#I don't like psycological horror or ones with children | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chromatophorium · 8 months

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Psycological-ish eldritch(?) horror concept under cut. (Was dissatisfied with the horror content I have watched recently* and decided to put like a combination of ideas I Iike into a blender here to create something cool-ish)

(tense? what tense? What are you talking about??? pfft...)

Right. So a Swedish village. Pretty out there in the woods. Only has one small convenience store that also works as a post office. Protag comes there with their partner to visit their partners parents and stay there on vacation for a week, camping and stuff, getting away from the city stress.

First they go to the partner's parent's house. When the protag's partner introduces them to their parents in person (they have seen each other on like the partners weekly video calls to them before) the elderly parents were surprised that they came so early in the summer, "it's so close to the beginning of June! You could have come later in the month, for midsummer you know. We would have loved to have you two here over midsummer. The whole village gets together to celebrate, something you may have not seen before, protag, since you grew up in the city. And so far north too! You have a different midsummer pole up there, don't you?" and they go on a bit about different traditions.

Then the partner says that the two couldn't get any vacation days around midsummer, since at their jobs people with children often really want the days around midsummer and they took the fall of having two separate vacation spans in the beginning and end of the summer this year. "And it works out pretty well, since we have enough travel time to see the village birthday like this! I haven't been here for your birthday celebration in ages dad, I miss it!"

The protag asks what that is about. "'The village birthday'? Did the village get founded on the same day as your birth or something?" The partners dad shakes his head and laughs it off, maybe a bit too forcefully. "No, no. We're just a tightly knit community, so we do a bit of a collective birthday party for the people born in early summer. We do it early in the summer to not clash with midsummer, you know. And one later for the late summer kids. Same thing with the winter birthdays, we celebrate them early to not clash with christmas, and in spring before Easter. The fall birthdays get a bit split up, but in the last years we've been doing a thing on the 31st October for them, with a spooky theme. The kids around here love it, it means they can celebrate halloween here too. Before they had to drive into the city to do trick-or-treating, but now they can do it here."

The protag is like "Wow, that really is a tight knit community." Then they talk some more and stuff. And then the parents go like, "ah we gotta prepare dinner." turn to partner "why don't you go show protag around while we do? It'll probably be done in just about an hour, so you two go enjoy yourselves." and partner goes "Yeah, that sound good, right?" Protag agrees and they go outside. Just when they're about to go the mom comes out and asks the partner if they can just come help with something really quick in their old room, which is now the guest room. The partner agrees and tells the protag to hold on.

So the protag is left standing outside, looking around. They look around at the nature and the houses. There are some houses, most of them are wooden, painted the classical red with white corners, but some are more yellow with white corners and two-three more modern ones with stucco exterior. Some have old barns next to them, but most are just well maintained lawns and such. You can't see far beyond them because the land is flat. One can tell that there is some open more open space to the south and west, but otherwise the conifer trees grow tall right by the border of the gardens.

The protag sees some garden birds fly up toward the top of the trees and follows their journey up. Their partner is still not there, even though it's been a minute. The protag isn't worried though, their gaze stays on the top of the trees where the birds flew. Soon, they see the birds fly the east, almost hopping from tree top to tree top. Their follow their journey once again with their gaze.

But as they start to veer north east on the trees that border the city, the protagonists eyes catch on something... something. They can't really tell what it is, something in-between the gaps of just the tippy-tops of the trees.

They squint.

The birds move on, continuing to circle the town from the tops of the trees and eventually flying down, presumably to another garden. But the protag doesn't see that. They keep staring at that one spot.

Above and between the tops of a handful of trees, in the gaps where the sky should be- no is visible, there is something. The edges of some... you couldn't call it a building, could you? No. There was too little visible to make out what it was. The only thing visibly different to the other gaps between the trees was... Was what? Wait, what was different about that spot of sky behind those particular trees? It just looked like sky. It was just sky. Right?

Yeah, it had to be. It looked no different that any other parts of spikey peaks of conifer tips bordering the sky. There was nothing there.

But why did their eyes always catch there when sweeping over the high horizon...?

The protag was startled out of their thoughts by their partner putting an arm around them ans asking them if they were ready to go. Protag puts it out of their mind and says yeah.

The two walk and their partner introduces them to all the neighbors they meet on their way. The little time the protag thought it would take to get back to the main road from where they came is gradually lengthened to a whole 20 minutes with all the small talk and introductions. The neighbors are all pleasant and happy to see partner back in town and are happy to see the person that they have heard the mother and father talk about.

