A Discovery Of Foxes

Singapore, 2019

It was just a normal day in the simple life of Kenneth Lee, who is now currently asleep in during lecture, like he always does, well, almost always.

"Eh, he's sleeping again." Said his classmate who was sitting in the row behind him.

"It's a miracle he's still not kicked out yet." Said another one of his classmates mockingly.

Just when his lecturer is about to approach his row, he jerks awake, realising he fell asleep for the tenth time in class. What is wrong with me? Why do I always do this?! Urgh... Then he pretends nothing happened, he's always been listening in class, except, ten minutes later...

He's asleep again, I'm gonna put it to my Instagram story. Thought one of his friends, as he took out his phone to take a picture of Kenneth sleeping.

In his polytechnic, Kenneth is a little different, he is solitary, and at times really talkative when he's with his friends, but deep inside he always feels lonely and out of place. He always misses the times when he was in secondary school, where things are more simple, when he has more friends like him, a little bit crazy and always talking nonsensical things, where he can fully be himself. Now, the friends and everyone around him always feels the same to him, while they find him extremely weird instead.

"Okay, I'll end the class here today, exams are in a few weeks time, so start studying now. If you need consultations, please email me or find me in the office."

At the end of that sentence, Kenneth wakes up immediately, it's always a wonder to his classmates how he is able to just wake up right after a lecture ends, it puzzles even Kenneth himself.

Finally, the end of school. As usual, he says goodbye to his closest friends in school, well closest as it can be, sitting at the other side, in another row, away from the one he sat in, alone, and leaves the school.

While on the bus, Kenneth would listen to his music and sometimes check his Instagram, always just as a curiosity, since he doesn't post anything much himself, his last post was nearly a year ago, which is considered quite long ago in this day and age. But every time, he is disappointed, he sees most of his friends old and new, going out, having fun and he's the only one left out. The usual disappointment... Then he cheers himself up, as he always does.

I'll just read my books and mangas, I don't need them. He thought to himself encouragingly but didn't make him feel much better at all.

As he was reading on his phone, the sky quickly turned grey and starts to drizzle, the wind blew at the trees outside while it begins to sway and reminds him of the tube man he sometimes sees in gas stations, which amuses him a little. The bus which is already cold literally became full-on winter, luckily, it's times like this that Kenneth always has his trusty sweater, which he brings pretty much everywhere, even if the weather is like the Sahara and freaking thirty-seven degrees outside.

Then, just outside the window, someone suspicious in the distance caught his eye. That person was wearing all black with his head covered by the hood of his hoodie. Even though it's raining, the person was walking instead of running, though it seemed obvious that he was walking normally, the pace at which he is walking is clearly unnatural. Then while walking, the boy suddenly turned his head around and stared straight into his eyes. Kenneth pretends he was just looking straight ahead like he's invisible, similar to how when two strangers eyes meet, and they pretend not to see one another.

Kenneth was a little shock when he saw his face, his skin was extremely white, almost glowing, what amazes him more are his eyes, it was beautiful, the left eye was a bright golden colour which almost seems like its glowing, while the right eyes was a deep dark steel grey. Even if the guy is five metres away from the bus, Kenneth could still tell the colour of his eyes from its extreme intensity. The way the guy was looking at him made him shudder and sent chills down his spine, for the first time, he felt genuinely afraid like he was looking at the embodiment of fear itself, that in any moment, he could be wiped out of existence.

Just like that, the guy instantly vanished, out of thin air, like a mirage, gone.

"WHAT THE-" Kenneth exclaimed loudly, he was taken aback. He didn't notice how loud he spoke as his headphones were on full blast, everyone looked in his direction and murmuring about how weird he is.

"Sorry everyone, just switched on my headphones, was shocked by how loud it was, haha." He explained and made an awkward smile. The rest of the passengers seemed satisfied with his answer, as they went back to what they were doing. Kenneth calmed himself down, took in a deep breath, and turned his head as far back as he could, looking through the window, to see if the guy he saw before was still there, even though he knew deep in his consciousness that the guy disappeared.

I knew what I saw, THAT GUY DISAPPEARED, OUT OF THIN AIR! Okay Kenneth, calm down, you must be seeing things, maybe you are hallucinating, it's not possible that a guy just disappeared out of thin air, it's not scientifically possible, you must be imagining things, maybe you didn't get enough sleep? That's it! You, didn't, get, enough, sleep. That's right, I shall sleep.

Just like that, Kenneth went into his peaceful slumber once again, well, as peaceful as it can get considering he's sleeping in the bus.

He slept for half an hour before waking up again, finding himself just minutes away from his bus stop. He noticed the rain had stopped, the sky turned from grey to bright and blue again.

Kenneth alighted from his bus and started to cross the bridge to get to his home. After his sleep, he still couldn't get what happened earlier out of his mind, the way someone just disappeared, he couldn't have suddenly hallucinated out of nowhere? Right?

