The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl
[18]
For the Alt Branch [18A]
Silence spread over the room until Blessin barked out, “Then talk.”
The entity wafted forward like a person crafted from a stage curtain. “You may see me as a monster. As a creature. But all you see is my real face. I’m not afraid to show it. Unlike others.” It unfurled the impression of a hand dipping in the direction of Hanako, who did not waiver.
Blessin gripped her crucifix tightly and shifted on her feet. “So, that’s your tact? I may look like a terrifying night terror demon, and I scared several people here, but I’m actually the good guy. Is that what I’m hearing?”
“Is that what you’re hearing? Have you heard that I was attacked with mace? Painful burning all over my face. That’s not even the worst of it. There are things I can’t even talk about. And all this for no reason. I made a small mistake, and I was basically robbed. Assaulted.”
Finn responded, “You were about to attack us. You froze our friends, and we had no idea what you were going to do next.”
“I was just trying to help you. You were going to be stuck with a broken seat. I’ve seen it before. I would’ve worked to remedy the situation in time. But you two were impatient. Where did it get you?”
The black mass settled towards the ground and shifted with a human face and hands squeezed into a pure black suit. Lanky, thin, and gaunt, it stood there with its hands outstretched. It looked similar to the man they had seen along the coast in the same way a doll with the right makeup might look similar to a living person.
It continued speaking in a voice with an inherent roughness but the sound and texture of a human being. “Look at me. I am unarmed. I have locked away my spirit form. This is not my face, but since you seem to require a softer countenance, I will gladly oblige.”
Blessin took a guarded breath. “Is that all? Just some vague statements and shifting of blame? Rather pathetic. What’s your real name then, Cerberus?”
“Real name? I don’t have one. Never have. But there are other things I’ve been called, and I call myself. Like your book claims. And like it never imagined. Skinwalker is one.”
The creature positioned that one with a pause, as though he anticipated there to be gasps of surprise and realization. No one said anything or even reacted to that one. It appeared to contort and bristle. Giselle responded, “Hanako has made accusations that you and your kind hunt and terrorize them. I don’t think any creature that does that can be considered trustworthy.”
The gaze of the entity lingered at Giselle‘s side on Hanako and the other presence. When it breathed, it sounded like forcing hollow air through an empty, cavernous skeletal chamber rather than taking in breath as a normal living thing. “Hanako. Hanako… do you want to know why they are hunted? Or would you rather just berate me with accusations?”
Giselle straightened and let out a slight breath. The creature continued, “You know nothing of the space beyond your own world. I have lived ages greater than any of you. What you think of as darkness has a texture and complexity beyond your perceptions. And in that darkness grows real dangers. Things you would only understand as demons.”
Blessin slapped a hand down. This time, the others gave a slight gasp, Dale and Gwen especially. Finn puzzled and remained focused on Giselle. To this, Giselle noticed that Hanako suddenly lowered her head and the heat on her hip wavered, as though a candle buffeted by an unseen breeze. The creature had renewed confidence as it continued, “Demons, that’s a name you all know. Not a name for our kind. The name for theirs.” It gestured with a spindly claw hand right at Hanako.
“Think about everything. Locked away inside objects by a group of humans who think they found something special. When an object is cursed, holding spirits, the darkest curse is a demon. That’s what they sell. Chaos locked in a bottle.”
Giselle could feel Hanako insistently squeezing her hand, not to the point of pain but like a quiet gasp of desperation. She had made her promise to the little girl who appeared inside her when she closed her eyes and she had resolved to protect Hanako as well. Just because some shadow creature who could look human stopped by and spun a tale of secret demons, didn’t mean much to her. She took a deep breath.
“So what? You may call them whatever, but I can look at what’s happening. They consume stray emotions in the hopes of becoming more human. They hide from creatures like you. They’re absolutely terrified. That sounds more like prey than a monster.”
The creature twisted its nearly-human head so much that it passed the point of uncanny, as though it were snapping bones beneath. “It consumes your emotion, it feasts on your very being, and yet you consider it harmless? It transforms your bodies in ways you can’t even imagine and yet you call it the weak one?“
Blessin smirked. ”You sure talk a lot. And I think I know why. You’re trying to waste our time. You’ve avoided the real issue this entire time. You’ve avoided the epiphany I had because you thought you could distract us from it. Cerberus. You don’t have a name, but you have clever little appellations you picked out for yourself. But that one’s a little too clever, a little on the nose. Not because you’re Cerberus, but because you imagine yourself to be.”
That absolutely got a reaction from the entity. It paced, like a tiger trapped in a cage, desperately wanting to strike. “What about skinwalker? Are you going to interpret that I am some shaman turned bad? I don’t turn into animals or wolves or a rotting creature. Shouldn’t I name myself after things like the Hat Man or other figures of shadow creature lore?”
Gwen in particular was the one to shudder. Giselle had a vague memory of why. Gwen professed her connections to New Age stuff early on. She believed in a variety of things that Giselle still expressed uncertainty about. Some of it became jokes but Gwen never joked about shadow entities.
