Chapter Text
Elmsdale was a quiet town, one of the few in its area. The quietest towns often hold the darkest secrets, but the town held few. There would be an occasional crime or disappearance, but that was commonplace for most small towns. Its history stretched back just over a hundred years when the town was built upon natural ground to provide for the poor. Over the course of its life, the town had its share of incidents, but it was mostly nothing to be ashamed of. The town was very much alive and filled with various sorts of inhabitants. Shy folks, outgoing folks, humans, monsters; the town had a good variety. This was not always the case, but time does strange things to not only humans. Not much was offered in terms of recreation in modern Elmsdale, aside from the town park and golf course, but it still managed to keep itself tightly knit. The townsfolk would be there for one another as needed and were most appreciative of that fact.
Humans looked quite similar to one another, at least by comparison to monsters. Monsters took various forms, much like certain creatures found in the wild and in folklore. Despite their appearances, their walks and ways of life were not much different than that of humans. The two races would interact daily, work with one another, and enjoy the spoils of life without batting an eye. The town playground was often frequented by parents and children alike, as there was little else to do for those so young. While children in other parts of the world could sit inside all day with their electronic devices, Elmsdale was still a town of the past, keeping the old ways of life fresh. The evening sun would cast a vibrant light over the structures planted throughout the play area. Swings, slides, seesaws, jungle gyms, and a variety of other playground necessities stuck out from the wood chip covered ground. The chips often found themselves outside the wood lined exterior, in the shoes of children, and other times within the stomachs of those who knew no better. Benches were additionally planted around the playground perimeter.
Parents sat along the benches as they watched their children play. Or at least they should have been watching them. Several would often find themselves too involved with a book or their phone to pay them any mind. In a sense, they kept their children stuck with their generation’s way of social interaction while they moved on themselves. However, this did not stop their kids from having fun. They chased one another across the grounds of the area, played tag, bounced up and down on the seesaws, and took up most of the play structures. Some had two arms, some had no arms, some had skin, and others had scales; these differences did not matter to them. As long as they were having fun, that was all that mattered. It was as generic a playground as could be. At least the slides were not too hot to slide down, as it was late fall, nearing winter. As such, most people’s clothing was fit for the time of year.
As the children continued their activities, a father rested tensely on the bench. A human with brown hair, a red sweatshirt, and paint-stained jeans. He kept an eye on his own child, but his eyes were more drawn to the parents in the area. Specifically, the ones who were both present. An empty tear ripped itself from within his chest, for his other was no longer there. She would never have left him, but sometimes the choices made can be all or end all with life. Having to raise a child alone was hard enough, but it was far harder to explain to a child why she had no mother. He could not help but feel his eyes become a bit watery as the wound within his chest cut deeper and deeper. Wounds like that never truly heal, they simply scab. No matter how much one bandages them up, the most common of things can sometimes open them back up again. Out of the corner of his eye, he could make out a short, blue shape approaching him.
“Excuse me,” a coarse voice spoke, “Is everything alright, sir?”
He breathed quickly and wiped his eyes on his sweatshirt. He did not like people seeing him in this state, but one cannot always control when or where they might feel upset. Grief takes people whenever it wants and holds nothing back. His hazel eyes peered over to get a better look of who had spoken to him. Standing at the end of the bench was a short blue monster with stubby horns, a large single eye, and no arms. The man had not interacted much with monsters throughout his life, but he held nothing against them.
“Yeah,” he answered in a low voice. “I’m fine.” She looked oddly at him, sensing that he had not spoken the truth.
“You don’t look fine,” she noted. “May I sit down?” The man nodded and moved so the monster could take a seat. She planted herself next to him with a plop that shook the bench slightly. “Sorry. They usually shake whenever I sit down.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the man assured, avoiding eye contact with the monster.
“So, what is wrong?” The man sighed and tried to keep himself together.
“There are some things in life that you can’t change, and that you can’t predict. Having to raise my child by myself wasn’t one I ever thought I’d have to do.”
“Angel’s Heaven! I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t know-”
“It’s not your fault. There’s nothing to be sorry for,” the man sighed. “That’s how life is. It leads you one way and then pulls you in another before you know it. It happens to the best of us.” The monster glanced down, thinking of what to say to pick things up.
“It is true, but, hey. Sometimes the way it pulls you won’t be entirely bad. Anyway, which of these kids is yours?”
