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xp_logsSeparated from Garrison and Natasha, Jean and Stephen are forced to confront their own fears.
Staring at the closed door, they could still hear the sounds of intense combat on the other side. Natasha and Garrison sudden and horribly effective jump to violence against each other had staggered them, and now they seemed locked away from their friends who were doing their best to kill each other.
"Damn it!" Jean said, immediately reaching for the knob. She gave it a few sharp tugs.
"Stephen, stand back," she said finally, drawing in a sharp breath as she took a couple of steps back. The floor creaked. "I'm going to bust the door dow--"
The floor burst, soggy wood giving way as Jean shot through with a startled scream, plunging into a hole down below.
"Miss G...Jean!!" Stephen couldn't help himself, his body reacting without thinking as he rushed forward, falling to his hands and knees at the edge of the hole. There was a part of him that knew that it was dangerous, that he risked falling in himself but...there was still that small part of him that wanted to be a hero.
"Just...stay right there! I'll find a way down to you." Dark eyes flitted around the room, urgent desperation giving a bounce to his body as the boy almost threw himself away from the edge, head twisting from side to side...there. A shadowy staircase tucked into the corner. It wasn't much but it was his only way down to Jean, and that was going to have to do.
"Aiiiiiie!!" All Stephen's forward motion instantly turned into a scramble backwards, the teenager falling back onto his butt, eyes widening in fear. From the shadow of the stairs a single hairy leg extended itself, and then another. a single spider crawling out, and then another, a passageway covered with thousands of moving bodies.
Well. She was falling again, down down down into a dark pool of water. This was becoming a yearly tradition. She hit the surface, the water sharp and icy cold. She wanted to focus on being annoyed but there was still a rising note of panic that shot through her. She had no idea why there was water here. Opening her eyes, she tried to swim upward but she kept sinking, like her body was weighed down with rocks. There was some sort of light at the surface but didn't help much to see how big the body of water was. Everything around her seemed murky and dark. In the distance, however, she did catch a glimpse of something dark. A shadow, in the shape of a man.
~Cold down here, isn't it, Jean. It's where you belong.~ The dry voice was like physical violence with the impact that it hit her. ~Alone, flailing, freezing; the opposite of the womb of life. This is where death starts. Which you can't stop. Poor little Jean, still helpless. Still worthless.~
One step forward, 2 steps backwards, Stephen's foot danced forward towards the stairs but the soft sound of the spider's bodies sliding over one another was like a physical wall that stopped his motion. There wasn't a step, an inch he could see that was free of the arachnids, their hairy bodies and beady eyes staring at him, watching waiting. A few had ventured out towards him before slinking back, as if to warn him that no-where was safe. The teenager knew that Dr Grey was down there, that she might be in trouble and needed his help but he couldn't breathe, couldn't think clearly. And they were still there watching, waiting.
~We stopped you. You're trapped. You can't be here!~ Jean thought. Could he have gotten free somehow? Was that why this was happening? Were they all somehow on the Astral plane now? Was she dreaming?
But this felt so real.
~I yet, I am. Failure cuts deep, doesn't it? When all you sacrificed for turns out to be for naught. When you fight and strive and fail.~ A laugh curled around her spine. ~You weren't good enough, Jean, You were never good enough to defeat me.~
The words would have cut deep but there was something hollow behind it. The Shadow King's presence had been seared into her mind after everything. She didn't sense that. Nothing here felt like the Astral Plane,
It felt so real because this was real. But he had no power over reality unless he was using a puppet to do it. She was really in the water. The vague shimmers of the consciousness she felt was different than that. More alien. It almost gave her a headache. ~You're a pretender.~ She began to swim toward the surface, using her telekinesis to give herself a boost. She could see the light growing stronger. Her hand broke through the water. Stephen could hear splashing, the sound of a body in water echoing from the darkness beneath the stairs. Dr Grey was right there, it had to be her unless this freaky house had more than one surprise waiting for them. "Matches," the boy muttered to himself, "I'm coming back here with matches and burning this entire house to the ground." The thought of all those spiders ceasing to exist was a comforting one as the magician closed his eyes, slowly starting to inch forward along the ground.
"They're more scared of me than I am of them, they're more scared of me than I am of them." There was the first step, and the second, he could feel those tiny hairy legs crawling over his shoes now, working their way upwards just like every nightmare he'd ever had...exactly like every nightmare he'd ever had. Well if this was a nightmare he knew how to handle it.
Taking a deep breath Stephen clenched his fists and threw himself forward, feet pounding on the stairs two at a time as he shouted, a wordless sound of fear and triumph as he gathered himself and jumped.
Jean somehow heard a faint thud in the distance. She would have hesitated but sensed Stephen nearby. Swimming closer toward his psi-signature, she tried to pull her head above water, reaching for his hand.
