Chapter 1: Their First Meet, Filled With Innocence
Long ago, when the dark, hollow skeleton of Hollow Bastion was full of life and dazzling light, Radiant Garden was once the brightest center of all knowledge in all the worlds. Brimming with hope, prosperity and life, the town was going through a golden age. It was such a shame that this world will soon be crushed into darkness.
It was a year ago, before the world collapsed, did things start to go into motion.
Everything began on one autumn morning, in the high-class neighborhood nearby the castle. At the end of the street, where a moderately large house stood by, a girl had locked herself up in a tiny cramped room.
It was very small and very dusty, stacks of cardboard boxes surrounded the room, reaching as far as the ceiling. The only source of light that wasn't the small cracks of light in the window shades was a lone light bulb handing from the ceiling, flickering on and off from time to time. The only furniture there was a rickety old desk and a squeaky short chair. Littered across the desk were all sorts of tools, from screwdrivers to tweezers to clamps, with little screws spread around. In the center of the desk was a music box, small and fragile, with all its metal components exposed.
Hovering over the it, the girl gripped the tweezers with her band-aid covered fingers, and slowly lowered it closer to the music box. Closer and closer, slower and slower, her hand started to shake until she heard the sound.
Click.
She held her breath, trying to contain her cautious optimism as much as possible, and closed up the metal skeleton again. She took the music box in her hands, twisted the windup key, and hoped for the best.
Emerging from the box, a little ballerina figure began to spin around and around, dancing to the hushed sounds coming out from the music box. The girl smiled to herself. After months of shutting herself in this cramped room, from stealing tools from the garage and packages of band-aids from the bathrooms, she finally fixed it.
"Esther! Esther darling, where are you?!"
Squeaking out a yelp, the girl named Esther almost dropped the music box, and clasped it tightly before it even hit the ground. "Y-Yes, mother? What is it?"
"Can you come down to the living room for a moment? I need you for something." Her mother responded.
"Oh, um, sure! Be right down in a sec!" She took out the rubber band that held her long brunette hair relax over her shoulders. Clutching the music box in her hands tightly, Esther stepped out of the dusty room. The light blue hallway had stretched out before her, with the antique cabinet right across. Doors neatly stood on each side of the hallways, leading to empty or unused rooms.
Despite living in such a large house, only two people actually lived here. The maids Helga and Christie that work here prefer to live in their own apartments, as they already had for many years. Their butler Hermes wanted to stay at his cramped little house, as he wanted to raise his newborn son with his loving wife. The tutor Agnes only comes in when to do her job of tutoring Esther to inherit her father's work. Her father doesn't even try to come home at all anymore.
In the end only two people actually live in the house: Esther and her mother. Yet even then it is a stretch, as one of the many heads of the Radiant Garden Community Council, her mother is constantly busy with meetings, gatherings, parties and dinners. Esther doesn't really hate her for that, though, as she is an important member of the society and understands why she is so busy. But at times she thinks maybe, just maybe, that it would be nice if once in a while everyone wasn't so busy with their lives.
Scanning around the hallway, Esther began to head towards the cabinet. She carefully examined the doors, in the off-chance someone besides her or her mother was in here. If someone found out that she had the music box, the same one that her mother thought was missing for months and had not known that it was even broken thanks to a certain baseball incident, Esther would quickly be in hot water.
In a quick scuttle she had made it to the antique glass cabinet unscathed. Making one last glance around her surroundings, she opened the cabinet door and gently placed the music box next to the porcelain unicorn figurines and the creepy angel statuettes. She closed the glass door, and felt a little proud of her work.
"Esther! What is taking so long?!"
Letting out a squeak, Esther jumped a little in shock, and quickly went down the stairs towards the living room.
