TW// Maybe don't read at night?
You get bitten. You come home after the blessed meeting and carry on your day as you normally would. You developed "spots" for seeds near the end of your sacred day. One night you sleep with little to no care in the world. Thinking "I was kissed by the offspring of sweetness and the fursona of strawberry shortcake, tomorrow will be a good day to be a strawberry short snake".
Then a surge of tingly feelings comes onto your body. Little fireworks or explosions of threads caressing your skin. You wake up. You can't feel anything, but you can move. You see it with your eyes. Movement. But you can't clearly tell what's happening. You squint your eyes to get rid of the "morning fatigue", but it isn't morning. It's dark out with only the moonlight shining into your windows.
"Red?" You say in a confused yet slightly pleased manner whilst looking up your arm, barely perceiving the mutation in front of you. You sat up, placing your weight on your back. "I am ascending, I am transforming!" You scream out in your subconscious mind for you can't tell if your mouth is moving to the rhythm of your thoughts.
Relaxed and half asleep, little by little, like a vacuum-sealed ball, you began to shrink. Everything around you becomes gigantic. The anticipation bewildered you, excites you, makes you feel like a trickster god even.
Have you completed your final form? Are you now a snake of delectable delights? Are you now free to wander the wilderness and seek adventure with other companions who fight evil or prejudices and prevail with the power of friendship and love?
Then WAMM!! Your bedroom door slams open.
You look frightened, confused, then worried. You try to reach out, nothing in your vision shows your hand, footsteps come closer, you try to stand up. The man is near you can hear the footsteps, you try to run, to scream, to even try to "wake up" as if it was a dream and not a pending reality. Nothing is happening, it beckons you, you can feel its presence getting closer. The floor is rumbling. Each second that passes, the roar of the floorboards intensifies.
Trying, trying, and trying again and again to flee but you can't. You struggle in your pool of panic, but then you peered to your mirror. You saw yourself. Or what once was until a glimmer of light reveals what you have become. A half-eaten humanoid strawberry. Devoured by bud weevils, plant bugs, spittlebugs, and slugs. A whole ass buffet it seems. You scream out in horror. But you have no mouth. And yet you scream.
DRRRTAKATAKATAKATRRRRRKKAAAaaaa~
A blue pellet rolls on the floor, then silence came and was greeted by another, then another, and more rushes into the room like a tsunami!
A man clothed with denim pants, a hat, and a white shirt enters, moving and hovering with the orbs colored with the shades of blues and purples, the pellets at the bottom of his feet, like as if he was surfing through cool waves. The pellets moved with him as if it was an extension to his corporeal form. Your eyes pop out in horror. The rumbling had stopped for all the moments the man before you stood still.
"Do you remember me?" It said in a raspy voice.
Hearing him talk makes your throat hurt a bit as if the dryness of his voice is infectious. He looks at you with expectation and excitement. You cant see his eyes but you can feel it in his hellish gaze, there is no escape. Your eyes scramble in its sockets, communicating the fact that you are thinking, thinking hard, and deep inside your hollow mind. A pause followed the question. He watches you in amusement. You didn't know the answer and he knew of it.
The cryptic before you sighed out of disappointment, looks at you with disbelief and kneeled down, his face hidden by his hat, the darkness of the room shielding you of his face, the orbs parted like Moses parting the Red Sea. Your eyes are fixed on watching his body. Reaching down, your sight focuses on his hands grasping for one for the orbs…" They seem familiar" you think to yourself "where have I seen this before?".
And at that moment SHLUCKBLAMM* He smiles.
You blink and tried to keep up with your faltering vision. You are now on the floor and see the slugs n' bugs up close and personal down here on the gritty floorboards. Your eyes are now filled with fear of a greater magnitude than ever before. What's left of you is now shaking with chills.
Your head has been decapitated, you understood the moment you slowly looked up and saw his grinch feet. The time given to admiring his presence in dread gave enough time for the bugs to gobble you up. He chuckles for a while, surprised by the turn of events. Rotting. Your head is now a spread of dry, scaly skin, like Deadpool’s face or a reptile being struggling to be born through metamorphosis.
There is now a different surge of potential in your body. It stiffens and hardens, you can feel it. It is easy to see that the colossal cryptic has something to say to you and is moving its mouth but you can’t hear him, everything is turning to black. He continues. Maybe this is the end, maybe it’s a dream. You will never know.
You blink, it seems you have been slapped. Awakened, you noticed that you are now cusped in the hands of this man whose face is hidden in the shadows of the silhouette of your room joined by the beaming light of the moon, and now, everything is gigantic.
