• Published 6th Dec 2020
  • 582 Views, 11 Comments

Absence Of Life - AnnEldest



What first started out as a simple dare turns into a hellish nightmare as these groups of students find out the hard way that some things should be left untouched.

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Part One: What They Made Me Into

I was shaking slightly when I first took a step onto the steps. The front door was open which kinda worried me cause I thought Discord and I closed it. I could have been wrong but if I wasn’t, there were very few options on how it was opened. Hopefully, it was just the latter.

Please don’t be the monster they say you are.

I trotted into the living room. The room felt heavy as if it was weighing heavily down on me and that at any moment I could fall right through the floor, down to the core of the earth. Small breezes hit me giving me cold shivers but overall the room felt hot.

“Savannah?” I called out. “Savannah, I just want to talk.”

No reply.

“Savannah?” I called her again. “I saw what happened to you. I know what they did to know.”

Once again, no one replied. I knew she had to be in the house somewhere. The first place I thought of was the secret basement Discord and I found. I went up the creaking steps. When I reached the second floor I heard a voice. It was faint but I knew that it was there.

Open your eyes.
It's time to see the morning sun

There it was again; somepony was singing. I recognized it. I was getting close to her. Her voice got longer as I got closer to the room that led to the secret room. I was more able to make out her words.

Don’t cry.
Don’t run.
Let’s see what the day becomes.

I reached the closest where the hole that I made was still there. Her voice was smooth and calm. Hearing it brought some resemblance of peace; she got every note more beautifully and perfectly than the last one before it.

What scares you is never knowing what‘s meant to happen next.
I feel that the beauty is not knowing what to expect.

I crawled through the hole and carefully flew myself down. I wasn't trying to make much noise or do you want anything that might mess up my wing.

So whether the day brings me luck or leaves me to my death
I shall treasure each moment from dawn till I go to bed

I landed gently on the cold concrete floor. Then standing 3 feet away in front of me, back turned the other way, was Savannah.

I wait for the time when the sun will truly rise.
See now spirit from the depth of the night,
come forth now into the absence of light.

She was at the table. I assumed she was making a potion or something. There was a book on the table that was open that she occasionally glanced over.

“You came here sooner than I expected.” She closed the book and turned around with a small smile on her face.

I wasn’t sure what to say so I nodded instead.

“I thought only the others could see me.” I assumed she meant the students. “Yet, then you show up and you see me.”

“You attacked me?” I called her out.

She bit her lips and shrugged. “I thought you were with them. But then you saw it. You saw my pain and actually seem to care. You know what I am yet you’re not scared of me.”

I took a step closer to her.

“Maybe, just maybe I found someone who could listen.”

“I don't know exactly what you've been doing but those kids you've been following, you need to leave them alone.” I took another step.

“Why would I do that? I know who they've been speaking to. They're trying to keep me trapped here.” I could hear her growl a little.

I didn't really believe that they were doing anything intentionally to harm her. They seem to know very little about this type of stuff. though I didn't exactly know what they did or how it even happened so I couldn't fully defend them either. At most, I thought that it was just an accident but I needed to talk to Cozy Glow to get the full story first.

“I’m sure this is all some big misunderstanding,” I said.

“Do you even have any idea what they did?” she asked suddenly.

“No. Not really, " I admitted it to her. “But I know these kids wouldn't do anything intentionally back to you. They're terrified and all I want is for you to leave them alone.”

“All I want is to be rid of this curse and get out of this place and I will stop anyone that gets in my way.” She slammed her hooves hard on the table, knocking down some of the items.

“But they did nothing to you?” I cried back at her.

“DOES THIS LOOK LIKE NOTHING TO YOU?!” Her body lit up on fire as it burst all around. I cried out in shock and flew back to avoid being burnt.

I could hear a voice in the back of my head telling me to run. Whether it was fear or determination stopping me, I didn’t make another move. I still kept my eyes bewildered at the sight.

Savannah caught this and took a deep breath. I assumed she did this to calm herself down. The flames began to burn out until there was nothing but smoke. ”I've...been stuck in this house...for so long and I just want to be free.”

I took this moment as an opportunity to hopefully get her to listen to me now. “Well tormenting children isn't going to help you do that. If anything, it's going to make people want to push you away and keep you here. I want to help you but I need to hear your side of the story.”

She said nothing and stared cautiously at me as if she was trying to read if I was telling the truth or not. We stayed like this for a few moments. Eventually, her face softened and she simply nodded.

“Okay…” She trotted over to one of the shelves and pulled out two books. “I always knew the dangers of dark magic and what they can do to ponies. I however was never afraid of it. if anything I felt like I was drawn to it and I just wanted to learn more.” She thought the books down in front of me. I grabbed one of them and held it up to my face. There were symbols all over the cover. I recognized them as Latin symbols. I flipped through the pages as she spoke.

“I read all about the Pony of Shadows, Sombra, Nightmare Moon.” I stopped for a moment and gave her a quick look before resuming back to the book. “I guess I was hoping to find a way where we could possess it without letting it corrupt us. I wanted to use it to help ponies.”

