Silent Garden

[Lovie the OG]

The streets bore the shadowy resume of the burning; have bent lanterns that scent off the smell of burning houses and ash filled fills. Cracks bore their names in the worn out streets, some stretching for miles until they ended. The town that they led to only held more tragic to the senses, as the old buildings stood like shadows in a grave yard. Vines etched their way up to the roofs on houses, the light bulbs in the street lights flickered at each minute the hand moved on the clock. A dark, daring, elusive cloud hung over the town, sending an essence of chilled horror down the necks of any who ventured there. It was a town that seemed empty, lonely, and scared. Yet, looking deep into it, a few pounding hearts made their way in the darkness. The people who lived here and that stayed even when they wanted to leave, only due to the fact that their minds were barely functioning any from the horror that grasped them, stumbled in the darkness that surrounded them. Their hearts pounded the remedy of the crow's wings flapping.
On the outskirts of this town, a darkened abyss of a forest stood tall as shadowy creatures emerged from within. The dark creatures were vile and untrustworthy. Coming forth at night and on dark, gloomy days, they roamed the streets of the town. They tore and they preyed. As they did so, a giggle from within all of them came forth and tore at the inside of all ears. A giggle of a small girl. The giggle would send shivers down the people's backs, going through spines and sending them to a shaking, nerve wrecking, breakdown. Screams would erupt from the people as the giggle entered their minds and sent them into insanity.

~~

From the darkness of the forest, a smile spreads over a pair of small, pale lips. A bear hangs down from a small, light hand. Eyes of pure insanity grasps the scene as an eruption of laughter sends its way to the town below. The shadows begin to move around the body, as if they were talking; understanding. The smile only spreads wider, as the essence of vile insanities sends their ways to the people of the town.

~~

The town grew colder and darker, sending vibes of dark evil throughout the atmosphere. The cracks seemed to have gotten larger, as if engulfing the town. Something was ad mist, and that something was growing more and more dangerous and powerful as the days grew darker. The town knew no happiness, only horror. The faces of the people show themselves, pale and terrified, in the darkened streets as they move around in the lonely, dark places of the town. Their souls were now lost. The only welcomes were the sounds of growls, screams, and giggles.

So welcome yourself to the horrifying remedies of:

SILENT GARDEN

 

[Lovie the OG]

"AAAAGH!" The small boy screamed as he ran from the hallway of the run down house of which he lived. As he cowered in a corner to himself, he huffed hard breaths, keeping his eyes closed and his ears peeled. His heart thundered in his chest and he felt as if he had to puke. He began to hear the faint footsteps of a small girl coming down the hallway, and a faint, familiar humming. The boy curled into a tight ball, trying to keep his tears to himself as they silently began to slither down his cheeks. He silently prayed his father would come home. And where was that maid? He shook his head in an uncertain gesture as tears flowed to the old wooden floors. Helpless, he let himself cry and panic until he finally gave out.

---

The shadows that came forth felt like power to her being as a smile of pure and utmost evil spread across her light, round face. "Oh, broooother! Come and see how much better I looook~" The girl sang as auras of dark nightmares began to spread around her. A bear hung from her hand as she stood in the middle of the room, smiling and giggling with a look of insanity in her eyes. Small flames of black fire began to spread out upon the floor where her feet were. Fumes of intoxicated smoke filled the room, as dark shades of grays began to form themselves around the girl. A hissing giggle sprouted from within, as the shadowy creatures formed themselves into creatures beyond comprehension.

The sounds of shattered glass then began to erupt through the room, as the ghoulish sounds formed themselves into laughter. Darkness shattered its way out of the broken windows, wind ripping through the atmosphere. A muffled scream came from somewhere in the room. A giggle came from the lips of the girl. Soon, the room was cleared of the darkness it once held. The girl had gone and so did the creatures.

--

Standing on the hill top, the girl looked over the town, a finger pointing down to it. She seemed to have whispered something, something non-hearable but to the mass she was talking to. A slight head shake came from the darkness, and the girl smiled. An embrace to her bear, and then the shadows disappeared, leaving her alone in her world of comfort.

 

[October Knight]

View attachment 3514"Run not from hatred and sin. Run not from fear and spite, lust, jealousy, greed or envy. Never turn your back on true evil, instead we must face it with love and confidence! For when the darkest of day is upon us, faith will be our true savior. Thy mercy, my god, our god saves! Upon us hell is cast, it is our duty as god's creation to suppress our urges and live life according to the holy faith! Bestowed upon this earth, humanity's divine existence in which all men are created, from the lowest commoner to the leaders of the world, all men are children of god!"



