Ash-boss
A Thousand Stories: Memory

Heavy rain again flushed the streets that Laras passed. It felt like the drama in the movies only when sadness piled up, the rain flushed the main character on his way home. Every drop of rain that fell and soaked his hair made Laras feel calm that could not be replaced by anything.

"What should I do?!"

Laras stopped his steps at the end of the ramp leading to his house. Shadow after shadow felt increasingly blurred for him. One drop of rain falls on his eye. Make those eyes blink once more.

As soon as Laras's view opened for a second time, Laras found a pink umbrella covering him.

"Why are you raining like this, son!" the smile of grandfather who was his new neighbor made Laras stunned. "Did you forget to bring your umbrella today?!"

"Grandfather!" laras said returning that smile.

"Let's go home! Grandma was waiting at home. And grandfather did not want grandma to wait long." take the grandfather while handing the umbrella to Laras. While he ran slowly while dragging a little leg.

Holding the umbrella that his grandfather crammed on him, Laras began his steps to pursue the grandfather to share the umbrella with him.

"Grandpa wait!!" The barrel accelerates its pace at the very end of the ramp. "This is for grandpa! I was soaking wet from the rain!!"

Grandpa waved his hand. It didn't seem to hear clearly what Laras said. The grandfather continued his quick steps to return home. As soon as Laras turned for a moment towards the food stall on the corner of the road, Laras was pensive to find that his grandfather had disappeared from the street in front of him.

"Clearned!!" greet the owner of the restaurant. "Come stop by! There was extra food from the customer's cancelled order. Help me finish it."

"Yes?" Confusion barrel. Then his stomach immediately sounded indicating that he was starving. Barrel held the stomach with one hand. The other hand still held the umbrella in his position.

"Bring home and eat at home. I'll catch up after I'm done closing the store!"

The girl who owned the simple meal pushed the drenched body of Laras to go home. Laras turned his head while carrying 2 packs of rice boxes from the order said by the store owner.

"Thank you."

//

In front of the terrace of his room, Laras sat staring at the night with a drizzle of rain that continued to fall soaking parts of the ground in his yard. He and the simple restaurant owner girl were silent with the atmosphere of the night.

"The rain is long!" muttered.

Laras nodded. Her hair was half dry. And from the bangs that covered part of his eyebrows, dripped water that he still could not dry.

Haattciih!

Barrel stumbled in front of him. He held onto the part of his nose that started sneezing and blushing.

"I think I'm going to get the flu!" and once again the Baras sneezed. Sneezing many times. Which makes Laras must be laughed at by his friend.

"Who told you to get soaked like that!" his friend's laughter broke. But the girl's hand picked her up a packet of tissue that she was carrying in her bag.

"Wear this. I knew you'd get the flu!" his laughter gushed again finding Laras looking at him with a reddened nose. Her eyes are pretty and look very sleepy. "Preferably before going to bed, we dry your hair first!" the girl pulled out her hairdryer from the bag. Plug it into the *** section near the door of the room Barrel and then apply the tool to the hair Barrel.

"Are you a doraemon!" laras. "It looks like everything I need is in your bag!"

"Yeah! That's it." he laughed cheerfully.

"It feels good to have someone petrifying me like this." Laras' face smiled as he closed in on enjoying the way his friend was drying his hair.

The girl was silent for a moment. The wind speed of her hairdryer until she pointed in the other direction.

"What's up?!" asked Laras to open his eyes. Found his friend awake from his daydream.

"I'm really new to you." replied the girl with a small laugh. In a nightly atmosphere lit by yellowish lights, the girl turned off her hairdryer after making sure her friend's hair was dry.

"Know me? What am I like?!"

"You know Laras, you used to be scared by friends because they thought you could see ghosts and the like" he replied cheerfully. "I've also seen you disappear in the dark in pursuit of a man." the girl shuddered instantly.

"I'm chasing men?" Barrel jerked pointing at himself.

"Because of that." he answered later. "The guy you're after has a creepy face!" continued. "It's like wearing a mask!"

"Mask?!"

"Yes! The skull mask." he replied.

"Cranial mask?" again, Lara felt like a fool. Everything her friend told her felt so unreal in her life. Laras felt his life during this time really went like a teenager at his age. It's just that, in his High School, Laras has never been the name to feel in love with the opposite sex.

"I feel like it's just a dream." the girl laughed. "But at the same time as the man in the skull mask, the black shadow behind you always appears. Your shadow is so scary. That's why I'm always afraid to approach you."

"Male skull mask?! Black shadow?!" Laras patted his eel. "Why can you have such a creepy delusion!!"

"Because I'm not the only one who saw that!! Other friends and residents around this housing also have seen it several times."

Baras was stunned for a moment.

"Then why aren't you afraid of me anymore?!"

"That's.." she hesitated. "When you came home on a rainy day yesterday, me or anyone else in this neighborhood had not seen the black shadow figure again stuck behind you. Sorry, but on that rainy day, we took turns watching you from a distance. Then ask your next door neighbor to convince you that it's you."

The lights suddenly went out. Darkness immediately filled the side of the terrace.

The girl closed her mouth. He looked down, fear creeping as the lights on the porch suddenly went out.

"What happened." the girl clasped Laras' hand. Eve was terrified of the girl.

Laras also laughed while turning on the light switch that had been covered by his hand.

"Is that shadow still there?!"

"Come on!!!" lamented the girl who still harbored a little fear of him. "After this, you'll have to take me homewell!!"

"Go home alone!" answer Laras.

"I'm afraid of the dark!"

"So stay here?!" answer Laras again. "I'm also afraid of the dark."

"Clearned!" his whining. "I was really scared for telling you everything!!"

"Who told you to tell such creepy things!" ledek Laras's.

"You are!" his friend stuffed all his luggage into a bag. "Attempt me home now!" attack his friend with a little panic.

"Yes! Aye!" laras replied while wearing a jacket given by his neighbor's grandfather.

"Looks like that coat a lot!"

"Yeah! It's warming." replied Laras. "Why should I take you, when your house is only 5 minutes away from my house."

"Who told you, everything in you before was so scary!" his friend waved at Laras before closing the gate of his house.

"See you tomorrow!" The barrel waved back.

He flipped his body and fell silent as soon as he found a man in all black clothes and his slightly floppy hair standing in his sight of the path before him.

The street behind the man should be full of street lights. But as soon as the man stood on the side of the street, the entire light seemed to be covered by his body. Or like all that light sinking behind the man's back.

"Is that really you?!" said the man to the figure of Laras who looked at him with full probing.

...***...