Entry: The Long Road Home (posted below)
Gaia Name: beautiful_accident
Media Used: Written
Is this your first entry? Y
Referred by: Shinobi Art Shop
The Long Road Home
Richelle Winter sat in the halogen glare of the subway
station, on a fairly uncomfortable bench. She wore a large brown hooded cloak.
I worked well since it was cold in
Things were happening to her, strange things. People
looked differently to her, and she to them. Her ears were growing larger, and
hairier. Her eyes, when she saw them in the mirror were starting to have a
faint glow of red emanating from their centers, and she could swear that her
canines were longer and sharper than she remembered. She was ashamed of what
she was becoming, whatever that was. This is what caused a young girl to travel
half way across the world to a city that never sleeps and never looks you in
the face.
The strangest thing of all about Richelle was how she was
starting to see people. Some people looked completely normal, while other ones
looked grayed out ant totally without color; some were grayed out as well as
semi-transparent... All she new is she felt a bit of sadness for the people she
saw grayed, it was like she wanted to run up and hug someone she never met. But
the transparent ones, those almost frightened her. It was almost like they
wanted something from her but she couldn't figure out what. All the same there
was something curious going on with Richelle Winter.
Richelle sat there quietly watching the subway passengers
arrive and depart for hours, wondering whether she should get on the train or
not. Should she keep running? It was still a major internal battle for her.
Finally, she decided that it would be best to think about this further, on a
full stomach. As she stood up and stretched her legs another train stopped and
started releasing passengers. What she saw next made Richelle's blood run cold.
The sight alone struck her as impossible. It was a man
and a monster! The oddest thing about it was they were occupying the same exact
space. It had to be breaking some rules of physics! Richelle could not take her
eyes off them. The monster was a very tall shadowy figure with six blazing red
eyes. It loomed over the man, but took his every step in unison. The man
himself was very handsome. He walked with his head tilted downwards letting his
long white hair hang in his face. He walked at a brink pace towards the exit.
Richelle told herself that she must follow him. Her
curiosity was to get the best of her this time. She followed the white-haired
monster-man up the stairs and onto the street. The street was busy with many,
many cars, and even more people hustling and bustling. 'I'll have to stay
close,' she said to herself. Luckily, the monster was a head taller than most
of the people he passed so she could stay far enough away to not be detected.
She followed him for 3 blocks, then made a left and crossed the street. She
followed him 2 more blocks and watched him enter a small building that's sign
read 'Ye Olde Brass Mug" with a painting of a pint of beer behind it.
After waiting a moment outside, she entered as well.
The Pub was warm and very loud. Richelle spied her
monster-man sitting near the end of the bar across the large room. She
carefully made her way over towards him, trying to seem like a patron just
wanting a pint. The seats on either side of the man were empty; Richelle
wondered why no one had sat there when the bar was obviously crowded. When she
finally sat next to him she felt why. She leaned over to get a good look at him
when a wave of fear shook her core. All of a sudden she wondered why she had
been so stupid to follow him, he could murder her and chop her to bits and no
one would be the wiser. All of a sudden Richelle severely wished she could go
home. When the bartender made her way to Richelle to take her order, Richelle
was nearly in tears.
"You look like you need a pint, dear. What happened?
Yah find your man with another woman?" The bartender inquired while taking
the moment to clean a mug.
"I don't know, I’m ju-"
"Alright." The bartender slammed a full mug
down, interrupting Richelle, and then walked over to the next hapless drunk.
"I didn't even tell you what I wanted!"
Richelle yelled, "All the same I guess." She stared at her beer and
wondered if it was even worth tasting, "It should at least help take the
edge off, even if it does smell like rubbing alcohol." Richelle drank it
down easier than she thought she would. She looked down to the bartender and
raised her glass and mouthed the words 'another one please'. The bartender slid
it down the bar for Richelle to catch. She did and repeated this process until
she had all but forgotten about the scary man sitting next to her.
That is, until one very large man walked by and bumped
into him. The scary man turned around and made eye contact with the large man.
The large man's eyes grew wide in that moment and he looked almost frail.
Richelle sat and watched the large man's expression go from surprise, to anger.