The room was large and spacious, with only a few pieces of furniture scattered about. Picture frames decorated the walls, mostly of her mother in social gatherings with Very Important People. The only ones that had Esther in it were from the time she was just a little kid. Tapping her foot on the expensive wood flooring Esther's mom stood outside the doorway, holding a large paper bag in one hand. "There you are, darling. Now-"
Turning towards her daughter, Esther's mother's vividly red lips turned to a frown. "Honey, just what are you wearing."
Esther insecurely examined herself. Compared to the designer outfits, her own clothes were a bit drab in comparison. She only wore a basic red jersey, a black leather skirt with biker shorts and white socks filled with holes. She doesn't really like to dress up fancy, mostly because she almost never really leaves the perimeter of the home, but under the judgmental stare of her mother, she suddenly feels a bit embarrassed. "Uhhm, clothes I guess?" Was really the only response that came to mind.
Her mother just shakes her head. "Esther, you are now 15 years old. You cannot just dress like a slob all the time. What if people started to talk? The world is not so forgiving, darling. They will rip you to shreds even if you wear clothes that were out of fashion just a mere season ago."
Esther let out an annoyed grunt. "You know, if this is gonna be a lecture on my clothes again, I'm going to go to my room."
"No, stay right here." Her mother stopped her from leaving. She shoved the large bag at Esther's face. "I need you to deliver this to your father. He hasn't returned home in weeks so inside are fresh clothes for him."
Esther took the bag and look quizzically at her mother. "Me? Why am I the one that has to deliver this?"
"Because darling, everyone is extremely busy. Hermes is stricken with a horrible cold and won't be back until friday, while Helga and Christie are running errands around town. And you know your father and his...tendencies. He only wants to talk to people he already knows. Besides, I thought you liked going to the castle."
Just mentioning the castle made Esther look down to her hole filled socks. She played with the straps of the bag. "...It's not that I don't like going there, It's just-"
The grandfather clock boomed across the room and interrupted her. With a quick glance at the clock, Esther's mom gasped. "Noon already?! Oh, dear, I'll be late for the meeting."
Her mother rushed towards the closet, putting on her light autumn jacket and looked at the mirror nearby, checking that her constantly perfect makeup was perfect as always. Putting on her designer heels, Esther's mother gave out the last orders for her daughter. "I've already told the guards that you're coming, so they won't stall you. Remember, do not just mess around there, every minute counts. When you get back home, Agnes will help you with the lesson plans for today."
Putting on her sunglasses, She gave out her last order. "Oh, and be extra careful today. Apparently some monsters showed up or something. If you get in trouble, get to safety immediately."
With a quick kiss on the cheek and a "Toodles!", her mother stepped out of the house and ran towards the meeting.
After staring at the door with a blank expression, Esther decided to get ready. She put on her over-sized leather jacket from the closet and knelt to tie her worn out sneakers. A simple twist of a doorknob and she had left her house.
The autumn sun glares almost blinded her, still adjusting to the outdoors. As her 18th birthday drew near, the amount of time she spent inside studying had increased exponentially. And even during her days off, she spent them inside her room, taking apart and fixing little trinkets. It was a hobby she had since she was quite young, and was her way of bonding with her father.
Adjusting to the sunlight, she began her trek towards the large castle that had loomed over the neighborhood. In Radiant Garden, how close you lived to the Castle showed your status. The closer you were, the more wealthy you were. The farther you got, the more poorer you were. It had been like this for centuries, ever since the beginning of this world.
The trek wasn't long at all, as she was already at the castle doors. Esther climbed up the stairs and made her way to the entrance. Right outside were two guards, both seeming to converse with themselves.
"Did you see either of them?" The one with the black dreads and sideburns asked.
The larger guard shook his head. "I've checked the perimeters, no sign of them yet. "
"Damn brats, they've become much craftier than usual." The guard with the dreads said to himself.
As they kept talking, Esther simply stared at them, hesitant to interrupt them. She guessed that they were talking about something important, and didn't want to be rude. Plus they were twice her size and intimidated her greatly. But she had to press on. She gave out a little cough to catch their attention.