Chills ran down his spine as he recalled the intense look of his different coloured eyes. But now that he thought about it, the guy was actually quite attractive. He has those beautiful eyes, it was small but he could see the intense colours clearly, those high cheekbones, not to mention those thick and full eyebrows, how he wishes he could look as handsome as him.

As Kenneth slowly approaches his home, he felt something was off, something wasn't right, he could feel it in his bones that something will be happening soon. Chills ran down his whole body once again, he slowed down his pace and walked even more slowly, afraid of what is to come. And he's right, something is about to occur, something that might just change his life forever.

What are you afraid of Kenneth, you are a brave grown man, you shouldn't be frightened of things, you should face them, what's more, there's nothing going on right now, NOTHING. Why are you suddenly afraid out of nowhere, GET YOURSELF TOGETHER. Kenneth thought, he bravely regain his pace and walked faster.

Kenneth lives on the seventh floor of a high-rise building in a region of Singapore called Bishan. Just when he is about to enter the lift, a familiar feeling appeared again, except, this time, it wasn't fear he was feeling but something mysterious, a curiosity that eats away at his mind. Accompanying that feeling was a serene and unnatural quietness, the quietest it has ever been his entire life for as long as he remembers. The feeling is familiar yet at the same time, not, he couldn't hear a single thing, not the vehicles running on the street, not the sound of the lift, not even the sound of his footsteps, it was just like the world stopped moving. Then the wind started to rise, the temperature dropped, it was even colder than it was on the bus, he doesn't know why but he liked this feeling, this feeling of mysteriousness, it was something he never felt before, yet feels normal to him, he was calmest he's ever been, he liked this feeling, the coldness, the blowing wind, all of it.

As the wind blows, he feels not the coldness, but how comfortable it is, it feels like it is guiding him, guiding him somewhere. He followed the direction the wind blowing to, it was weird, the direction of the wind is not constant, it is not just blowing straight, the wind direction abnormally changes according to the path, making turns and twists. Before he knew it, he was already far away from the lift that took would've taken him back home, it was like he was in a trance, his curiosity keeps him moving into the unknown, leading him to a park near his home.

Walking along the pathway in the park, the wind turned, straying from the gravelled pathway that he was standing on, he turned along with it, slowing walking to the grass and up the slope, into the trees. Although his logical mind told him not to go, that it might be dangerous, his instinct beckons him to follow, telling him that he would regret it if he does not.

He soon found himself deep in the trees, right in front of him, something glows. The light was a pale blue with a tinge of purple in it, it glowed brightly like a campfire, it seemed warm, he approaches it and finds something unexpected. It was a fox, a beautiful white fox, the glowing light of blue and purple glowed around the fox were flames, blue and purplish flames, the flames floated around the fox, like they are alive, like they are dancing, the sight is as stunning as the aurora borealis that he sees from pictures on the internet. The only other thing he notices to indicate that the fox was unusual was its tails, six of them.

What a beautiful fox...

Kenneth squatted down and slowly reaches his hand to touch it, as his hands get close, it became warmer, the flames don't burn at all, in fact, in contrast to the serene coldness that his body is feeling, his hands were comfortably warmed, the warmth gradually reaches through his whole body, it refreshes him. Slowly, he touches the fox, stroking it.

As he strokes the fox, he starts to see flashes in his mind, like he was in a dream. In the dream, he saw a young girl, not much older than he is, she was beautiful, her smile seemed warm, her hair, eyelashes and eyebrows were a stunning white. Beside the girl stood a man, in his late twenties, he looked eerily similar to the young man he saw while he was on the bus, though his jaws were more chiselled and his skin is darker, he has the same thick eyebrows, the way it arches and moves, and those eyes, he would never forget how it looks like, it was small like the young man, but both his eyes were the deep dark steel grey instead of the gold and yellow heterochromatic eyes.

The man was different from the young man, he didn't have the same aura that he exerted, instead what he feels was an unfathomable amount of sadness, people always say the eyes are the windows to the soul, now Kenneth was fully convinced that it's true, his eyes reflected infinite sadness, like he lost something, in the vision, the man suddenly turned his head and looked towards him, then his trance broke.

Kenneth snapped back into reality, now it feels like the world has started moving again, he could hear the sounds of the trees rustling, the crickets chirping and the steps of people running in the park not far from where he was. He couldn't believe everything that just happened, he wasn't himself, he was in a trance, like he was sleepwalking.

Kenneth put his head to his hands as he wondered what he has just done, what made him like this. Everything started to steer off his normal life the moment he saw the young man on the bus. He sighed, calmed himself, took in a deep breath and tries to slow his heartbeat that was gradually beating faster.

When he was calmed enough, he slowly lifted his head out of his hands, sure enough, the fox was there, except this time, the flames were gone, along with five of its tails. What he sees was just the fox lying there unconscious, that's not all, the fox is bleeding, there was blood flowing from the side it was lying down on, flowing to the grass around it, which was abnormally taller than the other patches of grass around it.

"Oh my god, what should I do?!" His feeling came in waves, first, sympathy then worries overwhelmed him completely as he ransacked his brain for what to do.