New release by Italian gothgaze/darkwave group Schonwald, called “Inner Sin.” I tell you, between this and our previous track, it’s looking like the 2020s is going to be a great era for goth music.
before i do some D&D for today I wanna take up @chapelseed‘s dare and post the first chapter of my book. It’s not great, and not fully proofread but I feel like sharing it owo
so without further ado, chapter one of Inner Sin
Inner Sin
Book 1
Original Sin
Chapter 1
Nightmares
As usual, the subway was an overcrowded mess. Bodies pushed up against each other hanging onto flimsy metal bands while the few and lucky people got their seat off to the side, many of them filling the seats around them with whatever useless junk they dragged with them. Chris Mattews was one such lucky person, having gotten on at such a remote station in the city and at such an ungodly hour that it was empty by the time he'd gotten on. He couldn't complain either, he'd hate to be one of the drones of people around him standing in silent anger, especially with what little sleep he had gotten the night before. Where he was was comfortable for him.
So much so it wasn't surprising he'd drift off…
The crowded train was gone from view. In its place Chris was left in an endless expanse of black, the floor seeming to ripple with each careful step he took.
“Hello?” He called out, his voice echoing around from every direction. On and on the only sound he heard was his own and the only thing he could see was black.
The voice he heard started to turn from his own, sounding distorted and scratchy. The rippling of the ground stopped coming from Chris’ steps, they were coming from in front of him.
Hellohellohellohellohhhhheeeeeeelllllllll
“Ooooooo? Chris, anyone home in there?” Chris was stirred awake by the person next to him, moving the brown bangs of his long messy hair out from his eyes. Ricky was ready to snap in his face again as he had been for the past few minutes, giving a cocky grin to his friend as he came to.
“‘Ey there we go! Up and at em Chris boy, we're almost at our stop.” Ricky’s voice bled with his Brooklyn origins. “You still jet lagged or somethin’?”
“Uh yeah… guess so.” Chris said as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, grabbing his bag and joining his friend standing. “Honestly ever since I got back I've been having bad dreams.”
“No kiddin’? Sure you don't need to see ol’ Rouge then?” Ricky snickered, reaching into his pocket to show the top of a bag. “Or maybe more medicinal help~?”
“Fuck off Ricky,” Chris’ voice turned stern, a ding and muffled voice over the train’s sound system announcing they were at their stop. “I'm not buying your crap.” He then quickly followed along with the crowd of people exiting the train, leaving his friend to roll his eyes.
“Pfft, stick.”
Chris imagined his high school was like just about every other one; old, poorly funded, and filled with people he didn't know or care about. His only focus towards anyone in the school was limited to the people of his class, all of which were scattered around the room chatting away as he entered.
“Good lord Micheal!” Screamed out the short blonde girl, Brianna, to her much taller peer. “Can you not keep it in your pants for one night? I can barely hear my own thoughts with all that noise from your apartment!”
“So sorry Bri, but I just couldn't help myself!” Micheal chuckled to his neighbor, waving her off. “Besides, if you couldn't sleep you could have always joi-”
“God no!! Keep you and your little… sexcapades outta my life.” She huffed, taking her seat at the front of the class. As she sat she was joined by her desk neighbor, Chris, turning to him now. “Honestly, can you believe him? Why do people fall for him?”
“Couldn't tell you,” Chris shrugged, leaning onto his desk with his head in his hands. “I've just learned to tune his room out at this point.”
Brianna shook her head in annoyance, leaving Chris to listen in on the rest of his classmates.
“‘Ey how you doing there Jenna? Enjoyed yourself last night, I hear from a buddy you got some good stuff.” He heard Ricky say, most likely near the back of the class talking up to Jenna, who was more than likely already high off her mind and blankly staring off into space next to Alex.
“Shut up Ricky…” she said, a groan coming from her. “It's from my doctor not your creep friends…”
“‘Ey who said I'm not friends with doctors? Heheheh!”
