#also definitely not the same spider from when i moved in. but all cellar spiders are charlotte to me

[jeezypetes]

I hurt my toilet spider when i was cleaning behind the toilet :( sorry charlotte

[bloody-bee-tea]

BeeTober 2020 Day 27

Rice - Fright

Day 27 of BeeTober brings some arachnophobia for poor Jiang Cheng, but luckily he has the best neighbours because NMJ is simply the best da-ge to everyone and NHS knows exactly how JC feels.

When Jiang Cheng’s rice cooker goes out with a bang—or rather a very small twitch—Jiang Cheng takes a moment to simply stare at his ceiling.

Of course the rice cooker would decide to give out today, when Jiang Cheng is alone at home and no one is bound to come over either.

And that means, he has to go into the basement on his own.

Jiang Cheng knows that there’s a new rice cooker just waiting for him—Jiang Yanli has prophesised that his would die on him sooner or later and she wanted him to be prepared—but what’s also waiting for him down there are spiders.

Lots and lots of spiders.

The last time Jiang Cheng went into the basement he couldn’t finish repotting his plants because a rather huge spider came crawling out of the depth of hell, giving Jiang Cheng the fright of his life, and he had fled his own cellar without a second thought, abandoning his plants in the process as well.

In the end Wei Wuxian had repotted his plants, but he had made quite the mess of it, as he very willingly admitted, and Jiang Cheng still did not muster up the courage to clean up after him.

Now he has two reasons to go into the basement—three, he realizes as he eyes the empty cartons he’s been collecting, always putting it off to bring them down into the basement—so at least it would be worth it, and Jiang Cheng retrieves his hand-held vacuum cleaner. He just hopes that Jiang Yanli did not bury the rice cooker under boxes of other stuff, because Jiang Cheng is not going to overhaul his whole basement in search for it.

The chance to encounter a spider is way too high after all, and he wants to come out of this as unscathed as he can.

Jiang Cheng takes a few deep breaths to steel himself before he even leaves his own apartment, and of course he immediately runs into Nie Huaisang.

“What are you doing?” he wants to know and Jiang Cheng looks down at himself.

He’s wearing a hooded sweater, hood already pulled up, so that nothing can touch his hair, and he wears the thickest boots he owns, vacuum cleaner in one hand and balancing boxes on the other.

Jiang Cheng is aware that he’s going overboard, but there are spiders in the basement. He thinks he can be excused, even though he’s certain he makes quite the picture.

“I have to get a new rice cooker,” Jiang Cheng says and Nie Huaisang frowns.

“Like this? I’m not sure they will let you into a shop like this.”

“Oh no, I’m going into the basement,” Jiang Cheng clarifies, though he doubts that makes it better. “I have a second one, because Yanli is a worrywart,” he explains and Nie Huaisang nods, because clearly that makes a lot more sense.

“Well, I hope you survive then,” Nie Huaisang says and Jiang Cheng sees him shudder.

Nie Huaisang hates spiders just as much as Jiang Cheng does, and he always sends Nie Mingjue into the basement, because Nie Mingjue has never encountered anything that frightened him.

“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng grits out and then steels himself again.

He’s really damn hungry and he will get that stupid rice cooker.

Jiang Cheng hesitates in front of the stairs that lead down into the basement but he knows that he has to do it eventually. He will not simply turn back and admit defeat, especially not with how hungry he is.

So he makes his way down the stairs, deliberately keeping his gaze on the stairs instead of looking around, because he does not want to see any spiders before he even enters his own cellar.

When he reaches the door to his cellar, he puts the empty boxes down to get out his keys and then he’s in the cellar.

He freezes in the door, because when Wei Wuxian said he made a bit of a mess, he did not mention that half the plant earth is on the ground instead of inside of the bag where it should be.

“Fuck me,” Jiang Cheng groans because it looks like this won’t be a quick in-and-out like he hoped. “I’m going to kill him,” Jiang Cheng decides, but then he steps into the cellar.

He still keeps his eyes on the ground, surveying the mess there, as he ponders the best course of action.

It’s probably smarter to vacuum first before he moves all the stuff on the shelves, because he’s bound to disturb a lot more spiders there.

Mind made up, Jiang Cheng puts the boxes down and gets ready with the vacuum cleaner.

Everything is fine, at least for like two minutes, before Jiang Cheng realizes that not all black spots on the ground is dirt. And he realizes that because one of the black spots starts to move towards him.

And it’s fast.

“Aaaaaahhhhhh,” Jiang Cheng yells, stumbling backwards and pointing the vacuum cleaner at the spider.

He manages to suck it up with the vacuum, but Jiang Cheng curses the design of his vacuum because the container is see-through and Jiang Cheng can tell very well that the spider did not die.

Jiang Cheng drops the vacuum in his shock and stumbles back, right into the shelve behind him. A few boxes tumble out and hit Jiang Cheng, but he barely notices it, his eyes glued to the vacuum, his heart racing in his chest, and he feels a bit faint.

The spider crawls around in the container and Jiang Cheng knows he can never pick it up again, because who knows when the spider will find a way out of there.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Jiang Cheng mutters again and again, unsure what he should do now.

He’s trembling slightly, the tremors spreading out over his whole body, and he’s frozen to the spot.

Jiang Cheng is just as afraid of spiders as Wei Wuxian is of dogs—even though he did not go through any traumatic incident with them—and just like Wei Wuxian he never learned to overcome his fear.

It’s usually not a problem, since he avoids the basement as best as he can, but of course the one time he ventures down here it all goes to hell.

The spider is still crawling in the container, clearly looking for a way out and Jiang Cheng feels close to tears.

