[log] Monster mash, etc. [closed]

[bookofnope]

Characters: Beckett, Haurchefant, Frisk
Location Building 58
Date: Day 80, evening/night
Summary: Three unfortunates run into each other while being followed by monsters. The usual, really.
Warnings: Monsters and accompanying mindfuck. Possible suicidal thoughts.



Struggling South through the thick, blinding blizzard, Beckett had first realized that he was being stalked late in the day, about when the nagging worry about finding shelter for the night began to creep in. At first he doubted his own perceptions, as he had learned well to do in Norfinbury. Were some of the shadows too thick at his heels, or was it his paranoid imagination running loose as he knew it inevitably will? He was aware of some conversation on the network, but it was hard to check the tablet when trekking at all possible speed. Rydia was waiting for him.

The dread of certainty grew every time he stopped to rub life back into his hands at the scant shelter of any wall. Shadows. Something fluttering. A presence, a gaze... it didn't matter, he couldn't stop. Monster or not, stopping was death. If he didn't find shelter, it was the end either way. He walked more quickly, pushing against the wind. Somewhere through the white there were walls rising, he was beginning to see. Just a little further, and he'd -

He whirled around, in a sudden, terrifying knowing. The shadows reared behind him. A shambling, stumbling silhouette, broken and put together again. A human outline, though all in shadow-black. He knew the shadows, and he knew the man.

"No," he croaked, stumbling a step back as though shoved hard through his centre of gravity. "I can't, please, not yet, I haven't found - "

You have, the memory of Anatole's ghost said in his mind, as the shadow slowly raised a twisted hand towards him. You just don't like what you got.

"No!" It was meant as a snap, but it was a wail, animal almost. He turned and hurled himself into a run. The building, the door. Not yet, not yet. But how did he ever think that he could outrun the end of the world? He yanked blindly at the door, wrenched it open, neither noticing if nor caring whether anyone was inside who could see him in his panicked flight.

It slammed shut behind him and he collapsed against it, sinking to a sitting position, head in trembling hands.

Comments

[silverfuller]

Haurchefant had spent the earlier part of the evening digging through snow and rubble. All of his focus was on his search. What he was searching for he did not know but it kept his mind occupied and made it easier to ignore the swirling image of the Elezen woman who ran in his wake wherever he went. She was tall and stern and looked upon him with humorless eyes as cold as Norfinbury itself.

His stepmother.

She had been a source of endless grief during his childhood but she was gone now, he knew she was. It had to be a creature of some kind.

He flipped over a piece of rubble and felt more than heard the rushing of something behind him.

Damnation, I cannot seem to shake this monstrosity...

Without looking he spun on his boots and darted through the door into the only intact part of the ruins.

"Ah!"

He tripped over Beckett then turned and immediately slammed the door shut on the golem of his stepmother.

Snow swirled briefly around his ankles then settled to the floor.

"Beckett! By the Fury, are you alright? I did not know you were here!"

He circled around and crouched in front of the other man, concern etching itself across his pale features.

Let me know if this works! (also uh major Undertale spoiler whoops)

[despiteeverything]

As it was, the thing that had been rushing behind Haurchefant wasn't just the anomaly of his stepmother. Right around that point there'll be some panicked banging on the door, different from the random bumpings of an anomaly.

Pushing their way up the ice cave has been slower going than they'd like. And then when their anomaly had shown up... A distorted cross between a yellow-petaled flower and something else, Frisk had bolted. Even if they knew who it was, who it must be, that wasn't something they wanted to face right now.

There was another anomaly pacing the edges of the house, but they seemed to ignore Frisk, for whatever reason. Which was fine by them, because their own was far too close. Their back was against the wall as they banged on the closed door, hoping whoever was inside was willing to let them in.

"Flowey? Flowey! Asriel! Please... please just wait! Don't-" Their anomaly had hesitated at the first name, and finally he outright froze at the second. Not wasting any time, Frisk continued to knock.

Should do! Sorry for my confusion, I misunderstood how the posts fit together at first ^^;;;

[bookofnope]

When the door had begun to open, Beckett was sure that the thing outside was coming in. Coming for him.

