File 11

Elise and I make a great team, I can tell you that much. She woke me up by straddling me, the same way Sylvia woke me up on her first day, and she was hot. I mean, I don’t know how you guys feel about camisoles and matching panties, but I really like it myself.

Anyways, it occurred to me that she had been the only person to actually see my eyes. Well, without my glasses, that is. See, I’ve always had very bright blue eyes, to the point where they looked almost alien when I was little. They can be a little unnerving to most people, so I usually wear my glasses, not just to see, because I can only see about four feet in front of me before it gets blurry to me. I asked her if my eyes scared her and she said they were cute.

By the way, my glasses are a bit of a berserk button. One girl slapped me once in tenth grade and knocked my glasses off my face. I slapped the shit out of her, to the point where she almost got sent to the hospital. I got a three-day suspension for that. Either way, just….don’t touch my glasses.

So after I got dressed, I went in to check on Sylvia. I opened the door and…

I told you ‘bout the fool on the hill

I tell you man he’s livin’ there still

Well here’s another place you can be

Listen to me!

Fixing a hole in the ocean!

Trying to make a dove-tail joint, yeah!

Lookin’ through a Glass Onion!

I closed the door. She was still singing. Had she ever stopped? It was getting slightly unnerving. So I had breakfast, and I realized we were all out of Apple Juice. Shit. I need Apple Juice to function correctly. Elise appeared, and asked what was wrong. When I told her, she went ahead and obfuscated a pitcher of Apple Juice in her hand. I was impressed. She can’t do anything too big, and she has to hold onto it for it to come into existance, so she can obfuscate a sword or gun whenever she feels like it, but she uses it for mundane things like Apple Juice too.

So we feasted on obfuscated Apple Juice, Bacon, and Toast. I was glad that Elise was around. I liked her. She seemed to like me enough too. I told her to prep the car and I would be out in a minute. I walked into Mistress’s room, knocking first, of course, and walked up to her to ask a question.

“Hey, Mistress, I was wondering if- what are you doing?” She was doing something in her hands.

“Cat’s cradle.” She smiled and showed me her hands, which she had made with her strings. “I’m just fucking with a bunch of dolls right now by doing this.”

“Sadistic as ever, I see.” I sighed and chuckled.

“You know me well enough, eh? So, what was that question you had for me?” Mistress grinned.

“Are inter-proxy relationships legal?” I asked her. “Just want to know for future reference.”

“Hmm…lemme think….” Mistress sat up in her chair. “Well, depends on the Fear. Between Dolls is fine, between other Fears is okay, I guess, but they might die, possibly by your hands. If you’re talking about a Grayskin, have at it, but I don’t know how those shadows would feel about it.”

A shadow ducked into the radio on Mistress’s table and promptly begin playing a song. “If it makes you happy, it can’t be that baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad” and turned itself off. “Well, now we know.” Mistress chuckled. “You going after that Elise chick?”

“Maybe…” I turned red and looked away.

Mistress let out a harsh cackle. “Go and do your research, Vassal. Remember, it’ll be her first time, so don’t shove it in too quickly. You’ll need to be a little rough to break the hymen, but-”

“I understand, Mistress.” I bowed and backed out of the room. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

I finally got out to the car. “You look red. Do you have a fever or something?” Elise asked me, obviously concerned, as I sat down in the passenger seat.

“No, I’m fine. Anyways, today, we’ll be doing one that’s a little on the dangerous side. The Brute.” I said.

“Oh, dear.” Elise looked concerned. “He’s a nasty one. Will we be doing the Burning Bride as well?” She asked, backing out of the parking lot.

“If we live that long.” I replied, and we were silent for the rest of the drive. When we got to the Grove of Fetters Door, we had to leave the car there, and had to travel on foot. Stepping through the door, we ended up somewhere in……Europe, I think. Ukraine or some random Eastern Eurasian country. Latvia, maybe.

Anyways, we walked around for a while, into this massive grove of trees, with enough smoke to make a Chain-smoker cough and hack. Elise obfuscated welding masks for us to use to keep the smoke away.