All the while neither man uttered a word. She looked at the scary man to see
his eyes, HIS EYES! They were like hers! Their pupils were the faintest red
color, but, the longer she looked the more they grew into a glowing deep red
with a piercing gaze into the other man. Not as much like her own as she
originally thought. The large man made a grunt and swung at the scary one. He
planted his large fist right into the scary man's temple. The scary man did not
move. It was like he was made of stone.
Just then, amazed, Richelle saw the scary man open 4 more
eyes! Two above his own and two below. And just as fast as they had opened they
closed again. With that, the scary man-monster dived into his own shadow.
Richelle wondered if she was dreaming, no one could possibly do that, she must
be sleeping drunk on the pub's counter. Wake up, Richelle, wake up you fool!
She told herself. Then, the monster-man jumped up behind the large man, in fact
right out of the large man's large shadow. He put his arm around the large
man's throat and finally spoke,
"Let's take this outside." Richelle could
barely hear it; the man's voice was but a whisper. Just as the man finished his
sentence, the shadow swallowed them both and they were gone. Richelle had
sobered up greatly in the past few minutes. She looked around the bar; everyone
pretty much had the same expression except one woman whom obviously had to be
the large man's wife. She was sitting on the floor crying where the large man
had stood.
Richelle thought this might be a good time to exit. No
sense in waiting until police show up. She paid the bartender and exited the
pub. She walked 2 blocks down and heard a weird 'crack' sound. She looked over
her shoulder, than slowly around herself in every direction. She was just about
to cross the street when she heard a 'crack' again. She looked behind herself
again. She could swear that the sound was coming from that direction. She
noticed a small whole in a fence a few feet behind her. Crack. She leaned down
to see where it lead. Crack. Munch, munch. It looked to be an old alley that
was now closed off. The whole was large enough for her to squeeze her slender
body through. Munch. Crack. It was so dark she could barely see how far the
alley stretched, but she could make out some movement a couple yards away.
Crack. She started to tip toe closer when, "I see you."
She gasped. It was indeed the monster man, she recognized
the voice but she couple only make out a minute outline of his body. The hard
part which she realized now was that the monster was blending into the shadows
and constantly moving so a shape for his figure was impossible. She fought the
urge to run and found her voice, "W-wh-who are you?" She was shaking.
"I am Sabin Duvert, and you shouldn't have followed
me." His voice still was nothing more than a whisper. Richelle swallowed
hard and clenched her fists at her sides. She would NOT run.
"Are you to kill me too? I've been following you
since you got off the subway." She surprised herself by stating that fact.
"I know. Why? I believe is the question. And have
you never heard that it is rude to disturb a man while he is eating?"
Sabin's voice grew a little louder and clearer with the last sentence. Richelle
shuddered. The large man must be what he is eating. Ugh. She felt her stomach
turn.
"I'm not sure why. I only knew that I want to speak
with you."
"I guess I can always eat later. But if this must be
wasted, then you owe me a supper." With that, Sabin peeled back the
shadows and Richelle found out that there normally is more than enough light in
this alley to see clearly to its end, a good distance away. She looked to where
Sabin was standing and at his feet was a half eaten leg of some sort of hoofed
creature. The large man was lying next to it sleeping like a baby. Richelle
sighed a deep breath of relief.
"Will he be alright? The others think he's
dead." Sabin looked in the bar's direction, then at the man next to him.
"He'll be fine. He'll just have a bad headache and a
few memories of bad dreams. Come with me."
She followed him, all the while neither one uttering a
word, until they came upon a dilapidated old house. The house was corrodes old
brink style, with shutters she presumed used to be white at some point. There
was no door only a large board used to cover the entrance, Sabin moved it aside
effortlessly, let Richelle enter, then repositioned it. Inside it smelled of
dust and soot. No one had paid this place any attention in some while. They
came in upon the old living room, it had a fireplace and a large couch still
remained, it was covered by a blanket. The blanket looked like the newest item
in the house.
"Is this where you live?" Richelle looked at
Sabin with concern.
"Sometimes. I don't really live anywhere
anymore." He said as he placed wood in the fireplace. Not too long after
that a nice fire was going and He sat himself on the couch, getting
comfortable. "So what is it that you want from me, child?"
