You find yourself in a dark, morbid, dreary place. It doesn't take long to discover that this is the Underworld, Land of the Dead, Hades, whichever term you prefer. Perhaps you found yourself here after a near-death experience, or fell in with the wrong crowd. Whatever the reason, you are still alive and want out. Every direction you walk in leads to a large, gothic hotel. You decide to stay the night.
Sevy found himself tumbling with a powerful momentum, scraping against coarse gravel as he went. When he finally stopped and picked himself up, his eyes burned and streamed something fierce. A familiar yowl echoed behind him, and then a cold nose touched his face, and his demon-cat was nudging him.
"G- Gordon," he coughed, the harsh dust burning his throat, "what did you do?"
Gordon whined, licking Sevy's cheek in apology. Suddenly, he bolted up and looked around frantically, squinting in the dim haze.
"Tamika? Are you here?"
A small cough confirmed his dread, and she spoke up from behind him.
"Yeah, I'm here."
He picked himself up from the ground and turned to face her. His elbows stung where he had scraped them on the rough terrain. She must have seen the horror on his face, because she promptly scowled and crossed her arms.
"Oh, were you hoping to escape with your cat and leave me behind?"
He took a defensive stance, legitimately terrified of her expression.
"No, not at all! This is just terrible timing. I didn't do this, I swear."
She studied his face and, after several beats, conceded, turning instead to peer into the gloom.
"Where are we? Please don't tell me this is-"
"I think so." he sighed in defeat, spotting the transparent figures hovering in the distance and studying them, "we're in the Underworld."
Tamika threw her hands up in defeat before walking off, leaving Sevy behind. Hesitantly, he followed a few feet back, sensing the anger coming off her in waves. He spoke up after several minutes of walking, hating the tension that stretched between them.
"Um, do you want to talk about- anything?"
"Talk about what? What I saw in Matthew's crystal? No thanks." he winced at her passive-aggressive tone.
"What did you see? Because we're both in one piece. Nothing has changed."
She turned to face him. "You were going to kill me to save yourself." her voice shook with silent fury, tears rising to her eyes.
Oh. so the crystal had showed her possible outcomes.
"The point is that I didn't. I chose not to. And, obviously, I found a way to save us both." he struggled to keep his own voice even, hurt and upset that she still didn't trust him.
"But you considered it! Look, I get it, I don't mean as much to you as I thought I did. Stop denying it. It only makes this worse." she kept walking, willing herself not to cry.
She wasn't being fair to him or even giving him a chance to explain. Sevy seethed, his thoughts quickly spiraling down an angry trail. He didn't trust himself to keep talking.
Luckily, he didn't have to. At that moment, the duo approached a large, looming building. Gordon hissed from where he was slinking at Sevy's heels. The dark, gothic- hotel?- that was what he assumed it was- was very clearly haunted.
"We might as well go in." Tamika's tone was blunt and cold. She subtly wiped a hand across her face.
He stepped forward to open the door for her, and she rolled her eyes, pushing past him. Inside, an extravagant lobby greeted them, confirming Sevy's suspicion. His eyes immediately jumped to a large fountain in the center. Water gurgled from a large, mean-looking gargoyle, seeming to move slowly to the pool at the base in a way that was almost mesmerizing. What mostly captured his attention, though, were the clear, fist-sized stones inlaid around the fountain's pedestal.
The group had only taken a few hesitant steps forward when a monotone female voice erupted, filling the lobby. Sevy's blood ran cold.
"Welcome to Limbo Inn & Suites. We hope you enjoy your stay."
Meet Benjamin Frost, one of my newest characters! You can call him Benji for short. He's tall, and looks like he's somewhere in his early twenties. His black hair is relatively short and neatly styled. His eyes are brown, but, when caught in a certain light, they have a tendency to appear red. He's on the paler side, and his skin is free of blemishes. His outfit currently consists of a trench coat, jeans, hiking boots, a scarf and a pair of gloves.
He was falling and falling and he was trying to remember the right words and he was trying to figure out how to survive this and his hands were trying to grab onto the side of the drop but even if he grabbed one of the rocks jutting and even if he said the right words he'd be dead because they'd catch him and oh my God he was going to die wasn't he-
He hit the ground with a loud, painful thud.