Chris let the snickering voice of Ricky fill his head as he slowly felt himself drift back off into sleep…
Once again Chris was back in the dark void he was in before, the floor he was on before now a pitch black liquid that reached his knees. All around him he could hear the same laugh that brought him back here, reverberating from all around this void.
“This is a weird ass dream…” Chris said to himself, his own voice drowned out by the laughter. Looking down at his legs he could see the ripples in the water once again coming from somewhere in front of him. But he wasn't prepared for what was there.
Emerging from the liquid was a mass of black gunk, writhing and shaking to and fro as it grew. The mass began to slender up into a long form, the top pushing forward towards Chris. From the very top popped open two, large, glowing yellow eyes, the slitted irises pointing down on Chris. The two shared a silent staring contest for a time before an elongated row of jagged, yellow teeth grew across the “face” of this mass, forming a smile. The jagged mouth opened to follow along with the laughter echoing through the room, the sound becoming distorted and corrupted as it synced up with the noise.
HeheheHEHeheHehEHEheheHEHEHEhEheH
“Mr. Mattews!!” Was the words yelled down at Chris that woke him from his unconscious state. Looking up Chris was met by the scrutinizing stare of his teacher, Mr. Amuny, his brow furrowed in clear annoyance.
“So nice of you to join us from your current trip to dreamland.” He said, chuckling coming from some of his classmates. “I'm amazed you were able to take another one so soon after your trip to Israel, it must have been quite expensive.” His voice was laced with sarcasm and annoyance.
“Sorry sir…” Chris sheepishly said as he stood up in his seat, trying to be as awake as possible.
“As you should be,” Mr. Amuny said, looking down at Chris before taking his seat at his own desk. “Now then, seeing how Mr. Mattews missed the beginning of class, and it's a half day, I'll just pass back your reports.” At the sound of such an assignment, Chris silently panicked, knowing full well he missed it entirely.
“Brianna Kingsly!” The Indian man called out into the class, said person giddily skipping up to the front desk. “Your report on the current political standing and its needed improvements was an intriguing read. An A+ for you.” He announced, handing Brianna a folder.
“Thank you Mr. Amuny! I just want to help our country obviously~.” Brianna said as she snatched the folder, her words drowning with sweetness and pride.
“Mr. Safrete!” Amuny called once again, the person coming up being the portly Horton Safrete, still eating his bagel from the morning. “While I'm not a nutritionist or very knowledgeable in how genetics and weight are connected, I applauded you for your work. B-.”
“Thanks professor.” Horton said between chews. “Put a lotta work into it, I appreciate it.”
“Neid!!” Calling out another name and bringing forth the skiny demeanor of Alex Neid shuffling up to the front desk. “I must say I'm a little surprised by how close your work was in comparison to Ms. Kingsly’s on politics. C.”
“T-thank you Mr. Amuny…” Alex shyly told their teacher, shuffling back to the end of the room. Mr. Amuny’s eyes soon narrowed down onto Chris, filling the young man’s heart with dread.
“Let me guess Mr. Mattews,” he spoke even though he knew the answer. “You don't have the report I told you about before you left?”
“I um…” Chris started to say, trying to come up with some excuse for himself. Luckily for him it seemed his talkitive friends had his back on this.
“Prof. Amuny,” Micheal’s smooth talking voice came. “If I may, wouldn't it make much more sense for our dear Chris to write about his experience abroad?”
“Yeah! I'd think it'd be an awesome read.” Ricky butted in.
“Probably better than most of ours…” was faintly picked up from the back coming from Jenna.
“Shut up!!” Roared Amuny, slamming his fist on the table and shocking the group of students to attention. A disgruntled sigh escaped the older man as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I commend you all for coming to the aid of your peer, but that doesn't mean I'm changing your grades.” Brianna gave a slight snort at that, smirking. “But as well… I agree with your thoughts. Very well Mr. Mattews…” his gaze returned to Chris and the bearded smile he was given creeped Chris to his core. “Fifty pages on your experience in Israel on my desk tomorrow.”
