THERE ARE NO BEES IN MISERY

Building 17, Part 2

"You need my WHAT?" I had to take a step back. What would you do, Readers, if your principal asked for your blood?

Said principal casually drew a knife from his belt. "Your blood. The creature in there wants an offering."

"I would hope you knew better than to call a spirit a creature, Mr. Lee Anders." Prudence took the knife away from him. "That looked really threatening...."

"I'm a principal."

"Did you say a spirit?" I interjected. "Spirits haven't been seen in centuries..."

"Just because they aren't seen doesn't mean they aren't there. You're made of cells, no? Atoms? Quarks and gluons?"

"I-I guess....but--"

"Besides, magic can't hurt them."

"Nor should it." Prudence gave the principal a look. "The spirit should be appeased, not attacked. Which is why we need your blood."

"Why my blood?" I pulled my sweater sleeves down a bit. "Doesn't all blood work in spellwork?"

"This isn't spellwork, it's an offering. And your blood is....special."

".....No?"

"Yes. Your blood is....unchanged. It's what we call 'Unmisted'."

"....I've never heard of that."

"Its a local phenomena. But it just means that, for now, your blood is special. And sadly, that means you're a....delicacy."

I shuddered at the thought. "I--"

Principal Lee Anders stopped me. "This is our only option son. We need your blood."

I resisted for a bit, but eventually I gave in. None of Principal Lee Anders' spells worked, and Prudence's meditations gave her the same answer. My blood was the only way this would end.

Prudence carefully pushed my sleeve up and drew her knife. I clenched my eyes shut and turned away, and winced. Luckily she made the....incision on my arm instead of my palm. Principal Lee Anders quickly bandaged the wound while Prudence smeared my blood on her hands. I felt woozy; it was too much for me. The cut, the...ritual....

I tried not to throw up.

Prudence reached for the vines with both hands, and before she even touched them the vines fell away. Prudence glanced back at Principal Lee Anders, then tried to enter Building 17. However, she stopped short. "Ail'sur'ia..." She cursed. Prudence then gave me an apologetic look. "It wants you to come with."

Dear Readers, at that moment I spoke my mind.

"Are you guys going to feed me to a spirit?"

"Wha--no!" Prudence rushed to deny.

"No harm will come to you, Mr. Page." Principal Lee Anders came up and put a hand on my shoulder, and a chill went down my spine. "I swear it."

Our magician of a principal wrapped a silver thread around my wrist and Prudence's, then used golden confetti mixed with sand to draw a circle that hovered in the air around him. "Stay behind me at all times."

When we entered Building 17, the vines came up again, trapping us inside. The interior was destroyed; the walls were split by tree roots, and flowers grew at random intervals. Moss covered everything, and small glowing motes were the only source of light. It was warm, and the air felt wet.

I looked ahead at Principal Lee Anders, and he was smiling. "Let's do this."

[End of Part 2]

"The Sun is in Heliotrope. The Moon is in exile on the path of Diptera. S and P will become important in the future."

~Whistle; The blue tint in his eye suggests that he was high.

I saw that girl again

The girl who lives with Micah Prince. He doesn't have a sister, so....a friend? A cousin? A girlfriend?

For some reason, I cannot remember this girl. Beyond this blog, I also keep a journal with me in case I get hacked or something gets corrupted.

I have four seperate journal entries about her. Nothing about a name, or anything weird--just how I've seen her around.

No one seems to know who this girl is, and when I asked Micah he agressively said "Don't worry about it," and left it at that.

I remember intending to approach the girl and ask but....nothing. I can't seem to remember her.

I'm making this post now in hopes to remember. Focusing on her seems to stop....whatever this is, but the instant I get distracted....

I had to write this post, dear readers, five times. That's how quickly I forgot this girl.

The peacock won't leave my neighborhood. Everyone sees it 3 to 8 times a day just....walking around.

Every day.

The Moon was made of gold tonight. The Moon did not like this.

Here goes nothing...

My name is Story Page.

It has been three months since my family relocated to Misery, a town sequestered somewhere in the Northern Rock Coast.

And I will be the first to say it--this town should not exist.

Misery is a hub of supernormal activity. Danger stalks the night, and bloodsuckers watch their prey from the shadows. Spirits and invisible men walk amongst bakers and businessmen. Anything can be anything, and nothing is as it seems.

Out of the ordinary events happen on an hourly basis, and yet the townfolk are not only completely aware of this, they have embraced this.

