Our final tale takes place in the haunted forest of Romania - Hoia Baciu, otherwise known as the “Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania”. Demons, ghosts, aliens, disappearances - all are said to roam the woods, searching for its next victim. But on this Halloween night, a pack had come to the forest in search of a mysterious cryptid known as the Maiden of Strings. No one knew what her powers were. No one knew what she could do. But the bounty on her head was much too large to think before going after her.
About 20 men had gathered, carrying torches and pitchforks. Then there was Captain Edison, the paranormal hunter of the neighborhood who led these sorts of mass hunts. Finally, there was Father Markus, the pastor of the Roman Catholic Church who followed these sorts of hunts in order to heal damned souls and allow them to see the light of God. The army chanted, their torches raised. “KILL THE MAIDEN OF STRINGS! KILL THE MAIDEN OF STRINGS!”
And no, they were not Shotilia - not yet, anyway. Not all Shotilia are born that way, and our poor victims were going to get a taste of minimalism the hard way.
After about half an hour, the group arrived at a tree, with thin, red strings that weaved in and out of the wood in the tree.
“Maiden o’ strings been ‘ere!”, Captain Edison yelled, invoking fury in the horde of hunters. “Let me get a look”, Father Markus said as he approached the tree. Edison and the crowds stood back and watched as he raised his arm forward, staring at the tree, and planted his palm on the tree.
Screams. Screams. Screams. A female voice writhing in pain as shadowy giggles surround it. Then, rips, tears. Father Markus feels little pieces of his skin be torn off, strings weaving straight into his arteries, wrapping around the bones and knitting his legs tighter and tighter together. The string weaves past the legs and into the arms, neck, chest. Then another string. And another. And another. The strings compressed on his entire body, pulling it in tightly. Turning around, he saw the other men with the same sort of string wounds, being pulled into themselves. Their eyes were completely shut, but they seemed to be ok. Yet he could see.
Suddenly, he felt something weird. He felt himself getting weaker. The voice in his head was getting quieter. He felt himself losing control over his body. He felt his soul fade out.
In a blink, the hordes awoke. But things were not the same. They felt pain in their bodies as if sore from rope burns, and a more pressing issue - everything was huge. The tree that they once stood up to now towered high over them, tall enough they could not see to it's top. Even the grass blades were many, many times their size.
"Oh, father! What has happened?", Captain Edison shouted to the pastor, who stands before the tree kneeling down to the ground. As he puts his hand on the father's shoulder, he jumps back as Father Markus stares back at him with piercing red eyes. Backing into the horde for protection, he trembles at Markus, who stands with a fictional generosity, looking overjoyed and friendly yet also seeming characteristically off.
"Oh, my dear friends, I must spread the good word!", he yelled happily whilst holding his arms up as if praising God. "I have found the light! O, The Maiden of Strings!"
"Maiden of Strings?!", Captain Edison snarls as he walks up to Markus with excitement. "Where is she?!", he gruffly barks.
"She is within me!" Markus shouts with glee. Captain Edison, shocked, shoves him out of the way. "Oh, child of the goddess, I understand your confusion!", he says whilst pointing at Edison. "But I have been introduced to the one above us! The Maiden of Strings will give us divine purpose!"
From the horde, a young man comes out of the woodwork, a small, thin, average gentleman by the name of Kevin. “Shut it, beast sympathizer!” He yelled, seething with rage. “I’ve gotta feed my goddamn kids, and this bitch’s head is what it’s gonna take!”
A chorus of supportive chants erupted from the horde of hunters as Edison started back at Father Markus, genuine sadness spilled across his face.
"You should have listened to your friend."
Suddenly, a voice boomed over them, completely assaulting their ears. They looked up to see something far above their heads - a pale, skin colored sky that extended far above the blades of grass, and a face grinning down at the people far below her. This was the Maiden of Strings, the doll Darkstalker Marionette, kneeling down and looking upon them with the same form of deviousness as a small child playing with bugs.
General Edison screamed to the heavens, “MAIDEN OF STRINGS! WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR HEAD!” However, the scream sounded less like a cry and more like birds chirping at their size. She giggled, the laughs making the entire world around the newly-minimized shotilia vibrate.
"Oh, my goddess!" Father Markus bent down, his hands clasped together as he prayed to his goddess. General Edison, furious at what was happening, went to the pastor and shouted in his face, "SHUT UP, MOTHERFUCKER!! DO YOU SEE WHAT'S HAPPENED TO US, YOU LITTLE SHIT?! HOW DARE YOU PRAISE A MONSTER LIKE THI-"
Sudden pain.
Pain coursing through his body. General Edison let out a series of small coughs as he felt the large, brute hand of Father Markus dig into his chest, playing with his internals as he felt his soul leave his body. He keeled over, bleeding out onto the ground.
