Spooky Story Contest (EU) - Entry thread

[Sinnatious]

She'd been but an ethereal voidsent, trapped in the yellowed pages of the Necrologos, until chance found her wandering the crags of Northern Thanalan, set loose without purpose. The leaves of her prison fluttered away, stained with the blood of an unlucky cultist, and she found herself restless. Wandering. Searching for her fellows.

It was then when she had seen him. The ahriman.

It had been just a moment. A glimpse shared, as the ahriman flew with purpose down the beaten road. Purpose she had lacked since her summoning.

He had seen her. She had caught her own reflection in that large, fathomless eye, framed by the light of orange crystals.

And the voidsent had purpose once more.

They were not the same kind, but it mattered little to the voidsent. She had seen many damned souls, and judged their worth, and the ahriman was worthy.

Yet still... the ahriman was not like the others, enraptured by the corrupted aether, content to laze in its glow. Always going somewhere, too swift for her to reach the road in time. He passed by regularly, whip like tail swirling lazily through the air, leathery wings leaving trails in the ceruleum smoke.

They never exchanged more than a glance, but that regular acknowledgement fed her desire, grew her certainty.

She would try to follow, but his purpose was strong, and her form wraith-like and slow.

So she waited, and waited, hidden in the crevices, form shadowed in the glow of orange crystal. Each time, a little closer to the road. A little riskier, a little bolder, all for the chance that next time, they would have the opportunity to exchange more than a glance. That next time, she would be fast enough to follow. To help, in whatever purpose the ahriman dedicated himself so steadfastly to.

Then one day she saw him first, drifting up the road.

This time, she would reveal herself, make herself known. She rushed into place, mere moments before he could arrive. In a burst of darkness, she formed, corporeal, wings stretched wide in greeting.

Only too late did she register the adventurer upon his back.

In the reflection of her love's eye, there was the only the flash of steel, and the spatter of voidsent blood.

The Warrior of Light wiped a stray speck of crimson from the edge of their armour. Rather unusual behaviour for a voidsent in the ceruleum fields, especially one so weak as to die with a single blow. No matter. They remounted their ahriman, continuing the journey to Bluefog with no further thought to strange voidsent.


Character name: Sinnatious Sone
World: Siren
Prize: Noble Chocobo Barding

[Jonnywithoutah]

Quite tough squeezing it down into less than 500 words but here it is:

The Deep

The darkness was as solid as the mountain above. It felt like the entire weight of the world were pressing against him, burying him forever in pitch-black.

Choco had never been scared of the dark, but then he'd never felt a dark as deep and ancient as this.

One minute he'd been sneaking through the mines with Y'ithya, the young trainee, investigating unusual Aetherial patterns for the Arcanist Guild, the next he was falling, the earth swallowing him up.

Praying to Oschon for guidance, he began feeling his way forwards, trying to establish facts to give him an anchor of logic in a sea of vast nothingness. He noted the lack of support structures the Kobolds built in their tunnels, the slight increase in temperature. He was definitely below the mines, which made the warmth likely to come from -

“Sneaking – skulking, prowling, sneaking!”

Choco spun as the words echoed into emptiness – It was impossible to place where the voice had come from as he peered pointlessly into the looming black. Noises like growling birds burst from nowhere.
Other things were here. And they were laughing.

“What is it?” Asked a voice, higher pitched than the first.
“Ours now” said the first voice. “A gift for the Lord of Crags.”
“A gift, a gift!” the second voice chirruped “To win his love – affection, fervor, love!”

And then a third voice, reminiscent of rocks breaking; a voice for fissures, commanded: “Get it”.

Choco turned and bolted, hands reaching blindly as he stumbled upon rocks, grazed his forehead against a low ceiling; chased by howling screeches and skittering.
Bumping the labyrinthine walls, Choco kept pushing forwards until...

A glimpse of light. A shard of crystal in a recess in the wall. Choco reached, stretching as far as possible, his fingers scrabbling on the stones and string? Grasping, Choco pulled the string and the crystal came with it.

“Trapped – Cornered, captured, trapped!” said a gleeful voice and Choco turned back, holding up the pendant and illuminating the cave around him.

Reflected in the pendant's light were the dull orange eyes of hundreds of Kobolds. They were swarming the walls, the floors, even climbing upside down on the ceiling.

Choco had no chance.

His thoughts turned to his friends and family, to Y'ithya. Was she safe? Would she make it out, would she get help?

As the excited beasts stalked slowly forwards, a brilliant light burst from the pendant, and Choco felt himself being pulled away...

The wind woke him. Sitting up, he took in his surroundings – He was at Camp Overlook. Y'ithya was too.

A fissure opened up and he was gone, she explained. She ran for help when suddenly he appeared out of thin air clutching an Aetheryte Pendulum.

“What happened?” She asked, but Choco shook his head – He would never forget the darkness crawling beneath the earth, but he was in no rush to relive it.

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Character Name: Choco Maestro
World: Zodiark
Prize: Noble Chocobo Barding