September 22, 2022

Cole appears in the lighthouse holding Lock who is still asleep. He quietly makes his way up the stairs and vaults the railing, landing on the ground.

Lock blinks and glances around as Cole begins walking "Where the b-" the hatchet appears above them and falls on Lock's face "-ACK"

Cole sighs and keeps walking. Lock moves the hatchet off her face "Returnin me now are ya? What was it? Did I not come with batteries or somethin?"

"Oh I'm not returning you yet, I don't have what I need from the fucker I made a deal with"

"Mhm yes cuz makin deals with whatever the bleeps are usually a good thing"

After they reach a certain location with moss on one side of the trees Cole begins walking North until they reach the isolated beach. Ahead they see a short brick wall alone on the beach. In front of it is a small white orb, half a nonferal soul.

"This is what I came for Lock" Cole reaches for the soul but his hand phases through it as the creature from the dreams slumps over the wall just as it had many times before. Lock jumps at the sight and clambers onto Cole's shoulder "What the bleep is that thing?!?"

Cole sighs "It's the sky or at least that's what Spider and Luna call it"

The creature speaks in its usual tone "I do apologize for the startle pumpkin but I would like to take that weapon off of your hands"

"Well give them the weapon" Cole looks over at Lock who is squinting at the creature..

"Again, can't" Lock tosses it in front of them in the sand as it ripple effects back to Lock who catches it by the handle.

"You know you could solve this issue very quickly" the creature curls it’s lips at Cole.

"How? How could I solve this? take your soul and bite a chunk out of it?" Cole remarks.

"Just kill the pumpkin and the weapon can be handed over" it says calmly as Lock's eyes widen.

"Why the fuck would I kill them?" Cole asks.

"If the weapon keeps being pulled back to them, just remove them and it will no longer be an issue" the creature explains.

"How about don't?" Lock adds.

Cole looks over at Lock then back to the creature. "No, I can't fucking do that I am not killing Lock! I'm not killing another one of my kids!"

"Your what now?.." Lock shakes her head and looks at Cole

Cole looks at Lock "We can talk later"

The smile curls more as it stares intently at the hatchet. "Just one life. It's just losing one soul and it will be mine. You could get what you want if you hurry"

Cole looks back at the creature "what if I took your fucking soul instead? what would you do now dumbass?"

It starts lowering itself some from the wall enough that it can walk with its hands. Its back stretches longer so the rest of it stays behind the wall as it walks towards Cole with its hands. "You try to take my soul and you'll stand no chance against the boss. You'll never get the soul in whole again. They will join us as another divulgar"

"What if I gave her apart of my soul because killing Lock is not on the fucking table" Cole stands his ground.

"It's tied to her soul. Anypart of her left will latch onto that hatchet" it reaches a hand up for Lock.

Cole smacks it's hand away "You are not fucking taking Lock, tell me what happens if I give Sparrow my soul"

It swipes its claws at him as Cole’s chest is slashed open. A mixture of mostly blood and coolant leaks out as Cole stumbles back.

"YOU JUST WANTED TO KILL LOCK" Cole draws his revolver and aims it at it

Its jaws open as a second set of teeth can be seen with eyes tucked in the gums. It makes a visceral shriek as it lunges at Cole trying to grab him. Cole quickly shoots it in the stretched spine as he moves to the right side to dodge. The shot goes straight through as the creature raises up again ready to strike.

"Stay with the strangers he said, they’re better for you he said" Lock mumbles while clinging onto the shoulder for dear life.

"Well I didn't ask for a fight" Cole mutters as he shoots at it's left eye. The shot rips through the creature’s eye as it’s started bleeding a deep blue blood. It swipes at the ground, tossing up alot of sand into the air around them. Lock yelps as she lets go to wipe her eyes. Cole shoots at its other eye, unaffected by the sand. Lock and the hatchet fall on the sand as the creature’s other eye is shot out. Cole scoops up Lock and hugs them tightly to his chest as he shoots at the roof of the creature’s mouth. There's a mist of blue from its mouth due to the shot landing. A strange fizzing sound starts to emit from it’s throat. Lock continues frantically trying to wipe her eyes. Cole shapeshifts to his human form and reloads while staring at the creature. It makes a coughing sound as a blue gas starts puffing out of its mouth into the air in large clouds.

Cole throws Lock away from the smoke and holsters his revolver. He runs over to the creature into the blue smoke and tries to phase his hand through its chest and fish for it's soul. Cole coughs as he finds and pulls out a seemingly damaged blue soul without leaving a wound. The creature’s body and the brick wall it was slumped over falls over as it instantly turns to mounds of sand. The blue smoke is slowly drifting in the wind and dissipating. Lock finally gets the sand out of her eyes and blinks as she looks over at Cole.

Cole takes a bite out of the soul not noticing that Lock is watching. It tastes like sweet blueberries. 

Lock squints "What the..."

Cole looks over at Lock "Oh fuck..." Cole eats the rest of the soul in one bite.

"What was that thing??? What happened?!?!?"

Cole mimics a boowomp noise and shrugs "just another scuffle with your standard asshole" He looks down at his chest "Oh hey I'm bleeding"

"Just another?!? You saw that thing" Lock gets up and brushes the sand off of herself. Just as she’s about to walk over, something starts to rise out of the water. A strange long limb with three colored lights for eyes, blue, green and red. Lock pauses and takes a few steps back "Traffic light" she points.

Cole looks over at the strange limb as his face drops. He sprints over to Lock and grabs her as he starts running back to the lighthouse.

"What was that thing?!?" Lock yells as another limb of colored lights the size of a bus lowers from the trees ahead of them.

"Don't fucking worry about it, don't think about it and don't try to fight it" Cole's eyes widen as he changes to running to the town.

"How do I not think about it?!?" Lock yells as another limb drifts into view in the way, surrounding them in a triangular shape.

Cole's breathing quickens as he backs up from the limb slowly and doesn't say a word. Another limb lowers closer to them as the eyes seem to be examining both of them.

"i've lost so much blood god damn it" Cole mutters as he looks away from the eyes and he hugs Lock closer to his chest as he sways slightly.

A long arm lowers and the hand opens revealing the small white orb from before as it holds it out to Cole. It doesn’t move any as Cole snatches it from the hand, with some fear in his movements. The arm retreats back into the trees. The limbs blocking their path raise out of the way and out of sight.

After a moment Cole mutters "I'm sorry for kidnapping you"

"Uhm yeah...im just ganna...I know where I am from here...I need some time to process whatever the heck that was" Lock hops down seeming a been shaken. She turns and starts walking back home.

Cole nods as he turns and starts to walk back to the lighthouse as he mutters to himself "A kid never should have witnessed that"

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