Hello humans it's Weegee1 again with another chapter of my Winnie the Pooh story. This chapter finishes up the creation myth as well as introduces a few plot twists. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I don't own anything other than my OC's everything else is owned by their companies.
A sense of wrongness and confusion filled Charlie's mind brought on by the odd scenery that surrounded him. Rather than the usual glimpse of his past that he was used to he was in a small room with most features cloaked by a thick fog. The room was in a word bland, seemingly built for function not beauty. With a depressing and tattered gray rug, gray paint on the walls and ceiling, and a lack of windows it seemed more like a prison cell than a room in a house. The only contents of the room beside the rug was a weathered chair that looked like it would fall apart at any time and a worn bassinet in front of the chair. Out of everything in the room it was obvious that the bassinet was the most cared for thing within. The bassinet had smoothed and polished wood, clean sheets, and a cluster of little blankets to keep a baby warm during cold nights. With a clunking coming from the fog a familiar figure emerged steadily despite his broken and harsh appearance. He had braces on his legs to help him walk with a simple cane shaped from a single piece of whitish wood to further assist in his clunking about the room. His right hand was replaced with a metal hand that was shiny and new with five elegantly formed metal and wood fingers leading up to a hand made of similar material. His complete hand was smooth with cared for skin much different from the withered and liver spotted hand he would have in the future. His eyes were free of cataracts and his neck only had a slight rash on it rather than the green rotting splotches of flesh. With a small smile filled with a mix of happiness and sorrow the figure sat in the chair.
A smooth and deep voice emanated from his mouth rather than the raspier withered voice he'd have in the future. "It's funny with my supposed genius everyone thought I should be good at everything. Yet no matter how hard I try I never was all that great at having emotionally driven conversation. I will try to keep it from becoming awkward or rather overly awkward. My name is Johan Schmidts and I am your grandfather. I record this message a little after your third month of development. If you are receiving this than I am dead as well as my darling little Matilda and her husband Sergei. Your name will most likely be Charlemagne." Johan rambled his unsorted thoughts nervously. "I was so excited when I heard that I would be grandfather. At the same time though I couldn't help but to feel nervous and fearful. There is one thing you must know about our island home. This island is not safe by any stretch of even the most warped mind's imagination. This island isn't just a home for us it is also a prison for one of the most vile creatures in existence. To the creature that dwells beneath we are nothing more than slaves at best and food at worst. I know you won't understand but most legends have a kernel of truth." Johan said in a mix of mania and nervousness. Standing up he began pacing back and forth muttering to himself "Where to begin? I don't have enough time to start from the beginning your parents could be home at any time. I should probably start at the fall.". With a calming breath the flustered Johan began rocking the bassinet and started his story.
"It took two weeks before Able's ire bubbled up to a peak and he decided to seek out AnnA yet again for her vile advice. Deeper and deeper into the territory claimed by monster he journeyed. He knew he had nothing to fear after all AnnA said that the meat eating monsters only hunt to eat and even then they target the ill and weak to allow the animal herds to retain their health. After a few hours of making his way through the woods he heard laughing and cooing coming from somewhere nearby. It was curiosity that led him to a copse which contained a sight he would never forget. There in a copse was Seth and three other adult sized figures. Two of the figures were the red and blue beings that escorted Seth home before he was forced to live amongst the monsters. The third figure had light green skin similar in color to mint with soft skin, she had a form that seemed to be the middle ground of the other two beings. She stood at six feet tall, with long black hair, a subtle hour glass body hidden beneath a neck to foot smock that was heavily covered in stains of many different colors. What slowly turned his curiosity to anguish were three small bundles of animal hide held by each female.
Contained within the bundles were three infants, all three asleep, but no two the same. One of the children had a little tuft of black hair on the top of her head. Her skin was yellowed skin as if afflicted with jaundice. With a yawn exposing sharp little teeth the babe gave a stretch. With a slight whimper of irritation six pudgy little hands extended from her swaddling to rub at her closed eyes. With another fussing sound she slowly opened three bleary green eyes only to lazily focus upon the red female that rocked her slowly in her arms. After a few moments of rocking the baby slowly blinked back to sleep. Held in the soft embrace of the blue female was a much fussier babe. With pointed ears, fine black fur covering her visible features, and slit yellow eyes like a cats all Able could think of was one of the angry black cats. Being held by the green skinned female was a baby devoid of the bizarre features that the monsters had that separated them from the humans. With eyes closed in a deep sleep and drool dribbling down a soft chin the child was cherubic in appearance. A light shock of brown hair grew from the top of the child's head. A human born of the coupling of monster and man but how? Returning back to the forest Able continued on his way a little less sure in some regards yet spite, madness, and a healthy dose of jealousy kept him moving.
