A gifter's lair
This is not just the usual need-to-be-revised first draft. This is incomplete. It has beggining middle and end, sure, but read at your own risk.
Ever heard about the cave of the undeath? The trial of the gifter, perhaps? I've heard that there are versions of the story where the place has no name, is just a cave of horrors to which some have entered in hopes to get the rarest of wishes. I mean, even here at the company we have never ever granted something like that: I want to go back to the living. We don't deal with that kind of ghost. We just can't contact the dead, and they can't contact us.
Maybe this is just a story, then. Or a misunderstanding.
Or a lie designed to lure more and more people to this place. The lair of one of the nastier wish granters to ever grant a wish. You see, this is said to be the monster that destroyed a whole world just to mock a desperate girl. This man... this thing, offered everything, no exceptions, no rules. No. price. to. pay.
Except there where consequences. Awful consequences that the rules forbid him to fix. Yes, he had said "no rules" but this was an exception. So he couldn't help you now.
I have no idea how no one ever called him out on that nonsense. How nobody warned others... or why their warnings were ignored. People didn't even suspected that he wasn't honest when part of the story that proved he could do anything, was about a trial that you had to fulfil to have a wish granted. Which was clearly a condition, a rule and a form of payment.
The excuses for that change from story to story, as well as the kind of horrors they have to face on the way. Sometimes, it's not him ordering you to enter a cave with monsters, is just that he's hard to find.
But when it was Eriza, Joury, Mila, Bob and Quire, they found the guy quite easily: he was right there, in the building that had just fell over their heads, offering them help to go out, not through debris, a path or a door, but through a tunnel carved in solid rock.
"This is impossible," Joury said. "We live far from any mountain."
"Maybe we are underground?" Mila considered.
Joury was astonished that his former friend had answered to something he had said. But he didn't dare to mention it.
Bob and Quire wanted to point out that Mila was was wrong, the earthquake had been bad, but not that bad, and there has never been tunnels under the city. Bob didn't want to upset Mila again, and Quire refused to talk to any of those idiots. So they both saved their arguments.
Their savior was the want to correct him: "Not underground, but also no in a close mountain. We are in my lair. Look back, you'll see."
Mila was the only one to fully turn around, but they all look back instinctively when they heard the words. As they did it, they saw a forest that was basically our forest. It's trees, monsters, deserts and seas... all blending together in a mirage of sorts. But that was just the instant in which they were turning; as they focused their sights, they saw the building outside the tunnel, and their bodies in there, broken under what was left of the walls, roof and furniture.
"Don't be afraid, there is a way to go back to your mortal recipients," the man said, with a kind tone, comforting tone. "I'll wait you out of this caves, the first to meet me there will live again."
Bob and Joury where hopefull for a moment, before feeling conflicted like Quire and Eriza: just one of them could win.
Mila, the one who had every right to hate his former friends, wasn't conflicted at all. He lead them through the tunnel as soon as the gifter disappeared in a cloud of glitter. He order them around, like he has always done, to defeat giant slugs and microscopic monsters.
Bob was angry at him for the first time in that journey, blaming their former leader for his own lost arm. But they had stop the bleeding and he was still... not more dead than he has been before. In a way, he had now more hope than ever, because maybe it wasn't so bad to let his friends die... Former friends! Mila had been unable to forgive him, and the whole incident that had put them all in bad terms was actually Joury's fault. And they had all just allowed him to be the bait and lose and arm. Yeah, they weren't good friends and he shouldn't feel guilty for letting them die to save his own life.
Too bad that he was also unable to find the exit before them. Or without them.
He has always been the one with more hopes in life. The one with a degree, a house and contacts. But he has been sheltered by the same loving parents that had planted these opportunities and skills, so he has no way to fight the worst. The others have a way to deal with the worst, because they have never had nothing but problems. They had never have a family to love them, and they didn't love themselves much either. They were more or less okay because they have supported each other. Mila, for all their failures and self-destructive habits, had found a way to push them all into a better path.
That was over now, of course, because they had make too many mistakes, one too many wrongs to each other. Even Bob, who hadn't meant to hurt them, and had know that all those mistakes had been ways of each of them to hurt themselves. Words and even acts of hatred born from the fear of loosing something they didn't think they deserved.
