StoryMask.com

Monster

By Ben Marroquin
StoryMask.com

Emma Lansing sat in the front row with her foster parents, watching the Cirque de DaeDreams performers through large brown doe eyes. A gasp escaped her lips as she watched the trapeze artists; a young girl dressed in beautiful raven hued feathers and night hued silks released the bar, somersaulted twice, and grasped the hands and wrists of the gray-feathered man that the ringmaster announced as her father.

She clutched her popcorn as sunrise hued lion tamers did the unthinkable and fire dancers mesmerized with dancing flames. Heart deep smiles lit her face as canine-ish clowns took center stage. They came pouring out of small cars shaped like dog houses, chased each other with buckets of confetti, and made strange glitter filled animal balloons for delighted kids.

That’s when she noticed a rather peculiar figure circling the ring. He moved with cat-like grace as his amber-hued feral eyes searched the audience, the bells on his hat jingled softly. Emma scrunched down, trying to make herself invisible as the eyes fell upon her.

The jester quickly made his way towards Emma. His long liquid black hair bounced as his sculpted frame neared her; the ringmaster announced that they needed a young brave volunteer from the audience.

The jester reached out, grasping Emma’s small long sleeve covered wrists, causing her to wince in pain. He released the girl with a whispering snarl that appeared as a grin to those in attendance. She shivered as she caught a momentary sight of pointed teeth, but no one else seemed to notice. His mouth, painted blackish blue, seemed wider than normal.

Her foster parents excitedly pushed her towards the jester’s waiting hands. Fear gripped her heart, but she went with the jester anyways, afraid of making him angry… she had learned that it was not good to make grown-ups angry.

The jester led her to a table filled with pies and performed a skit, ending with Emma throwing a pie in a clown’s face to the amusement of the crowd. The jester then returned her to her seat and performed a magic trick in which he made her new foster father’s wallet disappear to a cheering crowd.

Emma found it hard to sleep that night as visions of acrobats, balloon animals, colorful masks, and popcorn filled her mind. She pictured herself flying through the air with the raven-haired trapeze artist and envied her for living with such a wonderful circus. And she winced in pain as she rubbed her bruised wrists, recalling the strange jester that picked her for the pie skit.

That’s when she noticed the dark amber glow of eyes in her window. She looked towards her door, wanting to scream, but the eyes were gone when she looked back. She fought the urge to run to her foster parent’s room to yell out “Monster!” She knew better than to do that.

She closed her eyes and relaxed as she felt the cool breeze on her face. It took a few heart beat moments to pass before her eyes snapped open as realization dawned on her: The cool breeze caressing her face could only mean one thing: her window was open.

Her eyes bulged and she started to visibly shake as she saw the jester standing at the end of her bed. He had ashen gray skin, long sinewy limbs, pointed ears, and a swishing tail. She was about to open her mouth and scream when it lifted its hand to its mouth and signaled her to be quiet with a long clawed finger pressed to his lips.

He moved next to her, pressed one black claw to her forehead, and scratched a painless rune into her skin. A faint outline of blood formed as he then used that claw to slice open a wound on his palm. Smiling, he dribbled his own bluish silvery blood onto the rune and chanted in a strange melodic language she had never heard before. The rune flashed silvery red as Emma felt a warm tingling sensation cross her body, causing her mind to swim in a myriad of sensations. By the time it was over the jester was back at the edge of her bed.

His ear twitched and he looked towards the door, then glided back, opened the door to the closet and entered. Her bedroom door opened just as the closet door closed. With eyes entranced on the closet door, Emma felt her foster parents enter her room rather than see them and whispered, “m-m-mon-ster.”

Her eyes slowly shifted from the closet door to them and widened: They were dressed in strange black leathers; her foster father held leather straps used to bind wrists and legs and her foster mother held a whip and a hand held video camera. “Monsters,” she rasped out loud clutching her blankets with trembling hands.

They smiled as they looked down on her. A deep low growl filled the room causing them to quickly spin towards the closet door with pounding hearts.

Emma’s vision began to swim as the world around her began to take on an ethereal appearance. Her foster parents no longer appeared to her as of flesh and blood but something more, she could actually see their very tainted souls… and it made her angry.

She rose on her bed unnoticed, standing, watching as her foster parents slowly edged their way towards the closet door. Her hair lengthened and turned a beautiful hue of silvery blues. Her skin darkened to midnight and silvery lines began flowing from the rune on her forehead, they swam down her body, etching her body in wondrous patterns of shimmering curves and caressed the side of her face.

She lifted her arm and smiled as her silvery eyes followed the graceful patterns to her slender hands. Her fingers danced and a soft melodic chant flowed from her glittering lips causing her fingertips to tingle with silvery light. The silvery lines lengthened and flowed past her fingers into the air and danced like a flame waiting for something as her eyes returned to her foster parents…

Her foster dad clenched the leather straps in one hand and reached out to the closet door with the other; ready to attack whatever pet Emma had hiding in the closet. He could feel his wife’s hand grasp his shoulder as he opened the closet door with his left hand; his right arm cocked and ready to lash out.

Emma chuckled unexpectedly as she saw her foster parents frozen in fear in front of the opened closet door; fierce almond shaped amber hued eyes and glimmering white fangs greeted them, rooting their quaking bodies to the spot.

Whip, straps, and camera hit the floor as her foster parents scrambled to move away from the closet. Their panic so great that they found themselves on the opposite side of the room, away from the door that would allow them escape from the room.

