Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 054

It was good advice, and Mike nodded. Yuki navigated the fog, sending the ball of fire ahead of them to light up the trees in the area. A few minutes passed before she found one with a fresh cut in its bark, and Mike let out the breath he had been holding. He had half expected the marks to disappear, and was glad to see that they hadn't.

"So how are you feeling about things?" he asked as they moved through the fog.

Yuki shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I've been throwing myself into research and art lately, but I've also been trying to make time for me. I've spent a lot of time talking with Naia at night, when the house is finally quiet. Abella too, sometimes. There's just a lot to go through, and it sucks not having the relationship with them that I used to. I feel like I have to hold back, that we aren't in that place yet, but I so desperately want to feel that level of closeness again."

"You don't think there's a way to fix that, do you? Like, undo the destroyed memories?"

"No idea. Ratu and I have discussed it, she finds it a fascinating puzzle. But she's been so tied up in helping Dana undo her curse and studying this weird necklace that she found that she hasn't made any progress on the issue."

"Necklace? What neckl—" He put his arm out sideways, and Yuki bumped into him. However, his eyes were on the shadow that moved toward them through the fog. Unlike the shadows from earlier, this one moved with a confidence he recognized almost immediately.

"Mike Radley." The shadow stopped about ten feet away and chuckled. "I feel like it's been a lifetime since we last spoke."

"Been too busy dodging my succubus, have you?" Mike instinctively grabbed at his waist, going for a magical dagger that was now lost forever.

"Yes. She can be quite troublesome. But now you are in my world, and the advantage is mine."

"I don't think so," Yuki replied, holding up some of her tarot cards. She had them fanned out, and Mike was curious what was on them.

"Call off your pet, Mike Radley, I'm only here to warn you." It was odd seeing the shadow in three dimensions as the fog moved through him.

"Are you here to warn me about my world burning again?" Mike shook his head. "I need a spiritual spam filter for dicks like you."

"I am here to warn you." The shadow kept its distance, but walked around them. "You see, I've given you plenty of warnings about your own future, warnings you have failed to heed. And I now find myself on the crux of a very interesting dilemma. You see, I—"

An icicle thicker than Mike's arm blew through the shadow, leaving a void in the fog.

"As I was saying," the shadow continued, "I've come to believe that I'm only wasting my time trying to bargain with you."

"You're wasting both of our time," Mike replied.

"I have my own agenda, which isn't too far off from your own. To protect my home. To do what I think is best for it, even if it may be...unsavory." The shadow's features were solidifying now, and Mike could almost make out a hawkish face beneath a hood. "It's occurred to me recently that there may be another method to achieving what I want, but I'm afraid it will be at your detriment."

"Much like this shitty deal you want me to make."

"A deal which I offer one last time. Oh, Mike Radley, you have no idea what you've been pulled into. For whatever reason, the threads of fate have converged on you, and there will be many who are hungry to cut them, to see those lines split and unravel. When you—"

"Taikutsu," Yuki groaned. "This bastard really does prattle on and on, doesn't he."

"He really does. But seeing how I can't just chase him off, we may as well hear his deal so we can turn him down. Please continue." He waved his hand at the shadow.

After a few tense seconds, the shadow spoke again, his voice strained. "I have found another who is willing to make a deal with me, someone willing to do whatever it takes to gain power. With their strength, I would take from you what you could have given me willingly, and will ignore your piteous cries for help and mercy. I have prolonged this game long enough, and will continue to do so until I can win it."

MIke frowned. The shadow had mentioned a game before, but he had no way to ask without being harassed.

"However," the shadow continued, "I would far prefer a deal that is beneficial to us both. Give me what I want, and not only will I give you the power and knowledge to rescue your precious banshee, but I will also give you the strength to keep them safe until the end of your days, to protect and guide those you love most."

"Is this the same deal you offered Emily? You took something from her so she could protect the others? It didn't end well for her."

"She strayed from the path!" The fog billowed around the stranger. "She balked when confronted by greatness, and that is exactly what I am offering you! This is no longer about some spirit, some noble quest, or even love. This has always been about power, Mike Radley, and if you do not accept me this last and final time, then I will see to it that your world burns, and that you burn with it!"

