The Shadow over Beacon:
Jaune has finished up his masters in psychology at Vale University and would like to go for a vacation before he throws himself into his doctorate. But not just any vacation, Jaune decides he will visit the elusive and ill-whispered town of Beacon. If only he knew what the people in that town really were.
0-0-0-0
During the winter of 1948 a mass police raid had been conducted on the seaside town of Beacon, located only about 70 miles away from Vale City. No documentation or reasoning was ever given out by Vale officials and the government residing in Beacon made no comment, but word was soon leaked of some mass conspiracy brewing in the town. According to rumor, almost 100 residents of Beacon were transported out of their town and into some government facility where they were prosecuted on unknown charges. The town, known for its gold mining and fishing, soon lost its luster and transformed into a dank, decrepit place filled with shifty, unkind folk who were talked about in hushed whispers by the citizens of towns surrounding it.
Here I was, Jaune Arc, a fresh 24 year old man with a master's degree in psychology finally under his belt. I had always been interested in the matters of the mind rather than business like my sisters, and, in playing to my strengths, I earned my master's degree with little difficulty save for some laziness on my part.
Now here I was, offered an exceptional opportunity by the University to teach the the psychology course in years to come if only I would earn by Phd in the area of study. I resolutely decided to do so and soon preparations were all but made for me to return once more next year, but before I threw myself into the endless grind of bookwork I wished to have one last adventure while still in the prime of my youth.
Friends and family offered me places to go: Vacuan hot spots for tourists and rare landmarks of a bygone era, Atlas and its imposing cities and technological marvels, even Mistral with its fine culture and beautifully rich history. But, sad to say, I was not built for long flights, motion sickness you see, so I decided to stick to somewhere closer to home, I wanted to visit the shadowy town of Beacon.
When I first mentioned this the room turned quiet, my parents, who had visited me to help make plans, seemed nervous at my announcement as did my eldest sister, Bianca, who had accompanied them on a business trip.
"Jaune," my father carefully started. "That... town... is not a place for a man like you to go. Trust me, I visited there in its heyday and I would sooner die than return there-"
"Nicholas!" my mother chided him.
"I'm sorry Isabella but it's true, that place nowhere near safe enough for him!" he said stubbornly, now my father was an adventurous man, even at his age, and I had never heard him so outrightly turn down a plan to visit somewhere. Unfortunately, his attitude only increased my curiosity of the place and I soon found myself glad I had prepared beforehand.
"Sorry Dad, but I have already arranged transportation and guidance to the town as of two days ago. I just wanted to tell you of my plans." I sighed, Nicholas looked torn between anger and concern but decided to drop it almost entirely.
The rest of their visit went ok, they packed me some things for my dorm and gave me a little money for my trip as well as forcing me to turn on my scroll at all times. At one point, my dad mumbled he wanted to return home to grab something he would be back soon. You see, my parents live maybe 3 hours away from Vale University but they aren't much city folk, they'd rather enjoy the comforts of quiet living.
When my father returned he took me outside, away from mom and Bianca, and had a sit-down talk with me.
"Jaune, I know you have that adventurous spirit inside of you like me, so I know it will be pointless in trying to stop you." he began before sighing heavily and pulling something from his coat pocket. I nearly gasped as he shoved a small pistol, and some kind of amulet in the palm of my hand. I looked back at him like he was crazy, my father was adventurous but he was also a staunch pacifist.
To say that him giving me a pistol rattled my nerves was an understatement. "Dad, what's going on? What's so wrong with Beacon?"
He shook his head, "son, I want you to promise that, if you're truly dead-set on going to Beacon, you will keep your wits about you. And, if at any moment, thing seem to be taking a turn, that you will get out of that town even if you must run out of there. That amulet is something of a symbol of protection, wear it at all times in the town and you should be fine as long as you don't get into big trouble."
I nodded, never in my life had I seen him this serious, even when I broke my leg while hiking. "I promise dad, and don't worry. I'm an adult, and so far I've lived 24 years without dying right?"
