The Mandela Catalogue

The Safe Place

(art by me)

It had been a few days after the start.

Fox comes in brushing his teeth.

"sho wen do you fink itsh gonna end?" he says with the toothbrush in his mouth. "dunno but it might be a while." I say, sitting on the sofa watching Big Bang Theory. I get a text and open my phone.

Message

Coop- Hey, me and the others are going to an abandoned warehouse in a couple weeks

Me- we're supposed to stay inside tho

Coop- but it's so boring

Me- you can't go out and risk your life just because your bored cooper

Coop- I don't believe that shit

Me- what do you mean? It was on the news and everything, are you stupid?

Coop- still doesn't mean it can't be fake, listen. I just wanna know if you wanna come

Me- no I'm not going cause we're supposed to stay in our houses, your not going either

Coop- I am, you can't stop me

Me- what if it turned out to be real coop? What if you go there and die? I can't lose you, we've been friends since childhood

Coop- we've already planned it Damien, no point in stopping us

Me- text me before you go ok?

Coop- alright, cya

Me- night.

Irl

I look up from my phone at Fox, he's petting his cat and watching TV.

"hey, I never asked, what's your cats name?" I ask
"oh! Her name is Bee" he smiles
Bee purs
"does she like birds?" I ask
"yeah, she loves them, she likes watching them out the window and hearing them" he says
"I uh, I have a crow. Her name is Pepper" I say.

"you have a crow?"
"yeah, shes kind of an emotional support animal for me. I found her when she was small, she had fell out a tree. I kind of taught her to talk" I say
I go to let her out of my room.
"Hello! "
"Hi Pepper!"
She flies onto my shoulder and nibbles at my ear, puffing up.

She caws and flies into the living room.
I walk in to see her on Fox's shoulder.
"she likes you" I laugh
"woah, I've never been up close to a crow before" he says
"Pepper this is Fox" I say
"Fox!" she says and nibbled his ear
"crows are very intelligent, she's a fast learner and I'm surprised that she can even remember people's names" I say

pepper makes a siren noise and puffs up.
She looks at Bee watching her and jumps down.
"cat" she says
"good girl" I say and I give her a nut.

__________________
2 days

I wake up at 10am, I stare at the cieling finding motivation to get up when I hear a knock on my door.
"Damien you up?" I hear Fox say.
"Damien you up?" Pepper repeats and then flies onto my chest.
"uhhhgg" I say sitting up, Pepper jumps onto my legs.
"I'm guessing that's a yes, I'm starting to make breakfast!" Fox yells and I hear him walk off.
I check my phone, several unread messages sent at 7am from Cooper.

Coop- Hey Change of plans.
Coop- everyone bailed except me and John so we're going to the house at midnight tonight.

"shit" I say outloud and Pepper looks at me.
"shit" She says.
"no, Pepper-" I say.
Fox opens the door and passes me crumpets and tea.
"very british" I laugh.
"this is England after all" he says and walks out, leaving my door open.
Pepper flies out my room.

You- OK, just please text me every 15 mins ok?

Coop- yeah yeah

I get up, get into some pajamas and bring my breakfast in the kitchen /living room (the kitchen and living room are one room)

"hey, there's a wood behind the apartments and I know we're not supposed to go out but Pepper needs a bit of a fly around outside, you wanna come?" I say
"what about the alternates?" he says
"I know a little secret area that no one knows about, you'll be the first to know cause your my only friend haha" I say scratching the back of my head.

_________________________

Me, Fox, Bee and Pepper walk on a path (Pepper on my shoulder). We were whispering conversations.
"so how did you find this secret area? " Fox asks
"Well since I'm very clumsy, I fell into a bush and went through it into this secret area in the bushes, no other way in without scratching yourself but it's worth it. It's where I get away from all my troubles, me and Pepper like to go there" I say.

Fox smiles. We walked for five minutes until I walked into the bush without telling Fox.
"huh? Oh!" he says following.
We enter into a large area with a tree in the middle, leaves from the bushes and the tree covering the top so from the outside it just looks like one of this thick square bushes but big. I go to sit at the tree.

"you know the path we took is rarely used by people cause mostly drug dealers sell down here." I laugh.
"well that's a way for those creatures to not find us." he says
I look up at the large tree.
"pepper, could you perch in the tree and alert us of anything that looks like a human?" I ask
She caws.
"remember the comeback call" I say and I make a crow call that sounds exactly like a crow.
Fox looks shocked.
Pepper flies off into the tree.
"I taught her different calls for different meanings" I smile.
"that's talent right there my man, you need to be on like Britains got talent." he laughs
I never noticed the freckles on his face.

____________

A few hours pass.
Me and Fox were talking, I checked my phone; 5:30.
"we should probably go before it gets dark" I say getting up.
Fox pauses.
I hear Peppers warning call.
I tell her that we got the call and looked through the leaves, Fox's breath drew heavier.
I saw the person walk, they looked normal but something felt off.

I look down to their hands, their fingers were abnormally long and came to a sharp point. I quieted my breathing as it neared us, I pulled Fox away and we moved silently over behind the tree incase it peered in.
"I'm scared" Pepper whispers on my shoulder.

"I know, it'll be gone in a sec." I said.
I give her a reassuring scratch on her neck and pear out from behind the tree.
I could see it's shadow, through the leaves. Just standing there, either staring at us or staring at something with it's back to us. I hear it move the bushes to pear in, Bee walks out in the open and stares at the creature (acting like a normal cat and not doing this because there are two guys and a crow hiding lmao).

I hear it move the leaves back and carry on walking. I pear out and it's gone, Bee goes outside the bushes and watches the thing leave. She meows for us to come out and we silently speed walk back to the apartment.

As soon as we get back in we start to breathe again.
"we are never doing that again, for sure"
Fox says throwing himself down on the sofa.
"good thing we had Pepper and her calls or we'd be toast" I say
"wait, why does Pepper have a warning call?" Fox asks
"Drug dealers, sketchy people, kidnappers, rapists, rappers and I don't want the pain of bumping into someone, I don't like people. Your an acception" I say laughing a bit at the last sentence.

________________________

Me - came across an alternate today in my safe place, luckily we had Pepper or we would have walk right into it.
Coop- we?
Me- my roommate
Coop- right.
Coop- it's nearly time
Me- just please be safe, remember to text me every 15 minutes!
Coop- I will!