“June…?” A voice crept up behind the princess and was met with a quick slap. It had been her brother finally catching up. “Ouch!”
“Bart! Oh! I’m so sorry! Don’t sneak up on my like that!”
“I didn’t think I could…” Bart mumbled, rubbing the painful spot on his nose. “What in Sarracas happened in here?”
“Didn’t we tell you to keep your trap shut?” The original Tamsin walked up behind him, then pointed at the spot where the world had seemed to collapse. “Someone’s still out there.”
“Well, well. It would seem you’re a little late to catch this ride. I’m afraid that was our last bus for the evening.” The creepy voice slithered out from the shadows, along with the click clacking of hooves on stone as the owner walked forward. A face with an impossibly stretched-out smile emerged from the shadows with eyes covered beneath a round, golden turban and rusting metal jewelry hanging from his neck. A sickening yellow robe stretched out around his waist and hid the inhuman feet that gave him an unnaturally creepy gait, while his emaciated, hirsute torso was visible for all to see—wiry hair spread thin on skin sinking deep between swollen ribs and further still beneath it. It was the man that June and Bart had spied on earlier, only much more frightening as the miniscule specks of light that had reappeared emphasized the contours of his ghoulish grin. On a small stone altar behind him sat a strange, ringed artifact. “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
Both Tamsin and her twin scowled in fury at the lone figure, while Ash raised his crossbow, aiming it steadily at his head.
“You…!” mumbled Bart. His sister stood frightened and confused next to him, unsure of who they were suddenly facing off against. The eerie voice struck a discordant chord in her memories.
“Ah, my mistake. I suppose you’re no longer allowed to go home and you absolutely must stay here.” A menacing chuckle escaped from between his teeth as he flicked his wrist and, in his hand, appeared the artifact. A heavy pressure built up in the air as a subtle and ominous glow radiated from the object.
“What was that?!” shouted the other priestess. “Where did they all go?!”
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“Back home, of course. They have taken the first step in the long, arduous trip back home. They’ve completed their jobs and keeping them here any further would have only led to a very annoying cleanup job. They don’t belong in this world. And neither do I, for that matter. This universe does a very patchwork job of hosting chaotic beings. It rejects us, treating us like some intrusive virus. It’s actually pretty rude. But we make do.” The smiling figure walked forward, with one arm behind his back and the other holding up the glowing artifact. His grin seemed to stretch back even further, as if he were trying to grin over his already frozen rictus.
The nascent atmospheric pressure grew thicker and heavier—to a suffocating degree. June felt it first as the weight pressing down on her body grew and slowed even the smallest movement she attempted to make. The princess tried not to panic, even as the difficulty in breathing set in. At first, she thought he had somehow affected the gravity in the room, making it heavier and causing their bodies to stiffen up, but she then soon realized how much worse it actually was. It was time itself that was freezing. June had known this would be a dangerous mission, but she wasn’t prepared for just how out of her depth she would be.
“As if I’d let you—!” Tamsin and her twin shot their whips out in unison, but as their ends stretched out to lash the devious figure, their snap-rapid movement dwindled away quickly as their momentum came to a screeching halt.
“Why, if it isn’t more lovely Scarlet fodder. Come to avenge your fallen, I presume? What a pitiable waste of time. My time. Your time. What did you honestly hope to accomplish stepping foot within our tabernacle room with such a meagre group of conscripts?” The priest made his way forward, past the two Scarlet Sisters, and pushed away a bolt that had frozen in midair with his finger as if it were nothing incredible. He stopped in front of Bart, who had attempted to block his sister from view. The man raised another finger, decrepit as it was, and raked a jagged nail along the prince’s cheek, drawing a frozen line of blood. “Foolish young men just eager to die. Isn’t that right?” he asked while facing Bart, his smirk growing ever longer.
June, the world still blind to her, tried not to cower as her brother stood between her and the cultist priest. His menacing voice had chilled her to the bone. She wondered just how much her body would be shivering if it weren’t completely frozen in time.
“I’m just talking to myself here now,” he said, crossing the scar on Bart’s cheek. “Your simple, little minds aren’t even processing words anymore. You are all completely lost to the whims of the universe. I mean, isn’t it just divine how powerless you are to the almost unfathomable system inside of such a complex little creature? And who knew how easy it was to manipulate the all-encompassing when you know how to read the manual.”
