It Came from Lucina's Head
Chapter 2: The First Encounter
Lucina tossed and turned in her sleep restlessly. She tried her best to calm herself down, but for some reason, her pounding heart just didn't want to let up. All she could think about were those images of people getting cut open with razor-sharp knives. She was so frightened by the ordeal that she didn't even take the time to change into her pajamas. She just hopped into bed, hid herself as deep as she could beneath the covers, and prayed that whatever was lurking nearby in those halls didn't follow her into the sanctity of her dorm room.
There…was something following her in those halls right?
"This is ridiculous," she thought to herself from under the sheets. "There's nothing to be afraid of. It's like Ike was saying; movies are only make-believe. They can't be real…can they?"
She peered out from under the covers into the darkness of her room. With the moonlight shining eerily in from the balcony window, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That jacket hanging on the chair wasn't a ghoul. Those trees swaying back and forth outside weren't banshees. And that pile of books on the desk definitely was no Freddy Krueger. Hesitantly, she glanced at the mirror across from her bed to see her own scared reflection staring back at her across the room.
"Get a grip of yourself Lucina. It's all in your head."
"It's all in my head," she said out loud, closing her eyes slowly and falling back onto her pillow.
She had to admit, talking to herself really did make her feel better about the situation. Well, it did until it started raining outside and a huge thunderclap boomed over the mansion. The poor girl squeaked at the sound and dove back under her safety net of linen.
The rain started coming down in the night. It wasn't a hard rain, but the storm clouds were rolling in, and soon Lucina was finding herself with other reasons why she couldn't sleep. Thankfully, the storm was at least keeping her mind off of you know what.
"There are no such thing as monsters, there are no such thing as monsters, there are no such thing as monsters," she kept thinking to herself.
She didn't know why she even bothered to sit and watch that stupid movie with Falcon and Ike in the first place. Had she known what it was going to be about, she would have just got up and left right then and there. The whole experience had left a sour taste in her mouth with Horror films. With any luck, they next movie they watch would be something a little more relaxing than that. Perhaps a comedy, or a documentary, or maybe they could just sit outside and watch grass grow for an hour.
All these thoughts bouncing around her mind were not helping her situation at all. If she was going to participate in brawls the next day, she needed her sleep. It was already after midnight, which was at least two hours past her regular curfew. If she fought like crap the next morning, Captain Falcon was going to get a piece of her mind. It's not like it was his fault however since she was the one who was so curious about these Horror movies in the first place. There's no way in hell she'd be doing that again…
As the clock struck 1AM, Lucina could finally feel herself winding down. After all the excitement and worrying, her body and mind were finally starting to call it quits. She debated whether or not she should have pulled her sword into bed with her, but in the end, she just kept repeating Ike's words of wisdom.
"It's all make-believe. That's all it is."
Despite the rain, she was finding it easier to fall asleep, using the raindrops against the window as some sort of tempo like a lullaby. It was strangely relaxing and reminded her of days when she and some of the other Smashers would stay indoors during rainy days and play board games that no one could ever finish in one sitting like Monopoly. There was no room to think about monsters in this setting though. Now it was just Lucina and the rain. Pit-pat. Pit-pat.
Well, it was like this until an intrusive noise caught her attention.
The sound of the balcony door opening and closing caused her to open her eyes wide as she quickly sat up and glanced in direction of the source. The rain continued to fall against the window carelessly; however, she noticed the curtains along the door had been disturbed, swaying in the air as if some invisible force had nudged them. It was impossible for wind to enter unless the door was open, which led her to her most fearful conclusion of all.
Someone was in her room.
"Who goes there?" she asked, trying to maintain control of the cracking in her voice.
There was no reply, save for the dancing curtains as they slowly came to a stop. The room was too dark to see anything that wasn't near the balcony, which gave her the utmost sinking feeling in her stomach. Could it be that the sound she heard was nothing but her imagination?
She continued to scan the room, confirming if anything else had been disturbed. The jacket was still on the chair and those books were still on the desk, so whatever had slipped into the room had done so in quite the stealthiest of fashions. The eerie silence responding to her question was starting to give her chills.
"My sword…" she thought, looking near the entrance of the room to see her sword in the weapons rack against the wall.
She was about the step out of her sheets and retrieve her blade, but stopped herself to inspect the carpet below. She leaned over the edge and peered beneath her bed, which thankfully revealed nothing but air and dust-bunnies. She sighed with relief as she looked back up to her weapon, but nearly cried in shock when the sword was no longer there.
"Falchion! Where did it?..."
