"Can I touch it?"
Around the kid's eyes, his skin folded into contours. They arched along his forehead and linked up with the opposite eye. It was a wonder on how he could see or even walk with the way they lacked light. Dull and tired. For a kid that was extremely odd.
"Hey, can I play with your ball?"
Lozo shook the daze way. Karin, behind him, walked towards the boy.
She crouched balancing on her toes before cautioning the boy.
"This isn't a ball and you should be here."
"Where's home?"
"I know. I should stay away from the papers on the wall. Mom keeps telling me that but…"
"No one wants to play with me." The kid pleaded.
Karin turned to Lozo. He stood there obviously still fixated on the child's eyes.
"I'm sorry but we have serious and dangerous things we have to do. So we'll walk you home now. Okay?"
"Will you play with me if I showed you where the cat lives?" the kid asked. His eyes were glued to the ground.
"What cat?" Karin asked.
"The one the older kids call, Cat Caller. It's been following me for a while now. So, will you?"
"Sure." Lozo jumped in." We'll play with you, just show us where the cat lives."
The kid jumped and turned before shouted, "This way."
He then ran off ahead of them, almost tripping on a bag that was lying just at the side of the alley. His little happy footsteps rushed through alley and got to the main street in no time. That couldn't be said for Karin who looked at Lozo with grouchy eyes.
"We can find the cat caller faster this way. He already knows where it is." Lozo defended himself.
"Yeah, but this dangerous for kids and… there is that feeling earlier."
"Is this how you normally are? No fun. Look at the kid's eyes…" Karin turned and looked at the waving boy. "Let's at least keep that little light for a bit longer." Lozo added before walking towards the boy, sphere still in hand.
Karin groaned as she watched him walk on. She looked to the wall. The odd feeling from earlier sparred back. You see once a domain is captured or contained the arrows on the TNTs revert back to normal. Back to the square smudge they first start with.
But on the wall of the alley, the TNT still pointed. Sharp and direct. Her eyes followed it and it led towards the exit of the alley. Where Lozo and the boy waited.
What followed was obvious.
Karin followed the arrow.
***
Time passed and Lozo was perspiring. He gritted his teeth as they followed the boy who had been leading them this whole time.
The ball in his hand was still the same size but was a lot heavier. It was more compact and more solid. The shimmer on its dark surface tilted and morphed as they turned into another street. This was supposedly the final point.
Much to Karin's surprise the boy was right. In each alley bay they turned to they found one. A blob scampering around the trash boxes and on the moment, it saw them it then would try to run off. But Karin was faster. In one lash of her black string like mass and she would have it netted and merged into the sphere Lozo hauled.
As for the kid, he skipped happily in front of them. It was as if he wasn't tired from the walking or even worried about the setting sun. Only a smile paraded his face. A smile of expectation.
"My parents don't know why." The kid suddenly began.
"Huh?"
"About my eyes. You want to ask why they are like this?"
"Uh…"
Kari shook her head. Even the kid had noticed Lozo's "passing" glares.
"Most of the older kids in school look at me the same way. They keep asking me why but…"
"I'm sorry. Please forgive him. He's new." Karin intervened.
"So, when did it start?" Lozo abruptly added.
The boy tapped on his lips as he tried to remember. Then he formed a knuckle and began to count the ridges and depressions formed.
"31, 30. A month and… um thirty minus seven…um… twenty-five days ago." The boy answered.
"Twenty-three," Karin corrected. "So approximately two months ago."
Her eyes widened.
"That's when…"
"We're here." the boy called out.
This alley was relatively darker compared to the previous. Possibly due to the two tall old building that stood to form it. The buildings were empty with a few broken windows here and there.
"Here? How did you even find this place?" Karin asked peering into the alley.
"When the cat started following me, I stopped using the normal path and looked for another. I usually got lost but mom would come and find me."
"I hid here last time." The kid added pointing into the dark and trash filled alley.
"Okay you wait here. This guy and I will go and look." Karin said walking into the alley. One step and a time she tiptoed. Her eyes sharp and trying to capture everything that moved or that was still. A domain could be anything and a matter of fact any…
"Wait Karin." Lozo called out. Her name sounded off in his mouth. Or maybe it was because of his current anxiety of calling out her name for the first time.
Karin looked back.
Lozo was slowly placing the sphere in his hands down next to a trash can. His breathing was subtle as though his previous fatigue had evaporated.
"Something's wrong."
The sphere rolled on the dust brown ground before settling to a single spot
"This kid… his story…Is off."
"What do you—"
Just over Lozo's shoulders the boy stood with an odd eerie look in his eyes. Whatever light was in them before had disappeared.
"Tsk!" Karin clicked" Get down!" she shouted.
Swift as before a black mass shot from the dark wavy glow on her hands. All heading straight towards the kid.
The kid didn't move.
The instant the black jelly like moving mass touched his clothes… it burst. A sudden eruption sending them back to the master in pieces.
"He's a Normal." Karin remembered. Her eyes shifted across the ground looking for the sphere. "Protect the sphere. That's what it's after." She commanded.
But Lozo didn't adhere. He had something else in mind.
He charged in a burst towards the boy, hands stretched out ready to grasp him.
The boy's eyes raised… then his body twitched.
Just before Lozo could hold onto the boy's shirt, out came the domain.
Its form was similar to the blob only that it was bigger. It shifted more erratically as it shot out of the boy, ripping through his school clothes.
As its bouncy blob like form touch the ground it started to grow legs. Not humanoid legs. Rather a mimic of sought. They were less defined with the in-betweens filled by the gooey self of the domain. It took the same color as the blob and spread it through it now slime-humanoid form.
Its face turned and looked to the sphere.
By a trash bin.
It slithered through the air and shot for it. Karin had predicted this but was unable to match its new rapid fluid speed.
"I… take back… what's ours and –"
"More!!" its voice gaggled.
The domain grabbed onto the sphere and bounced of the alley wall, morphing into a rushing cat.
Meow!!
The cat jumped across the garbage and leaped farther into the alley. Karin turned and followed, a dire look pasted on her face.
…
Back at the entrance of the alley, Lozo crouched with the boy wrapped in his arms. The boy was unconscious with some drool trailing out of his mouth. Some distance away Lozo could hear someone calling out. They sounded desperate, worried… holding back their tears with large gasps of air. As the voice became clear, so did the name it sought after.
"Covy?" the voice called.
"Covy, where are you?"