#sleep token the apparition | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ickyarson777 · 2 months

Text

Many Eyed Vessel Fic Thing??? Chapter Two

If y'all have any suggestions on a name for this series, let me know and I'll do a poll if I get enough suggestions!!

Chapter 1, 2

That being said, here's chapter two. I don't know quite what I think about this one.

Word count: 2,889

Content warnings: maybe a little dread? it's not particularly scary tho

After my experience in the forest that day, I decided to return to the small, single motel in the tiny town where I was renting a room. I decided to lie down and take a nap. It was about 2 in the afternoon when I had fallen asleep, and I woke to see darkness crawling in through the window, glancing over at the clock on the nightstand, I saw that it was 9 o’clock and sighed heavily.

’Managed to sleep through the whole day,’ I think to myself.

I slide out of bed and pull on some clothes. My stomach is growling and I decide that I should go and try to find some food. Surely, there’s a restaurant or two that’s still open. I pull on my shoes, grab my bag, and walk out of the motel, walking down the street towards the restaurants. I knew walking alone at night was dangerous, but I prided myself on the knowledge of how feral I’d act if anyone approached me, knowing they’d be twice as quick to get away from me.

I hummed to myself as I walked down the street and glanced sideways as I passed an alleyway. Just in the corner of my eye, I see him, the man from the woods. A blur, almost entirely hidden in shadows save for the bright white and red of his mask. I do a double take and whip my head back around, he’s not there. I pause for a moment, listening. Surely, if he was there I’d still hear distant shuffling in the alleyway. I don’t. Instead, part of me believes I hear a voice. I can’t hear the words, I can’t tell if it’s speaking or singing, but it sounds like the man. Or does it?

I hesitate, glancing back down the street and taking a deep breath before stepping into the alleyway, choosing to follow after the man, to see if I can get some answers.

I take quick steps, rounding the corner and catching a small glimpse of him again, turning around the corner of a building, his cloak billowing after him, tracing his movements. I followed silently, not paying attention to the fact that we were slowly walking back towards the forest.

I don’t realize this until I’m on the edge of the concrete, the roots of trees digging into the rough stone. I see him, in the distance. But he looks.. odd. He stands there, but it's like his appearance is flickering. I decide it must be the darkness playing tricks on my eyes, and take a step forward.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” says a voice somewhere to my left.

I gasped and turned, searching for the one who spoke. Luckily, this guy stuck out like a sore thumb. Tall and thin, shoulder-length hair, colored bright red. He wore a long-sleeved shirt that was covered in colorful designs and a long black hooded vest over it. His pants were black but only stretched down to the middle of his shins, where long checkered socks met the edge of his pants. He wore a mask as well, gold, save for the area around his mouth, which was black and gave the impression that his lips had been crudely sewn together, but not shut in a creepy open-mouthed smile. In clean white lines, the same sigil that the other man had on his mask was painted across his face. I could see his eyes, shining greenish blue in the darkness.

“That’s not who you think it might be, love.” He spoke with a thick Cockney accent. “That’s another one of our monsters, trying to kill you.”

I stare at him, wide-eyed, and glance back at the first man, seeing that the form was flickering and changing much more now. I could see more clearly that it was indeed, something else entirely. I could see the figure, now hovering slightly above the ground, much taller than it should’ve been. Its legs were heavily muscled and ended in hooves rather than human feet, ankles wrapped in bandages, and upper legs armored. Its rib cage was empty, dark viscera coated its completely exposed bones, and thin leathery skin poked out of the tarnished metal breastplate it wore, extending to the tips of its long withered fingers. Tusks extended from underneath the things mask, which was blank except for six dots, arranged in two columns of three as if they were eyes, a feather plume extended from the top of its helmet, curling around its head, and the two horns on its head. One hand held its weapon steady as it sat across the monster's shoulders, a huge war hammer, one end flat, the other a dull pointed tip, both splattered with the reddish brown of dried blood.

“An apparition,” the man said to me, now standing closer.

I took a step back, I hadn’t heard him move closer. ”Who are you?” I demand. “What the fuck is going on?”

Beneath the mask, the man chuckles, his shoulders shaking. He turns towards the monster, “Leave us alone you big lug, go find your food somewhere else.”

Slowly, the monster turned and disappeared, the image melting into the trees.

I turn back to the odd man, still waiting for answers. I look at him expectantly.

“Oh, you were serious?” He asks, almost sounding amused. “Look mate, this is something that doesn’t concern you. Vessel told us you’d be back, and sent me out here to make sure you don’t get yourself killed or worse. I’m sure I'm not even supposed to be telling you most of this, but you seem like the type to ignore anything if you’ve set your mind to do the opposite of it. Trust me when I tell you, you need to turn around now, go back to the town, go beddy-bye, and pretend all of this was just a really weird fever dream.”