If he has to touch the vacuum cleaner to get rid of the spider, then he will—eventually—but he will scream inside his head the whole time and he’ll probably cry too, just for good measure.

Jiang Cheng is getting ready to take a step towards the vacuum cleaner when he hears a noise outside. He’s not thinking clearly, but the first thought that comes into his mind is that it’s another spider, before he realizes how stupid that is and he recognizes the sounds as someone coming down the stairs.

“Huaisang?” he calls out, because Nie Huaisang is at least home, Jiang Cheng knows that much.

He also knows that Nie Huaisang will be of absolutely no help to him, because they are both equally scared, but Jiang Cheng finds himself thinking that this whole horrible situation would be easier to deal with if someone else was there.

“Wanyin?” a voice calls back and that is most definitely not Nie Huaisang.

Jiang Cheng has half a mind diving behind the shelves just to hide from Nie Mingjue, but when he twitches his eyes fall on the spider in the vacuum cleaner again and he freezes in fear.

Diving behind the shelves would be a bad move as well, after all, because it’s bound to be infested with spiders.

“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng mutters yet again because he does not want Nie Mingjue to see him like this, but he also very much needs help.

“Mingjue, help,” Jiang Cheng gets out and it’s not long before Nie Mingjue steps into the cellar, surveying everything with a critical eye.

“What’s wrong?” he asks and Jiang Cheng has to bite back a sob, because Nie Mingjue’s voice is very steady and very calm and Jiang Cheng feels anything but.

“There’s—,” Jiang Cheng starts and it’s enough to make the tears flow. “There’s a spider in the vacuum,” he finally gets out, beyond mortified, but Nie Mingjue keeps calm.

“I see,” Nie Mingjue says, and steps even closer. “What did you need from down here?”

“Rice cooker,” Jiang Cheng presses out and jumps when the spider in the container suddenly moves quickly.

“Alright,” Nie Mingjue nods and pats Jiang Cheng’s head, before he makes a strange movement with the same hand. “I’ll get it for you.”

Nie Mingjue is not usually someone to pet someone’s head and just as that thought crosses his mind Jiang Cheng goes ice cold as the implication of what Nie Mingjue just did hit him, and he’s almost too scared to ask, but he needs to know.

“There was a spider on my head, right?” he asks, his voice very small and very shaky and Nie Mingjue nods reluctantly.

Disgust and fear roll in waves over Jiang Cheng and he has to get out of the basement right this second.

“I have to—I can’t—,” he stumbles over his words, but he can’t manage to form a complete sentence and in the end he simply runs away.

He almost falls a few times on his way up the stairs, and instead of running back into his own spider-free apartment he runs outside.

And the first thing he does there is to take off his sweater, because clearly after his stumble into the shelves it’s no longer free of spiders.

As soon as he gets it off he throws it onto the ground, not daring to look to closely if anything comes crawling out of it, because that’s a nightmare he doesn’t need on top of everything else that happened today.

Jiang Cheng takes a few steps back from the sweater and then simply stands in the cold, with nothing more than his shirt, and he almost prefers the shivers caused from the cold to those out of fear.

He slings his arms around his middle, trying to hide just how badly his hands shake, and then he takes a few deep breaths, though they hardly do anything to calm him down.

Jiang Cheng knows that he’ll think about this for days to come, and he already knows that he won’t get much sleep this night.

By the time there’s a sound behind him, he mostly stopped crying, but he still startles badly when Nie Mingjue comes out of the house, the vacuum cleaner in his hand.

“Turn around,” he gently instructs Jiang Cheng, who obeys him before he can catch a sight of the spider still trapped inside.

Normally Jiang Cheng would freak out even more now, because he can’t see the spider anymore, but he trusts Nie Mingjue to have this handled in a way that does the least harm to Jiang Cheng’s very frail mental health right now.

Jiang Cheng hears him working on the vacuum cleaner, presumably throwing the contents and the spider into the garbage bin, and then Nie Mingjue steps up next to him.

“It’s all dealt with,” Nie Mingjue reassures him. “I cleaned up, stacked the boxes again and got your rice cooker.”

Jiang Cheng is entirely beyond feeling embarrassed when a sob breaks free at that.

“Thank you,” he gets out and his heart races for entirely different reasons when Nie Mingjue smiles at him.

Jiang Cheng is in no way equipped to deal with this onslaught of emotions and he sways slightly on his feet.

“Anything else you need?” Nie Mingjue asks him, his voice still low and clearly concerned and it’s enough to make Jiang Cheng blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.

“A hug would be nice,” he says and Nie Mingjue is very quick to open his arms for him.

It’s not difficult at all to step forward and Jiang Cheng doubts there’s a better feeling than being embraced by Nie Mingjue. His smell is very comforting and his arms are secure and strong around him and for just a moment Jiang Cheng can forget this horrible, no good afternoon.

“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng says again and Nie Mingjue starts to stroke his hands up and down Jiang Cheng’s back, making him almost melt into the embrace.

“No problem,” Nie Mingjue says and his voice makes a very nice rumbling sound. “I’m quite used to dealing with something like this,” he goes on and Jiang Cheng feels a little less mortified by the whole ordeal when he remembers that he heard Nie Huaisang scream for Nie Mingjue more than once already.

“In fact, why don’t you join us for dinner tonight?” Nie Mingjue suddenly asks and cups the back of Jiang Cheng’s head when he wants to pull away.

It seems like the hug is not yet over.

“Huaisang doesn’t like being alone after there was an incident and I’m sure he’d be thrilled to have you over. You can even sleep at our place, since Wei Wuxian is not coming home today, right?”

