Cry Baby Caron

"And that's how we met."

"…"

Alex fearfully looked at the resting Ana.

Josh, noticing her expression, voiced his complaints.

"She's super scary, and bossy too!" Josh furrowed his eyebrows as he ate his chips angrily.

"She calls herself a doctor yet she only when to school for like, 3 years!"

"Aren't you suppose to graduate after 4 years?"

"10 years, 10 years to become a doctor! She hasn't even graduated med school!"

"I'm not that weak, you know! I bet if you just gave me the chance I could beat her up easily!"

"And she also knows how to make dolls! Isn't she an adult? I can't understand the people of this world!"

Josh spat out complaints left and right, leaving Alex speechless.

"And guess what!"

Alex eyes widened, and she started mouthing to him.

'Stop! No, shut up!'

She flailed her arms in a panic, trying to grab his attention. But he was too busy talking to notice.

"What?" A woman's voice responded.

"Ha! Well if you so eager to know! She's all bark and no bite! I only lost to her because it would be shameful to beat up a woman!"

"I see…"

"I knew you'd understand!" Josh huffed, crossing his arms.

Alex looked at him with pity, he was a dead man now.

"You…"

"?" Josh looked at Alex waiting for her to speak.

"Little piece of shit!" Ana turned around, her fist following her.

Josh who had not been expecting an attack was surprised, he lifted his arms up to protect his face, though to no avail.

His handsome face now had the dent of a fist in it.

"Josh, I swear to god! All you do is run your mouth, I was being nice before and dealt with your complaints!" Ana was now standing up with her fists out.

Josh was writhing in pain on the floor, rolling around. He looked quite pitiful.

'Are these the people that saved me?' Alex looked worriedly, they might kill each other before those monsters did.

Ana calmed herself down, breathing slowly.

Haa

"Hey you, whats your name?" She turned around, with a completely different expression from before.

"Uh, Alex."

"Nice, ok uh." Ana looked like she was thinking about something and scratched her head.

"Do you know where your parents are? We've come here as rescue." Ana said.

Her parents…

"Oh uh…" Alex's eyes darkened, she looked down.

Ana realizing what she just said, exclaimed nervously,"Oh uh, it's fine if you don't say anything!"

"It's alright, anyways…" Alex waved her hands in a panic.

"I have my brother, I don't know where my dad is because he went on a trip before this…"

"Mess."

It was a bit awkward, but Ana pulled through, and spoke.

"So where's you brother?"

"He's outside, hiding somewhere. I came to get food because I was hungry, I didn't want to put him in danger."

"That sounds really responsible as a big sister." Ana tried to lift her mood.

"Thanks."

Josh who seemed to have recovered stood up, surprising Alex.

His face, of which should have been bruised from the punch, was perfectly fine.

"Your face?!" Alex pointed at him in awe.

"I told you I'm strong, a simple punch can't disable me!" He proudly proclaimed.

"A sword might." Ana replied.

"Maybe-"

"Wait, of course not!" Realizing the owner of the voice, Josh immediately refuted.

Ana snickered.

"Damn bitch! How come all girl's voices are the same?!" Josh stomped angrily

"We don't have time for this." Ana, finally done with their play, broke the playful atmosphere.

"Alright." Josh pick up the heavy looking backpack and walked to the nearest exit quickly, he seemed to be scared of getting Ana angry agian.

"Cmon." Ana stretched her hand out towards Alex.

Alex grabbed her hand, and Ana pulled her up.

"Just give us the directions, we'll deal with the rest."

"Alr-"

Ack!

Alex felt a pain in her ankle, she didn't feel it before because she was sitting down, but it really hurt!

"Oh yeah, you hurt your ankle, but I fixed that right up for you."

"Just lean on me." Ana propped Alex's arm around her neck, thus lessening the pressure put on her foot.

***

Caron had his knees tucked, and was sitting quietly while hidden in the foliage and broken building remains.

He pulled his knees closer to his chest.

'When is she coming back.' His face was solemn.

His sister had promised her she would come back with food, that she would come back unharmed. Yet she still hadn't come back.

Though he didn't have a clock, his butt hurt from sitting down in the same position for so long. That was probably a sign that quite a lot of time had passed.

'She promised.'

He felt tears well up in his eyes, and closed them while trying to hold his tears back.

'I'm such a crybaby.' He covered his eyes in shame.

Ever since he was a child he cried a lot.

When he was angry, he cried.

When he was sad, he cried.

When he was annoyed, he cried.

When he was frustrated, he cried.

He always cried when something went just a little wrong. He couldn't help it, the tears just flowed out.

He covered his ears and began to breath rapidly.

"Cry baby, Cry baby! Caron is a little cry baby!" Sounds of children teasing could be heard.

"I-I'm not." Caron replied in a low whisper, tears started flowing from his eyes.

"That's not right. See, you are crying!" A boy that looked just like Caron appeared in front of him.

Caron began to wipe his tears in an attempt to hide them.

"Maybe Alex ran away because you're such a crybaby." The other Caron in front of him playfully touched their chin while looking at him.

"No! She just when to get food! She promised to come back! She promised!" He held his head nervously and looked at the Caron in front of him.

"W-who are you?" He said shakily.

"I'm a figment of your imagination, you're talking to yourself you know." The other Caron laughed at him as if he was silly for asking.

"That's not right…" Caron mumbled

Caron stood up and look at his twin.

"That's not right."

"I'm a healthy kid."

The Caron in front of him look as if he had just made a joke and laughed loudly.

And immediately after, Caron ran for it.

"What are you doing? You're running from nothing you know." The voice was farther now.

'There's no way that was my imagination! I could feel the vibrations from the echo!'

Caron sweated heavily, if he had not been in his right mind, he would have really believed that was just his imagination!

He ran in the direction of the convenience store where Alex was.

He could see a group of three people walking in his direction. Although it was dangerous to trust strangers, especially in times like these, Caron would much rather take the risk with strangers, than find out whatever that thing was.

It seemed like the group of people spotted him, as one of them waved at him.

He waved back in relief, he was away from that thing.

But whatever it was…

He hoped that it hadn't followed him.