She could have sworn she saw it in the weapons rack a few seconds ago, but now it was completely empty. She distinctly remembered putting it there when she was done her training for the day, and she sure as hell remembered seeing it when she entered the room after the movie.
Something definitely wasn't right here.
She made an attempt to go inspect the rack, but was halted when she noticed that she could not move her feet at all. Somehow, her legs had become entangled in her own bed sheets. Not only that, but the sheets suddenly began coiling up her body, as if they were some sort of snake.
"What is going on?"
She frantically tried pulling her legs free, but they wouldn't budge from their bindings. No matter how much she pulled, tore, or resisted, the blankets would not stop coming. Eventually, they had wrapped all the way around her torso, arms, and neck, constricting her into what was probably the most uncomfortable position she'd ever been in in her life. She tried to call for help, but wasn't able to get out two words before the sheets tightened on her vocal chords, choking her into submission.
"Who is doing this!?" she kept asking herself. "Why is this happening!?"
For the first time since she joined the Smash Bros., Lucina felt completely helpless. The more she struggled to resist, the more those sheets would tighten against her body. She couldn't find her sword, couldn't call for her friends, couldn't do anything to stop whatever supernatural presence was at large here.
Her deepest fears had officially become reality.
"I'm going to die. By the gods, I'm going to die."
Tears began streaming down her face, as if the snake-like coils of the bed had squeezed them out of her. It wasn't long before she could feel her own ribcage snapping, her lungs collapsing, and her heartbeat thrashing with such force that it felt like it had been set aflame.
Just as she thought it was all over, a tall figure loomed over her bedside, staring down at her with piercing crimson eyes. The poor girl didn't know what to think as her sight was beginning to blur, her thoughts dispersing before she could even comprehend them. The figure was dark, standing almost as tall as the ceiling, or at least that's how it looked from Lucina's point of view. Large pointed ears could be seen jutting from the sides of its head, a sickly grin spread across its sinister face like some sort of jester. Small beady eyes gazed down at her without remorse. Its body was entirely black, but it emitted some sort of violet aura that made Lucina sick to her already compressed stomach. As she coughed and gasped for breath, the other being in the room continued to stand and watch, its large grin refusing to falter in the slightest.
"Good evening, Lucina," said the ominous and distorted voice of the figure. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
The sound of the creature's voice was like nails on a chalkboard, giving Lucina the impression that this being was of an entirely different realm altogether. She maintained that notion for about a second before letting out a sharp cry as more of her soul was squeezed from her body.
"I've waited so long for this day," continued the horrifying image before her. "The day you would finally set me free." The creature raised a large demonic hand, revealing a set of razor-sharp claws. "The day…where I would finally be able to touch you."
The creature gently skimmed a claw down Lucina's cheek, causing her to internally writhe in pain. The touch of the creature was very light; however, it burned like someone had taken a hot chunk of coal to her skin. Soon, beads of blood began oozing through the skin on her cheek, forming an open cut that bled all the way down her neck, staining the sheets.
At this point, she just wanted it to be over with. Her internal organs had been compressed beyond recognition or repair, and she was in so much pain that death seemed like her only chance at salvation. Just when she was about to let go, she looked up to see the creature reel back with its huge claws, the sickly grin continuing to mock her.
"Fear is the consumer. Death is the deliverer."
She slammed her eyes shut and screamed with all her might as the array of blades swiped through her face.
Lucina shot upright in her bed, unleashing a blood-curdling scream into the dark room. She paused, panting heavily and gasping for air. She placed her hand over her chest to feel her heart beating a million miles a minute.
"Was it all a dream?"
She looked down at the sheets before her to find them all in place, albeit drenched in sweat. Glancing at the weapons rack showed that her Falchion was back in its place. Her reflection in the mirror across the room stared back at her with a most distressed expression. The curtains near the balcony were as motionless as the dead.
It was still raining outside.
Lucina tried her best to catch her breath, but gave up halfway before falling back onto her pillow.
"It was a dream," she thought gratefully. "Thank the gods."
Even with that in mind, she still found it difficult to fall back asleep. She couldn't stop thinking about that creature that attacked her. That sinister grin, those creepy eyes, those monstrous claws that tore through her skin like paper. It made her wonder what on earth that stupid Horror movie had put into her head that night. Ike and Captain Falcon were definitely going to hear about this tomorrow.
As Lucina dozed off, the rain began to ease up to the point where the clouds had completely drifted away from the mansion. Soon, she had fallen into a deep sleep, burying the memories of that horrifying encounter into the far reaches of her mind. She didn't notice the trail of blood trickling down her face until the next day.
