An Everlasting Realisation

Paradise Reigns is an unusual village, out west towards and way past the great forest. If not for the name, then for the inhabitants. But we'll get to that in a second. Now the village is a small thing. They say that it was built on top of a decimated shrine dedicated to the dark gods, and let's face it, when things are 'just a rumour' or when people 'say' things it's blatantly true no matter what. Which means, yes, the village was indeed built on top of a shrine which people worshiped, go figure.

In comparison to a city or town, it's minuscule. Terrifyingly minuscule - an hour's walk at a brisk pace would have you out of the village in no time. Roads and cobble pathways flow through the somewhat empty and small streets, filled occasionally by the walking, smiling inhabitants within, gardening and keeping the streets free of any litter or filth. The buildings are rather old, somewhat wearing due to the great passage of time. It seems that construction hasn't been considered for a concerningly long time. No train leads there or is even remotely close, despite being on every map, thus a long walk there is required. They don't get many visitors though, you see.

Now, the people. The inhabitants are few, but that is expected for such a tiny area. They wander, keeping the place nice as they can, smiles on their faces. Awfully eager and friendly, perhaps a tad too much so, towards visitors, a hearty welcome, free food, anything to promote the town with smiles on their faces. Smiles which are a little too wide for any normal delighted mobian, smiles which never leave. A paradise indeed, they say. They say it's a wonderful little town. The best. So happy to be there. They say it's lovely to have a new addition to the family.

But as you enter, the place seems off. You get that chill. The niggling sensation that there's something unusual, something weird, something outright horrifying but you can't pinpoint it. Bile bubbles at the throat. Something in the air just mentally hurts.

But I'm sure it's nothing, really.

An orange fox with long, orange curly hair walked into the village, a suitcase in her right hand, a bottle of water in the other.  She looked tired, as if she had been on her feet for hours.  She looked around the town.  A small and pleasant place with not too many people.  It seemed like a perfect place to stay for the night, except for one thing:

Something was absolutely, horribly wrong, and she couldn't figure out what.  This odd fact sent shivers up her spine.  It got even worse when one of the residents spotted her, a wide smile on his face.  "Welcome to Paradise Reigns!  It's a true paradise!", called the man.  "Welcome to the family!"  Called another.  "Need a place to stay?"  A hedgehog with a wide smile walked up to her.

"Uh..... Yeah......"  She said hesitantly.  "Well good! Come on!"  The hedgehog grabbed her arm and led her to a building that looked like a hotel.

If this was supposed to be a paradise, why did she feel like she was in danger?

The hotel was... standard. Nothing special, rather dull if things were to be put bluntly. The walls were orange, the wallpaper peeling ever so slightly in the corners from the decay of age, revealing the wood beneath. The floorboards creaked and groaned quietly with each step, and various picture frames were set across the walls, showing the town's progression. Showing the age which had passed, many years after many years, the growth of the children within the walls of the village. A small place, all the faces seemed to be a little similar throughout the hanged photographs, the only thing which was a constant variable were the happy-go-lucky smiles. A staircase lead upwards to the side of the front desk, leading to rooms up above.

The owner of the hotel (or what was assumed to be anyway) was an old red-feathered pigeon, was happily scrawling notes on a piece of paper. The bird popped up her head with wide eyes and a wide smile at the appearance of newcomers, wings raised in welcome as she stood from her seat, a firm hand ready for a firm shaking indeed; "Hello, hello! Welcome to Paradise Reigns! Welcome, really, welcome! So glad to have you here!" She clasped her talon hands together, giving a very vigorous nod before the poor girl had a chance to return the handshake, "We haven't had many visitors recently, but you! You're here, and I really hope you enjoy your stay!" she leaned forward, smile growing all the wider, eyes a little bloodshot, "You are staying, aren't you? Oh you must rest those weary legs, yes! I'm sure you've walked miles!" the hand was outstretched once more, "I'm sure this little village can cater to your needs, don't you fret about that, no no!"