Jiang Cheng goes hot all over when those kind words bring tears to his eyes again and he doesn’t trust his voice to hold out, so he simply nods.

“Alright,” Nie Mingjue says. “We’ll grab your things and then get started on dinner. You must be hungry.”

“Starved,” Jiang Cheng admits and this time when he tries to pull away, Nie Mingjue lets him. “My rice cooker died on me, that started this whole mess.”

“Then we’ll have to whip up something quickly,” Nie Mingjue tells him and then seems to hesitate. “Will you be alright if I hand you the vacuum?”

“You promise there’s no spider in there anymore?” Jiang Cheng asks, the first tendrils of fear already setting in again, but Nie Mingjue nods.

“I checked it over and cleaned it out personally, there’s nothing in there at all.”

He sounds completely sure, and Jiang Cheng has no reason not to trust him, so he takes one last deep breath and then holds out his hand.

“Okay.”

He still startles slightly when Nie Mingjue puts the vacuum in his hand, but it’s not as bad as it would have been if Jiang Cheng had to deal with it on his own.

Nie Mingjue picks the rice cooker and Jiang Cheng’s discarded sweater up and then he follows Jiang Cheng to his own apartment.

Jiang Cheng would feel coddled, but he’s actually really grateful that he doesn’t have to do this alone, because after a scare like this he sees spiders everywhere, even though he logically knows that it’s unlikely that there are spiders all over his apartment.

Still, he’s quick to gather his things and before he can so much as blink, they are inside Nie Mingjue’s apartment.

“Da-ge?” Nie Huaisang calls out. “What took you so long?”

“We have a guest tonight,” Nie Mingjue calls back and winks at Jiang Cheng. “There was an incident in the basement.”

“An inci—oh,” Nie Huaisang says when he comes out into the living room and his gaze falls on Jiang Cheng. “Fuck, one of those incidents, huh?”

Jiang Cheng is aware that he must still look like a wreck; he couldn’t bring himself to pick up his sweater, even though Nie Mingjue promised him he shook it out as well, and his eyes must still be red-rimmed from the tears earlier.

“One of those incidents,” Nie Mingjue agrees and shoos Nie Huaisang into the kitchen. “He’s going to take a shower, and he’ll room with you tonight.”

“Pushy,” Nie Huaisang says with a wrinkled nose at his brother, but before Jiang Cheng can offer to simply go back to his own apartment, Nie Huaisang already bounded over to him.

“Of course you’re rooming with me, tonight,” he tells Jiang Cheng. “Incidents are the worst and it’s not good to be alone afterwards.”

Jiang Cheng feels choked up all over again at his words and his eyes burn.

“Come on, a good shower will help and da-ge makes the best comfort food,” Nie Huaisang says as he drags Jiang Cheng over to the bathroom.

“Want me to check it with you?” Nie Huaisang asks, because clearly he understands that Jiang Cheng will see spiders everywhere right now, and Jiang Cheng can only nod.

They do a check of the bathroom—completely spider-free, much to Jiang Cheng’s relief—and then Nie Huaisang leaves him to shower.

Jiang Cheng still feels unsettled, and he still jumps at every dark spot he sees, but with the delicious smell wafting into the bathroom, and Nie Huaisang’s and Nie Mingjue’s voices filling the silence, he finds that it’s not as bad as it usually is.

Maybe this day won’t be a complete disaster after all.

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

[stories-by-rie]

Chapter 3 - Heart of Silver

Back in the present, Evelyn and Ariel search the house of the dead granny in order to find clues on how to stop the heart of silver curse.

words: 3614 || masterlist

Evelyn pulled in on the house’s driveway. Now that she knew that no one was living there anymore, she couldn’t deny the ghostly aura that hung on it. The windows were dirty, the geraniums in the windows dead and brown. The driveway was growing weeds all over, so unlike the tidy places of most older people. Even the magnolia tree looked glum now.

    “The whole house feels like death,” Ariel mumbled as they walked closer. “Must have been a pretty rich lady, though. Didn’t you say she didn’t have any money?”

    “It’s an old woman. She owned the house and couldn’t bear to separate from it. Believe me, she told me for nearly a whole hour how she wouldn’t move out because she couldn’t see it in someone else’s hands. The pension was just enough to cover for house and food, so she didn’t have much extra.”

    They came to a halt before the door that was cordoned off by the police, but Evelyn swiftly cut through the sticker.

    “You’ve become unscrupulous, huh,” Ariel said and stepped in behind her.

    “It’s your terrible influence,” Evelyn replied and turned on the lights.

    “This was probably a nice house once,” Ariel noted as they looked around. The ceiling was dark brown mahogany, the floor white marble tiles that looked quite expensive, but were covered with a great Persian carpet. Overall it seemed to have been a very grandiose house judging by its interior alone. There were shadows on the walls, where paintings or photos must have hung -- which perhaps had been sold in time. This was an impression that wasn’t new to Evelyn, as weren’t the spiderwebs in the corners and the dust on the decoration.

    “They probably used to have a lot of money back in the day. Judging from the silverware alone,” Evelyn agreed and pointed towards the dining room, the door still open from the day before. Ariel nodded along and they walked over the echoing tiles, over the old dusty rugs, quieter. There was a simple chandelier over the dinner table, dipping the small room in yellow light, spider webs between its bulbs.

    Evelyn walked over to the sideboard, opened the drawer where the silverware was neatly stashed on red velvet.

    “Fancy,” Ariel mumbled and looked at the spoons and knives and forks. “So which of these is the culprit?”

