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From: The Storyteller
Date: 16 May 2000
Time: 07:44:07
Through the rubble and decay that is the Shadowlands, the shade of a very young girl appears seemingly out of nowhere. She has a black dress on with a white puffed shirt under it, while her hair is in a long braid down the back. There are ragged cuts on each of her wrists. Little Juliet is walking, floating, through backyards, towards somwhere she does not know, retracing the steps of an ancient memory.
Passing through a street of small houses, Juliet sees another wraith coming up to a Skinlands house, the door open, the wraith has a non-descript, plain face with no definite features that make him stand out from anyone else. He wears a dark trench coat, matching slacks and polished shoes, and his hair is brown and short cropped. Today, the features of hatred are carved deep into his visage. The man walks up the driveway to the entrance, and steadies himself against the doorway... then he collapses in slow-motion, flickering like a bad hologram. Little Juliet watches.
Mr. Nothing raises his head, seeming to wake up from a nightmare... he rubs the top of his head, slowly getting to his knees. Little Juliet stuffs toward her pockets, finding she has none she tucks them behind her back. The male, blank-faced ghost looks around the area, as though re-familiarizing himself with the setting. Around the two intagible spirits, the living are getting home from work, arriving in their automobiles. Mr. Nothing eyes Juliet as he gets to his feet.
The two wraiths seem to be caught in a temporal shift, neither of them speaking, but they both drift towards the entrance to the small house, like it is a beacon. When they stand before each other in the doorway, Mr. Nothing finally speaks. "Who are you?"
Little Juliet takes a step towards him, cocking her head to one side like she has something in her ear for a second. "Juliet. Who are you?"
"I asked you first. How long have you been there, watching?" Mr. Nothing rubs his head again, appearing to wince.
"Just since you fell over."
"Was anyone else here?"
"No."
Mr. Nothing purses his lips and looks around, his gaze resting on the open door for an extended period of time. "Are you with the Hierarchy?"
"No." She stops a few feet in front of him.
Mr. Nothing his lips spread, turning into a smirk. "You had better go. It is dangerous here." He studies... memorizes the little girls face. The emantion from the house increases in intensity for a second, like a cry for help, pure emotional need. Little Juliet arches a brow, doesn't move.
"The Heirarchy has patrols. They'll probably be coming soon to investigate this. And if you aren't branded yet, they'll take you with them."
Little Juliet snaps her jaws a little, not at him, turns head to the side first. "If they haven't gotten me so far, I don't intend to let them start now."
His head turns to look at her sideways. "My name is Mr. Nothing. Juliet... Pretty name." He stops by the slightly opened door. "I came here with two men earlier. There was some ... thing... feeding on these people in here. Unfortunately...", he looks at her, "I don't remember what else happened. Stick to my side." He slips through the opening in the door.
Mr. Nothing walks through the hall in deathly silence as Juliet keeps to his side as told. He turns a corner, and slowly enters the living room. In an armchair in the middle of the room, in front of the tv, sits a man, dead, unmoving... on the floor lies the prone and hunched up form of a woman. The floor as well as the people are covered in wet blood, the scene looking like a charnel slaughterhouse, rotting and rancid, from beyond the Shroud.
Mr. Nothing controls a shudder. "Looks as though whatever it was is finished." He walks over, seeing something next to the dead woman. Something faint yet vibrant, shimmering with Pathos and Angst. It looks like a replica of the woman, but encapsuled in a coccoon of sort, a white veil like a spider's web. Mr. Nothing bites down on his knuckle.
"Oh... god." He whispers, feeling the pain and instability of the enfant wraith. Little Juliet glances down at him.
Mr. Nothing crouches over the woman's plasmic form, and digs his fingers into the Caul to ply it open like the petals of a white flower. The emanating Angst in return digs into his limbs, giving off a cryogenic cold. He asks a question of Juliet, who is looking over his shoulder. "Have you ever reaped the dead before?" "No... do I want to?"
As the Caul falls away from the woman's face like a thin veil, it fades away, and they see her reborn soul clearly. She looks much older than the corpse next to her on the floor, as she has stark grey hair. Her throat is ripped open, and she writhes a little in pain. "No... please... my little girl..."
Mr. Nothing gets to his feet, looking at the woman as she slowly opens her eyes, she looks like she is choking. "It is over... how are you feeling?" As she doesn't reply, Juliet kneels down and snaps close to her ear. "Hear him, lady, hear me?" Mr. Nothing reaches out to shake her shoulder, and the woman looks up, frightened, trying to crawl away, whimpering. "Cal..."
"It's over." Mr. Nothing says this sternly. "You need to calm down."
He leads the woman over to a table, while Juliet walks around the house searching. In the bedroom she finds a framed picture of the family. Woman, man, and girl. As she returns, Nothing is speaking to the woman calmly.
"What's going on?" Her voice is trembling.
Mr. Nothing pauses, then continues. "You're.... you've died."
"No..."
"It's true. Unfortunately... there is no God, no Buddha, no heaven, or hell. But our spirits... our emotions live on." His brain starts to churn. "Listen. You have to come with me." He calls to Juliet, his voice a little distressed. "My name is Mr. Nothing. What is yours?" He offers his hand to her.
"Marlene... my name is..." She takes his hand warily.
Little Juliet walks back in through a wall nonchalantly. "Yes? She seems like she would have been an obiedient kid.
"We're going now. This is... Marlene."
Little Juliet offers her a wry smile. "Charmed, I am sure."
The three ghosts walk outside, leaving the charnel house behind, as Mr. Nothing continues. "I'm going to take you to a very special friend of mine. She will take care of you and explain things. Is that ok? I am going to look for your husband and daughter." He turns to Juliet. "You don't have to stay if you don't want. Or you can come with me." Marlene looks over at Juliet.
"We're all spirits... This is what happens to certain people when they die, it is believed. If their emotions are strong enough, they become wraiths. This is Juliet. Come on."
A siren calls out in the distance, as the three shadows step out into the street and disappear.
By Mr. Nothing, Little Juliet, and The Storyteller.