How Do Vampires Pee

Her Name Is Sara Powers...

Her name is Sara Powers. And she has a strange condition.

During my first week in Misery, I was required to stay after classes ended every day, as a sort of study hall to catch up on what I missed, as well as a seminar on the required extracurricular activities that they offered.

One of those extracurriculars was gardening, which provided the herbs for home ec, tea reading, and rootwork classes. It was also one of the only clubs that, by necessitiy, had its own building to itself, the greenhouse.

Sara Powers was a reserved and....let's say "abrasive" individual. Like 50 percent of Misery's population, she wore dark, concealing clothes, dark make up, and dyed her hair black, though streaks of her natural brown would occasionally peek through. Upon meeting her parents, it seemed like she was raised into the fashion, rather than choosing it like most of the Miserians.

She always seemed to be able to appear out of nowhere--I thought that this was her oddity, like Kurt's constant sweat of lake water or Anthony's apparent ability to talk to vehicles. However, my visit to the greenhouse proved that this was not the case.

When I entered the building, I didn't expect to see Sara in there. She didn't seem like the type to garden, or in fact care about anything that was alive.

She was kneeling on the ground, digging through a cherry red messenger bag and muttering to herself. She gasped, and pulled out a crude and shoddily crafted wooden mask.

I would have walked in and said something, but then Sara put the mask on.

Describing what happened is....hard. I could say it was like she shed her skin, but that wouldn't be accurate. It was more like her body was made of dual faced plates, and the plates were faced to the side that showed off Sara. But when she put on the mask, those plates flipped to reveal this new....creature? Entity fits better.

And yet, that description still doesn't do it justice.

What matters is that Sara was not there anymore. This new thing....she had skin that seemed to be made of polished wood. Her hair was made from the branches and trees of a willow tree, and she stood as tall as an oak. Her leaves covered the fact that she was completely naked, but it didn't hide the fact that she was levitating--my guess was so that she didn't harm the grass beneath her feet.

When this entity appeared, all of the plants in the greenhouse bloomed. Leaves stood and brightened to a healthy green; flower pods opened up and revealed dazzling heads; fruits ripened and herbs became ready for the picking.

It was like this creature was....

Spring. The word Miserians used to describe Not-Winter. I never understood it until now.

I had gasped. That was a mistake.

The creature spun to face me, and was just as shocked as I was that I was standing there right then and there. The entity grabbed her face and ripped it off; the plate ripple shifted back to Sara, and the crude wooden mask appeared in her hands. Her eyes were wide; mine were too, those hers were still the same pupiless yellow that the entity had, instead of her normal grey-green.

The entity. Spring.

Sara and I stared at each other for what seemed like forever. She began to countdown. "5...."

I was gone before she reached 4.

The Beach

Micah Prince invited Julia to a party at Rock Coast, the beach characterized by broken stones and ship sinker boulders that was a popular swimming spot for the MSAA students. Feeling that I needed to expand my social circle, Julia...strongly suggested that I should come with. 

She also said that I had to bring grilled chicken. That was non-negotiable. 

When we arrived, the Coast was buzzing. A virtue of being popular Micah Prince, I suppose. Old faces and new mingled, some of them friendly. A few of them were posturing while slightly cutting into their ego. Some were playing games, throwing around a ball or skipping stones into the water. There was a circle around a pentagram made of rope that held a snake eye trapped in amber in the center; and the circle was chanting around it. Julia pulled me away from them before I could question it.

Micah was talking to Sara and Kurt when we arrived, and waved at us to acknowledge our arrival. Sara smiled at Julia, but then glossed over me and went back to the Prince. Kurt, however, purposely caught my eye, and gave me the glares to end all glares. The boy who was already soaking wet had complete hatred and malice in his eyes. Readers, I definitely shrunk into myself. The look was only broken when Lucas threw a chunk of chicken at him, and Kurt broke away from his conversation to give his brother a verbal lashing.