I try to process his words quickly. “Vessel?” I decided to question him here first. “What vessel?”

“Not what, but whom. The guy you met when ol’ clunky was chasing you earlier. His name is ‘Vessel.’”

I think for a moment, then I turn and begin walking into the woods.

“What are you doing?” The tall man says almost worriedly. “I told you to go the other way.”

“And clearly you’re not going to stop me,” I say as I hear him begin to follow me. “I want answers, and if that means finding your ‘Vessel,’ then so be it.”

The man laughs softly. “Love, if you think you’re gonna get an answer better from one of the others, you’re sorely mistaken. II and IV, they listen to the rules. Vessel’s even more vague than them.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, pausing for a moment and glancing around the woods. “Are we headed in the right direction?”

The man sighs. “I’ll never understand why we’re not allowed to touch you humans. How am I supposed to stop you from finding the house if I can’t grab you and toss you back to where you’ve come from?”

I stare at him. “What are you?”

His eyes glint in the darkness. “Do you really want to know?”

I nod my head, now feeling slightly nervous.

“What’s your name?” He asks slowly.

I tense now feeling slightly apprehensive. An odd masked man in the forest asking for my name? If I was stupid, I might’ve given it to him. “None of your business.”

I can see the sly smile in his eyes as I speak.

“Smart one, aren’t you..”

I continue walking. “What’s your name?” I ask him.

“III,” he says simply. “And yours?” He tries again.

I shake my head. “Ulfric Stormcloak.”

At this, the man, III, laughs. “Nice to meet you then, Ulfric. Planning on giving me your real name anytime soon?”

“Of course not,” I say with a small smile. “I won’t be giving you anything of mine.”

“You are a smart one,” he says. “Not smart enough to realize we’ve been walking in the wrong direction this whole time though.”

I scoff, turning to him. “Which way then? And where are we even going?”

“No idea, love,” III says laughing. “You set off on some determined journey.”

“Just going the way I went earlier,” I mutter as III turns and walks in a separate direction. I follow him quietly.

“That’d be why you ran into the one you did then..” III says, surveying the woods.

I stay silent for a moment, thinking of the two monsters I’ve met so far. “What… what are they?”

III turns his gaze to me. “Hmm? Oh, Clunky and uh…” He trailed off. “Shit, I only know their other names,” he mutters to himself. He shakes his head and runs his fingers through his hair. “They’re… uh,” he pauses. “Actually, love, this one might not be for me to tell you about.”

I sigh, “Great, and you’re telling me you’re the only one who’s gonna give me straight answers, and now you won't give them to me?”

He barks out a laugh. “Not necessarily. Those things, I don’t know how to explain that one to you without making you turn tail and run. And at this point, I’m not sure Vessel will let you do that.”

His words send a shiver down my spine.

“Meaning?”

He glances at me, eyes almost seeming preoccupied, “Meaning, you’ve seen far too much of this and lived. Vessel’s under direct orders to not let anyone who’s seen as much as you have just… go.”

We fell into silence then. I open my mouth and close it, trying to find the words to speak, and failing. “Am I… going to be killed?”

I half expect him to laugh, tell me ‘of course not,’ but he doesn’t. Instead, he shoots sideways glances at me.

“What do you think?” He asks, but it seems more like he’s asking someone else, someone unseen. He thinks for a moment, before speaking again. “I don’t think so. But it's not really up to us, is it?” He puts his head down and his shoulders droop slightly.

we fall into silence again. A few minutes later, as we walk through the brush, a faint warm glow begins radiating from the trees ahead of us.

“Ahh, home sweet home,” III says loudly, making me jump.

As we get closer to the glow, the building comes into view and my eyes widen in surprise. Whatever I’d been expecting, it wasn’t a mansion.

It was such an odd sight, too. A lovely, perfectly preserved Victorian-style mansion, gas lamp posts lined the courtyard and led up to the large porch. The whole building was three stories high, and I assumed there was an attic and basement as well. Vines grew up and down the building, and if not for the warm light coming from the windows, I would’ve assumed the building to have been abandoned, even if it was pristine underneath the foliage.

III walked up to the door, and opened it, ushering me in with an exaggerated bow. “Welcome to our home.”

I step inside. The foyer was lit by candlelight and a beautiful rug ran down the hall, which branched off to three different rooms. Directly ahead I could see bits and pieces of a kitchen. III began walking down the hall and took a left. I follow him quietly. I glance through the door at the right, the dining room. A long mahogany table complete with a crimson table runner and intricate golden candlesticks. The room was empty.