    Evelyn looked down, face blank. “I don’t remember.”

    “Didn’t you say that there was some kind of evil aura?”

“Very much so. It only missed evil green sparkles or something. But it just looked like a fork. Maybe too much like a fork? It definitely stood out somehow.” Evelyn looked down at the forks. None of it was missing, the cutlery was still neatly put in its satin cushion, but she still couldn’t make out the one that had been the medium to curse her. She still remembered the unsettling feeling that had overcome her at the sight of the whole drawer the last time around, shivers running down her spine. All of that was missing now.

    “Maybe it is because I sent the granny off? Or because the curse got activated?” she mused. Ariel crossed their arms before their chest.

“That’s both possible. Curses work in a whole lot of different ways, there are dozens of various classifications for how they are transmitted alone. If the medium isn’t working once the curse gets activated, and doesn’t even show signs of the curse, then it means that either the curse gets transmitted through the victim, or that the curse medium is randomised. Any kind of object could be the medium now if it’s not you.”

    Evelyn felt her limbs get heavier at those words. It was not the silver – not yet. It was the hope that left her in that moment. Somehow, it had been so easy in her mind. Ariel knew their curses. They knew how to break them.

    “So, what do we do no-”

    Evelyn didn’t even get to finish her question before Ariel took the first fork and poked their finger on it.

    “What are you doing?” her voice jumped an octave higher as Ariel tried the next one.

    “These aren’t exactly sharp, did it bleed when you poked your finger?”

    “No. Sort of? There was liquid silver when I pressed it. But- Why are you-”

    “Maybe it is just a hidden medium. Sometimes, when curses are especially deadly, to make sure the whole power goes into just that one victim, the medium hides its potential so that it won’t curse two people at the same time.”

    “Ah.” Evelyn stared at Ariel as they kept poking themselves with the forks. “So can it still curse you then?”

    “Depends. Potentially.”

    It was late and Evelyn was exhausted, so it took a while for her to understand those words’ meaning. Once she did, however, she quickly grabbed the fork out of Ariel’s hand and put it back.

    “Are you mad? What if you get cursed too?” With horror she looked at a reasonably startled Ariel who just shrugged.

    “Would definitely keep me motivated.” Their gaze dropped to Evelyn’s neck, then wrists where the dark silver veins were well hidden by her hoodie.

    “No. If you get sick you won’t be able to cure me anymore. You stay alive, preferably.” Evelyn closed the drawer and pinched the bridge of her nose.

    “Then how do you think I am going to find the right fork if it is just hiding?” At this point Ariel sounded a little exasperated, a fake smile on their dark purple lips.

    “Don’t you have some strange curse detector of sorts?”

    Ariel just shook their head. “Only nolly-powder and that’s really just for our last resort, okay? There are really, drastically awful side-effects, and we should not lose time because of them.” 

It was quiet in the dining room, only the platter of the rain against the windows -- it sounded spitefully soft now. The quiet of a house not lived in. Consequently, it was easy to hear the door fall shut.

    Both Evelyn and Ariel whipped around toward the back of the room, where the door was still wide open as they had left it.

    “Maybe above us?” Evelyn wondered with a toneless voice.

    “Did you not say you sent the granny off?” Ariel asked instead. They glanced at each other with the same uncertain look in their eyes.

    “I am really tired. I would honestly be happier if this was a burglar, and not a ghost. Or a Mare. Seriously, I couldn’t even handle an Elwetritsch today.”

    “Isn’t that last one just some super shy chicken with antlers?” Ariel had turned back to the forks and continued poking their finger.

    “Please don’t underestimate chicken nor antlers. But yes. They also can’t shut doors,” Evelyn said and sighed deeply. Maybe, if she ignored any kind of noises for long enough they would eventually disappear by themselves.

    Certainly, getting cursed didn’t seem bad enough for one day, though. So she flinched when there followed the sound of something heavy falling over – really heavy – somewhere in the house, even if it was not close by.

    “At this point, it would make more sense if it was a burglar,” Ariel said and walked back towards the hallway. Stairs lead up to the next floor on one side, a door right underneath that had to lead into the cellar.“Hey, let’s take bets. I say it’s a burglar, you say it’s a horned chicken. Winner gets ten Euros, deal?”

    “It’s called an Elwetritsch, and also I wouldn’t make deals with dying people if I were you, Ariel.”

    “That just sounds like you have no faith in my abilities at all.” They said it like a joke, but Evelyn knew them long enough now to understand what they actually meant. The way they weren’t looking up at her when they said it was telling enough.

    “I do trust you, Ariel. You know that right?” Evelyn looked at them, and when their eyes finally met, Ariel’s crinkled. “Just, the situation is driving me a bit on edge, that’s all,” she added.

    “Mh,” Ariel hummed, not in a way that indicated that they believed her. For now she ignored it, as she did the feeling of doubt in the pit of her stomach, and focused on Ariel instead when they pointed upstairs. “Let’s check in on the Elwetritsch?”

    Evelyn nodded and followed them up the stairs. Last time she had not gone that far deep into the house, and it seemed like the old woman who had lived here didn’t either. The dust laid heavily on the old furniture, even on the ground in a way that was easy to see in the dim light.

    “Doesn’t seem like she went here often.” Ariel wiped a finger over the dust and pulled a face. “This is going to make my allergies so bad.”

    “Maybe she was too old to walk many steps. Old people have bad joints, no?” Evelyn opened the door to her side, revealing a small bathroom that looked like it was ripped straight out of a 70s decoration advert. It smelled like old water and too much soap, the tiles a shade of orange that should be banned. 

