Epics of Noche 5, Reflection

EON CH 25

CREEPS'S GOAL.

1777, APRIL 10th, SUNDAY10:11 am.

Noche crossed her arms and frowned. It was nice to have two arms to cross again. It was even nicer to have depth perception once more. Still, it was hard not to be irritated when one learned what she just did.

"So you're telling me the POE won't clean up their own mess because they don't want to?" She asked.

"If someone told you to clean up your own mess and you'd have to get trapped in that desert to do so... Would you want to?"

Noche scowled. "Fair point."

Dia's grinned widened and Galloway turned to her. Noche couldn't make out a face within the black void that was his hood, but it seemed like he was scowling at the tar harpy.

"So tell me more about Creeps and yourself," Noche said.

"Both of us are concepts brought to life by the POE's subconscious, Galloway said. "Creeps is fear. I am hope."

"Say what now?"

"You shouldn't be surprised. The subconscious can come to life in the surreal. Just look at Dia—"

"—Sup."

"She came to be when you subconsciously wanted a scapegoat. Or look at Jackalope and Grasshopper, subconscious desires for a father and mother figure."

"Wait, that's what they are?!"

"The POE's subconscious created Creeps and I. Afterall, as a personification the POE is human. So they have a human mind, and thus a human subconscious," he continued. "We are the strongest aspects of the POE's subconscious. Hope and fear."

"So you are hope?"

Galloway nodded.

"And Creeps is fear?"

"Correct. It would be accurate to say Creeps is fear itself, given form. The fear of every consciousness in existence manifested into reality."

"I can understand fear being a strong emotion... But hope?"

"Hope is essential to humans. It motivates them to act, to be. Without hope humans would be stagnant. People need hope. It gives them purpose. It gives them life."

"I think it says a lot about the POE that their hope takes the form of a grim reaper," Dia said.

Noche was dumbstruck by that. "Right. Fair... So how do I take Creeps out?"

"As long as fear exists in the hearts of humankind, Creeps will persist too," Galloway stated.

"Then how are we going to defeat Creeps?"

"By denying Creeps what it wants."

"And what is that?"

"You may have noticed that while I'm closer to a person, Creeps is closer to a force of nature. Creeps only wants to do one thing... Spread fear."

"That's why that bastard likes to eat children," Dia said. "Not because kids are a balanced part of an evil breakfast, but because kids are afraid of being eaten by monsters."

"Dia is correct. The only reason Creeps eats kids is because that's what kids fear. If anything, the rhyme is counterproductive. It makes it easier for Creeps to find kids."