Episode 11: Asaph.
Arc: "Devil's Deal"
Opening: Shiver – Gazette.
. . .
Everything had worked just fine for Asaph Horth. Or, at least, he thought so.
Asaph was lying on his bed with closed eyes, musing about the whole story about Bill's supposed son. His pitch-black hair was messed all over his head, which didn't seem to bother him at all. The preteen still couldn't understand what was happening, or why, but he wanted to solve this mystery as fast as he could. Because it intrigued him at the point of making Asaph isolate himself inside his room to think about it. However, every time he thought about the subject of Bill's son escape, he would feel a headache, because there were missing pieces of the puzzle.
Sighing, he couldn't help but smile at the memories of when he first met Bill and his siblings. They were just scary at first, but – somehow – Asaph had gotten used to that.
Also, his mentor's bright color (pink) disturbed him in a way, but he was okay with it; more or less. Keehnesi didn't seem to like his color very much, but had to deal with it. Well, these were the things they had to deal with every day. Before the shocking news of Bill's son escaping, Asaph didn't think that summer would get exciting in any way or shape. Yes, he was the apprentice of a demon and, yes, he was fully aware of the dangers of being discovered, but that wasn't as exciting as a good mystery. Then, Asaph turned his attention to the day when he met his mentor. He couldn't remember very well what happened, but he tried to.
At least sometimes, when he forced his memory to its limit, it worked, and he'd remember some fragments over how everything happened. However, today everything would be different. The raven-haired boy relaxed, lying on his bed, as the memories resurfaced his mind. He didn't fight them, he didn't prevent them from coming, because that would get worse; he simply let his memory do its job, and his vision started to get blurry, a small smile tugged the corner of his lips as Asaph closed his eyes.
…
"ASAPH, YOU BRAT! WHY HAVEN'T YOU CLEANED THE DISHES YET?! THIS IS YOUR FREAKING TASK!" A girl shouted from downstairs. Asaph growled. It was always HIS turn, she'd never do anything.
Since his mother and foster father died one day after they moved to the United States – which was near Canada – Asaph's sister would be his guardian and force him to do her chores. Also, he barely ate that day. Everything was horrible for him. The only thing that made him move on was the thought of his parents; and the thought of his mother. Of course, Asaph's foster father also cared about him as much as a biological one, but Asaph wanted to know who his true father was.
They had moved to a small town near another small town called Gravity 'something'; Asaph called it that since he didn't know the name very well, but it was pretty near. If he had to walk to this town, it would take him at least 10 minutes. The town he had moved to was called Summerfield, and was a great place to live, because it was calm. Asaph sometimes could swear he had seen unnatural creatures, but that could've been his imagination or something. It's not like that would bother him, of course not. He had better things to do than search for unnatural and paranormal creatures that could probably threaten humanity.
Standing up from his bed, Asaph was about to go downstairs (his room is on the house's second floor) to wash the dishes and maybe be left alone by his sister, when everything happened; and it had happened very quickly. After touching the knob, Asaph's entire room became gray. This event was so unnatural and scary that it was hard to believe it was really happening. However, it was – at the same time – intriguing.
"Gray?" Asaph narrowed his eyes at the doorknob, which passed from golden-colored to gray all of sudden. Finally, the black-haired boy looked at his own hand. It was not gray, it was normal, like it had always been. "Asaph, you're dreaming, go back to bed." The boy muttered to himself as he made his way back to his bed. Asaph had had dreams like this one before, and he would recognize them if he had one. Maybe he had fallen asleep while thinking? No, it couldn't be – he wouldn't fall asleep that easily; he wasn't even tired! But that made him wonder: what was truly happening?
Lying back on his bed, and trying to find a comfortable position, Asaph's green eyes scanned the room one more time, trying to find something unusual. He paid attention to the smallest detail, not wanting to miss something. Anything could indicate this was a dream, even if it was the scariest or silliest thing. Once he had dreamed something like this, and what revealed that it was a dream was a small fairy watching him at the corner of the room. Asaph's eyes stopped on the door one more time. Instead of a normal – gray – doorknob, there was an eye watching him.
