Robert Vlaho
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[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 7 - Unwanted Admirer
🕑 Added 2023-07-06 21:45:00 +0000 UTCFreddy appeared back in reality, and the first thing he did was the most rational thing he could think of at the moment. “Holy fucking shit! Jesus Christ! Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew!”
So this was what the book meant. Shit like that existed everywhere around him!? And how was he supposed to sleep at night knowing that creepy bullshit like that was hiding behind his garbage can!?
And the whispering under his bed… Oh God, was that some other creepy shit too?
He got off the bed and kicked at the air apprehensively, fearing that he might touch something invisible. After finally confirming what was relatively common sense, or rather, that he couldn’t touch anything that lived within the netherecho, he finally calmed down just a little bit.
There wasn’t really a real need to enter the netherecho within his apartment. Low-level wild vestiges like that appeared everywhere, so when he needed to find some, he could just go to the park or somewhere else, literally wherever was fine.
But… why!? Couldn’t it be like cute kittens or something? Did it have to be a bloody skeleton!?
He groaned in displeasure as he plopped back onto his bed. Screw therapy. He should get an exterminator or something—
“Please… come back,” something whispered into his ear.
“Oh, Jesus fucking—!” Freddy jumped off the bed, heart beating wildly. Did he just imagine that?
“Oh, please tell me I just imagined that…! Please,” he begged as he stood frozen, waiting for something to happen. “Oh, thank God—”
“Please… master.”
“Oh fuck fuck fuckity shit, it’s climbing on top of me! Aaaaah!” He yelled as he waved his hands sporadically, trying to slap an invisible skeleton out of the air.
Freddy took his shirt off and threw it at the corner of the room, then he moved behind the trash can, using the garbage bin as a shield against the creepy thing.
As he stood there, frozen, he couldn’t see anything anywhere. Although rationally speaking, he knew he was perfectly safe, this wasn’t the time to be rational. That thing fucking spoke to him! Even though he was out of the netherecho!
‘Think, Freddy, think!’
In this situation, the best thing to do would be to just freakin’ run and look for someone to help him. But what if that thing was still crawling somewhere on his body?
That didn’t matter… Oh, but fuck, it did! Who could say it couldn’t affect him otherwise if it could speak to him? For some reason, this creature possessed the ability to, at least partially, affect reality outside the netherecho.
If it was still latched onto him, and if it decided to attack him, who could say that it couldn’t hurt him? But… if it could affect him, then maybe he could also affect it in turn. As long as he could confirm where it was, he could potentially throw it off his body before running away—if he hadn’t thrown it off already.
‘Ok, Freddy, in and out,’ he thought. ‘Just in and out. Enter that place, and when you confirm where it is, leave instantly. Ok? Got it? Good.’
Since he had already entered it twice, appearing within the ethercosm was relatively easy. With the help of his imagination, a door appeared again. This time, however, Freddy was standing upright. So, with some deliberation, he ensured that his projection would appear on top of his head, where he was most likely to be safe. Hopefully, at least.
Pushing his anxiety aside, he focused on the door. In and out. In and out. With a thought, he appeared inside and—
Suddenly, a powerful jet of water struck his projection, and he flew at the wall, slammed into it, and plummeted to the ground behind his garbage can.
‘What… just happened?’
He couldn’t move.
“Waaah! You brought it back here! You stupid stupid stupid! Waaah!”
‘Ah… I see.’
If there was a stupid idea championship, Freddy would claim the first prize with this move. Panic got the better of him, and rather than making what he knew was a good decision, he chose to be an idiot instead.
Barely lifting his tiny head, he spotted the massive bloody skeleton peeking behind the garbage can. This was it. The road disappeared beneath his feet, not even at the beginning of his journey.
It was only appropriate, though… A chance like this? For him? It had simply been too good to be true. It was only a matter of time until something took it away.
The crimson skull of the giant apparition turned to face the glassy orb on the fridge.
“What are you looking at!? Waaaaah! You’re scary! I don’t like you!”
Then, the skeleton slowly began walking toward the fridge and climbing it. It wasn’t long until it made it up, and when it did…
It grabbed the glassy orb vestige like a ball and lifted it into the air. It cried, yelling at the skeleton to make it stop, but it was too late.
Smash.
Smash.
Smash.
The skeleton repeatedly slammed it into the fridge, cracking its body until it shattered and dissipated into motes of flowing blue lights. Then, the bloody thing grabbed a fist full of those motes as it jumped back down and walked over to Freddy.
Once it approached him, it somewhat forcefully showed the wisps at his projection, and with a slight burst of will, he absorbed them into his body.
His projection rapidly recovered from the damage it had suffered, and he felt a change occur. The pure, unblemished white of his star morphed, adopting the splotchy blue color that rapidly became the primary hue of his core.
The instant Freddy’s projection recovered, he rushed past the skeleton, touched his body, returned to the real world, jumped over the trash can, and rushed to get out of the apartment. However, as his hand rested on the doorknob, he felt it shaking.
“Shit!” He yelled as he once again returned to netherecho, this time standing on his shoulder where he could use his head as a shield if any of the other vestiges tried anything.
