#mihos

And all the kids cried out, "Please stop, you're scaring me"

I can't help this awful energy

God damn right, you should be scared of me

Who is in control?

You weren’t normal. You’d known that for as long as you could create memories. 

It had just taken you awhile to realize what made you different from the other kids. 

In your eyes, the world didn’t hold just people, plants, and animals. There were also the “Others”. The creatures that hid under the bed, or made nests in dust piles, or watched from the shadows. 

When you’d tell your grade school classmates about the man with his head split open, three eyes, and teeth that were made of pine needles, they’d cry. They were scared. You were telling them about monsters. If they’d let you finish, they’d know that the Pine Needle Man had only wanted help finding pine cones. 

When you’d write stories about the tiny dust rabbits that lived under your bed, and share it with your English class, your teacher would scold you for writing about fiction. The assignment was supposed to be on the real world. 

As the years went on you stopped sharing with people. You turned to the library, and the internet, learning that you had a gift, or a curse. It was called ‘The Sight’. You could see through the layers that separated humans from the world that overlapped with the mortal plain. 

The house was awake, the shadows and monsters

The hallways, they echoed and groaned

I sat alone, in bed till the morning

I'm crying, "They're coming for me"

Understanding this about yourself did not make things easier for you. Because you stopped sharing what you saw, you didn’t tell people about the Others that would hang around in your classroom. You couldn’t help but acknowledge them, especially when they became agitated with being ignored. You tried to quietly send them off with a growled, “Go away” or “Buzz off!” Except someone else in your class would hear you. Then word would be spread that you were talking to yourself, and yelling at things that weren’t there.

Of course you’d been sent to the Principal’s office a handful of times. 

Each trip your parents had to make to the school was another evening spent being yelled at within the privacy of your house. 

“Why can’t you be like the other children?!”

“An embarrassment to this family!”

It didn’t matter which parent was yelling. They both conveyed the same message.

You were alone. Left to fight off the ghosts, ghouls, and unnamed on your own.

So you did.

Year after year, you faced down the Others. Some learned to leave you alone. Some found you to be their favorite source of entertainment. 

When you’d go downstairs in the mornings, with gashes on your arms, or bruises on your face, your parents assumed you’d snuck out in the night. You’d be grounded for having done nothing other than surviving.

With each year, you withdrew from other people. There was no point in trying to befriend anyone, not when you’d just chase them off with your odd behavior soon after. You got to a point where you only interacted with someone when forced to. You had a particularly strong dislike for partner/group assignments.

By the time you got high school you’d become numb to anything “scary”. Death, in particular, had long since lost it’s fear factor. Some days you had a stray thought that, should you die suddenly, no one would miss you. 

As that thought settled in and repeated itself more often, you learned that the phrase, “Negative draws negative.” was certainly true. 

The Others were, for the most part, small things. Tiny beings that you could push, or shove off you when they began to cling. In your final year of high school you noticed that the smaller ones were being replaced by ones that were bigger and more aggressive. The worst ones were able to speak to you. 

They would hover near you during classes and whisper, ‘Look how high up we are. If you opened that window, and fell, you’d die. Wouldn’t that be great?!’ 

Everything they would say was about you killing yourself. You hated it. You hated them. You wanted them to shut up. More than once you’d had to hastily leave the classroom to use the washroom, an attempt to put distance between yourself and their horrid whispers. 

Home didn’t offer any form of salvation either. Your parents had decided to act as though you didn’t exist, unless you directly spoke to them when you needed something. In response, they’d give you a cold stare and hand you a small bit of money to get what you needed. They weren’t really your parents, they were just the people that legally had to take care of you until your 18th birthday. You wouldn’t be surprised if on that day you found yourself living on the streets. 

And I've grown familiar with villains that live in my head They beg me to write them so I'll never die when I'm dead

The days blended together. Only being broken up when an Other, of particular appearance, caught your attention. 

Half way through the school year, your Phys Ed teacher became fatally ill and had to be replaced. Your classmates were fine with this. Ms. Charts was a drill sergeant and never gave anyone special exceptions. 

“I caught sight of the new teacher. It’s a guy! And he’s hot, with a capital H. I really hope he wears something that shows off his body.”