In an instant, the two guards immediately stopped what they were doing and faced front.
"Well, hello there Esther. What brings you to Hollow Bastion?" Dilan greeted her.
"Oh, uh," She hesitated again, almost forgetting the bag in her hand. "Oh, right. I need to deliver something to father. Mother's orders."
"Ah, yes. Edward has stayed overnight for a while now. I wouldn't be surprised if Lucille started to worry. You may pass." The two opened the large doors and stood by for her to enter.
She briskly passed through the doors, avoiding eye contact. But after a few paces, she stopped and turned towards the guards. Something about their earlier conversation had her curiosity piqued. "Hey, just wondering, what were you two talking about anyway?"
Aeleus simply answers her. "We were just talking about two boys that we've spotted inside the castle. Nothing too worrisome."
"If you find either of them, please don't hesitate to call for us." Dilan told her.
"Got it." She nodded, and quickly headed towards inside.
The castle corridors were completely barren with life. So barren that if you dropped a pin at one side of the castle, would hear it drop crystal clear from all the way at the other side. The guards were at their posts, and the scientists were working on their projects, with only a few people passing by the halls quickly. Even if Esther tried to say a meek hello to them or even wave, they wouldn't even bat an eye at her.
But Esther knew this very well, as she already gave up trying to connect with them years ago. Yet time after time she still tried despite that.
She was halfway going through the castle however, when she got a little sidetracked.
-CRASH!-
Interrupting her walk was a loud noise in the room to her right. Puzzled, she walked towards the door and put her hand on the doorknob, but stopped as she heard voices inside the room.
"Well, this is just great. You just had to knock over the beakers." One voice said.
"It wasn't my fault! I didn't see them there, alright?! Aw man, what do we do? The guards will totally come here and we'll get in big trouble!"The other voice panicked. "I can't afford to get caught! Mom already grounded me for a month, if she finds out, she'll kill me or something!"
She heard the two voices bickering on and on. What is going on in there?
"Hello? Is someone there?" Esther asked.
The other voice yelped. "Crap! Someone's here! We gotta hide!"
"Ow, stop pushing me!" the first voice yelled. After hearing the sounds of something getting shoved, the room was quiet again.
She guessed that it was all clear or something like that, and pushed the door open. Esther looked around for a moment. It was a fairly old lab, with dust and cobwebs everywhere. Not that surprising, as this wing is barely used these days. As she walked around, she heard a crunching sound under her shoe. Broken glass littered the floor, and was probably the source of the noise. She tried to step around the glass, barely losing her balance, and heard a strange sound coming from the closet nearby.
She walked towards the closet to look at it more closely. For some reason, the closet seemed as if it was about to burst. Lots of creaking and shuffling came from it. Making Esther almost scared to open it. But she mustered up her courage, and opened the closet door.
Two boys fell out of the closet, both hitting the hard ground with a thud. In a panic, she quickly sidestepping away from them, and froze. These two were probably the two boys Dilan and Aeleus were talking about!
"PleasepleasepleasePLEASE don't drag us out!" The boy in the spiky red hair pleaded, closing his eyes and flinching in fear. "I didn't mean to break those stupid beakers! I'll pay for them, I swear!"
"Lea." The boy with blue hair tugged his arm.
"Well, that is if I can pay it off. I don't really have a job for now, and I can't really ask my mom to pay for it," The boy named Lea continued.
"Lea." The other boy tugged again.
"Not to mention all the schoolwork I still need to do. I mean yeah, we got a day off for today, but-"
"LEA!" The boy in the blue jacket elbowed Lea in the gut.
"Ow! What the hell, Isa?!" Lea choked.
"Quit yelling for once, will ya?" Isa spat. "There aren't any guards here, just some girl-"
"GUARDS! GUARDS COME QUICK! THERE'S TWO BOYS IN HERE THAT SNEAKED INTO THE CASTLE!"
