A.N.: So, hi. Those who are reading this must be confused by all that weird shit and the things I pulled out from my ass in the last chapter. I am not going to apologize to you for this. I had one good idea (other ideas included robot zombie Jesus, and Apollo's godly, human soul coming out of his body to punch Nero in my face, so I am extremely proud of the shit that I had pulled in this fanfic). In fact, I've pulled so many things out of my ass, that I've managed to qualify for a magician's top hat. Apparently my innards also qualify as rabbits and frogs. So here's the plan that I had made to justify Percy being transported into another world, Egyptian style.
First, the Triumvirate made a deal with Leontocephaline to grant them immortality. Although they were in this for very different reasons. The Emperors were in this for that sweet, sweet immortality. Python was in this for fucking with Apollo. Leontocephaline (I can't be bothered to spell out his whole shitty name, so lets just call him Leon). So Leon was originally a human who was transformed by Mithras into the Guardian of Reality. Guardian with a capital G and Reality with a capital R. He was given the shit job that was protecting the world from Outer Gods, like Nyarlathotep,Yog-Sothoth,Shub-Niggurath.
(All hail Lovecraft, the original racist gamer. He even named his cat "N***er-man". But he did what other gamers can never do. Create some creative and fuck-awesome content that was almost completely original. Almost. Supposedly, he had taken the idea of inexplicably horrific gods and rituals from Hinduism. Although Hinduism does feature horrific gods (looking at you Kali, Dhumavati, Matangi, and other deities of the Mahavidyas) and has some pretty inexplicable concepts (Brahman Nirguna), it is also far removed from the Lovecraftian mythos, as most gods were given clear personalities which were, for the most part, understandable by human beings. So, he did not rip off from Hinduism.)
He had a job to protect Reality from the beings from the Outside of Reality, those who would try to destroy it. Legend has it that the Primodials were originally Outer beings, but they had been converted by Reality to a certain point. CHAOS performs a similar role as that of Azathoth from the Cthulhu mythos, that is, he creates and maintains reality, as also will destroy it at some point of time.
Recently, he had been tired of doing his job as a glorified gatekeeper (or what it was felt by him) and said, "Fuck it. I am going to let somebody else to run this shit". So he decided to recruit from the mortals, since, you know, he was once a mortal himself. And since the Emperors had turned out to be a pile of disappointment and trolling and general fuckery that they were, he felt that he had to find another mortal to do this job. A mortal with great innate power, even before he could turn into a gatekeeper...
In comes Apollo as a mortal. A mortal who used to be a god. Presumably like the Mary-Sue protagonist of a shitty fanfiction (like this!), he had a shit ton of innate power, which was only enhanced by the fact that he was a god of the fucking sun. Gaia has got nothing on that shit.
Meanwhile the Triumvirate and Python were shitting their collective, and metamorphic pants. And also pissing themselves. And repelling their own henchmen with that smell. They decided that they should first try to use Apollo to try to gain the POWER OF THE SUN! for themselves, and if that didn't work then they should just try to murderfuck their way to godhood (because it had worked for the real gods to start off as an Jerkass gods incarnate), starting with Apollo. They would not let Apollo go to Leon, as it would mean him stripping away their immortality. Leon worked his craft in the fucking Labyrinth, so he sent the first army (around the Jackson household, although the Nemean Lion and the Barbarians were sent by the God-Emperors of Assholery) to retrieve Apollo. When they were almost sucked into the Labyrinth, Nero sent a message to Meg through a demon that she should just kill him without any hassle. Because he knew that Leon was planning to kill him, and the other Emperors, and Python, and use their pooled energy, along with the life-force of both Medea and Helios to make Apollo even more broken. Like, dude, you're the god of the fucking sun. You can just easily blast Cthulhu with that. You guys are just mini Primodials, so you could just easily beat Cthulhu.
So all that happened, and it an attempt to make Apollo even more stronger, so stronger that I'm forgetting basic grammar, he accidentally sent Percy travelling through other worlds (stolen from other franchises. First one is Dresden Files. Those books are fucking awesome. You should totally go and read it).