This was just temporary collaboration to survive until... what? Were they going to kill each other in the last bit? Run like mad to arrive first when they were able to see the light? Bob didn't know.
When Eriza saved him for being eaten by a swarm of piranha like mosquitoes, he even forgot that he was mad with them. Later, he remember, when Mila suggested to use Joury as bait. He finally spoke up, to say no, they couldn't do that. Joury could loose and arm too, or worse. Mila sighed and admitted he had no other idea, and since nobody did, Joury said he would take the risk.
"But try not to use this opportunity to get me back for what I did to all of us. I... I already know that was wrong. And you are not that vengeful, you feel bad later. If I don't make it, it will be on me, okay?"
They all agreed. And they kept him safe.
It went on for days, maybe months. Eriza thought of coming back, but the others didn't know how to tell an edible mushroom from a poisonous one, so she had to stay; if only for the sake of one of them. She didn't understand what they would do .Were they going to kill each other in the last bit? Run like mad to arrive first when they were able to see the light? She hoped that enough of them died before having to do that.
But they survived. They made it to the way out.
And all of them stopped.
They looked at each other.
"Guys, I'm sorry," Mila said. "When we started this thing, it seemed clear how it should end..."
"Really?"
"Sure. We were about to take separate ways, and you all know how that would go. Bob was the only one with both reasons and hopes to keep on living. And he still is, but... it feels bad to ask you all to just accept that. I know you aren't like me, you want to live even when it's awful. And Bob is getting all rainbow and sunshine ever since we crossed that lake of blood, so... I'm worried he would feel guilty if he..."
"Are you for real? I'm not leaving you all behind!"
Mila made a gesture of "there you have it" with his arm, and the others all sighed.
"Should we leave it to luck?"
"Should we all go back?"
"Yeah, more like we all go out together and announce we don't want the back to living ticket, I'm not going through that chamber of horrors ever again!"
And so they did.
And there was no gifter waiting for them.
They were forced to stay in this world. Not alive, nor death, just... being. The forest should have eaten them alive sooner or later, but there was something that kept the worst monsters away. The ghost of their friendship, turned into a protective mantle that kept them all safe.
Ever heard about the cave of the undeath? The trial of the gifter, perhaps? I've heard that there are versions of the story where the place has no name, is just a cave of horrors to which some have entered in hopes to get the rarest of wishes. I mean, even here at the company we have never ever granted something like that: I want to go back to the living. We don't deal with that kind of ghost. We just can't contact the dead, and they can't contact us.
Maybe this is just a story, then. Or a misunderstanding.
Or a lie designed to lure more and more people to this place. The lair of one of the nastier wish granters to ever grant a wish. You see, this is said to be the monster that destroyed a whole world just to mock a desperate girl. This man... this thing, offered everything, no exceptions, no rules. No. price. to. pay.
Except there where consequences. Awful consequences that the rules forbid him to fix. Yes, he had said "no rules" but this was an exception. So he couldn't help you now.
I have no idea how no one ever called him out on that nonsense. How nobody warned others... or why their warnings were ignored. People didn't even suspected that he wasn't honest when part of the story that proved he could do anything, was about a trial that you had to fulfil to have a wish granted. Which was clearly a condition, a rule and a form of payment.
The excuses for that change from story to story, as well as the kind of horrors they have to face on the way. Sometimes, it's not him ordering you to enter a cave with monsters, is just that he's hard to find.
But when it was Eriza, Joury, Mila, Bob and Quire, they found the guy quite easily: he was right there, in the building that had just fell over their heads, offering them help to go out, not through debris, a path or a door, but through a tunnel carved in solid rock.
"This is impossible," Joury said. "We live far from any mountain."
"Maybe we are underground?" Mila considered.
Joury was astonished that his former friend had answered to something he had said. But he didn't dare to mention it.
Bob and Quire wanted to point out that Mila was was wrong, the earthquake had been bad, but not that bad, and there has never been tunnels under the city. Bob didn't want to upset Mila again, and Quire refused to talk to any of those idiots. So they both saved their arguments.
Their savior was the want to correct him: "Not underground, but also no in a close mountain. We are in my lair. Look back, you'll see."
