#also forgive my spelling mistakes I didn't proofread and it's almost 2am

[worminsndtier]

Kotestu is a grim

This is a fact Barnaby knew, one he wished to push down as far as he possibly can. Telling everyone that he's just a ghost dog, trying not to raise suspicion when Kotestu melts into his shadow. Of course no one would ever bat an eye towards them, in a world of superpowers, the supernatural isn't as adnormal as one would think.

It doesn't change much about it if no one thought too deeply about it. Rather if anyone even knew what a grim was they probably wouldn't bat an eye. That's not the issue, the issue Barnaby is experiencing is specifically how powerful having a grim could be.

Church grims are known as guardian dogs that roamed graveyards to keep them keep trespassers that came to vandalize gravestones or rob the dead. But they are also known as Gytrash, Black Shuck, Barghest, or just Black dogs.

Black dogs that are thought to be malevolent and sinister shapeshifting creatures that would either guide travelers to the right path or guide them to become lost, unable to return. Barnaby has learned through time that Kotestu would never trick him, but he's seen him do it to others. Hiding in shadows when he was younger, growing at impossible feats, and covering him in inky blackness to scare away bullies and such.

He's also seen what happens what happens when it gets taken too far. Tiny clicks of nails turning into scrapings of talons on concrete, the dripping of warm blood onto unclothed skin. The smell of copper etching all around him but him being unable to see anything from the blackness.

Barnaby is grateful for never being able to see what what happened to his step father. Even more so that his mom hid all the details from him, along with keeping it a secret from the cops in where her husband went. But it never stops the inkling of fear of what if it happens again. When it happens, would he be able to control Kotestu, or would he loose all control of him like he did that night when he was a kid.

Kotestu is a grim, that is a fact. Only a few people knew, and Barnaby wants it to stay that way. The prospect of another persons death hangs over his head every time they merge together. But if he pretends, maybe no one will ask, no one will push, no one would take it too far.

That's all he asks, for no one to look to closely at his guys dog