    “It would be a good place for a burglar now that the house is officially empty, just that there are no signs of a living person anywhere. Not even chicken feet in the dust.” Ariel had kneeled on the ground staring at the floor from close up and squinted at the tiles. They sneezed. 

    “Maybe the noise came from the cellar then,” Evelyn wondered and walked over to the next door. Behind it, there was a children’s room. Posters of pop bands from the eighties still hung on the walls, the bookshelves empty but the bed still made ready. It poked at Evelyn, uncurled something inside her heart at the view.

    “She had her kid’s room ready for whenever they would come back home, it seems. That’s very nice.” And still no one had noticed the old woman’s death in such a long time. She must have been truly lonely. She walked over to the next room that was mostly empty.

    “Any chickens inside?” Ariel asked into the space – nothing answered. There were still curtains and a closet on the wall. A fainter colour in the shape of a bed on another wall.

    “This probably was the old bedroom. Maybe she had the bed brought downstairs at some point.” Evelyn walked over where there was still an impression of the bedposts in the old rug.

    “Okay, one more room, I am having the hunch that I will be disappointed regarding my expectations to see horned chicken today.”

    “Wait.” Evelyn turned back to Ariel who was just about to walk over to the next room. “Don’t you think this room feels weird?” she asked and Ariel just shrugged. But there was an undeniable shadow hiding in the corners, behind the curtains, inside the closet.

    “Feels like it does in your apartment. Like ghosts are trapped in here.”

    “There are no ghosts trapped inside my apartment,” Ariel refuted but walked closer to Evelyn as she went to open the closet door.

    “Are you good with ghosts?” they mumbled behind her back as she put her hand on the door knob.

    “Most of them. As long as I recognize them, yes.”

    Ariel chuckled a bit at her words, which gave her the courage to open the door. Behind, there was nothing. Nothing but shadows. Evelyn crunched down and now it was her turn to wipe with her finger through the dust.

    “And?”

    “Looks like there were ghosts here at least. Maybe it was the granny. There is residue mixed here. See? The grey ash?” She held her finger up for Ariel to see and they nodded.

    “Knew that dust looked funky.”

    “It’s when ghosts dissolve. They lose what could be considered their body. To the human eye it looks ashen. It also tends to darken shadows.”

    “Fascinating.”

    Evelyn looked up at Ariel with a raised eyebrow. “You had a class about this. You studied the same subjects as me at uni.”

    “That really is no reason for me to actually know this stuff.”

    Evelyn supposed that they had made a fair point and let the matter be, even if the confusion would not leave her. 

“The granny was still very lifelike when I saw her. She couldn’t have dissolved that much so quickly for us to find so much residue.”

“So, more ghosts?”, Ariel suggested and Evelyn gave a nod. There was only one more room on the floor, and she could not deny the rising anticipation. Before the door, they both hesitated, though. 

    “If there is no burglar in there, we should check the cellar next,” Evelyn mused and Ariel nodded and stepped back a bit, as if asking Evelyn to open the door first.

    “We should check the cellar either way, really. No matter what we find behind this door” she said and took a step back too. Ariel just sent their hand through their hair and pointed at the door.

    “You feel that there’s something behind this, too. Don’t you? It might be important, so we should really check this out. You go first.”

    Evelyn shook her head. “There is no reason I should go first. This is about curses, so you’re the go-to person. You should go first.”

    “It’s likelier that there’s a burglar behind this, or a horned chicken. That’s your area of expertise, so you should go first. I am far too fragile to be put in such a danger.”

    “Ariel, you were the one who went to attack a Mare back when we met, do you remember?”

    “Yes, and I have learnt and changed myself through that experience. More specifically, I have learnt that it should be you who deals with these kinds of matters. So after you.”

    Evelyn sighed deeply and then shrugged. “You know what? Fine. There’s no reason not to check out this room too. I can ignore some cold shudders down my spine, I am not that easily frightened.��� Just as she put her hand on the door knob, though, the knob dissipated to dust right in front of her. Evelyn and Ariel exchanged a glance. “I feel like something doesn’t actually want us to enter this room.”

    “No shit.” Ariel stepped back even farther and then waved for her to move out of the way. Evelyn just managed to get far away enough before they tried to kick the door open. 

    A loud yelp, a loud bang when the door flew open, but nothing else happened, no monster jumping at them, no screaming ghost, and no attacking burglar either. In front of them was a simple study, filled with bookshelves and a big desk full of papers and letters.

    “I am slightly disappointed. That’s what I hurt my ankle for?” Ariel said as they stepped inside. Evelyn followed right after and couldn’t hide her slight awe. For a few seconds, the sight of the study overwhelmed her, a space that was clearly well cared for, a space that must have been so precious a long time ago. It was as obvious as it could be, small decorative figures on the shelf, a few letters framed on the wall. The only sign of neglect was the thick layer of dust on the books, even inside there. It was the few seconds in which Evelyn’s heart beat a bit lighter, forgetting about the fact that it pumped liquid silver through her body.

    The spell was broken as Ariel’s words settled in a bit late. “You hurt your ankle? Should we go and check with a doctor?” 

    “No, it’ll be fine. This is how devoted I am to curing you. Let’s check out these open letters and books, maybe we will find a clue about the curse,” Ariel whispered. They had a good point though, so they both started to work through what they could get in their hands.

    It didn’t take long until they realized what the old lady had used the study for.

    “She was looking into curses,” Evelyn said as she flipped through A Beginners Guide to Curses And How to Break Them.

    “Yeah. I found a conversation with a famous curse-broker from the sixties here. Apparently they were discussing some new phenomena that they thought were linked to curses.”

