When Mortuus's eyes slowly fluttered open, he was lying in a pool of his own blood. His head was pounding, and there was a high-pitched ringing in his ears. He sat up, and his vision was still blurry with specks of blackened-out areas. Whatever had hit him was clearly very strong. The last thing he could remember was turning a corner to a man who seemed to be made of shadows.
He was extremely disoriented, and as the static in his head began to clear, time felt like it was moving slower than normal. Looking around him, Mortuus could see blood dripping from the walls and pooling around where his head had landed. He wasn't entirely sure how long he'd been unconscious, but it was clearly enough for the blood to pool.
"There's no way that was real." Mortuus rubbed his temples to soothe the pounding. Shadows aren't three-dimensional, much less capable of hurting someone, he reasoned with himself. He tried thinking of ways to explain it, but nothing worked. Mortuus was used to waking up in a delirious state after getting high until he passed out on the floor or wherever he had been at the moment, but this was nothing like that.
"Maybe I drank too much vodka?" He questioned himself as he unsteadily made his way to his room. Death, as usual, was adding his commentary after just materializing, "You have not drank since ereyesterday." He reminded with an added, "Verily, it is not seemly for thee to be inebriated."
Mortuus nodded in agreement as he fell backward on his blood-soaked bedsheets. In his confusing and outdated way of speaking, Death simply explained that Mortuus had drunk in a while and was, as usual, right. "So... That... That thing..." He paused to gather his thoughts, "It was real."
Death nodded, "As tangible as the flesh upon your bones." That was probably one of the grossest ways to agree with someone Mortuus had ever heard. It got the point across, nonetheless.
"Pray tell, would it not be prudent for you to venture into yonder town, Mortuus?" Death inquired as Mortuus lay on the bed holding his head. It was still pounding hard like a jackhammer to his brain. Whatever it was that had hit him was implausibly strong.
Mortuus stayed there silently for a minute before sitting up, pulling a marijuana pen from his pocket, and breathing into it. "You know..." He paused to take a deep inhale of the marijuana cart, "...I'm getting really sick of this shit." he stated with a long exhale, smoke blowing through the remains of his nose, staining the white bandages a shade of yellowish-green.
Death nodded modestly and followed Mortuus out of the room, gliding elegantly over the mess of gunpowder and broken bottles. They walked down the hall and turned to leave, Death making a side comment about the tarp door, which Mortuus still had yet to do something about.
The pair made their way down the dust-laden road and into town. After Kassandra exploded the power substation, the town wasn't exactly in the best condition. The townspeople were still cleaning up the wires and bits of twisted metal lying around.
Mortuus walked into the town, Death at his heels, looking for something that might explain his strange encounter with a figure made entirely of shadows. If anyone else could see Death, it would have looked terrifying, as he stood nearly a foot taller than Mortuus, and that's without hovering over the ground.
The longer he wandered, the more bored Death became, and he decided to go elsewhere. The lithe angel faded into a whirl of black smoke that disappeared almost as quickly as it rose. Mortuus was the only one who could see it, but he was sort of desensitized to it at this point.
Mortuus wandered for a bit before he found someone he knew would have answers—Jackson Knight. Mr. Knight had been doing much better since he had been reunited with his family. Mortuus loved visiting him, and the children seemed to adore him. They'd started calling him "Uncle Morty."
As Mortuus walked over to him, Jackson gave a friendly wave and signed, "Good Morning." Mortuus nodded and responded with a good morning as well. Jackson was helping to lift the wires and replace transformers around town since he was experienced in handling such devices.
"Have you noticed anything... I don't know... Out of the ordinary for this crazy town?" Mortuus asked. He was well aware that Crater Hollow was anything but an ordinary town. Jackson shook his head and signed, "Just the usual."
Mortuus thought for a minute. The usual could mean just about anything in a place like this, so he decided to rephrase it in a way that would get a more concise answer. "Alright... Let me... Let me rephrase that."
"Anything strange with... Uh... Shadows happen lately?" He asked nervously, not confident that Jackson would have an answer. Mortuus sounded pretty crazy normally, but asking about strange occurrences with shadows was definitely next-level peculiar. For a town that had dead people roaming the town, some of whom probably were unaware, Crater Hollow still managed to have quite a vibrant atmosphere.
The fact that so many of the citizens were lifeless cadavers walking the streets like normal people was an unsettling piece of information to know. Some of these hidden, comatose individuals were doing normal jobs, like teachers or janitors.
To Mortuus's surprise, Jackson nodded very quickly to the odd question. He then started to sign, "At my last job, there was a ghost man." This answer instantly caught Mortuus's attention, and he was about to ask him to elaborate.
Thankfully, Mortuus didn't have to wait long for an explanation. "It would vanish before anyone could get close." He signed and continued explaining. "It was not aggressive, though."
Jackson's response immediately interested Mortuus. "This is very important, Jack. Where did you used to work?" He asked. Jackson signed a very simple response, "Power Plant." 200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKmJBzr6QU2
