User blog:Slapson/I'm Gonna Crawl...

Thomas walked in.

He usually took a route down this street, and past this orphanage when he was going home. He’d never really noticed it before today, when he saw people crowding outside and heard kids and adults screaming, and saw some on the ground bawling. He got a closer look at a few of them as he passed by. Their bodies were turning into rocks. Of course they were scared. People were clamoring to get as far away from there as they could. It was mess, and the authorities hadn’t shown up yet.

So, he walked in. Nobody else was going to...

The inside, at this point, was almost blanketed in a conglomerate of jewels. Diamonds and rubies were slowly infecting the hardwood floor, as a sheet of jade and opal sprawled across the ceiling. Sapphire overtook the walls with its hypnotic beauty. The tables, too, were pretty looking stones.

Every little thing in this building was turning into a rock.

Thomas saw the unlucky ones as he passed room after room: figures of adults and children frozen in agonizing poses, with their faces locked in the most honest kind of horror, where you could hear their screams just by looking at them. If you didn’t know those were people and not statues, you’d almost think they were alive. You could almost sense that cry.

As he slipped past the doors and into the hall, which was lined with rooms for the children. past listening for any sign of his inevitable adversary, and trying to consider why anyone would attack a place like this. A revolver slid down his sleeve and into his hand as he tried to keep his footsteps light.

A clanking noise. Too sudden. He swerved and was ready to shoot, but nobody was there. His footsteps were getting heavy.

He looked down.

Thomas’ shoes were already turning into rocks. Amethyst. A pretty color, but given the context…

He tried to slip them off, but he rolled up his pants, he saw that it already spread to his ankles. He knew that he had to stop this before… What happens when it covers your whole body? Was he going to die?

Then, he remembered his daughter.

He rammed at the crystal door at the end of the corridor and bloodstone caught onto his coat like an adhesive. He threw it off.

The amethyst was rising up to his legs. His ability to walk was starting to deteriorate when he saw what he was looking for.

The culprit, that is, opposite of him in the room, crouched and huddling under a table in the was a little girl. The one who was causing all of this was a little girl. Facing the corner, with her head against the wall, and wailing. Nobody could’ve loved her or protected her in that moment. This was something she couldn’t control, and she was completely alone because of it. She couldn’t have understood...

Her hair was growing at a rapid speed and took unnatural, wormlike angles all over the crystal room, as if they had a life of their own. They slid over the ceiling, across the walls, and rattled on the floor, towards the entrance.

Towards Thomas.

A clump of hair launched itself at his neck with ruthless speed. He shot it. The bullet passed through its maw like a ghost and the snake jammed its fangs into his throat. He would’ve doubled over from the pain if he didn’t have business to finish…

Thomas’ amethyst-coated legs were starting to spread past his knees, as the hair had completely surrounded him, morphing itself into a diverse number of snakes. Were they trying to make him prey, or were they protecting the girl? He wasn’t sure, but he knew...

Gunpowder coated his finger as he jammed it into the snake biting his neck and blew it to pieces.

...he’d seen this sorrow before. The girl crying before him had reminded him of his own daughter. Thomas’ daughter, who he dedicated himself to raising when nobody else could…

Thomas struggled to walk. His legs had almost completely changed, and the snakes began to assault him in every vulnerable spot they could reach. The ones he could fight off got gunpowder poured into their mouths. He couldn’t stop them all, though. More bites. Thomas could feel the venom getting pumped into his face. They tried to bite his arms, too, but they didn’t know about his arms.

In the face of all the agony, he slowly approached the girl, fighting off the legion of snakes that were trying to kill him and make him their prey. He kept going, and…

Thomas crouched behind the girl, and saw a crystalline knife being squeezed in her hand. She was pointing it at her own face. Her eyes.

“Hey.”

She’s still sobbing, but almost jumps at the voice. She almost turns around. She wants to turn around and see someone there. She wants to, but...

Thomas wraps his arms around her and pulls her close to him, taking her by the hands, as she tremors. She wants to spit out an apology for causing so much trouble, but it’s too much… There’s too much to process at one time, and all she can do is sob at it all.

Nobody could’ve loved her or protected that girl in that moment, or any moment before.

So, Thomas did, in the place of everyone else. He hugged that girl like she was his own brother.

“What’s your name?”

Her name? Her name… The question threw off her thoughts of how she was going to repay for what she’d done. The fact that someone was asking her that before anything else... Her name. She tried to stop crying the best she could to tell him.

“...L-Lucia, it’s…”

In the thoughts running through her, Lucia had come to the realization that nobody had ever treated her like this. Nobody in the time she spent in this orphanage ever gave her the affection and care that this complete stranger was giving to her, in spite of what she’d done. Nobody ever asked what her name was, either, or had come looking for her when she went missing, or asked her to play games. She didn’t get that, at all, but she had a feeling that if there was anybody who cared enough about her to hug her and ask her name, it was this person right here.

The snakes biting Thomas’ face let go without a fight, retracting back into Lucia’s head like a tape measure. If snakes could show emotion, they’d look at Thomas with uncertainty.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Lucia…”

He moved his hand over to the knife.

“Can you let go of that? You shouldn’t be carrying those things...”

That voice. He’s a rough sounding sort of man, but that voice spoke softly to her. It was firm, but comforting. Even though he was a stranger, hearing that voice felt good.

She dropped it.

“...now, then…”

He let go of Lucia, but held her by the hand. He had to be quick about it, and could feel his lower body turning into a rock.

“I’m gonna get you out of here, okay, Lucia?” She closed her eyes as tight as she could, and slowly turned around to face him.

“...ok…”, she uttered.

Thomas picked her up and started to walk out of the orphanage. It was slow. He stayed too long, and the amethyst was spreading to his waist. But, he knew he had to get her out of here.

"C'mon."

Outside, he could hear the sirens. Ambulance? He had to get her out…

Get her out...

Past the doors...

Get her out...

He could feel his lower torso turning into rock, then his ribs. It’s a miracle he could still move. Maybe his insides hadn’t turned completely yet. Maybe that's how he could still move. The venom was starting to take effect, too...

Get her out...

He burst through the entrance of the doors, down the steps and stopped just short of a group of people crowding around him, but stopping just short of seeing who he was holding in his arms.

Got her...

It spread to his face. He couldn’t see, or hear. He couldn't think, and everything went black.

Thomas was a statue. A beautiful, amethyst statue glittering purple in the light, untouchable by no one else lest they meet the same fate, and in his embrace was the girl who he saved from despair, because no one else was going to.