    “But she was not a curse-broker herself?” Evelyn wondered and Ariel shook their head.

    “If she had been, I would have known. Not a professional one, at least. Maybe she just was fascinated by them. Or maybe she had a victim in her family. A lot of people get into curses after one of their loved ones succumbs to one.”

    Evelyn continued to flip through the book before her until her fingers traced the photo of a boy in silver, shackled to a barn wall. A cold shudder ran through her then, made her recoil a bit before she flipped to the next page, where an equally familiar photo was printed.

    “Ariel, I am certain that this woman knew about the Heart of Silver curse. This book looks well read.”

    “You have it,” Ariel mumbled from behind her, their voice a bit thin. It nearly sounded as if they would start crying, which was a slightly unsettling thought.

    When Evelyn turned around, it was not Ariel who stood behind her. Instead, she stared right at the very dead eyes of a young boy. He was maybe fifteen years old, still already nearly as big as Evelyn herself. The startle nearly made her scream, but she could control herself just in time. Carefully, she tried to look around and find Ariel, but the boy just came closer, losing his body more and more.

    “Yes, I have. I have it,” Evelyn stuttered and held out the book to him. 

    “No. You have it,” the boy repeated, in the same manner, but he still sounded more powerful. His eyes dropped to her neck, where the black lines of her silver veins were visible the best. 

    “I do,” she agreed and pulled up her sleeves as well to bare her wrists. 

    “You should find what you really want,” the boy said with a sad tone in his voice, it sounded farther away than he was. So hollow.

    “I will. Thank you.”

    The boy still looked like there was more that he wanted to say, but when he opened his mouth next, there was no sound coming from him. Instead he just disappeared into thin air once more. Evelyn felt her whole body shake.

    “Oh! Look at what I found! That old granny won second place in a cooking show once!” Ariel yelled from across the room. Evelyn turned to them and the framed certificate in their hands.

    “Wow, you look as if you have seen a ghost.”

    Evelyn just stared at them from afar and pointed towards the dusty footprints before her.

    “There is a ghost in here.”

    The ash-like dust was still falling slowly like soft snow and landed before her feet -- the thought alone that the ghost was standing so close made her skin crawl. Ariel took off their glasses for a moment to narrow their eyes at where Evelyn was pointing.

    “I can’t see anything.”

    “The ghost is currently not showing his corporal form.”

    Ariel nodded and pushed the glasses back up their nose. “So it was a ghost, not a burglar or an Elwetritsch. At least as long as there isn’t anything weird in the cellar. What happens when neither of us win a bet? Do we both pay? You give me 10 euros and I give you 10 euros?”

    Evelyn decided to ignore the question and instead held up the book that was still in her hands.

    “The old lady knew about the curse. The ghost materialized for a moment when I talked about it. He said ‘You should find what you really want’, and then disappeared.”

    Finally, Ariel got a bit more serious and walked over.

    “That’s the same book as I have at home,” they mumbled and took it out of her hands. “So the old granny really knew some of those curses. I wonder if it’s just a coincidence, or if she was somehow tied to that curse especially.” They flipped through the pages not unlike Evelyn had done before, until they looked up again. “What is it that you really want, Evelyn?”

    “I want to get rid of this curse, of course, what do you think?”

    “What do you really want, must be the focus here, then. So, some kind of personal revelation might be the key to fulfilling the curse.”

    “Believe me, my thoughts and emotions are all set on staying alive. Maybe what he said was not related to the curse, though. It could be that he was just talking nonsense. Some ghosts lose control over their words with time,” Evelyn pointed out and with another glance at the ashen dust before her, she added, “This one has been dissolving for a long time now, from what it looks like. I bet he is the one leaving all the residue in the other rooms.”

    Ariel put down the book onto the desk and stared at the ashen footprints in front of Evelyn. “Better search the cellar then? Let’s find out a bit more about this granny that taught herself about curses, hid ghosts in her house, and cursed innocent ghost hunters after her death with her silverware, shall we?”

In lieu of nothing better to say, Evelyn agreed and carefully stepped around the ghost, out of the study.

____

previous chapter || WIP intro || masterlist || next chapter

[nanonaturalist]

Les Catacombes de Paris

Last week, I was on a Fancy Adult Business Trip in Paris, France. I had a little time to explore the city before Important Business meetings, so I did something I never thought I would get a chance to do: Visit the Catacombs.

A long, long time ago, back when the educational TV channels actually had… educational programming (yes, I’m that old)… I watched a show that featured the amazing tunnels dug under the city of Paris, which had been stacked to the ceiling with the skeletons of 6 million people. The short version of the story is: Paris has been a big city for a long time, and several centuries ago, funerary practices were not very… hygienic. A few of the cemeteries became public health hazards, so beginning in the late 1700’s, the city systematically emptied every single cemetery and reinterred the bones in the abandoned quarry tunnels. And instead of just throwing all the bones in, the “architect” of the project laid the bones to rest in beautiful arrangements that honored the lives of the people who were moved. The bones are grouped together by the cemetery they were from, or later by which the battle of the French Revolution they died in.

Amazing! But I was a poor kid, we never went on vacations, and although I had big plans for the future (I was going to go to college!), I grew up knowing that people like me didn’t get to travel so the best I could do was just read every book I could get my hands on. But I seriously lucked out, and 25 years later, not only did I get to go to Paris, my work was paying for the entire trip. !  So, to the Catacombs!