Lucas carrying chicken brought my attention to the only constant among the gathering: everyone had grilled chicken. In a bag or a bucket, or a plastic case or a plate, the scent of chicken filled the air. 

Micah clapped his hands to get everyone’s attentions. “Is everyone ready to dive in?” He was met by a raucous response. Micah did that smirk that meant something was about to go down, and opened his container. “Let’s give the mermaids what they want!” 

I paused for a bit, but everyone else grabbed their chicken by the handful and threw them into the black water. Julia elbowed me. “Come on. They won’t let you swim unless you give them an offering.”

My curiosity got the better of me. I lifted my own plastic bag and removed the chicken, chucking it with everyone else. 

A few seconds of silence was all there was. Then bubbles rose to the surface, growing into frothing. Then....the creatures. 

Grey scaled beasts with shark like tails emerged from the depths, their razor teeth tearing into the feast we gave them. Some arced like dolphins to grab at the chunks while others clawed at the scraps. When Julia saw my awed...slack jawed face, she leaned in. “They’re the Rock Coast Mermaids. They’re cool if you feed them...unlike the other Mermaids.” 

I gave her an incredulous look. 

When the creatures vanished, and the frothing died down, Micah whooped and ran into the sea. The rest of the party cheered and followed after him. I kept glancing at the water, and with a heavy sigh followed at their heels. I had no reason to not trust them....though those teeth would stick with me for a while...

Today In Misery

As you remember, Colem Arth died from a cougar attack.

Well today, he walked into class, perfectly fine. Now, I know what I saw. There's no way he could be alive, walking, or even in...one piece.

Yet, there he was. Laughing and joking, as usual.

When 5th period came around, a piece of rebar came through the window and stabbed him through the heart, killing him instantly. While my classmates were shocked, they treated the incident mostly as a nuisance, rather than the tragic event I saw it as. They mostly tried to figure out how Colem managed to "pull that off".

I was sent to the guidance counselor after the incident. Despite being a literal anteater in glasses, Mr. Lingua was good at his job.

Building 17

No one could enter Building 17 today. While it wasn't exactly because of the overgrown vines wrapping around the entire property, growing denser and knotting at any entrance, especially the door, they certainly helped.

My peers weren't exactly....affected by the blockage. They saw it as an opportunity to mess with their phones and have a break; two couples even decided to have a picnic right then and there.

Meiriam, of course, went to grab her father, Principal Lee Anders, who proceeded to do a particularly....intricate ritual that required dancing around the building, swallowing a stick of butter whole, and stabbing a statue made of some kind of melon with a firepoker.

The vines choking Building 17 blackened, but did not wilt. Apparently, this was not the intended effect, since Principal Lee Anders frowned, crossed his arms, and said "The woods rot serves to the feeding of his growth." Whatever that meant.

No one except me seemed to pay much attention to Principal Lee Anders as he tried to free the building several different ways, which includes: using wichfyre to burn the vines away [it didn't], talking to the vines using the language of flowers [from what I gathered, the flowers grown by the vines in response essentially said "fuck off"], and simply hacking at the vines with the firepoker.

There were ten minutes left in class when Principal Lee Anders decided to call for outside help.

I didn't expect my neighbor Prudence to show up, trying to ride her bike in her vestments; as an Oracle, the priestesses who followed the Goddess Aliurian, her garments were highly impractical. The vestments were designed to show off as much skin as possible, to display the jagged tree like scars that all Oracles had to bear.

Prudence approached the vines and pressed her palm against them, letting her eyes drift close. She stayed like that while my peers began to wander off, some moving on to their next class, while some outright skipped, using Principal Lee Anders attention to the blockage to leave without his notice. My next class still im Building 17, so I had to stay while the next group of students approached and were faced with the same problem as the previous period.

