Chapter 115 - Lullaby

"Uncle bad! You no play!!" it shouted, jumping high as its grotesque body emerged from the fog, coiling to strike Vern into nothingness.

The creature's disproportionately towering silhouette loomed against the backdrop of the blood moon, its skeletal limbs elongated, echoing the gnarled branches of a tree.

Sinewy and dripping with pus, its skin was a patchwork of shadows and oozing sores, some of them reflecting oddly in the red light.

Yet, infused within the chest of this macabre monstrosity was a small face with closed eyes—enswathed by the writhing masses. Fair skin peeked through the sinews, mangled and torn.

Yet, Vern ruthlessly quashed his disgust and puzzlement, and jumped haphazardly, diving headfirst into the water.

His pupils dilated as this amalgamation raised both its elongated arms high and plunged towards him with a terrifying momentum.

Bamm!

Splashhh!

Water exploded at Vern's last position and the creature's other macabre hand—stripped of any flesh—landed mere inches from Vern's head.

The adrenaline kicked hard, and he didn't dare come back up for breath from the same spot. Waving his hands and knees, he backstroked.

Fortunately, he wasn't useless enough to not know how to swim in a continent that regularly faced floods.

Wave after wave rippled around him as the entity threw a tantrum, smashing the ground with its limbs repeatedly.

At least it isn't the most persistent attacker. However, suddenly, a dark shadow appeared in his peripheral, and Vern switched the gun's mode with his thumb and swiveled around—

Bwanmmg!

Schwaa

His shot missed. Damn!

It dodged. Here he'd thought his aim had improved, but apparently, that wasn't very true underwater.

Pwahh!

He took a deep breath as he emerged out of the water, and frantically jogged in the opposite direction from his enemies.

Jamming his hand in his drenched pockets, he grabbed a couple of ammo cartridges. They were all soaked, too, but fortunately, vapor blasters' cartridges didn't soil with just with some water.

Thank the lady that Cera gifted me this! If it wasn't for her, he'd probably still be using that old Ironsong and would've met his end right about now.

Popping open the the compartment, he tilted the gun, and old cartridges plopped down the water.

Click.

His blaster ready and loaded, he assessed the situation.

.

.

.

And once again, the answer was the same.

"I'm doomed." He muttered, his eyes landing on the child-monster hybrid, a hand jutting out of its disfigured stomach that doubled as a head.

Thick tar-like substance coated its body as it continued to flail around his last position. Where the hell did this thing even come from?

This wasn’t one of the fourteen mirror spirits that Cedric calculated. And Vern was sure this wasn't one of the subjects from the emporium. Then…?

Oh!

He almost fumbled as his footsteps grew even quicker from the realization. It's always been there. It's the second and the fifteenth!

Vern and Cedric hadn't let the spirit run away in that first house. It never escaped! They had finished it right then and there. However, this second one never emerged out from behind the mirror and survived!

So, this was the force that spawned more victims the moment it witnessed its kin fall into our trap.

Also, fifteenth because it was the same entity that spied on him from within the trinket in the forge at the emporium. He'd been puzzled as to who was behind the mirror when all fourteen subjects were out in the reality.

But now it made sense. It was likely even the cunning architect behind various schemes and plans to one-up Cedric and him.

This was what kidnapped that kid Oliver and became the cause of his death. This was what turned the lives of the whole neighborhood into a nightmare.

"UNCLE!!" it turned towards him, a harrowing smile on the writhing head, but a peaceful one on the small face underneath.

It was this…child…entity that committed all those horrors?

"Please. Play! Sorry. I'm sorry!" it plead, and a shiver raced down Vern's spine as he suddenly ducked, plunging into the water.

Whoosh!

"EAHhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!" a screech traveled right over his head. From beneath the surface, Vern saw a monstrous jaw snap shut, missing him by mere inches, its owner carried by sheer momentum past him.

Number Three crashed with a Crynchhh into what looked like a rigid pile of mirrors, just beyond the edge of the fog—its body was skewered by the glassy fragments.

The child monster had thrown it at Vern with its flailing arms, and if he hadn't dodged in time, the collision alone would have rendered him unconscious.

Not that surviving the crash would've mattered. Getting skewered by those glasses would've punctured his body anyway.

A shiver ran down his spine as he continued his frantic mad dash, changing directions.

He tried to let his thought space assign grays to the pile of shattered glass, but it was as he'd feared. The 'glass' wasn't pure glass.

He even wondered for a second if he should forcefully perceive the glass, given how he'd used it so well in the emporium.

However, he soon shook his head, shooting another bullet that grazed the shoulder of number Eleven swimming upto him.