Entering a cave with a fire going Able entered expecting to find his confidant. Instead he came across his elder brother sitting on a bundle of furs and hides with the creature that came to the clearing with him as well as several smaller creatures flying around and cooing and giggling at a little bundle of furs. Next to the six legged being was a smaller creature similar in build. The creature had hides wrapped around her upper half to keep her warm. She had blond hair and bright violet eyes that were much more aware than the other babies that Able had seen thus far. Her lower half was that of a normal horse with light brown fur and a blond tail. Looking at Cane he saw what was in the bundle that the small creatures were cooing and giggling at. The little fur wrapped bundle was held lovingly in arms made strong by long years of hard labor.
Within the bundle was another completely human child. Looking at the infant stole all thoughts from Able's unstable mind. The baby was a perfect replica of his brother Cane only smaller due to age. Innocent blue eyes met with the maddened bloodshot eyes of an Uncle he'd never seen before. A wisp of blonde hair topped his little head and a mouth empty of teeth pulled up in an open mouthed smile and a gurgle of amusement came forth bringing smiles onto the face of a proud father and a joyful mother. When the baby gave a shriek of joy and clapped his little hands together Cane turned to look at what drew his toddler's attention seeing an alarming site. Instead of the Able he grew up with Cane saw a grotesque imitation. The parody of Able was gaunt, thin, and unclean in appearance. His face remained mostly the same other than the his bloodshot eyes, unshaven face, and blackened crooked teeth. His clothing was tattered and ripped revealing a body so devoid of fat that his ribs were easily counted and his spine was clearly seen. His hands and feet were thin and pale with long fingers and toes tipped in long sharp nails. Every bit of exposed skin was coated with filth, cuts, or scars.
Before Cane could say anything Able ran swiftly from the cave unaware of the moisture upon his face. Blindly stumbling deeper and deeper into the darkest parts of the forest until he stumbled upon its hidden heart. No form of life existed there, the grass was brown and dead, the bushes were deprived of covering revealing the blackened and weathered bark beneath. Skeletons of countless animals doted the landscape some were partially submerged into the ground some remained above the soil. No trees grew there instead there were wind burnt husks missing limbs and leaves leaving sharp wooden spires extending from the ground. However despite this great scene of death a single tree grew with branches filled with radiant fruit of all shapes, colors, and sizes growing on it sat grew defiantly forth from the ground in the middle of the forest's broken heart. Scattered around the still living tree was an incomprehensible amount of eggshells.
Sitting on an enormous web connected to all the trees except for the living tree was AnnA looking down at Able in a mix of boredom and amusement. Descending to the ground using a single thin black thread the short being smirked at the troubled brother. With a single statement AnnA cut straight through the conflicting thoughts cluttering Able's mind. "It could all be yours if you want it, children, women, popularity, love. Anything you want you can have all you need to do is wish for it hard enough." She whispered nearly inaudibly. When Able closed his eyes to wish like AnnA taught him she released a cloud of black smog from her back before it slowly drifted its way into the unwary man's nose. Opening his eyes revealed bright green eyes that held no compassion, empathy, or emotions of any kind except for a single tear dripping from his right eye which hit the dry ground uselessly. With a smile revealing to many teeth AnnA directed Able to her web where she cocooned him. Together they would continue onwards at any cost to claim their destiny by any means necessary.".
With a pause in the story the old man took in a deep breath before continuing. "It's unknown for certain what happened after this point. What is known is that after five days the cocoon was torn open by a creature that did such grievous harm to the garden and all that lived within that the Serpent used her final wish to banish all impure creatures from the garden. Once everything was removed from the garden Lilith assigned her oldest daughter to protect the tether that attaches our world to the garden." with a sigh the old man ended the recording with a simple message "Good bye Charlie.".