Prudence pulled away from the vines with a worried look, and pulled Principal Lee Anders aside to talk. They would occasionally point at me, which just made me hug myself and try to seem smaller than I already was. If they thought I had something to do with this catastrophe, they would be sorely mistaken; I still wasn't allowed to do the practical labs in any of the thaumaturgy classes.

Principal Lee Anders approached me with his hands behind his back, and Prudence followed, fidgeting with her mossy hair. They pulled me to the side, away from the other students.

"Story," Prudence began, wringing her hands. "We, uhm..."

Principal Lee Anders interjected. "We need your help, son."

"With....the vines?" They nodded. "I don't see how I can help..."

"It's not you, per se..."

"Your blood, Mr. Page. We need your blood."

[End of Part 1]

I accidentally said "Illumination" today

It was for a class on symbolism, and when I said the word everyone in class immediately hissed. One boy even dropped his human guise and revealed his true bat-thing form, and broke a window trying to escape (the panic I felt at that moment was worse than when I saw Colem die for the first time; I may have had a panic attack)

Apparently, Illumination is the name of the rival town that everyone in Misery utterly despises, even the town itself.

In every conversation I had, they would talk about Misery and Illumination as if they were two living entities. But I couldn't dig deep into that, since everyone had some kind of spiel about how much Illumination sucked, or how Illumination was the worst, and different variations that gave the same sentiment.

A PSA

All bathroom cabinets in Marcus Ward will be leaking black sludge from 2am to 6pm. Do not look at the sludge. Do not interact the sludge. We know that it smells bad. But there are dire consequences for those who ignore our instructions. The sludge will be gone at the scheduled time.

Another billboard has come to life and is currently on the loose. This billboard has been dubbed with the name Kyle, and exhibits an ability to change the poster displayed on its face at will. It was last seen with a "Tchivsky's Levitation Night" poster in Avery Ward. Report any signs of movement.

The Underground Tunnels are closed for repair. It is recommended that you learn teleportation, or learn the Old Crow Song until the Tunnels reopen.

--Taken from the community billboard in the Rec Center. There are no Underground Tunnels...right?

i really enjoy learning about misery and hope to get the chance to read more about it :)

Thank you. Spread the word--people need to know about this place. ((For real though, thank you~))

Today In Misery

Everyone had to take shelter in their nearest building today as a massive swarm of demons flew over the school.

They choked the windows and covered the walls, and the buildings creaked when the motes squeezed.

Misery was known for its high Angel-Demon population, but this was an insane number even for the town.

The demons struggled to get in for a few minutes before they started to disperse. When the demons left some openings the braver kids decided to go and check what was happening.

According to them, Lee Anders was walking around the grounds with no protection at all, screaming at the demons through a megaphone. "Disperse! Disperse! Disperse!" Wandered into the classrooms as more and more demons retreared.

The whole ordeal was 10 minutes long, and class resumed shortly after.

Today In Misery

The Net was shut down today, which was inconvenient since everyone had some kind of project due.

So a girl with pink hair took the router and drew a circle around it with black sand (she carries a bag of it with her at all times....apparently). She whispered something to it, spat on it, then plugged it back in. Everyone had wifi immediately after.

She still won't tell me what she did.

Today In Misery

I was outside of the deli with Julia when it happened.

The deli is settled between the second and third lights of a series of four intersections. Every road was empty, and every light on Crown Street, which led directly into the Lower Marcus Ward, had turned green at the same time.

I assume the driver of the green sedan yelled out "Score!" to themselves, since the moment they turned onto Crown Street they immediately started to pick up speed.

They didn't even reached the second light before the hood collapsed onto itself, as if they had hit something. The car spun and struck a mailbox, knocking it over, and then finally stopped. Julia and one other passerby ran to save the person.

Before the police came to try and control the situation, I managed to get a look at the sedan's damage. It was curved, like it was trying to wrap around a pole.

Since there were no cars, I tried to find what the person hit, and was met with empty air.

I did hear....something. I couldn't determine the sound or the source, only that it was getting further away.