"Me? I'm Abadaeus. You can call me whatever you want, Abby if it'll make it easier!" Hand was removed, no surprises, as she put her hands on her hips, all the while still staring at the fox before her, "Abby's a nice name, maybe I'll keep that! Abadaeus was too long anyway! Ha!"

The fox smiled, trying to keep up with what the strange pigeon was saying.  "My name's Ember, and yes, I am staying.  I've been traveling."  Ember looked around at the peeling wallpaper and the pictures.  With a closer look, many of them hadn't changed too much.  But the smiles, they were definitely not normal.  They almost seemed..... forced.  She turned back to the pigeon, who was rambling on about calling herself Abby or something.  The pigeon, or Abby, was red with the same giant smile, with bloodshot eyes.

Someone grabbed her arm and she was led to a hallway with 3 doors, presumably all hotel rooms.  She was handed a room key and led into the far right room.  Inside was the same peeling orange wallpaper, same creaky floorboards, but with a small bed and a wooden dresser next to it.  A tiny table with a chair was set on the side.  Some paradise.  She had been to worse though.  There were many strange towns out there, and many strange ways of sleeping and arranging hotels, and this was no exception.  There was a door on the right as well, and upon opening it she discovered it was a tiny bathroom, with only room for a tiny toilet, a small sink, and a small, cracked mirror on the wall.  She shivered.

Mirrors gave her the creeps. It's not that she believed in ghosts and creepy magic and stuff, but it was creepy in this odd little town.  This seemed like something exactly out of a horror movie.  With a sigh, she plopped her suitcase down and fell onto the bed.  The mattress was stiff, but it was nicer than standing on her feet for hours.  She closed her eyes, and fell into a troubled sleep.

Creak.

Baby steps; one two, one two. Listen to the heartbeat of those steps one by one, listen to their cries with each step onwards. Cries for their mother, cries pierced by the thudding heartbeat as it vibrates within. One two, one two. One two three. Itty bitty baby steps but the child never wakes. Never wakes but always cries. Listen to the mother sleep, but the baby is dead.

Creak.

Baby steps, one two three. A little red pigeon sneaks, hand against the walls of her domain. One two. Thud thud. A few more behind her, the hedgehog which had brought her into the gaping maw of the Gathering: the town which had welcomed her so beautifully. A minotaur fellow, steps more like feathers upon the aching wood. The baby cries its steps but the mother never hears. Thud thud. A final mobian - a rat.

Creak. Smiles no more.

The master key slid into the lock from the pigeons hands, a careful well-practiced turn of the wrist, the movements silent. The air thick and heavy with tension, almost strangling. Foreboding. They did not speak - there was no need to. The door slid open with silence. Four sets of glimmering, beady eyes stared within.

"Mmmph."  Ember tossed back and forth in her bed, stuffing her face into her pillow.  She had been sleeping off and on all night, the hard mattress not helping at all.  This place gave her the creeps.  In the little times she had slept, the welcoming darkness of sleep was interrupted by visions of the peeling wallpaper, wooden floorboards, the cracked mirror, this strange town, 

The smiles.  The smiles were the worst.


They were off, they were completely horrifyingly off, but she could never put her finger on it.  The people here were so welcoming, so happy, so horrifyingly crazily nice that she knew something was wrong.  People had never been so welcoming anywhere, and she knew- something was wrong.

Creak.


What was that?!  The orange fox shot straight up in her bed.

Creak.


She heard them walking.  They were coming.  She laid back down in her bed and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.

Creak.


She heard a key turning.  She prepared herself.  What were they going to do?

"Asleep," stated Abadaeus, the smile dead  and gone on that old beak, "Can't you hear that ticking heartbeat? Thud-thud."
"Is she?" questioned the skinny young rat, his little sniveling nose sniffing at the air with caution, "Melus is confused. Awake? Dead?" He tilted his head, "No, no difference. Hunger remains."
"They wait," hissed the hedgehog, eyes glimmering with impatience, "You know the voice of the Gathering is unsatisfied. It need not matter. The Revelation must happen."
"Take her," ordered the minotaur, her voice heavy with authority, monotone and dead, "The Listener expects another by morning. She sings but the altar is empty. Silent. You know it cannot be... empty."

