Alright. Apologizes. Done those before. It's valentines day, I'm Eros the Summoner, so obviously I had to do something. here's a... really unconventional love story... Love? I don't know. No one kisses. Let me know if you'd consider this a love story. Updates at the end of story.
Not even the moon's light could provide solace from the shadows on this blackest of nights. Dark clouds hid the brilliant stars within their haunting clutches. A lone cottage sat in the night. It was quiet and a low glow came from the small thatch door. It was a pleasant home, and any traveler would find relief in this simple place, on this night however, the homestead had a very different glow to it. Instead of the warm glow of a hearth fire, tonight the cottage burned with a dreadful green blaze. From the calm night, a maniacal laughter rang through the dark.
Within the hovel was a grim sight. Two young boys cowering behind their father, and across the kitchen floor was the soulless corpse of the mother. Standing above her body was a creature of unrivaled terror. Black mist circulated about his body, a massive lantern in one hand, and a horrifying hook in the other. Chains coated his body and clanked whenever he made the slightest movement. No neck connected his head and body, rather, a burning skull with three vine-like horns protruding out floated above the massive body.
Though his eyes were still wide and fearful, the father knew he had to do something to protect his children. He reached for the large carving knife he kept and flung it at the horror. The object phased through its body without any resistance.
"Stay back!" The man called while remaining in front of his children.
"Oh but where's the fun in that." The wraith laughed and swung his hook in circles. "Your doom has arrived, revel in your destruction!" The monstrosity laughed and flung the terrible hook towards the man. The man cried out as his flesh was rendered and he was slowly dragged to the menace.
"Father!" One of the young boys cried out, only to have his brother hold him back. "Father no!"
"Stay back, Warren!" The father managed to utter has his breath slipped away for the last time.
"Oh dear…" Thresh examined the dead man. "You didn't think you would get off that easily did you?" He gave a skeletal grin and absorbed the spiritual essence into his lantern. "No, no, now the fun begins." His delight in capturing the man's soul was short lived as he turned his attention to the children. "Do not worry, you will see him again. Shortly." Another maniacal laugh chilled the night as Thresh wound up his chain again. Before he could claim the young souls however, he felt pain. His shoulders dropped, where was this pain coming from? His menacing eyes searched the room but he saw nothing. Then, a blue spear flew through the air and made its mark in-between his eyes. Thresh did not have any time to vocalize his pain before he felt to the floor in a massive thud. His boots unmoving, but the spirit flames that encompassed his body continued to burn.
Consciousness quickly returned to Thresh as he immediately recovered his intimidating posture. However, there was no sign of his prize. The children were gone. And in their place was… Her. Thresh's body projected his disappointment far before his words could. "Kalista…" The spirit of vengeance stood in her ghostly armor and blue hue. She did not appear happy. "What have you done with the children?"
"You have no business taking a child's soul, Warden."
"I WILL BE THE JUGDE OF WHOSE SOUL I HAVE BUSINESS TAKING!" The chain warden was clearly not happy with this act of defiance. "I have no quarrel with you, Hunter. Leave me to my work!"
"The trouble lies in that I have quarrel with you, dear Thresh." Kalista approached his ghostly body. "You took the soul of one whom I was charged with dispatching."
"The farmer?" Thresh scoffed. "What vengeance could you possibly take against him?"
"Not him. The wife. She is not who she said she was."
"Whoever she was, her crimes are being punished now, rest easy, dear Kalista. Now I have some lost souls to find." Satisfied with that, Thresh began to recede into the darkness but an ethereal spear stopped him.
"Her punishment is my task. Not yours."
"How do you plan to stop me?" Thresh scoffed, and Kalista launched a spear directly through his abdomen. "Ah…" More than anything he seemed annoyed by this action.
"Give me the soul, Thresh."
"Never." He defied her. This did not please Kalista and another spear animated to her hand. Thresh let his hook hang low. Their eyes narrowed towards each other and quickly the violence broke out. Kalista rained down unholy bolts at unfathomable speeds and Thresh felt their rending effect. In response he dug his hook into her chest cavity and dragged her towards him and sent her to the ground with a cruel sweep of his chains. She quickly recovered and released crazed spirits to distract Thresh before releasing a hail of spears.
In the distance, the two children from before watched in horror and amazement as these two supernatural beings duked out their rivalry. "Is that one good?" The younger brother asked, referring to Kalista.
"No… She is just as evil…" The older commented. Then, the older boy removed something from his pocket. It was nothing more than a small trinket. The younger brother observed it in careful detail. It was a small woman; more a doll really. It looked incredibly old, the felt that made up its skin had faded into a gray tinge, and its hair had mostly fallen out.