Why had he thought that closing the door would matter, that going inside would be of any use, as though it was just another one of Norfinbury's usual run of the mill horrors? He knew what it was and what it had come for. Trying to block the door didn't even occur to him as an option. He made to spring from his sitting position, an awkward movement without supernatural speed and grace to call on, trying to turn around so that at least he would be facing it when it came. Instead a human form barrelled in, and over him. The door slammed shut again. The shadow hadn't entered.

And he wasn't dead.

Still crouching, he stared up at Haurchefant, eyes wide and wild, nothing of his normal control, his wry aloofness in them. "How - ?" he started, and stopped, licking dry lips in open distress before speaking again. "It - didn't want you. Of course not. It wants me."

The banging on the door that followed as soon as he spoke was confirmation, as far as he was concerned. He barely registered the voice that came with it. He knew what was happening. He'd tried to outrun it, but he knew.

[silverfuller]

Haurchefant stared worriedly at Beckett.

"Then you, too, have-"

He was cut off by pounding on the door and a small voice crying out. Quickly as he could he swirled around and opened the door for the child he knew would be on the other side. It was the child he'd traveled with earlier for a short time.

"Little one! Come in!"

He turned back to Beckett. "Calm. You are among friends."

To prove this he put his arms around the vampire and drew him into a hug. The hug was for Haurchefant too, he felt his nerves screaming between his ears at the sight of the twisted vision of his stepmother moving past the windows.

"As long as you and I and the little one remain inside, we shall be safe."

[despiteeverything]

Frisk wasn't able to do much immediately about the other two, instead they shut the door behind them both and scrambled to put whatever they could shift easily to help brace the door, so Flowey and the other anomaly they'd seen outside couldn't follow.

It was only once they were sure that they'd at least have some warning if the door were about to burst open that they turn, to see the both of them.

Frisk doesn't laugh. Indeed, they don't find anything remotely funny about the situation at all. Instead, they take a few steps forward and join in the hug, small arms wrapping around them both. They all kind of need that comfort right now. After the anomalies, and the running... it's been a rough day.

[bookofnope]

Unexpected, unasked-for, deeply unwelcome, the hug nonetheless takes a moment to trigger Beckett's fight or flight response, overwhelmed as it already is by the bone-deep knowing that both are useless before what is outside. There's a third option, most people don't know - fight, flight, freeze. Freeze he does, rigid, cold.

Then reality snaps back into focus. He can't afford to be immobilized. He shoves his way out of Haurchefant's grasp and Frisk's hold on them both, shoves violently - without his supernatural powers, he isn't a match for the much larger man's strength, but terror and rage do their share, and he doesn't care if he knocks the child aside with too much force. He wants to be on the opposite side of the room from the door, and from both of them. He needs, he needs, he needs - God, it's useless, everything is -

"We are not safe," he rasps. "There's no safety from that. It might ignore the two of you if you lie low."

[silverfuller]

Haurchefant stepped back, a bit surprised by the other man's reaction. He felt a pang of guilt, as well, for embracing someone unannounced.

"The forces of this place seek once more torment us. Do not allow it. So long as walls remain between us and our pursuers we are safe."

Slowly, a smile rose up in his hawkish features.

"Come morning I can leave first if you wish and draw the beasts away as far as I am able. If their behavior continues as it has been thus far they will turn after you once you are out the door but mayhap by then I'll be far enough away to grant you both a head start."

Of course he was not sure if someone else's...haunting...would have any actual interest in him. He just had to hope.

[despiteeverything]

Frisk does fall when knocked aside, not expecting the vehemence of Beckett's reaction. They rub the spot where they hit the floor as they stand back up, a small concerned frown on their face.

They nod a little at Haurchefant's words. At least parts of them.

"There's one for each of us. Whoever you saw... it's someone important, right?" They hesitate before adding, "Mine is. He's not really himself, but he's someone really important to me."

[bookofnope]

"... yours?" It takes him a long moment, in his deeply shaken state, to parse their words, and if there is logic there it has a hard time penetrating. The way Haurchefant smiles, and just casually offers to - no, no, he can't do that again. He shakes his head, another violent gesture that sends his long hair flying into his eyes.

"It isn't someone. I know what it is. It doesn't want - it won't go after you mortals." The word is sometimes an insult, from him - but this time, its tone is almost jealous. Maybe you are safe.

He raises a shaking hand, drags it down his face, trying to clear any part of his mind. "Maybe if I go. I should go. Just make it quick..."