He closed his eyes and waited for a gun's barrel to inevitably be thrust in his face. But things had gone oddly silent, and the ground felt far too hard for it to be the brambles underneath the cliff face. He hesitantly opened his eyes and stared up at the sky above him. It looked completely unfamiliar. He got to his feet and searched the surroundings for something - anything - that he recognized. Nothing looked familiar.
There was, however, an ominous looking hotel.
He still wasn't sure how he had gotten here, but he did have his wallet on him. At least he could pay for a stay at the place and try to figure out what was going on. Brushing off some stray leaves that had gotten caught on his jacket during the chase, he approached the building and tried to look as civilized as he possibly could.
He opened the door and went inside.
And immediately ducked behind the nearest pillar because there were people with wings standing in the lobby. They had wings, too, though they weren't exactly the same type as the ones they saw. It wasn't that surprising - they had probably expected their prey to take flight at some point, since they hadn't even considered that aforementioned prey could know how to drive.
But as he tried to figure out how to handle this situation, a monotone female voice suddenly boomed throughout the lobby.
"Welcome to Limbo Inn & Suites. We hope you enjoy your stay."
Well, I'm not now, he bitterly thought, slipping out from behind his pillar and into the center of the lobby. He gave the people standing there a thin smile and went over to study the gargoyle in the fountain - though he was secretly watching them out of the corner of his eye. He would bolt if they gave any hint that they realized he was the one who had been watching their group in the woods.
Tamika jumped a second time as the invasive voice repeated. It could only mean someone else had entered the lobby. She turned slightly in time to see a man in a trench coat slip out from behind a pillar to stand by the fountain. He seemed to be weary of them, but there wasn't an obvious reason why. She folded her wings and slid them under her shirt, just in case.
Seemingly from nowhere, three silver tablets hovered down to meet the group. Three identical voices, one from each tablet, sounded in unison. Sevy's tablet seemed to be slightly off-sync.
"Hello honored guest. Please press the screen to register for your stay."
Sevy frowned, perturbed by the voice, and carefully poked the tablet screen with an index finger. Something poked back, prompting a sharp pain. He yelled and pulled his hand back, shaking it before putting it in his mouth. The prick had been sharp enough to draw blood, apparently. He had sprayed a few drops on the floor and into the water.
Tamika watched him wearily from around the gargoyle. She had opted to keep her distance. The tablet nudged her gently.
"Please press the screen to resister for your stay." The voice repeated. The monotone had adopted a slightly annoyed hint.
She sighed and taped the screen. With a gasp, she pulled her finger away as Sevy had done, frowning at the large bead of blood that welled up. She watched it as it slowly rolled down her finger before plopping into the fountain.
Neither angel had noticed, but two of the many stones around the fountain's base had now adopted a blood-red hue.
My next character to introduce is Daniel Leeds. He's a pain in the butt but I love him all the same. He's around the same height as Benji, which is surprising considering that Benji is actually pretty tall. He's got somewhat long brown hair that he keeps up in a ponytail, and a pair of silver eyes that are so light that they look white in some lights. He's currently wearing a winter coat, jeans, sneakers and a pair of fingerless gloves.
The moment he saw the floating tablets, he spun around and made a beeline for the door.
Something like that could only be accomplished with magic. There was no need to cast a spell to check that; there was just no other way he could explain the phenomena. If a hotel was using magic for something as simple as that, that could only mean that it expected to have magical people within its walls. There would be certain measures to protect the safety of the guests. Measures that would, theoretically and in all likelihood, strip him of the different spells he was currently using to hide his appearance. Right now it was only five, but even removing one of them would be catastrophic.
One of the tablets dutifully followed him all the way to the door, chiming away with the same request. But just as he went to open the door, someone opened it from the other side.
And that someone was one of the people who he had been trailing.
Benji froze by the door as the man stepped inside, an impressed whistle leaving his lips as the monotone voice boomed the same greeting from his voice. "That sure is some high tech magic right there," he said, "or some strategically placed speakers."