Mila was the only one to fully turn around, but they all look back instinctively when they heard the words. As they did it, they saw a forest that was basically our forest. It's trees, monsters, deserts and seas... all blending together in a mirage of sorts. But that was just the instant in which they were turning; as they focused their sights, they saw the building outside the tunnel, and their bodies in there, broken under what was left of the walls, roof and furniture.
"Don't be afraid, there is a way to go back to your mortal recipients," the man said, with a kind tone, comforting tone. "I'll wait you out of this caves, the first to meet me there will live again."
Bob and Joury where hopefull for a moment, before feeling conflicted like Quire and Eriza: just one of them could win.
Mila, the one who had every right to hate his former friends, wasn't conflicted at all. He lead them through the tunnel as soon as the gifter disappeared in a cloud of glitter. He order them around, like he has always done, to defeat giant slugs and microscopic monsters.
Bob was angry at him for the first time in that journey, blaming their former leader for his own lost arm. But they had stop the bleeding and he was still... not more dead than he has been before. In a way, he had now more hope than ever, because maybe it wasn't so bad to let his friends die... Former friends! Mila had been unable to forgive him, and the whole incident that had put them all in bad terms was actually Joury's fault. And they had all just allowed him to be the bait and lose and arm. Yeah, they weren't good friends and he shouldn't feel guilty for letting them die to save his own life.
Too bad that he was also unable to find the exit before them. Or without them.
He has always been the one with more hopes in life. The one with a degree, a house and contacts. But he has been sheltered by the same loving parents that had planted these opportunities and skills, so he has no way to fight the worst. The others have a way to deal with the worst, because they have never had nothing but problems. They had never have a family to love them, and they didn't love themselves much either. They were more or less okay because they have supported each other. Mila, for all their failures and self-destructive habits, had found a way to push them all into a better path.
That was over now, of course, because they had make too many mistakes, one too many wrongs to each other. Even Bob, who hadn't meant to hurt them, and had know that all those mistakes had been ways of each of them to hurt themselves. Words and even acts of hatred born from the fear of loosing something they didn't think they deserved.
This was just temporary collaboration to survive until... what? Were they going to kill each other in the last bit? Run like mad to arrive first when they were able to see the light? Bob didn't know.
When Eriza saved him for being eaten by a swarm of piranha like mosquitoes, he even forgot that he was mad with them. Later, he remember, when Mila suggested to use Joury as bait. He finally spoke up, to say no, they couldn't do that. Joury could loose and arm too, or worse. Mila sighed and admitted he had no other idea, and since nobody did, Joury said he would take the risk.
"But try not to use this opportunity to get me back for what I did to all of us. I... I already know that was wrong. And you are not that vengeful, you feel bad later. If I don't make it, it will be on me, okay?"
They all agreed. And they kept him safe.
It went on for days, maybe months. Eriza thought of coming back, but the others didn't know how to tell an edible mushroom from a poisonous one, so she had to stay; if only for the sake of one of them. She didn't understand what they would do .Were they going to kill each other in the last bit? Run like mad to arrive first when they were able to see the light? She hoped that enough of them died before having to do that.
But they survived. They made it to the way out.
And all of them stopped.
They looked at each other.
"Guys, I'm sorry," Mila said. "When we started this thing, it seemed clear how it should end..."
"Really?"
"Sure. We were about to take separate ways, and you all know how that would go. Bob was the only one with both reasons and hopes to keep on living. And he still is, but... it feels bad to ask you all to just accept that. I know you aren't like me, you want to live even when it's awful. And Bob is getting all rainbow and sunshine ever since we crossed that lake of blood, so... I'm worried he would feel guilty if he..."
"Are you for real? I'm not leaving you all behind!"
Mila made a gesture of "there you have it" with his arm, and the others all sighed.
"Should we leave it to luck?"
"Should we all go back?"
"Yeah, more like we all go out together and announce we don't want the back to living ticket, I'm not going through that chamber of horrors ever again!"
And so they did.
And there was no gifter waiting for them.
They were forced to stay in this world. Not alive, nor death, just... being. The forest should have eaten them alive sooner or later, but there was something that kept the worst monsters away. The ghost of their friendship, turned into a protective mantle that kept them all safe.
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