Chris felt his heart sink at such a task, staring up at his teacher. “H-how am I suppose to do that?!”
“Not my problem Mattews. Here's hoping you got enough sleep in class.” Once Amuny finished that sentence the school bell rang, the trampling sound of students leaving beginning to pick up. “Well it seems you're all free for today, we'll be continuing our lesson on reptiles tomorrow, make sure to bone up on the chapter on snakes.” Amuny’s words practically fell on deaf ears as his students had begun to leave.
“Not you Mattews.” Chris heard, stopping dead in his tracks from packing, once again looking up at Mr. Amuny. “Seeing how you missed so much class, including today, I thought it might be worth while to give you a crash course.” Once again the older man’s grin was terrifying, Chris’ only comfort being the hand placed on his shoulder.
“Good luck…” Jenna tiredly said, yawning and adjusting her glasses before taking her hand and leaving. Horton and Ricky at the door gave a silent prayer while Micheal drew a cross over his chest.
‘Oh boy…’ Chris thought to himself, gulping.
Three hours. Three grueling hours of a constant bombardment of information, and if Chris even started to drift off he was smacked back awake. Needless to say this wasn't exactly how Chris thought his first day back would be like.
“I don't want to hear another god damn thing about reptiles ever again.” Chris groaned as he walked down the street. It was the dead of night at this point, and for a street in New York it was rather empty, but that's how Chris preferred it. He hoped it'd be this easy and less crowded on his whole trip home as frankly he just wanted to write his report and sleep for a thousand years.
Suddenly though Chris felt a… pain in the back of his head. It was sharp and quick at first but it struck him again as he moved forward, stumbling on his feet and falling against an alleyway garbage bin. “Oww… fuck…” Chris groaned, rubbing his still stinging head.
“What was that?” Chris went as dead silent as possible, covering his mouth to quiet his breathing. The voice he'd heard was rough and wet, like a saw moving through water. And it sounded close. Peaking over the edge of the bin gave Chris a sight that nearly made him vomit.
Standing in the far side of the alley under the flickering light of a lamp was a tall figure, standing well over Chris’ own six feet in height, hunched over scanning the area with bright, piercing red eyes. Its body looked humanoid, but parts were seemingly stretched, patches of whatever clothing it had being torn open by a series of jagged spikes that seemed to cover itself, two massive ones having sprouted from its arms reaching the ground. Its mouth held a row of long, sharp teeth that were very clearly covered in blood and gore, the source of which was undoubtedly the ripped apart body that it was hunched over.
Holding back his scream and vomit, Chris slowly pulled away from viewing the sight, hoping he wasn't seen himself. He needed to run, to hide, call the police, the god damn army. He needed help, now.
Another sharp pain dug through Chris’ head, having to bite back his urge to scream in agony but unable to keep his leg from jerking out in pain.
*clinck-kongalongalong*
A discarded can was right in his foot’s path and was now scattered across the alley, loudly skipping across the ground. Chris didn't even have time to panic, he got up as fast as he could and made a run for it.
But he didn't get far.
“I thought I heard something~.” Chris felt the hood of his jacket get grabbed as his body was lifted with it, getting a glimpse of the monstrosity he had saw just a moment ago up close. It was only a glimpse because he was thrown backwards across the alley, soaring through the air before slamming against the wall. Chris could feel a rib crack, blood filling his mouth as he tried to stand but couldn't, his legs were paralyzed from fear. He spat out a glob of blood and noticed he was next to the mangled, half eaten corpse he had seen before, but couldn't bring himself to throw up as he looked to see the monster in front of him. “I thought I was going to be done tonight, but I guess you're just in time for dessert!!”
The creature cackled and laughed as it brought its mass spike up ready to strike Chris. This was it for him. Only one thought was left in his head.
