It’s mid-afternoon and we’re almost at the plaza of Mareshmu. My brother and I were heading to Mareshmu for a show our—well, mostly my favorite inventor—Diarmad was holding there. In the event, he’d be showing and teaching us all about how his inventions work and after that, he’d also be giving some of us a sample of his prototype if we had one of the best personal inventions. Of course we wanted to participate, and after a long , tiring week of searching for scraps, doing chores early to have time to build, we finished our little doohickey. A Mrs. Little Bell doll that can talk back and move on its own; with limits of course. We wouldn’t want a rogue doll to be moving and terrorizing other people. Plus, if there were no limits, the doll would be talking non-stop or even talking on its own in the middle of the night. Terrifying, I know.
The show starts at about early evening and we already saw a ton of people walking and running to get there before anyone did to make sure they got the best spot. Even though we used our shortcut to the city, we only got there by only half of the time to get to Mareshmu by the normal path taken by other people. By the time we got to the plaza, most of the spots at the front were taken. Except for one. We rushed there before someone took it from us and quickly set up our tent. Thankfully, we got there before a couple snatched it ruined it for the people at the back.
“G’trnach!(Damn it!)” The man cursed. His partner tried to comfort him and went to another spot near the front. I kind of feel bad for the people behind them having to witness their sickening lovey dovey act. I’m honestly grateful that it wasn’t us having to watch the show while being blinded by their cuddliness.
Eiriwa (Thank the goddess) our parents know better than to act like that in public. I thought to myself. It’s still gross having to see them do that at home every morning though. Yuck.
People all around us were whispering and gossiping about what they thought the show was going to be like. “Was Mrs. Little Bell going to be there?” “Will it be magical like the last 5 shows?” or even “Will it finally be affordable?” Because even though the show was advertised to be accessible and affordable for anybody, the stalls and products that the inventor brings with him has a minimum price of 55(Qryn) and that’s just a small writing assistant; while the most expensive stuff go for a whopping 1645.
Okay, it might not be that expensive compared to the normal price other inventors put at 175 for the smallest pieces like books… Yes. Books made out of paper with the only difference being the paper quality, pop-up pages, and pages that are ‘animated’ as they say. Which sounds cool until it makes the letters in the pages bounce everywhere whenever one turns its pages making it unreadable until the next day when its energy runs out and you have to buy 35 worth of a new battery. You’d think this would make the sales go down, but it just keeps on rising with every book released on it.
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Anyway, you get my point, right? If not, then I don’t care; I’ll move on either way. The sun was setting and the sound of galloping hooves and a wooden carriage that sounded like it was carrying something light but heavy at the same time was getting closer. The people including us stopped what we were doing and patiently waited for the carriage to stop in the middle of the plaza.
Although it’s certainly the usual carriage Diarmad uses, there’s an ominous feeling inside me saying that whatever this is, not good. I looked at my brother, and certainly enough, I wasn’t the only one feeling it. As the carriage door was slowly opening, the ominous feeling grew even more. I was feeling paranoid, but I don’t want to waste all the effort we did just to get here, or the effort we put into making our doll, and run away. But no matter how much I tried to suppress my paranoia, my body suddenly jumps up as soon as the carriage door fully opened.
I stood there for a while and even though the door was fully opened, inside was pitch black. As if nothing was inside. I squinted to see if it was just really dark inside since it was the early evening after all. The other people thought that it was just one of tricks, but it’s taking too long for that to be true.
What’s going on? I thought.
Finally, what about maybe 9 minutes? Something finally came out of the carriage. It wasn’t the inventor though nor was it one of his inventions. But maybe it was his invention. I don’t know for sure. It was a formless black glob. At first people were looking at it curiously. Then, the glob grew a HUGE hand.
That’s all hell went loose. People finally realized this wasn’t a friendly creature. The glob swung its newly grown hand everywhere; almost hitting me and my brother. Thank Eiryn we avoided it just in time and bought us enough time for us to quickly make a run for it. Holding our doll on my left hand and my brother’s hand on my right, we got enough distance from the glob. Until the it grew a second hand this time managing hold onto my leg, dragging me into the carriage. My brother tried to pull me away. I dropped our doll to hold on to him better but that didn’t do anything.
In the end, I pulled into the creature. I couldn’t breathe and my senses went away one by one. My brother pounded on the closed carriage door, shouting my name over and over again. I could hear the pain in his voice and I couldn’t do anything about it. My body was quickly giving out.
“Edda!” He shouted. It was the last time I would hear him shout my name.
“I’m sorry I dragged you all the way here for nothing, Alaric.” That was my last thought until everything disappeared.
