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lyranova · 3 years

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Children of the Future:

Chapter 3: Temporary Home

Hi guys! Here’s chapter 3, I hope you guys like it I apologize if it isn’t very good I’m kinda tired atm but I’ll be ok ☺️! Also, Chapter 4 will be reblogged a few hours after this one since I already wrote that one haha. Anyway I hope you all enjoy~!

Taglist: @eme-eleff (if anyone wants to be added please let me know!)

Word Count: 2,339

Warnings: None

———

Yami groaned as he stretched, he rubbed his eyes a bit as he sat up in bed. That was some strange dream he had last night, him and the Prickly Princess, having a kid together. He almost wanted to laugh, it was so ridiculous. He and her, having a kid, he shook his head as he got out of bed. That would be the last time he ate Charmy’s cooking before he went to bed. He stood up, stretched again, and walked out of his bedroom. He hoped today would be an easy day with some much deserved down time.

He walked down the hall into the common room and frowned; it was silent, eerily silent. He cautiously walked into the room and looked around, he froze when he saw what had the Black Bulls so quiet. They were all surrounding Hikari as she politely answered the questions they threw at her, all the ones she could answer anyway. Yami blinked rapidly as he realized he hadn’t been dreaming the day before, he did have a kid with Charlotte, one from the future and that was currently 19 years old. He walked up to them and heard Hikari laugh, it sounded so much like Charlotte’s that it made him freeze on the spot again.

“ Oh no, dad hasn’t changed much at all! He’s still tough on everyone and tries to get us to push past our limits, he doesn’t cut me any slack at all even though I’m his daughter.” She laughed sheepishly, the Black Bull members' faces looked a mixture of disappointment and awe.

“ That’s just like Captain Yami, he treats everyone equally no matter who they are or what their status is!” Asta said in admiration, Noelle sighed and looked at him.

“ You would think he would at least cut his own daughter some slack.” Noelle said as she crossed her arms, Yami walked up behind all of them.

“ What makes you think that? I don’t cut anyone slack when it comes to training, and I mean anyone.” Yami suddenly said, making everyone but Hikari jump, she had noticed him walking up to them but didn’t say a word.

“ Captain Yami!” They all shouted in unison, Yami shook his head before looking at Hikari.

“ They bothering you?” Yami asked her, Hikari shook her head and waved away his concerns.

“ No they’re not bothering me, I’m actually having fun answering their questions.” Hikari told him with a small smile, it was nice seeing how different some of them were compared to how she knew them. Grey, Noelle, and Finral were the ones that had surprised her, she knew Grey had been terribly shy before she married Gauche but it was still weird to actually see how shy she was. She noticed Noelle seemed to be a little more closed off and kind of colder, she had heard about her being like this at one time but she had grown to be much warmer. Finral, well, he wasn’t as flirty in her time for obvious reasons. So him being so forward last night had thrown her for a loop.

“ Mhm, that ‘fun’ will wear off in a while trust me. Anyway,” Yami said as he walked over and sat down on the couch, he quickly pulled out a cigarette and lit it before Hikari could say anything. “ the Prickly Princess should be here soon. We’re all moving into a new house today, since Julius wants you to ‘adjust’ and thinks us all living together will help.” Yami grumbled slightly before taking a drag of his cigarette. He knew there was more to it then that.

Julius wanted them to keep an eye on her.

Yami doubted it was because he was mistrustful of Hikari, she hadn’t lied to them once, and if she did Yami would be able to sense it with his Qi. But it was because they didn’t know why she was sent there, they figured out who sent her last night, which Yami would have to tell Julius about later. He noticed a sadness in Hikari’s eyes that quickly disappeared.

Hikari didn’t want to leave, even though she had only been here for less than 24 hours she wanted to stay. She was enjoying spending time with these versions of the Black Bulls, they were so fascinating and she wanted to know more about them like this. This place was her home, even if it looked slightly smaller and less crowded now.

There was a soft knock on the door, Yami yelled for them to come in and they opened the door. Charlotte looked around and spotted Yami sitting away from the group, she walked over to him and sat down.

“ Don’t stop on my account.” Charlotte said as they all looked over at her before glancing at Yami, who nodded, and they went back to questioning Hikari. Charlotte turned to look at Yami. “ How long has the inquisition been going on?”

“ Since before I woke up if I had to guess.” Yami shrugged slightly. “ How’d your squad take the news?” When asked this Charlotte sighed.

“ About as well as yours did, except for Sol, she wasn’t too happy at first. Well, she was more confused than unhappy, but I think after she meets Hikari she’ll become accustomed to the idea.” Charlotte explained with a shrug. “ But everyone else seemed pretty excited and supportive about the idea, although they don’t like that I’m no longer going to be at the headquarters for the time being.”

“ Mine are the same. But they’ll have to get over it for now, besides, we’re going to be in close proximity to both right? It shouldn’t be a big deal, especially since Hikari’s an adult and can stay by herself.” Yami pointed, she nodded in agreement.

“ But even though she’s an adult, adjusting to this new world could still be a challenge.” Charlotte countered, and he nodded in agreement as well. All three of them living together made sense, as well as making them live in a new house instead of at one of the bases.

“ We need to be going before we lose daylight.” Charlotte said as she stood up and walked towards the doors. “ It’s time to go Hikari.” The young girl blinked before looking at Yami, he stood as well and shrugged a shoulder.

“ You heard her, c’mon let's go. I’ll come back for my stuff later today.” Yami said, he watched the young girl slump in defeat; she really didn’t want to leave yet. “ You can come by and visit whenever you want. These brats aren’t going anywhere.” Yami added before rubbing the back of his neck and looking away, oddly he didn’t like hurting her feelings and he didn’t want to see her sad. Huh, was this a fatherly instinct? He only knew the girl for a few hours and yet he felt like he had known her forever! It was strange. Hikari’s face brightened instantly as she stood up.

“ Great! I’ll come back as often as I can!” She announced happily, she would probably come back here and hang out with the others everyday, but she also wanted to hang out with some of the Blue Rose Knights. Hm, this was going to be tricky. She would have to divide her time between the two squads well, but she also needed to help find a way home, or at least figure out why she was here in the first place!

Hikari followed Yami and Charlotte outside, there were three brooms sitting there, and she grabbed the one in the middle, crouched down on it, and levitated in the air. Her ‘parents’ did the same and they flew towards their new temporary home. As they journeyed Hikari’s mind wandered a bit; everyone looked relatively the same, albeit much younger now than when she knew them. It seemed to her that Grey and Gauche were already together, or were in the beginning stages of it anyway, Zora was still single from what he said, her parents were obviously not together, and it seemed that Noelle still hasn’t told Asta about her feelings. This was very curious. She tilted her head in thought after a moment.

She wondered if any of the other couples from the different squads were together or not.

————

The three landed softly outside of a small building that would be their new home. Like the Black Bulls base it was pretty secluded, but it was also a short broom ride to the Capital as well as to the Blue Rose Knight and Black Bull bases. It was a bit larger than the Black Bulls base, but smaller than the Blue Rose one. Yami walked up to the door and pushed it open, the common room was a bit larger than the Black Bulls, but it still had a couple of couches, a long dinner table, a few coffee tables, and a bar. On their left seemed to be the entrance to the kitchen and a small breakfast area, it was much smaller than the Black Bulls. ‘Charmy would be having a fit if she saw it’, Yami thought with a chuckle. He looked up and noticed a short staircase in front of them. The house appeared to have multiple wings which made him frown in confusion; if it was only going to be the three of them, then why did they need the extra rooms?