"GAH!" The eye blinked, and Asaph yelped, as he fell off the bed. That was a surprise. He wanted to know what that dream meant; maybe the stress was making him imagine things; yes, that had to be it. "It is okay, Asaph; it's a dream, nothing is real. Though this pain FEELS real! Ouch!" And then he gripped his body, which was aching in pain. Nothing seemed to make it stop, though.
"HAHAHA!" Someone started to laugh in a mocking tone. "Got scared there, kid? Don't worry, pain is hilarious!" Asaph started scanning his room again; just to check if he had let some psycho person from an asylum enter his house. Then the rug under him started to shine until the star in the middle became a triangle. "Nice room, kiddo. Maybe I could use this as my lab later!" The black-haired boy yelped in surprise one more time, trying to stand up and get away from the rug as soon as possible; was his new house haunted or something?
"Ok, who are you?! No- what are you?!" Asaph murmured and asked, astonished.
"Well, kiddo, I'm lots of things." The triangle disappeared from the rug and then appeared in front of the black-haired boy, making him stumble back and fall on his bed. A single eye popped out of its shape. Asaph stared with wide eyes as the triangle floated to where he was. Even with the pain in his back, Asaph forced himself to stay at a fair distance from the triangle, which was even amused by the human's behavior.
"Lots of things" The creature finished with a malicious glint in its eye and a low and deep voice. Then it started to laugh maniacally and rhythmically. The laugh echoed through the room like a cave. "But you can call me Bill Cipher, master of the mind, at your service." A top hat appeared on the creature's head, as well as a bowtie where it was supposed to be its neck. Hands and feet also popped out. The triangle, Bill Cipher, watched Asaph with its single eye.
"Alright, Ann, if it's you pulling me a prank I swear I will…" Asaph didn't finish his sentence as the triangle creature – Bill Cipher – started glowing again until he had changed completely. Asaph covered his eyes to prevent the light from blinding him – and he had even missed the transformation, not knowing what had happened after. Upon analyzing the room and discovering that it was safe to uncover his eyes, Asaph did it. And now Bill was his sister – now he was Ann Horth.
"You will what, brat?" The creature looked like Ann, talked like Ann and acted like Ann, but it wasn't Ann. Because Ann couldn't float in the middle of his room, and because Ann's eyes weren't yellow and her pupils weren't slits. And because Ann's voice tone when she talked to him was higher – as if she hated him with all her might, which was true. Since her father had married Asaph's mother, Ann seemed to hate her new brother. And even did the impossible to annoy him. However, that didn't affect Asaph at all, as the boy was hard to make angry unless somebody made things difficult for him to solve a mystery.
"This reminds me that you haven't done the dishes yet, have you, brat?" Asaph's eyes widened as he watched in horror as the creature laughed maniacally and demoniacally, revealing its pointed teeth. A few seconds later, the laugh's tone twisted into a sick laugh, which was getting scarier – like Bill had come from a horror movie or a nightmare. "Tsk, looks like I'll have to punish you." Asaph swore he had seen the thing's eyes shine bright red, before once again light surrounded the room – and, again, forcing Asaph to cover his eyes.
And then Ann was gone.
Now, he was facing a teenager.
A boy that looked no older than 17, with curly blonde hair and pale skin, and his eyes were yellow. Instead of pupils, there were slits, but thinner than when he had turned into Ann. Attached to his ears, there were two earrings that were triangle-shaped; and there was a necklace as well, with the same triangle attached to it. There were words written in the triangle, but Asaph couldn't read them, because they were too small and Bill was very far from him.
