TW// Blood/Gore, horror themes, animal gore

“Eun!”

The lagomorph was pulled from the enjoyment of his lunch by his coworker, Hegra. She was a small thing, with peach-colored scaly skin. Gills lined her cheeks and framed her large, bright, fierce eyes, with rows of sharp, pointy teeth beaming at him like a line of steak knives.

“Ah.” He inhaled, “Yes?” The rabbit was always careful with his words, his voice gentle, yet pronounced. Never was a word misunderstood when he spoke it through that artificial voice box. 

Hegra bounced on her heels, fishing a slab of unknown meat - or a large cube of protein mix, more likely - from her own paper bag.

“You got another story today? I wanna know about your home planet!”

He inhaled again, but this was more a breath of mental preparation than a breath of consideration.

“Must I? You know I don’t remember much.”

“I told you ALL about the shit I did on my planet!” She puffed out her chest, polishing her cyan police badge with a sense of pride. “Don’t be a stick in the mud.”

“Fine, fine.

Where can I begin? Let’s see…”

“Goodness, Eun, hungry today, are we?”

The kind face of the boy’s mother was wearing a warm smile as he sat down, furiously scarfing an entirely-green breakfast before his trip to school. He was an excited boy of 16, ever a teacher’s pet. He forced himself to swallow before speaking.

“Sch-Sorry mom!” He giggled. “But today’s exciting! The poetry festival is at lunch, remember?”

“Yes, yes, I do.” She chuckled, rolling her eye, the other covered by an eyepatch of long leaves. “Just don’t hog the stage, alright? You have quite the stash!” The woman pointed a wooden spatula at the mess of papers jutting from his backpack as her son rushed out the door.

“I know! I’m gonna pick out the best ones at school!” He didn’t even give his mother time to answer, practically throwing himself out the door.

The hours of lessons leading up to Centersun at school were as exciting as they were quick to Eun, sifting through his countless poems, filing them away in separate piles of better and worse either didn’t come under the teacher’s radar, or he didn’t exactly mind, given the constant beam on his face.

But the walk to the event itself was the real magic. Hands firmly planted on the straps of his woven back-bag, Eun marched down the natural stone and dirt paths like they were the runway to receive the nobel prize.

On the way there, he noticed someone on the same path, brushing blades of grass and green stains from her skirt. One of the few that bothered to give poetry as a side-subject the time of day.

“Oh, hey Kami!” He hopped over to stand beside her. “Excited? I know I am!” 

Kami shrugged. “It’s reading practice.” 

“You gonna read some of yours?” He gasped, almost more excited to hear her work than his own. Almost.

“Absolutely not. There’s just gonna be free reading material there.” With that, she shook her head and took off, leaving a slightly hurt Eun standing in the wind.

He wasn’t one to be kept down though, and kept up his brisk pace all the way to the waiting area.

The Poetry festival was set up in many tents to keep the lagomorphs shaded from the harsh spring sun. Eun sat in the performance tent, anxiously tapping his feet against the ground and rereading his first piece about a hundred times.

That was when he saw something odd. In the gaps of the tent, he saw Kami talking to some other classmates, near a hole in the ground.

He’d never seen this hole before. But it led into a sizable hill, and even with the sun beaming down upon it, he couldn’t see more than a foot into the abyss.

Kami, he saw, rolled her eyes, and leant into the hole to take a look, before one of the others kicked her inside.

He almost screamed.

His voice caught in his throat, as before he could react, the announcer for the performance called his name, catching the sound before he made it.

Eun was mortified. Terrified at what happened to her. 

Glancing back from the announcer to the hole, however, he noticed none where he thought he’d seen one before. 

The sun was beating down on him hard today. And an excited mind can create visions where there were none.

At least, that’s all he could tell himself as he made his way to the podium.

“Eun, are you okay?”

It was as if his mother read his mind as he left the podium, stepping down almost immediately into a hug. 

He was as bad at hiding his emotions as he was at describing them. 

“Y-Yeah? What’s wrong?”

“You looked as if you’d seen a ghost up there, my dear… Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I…” He paused. “I swore I saw…”

Kami had just walked out from the underbrush, and made her way down the road.

Immediately an air of warmth came back to his face. He nodded to his mom, who seemed more puzzled at this point than concerned. 

“I’m fine! I’m gonna go speak to Kami!”

Quick on his feet, he pushed away from his mother’s embrace, jogging down the street.

“Hey, Kami! Did you hear my-”

She turned around.

Eun didn’t know what to expect when he would see her face. Probably the same unamused frown, purple hair covering her eyes, as usual.

But today marked the first time he ever saw her eyes.

He hated them.

It felt like he’d been struck with a bullet, he stopped in his tracks. Her pupil was hateful, cold, like a needle of ice. 

She was looking at him like an angry child looking at a woodlouse. 

That wasn’t the worst of it though.

For as long as he could remember, his mom had told him that his species was vegetarian. He still didn’t quite understand why, but he knew that other species ate meat, and his didn’t.

But he saw blood on Kami’s face.

Near her jaw, and lip, a clear, long smear. Brightened by the burning, hot sun. A deep red on lavender fur.

And when he got close enough, he clearly saw her drop a small lizard. 

A clear, uneven, tear of a bite mark in its side.

What he could only assume were tiny organs spewing from it.

Kami tossed it aside like a stray piece of tissue, and wiped the blood from her face.

She didn’t say anything, but her glare said enough.

Tell anyone, and he would regret it.

That night, at dinner, he was upset to hear his mother’s concern over his mental state - too quiet, too hush hush about the poetry he used to be so proud of.

That night, at bedtime, he received a kiss on the forehead from his mother.

That night, at midnight, he was still awake, shivering under the covers.

That morning, he had to return to school again.

He faked an illness that day.

Eun had been so into the story that he didn’t notice about half of the galactic precinct had crowded around to hear more. 

Many of them wore shocked expressions. A few wore expressions that just screamed “That explains a lot.”

Hegra tugged on the hem of his coat, offering a half-hearted warm smile.

“H-Hey, big guy… How about we get some fresh Ox, huh? You look stressed.”

He inhaled.

“...Yes, please. I’d Like that a lot.”