"And there it is. World will burn." Mike looked over at Yuki and saw that her hands were clenched tight, her eyes aglow with magic. "My friend here has more up her sleeves than just ice, you know."

"Well?" asked the shadow.

"You know I'm going to say no." He took a step toward the shadow. "So that's that. Any business we have is done. So you can take your shitty attitude back to your broken up castle and sulk for all eternity while I get on with my day. You can also stop lurking behind my magic gate and watching my house. Oh, and whatever you have in here that likes to growl at people and scare them away from your town of the Damned? You forgot to feed it, because it obviously wandered off."

The shadow laughed. "That creature is not one of mine. It's the guardian of this place, a being of immense anger and wrath determined to keep anyone from crossing over without permission."

Mike frowned. "Well, we obviously have permission, because we haven't seen it."

"That's where you're wrong." The shadow backed into the fog, vanishing from their sight. "I led it away so that you could get this far. Goodbye, Mike Radley."

The shadow was gone now, leaving behind nothing but an ominous silence. Mike scanned the fog, then looked over at Yuki. If the shadow had lured them this far out, then they had just fallen into a trap.

"Maybe we should start—"

He was interrupted by a low, full throated growl that rumbled his entire body. It was like standing next to the big speaker at a concert, and his stomach clenched itself in response.

Yuki held up her sword. She scanned the fog, her eyes searching.

"Wha—" Mike asked, but she put her free hand over his mouth and then pointed to her ear.

He heard it now. It was the rustling of leaves, and the faint sound of something large moving around them in the fog. He tried to see what it was and failed, but Yuki's ears had turned forward and she was moving her head as if tracking it, so he followed her gaze.

A pair of fiery orbs appeared in the fog at head level, then vanished.

"What the fuck was that?" he whispered. The orbs returned, then vanished once more.

"I don't know, but..." Yuki was pushing him backward now, and when the orbs appeared, they were even closer this time. The thing in the fog sniffed again, and then something else sniffed in response. Another pair of orbs appeared and hovered above and behind the first.

When a third pair of orbs appeared, Yuki pulled a tarot card out of her robes and threw it like a frisbee into the fog. A few moments passed, and then it exploded, showering the area with fire and sparks. Through the thick fog, Mike was able to make out a large figure with black fur and three massive heads. The creature stepped forward through the flames, and all three heads settled on the two of them.

"Oh, fuck me!" Yukie swept her arm in a wide arc and a giant wall of ice appeared just as the middle head opened up its mouth and roared. A large stream of fire danced across the ice, melting holes in it before the gout disappeared.

Yuki was already busy tossing out a couple more cards. She grabbed Mike by the collar and pulled him behind a tree as the cards unfolded into human form and took off running in opposite directions. She sent her fireball after one of the figures, and the three-headed dog chased that one, its feet thudding heavily on the forest floor.

"Was that Cerberus?" Mike whispered.

"No, it was fucking Micky Mouse, and this is the magical kingdom of Disney!" When she looked at him, he saw that her eyes were wider than he had ever seen. "Yes, it was Cerberus! We have to get back, now!"

"Don't have to tell me twice," he muttered, and they began picking their way through the fog. Without the fireball, it was even harder to navigate the trees, but luckily they had gone in a relatively straight line, which meant they rarely left the path. As they moved, he heard howling in the distance, and Yuki flinched.

"He got that first one," she whispered, then kept going at a faster pace.

As they moved through the fog, he saw a dark figure keeping pace with them and pointed it out.

"That's the other one," she said. "I don't know how it's tracking us, but if it gets close, that one will lead it away."

"How many of those do you have?" he asked.

"Just that one." She looked over her shoulder at him. "Maybe we should have awaited those extra decades after all."

"Not funny," he told her.

"And I'm not laughing. Cerberus can use Hellfire, and that shit will burn your actual soul. It's one thing to die and move on. It's another to spend an eternity with third degree burns."

"Seriously?"

"That's what the legends say, and I have no desire to find out how true they are."

She continued hurrying forward, and he followed as best as he could. Every now and then, he would hear that loud sniffing sound somewhere behind them.

"It has to be able to smell us, right?"