Now, there are rules to travelling to another world. You cannot go to another dimension where a similar enough version of yourself is present. There are a infinite number of dimensions, and then some more, but Percy cannot go to another world with an identical Percy in it. Which I am mainly using for creating conflicts and for sparing me the headache of writing identical characters. Your memories of things that had happened in your old world, but did not happen in this new dimension would be suppressed, with some new memories inserted. But attitude will be the same and skills gained from old experiences can be regained easily. And I say they are suppressed. Any sufficiently hard jolt like some traumatic event or a memory of the old dimension can trigger your old memories into revealing itself. Also your age may vary, as travelling from one dimension to other involves destroying your old form, and recreating it from the destroyed materials. Each and every rule can be bent to all extent.
And that's all.
So here we jump into Dresden Files.
...
The figure plummeted from the sky and no-one batted an eyelid.
It was not a natural occurrence, not even in that part of the country. But nobody paid a glance, even as he was now sprawled out in the street walk. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he landed in an almost deserted alley, where there was few save for lowlifes of all sort, addicts, homeless, and others. All those were considered the dregs of society. Not scum. They didn't deserve such a harsh judgement, especially by people in positions of privilege. But the matter of the fact remained that a young adolescent boy had fallen from the sky, and was now lying in a boneless heap with nobody near to aid him in any sort of way.
However, there were lowlifes and there was scum. True scum. And they had caught a hold of his scent.
The boy was in early stages of his puberty. And it was a stage in which bones were a little more pliable, a little more flexible, a little more agreeable to mending. And that was fortunate, because when he tried to rise up, his left leg bucked down. It was obviously broken. But still he grabbed onto the wall of the alley and dragged himself up. He balanced himself on the wall, and steadied himself.
He glanced all around him. Something was going through his mind. After a while, he limped over to an end where a small tree was visible. He broke off the thin trunk. Clutching the tree trunk in his hand, he supported himself, and limped over to the end of the alley, from where light filtered through, and struggled to illuminate the majority of the alley. It was caught in the shadow of the building. A few streetlights were present, but most were broken. No human would chose to conduct any shady deals in that.
When he finally got out of the alley, he flinched at the glaring light emanating from the side.
A garishly decorated building with glaring lights stood at the side of the alley. It was illuminated with neon lights, which were bent in some... uh, interesting shapes. Specifically, the outline of a girl bending over. It was glaringly obvious that it catered to a specific clientele. Which, by the location, should have been quite numerous. It was situated in a seedy part of the city.
The surprising thing was that there was practically no one near the brothel.
A few veered here and there, yes, but for the most part, people seemed to stay away from that place. It was a shady part, yes, but there were many around the brothel. It seemed that they did not want to approach the building. Almost like a subconscious thought warning them of danger. Of predators.
The boy did not want to stay out. It was the onset of winter, and he was beginning to feel the bite of cold. He did not also want to enter. The lack of people was eerie. Where there was a brothel, potential customers flocked there. Okay, not flocked, but there should have been a respectable amount of men and women in that area. It was as if no humans wanted to be in its vicinity.
When he was contemplating about the situation, the front door of the establishment opened up, It was a welcoming gesture, and an almost predatory one, as he was underage. It also made his hair stand on the edge of the goosebumps caused by the cold. He seemed to decide whether he should enter or not, but then under his breath he said, "Fuck it", and entered the building.
A pair of red eyes snapped open in the dark.
...
Presently, I was regretting my choice to enter the shady brothel. When there aren't any men, and a few women near the hotel run by Miss Rosie Palms, you know that some shit is up. The automatic opening of the archaic front door, and special sound effects that belonged in a spook show did not give rest to my apprehensions.
But whatever I can say, the lights were modern and powerful. So if they were going for a horror aesthetic it was ruined by the light. Seriously, there were some fucking powerful lights.
I walked down a short, and broad, hallway. The door had presumably opened for me. And even if it wasn't, who gave a fuck. Perhaps it was the patrons of this establishment who did give a fuck.
I dragged myself to the end where there was a receptionist-looking matronly woman. She was furiously scribbling on a piece of paper. As I came closer, she lifted her head and gave me a dazzling, kind smile.
"Hello young man, how may I help you". she said, still grinning widely as she spoke. It was unnerving, but I felt safe in her presence, even if I had just met her.
"I- I actually don't know why I am here. I had an accident just outside and then the door opened up when I stood in front of me", I said truthfully, as I could not remember what had happened before.
