Hey there. Been a while...
OK, so I've kinda moved on from this site. BUT I did write this thing, and posted it on deviantArt to generally good reception. Figured I may as well post it here too.
Click.
The sound killed the silence in the treasure room, waking a Daddy Long Legs that had decided to catch a quick nap while watching its egg sac. He stirred a bit before shifting his position and grip on the ceiling and falling back asleep.
The pitter-pattering of feet, along with the much less subtle sound of an explosion caused him to fully awaken. Probably just a walking gut or something that wandered a bit... But it would be good to check just in case Wrath was stopping by for whatever reason. Besides, his egg sac was down there. He couldn't risk something happening to it.
To his surprise and mild concern, instead of one of the average monstrosities common in the area, or some particularly violent spider, or both, there was an Isaac walking near the spontaneously-unlocked door.
Not that Isaacs were particularly uncommon in the area. Isaacs absolutely infest the Necropolis. However, most of them... no, wait, at a second glance this one appeared to be horribly mutating, as per the usual. Although this one's mutations were abnormal... Perhaps he was just lucky to get large, angelic wings, an admittedly cool extra pair of eyes, a fluffy mane of hair, and what appeared to be claws for hands... among other things. Then again, there was also the fact that it was in a golden room... None of the other Isaacs seem coordinated and/or sane enough to even pick up a key, much less use it. Heck, the only reason he himself made it in was by crawling through a hole near the ceiling...
He curiously continued to watch the Isaac.
This Isaac was just putting something away and looking at the opposite wall, which seemed to be covered in soot. After staring at it for a good ten seconds he proceeded to slap himself in the face (accidentally poking himself in the eye with a claw as a result), pull out a rather large bomb, and successfully detonate a hole in the far wall before breathing a sigh of relief.
That was also odd. Isaacs, even ones with particularly good taste in mutations, would never sigh in relief... or really do much of anything outside of slaughtering everything in their paths.
He was debating whether to crush the Isaac where it stood and return the Necropolis to the status quo, follow the Isaac and see what happened, or simply ignore this and go back to sleep, when he realized that the Isaac had left while he was mulling it over.
And he had taken the egg sac.
HIS egg sac.
Meanwhile, a few rooms away, Isaac was standing in a shop. Greed, although slightly miffed about the hole in his wall, was as eager to please as ever. The shopkeeper was sitting in that incredibly verbose way of his, somehow indicating to Isaac exactly how much he wanted for each item. Isaac was considering his options and counting his pennies when he heard a horribly grating screech, which seemed to be coming from that hole he had made in Greed's shop. Guess he'd have to decide quickly... He looked back at the items only to see a "Clo$ed" sign where they had been spread out. Well, all the more reason to get as far away from... that... as possible...
He broke into a run, away from the shop (being sure to tip greed a few cents on the way out), hoping desperately that he'd be able to find some medicine or... whatever those weird hearts were before he had to face his Mom... he might be able to do it in his current state, but he was haggard, sore, and really felt like he just needed to curl up somewhere and... not do anything. Sleep. Yes, that's what it's called. For the next several hours...
He was so distracted with his memories of a warm bed that he accidentally flew through a fire, singing his wings. Who designed this place anyway?
Daddy Long Legs was miffed.
To put it mildly. In slightly less mild terms, he wanted, nay, DEMANDED to find that Isaac, stomp him within an inch of his life, and if even A SINGLE ONE of his children were harmed, heal him and do it again.
He was currently prowling around on the ceiling, partially bemoaning his inability to clean up after himself in his ceiling lair, partially considering new torments to put the Isaac through, partially concentrating on not plowing into anything.
...and then I'll light him on fire, and then I'll put out the fire... in Kerosene, and THEN I'll... Oh, hang on!
The boy had stumbled... no wait, he's up again. He resumed the chase.
...and then I'll turn him into a Mulligan, and then I'll tell all the spiders to attack the
flies inside him and take him over, and then...
At that point he apparently dedicated too much of his mind to devising fates worse than death, because he had missed his hole into the room the Isaac had entered. It was kind of weird, though...