“ Huh, this looks a lot like the Black Bulls hideout. Except the layouts are different.” Hikari noted as she stepped beside Yami, Charlotte made a ‘hmm’ noise as she looked around.

“ The layout is similar to our headquarters, except smaller and much darker.” Charlotte muttered, it seemed like Julius either made or found a house that was similar enough to both bases in order to make them all comfortable. Huh, how thoughtful.

“ So, what do we do now?” Hikari asked as she crossed her arms.

“ We find our rooms, drop off our things, and look around.” Charlotte suggested, the other two nodded and they went off in seperate directions to find their rooms.

Hikari found one that was similar to the one she had at the Black Bulls base, but it was much larger, like she could probably fit at least 6-8 beds in there! She placed her Katana down on the bed with a sigh, that was the only thing she had been able to grab, she had no clothes or anything. Just her Katana. She turned as she heard a soft knock on her door, not waiting for a reply Charlotte walked in.

“ I’m sorry to intrude, but I brought you some of my old clothes. You look to be around my size, so they should fit, if not I can always have them tailored.” Charlotte smiled softly as she handed the girl the stack of clothes. Hikari looked away sheepishly as she took the clothes from her with a soft ‘thank you’. ‘ She’s just like Yami, she doesn’t seem to get sheepish easily, but when she does she’s absolutely adorable!’ Charlotte thought with an internal giggle. She watched the girl place the clothes inside the empty dresser.

“ I’m sorry there isn’t more I can do to help.” Charlotte apologized as her smile turned sad. “ I wish there was a way I could help you get home sooner, so you can be with your parents and siblings.” Charlotte couldn’t begin to imagine how Hikari was feeling being away from the people she loved and cared about, she was probably scared and upset but refused to show it.

“ It isn’t your fault. I’ll be home with them soon enough, after we get the answers to all of our questions that is.” She told her as she leaned against the dresser, Charlotte nodded in agreement. The two women stood in comfortable silence for a moment before Charlotte decided to break it, with a surprising question.

“ So, do you have a boyfriend?” The question seemed to surprise both women. Charlotte had been spending too much time around the girls in her squad for that question to come out of her mouth. Hikari frowned in both thought and confusion.

“ No, I mean, I have boy friends as in friends that are boys. But I’m not actually dating anyone. I want to accomplish my dream first.” Hikari said firmly and with a nod for emphasis, Charlotte tilted her head.

“ What’s your dream?”

“ To become the Wizard Queen someday.” She announced proudly and with a confident smirk. “ But, not only will I have to get stronger and surpass all my limits, there are a few people I’ll have to knock out in order to get there.” Hikari said the last part softly, the white haired young man with a warm smile and bright blue eyes appeared in her mind again at the statement and she quickly shook her head.

“ Well, I’m sure with the help of Yami and your friends, you’ll be able to accomplish those goals easily.” Charlotte told her with an encouraging smile, Hikari opened her mouth to speak before she saw Yami suddenly walk by.

“ Yami?” She called out, he stopped and looked at the women before walking in. He had a confused look on his face.

“ What’s wrong?” Charlotte asked, her face and tone suddenly growing serious. Yami sighed before crossing his arms, he was holding a communication device in his hand.

“ That was Marx, Julius’s assistant. Apparently, I need to go get Zora and bring him to the Capital.” Yami said, Charlotte also frowned in confusion, but Hikari’s eyes widened and looked hopeful.

“ Why do you think he asked for Zora?” Charlotte asked, causing Yami to shrug again before turning around and walking out of the room.

“ No idea. But I plan to find out.”

———-

Ah i’m sorry this isn’t very good, but I hope you all enjoyed 🥰! I’ll reblog chapter 4 in a few hours so you can all read it! Thanks for reading and i hope you all have a good day~!

#children of the future #black clover #black clover fanfic #black clover fanfiction #yamichar #yami x charlotte #charlotte x yami #yami sukehiro #charlotte roselei #oc; hikari #not my oc

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basileusgerudo · 4 years

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William’s Backstory

I had the weirdest god damn dream and I’m pretty sure it was just my William taking over my brain and laying out his life story. I’m just copy pasting it directly in here, so it will be written as a dream, but, this is officially William’s backstory.

Big oof.

So like, it happened in the house but the layout was a bit different because my computer was in the corner of my room, and there’s usually a window and my a/c unit there, but all that was gone. So it was truly just in the corner. And mom was with me for some reason and wanting me to google something, or whatever, but the desktop was acting really weird so I held the power button down to restart it but it was taking a really long time?? And when it finally restarted it instantly came back on and a Fuck Ton of red nonsensical text appeared and just scrolled on and on and *on* until it stopped, went black, and then formed a face made of text.

He called himself ‘William Afton’ and the face looked like him, not like any one specific version, but like, I was looking at him dead in the cyber-eye and I knew it was him? Anyway, he said via text that if we wanted to make out of this encounter alive, I’d have to play his game(s) and of course I didn’t believe him, it felt so vividly real that I figured something was fucking up so I said, out loud, “You’re lying, you can’t be real, this isn’t real, I remember laying down for a nap so this must be just a dream.” And he replied,

>Not real? >Just a dream?

>Well, how about I give your leg a poke then.

>Does this feel real to you, Catherine?

And I felt a pressure on my leg and, of course, freaked the fuck out and just told him to go away, there’s no way this was actually happened, etc., and the entire time I was freaking out the screen was being filled with nothing but laughter like:

>hahahaha(etc. etc.)

But then he threatened mom and said if I wouldn’t play along he’ll just have to “toy with her instead” and I flipped my damn shit cause me and mom are really close and I wouldn’t forgive myself if she got hurt because of me and I just remember sobbing and begging him not to hurt her to let her leave the room and I’ll do as you say, whole nine yards. He agreed and she left and went and sat in the living room, I guess, but I still didn’t want to play his games because they were like, 8-bit pixel fnaf style mini games of killing kids, so I just started talking to him to stall for time.

And somehow we got into a conversation into his home life and told me about his father, whose name was also William Afton, and how his father was an abusive alcoholic and would beat him and his siblings, he had a younger sister and a younger brother, he was the oldest of the three. I never got ages but anyway, his dad ended up killing his younger sister b/c he beat the shit out of her so bad and then when the cops showed up (i think the neighbors called?), his dad had William lie or

>He’d do the same thing to me that he did to her.

>And I was terrified, so, of course, I lied.

I started feeling really bad for him so we just kept talking, only it wasn’t because I wanted to stall, it was mainly b/c he seemed really lonely and I figured he hadn’t had a real conversation with someone in a long time. The next thing he tells me about is the first time he ever killed someone.

>School was the only safe place we all had.

>I always like learning, I made sure to get good grades.

>I suppose because I thought that would make him proud of me, but he never cared.

>I could’ve stayed home a whole week and he wouldn’t have cared.

>Would have just given him more time to beat me.

>So, when I found out my brother was being bullied, I snapped.

>I made him tell me who, what grade, what class he shared with them.

>They were a class above me but I was taller than him, I was taller than nearly everyone in the school, so I had a clear advantage.

>They put up a fight.

>I didn’t know how to punch, but I copied what my father did, how he held his fist, and landed in a few decent hits.

>I suppose he could see he was losing so he ran but I chased after him and I tackled him.

>There was a cinder block nearby so I used it to bash his head in.

>I’ve never felt more powerful in my life.