"What is it?" The younger one asked his brother.
"I don't know… But Mom was clutching it all night before the first monster came. I think she thought it would protect her."
"Well it didn't. So throw it away,"
"I think Mom was expecting the woman to come for her… I think this belongs to her." Kalista skillfully dodge another swing of Thresh's hook. She launched several more spears, but her spirit was weakening. Thresh felt his energy draining as well. He needed more souls to continue this fight.
"Return her to me that soul… It has no meaning to you."
"It is mine!" Thresh wound his hook again but Kalista precisely through a spear right through his wrist. The pain overcame his grip and he briefly dropped the hook.
"Ma'am," A small voice called Kalista's attention, "Is this yours?" It was the older brother. He was offering the small doll with his eyes shut and extended arms.
"Ah, there you are." Thresh menacingly grinned.
"No!" Kalista stopped him. Something compelled the warden to do so. He examined the Kalista. Her hatred had vanished. The constant rage of vengeance she constantly remained in was gone for this brief moment. Her eyes, usually devoid of character, now held a soft status. She carefully approached the boy and took the doll from him. As soon as she beheld it, she turned away from the humans and walked away. "Thresh." She addressed the aspect with the doll in hand. "Do not harm these children."
"Or what?"
"Or nothing." Kalista looked to her feet. "It is my request to you." Thresh had seen this somewhere before. This look Kalista held. It was solemn, it was sad, and it was alone. He had never seen this on any of his victims… But where had he seen it? He quickly dismissed the idea. It did not matter. "Please. There is no shortage of souls in Valoran, these boys have earned their lives with their bravery." Thresh let his demented eyes wonder the trees. He wore no quizzical look, but she knew he was thinking this over.
"What is that doll to you?" Thresh barked. Kalista did not like that. She flashed a frown.
"Why would care?" Kalista threatened. She moved closer to him, standing before him without any sign of fear.
"This artifact means a good deal to you?"
"It does."
"Give it to me." Thresh extended his hand and baited her.
"So you may burn it? Destroy it? What for then?"
"Hand it over or the children die." Thresh threatened her. With a heavy heart and discouraged body language, Kalista placed the doll in Thresh's hand. She expected to see it burst into flames once it rested in his grip, but it did not. Thresh studied the artifact. He meticulously examined each remaining hair, the fabric of its little dress, and the buttons it had for eyes. "There is no magical power contained within."
"No." Kalista answered.
"Why do you want this… toy so badly?" She seemed ashamed at his question. The warrior spirit of vengeance actually looked disgraced. She looked uncomfortable in her own armor, and her posture shifted ever so slightly. "Tell me!"
"Not everyone was eager to become a reaper of souls, Thresh." Kalista's tone was calm, but Thresh could smell the hatred burning underneath. It… It did not hold the same taste as mortal's fear… It was far bitterer. He did not like this taste. "Some of us were proud to walk the path of life." Her two cents spent, Kalista took back her trinket and began to move on.
"Wait!" Came the child's voice again. "What about my Mum and Dad?" Kalista stopped. She did not turn around but spoke from behind her shoulder.
"They are dead child. You will never see them again. Now move on."
"Now Kalista…" Thresh devilishly smiled. "They certainly could…" He dangled the lantern oh so temptingly.
"Enough Thresh!" Now genuine rage was shining through. "Come. Let us return to the Shadow Isles."
"Please don't leave us spirit of vengeance." The little boy's voice came again. "Please."
"I wanna see mommy and daddy again…" Now the younger sibling made an appearance. It was a very comical scene. These two beings of nearly limitless power stood before two minuscule children without any sort of understanding as to what to do. Kalista returned to where Thresh stood, examined the children, and pondered their predicament. Thresh seemed to remain useless this entire time.
"Thresh." Kalista ordered the warden. "Release their parent's souls."
"Who do you think you are to order me around, wretch? I am not your lapdog."
"Then a bargain. Twenty souls for the two."
"Twenty souls?" Thresh almost felt his marrow squeal at the idea of it. Twenty souls for a measly two was indeed a bargain. "Why do you care so much about what happens to these children? What effect does that artifact have on you? Weakness for pitiful, sniveling children?" Thresh's words began to annoy. "Twenty souls for two it is." He agreed. The exchange of these strange glowing orbs baffled the children, but something significant was clearly happening.
"Now what?" The older child asked. Kalista closed her eyes, and let go of her built of stress. Before anyone could react to it, two ethereal spears found marks in both the small bodies. The children lie dead. Their souls gently floated from their bodies and migrated to the sky. Kalista released the two souls Thresh had bestowed her and all four rose to the plane after death together. Now the two ghostly beings stood alone in this black night. They watched the souls ascend before ultimately they vanished. Kalista did not say anything now. She merely clutched the doll in one of her hands and readied herself to return to the Shadow Isles. She turned to find Thresh watching the souls disperse as well. It seems the reunited family equally mystified the warden.