​

Adrus spoke with confidence and strength, although he had neither of these things. Behind closed doors, Adrus Jeriah wasn't sure how much of his own sermon he actually had faith in anymore, but the people, those that hadn't slipped into the darkest realm of insanity, seemed to find strenght in his words. So he went on, day after day, as a servant to god.


Across the cobblestone courtyard, surrounded by an early morning fog that often times lasted nearly all day, sat the Solus Deus chapel. Its whitewall paint and black trim stood out like a beacon of hope in the foggy, bleak atmosphere. Three peaked ridges made up the roof, while long stained glass windows, facing south, shone colored light onto the street below. If not for the Sunday crowd, it would most likely have been transformed into a full time shelter, but as it was, most of the town was present for the Sunday sermon. Throughout the week, however, save for a few religiously dedicated followers and drunks that couldn't function in society until after noon, it was more or less an empty building.


View attachment 3515

Adrus Jeriah stared out, with empty eyes that mirrored his quickly fading faith, over the sea of faces that occupied the church. It was Sunday and almost every seat was full or accounted for. Adrus didn't cast judgment on his followers, but he always had found it odd that some of these people thought one day of church a week would abolish all their sins, and sins they had plenty! Adrus used to be sure of his faith in god, but little by little, each day, he found it harder and harder to believe in that which let a town such as Clusiurn slip as far as it had. The air in Clusium was foul and tainted as the blackest sky on a cold, December night. Something had happened here, something dark had touched the town and it's people, cast an impenetrable shadow that left an evil, always present, feeling in the town.


The few of the townsfolk that Adrus had the fortune of actually knowing beyond a simple hello before the sermon, were about as sinful as they came. As of late, their minds seemed lost, vacant, and occupied with strange thoughts. No one ever saw eye to eye him, as if they were looking beyond into some unspeakable hell. Terror was lurking deep within them, spilling over into insanity. Adrus had a terrible feeling, that behind closed doors, these people, his neighbors, were far more eveil than he could ever imagine. He knew this because behind his own closed doors he had seen something as well. In his own flesh and blood. It pained him to think that his innocent daughter was caught at the mercy of Clusiurn and the darkness it held within, but as of late, that seemed to be the case.

Was there any hope in a raging storm of Darkness? Adrus was no longer sure, but as always his mind drifted to his beautiful son and his......Daughter.

 

[Vay]

Their screams were never ending. The pain of slowly losing everything that made them what they once were. Such sounds were music and could be manipulated by a skilled conductor. Because their pain was endless so was the pleasure of listening to them, those he had devoured. Methodius had never been alive, not in a true sense, yet he had the memories of a thousand mortal lifetimes from the souls he took, and weaved into his own body. Their energy sustained him and gave him power, their memories let him feel what it was like to be alive. But the sensation was fleeting and he always needed more. This town, was his new hunting ground.

Yet one among them showed promise he had never seen in a mortal before. A human girl child. He had taken an interest in her when he had seen into her being. She had potential to become more than mortal, more than human. Yet to show himself to her would spoil the game, and right now she was nowhere to be found, just her brother, her lowly sniveling brother who....

"Hello child."

Methodius drew on one of the many souls in his collection, taking its form. A woman, not long dead, one who had memories of the boy. Memories of his father, memories of sister..... the memories of a mother.

 

[Lovie the OG]

The young boy was sitting silently to himself that day. His father was gone, probably at the church, and his sister was nowhere in sight. It felt good to him to be alone. Xaine thought he could finally bring his head together. After a bit of time and thoughts to himself, the young boy had thought he had come to himself again. A few minutes had gone by after he cleared his mind. He looked around the dark room of which he was in.

"Hello child."

Came a voice from the cold, chilling darkness. Spooked, Xaine shook his head and took in what was around him. Nothing at first, then in front of him viewed a face. He jumped back with a frightened scream as he saw who was in front of him. "M...Mother?" His eyes widened in almost pure horror. He knew she was dead. She had died two years ago. Her funeral was the last time he had saw her face, he even was able to touch her cold, lifeless hand as she lied in the casket.
The poor, young and horrified boy, looked at his once dead mother. "H...how are you alive?" He asked with a shudder in his teeth. The boy reached out a hand behind himself to make sure there was something he could lean on before he did so. His shivering hand touched the cold wall that awaited there. Xaine leaned against it as he stared up with his horror filled eyes at his mother. His once dead mother...