It was amazing. The first 1/3 of the tunnels was just getting down. The cramped spiral staircase seemed to go on forever. Then you went down a very narrow cramped tunnel sparsely lit with old-timey lamps. That photo above should give you an idea of how cramped they were. Those shadowy figures are humans. This is definitely not an activity for somebody with claustrophobia.

Anyway, you may be wondering: Wait, aren’t you a nature blog? Why are you talking about this here???

Well. Thing is, nature happens even in the strangest, most artificial environments. When you put skeletons in human-made caves and then leave them for a few hundred years, interesting things start to happen.

-> Warning: photos beyond the cut include human remains (skeletons)

The tunnels were dug into the limestone bedrock under the city, beginning around the year 1300, and were used as a quarry for building materials. The floor and ceiling are limestone. Although the tunnels were dug by humans, they function exactly like a natural cave. I’m from Texas, another place with a limestone foundation (and *lots* of caves). The Catacombs are 20 meters underground (65 feet), and when you’re that far underground, you may think you are protected from the rain, especially after standing in line for two hours in it. You’d be mistaken. In the photo above, look at the path. The darker edges are wet.

Limestone is primarily calcium carbonate. If you have hard water, you are likely familiar with it. The white residue it leaves behind are dissolved minerals from limestone—and you can see that same residue on the bones in the photo above. In some parts of the Catacombs, the bones were glittering from crystals that had started to grow on them, and they were beautiful.

If you’re familiar with what happens when you add water to caves, you shouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that baby stalactites are forming above the bones in some areas (see below). Stalactites take thousands of years to form. One estimate I looked up said they grow less than 10 cm (just under 4 inches) in 1,000 years. If this section of the tunnel dates back to 1400, that would make these stalactites about 600 years old.

But enough about geology, right? You want to see bugs, why else would you be on my blog? I also wanted to see bugs, but I was not expecting them, and I was a little pessimistic after getting stranded in Pittsburgh, meaning I missed not only my one free day in Paris, but a chance to see a friend who moved abroad a million years ago and currently lives in Germany. While I stood in line for two hours, she had started posting her photos from the day before when she went to the Catacombs without me, so I got to see her photos of the moss growing on the rocks and her comment, “Life finds a way.”

And since I am the iNat fanatic that I am, I thought, “hmmmm I’ll bet nobody else has posted iNat observations from the Catacombs…” so I paid attention to green stuff growing so I could get a couple fun photos of moss.

The first bits of green I saw was this–it appears to be green algae [link to iNat] growing on the bones, but I am not an algae expert. Then, aha! The Moss!

A beautiful, luscious, gorgeous bed of moss [link to iNat]. Perfect. I love it. Yes, life does indeed find a way. This part of the tunnels had moss in several spots, so I hung around getting a good view of it. Then, wait, who is this!?

!!! An Isopod !!! [link to iNat] Guys, I love isopods. I love isopods so much, when I saw that in Japan, you can get an iPhone case shaped like an isopod, I dropped everything and ordered one, even though it meant I’d have to upgrade my phone and I hate upgrading my technology because I’m a dinosaur. But here they were! Yes, they. There were three in the first area I saw them. In the photo above, you can see little “chocolate” sprinkles on the rock. These babies are having a nice moss feast! The first photo of this post was on this rock face as well. I was so happy. Look at these cuties!

So we have all this algae and moss, with fat happy isopods eating it to their hearts’ content. Clearly, there was plenty of moss to go around, so what was keeping the isopod numbers in check?

I’ll give you a hint:

These guys. There were cellar and cave spiders [link to iNat] throughout the tunnels, always in close proximity to the isopods. It was fairly predictable, too. If I saw a patch of fuzzy green stuff, I could reliably find an isopod and a spider.

There are hundreds of miles of tunnels under Paris, so extensive that holding 6 million skeletons leaves most of the network completely empty. The public tour goes through only a tiny fraction of the tunnels holding human remains. Just imagine what other food webs developed in the ~700 years since these tunnels were created, which humans have never witnessed.

As I was walking towards the spiral staircase back up (it was long), I was granted a fond farewell by this lovely moth who would not hold still:

Photos from March 4, 2018 / Posted March 14, 2018

[draegonkin]

Beneath Shadowed Wings: Chapter 5 – Those who Ambush the Ambushers

The morning dawned much the same as any other.  Quiet, with the shift in the desert heat urging early risers from their beds. Kizzy rose with the sun and set about exploring the main house of Prince Khaless, while Bitsy went to the tower of wizard Rastin.  Rastin wasn’t there, but it was evident that he was trying to understand the power behind the amulet, an intricate test running at the center of the room.  She left him a small packet of a calming tea to help the man sleep should he want to.

The two ladies bumped into each other and decided to go with Absinthe for a girl’s day out getting themselves cleaned up and pampered after the desert.  Thyme stayed in his room studying his journal, while Olek and Thorn set out about solving Tersim’s riddles.

First stop for Thorn was with the Merchant Guild, also known as the N’drin Continental Trade Consortium, to get details about any bridges.  He met an old contact there and learned that about six months prior a section of one of the main bridges between the merchant quarter and the lower district of Jarmaulk had washed out.  An enterprising gnome destroyed a section of a temple near the bridge.  That section fell across the river created a new bridge, but the priests at the Temple of Civilization had coopted it and were now charging tolls for any merchant wishing to cross.  The fee was excessive and while the priests claimed the money was going to restoring their temple, there was little evidence of it on the outside. It took some time, but after looking into the issue he approached the high priest. After bribing his way in and having a few moments with the man, he was able to convince the High Priest of Te that a deal with the merchant guild would be in his best interest.  Thorn made an arrangement for a meeting and left the problem in the hands of the Consortium.

