soap in the shower, and had to skip breakfast because she’d been running late for school.

  School.

  She’d gone to school despite Justin’s warning—no, she’d gone because of his warning, because something was going to happen, and she felt like she needed to be there when it did.

  “Lindsay.”

  Every time something supernatural happened, it was always Kevin and Lilian who saved the day.

  “Earth to Lindsay. Come in, Lindsay.”

  “Think she’s ignoring us?”

  “Could be.”

  “She does seem pretty distracted.”

  Well, Kevin and Lilian weren’t there now, and while she didn’t know what she could do, Lindsay knew that she just had to be there. Whatever was going to happen would affect her friends, wherever they were. She couldn’t miss this.

  “Don’t worry, girls. I got this. Hey! Lindsay!”

  “Iyah!” Lindsay shrieked as someone yelled directly into her ear. She then promptly fell off the chair when she lost her balance, landing on her backside. Rubbing her now sore bottom, Lindsay heard snickers coming from above her, and she looked up to glare at her friends. “You guys are horrible.”

  “Sorry,” Jessica said with a gentle smile. “It’s just that you weren’t listening to us. We were beginning to feel neglected.”

  Lindsay huffed as she stood up and sat back down. “Whatever,” she mumbled for lack of having a better rebuttal.

  “So, what’s got you so down in the dumps?” Amber asked. When Lindsay opened her mouth, her friend cut her off. “And don’t give us that garbage about you feeling just fine. We might not have known each other since middle school or anything, but you’re not that hard to figure out. So, come on, tell us what’s wrong. We’re your friends, right?”

  Lindsay worried her lower lip. She really did want to tell them what her problem was, wanted to unload her worries on someone. But she couldn’t. She didn’t know what was going to happen today, so telling them about her worries wouldn’t help her. It would just cause them to feel the same anxiety she did.

  “I’m just having some family issues,” she said. “You know how my mom is. Ever since Kevin disappeared, she’s been freaking out.”

  The group of girls all shuddered in unison.

  “Yeah,” Jessica mumbled, “we know how your mom gets.”

  “No offense Linds, but your mom is freaky,” Amber added.

  Lindsay’s shoulders slumped. “You don’t need to tell me twice.”

  “Still, I am kinda curious to know what happened to Kevin and Lilian,” Amber continued. “I mean, don’t you think the timing is just too coincidental? Those two disappear and not even two days later that news broadcast starts talking about those strange creatures…”

  “Yōkai,” Jessica said softly.

  “Right, right. Yōkai.” Amber pointed her salad fork at the other girls. “Anyway, don’t you think it’s weird?”

  “It is kind of strange,” Monica, a girl with curly brown hair, admitted. “Though I’m not sure what it could mean.”

  “You don’t think they’re yōkai, do you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It would be freaky if they were, though. I mean, suddenly finding out that the people you went to school with aren’t even human. That would freak anyone out!”

  “…”

  “Is something wrong, Jessica?”

  Lindsay looked up from her meal to see Jessica staring forlornly into her soup, her dirty blond bangs covering much of her upper face. Amber sat beside her, trying to get the girl to speak, but all Jessica would do was shake her head.

  “Would it matter?” Lindsay asked, causing everyone to look at her. She tucked a strand of hair behind her left ear and plowed on. “Being a yōkai wouldn’t really change who they are. They’re still the same person as before. Would it make a difference if they were a yōkai?”

  The girls all looked at each other. Lindsay could see it on their faces—the anxiety, the worry, the fear. None of them had even known about yōkai until yesterday, but they were already afraid. They feared what yōkai could do.

  Lindsay didn’t necessarily blame them. She had seen the footage of what happened in China, the destruction those yōkai had caused, but she was still disappointed in her friends.

  “Lindsay…” Monica started, “do you…?”

  That was about as far as she got before the overhead speakers chimed on and the voice of their principal was heard.

  “Will all of the teachers and students please stop what you are doing and head to the amphitheater? I repeat, all teachers and students, please stop what you are doing and head to the amphitheater.”

  Murmurs erupted from the students. The sound of chairs sliding rang out as people stood up, all of them chattering away, wondering what was going on.

  “What do you think the principal wants?” asked Amber as she and the other girls stood up.

  “I don’t know,” Monica said, “I hope it isn’t something perverted, though.”

  Erina, a girl with braided black hair, slammed her right fist into the palm of her left hand. “If it is, then we’ll just do what we always do to perverts.”

  Lindsay didn’t say anything as the other girls cheered in agreement. Her mind had grown numb and it felt like a python had constricted around her heart.

  “Don’t show up at school tomorrow. Before you ask, no, I can’t tell you why. All I can say is that you shouldn’t show up at school tomorrow. Call in sick if you have to, but stay here.”

  Justin’s words from last night echoed within her mind. She had a really bad feeling about this.

  With an uneasy heart, Lindsay followed the others outside to the quad.

  I wish Christine was here.

  ***

  “ACHOO!”

  Christine sniffled and wiped her nose. It was red and runny and she really hated this.