"Maybe." She showed him a tarot card that was pinched between her fingers. "I've been scattering our scent, just in case."

"Let's just hope that thing doesn't notice what you did to its trees," he muttered.

In the fog, Cerberus marched around them, growling and sniffing. It was clear that it was becoming agitated about being unable to find its prey. At some point, he noticed a pair of red orbs in the distance, and when he pointed them out to Yuki, she sent her tarot figure toward them. There was a loud growl and a jet of Hellfire in the distance, but when he heard the Cerberus turn away and run, he let out a sigh of relief.

"That fog is doing us more help than harm, currently," he noted.

"We'll see." She tightened her grip on the sword. "If it comes for us, I want you to run. You get that, right? You're the one who needs to make it, not me."

"Yuki, I—"

She grabbed his hand and pulled him forward, her pace accelerating. It was difficult to keep his feet under him, but they were moving as if by instinct now. Behind them, he heard a series of growls, roars, and more fire, and chanced a look back to see a dark shadow trying to navigate the trees behind them. Cerberus was large enough that the woods were keeping the beast from catching up, but only barely.

Walls of ice were forming along their sides while they ran, climbing higher in height until the forest to the sides of them had disappeared. Yuki was zig zagging now, and Mike could hear the ice crunching shut behind them. He was going to ask what she was doing, but he could hear the stream of fire boiling away the frozen walls.

Under her breath, she was muttering a stream of words, and snowflakes were now falling around them. Between the snow and the fog, it was becoming hard to see, and the sounds of pursuit were fading away behind them.

That also meant they had lost the path they were on. Yuki stopped and turned around, her green eyes searching.

'We lost it, but now we're lost, too." The ice walls were behind them now, and Mike could hear the Cerberus stomping through them, searching for its prey. "Which way should we go?"

"Um..." Mike looked back, then scanned the fog. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His magic was rumbling around inside of him, warning him that danger was on its way, and he wondered if he could use that.

He took a step forward, then shifted left. The feeling intensified, so he stepped right, and he felt it diminish. For better or worse, this was the way they should go. "C'mon," he whispered, then ran that direction.

Behind them, the roar of the Cerberus intensified, then was followed by the sound of a tree being ripped free of the ground. Mike pumped his legs, his heart beating loudly in his chest as he surged forward. Yuki was already falling behind, and she almost tripped over a downed log that Mike jumped over without even noticing it.

"I didn't know you could run this fast," she said, then her hand disappeared from his. A bright red fox with three tails appeared on the ground in front of him, and the two of them sprinted through the forest, avoiding large rocks, downed trees, and even squeezing through a shattered boulder. Behind them, the Cerberus growled, and Mike grabbed Yuki by the tails and jumped to the left.

A geyser of fire swept through the ground where she had been, and he slipped between a pair of trees that had grown too close together. He heard the Cerberus crash into it, and then made a mad dash toward a dark shape that appeared through the fog.

Ominous turrets appeared first, followed by the body of the house. The stone wall surrounding the back gate looked washed out, and was covered in dark moss. The back gate was shut, and when he crashed into it, the doors slammed open and he crashed onto the back lawn.

Yuki transformed back into a human, and threw herself at the gate. A tarot card vanished from her hand and a series of staves embedded themselves through the iron bars of the creaking gate, barring it shut.

Cerberus appeared through the gloom and growled at them, padding closer. Easily fifteen feet tall, the three-headed dog could easily lean over the wall and snap one of them up.

"Oh, you are totally not invited in here," Mike announced, then rolled out of sight when all three heads started barking at him. Behind the wall, he heard the low throaty growl of the Cerberus followed by the sound of padded feet going back into the forest.

"Shit, that was close," he said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Mike?" Yuki's back was against the wall, and she was staring toward the house.

"What's up?" He turned to look, and his jaw dropped.

The house was dark, as if it had been stained in shadows. It was smaller than normal, and he realized they were standing in the front yard, not the back. The stone lions were no longer there, and neither were any of the gardens. Instead, it was as if the house had reverted to its original form, the one he had seen on his very first day there.

