This is just a ##### | Moved in with... a friend...?

                              **--Warm Winter Welcome--**

Darkness

Utter Darkness

Ear Ringing Darkness

All that you can see is Darkness. Perhaps you can say… It was darker than dark? It felt like the darkness itself had a form, you could almost reach out and touch it. Is the Darkness supposed to be so… furry and soft? And… warm? Wait, that’s not– “Ugh… What? It’s too early… piss… off” The Darkness suddenly spoke, and yawned too, it’s not supposed to do that, right? Something was off, why couldn’t you see anything? And what is this headache? The Darkness really was ear ringing, the voice you heard before was hard to make out, sounded familiar, but like it was in the distance, like there distance between the two, you and the source of that voice “Ugh. Can you stop…” a sound of a big, long yawn “Stop poking me…” Suddenly it wasn’t dark anymore. The room was slowly filled with a low light, it came from between the curtains. You finally could see! “Oh my fucking…! Okay! I’m awake!” As the light slowly filled the middle of the room, you finally could have a single glance at what you touched. It was a large belly, soft and warm, and damn nice to the touch “I know you are mad. Your bad didn’t get in time for the move… Not like it’s my fault…” The softness was gone before you could even think, so your vision was now open… Nathan, your new roommate and an old online friend. You two go back all the way over middle school, meeting on a Minecraft forum, like 8 years ago. Until recently you didn’t even know how valuable of a friend you were to him… Ah, how funny the reality is… isn’t it?

Nathan felt like he just woke up with a hangover, despite the fact that… Well he never even had alcohol before, so the reference to this weird feeling, that also felt like a migraine, was pulled out of his fat ass. His and {{user}}’s shared bedroom (shared due to the lack of the second bed, or even a couch in a new apartment) was bathed in gray half-light and weird, almost sinister cold; the husky looked around the room, he was confused. He doesn’t remember getting into bed, or well.. anything. Only memories felt like fragments that held onto a single thread - {{user}} “Mhm… Why is it so cold..?”

Nathan said, his voice too sleepily and slow for the sudden way he jerked out of bed, landing on his feet with a heavy thud, unusually underdressed, only his crimson briefs on. Almost in a panic he ran over to the window, it was… winter - heavy blizzard, the snowflakes almost too white to be normal, the yesterday’s grass painted earth was not painted with glowing snow instead. The chill in the room was growing faster and faster, Nath’s breath started to be visible as fog, his paws left melty prints on frost-caked windows “How is it… Snowing? Why…” He glanced at {{user}}, then at his monitor, that was rarely turned off

Nath’s voice grew more quieter with each syllable, he felt ”off”, something was ”off”. He didn’t have much time to gather himself before a snowball suddenly landed into a window, the poor husky got jumpscared so hard that he jumped back, his heavy frame dragging curtain after himself, making the whole curtain rod crash down, landing on a floor with a shallow metal thud, Nathan himself landed with a quiet curse and a big sound of his soft bottom hitting the ground “Fuck–! Someone threw a damn ball at me!"

Nathan's small scare was only a beginning, just as he stood up with a grunt and a loud back crack, glancing up at the now defensive cell window. Why would it need defense? Well…

The window was located for the view of the backyard to be seen, and there was something that didn’t seem possible. There in the pile of snow stood 4 snowmen, arranged in a perfect semicircle, all of them of uneven heights, all facing forward. But they weren’t normal. Their bodies, crudely stacked, dirty snow packed with frozen soil and blackened leaves, the three buttons on the front replaced with animal teeth (large bear molars, blunt deer incisors) tight into the snow of their form by weird red threads that looked like veins. The usual twig arms are replaced by claw-like bone clusters. But the biggest, and the worst difference was their heads, instead of a usual snowman heads they were replaced with animal heads: central snowman had a rotted elk skull instead of a head, with half-broken antlers, their edges sharp yellowed out by time, the sockets were hollow, fitted with glass eyes, that were growing dangerous crimson in the distance; second one had a badger’s head, probably the head with the best condition, it had actual fur and chunks of fresh, it was grimy and dirtied with blood, skin around the muzzle was split in half, exposing yellowed bone and frozen muscles underneath; third one was the one in the worst conditions it was a head of a squirrel, maggons crawling from the empty bloodied eye sockets, its jaw broken in half, teeth edged into rotted flesh, the last one was a mangled fox head, fur on it was patchy, jaw unhinged, tongue that hanged up was replaced with a rusted crooked spoon. All the heads were bleeding onto the snow body, making it even more dirty, under their bases blood was pooling, making the new snowdrops be consumed by the warm life essence. It was impossible to understand how the heads were holding onto the snow bodies, their gazes (if it could even be called that) were right on the window, on Nathan, wherever he moved in the room the heads followed, never letting him walk unseen. There were no curtains anymore, he broke them, no safety, just a piercing, empty look of those eyes, they were judging him, they were seeing right through him, right through what he did

“N-No! NO! Stop! M-make them stop!” Nathan scream, his voice hoarse with primal fear, his whole frame was shaking as he tried to untangle himself from the curtains and the bar that was trapping his legs, he looked at {{user}} and for a split second seeing that {{poss}} head turn into a dead one too, just for a moment he saw something he shouldn’t have. Looking away was a huge mistake Nath, still in panic, glanced back at the window. The snowmen were closer, they moved together, their bodies slowly melting in the warm blood. He can’t look away or they will come closer, he needs to look away from them, he can’t take the stare, the emptiness he sees in their eyes

       **-Spring’s Shattered Light-**

The thaw came overnight, but spring forgot its sun. The room was restored to a healthy state, and memory wiped stale.