Benji turned around for a second time and hurried back to the area near the fountain. This time when the tablet requested that he press the screen, he did exactly that - wincing as it somehow drew blood. Shoot. That hurt. He watched the droplet fall into the fountain, and immediately began to realize how unlucky he truly was.
The hunter - because that was what he truly was, underneath the guise of the "professional" title of cryptozoologist - followed him over. Benji improvised. He pulled his beanie out of his pocket and slipped it on, covering up the lower half of his face with his scarf. If he was lucky, the man wouldn't realize he was the one who had been eavesdropping.
When another one of the tablets appeared, the man eagerly pressed it before he was even prompted to do so. He watched with a curious sort of fascination as the blood fell into the fountain, and his curiosity only seemed to grow when he noticed that a stone took on the color of his blood. "Ooh, that's a surprise. Blood magic is some pretty stuff - didn't think I'd see that in a place like this." He crouched down and studied the stone in question. "It must be a binding spell of some sort, otherwise they wouldn't have needed the blood."
He resisted the urge to groan. Just great! Not only was his follower a hunter, but he was also a magical expert on top of it. He'd see through his spells the moment he started looking too close.
The hunter hopped to his feet and clapped his hands. "So, you guys are all guests here too, I'm guessing? You must be new arrivals, too. I have a suspicion that we're going to be here for awhile, so it's probably best that we introduce ourselves." He placed a hand on his chest. "For starters, my name's Daniel Leeds and I'm a cryptozoologist. You can call me Daniel or Danny or even DL if you're feeling creative, but Dan is off limits. What about you?"
He was pointing at Benji.
And, for just a moment, he was convinced that Daniel Leeds had figured out he was the eavesdropper.
But he wasn't addressing it, so it seemed more and more likely that he hadn't gotten a good look at him as he was running away. "My name's Benjamin Frost, but I go by Benji," he said, his heart pounding so loud in his chest that he was sure Daniel could hear it. "I'm a news reporter."
Sevy and Tamika both studied this new arrival. Gordon growled softly from where he lay at Sevy's feet. Sevy, slow on the upkeep, quickly folded his wings back. There was an awkward pause before each of them realized that they needed to introduce themselves.
"I'm-"
"My name is-"
They looked at each other from across the fountain, Sevy with an uncomfortable look (he had pushed his anger back to deal with later) and Tamika with a glare. She gestured for him to go first.
"My name is Sevy Dawner, and I'm a.. um... an explorer." It wasn't a complete lie- that was the closest title to what he and Tamika had been doing for the past year or so.
"I'm Tamika Holt. Social worker." A short look over to him told him that she had chosen her alibi just to disagree with him. He sighed and tried to focus on the newcomers.
After a few more moments of silence, the monotone voice boomed from around them, "They call me Jane. I'm a receptionist."
He looked around the lobby, then settled with sitting on the fountain's stonework when he couldn't locate the receptionist. He'd just have to make due with sitting here, then, and talk to no particular thing instead. He could do that. "Hey, Jane, you wouldn't have heard anything about Mothman being in this area, would you? I've been hunting him for weeks, but I haven't been able to find the bugger." He grinned a little more at the pun. He had been merciless with using it lately, but he wasn't going to miss up on the opportunity to use it again.
Benji stiffened.
Knew it. The inquisitive newsman had been the eavesdropper. It explained how he was trying to avoid them, and, on top of that, why he looked so uncomfortable right now. Man, it was so easy to make people like him squirm. He knew he shouldn't have taken so much pleasure in doing something like that, but one might say that it was in his blood.
Two descending chimes came immediately in answer to Daniel's question, "Guest information is confidencial." Jane's voice was slightly reprimanding.
Sevy patted Gordon's head, sensing his agitation. His stomach growled, as if to match the cat's growl. "Jane, is there somewhere we can go to get some food?"
"Walk forward up the main staircase, take a right down the hall. Your destination will be on the left." She responded.
He nodded and started climbing the staircase without a word, Gordon trotting next to him. When he reached the top, he turned and inclined his head toward Tamika, inviting her to follow. Her grudge softened a little. He was most likely going to find a room where they could talk quietly- or argue, depending on how it went.
