Days of Darkness (Dark Astoria stories)

[Paragon Vanguard]

(Writer's note: Anyone may join in on this rp thread if they so wish. Dark Astoria has very good fiction to it, at least in my view. I didn't grasp the wholeness of it until I started doing the badges there, from demons fighting gods to evil mobs doing heroic acts to save their part of the city. So I started thinking, what would normal people have gone through, as well as heroes? You may write your own story on here if you wish. )

 

Mot's hunger is insatiable and its power to feast upon life is prodigious. For sustenance, many innocent people have been spirited away into the haunted streets of Dark Astoria. Not all who have been abducted have met their end, surviving against all odds. -Life out of Death Badge

 

"I don't know, I woke up here. I don't know HOW I got here," Tom said, looking at his would-be savior. The hero carried a bow and had some arrows on his back. Other than that, he dressed pretty normal. He wasn't someone that Tom had seen before. 

"You and me both," the man said, looking out of the broken windowpane. 

It was dark, but not a natural dark. Tom was sure it was the middle of the day, at least his watch said so, but it was so dark. Still, Tom could make out some of the man's features. He had a thick mustache, and his hair was thinning. He was at least in his mid-fifties. 

"How do we get out of here," Tom asked, but was immediately disappointed as the man shook his head. 

"I don't know." 

"What do you mean you don't...." he stopped talking quickly as the man put his hand up, then motioned to be quiet. 

Tom caught a glimpse outside of the window and wished he had not. 

The creature was something right out of a horror show. It looked like a malformed human, with mouths all over it. It was obese and pale, it's legs large and stubby. The thing stood about 7' tall and had one large eye and one rather small eye, on what Tom assumed was the head. The problem with the idea of it being a head was that it was not on the top of the shoulders, like a head should be. It looked as if it was pushing itself out of the chest of the creature, it's mouth in a perpetual scream. The other mouths, the smaller mouths, bit constantly, drooling down the creature. 

Tom had to cover his mouth, not to scream. Tom really wanted to scream. 

Edited August 3 by Paragon Vanguard

[Paragon Vanguard]

The death of the city has been steady, inexorable and irreversible. In recent years, Dark Astoria has been a dangerous place, but now that the last strands of Mot's bindings begin to erode, the city exerts its mysterious pull, drawing the doomed to its streets to struggle or serve.

 

 

"Your name is Chad?"

Chad nodded to the man, waiting for him to reply. When he saw that the man was not going to immediately respond, Chad just looked back out of the window.

"We will have to move soon," Chad said, looking back to the stranger who was just looking at him.

"Chad," Tom asked again. He could not believe his fate was now in a man named Chad. Not there was anything wrong with being named Chad, but Chad was not a superhero name. It was a normal name, like Tom, and Tom knew he was no superhero. He was not only NOT a superhero, he was not a hero. He managed a small convenience store in Skyway. When the green skinned gang calling themselves Trolls robbed him, he just handed the money over. No fuss, no muss, they usually forgot that they robbed him and came in the store later, less addle brained but still stupid, and bought items, at an inflated price.

"My name is Chad, what is your name," Chad said, clearly not understanding Tom's thought process.

"Tom," Tom said, and quickly wondered how much of a disappointment he was to Chad.

"That thing, I can't go out there, with that.....thing."

"It has moved on, it had no idea we were even in here," Chad said, as he started to gather some items. It was dark, and Tom could hardly make out what the man was putting into a backpack, but he could make out the backpack.

"How do we, I mean, it's dark, why is it so dark?" Tom began trying to look around to see if he had anything to gather, but he did not.

"It's not so bad once outside. I see fairly well, you may be able to see better as your eyes get used to this darkness."

Tom nodded to that, not sure if Chad could see him nod.

"Are you thirsty," Chad asked, and Tom could make out a bottle in his hand.

Tom did not realize it, but he was thirsty. He was very thirsty.

"I have been here for a few days, and I don't know how I got here," Chad said.

Tom drank, greedily, and was grateful that Chad was not stopping him.

"I was with others, two others, but I don't know what happened to them," Chad went on. "I saw you laying in the middle of some pentagram or something, but there were no creatures around you, no magic people. So I pulled you in here."

"Thank you," Tom said, putting the lid back on a half empty plastic bottle. He tried to hand it back but Chad said no.

"What happened, you know, to the other two," Tom asked. He had to ask, he didn't really want to know, in case it was something terrible. Still, he had to ask.