“The one in the blue dress,” he answered, pointing across the playground. A child was sitting down, tossing wood chips around with a small, horse-like monster in a plaid shirt.
“She looks like a darling,” the monster remarked. “That’s mine over there.” She pointed with her foot, seeing as how she had no arms. The man looked over to see a young monster who looked much like the one sitting next to him, only smaller, green and with a single arm and no horns. They appeared to be pushing another monster on the swing with their single arm. “A real troublemaker he is. Especially with that arm. He’s always joking around about how he was the only one in the family to be born with one.” She chuckled slightly. The man put on a fake smirk, as his mood was not lifted.
“I’m sure he’s a fun kid,” he said out of obligation.
“Yeah, he certainly is. How old is yours?”
“Just turned five last month.”
“My kid’s six. Aged up back in June.” A sigh released itself from between her teeth. “Time flies, huh. I remember his first birthday.”
“Yeah,” the man answered, the hole within his chest widening, “It sure does.”
“We were fortunate enough to get him accepted in the Angel’s congregation soon after he was born. It’s trouble getting him and his father to attend service at times though.” The monster peered over towards the man. “If it’s all right for me to ask, do you keep faith?”
“Not really. I had my daughter baptized, but my practices have died down a lot over time. Plus, there are so many different religions anymore that I don’t know where to cast my faith. Some humans follow monster religion. Some monsters follow human religion. And all the textual interpretations keep changing. Don’t know what to make of it at this point.”
“Well, regardless of the religion, most of the important morals and teachings tend to overlap. Even if you don’t have one, I’m sure you know right from wrong.” The two sat in silence, their eyes moving back to the children at play.
“At least our kids can interact with one another without any problems,” the man noted.
“Yeah,” the monster replied, “This generation thankfully doesn’t have to deal with all that race crap.” She stared at the trees nearby. Their leaves were a beautiful fall orange and brown. They cast a great shadow that stretched across the grassy ground. Shadows brought with them a sense of beauty or unease to the children who gazed upon them, depending on the shape it took. A thought crossed the monster’s mind. “Did you see the news earlier today? All the stuff about that nearby town? What was it called again? Ohmtown?”
“Hometown,” the man answered. “And yeah, I heard about it.” There was something strange about that town. Something that neither of the two nor a lot of the others in Elmsdale could quite pinpoint. Something that just felt too ordinary. They seldom questioned it, as their town was much of the same. However, it was still a feeling which could not be shaken. Like a garden growing above a crypt.
“Do you believe what they’re reporting?” she asked. “Or do you think it’s all made up?”
“That’s another thing that I don’t know what to make of. I mean, I have some trouble believing that twenty plus humans would spontaneously show up in the town and wreak havoc. That town hasn’t had humans in it for as long as I can remember. Not to mention dark spots popping up all over the place and changing the land. And now they’re saying that there’s something else they can’t even identify. Sounds made up for views to me.”
“But the police force in our town got called out over there. From what I heard, several of the other police forces from the nearby towns also got called out there.”
“I heard about that too, but I still just find the whole situation hard to believe. Like, do you believe in darkness that manipulates matter? That’s something out of a kid’s story.” The monster rubbed one leg with the other.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” she agreed. “It’s just… I can’t shake this weird feeling. I don’t know if it’s fear or something else. That town being right next to ours doesn’t help.”
“Unless I see it myself, I don’t think I can believe something like that,” the man affirmed.
“But if it is true, then… what the heck even is the world as we see it? This isn’t even going off all the rumors and conspiracies being thrown around.” The man chuckled at the thought.
“What are they saying?”
“Well, it depends on who you ask. Bunch of both monster and human religions are preaching about how judgment day is upon us and how ‘we’ll all pay for our sins’ and that kind of thing. Others are saying that this is some kind of experiment by the government finally being uncovered to the world. Some claim that it’s because of something the older folks in the town did a long while back. I also heard someone saying that creatures from another world are coming over to ours for world domination.” The man shook his head.
“I don’t know. Again, all this is a stretch and a half for me. Especially since they can’t get any footage or video evidence of it. They keep saying that their phones and cameras keep glitching out anytime they go near that place. That’s a sci-fi excuse for crying out loud.” The monster paused.
“You’re right. I believe in miracles and the Angel’s teachings, but there’s nothing quite like this in anything I’ve come to know.”