Freezing for a moment, the two boys found the girl outside at the hall, screaming at the top of her lungs. "GUARDS! PLEASE COME OVER HERE-"
In a panic, the boys quickly grabbed her arms and pulled her back into the room, making her drop her bag in the hall, and slammed the door shut. "Oi! What was that for?" Lea shouted.
Footsteps were immediately heard outside the door. "Esther? Are you in there?!"
The two boys jumped in fear, and ran straight towards the closet again, trying to cram into the small space and closing the door. As they hid, Dilan and Aeleus barged into the room, quickly responding to her call.
"Did you find them, Esther? Where are they?" Dilan asked her.
"I saw them. They were..." Suddenly Esther paused. She looked aside at the closet, with the boys eyes peeking out. They were silently pleading with their eyes, hoping she wouldn't rat them out. For some reason, she felt a twinge of sympathy for them. But why? she didn't even know them. They were probably just some delinquents who wanted to mess around in the castle.
Yet why did she sympathized with them?
Aeleus looked at where she was staring. "Are they in the closet?"
"N-No!" She panicked, right before he opened the door. No? What am I saying? She questioned herself. She looked over the window next to the closet, and pointed there. "...Ah! I just saw them outside! They turned the corner, but I definitely saw them messing around!"
"What? Are you sure about that?" Aeleus questioned her.
She nodded. "Absolutely. One of them was wearing a stupid scarf, and the other one had a stupid blue haircut."
"That's them! Let's go Aeleus!" Dilan ran out the door, with his partner following him. Before he left, Aeleus picked up her bag and gave it back to her. "Here. You seemed to have dropped it."
Returning it back to her, he left the room once again. The moment the door closed, Esther walked straight back to the closet door and swung it open, avoiding the boys crashing down on the floor.
"Hey, my scarf isn't stupid!" Lea pouted.
"And neither is my hair," Isa grumbled. "It's Lea's hair that's usually called stupid."
She crossed her arms. "You guys got one minute to explain yourselves, or else I saved your butts for nothing."
"Huh?" Was the only thing that came out of the boy's mouths.
She grunted in annoyance, and tried to explain. "Why are you two here? Last time I checked, the castle is closed to the public for today."
"Really? Then what about you?" Isa questioned. "What makes you so special?"
Esther tensed up a bit, avoiding eye contact. She didn't really like to explain why. People would always bug and tease her for it. "...My father is one of the scientists that work here. I have to deliver him something."
"Oh? Deliver what?" Lea asked.
"I'm not telling." Esther turned her head away from them, as she didn't want to tell them it was something lame like clothes.
"What? No fair! You can't make us tell you why we're if you're so secretive yourself!" Lea whined.
"S-Shut up! Besides, unlike you two, I have allowed access here. Now tell me why you're here, or I'll call the guards again." She threatened.
Glancing at each other, the two boys unanimously sighed in defeat. Oh, well, telling her wouldn't be that bad, right?
"Ok, ok. Just don't call them here again, ok? I don't like being thrown out onto the pavement every other week." Isa resigned as he stood up from the floor. "Have you seen any monsters running around these days?"
Monsters? She thought. ...Wait, didn't my mother mention something about that too?
"Uhhh, well, I haven't seen any per se, but I did hear something about that. Why?" Esther put her hands on her hips.
"Some people reported seeing monsters across town. Most of them looked like blue splotches, but some people said they saw one that looked like a giant robot. No one knows where they're from or why there here, they just popped up all of a sudden." Isa explained.
"We haven't seen these monsters ourselves, but we do think one thing's certain," Lea chimed in. "They've gotta be from this castle."
"What." Was the only thing Esther said.
"To be honest, we're not so sure ourselves. But we've heard tons of rumors that the castle is somehow connected to all of this." Isa explained. "And what no better way to uncover this then going straight to the source?"