The hoards, outraged, began to run forward. A massive hulking man, an assistant to Edison, ran forward as the leader of the group, screaming as he moved to rip Markus to pieces. Yet, everyone stopped as the loud blare of a stolen shotgun roared out.
BLAM
In a moment, the man was gone too, a gaping hole in his chest. Yet, in his final moments, before his soul could evacuate his body, he felt a sharp pain in his head for but a microsecond - the sharp tip of a thread inserting itself into his brain. In naught but a few moments, the body suddenly stood up, his brown eyes changing to a distinct piercing red as the bleeding in the wound ceased. His face was no longer humane, but savage and monstrous. Like a hungry gorilla, he dove into the crowd, and began to attack.
SPLAT
THWACK
The next 30 seconds are hard to put into words - it was an absolute bloodbath. Punches, gunshots, and assaults were dealt as Edison’s assistant converted more and more people to the possessed - before long, the dead had cornered the living, having recruited more and more to their side. But now, we must return to Kevin, who realized something was amiss. Everyone was dying. He had to run for it. And so, he ran away. He cried as he heard blood splatter around him, yet he never dared to slow down. Before long, he was the only one left.
After about 15 minutes, he stopped and cowered behind a rock, curled into a ball. He was now less than a pebble. Would he ever be able to return to his life, his family?
"Hey, bub, what's gotcha down?" Wiping off his tears, Kevin saw before him a young woman of the same stature as him, wearing a black dress with long blonde hair and pitch black sunglasses.
"Ehhh, we've all been like that. But it's getting late, and the predators are gonna come out soon, so we better go." Forcefully taking his arm, the woman began to pull him with her, only for him to pull away, tears still in his eyes.
"Dude.. you're a shotilia. We have to trust each other." Begrudgingly, Kevin held onto her hand as she began to run. "Oh, and by the way!" She yelled as the two ran through the dirt road, "My name's Elsa!"
Through the rain, the two ran, as the stomps of squirrels tried to make them lose their course. Yet, eventually, they finally made it to Elsa’s hideout, a hole deep within the dirt. She encouraged him to leap down deep into the hole - though he paused for a moment, he still jumped in, sliding down a long way like a slide in a playground before finally finding himself in a living room area, like a house but entirely covered by dirt, neatly constructed in the form of walls.
"Nice place you've got here." Kevin muttered, still recovering from what had happened to his comrades. "I've been down here for a while", she noted before kicking off her worn out shoes and laying down on a couch chair.
“Y’know, you never told me what your name was, kiddo.”
“It’s Kevin.”
“Kevin, Steve, Eric.. I was hoping you’d at least have a more interesting name.”
“You’ve got a better name in mind?”
“I dunno, something cool! Like “Argoth” or “Rikuo” or “Lorenzo” or something!”
Kevin sighed, as he laid back on the floor. “We can’t all be cool.” Elsa, in turn, stood up and sat next to him, patting him on the shoulder as she held him closely. “I dunno, K. I think you’re pretty cool.”
“D-do you?” He muttered, a red blush striking his face. Elsa giggled, and put her other hand on his other shoulder, bringing her face towards him. Kevin, exhausted, was just along for the ride at this point - but he knew what was coming, and was ready.
The two’s lips intertwined as they kissed each other, their bodies meeting in a warm embrace. In these 5 seconds, everything went still for Kevin as the deaths of his comrades escaped his mind and all he could think of was the woman that he was now making out with. He was gonna be ok. He was gonna make it-
DING-DONG!
The hole-bell had rung. “I’ll get it”, Elsa said before climbing up a ladder to return to the surface. Kevin, for all of the things he had seen, was exhausted. As he yawned, he slumped into the chair and collapsed into a deep, deep slumber.
…
The next morning, Kevin woke up to a blank pink ceiling. He was lying down on a soft mattress- it was cold and smelled of perfume. Rolling off the bed, he found himself in some sort of suburban household, far away from the dirt underpass he was once in. It seemed as if he was normal size. Stumbling down the stairs, he saw a traditional living room and dining room. The dining room had a table with a plate, closed with a top as if it were hiding some turkey or mutton. Feeling a tad hungry, he excitedly pulled the top of - but it took the whole thing with it. He held on to the bottom and tried to pull the top off once again, but it still wasn’t budging. Try and try as he did, the plate stayed shut.
So, he gave up, and decided to go into the living room to watch some television. It’s easy for you to say “Why isn’t he doing anything”, but the life of a Shotilia is tiring, and he was a bit lazy anyway. So he picked up the remote and plopped himself down on the couch, with enough pressure to feel that sweet cushiony squish beneath his butt.. But all he was met with was pain as his rear end slammed against the hard couch-looking thing. Still with an aching butt, he clicked the power button for the television, only for it to not turn on. He tried every button multiple times, to no avail.
