I woke up, from either a very very effective Grotesque nightmare or a prophetic dream of terrible things to come, to Lisa shaking me and telling me she sensed the presence of a Fear nearby. She was not exactly panicked, but very alarmed.
We checked on Sally who appeared to be asleep clutching her instrument case like it was a teddy bear and woke her up. We then tried to flee as quietly as possible. We didn't make it. We made use of a handy fire escape to leave and found The Liar waiting at the mouth of the alleyway for us. She was in a new body I didn't recognize and I only know it was The Liar cause she admitted so instantly. It was part of her initial greeting.
"Hey, Amanda! It's your friend Amy or you know The Liar. Heard you were in some trouble and decided to come make it worse. Lisa glanced around us probably wondering the same thing I was. Was there anything around we could use effectively as a ranged weapon so we wouldn't have to touch her if we needed to fight. The answer was, other than a garbage lid, no. She was watching us and smiled. "Oh don't worry I'm not going to kill any of you or make anyone die. At least I don't intend to do so. I just want to talk. Also I want to show you something," she moved then and before anyone could react she was standing directly in front of me, her hand shot out and grabbed my throat as her other hand moved to my pocket. Lisa stepped forward.
"Take another Step and I will be inside of her before you can blink," The Liar responded without looking away from my eyes. Her hand slipped into my pocket and then drew out The Pocket Watch. I don't know exactly what I was expecting. I wasn't sure if touching it would kill her or if I needed to be using it as a weapon or really I didn't know what it would do, but it did the last thing I was expecting. Nothing at all. She took it out and then let me go. I tried to grab for it, but she stepped back out of range and opened it.
"Give it back!" I demanded making another failed attempt to grab for it. She smiled and simply kept backing away finding great amusement in this apparently.
"You sure you want it back? I mean you really don't seem to enjoy using it," she taunted as she inspected it, "I see you got one already," she said and turned it to face me. I hadn't really checked it recently so this was a new development to me. The number 3 on the clock face was glowing.
"What... What is that?" I asked and she tossed it back to me.
"A key I suppose you could call it. More accurately it's the essence of a Fear. The puppet probably didn't count so I assume this is from the Nest," she looked at my blank face and smiled, "You have no idea what you're doing do you?" I shook my head and she laughed, "The Fears will hate me if I tell you, but they hate me anyway so why not," she moved again and put her arm around my neck. I could feel my skin crawling where she touched me.
"Jack told us Fears a few facts about that Watch and what it can do. The most important one and the reason most of The Fears are after you right now is it can act as a key to a gate that holds within it the most terrible creature of all. Something so terrible that The Fears are willing to side with Jack to stop you from freeing it, in order to free it however you'll need to collect The Essences of The Fears who Jack used initially to seal the gate. Which would normally mean you'd have to use that Watch on The Fears themselves which would be suicidal, but unfortunately for many of the Fears. Most of them put a small amount of their essence into their servants which isn't much, but is enough to make the key you need. You've already got some of The Convocation's essence in there so you just need the rest. In fact part of why I'm here is to give you another key and run a bit of an experiment. You'll need the essence of The Dying Man for that key and I'm willing to give it to you. All you have to do is kill me and my host with that Watch and you'll be one step closer to your goal," she explained and then stepped back and bowed her head.
"What... Why would I want to free this terrible creature?" I asked.
"Because it's your goal. It's what you're supposed to do. It's why you were given the watch and your dreams. The Man in Grey wants this creature freed and you are his agent to do it. Besides it's either do it and succeed or don't do it and eventually get killed by The Fears," she explained.
"So... This is my purpose?" I asked and she nodded. I gripped the pocket watch in my hand and advanced on her. Just as I was about to touch it to her however she raised her head. Her eyes fearful.
"Where am I? What's happening?" she asked in a scared voice, her eyes darting around wildly looking at me, Lisa and Sally, "What's going on?" she asked again sounding panicked. It was the host talking. The Liar had given control back to her host. It was how The Liar worked. Unlike most Dying Man shards The Liar preferred to remain hidden in her hosts allowing them control and only subtly manipulating their actions. Only occasionally would she take full control in which case the host would enter a state not unlike sleep and be unaware of what happened while she was dormant. She probably just woke up now finding herself somewhere unfamiliar and strange with no recollection of how she got here or why she was there. I felt sick and I staggered back. The frightened face immediately disappeared becoming a mocking smirk as The Liar regained control.
"I knew you wouldn't do it," she taunted.
"You're sick!" I screamed at her.
"You make a fine agent of Death. Unwilling to kill. You're weak. I knew all along you're nothing to fear. You'll never be able to fill your purpose in fact here have a free tip. If you could bring yourself to do it, your friend Muffin contains within him the essence of almost every Fear. If you used the Watch on him you'd pretty much be done. You won't though. Even though he betrayed you and almost got you killed you won't be able to kill him. You won't be able to kill anyone. The other Fears, even Jack. They're all stupid. You'll never be able to make the key. If they hadn't attacked you you never would have even gotten one. It's hilarious! Well good luck. I'll be sure to be there when you eventually die screaming," she blurted out the whole paragraph in one braying noise of mockery and laughter before turning around and abruptly disappearing.
Lisa was beside me in an instant her hands gripping my shoulder's comfortingly. She whispered comforting words in to my ear, but I didn't hear them. The Liar was right there was no way I could do what The Man in Grey wanted me to do. I had failed. I would probably just let The Fears kill me, but I couldn't do that. I couldn't just let my friends down. If the choice was dying or killing though I'd gladly choose the former and I know Lisa would agree.
I suppose I did mention the dream I had.
It felt like one of my prophetic dreams, but it might have been a Grotesque nightmare masquerading as my dream and I hope it was because the dream was of all my friends abandoning me or betraying me.
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