He nodded grimly and the rest of their visit passed in a blur, soon enough it was time for me to meet my transportation near the outskirts of the city. I hailed a cab and got their with some time to spare so I pulled out a small book I had checked out of the library on the subject of Beacon.
"Beacon was built in 1643 by Atlesian colonists who had sailed around the world trying to find a new trade route to Vacuo. The place nearly failed until the first mayor, Auburn Rose, stepped in and almost singlehandedly raised the colony from destruction. Inexplicably, the town found itself the center of a bustling fishing trade that was assumed to be brought on by a shift in currents along the coast, sending schools of fish into the waters of Beacon."
The rest was more or less some basic history on the matter, names of the future predecessors, their role in the Vale civil war, and the economic impact the Great Fall of 1910 had on the economy. But, there was a single entry into the book that did catch his eye-
"During the winter of 1948 a mass police raid had been conducted on the seaside town of Beacon, located only about 70 miles away from Vale City. No documentation or reasoning was ever given out by Vale officials and the government residing in Beacon made no comment, but word was soon leaked of some mass conspiracy brewing in the town. According to rumor, almost 100 residents of Beacon were transported out of their town and into some government facility where they were prosecuted on unknown charges. The town fell into an economic depression after that although the Vale government never returned to conduct further raids..."
The government conducting raids? Is that why dad didn't want me to go there? Because it could be some kind of hotspot for illegal activities? Maybe there was-
I jumped at the sound of a horn coming down the cracked pavement. A large, faded blue bus bumbled its way down the street and pulled up alongside the bench reading Bus Stop where I was at. I got up to meet my transportation for the day, apparently this bus was the only public transit to the town and it only provided public transit to the town. The squeaky doors opened with some difficulty and I opted to step inside, thus sealing my fate so to speak.
The bus driver was a rather burly man, broad shoulders and a large head making it look uncomfortable to squeeze into the driver seat. Just by looking at him I could tell he was almost a head taller than me, but what stood out the most was his skin, pale white and looking very sickly. It was the kind of white you hear mentioned in books, where the character becomes so frightened that the color drains out of their skin. True to that, the paleness of his skin nearly reflected the splotches of sunlight that made it into the bus, his skin was only accentuated by his healthy-looking, full head of copper hair. A yin and yang look if you were to ask me.
The driver, Cardin if the name tag was anything to go by, grunted as I lifted some change for him to take. "Beacon" I almost whispered, surprised at the mildness of my own voice, the driver raised a brow but did not say anything else. He shifted the old bus into gear and turned his way back towards the eerie town of Beacon.
0-0-0-0
The ride had gone about what I had expected it to, quiet and sort of unsettling. Cardin did not speak the entire time, nor did he make any sort of sound as the bus bumped and rattled over potholes and outcroppings. If I could say one nice thing, it was that the view of the sparkling ocean was quite beautiful at this time of day and I did have a nice view. The emerald waters glistened with the sun finally out of the clouds, and it helped quell the uneasy feeling in my stomach, still though, I found myself fingering the unloaded pistol tucked away within the inner lining of my jacket more than once, a safety blanket you could say. Dad's amulet was worn around my neck and underneath my grey hoodie, I hoped he was right about it giving good luck.
It took all of two hours to get to the town, and when we arrived I was suitably underwhelmed. The buildings were so worm-eaten and decrepit, I briefly wondered if a few of them would fall down on top of us as we passed by. The shops, if you could call them that, seemed to be in a similar state of disrepair with signs broken and faded, advertising products that they probably did not have.
The denizens of the small town shuffled wordlessly around the place, dressed in thick clothing and sticking to the recesses of the sidewalks and buildings, I could feel their dull eyes follow the bus as we passed by. Maybe dad was right, maybe this was a bad idea I wondered to myself, I did not expect the town to be so... unforgiving to newcomers and it did little to ease my mood.
