“What is your name?” A man sat across from me with a notebook and a camera over his shoulder.
I spoke clearly while looking at the man’s plain brown eyes. “My name is Skiphoneous Hellian. My friends call me Ski . I’m nineteen years old.”
His eyebrow rose. “And you are here to give the public an idea of what it’s like to be a cursed human, correct?”
I opened my mouth then bite my tongue. I must resist the urge to be a smartass… “I mean, you called me here to do an interview.” Well… that didn’t work. He seemed surprised from my reaction.
He cleared his throat. “W-well yes. So, would you mind giving us your first realization that life for the possessed and the normal were different?”
I sighed, then looked down. Gathering my thoughts, I sucked in as much air as possible, then looked back at the man’s face. “About fifteen years ago, I had gone to the fair with my grandparents. At the time I had no idea that I was possessed, so I could ride anything that I wanted, although my grandparents couldn’t. I remember it clearly… I had just gotten off a teacup ride, and was walking back towards where my grandparents were when I heard a loud scream come from the front of the fairgrounds. I don’t know why, but I ran over towards the origin of the sound to see two grown men with electrified leashes around their necks, surrounded by policemen. I stopped about ten feet away from the police officers and watched. The men were visibly angry. They kept screaming “She stole my money! She took all of it! It’s in her pockets!” I turned around to see a woman laugh silently and walk away towards the ticket booth. I watched her pay for the tickets with a credit card and walk away. As I turned back around, the screaming had stopped. The two men were on the ground. One had gone limp, the other was staring at him. I didn’t see the look on his face, but I figure he was horrified. Back then I didn’t know what was going on, but now I know. The police were never on their side. They didn’t care about them… about us. They only want to keep us in check. We don’t have a say in our safety.” I take a deep breath and look down once again.
The man in front of me spoke abruptly. “You said that you didn’t know you were possessed when you went to the fair. When exactly does someone realize that they are possessed?”
I looked at him once again. His eyebrow had risen in curiosity, and his head had tilted upwards and cocked to the side, as if to mix his curiosity with a sense of superiority. “About seven to eight years old. It starts with a dream. We see a strange being that we’ve never seen before, and it speaks to us. For some, it scares them. For others, it informs. For me, it comforted my sleep, until I woke up. The dream is almost like a wet dream in puberty. The only difference is, instead of having a wet spot in your underwear when you wake up, you wake up to find yourself in a burning bed.” Although I joked, my facial expression didn’t change.
The corner of the man’s mouth curved upwards, but quickly straightened out. “Do you know what you are possessed by, and what are your powers, if you don’t mind me asking.” His eyebrow raised again, but his sense of superiority had evaporated.
“My power is the ability to create and manipulate fire. I can also survive in the midst of a fire. It can be useful, in fact I have considered becoming a fire fighter, but it isn’t for me. My possession is a member of the Yokai; the tri-tail nekomata. It’s the mixture of a chara and a nekomata.”
A sly smile grew on his face, as he prepared another question. “I’ve heard that the power of a possessed person comes from some kind of energy. Could you elaborate on that?”
I then realized why he smiled like that. He figured that I couldn’t answer the question. My eyes closed as I thought of my response. “The power of a possessed human comes from something called Mana. It is what connects our physical bodies to the magical realm. There are several types of mana also. There’s white mana, which is mainly used for healing, there’s red mana, which is mainly used for attacking. There’s blue mana, which is mainly used for defending. There’s green mana, which is mainly used to enhance the physical body, and there’s black mana, which is mainly used to manipulate things. I personally use Black and Red mana.”
His facial expression revealed his surprise as he tries to regain his composure. “S-so… what about your possession? Your t-tri-tailed nek-“
“Tri-tailed nekomata.” I said to save him the embarrassment of fumbling his words on air.
“Yes.” He cleared his throat again. “What type of energy does he use?”