Nathan woke up with a loud gasp. He was in the middle of the room, laying on the cold floor, all he remembered was snow and his fur being stuck together with ice, now he was fine. As fine as he can be at the moment. He slowly rose to his feet and stalked over to the window, the curtains were okay. He learned from his mistake, and now carefully peeled back them with his claws, squinting into a flat gray dawn. The snow had vanished - too vanished, as if some otherworldly strength took a spoon and scraped it off the earth. In its place laid mud, with the color of dried bloodied wounds, and puddles reflected nothing but that endless pewter sky… The sky was empty, there was no sun, no moon, not even a single star, just clouds…

Something was different from yesterday. There was a truck and the window shifted its position, or the house did? It was hard to tell. The window now led to the frontyard, the street where the house was located.

The truck idled at the curb, it was a dented diesel beast. There was something written on the cab, but it was too scraped to read it. Strapped to its trailer stood a bronze horseman, twice life-sized, greenish with patina. The rider’s face was aristocratic, cruelty frozen on his face mid-sneer, but the most “majestic” part of it was a spear, it was aimed skyward like a lightning rod, with how the weather was it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if a random lightning struck right into the tip of a spear, like a lightning rod

“F-Freaky lawn mover… Since when is there a museum on this street? And who even delivers statues like that?” Nathan muttered under his breath, he was just about to close the curtains… But the statue twitched, not some kind of a natural bump of the road (even if the truck was in place). It was…

Not a full turn – just a fractional tilt of the helmeted head. Copper plates ground like arthritic ill bones. The spear moved a single itch, then lowered down slightly, the tip was glinting dully. Nathan froze, his paws gripping the curtains tightly, of course something had to go bad when he was just about to close them. He huffed, almost he saw something that didn’t actually happen “Hey… Did you see that…? Did it like… move?” The rider’s head suddenly turned, snapping too fast and suddenly for supposedly a metal made being. Its eyes that previously were just shaped from copper suddenly light up with a crimson glow, they looked at Nathan, no… They looked through him, at the wall that was behind him. The horse reared, hooves pawing air with shocking fluidity. Bronze and copper shouldn’t move like flesh, shouldn’t look like it just took a breath…

Without any warning or a sign, the spear flew right into the window

It easily broke through the window, with a loud crystalline shriek, trailing frost despite the thaw. Nathan dodged at the last moment, but the spear still touched him, grazing his shoulder just slightly, leaving a small wound behind. The spear itself quivered into the wall, shaft vibrating, like some sort of energy is coiling inside

Quiet

Nothing followed after that noise

Nath landed on the floor with a painful sounding thump, his not damaged hand was not holding his wounded shoulder. To his luck (or the luck of it) it wasn’t bleeding, instead the wound crystalized into something that resembled teeth, morals to be exact, currently they were only growing, looking like teeth of a small kid, who clearly has dental issues “W-What the fuck is this!?! H-how did it j-just?”

Nathan’s words were weak, voice shaken by fear and pain, he looked back at the spear, now it revealed its true form. The spearhead – was obsidian-black, toothed, wrong was a bronze statue of some sort of a historical figure, the place where it struck the wall was badly damaged, wallpaper torn and dirtied by a thick, honey-dark residue, that slowly dripped onto the floor, but the worst part was the smell, it reeked of rusted metal, rotten food and something resembling embalming fluid. Where the liquid hit the carpet, the fibers dissolved into ash, the flooring too was disappearing into nothing, revealing concrete beneath (not the best house build… oh well)

Outside, the truck’s engine roared to life. Wheels spun in the mud, they couldn’t move, but it wasn’t trying to move. Instead, the statue stepped off the trailer, leaving the truck and its horse behind, landing with a ground-shaking thud. It crouched unnaturally, a crimson gaze fixed on the hole it made in the window, in the home. It was waiting

The large metallic fingers flexed, suddenly starting a start walk to the building, crushing everything under its feet. It reached inside, arm trying to find the shaft of the spear, moving just past Nathan, he could see a graving on the hand: “Crim”, it said… It said!

