CHAPTER I:
Carrie raised an eyebrow. As she stepped out from the door, she was immediately greeted with an awful silence. The streets were empty, as empty as a discarded cookie jar. She fiddled with her jacket’s zipper, the old thing half-torn to shreds. As she stepped down from the stairs, the wooden boards creaked and groaned against her weight. The wind rustled against the asphalt road as her sneakers walked upon it. The sky was full of winking starlight, a shimmering mosaic against the darkness. Carrie looked up, a large banner strewn up to the upper limits of two buildings, the fabric absolutely stretched to its limits, reading:
‘Welcome to Nyx City! We’re so glad you’re here! Come celebrate our cities 67th anniversary!’
Along with a peppy picture of some old cartoon character- Carrie couldn’t recall the name of them. She continued walking, the barren streets seemingly lifeless, but she could hear distant cheering and music. She stopped, listening closely, before shrugging. Couldn’t be any less interested.
She strode down the tar filled road, eventually reaching her destination, an old convenience store.
The sign continually flickered, as if attempting to keep itself alive, a dying breath still passing through old electrical lungs. It was nearly indiscernible as to what it said, the constant blinking too annoying to pay attention to. The soft glow of fluorescent lights and the smell of corndogs greeted Carrie as she opened the door, a snoring employee drooling on the counter. She rolled her eyes and strolled through the aisles. She snagged some onion rings, and some sodas.
Carrie headed to the counter, and shook the employee awake.
“Hey bozo, can you help me out really quick?”
The employee started awake, jumping at the sudden pressure against their shoulder. They yawned, and then stared, a look of confusion on their face.
“Why aren’t you at the festival?”
Carrie snorted. What? Was she obligated? As far as she could tell, she wasn’t. A jet of annoyance threaded itself through her mind. She glared at him.
“Mind your business.” She snapped.
“I mean, you’re missing out…” He murmured. He sighed, as Carrie handed him the cash to pay. A soft ding arose from the cash register, as he slid the dollar bills into the spaces accordingly.
He handed over the foodstuff, wrapped in a plastic bag.
“Have a good night, miss.”
She didn’t speak, the tapping of her sneakers the only answer. The cold, crisp sting of the night air kissed her crimson skin, her body mostly shielded from the temperature by her jacket.
The cold silence was disturbed by the click of metal cracking and a sealed carbonated drink accessed. An audible sip could be heard as she drank the artificial sugary liquid, the flavor both satisfying and disappointing simultaneously. The sound of her plastic bag shaking as it bounced against her kneecap, and the clicking of her sneakers against the asphalt was the only close noise to her ears, the distant sounds of celebration still jovially great in exuberance.
But another noise reached her ears, as another person walked past her, before stopping.
They were dressed in a neon blue hoodie, the streetlights dancing on top of its surface, along with sweatpants, and red sneakers with white laces.
They turned around, as their face was revealed in the streetlight. They wore rounded spectacles, their body slightly hunched.
They pulled out a pulled out a notepad and scribbled a note.
“What are you doing up at 2 a.m.?”
The note asked in sloppy handwriting, the figures eyes narrowing in conjunction. The figures glasses reflected Carrie in them, a 5’3 girl with a stern look in her amber eyes that seemed to carry the kind of lethality only seen in a heavy-caliber weapon, the kind that would turn your head into cottage cheese, splattered all over the ground.
“Why, mysterious person that I have no mention of knowing?” She gave a sarcastic wave of her hand, dismissing the question.
They might be slightly mental… She thought, as the figure gestured to the note again.
“What are you? Mute?” She asked, raising an eyebrow, before the figure immediately started shaking their head yes. The figure took off their hood, revealing to be a man in about their twenties, the skin on their face ashen and sallow. They looked as if they were partially dead, an almost glazed like look over their eyes. The main thing that stood out were their pupils, a bright blood red, completely piercing the glaze. They scribbled down yet another note, their fingers dancing along their pencil.
“You’re that new Anurian girl from across the street, right? Names Grady.”
They blew some hair out of their face. Carrie rolled her eyes for another time, as if now an intensity that they would roll right out of her head.
“Obviously. I’m the only other person out here so…” Carrie said, an edge of belligerence creeping into her voice.
“Anyway, my names Carrie, so cut to the chase, what do you want?” She glowered, her patience clearly at its end. The wind had picked up, Carries neon dyed hair whipping in the wind, while Grady’s hoodie rustled. They seemed to nearly shrug, before their eyes widened with fear. They then wrote something fervently, a rush now in their demeanor.
“You shouldn’t be out here after midnight!” The note seemingly shrieked, as sense of urgency clearly plastered to the paper. As if on cue, something growled in the distance. Heavy footsteps arose as something started to move towards them from the darkness. Grady seemed to be in a panic, as their eyes darted around. They grabbed Carrie by the arm, and started tugging her towards one of the other apartment complexes.
“Hey!” Carrie shouted as Grady tugged on her arm. She resisted of course, and nearly won out, before the growling became louder, and the stench of something rotten filled her nose, almost causing her to retch in disgust. Grady, using this opportunity, pulled her into the apartment complex, shut the door, and leaned their back against it, their breath in shortened gasps as something truly wicked passed by. There were sounds of snarls, guttural growls of something that had been denied it’s quarry. Carrie caught the glimpse of blood stained teeth, purple eyes filled and brimming with pure, unadulterated malice, and yellow chipped claws, as if they were ribs ripped straight from a rotting corpse. Grady struggled for breath, and put a finger to their lips, their eyes lit up with fear.
The malicious creature took a deep inhale of air, lingering near the door. Carrie stood still, her body frozen in time. The creature screeched in anger, its claws thrashing against the asphalt pavement. It swiftly retreated, returning to whatever awful purgatory it came from.
Carrie looked at Grady with a bewildered look.
“What in the name of all that has been holy was that?!”
Intermission I/ Lesson I:
Anurians:
Anurians are what happened when man first experimented with magic, tracing their ancestors back to the very first humans bonded with the Gaol. Eventually, their kind became more and more common, and they began to create their own cultures and governments. Anurians are still a topic of how their biology functions on a genetic level, as their physical traits can often manifest in wildly different ways, from simple irregular skin tones to massive changes such as completely alien parts to the normal human biology. It is still disccussed and debated on as to today.
The Gaol:
The original prison for the magicks of old. As to what happened when they were released, they bonded to hosts, changing their bodies, minds, even genetic coding. Magic is a hard pressed topic as of now, with arguments varying from whether or not magic actually exists, and rather the Gaol was a container for a genetic virus, to whether or not magick was the only thing contained.
Nyx:
A relatively old city, one of the first to be emplaced with Anurian control, has become so large that every festival or celebration makes the city so empty you can hear the smallest things. As of currently, the Mayor, Azalea Thaw, has recently celebrated her 35th birthday, and has been seen as the most popular mayor as of to date in its 68 years of existence.
Eridazes:
As of lately, it has been discovered that indeed were there other things inside the Gaol. It was also a barrier against an unknown afterlife, and it would seem that both the spirits, and whatever other creatures were contained within that afterlife have been released.
WARNING: Do NOT approach any and all creatures with certain features as informed to you within your standard ID handbook.
Hey everyone. Wanted to see if i could start trying out a few fantasy worlds, and see where I could go from there.
C’n’C appreciated.