I can only handle the whispers from one source of conflict at a time.

If he added this glass into the mix as well, he would be long mad before that 'kid' came for him. The risk outweighed the rewards.

He didn't know if the Third Rune would help him against the whispers this time or not. The uncertainty alone made it not worth the risk.

Not when he couldn't give up on stabilizing the water for even a second. Doing so would mean all of them teleporting their hands all over him, and slowly battering him to death.

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This is fucked!

The bleakness of the situation slowly dawned up on him. There were still thirteen enemies left for him to deal with, and one of them was even this abnormally large child-monster hybrid.

How the hell am I supposed to handle this?

There were no limitations on his enemies in here. Looking at them didn't immobilize them like outside.

He had no advantages to speak of. Not the environment. Not the strategy. Not the numbers.

His gaze landed on the amulet in his other arm. He still poured some of his representation into the thing, but it wasn't going to be as effective of a tool when the enemies could move around as they pleased.

His breaths turned ragged as he squeezed through the only large obstacles in this primarily barren swamp.

Yet, when he looked closely, his expression turned puzzled. A toy train and a…music box?

Vern hid behind the giant-sized 'toys'—mostly corroded and rotten, collecting his breath.

However, before he could even get his heart rate down, a shrill scream came from that thing, "GET AWAY! TOY! MYY!" and the ground rumbled.

The monster lunged towards Vern, each of its jump crossing tens of meters, "KiLLL UNCLE! He kill mother!"

And as if obeying the orders of their liege, rest of the spirits went into frenzy.

Ever since Vern started stabilizing his immediate surroundings, they had stopped using teleportation as it was not worth the cost.

However, this time, they seemed to let go of all their inhibitions and emerged all around Vern, encircling the large toys from outside.

Badump! Badump!

Words failed him, and panic gripped him as the blood pumping within him picked up an explosive pace. His eyes darted all around as the monster jumped higher and higher, its silhouette getting closer with each lunge.

So Vern instead rested his hand on his chest and took a deep breath.

Hahh…

I guess I'll have to start expanding my scope of stability. That was the only card available to him. There was no easy escape this time.

Instability inducement would most probably just evaporate the water. Not useful at all.

With this bit of energy in it, the amulet would do scrapshit in mere seconds it would take them to maul him to death.

So, stabilizing a longer space around him was the only option. Now, the question remained whether he'd understood this 'water' enough to be able to pull that off without being consumed by the whispers.

"Well, I can only try," he muttered, cracking his neck.

So he waited.

The spirits rushed towards him with reckless abandon, and suddenly his eyes turned cold as he extended his arm and—Bang—blew the head of number Twelve that pounced at him from behind the toy.

It had gotten too keen—jumping at him way before the others. Vern wasn't in the habit of missing his shots point-blank range.

If he actually wanted to use this last resort stabilization to struggle further, he had to find the perfect moment—that exact balance. Just a few more seconds.

Because if he activated it too soon, he wouldn't be able to keep it up without losing himself to those mad ravings. So, the only valid strategy was to use it at the last moment.

Thump! Thump! Leap after leap, the 'kid' kept rushing towards him, a disturbed expression on its little humanly face.

Vern couldn't help but feel miffed. That thing acted like it was the one being mobbed to death by eleven monsters, not him.

CLATT!

Vern dodged to one side as a pair of jaws clamped shut right next to him. But he'd felt this one above him beforehand. His perception had no issues interpreting the air, after all.

However, before he could use this perfect opportunity to further reduce their numbers, he jumped—grabbing hold of some lever on the box.

He barely avoided a dark shadow that swam and aimed right for his leg.

"Hahh!" he wheezed. This was too much. He was handling it well for now because his mind was quite calm, but his body had limits.

Just a bit longer! The towering child-monster was almost here.

But that's when the lever he'd been holding onto slid down. Vern gripped it harder—but that only increased the speed of its descent.

Tch, He clicked his tongue. Pushing his legs off the face of the music box, he jumped—barely avoiding the open maw waiting for him to land right inside it.

Clamp! Another one clutched at his leg right as he landed in the water.

"Fuck off!" he yelled, followed by a Bang!

Number Eight's head burst into a white mass as the explosive shot rang true, leaving the vapor blaster overheated.

Pushing off against the seabed, he stood up for the umpteenth time, his breaths coming out in ragged gasps.

Yet, there was no rest for the wicked.

The putrid monster that was raging towards him like a train—slowed down, even slipping and falling to one side as it barely avoided smashing into the toys.

It wants to...safeguard them?

