#18
As time went, so did the weeks. The thread started to gather dust and cobwebs. Fid and Helene started to question why they'd been put into existence if they weren't supposed to do anything more. Other side characters started to wonder if they'd been forgotten about completely. Ubba sat and waited for his tea-toothpaste, Bob wondered if he'd get to shoot anyone again in the near future, and Spaz awaited the time when he was gonna get resurrected and re-enter the story, however that's secret and won't show itself until way later, so kindly don't tell anyone who's reading this.
- "So where do you think he's gone?" Fid asked meekly, brushing some dust off his shoulder as him and Helene were sitting around in her oversized cottage. "How many weeks has it been now since he wrote a new chapter?"
- "IT'S BEEN PRETTY MUCH A MONTH," Helene said. "PEOPLE CLAIM THEY'VE SEEN HIM FLOATING AROUND OTHER TOPICS. DRAWING GROTESQUE PICTURES, WRITING TALES OF RUINING PERFECT RELATIONSHIPS, AND STUFF LIKE THAT."
- "What a shocker," Fid muttered. "This thing was supposed to be weekly, though. Do you think we can expect him back any time soon? I mean, you know what happened to the Crystal Tales. Or basically any other story he's ever written."
- "I DON'T THINK YOU NEED TO WORRY, ACTUALLY," Helene said, attempting to sound reassuring. "HE SEEMS TO HAVE CHANGED SOMEWHAT, OVER THE PAST. I THINK HE CARES MORE ABOUT US THAN HE LETS ON. ACTUALLY ..."
- "Hm?"
- "ISN'T THE FACT THAT WE'RE DOING THINGS RIGHT NOW A SIGN THAT HE'S STARTED WRITING AGAIN?"
- "Oh. Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense," Fid mumbled. "So, where do you think it goes from here?"
- "STRAIGHT DOWNHILL, NATURALLY."
- "Yay, awesome."
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- "SO, WE HAVEN'T FOUND YOUR STRONG POINT YET," Helene remarked after another day's training, "ALTHOUGH I MUST SAY THAT YOUR PHYSIQUE IS FINALLY STARTING TO BUILD UP AFTER A MONTH OF PURE AND RELENTLESS PRESSURE."
Fid laid flat on the ground, breathing heavily, as per usual after each finished day. He figured he should be getting used to it, but every day, Helene increased the pressure of the training so it felt even worse than the previous day did, and every single different type of training felt like it put him within inches of losing his life. He laid still for a while, trying to stabilize his breathing and cursing silently at the writer and the shit that I kept putting him through.
- "How long are we going to continue doing this?" he asked, after a while. "What if we never find my strong point, and I'm just the weak loser that I always thought I was?"
- "THERE'S NO TIME FOR THAT KIND OF THINKING NOW," Helene said sternly. "WE'VE ALREADY GOTTEN TOO FAR TO GIVE UP."
- "I'm just saying ..."
- "WELL, DON'T. YOU ACCEPTED MY TRAINING, AND I WILL GET YOU THROUGH IT, SO HELP ME GOD IF I KILL YOU IN THE MEANTIME."
Fid wanted to protest, but the comment was so spot-on for her personality that he only started laughing faintly, laying an arm across his eyes to shield them from the lights in the roof. He'd spent a fair time living with her now, and they'd gotten strangely closer than he would ever have expected, compared from when he first met her and figured she'd just eat him and move on with her own life. He had likely never met someone so caring, yet so steadfast on her principles.
- "VERY WELL, YOU DID GOOD, TODAY TOO. I SUPPOSE I'LL PREPARE THE FOOD WHILE ..."
She paused suddenly, looking around her with a curious glance; Fid wasn't used to see her composed exterior suddenly swayed by something. Her nostrils quivered slightly.
- "SOMEONE'S HERE," she said after a few seconds. "SOMEONE I DON'T KNOW IS IN MY COTTAGE."
Fid felt his chest tighten.
- "Who? Where? How do you know that?" The questions started pooling out from him as he started looking around in the house.
- "THERE'S A SMELL. AND THERE'S SOMETHING WEIRD ..."
- "Weird how? Are they here to hurt us?"
- "NO ... THAT'S PART OF THE WEIRD THING. I CAN SENSE NO HOSTILITY. HOWEVER, I CAN BARELY HEAR ANY SOUNDS, EITHER; IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR A HUMAN OR AN ANIMAL TO BE STEALTHY ENOUGH FOR ME NOT TO HEAR THEM. SO, SOMEONE IS HERE, MOVING SILENTLY THROUGH THE HOUSE, BUT DOESN'T INTEND TO HURT US ..."
She moved her head in different angles, straining to try to hear something.
- "Should we go up and check?" Fid suggested. Helene looked down at him, genuinely surprised at his comment.
- "NEVER THOUGHT YOU OF ALL PEOPLE WOULD SUGGEST THAT WE ENTER POTENTIAL DANGER," she remarked.
- "Well, heck," Fid tried saying nonchalantly, yet notably distressed. "There's nothing that can beat you in a fight, is there?"
- "I WOULDN'T TAKE THAT FOR GRANTED," she said with a lecturing tone. "I GUESS THE ODDS ARE IN MY FAVOR, THOUGH. LET'S GO UP AND SEE."
Said and done, they both carefully ventured upstairs from the training hall, Helene moving so ridiculously smoothly for her size that Fid almost felt like he was the one causing all the noise when they went through the house. However, no matter how carefully they combed through the cottage, they couldn't seem to find a single living creature anywhere. They went through the rooms methodically, Helene pausing every now and then to try to pick up a scent or a sound from somewhere.
- "NOTHING," she concluded after some time. "THE SCENT SEEMS TO BE GONE, TOO. I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE I WAS HALLUCINATING ..."
- "Oh my god."
Fid clasped a hand to his open mouth. There was a spot of soil near the house where they'd buried Spazzy's body, marking it with a signpost, and Fid had peeked out through the window towards it, as he tended to do every so often to remind and motivate himself of the friend he lost, who lied there. At least, up until recently. Someone, or something, seemed to have dug up the grave, as evident by the piles of dirt scattered around it.
Spazzy's body was gone.
Edited by Horn, 20 February 2017 - 05:05 PM.