Chapter 9
Mustard POV:
Upon arrival to Subcon, we immediately noticed that the clouds were so dark and so plentiful that the Subcon Forest was actually incredibly dark. In fact, it was so dark, the only thing that lit the place up were spooky lanterns, glowing mushrooms and flowers, and nearby fires that looked to be blocking us from going to any other parts of the forest, mainly the west of us being a swamp of purple goop and the west being a place that looked to be full of ruined houses.
"Okay, let's roll out... wait... what's that thing?" I asked as I pointed to the path ahead of us to a small creature. It looked like a small black alien that I'd never seen before.
"Follow me, little ones!" the creature said, me looking at Hat Kid with a frown.
"You think it's a trap? Set up by the Snatcher?" I asked her.
"It may be, but think about it. If I could take on the entire Mafia and beat up their boss, who actually defeated the Snatcher in battle, he'll be a piece of cake for me to fight," I smiled.
"Okay, let's just go and be wary of any traps," Mustard frowned, our group moving forward and through the place following after the creature. And as we were going down the trail, I stepped on a twig and we immediately got screwed. Out of nowhere, I felt something lift us up from underneath and both myself and Hat Kid were trapped in a large sack!
"ACK! We've been caught!" I exclaimed in shock as Hat Kid then tried to get out by struggling, which meant her feet kept kicking me. "Hey! Don't push!" I frowned at her.
"Then help me get out of this thing! My hats may give me powers, but I still can't get out of this that easily!" she said, me frowning and starting to struggle myself, me hearing a demonic chuckle happening nearby and my struggles becoming more frantic, which only led to both me and Hat Kid getting kicked in the face and body by each other. And then, suddenly, we gasped as the bag finally fell to the ground and we finally were able to escape... but only to meet someone we didn't expect to get us so easily.
"AAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLSSSS!" exclaimed a very loud and annoying voice as a giant shadowy creature appeared and we found ourselves in an arena of darkness! "You blew it! You totally screwed yourself! I can't believe you fell for my trap so easily!" the creature said, but I couldn't take him seriously with the goofy smile he had on his face.
"Are you the Snatcher?" Hat Kid asked, that making the monster smile at her.
"Ah, so you've heard of me before, kiddo? Then I guess that makes things easier, doesn't it?" the creature smiled as he then snapped his fingers and I soon found a contract in front of my face and Hat Kid got one too. "Sorry, but rules are rules, and you can't proceed further in my forest until you sign those contracts. Very simple ones, they are, Very," Snatcher smiled at us.
"Hold up. I understand doing this to Hat Kid as she's almost 170 years old, but I'm only 12. I can't legally sign contracts until I'm an adult," I frowned at him.
"Really? Well then, your friend here can sign for you. Hat Kid is your title, huh? Not a very creative one, though," Snatcher smiled.
"Well, I don't really have a name, I just gave myself the name Hat Kid because I'm a Hattian trying to go home. And I'll remain a kid until I turn 200 years old in Hattian years," Hat Kid smiled as she signed her name on the first contract and then signed my name on the second contract, the Snatcher stamping both of them immediately afterwards. "The deals are done! Now I'll just fulfill my end of the contracts you've signed," the Snatcher smiled as he then snapped his fingers and I gasped as I suddenly felt something leave my body and out of my mouth. And when I saw what it was, I gasped.
"So that's what he meant when it said sign your life away..." I gawked as I saw a spiritual version of me then enter the Snatcher and the same with Hat Kid... and when that happened, I felt very... well, empty inside. Not in the hungry kind of way, but in the way where I couldn't feel any kind of thumping in my heart.
"What? You didn't think that I'd let you sign and walk away, did you? I need to make sure you work on those contracts as fast as possible! Speaking of, I have three more here for you to accomplish. And from what your souls say, the payment you'd like to get are Time Pieces. Well, happy to say that a bunch of them fell into my forest lately. I have quite a bit and there are also some that have formed strange spherical universes," the Snatcher smiled as he presented me and Hat Kid with three more contracts, me smiling at the options available. The contract from before said that I had to clean out the well so the river could flow again. And these three contracts in front of me were different degrees of strange. One was delivering mail to Snatcher's minions, another was to visit someone called Queen Vanessa, and the final contract was to... oh god... defeat a sentient, soul-eating toilet!