Not the skull hung on the doorframe or the blood covering the door. That was normal.
Now, what was really weird was that the wall was being covered by pulsating flesh. Something was happening inside that room...
And his children were in the middle of it.
With that thought spurring him on, he charged through a hole in the wall right before the flesh closed around it with a sickening schlurpp.
On the inside...
It was actually more or less like a normal room. Rocks strewn about, a few Isaacs floating around spewing various bodily fluids, four doors...
Although it was a bit odd to see a massive eye coming out of one of them.
That odd Isaac was running around, frantically trying to avoid the shots from the other Isaacs, which in an abnormal bout of teamwork, had decided that he was not worthy of existence. He was actually managing to avoid their attacks with surprising skill...
A sudden and vaguely feminine shout from above the Longlegs caused him to quickly skitter onto an adjacent wall, just in time for a bulging mockery of a foot to fall inches from the Isaac. The Daddy Longlegs was about to join in the slaughter when he noticed something:
The Isaac was crying.
Not that that is unique to this Isaac, exactly. Isaacs cry. It's simply a fact of Isaacs. The odd thing about this Isaac is that it wasn't crying in blood. He supposed that he had also seen Mulligans cry this way... he had never really thought about it before though. He had simply assumed it was an automatic result of horrible mutation. These tears seemed... sorrowful. Desperate.
Afraid.
...he seemed to remember feeling like that at one point... a long time ago...
He shook himself out of his reflection. There would be time for that later. In the meantime, that Isaac seemed to be slipping... both literally and figuratively. A few shots from those other Isaacs grazed him, and he even took a direct hit from that foot...
He probably wouldn't be able to take much more. In fact, the final hit looked like it would come at any moment... the Isaac had slumped forward, kneeling in the center of the room. He had put up a good fight, the Longlegs had to admit, but in the end it was all for nothing.
The boy was just waiting to get hit one last time before falling unconscious and dying a slow death... and the Longlegs had just realized that he could be the one to do it. In fact, he could have been stomping on him for a while now.
An eye popped out of one of the doors and prepared to shoot.
The Isaac slowly raised his gaze to meet the eye's... retina, saying one final sentence
before bracing himself for the final impact
"Mom... why?"
The Longlegs began crawling along the wall, drawing nearer to the helpless boy. He raised one of his limbs from its position on the wall, and brought it down.
"IIIISAAAAAAAAC!"
Isaac opened his eyes.
He hadn't appeared to have moved, which meant one of two things. Either his afterlife was almost exactly like his living life, or he was still alive.
Neither option seemed ideal at the moment.
The doors had disappeared, replaced by a disgustingly moist hole near what used to be the upper entrance, adding more credit to the Afterlife theory. On the bright side, there were several hearts strewn about the room.
Isaac began making his way to the closest one, as Daddy Long Legs watched from above.
He wasn't entirely sure why he had saved this Isaac. Maybe it was because he felt sorry for him. He wanted to believe he had simply realized that anything that happened to him happened to the Egg sac as well, and he should therefore be protected... or maybe he was bored of staying in the same rooms, watching the same monstrosities shuffle about in the same patterns.
In any case, he felt he had a duty to protect this... Isaac.
Actually, it might do to introduce himself, in order to prevent any... accidents in the future. The Long legs was not looking forward to a foot full of explosion.
He cautiously lowered a limb in front of the boy.
Isaac was feeling better. He had managed to defeat his mother somehow, had healed his more pressing injuries and was laying down in the middle of the room for a bit. This matter was nonnegotiable. his body absolutely refused to let him have any more near-death experiences for the next eight hours, at the very least.
Unfortunately, it didn't look like it would get its way... Isaac had noticed a growing shadow in front of him and quickly stumbled backwards in order to avoid any other attacks.
As Isaac warily watched, a large hand descended from the ceiling, supported by a rather patchwork assembly of limbs. To his surprise, instead of making to swat him or something, the hand stopped near him, palm open and to the side, as if offering to shake...
Isaac hesitantly complied.
So, that was it. Hope you enjoyed. Please review!