Hidden Truth Chapter 5: Visistors

Hey there everyone, not only was this chapter delayed, it was also removed and replaced with this post. I am very sorry, it was originally delayed due to editing issues, and it was originally removed because I left out a paragraph in the original post. I am very sorry.

Official The Hidden Truth Fanfiction.net page https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12596383/1/Star-vs-The-Forces-of-Evil-Hidden-Truth

Silence. As a syrup trickling down on pancakes, it rallied the still forest. Absolute tranquility. An oasis of peace and…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- ugh!” Laar landed on the ground like a bag of potatoes. He started whining, “Uh-Ow. Everything hurts. Even bones I didn’t know I had hurt.”

Eclipsa grandiosely exited The Well gliding down with her multitool umbrella.

“That’s just so not fair.”

“Stop yammering, you’ll live. We need to move.” Her face and hands were covered in bruises, but if she felt any pain, she was channeling it all into anger. “I’m going to have a serious talk with him.” She decidedly started marching towards her home.

The Unseen Manor. A majestic, although a bit conservative, piece of architecture placed in the middle of nowhere. The fact that it was created inside The Well was no accident. No one could find, let alone enter, this pocket dimension. He had created it and everything in it just for her – as a gift for his “precious dark flower”. When she was young, she liked to roam the outer edges of Forest of Certain Death to pick flowers. They had this weird, but fascinating aura, that made them look almost unearthly. And which plants better embody this place than flowers which seem to be simply unusable for any other garden?

Here, in the plains of nothingness, they fit in perfectly. Everything in this place was artificial – from the sky that was never blessed by sunlight, to the lifeless wasteland below. Monsters never really grasped the concept of “looking alive”, so Eclipsa stepped in and helped him shape this place into something more… lively. It was still pretty empty – no animals, no smell, no wind – only endless horizons filled with emptiness. But the forest and gardens around the manor added a nice hint of life. But Laar always felt on the edge here, and his head snapped to look back every once in awhile. Even if this forsaken place was filled with cute little bunnies from top to bottom, any living being would go nuts after spending just a minute here. The constantly present smell of death that was hanging in the air wouldn’t allow anything survive here for long.

Eclipsa, touched and eventually consumed by dark magic, could withstand this place . The only thing that she couldn’t withstand was loneliness. And standing in front of Unseen Manor, she felt like every thing she hated the most in life was staring back at her, drilling deep into her black heart. The manor looked abandoned. Uncomfortable ideas were running through her mind, sending shivers down her back. “Where is everyone?”

Laar gazed at the empty building in front of him. “I know this isn’t exactly a party clubhouse, but I expected at least some welcoming. Where the heck is every- Wait, did you hear that?” His question was interrupted by a faint sound coming from behind them. But when he looked back, there was nothing there. “What was that?”

“Shhh!” Eclipsa heard it too. It was moving all around them. If she didn’t know better, she’d say it was trying to surround them. “It sounds…... familiar.”

They were both trying to pinpoint the source of the mysterious sound, but to no avail. It then suddenly stopped. Disturbing silence took its place.

“Damned bugs!” Itches ran across Laar’s legs.

“Nothing lives here.”

“Then what…?” As he looked down to check on his leg, he saw a tiny stem circling around his ankle. “Oh crap!”

The stem tightened its grip and briskly pulled him down to the ground. Many other stems quickly came out of hiding and went for Eclipsa as well. “What the hell is this thing?!”

Eclipsa retracted her umbrella and started using it as a knife, chopping every green tentacle trying to reach at her. Although her skills at ‘using an umbrella as a knife’ were unmatchable, they were simply too fast and too many, she couldn’t possibly hold them off for much longer. She knew what she had to do, but after what happened a few minutes ago, she wasn’t exactly excited to go through the whole experience again. But the stems didn’t leave her much of a choice.

She firmly gripped her wand, closed her eyes and allowed the magic of this bizarre place to infuse her body and mind with power. To her horrifying surprise, this place was out of juice. There was absolutely nothing in here she could tap into. She was powerless and after few more minutes, she’d end up like a compost for the very plants that were trying to bury her alive.

The plants were very skilled in pulling down Laar. Him being small, he couldn’t give much of a fight, although he was trying his best. “Leave me alone, you overgrown salad!”, He yelled, tugging at his knee. The chances of him surviving this experience were getting slimmer and slimmer with each passing second. But Laar refused to lose hope. “After I get out of here, I’ll burn you into ground. You hear me? I WILL OBLITERATE YOU! I WI-“ His last word was cut short when the stems dragged him into a thick bush.

Eclipsa, although still alive, was inevitably reaching her end. The Queen of Darkness, Monster Lover, killed by some weed. Nothing short of a miracle would save her now. “I refuse to go down like this! Not on my turf. Not on my home. MY OWN HOME!” She was truly scary yelling like that, but plants didn’t seem to care much for her threats.

After numerous tries, one tentacle finally managed to latch itself onto her leg. Eclipsa quickly chopped it off, but soon after a second came. Then a third. And then a fourth. She dropped her wand and let the situation take its course. Tentacle after tentacle viciously wrapped themselves around her body. With what seemed like the speed of light, they dragged her into the manor’s cellar, the wand left lying on the ground, abandoned.