The room was dark, dampness hung in the air, the byproduct of the pool of water that had gathered, catching the light as it lay an unfathomable depth on the floor. The water's surface was smooth, unbroken bar the ripples where drops from the ceiling splashed down onto the surface, the ripples bouncing along the surface, along the hand pushing it's way up from the depths. "Dr Grey!" The teenager through himself forward, falling flat on his stomach as he reached out with both hands to clasp the pale hand pushing up from the water, holding on as if for dear life as he strained backwards.
The extra pull from Stephen was enough that Jean needed and she used her telekinesis to boost herself out of the black pool and onto the shore. Coughing up water, she laid there a moment before drawing in a clean breath. "Thank you, Stephen..." she said, glad she had gone with a practical costume and not anything like a dress to weigh her down further. Sitting up, she glanced at the hole in the roof, she could see a shaft of light from the floors up above. "The thing in my head wasn't the Shadow King at all. It was something else that was trying to act like him. It wanted me afraid. But I haven't...sensed anything like it before."
There was an eerie emptiness to the rooms of the house, a feeling of emptiness and hunger as if it would swallow you whole if it had the chance, not that that was something that the boy was planning on testing. He no sooner had he pushed his head into the room than the teenager pulled it out as if looking for something, searching something out.
There was a sense of need, like a string pulling him on. "Dining room, lounge, lounge, bedroom." Each room had been different with it's own hint of mysteries...none of the rooms was what he wanted. The basement felt different.Stephen paused, lingering where Jean pushed the wet hair out of her face. looking over at the bookcases near the the doorway he'd come through. His fingers hurriedly running across the bookshelves, the covers of the books rough beneath his fingers.
"Here...there's something here, something important." A book almost fell off the shelves into his hands, black cover and silver writing setting it apart from the rest of the books on the shelves
Jean caught sight of the page the book had opened to, guided somehow by Stephen's mystical hand.
"It's a diary of the man who lived here. He amassed his wealth in exchange for doing the bidding of demons. One in particular. The Fear Eater. Apparently he has children that can psychically attach themselves to their victims and create fear that they...well, eat...makes a lot of sense," she said. It explained a lot of what she was feeling, like these things had consciousness but it wasn't quite right. She continued to read on, shaking her head.
"The man who lived here was driven mad after his wife and son left him because of what he'd done so he sealed them in the house and killed himself. The Fear Eaters must have gotten very hungry trapped here for decades with nothing to feed on."
She turned the page, then showed it to Stephen.
"There's a box the man used to summon the demons. I saw it empty in another room. I have a feeling if we find all the items it should help quiet things down a little."
And hopefully work toward getting them the hell out of here.
Staring at the closed door, they could still hear the sounds of intense combat on the other side. Natasha and Garrison sudden and horribly effective jump to violence against each other had staggered them, and now they seemed locked away from their friends who were doing their best to kill each other.
"Damn it!" Jean said, immediately reaching for the knob. She gave it a few sharp tugs.
"Stephen, stand back," she said finally, drawing in a sharp breath as she took a couple of steps back. The floor creaked. "I'm going to bust the door dow--"
The floor burst, soggy wood giving way as Jean shot through with a startled scream, plunging into a hole down below.
"Miss G...Jean!!" Stephen couldn't help himself, his body reacting without thinking as he rushed forward, falling to his hands and knees at the edge of the hole. There was a part of him that knew that it was dangerous, that he risked falling in himself but...there was still that small part of him that wanted to be a hero.
"Just...stay right there! I'll find a way down to you." Dark eyes flitted around the room, urgent desperation giving a bounce to his body as the boy almost threw himself away from the edge, head twisting from side to side...there. A shadowy staircase tucked into the corner. It wasn't much but it was his only way down to Jean, and that was going to have to do.
"Aiiiiiie!!" All Stephen's forward motion instantly turned into a scramble backwards, the teenager falling back onto his butt, eyes widening in fear. From the shadow of the stairs a single hairy leg extended itself, and then another. a single spider crawling out, and then another, a passageway covered with thousands of moving bodies.
Well. She was falling again, down down down into a dark pool of water. This was becoming a yearly tradition. She hit the surface, the water sharp and icy cold. She wanted to focus on being annoyed but there was still a rising note of panic that shot through her. She had no idea why there was water here. Opening her eyes, she tried to swim upward but she kept sinking, like her body was weighed down with rocks. There was some sort of light at the surface but didn't help much to see how big the body of water was. Everything around her seemed murky and dark. In the distance, however, she did catch a glimpse of something dark. A shadow, in the shape of a man.
~Cold down here, isn't it, Jean. It's where you belong.~ The dry voice was like physical violence with the impact that it hit her. ~Alone, flailing, freezing; the opposite of the womb of life. This is where death starts. Which you can't stop. Poor little Jean, still helpless. Still worthless.~
One step forward, 2 steps backwards, Stephen's foot danced forward towards the stairs but the soft sound of the spider's bodies sliding over one another was like a physical wall that stopped his motion. There wasn't a step, an inch he could see that was free of the arachnids, their hairy bodies and beady eyes staring at him, watching waiting. A few had ventured out towards him before slinking back, as if to warn him that no-where was safe. The teenager knew that Dr Grey was down there, that she might be in trouble and needed his help but he couldn't breathe, couldn't think clearly. And they were still there watching, waiting.