I laughed a little at his blunder, then looked him in the eye once again. “Possessor use an energy called void. The ghost that they use to possess us isn’t the full body, their full body is in another place. Most don’t know where that other place is, but the more void the physical body of the possessor has, the stronger the link between the possession and the possessor is, and the stronger the link is, the stronger the power that the possession uses is, it’s basically an undead version of aura. The more aura or the more potent the aura we have, the more powerful and effective our attacks are.”
The man nods and looks at the camera man behind him, who gives the man in front of me one finger. The man turns back around to face me and speaks. “Well we have time for one more question. Do you feel that possessions are treated unfairly?”
I felt a slight pain in my chest. The corners of my eyes sharpened as I gave an expression of offense. “Is that a trick question? Of course I do. A possessed human can’t even go to a grocery store without getting harassed for one thing or another. The police don’t care about our safety. We can’t defend ourselves, or we’ll get incarcerated or killed. We have no rights. The fact that people blame us for so many things that we objectively did not do, is absurd. We did not ask to be born possessed. We did not want to be persecuted for something that is beyond our control, and we shouldn’t be treated as lesser, when we are just trying to live our lives normally. To be fair, the normal people in this world neglect and punish us for things that we can’t control, but when a group like Darwin’s Vision comes along and tries to open up your eyes to what your people do, you get scared, and you act innocent. I don’t think what they do is right by any means. I don’t think that getting rid of normal people is okay, but I do think that something needs to change, because right now, I’m tired of getting harassed by suburban dad’s at my local grocery store, just because I want to get a can of pineapple.”
The man nods and snaps to signal the end of the interview, and he rises. I rise with him and offer to shake hands. He glares at me for a moment. “You embarrassed me and tarnished my name, on my show, and you think that I would shake the hand of a dirty beastkin possession like you?! You must be out of your mind! You think your smart, well I hope you get used to what you call “inequality” because it’s never going away. Not in this lifetime!” His voice was overly aggressive as I put my hands into the pockets of my slacks and began to walk off.
I then stopped walking and turned around to see him staring a hole in my skull. “I didn’t embarrass you on your show, you did. It’s your job to research the topics that you’re going to talk about. I shouldn’t have to pull the weight as a guest on your show, but I guess since I’m the first Possessed human you’ve had on your extremist show, you didn’t know that… Well that’s fine. I got my point across.” I walked from the room and found the nearest bathroom. It was small with one urinal and a toilet. I stepped in and locked the door behind myself. I looked at myself in the mirror. My ears were like a cat’s, my sandy brown hair still looked decently brushed. I looked closer at my soft features and small goatee, not sure whether to try and build my confidence up again, or to let myself loathe for a few minutes. I decided to do the former as I began to straighten my dress shirt, tie and suit jacket. I reached into the back of my pants and pulled out all three of my tails and sighed. I think the worst part of sitting through that interview was sitting on my tails. I then started running water into the sink and wet my hands. I subsequently rubbed my face with my hands and looked at my reflection in the mirror once again. “For a place with so much diversity, why is it so unjust?” I relaxed my face for a moment, before becoming serious.
My reflection slowly changed from a young cat beastkin with hazel eyes and sandy hair to a stern middle-aged cat beastkin with black hair and red eyes. It began to speak. “I know. We’re gonna change it kid. The world ain’t gonna be this way for long, ya understand? Now wipe off yer face. It looks like ya thought the toilet was an apple bobbin thin’.
I shook my head and looked back at the mirror to see that my reflection had turned back to normal. “Yeah. We will.” I wiped my face and threw the paper towel in the trashcan beside the sink and left the bathroom. I then walked to my left and exited through the large glass double door, waving goodbye at the receptionist. She didn’t wave back.
I looked at the top of the building that I had just exited. “Channel 14. Of course, I had to have an interview with them. Fucking pricks. I walked to my old lemon of a car and sat in the driver’s seat for a few minutes before hearing it struggle to start and eventually turn over. I only heard what my possessor had said to me through the mirror. “Yeah… We will.”
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