Her Name Is Sara Powers...

The Town Called Misery 2

Now....let me tell you about where I live.

I live in the Avery Ward, to the South East of Misery. It's...a trailer park. The neighborhood comprises of mobile homes, abandoned metal barns, and ruined or half built gas stations and strip malls, of which only three are functional. The sky in the Avery District was a muted grey [a deviation of the perpetual white sky in Misery, instead of the normal blue]. The neighborhood was dreary...but it was also full of -life-. The people here were happy, there was almost no crime, and the community here was much closer to each other than in the other wards.

My neighbors include Oisin, who lives in the shed next to our trailer. He always wears a skirt, and gives really bad life advice. The Sisters of Clemency live next to him; they're all nuns from the Houses of Ten (there are 8 of them; the other two live in their temples, as their doctrine dictates). All of them are super nice, and only Charity, who follows Astros, tries to convert me.

Behind us lives Anthony and Aiseline. They're a couple in their mid 60s who, despite mirroring each other, aren't related but are married. They claim to be able to speak to vehicles, but say that lawn mowers and pogo sticks can't talk and aren't alive.

Next to them lives Whistle. Whistle is pretty ordinary looking, but is also very open about his profession in the buying and selling of drugs. The police keep catching him, but he always gets out within a few hours. How? He won't tell me; he just winks, then takes a hit of whatever he bought.

The crown jewel of my neighbors, though, is a boy by the name of Micah Prince. He's a junior at MSAA, and his brother Enos is a sixth grader. Micah Prince is infamous; what for, though, no one will tell me. When prompted, they ask me if I know "What the Blood Parade is"; when I told them that I didn't, they immediately clammed up. I would have asked him myself, but every time the thought crossed my mind, I would freeze, or the hair on my arms would rise. -This is a very bad idea-, my body would tell me. And so, even though he was in five of my classes, I never said a word to him.

Of note, though, there is one other person in his trailer other than his mom and his brother. A meek, small girl who was about my age; she seemed familiar, but I didn't know why...

story, have you ever been harmed or changed (even temporarily) because of the things happening in misery? also, are you close friends with anyone or do you prefer to keep your distance out of fear?

Sadly, Reader, I have been harmed on more than one occasion in my time living in Misery. It’s not a targeted thing–The weirdness in Misery will often harm or affect someone in some way.

While they don’t individually cause bad luck, swarms of the mote like demons can. I had a particularly bad and almost lethal day when a demon swarm decided to stalk me. Because of this I was almost in a car accident, several angels went feral on me, and a pixie, a Phooka, and a rock golem all tried to kidnap me [which was how I learned that there is a Faerie Court in Misery, despite being told on numerous occasion that the Gentry were extinct or fictional] Because of the trip to the hospital resulting from that day, Principal Lee Anders has conducted an investigation on what caused the swarm to follow me. It’s still going on to this day, and I’m required to wear a silver ring on my middle and ring finger everywhere except for my home.

I was also harmed by Kevin, a black cat the size of a grizzly bear, though it was more of an accident than anything. Kevin just happens to be overly affectionate [he only sticks to the Marcus Ward, thankfully]. Similarly, I was attacked by a spooked colony of bats, and a curious murder of crows, according to the girl with cow eyes and Margo the Crow Girl.

As for changes…nothing permanent. But everyone seems to think that one is imminent. They keep calling it “the Misting”, despite the fact that I’ve avoided the Mist since that first night.

However, I’ve been temporarily changed a total of three times. In a joint advanced chem/alchemical transmutations class, the girl with pink hair who fixed the internet had tripped and dropped her concotion on my head. For the rest of the day, I had a third eye that was red, my hands had turned into black stone with three massive fingers, and my hair had turned orange. I was regarded with pity and artistic awe [there are still drawings of my…form in the art buildings. And one in the greenhouse for some reason].

The second incident was a completely different expirience. I was going to go to the Rock Beach to try and interview this clique of girls that always seem to hang out in the water. On my way there I stepped through an arch of red roots and yellow flowers. When I was on the other side, I had visions.

Not visions in the sense of seeing the future, Dear Reader. However, I saw spirits, or muses, or some kind of minor god that tried to guide me down certain paths for a week. I also saw what I assume was the aforementioned Gentry without their glamours. During that week, my eyes had been blue, even my pupils, for some reason. I don’t know how I saw anything. The science doesn’t make sense.

My third and final change was by my own folly and accident. Julia texted me an incantation in High Méliès for translation (I took the language for all of middle school, and was surprisingly good at it. And MSAA doesn’t offer the course).

I say incantation, Reader, because when I translated it, the next day Kurt, the boy who sweats a lake, bumped into me. And for the next day and a half, we were entangled.