His coarse voice then began to speak once more. Emitting from his mouth he said:
"Don't think we're done yet" he said while smirking.
"HahahAHHAhaaa, look at you now, all cute and small. I could just EEeaAATT you up, you absolute sugar noodle. Shed new skin I see".
Slowly looking at yourself, you discover that you indeed have transformed and now morphed into a Strawberry Short Snake.
A rebirth it seems, and short you are indeed.
"So, ssssnake~, do you now have an answer for my name?"
Still processing the alteration of your physical form with horror and astonishment. Your emotional cocktail hits you with a curveball. You can't think of an answer. The man is growing impatient and seeks a response from you.
Tired of your mortal fear, he scoffs then reaches in his pockets and opens his palms to reveal one of the pellets he was picking up before…...... A berry?!! and not just any berry. A Huckleberry??!!
Your snake body is now shaking like a big ol' blender as if it was still your human form. An unidentifiable mass gurgling up your stomach, turmoil within the mind, your vessel vibrating out of natural reaction.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life….. So it seems" the man said in a contemplating manner.
You try to say it out loud, whimpering like a dog, you uttered the words "…… Huckle.....Huckleberry….. Huckleberry Finn??" you whispered out of dread. The room vibrates from his laughter. An abrupt jingle of bells came after his thumping chuckle. Your words came out as hisses and yet it appears he understands.
"…..I know of your sins. Old man. Everything has a price and THIS is yours" he announced in a serious, menacing tone.
Exasperated, you thought to yourself “old man?? I’m not an old man, I’m a snake”
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME!!???!!?" You try to scream out. His words pierce you. Scared shitless and having no power, It doesn’t matter if you grind your teeth, glare, scream, retaliate his words. For only the soft kisses of your volatile hiss echoes from your mouth. The man of Huckleberry still understood the gesture of your aggressively flailing noodle body.
"oh, you know….. Even a worm will turn" :)
In the shock of the words uttered, bewildered by the unexpected reasoning, your body reacts by following and staring into him without crying or shaking. You are now aware of the potential danger your situation can ensue. You have no power.
" You are nothing less of the biblical serpent that enticed the destruction of the men of clay. You will forever be alone, regretting all the routes you didn't take, thinking of the paths you could've taken. You will be imprisoned in time as the rest of the world progresses without you. Leaving you to feel like the world has forgotten you and not a single soul cares for your worthless life. Your life is finite mortal."
You hear the bells getting louder, a metallic jangle enters the symphony of agony. What is next to come in this musical play of defeat.
"Tellllll meeeeeeee~ mister, when nobody wakes you up in the morning, and when nobody waits for you at night, when nobody comes to greet you after a hard days work, when there is nobody there to share your triumphs and accolades with, no one to kiss, not one other being to bid farewell, with none of whom you will have the obligation to talk to and when you can do whatever you want with your own volition. What do you call it? freedom or loneliness?
Are you delighted in your own solitude?"
The orchestra of sounds of his taunting and the background noise of the metallic wrangling and the shaking of bells is deafening with maybe its own conductor is standing in front of you. It increases in volume making you only hear the screech of your own ears. The sound goes static.
"……… I am a STATUE to all your sinsssssssss old man… a cenotaph.... Repent...You don’t have much time left" he continued.
Out of horror and distress for your own being, you bit him and slither out of his hand, desperately trying to run away. Your attempt at escape is ineffective. He watches you with a condescending gaze.
You slither and force your body to wiggle faster, you went back the other way. The floorboards seem to sway, your jiggle is slow as you lever your cakey mass side to side, leaving a trail of cream like a snail.
You can see the long mirror you saw yourself on previously, your eyes looked up once more into the mirror and saw the man step forward showing a fraction of his face, he is now behind you. Waiting. You shriek as best as you can as a snake. For now, you know of the error that went out of your own mouth.
"Hu-h-Huh-Huckle-Huck-hu-Huckleberr-"
His hand reaches out to the berries and came forth his vest from the waves of huckle. He picks you up as your hiss grows syncopated and looks at you on what feels to be like the end of things. You saw the sun is rising, it is now dawn. Huckleberry then stares into your eyes intimately for a moment until he closed his palms and whispered into it with you inside.
"This is for earlier and all the events that will transcend after your life and what only remains are the consequences of your actions-"
Trembling for the last time, you hear his words loud and clear.
".. Goodbye old man, see you whenever HAHAhahAHhahAHHA!!"