And I told him I understood why he did it and he accused me of lying but then I went on a whole rant about how I was bullied back in school and my brother would always look out for me (not to the extent of Literal Fucking Murder™) but that I really did understand where he was coming from. I think he said thank you, or seemed appreciative to some degree, and then I kinda shifted the subject b/c I said,

“Wait, where’s your mom in all this?”

Because he hadn’t mentioned her once. So then he tells about how he started Afton Robotics and how his mother came into his life and then promptly out of it.

>My mother was just as much a monster and just as guilty as my father.

>She left us soon after my sister was born because she couldn’t take the abuse anymore.

>I begged her to take at least the baby and my brother with her, I would stay behind, as long as they were safe.

>I’ll remember what she said to my dying day.

>”I never wanted any of you, your father just wanted more punching bags.”

>So she left and I’ve hated her ever since.

“William, I’m so sorry.”

>It’s alright, you have no need to apologize.

>You did nothing wrong.

“I know, but I’m still sorry. You didn’t deserve any of this. Your siblings didn’t either.”

>...Thank you.

“I only feel a bit terrible for asking but did you ever kill your Dad? Take over the household, all that jazz?”

>Oh, yes, of course.

>He was drunk one night, too drunk to put up a fight, so I hauled him to his feet but it didn’t quite finish him off.

>So I snapped his neck.

>I told the cops the same exact thing I told them years ago.

>”He fell down the stairs Officer, he’s always been a bit of a drunk and I guess he just lost his balance.”

>They believed me, of course.

>I was free to take over the house, the money, and I went to college and worked on a Robotics degree, started my own business and my own company, Afton Robotics.

>I ran it out of my garage, mind you, but it was successful.

“That’s great! I mean- minus the murder, but he really fucking deserved it.”

>He did.

>Thank you, for understanding.

>I suppose I should apologize for threatening you.

“It’s okay, you didn’t actually hurt me or Mom, so don’t worry about it. Tell me more about Afton Robotics.”

>Very well.

>Did I ever mention I had a penchant for the joy of creation?

“No?”

>Well, I did.

>I do, still.

>Ever since I killed that bully, felt such a high, I wanted to keep it.

>I read up on creation and God and decided that if he could make life, so could I.

>So I shifted my focus to technology, robotics, how to build them from scratch, which leads back into the founding of Afton Robotics.

>I was *finally* good at something so I wanted to make some money from it.

>I made kittens, puppies, and small birds for people, sold them as ‘Never-Dying Pets.’

>”Get your child a friend that’ll last them a life-time!”

>It was a hit.

>It was a stable income and it helped when my father’s money, which wasn’t much, eventually ran out.

>I kept the house stable, funded my way through college, and kept it up for a few years.

>But then business dwindled. My creations weren’t life-like enough anymore.

>Too cold, too clinical. That’s when I remembered something from my short stint in studying religion.

>Souls.

>My creations didn’t have souls, didn’t have *true* life.

>I decided to give it to them.

>I didn’t want to harm any animals, though so people did just fine.

>I adjusted my robots accordingly - making small dolls was far easier than animals, actually.

>And children are such fragile creatures; so easy to win their favor with promises of candy, of fun, of a friend.

>That’s when I discovered Remnant.

“What is that?”

>Without going into the finer details, it is a substance that is in everyone. It is in you. It is in me.

>Children have more of it, everyone does when they’re young, but when they age, it spreads and disperses.

>Much like a soul, it never truly goes away.

>But, given its abundance, it was always far easier to collect it from children.

“But you watched your sister die, didn’t you feel bad?”

>Not at all.

>You see, when my sister died in my arms, she looked so peaceful. Happy.

>Death, in itself, must be happy.

>I always singled out children who looked sad, were lost, crying. Unhappy.

>That was the best lure I used: what better thing to offer a sad, lonely child but a chance to be happy forever?

“I… don’t agree with that but, okay. How does your mom factor into all this?”

>It’s alright, I don’t expect you to.

>She factors in because she figured out I had money and she wanted it.

>She called me, of all things, didn’t even bother to track me down, come back to the house.

>Told me she’d heard of my success and so sorry about your father’s accident.

>It didn’t even phase her when I told her about my sister’s death. >That’s when I decided I would kill her too.

>So I told her to come to the house, we could talk about money, and she fell for it.

>She came a few days later.

>She didn’t even apologize for abandoning us.

>She only begged for mercy as I stabbed her until the screaming stopped.

He also never mentions his brother again so I really really don’t know what happened there, other than I guess he left home. I don’t think he wanted to hurt his only sibling and I guess I didn’t ask or don’t remember, but the next thing I remember is him telling me about Fredbear’s Family Diner.

>I came up with the idea for the Diner when I was nearly caught killing another child.

>I had to come up with something inconspicuous, something that would let me hide the bodies until I could be rid of them properly.

>So I went back to college, got an undergrad in Business, and started to draft blueprints for a bigger animatronic.

>A golden bear.

>Gold is such a soft color, pleasing on the eyes, and I often saw children with stuffed bears, I thought, “what better animal to make full scale than a bear?”

>It took me a year to develop the springlock suit - I’ll get into that in a bit - and then another year to develop the second animal, a golden rabbit.

>I’ve always loved rabbits, such soft, innocent creatures. Until they aren’t.

“What do you mean?”

>Rabbits are adorable.

>But they are unnerving to some.

>Empty, soulless eyes. Sharp teeth. *Quick.*

>A predator hiding behind soft fur.

“Kinda like you.”

>Yes!

>Yes.

>That’s why I made the rabbit suit for me.

>I would become a symbol of innocence, something children would love.

>I would take them away, take the lonely and the sad, and I would make them happy forever.

>I would let them live their happiest day forever.

>I would give them a family. *My* family.

“William-”

>So I started Fredbear’s Family Diner.

>There were games, pizza, prizes, and of course, two brand new forever friends.

>Fredbear and Spring Bonnie.

>It was an immediate success.

>And the suits, oh, the wonderful springlock suits.

>They were even better, my magnum opus.

>A creation of duality, like rabbits.

>Something that could be worn by an animatronic skeleton or worn by myself.

>I was always in the rabbit suit, I was careful to never let anyone see my face.

>I hired someone as a faux manager, someone easy I could manipulate, and if they ever showed signs of betrayal, I ‘fired’ them and hired another.

>And it was much easier to lure a lost child away, into the back, with promises of meeting Fredbear.

>With a chance to play with me.

>A friend.

>I would stuff their bodies into Fredbear after I’d collected their remnant and their soul.

“Could you collect remnant from the managers you ‘fired?’”

>Caught on to that, did you?

>Clever.

>Yes, I could.

>Like I said before, remnant never truly goes away, it simply thins out.

>A few factors make it collect within the body, but I found fear to be the most enjoyable.

“Why not give adults a happy ending?”

>Because adults are cruel.

>They’ve lost their childhood innocence.

“More like they can see past your act.”

>Haha.

>Yes, I suppose that too.

>I cannot offer an adult candy and pizza and get the same excitement from a child given the same offer.

I kinda lost the plot after that because someone broke into the house and tried to steal the living room T.V. so I chased them off and then me and mom had to run for some reason and the backyard was hella foggy and there was construction equipment everywhere. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#{ Mr. A | Purple Guy }#{ william afton's backstory a la Dream Style }

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woah-imagine-that · 5 years

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Hi i loved the scenario you did for saitama where he accidentaly hurt his s/o who finished in coma i wanted to know if you could do like a part two if possible , when reader wakes up something like that (PS: if you are will to do this request is it going to be posted here or on your ao3? after the message that you posted about the ban i wanted to know) please? -Sarah

Heyo, as for your question I think I might just stick to tumblr for now, I wanted to post on Ao3 because I thought some of my work may be lost, but luckily everything, smut and all, survived, so I don’t feel any need to post there. Are you all ready to find out what saitama and reader-chan were fighting about? Read on and find out.

