Chapter 83 - Trouble in Paradise

The two Others hadn't looked great when they had entered the shack. After the fight between Mason and Rhott, they ran through the forest and were covered in dirt and leaves and looked pretty freaked out by what had happened. Watching them exit the shack Mason and Mayry saw they looked far worse. Rhott was battered and bruised, clothes torn and missing one shoe. Shazia only looked slightly better with her hair sang and covered in dirt; she was also covered in bruises, but Rhott had undoubtedly taken the brunt of whatever they had faced.

The two of them rushed out of the shack and worriedly looked around. “Do you think he’s still out here somewhere?” the woman, Shazia, asked.

“Eh, I doubt it, too powerful. We’re probably too far down on the food chain for him to wait around for the likes of us.” Rhott answered, sounding pained to admit such a thing.

His words made her visibly relax but she still grabbed him by what was left of his shirt and started pulling him away. “Still, let’s get as far away from here as we can, just in case. We can try and get past the guardian again another time. There has to be a way.”

The two of them walked off, talking more, but Mason soon stopped listening. “Sound they didn’t get what they came for.” He considered, “Do we check the shack or keep following them?” On one hand, he was dying to know what was inside and whether he could take whatever the guardian was. But on the other hand, if they got away, there was a good chance they wouldn’t run into them again, and he needed their essence… if he wanted to get stronger, yeah. If he wanted to get stronger he would need their essence.

“There is obviously something they want in there, and if Others want something, it's probably worth making sure they don’t get it. I vote we explore the place, you ‘Mason’ whatever is in there, we ransack the place, then go after them. If we can’t find them, we just hang out here till they come back.” She smirked and started walking towards the shack before. Not left with much of a choice he walked after her,

“Hey, wait up! What does me ‘Mason-ing’ whatever is in there even mean?!” He said as he caught up to her.

She reached out an arm, putting it behind him and pulling him into a squeeze. “You’re a smart man; I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He shrugged her arm off and bumped his body into hers, causing her to stumble. She tried to imitate the manoeuvre once she had regained her balance, but he anticipated her and stopped walking just at the right time, causing her to stumble again. She growled at him but her revenge was halted as they reached the door to the shack.

Looking at the door with fascination, she trailed her fingers around the tiny symbols decorating it. “Runes…” she muttered. “I don’t know a whole lot about runes… I wonder if these are Ganehfrelian or if they originated her- ” Before she could finish her sentence, the door caved in. With irritation on her face, she glared at Mason.

He was hunched over slightly and looked guilty as all hell, with his fist where the door used to be. “Oops, crap, were you not done looking at that?”

“You know I hope whatever is in here eats you!” She huffed in annoyance as she stormed through the now-empty doorway into the Shack.

Since when had she been so interested in runes? He had thought that was more Nays’ thing. For a split second, she left his sight, and so he ran after her and called, “I’m sorry! Come back! You’re going to get yourself killed!” He doubted that was true; with her Demi demon body and the fact she grew in power as he did, he wouldn’t be surprised if she were more durable than he was, but still, it was the only thing he could think to say. As he crossed the entrance, he added, “I’m sorry, okay? What’s wrong?”

She stopped at his words and spun around, finger already raised in his direction. “What’s wrong? Mason, what do you mean ‘what’s wrong’?!” Her frustration left her in an instant as she started sobbing. “That tree nearly killed all of us. I’ve almost died so many times in the last few months, and that’s okay, but you and Nina… I just… I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you, and Nina; I’d never forgive myself if she died because of us.”

The interior of the shack looked even worse; the air was musty, and everything in sight was covered in mould. She sank to the floor, trying to control her crying. Mason walked over, used his foot to move as much mould as he could off of the floor and sat beside her. “I know it’s hard, but you know I’d never let anything happen to you, and besides, you’re a badass demi demon! Nina is a damn dragon, and I’m, well, I don’t know exactly, I guess still human? But I’m pretty fucking amazing. I promise we’ll make it through all this.”

He elbowed him gently and wiped away a tear. “Yeah, I know. It all just happened so fast, you know? Only a few months ago, my biggest issue was Malika being a creep; now I’m fighting monsters on the daily, stalking Others and Jesus knows what else! I just don’t know. It all gets to me sometimes. I’m sorry, it’s not your fault.”

Mason let out a small laugh as he pushed himself up, “Don’t apologise! I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had internal panic attacks since I got here.” Pulling her up and into a tight hug, he whispered, “It’s all going to be okay. If anything ever happened to you, I’d break into hell itself and drag you back, kicking and screaming, if I have to.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Mayry smiled and swatted him on the arm, rolling her eyes. “How romantic!” She looked around, taking in the interior of the shack, and grimaced, “Come on, stop moping around. Let’s split up and look for clues.”

Mason froze. “What did you just say?” He asked, frowning.

“Err, stop moping?” She repeated with a tilted head and slightly creepy smile.

Eyes narrowing, he asked again, “No, not that, the other thing.”

“Let’s split up and look for clues?”

“Yeah, where did you hear that?” he asked suspiciously, taking a caution step back.

