The night started off with a nightmare. Making one last check before skipping my happy ass off to fuck knows where, something tries to force its way through the barriers.
Its protective covering was burnt off immediately, leaving the core of the entity trapped in a burning web. Its degloved face screamed obscenities and expletives at me, promising all sorts of pain and retribution.
I recognized it even though this was the first physical manifestation I have seen of it.
“You’re the fuck that jacked my deck.”
It stopped screaming at me and very softly asked me to allow it back into my life.
“I know I’m intellectually dense as a collapsed star, but you have got to be kidding me. You caused enough shit without me actually coming under your influence, and now you’re asking me to reverse my eviction orders?”
“I can be of help to you. Please.”
“Did you fail temptation school or something? You need remedial classes. Back your smoking ass out my territories before I finish the flaying of your body. Your application is denied with prejudice.”
It dropped the emotionally vulnerable act and tried to vomit its innards across the barrier. While the Skeletal Flaming Pit Bull of Fuck Your Shit gladly ran around setting fire to what little made it across the barrier, I took up a [certain rod] made from the branches of [a certain tree] and started whipping the entity.
The branches were purgative and banishing. What was flayed away disintegrated. The entity tried to escape but the pit bull clamped down on its face and locked his jaws. The dream continued being heavy and thick. A miasma of fear was almost physical. I knew it to be from the entity trying to bluff me into submission. But this bastard doesn’t know what I grew up with.
The beating continued until my morale improved. With a loud rip, the entity’s flesh gave way, and a much smaller spirit wriggled out of the ass of the still caught body. It fled into the surrounding darkness, promising revenge for the humiliation and promising that it will take my life as it had taken my deck.
I neglected the deck. That’s how it was stolen out from under my nose. I’m not neglecting my life. If it comes back, I’ll be waiting.
Kisses and pettin’s and joyful glee with the Skeletal Flaming Pit Bull of Happy Tail Wagging. (Who’s a good boy! Yes, you are! You adorable lovely, you!) A check of Horatio (yes, he’s still around) shows the entity had tried to jack him as well but the ghost hound successfully defended Horatio and driven the entity off.
I have been very neglectful in my depression. Mama has lots of work to do.
Some asperging with that branch rod and water from the River on the borders of my physical territory, and that is set to right. Okay. Where was I? Oh yes, on my way to a picnic. Right?
Nope.
Once I was outside my boundaries, the entity attacked again. I left Horatio at home with the Skeletal Flaming Pit Bull of Bed Hogging on guard. The entity thought I would be vulnerable away from my borders. Once again I was dunked into a nearly fluid atmosphere of fear and oppression. If only I would submit to the entity, accept it as my personal Hierophant, then my life would be set in order. My runeswords were modified into whips as answer. Alternating strikes of ice and fire quickly corrected the entity’s assumption.
Throughout the night, it was one nightmare after another. But each one was weaker than the one before. The nightmares’ setting never bothered me. Not when I have lived in abject fear for years, never knowing if this will be the day she advances from merely beating me to stabbing me like she kept promising. What is another night of fear to me?
Each attack took less effort from me to repel. Why not just eat the bastard and be done with it? I like toying with my food. I dunno, just didn’t seem worth the effort. It is no threat to me. The foothold it had established was destroyed completely. I had been neglectful before, but now I’m back. Why waste a nuke when a flyswatter would do?
The last attack had the fear equivalent of wondering if the bra is going to fail just before I walk on stage. Easily dismissed. The last shell the entity wrapped itself in was shattered by me merely plinking it. The entity, now appearing as a bright green earthworm pleaded for mercy. It only sought shelter. I was lost and it could guide me. It attacked Horatio because he was an ineffective defender that needed to be removed. (Spoiler: I stopped depending on Horatio to protect me after a certain asswhipping two years ago. He no longer serves me in that fashion.) When it saw my interactions with the tarot cards, it sought to entwine itself in them, but all the decks were protected except that one. The Convos. The one I had neglected and set aside for a purpose that never came to plan.
“Bullshit. You saw a weakness and exploited it. You attacked Horatio to try and replace him as a means of getting closer to me. You burrowed into the deck for the same reason and the deck was undefended. You are nothing more than a parasite.”
It poured regret into my hand. Won’t I have mercy? It only wanted to get close to the bright flame that is my life. I surround myself with so many other entities, what is one more? It doesn’t need much. I won’t even notice it is there. It took the wrong approach to get close to me and now it bitterly regrets it. Please? Pretty please?
“Liar. I don’t know what motivated you to try to wiggle into my head, but I know what you would have done had you succeeded. I’m glad I destroyed the deck than risk passing you off to someone not as prepared for your threat.” I looked up at the surrounding landscape. The ground under us was a mass of exposed bedrock. Not even a crack for the worm to try to find shelter in. A thick forest surrounded the clearing, though the trees were still wintering and bare of leaves. Not even a hint of a breeze disturbed me.
Then why were the branches waving in the stillness?
Ravens.
Hundreds of them.
With more arriving each second.
The entity noticed our audience the same time I did and began screeching for mercy and amnesty. I bowed at the assembled conspiracies and backed away from the bright green worm.
“Do with it what you will. It is no business of mine.”
I stood fully upright and executed a military about-face. When I took my first step away from the still screaming entity, all the ravens on the lower branches lept into flight. They descended onto the worm and gladly, playfully, pleasurably began tearing it to pieces.
[Redacted] was waiting for me at the edge of the clearing. “You look lots better now.”
“I assume you called the conspiracies to order?”
“I merely said there would be a free lunch after you had your fun. You needed to reject it completely. And you did. Shame about the deck having to be destroyed, but like you said, it was compromised and untrustworthy now. The physical link had to be removed.”
“Speaking of compromised… [Horatio].”
“You’ll check him later. That guard dog of yours isn’t going to allow him to start any shit. Right now, dawn is approaching, and while the night is ending on a positive note, you still didn’t get as much rest as you should.”
“Yea. Well, on the bright side, the fear of this happening again should shut up Anxiety’s concern about not having a Marseilles deck for a few months. I need to inventory and audit all the toys that I have before trying to justify getting new ones.” Behind us, in the clearing, the ravens were still having fun with the scattered remains of the entity. “Just how many dimensions did that sunnavabitch exist in to still have motes remaining? Fuck. Come on, [Redacted], let’s go get some coffee and start some shit.”
“There’s the [Weaver] I know. Lead on.”