"What is your name", she enquired, her voice full of concern. I felt the need to spill reveal something, something I could not remember to her. I felt the need to bury my head in her shoulder and cry. She had a huge effect on my psyche.
I diverted my thoughts to the problem at hand. For the first thing, her question had stumped me. I suddenly couldn't remember my own name. It seemed to be on my tip of my tongue, but every time I tried to grab onto the thought, it evaded me. Again and again.
"What happened, boy", she asked, concern evident in her voice, her forehead scrunching up in a frown. I again felt the need to spill the beans, and so I did.
"I can't- I can't remember anything", I confessed. My memory felt what I feel that what a newborn's mind must be like. Smooth and devoid of anything.
It looked like it wasn't possible, but her forehead scrounched up even more. "Sit here and try to wait here", she said to me, gesturing to one of the couch that were strategically placed around the receptionist's table. Then she walked out of there through a door behind the receptionist's desk.
I took a seat on one of them. I took a moment to compose myself. I felt like something didn't add up in my memory. I felt that something had happened to me, but I did not know what. Even worse, I was still feeling things based on what happened to me.
I had to take my mind off these things. If there was one thing that I could do, it was to forget about all of these and to turn over a new leaf, and to start from the beginning.
There was nothing else that I could have done.
I took a look all around me. I felt that everything in this room was ancient, and it showed. The doors, the small knick-knacks occupying the otherwise empty space inside the room were all old, though it didn't stand out. Everything looked well-cared for, and had a vibe of ancient things, ancient people, ancient times, that rarely came off from things of this century. And also, they didn't look like anything manufactured recently either.
There were doors all around the room. Presumably, they led to private rooms that were used to host their business. Their business meant the patron's pleasure. Although, at this point, the question came into being, that why would they opt for privacy when they came to a public sex-house. It seemed that humans had a limit, but at the best, it was nebulous.
I felt extremely bored. That receptionist-woman was not coming, so I had nothing to do. I my boredom, I started to count all the wilted flowers in the antique vases. Loudly. Suddenly the door behind the receptionist's office slammed open and a voice said, "Quit your shouting!"
Out came the receptionist, her hands straining to hold up a tray with a truly enormous amount of food. And when I mean enormous, I mean it. Almost all types of meat and carb were piled up in the tray. And behind that pile of meat, I could see water and kool-aid peeking out forlornly.
She laid that tray in front of me on a table, which had miraculously appeared. She placed a chair in front of me and sat down on it. I tried to say, "But-", but she interrupted me.
"Eat first and then we will talk", she said with a concerned look on her face.
So I began to eat. It was not an impossible task to finish everything in front of me. I was very hungry.
While I was busy gobbling down the free meal, she asked me, "So, what about your parents?"
I replied, "I can't remember. Every time I try to think about it, I just can't get it! Like a rat that you're trying to get rid of, I can't just catch it!"
She frowned so hard, that her eyebrows disappeared into the thick mass of hair that she called her head. She said, "You can't remember who your parents were?"
"No, that's not the problem", I sighed, "The problem is that I can't remember anything."
"Not even your name", she asked. Her face seemed to take on a wonderfully animated quality.
"Well, I think I can't- Wait. Hang on there for a second. I think I got it".
After a long search, I finally said, "Perry Johansson."
She smiled. "At least now we can refer to you by your name instead of just calling you 'Raggedy Man'", she said. I felt that I should get the joke but I didn't. So I continued to eat in silence.
"So what are you going to do", she asked me, and effectively stumped me.
"I dunno, maybe panhandle", I said jokingly. I think she took an offence to that.
"The street is not for children like you. You should not have to beg for money", she said severely.
I replied, "There is nothing else that I could do, is it? I can't remember anything, and besides, I don't know who my parents are. All this food is good and all, but I have to live after I get out of here. I don't think that your mistress would be happy with you if you keep a vagabond in here. I have to do things for myself. A man's gotta eat, after all."
She gave me a wry smile and asked, "Do you know who opened up the door for you?" I shook my head. She said, "It was my mistress. So don't worry about her throwing you out. You don't even have to trouble yourself by thinking that you don't have a home. As far I am concerned, we will not let you go out of here!" She said the last part with a wide smile on her face.
