Seras little snippet thread

"What is that?" The grating voice came called out from behind me, and I felt my breath escape me as silently as I could in a long sigh.

"An old piece of jewlery." I answered. I had chosen to drag myself into work today and had noticed that I had lost my hair band, and ended up having to pull out something from 'The Box.'

"Do you really think that's appropriate?" Ellen asked, I turned and looked at my 'boss' and plastered on my fake smile.

God I hated people like her. The sort that thought everything in life had to be their own way, and if you were different, or liked different things then you were somehow degenerate.

I knew that was her opinion because she had shared it with me.

Multiple times.

"It's just some plastic skulls. They're cute." I told her. The hair tie from my teenage gothdom still worked just fine. And it was the only thing left in the house that I could tie my hair back with.

I still thought it was cute. I just stopped wearing it when I had to grow up and get a job.

"Well this is a family environment. Maybe you should take it off."

"I lost my last hair tie Ellen. I'll buy some more on my way home, but its all I have." I offered, knowing I would put her into a corner. Stupid cringe overly religious do gooder. I added in my head.

I had nothing against religion, but Ellen was one of those women that made you want to burn churches if they went to it…

No, actually that might just be me.

But she 'believed' that everyone should be presentable and have long hair but have it tied back like 'ladies.'

Just trying to match her way of speaking in my head made me want to die. The fact I had long hair had nothing to do with being a lady and more because long hair made lots of fun styles for Cosplay and Goth shit.

Not that I ever got to do that anymore.

But I had put her in a corner. Either she told me to take it down and then I had my hair loose, or I leave it in.

Win win. I guess. I was half way turning back to my desk to continue my work, when she spoke.

"Well then Ms. Steel… Go home." She said, and I stilled.

"What?"

"You heard me. You are breaking the dress code. Go home. I'll be speaking to Mark about your future employment as well." She threatened and I blinked.

I was literally one of the only workers in the damn place!

"I'll tell Mark that I'm being sent home then." I countered as I stood up. Knowing that he would tell his Sister in Law to shut the fuck up and let me get back to work.

"Mark is out, I'm in charge. Go home, and I'll be speaking to Mark about your-" Blah blah blah.

I got up and grabbed my stuff. Ignoring the woman's constant drone.

God why was this my life? I just wanted to do something that didn't want to make me die. Was that too much to ask for?

I didn't get any answer and left. As I left the shop I stalled for half a second, feeling tears come to my eyes.

No. No, I wasn't going to cry about this stupid job that I hated, just because I might lose it.

I would just find another job… God I hate job hunting. I'd literally rather die than go through that.

I ran my hand through my brown hair pulling the old hair tie free and looking at the little smiling skulls.

The urge to throw it away struck me. It was childish. That was what everyone told me. So what if my favorite color was black? If my favorite color was white, or yellow no one would ever comment on me wearing it all the time.

But oh no. Black is just too far! I could be worshiping the devil!

Even though I wore more crosses in my teens than even the most ardent church fanatics.

Pretty sure I still had the cute cross earrings in 'The Box.' As well.

But I shook it off. I had to pay my bills. I had to work. I couldn't do that anymore,

I walked to my white little four door sedan that was beaten and scarred from too many rocks in the road, but it was mine, and headed home.

I'll text Mark later to explain.

—--

"Yo! Victoria, you're home early." Another grating voice called out and I felt my shoulders slump just a tiny miniscule amount.

I plastered a fake smile on my face and turned to Amanda.

My neighbor was obsessed with gossip, and talking. And talking about Gossip.

God she liked to talk. Worse? She was a terrible fucking neighbor. God help me if I wanted to watch a movie or something after eight o'clock. I'd have the security guys knocking and request that I turn it down…

Even if it was basically inaudible to me sitting right in front of it.

"Yeah, work closed early." I lied to her, no intention of ever sharing my drama with her.

"Well, that's a shame, now you have to see the show." She commented cattily, and I turned to the road.

Yeah. It was a show, but I didn't mind it. A line of cars led by police cars clearing a path. Across the way right out of my apartment window I watched the large grass field and nice trees. Too bad it wasn't a park.

It was a Cemetery.

The line of cars were some poor recently dead. We got them all the time, but I usually missed the line since I got home late.

Ah well. Whoever it was, they had one up on me. They didn't have to work anymore.

Ah, that was some real envy I felt there.