The two looked back out at their respective children playing. The orange beams of the sun slowly began to set. They set so slow that the bright orange sphere appeared stagnant. The shadows of the nearby trees reached further and further. The sound of yelling and laughter continued throughout the playground. Images of the man’s own childhood flashed before his eyes. They were quite different. Not necessarily bad, just different. At the same time, there was something that he knew he shared with his daughter.
“It’s crazy how far imagination can go sometimes,” he remarked. “Kids have so much of it.”
“They do,” the monster responded. “You keep it as you grow up. Kids and adults just have different kinds.”
“It feels like the older you get and more time that passes, the darker things get.”
“The darker things are, the stronger the good in life feels. That’s something that you shouldn’t forget.”
“I’ve never been good at taking advice from others.”
“It’s never too late to start.” The eyes of the man fell to his shoes.
“Fair enough.” A slight breeze flowed through the nearby trees, shaking their vibrant leaves. Along with it came something strange. Other worldly-like. A shift in something. Maybe not within the air, but within something else. The change caused a nearly involuntary shudder from both the man and monster. They looked over behind them. “I’m not going crazy, am I?”
“No…” the monster replied. “You felt that too?”
“Yes… what the heck was that?” The man gripped his stained jeans. “Felt like I just left myself there for a second.” The two turned back towards the playground, a little shaken.
“Probably nothing. Just… one of those things you can’t explain.” The two must have been the only ones to feel what they felt, as everyone continued their activities like normal.
“Stop right there! The order of light demands it!” a small, rabbit-looking monster declared to their friends. They gestured to a small line made in the wood chips. A tiny flame monster and human child proceeded to step right over the line upon hearing the order.
“You can’t stop our reign of darkness!” the human declared. “We’ll snuff out any bit of light you have!” A wrestling match of sorts broke out amongst the small group. The laughs which echoed from it indicated that it was just a fun kind of fight. A few more of the surrounding kids joined in.
“Dragon pile!” another monster shouted. They were short with green scales covering their body and had two large eyes, a stubby tail and a tiny pair of wings. As the kids continued to roughhouse, the monster and human on the bench watched. The monster could not help but wince slightly at the sight, even though there were no signs of pain from any children.
“Do you ever worry about your kid?” she asked before immediately shaking her head. “Wait, that was a stupid question. Of course, you do. I guess what I mean is… how much and how often do you?”
“Every day,” the man answered without hesitation. “Every moment that she crosses my mind, I have worries. I can’t not have them after what happened to my wife.” The monster moved her eye to him.
“Well, that means you care a lot about her. There’s nothing wrong with care.”
“It makes you hurt when bad things happen to those you care about.”
“Life’s full of good and bad. Everything has some good and bad in it. It isn’t as simple as just being one or the other. The bad might overshadow the good at times, but it’s what we remember and focus on which matters. What keeps us going.” The man fell silent. The silence allowed for the monster’s hypocrisy to catch up with her.
“I worry about my kid every day too. I hope he’ll be all right in school.”
“He will,” the man assured with a smile. “After all, he’s got that arm. That’ll make writing a lot easier.”
“Heh, you’re right on that one,” she agreed. As she watched on, she caught something out the corner of her eye. She looked over, startled. There was nothing there.
“What’s up?”
“That looked like-” she started. “Never mind. Must have been something in my eye.” She closed her eye and rubbed it a bit with her feet before looking back towards the trees across the way. “You know, these trees have been here since I was a kid.”
“I wouldn’t know. Moved here from out of state a few months ago. It was either here or Rorkeson.”
“Rorkeson? That’s west of here, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. West of Hometown too. Similar landscape and vibes to here, just not quite as ‘brought together.’ Not many monsters there either. Part of why we moved here was so that my girl could grow up with some more kids her age. That and affordability. Seems like we keep ending up in old fashioned places.”
“Towns like these don’t change much. Might as well be time capsules.” The monster’s eye moved down to the trees’ shadows. Her eye narrowed. “Wait. Were those shadows always that far? The sun hasn’t moved that much, has it?” The man looked over and saw that she was right. He blinked several times to be sure that what he was seeing was right. The shadows looked like they had doubled in length with little time passing.
“No…” he quietly spoke, “I don’t think they were-” The man jolted upwards slightly as he saw something beneath one of the slides. It looked like a black blotch that had phased in and out of itself for about a second. The monster next to him looked over, startled.
“What?” she asked. “What is it?”
“What the hell was that?” he blurted louder than he meant to. His tone and language caught the attention of several of the other nearby parents.
“W-What did you see?” the monster next to him nervously asked.