They eventually make it to the village center, where the main road runs through. On the opposite of the road, there are the only two light up signs in the whole village. One for the unmanned gasstation and the other for the convenience store/post office, the only real reasons to ever stop in the village, if you do not live here.

There are two main crosswalks made into speed bumps to slow down the occasional cars that pass through about once every five minutes.

On the side of the main road closer to the parents house there is a playground and a kind of big paved open space that looks perfect for a small farmers market. A part of it that borders a long one-story building has roof over the paved area with benches and picknic tables. The partner points the building and the plaza out and says that's where they'll celebrate the village birthday in a week. Then they point to the west and say that over there is the old Fredrikssons garden, where they put up the midsummer pole.

Out further west and south west, there are some different agricultural fields, but otherwise the little village is tightly closed in by the conifer trees.

As they go past the playground they see three children playing there with a heavily pregnant woman watching after them. She waves at the two and greets them. The partner introduces the protag to her the same as she does everyone, and it goes as smoothly as the other times. When they get on the topic of the pregnancy the partner asks how long it's gonna be until birth, the woman answers that they're not sure yet, maybe before midsummer or maybe later. She would want to be able to really celebrate and dance on midsummer with her grandmother, since this might be her last, but... Then the topic turns to the grandmother instead and how she's doing and if they're going to want any help doing something for her midsummer. The woman thanks her for their concern but they don't know yet, and if they need help they're sure the village will do their best and asks if the two are planing to stay until midsummer and the chat turns into pleasantries once again.

Then the woman says it's about time for her and the kids to go, to which the kids are a bit sad. One of the kids says they want to go back after dinner. The woman says that the kid's parents wanted them back for dinner at their own home for once this week, they can play more tomorrow. The kids sigh but then accept. The one kid waves goodbye to the other two and runs off to the west, while the woman and the other two walk across the road to the north.

The protag and their partner decide to go the convenience store/post office to show 'the real gathering place of the village'. They walk in and meet plenty of people there, not only the two owners/employees but others there to shop and hang out. It's all more pleasantries and niceties that the protagonist feels a bit left out of because they don't know the inside jokes.

Before they leave one of the owners asks if they need to buy any more birthday preparations now that the protagonist is here. The partner answers and says that they probably have everything they need already, but they'll check with their parents and thanks for reminding them. Then the two leave.

The partner sees that the protagonist is pretty exhausted from all the talking with what are strangers to them and suggest they walk out to the water tower, it's probably pretty chill around there. The protagonist immediately whips their head in the direction of the weird something or nothing in the gaps of the trees they noticed before.

The partner says like "Oh? You've already noticed it, huh? Yep. That's the water tower."

The protag is a bit weirded out but says "Yeah, I think I saw it through the trees before, but didn't know what it was. When I heard you say there was a water tower here, the pieces just snapped into place..."

The partner "Mhm, yeah. It's like the only other thing to see around here, so when we've seen it you've seen all of the village. C'mon, I think we can get there and back to my parents place by the time they're done with dinner."

The protag agrees and the two go down a road that leads to the water tower. The protag keeps looking up at the gaps in the trees, expecting to see the exterior of some brick or cement building as they get closer, but find themselves only seeing sky or just more forest. But they still feel like there is something there, but they don't really see it.

When they cross the border into the forest onto a path that leads straight north east the protag expects to catch sight of it, but doesn't and does. They joke "Haha, the water tower near where I grew up was always getting filled up with graffiti art pieces, you guys must have landscape painters as vandals instead of gangster wannabee's." The partner doesn't catch their joke and only hums questioningly. The protag continues awkwardly "I mean with how much it blends in with its surroundings, it's gotta have been painted camo or something. We should have caught sight of it by now, right? It's as tall as the trees..." The partner answers simply "We don't have any vandals around here. We'll be there soon, just hold on a bit." They grab the protags hand and leads them further down the path. The protag stays silent the rest of the way. Their partner does too.

The path is still straight, but it stops as they arrive in a clearing. In the clearings middle the ground dips down one or two meters.

They approach the dip and in its exact center is the water tower.

Its handhewn stone brick walls stand at an impressive circa half a meter tall, and its roof is open to let it be filled easily. With its about one meter diameter it looked like it could hold almost infinite amounts of water. The protagonist stood there looking up- down? into the water storage tank. It's dark. You can't see the bottom of it. Not even the surface of the water. It's...

The protag looks up- down? At the sky above the water tower. Nothing. Just sky, slowly darkening sky. Or something? Somethings up- down? there. Or...?