"Alright... Uh... I think I'll handle the mail and the visit to this... Queen Vanessa. You can do the toilet job, make me proud, mate!" Hat Kid said to me as she then stole all three contracts and began to sign her name on the first two and me frowning at her.
"You do not play fair, Ketchup," I frowned at her.
"Ketchup? Ugh! Disgusting condiment! Why would you call her that?" Snatcher asked in shock at that.
"Well, it's kind of a nickname. Her name is mustard, so, since I don't legally have a name, she calls me Ketchup. Get it? Ketchup and Mustard?" Hat Kid smiled as she finished signing my name to the bad job and I groaned at her.
"Ah, now I get it. So long as you don't eat ketchup around me. Awful thing... just awful," Snatcher frowned as both me and Hat Girl then went to our different areas. Of course, I had to wait for passage to the swamp as Hat Kid's job had to be done first. She had to defeat some fire spirits that were creating the walls of flame that prevented us from going anywhere in the forest.
Hat Kid POV:
I went down the path a bit further and saw that the contract I'd been given first was to 'kill' some fire spirits that were making these fiery barriers around the forest. And when I got closer to them, I was surprised when the big bad Snatcher appeared out of nowhere!
"HEEEEY, Kiddo! How ya been? Fulfilling any contractual agreements lately? I sure hope so," Snatcher smiled, me smiling at him as I pointed to the fire spirits behind him and he saw them. "Ah, you see those fire spirits, right? Their dancing is making these barriers appear that makes it impossible for me to get around my forest. It's like their trying to put an end to-" he was about to finish before I went forward and ignored him with a smile, going to the fire spirits and them looking to be saying stuff I didn't expect.
"We want to burn! We wish to die! We wish to erupt in flames and then disappear in smoke! We need more fuel for the fire... only the finest paintings! Little one, will you please help us?" the fire spirit asked, me being a bit weirded out at how they wanted death, but I didn't bother pondering about that. I simply grabbed a nearby painting and threw it into the fire, this one being that of a strange melted landscape with melted clocks all over.
"Burrrrn! Buuuurrrrrnnn!" the fire spirits trilled at that as I then saw a purple mist escape from the fire that led to the different paintings. Two were atop some nearby tree stump structures and the final one was, get this, inside of a wall of pure ice.
"How can ice be in this forest?" I asked in surprise as I went for that one first and a small creature from before approached me.
"If you want to blow up the ice, just grab these nearby bomb fruits and get a bomb worm inside of them. They'll explode in about five seconds afterwards, so be sure to throw it away quick," the creature said, me frowning as I looked in his thoughts and I gasped audibly. He wasn't just a creature that worked for the Snatcher... his memories said he was once a small child and that this forest used to be a town filled with joy and laughter! But something happened after a certain incident.
"Um... thanks," I gulped as I went to the fruit, picked it up, and approached a nearby worm, it entering the fruit and the fruit glowing red as I then tossed it at the ice wall and, upon connecting, ice shards exploded all over from the blast, the painting being completely unharmed. And this painting was that of a painting I knew personally, The Scream.
I picked it up and carried it back to the fire and tossed it inside, the fire spirits trilling again and their dancing improving from before. I smiled and got to the other two paintings with ease, grabbing them and taking them to the fire afterwards, where the fire spirits then smiled and danced ferociously.
"THANK YOU!... BURN BURN BURN!" they all said happily as the fire then turned purple and erupted into the sky, the fire spirits being consumed by the flames and them getting their wish. And upon doing so, I saw the flame walls all around the forest vanish in an instant.
"Thanks, kiddo! Now that the flames are gone, the forest is back to normal and you can go to the other areas of the place! Oh, and about the Time Piece, here you are," the Snatcher smiled as he handed me a Time Piece and I placed it in my pocket with a smile.
"I hate to be a bother, Mister Snatcher, but do you know of the locations of the Time Rifts that were caused by the shattering of some of the Time Pieces?" I asked him.
"That I can help ya out with. There's one in the graveyard of ice to the furthest point north... then one in the old sewage mixer... and finally, there's one in the ruins of the village to the northeast," Snatcher explained.
"Thanks... but I have to ask... what was this place like before?" I asked him, the Snatcher's smile fading and turning into a frown at that.
"Why should I tell you that?" he asked.
