TW: Mention of dead animals
The stranger that came from the lake and successfully killed the woods and everything in it that surrounded the lake rose to his feet, his body shaking and struggling to keep himself up. Even though he looked to be in pain just from having to stand up, he held this bright smile on his face. He felt relieved, refreshed, even. One moment he thought he was done for, that that was it and he would not get the chance to see another day. Here he was, however, standing and breathing in the middle of nowhere, but at least he was alive.
He looked down at his arms that laid limp at his sides, drenched in water like the rest of his body. He narrowed his eyes down at them, standing completely still for about fifteen minutes before finally his arms began to twitch, and slowly they started to rise on command. Soon they were halfway up, kind of in the trademark zombie position with his arms stretched out like he was about to go and eat some brains. He breathed slowly, focusing on being able to command his body parts to start moving properly. His right arm started to bend more and began to pull in towards his chest, his left arm having a bit more difficulty getting to behave and listen to what his brain was trying to order it to do. His right side seemed to be waking up much faster, and soon he was able to start wiggling his fingers and flexing his right hand. He laughed at this accomplishment, still finding it very sore to move at all but was glad he at least was starting to get the hang of it.
He formed his right hand into a fist, letting his arm lower back to his side before he began working on doing the same process with his left arm, just at a much slower rate. It took much longer than he would have liked it to but soon he was able to bend his left arm and flex his left hand. He grinned to himself, proud of this success. He was making progress. Soon he will be back to full health, back to his full power and in no time will he be able to pick up where he last left off.
Feeling prepared and ready to exit the demolished woods, he went to take a step forward... only for his legs having yet to awaken which caused his full torso to move forward instead and make the man fall forward, flat on his face with an annoyed grunt.
'Legs. Right. Need to get my legs working. Can't float at the moment.' He thought to himself as he used his sore arms to push him over and onto his back. The stranger then proceeded to start the process of getting back up again before starting to slowly move his legs little-by-little like he had with his arms.
Around thirty minutes later, the stranger could be seen starting to walk and make his way out of the woods.
The first stop he wanted to make was the shack. Not because he intended on going inside, that's a death wish just waiting to happen and he just got back. No, he just wanted to see the grieving faces of the family that tried to destroy him when they realize that they now no longer have a great uncle. He wants them to grieve and mourn for the loss of his memory, and right as they start to believe it was the only way that could have stopped him and that their great uncle saved them all, he plans to reveal himself back in full-power just to show their great uncle's sacrifice had been in vain. And only then, with those looks of full terror, guilt, and regret, will he kill them all. It was the perfect plan, in his eyes. Surely by the time he finally arrived at the shack his powers will have awakened just as his body had and he will be able to use it against all those that have wronged him.
It was a bit of a long walk before finally he reached the edge of where the explosion had taken place to see actual life and vegetation. Apparently he didn't take out the entire woods, after all. Just a good portion of it. There were some corpses of animals popping up here and there though, but these trees at the very edge seemed to be spared and were given the chance of life. It was quite disgusting to see, in his opinion. He had to trudge through the trees, avoid roots that stuck out of the ground to avoid tripping, before finally escaping the woods and coming across a road.
Once his feet landed on the concrete, he looked in both directions in an attempt to figure out which way it was that he needed to go. He didn't recognize where he was, so it seemed like he would have to guess which way it was back into town. It was a 50/50 chance of getting it right and he liked those odds. Making up his mind, he decided to go left and began to walk down the path. He hoped he wasn't too far away from civilization, this new body of his feeling really drained and it was very difficult to move the body where he needed it to go. He would need to give it a break soon, but right now he needed to keep going, push through the pain and the dreariness. Civilization couldn't be too far away.
His assumptions were very far off, though, as it took around 20-30 minutes before he came across the first building he had seen on this road.
It was indeed a shack, just not the shack he was looking for. It looked just as old, but not as banged up. It was peculiar to see, though he figured there must be more than one shack in this whole town. It would make a lot of sense. He was about to keep going on his travels, not even daring to pay it any more attention than he already had at that point... until a light suddenly appeared inside through the window. He froze, nearly falling over again from how fast he stopped just to turn and face this mysterious light coming from inside.
Did someone see him outside? Is that why the light appeared out of nowhere? He couldn't help but to let his curiosity start to fill his mind. Who was inside this peculiar little shack? It was most intriguing to take a step forward towards it. Would a little detour from his path really hurt? Besides, his body was screaming at him to take a break at this point. One detour wouldn't hurt, he figured as his feet began to move before he even noticed they were. He wasn't arguing, though. He wanted to find the source of the light. Who would have brought light into this dark night?
Walking over towards the window, he narrowed his eyes in an attempt to see inside though he still found it pretty hard to see anything. He tried cupping his hands over his eyes but it didn't help his vision any more than what he had already been seeing. He spotted the ball of light, but couldn't exactly make out what it was. Then suddenly another ball of light appeared, much deeper within the store than the first one had been. Now he was very intrigued, noticing a figure seeming to be moving within the darkness. Taking a step back, he looked around before noticing the front door to the cabin. He debated for a solid minute before forcing his body over, going to grab the door handle only for his hand to kind of swat at it. He had yet to figure out the function to grab something, it seemed. It really just looked like he was trying to pet the door handle. Growling, he continued to try and after a few more attempts he finally was able to grasp the handle successfully.