Letting out an unsure laugh, she answered, “I didn’t hear it anywhere… I just thought that if we split up and looked for clues, it would be faster. It felt like a good way to communicate that…What’s wrong? You’re acting weirder than usual.”

He stared at her. After a few seconds, he looked away. Shaking his hand dismissively, he said, “It’s nothing. Forget about it. Yeah, you’re right. Why don’t you check that side of the shack, and I’ll check this side; shout if you find anything.” Mayry shot him a confused look as she turned to go and investigate her side.

As he looked around, Mason couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong. It wasn’t only that she had said, ‘Let’s split up and look for clues.’ It was that she had said it in a way he had heard it a thousand times before, down to the exact cadence. It was strange. First, she had brought up almost every single thing he worried about in their relationship, and then she, accidentally or not, referenced something she had no way of knowing about. He was probably just overthinking things; he walked over to the fridge and took out a bottle of water; with the bottle only an inch away from his lips, he paused. He had been replaying their entire conversation in his head when he realised. Had she said ‘Jesus’?

Panicking now, as he knew for sure there had never been any mention of Jesus in this world, he spun around and started to notice other inconsistencies around him. The shack from the outside had been tiny whereas, he was looking at the interior of a much bigger building. If it had only been that, it could be explained away by magic but the more he looked around and the more he focussed, the more he managed to look past whatever what messing with him. The house was modern to the standard back on earth, he had taken a water bottle out a fridge for goodness sake! How had he not realised? Now that he had broken through the effect, he could see that the bottle that had been inches from his mouth was actually a fat maggot creature that was now attempting to flee. With a shudder and a grimace of disgust, he brought his foot down on it and squished it.

He had been so close to putting that thing in his mouth that it made him want to puke. Why did he have a bloody mental resistance ability if not to prevent things like this? Dammit! “Oh man, that was gross.” He muttered to himself before shouting, “Mayry!? Where are you?” he only heard silence back. Very cautiously, he headed the way he came. Would the imposter Mayry know he had broken the illusion, or would she still be trying to trick him? And where the heck was the real Mayry?!

Mayry

The runes in front of her were absolutely fascinating. She trailed her fingers around them as if they were a work of art “Runes…” she muttered, only really talking to herself, before remembering Mason was with her. “I don’t know a whole lot about runes… I wonder if these are Ganehfrelian or if they originated her-.” It was true; she wasn’t interested in runes in the slightest but that didn’t mean she wasn’t completely clueless. She had, of course, read Barrow’s Syllabary, Basic Runes and What They Mean, and the Real Runes Rubicon, but only because she went through a phase… who hadn’t gone through a runes phase when they were younger?

Before she could fully finish her sentence, the door in front of her vanished in a puff of dust.

She took in a deep breath, summoned all the irritation she could, and channelled it into a glare.

He at least had the good sense to look like he regretted it. She loved him, but he was infuriating. She had obviously been looking at the runes, so why the heck did he do that?! She was too annoyed to care; those runes could have triggered a trap; they could have revealed secrets about the Others, but now they would never know.

“You know, I hope whatever is in here eats you!” Not thinking, she stormed into the shack. She turned a corner, expecting him to follow her in, but after a few seconds of not hearing any movement, she stormed back out, ready to yell at him some more for not running after her and apologising, but what she saw stopped in her tracks when all she found was an empty hallway.

Weird, she had just yelled at him, but there was no way he would have taken it so bad as to leave her there. “Mason?” she called. When no reply came, she wandered over to the doorway, cautiously looking around. She shouted, “Mason, I swear if you’re messing with me…” When her voice echoed unnaturally around the house, unsettling her even further. She peeked through the door but saw no sign of him. She had a decision to make. Should she leave the shack or venture further in?

She turned from the entrance and, against her better judgment, wandered deeper into the shack; with each step, her concern grew. Mason could be a dick at times but she thought she knew him well enough to know he would never just abandon her on a whim. This place was really freaking her out, which was a strange experience for her as ever since she was a kid, Crack Hens and Others aside, nothing truly scared her. Her mother and father told her all sorts of scary stories, some that were just retellings of real events and some that she was sure they just made up on the spot, but somehow, instead of being scared, she enjoyed the thrill and knew the good guy would prevail.

Right now, in this creepy shack, Mason suddenly having disappeared, she was really struggling to convince herself to stay positive. She had fought monsters and been inches away from death on multiple occasions, but for whatever reason, this felt far more real than those other times, as if this was the first time she was genuinely in danger.

Growing up in a world where magic was real, the fact that the shack was bigger on the inside barely registered, and lots of rich people had similar enchantments on their houses like Mason had on his trunk. What did register was how run down the place was; the walls were lined with splintered wooden panels that were more rot than wood in some areas, cobwebs hung in every corner and every crevice, but she had yet to see a single spider, it seemed even they knew better than to stay in this place.

“Okay, okay, okay,” she whispered to herself. “I’m fine. Mason will sort out whatever is going on and be back in no time.” To her surprise, the thought actually made her feel a little better. She was by no means a damsel in distress, but Mason did have an often annoying knack for saving her.

As if on cue, she heard a shout. “Mayry!? Where are you?”

Hearing Mason’s voice, she felt all of her anxiety and fear that had been slowly building, instantly leave her body.