"I don't really know. We were being chased by some flying, well, things. They went one way, I went the other," Chad replied, but his tone was somber.

"I see," Tom said.

"It doesn't matter. I didn't know them anymore than I know you," Chad said.

Tom felt that it did matter, it mattered alot to him. He did not tell Chad how much it truly mattered to him.

"I think we are in Barca Plaza. That was where I was headed with the others. This place used to be the Infront Steakhouse, at least according to the sign," Chad said.

While Tom was nodding, he knew Chad was not really trying to enlighten him, he was more or less trying to get his own bearings. 

"When we start moving, we have to move fast where we can, but we also have to be very quiet," Chad looked at Tom. "Are you hurt, can you run?"

Tom took measure of himself, and he was fine, if fine was possible here.

"I can run," he assured Chad.

"Good, because if you couldn't, well, we don't have to worry about that. You can."

But Tom was worried about that. He was very worried about that. However worried he was about it though, he did not want to know what would have happened if he could not run.

"I think it's safe enough," the bowman said, and the two made their way to the exit.

Edited August 3 by Paragon Vanguard

[Paragon Vanguard]

"We only have to make it across town," she said, pointing the opposite direction that they came. "You do not want to go that way!"

Tom looked to Chad, but Chad was just looking around, kind of confused as to where they were.

"We are in Barca Plaza, correct?" He asked.

"Yes, but you are headed to Moth Cemetery, and you do not want to go there," she said, shaking her head.

"But if we go east, and head south," Chad began, moving towards the woman, pointing east.
The woman's eyes grew wide, and she pulled back, not allowing Chad to touch her. She was no doubt use to people being unfriendly, even when they seemed otherwise.

 

They had just met her, as she ran toward them, they were headed toward her, only moments before. Chad notched an arrow, but held as the woman called for help. Instead he sent an arrow through a man in robes, carrying some kind of ritual knife.

 

"I am sorry," the bowman said, holding his hands up to show he was no threat.

"It's okay, I just do not want to be touched," she said, gaining back her composure.

Tom looked around now as well, and was wondering how in the world he got himself into this. He was simply shopping one evening on Talos Island, and suddenly found himself waking up in this hell.

 

Tom and Chad ran and hid for several blocks, but only made it a few blocks from the Infront Steakhouse. Chad had killed some men in strange robes, mages he said were using people to perform rituals.

 

"Moth Cemetery, you say is...." but Chad suddenly stopped talking as the face of the woman changed from caution into distorted horror. Her screams were terrible as she stood still, as if stuck or paralyzed.

"I have been ..... here .... too long..... it's starting!"

'Oh no, what can I do," Chad said, as Tom started to the cries, and then drew away, fear paralyzing his face.

"Ruuuuun....." she screamed, drawing the word out in her terror, as something came from below her. Her anguish was unbearable, as her body convulsed.

And she screamed.

And she screamed.

And she screamed, before she was completely devoured and consumed.

Tom ran.

Chad followed.

Tom did not look back.

Chad glanced back, but the woman was gone.

[Paragon Vanguard]

"What happened to her," Tom whispered, very scared, but very happy that Chad followed him. He felt like such a coward, but the.....the thing that consumed that woman was horrible.

Tom watched Chad who was looking around the small building they ran into, just to get off the street. Chad did not answer at first, and Tom assumed it was because he was angry that he ran without looking back. He ran hard and long, and did not look back until Chad grabbed him, and made him stop running wild.

He did not check on Chad. Did not check on the woman.

"I am sorry, it was very coward the way I ran, but that...." he could not finish.

"I know. It was disgusting, and scary, and it's ok."

 

Chad, in truth, was not even thinking of Tom at this point. He was insuring there were no nasties in this small warehouse they hid in.

"Too many rooms, it's not really secure," Chad said, but he was not really talking to Tom.

"I have been here too long," the woman had screamed. "It's starting," she had said.

This concerned Chad very much. Why did she say it that way, and exactly how long was too long?

Chad looked over to Tom, who was mumbling something of an apology, but he didn't have time nor the desire to get into Tom's fear. He was going to ask Tom what he thought the woman meant, but Tom was well on his way to a nervous breakdown. If Tom broke, Tom was on his own. Chad would leave him. That meant Chad would be on his own as well.
No, he could not discuss this with Tom, not yet. Not while Tom was trying to process the demonic thing that consumed the woman.

Chad could not stop wondering, how long was "too long".