Chapter Text
Noelle was in the forest. It was night. The familiar fall trees of Hometown were lit in a dim pale moonlight, as the cold autumn air breezed the fallen leaves in the wind. She was looking for something, or more accurately someone. Every so often she almost swore she could hear a whisper, or the crunch of leaves being stepped on in the distance. It wasn’t much, but it gave her brief glimpses of hope; Hope that if she just kept going, following any little trail and winding path through the dark, that she’d find what she was looking for. She’d find her.
After what felt like hours, Noelle began to grow weary of her efforts. She had ventured so far out into the forest that she began to worry that maybe she had strayed too far from town. With nothing to guide her back home, she began to panic.
“What if I never make it back home?!” her mind pondered. “What if I’m lost?! What will Mom and Dad do?! What if I meet the same fate that—“ She cut herself. “No…” She said, glancing up at the trees in front of her. “No… I know she’s still out there…” Noelle tried to reassure herself. “I just haven’t looked hard enough is all… Right?” She spotted an old tree that looked like it had fallen ages ago and sat down to rest her legs.
She stared up through the branches and into the night sky. She could see the crescent moon glimmering amongst the stars. Its silver crease resembled that of a smile looking down at her. In the moment, it reminded her of an old movie from her childhood, the girl trying to find her way through the woods, and the smiling moon came down to help the girl. The thought made Noelle half expect to see two eyes to appear on the moon’s surface as the face descended down to talk to her. But that never happened.
In this moment Noelle couldn’t help but feel that the moon was instead mocking her. Laughing at her, as she tried desperately to find the sister she was ever so certain was hiding just a little further in the forest.
But nobody came.
Noelle began to cry.
Through her bitter tears, Noelle stopped. She thought she heard what sounded like someone playing… guitar?
Without a moment’s hesitation, she got up and started moving toward the faint sound. She immediately recognized the song. How could she ever forget it? It was always her favorite song her sister used to play. Traversing through the trees, she stumbled on a long straight path between the trees. It reminded her of the path leading to The Shelter south of the church.
The shelter…
The mere thought of that place sent a shiver down her spine.
Eventually Noelle reached an empty clearing in the woods. Empty for all but a tree stump, and a dark silhouette playing… a Red Guitar? Noelle froze up in disbelief. She inched slowly toward the shadowy figure skeptically, she didn’t want to get her hopes up only to be let down afterwards. The silhouette kept on playing the guitar gently, its head tilted down focusing intently on the notes it plucked. When she got close enough, Noelle took a deep breath and called out meekly…
“Dess…?”
The Silhouette stopped playing. It was as if the world around the two of them had frozen in place.
The figure put down the guitar slowly next to the tree stump and lifted its head slowly revealing two bent antlers, and a head that resembled a pointed helmet. The silhouette got up, but it didn’t touch the ground. Was it… floating in place? Noelle was taken aback. She was almost certain when she saw the red guitar that she had finally found them after all these years, found her. Instead she was met with… well she didn’t know what she was looking at!
“Y-y-you aren’t Dess…!” She stammered to the silhouette. Noelle tried to run away but the fear of the strange monstrosity in front of her had made her seize up like a deer in headlights.
The Silhouette floated toward her and hunched down to look at her, its arms hanging down revealing strange bright glowing holes in their hands. Noelle remained petrified, a million thoughts ran through her head.
“W-who… w-what… a-are you…” she nervously mumbled aloud. The figure picked itself back up, and laughed. It sounded like a whole crowd of people laughing but something about the noise just sounded… wrong. After it ceased laughing, it reached its long arm out, and from it formed what at first glance might have been mistaken for a baseball bat but was instead a pitch black broadsword as shadowy as the wielder.
The moment Noelle realized it was a sword, she began to freak out. She remembered the horror movies she used to watch with her sister. She remembered how some poor teen would always wander off into the forests only for a horrible monster or a serial killer to stalk and kill them. As a kid, the thought of something in the dark out to get her always haunted Noelle, but as scared as she could be of a man in a hockey mask or a dream demon with knives for hands, she could always take comfort that Dess would raise up her bat and knock anything that dared scare Noelle dead into the stars of the night sky.
But Dess wasn’t here. She’d been gone for years. And there was nothing stopping whatever it was Noelle was face to face with from hurting her.
The Silhouette raised its sword in the air. Noelle Flinched, and began to desperately apologize.
“W-WAIT! NO! PLEASE! I’M SORRY I DIDN’T MEAN TO BOTHER YOU! PLEASE! I WAS JUST LOOKING FOR MY SISTER, I DIDN’T MEAN TO–!!! JUST PLEASE! I DON’T WANNA—”
The figure swung its sword down at her. Noelle closed her eyes. Time slowed and froze still.
This was it. She was in the forest, looking to find her sister, only to meet death. She thought about hometown, how her disappearance would permanently scar the town just as much as it did with the disappearance of Dess. Noelle thought about Berdly. As annoying as he might have been most of the time, she was the only friend he ever really had. How badly might he spiral into self-destructive behavior without her? Noelle thought about Susie, the new girl at school. She never even got to talk to her. Why was she a bully? Why was she so cruel to Kris? Why did she never pick on her? Questions she’d never get the answers to. Noelle thought about Kris. Despite growing distant after the disappearance of Dess, they had always been there for her. Would Kris have anyone else to talk to if she were gone? Noelle tried to think of her parents, but couldn’t. The thought was just too painful. In what little moments she had left, Noelle tried her best to brace for the inevitable.
But death never came.
Noelle slowly opened her eyes again. The silhouette floated in place right before her, still as could be in the cold autumn air. Noelle felt something heavy lightly tap one of her shoulders. It felt like glass. The shadow’s long arm was stretched out towards her. In their hand, the blade as black as obsidian she was horrified of striking her down where she stood just seconds prior pressed down slightly harder on Noelle’s shoulder, as if trying to communicate something. Noelle confused, panicked, and as frozen as ice seemed to recognize the gesture the silhouette was trying to get across to her. She began to slowly take a knee, not breaking eye contact for a second with the being she had come face to face with. It lifted its blade and tapped Noelle’s other shoulder slowly. It then lifted the sword and pointed the blade away from the frightened doe. Noelle couldn’t tell if it was a visor, a light, a mouth, or an eye, but whatever it was on the shadowed visage’s face it seemed to… smile at her. Something about it seemed almost sincere in nature. For the briefest moment, Noelle felt she could let her guard down. But before she could even comprehend, the shadow readied its blade as if it were about to hit a game winning homeru–
WHACK!!!
The last thing she heard sounded like shattered glass.