Chapter Text
It was a dark and stormy night.
It was the good kind of dark and stormy, because his father was no longer there. That meant Denki could turn on the space heater, and maybe even watch some late-night cartoons. All the big kids at the playground watched late-night cartoons.
Kaboom.
The wind pounded at the walls and shook the ceiling. Or maybe it was the couple that lived upstairs in unit 5C fighting again. When Denki looked out the window to check, he couldn’t see much through the grimy glass and the curtain of pouring rain. The only thing Denki could make out was the flickering neon motel sign a few doors down.
Kaboom.
The television was on, but only reruns were playing. Under the sickly light of the glowing screen, something gleamed on the floor: His father had thrown a picture frame during one of his drunken fits not so long ago, shattering the glass. Now, jagged lines spidered over a faded photograph of a smiling woman.
Rap rap.
“Open up, Kaminari-san,” an irritated voice called from beyond the doorway. “I know you’re in there! For the last time, your rent’s way overdue.”
The landlady; she’d dropped by yesterday as well, looking for Denki’s father. She wasn’t the only one searching for him, either. Denki’s father was a popular man. Only, his friends always sounded angry.
Birds of a feather, he thought. He’d just learned the phrase at school last week.
Denki rested his head on the floor. It was cold and sticky.
Kaboom.
There was something dark moving around on the floorboards, and it took Denki a second to realize it was a rat. Its eyes glinted hungrily; in response, Denki heard his own stomach gurgle loudly. A slimy, naked tail whipped around, slapping an empty cup noodle to the floor. There were empty cup noodles scattered around on the floor, falling out of black trash bags. Plastic wrappers, wooden chopsticks. It smelled like the dumpster right before garbage day. When was the last time Denki had taken a bath?
Kaboom.
“It’s fine now. Why?” blared the TV.
Rap rap rap.
“Open this door immediately!” a voice cried shrilly. “I want my rent money! I mean it! I’m going to call the police!”
The stench was so strong, Denki couldn’t believe they couldn’t smell it through the walls. It was so putrid — another vocabulary word he'd learned at school — he thought he could almost hear it, buzzing in his ears like flies on a summer day.
“It’s fine now. Why?” The TV blared again.
Kaboom.
Red lights flashed from the windows, and the banging on the door stopped. Had the landlady really made good on her promise? But as soon as it’d appeared, the lights faded away. Someone on patrol just passing by, maybe.
That was usually the case. They'd only ever come by Denki's apartment once before, and that had been to warn his father about making noise.
The rat was moving around again. While digging through the heaps of trash, it must have found something. Denki watched it jump and disappear into the shadows. But he could still hear it — the gritty, grimy sound of it gnawing on something.
His stomach gurgled again, loudly. There was nothing left to eat in the apartment. All he'd had for the past day was water from the kitchen sink. What was the rat eating?
A streak of lightning flashed by the window, illuminating the apartment, and answering Denki's question.
The rat was clinging on to the foot of a lumpy body dangling in the middle of the room. The body’s neck hung at an odd angle, held in midair by a long rope that reached up to the rafters. Denki could make out the whites of its eyes, and for a moment, he could’ve sworn the dark pupils had moved to look at him.
“It’s fine - it’s fine - it’s fine now — ” The TV stuttered before fading into static.
Kaboom.
The apartment plunged back into darkness. The gnawing sound continued.
The wind howled. The windows rattled. A siren passed by.
Static — and then the TV blared back on again:
“It’s fine now. Why? Because I am here!”
Kaboom.
It was a dark and stormy night.