Twisted Cryptids Episode 61'115: The Astral Apparition
As the screen fades from darkness, a stage lights up, revealing a thick veil of haze that currently occupies the viewer's sight. Various pieces of horror-themed trinkets and paraphernalia nailed against the back wall of the set. A man raises from the fog and floor, black hair and beard, sharply dressed. "A cosmic spirit that wanders the Earth, lost from its home. A galactic poltergeist that now haunts our world." Our apparent host speaks. "Tonight on this edition of ‘Twisted Cryptids’, we cover the ethereal specter, the extraterrestrial phantom -- The Astral Apparition." With the intro out of way, and with the knowledge of the host's name "Ron Myke", the show finally begins. "Over the course of the last 3 days various reports of the Astral Apparition have been popping up all over the globe" Don commentates while a map of the world pops up and indicates the sightings of the said enigma, via red dots. The scene cuts away to a title card with a vivid, swirling background accompanying it, "First Sightings" it reads. The camera zooms in on one of the bright, crimson marks. With a blurred transition, our first location is revealed: A forest in Germany. A shot of the forest shows an impact site of what seems to be a meteorite: Mighty trees knocked back away from the crater and a once lively lake filled to brim was drained overnight. An interview is conducted with the two witnesses: A young German couple who were camping in the forest on the night when the incident took place. Nearly an hour-and-a-half's' worth of interview footage was edited down to 4 second clips sprinkled throughout the segment on the two teenager. The couple began telling their story, due to the language barrier, the couple are spoken over by more native actors. This fact becomes apparent due to what is seen, the lip movements of the couple, and what is heard, the dubbed over voices. “We didn’t want to wanna go anywhere near that… thing.” The tan crimson-haired boy answered. “The closer and closer we got… The more chills ran down our spines” “It… Stood- No, floated at the edge of the lake” The pale brunette chimed in. “It was… Unreal. I thought I was having a nightmare… What came next made me wish that it was all in my head” An illustration is shown, the drawing showed the two cowering behind trees near the impact, the couple observing the cryptid in question. The otherworldly ghost being represented by a black splotch, due to lack of a description. “And then…” The fiery-haired witness holds his head in his hands. “It happened…” The Astral Apparition lifted up the water from the lake, in its entirety. Not only was the water affected, but the two fell towards the sky, only the branches of the arbors that surrounded them saved their lives from the fate of falling into the sky. Despite distance, despite language, the couple heard loud and clear what the enigma whispered... “Not here” The deity stared down at the empty lake and back up at the floating, formless mass of water. Within an instance, an entire lake’s worth of water turned into vapor, steam. As the anomaly fades from sight, possibly existence, the deadly ascent of the two cease. The couple surveyed the area, taking in the horror that they just behold. Their segment ends with final words from the brunette. “I don’t know what’s out there… I’m scared” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once again the same title card and the rotating background greets the viewers eyes, “It Hungers”, it reads this time. The next location is a fast-food restaurant located in the UK, “Porky’s Burgers and Chips”. Another interview was conducted, this time with a minimum-wage employee working who was the night shaft. “I…” The black-haired, lanky employee scratched his head, trying to surface memories of the event. “-Was alone, I was workin' the graveyard shift, just finished taking the garbage out back, and emptying the deep-frier. I just done with mopping the kitchen and was about to leave, then… I heard someone break in.” Security cameras had captured the some of the event in pristine, black and white, blurry, low-definition quality footage. “‘Thought it was some drunk who broke in. I had my phone on me, I was about to call 999. ‘Headed to the kitchen… 'Wasn’t expecting what saw next…” The low-wage employee described the whole story within a matter of minutes. The teenager peeked through the door, the floor was covered with a thin sheet of ice, possibly from the water when he finished mopping up the kitchen. Even the chemical-infused water in the bucket had become nothing more than a block of ice. There it was, the beast of the week, eating a frozen patty. “A frozen one!” The worker bursts into laughter “The damn thing was munchin’ away on a rock of a meat chuck!” His fit of laughing soon ended.”Oh, boy… Bein’ honest, I think the creature’s a bit on the dim side…” The segment closes on one final question: What did it look like? “What did it look like?” Once more the teen scratches his head. “Uh… It was short and had long hair. ‘Had a weird glow around it, too. ‘Can’t really describe that.” This time, a witness pops a question. “What’s the thing called? ‘Astral Apparition’? Know what? F**k that title. I’m gonna call it a ‘Space Gremlin’. 