 

[October Knight]

View attachment 3595Adrus neared the end of his sermon with the same vigilance and dedication he always did. His words were fierce, but as he cast a gaze out at those attending it was met with hollow, vacant eyes. It struck Adrus, for the first time, that it was like looking into the eyes of a corpse, a man walking without a single decent thought in his mind, a man void of life. Just then, a cold, bone chilling wind blew in through small holes in the old thatched roof. It caused Adrus to shiver, but his decibels were unaffected by it, instead they remained unmoved, mentally or physically. Adrus, shivered again, but this time it wasn't because of the cold air. Whatever state of absence the people of the town had passed into it was not anything wholesome, nor did they belong in a church of god.



He stopped mid sentence, as if anyone would notice, and dismissed the church.


Those seated in the pews stood up and exited. In the eyes of the priest they appeared more like people leaving a funeral, rather than a Sunday sermon. Their feet shuffled on the ground in a careless fashion. While their heads bobbed from side to side on their necks with their hands idly at their sides. Adrus also noticed, and not for the first time, that they moved in a strange kind of unison. It was almost like they were all walking to the sound of a funeral drum only they could hear; A slow, constant, mourning death march. They were all apart of something that he had yet to discover, they were cast in the shadow that covered the town, they….

They.

Adrus shivered again.

Adrus' thoughts cascaded like a waterfall into a black pool of despair as those two words again entered his mind…..My Daughter. He grabbed his crucifix and his bible, two things he dare not venture outside without, and left the barrier of the old church.

Outside a group of children, as well as adults, were gathered around a large oak tree. Adrus walked past, avoiding them like the plague.
​

"Father Jeriah."

Came a emotionless voice that no doubt belonged to a pair of hollow, emotionless eyes. "Look." Adrus looked to see one of them, Mr. Carwright was his name, pointing at the base of the tree. On the ground, in the middle of a group of people, was a vulture eating the rotted carcass of a dead cat. It picked flesh from bone with a bloody beak, as the people looked on.

"Isn't it beautiful, Father?"

Adrus' suddenly became aware of how hard he was gripping his crucifix, as a small trickle of blood ran down his wrist.
​

 

[Vay]

A smile.A simple yet meaningful gesture followed by a small laugh. "Shhhhh." kneeling next to Xaine a hand reaching out to him but then withdrawing. "I'm back, but its our secret." placing a finger in a gesture of silence to emphasize the point. "Don't tell anyone else I'm here for you, to protect you." The dress was exactly as he remembered it when she lay in the casket. "Xaine, somethings happened to your sister, I want to help her too, but you need to tell me everything you can..."

It was doubtful this boy could say anything meaningful, but as he spoke he'd be thinking of what he had seen, and reading his surface thoughts without being noticed was trivial. From him so much could be garnered and familiarity with his mind would be crucial for what was to come. "Can you do that for me?"

 

[Lovie the OG]

The boy was unsure of everything. He couldn't tell if he was dreaming or if he was in some kind of horrifying reality. It was his mother, yet he felt as if she had an eerie chill surrounding her. Perhaps she was still dead? Maybe this was her spirit? But she had said that she was back. Could it mean that this was truly her? Alive? Xaine shook his head in an understanding gesture. He wouldn't tell anyone that she was alive, besides, they'd think he was crazy. Which he was beginning to think he was.

But his sister... Aylin... Was what happened really real? Or was the poor boy truly in some kind of mental state? He looked up at his mother with emotion-filled eyes. They showed both horror, sadness, and yet a hint of happiness that his mother had returned. And for him. For a minute, the boy had an almost uncontrollable urge to give his mother a warmhearted hug. For two years he had gone without a mother's care and affection, and now that she was back...it's all he wanted. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to fully trusting her, at least not yet.

Xaine shook his head at his mother, telling her that he could do so. "What is it that you want to know, Mother?" He asked, stuttering slightly over his words. This was all confusing to him still, horrifying to say the least. The dark room that they were in didn't give a warming light to the subject either. His mother's white dress flowed silently in the darkness, the whiteness giving off an eerie glow in the dark room. For a moment though, the boy wanted to tell her everything that had happened in the last two years. More than anything, he realized, he wanted to help his sister even more.