Here’s the link to part one

Saitama wasn’t there when you woke up, that was the first thing you noticed. The second thing you noticed was a bright, shining light coming through the window to your left. It was the sun, you quickly realised. It looked like it was setting… or rising, you couldn’t quite tell. Your eyes tried to focus, but the glare of the sun got in the way, everything was still blurry and hazy.

“Where am I?” You had a quick look around, your eyes slowly adjusting to the layout of the hospital room. You shouldn’t be surprised, you took a heavy blow from Saitama, so being here made sense. Huh, you survived a blow from Saitama, you half congratulated yourself for that, where was he anyway?

Suddenly, a dull but annoying pain shot up through your skull. Damn, must have banged my head pretty hard. You groaned, shuffling in your bed to get rid of the tension, but it proved difficult with the cramped space of the bed. Your movement alerted someone in the room, and they called your name in a soft voice, “you’re awake.”

You immediately recognised the voice and cocked your head to meet his, “Genos? What are you doing here?”

“I see you haven’t lost your memories, that’s good,” he spoke in a formal tone, “master Saitama instructed me to take care of you while he’s not here.”

“Thank you Genos.” He was always kind and gentle to you, you weren’t sure if it was because Saitama told him to be, but you appreciated it nonetheless. “Wait,” you continued, “if he told you to watch over me while he wasn’t here… how long was I out?”

“Well, it has been exactly 27 days since you first went into a coma.” Your face visibly paled at that. You were in that state for almost a month? That can’t be right, you could have sworn it was only a couple of hours, you had this weird dream where you were part of some tv show… whatever, dreams are weird.

You tried to sit up, as you did a young nurse walked into the room, immediately startled by you, “ah, the patient’s awake,” she said more to herself than to you, she was fidgeting frantically, must have been a new worker. “I must alert someone.”

After what felt like days doing paperwork, going through therapy and learning how to walk again, you were discharged, you were lucky you fully recovered and your coma didn’t evolve so the hospital bill wasn’t too severe, and you were happy that you didn’t stay in there longer than you need to, it was making you uneasy. You made an audible sigh as you left the hospital and looked up to the deep night sky. You found yourself lost in the sky and ended up staring for a while, being in a coma even for a few weeks makes you miss all the small things in life.

“I’m guessing your hungry,” his voice broke through the short silence. Now that he mentions it, you were hungry. Scratch that, you were starving, guess being in a coma will do that to you, and the hospital food wasn’t doing much either. “I’ll take you out somewhere, anywhere you want,” he quickly took out his wallet, counting the stacks of cash inside. “Woah, we don’t have to go anywhere fancy, just takeout will do.”

Before you knew it, you were back in your shared apartment, munching down on some much-needed food. Usually Genos didn’t go for take out, but you seemed insistent, sounded like you were having a craving, so he got it for you. You made a satisfied sound as you finished your meal, “thanks again, I needed that.” You heard Genos speaking, but you didn’t really listen, which you felt bad for but your mind started drifting again, you thought about Saitama, and that pointless fight you had before you got knocked out, you felt so stupid for fighting with him in the first place, but you just wished he would show a little more emotion sometimes, especially when you’re trying to be intimate. But you know you shouldn’t push him to do those things, you know he cares about you. A determined feeling passed through you, you would make things right. Genos was about to say more, when the sound of the door opening interrupted his thoughts.

“Oi, Genos,” that was Saitama. Darn, you thought he would be back later, you haven’t even thought of what to say yet, and how he’d react to you suddenly being here, maybe you should’ve called him, but with all that’s been going on you neglected to.

“Why are you here? I thought I told you to stay back at the—” his voiced stopped once he saw you. He didn’t move for a few seconds, and you took that as your cue to go to him. His expression was neutral when you came up to him, but you knew Saitama well, there was a lot of emotion running around under the surface, you could almost feel it, it was small but fierce, like shock waves running through his bloodstream. He said your name in such a soft voice you thought you imagined it as first, you felt his hands on either side of your head, cradling you, “what? I…” He was at a loss for words, “is that really you?”

“I woke up this afternoon, sorry for not calling you, I didn’t mean to surprise you like this.”

“… That’s not your fault,” he looked at you with genuine happiness before leaning to the side to look at Genos. “Hey, I thought I told you to call me when she woke up.” The blond visibly tensed, shit, he’d completely forgotten about that.

“My apologies master, I did not intend to not notify you, forgive me.”

“Whatever,” he sighed and looked back to you, the warmth and emotion coming back to his eyes once again, “that doesn’t matter now.” You smiled back at him and brought him into your embrace, you were in the middle of preparing a speech but you guess ad-libbing will have to do, “I’m also sorry about what happened, about blowing up about some stupid petty thing, because I know you better and this emotional stuff isn’t you.” You were about to go on but you felt him kiss you on the head, “please stop talking, you have nothing to apologise for. You’re in the right, I want this emotional stuff to be my thing, you’re important and I don’t want to lose you, and I really felt like I was going to a few weeks ago.” His words only made you squeeze him tighter, tears were threatening to fall out of your eyes.

“You don’t have to change for me, we can take things slow, we’ll work it out together.” You slowly pulled back from him, looking into his eyes, his eyes you know are full of emotion. “Thank you,” he whispered, before closing the gap between you.

Meanwhile, Genos could feel the romantic tension growing. It’d be best if he didn’t get in the way, he silently got up and tiptoed his way into the kitchen.

#fanficiton #scenrio #imagines #anime #anime imagines #one punch man #Saitama #s/o #genos

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necromancindancin · 7 years

Text

Blood Work

This short work features a protagonist that I’ve been working on for a while! Her name is Ace and, well, I’d rather not give too much away about her just yet. Just know that she is well developed beyond this story and I have other things planned for her. I’m quite fond you could say. This is a story about Marcos, who has been having a bit of a ghost problem. After a series of disappointing visits from people responding to his craigslist ad, he’s become a bit skeptical that this is ever going to be resolved. This story isn’t perfect and I think way later in the future I want to tweak it but for now it’s finished and I’m very happy to present it here.

Word count: 4190

When Marcos heard a knock at the door, a feeling in his stomach told him not to answer it. This feeling was quickly proven correct when the person on the other side of the door was revealed. She was smaller in stature, her varsity-style jacket looking at least one size too big. Above the green eyes was a right brow piercing and spiked up, dark pink hair. The woman pushed up her glasses and gave a tiny smile.

She looked like a Hot Topic reject.

“You’re Marcos Jackson, right?” She asked, reading off a card in her hand.

He was feeling way too awful and too tired for this bullshit. As if on cue, a cough rose from his chest. The woman looked unfazed and he noticed the tattoos on her fingers and hands, assortments of stripe and dot patterns.

“Yes?” He answered hesitantly.

“Hi. I’m here to solve your ghost problem.”

Of course. Of course she was. At this point, Marcos was just pinching the bridge of his nose hoping this was a sickness induced hallucination.

“Fff- I mean uh, I deleted that listing. No need for you to come inside.”

Internally he begged her to just go away. No more weird people in his house.

The woman strode in anyways, “I’m not here because of the listing. Although seriously, who asks for a house cleansing on Craigslist?”

“I was desperate- Th-that’s not the point! If that’s not it, why’re you here?”