Unfortunately, no one has ever tried to explain this weirdness; they've made their peace with and grown up with it.

So I've taken it upon myself to look at this town with fresh eyes. Through study and interviews, I will share what I've learned with you. Ask me anything; as long as the information gets out to the rest of the world, nothing is off limits.

I AM NOT WHAT YOU THINK I AM. -CB

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))

Building 17 Part 3

I was told that writing about what happened would help me cope.

I wasn't going to write this part. I was just going to write about meeting the Gentry, or the history of spirits, and hope that everyone would forget.

But I have to cope.

And nothing else has helped.

No one will believe me anyways.

He saw to that.

...

Here's what happened.

Prudence offered my blood to the spirit that was holed up in Building 17, and the vines retreated to let us in. Lee Anders wrapped silver cord around my wrist and Prudence's, then put a magical shield that looked like it was thrown together in some dark garage im under an hour over himself.

Lee Anders rushed in. Didn't even wait for me and the Oracle. I thought he wanted this to be over with.

I was stupid to believe that.

When we entered, the halls had been reclaimed by nature. The lights had been destroyed, so everything was only illuminated by glowing motes of spore. Moss covered everything, and the vines has broken inside and trapped the walls and lockers in the world's most uncomfortable death hold. Red flowers bloomed along the lengths of these vines, spewing out the light motes. Lee Anders was nowhere to be seen, but he only had one direction to go.

Building 17 was one of the shorter buildings, so we came across the first body pretty quickly. The vines had wrapped around his throat, and spewing from his mouth was one of the red flowers. I stopped Prudence when she tried to step forward.

"That's Colem. He's....fine." I grimaced. I still wasn't used to seeing his dead body. And I could only imagine him trying to scream, trying to claw away at the vines as they crushed his throat--

I closed my eyes and turned away.

The second body wasn't too far away. We probably would have missed it, were it not for the faint "....help....help me please..."

"By the Ten," Prudence covered her mouth. "She's still alive."

The girl with the pink hair who fixed the internet was being pinned to the wall near the ceiling by her ankles, waist, and wrists. A single shoot speared her thigh, and was budding. The girl sniffed, and tried to reach to us. "Help me...please..."

Prudence drew her knife, but the vines must have...sensed it somehow, because the shoot going through her thigh twisted, drawing a gasp from the girl. Prudence lowered her weapon. "Shit...."

I rolled my sleeve up and removed the bandage. "Help me up."

Prudence dropped her knife and grabbed me by the hips, lifting me towards the girl. I grit my teeth as I shoved my fingers into the cut, then smeared my blood onto the shoot going through her leg. It retreated, and the girl's eyes clenched shut. I started to paint the vines holding her up with more of my blood.

"How did you know that would work?" Prudence asked.

"It got us in here..." I thumbed over the vine holding her waist, and the girl fell to the lockers with a groan.

Prudence cursed and set me down, then uncerimoniously dragged the girl from the lockers into her arms. "She needs help now...." My neighbor looked at me. "Stay here. Don't move until I get back."

I was about to protest, but the girl was limp in the Oracle's arms. So I swallowed my fears, and nodded. Prudence held the girl with pink hair close to her body, and carried her out. Once she passed Colem's body, I couldn't see her anymore.

I waited for her. The light from the spores wasn't enough; I could barely see. And what I could see, I didn't want to. Destruction. Blood. Bodies that we had missed, only visible when the spores wandered into a classroom.

Colem was staring at me.

There was a twig snap. I looked around, wondering where it came from.

Another snap. Closer. I quickly scoop up Prudence's forgotten knife and point it towards our destination. Where Lee Anders had run off to.

Snap.

The principal stepped from the shadows, hands in his pockets. "Mr. Page?" He looked around. "Cautiousness, Wisdom, Judgement....?"

"What?"

"Your neighbor."

"Prudence? She left to help a student."

"Ah." Lee Ander's gaze drifted. He wasn't focusing on me....more like something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder. There was nothing there.

"Follow me, Mr. Page."

I didn't like the finality in his voice. He sounded like a doctor who was telling his patient that nothing could be done anymore.

"I don't want to."

Lee Anders frowned. "Follow me, Mr. Page." There was a sudden weight to his words that pulled me forward, no matter how much I told my legs not to move.

We seemed to walk for an eternity. I held the dagger close to me, and watched Lee Anders's back; when we walked into a patch of darkness, I still felt myself being pulled towards him.

Suddenly, a pinprick of light broke the darkness. I had to squint against it, but I couldn't stop from approaching its source.