"What the fuck?" He stood and Yuki joined him. He realized that the sky was still overcast, and a large wall of fog was pressed against the outer perimeter of the wall, creating an odd hollow that extended up into the sky. "What happened here?"

"I have no idea." She looked out the gate. "Cerberus is gone. Should we go inside?"

"Unless you want to play tag with a three headed dog again, then yes." He walked toward the house, his heart falling. The front porch creaked under his feet, and he noticed that half of the porch swing had been taken off its chain. He walked over and hooked it back together and gave it a push.

It creaked ominously at them as they walked into the house together. The home's furniture was covered in large drop cloths, and there was a layer of dust on everything.

"It's like it was the first day I moved in," he said, then looked at Yuki. "Like, a copy of the place from before I met Naia."

"Maybe it is the same place. A copy that swaps with the house when the current Caretaker dies, so that its secrets remain hidden. That would make sense, I guess." She walked to the stairs and looked up at the second floor. "Don't know why, but this place gives me a bad feeling."

Mike looked up. The landing where his room was looked darker somehow, as if the light had been sucked out of it. "Agreed. Let's take a peek out back, see if the fog goes all the way around. Maybe we can just go out the back and try to find our way home from there?"

Yuki nodded, and followed him out the back door. Once they stepped outside, he saw that the back yard had shrunk back to its original shape and size. The wall of fog extended here as well, and he groaned.

Sitting on the edge of Naia's fountain was a figure in a simple gown. It looked like a woman, and she was hunched forward, her attention seemingly on the ground.

"Um..." Mike looked at Yuki. The kitsune's eyes were narrow, and she was already clutching a tarot card in one hand.

"Let's do this," she muttered, then moved ahead of him. He realized that her sword was gone, and wondered if she dropped it in the fog. When they got close to the fountain, he saw that the figure had dark skin that was etched with intricate patterns that seemed to shift, though the figure herself had yet to move.

"Don't move," Yuki said, and the figure sat up straight, her hair tumbling down her shoulders. "Turn around slowly so we can see you or I'll turn you into a block of ice."

The figure obeyed, and held her arms out as she turned. Clutched in one hand was a tattered paperback novel, and when she looked at them, Mike realized that her skin looked like the bark of a tree. Her dark eyes watched them from beneath a tangle of hair that looked like wilted roots, and her eyes widened in recognition.

"Yuki? Is that you?" The woman dropped her book and stared in awe.

"Am...Amymone?" Yuki lowered her hands. "Is that really you?"

The dryad's eyes welled up in tears and she ran across the yard and threw herself into Yuki's arms, then tore herself free. "Wait, does this mean...did you die?"

Yuki was crying now as well, and she wiped tears from her eyes. "No, I'm not dead. I'm here with Mike, he's the new Caretaker. Mike, this is my friend, Amymone."

Amymone looked at Mike, then back at Yuki. "He's the new Caretaker? Really?"

"He is."

"Hell, yeah!" She pumped her fist in the air and then spun around, her arms outstretched. "I've been so fucking bored in here! There's nobody to talk to and I've only had one thing to read this whole time." She threw herself at Mike and wrapped her arms around him. "I assume you came here for me, right? I am so over this place, when do we leave?"

Mike and Yuki looked at each other.

"Uh..." Mike grimaced. "Amymone, right? Yeah, we didn't know you were here. We just kind of stumbled on this place."

"Oh." The light in her eyes faded, and was followed by a large scowl. "You didn't even know I was here? That means...you probably don't have my heart wood, do you?"

He shook his head. "I'm so sorry, I really am."

Amymone let out a groan. The silence between them was deafening, and after a minute passed, Mike opened his mouth to say something when he heard the sound of someone tapping on a window.

He turned and looked up. It was his own bedroom window, and a woman with long, blonde curls disappeared behind the curtains. A low, mournful wail filled the air, and Yuki started breathing fast, her features going pale.

"Shit. Looks like you've caught Emily's attention as well. Good thing she's stuck in there, rancid bitch." Amymone shook her head and walked over to the fountain, her eyes on the distant wall of fog. When she sat down, she placed her chin on her fist and sighed. "Being dead fucking sucks."

The ending scene of this chapter has been in my head for nearly a year now, you have no idea how good it was to finally write it down and share it!