“There was like a black spot,” he pointed beneath the nearest slide. “Right there.” The monster looked but saw nothing.
“I… don’t see what you’re talking about,” she responded. The man shifted slightly to keep his balance. Something was off. He felt as though something he could not see was spreading past him. Like his very being was being sifted over by something far greater. “Sir, please. Calm down. I’m sure that things are f-” She gave an abrupt yelp and fell backwards off the bench as another patch of blackness formed directly beneath it. “W-What in the world?”
Before the man could respond, several more rapidly formed around the trees and various playground structures. The area went quiet as the children at play stopped in their tracks and watched on. Several parents stood up and stared at the strange sight before them. The darkened parts of the center jungle gym began to phase into scrubby brush and bushes. The shadow-enveloped swing sets formed into savanna-like trees with low hanging branches and small patches of dark water at their base. Seesaws morphed into what looked like ant hills of some sort while the slides took on the form of smooth, sloped rocks. The ground additionally turned from wood chips to coarse dirt and patches of tall grass.
The man shouted to his daughter, signaling for her to come to him. She did not walk far before falling back with a brief shriek. Another burst of black static materialized and began altering the ground in front of her. The texture looked like static from television, only darker. However, the patch looked different from many of the others. There was something inside for just a moment. Something large.
The man ran towards his daughter as did several other parents to their children. Others stayed back in fear, unable to bring themselves to move towards the growing shadows. The man grabbed his daughter’s arm and aimed for the parking lot. He needed to change course slightly as more and more black spots began forming all over the ground. A chorus of screaming, yelping, and crying echoed itself across the playground as many of the kids grew scared. The man and his daughter made it to the park entrance and stopped to catch their breath. Several other parents additionally neared the entrance while others made efforts to get to their children.
“Pa, what is that?” the child asked. The man looked back towards the middle of the playground. The dark patches had nearly enclosed the entire playground. Most parents had retrieved their children, but a few remained scattered near the structures. The monster who had sat with the man attempted to get to her child. However, it was next to impossible to not step in the darkness by that point.
“I-I don’t know,” the man answered. “Sweetie, we’re gonna go to the car, and we’re-” A loud clanking sound crashed to the center of the playground, ushering complete silence, and shaking the nearby ground. Even from as far away as they were, the man and his child jumped at the sound. As they looked over, they could not understand what they saw. It looked to them like a creature of some sort, but it was huge. Easily over ten feet in height with a metallic looking body that appeared to be spotted with bits of grainy rust. Everyone had frozen at the sight but started backing up once the creature started to move. Its movements were twitchy, and its face could not be seen. It was covered by a mess of what everyone assumed must have been some sort of long hair. The creature peered over at something to its left. Something near what was once the swing set. The small blue monster with a single eye and arm.
The child was frozen in fear as he looked at the creature. Although he could not see its face directly, he had a melting feeling spread through his body. A feeling of prey. The creature reached a hand towards the monster. It had abnormally long and pointy fingers that twitched as though they were having uncontrollable spasms. The child’s flight responses kicked in as he ran across the darkness as fast as he could. Although he was quick, he was not quick enough. The hand roughly closed itself over top of him and began to raise the monster towards the creature’s face. The monster screamed as he looked on at the creature.
“If there is a lord above, help us…” the man at the entrance muttered. His grip on his daughter’s arm tightened as the two fled to his car. A part of him wanted to help, but he imagined that he alone could do little against a creature like that and the safety of his child was his top priority. Most of the other parents and children had additionally started to flee the scene, several of which on the phone with local law enforcement.
The begs and pleas of the caught child’s mother could be heard all the way from the parking lot. However, the creature did not appear to pay the mother any mind. It had certainly heard her, assuming it could hear. It simply did not process what she said. The creature’s mind appeared to be controlled by its instincts. The small, blue monster was brought closer to the face until a dilated pupil could be seen through the hair. The eye was brown, much like the rusty spots that covered the creature’s body. Its sight cut through the child more than a sharpened knife or sword ever could have. The monster stopped screaming and began whimpering as he shook in the creature’s grip.
“Yonggsiesss,” the creature whispered in a high-pitched tone. A shaky smile could be made out forming across the creature’s face. With it came multiple rows of needle-like teeth that jutted out of the mouth at odd angles. The crying screams of the mother and child grew alongside the still spreading darkness and opening mouth of the creature. In witnessing what she had seen, the mother now knew the truth of what she had heard on the news.