Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kevin O’Reilly, soon-to-be-ten-year-old, future adventure extraordinaire, was on a very important mission:

Finding out what was in the strange cave, his parents didn’t let him go in. He’d found the spot when he was eight. Vines covered the entrance, always a bright green no matter the season. Whenever he was with his family, their eyes glanced over the cave. He told his parents about it, and they stared at him for a good while and told him he could never go near it.

But now? It was the perfect spot to avoid monsters until he was allowed back home.

“Kevin O’Reilly, famous adventurer in action!” He grabbed a stick and waved it in the air. “Woosh! Wazow!! Pow!”

He ran toward the cave, slashing down invisible monsters.

When Kevin got to the cave, the vines seemed thinner than usual. And greener. Way greener. He pushed aside the vines, and the ones he directly touched crumbled to dust.

“Whoa!” He grinned, “O’Reilly finds the first ever…uh…decaying vines!”

He stepped inside and took his dad’s lighter out of his pocket. He didn’t really want to use the lighter, but his dad said he couldn’t have a flashlight for the dark.

Monster hunters have to spend lots of time at night. It’ll build character.

The lighter illuminated bumpy walls and a winding down path. Perfectly untouched.

Kevin could hear water dripping from somewhere down the cave. There was a strange smell that made Kevin want to cough and sneeze at the same time. The walls and floors were glowing with a weird mossy-thing and shiny rocks. Several small puddles blocked his path, and he jumped over them while humming his theme song.

Eventually, the tunnel opened up to a large cave. It was pitch black except for the glowing pool of water and the lighter light. The pool reflected the fungus light, and it almost looked like the water was on fire.

He’d never seen a pool like that before.

Kevin grabbed one of the shiny rocks and dropped it.

The rock fell into the water. No splash, no ripple, nothing. It just sank straight down, almost seeming to melt in the fire-colored water. He watched as it fell down…

Kevin blinked. The lighter is on the shore and his hands are reaching for the pool. When his hands touch the water, it feels tingly-like your foot falling asleep-and strangely hot.

He scoops up some of the water and finds it feels more like jello than water. He kinda wants to eat it.

He pushes his arm deeper into the water.  It doesn’t feel wet. It feels clammy. Weird. He goes to pull his hand out-

It tightens around his hand. Kevin yelps as he’s pulled downwards. He pulls back, and the water-jello tugs him back so hard he’s  sure he’ll have bruises.

-He tries to stand up-

-but his feet slide-

  -his butt hits the ground-

                -he can feel it pull-

-he grabs the lighter-

-the water-jello jumps up his arm when the fire hits it-

-a splash-

   -he’s being yanked down-

-the world spins-

-it all goes quiet.

“Hello, Kevin,” A voice echoes in the dark.

“Hi?” Kevin asks. He was still standing outside the cave.

“You’ve been hurt,” the voice said. Kevin frowned.

“I haven’t,” Kevin said. He feels pressure on his face like his face is getting cupped.

“You need fire,” the voice said. The pressure travels down to his hands, which he could suddenly see because of a strange orange light around them.

“No, I don’t,” Kevin said. His voice cracked. His mom had said fire was bad. The voice chuckled.

“Well, I need fire,” The voice said, “And it would be silly for my host to not have fire, right?”

“Host?” Kevin was getting the strangest déjà vu. He could almost imagine disintegrating vines, glowing pools, and a tug-!

“So you need to be brave. You can be brave.” Before Kevin could respond, the black was streaked with pretty shades of reds and oranges and yellows, and he fell down, down, down as thick water covered his vision.

Chapter Text

Echo stretched its arms. A bit smaller than usual, but it heard that humans grow incredibly fast, so the body should be bigger in no time.

The body was thin and small. It was dressed in a T-shirt and pants- not very suitable for the colder temperatures. Echo would have to remedy that with the host’s parents. It can’t have the host getting sick.

It wasn’t hard to find the host’s house. There were so many memories of staying out late and walking home alone with only the light of the moon to guide the way.

(He could’ve used fire then, Echo thought)

“Kevin?” The woman who answered questioned. Echo searched the brain and came up with a title.

“Yes, mother?” The lady frowned but let him in.

“You should’ve come back sooner. It’s too cold to spend the nights out now.”

“Of course, mother. I meant to come back. I just lost track of time.”

The host’s mother’s eyes flicked up and down Echo’s new body, but, apparently, found nothing and led Echo over to a man-father-Echo catalogued as memories flooded in.

“Kevin, want did I tell you about stealing my lighters?” The man said. Echo blinked in surprise.

A quick rewind of memories showed a couple of lighter thefts following a lack of flashlights. At least this host isn’t scared of fire.

“I wouldn’t have stolen your lighters if I could find a flashlight,” Echo said. From the host’s parents’ reaction, the host apparently didn’t talk back a lot.

“You’ll need night vision later when you’re monster hunting at night. Monsters have night vision. We don’t, so we have to train our eyes. Got it?” The host’s dad asks. Monster hunters.

“No.” Echo tried to smile, but it probably looked a bit deranged. Human facial muscles move weirdly

“I think I might’ve misheard you,” The host’s dad said. He has a dangerous tone, and Echo can feel the footsteps of the host’s sister running back up the stairs from where she was spying.

“You heard me correctly,” Echo said calmly. “I do not ‘get it’ as you said. You have no control over my actions.”

“Kevin O’Reilly!” His mother gasped. Echo couldn’t tell if she was angry or scared. Echo rolled his eyes.

“Sadly,” For you, it thought. “I am not Kevin O’Reilly. What a shame.”

It forced the fire that was always under its skin up. Its hands started glowing almost white, and he could feel the ticklish sensation of melting skin. Oh well, nothing that can’t be fixed in the morning.

The host’s parents yelled and scrambled away from Echo, and it stared back in disinterest. It let the fire sink back down and got to work mentally stitching back up the hands.

"Your son has agreed to become my host,” Echo continued, even as the parents backed away. “And in return, I will keep him safe. Less work for you. Host for me. It’s a win-win for everyone.

"Where's Kevin!” The mother yelled from behind her husband, who pulled out a…bottle of water? Amateurs.

"In here,” Echo said, gesturing to its head, "But he’s getting a much-needed break, so if you could keep it down?”

"Get out of my son." The father said, and Echo sneered.

"He's not your anything right now,” Echo said pleasantly.  "He's mine for now. When he's done growing, the two of us will-"

"NO!" The mother shrieked, paling further as its eyes locked onto her, "You can’t take Kevin. He’s our boy, you can’t have him”

“You can try to separate us,” Echo shrugged. “But my essence is wrapped around his soul. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get Kevin back…or maybe you’ll get a shell of a boy with melted skin. That’ll make one for the horror stories!”

"What do you want from us?” The father asked. Excellent, it thought, Bargaining.

“Nothing big,” Echo replied. “Just raise Kevin, bring him up however you like and I’ll leave when we’re adults. Sounds good?”

The parents nodded. Echo stayed up all night(To make sure Kevin was nice and tired in the morning for a more moldable mind) and listened to the hushed whispers from downstairs.

Kevin woke up with a spark in his eyes, burn scars on his hands(Where’d he get those? He wondered), and a monster curling around his soul, shifting Kevin’s perspective so he doesn’t see the fear in his family’s faces.