Heavy silence had dropped onto the battlefield. The absence of sound was once again roaming freely-

Chop

-without any interruption-

Chop-chop

-as the master of the land.

Chop-snip-chop

A thick bush started to shake. Something was definitively moving around inside it. It was moving front and back, front and back. Laar leaped out of the bush, his arms extended widely.

“Kch-kch-kch! He-kch-he-he!” He slowly rose up on his feet. “Next time you want to eat me alive, make sure not to do it next to all my gardening tools!” He was still shaking a little bit, but was determined to give a hell of a fight. “OK, who wants some more?!” But the plants weren’t interested in him anymore. In fact, they didn’t seem to be alive. He looked around and noticed Eclipsa was gone. That only things left were a ton of chopped stems. And… her wand. He came closer to inspect it. It didn’t seem to be damaged in any way. He didn’t dare to pick it up, as he wasn’t sure what would happen if he would and he had no interest in finding it out. “If you are here, then where is your owner?”

Lying down in a cold, wet floor. Unbearable stench creeping inside her nose. Only dim, barely registrable light around. Eclipsa wasn’t happy with the state of her manor, which she cared about deeply and even deeper in keeping it clean.

“Who are you? How dare you to invade this place?!” She could barely see fuzzy silhouettes in the distance. But they were there - standing, silently judging her.

“Who are you? How dare you to invade this place?!” They repeated her exact words in the most unnatural voice. It didn’t even bother to go through ears, it just drilled itself directly into their skulls.

“Come out of the shadows so I can see the faces I’m about to shatter into pieces!”

“Come out of the shadows so I can see the faces I’m about to shatter into pieces!”

“You tied me up, you morons!”

This time they took their sweet time to answer. Morons. A single voice repeated her last word in the same insufferable way. Yes, we were called by this name before.

“I don’t care how you were called! Untie me this instant, or I’ll wipe the floor with you!”

One of the figures stepped forward. The dim light illuminated its perfectly black shoes, straight black trousers, well dressed jacket on top of a spotless white waistband, with an ideally tied necktie and… an owl head. “And how are you planning to do that?” Even when speaking, the entire body was stiff and motionless. “It’s not like you can just move around, now can you?”

The owl head detached itself from the body and on its countless tiny (what seemed like) legs went down on its own body and jumped on Eclipsa’s head. The entire movement was smooth, elegant and without a single sound. The head bent over and looked directly into her eyes. For a moment she was afraid that it was going to claw them out.

“Who, or should I rather ask, what are you?” “What an interesting creature. Hmm.”

It was examining her eyes with great interest. “We are…” The owl straightened itself up and slowly crawled down her back. “Visitors. Yes. You can call us Visitors.” Not once during its speech was its beak moving. It was unnerving, even for her. The head flew up and landed back on its body. Seeing that the answer it provided wasn’t sufficient for Eclipsa, it continued. “You could say we are travelers. Yes, that we are. We travel from place to place, from people to people and from one event to another. And on our journey we stumbled upon this abandoned place. Indeed, abandoned.

“What did you do to people that were living here?”

“You are not listening. Truly, you aren’t. We found it like this.”

“Somehow, I don’t believe you.”

“What you believe is of no consequence to us. It isn’t, no. We are merely presenting facts. Your acceptance is not required.”

The shadowy figure slowly walked to the nearest bundle of vines. “I believe your people drink this, for pleasure, yes? Yes, you do.” It picked up one of the bottles and read the sticker. “It is unfortunate that we are unable to experience its properties. It is sad, yes. We heard it’s quite enjoyable.” It then opened its shadowy fist and let the bottle hit the ground. The captivating smell of spoiled wine started to spread across the room.

“If you didn’t come here for us, then why did you?”

“You aren’t listening. No, she isn’t. We came to visit.”

This answer didn’t explain anything to Eclipsa, but she couldn’t care less what they were or why they were here. This was her property and she wouldn’t allow it to be occupied by these… creatures.

Laar was following a trail into the cellar. But the way in was blocked. Luckily, and unfortunately, he knew another route - through vast chambers of library. He hated that place. One would think that a place such as that would be lit, alas it had the exact same amount of light as every other part of the manor. So if anyone wanted to pick a book and read it, they would have to take it to their room. Clearly, common sense wasn’t one of the virtues that the inhabitants of this place were blessed with.

As he was wandering around the manor, he looked back at the wand. Would she really leave it here? He almost felt… sorry for it. He approached it and looked down at it. The wand didn’t seem to be doing anything. It was just laying there, on the dirt. Should he bring it with him? Bah, to hell with it! He reached for the elegant looking umbrella and picked it up. To his amazement his left hand was still intact; the wand didn’t seem to mind being carried by him.

And so, with his new unexpected companion, he went around behind the Unseen Manor. The doors he was searching for were small and hidden between the grass. Hidden way too well as it turned out. After minutes of clueless searching, he sat down. “Now what?” He didn’t notice it, but the wand’s crystal eye blinked and started to glow. The doors abruptly opened. He jumped back to his feet. Fearing that someone else was inside, he looked around the area. But he was alone. Out of curiosity he checked the wand. The crystal had just faded out. “Thank you,” he whispered.