This teenager had a black top hat floating in his head and a bowtie around his neck, and he was wearing some sort of yellow suit with a brick pattern. Behind it, there was a glitter-covered black shirt and normal pants, except for a belt with another triangle attached to it. And there was a yellow cane as well. In the middle of the room appeared a chair. Bill floated to it and sat down, like he was having a normal talk to a normal teenager. "So, kid, gonna obey your sister or not?"
"Why?" Asaph asked.
"Sometimes all sort of demons get bored, you see, so we give humans nightmares to lighten up our mood." Bill explained with a grin, revealing his sharp canine teeth. Asaph raised an eyebrow. That could've explained a few things, but now all things.
"So… This means I'm dreaming right now?" The raven-haired boy asked carefully, narrowing his eyes at the demon sitting in front of him. He didn't want to ask the wrong questions, because that could lead to disaster. Bill stood up, turned the chair around, sitting back. Then, he leaned against the chair, his chin touching its support. Asaph didn't know what Bill was going to do, but he knew it couldn't be good. The demon was leaning closer and closer until the two of them were actually very close, but still not too close.
"Let's see." Bill slapped Asaph across the face. The boy yelped and held his sore cheek with his right hand, while trying to remain calm. That was an unexpected act, even from a demon. So, yes, he did ask a wrong question, which lead to a disaster to his cheek. "So, did it hurt?" The blond teenager across the black-haired preteen asked with a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. Caressing his own cheek to make it stop hurting, Asaph sent Bill a death glare.
"Yes, it did!"
"Then you're awake." Bill concluded. Before Asaph could say something, the room started to change again – and, again, the room started shining. Asaph closed his eyes and used his two hands as a shield against the light as it faded slowly – and that was until two other people were floating behind Bill Cipher. The first one was the same as him, except for having a bright pink color for hair (which had a long braid), eyes, suit and cane; also, his earrings and such were squares instead of triangles.
At the pink guy's side, there was a woman with their same hairstyle, but it was long enough to reach her back. Like the other two men in the room, she had a spiky hair at a light blue color, and was wearing the same suit – but fit for a woman – in a cyan color. Her jewelry was circle-shaped, and her cane was cyan as well. For a woman, she looked like a child, to say at least. Though, she was as tall as the pink-haired man at her side.
"Well, there you are." The woman said. "We leave you alone for two months and you're already leading humanity to chaos? We should've taken you to the council as well." And she crossed her arms. Asaph was right at his conclusion: she was an adult. Maybe it could've been the mass in her chest that indicated breasts, or the deep voice tone, but he felt a responsible glint in her eyes. The pink-haired man said nothing, just observed carefully; he seemed ready to make a move when it was needed, due to the grip on his pink cane.
"You know very well I'm never stepping on that shitty place every again." Bill said infuriated, as he kept his back turned to the other two people floating in the air. Asaph blinked, confused. His voice tone had changed from cheerful-yet-scary to scary-yet-scarier-than-before. The raven-haired boy wanted to say something, but decided to keep his mouth shut for his life's sake. This seemed like a personal talk, and Asaph felt the need of letting them alone.
"You know that this was for your own sake."
"KILLING MY SON WON'T DO ANY GOOD!" Bill exploded, his clothes becoming as red as blood, well as his eyes. The teenager-looking creature stood up to face the other two people in the room. Asaph knew that now he wasn't facing Bill Cipher anymore. He was facing the devil. Or something like the devil, because that creature was definitely like the devil – red clothes, a maniac glint in the eyes, as well as the blue flames in his hands indicating he wasn't happy. Asaph stumbled back in his own bed, all of his previous worries gone.
