Apocalypse: Fairy System by Macronomicon (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

figures carrying oversized buckets of water. Closer to fifty-five gallon drums, he thought, studying the creatures. They had to be bigger than he’d thought originally.

They definitely weren’t human, but Jeb honestly didn’t know what they were. From their silhouettes in the distance, they looked like driders from D&D, with a human upper torso, and eight long legs with knobbly knees.

Except they definitely weren’t driders.

As Jeb got closer, he could make out the strange creatures using the tools that were seemingly welded into their flesh to hoe, weed and shovel dirt, replacing the occasional unhealthy crop with a new one.

What horror is this?

They did say this guy was human, didn’t they? Jeb was starting to understand the general sense of unease people had when referring to this place.

When Jeb got close enough to see the whites of their eyes, he saw there was nothing but whites. The creatures’ eyes were glazed over with death, their skin slowly desiccating.

They were monstrous amalgams of body parts harvested from half a dozen different sources, fused together to make these makeshift all-purpose tractor creatures, then animated by foul magic.

One of the creatures reached down with a slender leg and tapped the single two-legged figure working in the field on the shoulder, gaining its attention.

It was a tall, slender man bearing a dusty hoe, wearing a woven straw hat over tufts of curly ginger hair, with a wet towel over his shoulders to help with the heat. He wore denim overalls over a white T-shirt, and some obvious signs of repeated sunburn on his forearms.

More specifically, it was Ron the Necromancer.

***Nancy, 8 years old***

“Did we have to try to steal that old man’s money? Stealing is bad.” Nancy didn’t really have the words to describe how bad making other people sad felt, so she put the feeling into the word itself.

“Maybe we didn’t,” Colt said, flicking the shiny coin the old man had thrown at them between his knuckles. “But we didn’t know that he’d actually pay us until after we attacked him.” The leader of the orphans chuckled.

Nancy frowned, trying to make sense of Colt’s logic. Sure, a few people had walked off with books without paying, and a few others had gotten answers, then left without paying, then…

Oh, I get it.

“Still, that was mean.”

“Gotta be mean to get by sometimes,” Colt said, pushing himself to his feet. “I’m going to go buy food with this. You guys lock the door after me, and don’t open it until I get back, okay?”

“Because of Slenderman?” Nancy asked.

“Pretty sure Slenderman doesn’t actually exist,” Darius said. The older boy with plastic gold chains around his neck was reading a novel with a flashlight.

“Jake said he saw him before he vanished. A tall, skinny man in a suit. With white skin!”

“That was a keegan.”

“But he was wearing a suit!”

“Keegan in a suit.” Darius shrugged.

“Hey.” Colt snapped his fingers and drew their attention back to himself. “Doesn’t matter who or what is taking us, only that it needs to stop. Lock the door until I get back, okay?”

“What kind of food are you buying?” Nancy gasped with sudden realization. “Can I get some Reese’s Cups?”

Colt frowned at her, an expression that Nancy couldn’t quite read. Sad…or angry? Both?

“…I’ll try.”

“Yay!” Nancy did a double fist pump, like she’d seen her dad do whenever he beat a game. It felt good.

“No guarantees. Reese’s are getting…hard to come by.”

“Aw.”

“What else are you getting? They’re not charging gold for candy nowadays, are they?”

“Rice.”

“Booo!” Catcalls echoed from every corner of the bookstore as the children heaped disdain upon their leader’s plans.

“Deal with it,” Colt growled. “Rice will last the longest. Any idea when the next rich guy is gonna wander through looking for a book or a map?”

They felt silent.

“Didn’t think so.” Colt pocketed the coin and headed out into the dim hallway. It was dim now, but things started to get really dark inside the mall when the sun went down. The shadows looked deep and hungry during the day, with plenty of room for wicked things to hide.

At night, it was much worse, bad enough that Nancy couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. Night wasn’t very far away, either. Colt would have to travel back through the dark.

Colt will be fine. He made it through the Hard Tutorial and can see in the dark. He’s practically a superhero, Nancy thought to herself before Colt turned and looked her in the eye.

“Lock. The door,” he said, poking her in the snoot.

“You don’t have to be mean,” Nancy said, sliding the door closed and flipping the knob with a click.

The painting on the door obscured Colt as she listened to his sneakers softly scuff away.

Darius stifled a yawn. “I’m gonna hit the sack.”

“Okay, good night,” Nancy said absently as she picked up a flashlight and began searching for something by Dr. Seuss.

Or whatever this is, she thought as she pulled out a book from the shelf. It had a pretty cover with weird, blurry ink on the front. Lots of blues and purples.

Purple is the best.

Nancy took the book to her bean bag and shook the flashlight until it was bright again, sounding out the words on the cover.

“The wait-chus…hand.” Nancy looked up for confirmation on her pronunciation before realizing that Darius had already left to take a nap. Or play with Bess. Those two had been playing a lot together recently. Nancy wasn’t dumb.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G. It was the biggest word she knew, mostly thanks to the song about it. Gross. Nancy rolled her eyes, copying mommy.

The story, from what Nancy could tell, was about when a witch crept into a kid’s bedroom, dripping snakes and spiders, breathing smoke, and the daddy…

Nancy felt