The skeleton stood below his body, grabbing at his clothes to try and climb up again.
Freddy waved his hands at it and screamed. “No! Bad skeleton! Get off me immediately!”
Despite being the one to dish out the command, he was still surprised when the skeleton nodded, released its grip on his body, and began walking back away from him.
‘This is crazy!’
Why was this thing listening to him? And why did it save his life?
When it came to vestiges, they weren’t truly conscious and didn’t have what one could call ‘free will.’ They acted obsessively, latching onto an idea and following that concept with every action they took.
And for this bloody skeleton, for whatever reason, the idea to follow Freddy had become its paradigm.
Wisps were the lowest natural form of ether construct, and once enough gathered, they formed a vestige. Vestiges could grow in power to become remnants, and those could eventually become spirits and, finally, eidolons.
Judging by size and power, this thing wasn’t a vestige. It was a remnant. These things were supposed to be pretty damn rare, and they were only meant to appear within extremely ether-dense environments. So why was it here?
Freddy suddenly realized. It hadn’t appeared here. It must have manifested back when he was caught in the break and then somehow followed him home…
‘The clothes!’
Either way, there was a more important thing to consider. Personified ether constructs, in any of their forms, always told the truth if asked.
So ask it he would. “You,” he called. “Do you… do you have any intention of killing me?”
“No,” it said. “Absolutely not, my god.”
‘Did that thing just call me its god?’
“Alright then… uh… why are you following me?”
It looked up to him. “I am bloodshed,” it declared. “And you are the one that sheds blood. I am convinced you are fated to bathe the universe in red, my everything.”
“… What?” Freddy asked, utterly bewildered at its words.
“Through bloodshed, you rejected death. Then you rejected peace, seeking violence in its stead,” it said. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Well… when it put it like that. If all that Freddy knew about himself were those two things, even he’d jump to some conclusions.
He wasn’t done asking it questions, but no matter how he phrased it, this thing didn’t seem to have any ill intent toward him. It was quite the opposite, actually. If anything, this remnant worshipped him.
Which left him with an important decision to make. What should he do? If he tried contacting authorities, he was confident they would get rid of it for free. Hell, he might even get paid for it. But was that worth doing?
No, a better question was whether that was the smart thing to do. This was a remnant. Meaning all it had said so far was the truth, and it would never change its opinion. That went against the very nature of personified ether constructs.
Before jumping to any rash decisions, he wanted to see this thing in action first. “My uh… minion! Yes! I give you a command!”
It bowed to him. “Anything, my lord.”
Freddy glanced around. “Get rid of all the other vestiges in this room!”
“As you wish.” The bloody skeleton was rather slow, and it ponderously walked toward the chest. It grabbed the ledge and slowly climbed up.
“Secrets! You are here for my secrets! Well, I can always appreciate a seeker of—” Before the chubby vestige could finish its sentence, the bloody skeleton smashed its head from above. And then again. And again.
With the fourth strike, it shattered its body into bits, and the vestige dissipated into a small cloud of colorful wisps.
Vestiges were tied to certain, frequently very specific concepts. And such concepts, more often than not, had an affinity to several different elements. This creature seemed to have been made of wood and metal ether, and the appropriate metallic and wooden splotches of color drifted away from where it stood.
The skeleton descended from the chest and walked over to the window.
“You cretin!” The vestige yelled. “Be you an ally of the searing—?” Yet again, before the creature could finish, the skeleton jumped up, grabbing its leg and pulling it down, smashing it into the floor and crushing it to pieces.
The vestige shattered into splotches of glassy, transparent stains and particles of flickering light.
“We must hurry! It is soon time—” The vestige that looked like a cartoony clock was picked up and smashed repeatedly against the wall, eventually shattering into what appeared to be nothing more than wisps of metal and crystal.
And finally, the skeleton bent down to reach under the bed.
‘Holy shit, what is that thing!?’
It pulled out what appeared to be a tiny boogeyman, a dark vestige with a terrifying outward appearance. It slashed and swung at the bloody skeleton, being the only vestige that had even put up a fight. But it was futile.
The skeleton opened its maw, far wider than Freddy expected it to be able to, and bit the small creature’s head off, which prompty dissipated into fluttering splotches of darkness. “That is all of them, my liege.”
‘This thing is freaking scary… But damn, is it efficient,’ he thought.
“Ah, yeah… g–good job, uh…”
Should he name the skeleton?
Before he could decide on anything, it turned and looked at him. “Bloodshed. I am bloodshed. So you can call me Bloodshed. Unless you wish to name me something else?”
“Uh, no, Bloodshed is fine for now,” he said. “Yeah, now, uh…” Freddy pondered what to do.
Should he make like a… corner for this thing? Just shove it under the bed? Ah, no, he might as well cuddle it to sleep every night!
Yeah. No way. Even if he were a hundred percent certain that it wanted to cause him no harm, there was no fucking way he could fall asleep with it in his room. So, he thought about it a bit and eventually landed on a conclusion.