Good thing I wasn't suicidal. Never liked the idea. Death was death, and life might suck but it was the only one I would get.

I ignored Amanda and headed inside. I wanted to crash into a nap, but first I had to text Mark… And probably do some job hunting?

"Meow!" I glanced down at the black cat with sharp eyes looking up at me. As she curled around my ankles in greeting.

"Hey Luna." I greeted her. Smiling at the Sailor Moon reference, I bent down and she let me pick her up, but not without a look as I settled her into my arms and then sat in my computer chair. Slowly I stroked her.

"That's a good girl."

—--

I was dozing when it suddenly happened.

I wheezed, as it felt like the gravity had just gotten a hundred times stronger, as something pressed down on me, squishing my weak mind into the floor.

But it was only an instant. I jerked up. Luna yowled as well, and I got up and stumbled around for a second, my heart screaming. In the distance I could hear shouts and screams from the apartment complex.

"L-Luna?" I asked, looking around, but saw her hiding under the bed, her eyes glaring hatred at everything.

But I was jittery and shaken. I couldn't hope to explain what I had just felt. What had just happened. A feeling I had never experienced, something I had no context for. My everything felt weak. Like I had been running until I couldn't anymore.

And then I saw it.

[Victoria Steel]
[Level 0]

Skills:

I blinked at the… Window? Words? No. No it was wrong. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to puke. The words weren't words. There wasn't any language I had ever seen, but I could read it, and it made me sick. The more I looked the more wrong it was. The letters weren't shaped right!

That wasn't a thing! Was it staring at me? Was it dripping blood, or was reaching for me?

I puked, bile and foulness escaping me as I hunched over. I hadn't even managed to reach for my trash.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck a duck!

I glanced up and it was there, but… Not.

I could sort of look away. Stop staring at it.

What the hell was happening?

Then a scream unlike the shouts and cries from before. One of fear, and then horror, and then pain.

My legs were shaking, and I felt weak and tired, like I could barely move, but I walked over to the window and as I opened it…

Oh.

Amanda.

That was Amanda… And that was Amanda… And that over there? Yep. That was a piece of Amanda. Along with all of Amanda's blood.

She was being hacked at by what looked like a rusted… Meat Cleaver? No, it was a sword, but too wide to really be called that. And I blinked.

I blinked again. I rubbed my eyes.

Looked at the little message and then looked away when the words looked back.

That was a Skeleton.

A walking, killing, hacking Amanda into pieces Skeleton…

What the fuck?

I heard shouts. The Mexican boys across the way. They were toughs. Definitely in a gang of some sort, but their mother, or Grandmother lived across the way, and so they were polite in this area.

They rushed out, holding baseball bats, and one had a tire iron.

The Skeleton sort of chittered at them, the noise making me jump as it clacked its teeth together.

Then it rushed them. Fast. Very fast. Not the slow ponderous steps of a Skeleton you'd expect.

It rushed them, and they fought.

And they died.

Their baseball bats did something. Cracked bone, and even broke a chunk off the skull, but it wasn't enough. It didn't stop.

The Cleaver was sharp, and they had meat.

They went down screaming from gouges in their flesh.

"Mijo! MY BABIES!" The old woman across the way screamed. She had been nice to me. Rolling her eyes at Amanda, and giving me some bomb Enchiladas more than once.

I reached out because… Fuck it. Why not? Shit was so weird, why shouldn't I grab my sword.

It wasn't really-real. A display piece. Just an old gift from my Grandfather to his Teenaged Granddaughter that liked swords and armor and stuff, but didn't have the money to really get into it.

It was blunt. But hell, it still had a point, and it was still a fucking long sword.

I winced at how rusty it was when I pulled it free, but then I ran. I rushed forward. The Skeleton noticed me, but it was damaged. It was slower. I didn't have a single idea how to wield a sword, and I wasn't a warrior woman.

So I just held it tight, raised it over my head and screamed as I brought it down onto the Skeletons head.

The steel was blunt, but it was still a blade.

It smashed through not just knocking a chunk from the skull, but breaking right in, and a moment after it did, the entire Skeleton collapsed.

The shriek of the blade hitting the concrete and bouncing off as I overswung made me wince, but the screams of pain and horror all around me meant I didn't even care.

The boys…

They weren't going to make it.

The Skeleton was dead. People were screaming, and I looked up something, instinctively making me look.