'Cause that's what it is!” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The program cuts to commercial break. “DCTV is sponsored by: Conduit Laboratories -- Conduits Laboratories, shaping the world of tomorrow for over 50 years” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The final title card appears, “The Untouchable”. The third and final location is revealed: A roadside mini-mart and fueling station “Goody Goods”, Canada. Two witness are brought in for interviewing, a 30-something old trucker and a 20-something year old store clerk. The two begin to tell their stories. “Out the road at night carryin’ some cargo for a... “C. Labs” from what I can remember… I was runnin’ a bit low on fuel, so I took a pit-stop, naturally.” The trucker told his story. “He was outside, he was refueling. Nothing out of the ordinary.” The clerk adds on. “Then… This thing… It looked like a kid, it was goin’ on its merry way, minding its own business. It look like it was walkin’ towards the front door of mart. But… Here’s the thing… My truck was in the way…” The mustached man went on. “I expected the kid to crawl under it or… Something else than what it actually did… It went right through it." “I thought that maybe the child crawled under the truck. Either that or I had too much coffee that night. What I saw next was no mistake.” They both describe what the enigma of a child did. At first, the men both thought that their eyes deceived them. Once it happened again, it was clearly this was no illusion. The kid could walk through walls. “It came into the store and spent a good 10 or 15 minutes looking around the store, saying ‘Where is it, where is it?’. Then it just stood at the counter staring at me for almost an hour. I started asking questions: ‘Are you lost, where are your parents’, all that.” The clerk explains. “Eventually, I got fed up with the whole apparent ‘silent treatment’ and I start yelling at the kid to leave. Then I tried to grab its hand and tugging ‘em out, but… I actually touched it. I was half sure that hands would just go through it or something. 'Second I grabbed the kid, it threw me to the other side of the store, my landing made the stuff I sellin' fell off the shelves. I think I even broke a shelf or two. Understandably, I was mad, I was pissed. The store’s a mess and I was bleeding. I pulled out my pistol and shot at it. The bullets didn’t make contact, they hit the glass of the sliding doors behind the kid.” “Then I came in ‘cause of the gunshots.” The trucker verified “He was right about everything, the mess, the blood, the bullets. All that. As soon I came in, the thing left. Not in a normal way either, if that’s you’re wondering. It sank into the ground, no marks, no trace, no nothing.” Final thoughts are given by all five witnesses on the matter of the Astral Apparition, its impact, its potential, its danger. Ron Myke gave his two cents on this anomaly of a creature after the witnesses. “The Astral Apparition a truly twisted cryptid indeed, ladies and gentlemen. Having the abilities to manipulate gravity, radiate a freezing aura, and phase through solid objects, it seems that this ghastly being cannot be taken down by regular means. If you have any and all information regarding the Astral Apparition, send your story the link: www.dctv/TwistedCryptids.net.” Our host gives his final words of the week: “Thank you for watching this edition of 'Twisted Cryptids' on DCTV. Next week, we cover the subject of the 'IWTGH' Monster. Until next time, this Ron Myke signing out.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the broadcast ends and the credits begin to roll, a blackout hits. The entirety of the house is plunged into the dead of night. Minutes pass, darkness continues to occupy the house. With a hum, the lights of the home flicker to life. Strangely, the television hasn't turned back on. No broadcasting show, no assault of static, nothing. All the television set shows is a reflection of the room of its placement and a young adult, he stares into the mirror of a TV screen. At 5'10", the adolescent is clad in a white shirt and denim jeans. Short golden locks cascade down the pale skinned face of the boy, his blonde hair turning a shade of scarlet as grows longer. The teenager's reddish eyes tear away from his reflection, to hear loud, howling breeze coming from the room next to him, the same room with the front door. The soft wind ceases, the gentle hum of light bulb above is the sound that dominates the room. Suddenly, the house itself begins to quake, objects rattle, lights flicker. The shaking stops, and a dim purple light radiates in the hallway across from the boy. The source reveals itself, rolling into sight: A stone, glass-like, magenta. The crystalline rock hovers up and reminds for a minute or two, idle. The stone begins to crack; a violet light radiates through them. Once more the home rumbles, the most violent one yet. Everything that isn't bolted to the ground falls from their place, breaking as they make contact with the floor. The television being the first of the objects to drops