"EaAAHAAAAAAAA! Mommy! He Kill Kill you KILLL!" came a distressed voice from the small mouth—augmented by the larger and grotesque one into an eerie screech.

Vern's eyes twitched as he looked at the monster, its bony arm stretching towards the gigantic toys—almost as if in longing.

Thump!

It smashed that hand on the ground and stood right back up, staring at Vern with an expression that was condensed hatred and disgust.

The hand lunged straight for him, and so did ten more spirits around him.

Vern took a deep breath and—

~ Mhm, mhm… ~

~ In moon's embrace, you find your rest, my dear ~

While stars above in silent watch do keep,

"…" Vern lost all his momentum as a soft humming played from behind him alongside this sweet voice.

~ Dreams crystal clear in night's soft cradle here, ~

In tranquil seas, beneath the whisper deep.

All the spirits halted in their place, and so did the tall monster—looking…guilty? It moved with tiny steps and hid itself behind the edge of the toy train, peering at the music box behind Vern.

As much as Vern was perplexed, he didn't waste this golden opportunity and squeezed past Number Eleven and Twelve, listening to the words of the lullaby.

The music box actually works? How did it even start—Oh!

He looked at it again and realized the lever he'd used as a ledge wasn't just some decoration. It was the switch of the box. He'd accidentally flipped it on with his weight.

~ When night's dome sparkles with each twinkling light, ~

The mirror's grace reflects your smile so bright,

~Mhmmm…mhm ~

~ In every star's glow, in every loving face, ~

My love for you, the sands of time can't trace.

The whole world seemed to brighten as the redness of the moon gave way for some purity. The fog seemed to lift, and the sights beyond it slowly revealed themselves.

Did he get lucky for once? Vern shook his head and went underwater to avoid the next three spirits in his path. Yet, the melody continued…

~ So drift, my child, in dreams of sweet embrace,~

Through silver streams that time cannot erase,

~ In clouds that carry you to love's soft space, ~

Our bond, a mirror of eternal grace.

The melancholic song resounded throughout the whole swamp as he sprinted farther away from the gathering of the entities, panting heavily.

Cracks appeared in the sky around him as if a chunk of glass had fallen off a large mirror. Vern's mind involuntarily fixated on some of the words in the lullaby—

Moon…Cradle…Seas…Mirrors…Sweet child…

It didn't take long for him to piece together the context of the situation. A solemn expression appeared on his face as he earnestly glanced back at the…child.

The face encased within the grotesque monstrosity looked barely older than four or five. Many question ran through Vern's mind.

How did it come to this? What went wrong? Where was his mother? Why did he turn into this...?

Then, as if sung in soft whispers mirroring the onset of light sleep, the words slowly came to an end…

~ In every gleam, in every gentle face, ~

My love for you, time's hands will never trace.

All that was left was her soft humming, and the skies seemed to grow bright every second it continued.

Vern's head buzzed with a thousand emotions, not sure how to process any of this. This entity didn't just sound like a child.

It was indeed a child. Yet, he was different from Oliver. Oliver had lost all his mental faculties and was nothing but a husk.

But this…? Was he in there? If he was, how was Vern supposed to handle this?

The distinct sense of imbalance within his thought space grew worse at the mere thought, yet he continued running.

What else was there to do? There was no guarantee that the spirits would have remained still if he'd used the amulet then and there.

~Hmmmhm…mhm ~

The lullaby's humming continued to morph the world around him as he saw more toys and mirrors that reflected two silhouettes.

In one large mirror within the heap, the outlines seemed to depict the interior of mirror emporium. It was the forge room.

~Hmmmhm…mhm ~

Then there was another one where the silhouettes were even darker. A small shadow held the hands of a taller, thin one.

One after another, the scenes became more vivid as colors were breathed into the darkness, when—

~ Goodnight…my little one…Mhm… ~

And all the music stopped.

Suddenly, an intense trepidation pulsed through Vern as he looked back with a slow turn of his head.

"Mommy…please…."

.

.

.

"Don't go…"

The small head cradled in writhing mass that had kept its eyes closed until now, opened them with a snap.

The very world changed around Vern, it was as if someone ran a razor down his body, only to then crush and mush him into a small box.

His legs felt like lead, and he naturally slipped, falling into the water without mercy. Before he could force himself back up, a terrifying reality transpired in front of his eyes.

A grotesque thing materialized in the water right in front of him, emerging from it to stand tall before raising both its arms high—right over Vern's head.

"NO ONE…TAKES…MY…MOMMY AWAY!!!!!!" shrieked the small face, and the arms smashed down at Vern.