The Masks We Wear [Human! Reader x Grimm]

Chapter 2: The Land of King and Creator

           You felt suspended for so long in a pure white surrounding. You couldn't see anything, you couldn't feel anything. You tried to move but it was impossible. The world began to shrink, the light being taken over by darkness and you panicked. You were dying. You had to be, right? This was it. Your end. Only twenty years old and your entire existence was lost, and what did you have to your name to leave behind? Nothing. Absolutely and utterly nothing.

The darkness enveloped you and held you tight in its embrace as if you were an old friend it missed more than anything. You couldn't breathe... The silence was maddening and the darkness was unsettling. This was death? It was horrifying. How could others go gentle into that good night when it was like every nightmare you ever had piled into one sickening and silent obscenity. It was reality instead. That was what made it even scarier.

"In wilds beyond they speak your name with reverence and regret,

For none could tame our savage souls yet you the challenge met,

Under palest watch, you taught, we changed, base instincts were redeemed,

A world you gave to bug and beast as they had never dreamed."

A voice spoke in the darkness which was the first voice to reach you in seconds, minutes, hours... Maybe even days? The voice was gentle and began to fade as you were left with the last line. "A world you gave to bug and beast as they had never dreamed"? What did this mean? The voice was gone but you were not left with silence. It was all replaced with a gentle sound that grew gradually until you could pinpoint it as the sound of strong wind.

The wind was harsh and whipped past whatever was surrounding you as you even began to feel it yourself. It was warm and smelled mildly like the earth and dirt. Were you not dead after all? If you could hear, feel, smell... Then you could see. Right? With that, you forced yourself to open your eyes slowly. No blinding light or stifling darkness. What you saw was a murky sky with very little light. The surface beneath you was hard and cold with a bit of grit to it as your fingers curled to your palm to regain movement and small pebbles shifted with it.

The ground was not wet with snow nor was anything around you cold. Where were you? Lifting yourself off the ground was also hard as your joints popped and your mind was still foggy. Your head throbbed and as you lifted your gaze to look around you noticed how not a single flake of snow was around for as far as you could see. Then again you couldn't see far as the howling wind picked up particles and the small pebbles underneath you easily which caused thin clouds of these combinations to limit your vision. As you looked left and right at your surroundings you saw how not a single soul was with you. Not a single sign told you of where you were but whatever the case was you needed to find help.

Where was your car? Where was the road? You were on a path that was made of chipped cobblestone and aged rocks but there was no traffic... How hard were you hit? As you stood to your feet you began to walk on this path with a baffled and timid expression. The wind whipped around you as it pushed you to walk in the direction you chose. A dim lamp post with a circular bulb pulled you to walk up to where you saw a ledge. It still meant safety deep down in your mind and if you followed it maybe you could look at the ledge and get a better view of your current surroundings. Still, you could not comprehend having woken up on the ground and not in a hospital. You swore you had gotten into a car crash after sliding on the highway. Now you were free of injury and walking up to a lamp post you would never see at home.

The closer you got to the lampost you noticed how inside, there was no bulb but instead a firefly type bug flew around inside lighting up the path. You had never seen anything like this, but the bug was about the size of your hand and did well with lighting up the small area. You turned away from the lamp post though and looked over the edge to see something you did not expect at all.