“Hun-ood.” Said a voice behind him.

Max looked in the direction of the voice, but there was no one there. He looked around.

“Ah… Max, is everything all right?” Elisa asked.

“Yes. I just thought I heard something… Must have been the tv in another room…”

He opened his phone’s gallery and selected the best photos of Pest to send.

“Oh… She was so cute as a baby!” said the girl.

“S-kid,” a gurgling voice said, followed by an animalistic roar and a soul shrieking scream.

“What the?!” His heart skipped a beat. “Huh, Elisa, I need to go!”

“Oh… Ok. Are you sure everything is alright?”

“Humm, yes. I’m just tired. See you tomorrow. And don’t forget the book.” the boy said, with a forced smile.

“I won’t. Good night!” She ended the call with a cheerful tone.

“Good night.” He said, even though the call had already ended.

He got up from his bed, and his cat followed him. Max looked around and went to the corridor; all he could hear was the tv in the living room. His aunt and uncle were watching a horror movie together.

“Idiot…” his aunt commented as a character scrambled up the stairs screaming.

“Hey, doesn’t that demon look like the guy from ‘Mayen At the Ball’?” asked the uncle.

“Oh my God, it does look like him…” she laughed.

Max went back to his room.

“It was just a horror movie…” he sighed in relief.

Pest meowed and placed a paw on his foot.

“Aww…” He picked her up and cuddled her. “I guess I hadn’t that much time to pay attention to you because of the whole homework thing, huh?”

Max felt like a violent gust of air hit him, and an electric shock ran all over his body, causing him to hold on to Pest harder and stumble for equilibrium. The boy looked around frenetically. He could hear what sounded like heavy breathing right in front of him.

Pest meowed, catching his attention.

“Oh sorry,” he said, easing his grip on her a little “Well, that sure is a good sound system, huh girl?” he chuckled nervously, sitting on his bed, with a forced smile on his face.

He spent a few minutes petting and playing with her, and then his aunt went to his room to tell him to get ready for bed.

A few hours of darkness and silence had already passed when he woke up feeling like something crawled out of his back.

“Fuck!” he grunted, clutching his bedsheets.

“It-ne-st-by.”

“What the fuck?!” Max sat up, he felt like his lungs were burning, and grabbed his phone to use it as a flashlight. “A dream… Yeah, it was a dream…” He laid back down and placed his phone on his nightstand “Fuck…” His chest hurt.

His cat jumped on the bed and mowed.

“Oh, hey… Did I wake you up? Sorry…” he said, petting her on the head.

“It’s back!” a scared voice yelled.

Max passed out and found himself in a dark abyss. He looked around and saw a foggy glowing figure in the distance. The boy decided to get closer to examine it with more detail, hoping that it wasn't the so famous light at the end of the tunnel.

As he got closer, he came to realize the figure was a little boy with dirty pajamas and bruises all over his face and hand marks on his neck.

“Ah… Hello?” Max called.

The boy looked at him, his eyes widen with surprise, and then at the sky before pointing at his mouth and waving his finger.

“You’re mute?”

He shook his head and pointed upwards before making a scary face, both his hands in the air flexing like claws.

“What?” he stopped talking when he heard steps coming from the sky. “Is there something up there?” he whispered.

He nodded. Max heard a hungry growl, and the kid inched closer to him. He signaled the teen to keep quiet, and the orphan nodded.

They stayed quiet for a while until they heard steps moving away.

“You can hear me?” the boy asked, with a shine in his eyes, leaning closer to him.

“Ah... Yeah,” God, that was the creepiest nightmare he ever had, but it was still better than the robot clown zombie apocalypse. He looked the boy up and down; he was truly in a pitiful state “What happened to you?”

“I’ll get to that in a moment, but first, will you help me? I’m Calvin, by the way,” he said, stretching out his hand.

“I’m Max. And sure, what can I do for you?” Max said, taking the kid’s hand.

“Really?! Thank you so much!” he said, jumping with excitement “Ok, so basically, this guy kidnaped me in the middle of the street while I was heading home from a friend's house and… You know. Killed me. My parents have been looking for me for two years now actually and... ” he summarised in a sad tone.

“Ok. You want me to help you catch him and stuff?” Max asked as the kid went silent. 

“Yes, and I also want to see him get beaten to death in prison...” he said, closing his fist and looking at his feet. 

Max stared at him... That was... Understandable.

“His name is Tiago Vieira Amaral. He’s a retired cop, and works as a locksmith, and has one of those stores where you buy tools and stuff. It’s pretty small, and it’s in an alleyway near a cafe and a bus stop...”

“Ok…” Weird, his dreams were always way more cryptic and senseless.

“I think it’s called the ‘Casa das ferramentas’ or something like that… It’s near that old church that cracked in half and closed again.” The ghost explained, putting his hand together and opening and closing them again.

“A church that cracked in half and closed again?” Ah! There was the cryptic stuff he was used to...

“Yeah, my catechism teacher never shuts up about it…” he said, crossing his skinny wounded arms.

“Ok…” he had a catechism teacher that doubled as a science teacher once... He was always side-eyeing him and his brother and was always quoting the bible and shit... The funny part is that the guy wasn’t even qualified to be a science teacher; the school just didn’t have the budget to hire one after the last one retired... Which would explain the pseudo-science he would sometimes spit out if any student of color answered a question wrong. 

They heard what sounded like claws hitting a wooden floor and took a few steps back.

“Hey, can I stick with you for a while? That thing has been chasing me for days now. I need a rest and a place to hide… I promise I won’t be a bother,” he pleaded in a whisper, giving Max some super effective puppy eyes.

“Oh, ok, sure…” He would rather not have to babysit a kid, but it was just a dream, so there was no use saying no to him.

“Thank you.” He said with a relieved smile “We can discuss more details about how to take care of the dude later...”

“Ah... Sure.” 

Max heard his phone’s alarm and woke up in his room with his cat sleeping next to his face.

“Good morning, Pest.” God... Why was he feeling so tired? “Well, off to school, I go…” He tried to get up, and he felt like his heart was about to give out before collapsing and clutching his pillow “Fuck… Auntie. Help...” he said with all the strength he had left before passing out.

Pest looked at him and ran out of the cat door, meowing like crazy.

“Max, your cat is hungry- Hey, don’t pull my pants like that!” she said, shaking her leg gently, but Pest refused to let go and kept pulling her. “God, what’s wrong with you today? Maxwell!” but no one answered.

“I’ll go wake him up, keep an eye on my coffee, please.” Max’s uncle said, getting up from the table.

“Sure thing.”

The man entered the boy’s room, Pest following behind, and meowing.

“Max, wake up!” the man said, shaking the boy’s shoulder “Max? Maxwell?” He stopped, seeing blood running out of the boy’s nose “Ah... Honey, I think we need an ambulance.”

“What?” she yelled from the kitchen.

“Call an ambulance!” he yelled, putting two fingers on the boy’s wrist “Fuck! Matilda, call an ambulance!”