What really caught my eye was an old wooden construct, seemingly a remodeled church of one of the older religions, that had been painted with this strange symbol. It was hard to describe in any meaningful way, it was purple with what I could only make out as a vertical eye of some sort surrounded by two semi-circles that ended just before they could complete their loop. On the left, right, and upper parts of the two circles there appeared to be spikes of some kind, and every so often the semi-cirlces were bisected by a thin line. On the house there was an old sign reading "Order of the Trials" which I could only assume was part of some cult religion of this place, the symbol, as well as the name, made me instinctively reach for the pistol I had pocketed. Outside the small house was possibly the most lively looking person in the entire town, a woman in a red dress and raven hair, bowing in some sort of prayer beneath the symbol, she too had the pale skin as all the others.
Eventually, the bus came to a halt inside what I could only assume was the town square. Shops littered the sidestreets but what gave me the impression of this being the town square was an equally decrepit and glum-looking town house that had seen better days. He stepped out of the safety of the bus and into the dank, cool air of the town, in this place the sun seemed to hid behind the clouds once more, casting a gross, bleak filter over the place.
I felt a strong hand rest on my shoulder and I, already on edge with this entire town, jumped back in surprise and reached for the, still, unloaded pistol. Cardin, the bust driver, put his hands up in a docile way, I retracted my hand slowly and faced him, a good 5 feet apart.
"Jumpy are we?" his voice, despite being such a large and imposing man, seemed hushed and slightly wistful as he talked. "I just wanted to tell you that your best bet for getting a place to sleep is the Junior House over there."
He jabbed a pale thumb over to another wretched looking establishment, but he was right in the fact that that was the only place to stay for the night. I felt something turn in my stomach at the prospect of staying here overnight, but this is what I had to do, atleast it would make for a good story. I thanked him quietly and tried to ignore how his stare followed my back as I approached the building, maybe I should load the gun just in case.
I entered the dreadful place, much like the outside it was in need of being torn down and completely rebuilt. Shag carpeting that looked like it had been attacked by an animal, wallpaper that peeled everywhere, and an ugly, yellowish light that cast a sickly filter over the entire place. Manning the front desk was a man larger than even Cardin dressed in a shabby three-piece suit, he had a scraggly beard and short cropped black hair.
"Hello? I would like to have a room for tonight." I muttered to the man, trying to ignore the bigger man's stare.
He grunted in the affirmative and took my crumpled bills and replaced them with a dull, brass key. He tapped an equally dull plaque with a number on it -445- which I assumed was my room for the night. I nodded silently and walked across the lobby towards the double doors leading to the stairs, as I got close I saw a pair of women around my age dressed in a pair of beautiful red and white dresses sitting on a decrepit couch, a stark contrast to their outfits.
The one in red regarded me with the kind of disdain I would imagine a noble had for a commoner, turning her nose up into the air and giving me a better view of that sickly white skin, while the other smiled what I guessed was supposed to be warmly but it was obvious something was behind it.
The feeling made my skin crawl, so I shrank into myself and bounded up the four flights of stairs and into my room. Thankfully, there was no satanic or cultist symbols painted onto the walls; in fact, it looked pretty good compared to the state of the lobby. Still, I felt a cold nausea settle in my stomach, the kind of feeling you get when you're called down to the office in wake of doing something stupid.
Shoving the feeling down I set down my meager belongings and sat awkwardly on surprisingly soft bed. I suppose that a hotel with this little business would need good accommodations to make people stay. I laid back and tried to fall asleep, but it felt like when you're so tired that you're too tired to sleep y'know? Eventually I nodded off for a little bit but was awoken by the sound of soft thumping coming from down the hallway.
I reached for the door handle but, remembering the earlier warnings of my father, I first loaded the small pistol just to be sure. I doubted that I'd ever even need to use it, especially with me leaving tomorrow, but surely it wouldn't be bad to atleast have it loaded right?