We saw him. The Brute. He was chained to an anvil. He was wearing an executioner’s outfit. He was the one creating all the smoke. We watched him, and he watched us. The smoke increased in volume and speed. Suddenly images of the Brute appeared in the smoke everywhere, all around us, above us, below us. I looked at Elise and saw the Brute. She looked at me and saw The Brute. Within ourselves, we saw the Brute. My mask was the Brute. My shirt was the Brute. My knife was the Brute. I was the Brute.

My confusion was suddenly interrupted by Elise getting dragged into the smoke. I grabbed her hand and was dragged in myself.

“WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE OF ENTERING MY DOMAIN?” A loud voice boomed at us. We couldn’t see anything but smoke. “I AM THE BRUTE, AND YOU ARE TRESPASSING IN THE GROVE OF FETTERS. STATE YOUR BUSINESS AND I MAY NOT KILL YOU. MAY.”

“I am Harlequin’s Vassal.” I spoke nervously.

“And I am The Reality-Ignoring Princess.” Elise put in. I felt her title was a little ridiculous, but a title nonetheless.

“We’re here on an observation mission from my Mistress, The Wooden Girl. The Choir is interested as well. We’re supposed to observe every single Fear.” I explained, hoping The Brute would see reason.

“THE WOODEN GIRL! THE WOODEN GIRL?! DO NOT MENTION THE NAME OF THAT HORRIBLE BEING IN MY PRESENCE!” It seemed I hit the Brute’s berserk button. “THOUGH THE OTHERS HELPED, SHE WAS THE ONE WHO DESTROYED ME. WHO SEALED ME IN THIS STATE. I WAS THE MOST POWERFUL. I WAS OMNIPOTENT. BUT SHE DESTROYED ME. I SHALL DESTROY YOU. HOWEVER, I CANNOT IN MY SMOKE FORM. GO NOW. TELL YOUR WOODEN GIRL I SHALL DESTROY HER SOMEDAY. NOW. LEAVE. AND DO NOT EVEN THINK OF APPROACHING THE BURNING BRIDE.”

We left quite rapidly after that. Getting back to the car, Elise asked me a question. “Are we still going for the Burning Bride?”

“Hell yeah.” I replied, taking out a pen and notebook. “Tomorrow.”

File 11: The Brute

Alternate Names: PRE24A, The Minotaur, The Lemaker, The Hooded Hangman, Subject Bravo Romeo, Ares, The Warmonger, The Chain

Attitude Towards Humans: EXTREMELY hostile

Control Over: Smoke, Anger

The Brute was once a powerful Fear, the strongest even. He caused horrid, massive wars that killed millions of people. Often these deaths were soon-to-be deaths of victims of the Fears, or Proxies. The Fears grew weary of this and all teamed up, from the Archangel to the Wooden Girl, to defeat him. They eventually did, though the Wooden Girl dealt the final blow. Since then, the Brute has always resented the Wooden Girl and sworn revenge. The Brute, however, is sealed in three pieces. One is possessed by Harold Ardy, a Crimson Knight. Another is a Chained Executioner chained to an anvil on the edge of the universe, though his still-active smoke powers put him at the Grove of Fetters simultaneously. Studies suggest the Grove of Fetters may be a portal to the edge of the Universe itself, but further investigation is required. The third is sealed within a Yu-gi-oh card. Harold Ardy supposedly owns this cards, after it changed hands multiple times during the Game Master’s Tournament. If the three pieces were to reunite, The Brute would reawaken. After killing The Wooden Girl, The Archangel, EAT, and The Slender Man, the four who dealt the most damage, he would throw the world back into disarray. Wars would break out, countries would be destroyed, the Human Race might meet it’s end. It is rumoured that the shard of The Brute that currently possesses Harold Ardy is the same shard that possessed Adolf Hitler and caused The Holocaust. If he were a physical being once again….I shudder to think of what would happen. Truly, he is a dangerous one, and the only one who could stop him is The Burning Bride.

We got back to the Tower without incident. Nothing else happened today. Now I better sleep, Elise and I are gonna research the Burning Bride tomorrow. She’s trying to climb on top of me in her sleep, so I’m going to put the laptop away. Goodnight everyone.

~Thompson out.