Before the sleep cycle on the memory lounger could end a new voice began speaking. "I was such a fool, I believed in all her lies. I believed that I was right in my beliefs that I deserved more than my brothers. I believed that I was safe and that I would never die." a warped voice that was neither male or female came from within the recording but also from far beyond it. With every syllable uttered by the unknown source a spike of pain emanated from Charlie's head until it became a searing migraine. Once the migraine built to its crescendo an image of a scene burned itself into the young man's mind's eye. The scene was so eldritch and abhorrent that at first his mind could make no sense of it as if his brain was trying to protect Charlie from some horrible truth. The longer Charlie looked the more his skin felt tight and his eyes became itchy as if dry. Blinking his eyes his brain finally allowed the horror before him to be taken in and what an unspeakable scene of abominable horror it was. A great body of water surrounding an island was what drew his attention first. The water was perfectly pristine and clear enough he could see skeletons of all size sunk into the sand at the bottom. With a blink Charlie was suddenly on the formerly distant island. Looking around he saw that the island had no plant or animal life.
There were no hills or deviations in its smooth flatness other than countless graves, some filled and marked, others empty, all tightly shrouded in a deep feeling of wrongness. As he wandered aimlessly in this land of death he eventually came across a great gaping crater directly in the middle of the island. Within the crater was a scene seemingly pulled straight from the deepest darkest corner of hell itself. A long and thin spire extended from a pool of black chunky fluid at the bottom of the pit. The spire was blacker than a moonless night and seemed to devour the light around it with an incalculable appetite. Every few inches was a large metal hook with a still dripping hunk of gore attached. In a perverse form of spatial perfection a deformed thing was stuck directly at the half way point of the spire. The horror was skewered so its abdomen was facing the sky and its back was bent to the point of breaking. Further expanding on the vision of torment was the fact that the beast's arms impaled and pulled tight by green and black roots growing from the wall. Trussing up the monstrosity's legs like a Thanks Giving turkey were countless thin and translucent white ribbons emerging from the foul liquid on the bottom of the pit. From the monster's back eight long red furred insectile legs emerged. Each leg was partially encased in a cracking mix of dead insects, resin, and fungal matter. Each leg stretched out to be at least ten feet long not counting the three foot long cruelly serrated bone spike tipping each limb.
As if sensing an audience the remaining shadows drifted away from the broken amalgam. The horror exposed was even more nauseating with flesh flayed to the point that the only skin existing on the creatures body was a pair of slightly pointed ears. The abomination had a cracked and blackened metal band bolted onto its head to obscure the world from its eyes. The lipless mouth was filled with rows of sharp black teeth held open by rigor mortis or some unknown force revealing a stump where a tongue once resided. It had a large gash in its left side allowing its entrails to hang freely from the creature's body and into the putrid fluid filled void below. Every few moments a few drips of black fluid would drip out of the would to fall impotently into the pool at the base of the spire. Around the neck eight small holes slowly opened up revealing red multifaceted eyes. With a minute cracking sound that echoed in the void like a gun shot due to the abhorrent silence a small piece of the metal band fell inward revealing a green glow. The glow radiated forth with a fell light that pierced through the gloom like a perverse lighthouse chasing away fog. Slowly the head turned with a cracking and snapping of unused joints until the light was focused on Charlie. With an imagined sound of screaming and crying images of cataclysms long passed and yet to be appeared in Charlie's eyes before with a sudden curtain of darkness the light snuffed out and everything faded away.
In the world several machines near Charlie's memory viewer lit up red with a singular message on a large monitor that read "DANGEROUSLY ELEVATED BRAIN ACTIVITY". With a rapid flicker of eye movement behind impossibly heavy lids Charlie remained trapped deep in a cold suffocating sleep. So deeply bound by this foul sleep Charlie remained ignorant to the lazy trail of blood crawling cautiously from his nose only to drip from his chin to the splatter onto floor of the memory lounger. Even when the alarm that signified intruders began its shrill cacophony that would rouse even the most heavy of sleepers Charlie remained tightly grasped in the palace of Hypnos. On the island of the underground shelter that housed the still sleeping inventor and those he loved a small rift began to slowly open.
I apologize for the wait but depression and life have been kicking my ass for the last couple of months. Between farm life being problematic with certain seeds being rare and fertilizer being even rarer and having all the college classes I need to take no longer being offered things have been pretty hectic. I will try my best to do better. Thank you all for standing by me and I hope you all will continue to do so in the future.