The Graveyard that had been clean grass and maintained trees wasn't that anymore.

A massive field of dead and dying grass and hordes of Skeletons wandered through it. I could see them through the dark because their eyes glowed and behind them was a massive structure. A castle, if it was made by someone insane.

Maybe some sort of Mausoleum? One big enough to be a Castle. Or something else. It reached out to touch the sky…

"Just fucking kill me already." I whispered realizing that something impossible had just happened.

—--

The Cops weren't coming. The Ambulance wasn't arriving. I think that was the moment it really struck me, that something had fundamentally changed forever.

I had done my best to help the boys, but they hadn't made it. And now I was covered in blood, holding a blunt display sword that wasn't even something cool like Anduril, or Frostmourne, and there were literal Skeletons walking around a few hundred feet from me.

Thank fuck there was a massive gothic fence keeping them from me.

Although the big fuck off huge gate with Gargoyles on each side made me really fucking nervous, because the Skeleton that had gotten out, had come out from somewhere.

There were too many people around. Chattering and screaming as they saw the boys. The second floor people looked down at the massacre, and that was the best that I could call it.

But I didn't want to look at them. I didn't want to hear them. I just wanted… An explanation? To make sense of it all? I felt disjointed and barely there. Dissociating maybe? That was a thing, right?

I looked towards the only thing I might get answers from.

The Skeleton was still just… There.

I was tempted to try and smash it up more just to make sure it wouldn't like… Get up.

I wandered over and nudged it with the sword and slumped a bit when it didn't move.

Man if it had just gotten up and murdered me, that would have solved a lot of my problems.

Instead I looked at the skull… The skull that still had some lights still!

I yelped and jumped away pointing the blade, but the light wasn't the dark green and black flames that poured out of the Skeletons eye sockets from before.

It was kinda white?

I nudged it, and relaxed a bit as the skull moved away the light didn't… What the fuck?

It was just… Floating there. A little white light. Like a tiny glow bug. I shouldn't, but fuck it right? I reached out and touched it.

[XP Gained]

The words embedded into my head and I screamed.

The weakness that had struck me since whatever happened happened, suddenly burned, and burned and burned.

I managed to look at my hands and see the white light burned up my hands, a fire of light flowing over me, until it rushed over my face.

Then it was over, and I was gasping and shuddering. Tears flowed down my cheeks, and snot dribbled over my lips.

I was on my knees and shuddering and whimpering, and just… Fuck this.

I got up on shakier legs than ever before and walked back inside my apartment slamming the door behind me.

—--

An attempt at a shower that didn't work any more. Which really wasn't good. And then just wiping my face with a towel, and changing clothes, cleaning up the vomit from before and I felt… Normal. Ish. Heavy on the Ish.

I was okay. Forget the blood on me. I was fine! Fine.

Everything was fine.

God fucking kill me now.

"Meow."

"I know Luna. This sucks." I spoke to her, even if that wasn't what she wanted.

She had licked at my bloody jeans a bit, but it was obvious she hadn't enjoyed it and wanted something.

Fuck it. I got up and after shuffling a bit, pulled out the cat food and gave her some.

At least one of us should be comfortable.

My eyes glanced over.

[Victoria Steel]
[Level 1]

Skills:

The number had gone up. Ever since the fire I felt… Better. Like I wasn't being pushed down into nothing. I mean I even had the strength to clean up my own vomit.

What the fuck was happening?

I got up unsteadily and… I had to ask. Gather information. Too much was happening. I made for the door and stopped as my hand touched the doorknob…

Reaching out I grabbed the still bare blade I had dropped on my couch.

This was my Comfort Sword. No, I didn't have the Comfort animal vest, but I promise he doesn't bite…

"Heh. So fucking stupid." I chuckled to myself. Besides, Luna was my Comfort Animal.

But I was still keeping the damn thing close.

I opened the door, and saw that I hadn't been alone in thinking it. People milled around. The boys had formerly white sheets over their bodies. No sign of the nice Granny.

I looked to the people. Some were trying their phones, but not seeming to get anywhere… I hadn't even thought to try my phone… Or the TV?

I went back in and turned it on, only to get static.

Fuuuck. That's not good.

Back outside, I got plenty of looks. Questions on everyone's lips about what had happened, but I didn't have the answers.

"Does anyone else have the little… Floating screen of horror?" I called out, and got plenty of nods and shivers of dread.