Richelle peered up at him from under her hood. What she
was about to say she had never explained to anyone, she scarcely understood it
herself. "I'm seeing things. Odd things. I'm not sure how to explain it.
This thing that has happened to me, it's changing me. And I’m scared as to what
the next change is going to be."
"What changes? Say it." He furrowed his brow
and stared at her more intently than before.
"I-I... I can see people in a different way. I'm not
sure what it means, but they send a strong sensation through me, like they need
my help only I don't know how to help them yet. I don't know what they want.
Because the people I see," the words were hard to force out of her throat,
"I think they're dead." She wanted to cry at the last part of it, she
had never said it aloud before. It sounded so horrible to her aloud.
"You can see ghosts?" The question was
rhetorical, Sabin now raised his eyebrows, and he had always been interested in
the mythical and occult.
"I see the dead and the dying. Only I don't know why
they are seeking me out. What do I have for them?"
"I'm not sure. Did you just wake up one day and
start seeing the dead? Were their events leading up to it?" Sabin inched
closer to her, as if he could not fully hear her before.
"Well in a way, I guess, I did wake up and they were
there when they weren't the day before. But there are also other things.
Physical changes." Richelle was getting more and more uncomfortable; she
was now fidgeting and biting her nails. Sabin said nothing just nodded as if to
say, go on. And with that she pulled down her hood. Sabin gave her a good hard
look, and then lifted away the hair in the side of her face to see her ears.
Richelle also opened her mouth to show her newer longer canines. Her eyes were
also more visible now. Sabin just looked at her for a few minutes; she could
see him thinking things over in his head. At a while, he eventually spoke.
"I know why they are coming to you." He said
very slowly. "They need you."
"What?"
"When this is all done. You will be what my father
once spoke of as a Barghest."
"A what?"
"A Barghest, a Grimm, a dog-like creature that takes
lost souls to the other side. Like I said, these people you're seeing
differently, they are lost souls, and they know what you will eventually
become."
"No! What if I don't want to become this creature?
What if I find a way to stop it?" Richelle wanted to cry again. How would
she find someway to stop this terrible thing? All she ever wanted was to be a
normal girl, live a normal life, marry and have children. Those dreams seemed
so far away now.
"I don't know of a way to stop it." Sabin broke
eye contact and stared at the fire, as if the answers may be found there.
Richelle knew they could not, but she looked to the fire as well. They stayed
like that for a long time. Sabin finally broke the silence, "You never
told me your name."
"Richelle, my name is Richelle Winter." She
thought how silly it was to have a name now, for in time it would never be
spoken again.
"It is nice to meet you, Richelle Winter. I must ask
you now, why did you choose me to ask these questions. When you saw me in the
subway I shouldn't have looked different that any other man."
"I could see it. Your monster. It looms over you
like a big black shadow."
"You can see the Anju?! Well, now that I think about
it, if you can see death... How in the world could you miss that?" He
turned and looked at her face again.
"Originally, I just wanted to see what you were.
But, the more I followed you, the more I thought you might have some sort of
answer for me. I was wrong. But I've been alone for quite some time, traveling.
It is nice to have company who isn't running away screaming because I have dog
ears." She let out a laugh, but a melancholy one. "Why are you
hiding? You can pull of looking normal, at least better than I can."
"I am NOT hiding, I just can not stand to be around
humans, and I only interact with them shortly for my love of alcohol. Normally,
they leave me alone then. Drunken people are easy to inflict fear into. But, I
guess even that is not working in my favor anymore."
"Humans? You are human; at least you look like one
when you want to."
"I WAS a human. Now, I'm a monster. Ask them,
they'll tell you. Those bastards." Sabin let out a low growl.
"Why do you despise them?" Richelle was sorry
to anger him, but her curiosity was getting the better of her.
"How could I not! They are scum and don't deserve to
live. Not after what they did to my family." Sabin clenched his teeth in
effort to restrain his emotions better.
"What?" There was no turning back now Richelle
was diving head first into this man's past.
"Murderers. All of them."
Richelle faltered and fell back into the arm rest of the
couch. It was as if that one word had enough force to throw her ten feet.
Murderers. She decided to tread softly. "I am sorry to hear of your loss.