"If she is, if she isn't," muttered the red pigeon, fishing out a small needle from within her clothing, twirling it within her talons with great deftness, "Either way, whatever the weather, she is to be fed to the altar either way." She snapped her neck backwards, eyes casting over the minotaur behind her, "She can't escape anyway. And who is to say why? How? Even a singular fly on the web of destiny will forward the Revelation to its beautiful, wonderful conclusion."

She extended her hand. Melus, the skinny little rat, leapt forward, snatching the small needle from Abadaeus' talons and landed beside the bed, ready to slip the tip into her neck.

Her eyes flicked open quickly, feeling a pair of beady eyes staring at her.  She sat up in the bed and swung her head wildly around, until her head slowly stopped on a rat about to stab her with a needle!  "What?!?!?"  She knew something was wrong, but she didn't know it was THIS wrong.  She acted surprised, like she hadn't just heard everything the people had just said.

The altar?  The Listener?  What?  She had no idea what any of this stuff meant.  All she knew is she had to get out of there.  Fast.  She slipped out of the bed-not the side that the rat was on-and ran towards the doorway, grabbing her suitcase on the way out, only to be blocked by the Minotaur.  With one look at him, she swung her suitcase into his stomach, and pushed past him into the hallway.  She kept running.

Melus leapt out the window at once, a terrifying loud smash echoing across the empty streets, glass shards clattering to the ground and no later did a firm thud confirm the landing of the rat with the needle. His feet deftly twisted, breaking into a sprint towards the entrance of the building, muttering a few words to himself in a maddening froth, body consumed with this odd, twisting purple aura.

The hulking minotaur fellow turned to Abadaeus, a firm frown on his face. The crimson-feathered mobain simply smiled in reply, raising her hands high into the air and stating a single word - "Bliss!" - before the hotel began to... bleed. The walls, the paintings, the ground itself seeming to seep red from within the floorboards, the wallpaper gaps, the doorframes. The stench certainly stank of blood, an absurdly large amount on fact, like the building was a contained blood bank. But that was impossible, right?

Though it happened before her eyes, as the heavy footfalls of the large guy echoed through the hallways, hands clenched as paintings ripped from their places, laughing at her, the photos cackling and howling as the faces within grinned and sneered and howled, as they threw themselves with much force, like a child would a doll, towards the poor fox.

With the walls and the hotel bleeding, and the paintings and photos laughing loud and high while they were thrown with some sort of invisible force, you'd think you were going insane.

"Ah!"  She protected her face with her hands as the laughing beasts hit her with force, the blood pooling at her feet.  How was this happening?  Magic didn't exist!  You can't prove that.  Whatever!  This shouldn't be going on!  She closed her eyes, and she clenched her fists.  Come on, you can do it!  She opened her eyes quickly and her fur burst into flames, her hair lighting and flying up.   Her fur had turned into flames in fact, as well as her suitcase, which was now burning.  Oh well.  She couldn't do anything about that.  The paintings lit on fire as well.

She ran through the hallway, running her hands along the wall and setting it on flame until she bumped into the giant guy.  She punched him in the face with her fiery fist.  "THAT was for keeping me here."  She kept running until she got out of that crazy hotel, her fur still aflame.  She turned back to the building, a smirk on her face.  She waited for someone to come out, daring them to come towards her.

Abadaeus screeched, feathers lit alight by the flames as she rushed for the door, patting at her head and her arms to try and douse them with force, that slight distraction causing the blood to vanish, almost seemingly like an illusion, despite the stench and feel from it earlier which made it all so real. She rolled across the dirt ground, filth gathering within her red plumage as she seemingly screamed something about 'The Listener' and 'The Gathering' and how the fiery fox was to be 'fed at once'. Those words, however, were not putting out the flames. Cooked pigeon later, anyone?