~We stopped you. You're trapped. You can't be here!~ Jean thought. Could he have gotten free somehow? Was that why this was happening? Were they all somehow on the Astral plane now? Was she dreaming?
But this felt so real.
~I yet, I am. Failure cuts deep, doesn't it? When all you sacrificed for turns out to be for naught. When you fight and strive and fail.~ A laugh curled around her spine. ~You weren't good enough, Jean, You were never good enough to defeat me.~
The words would have cut deep but there was something hollow behind it. The Shadow King's presence had been seared into her mind after everything. She didn't sense that. Nothing here felt like the Astral Plane,
It felt so real because this was real. But he had no power over reality unless he was using a puppet to do it. She was really in the water. The vague shimmers of the consciousness she felt was different than that. More alien. It almost gave her a headache. ~You're a pretender.~ She began to swim toward the surface, using her telekinesis to give herself a boost. She could see the light growing stronger. Her hand broke through the water. Stephen could hear splashing, the sound of a body in water echoing from the darkness beneath the stairs. Dr Grey was right there, it had to be her unless this freaky house had more than one surprise waiting for them. "Matches," the boy muttered to himself, "I'm coming back here with matches and burning this entire house to the ground." The thought of all those spiders ceasing to exist was a comforting one as the magician closed his eyes, slowly starting to inch forward along the ground.
"They're more scared of me than I am of them, they're more scared of me than I am of them." There was the first step, and the second, he could feel those tiny hairy legs crawling over his shoes now, working their way upwards just like every nightmare he'd ever had...exactly like every nightmare he'd ever had. Well if this was a nightmare he knew how to handle it.
Taking a deep breath Stephen clenched his fists and threw himself forward, feet pounding on the stairs two at a time as he shouted, a wordless sound of fear and triumph as he gathered himself and jumped.
Jean somehow heard a faint thud in the distance. She would have hesitated but sensed Stephen nearby. Swimming closer toward his psi-signature, she tried to pull her head above water, reaching for his hand.
The room was dark, dampness hung in the air, the byproduct of the pool of water that had gathered, catching the light as it lay an unfathomable depth on the floor. The water's surface was smooth, unbroken bar the ripples where drops from the ceiling splashed down onto the surface, the ripples bouncing along the surface, along the hand pushing it's way up from the depths. "Dr Grey!" The teenager through himself forward, falling flat on his stomach as he reached out with both hands to clasp the pale hand pushing up from the water, holding on as if for dear life as he strained backwards.
The extra pull from Stephen was enough that Jean needed and she used her telekinesis to boost herself out of the black pool and onto the shore. Coughing up water, she laid there a moment before drawing in a clean breath. "Thank you, Stephen..." she said, glad she had gone with a practical costume and not anything like a dress to weigh her down further. Sitting up, she glanced at the hole in the roof, she could see a shaft of light from the floors up above. "The thing in my head wasn't the Shadow King at all. It was something else that was trying to act like him. It wanted me afraid. But I haven't...sensed anything like it before."
There was an eerie emptiness to the rooms of the house, a feeling of emptiness and hunger as if it would swallow you whole if it had the chance, not that that was something that the boy was planning on testing. He no sooner had he pushed his head into the room than the teenager pulled it out as if looking for something, searching something out.
There was a sense of need, like a string pulling him on. "Dining room, lounge, lounge, bedroom." Each room had been different with it's own hint of mysteries...none of the rooms was what he wanted. The basement felt different.Stephen paused, lingering where Jean pushed the wet hair out of her face. looking over at the bookcases near the the doorway he'd come through. His fingers hurriedly running across the bookshelves, the covers of the books rough beneath his fingers.
"Here...there's something here, something important." A book almost fell off the shelves into his hands, black cover and silver writing setting it apart from the rest of the books on the shelves
Jean caught sight of the page the book had opened to, guided somehow by Stephen's mystical hand.
"It's a diary of the man who lived here. He amassed his wealth in exchange for doing the bidding of demons. One in particular. The Fear Eater. Apparently he has children that can psychically attach themselves to their victims and create fear that they...well, eat...makes a lot of sense," she said. It explained a lot of what she was feeling, like these things had consciousness but it wasn't quite right. She continued to read on, shaking her head.
"The man who lived here was driven mad after his wife and son left him because of what he'd done so he sealed them in the house and killed himself. The Fear Eaters must have gotten very hungry trapped here for decades with nothing to feed on."
She turned the page, then showed it to Stephen.
"There's a box the man used to summon the demons. I saw it empty in another room. I have a feeling if we find all the items it should help quiet things down a little."
And hopefully work toward getting them the hell out of here.