"I had forgot what happened to souls if I did not capture them," He said, continuing to stare at the clouded sky. "They souls seemed… Different."
"Mortals tend to prefer an afterlife without suffering."
"Those words hold more meaning than you let on. Why do you keep secrets? What do you gain?"
"I keep no secrets."
"The doll then. What is it?"
"It is—" Kalista felt her words leave before her tongue could catch them. "It was mine. It has been passed down for a millennia in this family, generation after generation until it ended here."
"A toy?" Thresh was comically shocked.
"It is far more than a toy!" Kalista snarled. "It is my companion… The one I would cry to when I was young… The one I would tell my secrets to before I fell asleep. I gave it to my niece when I had no further use of it." It took a few moments of processing, but soon Thresh burst into his demented laughter. This was not the maniacal laugh that he terrified the living with; it was his laugh. Though it was no less terrifying to the average man, it was simply insulting to Kalista.
"How pathetic!" Thresh laughed at her. "You were once as pathetic as these other mortal!" Kalista felt something she had not felt in a long time swell up: embarrassment. She quickly became angry at the wraith for his mockery.
"You were mortal as well once!" She snapped at him. "You were just as, if not more, pathetic as I was. You betrayed your kin and brothers for your unforgivable desires of torture!"
"Torture?" It was Thresh's turn to be offended. "What I did was justice!"
"How dare you call your atrocities justice! That is an insult to every true act of vengeance Valoran has known."
"You know nothing of my past."
"I know enough!" Kalista silenced him. "You forsake your duty to guard in the name of murder and torture for your fellow warlocks, then, when your lives were claimed in an act of damnation, you remained to torture their souls into the afterlife. Your little fantasies are more wretched than any act of betrayal I have witnessed!"
"They left me!" Thresh's temper briefly shined through. "They forgot me, and left me to die. They were my brothers and sisters, and they discarded me like an old boot. The artifacts I was charged to guard were evil. Madness educing. I was tormented for years by visions of malice and chaos. I pleaded for reassignment, I asked for mercy and I was treated like a complacent child. So I let the whispers in. I let the desires enter my thoughts because there was no one else. The hateful ideas were all that would speak to me. I could not enjoy a meal without ridicule or a disgusted tone. So I tortured them. Only a few. Only the few who deserved it. And they did deserve every moment of that agony. It was beautiful. Their suffering was my delight. Just as the guilty fulfill your darkest pleasures, dear Kalista. We are of the same branch. But you know nothing of me or my history." It was now that Thresh's eyes widened at what he had just said. What had he said? This was not him speaking was it? But… Who else could it have been. What had he said? He did not remember these things until this very moment. "What is that artifact?" He demanded to see the doll again. Kalista held it to her chest where the weapon that took her life still rested.
"It is no artifact, but it is imbued with sentiment… It retains feelings I possessed when I was mortal. I wanted to feel those feelings again… Just briefly. But you killed my ancestor. My bloodline is now extinct and no one can bare my doll anymore."
"So keep it with you." Thresh simply offered. "And keep it away from me, I do not enjoy feeling as a mortal again."
"Did you not?" Kalista pushed. "Did you not revel in the excitement that burst forth as you remembered your life? The hate that you felt for those men? That misery when they forgot you. The excitement when you cut them up? Do you not miss those feelings? I feel none of them when I hunt the wicked. But every so often… I will reclaim my doll… And recall my life when I could…" Kalista trailed off and tried to touch her arm, but her translucent skin just passed through itself. "Feel." Thresh mulled over her words. The small burst of emotion he had recalled was a different sensation if nothing else. He had taken souls for so long, it seemed that he had forgotten the emotion that kept his mortal existence exciting. The one thing that he clung to in life: emotion.
"How… How did you discover this artifact?" Thresh reluctantly asked. "Could one of my past be found?"
" I do not know. I knew of the vault you were charged with when I lived, but I do not remember it any longer. Perhaps if you found one of the artifacts you used to guard."
"Maybe…" Thresh nodded his cadaverous head. He felt excitement resurge through his spirit again. But where would he start? He had no idea where he had once been stationed. He did not even know if he had any descendants. Did he have any siblings who may have procreated? Or… No… No. It all started to fade… The excitement. The rush. It was fading. Why? Thresh looked down from his thoughts and noticed Kalista had gone from his side. Where had she gone? He quickly spotted her doing something in the dirt. He needed to feel the emotion again. He had to. He launched his hook to capture her and he hauled her back to him with the force of a titan. Kalista faintly whimpered as the hook pieced her ghostly body, but she was soon back next to Thresh.