The hedgehog had bailed into the streets with laughter, other heads poking out to witness the great flames catching alight the hotel and slowly burning it to the ground, the framework slowly falling and the stench of thick smoke heavy in the air.

The rat, Melus, pounced for her in that thick aura, but before he could connect, the large minotaur grabbed his tail and flung the poor mobian into the air in one swift action. While hilarious, it was a little weird. They were on the same side, so why did he throw the guy away like a cat would swipe at a fly?

"Enough."

As the flames grew all the more wide, the bulky fellow didn't seem even slightly phased by it all. Those odd eyes, white irises, dull and dead, the only sight of any sort of pupil was that faint black outline on the eyeball. His voice loud and commanding, and relaxed fingers caused the screaming paintings and photos to flop against the ground, inactive and seemingly innocent once more. He pointed a single finger at her, more bored than anything. Words were muttered under his breath, certainly more complex than that of the red pigeon's 'bliss' spell which caused the blood.

See, that was when the hotel itself moved.

I don't mean 'collapsed' because of the burning wood, I mean shuddered violently, curtains swiping shut like eyes were closing, wood breaking away by the entrance to resemble more of a gaping, flaming mouth. The minotaur stepped to the side, arms behind his back but not before swiftly waving a hand towards the warped building. In the end, people had done worse. He could deal with it - it was all child's play.

Then the building vomited the rising smoke in her direction, absorbing it like a vacuum and spitting it out at her in one firm puff. The flames continued, there was no need to throw that at her, what with her flaming body and all. The stench of smog was in the street as a black cloud filled the small village, most would find it difficult to see, to blink, it'd burn the eyes.

As for the fire? Eh, the hotel swallowed it.

Ember coughed, her eyes burning.  What just happened?  The building had shuddered, and spat out the rising smoke at her.  How was that even possible?  All she knew was she had to get out of here as soon as possible.  She also needed to find some water, before she caught something else on fire.  She ran through the smoke, wiping the tears from her eyes.  Her fire was gone; seemingly swallowed by the building.  She also needed a new suitcase.  She came to the end of the city,  and ran past the limits.  Thank god I'm out!  

She smiled as she ran out of the smoke cloud, batting the last remnants of it from her face.  She ran to a stream,  and jumped in, not minding that her clothes had gotten wet.  She floated in it and smiled.  It was good to be free.

((Humph...  Hold on a second.))

Until she remembered something.  Her eyes flew open.  "Crap....."  She remembered the reason she had been there in the first place.  She was sent to deliver an important package-  and now it had most likely burned in the fire.  She got out of the water quickly, and debated her next action.  Do you really want to go back?  She had to.  That package was apparently very important.  She remembered the conversation she had with the person.  They said it was a life or death situation...  But she would probably die if she went back there.....  

She shook her head.  She was going back.  Definitely.  She ran towards the direction she went in, until she smelled the familiar smoke.  Am I really doing this?  She entered the city once more, hiding behind buildings.  

Just got to find that package....


(Ok, I know it's double posting, but we can get back to the story now.)

(Sorry! I didn't want to bring the RP to a halt cause I didn't know what to do there :c )

Luckily the smoke had covered her tracks, and more importantly shielded her from the vision of the townsfolk who searched for her within their little village. The place seemed to be back to normal, bar the stench of smog and the thickness in the air, still making it hard to see as well as burning the eyes if they were open too long.

Behind buildings, there seemed to be various red markings, like paint splatters, but thankfully the stench in the air prevented her from knowing what it was considering it hid the smell. They were various symbols and images, though the images were hard to make out to be something of interest, other than a mess of lines with various 'arms' and thousands of, well, let's call them 'eyes'. It was repeated every now and again, in alleyways and where the 'visitors' wouldn't dare check, some even scrawled on the floor from fingernails or claws.