  “Did you know that when you sneeze it means someone is talking about you?” her teacher commented lightly, their voice more soothing than a fresh spring breeze. “Is there a special someone waiting for you back home?”

  Christine’s mind instantly thought of Kevin, the boy she continued to love, even though she knew she shouldn’t. Then, as if to keep her from becoming depressed, her mind presented her with an image of what happened between her and Lindsay the day she left. Even now the phantom feeling of her friend’s lips caused an unpleasant shudder to rush through her. That kiss had been… it was…

  Steam poured from her ears like twin geysers.

  “W-w-w-w-what the hell are you saying?! I-I-I don’t have anyone like that! Idiot! Bastard! Lecher!”

  “My, my, such harsh language. It looks like I’m going to need to retrain you again. How delightful.”

  “Urk!”

  ***

  The amphitheater was a gigantic room located within the same building as the gymnasium. Nearly three times larger than the gym, the amphitheater could hold the entire student body plus faculty.

  Lindsay filed in with her friends and the hundreds of other students who’d been having lunch. The amphitheater was already quite crowded. Students stood in large clusters while teachers did their best to direct the flow of bodies. As she and her friends found their own place to stand, Lindsay saw Kevin’s friends out of the corner of her eyes.

  So, they showed up, too.

  “This is really odd, isn’t it?” Amber asked as she twirled a strand of hair between her fingers. “Stopping school to have all of the students show up at the same time. I don’t think this has ever happened before.”

  “It hasn’t happened before,” Monica said. “Not
to the best of my knowledge at least.”

  Lindsay glanced around the room. Everyone seemed to be wondering the same thing as her friends. Confusion was written on all of their faces. They didn’t know what to make of the principal's announcement either, though Lindsay did notice the stage had been pulled out and a microphone stood on it. Did that mean someone was going to make an announcement of some kind?

  Is Justin going to show up?

  Even as she thought this, someone appeared on the stage. It wasn’t Justin, but the principal.

  “Good afternoon, everyone,” the principal spoke into the microphone, his voice surprisingly serious. Everyone quieted down. It was rare to see Eric’s fat, bald, and very perverted father with an expression like that. “I apologize for interrupting your daily schedules, however, the US military has asked us for a chance to speak with all of you, to better inform you of the crisis we now face. That’s right, I’m speaking about the yōkai who have hidden themselves among our communities.”

  Murmurs erupted from the students. They were silenced when the principal spoke again.

  “To that end, we have a… special guest speaker who would like to have a word with all of you.”

  The sound of marching feet reached her ears—dozens of feet. The doors swung open and in walked a large group of soldiers. They weren’t just any soldiers either. While Lindsay knew almost nothing about the military, even she recognized their outfits—green camo pants and shirts underneath bullet proof vests, tan combat boots, and thigh holsters with pistols flagrantly visible. Gripped in their hands were black rifles of some kind, machine guns most likely. These were members of the US army.

  And leading this large procession was none other than Justin, who was decked out in the same black uniform he’d worn last night.

  Whispers broke out.

  “Oh, man. What the hell are all of these soldiers doing here?”

  “Hey, who’s that kid at the front?”

  “Don’t know. He looks familiar, though.”

  “Holy shit! Isn’t that Justin?!”

  Lindsay perked up when she heard Alex’s familiar shout.

  “It is! What the hell is he doing with the US Army?!”

  Lindsay looked at Justin as he marched through the sea of students, which split before him like the Red Sea. He ignored the whispers and murmurs about him, his face harder than she’d ever seen it before. This wasn’t the Justin she remembered, or even the Justin she had seen last night. This one was cold, hard, with the look of someone who was on a mission and wouldn’t stand for people who got in his way.

  A shiver ran down her spine.

  Justin walked up to the stage, climbing the steps. The soldiers moved into a single line before the stage, about facing and snapping to attention. The act intimidated the students near them into taking a step back. Meanwhile, Justin stopped in front of the microphone and cleared his throat.

  “Greetings,” he said, his voice booming out of the speakers loud and clear. “My name is Justin Verräter. Some of you may know me as I was a fellow classmate at your school here, until circumstances dictated that I take an extended leave of absence.”

  Justin needed to pause and wait for the students to settle down.

  “Since ancient times, yōkai have been a danger to mankind. Before the creation of firearms, yōkai used, abused, and manipulated humans, enslaving us or murdering us on a whim. We were at their mercy. That changed when we entered the industrial age. Suddenly, we became a threat, and the yōkai went into hiding. We thought that would be the end of it, but we were wrong.”

  More mutters rose around the crowd. Some students shifted nervously. Others spoke excitedly. Lindsay clenched her hands into fists as fear warred with anger.

  “You must understand that yōkai are cunning. There have been many yōkai throughout the ages who have disguised themselves as humans and infiltrated our highest echelons of government, seducing emperors and ministers alike. When our species’s technology rose to the point that we became a threat, the yōkai simply used their abilities to pass themselves off as humans. In doing so, they all but disappeared from our eyes, but that does not mean they vanished. They still exist, and we humans still suffer at their hands.”