 

[October Knight]

View attachment 3628As Adrus watched the vulture devour the cat carcass, black clouds thickened over head. They cast a dark shade over the town that gave the situation an even more grim appearance. Adrus watched as the vulture transformed. It took on a skeletal form. Its once feathered covered body had turned into pure bone, draped with clumps of old rotted flesh. The skeleton Vulture continued to eat, but since it was nothing but bone now, the pieces of cat meat simply fell from it's throat to the ground, where they sat in a bloody heap.

The few feathers that still hung to its body were haggard, and most appeared to be gray and torn. It cocked it's neck towards Adrus and the brittle spinal corn, that held its neck and head to its body, snapped with a thick *Crack* sound. The head of the vulture fell to the ground, a bloody piece of the cat's body still hanging from it's mouth. The head landed so that one of the vulture's hollow eyes was staring directly at Adrus. Then the beak began to move.

The vulture was talking.
​

"Death looms in the distance. There is no where left for you, holy man! Your savior is nothing but rotting flesh!"

It repeated this several times, until Adrus clasped his hands to his face and closed his eyes, dropping his bible and cross.

"STOP IT!"

He screamed

Suddenly, the vulture was back to normal. The people, who had been enthralled with it were now staring directly at Adrus, questioningly. Adrus stooped down to pick up his bible and cross, never letting his eyes leave the group. He backed slowly away from them.

Suddenly a realization hit him.

He had to get home, now!
​

 

[Vay]

Sitting with the boy the ghostly figure was every inch the comforting sportive mother without touching him. "You're afraid of her, worried for her." thats much could easily be felt, "Things are happening you cannot explain, so why don't you tell me whats bothering you the most?"

The town was doomed, a pall hung over it that leached the colour and life out of everything. The town and everyone in it was doomed, a feast for the creatures beyond, but not all need die. Some would be more valuable alive, this boy and his sister were two examples. Thier father was not, a hopeless zealot to narrow minded and blind to save himself. He was resilient, but as soon as the others started falling dead he would become a plaything for the amusement of demons and gouls.

But he was coming and suddenly the apparition looked to the door. "Remember Xaine our secret." she got up and walked into the kitchen out of sight and disappeared.

 

[Lovie the OG]

The young girl, or Aylin, sat on the hill above the town, watching her lonesome, poor, ungrateful Father. A smile would appear on her lips each time her Father was frightened, which seemed to be happening a lot that day. The poor man would soon become insane, almost like the rest of those fools in that town. The young girl's eyes flickered to where she lived. She could see the face of her brother, Xaine. A slight, almost unnoticeable frown showed on her lips. If there was anything at all that her heart desired was for her brother to be safe..to be sane... But she had scared him already, which made her pissed. But at the same time, she still enjoyed the frightened look on his small, pale face.
As the girl thought, she soon realized her father creeping back to the house. She hissed from where she was as she watched the man approach the dark house.

The boy shook his head at his mother. A promise he made, and being it was his mother, a promise that would be kept. As the mother figure left, an overwhelming pain of sadness filled the boy's heart. How he wished she would stay...she would make everything better. Xaine sighed to himself as he lifted up off the floor and glided his way to his room. He could hear his father's footsteps at the front door. After seeing his mother, Xaine had no desire to his father. Not now, anyway. The boy sat on his bed, alone, wishing that one day all would be sane in this town again. He was frightened, lonely, horrified, and sad. His sister...he wondered where she was. And then, at that moment, a surge of hate filled the boy's being. The more he thought of his sister, the hate grew and the more terrified he became. Something was wrong...something was happening to him...

...was he changing in some way?

 

[October Knight]

View attachment 3804The preacher made his way back home with tired, troubled steps. About halfway up the steep road he could see the top of the A line roof peeking, like a small child might peek at a gruesome scene from behind his parents, over the hill. As of late Adrus' home had not felt at all like 'home', instead, like everything else in the town, it had a bad feel to it, a rotten one. Almost like something was dead and decaying underneath the ground and permeating into the land. A vision of dead and dying things flashed in his mind, like a bad dream. He saw partially decomposed bodies clawing at the earths surface. Their bodies, although dead, were not at rest. Corpses of dead children and their parents huddled together in a last ditch effort at unity before the final curtain call. Death. It was indeed what plagued the village.