I stepped through the doorway of the room to the left, which ended up being a living room of sorts. A sofa, a loveseat, and a couple of plush armchairs surrounded the coffee table in the center of the room. On the wall in front of it, a fireplace, with burning tinder. I was surprised to see a TV mounted on the wall above it, the modern tech looked very odd in a place like this. The right wall was filled to the brim with bookshelves, each one crammed tight with hundreds of books, some very old, some new. There was a dark staircase on the wall by the door, leading both upstairs and downstairs into a basement.

III threw himself on the couch and gestured for me to take a seat. “II and IV will be down soon,” he tells me. “Make yourself comfortable in the meantime.”

I take a seat in one of the armchairs and fold my hands into my lap. ‘What the fuck am I doing here?’ I think to myself quietly.

A few moments later, two men enter the room, and I suddenly feel more afraid than before. Neither of them was as tall as III, but they also wore masks. One of them, the taller of the two, had a mask like III’s, except the colors were switched. The other, his mask was a dark charcoal gray, an angry expression molded into the face, though the same sigil passed over the forehead, eyes, and eyebrows. Unlike the other two, the mouth of this one wasn’t sewn together, but twisted and nonexistent.

They glance at me and take seats around the room. The one with the different mask nods at me, muttering a muffled ‘hello.’ I’m too nervous to return it.

“Don’t worry love, II won't hurt you,” says III. “Bloke just looks a bit spooky’s all”

Vessel told you not to return.

I jump at the voice I hear in my mind.

“Forgive IV,” says the one with the different mask. “If he speaks out loud, none of us would ever hear again.”

I glance at IV, his eyes are narrowed, staring at me with an angry gaze.

Silence falls over the room as I try to decide how to respond. I see a smile grow in III’s eyes.

“Having trouble collecting your thoughts?” He says, smugly.

I’m beginning to feel slightly faint. A forest full of monsters, four masked men, none of which seem to be entirely human. They can all definitely hear my thoughts and each other. I’m quite far away from my home, and my friends and family don’t even know where I am. III has already given me the hint of an idea that they might kill me.

My thoughts are running rampant now. The men in the room tensed, almost as if sensing my fear. The fourth stares at me, gaze softened slightly.

We don’t want to hurt you. His voice echoes in my mind. But we might not have a choice.

II shakes his head, “We don’t even think it’ll end up coming to that,” he says quietly. “Vessel is speaking with Sleep now, trying to figure out what we’re to do with you.”

My mind is reeling, and I suddenly have a strong urge to cry. I feel the tears gather in my eyes for a moment, desperately trying to blink them away.

I see II glance over to the staircase and I follow his gaze. The man I’d first met, the one called Vessel, was walking up the steps from the basement. I’d felt his presence before I could see him and felt a shiver run down my spine. There was a certain air of authority and heaviness that followed him.

“Hey, Ves!” said III enthusiastically.

As he reached the top of the stairs, Vessel looked around the room at our little group. I couldn't see his eyes through the mask, but I could tell when they fell on me, the way he lingered for a moment and his jaw clenched slightly.

Was he angry? With me?

“Of course not,” his voice was just as beautiful as I remember.

My eyes widen slightly as I realize he’s speaking to me, hearing the fears in my thoughts and reassuring me.

I open my mouth to speak and then close it again.

“I’d like to have a word with you, alone,” he says quietly.

Wordlessly, the other three stand and file out of the room, IV leaving last and closing the door behind him quietly.

Vessel takes a seat in the armchair across from me, studying me through his mask. His body paint is a lot more streaked and faint now, I can see a lot of his natural skin underneath.

“You’re an odd one, huh? Meet a monster in a forest and a strange man who tells you not to come back,” he tells me, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. “Anyone else would listen indefinitely.”

“I want to understand what's happening here,” I say. “I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s ever done this.”

Vessel doesn’t speak immediately but nods in agreement. “No, definitely not the only one. But there’s a reason more people don’t know about this. The ones who see what you did and listen, only have their words to tell people. The ones who come back-”

Somewhere in the distant wood outside of the house, a horrible gut-wrenching howl sounded. It brought up every horrible memory, every time I’d felt pain. I take a shaky breath, a tear tracing its way down my face.

Vessel regards me for a moment before finishing his statement. “Those who return, are either killed or consumed by Sleep.”

Thanks for reading !! Should I cross-post to Ao3 as well?

@dravenskye @stuffedzitifrita

#sleep token #sleep token vessel #vessel #sleep token iii #iii #sleep token ii #ii #sleep token iv #iv #the apparition

26 notes · View notes