The protagonist reaches above- below- into- above- below- into- No. No, their hand. Is. No. It looks like and it feels like it's ABOVE the tall walls of the water tower.

They are holding their hand at a 90 degree angle above the water tower. There is nothing there. Just air. It feels like just air. They wiggle their fingers. Just air. They move their hand further up, arm at a 140 degrees, and move their forearm around. Just air. They move it lower, 45 degrees, wiggle it around. Nothing. Just air.

They move their hand away. They say "W-"

They say nothing. Their partner has their hand on their mouth that was jus about to speak. Their partner looks them in the eyes and shakes their head.

No.

The protag slowly puts their hand over their partners, to show understanding. They use their other to point out of the dip.

...When had they gone down it? They could have fallen up- down? into. Into the tall wall of the water tower. Why had they not been careful?

Their partner slipped their hand out from under their own. They used it to point out of the dip too, and nodded.

Their trek up the wet slippery moss of the slope was slow. They stayed silent as they walked down the straight path to the southwest.

When they finally crossed the border, from the realm of the tall conifer trees into the village proper, the protagonist spoke up. "What was that?"

Their partner answered "The water tower."

"I know that, but why was it- Why did it look like that?"

"...I don't know. It's the water tower."

"But it's so- It's tall, yes, but just... so tall but- It's half a meter tall. Why could I see it from your house?"

"It's tall."

"I know, but why could I reach- reach- reach--- Why could I reach --- The word, it's... The word I mean is a bit like beside but on the, you know, the thing that is not horisontal?"

"I don't know. I don't know what's up with that."

"Up, yes. Beside but... No it wasn't up, right? It couldn't be..."

"I don't know. It was chill place though, wasn't it?"

"...I guess it wasn't not chill!?!? What the fuck? And why wasn't I supposed to spe-"

"Shh. The village could hear you."

The protag shuts up.

"Let's just head home, alright? If we jog a bit we'll make it there before dark."

Then they head home, have a nice dinner and shit and niceties. They don't bring it up.

Anyway a few days later it's the first monday of june and they wake up hearing a siren sound that is seven seconds long and has a fourteen second pause and then repeats is heard. But not through the normal way, of air vibrations affecting the eardrum and all that stuff, but through bone conduction and vibrations in the ground.

Then during that day shit goes down and stuff. The woman that's pregnant births her child, and it can't stop screaming. Maybe the protag tries to leave by the main road and then appears at the other side of the village. Uhm.

Birthday celebrations are held and people are happy, they stop talking and singing every seven seconds to let the siren sound.

People have prepared too much cake and baked goods than what a village could possibly eat in one day. Like double the amount people could possibly eat.

People get really horse, like they've been screaming. People cry a lot, but they say it is out of happiness.

The radio is static other than some channels that are screaming.

The grandma is found screaming down the well by the protag, even though they weren't allowed to go there, causing her to fall in it.

That makes shit happen. Like something relating to screaming and the screaming of many people, like the siren sound is replaced by it.

The cake and everything edible starts melting into water.

Uh... something something. at three PM it stops.

The celebration that is held is actually not for the birthday kids, but for all the people around the world that have died screaming during that quarter year. And the people get born on one of the days know each time someone dies screaming. They don't know if the celebration does anything, but they do it anyway, to try and give the souls that died screaming a last good memory of some kind before they maybe move on. They try and make the best of it. They feel as though they, when they are born on the day, then they are obligated to do something. Because why else would they be burdened by the knowledge, if they weren't chosen to be heralds or something.

And in this universe Hesa Fredrik is inspired by this religious cult, because it was a guy named Fredrik who rediscovered this viking age well and then he became like, part of the civil defense measures government agency, to make more shelters and varning systems because he wanted less people to die screaming.

And the partner took the protag here on this day cuz... idk. They both are emergency room nurses? And the protag was stressed out over losing patients? And the partner wanted to show that all the people who die in pain get birthday cake? And the partner also believes that people who scream internally when they die also are there but you can't hear them?

Idk. Just wanted a eldritch tower/well and siren/hesa fredrik horror thing.

*So I listened to a video essay about quiet horror and then watched a movie they talked about. The beginning was kinda engaging but then the continuation of it wasn't. I also watched a video of that Junji Ito guy looking at scary pictures and he looked at sirenhead and said "Oh, I wrote some stories about sirens" and since I like the siren noise as a unsettling thing in horror stuff I checked those out but was disappointed. Also remembered the reverse tower in annihilation and that I was disappointed by how it was featured after a video essay had hyped it up a bit. So yeah.

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