Colin paced back and forth across the grass, ruminating on what would soon happen. He knew he had to do this, he knew he shouldn't have any qualms about it, he KNEW that this was good for him. Roy had said so himself.
To be honest, he felt a little sick to his non-existent stomach.
...
The day after the deal was made, Roy took him to his OWN apartment. The drive there was long and boring, inside a hot, stuffy car with no music or anything to look at besides whatever was on the other side of the window. His living space was about the same quality as his car. It was small, dinky, and rotten, with literal mold growing in some spots. He didn't know how a family of four could possibly live there until Roy led him into a side room.
There was a large machine in there. It was strangely quiet, for how complex it looked, with gadgets and bobbles and wires and tubes hanging out of every end. Colin felt a sudden impulse to press every single button on it and had to be held back by Roy before he even realized he was walking towards it.
Roy said that the machine held another place inside of it. Colin didn't quite understand what that meant but when Roy pressed a certain button, he found himself in an entirely different area. There was no small, dirty apartment room. Now they were in the middle of a street with a two rows of houses on either side of it. At the ends of the street was nothing but a big forest in it that seemed to go on forever. It was beautiful, like nothing he'd ever seen before, but there was something off about it all.
It looked vaguely fake. Not in the sense that the stuff in here didn't look like it existed, more so that it looked like it was made of material that it shouldn't be made of. It was all too perfect, too shiny and colorful and brilliant. The textures of things felt too... inoffensive? When Colin touched things in this beautiful world, it was as if he was touching them within a dream.
Oh well.
Roy pointed to the house at the end of the left side of the road.
"This is where you'll do your job. My children are out playing in the woods right now. We'll have plenty of time to plan."
...
Inside the house, Roy went into great detail about what to do and how to do it. Exactly what to say, when, how to say it. Or sing it, to Colin's surprise.
All he had to do was sing a little song! How cute! Well... there was a little more than THAT. He had to add to his performance. Roy said that since he was a corrupt object, he'd be able to "manipulate this false world better than a human or normal object." Interesting!
Of course, Colin had heard about object corruption before, but he didn't quite know what it entailed. But if that's what Roy said he was, then that's what he was. There was nothing in him that could argue against it. There was no proof that what Roy was saying was true, but he didn't have any reason to disbelieve it.
Colin had tried it out a little later, after all was said and planned. He was shocked to find that he could cause walls to warp and colors to shift without even really trying! Everything in the world seemed to keel over at his command! Colin went inside one of the empty houses and tore it asunder. The walls crumbled from the inside, there were screams coming from nowhere, the colors had fallen to nothingness. Nothing was left in it except dust and static. Then all he had to do was just THINK, and everything went back to normal.
He smiled. Then he giggled. Then he burst out laughing. OH, How EXCITING! HOW INVIGORATING! How much CONTROL- how much POWER!
H... how much...
He was awfully excited for this.
A few months ago, he wouldn't have batted an eye at the thought of getting to destroy things and make people go crazy. It would've seemed interesting, fun even. He wouldn't have been surprised at his ecstasy. After all, this control and power, it was rightful that he have it, just as he had the right to control death. Everyone did. This was just like that right? So why didn't he feel the same anymore.
Everything had lined up in the exact same way, had it not?
He was scared. He had a feeling that he'd been doing everything in his life wrong and he'd be unable to stop.
There was no time to dwell on that now. There would never be time.
If he could destroy and warp in this world, could he create as well?
He conjured an axe into his hand. Perfect.
...
Colin stared across the street from his hidden spot among the trees, anxiously waiting to see his new victims. He'd been able to memorize everything Roy wanted the first time he said it. He'd always had a perfect memory of it all... He wished he didn't know why...
Three figures emerged into his line of sight and he perked up. There was a tall one, with long dark red hair, a shorter one with dark green hair, and a tiny one with short dark blue hair. The red one led the two smaller ones towards the house.
The red one stopped after running into Roy.
He heard indistinct yelling and saw the red one shove Roy out of the way, pulling the green one into the house. The blue one stayed back and hugged Roy, whispering into his ear before running to follow the others.
Colin tilted his head in confusion. He'd never really met any other family besides that first old lady. He wondered if they were all like that...
He gripped the handle of the axe tighter, before letting it dissipate into nonexistence.
Time to start the show.