There were no archs in this building other than him, and even if there were, he doubted they would constantly check the netherecho throughout the entire building. This meant he could hide this thing wherever he wanted.
Putting it in the middle of the hallway seemed unwise, and on the off-chance that someone did check the netherecho, he’d rather have no such secrets hanging out right in front of his door.
Locking it in the chest in his room was kinda creepy, so that wasn’t an option either.
Well, then… the toilet was out of the question for at least three reasons, so that wouldn’t do. What about the storage room on the first floor? He pondered that. Well, it was as fine an option as he could think of. Now, there was only the question of convincing the skeleton. Maybe he could bait it outside somehow?
“Hey, uh… Bloodshed?”
“What is it, my lord?”
“You know this apartment… it’s kind of tiny and suffocating and all that. Wouldn’t you want to be somewhere else?” He asked it respectfully.
“My liege,” it said. “Whatever you wish, say it. I will simply obey,” the skeleton clarified as if it could read Freddy’s mind.
“Oh,” he said. “Well, uh… okay then! Follow me.” And with that, Freddy left the netherecho.
Once he appeared in the real world, he opened the door, holding it like that to let the slow skeleton move outside.
A woman walked through the hallway, the same person he had accidentally jumpscared the other day, and she shot him a half-terrified half-concerned glance as she almost jogged down the stairs.
At this point, he realized that he was standing half-naked, holding his door open for no apparent reason.
‘Pff—! So judgemental! I’m just taking my invisible pet skeleton, Bloodshed, out for a walk! People nowadays, seriously…’
But yeah, he should probably at least put his shirt back on.
Freddy moved to the netherecho and back outside every time he needed to guide the skeleton further, and before long, they were inside the storage room on the ground floor of the building.
A few empty boxes were lying around, and Freddy got an idea. “Hey, Bloodshed. Can you get inside that box over there?”
The skeleton obeyed, and Freddy returned to reality, moving the box from where it stood to the other side of the room. Once he returned to the netherecho, he discovered that bloodshed was still in the cardboard container.
‘Huh… Neat. I can move it around more easily like this.’
He wondered what would happen if he crushed the box with the remnant in there, but that was an experiment for another day, and with a vestige he didn’t mind getting squashed.
“Hey, Bloodshed,” he asked, now back in the netherecho. “Do you mind staying inside this box?”
It again looked up at him with those creepy, empty eye sockets and muttered. “Anything you wish.”
“Alright then! That suits me just fine.”
Freddy closed the box, taping it shut. Then, he wrote ‘fragile’ on the side and top and put it on one of the shelves in a far corner.
And with that, he returned to his apartment and dropped to his bed. “Haha…” he chuckled. “Hahahahahahahaha!” Freddy laughed vociferously. “Holy shit, what even is my life anymore?”
In a few very eventful days, he had gone from a run-of-the-mill cashier to an arch that had tamed a fucking remnant! It felt so surreal that he didn’t know what to do anymore.
The longer this went on, the more he craved confirmation that this was real and that he wasn’t on some sort of acid trip. Lying on the bed, he couldn’t stop chuckling. His heartbeat sped up, and he felt himself breathing uncontrollably, but he was still cackling.
This was nothing, he thought to himself as he grabbed his shaking hand. He was just very excited. No, he couldn’t wait to continue! So, without hesitation, he returned to the netherecho again.
His room was now filled to the brim with countless specks of floating color.
Gathering could be done in two ways. He could simply sit and focus on thinking about water-related stuff, and eventually, he could vaguely sense any water wisps in the proximity and then slowly attract them to his body.
This was the go-to method for proper gathering. But, in his current environment, it was practically useless.
So, he resorted to the second, far more hands-on method—doing it manually.
One water wisp was flowing through the air to his side, and he reached for it to grab it. The moment he touched it, it required near to no effort to absorb it into his body.
‘Hmm…’
Now that he was observing its effect, that wasn’t particularly rewarding. If he were thirsty, that would be the equivalent of licking a drop of dew off a blade of grass. Maybe even less than that.
And there were very few water wisps in his vicinity. But, he didn’t need to focus on only them. Approaching a fluttering patch of darkness, Freddy restrained it, gripping it with both hands. Once he finally applied enough force, the wisp shattered, dissipating into ethereal white particles, most of which almost immediately disappeared.
The remainder, however, was absorbed directly into Freddy’s projection. Crushing a wisp to turn it back into unattuned ether rewarded him with less than a tenth of the benefit, but with no alternatives, it was better than nothing.
Suddenly, a powerful force began pulling Freddy’s projection back toward his body. No matter what he did, he felt powerless to resist it, and his legs moved on their own to return him to reality.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Hello!? Anybody in there?” A man’s voice came from outside Freddy’s door.
The young man was still shaking in his bed, but he forced it down as he got up to open the door.
Once he did, an onyx-haired man dressed in casual streetwear wearing a grey hoodie and black sweatpants greeted him. “Hey there, kid! Are you perhaps Freddy Stern?”
Comments
Beeees!
Wow, a real(ish) skeleton in the closet. Also maybe a good thing he moved it before spooky strong guy showed up
