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

was my nemesis. He’s dead now, and I know he would’ve hated to see me using his baby.” Eddie cackled.

“Well, you look like you’ve got everything well in hand.”

Eddie grunted.

Jeb left his technician alone and went to the room close to the stairs that he’d claimed for himself, passing by the men painting the walls with a nod.

Jeb entered his room and closed the door behind him, then sat down on the bed and stared at the wall.

Well, I guess we’re doing this.

Jeb glanced down at the metal rod in his hand. It was a length of steel, about a foot long, with a wicked bladed hook on the end. The hook itself was tiny, about half an inch from end to end.

The reason being…

Jeb slipped the Appraiser off his finger and put the hook through it. Holding the two objects with both hands, Jeb began to awkwardly probe around his scalp.

Tap, tap, tap. The side of the hook bumped against his skin…until it hit something that wasn’t Jeb.

There you are, you little bastard.

Chapter 14: Can’t Go Back

Nancy’s eyes popped open and she sat up, her heart beating so fast.

Where am I? She craned her neck, looking around the room. The walls and ceiling were clean-looking except for the smudges above the lamps, which seemed to be made of shiny gold. The walls they attached to were as red as blood, with off-white pillars supporting them. They reminded Nancy of bone.

She felt tears begin to well in her eyes as she realized that she had absolutely no idea where she was.

“Please, don’t cry,” a smooth voice said from her left.

“Eep!” In a flash of movement that even Nancy had trouble following, she catapulted off the red velvet couch and hid behind the back of the furniture. Slenderman was sitting on the chair to her left! She hadn’t seen him yet because he’d been so still!

“My name is Lenos Surpey. I rescued you from a reaper last night. You must have been exhausted, because you slept most of the day.”

Nancy peeped above the edge of the oversized couch.

There, sitting on an extra fancy-looking chair, was Slenderman in a black suit. He had no lips and a piercing stare, his boney fingers folded over each other on his lap.

I shouldn’t look away, Nancy thought, keeping her eyes wide. When you look away, that’s when he teleports up behind you and kills you. Daddy sure played the games enough.

Nancy kept silently staring at the monster, her eyes growing increasingly painful until the pain finally forced her to screw her eyes shut.

Oh no, he’ll get me! Nancy dodged the inevitable back-swipe by rolling across the floor, then looking behind herself.

Nothing there? She glanced back at the chair, and was flummoxed when she spotted Slenderman still sitting where he’d been.

He cocked his head.

Nancy cocked her head.

“Child?”

Now that she got a better look, it was just a keegan. A keegan in a suit. Weird.

“I wanna go home,” Nancy said, standing with her hands clenched into fists.

“Sadly, I lack the power to grant that request. I can’t bring your mother and father back to life, just as I can’t un-Stitch your world.”

“That’s not—” Nancy’s throat choked up at the mention of mommy and daddy.

“Oh? You feel like a small library in an abandoned section of a shopping mall qualifies as a ‘home’? I imagine the pang of hunger in your stomach is nostalgic for you too?”

“Stop it,” Nancy said. He was being mean with his words, without Nancy knowing exactly how he was doing it. He wasn’t calling her names or sticking his tongue out, but all she knew is he was making her feel really bad.

The keegan’s expression softened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. I simply wanted to illuminate a truth.”

“What truth?”

“You don’t have a home, like me,” the keegan said, his eyes looking almost…sad.

“Do too!” Nancy said. “I’ve got Colt and Damian and Bess and…”

“Those are just strangers you’ve been clinging to, hoping for scraps. They aren’t family. What have they done to help you? No, much more importantly, what have you done to help them?”

“I…” Nancy twiddled her fingers as a wave of guilt crashed over her. She got yelled at when she made the sign out front. She got yelled at when she tried to make book soup, when she peed the bed, when she ate the last of the candy….

“Face it, you don’t have a home.”

“I…guess not,” Nancy admitted.

“That’s not all bad, though. There’s one good thing about not having a home.”

“It doesn’t seem like it,” Nancy said, tears welling in her eyes.

“The silver lining here, is that not having a home gives you a chance to make your own.”

“What?” Nancy frowned.

“What do you think your mommy and daddy did? They made their own home, with you included. You can make a home too; it just takes time.”

“Do I have to be a mommy?” Nancy asked, screwing up her lips. Mommy and daddy did some weird, loud stuff when they thought she was asleep.

“No, no.” The keegan laughed, waving a boney hand. “That’s a different matter altogether.”

Whew.

“You can make a home where you and all your friends can live forever. All you need is the time to do it.”

“How?” Nancy asked, walking around the edge of the couch and sitting back down.

“With a lifetime of effort,” the keegan said, reclining in his seat.

“A lifetime?” Nancy whimpered.

“Youth is the gift of life breathed into us by Mother Vresh’na. This vital energy fades over time, which is what leads to aging, and eventually, the death of all things. But what if I told you, there was a way to beat aging? A way to live forever,