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‘what do you think? in here?’
‘the gym’s as good a place as any… steph… are you sure about this? i mean, who knows what kinda door we’re gonna open..’
‘we have to, pete. for ruth. and richie. ..and everyone. grace? summon these bastards.’
‘okay. …we invoke the names..’
pokotho.
bliklotep.
pokotho, bliklotep, t’noy karaxis, nibblenephim. pokotho, bliklotep, t’noy karaxis, nibblenephim.
t’noy karaxis.
pokotho, bliklotep, t’noy karaxis, nibblenephim.
nibblenephim.
pokotho, bliklotep, t’noy karaxis, nibblenephim.
wiggog, wiggog y’wrath.
wiggog, wiggog y’wrath.
‘did.. did it work?’
Oh, yes, Peter. It worked.
Yes! Yes, yes yes!! Of course it worked, Pete! You did it perfectly!
‘w…what? whos there!?’
Awh, Stephie. You summoned us. Did you not reawize what you were doing?
Did you trip and fall?
something cackles.
Hush. You three, what need have you to summon us?
grace’s grip on stephs hand tightens exponentially.
‘are.. are you the lords in black?’
She’s so smart!
Oh, don’t be so formal, Stephie. We’re all… paly-wals , here, after all.
‘we need to get rid of max jagerman. we.. we heard you could help us.’
Oh, we could. We could take hold of little Maxie-boy, and pull him right down to Drowsy Town! But… that wouldn’t be much fun, would it?
Swallow his soul!! I wanna lick it!
Maxie-poos about it get you. Tear you all to bloody bits!
I wanna see that…
‘how about a bargain? we’ll give you whatever you want, just get rid of jagerman!’
WHATEVER WE WANT!?
Well… what could you give to me? Oh…. there is something.
‘what!? what do you want from us?’
the things fall silent.
Something… fun!!
Something tasty!
Oh, you’ll hardly miss it.
All we want, is you.
the room goes dark. somehow, neither person beside her is there anymore. shes alone, floating in a cold, dark space. theres nothing. steph attempts to blink, and finds that she can’t. she has no eyelids to move, no eyes to cover. she flails her hands around, desperately trying to connect with pete, with grace, with the floor , and hits nothing but her own body. her body, covered in a thin layer of fur. something rests a hand on her face, and presses a small piece of meat to her lips.
Eat, Stephanie. You’ll feel better. It’ll taste so good.
she obeys. it is good. juicy and seemingly uncooked, but good. she attempts to lick her lips, but as soon as her tongue touches teeth, it begins to bleed. she whines low in her throat, and the thing that fed her coos sympathetically.
They’re sharp, honey drop. You’ll have to be careful about touching them.
a hand passes over the top of her head, scratching lightly with long nails.
Give it a moment. It will heal soon.
she presses into the hand without second thought. its so dark. its dark, and shes hungry now. her mouth fails to form around a plea for more. attempting, again, to find the thing in front of her fails. her hands barely move. the thing coos gently, pressing another piece of meat to her lips. she hums happily, and it giggles. it sounds like a little girl, playing with her dolls. she has scissors. the dolls will never understand what the weight of the metal means for them.
for pete, the room explodes with light. beside him, steph disappears, replaced now with a barely-right version of his brother. the man can’t form words. all he manages to do is scream, curling in on himself. pete watches with horror as the form of his brother twists and contorts, almost glitching. a half-man flicks the body away with a small wrist movement. the screaming doesn’t stop.
Sorry, Petey. Thought I had him put away!
the screaming gets louder as the man-thing gets closer. hooves clack against flooring that doesn’t exist, and the things horns flicker in and out of proper view. if he focuses, he can see them for a moment, but never any longer. the thing grins at him. its teeth are too sharp and too dull, too long and too short. theres too many, but not enough, either. they’re too white, and too yellow, and shaped weird. he can’t even begin to question them. he stares at the thing with wide eyes. it cackles.
Betch’re confused, huh Petey! How’s your head? Ya seein’ things yet?
he stares at it. his head? why does his head matter? he doesn’t see shit. he can hear things, but he doesn’t see anything but the thing in front of him and the blinding light thats everywhere around him. the thing laughs again, softer, and runs a.. a hoof, over his head. sure enough, it knocks into horns on his head, hard and sore. he fails miserably when he tries to contain the pained whimper, and the thing standing over him coos mockingly.
You’ll get used to it, Petey. Don’t worry. You’ll have lots of fun with me and Teddy-bear.
the hooves pass through his hair, over his cheeks and down to his shoulders, solid and heavy where they rest. the weight is almost relaxing. the thing tries to grin, and petes mind goes blank. the screaming is overwhelming, now, and painful. he curles into himself. he understands why that ted-like man was screaming. he thinks he might be, too. he’s not sure.
grace blinks, and can see everything. its likes shes standing in a field, watching the ants mill about below her. the sky is every color at once, dark and starry but pale pink and blue, too. she can feel the fur, the scales, the feathers, of every animal thats alive, that will live, and that has already died. she shivers.
It’s wonderful, isn’t it?
beside her, is a human-like bird thing with a single, large eye in the center of its face. it has no mouth to move as it speaks. she nods silently, looking out across the universe. she can see steph, trying her first food, and pete, discovering his horns. she can see them, in the gym, summoning the lords in black, and even earlier trying to convince detective shapiro to listen to them. a thick wing wraps around her, and she presses into the warmth on instinct. she cringes at the sight of herself, in a bathtub, with her head thrown back. she knows exactly what she was thinking about without any help of the god beside her. she zeros in, instead, on a picture of her friends playing a game together, all bright smiles and loud laughter.
You’re doing well, Gracie. I have to say, I’m proud of you. Peter isn’t doing nearly this well.
grace holds back a sigh. pete wouldn’t do well with this. she can almost see his body, trembling in the fetal position. she turns away from the sight. she doesn’t want to know how hes doing, not at all. she wants to watch the puppies in shelters across the world get picked. she wants to watch mothers hold their newborns. she wants to see joy.
Take your time. You’ll see it all, someday, but when you go back you won’t. Take it in.
grace nods. she will. even as her head begins to pound, she sits there for what has to be hours with the god, talking quietly about the world. the things they can see. despite the attempt to close her eyes to relieve the pressure, she can’t. shes not sure she minds. steph giggles somewhere, someday, and presses into a hug. grace smiles.