He balls you up and throws you towards the mirror. The pitch was fast, you can see everything zooming by in your room except towards near the impact of your face towards the mirror, time slowed then stopped; Huckleberry teleports behind you leaving a scattering of berries on the floor and says:
"By the way. My name is Hͥ̽ͣ̃̔ư̡͕̭̇c͕͗ͤ̕̕ḳ̯͍̑ͦl̙͖̑̾ͣẹ̿͋̒̕b̬͖̏́͢ẹ̿͋̒̕r̴̨̦͕̝r̴̨̦͕̝y҉̃̀̋̑ P̧͕̒̊͘ỉ͔͖̜͌ẹ̿͋̒̕…" the man regarded,
his name fading in volume leaving ‘pie’‘ to be silent only to be emphasized in enunciation and followed by a devilish smile that reached ear to ear as the mouth shape of "ie" in pie reaches its end :D
Time continued on and was abruptly waken up upon the impact of the mirror shattering into thousands of pieces with the reflection of Huckleberry laughing hysterically with his vest on.
You woke up. In a frantic manner, you stood up, stumbling on the floor, and went in front of the mirror. You look at yourself and you are still you. No matter what happened you are still Purple Pieman. It was just a dream, you are now safe from Huckleberry Pie.
SHICKLECLANGSHCKLE. The bells and metallic clang is starting once more. You grab your lamp as a defense weapon and carry it off to confront the sound.
With your guard up you walk around your house, trying to deduce where the sound is coming from, as you get closer you can hear the words of a female voice yelling
"Help! Help us, we are stuck here in this cage!!"
Hesitant as you were, you peered into the room the voice was in that was reciprocated back with a whimper… a dog??
"UGHHH get us out of here you crazy lunatic. What did we do to deserve this??!! You will pay for this you know? Strawberry and her friends will be coming pal. We are her pets, she doesn’t play around." Custard the taking cat yelped.
Now you remember, while drunk off berry wine you stole Custard and Pupcake from Strawberry Shortcake. The sudden realization hits you like a truck filled with gumballs and gumdrops. Is this an opportunity or a lesson at hand? You bask in the sheer panic, grief, and unclear judgment, and shortly after, a hound of doorbells and knocking barrages your front door.
"Hello, Purple Pie sir have you seen my cat and dog, Custard and Pupcake? "
Chains of "Purple Pie" and "Pie Man" were shouted out loud in the morning. Paranoia and regret course through your veins as you stagger to try to avoid suspicion by answering the door. You open it to find Strawberry's gang on your doorstep with Huckleberry Pie at the back, You stare at him with intent. Feeling queesy from last night’s dream. Your attention is brought back to the matter at hand by a wave of a Missing poster.
"Have you seen my cat custard and my dog Pupcake??!!" Strawberry said earnestly. She is explaining to you, reminding you of what they look like, what they sound like, what they prefer to eat and drink. But none of that concerns you anymore.
Your eyes directed back to Huckleberry Pie. An uneasy feeling emerges from your stomach. You blink and a figure of a half cross between a lizard person and Huckleberry's human form was there in front of you, hissing, his tongue flickering. You blink and rub your eyes, you stare at him again, completely not paying attention to their pleas. The form in front of you is not hissing anymore but instead said:
"Even if a snake sheds new skin, it’s still a snake".
A demon! A gorgon! A divine serpent! You feel like you are on the verge of insanity, feeling the impending haunting of his face. It was a Huckleberry lie. Wherever you go there is only Huckleberry Pie. Oblivion is waiting, and who knows what else he is thinking. Because your past, it’s something you just can’t erase.
"Remember this Mr. Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak?" he whispers as the rest of the gang barges into your house, leaving H.P. behind.
Not paying attention to your surroundings you fail to stop the noise from inside your house created by your two prisoners and the gang entering your house as if it was a raid as you blankly stare at Huckleberry Pie.
Nothing matters anymore. You are defeated.
He fluttered two earrings similar to Sour Grapes's grape jewels in his hand. Mouth open and gagged, he crushes it, excreting shimmering powders with a trail of grape scent.
Knees on the floor, groveling, compiling the shards of your sister's earrings. The only thing she left behind other than a sour note and a sour feeling.
He is now the judge of your fate. You have been conquered. With the grapes of wrath floating away from your grasp, slowly, you cry onto the floor, hugging the wandering mist of tarted sweetness in your hands. You glance towards the victor, your enemy. You don't even dare to scowl, and just stared at the slaughter of your life with the gangs yells of hostility becomes your fitting background music. Everything is fading. It's the end of the line.
The symphony continues, and yet your time has come to an end.