  “That is why we, The Sons and Daughters of Humanity, will be working with the US government to discover who among our populace are yōkai, for the protection of all humanity!”

  ***

  This is not good.

  Standing near the back of the crowd, observing the slow chaos unfolding, Juan, or actually Stephen Valsiener, tried to keep a calm facade, even when every part of him wanted to immediately run off and inform the big guy about this.

  “My name is Juan Martinez Valuenza Cortes,” he muttered under his breath.

  This is really not good.

  He let his vision slowly pan across the entire gymnasium. Most of the soldiers were stationed at the front, but there were six that had spread toward the doors. The gym had three exit-slash-entrances, each of which was guarded by two soldiers.

  What to do. What to do.

  He knew what needed to be done. He couldn’t afford to stay there, not only because he was a yōkai, but also because the person up top, Monstrang, needed to know what was happening. He wouldn’t even charge this time—not when his entire species was being threatened. This went beyond mere money.

  I never anticipated this…

  “I know that some of you are worried,” Justin continued speaking. “However, you have nothing to fear. We of The Sons and Daughters of Humanity are not heartless. We do not kill unless provoked. This is merely a way to safeguard humans, to protect them from being manipulated and used.”

  Juan listened with one ear while his mind worked out how to solve this problem. As a half-kitsune, he lacked many of the powers that pure kitsune had. He could cast a few basic illusions and use standard enchantments, but that was about it.

  “To that end, we would appreciate it if all of you cooperated willingly and did not make this any more difficult than it needs to be.”

  He could try enchanting one of the guards, but if these people had come prepared to outfox a kitsune, they would likely know the signs and be watching for people who were under an enchantment.

  “We would like to run a check up on all of the students and faculty here to determine which among you are yōkai. Like I said, we are not an inhumane organization, and we will not kill or impound anyone here. This is merely a way of determining who among you is not human.”

  “THIS IS A FUCKING OUTRAGE!”

  Juan snapped out of his contemplations when a figure rushed towards the stage. He nearly slammed a palm into his face when he saw that it was Chris Fleischer.

  He has just made this situation a whole lot worse.

  “YOU FUCKING HUMANS SHOULD CONSIDER YOURSELVES LUCKY WE LET YOU WEAKLINGS LIVE!”

  Several of the soldiers knelt down, took aim with their rifles, and opened fire. The students near the front panicked. Chris suddenly screamed and jerked backwards, his body undergoing a series of intense muscles spasms and foam frothing up from his mouth. When Juan enhanced his eyes with youki, he saw that the soldiers had actually fired some kind of electric dart.

  The crowd was panicking. Many students were yelling. A threnody of frightened shouts rang out, a symphony of chaos. Some of the students ran for the door, but they were blocked by the soldiers, who trained their guns on those who tried to run.

  “Everyone, please remain calm,” Justin said into the microphone. “As you can see, some yōkai are quite dangerous. Chris Fleischer is a dog yōkai, an inu, and he is well known for abusing others. It is monsters like him who we are protecting you from. Now then, I would again like to ask for everybody's cooperation.”

  With some prodding from the army, the crowd calmed down, though that was a very relative statement in Juan’s opinion. The crowd was not calm at all. They were a boiling pot of fear. The place practically reeked of terror. Only the soldiers standing attention, guns l
ightly gripped in their hands and a steely look in their eyes, kept the students and faculty from panicking.

  “Excellent. Now then, when your name is called, two of our soldiers will escort you to the nurse’s office. And again, please do not worry. We have no intention of harming anybody.”

  No intention of harming anybody my foot.

  Juan scowled as he realized that he didn’t have very many options for escape. He couldn’t enchant his way out of this, and while his illusions were actually quite good, none of them would work against so many. In short, he was up the creek without a paddle.

  This… is not good.

  ***

  Lindsay realized that something was wrong with Jessica once the announcement had been made. The poor girl looked ready to pass out. Her knees were shaking, her face was pale, and her heavy breathing made Lindsay worry that she might start hyperventilating.

  “Jessica?”

  The other girl looked up at her and Lindsay almost flinched. Jessica’s wide eyes stared at her in fear.

  Lindsay placed her hand on Jessica’s shoulder. The other girl almost collapsed.

  “Easy,” she leaned in and whispered into Jessica’s ear. “You need to calm down. No good will come from panicking like this.”

  “I… I can’t,” Jessica said, “I… I…”

  “It’s okay.” Lindsay placed an arm around the girl’s shoulder and pulled her close.

  “Everything okay, you two?” asked Monica.

  “Oh yeah, we’re fine,” Lindsay reassured them. “I think what just happened has frightened Jessica. Nothing to worry about.”

  Their friends looked unsure but still turned back to the conversation they’d been having, which Lindsay noted was about Justin and the soldiers he’d brought with him.

  She took several deep breaths to calm down, then leaned into Jessica once more. Her friend had always been a bit skittish. That was probably why the others had ignored it, but she knew better.

  “You’re a yōkai, aren’t you?” she asked. It was the only logical explanation.

  Jessica didn’t say anything. Her body tried to shrink in on itself as she gave the gentlest of nods.