#i put swimmers ear drops in and it felt like someone was carving out my eardrum with dull white hot razor blades

[themmatennant]

swimmers ear

turns out my ear is actually super infected because of a shit ton of earwax. the nurses had to flush my ears out with warm water like eleven times until the wax was gone enough to even see my eardrum

[hostgalli19]

Hallowvide Day 5: Barbed Wire & Aquaphobia

Chapter Summary: A feeling of dread curled in my stomach when I saw how dark the water in the cave was. There was only around three possibly four feet of "shallows" before it dropped off. My palms started to sweat at the thought of what could be in the water.

Note: Today’s prompt is, if you couldn’t tell from the title, Aquaphobia (fear of water). The artwork in this is done by Whizzer that he very kindly allowed me to use. He did it for Inktober Day 4: Ghost which gave me the idea for this story.

S Dark - He appears in a story I haven't posted yet but am in the process of writing S Mark - Sil's version of Mark Sil - Dark/Damien from another universe. See Chapter 9 of MFC

Length: 1,507 words (4 pages) Tag List: @darkipliertm​, @wilfordwarfstacheisbae​, @lamiasluck​, @scuttling-thoughtfully​, @matt10nt​, @bexiblitz​, @kraefandoms, @ameliachastain Link to Ao3, Day 3 and Day 4

Date: 05/10/20 Time: 9:15 pm - 10:55 pm 

I’m not a particularly stronger swimmer. I can do one lap of a 50m pool, its the second lap where I slow down and breathing becomes very difficult. 

Getting out the water after making my way slowly back to the other end of the pool was difficult. My body felt weighted down and heavy, pulling myself up the steps were difficult but I somehow managed. 

It was over. My legs felt like jelly,  I could barely stand.

I could barely speak with how heavy I was breathing. My teachers were always encouraging and let me go and sit down after that one lap. I was never able to do more than one. 

I know if I do laps more often I don’t really like swimming that much. Host knew very well that I wasn’t a very good swimmer, despite that I was very good at holding my breath.

I was relaxing in the sun, leaning back on my hands with my feet in the pool because it was boiling when I was suddenly pushed in. I tried to get back to the surface but something was weighing my limbs down. 

I tried to hold my breath but found it impossible the closer to the bottom of the pool I got. It felt like my lugs were being crushed. I pinched my nose and “popped” my ears. It helped a little though not much.

The pool was incredibly deep. Host had made the pool "as deep as it needed to be" since S Dark had appeared in the kitchen.

There were many tunnels and places to hide. It was amazing how quickly an ecosystem had developed after Host had added some fish, seaweed, crabs and other creatures. 

It would have been perfectly fine if Bim had turned him into a mercreature like he had promised he would when I wanted to go swimming.

I wanted to visit S Dark's cave and see what other pretty things he had collected. I tried to hold onto as much air as possible but it was so hard. I had to clamp my hands over my nose and mouth to stop any air bubbles from escaping. 

I tried to remind myself I was perfectly safe but it was impossible. I looked down trying to see what was wrapped around my legs and was shocked when I saw barbed wire attacked to... something was wrapped around my feet and carves.

It was then that the extreme pain registered and I screamed. All the air escaping my lung. I was breathing in water. I jerked when I felt myself touch the sandy bottom of the pool. 

The water was a bluish-green colour and looked really pretty with the light shining through the water. I tried to move, push myself up. Do anything but couldn't. I looked down, there was a heavy chain resting over my stomach.

I tried to move it but couldn't. I closed my eyes briefly. I opened them again when I felt someone shaking me. I stared at the person through blurring eyes. I blinked and realised it was Mark. 

I looked down when I felt smooth scales brush against my legs. His tail was light yellow at the top fading into gold, his fins were tipped with red. I was sure his eyes were glowing gold but I was sure.

He was moving his mouth like he was saying something but I couldn't hear anything. I felt so tried. I just wanted to sleep. I could feel him shaking me but wasn't able to open my eyes again once they were closed. 

The next time I opened my eyes I had to close them almost immediately due to the bright light. I still in the water, but sitting on the steps leaning against the warm tiles at the edge of the pool.

The first thing I heard was yelling.

Dark was yelling at someone.

"... could you do something so reckless. She could have died. I don't want to have to explain to Host that his sister had drowned," Dark yelled, I stared at his back, black tentacles leaked from his back, his aura was flickering. 

He was yelling at the Jim's who looked absolutely terrifying. I groaned. My legs hurt, I could barely move my arms. Everything was too loud, too bright, too much.

"Oh good your awake. I was afraid I wasn't fast enough," I opened my eyes and looked down when I heard someone speaking found myself staring at Sil's Mark, he looked relieved. 

I stared at the reddish-gold scales on his face, neck, shoulder and arms. He had webbed hands but was somehow still wearing his wedding ring. He smiled revealing sharp teeth.

"Wha happened?" I asked hoarsely, speaking hurt, it felt like I had swallowed glass. 

S Mark's smile disappeared and he turned to glare at the Nightmare Jim's were struggling to get away from a livid Dark but couldn't thanks to the pinkish-red aura wrapped around them. 

