All My Favorite Monsters

Trust

[Crescent]

Ka-click. Ka-click. Ka-click.

I pushed the button on the back of the pen, sheathing and unsheathing the point at the end. The sound was the only thing I focused on, my eyes glued to the pen.

Ka-click.

My other hand stroked Tempest's thick fur. The wolfdragon snored softly by my side, her ear flicking every now and then. I sent the others to watch over the Creator and the newer characters, so I didn't worry about their escaping.

Ka-click. Ka-click.

I stopped clicking for a moment, running my finger across the pen's smooth surface. I could see the reflection of my faintly glowing eyes in the black, cylindrical shape. Well, the visible one. The other was hidden beneath a mess of my hair. What was left of it, anyway.

I wiped my finger across my hidden eye, which then turned black with ash. I rubbed it off my finger with my thumb, watching the dusty material as it fell to the ground, a void of darkness like everything that surrounded me. I started to click the pen again.

Ka-click. Ka-click.

Tempest stirred, grumbling as she angled back her ears. I scratched her head, ceasing clicking the pen. Yet I still stared at it, my gaze drawn to it like a moth to the light. It was a part of me, the pen. Brought me from the darkness, the ashes that sent me to my death. If this was death. It was memory death, that's what it was.

And I hated it.

From my pocket I pulled a small notebook. I flipped for a moment, passing old sketches and tests for the pen until I found a blank space. I clicked the pen to open it, and pressed the ink to the page. The lines formed with the strokes of my hand, transforming from a simple curve to a circle, then a head, then a face. I repeated the process over and over again, each feature different, each characteristic a different story.

I closed the notebook after a short while. Some people (some not-people as well) appeared in front of me.

A girl with rainbow hair and the shape of crosshairs in her pupils.

A shifting figure with ever-changing features, all except his pupils, one star shaped and the other an X.

A small child with a red and white striped bandana and red wolf ears that looked like they were made of licorice.

A large timber wolf with green eyes.

And a tall figure, half dark blue and half pale cyan, wearing an army uniform with a red X branded in the shoulder. A small scar was carved into his left eye.

All of them were very confused and disoriented, looking around in question, not knowing what they were doing here or where "here" was.

I smiled maliciously in greeting. "Welcome. Allow me to introduce myself."

---

[Addie]

I jumped with a start as I heard a slightly muffled thump, accompanied by an angry grunt. My eyes snapped open - I'd drifted off at some point. Everyone else looked up from what they were doing, eyes transfixed on the person pounding on the invisible wall.

"D-DJ?" I stammered, confused. The child was aggressively slamming against the wall with herself and four spiked tentacles that now protruded from her back. Her eyes were now black, one slitted pupil bright blue and the other a shiny blood red. Her grunts sounded less childlike than usual, deeper. Her hands were black claws.

Dawn figured it out long before any of us could. She immediately sat up, running to where DJ was pounding at the wall.

"Vizor!" she exclaimed as she approached DJ.

DJ (or apparently Vizor) didn't look up from where she was pounding on the wall, but I heard some mix of DJ and Vizor's voice grunt, "Hello, Dawn."

Me being the kind of person with a hyperactive brain, I immediately started making up names for apparent DJ/Vizor. I didn't want to. But I did it without meaning to.

"Vi-jay!" I exclaimed aloud without meaning to. I covered my mouth, kind of laughing to myself. Anatox looked at me strangely, but didn't question it.

"Did you seriously just make a name for me?!" Vi-jay growled, pausing for a moment to give me an annoyed look.

"Unintentionally," I said, smiling and on the verge of bursting out in laughter. I covered my eyes with my hand and exhaled, pushing my glasses to my forehead.

Vi-jay rolled his eyes, mumbling something to themself as they continued to claw at the barrier.

"Wait, why is Vizor in the kid?" Zane questioned, puzzlement edging his tone. "I thought only ghosts could possess people."

"Well, I gave him the ability to use shadow to transfer his own spirit into someone else's for a limited amount of time," I replied, overexplaining for no apparent reason, "So actually yes, he can possess people without being dead. Dawn can do it, too, as well as Dusk."

At that I queried to myself, "Wait, if that's the case, shouldn't Akik be able to...?"

I trailed off, lost in the thought for a second.

Anatox snapped me out of it. "No time for character development right now, Addie. Vizor, believe me, there's no getting through that thing. We've tried all of our powers and physical strength."

"Well, there's some reason why they just chained me instead of whatever this barrier is," Vi-jay growled. Their aggressive pounding was more of an angry, thoughtful clawing.

"You know in that body you can just walk right through, correct?"

My head snapped at the voice I recognized well. It was Prismarine, walking towards us and giving Vi-jay an unimpressed look.

"And they didn't wall you in because you could just shadow-form right through," he confirmed.

Vi-jay let out a low growl, taking a step back from the wolf-angel. I gave him a cold glare.

"Prismarine," I acknowledged through gritted teeth.

Prismarine easily stepped through the barrier, earning a gesture from Vi-jay that very clearly portrayed "what the hell, I just tried that."

"Look, I know you probably hate me right now," Prismarine said, showing his palms in attempted amity. "But I know what Crescent's doing. Inferno..." he shook his head, "I don't like what she's doing to her. And she used me to do it. I don't want this anymore. I want to help."

"And how am I supposed to trust you?" I snapped accusingly, "You were the most hostile to me when I first got here, and then you went on acting like I attacked you unprovoked so you could get me banished and so you could betray everyone else! How is there any way that I could trust you now?!"

He didn't shrink at my outburst. Knowing Crescent, she probably lashed out all the time.

"I know you won't. I don't care if you don't ever again," Prismarine sighed. "But if we're going to get rid of Crescent, we need to work together. I heard she was thinking about summoning more characters, ones that haven't been used in a while. If she does that, there is no doubt that she will overpower you."

I huffed, indecisive. I looked at Anatox, who motioned for me to come to her. Taking a sideways glance at Prismarine, I edged away from him, facing Anatox.

Anatox sighed. "I think we should listen to him."

I opened my mouth to argue, but she held up her hand. "Don't. Hear me out."

Giving her a glare, I backed off.

Anatox continued. "I'm as ticked as you are about the whole Prismarine-Xirox situation. But take what he just told us, for example, about the barrier. He wouldn't have said that had he not been at least somewhat sincere. Believe me - I know."

I bit my lip. That I knew. I wrote her backstory, for crying out loud. Though she did make a valid point.

I huffed again, glancing back at Prismarine. Finally, after a moment, I turned to him fully.

"Alright. What can you tell us?"

---

v i - j a y XD

1296 words