She only hesitated a few moments before she climbed up after him.
Daniel Leeds frowned at the response that he had received, but, interestingly enough, he didn't pursue the subject. He just nodded and followed Sevy and and Tamika. Benji watched the three walk away. He was trying to comprehend the conversations that had just occurred. The people hunting Mothman had conjured up wings with magic; that was why he had assumed Sevy and Tamika were with them. But if they didn't know who Daniel was, then didn't that mean they weren't a part of his group?
It could be a trick. That was possible. Then again, why try tricking him? They just thought he was an unlucky reporter. Nothing more, nothing less. Slipping his hands into the pockets of his trench coat, he followed the group to the place that food was apparently in. With Daniel there, he wasn't feeling that hungry. Still, he had to keep up appearances. He'd grab a bite to eat if it made him seem normal - made him seem human.
Sevy turned right and went down the hall. He couldn't remember exactly which side the correct first door would be on, so he tried the right. The old-fashioned door handle seemed to be unlocked. He glanced over at Tamika, and then past her to Daniel and Benji. Well, he was going to have to wait on the talk, then. It probably hadn't been the best cover to mention food.
"One second, I'll just check this room out. For all we know, it might be a trap." He said, mostly to Tamika. He knew that he was always walking a thin line when it came to trying to protect her, but he really didn't need to lead her into a compromising situation right now.
He pushed open the door. Gordon slipped past to enter ahead of him, his ears flat against his head. Sevy placed a hand on his back- his fur was standing on end. All that he could see of the room was that it was pitch black. He could just barely make out the sillhoutes of furniture covered in sheets.
"Hey, Jane? Where's the food?" He called, feeling a bit self-conscious since he wasn't sure if she could hear him or respond from outside of the lobby.
"You would have found it if you had followed my directions correctly." Her voice surrounded the room, just like it had downstairs. He wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but he thought she sounded irritated.
"Well, then what's in this room? Do you know?" He waited a moment. She didn't respond.
Another voice, smaller and much different from Jane's, came from the darkest corner.
"Oh, more guests! I'd thought you'd never come!" A luminous form came closer, and Sevy's heart beat faster- he could already guess what she was.
The ghost came right up next to them. She seemed to resemble a girl anywhere from eleven to fourteen, but he couldn't tell much else from her appearance, considering that half of her head was missing, and blood and gore were smeared down her face. He muffled a terrified gasp, and Gordon completely lost it. He grew several times his size and hissed loudly before bolting out of the room.
In the hall, he barreled past the group and bounded down the hall. As he ran, his tail swung and knocked one of the hanging lanterns off the wall. It shattered, and the uncontained flame gently started to devour the carpeted floor. Meanwhile, the few moths that had been flocking in a dark corner high above seemed to multiply and gather more as they were drawn to the open flame.
He couldn't help himself - the moment he saw the light, he immediately began to head toward it. At least he had the convenient excuse of trying to quell the flame; a few attempts to snuff it off later, and he had provided a suitable explanation for the action.
He didn't get why Gordon had just run out of that room, but he honestly wasn't that concerned by that. His attention was somewhere else - that somewhere being the moths began to circle around him even though the lights had gone out.
A few landed on his beanie, while even more began to land on his arms. He frantically tried to shoo them away. He would have tried talking to them, but that would have only confirmed what Daniel had surely figured out by now-
Laughter filled the hallway.
Daniel Leeds clutched his stomach as he barreled over in laughter. "I can't believe it," he said. "I just-I just can't believe it! Mothman was sent to investigate his own festival! That's why you were in Point Pleasant, weren't you? And they were all convinced that it was because you had a big ego, but it was because you're just a really unlucky reporter who got sent to report his own story!"
Meet Fabian, a relatively new character in Kratzer's world! He's a kid, appearing to only be around thirteen or fourteen, with blue eyes and messy black hair. He's wearing simple clothing and it's obviously worn and ratty - jeans, tennis shoes with soles worn thin (there's even some holes), and what looks like it might've been a dark greenish blue t-shirt but is so dirty it's hard to tell.