It was the soft glow of silvery light that made them look her way. Their eyes showed confusion and wonder and fear as they stared at the little girl that was Emma. Her onyx hued nightgown appeared as layers of transparent silk and flowed like her silvery blue hair as if being surrounded by an autumn wind.

Emma’s arms weaved and wove as the dancing silvery thread from the tips of her hands swirled into beautiful globes. The room became infused with the sound of her hypnotic chant as the globes danced through the air to their partners, her foster parents. The jester, smiling, made his way quietly to the far side of the bed and perched himself there, thoroughly enjoying the show.

Her foster father opened his mouth to speak but Emma simply gestured for his silence causing his voice to go mute. “Words are not needed,” she said as she tapped into a pool of knowledge that had just formed in her mind.

“The girl you knew as Emma has changed, has become something more, a being which is sorely needed in this world. I am the new Arbiter and you are to be judged for your actions.”

The globe began to throb and pulse with light as it expanded in front of the man cowering in the corner. He tried to avert his eyes but could not; they were transfixed on the hypnotic globe. His eyes widened as images began to form within the globe, images pulled from his very essence through his eyes.

“These shinning globes that you see are Soul Gazers. They are your defenders and prosecutors. They cannot be lied to. Not only do they show the truth, but their very hues display the emotions you were feeling at the time each act of consequence took place.”

An inaudible gasp escaped his lips as his life began to take place within the globe for all those in the room to witness. A tear rolled down her cheek as she witnessed all the vile acts that this man had delivered upon so many innocents. Anger swelled up as it culminated with the last images of this man on top of a tear streaked, pain filled, shame stained girl… Emma.

“By the light of your Soul Gazer we can see you took much joy and pleasure in your actions, even believing that you were giving joy and pleasure to others. Now you will see what those actions have wrought you. You have been found GUILTY. Your taint shall no longer infect the innocents of this world.”

A smile appeared on Emma’s lips as she thought of his punishment. Her silky chant filled the room as liquid strands of silver reached for the condemned man from his Soul Gazer and pierced through his skin. Spasms of pain wracked the man as the silvery threads attached themselves to his tendons. A cool liquid covered his skin as the pulsing sphere enveloped him. His mind screamed in agony as his body began to contort, his skin started changing texture, and his body began to shrink as if in a body vise.

His wife noticed none of this as her eyes were transfixed on her own Soul Gazer. The images showed an innocent who was tainted at a very young age. An innocent who was abused by her own “monsters” physically and emotionally, eventually making her one of them; the person she could have become shattered and lost in a forest of pain and shame. Emma felt pity for that little girl who could’ve been so much more, who could’ve sparkled. She could tell even the jester mourned inside his heart for the lost little girl.

Chanting filled the stillness of the room as the Soul Gazer pierced her foster mother’s eyes with a burning light, filling her mind with burning sunspots. The pulsing sphere engulfed her body as unconsciousness claimed her.

“It is done,” Emma said to the jester. “Her mind has been wiped clean and her body rejuvenated. May she become the sparkle that she was meant to be, but now that she is that little innocent girl again, who is to care for her properly?”

The jester gracefully made his way to the young little girl lying asleep on the floor and pulled a piece of golden chalk from his pocket. He then drew a small door on the wall along with three runes and chanted. The outline of the door shimmered and then it became real.

He gently knocked on the magical door. A moment later a young couple opened it. The couple looked at the jester, then down at the young blond girl sleeping on the ground. Smiles lit their faces, “For us?” they asked. Their eyes then fell on Emma, they immediately knelt on the floor in reverence. “Blessed Arbiter, we are honored to be summoned.”

The jester smiled, “She has been given mercy and is to be your daughter if you should choose to take on all the responsibilities that come with being true parents.”

“Yes!” the young woman cried out as she gathered the sleeping child in her arms, tears of joy spilling forth. Her husband looked at the jester and Emma “I don’t know the words to express just how much this means to us…”

“Just care for her like I know you can, that is all the gratitude we need,” the jester said with a smile as he sent the happy family back through the disappearing door. “As for you,” he said looking down on the ground next to where the little girl was sleeping a moment ago, “now you shall truly bring children joy!”

On the floor was a beautifully detailed toy marionette jester with silvery strands attached to his limbs. Inside, the tainted spirit of the man that use to be her monster, silently screamed in agony as his new toy body was lifted off the ground by the silvery strands attached to his ethereal tendons.

Through shiny onyx eyes, he sees the Arbiter’s face as she speaks to him. “For each life you have ruined, you shall spend a lifetime in your new body. No longer shall the innocents be the ones tied down and mute, from here until the end of your sentence it is they that shall control your body, and while each pull of your strings shall bring them joy and pleasure, you will feel the pain that you inflicted on others.”

With weaving hand, she creates another globe, filling the room with a soft silvery blue light. “You shall come to fear the very sight of children, anticipating the pain you will receive while they smile and laugh tugging your strings. It is no more than you deserve.” With a wave of hand the new globe drifted down, engulfing the marionette and rose into the air, drifting to the open window like a hot air balloon with a present inside.

“But fear not, when your time in your new prison is at an end, your spirit shall be set free into the Everlife for judgment eternal,” Emma said, making her way to the open window, watching as the globe began its journey through the night sky. “Then you shall truly know what fear and pain is.”

“What is to come next?” Emma asked, as the globe disappeared in the night sky.

“There are others to judge,” the jester replied, slipping out the window, holding his hand out for Emma to join him. “By the way, where did you send him?”

“To a place where he’ll bring much joy and pleasure,” she said with a smile, exiting the room and joining him outside. “To Harmonies Orphanage on the other side of town.”

Soft musical laughter filled the night air as they headed towards their next destination.