Meanwhile Olek went looking for the Shade Mantle and decided to start looking in the shadiest part of town: the Riverfront.  Finding the shadiest part of town wasn’t the problem.  It was dealing with the chance of whether the shady part of town he found was trying to kill you or not.  (Don’t roll a three on your investigate check trying to find a good person to ask for information.)  What Olek found could only be defined as a tavern in that it had four walls and served something fermented.  The bartender, a green haired gnome with only one eye, offered him the house special. It was definitely poison. Fortunately for the half-orc barbarian his liver was so pickled from years of drinking that it hardly even noticed poison in his system.  Olek was fairly certain that the burning in his gut wasn’t alcohol, but he wasn’t sure whether or not it was intentional.  He chose to let it slide.  Instead he approached one of the few patrons at the bar, a grizzled elf in his middle years. The gentleman was abrasive, but in exchange for three silver he was willing to talk.  And for a gold he was willing to part with the information that the Shade Mantle met in an alley ten blocks north of this waterfront “tavern”. Olek tossed him a copper as a way of saying thanks.  

He wasn’t very thankful, it seemed.

That night everyone reconvened at the guest house.  They shared their days, though Olek did seem a little bit hesitant.  Fortunately for him Thorn had been present to hear Tersim’s riddle and he put some pieces together.  When Olek brought up a meeting with the Shade Mantle, Thorn informed him – based on information he had – that the Shade Mantle didn’t operate much in the Riverfront, preferring to stay out of the chaos that passed as business there. All the pieces clicked for Olek and he realized that he had been cordially invited to a back-alley stabbing. Most of the others quickly volunteered to join Olek in his meeting.  Kizzy chose to stay back so she could have a conversation with Rastin.

Thorn made a quick stop at a warehouse where the Shade Mantle actually conducted their business to check and see if they were aware of any business going on at the Riverfront. His contact told him that he wasn’t, but that there had been a number of people who had gone missing, including an agent of the Shade Mantle itself.  Thorn said he would keep his eye out for anything of interest to them, and then joined the others in their reverse ambush.

To call what happened a fight is an overstatement.  The party set up around the alley and waited. When the elf Olek had met showed up he brought some friends with him.  Two of them hid, putting themselves in place to ambush Olek, and two to wait.  One of the attackers hid literally inches away from Thyme without seeing him.  Thyme took advantage of that and pulled her deeper into the hiding place and put a blade to her throat, ready to kill her before she could make a sound.  Olek arrived, followed by a fog cloud conjured by Bitsy, and made his way into the alley.  As this passed Thorn killed one of the ambushers.  And the moment that the elven bandit went to make his move he fell to another of Thorn’s arrows, though he lived.  The third bandit found himself attacked by a lion – named Bitsy – and then incapacitated by laughter from Absinthe’s magic.  The fourth peed her pants (earning herself the name pee-fling) and passed out.

They loaded the survivors and those less fortunate onto a cart and traveled ten blocks south to the nameless, half-sunken tavern at the water’s edge.  There they confronted the bartender who, upon seeing Olek alive, was surprised enough that it was clear he was involved.  What followed was routine intimidation techniques.  Olek buried his hand axe in the bar, Thorn asked some very direct questions, and Thyme snuck behind the gnome, pulled out his lute and played a little tune he called “Closing Thyme”. (I will need to start keeping a tally of Thyme related puns per session) Ultimately in a bargain that spared his life the bartender fled after giving them all his information and his bar.  Thyme, having a strangely compassionate moment, took in the female Tiefling that has peed herself and passed out, and set her at a table in the back room.

At this point, Bitsy left to let the guys have their little interrogation party.  Thyme spoke firmly to the young Tiefling woman, telling her it had probably been a poor decision to go into banditry.  Absinthe, seeing the spirits of the would-be bandit dropping, gave her a rallying speech, giving her purpose.  The young lady, Selkie, was very grateful for their mercy and their support and as such agreed to work at the bar they had acquired and named the Bitsy Spider.  

While this adventure took place, Kizzy paid a visit to Rastin.  She’d wrestled with it, and the vague answers from Rastin just didn’t suit her.  She wasn’t willing to help someone work towards nefarious ends.  Rastin regarded her and eventually showed her what his goal was.  In a lower chamber of the tower Rastin showed her the petrified form of Princess Amya of Dalcerra.  Rastin had been present when she had touched a cursed artifact and the only way the wizard could save her was to petrify her until he could find a way to break the curse. And for that he needed the help of Kizzy and the others.  Kizzy left, feeling a bit more drawn to the purpose of their task.

The next day Absinthe took their new friend Selkie out to get her a new wardrobe and get her set up while Kizzy, Bitsy, and Thyme used magic to get their bar in a state that was at least livable.  Meanwhile Olek and Thorn went to stalk to the mantle.  One order of business was to see if they could secure some level of protection for their bar in exchange for finding out what happened to their missing agent, as well as asking for any more leads.  They learned that their agent was tracking a merchant the Mantle thought was cheating them. In investigating that they also found out that a prostitute also had gone missing recently, and they were ultimately directed to a merchant ship captain.  He provided elusive with his information, which forced the group to track the path of the merchant they’d learned about.  That proved much more fruitful.

With Bitsy tracking as an animal, and with the tracking skills of the others they eventually found an alley where a scuffle had happened.  Thorn found a blade imbedded in a door. It was a Shade Mantle Standard Issue Stabbing Blade.  They made their way into a locked cellar and through the floor below into the buildings that made up the old city Jarmaulk was built upon. A horrible smell reached the group as they moved into the sewers beneath.