Not entangled by ropes or anything physical, mind you. But by magic. The incantation [I refuse to repeat it, to prevent an expirience similar to mine], turned out to be a binding charm–anything that happened to me would happen to him, and vice versa. Kurt….heavily abused the situation. My retaliation got him suspended, though, and the guilt still eats at me.

Temporary changes aren’t that uncommon though. People often wake up with them, or gain them after walking away from some phenomena. Permanent changes are less common, but still happen regularly. An example of both is detailed in an earlier post of mine, with the Forest of Crystal Fruit.

As for your other question, Reader….Friends. I used to keep my distance out of fear, only approaching people for a story or sources for events that happened before my arrival.

That changed upon learning about Cynthia Jennings. Originally, Julia Ingram only gave me the missing Cynthia’s journal as a warning. But when I suggested that I could probably use it to find her, Julia became more forthcoming with what she knows, which, to be fair, wasn’t a lot. But due to being a native, she was much more effective at finding/referencing material than I was.

At first, our relationship was strictly professional. However, the more time we spent together let her open up and relax. Our interactions still focus mainly on trying to find Cynthia, but we do stuff outside of that together. We often eat lunch with each other.

Julia is my only friend, I think. She has one other friend besides me–Sara Powers.

Outside of Julia, I have a few other acquaintances that I’m on good terms with. Margo and I will occasionally talk or text, and the girl with the cow eyes will give me a smile and wave when she sees me. And my neighbors will hold conversations with me and give sagely wisdom if I ask for it.

Micah Prince will sometimes give me a nod or raise a glass of brown soda to me when he’s on his porch, but he otherwise treats me with gentle ambivalence. He’s reluctant to share knowledge, and gets defensive when I bring up the girl who lives with him (when I can remember her–I needed a sticky note to remember to mention her)

I hope that answers your question Dear Reader.

((Sorry this took so long! I think this is my longest post–I had to go through a bunch of notes to keep this accurate. Thank you for such a great ask anon))

Today In Misery

Time stopped.

For a few hours actually. 

I only know this because a few of the townsfolk and I were able to move around in this frozen world. Apparently this is a regular occurence, and a few were excited (mostly retail workers and a few of my fellow students) while others saw it as a nuisance. 

I noticed that it was only humans that moved around in the frozen world--I could approach angels and demons with no repercussions, or I could see a mermaid in mid arc; I could even catch up to the elusive peacock that runs around my neighborhood.

According to Lucas, the boy who wears welding gloves everywhere, the time stop is for those born under certain constellations. Which one is on a cycle, and apparently its the Dancer’s turn. 

Most people use the opportunity to cut class or steal from the convenience store; the more responsible ones use the time to catch up on their work.

I....used it to read. I had a lot of books to catch up on, and hours of time that didn’t pass? Of course I abused it.  

It rained today. This doesn't sound odd enough for Misery; it isn't.

It's what happened in the rain that concerns me.

Micah Prince, heart throb of MSAA according to Julia, and a man of many secrets, is the only one in my neighborhood with a fence. No one knows why this is. Nor do the Princes care, since the fence is grimy, warped, and has no upkeep at all.

Perhaps this is why.

When the rain struck the fence, runoff revealed two different messages.

The first was: "Q xuqhj veh q xuqhj. Q iekb veh q iekb." Running it through a few ciphers (as I did with most cryptic messages like this), revealed, when using Rot16: "A heart for a heart. A soul for a soul."

The second message didn't need translating. It simply said "If you love someone, you have to be prepared to kill them."

When the rain stopped and the fence dried, the messages disappeared.

The Mists of Misery

Misery was built somewhere on the Northern Rock Coast [not on the Horn, but close], and has two beaches--the aptly named Rock Coast to the west, which despite consisting of broken and shattered stones, remains evermore popular than the Sand Coast to the south. And maybe the town's proximity to the ocean can explain away the daily presence of the all consuming mists...but that doesn't explain its, dare I say, predatory behavior.

In Misery, every night from sunset to approximately six in the morning, pure white mist blossoms from the center of the town and engulfs everything. My neighbors claim that the mists are searching for something, but exactly what, they aren't sure.

My first night in Misery, I watched the mists' approach. It did not float, or hover, or even roll over the dimly lit streets. No, these mists slithered; they snaked over the asphalt and concrete, prowling, -watching-. As I stared, I could tell that the mists weren't vapours. They were....ethereal. The mists were barely real--they were like an optical illusion, or as if something flat suddenly decided it didn't want to be anymore, and actively fought to become 3 dimensional.

As I watched, a sharp pain grew in the back of my head. I couldn't tear my eyes away from them--my mind was trying to cope with the fact that this thing that defied the laws of physics sat before my very eyes. And as I stared, I felt something, deep within the mists, stare back.

I ran away that night, and only watched the mists from the safety of my room. But I wasn't safe; as long as those mists were there, no one was safe.