Opening the door slowly, the man remained quiet as he looked around, now finding it much easier to see inside without looking through a window that was just covered in muck and clearly needed a good cleaning. The shack seemed fairly big on the inside, rows of shelves filling the majority of the inside but he was unable to tell what was on the shelves themselves. He could see the light a bit better, but only a bit as they still looked like just blurry balls of light. The figure he saw before was now missing, however. He wasn't entirely sure where they went.
Stepping inside, he began to walk carefully through the darkness of this shack in an attempt to go and find the mystery figure creating light. As he passed by one of the balls of light, he actually got a closer look at it and realized that the light was a small candle that had been lit. There was a label on it that showed what scent this particular candle was and he leaned forward a bit to read it: Sparkling Cinnamon. Tilting his head, he went to give the air a good sniff before humming in satisfaction. It smelled really nice, giving off this warm feeling that filled his body. It was a nice feeling compared to the coldness he had been feeling before.
"I can't believe this," a sudden voice spoke up, causing the man to jump slightly and spin around.
There in the opposite corner of the shack stood the mysterious figure he had been looking for, seeming to be lighting yet another candle within the shack. "A power outage? At this hour? There's not even a storm- I could be sleeping right now if it wasn't for someone or something messing with the powerlines. Now I have to come all the way out here just to make sure no one tries to break in with all our security systems off!" They seemed to be talking to themselves as the man started to get closer towards them to get a better look at who they were, trying to stay as quiet as possible. "Whatever, I guess... Sleep is overrated anyways." They laughed weakly, their voice seeming tired when they spoke to themselves.
The man was very focused on trying to identify the voice, see if they could recognize which town person it was or if maybe it was someone he had yet to officially meet. He had been so focused on the figure, however, that he wasn't paying any attention as to where he was going and ended up knocking over an entire stack of something. When the contents fell to the floor, it sounded like a bunch of tin cans hitting the hardwood flooring that he had been walking on.
This sudden noise grabbed the mysterious figure's attention, causing them to turn around and point their lighter towards the man that had apparently snuck in without their knowledge. "What are you doing here?!" they quickly said, still threatening him with the lighter and the small flame that was coming out of it.
He still had trouble seeing who they were even with the soft glow from the candle and the lighter, it just wasn't enough light in the room to spot any details. The best he could see was what eye color they had: (e/c).
It really wasn't that impressive of an eye color, nothing really important to note there. It was just the only thing he could notice about this mysterious person right now. It was an eye color he's seen on countless people already.
They were becoming impatient with how long the silence was lasting and took a step forward with the lighter still in hand. "You can't be here- We're closed. So seriously, get out right now before I call the police for breaking and entering."
A grin began to creep onto the man's face in an incredibly slow manner as a crazed laugh breathed out of him, looking towards the town person as if that was the most hilarious thing they could've threatened him with. "And.... what.... are they.... going to do...?" His voice came out slow as he tried to get his tongue and mouth to move while he talked, having yet to train this new body to speak yet. It was so hoarse, even though it had been submerged in a lake filled with water, his throat felt as dry as the desert. It hurt to talk and he desperately wanted a drink of water, but not now. He was too busy mocking this stranger for their absurd idea of getting the police involved to think about some water that would really help his dry throat situation right about now. "Throw me into a..... cell? ....Cute. But I'd like... to see them try...."
The figure remained standing tall with their lighter, looking at this man with a raised brow. The strange way he spoke was unsettling, to say the least. Has the police dealt with him before? Maybe he was a criminal. They were mentally mapping out the store to try and see if they could make it to the backroom just to make the call out. They didn't really want to deal with the cops themselves knowing they'd get brought in for questioning and be asked what happened, but they also didn't want to deal with this man any longer than they had to. "You realize I'm not joking, right? You are keeping me from going back to sleep behind the desk register and I don't have time to be dealing with all of this. I will call the police and have you arrested. I'm sure they'd have no trouble putting cuffs on you, you look like a breeze could easily knock you down at this point what with all that swaying you're doing."
They probably weren't wrong, he felt like a simple wind blown in his direction could easily have him on his back. His body begged for rest. "Go ahead and call them! You'll simply... be sending them to their deaths if you do~"
"Uh... what?"
"I don't think you realize just how... powerful I am, sweetheart. Maybe it's the new body I'm now wearing, but don't let it fool you~ You all thought you could... take me down and destroy my precious Weirdmageddon but the party was never planned to end and neither shall I! You... meatsacks failed yet again, and how could you not while dealing with an all powerful being such as myself?!"
The figure started to lower their weapon, this look of utter confusion spreading across their face. ...This was a prank, right? They were so confused, not sure what he was going on about. "...And umm- who do you think you are, exactly?"
The man's eye twitched. They were kidding, right? How could they not know who he was, exactly. Was it the new body? Was that what is giving them a hard time understanding? Maybe they're so used to seeing him in his previous form that their mind couldn't process visualizing him in a separate body. That made a lot of sense to him. "Do I really need to spell it out for you? Sometimes I wonder how you humans have evolved this far in life and yet can't put two and two together. But if it's really that complicated for you to understand... then I suppose I'll make it easier for you."
He took a step back, wobbling a bit before spreading his arms open wide with a mischievous smirk.
"The name's Bill Cipher, the dream demon and ruler of this pathetic town, planning on world domination pretty... soon."
The figure held their stance, registering his words slowly and carefully... before dropping the lighter to their side, slowly blinking. They looked around them... and then just stared back at Bill. This man was giving them more of a migraine than school ever accomplished to give them.
"Who?"
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Chapter 3: Sunday, June 12th, 2022