It was clear whoever owned this place sucked at keeping things working. So, instead, he walked out the door, only to be greeted with a lovely suburban neighborhood that stretched out in what seemed like a neat little square. It smelled of some sort of car air freshener, with a noticeably brown ceiling. But none of this was what he noticed first. What he noticed was beyond the houses and the trees - a desk, cluttered with broken dolls and blood splatters. A large mirror. A bed. He was in a much larger house. This whole town was some sort of child’s playset. Oh sh-
“Hello, neighbor!” Catching him off guard, he fell over, his foot falling into plastic grass as he was met with a short, chubby old man with a balding head and a bushy beard.
“S..sorry..” Kevin stammered.
“None taken, friend! You’re new here, ain’tcha? We’re having a big event at the town square, you gotta check it out!” He then took off, seemingly running to this “event”. Shrugging, Kevin followed him to a center with a Town Hall, and a small fire pit.
Hoisted over the firepit was a long stick, jabbing through a crucifix. Nailed to the crucifix was none other than the still-bleeding body of General Edison. Nails had already been jabbed into his hands and feet, binding him to the plastic cross. Four men, completely naked, stood there surrounding the body.
“E-EDISON?!” Kevin cried out in sheer terror. But before long, stomps began to emerge. As he looked up, he saw a massive face become his sky - the Darkstalker Marionette loomed over them, simply smirking at them.
Then, the ritual began. The four men turned to the crowd for the last time - only now could Kevin see that their entire forearms were completely doused in gasoline.
They leaped into the already-toasted flames, and burned. Not a scream came out of them, as they served their goddess. But Edison was absolutely screaming as the flame covered his body. He tried his damndest to flop around in pain on the crucifix, but was restrained by the nails in his body. He felt the guts inside of him overheat and give out over time. First came his lungs, which turned into not more than bones on chicken wings in but a few moments, his desperate gasps for breath then turning into a constant cacophony of chokes and coughs. These last few seconds of his life were the worst anyone could experience, but it did only last a few seconds. He was in complete pain from the flames that swathed his skin and burned him to a crisp, but he ultimately ended up dying from liver damage far before his body could become that damaged.
Yet, even as Edison had already died, the ritual was not over. The body, hanging slumped over on the cross, still burned to a crisp. A few seconds later, the skin on the body had turned into a goopy melty paste, dripping off the skeleton, which now hung onto the cross.
"I shall now present the offering." Kevin turned around, shocked to see how came forward - it was Elsa, the person who had tried to protect him. Walking forward, she climbed up and tore the skull off of the skeleton, carrying it in her hands as she walked up to the titanic darkstalker and placed the skull down under her. It was as if the sky was coming in on itself as two fingers, dwarfing even their houses, came down from the heavens and snatched the skull. The crowd watched as she took a ring out of her ear and slipped the rings sharp end into the skull's eye before attaching it back to her ear, a souvenir of what she had done to the general.
"Ritual comp-"
SMACK!
Elsa was completely caught off guard by being smacked completely in the face by Kevin, sending her to the floor. "FUCK YOU, YOU LYING BITCH!", he screamed before noticing something. Her dark sunglasses had fallen off, revealing her eyes - a bright blue hue. Her eyes were not red. Shocked, she snickered.
"I hope you realize you're a dead man, kiddo." She laughed at him as the people that watched the execution had already ganged up on Kevin, ready to jump him. All their eyes were pitch red, except for hers.
"I guess I can let you in on this, since you won't be alive much longer. I created this whole operation. Me and the big lady are a bit close. I brought all these fuckers here, and you're one of 'em now." Kevin, trying to pull away but being pulled back by the crowd, sweated and began to tear up. But then, all of the red-eyed folks stood back and all uttered words together in perfect harmony: "I. Will. Take. Him."
She was speaking through them. In a flash, the people began to walk away. As Elsa approached him, as if to walk past them, he screamed out.
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GOIN-"
Then, in less than a single second, he found himself in a new reality. All he could see was grey, small bumps, as far as he could see. The only sky was cream and pale. He tried to walk around a bit, but he found nothing new. What was this world?
..Then, something appeared above him that halted the cream sky - a massive grey ceiling, looking like it was falling apart. Then it suddenly hit him just where he was.
..
..
..
Elsa barely even felt the little man under her worn out sneaker, but she knew that he had been reduced to a completely pulverized little thing. She felt her nipples harder a bit as she imagined the little thing being completely dwarfed by her shoe. Marionette quickly grew his deceased body back to it's previous, still tiny, size. It was wrecked, but not beyond repair.
"So, we gonna execute him too?" Elsa asked her massive ally.
"No " The crowds responded for her. "We can still use him to get some more.. friends."