"D́͞Ǫ̴͠ Y̶̡̛Ǫ̛U͟͢ ̵́TH̢I͠N̷̕K̢̨ ̶̡I̕͟ W̵͝AN͞T̸ȨD ̸͡TH҉Á̷T̴?͝! ͡ḐO̧͢͡ ̀͏͞ỲOU̕̕͏ ́̕Ţ͟H̵̵I̧̨N̡K ͏̕͘Ś͘͢O̵M̛̛͟E̶̶͠O̶ǸE̵ ̕͡W͜O̵͢U̷L̶̛͟D B͏̛̕E̶҉ ̀HA̵̵P̷P̵̢Y͢͝ B͝҉Y̕ ̵S͞͞E͞҉̷E͟͞͝I͜͠NĢ͘ ͏̸̀HÍ̕҉S̴ ̴ǪW̵̨N͢͞ S̨͜O͏̷͢N ̴҉D̷Ì̕͞E͜ Í̴̢N͝͞ ̵͝͏F͏R̷̕O̶Ń̕T̵̶ ̸͠O̸F̵ ̸H̢IM҉?͘͝!͜" Bill shouted in a demoniac voice that seemed to have echoed through the entire town. He soon lowered his head, trying to hide the tears brimming at the corner of his eyes. But then he couldn't pretend anymore. He was unhappy. He wanted to cry his eyes out, or punch someone to death. He had to be strong, but he couldn't handle this pain in his chest that grew wider every day. He couldn't support his loss; his two losses.
"You will never understand a father's loss." And then he was gone.
…
Asaph's eyes widened and he jumped from his bed in a heart's beat.
"Of course!" He shouted to himself. "Mentor Keehnesi and Beatrice have erased my memories! They knew I knew this information, and tried to hide it from everyone." He narrowed his eyes. "But why would they try to hide that? What is so important that we can't know about? Why is it so dangerous?" One thousand questions were circling his head, and he wish he had the answers for all of them. Asaph sighed and sat back down, thinking out loud. However, out of boredom, he stood up and tapped his foot at the floor, trying to think.
"Bill's son… Council… Death… What do those three things have to do with each other?" He grunted and started to walk in circles. "That doesn't make sense!"
"Hey, brat, are you in there? Today is your turn to do the dishes!" Asaph banged his head on a nearby wall as he closed his eyes and listened to his sister complaining. "How many times do I have to tell you? Be downstairs in ten minutes or I'll lock you inside the room tonight." And then Asaph just listened to her faint footsteps echoing through the hallway until she was gone. 'The room' was a dark room with nothing but a single candle lighting up one of the walls. Attached to it, and under the candle, there was a torn piece of paper that – though very old – had the sentence written on it:
"All play and no work makes Asaph a lazy boy."
Though it was a very stupid idea to put that there, and a very bad parody to the real proverb, it still scared him sometimes; especially because, under the sentence, there was an X written with something red. Every time Asaph looked at this X, he thought of blood, though Ann said she had never written an X on the paper, much less with blood. "Unsolved mysteries and unknown codes..." Asaph smirked. "Sounds like another small mystery for detective Asaph."
A/N: I'M ALIIIVE, I'M ALIVE OH YEAH~
This week has been tests week and, boy, I'm beat! Seriously, I don't want to see a math book for a loooong time. I got an 8 in my math exam, which is a good grade since two questions had been canceled (which got me two extra points) and I got two random questions right, and I didn't even know the answers, I simply marked a random answer XD I'm lucky. Well, now I'm making up for not studying enough since I got a 6 in geography. I don't really know why I'll need to study there. Here are my possible careers:
- Doctor
- Violinist
- Writer
So to be a doctor I'll need science and math (the basics, at least), to be a violinist I'll need a violin (Dr. Obvious attacks again) and the basics about music sheets, and to be a writer I'll need grammar knowledge and imagination. I like the three careers, but I can't really decide what I'll do for a living yet, so everything will do. There is a lot of things you don't know about me, kids :) I've never mentioned once that I play violin, have I? Well, I don't know why I bother doing A/N's. It's becoming my personal diary now XD Also, if you want to see Bill's human form, which I'm horrible at describing, go to Jack-a-lynn's DeviantArt. This is Bill's human form.
Awakened Niwana, off.