I understand if you do now wish to tell me more, but getting it off your chest
may help. And I am more than willing to listen." She put her hand on his,
only then did she notice he now had claws where there were finger nails before.
She did not move her hand away. Sabin looked at her almost ferociously, and
then looked away.
"Well, you shared your horror; I guess I'll share
mine. But I warn you, it is not pretty.
2 years ago, I was happily married. I had a beautiful and
understanding wife, Kamiki. And a son with her, his name was Gavin. The most
handsome child one could ask for. Kamiki and I bonded almost immediately.
Because you see she was, like us, more than a mortal. She was a Kitsune, my own
personal goddess. We both had to hide who we really were to the outside world,
but being together made it easier. Knowing that one person loved me no matter
what I had become made the outside world a blur. I only did what I had to
survive so I could return home to her and our son each day. They were the best
times of my life.
One day Kamiki and I had an argument, a very heated one.
We were loud and boisterous. We had gotten too comfortable. I was in my Anju
form as I was much at home. When I am fully relaxed that is my natural state.
She was in her hybrid form, which included fox ears and a tail. I am guessing
the neighbors, whom we had always been courteous with, must have heard the
yelling as well as Gavin crying. One must have stopped over and spied us.
The next thing I know, a group of men are breaking down
my door, barging in and calling us 'Demons', and 'Satan's helpers'. As the men
entered we immediately switched back to our humanoid forms, but it was too
late. They knew. 6 men held me down while one chased my wife into our son's
bedroom. She gave her life to protect Gavin, but it was of no use. They slit
his throat as he lay in his crib. 'The hell spawn cannot live.' they taunted
me. In a rage, that I don't clearly remember, I tore them limb from limb. It
was a massacre. But they had no chance once I let the Anju in me out.
Afterwards, I crawled up next to my wife's dead body and laid there for a day
and night hoping that she might make a sound, that she was not dead. I was
helpless. I didn't want to live without her. The next morning, people came
looking for the men who had stormed my house. I fled. I could not kill a town
full of people. Not that they wouldn't deserve it, but that is just not my
style. I've have learned that scaring them is much more effective. I have
become a legend, a myth; I am the 'Boogeyman'! And I will not stop until every
single one of them is so terrified of me that long after I am dead, their
children, and their children's children remember my name." When he finished
his chest was heaving and he was clenching Richelle's hand so hard she thought
her had might break. She only looked at him with eyes full of tears.
"Such a tragic and unjust loss of life. I am sorry
for it. But Sabin, do you really think blaming humanity for your loss will make
things any better. You still have a life and if this is how you are going to
live it, in shadows and anger, what point is there? Are those the qualities
what your wife loved in you? You can still honor her; you can still be the man
that she loved, even if she has to love you from another plain." Richelle
clenched his hand in return.
"You wouldn't understand."
"I've lost my family too, Sabin. Not to death but
they might as well. I'll never see them again." Richelle tried her best to
be serious and considerate. "But I don't hate them for it. I mean, who
knows if I would be like them had this not happened to me. Do you know who you
would be without your Anju?" Sabin did not answer, only stared back into
the fire. "There are so many good things about humanity; you can't hate
the world for the actions of a few men. You can be bigger than that. I'm sure
your wife would have agreed."
Sabin let out a long sigh, "We're outcasts you and
I." Sabin covered his face with his hand. "I take it you have no
place to stay?"
"No, I don't even know if I'm staying here. I think
running is becoming natural for me."
"You're going to have to stop running sometime,
Richelle. And I won't lie that I am very grateful for the company. I own this
place; it would be nice to have a reason to fix it up." And with that
Richelle hugged him. "You can sleep on it, I'm sure you must be
tired." Sabin stood and offered the couch to her. "It's not much but
it's all I have right now."
"Where will you sleep?"
"I don't need much sleep and I have a room in the
back with blankets I normally sleep on. Goodnight and sweet dreams." Sabin
in turn left the room and came back with a blanket. Richelle was already
asleep. He covered her up and kissed her forehead. He looked at her for a moment
just appreciating finding a kindred spirit. They were Moon and Sky, Heart and
Soul, Death and Dream. He knew it was to be a long road home, but he, for once
in a long time, felt he might find it.