The card was already away in her jacket and replaced with a notepad. All he could do was follow her around the house as she took notes. Something about her seemed focused, yet relaxed, as if she had done this dozens of times before. Marcos grabbed a tissue out of a nearby box to wipe his nose. He kept them around all over these days.

She turned to face him, “Your neighbor knows a friend of mine and they’re sick of hearing you shriek at three a.m. So here I am.”

“I’ll send them brownies or something. Listen whoever-you-are-”

“Ace.”

He laughed in frustration, “Of course that’s your name. Look. I’m done with crazy people coming in my house and wrecking my things and not doing anything to actually get rid of my problem. None of you know what you’re talking about so please just leave.”

A moment of silence passed before the question, “So how long have you been sick? If I’m correct, it started shortly after the electrical disturbances and things being moved around, right?”

“How did you know-”

“It’s my job to know. Plus, you neighbors sent me a link to your listing. Thanks to you writing your history out, we can skip the expositional ‘when did this all begin’ stuff. Could you answer my question?”

When he actually mulled over a possible answer… It sounded eerily correct.

“I mean. I guess? I… never really thought of it,” He mumbled.

How had he not? It was downright weird how obvious it was now. Another bad feeling hit his stomach. That or it was the nausea again. Ace motioned for him to follow her again as she headed toward the kitchen. In just moments, she had convinced him that maybe she actually knew what this was. At least, he hoped.

The layout of the kitchen was simple. A square block just next to the living room, there was only one entrance. On either side against the walls were countertops that matched the cheap linoleum flooring. In the middle of the floor was his kitchen table.

She gave a reassuring smile, “Can’t blame you. When stuff starts levitating and moving around on it’s own, people generally panic and don’t put specific details together. If I’m right, you’ve got a parasite. Come on, help me move this stuff.”

The woman pointed to the table that was covered with assorted paperwork, used tissue, and even a plate from this morning. He had felt so hazy earlier, he had completely forgotten to clean it up. It was embarrassing for a guest (even an uninvited one) to see his house in such a mess. Instinctively wanted to apologize, say it normally didn’t look like this. Yet she didn’t seem to mind.

“...Like a tapeworm?”

He dragged the trashcan next to them, scooping up any garbage swiftly. While normally he’d ask why they were doing this, he got the feeling it would be faster to just listen at this point. The young woman ran a bit of hot water for the dish.

“You’re not too far off, actually.” Ace praised, “A parasite in my line of work is usually some kind of malevolent spirit that feeds off the energy of whoever is nearby. Unfortunately for you and whoever lived here before you, this one spawned in a house so... constant food source. These things feed until you’ve got nothing left.”

“Jesus. No wonder I feel like shit.” He said, pulling his robe tighter around himself.

And no wonder the last tenant had been a thirty year old who died in her sleep. The thought that he wasn’t much older and in the same position chilled him to the bone. It’s something you tell yourself will never happen to you, until it does. Not really the ghost part as much as the dying young part. But that left another question- How long had this thing been here? As the table was completely cleared, Ace pulled out a vial of red liquid from her jacket.

“Um. What’s that?” He asked as she popped open the cork.

She winced, “Promise you won’t freak out?”

“Well now I’m definitely going to freak out.”

“In that case, it’s blood,” The woman said with a shrug. One of her fingers traced across the top of the open vial.

“...Are you shitting me right now?”

While this was not worse than the man with the fake vampire teeth who wore a pentagram on his neck, it was up there. Why the fuck would anyone…? Oh god, oh my god, he thought as she dipped her finger in the liquid. She began to draw something, patterns and shapes, into the top of the table. This was why she needed it cleared off, he realized. He froze in place.

Her eyebrows raised in sheepish amusement, “I would have mentioned it earlier but the immediate introduction of ‘Hi, I’m Ace and I’m a blood mage who hunts ghosts and other supernatural creatures oh and did I mention I’m a blood mage’ usually doesn’t give me a great start.”

His voice strangled out of his mouth, “You have vials of it? W-where do you even get it from?”

“It’s mine.”

“Wait, what?”

“Seriously. I donate to myself every couple of months or I get donations from friends in the business. Mostly it’s all my own, though. I don’t need a lot all at once.”

The instant relief was almost concerning. It was still blood but… if it wasn’t hers, it’s not like anyone was getting hurt, right? The man tried not looking at it. Thinking that used to be inside a person made him light-headed. At least the trash can was right next to him. He wanted to be polite.

He made a face, “I guess… that’s… weird but fine? Next time you need to ask, that’s so unsanitary.”

“Just slap on some antibacterial afterwards and you’re fine,” Ace laughed as she finished the drawing.

Marcos looked at the strange symbol he didn’t recognize, “So… is this going to get rid of it?”

“Not exactly. I need to find out what I’m dealing with. This’ll make it appear, show it’s real face.” Suddenly her tone became serious, almost quiet.

He backed away from the table, “Wait… you’re summoning that thing on my table? You said it was angry, right?”

“I said malevolent but yeah, it’s probably pretty pissy,” Ace stated matter-of-factly.

“That is a terrible idea! What if it attacks us?”

Ace mumbled a quick “right!” as if suddenly remembering something she’d forgotten. With no words, she turned to Marcos and pulled up the right sleeve of his robe. Unable to quite process exactly what was going on, he let her do it despite the instinct to pull away. She pulled out the blood vial again, dipping into it with her fingers. Up close, he could see the vial was actually a thick plastic, which kind of made sense in a way-

He gagged as Ace drew another pattern along the tender skin on the bottom side of his arm. Even though logically there probably wasn’t much of a scent, all he could think about was how gross it smelled. The grip she had on his wrist while she drew was surprising. She wasn’t exactly large in any sense of the word, yet she was strong.

“Sorry, I know this is probably the grossest thing that’s happened to you this week.”

“Possibly my whole life. I said ask next time!” Marcos tried not to sob. It was thick and threatened to roll down his arms in droplets. At least it was room temperature. For some reason he imagined it would have felt cold.

Ace explained softly, “Sorry again. This will make sure no matter what happens, that spirit can’t touch you. You need to be safe while I do this.”

“O-oh. That’s… nice.” He mumbled, “Thanks…?”

He glanced down at his arm even though his stomach rolled. It was different from the one on the table, simpler. The more he looked at it, the warmer it began to feel. Blood magic? Ghosts? Before he moved here, he would have never believed in any of this. Now it was just more weirdness to add to the pile.

Ace sighed, “Alright, let’s get this finished so you can wash that off.”

Under her breathe, the woman began to whisper words under her breathe. The few snippets Marcos could catch sounded like latin and… some other language he didn’t recognize. The tattoos around her fingers began to glow in red, snaking up into the sleeves of her jacket. The symbol on the table pulsed as she reached forward and grazed her finger across the design.

Something the same color as the blood began to form from the symbol. It dripped and moaned as it got taller, bigger. It’s head practically reached the ceiling as the “covering” of blood melted away, revealing the monster underneath. She, or at least what Marcos thought was a she, was disfigured.

The skin on her arms became scaly with rock formations and talons that dragged down passed her knees. Her head was not connected to her body, instead floating above a bloody stump of a neck. Dark hair was matted with blood and mud that covered most of her face. Shreds of clothes hung loosely across her body. Bloodshot eyes stared at Ace. Marcos could feel anger slice into the room.

“Go the fuck away.” It growled. Her voice was raspy and deep, too deep.

Ace crossed her arms, “You know I can’t do that. You’ve hurt a lot of people. It’s time for you to move on.”