My brain told me that I should trust this woman. But my gut said otherwise. My brain argued that she was a nice woman who was obviously taking care of me. My gut said that she had no reason to be so nice to me, which made her suspicious. And also her last words were too damn creepy.
Caught up in my indecision, I made a plan. I had to get hell out of there. After eating their food, of course.
I took a gulp of the kool-aid. Her smile should not have turned wider, but it did, stretching across her face. I had to avert my eyes from her. She was all too eerie to look at right now.
The room grew silent, the sounds that went unnoticed till then creeping away. The chitter of crickets stopped. Strange, there shouldn't have been any crickets in such an urban place.
I said, "Well, guess it's time to leave", ignoring the general creepy vibe emanating from this place, but I couldn't get up. I grabbed on to the branch and tried to stand up a second time, but realized that no strength was reaching my legs. Panicking, I tried to move my arms, but I had no control over them. I was floating in a mist, over my body, where I had no control even over my fucking body. Consciousness seemed to drag me down in a black hole.
The woman's smile turned terrifying. "You can come here on any day of any season. You can check out any time you want. But you can never leave!"
Fuck, I was trapped in Hotel California.
As my vision went black, I could only think of one thing.
There is no such thing as free lunch.
...
When I opened my eyes, I was in a dark dungeon. Suspended by something. Apparently, the whorehouse also had a place for latex fetishists among them. And also all kinds of degenerates, taking into account that they had imprisoned an underage kid in a dungeon.
When my parents were still alive, they had told me to not accept any gifts from strangers. I should have known better than to just waltz in and to accept the food from her.
Oh, and I had just remembered that my mom and dad had died in a car crash a few days ago. Dreams are strange things.
When I opened my eyes, I saw that she was standing in front of the cage with another woman, talking with her. This new woman was extremely elegantly dressed, and her face was partially obscured by her veil. A moment after I had opened my eyes, she turned towards me, her gleaming eyes and her gleaming smile visible even through the lacy veil.
She stalked towards me, her gait as unnatural as her smile. Her face looked as if someone had stretched a mask of a face of a beautiful woman over a statue. I had not seen it before, but the receptionist woman had that same unnatural, terrifying smile.
She came near me. "So, this is the little nagual", she said, blending a mix of purring and snarling into a disgusting, terrifying cocktail. It was almost bat-like in nature and it repulsed me to the core. She watched me with a hawk-like penetrating gaze. As I looked at her, I saw that her eyes were damaged. They were entirely black with brown highlights.
"What the fuck is a nagual", I spat out. "And whatever it is, I am sure that I am not it,", I added.
"Do not presume to trick me, little ape". She said the last words with an astounding amount of vitriol injected into it. "You are a wizard, a fool trying to cajole with beings beyond your comprehension." She moved in a blur and I felt my head being yanked upwards by my hair. I came face-to-face with her mouth. She licked me on my cheek. Instantly, my cheek became numb. She released my head.
"Soooo I- I aaam a wizadd now?", I slurred through my numb mouth, putting over a facade of bravado. Inside, I was terrified. "Pulllin' shitt out of my asss type of wizadd? An' you must be one of the greater bein' you'ra talkin' 'bout?"
Instantly my head snapped to the side with the force of a blow. She did not move from her position, but I heard the voice of the receptionist woman. "If you mock the mistress again, I would personally gouge your eyes out and tear out your vocal cords before you can turn."
"Ready the circle", I heard her say, "Prepare the wizard to turn."
Beings shrouded in the dark carried something heavy into the dungeon and put it down in the middle of the area. They scuttled over around the far end of the dungeon. I heard the metallic sound of hammers pounding, but it faded away after a while.
I could barely hear that. My numbness had spread from my face to other parts of my body. Blood rushed to my groin. I got an erection. Everything around me was growing dim and hazy. Now, I could only see the outline of the woman in front of me. And the dark obscured the dungeon more than it should have.
I closed my eyes. My body and mind were getting heavier by the second. I couldn't help but notice that there were two females standing in front of me. My body seemed to be growing unnaturally hot, even as I was slowing losing my grasp on consciousness.
A strangling cry was emitted from the other side of the dungeon.
It penetrated through the fog over my mind. The high-pitched sound cut through my ears. It was physically and mentally repulsive to hear. It was as if it was burning through my fog imposed over my consciousness, and with that, my mind. I bit down my tongue before I could scream, and opened my eyes. It was a small child, barely younger than ten. But it- he didn't look human.