The story she told Giselle was simple enough. She liked to listen to random podcasts between rocking out to the kind of metal she apparently played in college in their uncertainly linked past. Listening to an unexplained installment, she nervously noticed that the light across the room started to flicker and dim. Additionally, her admittedly old refrigerator struggled.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
This only happened when she attempted to listen to that specific installment. Giselle easily dismissed it as a coincidence at the time. But she noticed the way the heat was waning and her own will felt muted. The only one of them actively responding to this entity was Blessin. Sure, she had gotten out a few questions, but they felt more like hurling heavy fish out of her throat to flop on the ground while they tugged links of discomfort from her side.
She called this out. Blessing picked up this thread and noted that this creature’s species was more vampiric than the faint symbiosis that Hanako’s needed.
At this point, it seemed to resolve that talking wasn’t going to work, and lashed out a nebulous black hand at Blessin. The effect was like scratching metal against pavement while driving along at excessive speeds. Golden sparks of energy met the hand as it sloughed off in chunks. Blessin glared with focus as she invoked words that Giselle didn’t understand. Hanako stepped around and closer.
“LEAVE THEM ALONE!!! THESE ARE MY FRIENDS!"
Giselle was startled to hear such an overwhelming voice come out of Hanako. Everyone else around also seemed surprised. The black tendril shifted. “Friends? Now that’s a word without meaning. What would they think if they saw you without your mask?” The tendril lashed out.
Blessin tried to dodge around, but the creature swiftly seized Hanako. A flare of heat went up from Giselle‘s side and she did her best to focus it into something like Blessin’s defense, whatever the heck that was. She played plenty of games with MP and magic attacks, but it felt impossible to apply that to the real world. Still, she had to do something.
Hanako was tangled up, like by a massive predatory squid. It lashed at her face and tore across her ivory locks. They peeled back like it was wrenching the scalp off. Whimpering, Hanako dipped and twisted her head in pain. Beneath her fair white hair was the blue electricity out of her hands. It held the shape of cerulean, twisting goat horns. Softly, Hanako spoke, “I’m sorry…”
With inhuman booming, the creature gloated, “See the truth of them. The trick behind the façade. Monsters worse than us. A brutal pestilence that must be wiped out before it infects your world. Grotesque spirits wishing to be human when they will never be anything more than a plague. Better as tools of shaping locked away in darkness until they are erased…ARGGGGH!!!”
The howling was like a wounded animal and a scorched human at the same time. Giselle stepped forward from the group and raised her hands. She had no idea what to do, but she still tried. She thought about those sparse but quiet moments she spent with Hanako trying to understand. Especially when Hanako thought of her sister. What Hanako may have lacked in human emotion, Giselle saw in that devotion, that sense of love.
She released it and felt like her hands crawled with fire that tingled without pain. She clenched her teeth as tears like none she ever felt before rushed from her. Fury, pain, the torment of ages from this foul beast, killing every last one of her sisters until this shy, clever heart was all that remained, hiding her, holding her, telling her it would be okay. The feeling of a star blazed from her and burned through her being, eclipsing all other sensations.
Giselle felt like she was half dying, and half being born. It was terrifying to lose herself in those emotions, that stark brilliance. A rage against the darkness holding on to every glimmer. No matter how they looked, no matter what they were called, she knew intimately that the spirit within her was truly that suffering little girl she wanted to help. She didn’t know why but the name Mari came into her head, and she desperately embraced it.
A flash of electric energy dissolved the arm like the sun breaking up clouds. Giselle dashed forward to grab Hanako, swinging her around her back. The tendril consolidated itself and struck out like a sword aimed right at her.
Tumbling and flailing to protect Hanako and turn the side with Mari away from the assault, Giselle didn’t see Finn rush forward to block it until the last moment. Then, he screamed.
It was a soul-melting scream that dipped deep into her memories. The long nights when Rachel was suffering on the floor of the bathroom with whatever remedy she could hold close to her as they wished for something more. The absolute suffering. The pain they had finally put to rest with the surgeries.
Whatever energy, whatever force of will and life that Mari had unleashed through Giselle to burn away this evil fucking spirit, Giselle found her own. A wave, a torrent of absolute fury and love for the one who mattered most in her existence. Giselle worried for a brief second she was about to destroy the entire building but didn’t hold back from whatever was happening.
For once, the entity sounded afraid as it howled and squawked like it was being tormented. Before it melted away, one final flash of shadow slipped past and struck Finn in the face. Silence followed the moment until he crumpled to the floor. Giselle nearly felt her heart stop beating. Finn’s ragged breath returned after a moment and so did her heart.
Before relief could settle though, Giselle heard the worst words.
“… something’s wrong. Oh God… where…”
Finn looked and sounded as frail as Rachel at her worst. He pulled his hand away from his face. Giselle didn’t want to recoil. She wanted to be strong for the woman and man she loved. But the pain was just too great.
Gasps rippled out in the group as they recovered from what just happened. Blessin said something barely under her breath in a foreign language.
“… I can’t… why can’t I see out of my right eye…?”
Giselle didn’t have the strength in that moment to tell him, that it was because it was gone.