"Enough with your weapon!" Kalista shouted at him.
"Wait! Listen. Stay with me." Kalista offered no response to this, but merely raised an ghostly eyebrow. "I do not know where to start, but you do. You already have an artifact. I feel its power right now. I feel the rush of emotion. I feel the sensation you speak of. Remain by my side and I can continue to feel my lost memories and emotions with the help of your artifact!"
"Thresh…"
"I would not interfere with your reaping of traitorous souls! I could potentially even help you. We could collect souls together."
"Thresh!" She stopped him. "It is over. I destroyed the doll. There is no mortal to carry it for me any longer. I cannot afford to keep it with me always."
"But…" Thresh was terrified that the doll was now destroyed. He quivered, "Do you not feel it still? I do. Can you not?" Kalista thought a moment. She listened to her body, and behold, the sensations of her doll still remained. The effect should have been destroyed when the doll was…
"I do." Kalista oddly reported.
"The artifact's magic remains between us. Remains with this scene of a reunited family dispersing back to the afterlife!"
"That is preposterous." She shook her head.
"Do you have an explanation?" Kalista admitted she did not. She no explanation for why the doll's effect on her had not ended. She had no idea. "I believe it has reacted to your soul binding."
"Where are you coming up with these ridiculous theories?" She pestered him.
"Listen woman!" He called her woman… Not spirit or vengeance… But… Woman. She felt happy at the acknowledgement. "I can't explain what's happening, but my memories are creeping back into my head. Some of them good, and some traumatic. I suspect that you are experiencing a similar fate when you react with the artifact. Whatever has happened, a bond has been formed between us."
"You have no idea if that's true."
"But what if it is. What if your artifact's powers of sentimentality have latched onto us?"
"Then…" Kalista was becoming very concerned that Thresh was onto something. "We should no doubt stay as far away from each other as possible."
"Why do you want to silence these feelings?" Thresh threw his hands in anger. "You were the one who said that these things were worth feeling."
"They are! Selectively. When vengeance has been dealt and I no longer am called upon to be a merciless spirit of rage."
"So let us do it selectively." Thresh decreed. "When you are in need of respite, call to me; as I will call to you. We will meet here. In these woods, by this cottage and remember. Remember humanity. Remember a life before death."
"Thresh!" She scoffed at first. "That would not even— That is simply ridiculous," But her companion seemed dead serious in this regard. "What about when we see each other in the League?"
"A small tease." Thresh confidently answered.
"Or… When we fight together on the fields of justice?"
"Practice? No…" He placed a boney finger to his chin. "An experiment! Perhaps fighting with emotion could prove as viable as fighting without." This was all coming very quickly for the spirit of vengeance. Nothing seemed terribly wrong with this plan… She did enjoy reliving her days as a living woman from time to time and he seemed to genuinely wish to feel alive again as well. Kalista raised one spectral hand to the air and whispered an enchantment. In her palm animated two simple bands of black onyx. She offered one to Thresh who eyed it with unease.
"Bindings are my expertise" Kalista insisted. "On this day, in this place, I bind my humanity, my feelings, to you. Equally, by taking this, you will bind your humanity to me and this place."
"Easiest decision of my afterlife."
"You may regret those words." It was the first time anyone, let alone Thresh, saw a smile grace the spirit's lips. Thresh easily took the band and slipped it on his twisted finger. Kalista kept her smile as she slipped the ring on her finger as well. "Call when you need me."
"You are sworn to do the same."
"I shall." A genuine smile found its place upon both the spirits faces. "Goodbye… Friend." She bowed to Thresh.
"Farewell." Thresh deeply bowed in response. "Dearest."
As they parted, neither noticed the massive congregation of spirits who had gathered to witness this transaction. The spirits belonged to the Shadow Isles, but what these spirits did not see was the Chain Warden and Vengeful spirit who had entered this cottage. As the two parted for the time, they only saw two people. The man: bald, incredibly fit, with a large upper body and baby blue eyes. The woman: graced with beautiful brunette hair, simple features and equally muscular as the man. The cottage was not a simple wooden lodging, it was a palace of old. A seen from their past lives revived through the sentiment placed upon a single doll.
Alright! That was a thing. Now, listen up followers of the Me. Did you like this story? I did. I actually liked something I wrote. Neat. I want to make everything that way from now on. So I have big plans! I won't reveal them to keep expectations low... But they do involve Brand New World. They do involve a new One-Shot every one or two weeks, and they do involve becoming more active in this community. I've received the most beautiful support from you people and I wish I deserved it all... But I'm going to try. Happy Valentines day!