His skin looked human, but only in a few places. Most of his skin was turned into a black, oily, spongy hide. He had a hunched back, spine bent forward unnaturally forward, protruding through the skin. It's arms were long, trailing on the ground while he was hunched up and crying. His neck also appeared to be too long, and too loose. It was as if some alien had tried to imitate a human being, but failed horribly. And the stench wafted towards this side of the room.
I could only see him because a barrier of light surrounded him. The light came from the ground in a circle, and formed a pillar of light. It burned in the dark but it did not make its surroundings visible. Though the small child in the centre was clearly visible.
Suddenly, I started to believe in monsters and magic. Though I wasn't sure that I had ever doubted that there was magic in this world.
A voice started chanting. A rich, throaty voice chanting in a low, deep voice. Belatedly, I realized that it was the receptionist-woman.
The child wailed in agony. It cried out a long, pained bellow from his inhuman vocal chords. Then it fell silent as the chanting increased in its intensity. A soft voice escaped from its mouth, "Mom...?"
"Hush, child. I am here", I was startled to hear the "mistress"-woman speak. Her face had contorted into a reassuring motherly face. "Sleep, baby. Sleep."
The creature had become completely still. Suddenly, its skin bugled and pulsated. To my growing horror, I realised that it was growing in size. Rapidly. Its skin stretched and broke as bones and muscles burst through it. And then it reformed, becoming pitch black and spongy. Its arm grew black, shiny claws as they tore apart his skin. It grew to a sized of a humungous bull, and the proportions were not too different. But when the head, which it was hiding under his arms, came out, I saw that there was nothing left of a human being. It was a pure abomination.
The head, which was suspended by a long neck, could be at the best described as a vile mixture of a dog's head and that of a bat. Its muzzle was full of small, spindly teeth, and black drool spilled from his open jaws. Its animalistic, intelligent, black eyes were turned towards the "mistress".
I turned my head towards the "mistress", and saw that she was in the middle of her "undressing".
The haze of lust, which had been banished, once again descended over my mind until I saw what the "mistress" really was.
The skin broke, but no blood poured out. After that, she pulled on the skin of her left hand, her skin tearing with ridiculous ease, and a black hairy arm came out of the skin suit. Then other parts followed suit, and what emerged from it was almost as hideous as that- that child earlier.
Simply put, it was a man-bat. Sorry, woman-bat. But it was too horrible and unnatural than a simple bat. I will not describe it further, as my stomach tends to lose all good-will for me. However, it did have a massive potbelly.
Mother and child met at full collision. They embraced horribly and the mother crooned. Seeing this loving family really made my heart melt out of terror. The child's eye spew black tears. The light that was illuminating this whole scene suddenly got out, engulfing us all in darkness.
My throat constricted in fear. In this darkness, with little to no noise, I could clearly hear my heart stampeding and declaring a revolt against me. As if in response, there were suddenly many panting and grunting sounds. Which only made my heart go faster.
The voice of the receptionist woman filtered through my ears, her voice now velvety soft. "Your fate is worse than this. You mocked the mistress. Do you think you have anyone who would come look for you? Beg my mistress to spare you and maybe she will grant you a quick death."
As sudden as the voice had come, it stopped. Suddenly heavy beats like that of a gargantulan drum started and after a few seconds blinding light flooded the dungeon.
It's reason was quite simple. The monstrous creature held the "mistress" by the throat.
Some figures came out of nowhere and started pounding on the creature. The "mistress" broke out of his grip and also started to beat her "son". The beats started to reduce in strength.
The floor was covered in a black liquid which was pouring out of the creature. I realized that it was black blood. The creature was finally subdued and brought down to the ground. It was dragged away by the figures that had appeared out of nowhere. The beats finally faded away as the creature was dragged away. The "mistress" and the receptionist woman had disappeared. Then the room filled with darkness once again.
But I had seen that I was suspended. Not by chains or by ropes. But simply suspended in the air. And then I lost consciousness.
...
When I finally regained my consciousness, I was all alone.