I gaped. "Is that....?"

"The Spirit Seed." Lee Anders smiled wickedly. A pale rose that was larger than my body cast its light on us; it hurt to stare, but I couldn't look away. "A single string of the spiritual world pushing its way into the real world to take a form that our minds can comprehend." The principal let his hand hover over the petals, but he didn't touch them. "And soon, it will open and spit out a Spirit proper."

"Shouldn't we....shouldn't we get rid of it?" I readied the dagger. "Before the spirit comes out?"

"After all the trouble I went through to get it here?! No chance!"

"You what!!"

"Spirits raise the vibrations of the Prana field. Having even one nearby lets one accomplish great feats of spellwork!"

"You--you destroyed a building! You killed students and maimed others!"

"These things always have a small measure of risk! As well as some sacrifice."

I felt myself step forward. "What? No, stop--"

"Unmisted blood is a rare delicacy. Your presence here really is a blessing."

My hands shook as I tried to cling to the dagger, but my hands flew open and it sunk into the grass. "I thought you weren't going to feed me to the spirit!"

"I lied."

"You're supposed to protect your students!"

"The needs of the many outweigh the pining of the few."

My eyes widened as the flower bloomed, and out stepped a wolf, who had wispy flesh and possessed blue eyes that trailed light. It had a gash in its size that leaked some kind of dark green fluid. It looked emaciated, and kept its head low as it trudged forward.

My hands rose into the air, and Lee Anders bent down to scoop up the dagger, and sliced one of my palms open. I clenched my eyes shut and tried to close my hand, but it refused to obey.

"I offer you this unchanged sacrifice. Pure human."

I tensed. "I don't want to die!"

"He is--what the fuck?"

I opened my eyes at the outburst, and....the cougar was approaching. It rubbed its muzzle against my hip, and I dropped to my knees. I flexed my hands, and they responded. I could control them.

The cougar strode forward and nuzzled the wolf, who closed its eyes and returned the gesture.

Lee Anders stared at the exchange. "Cougar, what's going on?"

The cougar lifted its paw, and used its teeth to rip it off. It was already regrowing when she threw the extremity at the wolf's feet. It snapped it up, and swallowed it in a single gulp. The gash on its side closed, and the cougar began to lick away the green fluid.

Lee Anders put his hand on his hips. "Cougar, you have some explaining to do."

I winced at his carefree voice, and the cougar glanced between me and Lee Anders. Then she rose on her hind legs and clawed Lee Anders' cheek. He fell to the ground. "Gah! Son of a whore!"

The cougar nudged the wolf with her muzzle, and they walked back the way they came. Lee Anders sat back up, pulling his hand away from his cheek. It was already healed. "Hey, come back!" He shook his fist at the duo. He sighed.

The flower eventually vanished, leaving the motes to be the only source of light. I immediately ran away from the man who tried to murder me. The hall seemed much shorter now.

I ran into something and swung my good hand at it. "No!"

Prudence wrapped her arms around me. "Hey! Hey what's going on?"

I looked up at her, then buried myself into her grip and broke down. She didn't push forward, and simply led me out of the building.

....

The next day was the worst day of my life.

The only positives were that Prudence and her Sisters excommunicated Lee Anders from the Church of X--he wasn't allowed to call on their help ever again.

A local newscast called Lee Anders a hero, and said that he went in to Building 17 by himself to drive out a rogue Fey and reopen the classes. I had gone to some of the students to ask what had happened, and they all claimed that Prudence and I were never even there. I had thought, okay, most of them weren't even paying attention.

But then I went to visit the girl with the pink hair, whose name was Ashes Kane, didn't remember. She said that after Colem died, Lee Anders came in and pulled her down.

Everyone's memories were altered. The only one who remembered was Prudence.

I didn't go to school for a few weeks after that. Whenever I was about to go, I broke down and panicked. Hence the...the therapy.

....

This is the only true record of what happened.

After the event, only one thing really brought me comfort.

I was sitting on my porch, clinging to a mug of coffee that had long since become cold. Micah Prince was walking home and glanced over at me and saw that I was there. He came over and took a seat next to me.

"Haven't seen you in a while." He took out a candy cigarette and started chewing on it. "I'm starting to miss your hounding and questions."

I simply stared at my coffee at the time. Micah sighed. "What happened to you man?"

I shook my head. "You won't believe me."

He held the box of candy out to me. "Try me."

I looked over at him, took one, and told him the story. The story I told all of you.

[End of Building 17]

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