Fragments - A Cookie Run Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Four: Leech

((When I wanted Berries and Cream, Mama used to have me do the Little Lad Dance... but now... Mommy's gone...))

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Backing up a bit more, the hound grew anxious again, seeming to get agitated, getting closer and closer to the cell once more. Chiffon started to bark, and whine, whimpering, before trying to drag the Goth of the Dark Arts back over to the ailing child.

Licorice shook his head, before grunting, and using his own magic to quickly open the door, though it usually drained more of his magic at one time, if he wasn't using, or at least near his cauldron.

The black haired man was trying to understand his feelings of alarm. He had seen blood before. He knew what blood was. Hell, he even used it in a spell or two, seeing as he was a practicer of the dark arts. Grunting, the man bent down to the child, shaking him a bit.

"Oi, wake up- you look creepy as shit laying there like that, ya know...!" Licorice's more nervous nature was really starting to show through. His anxious habits.

When Gingerbrave didn't even LOOK at him, the first thing Licorice did was bite at his fingernails- mainly out of apprehension. He couldn't tell if he was nervous about the idea of The Enchantress blaming him for this current problem- or the sheer bizarre nature of what was happening right in front of him.

Seeing more blood spilling from Gingerbrave's nose though, the Wizard shook himself from his slight trance, before pulling the child to sit up- tilting his head forward.

Hopefully the rest of the blood in the child's nose would finish draining from the nasal area. With Gingerbrave showing little to now conscious stimuli, tilting The Brave Child's head back would likely make blood build up in the back of his throat, and he could choke on it.

Bringing an ashen-skinned, cold hand up to their prisoners face, Licorice heard overwhelming static pooling in from all around him, which immediately made his head start to feel like someone was hitting a hammer against his cranium. Screaming was under the sound of the static- it was maddening... overwhelming... it-

No! No- no, stop it!

Shaking his head, Licorice pulled his hand away, before furrowing his brow, as he looked into the child's alarmingly dull pupils, and absent expression.

He was alive, but it nearly looked like he wasn't.

"Hey, kid, snap out of it-!" the man tried to urge, snapping his fingers in front of his face.

That, to his disdain, dind't seem to wake the child up either. So, in a last ditch effort to try and do something that would hopefully stop what was happening- the man grabbed his staff again, before starting to mumble something under his breath, wrapping his hand around the child's head.

He started to hear the static again, and the screams, and whispers- it nearly made him lose concentration on the spell he was trying to chant out- but- after struggling through a few more words- his hand started to glow.

Lit up in a soft, whitened hue, Licorice was cofused on the nature of the magic he had just used, but shoved that thought aside- as the static and screaming that was somehow being produced by the contact with their prisoner eventually disappeared.

Sighing in relief, the black haired grumbled to himself as the child slumped forward, his eyes closing.

By an unknown instinct, Licorice kept Gingerbrave from falling forward onto the floor face-first. He rolled his eyes at his own gesture, before shaking his head, and looking back to the Hound, who seemed more at ease now, but still on edge.

"I guess I won't have a choice but to tell the enchantress about this..." he noted to the cakehound, Chiffon simply turned his head, before looking away, seeming to grow a bit tense at the name of the woman as well.

"Tell me what, exactly?" Licorice automatically tensed, before turning his head around slowly, seeing the woman slowly coming down the staircase. The gray skinned man let out an intense sigh, before he lays the child's head back down, lying him on the floor, before locking eyes with the older man that now leans on the far wall of the room, her own staff in hand.

The man gave up, knowing there was no lying out of this situation. This was quickly turning into one of those days he wished he didn't get out of bed at all....

"Chiffon came and got me, to let me know something ws happening. The kid was stuck in what seemed like a trance-like state. There was blood under his head in the cell- he was bleeding from his nose, though." Licorice tilted the boy's head over to the side, exposing the cheek, which now simply had dried blood over it.

The woman continued to stare at the child, before shaking her head, and looking to the side. "I swear, He has only been here a pitiful amount of time, and he is already finding ways to get in trouble, without even leaving his cell, or making noise."

Licorice would agree with her on that front, though- internally, he couldn't help but wonder about what was actually happening.

"So, what was with the spell you cast on him?" the woman questioned over to the man, before starting to walk in his direction. She adjusted the gloves on her arms, before shaking her head, mumbliing something under her breath.

The Dark Magic Weilding man pulled down his own sleeves, feeling uncomfortable leaving them rolled up his arms.

"I used some kind of numbing spell... I don't know what is going on, but every time I touched his head, I heard screams, and static.... it was notably painful, and nearly caused me to quickly get sucked into it." licorace looked the woman in in her read eyes, the leader of their little gang making it clear she was still listening.

"Hmm... perhaps it was the statick ringing through his head that caused his bleeding. Most likely internal damages of some kind." the woman narrowed her eyes down to the boy. "I know for a fact... that there is someone or something lingering around him, or within him."

At the very notion, Licorice seemed confused.

"What do you mean by that...?" he questioned, before adjusting the way he was sitting on the groud. Once again, it was subconscious, he hardly noticed- but he brought Gigerbrave over into his lap, holding him, so he would be more comfortable.

The Dark Enchantress did notice, though. Despite a small, unreadable look behind her eyes, she didn't really say anything about it, and just let Licorice be, without question.

"To put it in simple terms, you are somewhat familiar with it already." the woman started off, before standing back at her full height. "It is sort of like being 'marked'. You know how you have some 'marked' or 'hexed' objects around the base, correct? That way, if you ever need to use your magic, you can make your magic stronger by pinging off of said objects?"

Listening to the woman, the black haired man considered it, and he could think he was starting to understand it a bit.

What she said was indeed true, after all.

Seeing as his magic was generally stronger, when attached to his cauldron, he had made sure to mark specific objects around the house with a power-storing spell, of some sort.

He never really needed to use them, but just in case he did, the extra stored magic energy would be there.

He also marked quite a few things on himself, too- mainly due to the fact that he couldn't have his cauldron at all times.

The skull necklace he wore was the main power storing object he had, as well as the swirled licorice orb atop of scythe.

"I see- so what you are saying is that someone or something is basically... piggy backing off of this kid in some way? Though, rather than being a source of magic, he is more or less being leeched off of, in some way?"

Sighing, the aged woman grunted, before nodding her head to the man, crossing her arms over each other as he looked back down at the child.

"This parasite that is leeching off of him ALSO probably knows that... we know it's there." she stared directly at the child, her gaze narrowed, concentration falling across her features.

((To Be Continued))