His instincts kicked in before the sight could even really registered - strands of darkness shut out from underneath his feet and immediately tried to pulled back the vines that had wrapped around Marian's foot. Levi jumped off of the throne, scales beginning to appear all across his bare skin as his purple eyes glowed.
Marian felt like she was in a tug of war game, and she was the rope. The vines didn't want to let go, and Levi wasn't letting go either. "Let me go." She told the vine severely. It rustled at her, and Marian paled. Levi took advantage of the distraction and pulled the vines free. Marian scrambled away, still clutching the scroll.
"Those moments when your in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down"
"I'm erasing myself from the narrative. Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart
Levi darted over to Marian and grabbed onto her wrist, fully intent on teleporting to somewhere far from here - preferably the safety of Charlotte's home. But when he tried to visualize her room, he found himself unable to complete the next step. No matter what he did, he couldn't actually teleport there. He removed his hand and tried teleporting to some other point in the room, and that worked perfectly fine. But when he tried going back to his town, to his home, or even just on the very outside of this creepy town, nothing happened.
He teleported back to Marian's side in a flurry of purple particles, eyes still purple and skin still partially covered in scales.
He tried to peek over her shoulder to see what the diary said, but the angle made it too difficult for him to see what its contents were. He instead settled for waiting for her to read them aloud - in the meantime, he would keep an eye on the room around to make sure they wouldn't be surprised again by some sudden attack.
"What does it say?" he asked, shadows swirling at his feet.
Marian squinted a little. "The first part is a little faded out. Okay, here goes. The date is October 19th, 1975. We just moved to this town, my father, mother, three siblings and I. It's a small town, and the people aren't real welcoming. In fact, they all seem to be afraid of something, but they won't tell us. Another odd thing is that the only plants growing here are pumpkins. I found this in the attic, along with a book. I use this to record my own thoughts, while I shall read the book, which appears to be a diary. Sincerely, Madeline."
Marian stopped and looked at Levi.
"Those moments when your in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down"
"I'm erasing myself from the narrative. Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart
He listened to each word with an emotionless expression on his face; he didn't want to let a single possibly important detail slide. When she finally finished reading the entry, he met her gaze. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the thing the town was afraid has something to do with the abundance of creepy pumpkins here."
Marian nodded and continued reading. "Something is really wrong with this town, or I'm losing my mind. I hear voices at night, weird, creepy laughter. I think the pumpkins are alive. I keep seeing them move, or least think I do. My family doesn't believe me, and everyone else tells me to hush. Next day. My older sister has disappeared."
Marian stopped again, her eyes widening.
"Those moments when your in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down"
"I'm erasing myself from the narrative. Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart
It sounded like something out of a horror movie; for a moment, he was able to convince himself that it was. But then he recalled the moving scarecrow, the vines that had tried to attack Marian and how he couldn't leave - this was no normal place. If the diary said that there was a girl named Madeline's whose sister disappeared, then there was.
And he was sure the pumpkins had something to do with it.
He ran his fingers through his hair, clearly more tense than before.
"It's getting worse. The voices. Everyone else can hear them to. It's almost Halloween, and people are getting really nervous. I went to the library and was finally able to find a legend about this town. Several years ago, a well-to-do man founded this little town. People came, everyone was happy, and the town made a living by growing pumpkins. The founder married, and had a son. As he grew older, the son became the black sheep of the town. He read weird, dark books and was always out in his garden with the pumpkins. After a few weeks, the town began to notice that the pumpkins started turning...evil. People began to disappear. They were being taken by the pumpkins and turned into pumpkins. This boy controlled the pumpkins, even when he died. Every Halloween people get very nervous, for that is when the pumpkins take the offspring of the men who wronged him."
Marian turned pale.
"Those moments when your in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down"
"I'm erasing myself from the narrative. Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart
Levi crossed his arms. "There has to be another explanation," he said, glancing back out the window at the pumpkin-infested town. Ghosts didn't exist. Skeletons did. Gods did. Endermen did. Creepers did. Zombies did. But ghosts? Ghosts were just something that humans like to tell stories about. He had never once proved that they existed, even though he did enjoy watching ghost hunting shows.
"We're not even related to the people who wronged that kid," Levi continued. "Why would we end up being turned into pumpkins? And how does someone even do that?"
Marian looked at Levi. "Clearly we are from two different worlds." She said, and pulling up a chair, sat down.
"Where I come from, there is a certain kind of magic, I guess you could call it dark, though it's beyond that. It eats away at your soul, till you have none. The magic itself is the remains of a demon. It is alive, and if you come near it, it enters your body. Or, you can do like this kid, and read about it, seek it out, and consort with it. Only a very few select people can control it when it inhabits them, and if they can do that, they can put the magic into anything. House, plants, etc. There are certain things you can do to protect against it, but even those aren't good enough if this magic grows too strong."
"Those moments when your in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down"
"I'm erasing myself from the narrative. Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart
He stared down at his hand, watching as little tendrils of darkness left his fingers. It wasn't the same type of darkness. He knew that. But it was considered to be darkness all the same, and he hated thinking that the gods might have been right when they condemned the first user of darkness that they found.
He looked up at her. "Well, you're right about that," he said, a small smile spreading across his face. "I guess I should probably give my real name. I'm King Kartiel of the End - I used to live on Minecraftia, and was reborn here on Earth."
Surround yourself with people who are serious about being writers, and who will tell you, ‘Hey—you can do better than this.’ Who will be critical of your work, but also supportive. And who will not be competitive in a negative way. — Isabel Quintero
