Actually kind of obsessed with the idea of . . afterimages of sorts of the previous Golden Guards.
Some of them are just things left behind, shoes Hunter finds in his room that aren’t his size. He throws them out without thinking too much of it.
Once he steps on a floorboard to find it creaking. There’s a little crawlspace of sorts, full of little tiny things; a red feather, a half knitted scarf, a flyer for a festival, a woodcarving knife. He hides Flapjack in his staff form in there.
Under his bed there are carvings of peoples names-previous Golden Guards, he assumes, since Uncle told him they always lived in this room. Still, property damage? He can see why they were replaced.
(In another world, the next Golden Guard opens the crawlspace and finds the staff. In another world, the next Golden Guard sneers at the name Hunter but still carves his own name into the wood.)
(When the Golden Guards die, they are given no tombstone, no memorial. The carvings under Hunters bed are their obituary.)
Sometimes Hunter feels like people are watching him. Belos tells him he may need to be replaced and it fills him with such certain fear he self immolates.
(Each Golden Guard is different but that doesn’t mean certain things don’t bleed through. Sometimes he jerks awake, dreams of being burnt alive, being turned to stone, drowning in soil, him but not)
(When it happens he goes to the crawlspace and runs his hands over the feather, the flyer with the date cheerfully circled in red ink. The scarf that had never been finished)
Hunter puts his hands into the earth and digs himself a grave in front of Amity and King. It’s more than we got, someone whispers. It sounds ancient. It sounds like a child. It sounds like him.
germansingergirl
gummygunk
izzy806
blakekathryn
discoholicmusic
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