Although you didn’t interact with your classmates, you still paid attention to what they said. It didn’t hurt to keep informed on things happening. Sometimes bad things that happened to others were your cue to watch for meaner beings they couldn’t see. 

Going into the gym that day you put in the effort to learn about the new teacher. Your eyes went to him, and you froze. 

Your lips parted in a silent gasp. 

For nearly 18 years you’ve seen things that were gruesome, disfigured, and down right haunting. 

Your new gym teacher. Was not human. Nor was he something you’d ever seen before. 

If you squinted you could see the version that everyone else could see. A man in his mid to late twenties. His hair was buzzed on the sides in and clipped short on top, much as a soldier would. He had dark brown eyes, and skin that was naturally tanned in a shade of light copper. You figured he had some Asian ancestry. Standing roughly 5 feet 9 inches his body frame was lean and hinted at a lot of muscle not being displayed. 

Your Sight showed you something entirely different. 

The short hair was grown and pulled back in a low ponytail at the base of his neck. There was a slight glow to his skin that made his copper tone seem golden. His irises were a solid amethyst with black slit pupils. His eyes had a natural dark lining on the bottom rim. As he addressed the class, introducing himself as Mr. Battle, a length of shadows curled around him. When you tilted your head ever so slightly you realized it was a tail! It twitched at the tip, or swayed back and forth. 

Altogether, he seemed to be a humanoid feline? 

“ Y/N? Y/N!”

You startled at your name being called. While you’d been digesting this new discovery, he’d begun doing roll call. You ducked your head with a slight glare as your classmates snickered. His gaze leveled on you, and very briefly his brows furrowed, as though he were puzzling over you.

“Alright, start with laps!” He projected his voice like a military sergeant, making everyone jump and take off for the outer edge of the spacious room. 

As you ran you felt his stare burning into the back of your skull. Anytime you turned to meet his eyes, he managed to look away and watch the rest of the class. 

You didn’t like this, you didn’t like him. 

Throughout the rest of the warm ups, basketball drills and a couple more exercises, you put together a plan. It was a stupid plan, and it would put yourself at risk, but you didn’t care. At least you’d die from something more interesting than a blob with teeth and eyes.

Your Phys Ed class was right before the lunch break, meaning he wouldn’t have another class to follow. If you got lucky, you could confront him here in the GYM without anyone seeing. The last thing you wanted was an audience to mock you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Changed back into your regular clothes, you’d hung back in the change room, waiting for everyone to leave. 

The bell for lunch period rang and you listened to your classmates dash out of the GYM. You gave it a minute or two before venturing out.

Just as you’d hoped, Mr. Battle was the last remaining person. What you didn’t count on was for him to be clearly waiting for you.

Those slit pupiled eyes rested on you, his arms were crossed and his posture reminded you of a cat resting casually, ready to spring at any second.

“I was wondering what had this place crawling with creepy crawlies. I got my answer pretty quick.” The military sergeant tone was gone, in its place, a more natural rumble. 

That wasn’t what you thought he was going to say. Thrown off, you quipped, “Look who’s talking.”

The layer around his form, that portrayed a normal human vanished, leaving you with a clear, unblurred view of himself. “You’re not very smart. You have the Sight, not the Gift. Don’t get cocky brat.”

The tail, that had been made of shadows before, was a true solid black tail now. The end of it flicked back and forth, another sign of irritated. 

You clenched your fists within your hoodie pockets, “I’m smart enough to know you can’t kill me, not if you want to keep up appearances as a teacher.”

His upper lip raised a little, allowing you to get a glimpse of a sharp canine, “I’m not here by choice. Your school has been drawing more and more Nega Dwellers and they’ve started spilling onto my territory. Once I deal with this mess, I’m handing in my resignation.”

His arms fell to his sides, he flexed his fingers and his natural nails lengthened into gold tipped claws. 

Your feet shuffled back, startled, a spike of fear breaking through your false bravado. Was he really going to kill you?! 

“Y-You can’t kill me, they’ll immediately suspect you.” There was a quiver in your voice. 

Why now? For these past few years you’d told yourself that death could come, and the world would be the better for it. Now here was death, ready to shred you apart, and you didn’t want to die.