As the thoughts slowly dissipated, they were replaced by something else, something that Adrus found even more troubling: His daughter. His once beautiful little girl, with her child like enthusiasm had been replaced by the sinister creature that sat on the front steps, awaiting him with a deranged grin. He almost got the feeling that she was smirking at his dwindling sanity, but there was something more than that. Adrus felt naked, as if he was completely exposed to her. He got the sensation that she knew everything that he was holding inside, including his new found fear of her. On this gray, blackened day Ardus knew one thing to be true. He could not trust her.

He approached Aylin, looking down at her the way a person may look at an insane lunatic, with cation and fear.

"Hello sweetie."

He said, attempting to mask his feelings with a cheek bending smile. Although he was sure she knew, he must try to remain civil. Ardus knew that when civility became an impossible feat, it would be the end.

"Where is your brother, It's almost time for lunch, shall we eat?"

Ardus took her hand and led her inside.
​

 

[Lovie the OG]

Aylin gave a smile to her daddy as if nothing was wrong and followed him inside. "I don't know where brother is, daddy." She said in response, a smile on her lips while her father wasn't looking. "He may have been scared off." She said simply, following into the kitchen and sitting at the table, waiting for her food.

She watched her father as she waited. Aylin could sense the fear the man was trying to hide. She tapped the surface of the table with her fingernails, dragging them along the wood and back again; making a solid rhythm. Her eyes flicked across the room, noticing everything that was out of place and how disastrous the place was. Her father was beginning to slip, although he tried very hard not to. Aylin continued the tapping like a normal child would do while waiting for something.

 

[October Knight]

Tapping against the wood….
​

"Scared off? What do you mean, Sweetie?" Ardus asked his daughter with a hint of fear bleeding through his words.

A voice drifted through his head. It was that of his wife.

"Don't let her know you're scared. Don't act out of the ordinary, she is watching. It is watching."

The worn preacher straightened up, feeling a sudden burst of numbness run down his spine and rest at the soles of his feet.

The tapping continued, fingernails against wood…..
​

Adrus took out a loaf of bread and a large piece of ham from two nights ago. The fat had begun to congeal over the top and the edges were getting hard and beginning to turn color, however, after a little trimming it turned out to be a good piece of meat. He sank the knife into the cured ham as a dark cloud sucked the light from the sky. Over head, what had just moments before been a clear sky, was now filled with the dark and ominous presence of blackened storm clouds pregnant with rain. Just out side the kitchen window, the tell tale sound of raindrops was heard. They dropped and dripped to the earth as the world outside was cast in a dark shadow. A cloud, so void of light, that Adrus believed it would have blocked out the sun on the brightest Summers day.

Tap Tap Tap Tap
​

The dark from the clouds spread across the land and in through the window, covering everything in shadow. It seeped through the thatched roof, and into the house. Aylin seemed unmoved by this, as her fingers continued playing a slow, rhythmic beat on the table. Ardus cringed. He wanted to call for his son, but his dead wife's voice continued to echo in his head 'Don't let her know you're scared '. He cut the ham, placing the meat on the bread. The knife cut through the flesh and hit the plate with a solid thud. Ardus looked down and saw that the ham had changed in the dark shadow. Blood, in long gelatinous strands, was dripping from the plate and onto the ground. His knife was no longer a knife, but a rusty butchers clever with a worn, wooden handle. And the ham had taken on the form of a carcass, covered in maggots. They crawled and writhed in the gore as the rain outside picked up to a tremendous, pounding downpour. Ardus, on the edge of losing control, tried to focus on his wife's stern warning

She knows, IT knows
​

Tap Tap Tap
​

He chanced a look out the window and saw what would later come to haunt him, in the darkness of night, for years to come.

The skeletal crows were back, only this time they flew through the black skies, swarmed in the horizon and completely filled the air. In fact, there were no clouds at all. The sky was cast in shadow by hundreds, no Thousands, of the zombie crows. Their hollow eye sockets seemed to stare right at him. One flew by the window, but it didn't really fly, it hovered. It's body began to change as it took on a human form, a black cloak covering its rotted, skeleton frame. A piece of crimson gore was crusted to its beak. It peered in through the window until Ardus could take it no longer.

View attachment 4235
He grabbed her by the arms and shook her violently.

"What the hell have you done with him!!"

He screamed, his voice reverberating off the walls. Then, all at once, everything stopped. The sky outside was blue again and the ham had returned to its normal form. The rusty butchers clever was nothing more than a kitchen knife and as the frightened priest looked at his daughter he realized.

She knows…..

It Knows...
​