and expire. The glass-like stone bursts, pieces of it embed themselves into the walls and floor with an audible "THUNK!" What's left among the glittery, glassy debris is a vortex, a wormhole. The adolescent stares deeply into swirling, violet, chaotic images of the portal, hellish sounds and whispers accompany the vivid, nonsensical visuals. A white flash comes from the odd gateway, like the flash of a camera. The colors of the vortex becomes darker, and a banshee shriek exits from it. The boy hides in his sheets on the mocha carpet that he used as a bed before all this. Within his mind something clicked. A wave of deja vu hits the teen’s brain, the weird rock, its glittery mess of debris that it left. One more action is needed to ensure this deja vu. Through the portal a humanoid figure, a girl, crawls forth. The vortex begin to shine its normally abnormal colors. With a gasp and a cough, the dimension hopper gets up on her two feet and promptly levitates. The portal's light continues to radiate on, obscuring any specific details on the extraterrestrial deity and projecting only its silhouette. A clap of thunder sounds off, the otherworldly gateway seemingly vanishes from existence. With the ethereal glow gone, details of the girl are revealed: Long black, ruffled hair, brown skin, scuffs marks on her face, a light purple dress with design of a star on the chest, dirt stains riddle the a section of the skirt, and most her defining feature: Her height, very short. Even through all the dirt and scuff, the young adult immediately recognizes the girl. The ghastly being floats towards the boy. At last, what's in her hands is revealed: A rose, pink. The girl hovers ever so closer to the teen, her head shifting left and right, observing the room. The speaks to herself as she stares down at the rose and back to the boy "Do I just shove it into his face? That seems too forceful. I can’t hurt that face.” The boy with the golden locks pull back the sheets covering him. The enigma of a girl freezes in place, the teen’s blank, unknowing gaze locking her now terrified glance, he begins to mutter. “Shooting Star,” The boy questions “Is that you?” “Oh, my God, he’s back” Shooting Star’s words flow fearfully out of her mouth “Hmm?” He mumbles “How long was I out for?” “Uh… ‘Good 3 days, Rose” The short girl quivers in her non-existence boots “Wha?” Rose’s oblivious state gives way to panic in a fraction of a second and springs from his sheets. “3 days?! WHAT?! Oh, no!” As Shooting Star fears and worries wan via chuckle, Rose grabs both her shoulders. “What did you do for 3 days? Shooting Star, what the sweet antimatter-” “I looked for your flower” The sweet little girl replies Her words strike Rose ears, he cringes, back away from Shooting Star, his face twitching, and feeling his heart sink down into the pit of his stomach. As of recently, never before has fear gripped him this fiercely. Shooting Star tilts her head in confusing while holding the flower as Rose goes through his own mini-crisis. “Wait… I thought I put it in a place where no one can get to it… And she still found it.” He internally panics. The otherworldly girl gives the pink rose to the now reassessed blonde Rose, he places it over his right eye. Briars extrude from the flower in all directions and latch onto the male Goldilocks’ head, practically snapping on. The rose’s vines begin to shift and move around Rose’s face, nearly all of them hiding themselves in his hair, completely out of sight. All but one vine shelters within the boy’s locks, it resides on his left cheek, with a smaller, second rose blooming. “Huh, so you don’t need you flower to function” Shooting Star notices, as Rose usually needs his rose in order to be a normal, operating Light Being: A semi-mechanical organism. “I don’t, but it helps with my energy levels.” He lays down. “My facial insignia shows up when I’m stable… Ish, or if I feel like displaying it” “Oh, yeah!” The short enigma jumps up and runs towards the front door. “Hmm?” Rose’s curiosity peaks Shooting Star is seen again with a cardboard box, held together by twine and cluttered with stamps. The girl tears into packaging, she throws its content at the flower boy, another cardboard box. In an instant, Rose gets excited at what the package’s package reads: “100%, All-Natural, Fat-Free Granola Bars”, his favorite. “120 bars inside!” Immediately, the hungry teenager starts to claw his way through the box, consuming around 3 bars in about a minute. “You know, you should branch out your diet, Rose. Literary, all you eat is granola bars” Shooting Star states. With his mouth full “Oh, yeah, do you want some, Star?” “Nah,” She declines. “I already had something while searching for your little flower thingy” A memory the broadcast quickly went to Rose’s mind as he swallows his mouthful of granola “That ‘something’ wouldn’t happen to be a burger? A frozen one” With a confused expression and a brow raised she says “Wait, how did you know?” “Well… I’ll tell you later.”
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‘Been meaning to post this over here for a while, now.
Story done as a gift for @shiolily64, Merry Belated as Sh*t Birthmas