Okay. So I wasn't alone… This wasn't just me. It was everyone. I looked over the people, and… Everyone looked tired. Not like oh god I'm scared, tired.

But actually dead on their feet, having trouble moving around tired.

The pressure from before. I looked at my screen.

Level 1…

I ignored the questions sent my way. Or the scared conversations about the police, or Army coming to help.

Instead I walked away. Towards the street.

The sidewalk still looked normal, and so did the street. But… The street wasn't that long. I looked down, and instead of seeing the line after lines of houses and things. I just saw an empty road, and then at the very edge of my vision what I thought was the apartment complex that had been touching ours.

I looked the other way. Far away I saw a house. Yep. Everything was still there, but farther apart. Then I looked at the Cemetery. One of the Skeletons was looking at me, from the other side of the fence. Glaring at me, with the promise of death.

It was glaring at me. Just what I needed a fucking asshole pile of bones giving me the stink eye.

"Fucker." I growled out, glares and hatred, and disrespect, and just everything. "This is a shitty day. Fucking awful, and you have the fucking balls to glare at me?" I hissed at him, and gripped my sword.

I looked over the Fence the Skeleton couldn't fit through… It wasn't climbing over or anything… Fuck it. I charged. My body moved easily and I charged right until the edge of the Fence and thrust my sword through the gap.

The point was less blunt than the blade itself, and it crashed right through the skull skewering the stupid glaring fucker on my blade, and I tugged it out and ran backwards a few steps.

I watched as the Skeleton crumbled… I got it?

Waiting a minute I raised my sword.

"FUCK YEAH! LET'S GO!" I roared out. Wow. Killing fuckers that pissed you off was super cathartic.

I should just do that more oft- No, bad Vicky. You can't kill people even if you really want to.

Slowly I inched forward not seeing any of the Skeletons approaching. I touched the fence.

It felt cold to the touch, but… It was real.

Then a message popped up, just like when I touched the White Light.

[Graveyard of the Endless Tide. Difficulty: Impossible]
[Next Monster Tide: 23:15]

I looked at the thing and just… Fuck it. Ignore the Eldritch Whispers. Focus on the information…

[Graveyard of the Endless Tide. Difficulty: Impossible]
[Next Monster Tide: 23:14]

As I looked at it. The number suddenly went down… Oh. That was a countdown… Fuck. A twenty four hour countdown? That… Tracked…

Forty-five minutes.That was about how long it had been since the Skeleton attacked.

Ah.

"Oh sure. Murder us, but let's be fucking civil about it and give us a fucking timer! Piece of SHIT!" I yelled and nearly swung my sword but stopped.

I needed my sword. What the fuck was I supposed to do if I didn't have a weapon?

I swallowed my anger and brought the sword down, checking it over. Wincing at the chip in the tip, probably from the concrete earlier.

Then I looked through the Fence and saw it. A little White Light.

That hurt last time, but… I felt stronger now.

I could probably reach it? I double checked to make sure there wasn't something about to reach out to grab me, and reached in through the bars. Nothing weird happened, and I relaxed as I pulled my hand out to make sure I was okay. Then I reached in and touched the light.

"Fffff uck!" I cursed as the flame flowed up my arm. That stung! But I stilled. That's all it had done. Like… Stretching a muscle. It wasn't as bad the second time.

Checking my little… Note? Character sheet? What the hell was I going to call it? I noticed I was still just Level 1.

So… I would need more?

I looked through the bars and didn't see any other Skeletons by the Fence… "Shit." I hissed and slumped against the bar's head resting against the cool iron, which is the only reason I noticed it.

Under the Skeleton there was something…

I reached out, and couldn't reach it, the bones on top were just at my fingertips. So I grabbed my sword and used the hilt to push the bones away and move.

A tome? A big ass book. I nudged it closer and closer checking for Skeletons constantly, and just managed to snag a finger into the little leather strap holding it closed.

Pulling it up I nearly dropped it all over again because.

That was some super Goth tier shit. Bloody symbols covered it, and burned into the front of it was a Skull.

"Fuck it. We Goth today." I decided and popped the leather strap. Would I get some actual information about what was happening from a random Skull book found in a magical Graveyard?

[Would you like to learn Skill: Necromancy (Novice)]

I looked at the message for a while, and looked past it at the pages of the book written in a language and symbols completely foreign to me.

"What's the worst that could happen?"

I accepted.