Your fear increased as his lips drew back, showing more teeth in a feral grin, “Don’t worry kid, you’re not gonna feel a thing.” He crouched low, his body tensing and ready to spring.

The glow around him expanded into a bright light, blinding you. Covering your eyes, you heard his shoes squeak as he sprung forward. “PLEASE DON’T!”

There was a rush of air, you felt it blast past you, there was a series of squalls and pitched squeals. Lowering your hands you hesitated to look.

Standing just next to you, Mr. Battle held a squirming black thing. You paled seeing that it was roughly the same size and shape as you. A mouth with rows of teeth gnashed together as it thrashed around. 

“Good job kid, if you hadn’t snapped out of it, you would have made me a liar.” His slitted pupils slid back to you, “If you didn’t find the will to live, you would be feeling your own throat being crushed right now.” 

His clawed fingers squeezed and the creature squealed louder. The thing tried looping parts of its goopy body around his arm, to make him let go. 

You stepped further back, a hand covering your mouth as you shuddered, “What… What is that?”

“This nasty thing is called a Life Leech. This is the biggest I’ve seen in a few years. Usually when they get this big, the person they’re possessing commits suicide.” His tail swayed widely back and forth, his smile wide and pleased. 

“How did I not see it?!” How long had that thing been feeding off you? Was it when you started having those thoughts? Thinking that death would be fine, thinking that no one would miss you if you killed yourself. Although you were distant from your parents, you knew they would be upset with your passing. Years ago, you promised yourself to move somewhere quiet, away from the darkness and the coldness of your family. When had that changed to giving up? To just craving death and an end to it all?

Mr. Battle held out a hand and a golden blade appeared. You could see Egyptian hieroglyphs carved into the steel of the blade, the end of the hilt was shaped into a lion’s head. He thrust the blade up and under the Leech’s chin. It died instantly as black, bubbling liquid spewed from the wound and it’s mouth. He released its body and wiped the blood off his blade on the side of his pants. 

The blade vanished and Mr. Battle seemed to become an entirely different person as he yawned. His posture slouched and his tail lowered to give the odd little sway, “You can see some shit kid, but not everything. You’re welcome by the way.”

You were still reeling from the thing being revealed to you, and the impact it had had on your life. 

Seeming to pick up on that Mr. Battle strolled off towards the exit, “See ya, kid.”

He was just about to push the door open when you managed to pull some of yourself back together, “W-Wait! Who are you?!”

Looking back over his shoulder he reprimanded, “Not that you’ll see me again, but it’s Mihos.”

Then he was gone. 

Somehow you got yourself to continue through the rest of the day, and it all seemed surreal as everything seemed to be less daunting. 

When you made eye contact with your classmates, they didn’t flinch or return it with scorn. A girl even gave you a small smile back. 

The Others that had plagued you with suggestions of killing yourself were gone. So, too, were the ones that had seemed like permanent fixtures in the corners of the classrooms and in the hallways. Had you been the one drawing them all here? That Life Leech had been stirring up so much negative energy in you, it had been a homing beacon for the worst of them. 

New ones began to show, smaller, and surprisingly timid ones. They reminded you of the Pine Needle Man. They weren’t there to cause harm and had been kept away by all the more menacing ones. 

Mihos had said ‘Nega Dwellers’. If the Life Leech and the Others that meant harm were called Nega Dwellers, what were these nicer ones called? Was there a way to make sure the Nega Dwellers didn’t latch onto you again? Or what about getting them off other people?

You’d been so intent on keeping yourself away from other people, to protect yourself from their scorn, and ridicule, you’d never thought that maybe you could help them. You’d come close to stepping over the edge and letting death take you, there had to be others that could be saved from making the leap. 

Your interaction with Mihos had happened all in a handful of minutes. In that short span of time, your mind had been opened to the rest of the world that only you could see.

You couldn’t navigate it on your own, that much had been made apparent to you. Would Mihos help you? 

You recalled his dismissive behavior and how he’d magically vanished after dealing with the Life Leech. No one was talking about the good looking gym teacher anymore, in fact you were certain no one remembered the details of GYM class. Just that it had happened, and it had been uneventful. How had he done that?

For the first time, you had goals for yourself. The first being to find Mihos, the second, was to convince him to teach you.