After loading my own safety blanket, I cracked open the door enough to see down the hallway to my right and then opened it further to check down the left. I heard the same soft thumping, like someone pacing, and very muffled conversations. Against my better judgement, I crept down the hallway in near silence save for an ominous creak from the old floorboards that simply mixed in with the ambiance of the hotel.
I drew close to the door and leaned in to get a better listen, sure enough, there were multiple voices from behind the door.
"So, you gave him the visitor's room?" asked a familiar, yet gruff voice. Cardin! What was the bus driver doing here?
"Yeah, wouldn't do having him run off because he didn't like the room." the voice was gruff to say the least, tougher-sounding than Cardin's, and it only served to intensify the feeling in my stomach sevenfold, and I cast a glance behind me to make sure I wasn't about to get jumped. There was no way in hell that they weren't talking about me, so, in the interest of keeping myself alive, I stealthily slipped the pistol out from the waistband of my pants.
"Well that's good atleast, lord knows how long we've been waiting." came a high-pitched, almost childlike, voice. I shuddered to imagine what kind of creature masquerading as a human belonged to that voice, but perhaps that was just my imagination running wild.
"Like, you should have seen him earlier uncle. He was, like, a total nervous wreck." came a rather snobby voice from the other side. Jesus Christ how many people could they fit in the fucking room?
"Doesn't matter, he's here and that sets things in motion." oh hell to the no, I was not staying in this godforsaken town to be sacrificed to some weird, pagan god for their amusement. That being said, wandering around Beacon late at night with an army of strange cultists didn't appeal to me as much as you might think, so I guess I was stuck here for now.
"Well, I'm sure we can get him to warm up to us eventually. We're practically acquainted already!" came that energetic voice from before, I could see some pale, childlike figure bouncing up and down as she said it.
"Pffft, yeah, if he doesn't talk to Qrow first." came Cardin's voice.
Qrow? Who's Qrow, and what does he know that they don't want me to learn? Perhaps, if I needed answers, I could come back again, not alone and heavily armed, to ask this man some questions.
I decided to return to my room but, as I reached for the doorknob, to my horror, the door at the end of the hall began to open. I scurried inside and shut the door softly as the sounds of footsteps echoed down the carpeted hall, slowly and ever so quietly, I locked the door.
The footsteps grew closer, and closer, until they were right outside. I saw the doorknob from my side jiggle softly, me already holding the pistol point-blank at the door, before it stopped and I heard someone mutter.
"Looks like the kid likes his privacy."
I didn't sleep a wink for the rest of the night, instead opting to sit on my bed and cradle the pistol and pray to my god for deliverance.
0-0-0-0
I shuffled my way downstairs, backpack still strapped to my body and feet on maximum overdrive to the nearest exit. I entered the lobby to find Mr. Burly-Man and his two friends sitting where I had last seen them. The white-themed chick offered me another smile but it did little to ease my nerves, I nodded curtly and rushed out the door without another word.
To say I was rattled was an understatement, I made a beeline for the bus stop and took brief glances at my surroundings. Same thing as always: decrepit shops, cracked pavements, and a swarm of strange people milling about.
A few turned to gaze at me, most notably a small group of three, a man with a purple highlight and two redheaded women, who offered their own unique smiles.
Soft and subdued from pinky.
Genuine and welcoming from the deep redhead, who was surprisingly gorgeous.
And downright volatile from the ginger-haired girl.
Fuck this place I'm out. I sat in the shadows of the bustop and awaited for Cardin to arrive in my ticket out of this hellhole. I sat there for 10 minutes, then 30, then an hour, and finally an hour and a half before a small girl with red tips on her otherwise black hair came up to me. I moved my hand down to the side of my waist as a precaution, she smiled sweetly and began to ask questions.
"Are you waiting for the bus mister? I'm to have to tell you this but it recently ran into some problems and can't run for today, but it should be fixed in a few days." my blood froze in its veins for two reasons.
One: this girl had the exact same fucking voice as the one from the hotel
And two: I was now stuck in Beacon, alone and without allies and surrounded by people who wanted to do god knows what to me.
May Oum shine his light on me.