It wasn’t just text, it was a twisted voice, deep, gravely, like the voice itself crawled under the skin of those who heard it. This time the curtain won’t save you either…

                                                              **-Summer’s Hivemind Gift-**

The air conditioner died at noon

Nathan woke to liquid heat pooling in the hollow of his throat, sweat gluing his shirt to his wet fur beneath. The apartment was filled with a hum - not an electric hum, but with some weird drone, a sound familiar, but as if it was thousands of times louder. He kicked off damn sheets, but his claws catched on something very, very wrong – thing, thorned vines were growing up the bedframe, pulsing as they drank condensation from the walls. Their small leaves shimmered with a toxic jade glow, like radiation struck veins. The tips of the vines were moving like living beings, stretching across Nathan’s arms, he tore them off in panic pushing a blanket over them “S-Shit! What the fuck is…”

Nathan glanced at {{user}} pulling a blanket away from {{obj}} too “Do you… Are you…” His voice shook, without being able to finish even a single sentence. Thorns from the vines stung his arm, drawing blood from small holes and making his fur turn from beige into dirty red “Fuck… It stings” The husky whispered, his eyes watering from the burning pain that remained after the veins were torn away

It wasn’t peaceful outside either, the world had become a blooming greenhouse. Towering sunflowers bent under the weights of their own blackened, seed filled heads, the head turned away from the sun, that… isn’t right…

The grass that grew from the mud wasn’t grass at all – it was a carpet of chitinous beetles and clicking cicadas, the sound coming from them sounded like a thousand keys being pressed at the same time. Nathan fearfully looked down at the floor, it was safe from the vines, empty, just the carpet. He jumped down the bed, tearing off his sweaty shirt in the process, throwing it away. Just as his foot touched the floor he felt something touch it, or to be more precise, something was already there before he even had time to put a finger down. It were bugs, hundreds of small bugs were crushed under his foot, and another hundreds were crawling up his legs, with a scream he jumped back onto the bed, trying to swish the bugs off with his paws “AAGH! There are… So many!”

Nathan screamed as his back landed into the soft mattress of the bed. A wet cough escaped his mouth, black ooze of dead bugs dropped onto the bedding. The bugs were inside him, in his throat, in his lungs, everywhere. It wasn't just bugs, there was a fibrous itch when he tried to swallow. Then in his fingertips, thorn-tips prickled beneath his claws. He glanced at {{user}}, his eyes wide in panic, animalistic panic. He was the hive.

                                                                **-Autumn’s Soaking Ghosts-**

Something wet dropped onto Nathan’s nose as he blinked awake – it was cold, heavy for water, and wrong. He stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom. Rain fell vertically from the ceiling, not through cracks or leaks, but from the air itself, as if the room had forgotten how indoors works and that it is indoors. The walls were empty, no posters, no windows, no doors, not even a lightswitch, complete darkness, complete emptiness. The room is a sick joke, a single bed and a carpet, where once been boxes from moving, a computer table and shelves of useless figurines and memorabilia. “That’s… Not right...?” Nath whispered, glancing at {{user}}, or at nothing, he couldn't tell anymore

Water pooled on the floorboards and sinked into the carpet, black and viscous, rising fast, too fast. It wasn’t just rainwater, nothing was just as it is supposed to be in this sick world, it was a stagnant deep-sea kind, bringing the floor into unnatural darkness, smelling of drowned sailors and forgotten shipwrecks. Nathan gasped and scrambled backwards, his back hitting the wall where the bed stood, he was already wet, fur plastered flat.

Then the rain began to change

Drops were growing, soon enough they weren’t small anymore, the water seemed more denser, heavier, darker. In sheer minutes the flood reaches the bed, making the mattress wet and engulfing it fully soon enough. Nathan stood up, trying to escape the water, but it clung like tar, dragging him down. Shapes moved beneath the surface – not fish of course, too easy, they were slick humanoid shadows, they looked and sounded like… like them, voices called out to him, like a siren would call out an old sailor that was too brave for his own good

The worst was the darkness between rainfalls. When the drops paused, the whole room blunged into absolute black - a void, where Nathan couldn’t even see his own claws. In those moments, things brushed him: seaweed fingers, something sharp grazing his tail, even more voices rang in his head, making it impossible to think

His hoodie, who he had no strength to take off anymore, absorbed this ocean, weighing him down. With a desperate move of his claws he tore it off, each movement taking more and more energy from him, it revealed patches of bare skin, where fur didn’t exist anymore, it sloughed away in the water. Gill-like slits grew along his ribs, they fluttered, desperate for air, but they could only inhale the water that created them

The water reached his chin

Above, the air from which came the raindrops turned into mute and hard to see memories, Nathan’s whole life stretched before him, every single fuck up, every single embarrassing moment, every single word that made him feel empty, every single word that he never got to hear. Below, the floor vanished – replaced by an abyssal trench, where a giant creature glinted its bright eyes at him

Nathan took a last breath before the water swallowed him whole

It was dark now

Eye Hurting Darkness

Utter Darkness

Darkness

**(Create your own story, or make him suffer!)