"Yeah, I mean think about it: There are scientists in the castle known for having weird experiments. Like that creepy old guy, the one whose with that little kid! He looks all sorts of shifty. Plus, I bet even your dad had some-"
"That is absolutely ridiculous. My father and all the scientists here would never take part in such things." Esther interrupted Lea in a sharp tone.
Lea and Isa simply looked at her, surprised at her objection. "How can you be sure?" Isa asked her.
Immediately Esther avoided eye contact, playing with the straps of her bag. "Well... I've known the people in this castle for years. They would never create such monsters."
"Oh really?" Lea asked her as well.
"Yes, really." She responded. "You know what? I don't even have to argue with you. I'll show you guys the lab itself."
Lea and Isa's eyes widened in surprise. "Are you serious?"
"Absolutely." She nodded. "Just to prove that they aren't responsible for this."
"Oh wow, this is great! You're really awesome, you know that?" Lea jumped up on his feet.
Isa smiled. "We can't thank you enough."
Esther felt her face turn red a bit. Thank you. Just hearing these compliments made her feel so warm inside, like she hasn't heard those words in so long. She quickly turned to the door, ready to leave. "It's nothing too special. I'm just doing this to rub it in your face that you guys are wrong about this. Now come on, let's get going."
Exiting the room, the boys followed her closely throughout the halls. They were in a constant state of danger, always hiding in the shadows and avoided getting seen by all the guards, as Esther either distracts them or simply waves at them to get their attention. Not that it really mattered, as all the people inside the castle had a bad case of tunnel vision.
Getting through the castle with such a challenge was tough, yet after a half hour, they were almost at the main labs. Isa seemed rather impressed. "You really know your way around here, huh?"
"I've always came here ever since I was a little girl. I know the castle like it's the back of my hand." Esther answered nonchalantly.
After a few more minutes of walking, Esther stopped in front of a large door. Right in front of them was the entrance to the labs, surely empty for today.
"All right, we actually made it!" Lea grinned.
Isa simply nodded to himself. "Looks like we're finally gonna prove all this."
"Yeah, prove that you guys are completely wrong." Esther muttered.
But as she put her hand on the doors, something felt wrong.
The whole trek was easier than she thought. Almost too easy. She had an uneasy feeling about this.
And as she opened the door, she was right for feeling uneasy.
"Well, well, look what the little mouse dragged in." A voice said. A voice that Esther had learned to dread.
In front of her was a guard she knew all to well. A guard who seemed to only have one goal in his life: to make her life absolutely miserable. And he achieves every time.
"Braig!" She jumped.
"Escorting civilians to a restricted area is against the rules, little mouse." He smirked.
In a panic, the two boys tried to make a run for it, but their hopes of escaping were dashed by Dilan and Aeleus, both towering over them. With little trouble, Dilan yanked the two off the ground and simply held them by the backs of their shirts. Lea howled and complained at the guards, trying to escape from their grip. Isa simply just hung in place, crossing his arms and had been familiar to this routine.
"Take them out of the castle." Braig ordered.
With a nod, the two guards turned around and walked back to the entrance, with Lea still fussing up a storm and Isa still embarrassed and pretending he didn't exist for the moment. As they turned the corner, Esther was left alone with Braig, and shuddered when he placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Well then, little mouse, I hope you have a valid explanation for your father about this."
AN: Second Chapter down, who knows how many chapters to go
Big Thanks to kitty1872, I'll be sure to check that person out for beta-ing!
But as for the mary sue thing, I'm gonna be frank, I kind of think the term is bullshit. If you take any of the original KH character, all of them will rack up mary sue points in one way or another. Its the presentation and how their written that makes them good characters (And also mary sue is kind of misogynist, theres a good essay on tumblr called "Mary Sue, What are you? Or why the concept of Sue is sexist". Give it a read, it has some good points)
That being said, bad ocs can exist, but you can still improve them.
But hey that's just my opinion -shrugs-
Thanks for reading and be sure to review! Each review will help improve this story a lot!