“Go the fuck away!” The monster repeated. It stepped forward on the table, quickly seeing the boundary it could not pass.

“I want to help you.” Ace said calmly, “Everything is going to be okay. We’ll do this together and you don’t have to feel this way anymore.”

When she said it, the offer felt genuine. The creature’s face twisted into a grimace and items previously laying flat on the kitchen counter began to float. Ace stood her ground, yet gave a small gesture to Marcos to move. His stomach wriggled with anxiety at what he was seeing. It wasn’t the first time this spirit had levitated something, but this was different somehow.

“I said,” The monster shouted, “Go the FUCK away!”

In an instant there was a flurry of papers, dishes, and anything not bolted down flying through the air. All in the direction of the only living souls in the room. The woman was quick to act, dashing towards the exit as she pulled Marcos with her. Silverware clattered on the floor behind them as they ducked to the side of the kitchen entryway.

Ace sighed, “Ok... so this is a little bit worse than I thought.”

Several appliances and objects continued to soar out of the doorway. The cacophony allowed for a brief moment in which both parties could gather themselves. As Ace began thinking of the next phase of attack, the other went into a frenzied panic.

His voice cracked, “What do you mean worse than you thought?! You said you knew what you were doing! Plus I thought this charm thingy was supposed to protect me!” A sheet pan whizzed past his head and provoked a coughing spell.

“I said so the spirit can’t touch you, not protect you from her throwing shit!” Ace sighed again, “Ugh, I can’t predict everything. I can still handle this but obviously I can’t make her rest. Parasites are always the wild cards. Never know what they want.” The last part was whispered, as if Marcos wasn’t really meant to hear it.

Inside the kitchen, the monster began to roar for release. Taking a brief glance, Marcos could see her pounding her claws against the invisible barrier. All the while the blood marks on the table remained undamaged despite the chaos. Seeing what had been taunting him face to face was both terrifying yet a relief.

Seeing her tangibly made him confident this could be solved. Somehow.

“You can’t like… make her rest?” He suggested.

“Not how that works. In real life if a spirit doesn’t want to move on, they won’t. Look, handling spirits is- it’s complicated. Now I have to capture her.”

The man cringed, “Wow, we can’t just... find her bones and burn them or something? Like in the movies?”

“No, because that would destroy her entirely. I need a bottle or something, doesn’t have to be big.”

“And destroying her would be a problem because…?”

The angry screaming in the kitchen had begun to turn into a desperate wail. Ace’s body tensed and she took a deep breath while rubbing her eyes. There were no more items being thrown, but both could hear the creature’s cries.

She calmly explained, “Believe it or not, she was human once. Ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, all of them had something terrible happen to them to make them trapped to the living world. I mean, yeah, I’ve met evil ones too but-”

“That thing killed people and tried to kill me. Excuse me if I’m lacking sympathy,” Marcos rolled his eyes, “Far as I’m concerned, it can rot. I just want it out of my house.”

Ace puffed out her chest and stared up at him, “If I’m right, she was probably murdered or even worse and now she’s stuck in this place scared, angry and confused! You lacking sympathy is why you don’t get to make the choice. Help me find a damn casing or I leave right now.”

“You serious?”

“Those are my conditions. Take ‘em or leave ‘em.”

Ace leaned back against the wall. For just a moment, Marcos wanted to kick the scrawny twit out of his house just for being this way. That would still leave him with his current problem. It wasn’t even that he was that against capturing the ghost or whatever it was called. Destroying just made more sense. Get it over with if it was going to be easier.

Did you really even deserve rest when all you did after you died was hurt others? Ace seemed way too sympathetic to something that actually killed people. The thing turned down the easy road. Yet… Whatever got it out of his house would do, even if he did feel this way. It wasn’t like him to be so angry, he knew. Ace was probably right that the decision should belong to her for this exact reason. He had no idea what this thing had gone through in life, even if it didn’t excuse the actions now.

“You said a bottle would work?” He mumbled.

Ace nodded, “Yeah, nothing fancy. Just needs to be empty.”

Although Marcos briefly wondered why they couldn’t have gotten one of the many containers out of the kitchen before this all started- The two managed to find a mason jar which, according to the girl wasn’t ideal, but would suit their purposes. Ace immediately took it from his hands, along with another vial from her jacket. How many things of blood did she have in there? Marcos considered it knowledge he was probably better off not knowing.

The mage drew new symbols along the glass edge, whispering sweet words into the lines. The liquid seemed to sizzle into the side as it etched itself permanently to the container. With this third charm, the man noticed how tiring the process looked. He wasn’t sure how to describe it, but the light of the mage’s eyes seemed to dull and fade. Instead of showing it, however, Ace just smiled and turned to him as she finished.

She sighed, “Alright, you ready for round two?”

Grabbing one of the many thrown pans off the floor, Marcos nodded. The young woman just laughed and shook her head while they walked back to the entrance of the kitchen. Glancing at the parasite again, Marcos couldn’t deny that it seemed frightened as well as angry. The roars and banging against the invisible barrier had turned to whimpering cries and scratching- like a trapped animal. It made his stomach turn.

Yet as it- as she, spotted the humans, a snarl climbed up her throat. Wordlessly Ace handed Marcos the jar, blood still dripping from her fingers. Now she was marking the floor next to the exit with a shaky breath. All Marcos could think about was dumping antibacterial across the span of his entire house.

“Wait… Why are you doing that?” He suddenly questioned.

Ace called over her shoulder, “So you really aren’t going to like this. But it’s fine. You’ll be fine.”

“Uh…?”

“Basically I have to break the table seal and she’s gonna have free reign of the kitchen. But she can’t touch you and you’ve got your… pan so you’ll be good!” She said, “Ready?”

Marcos almost dropped the jar in shock, “No! We are not ready! Are you kidding me?! You- You… Ugh. Ok. Ok. Just- Just do it so you can leave and I can take a fucking nap.”

Ace gave a thumbs up, “Alright! I’m just gonna need you to stand there and I’ll say some words when I’m ready and you’ll put the lid on the thing and uh… that’ll be it.”

“That’s it?” Incredulous was an understatement.

Another thumbs up. This was not a real answer. At this point, however, he was just going to take it. His whole body was starting to wear down from all the excitement. It was more surprising than it should have been considering how much he’d been sleeping since he got sick. It was so long since he felt normal, it was almost hard to remember what it was like not being ill.

But it would be soon. The idea of it made Marcos grip onto the jar tighter. A lump formed in his throat as Ace approached the table. The spirit was watching tentatively as if waiting for the next move. She wasn’t even throwing anything- yet. Could spirits get tired? Ace took a deep breath and reached forward, smearing the symbols on the table. She stared the spirit in the face and whispered, “Let’s get this over with.” She winced.

The spirit’s talons swept up and to the side, taking Ace’s body with it. The woman slammed into the nearby counter with a solid thud. Her hands flailed to grab onto something. Marcos was sure he heard a crack of- He didn’t want to think about it.

“I’m… I’m okay! Just keep standing there!” Ace choked out as the creature stepped down from the table. The mage began to silently word something.

The monster again threw its appendages at Ace, who barely managed to duck and roll underneath. What looked like a claw marks had gone through the side of her shirt and across the skin. The spirit’s jaw unhinged as it screeched and slammed its “weapons” on the floor wherever it thought it could reach the young woman. Every time, she would get out of the way by mere inches and Marcos could see the sweat forming on her forehead. In his hands, the jar began to hum and vibrate.