The door slammed open and the voice chimed in its cheery monotone once more as a boy sprinted inside, stumbling and tripping. He couldn't be older than thirteen or fourteen and the look on his face betrayed utter panic as he pushed himself hurriedly back to his feet. His wide eyes surveyed the few remaining in the room through the darkness and he took a few steps back. His eyes glowed eerily in the pale shadows, like the eyes of a raccoon in the headlights.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Tamika glanced over at Benji, who seemed to be gravitating toward the fire and beating away moths. Daniel's comment barely registered to her- she was too busy focusing on the room that Gordon had ran from. Sevy was still in there. She debated entering the room to see what was going on. On one hand, she didn't want to be clingy or try to rescue him from everything. On the other hand, she knew that if it was her in the room, he would already have been inside.
~~~
Sevy faced the ghost girl, slightly perturbed by her appearance. The blood made him feel faint. Thankfully, she didn't seem hostile at all. As a matter of fact, she was very bubbly.
"I'm sorry- if I had known a guest would visit me, I would have cleaned up a bit. One moment." she seemed to be straining herself. After a moment, her face blurred and then refocused. The blood was gone and her head was once again whole.
"Uh, it's alright." he was at a loss for words.
"What's your name? I'm Elisa." she smiled and offered a hand before pulling it back, remembering that she couldn't make contact.
"Hi. I'm Sevy. Do you know what this place is, exactly? Why is there a hotel in the Underworld?"
She opened her mouth, eyes lighting up in excitement over being able to assist somebody. Jane's voice boomed before Elisa could answer.
"Confedential. Previous guests may not disclose information to current guests."
The ghost sighed and rolled her eyes. "But Janieeee!" she whined, "I've been sitting around waiting for so longgg."
~~~
Downstairs, another tablet manifested, swooping down to stop in front of the newcomer.
"Hello honored guest. Please press the screen to register for your stay." Jane's voice came from the device.
Last edited by ChristenedPages on Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:38 pm, edited 3 times in total.
He blinked in surprise, staring wide-eyed at the tablet. Tentatively he obeyed and pressed the screen, only to yelp with surprise as it jabbed his finger and drew blood. He shoved his finger into his mouth and ran past the floating thing and up the stairs - he wanted out.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Benjamin Frost - Mothman - was staring at him with wide, terrified eyes. That normally should have prompted a much more serious response, but it was hard to take him seriously when moths were flocking to him in droves. They just sat there and flapped their little wings, their unwilling perch having given on trying to shoo them away. And something about this whole sight just made him laugh even harder than he had already been, to the point where tears were beginning to stream down his face because he was laughing so hard.
Mothman folded his arms, the moths quickly scooting up to rest on his shoulders instead to avoid getting crushed. His lips quivered. His eyes grew moist. It was so obvious that he was trying to act brave even when he didn't feel like, and that thought shut him up right then and there.
He stuck out his hand and took a step forward, an action that was meant to comfort and not scare. But, instead, Mothman took several steps back as the moths all turned and gave him absolutely menacing stares with their tiny beady eyes. Who knew such fragile little things could look so terrifying?
"It's alright," he carefully said, not wanting to gain the wrath of the moths if he accidentally threatened their perch. "I'm not going to harm you."
"You were hunting me," he said. The moths flapped their wings just a little faster, and grew tense, almost as if they were about to fly.
"I was," he admitted, "just not in the way that you think."
The moths paused. Mothman stared at him with still wide eyes, but with less fear than before. "I remember you saying something about 'putting its wings on display' and 'stuffing Mothman like a teddy bear'."
He took a deep breath. Shoot. This was going to be harder than he thought; he hadn't expected for Mothman to overhear him say that. "I don't usually say this sort of stuff in a public place, but something tells me management is pretty chill from who they've let in so far. You're not the only cryptid running around. I've been trying to find the others, and it takes a little bit of theatrics to convince crazy humans that I'm on their side."
Mothman furrowed his brows. Good. He got what he was trying to say.
"You're a...cryptid too?" he hesitantly asked, just as a final bit of confirmation.
He nodded. "Bingo! The Jersey Devil, at your service."
Gender:
Points: 710
Reviews: 9