The stairs went deep down into the caves underneath the manor. He could never understand why the library couldn’t be build on the surface, next to the manor. But then again, he couldn’t understand a lot of things about this place, like why there was only one toilet. The library itself was situated in huge and vast caverns, going as far as eyes could see. Laar had nothing against books themselves. But this place was giving the impression that it… lived. It was nonsense, of course, because caverns are notoriously known for not being alive. Maybe it was because of the shadows that were casting those few useless torches there. Whatever the reason, he was standing in its hallways once again and he could swear something was watching him the whole time.

Step after step, he was nervously progressing between regals of books. He had no idea what were written in them. His educational guess was “nothing good”, because it was mostly him that would be reading them. If Eclipsa ever visited this place, it was because she was looking for quiet seclusion. From time to time he peeked behind himself, but the hallway was as empty as it was when he entered it. And yet, he had this uncomfortable feeling that someone or something was breathing down his neck. But the wand was just calmly resting in his sweaty hand, so that meant no danger was imminent. If only he could believe it…

He found it. It was way back, hidden in a corner. A chair, a table and an ashtray. No light source whatsoever, just these three things packed between regals. Among all the old stuff, the furniture had this weird, welcoming charm. Looking at it, fatigue started to close his eyes.

“Maybe I’ll sit down for a while. Hmm, what’s this? A book.”

The chair was so so cushy, so soft, so…

He woke up to the sound of something heavy falling down. Still very sleepy, he tried to search for the source. But the surroundings were still lifeless.

Thug

Or so it seemed.

Thug

It almost sounded like books were falling down. But where?

THUG

He jumped on his feet. That wasn’t a book, unless, of course, the book was the size of a small troll.

“I’d better not find you sitting in there and smoking my finest weed!!!” The screeching female voice was getting under his skin. But….. What tobacco? There was nothing here, even if he wanted to smoke. He quickly turned around. There was a long, elegant pipe on the table. And it was still burning. How the heck did it get there?!

“JUST BECAUSE YOU MARRIED MY SON DOESN’T MEAN I WILL TOLERATE THEFT OF MY BELONGINGS!”

Whatever it was, it was getting closer. The wooden regals were starting to creek.

“I knew there was something in here!”

“HE WON’T PROTECT YOU WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!”

He wanted to escape, but the doors that were supposed to be next to the table were gone. “What is happening here?!”

THUG

The vibrations from the steps made the ground tremble. Books started to fall down one by one. He quickly hid below the table; some of the books had several kilos and could easily create a hole in his head. But there was no escape from them. There was only one road out of here, unfortunately the same road would lead him directly to whatever that thing was.

“I’M GOING TO ENJOY MAKING YOU SUFFER!!!”

There was no escape.

“Why don’t you let me go so I can show you my hospitality?” Eclipsa was hissing at them like an angry viper.

“Your resistance is admirable. It is, truly. But ultimately useless.”

She was trying really hard to find magic, any magic at all. But the air in here was as dry as it was outside. She was unable to conjure even a small spark.

“Well, this is beginning to get underwhelming. Sad, really. She told us this would be quite a show.”

She?! Are they talking about that witch? SHE LET THEM IN?! She-

THUG

Wait, was that…? She pricked her ears. There was a voice coming from below. It was faint, barely registrable, but it almost sound like… HER! THAT DOES IT!!!

Eclipsa curled up. Space around her was getting covered by a thin layer of purple haze.

“You thought that you can come to my home, band together with that witch and kidnap me? Ooh, big mistake.” She stood up. Her cheek markings were glowing like lights on a christmas tree. “Though I suppose I should thank you for this.”

“What are you doing?”

“What should I have done the moment I got here: DIP DOWN!!” Her distorted voice bounced around the walls. Her body rose above the ground, revealing six arms and moth-like wings. Her eyes were pure dark purple. “BE GONE!” With rapid movement of her arms, she grabbed all the furniture in the room and smelted it around The Visitor. With a single snap of her fingers, the mass exploded and turned into dust. The Visitor was nowhere to be found. “Who’s next?!” The remaining Visitors didn’t say a word. They just slowly left the room. “That’s what I thought. Now…”

Laar’s whole life flashed before his eyes.. It was a short, sad and painful movie. But it was still his and he wasn’t willing to say goodbye to it. A giant troll was going his way and unless some miracle were to happen, he will end up being its food. He closed his eyes and awaited his fate.

“I should have thought it was you.”

Laar opened his eyes and looked up. Eclipsa was standing on top, looking brighter and sharper than ever.

“Stop reading my dream journals.” She picked up the open book from the table and closed it. The troll, or whatever it was, disappeared. “It’s personal. And I believe this is mine,” She bent over to pick up her wand. After a quick inspection, she turned around and started walking away. “Come.”

“Where are we going?”

“We are going to find out what happened here.”

Chapter 5 of the Hidden Truth was written by u/Terepin and edited mostly by u/TheOneWhoSaysMeep and partially by u/Saokpe