The look Wilford was giving them sent a shiver down my spine. They would've had to have done something serious to piss off both Dark and Wilford off.

"The Nightmare Twins tried to enchant barbed wire. Try not to move your legs too much. We haven't quite figure out how to remove it yet. We're still not sure how they managed to write the barbed wire around your legs without you noticing. They pushed you which activated the weight spell," S Mark explained. 

I looked down at my legs and saw the barbed wire had wrapped around my thigh as well. I don't think I could have moved them if I wanted to. I felt tired and found myself staring at S Mark's tail through the water.

I could see a ghostly figure walking down a beach. He was carrying a half-open shirt, his pants rolled up to his knees and carrying what looked to be a towel in one arm. 

I looked around, he appeared to be walking towards the docs or possible a cave though it was hard to tell. He appeared to laugh when a dog ran up to him and started barking. 

He smiled and picked up a stick and threw it.

Later, he was collecting shells and putting them in the towel. A feeling of dread curled in my stomach when I saw how dark the water in the cave was. There was only around three possibly four feet of "shallows" before it dropped off. 

My palms started to sweat at the thought of what could be in the water. I looked around and saw the man had placed the towel on a flat rock and had turned to get something a little further away.

When I looked back at the rock there was a mercreature with blue and green scales, wearing a blue stone necklace putting a very pretty shell on the rock. He ducked back into the water but it was too late, the man had already seen him.

The mercreature was shy at first but the man said something to him that made the mercreature laugh. It wasn't long before the two were chatting and laughing, clearly having a lot of fun. 

I jerked when I heard a sharp clicking and looked up. S Mark was staring at me with a raised eyebrow. I blinked slowly and shook my head. Wondering why it *felt* like I had been sleeping when I know I was awake. 

It was a strange feeling. It had never happened before. I looked up when a shadow appeared. Dark was standing over me. He didn't say anything just kneeled next to me.

"What did you see?" S Mark questioned, I stared at him. How had he known I had seen something. I laughed, I glared at him, very much wanted to hit, I couldn't have moved my arms had I wanted to. 

Dark reached over and hit Mark upside the head. I couldn't help but laugh. I felt... floaty. I'm not really sure why. S Mark muttered something under his breath that earned him another slap.

"That's the look Author gets on his face when he's seeing something," I stared at him, there was no way I see the future, that was Host's domain. 

Sure there were times where my imagination would go to some very strange places but I had never felt like this before. I just shook my head. I somehow knew S Mark knew what I had seen and was only asking because it was expected of him.

"What in the seven circles of hell did you two brats do to my sister," Host demanded, he looked livid, blood was far more blood then normal dripping down his face, his hair was messy and his ink-stained fingers were balled up. 

The Nightmare Jim's tried to run only to remember Wilford had them wrapped. I stared at Host, there was something wrong with this image but I wasn't quite sure what it was.

Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Its not as long as the other stories or even as detailed but I think it works.  If you want to read the other stories go to my profile and search “Hallowvide” and the particular day you want.

[ren-c-leyn]

Our Real-life Fantasy Novel by Ren C. Leyn

 It’s a bit of a long short story, if it can even be called a short story at this point. I really should start giving myself word counts when I write these. It was inspired by @humdrummoloch ‘s prompt here. No swearing, no death. I think the worst of it is two teenagers sneaking out at night. 

“What are we even doing here?” he asked, hands resting in the worn-out pockets of the ratty, blue hoodie.

 Even I had to admit that it was a valid question. Just what were we doing here? I guess something in my pea-brain decided that it would be a blast. I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, though. I shot him my most confident smile, tilting my head as I raised my left hand, snapping my fingers for dramatics.

 “Going on an adventure, duh. It can be just like one of those cheesy fantasy books you keep your nose in all day. Or one of those....”

 My hand lowered as I tried to think of the term he used.

 “One of those...” I tried again, twirling my wrist in pointless circles. “Those games you play, with the magic and swords and stuff.”

 “Rpgs?” he replied, voice bland and face blank.

 I snapped my fingers, smiling again.

 “Right, rpgs!”

 “... So, why are we here again?”

 I stopped and faced him fully, putting both hands on my hips.

 “I already told you, we’re on an adventure!”

 “... Right. Oh look, there’s a side quest to return home before our mothers skin us alive.”

 “That’s not going to happen,” I replied as I turned around.

 “The pool party?”

 “Freak accident.”

 “The principle and the....”

 “Not my fault.”

 “Johnny....”

 “Sabotage,” I replied before marching onward again. “If you want to go home, then fine. Go home. I’ll just find it myself.”

 There was silence behind me as I stormed ahead. He’d come. He always came. After a few minutes of hearing nothing, though, I began to get a bit worried that he actually wasn’t going to come after all.

 I looked back and felt my breath catch in my throat, which is probably the only reason I wasn’t screaming my lungs out. There were a pair of dark, dark eyes with ash rings around them just staring at me. Combined with the blood-red streaks against a pale face, it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing a person wants to see standing just outside of the comforting light of a streetlamp.

 He blinked, those owlish eyes narrowing.

 “I thought adventurers weren’t supposed to be scaredy-cats.”