No one spoke of the mists. None of my teachers would talk about it; the library didn't have an in depth study on them. They were simply a fact of life--the mists had been here since when Misery was just a small collection of hamlets, and probably before then.

No one would explain why the mists came from the center of town, which happened to be the center of Misery's School of All Ages courtyard, instead of rolling in from the oceans. And no one would explain how they both had and lacked substance at the same time. And their eyes averted when I asked about the watching, and the hunting. They winced when I compared the mists to a predator in wait.

The message was clear.

No one talked about the mists.

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.

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.

I AM NOT WHAT YOU THINK I AM. -CB

Lot 47

I've began to notice that most people keep track of when Colem Arth dies somewhere. When I asked why, they turned me to the dark science majors who live in Aspen Ward.

The dark scientists have discovered a weird side effect to Colem's curse. When he dies 4 times in a single place, nothing else can die in that place. They have extra stipulations, such as:

Dying 2 feet away from the location of the first death counts as dying there

The effect covers a maximum of 2 acres

The effect doesn't prevent woundings, unless the wound in and of itself would prove fatal.

Though they aren't prevented, wounds are meaningless. Fingers can be reattached, and cuts close immediately. The wounds are only permanent if they are still there when the victim leaves said area, upon which normal healing resumes.

This has only happened three times. The first place is, obviously, Colem Arth's house. They say he uses it as a safety zone when he gets sick of the whole dying thing, and that sometimes when he's absent he's just hiding at home to avoid getting hit by a truck or something equally terrible.

The second one the dark scientists refuse to tell me about. They gave no reason why.

The third site is the most well known location and the site where the 2 acre rule was discovered.

This is site is called Lot 47.

Lot 47 is a vacant field outside of Marcus Ward that was supposed to be a new shopping centre to attract tourists, but lost it's funding at the last moment. Now it's over grown, reclaimed by the woods and littered with random steel pipes and piles of cinder blocks.

Kids use it for LARPing.

"What? That can't be right." I wasn't sure I heard the dark scientists correctly.

But they confirmed it. The day before the weekend, starting from right when school ends to when the sun sets, ayone from fhe sixth grade and below uses the Lot as the site of war games and intense LARPs. Since the plants there never die and are also subject to the healing rule, they don't have to worry about set up and clean up only involves reattaching severed limbs, which is why its so popular, or so the dark scientists claim.

(A few even admit to having played there when they were at MSAA, and that the only reason the sunset rule exists is because Demon Collectives like to stalk the Lot at night.)

Still sensing my disbelief, the dark scientists told me that there was Capture the Flag scheduled the coming weekend, and told me to be there and I would see. They refused to answer my questions about why Colem was at Lot 47 enough times for it to be a "No-Kill Zone" or what even causes the effect. I was left with more questions than answers.

Instead, I simply went to Lot 47 the day of Capture the Flag.

They brought actual weapons. Sharpened swords, axes, pocket knives, one kid brought a bow and arrows without practice tips. No one was allowed to unsheathe their weapons until they passed a (presumably) stolen street sign with '47' spray painted on it. They quickly broke up into teams and ran into the Lot. A few moments later, an airhorn broke the silence, and the games began.

I simply wandered around the Lot, observing. The kids did hack each other to pieces....sort of. Cuts didn't bleed. Limbs fell off, and the person who lost it would just groan or give their attacker a stink eye and pick up the limb, then run away. One sixth grader got his head cut off. His attacker helped him fix it on, the previously beheaded kid simply said thanks, then ran away.

The bow and arrow kid shot me by mistake. It hit me in the thigh, and I cried out from shock. But....I didn't feel it. There was no pain or anything. I could feel it wiggling around inside of me, but it was more like having a finger pressed really hard on my thigh than being stabbed. The kid ran up, said "You aren't playing right?" And asked for his arrow back. I pulled it out no problem, and there was no blood on it. I checked my thigh, and there was no wound. All the damage it did was saved for my jeans. The kid gave me a quick sorry and ran off to rejoin the fight.

As promised, the end of the game was signaled by another airhorn when the sun began to set. At this point I was hanging closer to the edge to avois getting accidentally maimed again, but as the airhorn went off, I noticed a few figures beginning to approach. Shadowy, indescript figures with a bunch of red dots across their form, slowly approaching the Lot....

I got pulled away by a larger sixth grader who said we had to go "NOW". He pulled me away, back towards where the kids had entered the Lot, and I could still feel the shadows watching us leave....

The coming school day I asked Mr. Lingua the talking aardvark about Lot 47. He kind of shrugged and said "No ones getting hurt." Which I guess is sort of right....

The older adults in town seem to want to forget about Lot 47 in general....

How do vampires pee

Th-that's....I-I don't...