After another slam Ace managed to jump onto one of the rock-covered arms. She jolted up to the shoulder where she used the back of the spirit’s head as a springboard. The rolling landing on her arm looked painful, both humans cringing at the moment of impact. There was a moment of scrambling as she fought to get up and run behind Marcos. The recitation of whatever spell she was using had been non-stop throughout the entirety of the encounter.

Marcos felt her hands clap onto his shoulder as the spirit shook off the kick to the skull. Whisperings of latin ended and her grip tightened.

“Don’t move,” She said.

The man felt his legs quiver and his palms sweat as the angry monster charged forward, pulling back it’s talons. His eyes shut, the claws jutting forward into what he could only guess was his chest area. But there was no pain. The hands on his shoulders moved to his arms, his hands and finally the jar. As his eyes opened again he could see Ace screwing the lid of the mason jar closed.

The glass almost burned against his skin. Inside was a muddy, bloody ink blob that moved about in the free space. Ace gently pulled the jar from his grasp and Marcos touched his chest.

“Is that…?” He asked.

The woman held a hand to the wound on her side, “That’s her. Told you she couldn’t touch you with that charm on. Had to uh… make enough time for the spell to kick in. Oof.”

The kitchen was ruined. Counters were cracked. The floor was destroyed in several places. Many pots and pans lie dented or even broken. This was going to be an absolute pain to fix and clean but- Marcos was free. For the longest time in forever he felt like everything was truly silent. It was probably his imagination, but he could argue that it was like the sickness was lifted. His body felt better with each breath in.

“Are you okay?” He asked Ace.

She smiled through a grimace, “Oh yeah. I think she might have cracked a rib or two but y’know I’ve had way worse.”

“Holy shit, seriously? Should I take you to a hospital?”

“No no, I’m good. You need to sleep all this off. I’ll just be taking this jar and going on my way,” She said as she waved him off.

A strange feeling hit in his stomach now, one that was almost dream-like. This was really happening. Months of levitating items, fear and illness and now it was all going away like it never happened. While he certainly wasn’t going to miss it there was an emptiness that he couldn’t really describe.

“...So, uh, what are you going to do with her if she won’t rest?”

“I hold onto her, talk to her and… maybe, hopefully, someday she changes her mind. I’ve got a place hidden away for souls like this, secure.” Ace answered, before taking on a teasing tone, “Unless you were wanting to keep her around as a buddy?”

Marcos practically leapt from his skin, “No!”

She laughed, “Didn’t think so. It was good meeting you, Marcos. Maybe we’ll meet again someday, in better circumstances.”

She stuck out her hand for him to take. The warm smile on her face was infectious as Marcos gave his hand in return.

“That would be nice, I think. I hope… Ugh. As much pain as she caused I hope she’ll let you help her.”

“I hope so, too,” Ace said, her smile widening.

With that, she stepped out of the door with Marcos watching her until she was out of his line of sight. There was a slight limp to her step, clinging onto the jar tight. The fact that she was even kind of walking away from that throw was inhuman. Just brought up more questions. He knew he was going to keep wondering, even if he didn’t get answers.

He knew of course a better term for that spirit now. Maybe when he had done his research into the history of the house, he hadn’t looked deep enough. If there was something keeping her here, what was it? Something to look into- after he woke from what would likely be a sleep of the dead. The kitchen would have to wait. Before he fell asleep, however, he grabbed his phone to type in one small note: To make sure he sent over brownies to the neighbors.

#belle writes #blood work #Ace #Ace the blood mage #fiction #short story #We're Not Heroes

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works-of-evection-blog · 7 years

Text

I was a product tester for an app similar to Uber.

Isn’t it funny how getting into cars with strangers is fine now because our phones tell us it’s okay? You and your drunk girlfriends need a lift home at 3am and taxis are far too expensive – don’t worry! Dave will swing by in 5 minutes and pick you up in his own car! I get it, it’s heavily regulated and such, and to be honest, I’ve never heard of anything really dark happening to people who use Uber, myself included. So when I was contacted via LinkedIn to be a product tester for a new type of app, dubbed the “Uber for impulsive decision makers” I thought, “Cool, why not?’

Firstly, I had a meeting with the people who were creating the app. We talked over coffee and they just asked me a few, casual routine questions. It almost felt like a quiz. “How often do you travel?” “Do you plan in advance or do things last minute?” “On a scale of one to ten, how whimsical would you rate yourself?” They were a young man and woman who were very down to earth with that geeky side to them, really nice people. After our coffee chat, we parted ways and they told me they’d call in a few days. Well, a few days went by and I didn’t receive any calls or emails. I figured I wasn’t successful but I always got disgruntled when people didn’t follow up to let me know.

It was during a rather uneventful shift at the office that I received a phone call from a number I didn’t recognise. “Hello Cherie speaking.” “Hi Cherie! My name’s Tom and I work with Bella and Johan, who I believed you met about a week ago regarding the new ride sharing app?” “Oh, hi Tom. Yes, I did meet with them. I never heard anything back though.” “Yes, apologies for not getting back to you sooner. We’ve been really busy with the startup the past week and have only just got around to calling our successful product testers, of which you are one of them! We hope you’re still interested?” “Oh! That’s excellent! Yeah of course I am. What do I need to know?” “Great Cherie, just great. Well, I’ll email you a little more information and an acceptance form that I need you to fill out. Once you get that back to me, we’ll be able to set you up for a product test!” “Okay, sounds great.” “Excellent, bye!”

That was the first time my stomach twinged with apprehension, but of course, I ignored my gut and waited for the acceptance form to come through. I clicked it open and whoa – for a seemingly cool job I’d have done for a free meal, they were offering a decent sum of money. Kinda weird, but eh, maybe those founders were just cashed-up rich kids that wanted to start hype early by offering decent pay packages to their team members. I definitely wasn’t gonna complain. I hastily read the generic terms and conditions, signed and sent it back to Tom. As I clicked send, my gut twinged again. This time, I brushed it off as hunger and went to lunch.

I never received confirmation back from Tom regarding my acceptance form. But the next day I received a link to download the app. I did so, and my phone seemed to work as fine as before, so no nasty surprises there. The app didn’t have a name yet, it had just been named Test App 345 and had a slightly less slick design and layout than Uber. However, there was no Request Ride option. There weren’t any options at all. Just a map screen that had a pin at my current position. I pondered over this for about 5 minutes, waiting to see if anything was still loading, but when nothing happened, I closed the app and got ready for bed.

I awoke at 1am from a notification sound on my phone. Test App 345 shone at me through the darkness. The notification simply read, “You’ve got a ride request”. What? I was 100% sure I signed up to be a rider, not a driver. I opened the app to read a little more text, but I was still in a state of confusion. “A driver nearby has requested to take you somewhere!” Ummm…okay? Was this how the app worked? Oh, wait. The Uber for the impulsive decision-maker, duh! Suddenly it made sense – they were hiring drivers to take people on mystery drives. Cool concept? Of course. Seedy as fuck though? Definitely. I thought about the payoff, and quickly put on a jumper and jeans. This was dumb, but a kind of excitement took over me. I hit accept on the app.

