Knisley Fic #01
Comm: 5_Prompts
Prompt: Table 22, #3 Along the Border
Completion: 2/5
Fandom: Original
Character: Knisley
Rating: K+
Word Count: 708
Summary: Knisley finds himself in a tough situation.
A/N: Knisley is my original character. <3 Not even I know much about him yet, so I'm kind of learning about him and his world as I write.
Knisley perched precariously on the edge of the sloped roof. Bits of dirt lodged between the chipped and broken tiles loosened under his sneakers and fell onto the road. The boy was not frightened; twenty feet was not high enough to invoke anything akin to fear in his hardened mind.
He uncrossed his arms, but his stance remained rigid. In one quick motion he brought his glasses to his mouth and exhaled, fogging up the scratched lenses. The teenager used the edge of his loose T-shirt to clean them, watching expectantly as the heat of his breath kicked the mechanisms that he had stored within the frames into gear. They whirred within the metal work of the frames and a slight glowing heated up the edges. Cautiously, he placed them back to rest on the bridge of his nose, hoping that they would do what he had created them for.
His vision increased rapidly. He could now make out the rest of the block and its inhabitants. Perfect, he moaned to himself when he saw two large dogs creeping down the street not ten feet from his building. Dogs here were menacing creatures. These brutes, which appeared to have caught his scent, were just runts. They each stood well over his shoulder though, the tips of their ears reaching almost his full six feet.
The wind ruffled his long brown bangs into his eyes, redirecting his scent in there direction. Well aware that he could neither outrun them nor fight a full pack, he chose to rearrange his body so that he was virtually invisible. The dogs relied mostly on scent, but if he remained as he was, they were sure to lose interest in him before the sun rose and the real monsters rose to take their place in the world.
He contented himself with playing pacman and solitaire, ignoring the incoming texts from the few people that bothered with him at all. He would have gladly ditched his phone, but it was built into the skin under his shoulder blade. He could 'hear' the messages as they came in and the only way to remove the phone or turn it off was to dig it back out from under his skin and bones.
Sick of waiting, Knisley peered over the edge of the roof and was met by two pairs of steely jaws. The howling of the dogs awoke whatever was living beneath him and he gulped when smoke began to rise from the chimney to his right.
If he abandoned the roof now, he risked being devoured piece by piece by what was considered the chiwawa of the demon world. If he remained where he was, whatever creature was making its way up the chimney beside him was sure to do far worse than making him into a meal.
Making a quick decision, Knisley calculated his odds of survival either way before making a rather clumsy leap at the next roof over. Never a graceful person, he almost fell of the other side when he reached it, pausing just long enough to avoid falling into the rest of the pack. The dogs snapped and yipped, awakening the neighborhood as he made mad dashes and leaps until he ran out of room and sped toward the border.
He smirked when he found himself in front of the school, the creatures behind him snarling and glaring, but unable to pass the border between worlds. He motioned to them to back off, and didn't bother trying to hide the cruel laugh that bubbled to his lips when the dogs that had been chasing him were forced back by the closing walls. They were of his making, and only he could pass.
Knisley removed his finger from the knot-hole in the gnarled oak tree and ran a hand through his hair, smoothing it just enough that he wouldn't look completely untrustworthy when he walked into the school an hour early, just as the library was opening.
He preferred not to sleep among the shelves, but today Shakespeare and Shaw were calling his name and he settled with his back against the wall to wait for the first bell of the morning, content to be alone for a short while.