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 Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 11:38 am
Ryjer was worried in the presence of the Goddess. On one hand, he knew she would protect him, or at least theorized as such. She was their goddess, and had left him with such a peaceful feeling the last time...
The scissors, though, brought that worry back. Retrieve a heart? Just a heart. From some chest.
He couldn't remember where hearts usually came from. He looked down at his own glowing yellow core that flickered with orange for a moment before nodding and backing away slowly. It seemed like a simple enough task.
He stepped inside where she had indicated, taking in the three doors. He approached the strange, pumpkin-adorned one first, walking past it before hesitating at the second. He wasn't sure he liked the look of that spiral. The third left a sour taste in his mouth.
Options were debated, and he figured if he was to retrieve a heart, it would probably be best to go a place he wasn't fond of. The reasoning felt sound.
He stared at the third doorway, his stomach twisting and his fingertips felt numb. Whatever was in there was terrifying. Maybe that was just a defense mechanism?
Holding his breath, he passed through the third door.
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Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 11:53 am
Ryjer shuffled down the dark hallway, not at all excited or impressed, and the nagging, paranoid questions returned to the back of his head.
What did she need the heart for? Where was he going to find one? How were the scissors going to come into play? Why did she need it at all? Is that why they were put here? To run these errands for the Goddess? Is this all it would take?
As the hallway stretched around him, he felt his knee bump against something... a quick grope indicated it was a box of some sort...
Jerry...
He hesitated. What was that?
Jerry...
Only one thing to do. His scissors slipped over soft, frail flesh.
He thought he was going to be sick. Clench your eyes shut and feel around for what he was looking for. The pulse resonated up his fingertips as he felt an artery. Snip.
Jerry-! That name again! It sounded so.... familiar. He hesitated, but snipped again and suddenly a thin arm reached up, grabbing his elbow frantically as it gave a scream.
JERRY!
"You're going to be staying with us now," A gentle voice whispered. He was small, so small, able to be cradled in her arms, face pressed against her soft breast. There was grief in her voice.
"Mama?" He babbled, a child's incomprehension of the situation pulsing through him.
"It'll be alright, Jerry baby. Grandma's here."
And he was alright. The arms would keep him safe from the scary things, from everything, from the world...
Snip.
The heart came free and the screaming pale figure, wet with blood that looked like black oil in the red light slumped.
Why were tears streaming down his face? Who was that? What was that? He knew, he knew, he KNEW he should have remembered, but he didn't. Who was this woman?
The heart went quiet and he slipped it into his bag, backing away slowly.
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Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:09 pm
He continued forward, troubled by the situation and the unanswered questions looming over him. The Goddess had asked and he must obey, right? The ground was suddenly wetter, his footsteps punctuated by splashes.
"Please give it back..."
He turned sharply at the sudden voice, so familiar and yet so distant, but there was nothing there in the darkness.
His own heart was racing. He pushed forward, the water ebbign around him, rising now to his knees.
"Please..."
He hurried his steps. Don't look back, don't look back, this was just a test, just a test from the Goddess and he would pass, he would make her proud, he would make her favor him. The water was up to his waist now.
"Please give me back my heart..."
He turned once more just in time to see the frail, elderly corpse looming toward him in the yellow light of his own core, tinted green by the blue glow of his pendant. An older woman with dead, grey eyes, her chest cut open by his scissors, staining the water around her in a dark cloud of spilling blood.
"I c-c-can't, I need it..." He quickly explained, but the woman suddenly gave a snarl, leaping on him, knocking him back with a splash.
"Give it BACK!!" His head was thrust under water, and those skeletal hands held like clamps to his own thin shoulders. He tried to scream, but water filled his mouth, the world turning to liquid and suffocation and pain aching through him as he claws at her exposed ribs...
He was at a piano, his hands dancing across the keys as music spilled over him and the old woman in the chair beside him. The song came to an end and he turned to smile at her. "You remember that one, right?" He asked hopefully.
"That was very pretty," She said simply, with that touch of disconnection he had grown accustomed to. She didn't remember the song, but it got her talking again. He smiled, rising from the piano bench to walk around her chair and take off the breaks on the wheels.
"I thought you would like it," He settled for, "It's probably a good time for lunch." He wheeled her chair into the kitchen and set about making sandwiches for them both. "Tuna sound good?"
She didn't answer, humming the tune he had been playing distantly. Her mind was usually elsewhere these days. The more he could keep her grounded, the better. "Gran?" He repeated."
"Yes, Oscar?"
"I'm Jerry, Gran." He repeated as he opened the can of tuna and started preparing their sandwiches.
"Oh." She repeated. "When is Oscar coming home?"
"He's not, Gran." He repeated stiffly. It was something she asked several times a day. The past six months her disease had gotten worse, but he did all he could. What choice did he have? She had taken care of him for so long, it was only right he repay the favor....
"Oh."
He shifted, waiting for the bread to be toasted before finally moving around the chair to give the old woman a kiss on the cheek.
"But I'm not going anywhere," He assured her, taking her thin hand and giving it a squeeze. "I love you, Gran."
"I love you too, Oscar."
He gagged and struggled as her face, twisted and enraged and distorted through the water above him held him down, impossibly strong for her frail frame...
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Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:14 pm
No, no no no, he couldn't die here. She was already dead. She was already dead and she wanted him dead too and he had to bring the heart to the Goddess and she was going to kill him.
With a wild, gurgling, sputtering cry, he arched up, the scissors plunging deep into the open chest cavity, blood staining the water around them as the screaming, mutilated figure vanished.
He coughed and gagged as the water ebbed and flowed away, leaving him on solid ground to empty his lungs as the old woman's cries still echoed in his mind's ear.
He would come back for her. He would. He'd come free her from this... whatever this is. But for now... he glanced up at the distant doorway casting it's light across him... he had to help the Goddess. He had to if he ever wanted to help his Gran again.
His Gran.
The only water that remained as he hobbled and limped his way through the door were the tears streaming down his shadowy face.
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