"Urrghhh..." There was the sound of a pained individual ash the worried fire fox sneaked through the town, rather close to her. It was the rat which was thrown away like trash, face-first in a garbage bin and had no intention of moving right now. Perhaps that was rather fortunate for her, considering Melus had no idea she was there as of right now, and was rather happy with staying in that trash can, legs occasionally wiggling about, in defeat.

She kept moving, quickly dashing between the buildings, staying out of sight.  Her ears flicked back as she heard a groan coming from a nearby trash can.  Her head slowly turned, and she saw two legs sticking out of it.  She quietly trotted over, and peered inside, then backed away as she realized it was the mouse from earlier.  What happened?  Who did this?  The last time she had seen him, he was chasing after her.  He must have been trampled by the others or something.  Staring at his limp body, which was twitching every minute or so, she felt almost bad for the guy.  He helped them out, and they just throw him aside?  Not cool.  

She grabbed his legs and pulled him out of the trash can, and before he could say anything, she put a finger to his mouth and shushed him.  Her voice came out as just a whispered.  "Stay here, and you won't get killed."  She quickly moved away, and kept looking.  She peered out of an alleyway, and saw her suitcase- with the contents spilling out of it, partly burned.  They looked as if they had been picked through, and she noticed she didn't see her wallet with the few dollars among it.  Great.  She also saw the package, the paper it was wrapped in burnt.  She almost ran for it, but she saw the other villagers searching for something.  Searching for me, probably.  

She walked quickly back to the mouse, and came over to him.  She pushed his shoulder.  "Wake up."

To be moved was a pain, but to be moved by someone who was exactly what he was was looking for was a blessing. The rat blinked in confusion for but a moment as her finger was placed over his lips. What in the world? What was her plan? And as she returned, he leapt to his feet, long and thin tail pulsating with that unusual purple aura as it swing side to side at her approach, a grin on his lips. "Aaaahh you can't escape, an you?" he sneered, lips parting to reveal a partially broken set of yellow teeth, "Nooo you can't escape destiny, see. Melus knows. Melus feels it."

He raised but a single finger, glancing upwards towards the sky, before his attention was brought to her once more, "You don't know, do you? Melus knows you can't escape what is written for you. He tried in the past. He wonders why he tried. It always ends in one biiig loop until you get back to the start." He bounded forward, grasping her chin in his skinny pink hands, "Take your time. Melus will see you again even if you do leave. Though..." he paused, "No-one's going to let you do that. Not even him."

He slammed his thin rat tail against the ground, the purple aura pulsating outwards from the impact, rippling through the ground in a circle and extending outwards, past the buildings, through the haze. Harmless, but it did indeed wash over everything in its range, "They know." If it wasn't from the sound of heavy footsteps heading in their direction from many, many directions, then it was pretty obvious now that they knew.

"Crapcrapcrap."  She blinked, hearing the footsteps thudding against the pavement in her direction.  She glanced back at him.  "You asked for it."  Without a second's hesitation, she blasted him back with a burst of flames from her fingertips, making sure she had burned him before stopping and stepping back, listening to where the footsteps were coming from.  It seemed that they were coming from many directions, and she would be completely trapped no matter where she ran.  The dang rat was right.  She knew no matter what she did now, she would most likely get caught.  What to do.... Her eyes drifted to the burnt package, still not touched by any of the others.  She took a deep breath, and ran towards the suitcase with quick inhuman movements.  Not being human, or Mobian for that matter, helped in moments like this.  Whenever she got an adrenaline rush, she could run faster or become stronger.  

The power wasn't a big boost, but it was enough to get her to the package without being caught.  She grabbed it and tore the burnt paper open, to find a lightly singed copy of a girl's diary.  She sighed.  This was all it was?  She stood up and looked around, and ran again, looking for another place to hide.  She quickly ducked into an alley, until she realized- it was the same one with the mouse.  She face palmed.

Stupid, stupid, stupid....