"It was a nice place, wasn't it? Full of sunlight, bustling streets... and happy people. Right or wrong?" I asked, the Snatcher sighing at that.
"Yes, it was. But that was before... before I screwed it all up..." he frowned, me looking into his thoughts and gawking. I saw a memory play out in front of my very eyes. And the Snatcher was in the point of view, yet he wasn't a shadowy monster... he was a human! And he was talking to a very kind princess.
"Hello, Vanessa. How are you doing today, love?" he smiled at her.
"I'm doing very well, Sanatch," the princess giggled as she planted a kiss on the human Snatcher's cheek.
"I was actually going to go get some Valentine's Day gifts. Would you like some?" Sanatch asked with a smile.
"I'd love to be your Valentine," Sanatch smiled kindly as he then went to town... and then the next memory played out. He was talking to another girl in the streets and he had a flower in his hand.
"I'm just so upset that I can't get my husband anything for Valentine's Day... can you help out, Prince Sanatch?" she asked with a smile.
"Here, you can give him this flower. You said he likes roses, right?" Sanatch smiled.
"Yeah, he does. Thanks, my prince! You're a life saver!" the girl smiled as she hugged him and Sanatch then looked to the right and he gasped. It was Vanessa and she saw everything... but she obviously didn't hear it as she was full of tears and ran back to her mansion in anger.
Then when the next memory came in, Sanatch was trying to give a whole bouquet of flowers to her along with fancy chocolates. "I'm sorry, Vanessa, but I'm telling the truth. I was helping her out because she said her husband wanted a flower and she couldn't afford one," Sanatch tried to explain, but Vanessa started to talk very mean and raspy, completely unlike who she was before.
"YOU LIAR!... Guards! Strip this traitor of everything he has and throw him in the dungeon!" Vanessa exclaimed as she then bawled like crazy and then she started to go through a hideous transformation. Her body and hair turned from regular skin and brunette... to completely black and coated in shadows. Her body emanated a purple aura and her eyes glowed a bright yellow. "I shall never love again! If this is how love treats the innocent, I will never allow love to enter this mansion ever again!" Vanessa exclaimed as Sanatch was sent to her dungeon under her mansion and he was then hung against a wall and I watched as his body turned to ice and was then transported to a burial site to the far north...
I gasped audibly at the end of the memory trip and I looked at Snatcher in shock. He looked at me in utter confusion as I saw that, right in front of me was a Time Piece.
"What in the... how the... what the hell did I just see?..." I gawked as I picked up the Time Piece in bafflement.
"You... you went through my memories to get a Time Piece... then that means... it must've been from my burial site..." Snatcher said, me gasping at that.
"You... you were Prince Sanatch?" I asked in shock.
"Ugh... yes, that was me. I tried to apologize to Queen Vanessa, but all the inhabitants of this planet have something of a serious alter-ego problem. If someone gets angry enough, they could change the entire landscape of the land. And Queen Vanessa, the most powerful of everyone, had so much of an alter-ego in terms of anger that, when she stopped feeling love, turned the whole Subcon Forest into a place of nightmares. Now she doesn't open the door for anyone and she will try to kill anyone she sees that is a resident of Subcon Forest," Snatcher said, me sighing at that.
"You said she doesn't open the door to people who aren't residents, right?" I asked, him nodding at that... as best he could. His whole body moved when he moved his head after all. "Then I think I may be able to try something out with her. I think that will be the next contract I'll fulfill. Trying to befriend this Queen Vanessa... wish me luck, Sanatch," I said, him sighing at that.
"Please, just call me Snatcher? I don't feel comfortable with people using my original name anymore," he frowned.
"Fine. Maybe you could give me a couple more contracts for Mustard to do? Involving the Blue Time Rifts?" I smiled at him.
"Heh, I can do that, kiddo! Just sign on the dotted lines in her name. I want those rifts gone as much as you, since if any of the minions touch them, they get warped there," Snatcher said.
"Okay," I said as I signed the documents in Mustard's name and he then smiled at me.
"I'll see you later!... And do be careful with Vanessa, would you? She may say truly awful things and try to kill people, but that was all my fault," he frowned.
"I promise you that I will try to help her out. And if I fail to do that, well, at least I tried my hardest," I said with a small smile as I then took out that contract as Snatcher left and I proceeded to the directions of Vanessa's mansion.