 “At least make some noise when you’re walking behind someone! Or stop dying your hair that color! You look like something out of a horror movie in this light. And why are you slouching so much? I shouldn’t be eye level with you!”

 “If you don’t stop screaming, someone is going to call the cops,” he replied nonchalantly as he slowly straightened up. “And I thought you knew I was behind you.”

 I let out a shaky breath.

 “I didn’t know if you were, you were too quiet.”

 “Guess that makes me the rogue of this traveling party.”

 “Rogue?”

 “Forget it. Let’s just go find that secret door the crazy old lady told you about so we at least have one success under our belts before our hides wind up on the walls.”

 I giggled before spinning back around. I led the traveling party, as Rumor called it. We made our tiresome trek down the concrete and asphalt paths, weaving in and out of pools of orange lights and black shadows. Cats yowled, dogs howled, and I think it was a raccoon that we heard thrashing around in a dumpster. We didn’t stick around to find out.

 Eventually, our shoes found sand, our noses breathing in the salty air of the sea, and our eyes stared at the sliver light reflecting off of the crests of the waves. The sand glittered like moon dust. I paused for a moment, just taking it all in. My nerves were slowly melting away, along with the memory of what I had sneaked out to find. That is, until a certain someone decided to remind me.

 “Aren’t we looking for something?”

 “Can’t you just enjoy the moment? Look at this. It’s way prettier than any of your... your... the games.”

 “Rpgs.”

 “Right, those. It’s prettier than anything in those, and you just want to blow it all off?”

 “That’s entirely a matter of opinion.”

 I sighed.

 “Whatever. We can look for the door, and after we find it, you can go back to your books and... um... rpgs.”

 He hummed before looking around.

 “What was it she told you again? Somewhere by the cliffs?”

 “Let’s see.... In the shadow of the cliffs, where the waters look calm.”

 “That sounds suspiciously like a riptide.”

 “Good thing we’re both decent swimmers and know what to do.”

 “Bad thing is sharks hunt at night.”

 “Good thing neither of us are wearing yellow, then.”

 With that, I walked over towards the cliffs. The closer I got to the shadow of the cliffs, the more I found my heart pounding. By the time Rumor and I stood side by side at the edge of the cliffs, it sounded like it was in my ears and felt like it was crawling up my throat.

 “Look over there, the water by that rock isn’t moving at all.”

 I swallowed as I followed Rumor’s extended hand. Sure enough, there by a small tip of a rock in the water was a smaller area where the water didn’t look like it was moving at all. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, but I refused to show fear. I popped my best smirk on my face.

 “Here I was expecting a decent rip tip. Heck, that doesn’t even look as big around as a kiddie pool.”

 “So, we’re jumping in the water to check it out, like the crazy woman said?” he asked as he lowered his arm.

 “I don’t know about you, but since I’m already getting grounded for the rest of my high-school life for this, might as well finish our quest, right?”

 “So be it, then.”

 With that, the ratty hoodie and the plain black t-shirt beneath it were shed. I dropped my cape jacket down next to them. Heeled boots and converse sneakers were abandoned as we raced each other to the sea. It probably wasn’t the best idea for us to jump into the ocean in the fall, but we didn’t care. We were on an adventure, after all.

 We both dived into the navy and black darkness of the water. I wondered what I was doing, but pushed it out of my head. Rumor was here, it’d be okay. As long as I wasn’t along, the darkness couldn’t bother me.

 We swam to the rock, coming up for air. We both looked to each other, scarlet and hickory hair hanging in our faces. With a single nod we both dived both in, down into the dark depths. We kept going until we reached the base of the rock. I ran my hands across the surface.

 I was surprised when I felt the carvings, just like the old woman told me. I pulled the odd purple pebble out of my jeans. Holding it by the leather thread, I pushed it into the center of the runes. It glowed, it glowed brighter than the moon over our heads. It felt like the crushing dark of the sea was turned into a warm summer day.... 

 Then, it came, a loud click. I watched with wide eyes as the rock tore itself in half. The water rushed in, sucking Rumor and I in with it. I tried to scream, but could only get bubbles to form. Into the rock we flowed.

 I don’t remember exactly what happened next. The very next thing that was clear was having an even more nightmarish looking Rumor glaring at me through a dim purple haze.

 “You wanted a fantasy novel, well congratulations, we’re in one.” He pointed in a random direction. “Because that freaken fairy just winked at me.”

 I followed his finger and sure enough, there was a woman with butterfly wings. She giggled and disappeared in a flash of silver light. I blinked before looking at him. He just glared at me from behind the dark rings which marked his many insominatic nights.

 “What do you want me to do?”

 “Find a way out.”

 I looked around.

 “Four-O-Four, your way out has not been found. Are you happy now?”

 “No.”

 “Well good, that makes two of us then. I never wanted to be stuck in a fantasy novel or one of those....”

 “Rpgs.”

 “Right, I never wanted to be stuck in a fantasy novel or an rpg. Little alone one with a fairy flirting with my cousin.”

 “Well guess where we are.”

 “Don’t remind me,” I replied with a heavy sigh.