At this moment, I did not want anything more than to get the fuck out of there. I was more than a little shaken by the day's events and was completely terrified about what would happen to me next. I was high on a deadly cocktail of fear, loathing, and at the core, a little anger. I was absolutely livid about what had happened to the kid, and I was angry because them- those monsters would go after other humans and would turn them into monsters like themselves and that I was impotent to do anything. But, at first, I wanted nothing than to just get out of there.
This wave of emotions probably caused me to fall down the rabbit hole.
Two points of light appeared on my hands, forming a ring on the ring-finger on either hand. Lines of light sparked from the rings and formed a circle of golden light. Even in my terror induced paralysis, I knew better than to touch it. But because I was going to die anyway, so I touched the line.
Surprisingly, it did not blow up or something. I was half expecting to turn into that creature myself, but there was a tiny bit of hope in my arm that somehow, anyhow, I might be able to get out of there. Even more surprisingly, my hope held, and I tumbled down. Down the magic circle. My life was officially a rip-off of that of Alice. Only that she tumbled down a hole and ended up in wonderland. I ended up in a real, extra gory version of a cheap horror show.
It was the interior of a house. It was completely painted red. The paint was still runny and swirled throughout the room, and exuded a revolting metallic smell, with a hint of decomposing flesh. It didn't need a genius to figure out that the paint was blood. Morbid curiosity overtook me, and I gazed into the swirl. Patterns appeared at will, and took on strange shapes. I could swear that some of them looked like screaming men.
I shook myself out of the stupor. The smell of fresh blood was overpowering. And hypnotic. I could feel it working against my will. I needed to get out of there. Escaping from them would not amount to anything if I didn't get out of this hellhole. For what I knew, this might be one of their rooms or anything. I dragged myself out of the room.
Miraculously, my leg did not seem as bad as before.
The passage was labyrinthine. It twisted and turned all the way, introducing new and new rooms which were barely closed. One look at them was enough to make my skin crawl with fear, hatred and disgust. I focused on the path.
Eventually I could get out of there. I took in a breath of air- I needed air after staying in those fetid chambers- and gagged. The smell of the air was almost as bad as that of the rooms.
I looked down and- and could only stare in horror. The landscape was totally red, covered with carcasses of all kinds of animals. Even the sky was red. And beyond this, there was a jungle. Black, shadowy, smoky... things stood in a circle around the building. From far, a legion of creatures roared and crashed against them. They were all slaughtered, but not a single corpse met the ground. They had all evaporated.
I turned back, and tried to run the fuck away, but there was nothing at the back, but the building, and an even more ominous reddish background. Going through the... guards seemed to be easier option.
I turned towards the jungle, took a deep breath, and started running. Or dragging myself as fast as I could.
The guards gave me no notice, even though I had run through them. It seemed like they were there to protect the building from those other animals that were attacking them. They were not made to keep things inside.
That was swell, but what were they guarding the house from?
But, at least I was not imprisoned anymore. So I could still escape if there was any danger.
I reached the forest. As far as it seemed to be, it was actually quite close. I could traverse the path extremely quickly, even with my leg. I saw a man at a distance. I steered clear of him. I did not know who he was. Or what he was. The world seemed to have fallen upside down after I had fallen.
The forest was... beautiful to say the least. It had an abundance of different species of trees, most of them which appeared to be white and spectral. And eerie. There was practically no vine or creepers hanging in to the trees. Undergrowth was limited to small bushes and lichens. The air glowed with tiny glowing orbs, imitating that of a firefly. But it was far more disturbing. Lights without a source were hanging in the air.
And did I mention that it was cold?
It was cold. Pant-freezing cold. Small icicles lined my mouth, where my breath was falling. My skin developed small spots of ice that had formed from sweat. I still dragged myself, as my feverish mind could not feel it. Distantly, I heard a blow of a horn and the bark of dogs. I again heard the blow and the bark after a while. This time it was a lot closer. And then, I heard a sound of movement in the undergrowth. I stopped and waited for the person to come. There must have been some person behind that, right.
I again heard the bark. This time, I also heard a hiss of a cat. I stooped to listen. It seemed louder than a normal cat, and seemed to come from my side. I turned my head forward...
...Only to see a huge cat coming for my head.
But before it could crash into my head and maul me, my legs gave away, and I fell.
I landed in a room. A normal room. With the face of the man I avoided running into in the forest staring at me.