The Warped Worlds[]
“Small child are you lost?”
I woke up to find myself lying on the floor of an old timey looking train carriage. Where was I? Why aren’t I in my bed, asleep? I thought to myself looking around not noticing the woman in front of me.
“Dear? Can you not hear me?” The woman's voice echoed through the carriage as I looked up to see a terrible sight.
“Uh-.. uh-m.. Y-yes I can hear you..” I looked up to see a normal waitress but the head of a cockatoo in a birdcage. She helped me up and I kept staring at the strange head.
“I advise you not to stare, I get it my head is a weird one.” The Waitress chuckled and walked on to assist others. I stood up and looked around seeing other people just like the Waitress, but different? I kept looking until a person, who looked to be the age of 24 caught my eye. Their head was well, an eye weirdly enough. The person looked at me as I did them, they stared at me in confusion then a cloud of gray formed in their hand and a book appeared. They frantically searched in the book, then stopped, and looked at the book then back at me.
“C'mere kid, we’ve gotta hide your face!” They whispered to me as they looked around then gestured for me to join them in the small room. I got up and sat down next to them. They quickly rose out of their chairs, looked out of the carriage door left and right then shut and locked it.
“Ok, where did you come from and why are you on this train?” The eye said, I wasn’t paying attention. I was looking outside at the scenery, but It wasn’t normal. The outside was space except how could you breath?
“KID! Pay attention!” They snapped at me and I turned around, “Ok, my name is Iris, who are you and why are you here?”
“I'm Jessie and I don’t know how I got here..” I responded, staring at Iris.
“Uh what are you- ow.. Ow! Stop that!” Iris put a hand on their big eye and gestured for me to stop staring.
“Why, what did I do?” I turned my attention to something else.
“You stared! When human children stare at people with an eye like me you hurt us!” Iris cried and rubbed their eye with their sleeves.
“Sorry! Sorry!” I said, still staring at the floor. Iris paced back and forth in front of me.
“So where am I exactly?” I looked out the train window, the scene was space, but not regular space.
“Your on the Train of Birds right now, this train is headed to Zenuth (z-ee-n-uth),” Iris sat down and rubbed their eye then said, “It's a big city with lots of people so DON’T GET LOST.”
I thought about seeing my family again, I pinched myself trying to claim consciousness again
thinking it was all a dream. I then looked up and saw, it wasn't a dream. I caught a glimpse of Iris’s
book, the page was on a horrific monster named a Barbling.
“What's a Barbling..?” I asked Iris, they quickly snapped their book shut and glared at me.
“They are monsters that deceive you with money then take your eyes and eat it,” They sighed, “Barblings are just neutral versions of Gravecats.”
“What are Gravecats?” I looked at Iris, a terrible look shot across their face.
“Gravecats are a skinny like creature that feed on the dead, can smell and hear very well, and are very violent. Gravecats are deadly, unless you befriend one, then your lucky.” Iris began, “Gravecats were kept in a prison like place called The Cell before figured out how to escape.”
“How did they escape?” I asked Iris, they just shook their head and looked off. Iris then stood up and rummaged through the storage compartment above the seat. Iris then took out a box and gave it to me.
“Put the box on your head, we can’t let people know about you being human.” They watched as I was putting the box over my head. My head was in the box but I could see through it clearly, like glass. How? I thought.
“Yes, I know, It's cool and all, but keep it on.” Iris then closed the compartment and sat down. The train made a sudden stop and a ring came over the intercom.
BING-BONG!
“Hello passengers, this is your conductor speaking, we have just arrived in Zenuth, please exit the train.” The conductor's voice echoed throughout the train as Iris grabbed her luggage and me then raced out of the train. The train station was nostalgic, it looked like the 80s mall from back home… but runned down. All around me I saw people with clocks, monitors, and all sorts of things for heads, even a jar of dirt! The music that played was simple, but again, nostalgic.
“Cmon, we can get a simple room at the Infinite Hotel.” Iris dragged me along through the trainstation and out the door. Zenuth wasn’t what you expected.. It was well runned down, and the outside of the train station was a warehouse, how..? I thought while rubbing my head. The streets looked empty.
“Oi, kid!” Iris shook me around and the outside of Zenuth didn’t look so bad anymore. It was 80s themed again.
“Stop daydreaming and get up!” Iris yelled at me lying on the ground, I must have passed out. A lady with the head of a floating cross came up. She looked to be a nurse, or something around that.
“Are you two alright?” The lady came over and helped me up.
“Yes, we are fine.” Iris says, jabbing me with their elbow.
“Yes, I just got a little woozy.” I say to the lady. She walked off and Iris glared at me.
“What was that?!? The box almost came off your head!!” Iris was furious, they took my wrist and dragged my sorry butt all the way to the Infinite Hotel. The outside looked just like the train station, until Iris pulled me inside, it looked like a grand ballroom. There were no people as Iris dragged me inside. The lights suddenly flickered like a withering candle and then someone appeared before us.
“GAH!” I stumbled back almost stuffing the brown tile when they appeared. Iris caught me and I stood right up, embarrassed. Iris glared at me, my box must have almost come off.
“Oh! Didn’t mean to scare you sir!” The man had the voice of a commercial, his head was some playing cards that were floating above his sliced neck. One of the cards was on the floor so I picked it up. The man chuckled when the card floated like some sort of butterfly back in place and led us to a reception desk down the hall. Something felt…. off when we walked through the halls, like something was watching us. I stopped for a moment and looked back, I heard a whisper from what seemed to be two bright eyes, then I saw some kind of tall monstrosity was watching and following us. I held my breath and stared at the creature as it stood there watching my every move.
“Kid. Cmon.” Iris called from down the hall, I quickly ran back to join them. The lights were still flickering, I soon started noticing the stains of brown and red down the halls, the carpets were oddly moist too. Then I looked closer and the stains were a blood color, I looked on the walls, playing cards and other objects were pasted on the walls, like paintings. One of the clocks on the wall was dripping a dark shade of red, I just stared at it for a bit then kept walking.
“Here it is! Your room!” The man gave us two keys and then mumbled under his breath, “Goodluck sleeping-...” .
“Could you repeat that?” I asked him before entering the room, a worried look plastered on my face. He chuckled and walked away. Iris shrugged and unlocked the room. I took a deep breath and walked into the room. The room was clean but the sheets were a shade of red and there were cards stuck in the walls. They were dyed red too. I stopped at the bed in the middle of the room and fell on it, passing out from exhaustion.
The noise of the ventilators turning on woke me up. I gazed around the room, it must have been 1 am, then my eyes stopped at a black liquid leaking from the ceiling.
“Uhm-.... Iris?” I said, still eyeing the leak.
“Yeah what is-....” Iris looked up, half asleep, to the liquid and stopped, “We gotta leave… now…”
“Why…?” The color from my face drained as Iris answered me,
“...” Iris didn’t answer me, just put a hand over my mouth as something with a large mouth and no eyes crawled out of the dark ooze.
“Mmhmm!!” My yelling was muffled as I tried taking their hand off my mouth, not paying attention to the abnormity in front of me. Then I looked up to see the creature I almost screamed but I couldn’t something told me I just couldnt.
[still writing this :) ]
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