I went outside to see a car pulled up right out front. The street was eerily silent and the night was still. The only thing that interrupted the quiet was the low hum of the engine. I walked up to the window and tried to make out a face. A man put the passenger window down and waved as I approached. “Um, Cherie?” “Y..yeah, that’s me.�� “I’m sorry dude, 1am wasn’t my idea, but that’s kinda how the app works apparently. I’m Norman, by the way.” So far, Norman seemed normal enough, so I opened the car door and hopped in. “Well, nice to meet you Norman. So you can see my name on the app, but I can’t see yours?” “Yeah, I’m not sure whether that’s because of the whole surprise factor, or a prejudice thing. I probably know as much as you. Basically, I get a notification that tells me when to get in my car and then I’ll sit and wait until a rider accepts the drive request. Guess you were the only person up.” “Hmm, interesting. How many people are testing it at the moment, do you think?” “No clue, but I’m really fascinated by the concept.” “Yeah, it seems pretty cool. Kinda weird though, no control over when you drive though…” “I like to think that’s part of the beauty. Keeps things interesting, especially for young people who aren’t creative enough to think of things to do or places to go anymore. It’s like an adventure with a stranger.” “Huh, guess I didn’t think about it like that.”

We drove and chatted for a long time. The whole time neither of us checked the time, or found nothing to talk about. We just drove around, talking and admiring the lights of the city while Norman followed the randomised GPS route on his phone. To be honest, it was one of those few movie-perfect moments in my life to date. Test App 345 was a really cool concept.

We started heading south of the city when I first questioned where we were going. “Umm, I’m not too sure, but the GPS says we’re about 10 minutes away from the destination.” “How well do you know this area?” “I have a few friends who live down around here, but I’m not too sure where we’re stopping. Nervous?” “I’m not too sure how I feel right now. Nervous excitement, maybe? I mean, I’m not hacked up in someone’s shed right now so, so far so good.” Norman let out a nervous laugh. “Oh shit, I’m sorry Norman! That probably sounded a little messed up. Geez, it’s kinda easy to forget you’re a total stranger when we’ve been night-driving and talking for the past 30 minutes.” “Heheh, yeah I get you. I’m nervous excited too.”

Eventually we pulled up at the end of a fairly run down cul-de-sac. There were no houses on the end, just a small field leading down towards a creek. We turned to look at each other with apprehension in our eyes. It gave me comfort knowing he looked as confused as me. He turned off the car and said, “Okay Test App 345, what now?” The silence was so thick you could almost pour it over yourself. Suddenly, we had nothing to talk about. I stared out into the grassy field and looked out my window. The street was still and black. I checked the time. 2:17am.

The sudden BING from Norman’s phone made us both jump. He read the notification out loud. “A driver is waiting for you to accept their ride request.” He turned to me and mouthed “what?” to which I simply shrugged. “Adventure Phase 2? What do I do, though? I haven’t received anything, my app still says ‘With Norman’.” “Maybe, we’re supposed to go together.” “Well, I sure as hell aren’t staying in your car until you come back.” “Yeah, fair call. Okay, I’m accepting the request.”

Within 5 minutes, a car turned into our street and pulled up next to us. I had to keep reminding myself that nothing bad had happened so far, but it wasn’t doing anything for my nerves. The new car’s window lowered. “Hey guys, I’m Dean.” We slowly got into his car and began the next part of this ‘adventure’. I’m not sure whether it was my growing nervousness or the sleep I was losing, but I started worrying for my safety. Either way, we drove and talked, all three of us. Dean was nice enough as well; we all discussed the weirdness of the app, how we were contacted to be a part of it and what we were getting in return. “Yeah man,” said Dean, “as a uni student, I’m happy to accept anything!” he pulled out a card and flashed it. It was a $50 gift card to Coles. “I’ll be able to actually buy real vegetables for a change! Hahah.” “Hahaha right on! I got one of those too!” Okay…the guys got $50 Coles gift cards? And they already had been payed. I wasn’t sure how to respond when they asked me if I got one too. “Uh..yeah, heh. I left it at home.” Their voices faded away as my head filled with the sound of my own heartbeat. That gut twinge had become a heavy rock, sending my stomach down in an instant. I couldn’t figure out why they would offer a rider so much more than the drivers for this test. The rest of the drive was an indefinite blur. Before I knew it, we were parked outside my house and silence fell again.

“Well, um, I guess this means it’s the end of my trip?” BING. This time it was my phone that sounded. I read the notification from Test App 345 slowly: “Invite Dean and Norman inside for coffee.” Even though these guys had both been super chill so far, I’d known them for a whole 2 hours. This was crossing a line with me. “What’s it say?” “Um, it says ‘Thanks for testing the app’. I guess that means bed time for me. I actually really had fun with you guys tonight-“ B-BING. Both of their phones lit up in unison and they looked down to check. They looked at each other and back at me with apprehension. “What? What’s it say?” “Uhh, Cherie, it says you’re lying.” I let out a slow breath. My throat was closing up and I honestly felt scared. What the fuck was this? I was sick of this fucked game, so I decided to do what I should have done earlier. “Okay guys, it’s telling me to invite you into my house for coffee. But to be honest, that just makes me really uncomfortable. You guys have been cool, but I don’t know you. I just can’t let you in to my house…” “Hey, Cherie, I totally get it. I agree, that is a little weird.” “Yeah, I mean, I signed up to drive people around and that’s it. Nobody told me anything about going into stranger’s houses.” I was so thankful that they agreed with me. “Yeah, I think this is enough weirdness for me. I reckon I’m just gonna go right ahead and delete the app.” Then, all of our phones went off. We unlocked them, and a timer appeared, counting down from 25. “What the fuck?” With each depleting number, the ticking sound became…uglier, more hostile. We all sat, frozen, staring at our screens. “What should we do?” asked Norman. I was trying to control my emotions, but the frantic, loud ticking was making things difficult. “Fuck it, just come up and make this stop!”

We were all inside my apartment by the time the timer counted down. Shaken and panicked, we all looked around at each other. I immediately fumbled for the light switch and bathed us all in an off-yellow glow. “Look guys, I’m sorry, this is the weirdest fucking night-“ BING. “UGH, WHAT NOW? Jesus Christ, ‘Make them some coffee’. Okay guys, I’ll put on some coffee. Can we talk about how weird this is please?” “Fuck, if I knew this is what it’d be like, I wouldn’t have done this. I’m just as in the dark as you two. Norman, you met Bella and Johan didn’t you?” Norman turned to Dean, “Yeah, just as you did. And you met up with them too, Cherie?” “Yup, almost two weeks ago.” Dean looked pensive for a second, then said, “What did they look like?” “Well, Bella was a redhead – short hair with glasses. Johan had dark features, and he was very well-dressed.” Suddenly Norman piped up, “That doesn’t sound like who I met at all. When I met them about three weeks ago, Bella was blonde and tanned, Johan was also really blonde and tanned.” “And four weeks ago the Bella and Johan I met with were twins.”

We stared at each other, disbelievingly. I had had enough of these mind games, it wasn’t worth the price anymore. “I’m gonna try calling Tom. Right now. The guy who sent out the acceptance forms.” I searched back through my calls and came across the number. It rang for about half a second before a robotic lady told me the number had been disconnected. “Fuck! The number’s disconnected.” “Okay you’re doing nothing for my nerves, Cherie. Are one of you in on this?” Dean looked as agitated as I felt. Norman shook his head rapidly. “Dean, Norman. For the sake of everyone’s nerves. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that if either of you haven’t tried anything really fucked up yet, then it’s safe to say that you’re both as confused and worried as I am at this point.” Dean regarded me suspiciously, but he nodded, if only for the false hope of believing I was not a threat. My apartment filled with the sound of bubbling water and I prepared the coffee in silence. Nobody’s phone rang or buzzed.

Read Part 2

#scary stories #short stories #short horror stories #unsettling stories #creepy stories #sixpenceee #short story

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