“Soon a deadly disease hit my village. Ponies were dying so I started using what I've learned to help them and it worked. I actually found a way to use something that was deemed to be so evil to help ponies.” This I already knew from Spike. I let her continue regardless. If anything it just meant that the story was consistent.

“Nopony knew I was doing this exactly. Some did find the books I was reading so rumors spread but most didn't seem to believe them until they did.” A black aura started to surround her as her voice grew darker.

“They say you killed someone's child,” I said.

“No, I didn’t,” She spoke with a whisper but it came out strong and aggressive. “Timber Wing...was a very powerful man in the village. He wanted to marry me but I said no. I should have known that he would use his son's death to get at me. He never cared about anyone but himself.” Once again, I already knew this. I needed to get something new out of her.

“Savannah, he died in your care--”

“He was sick,” she said over me.

“What?”

“Cypress was his name.” She smiled for a second. “He was such a lovable kid. Just full of life and always curious. Very similar to me, he always wanted to learn more and he saw the good in everything and everyone. However, as soon as he was, he also was very unlucky. Ever since he was born he was always sick. We didn't know what or why. He just was. The poor kid never fully learned how to walk.” She grabbed a bottle from the shelf and poured it into the bowl. “When I and a couple of other nurses started to take care of him, we were told to not get too attached to him because his days were numbered. I couldn't help it though. Me and him just saw the world in very similar ways that we did get close.” I could see water forming in her eyes as she tilted her head back trying to avoid them from falling down her face.

“I wasn't even supposed to be there that night. The nurse that was supposed to watch him got sick so I volunteered to fill in for her.” She shook her head violently. “What a dumb decision I made. He wasn't well but he was talking and laughing but as the night went on he got weaker. He started to speak less and less then he wasn't talking at all.” Her voice cracked. “Then he was gone.”

I felt a lump in my throat as I started to want to cry but held it in.

“I tried everything I could to save him. I even tried finding other people who were more experienced than I was to see if they could find anything but death is inevitable sometimes. And there's nothing you can do about that. I learned that the hard way.”

“Then they killed you?” I asked.

“They didn’t just kill me!” she snapped harshly; slamming the bottle on the table and nearly breaking it. The vision I saw came back to me and she was right. They did more than just kill her. Maybe that was what made it worse. It wasn't that they just executed her but they tortured her slowly; giving her a much more painful death.

“But the village...you--”

She cut me off. “I didn’t do anything to the village. Whatever happened to them, they did to themselves.” She then chuckled. “I did go after those who were there or killed me. They thought of me as a monster because I used dark magic. So I used just that to get back at them. One by one they all fell to something. I learned that death was an escape so I made them stuffer in life.”

“I gave them the same illness that killed Cypress. The only difference was I made it much more painful and no matter what they did, it wouldn’t kill them.”

At this point, I didn’t even know what to say.

“I made sure to save Timber Wing for last so he knew I was coming for him. Slowly, he lost everything.” Her voice turned into a whisper as she continued to speak. “It started with a cold, then he couldn’t trot without being sore, then he couldn’t trot at all. Soon he could barely move. It got to the point where he couldn’t speak or think.” A part of me wanted to run as she got close to me but I bottled up any fear that was building up in me. She flipped through the page of the book I had.

“When he finally took his last breath, I was the last thing he saw. That should have ended it but as always Timber Wing proved himself to be...smart.” She stopped at a page and pointed at the last paragraph.

She trotted back to the table as I quickly read over it. I recognized the spell. I remembered reading it in the book that led me to meet Misty all those months ago. “He placed a curse on you?”

“I should have known he wouldn’t back down without a fight. He hated losing. He found a way to trap me even in death he still controls me.” I could tell by her voice that she was exhausted. “It’s like I’m locked in a room and he has the key. Made by the same magic I got killed for. Ironic.” She shook her head and chuckled. “I’m tired. I want this to be over. I can’t have those kids stop me.”

I didn’t think that the students were doing something intentionally to harm her but what if they were? Or maybe they did something to cause this and they didn’t realize it? That had to be the case. She was so lost in this world of vengeance and power.

But there was still one thing that didn’t make sense to me.

“Timber Hall?”

Savannah blinked confusingly. “What?”

“Timber Hall. Does that name mean anything to you?” I asked.

“No, why?”

She could be lying but I didn't know why for some reason I believed her. But then would Timber Hall really lie to protect his grandfather even after knowing what he did? Unless he believed Savannah was a killer. Something wasn’t adding up.

“No reason.” There was one last thing that came to mind. “Did Timber Wing carry a watch of some kind on him?”

“Watch?” she scoffed. “He was given this fancy Flex Watch from his father. He always carried that dumb thing around. His family was very wealthy and he made sure you knew that.”

I got myself to trot next to her by the table. I sat the book down as she poured a bottle of some pink liquid into the bowl.

“You spoke to him?” she asked suddenly.

My heart jumped. I knew she meant Timber Wing but I wasn’t sure if I should tell her about Timber Hall. Lying wasn’t the best option. If she found out the truth, she wouldn’t trust me anymore. Maybe she already knew the answer and was testing me.

“No, I haven’t. I did, however, speak to someone who knows him.” That was as close to the truth I was going to tell her without saying too much.

“Well if they know him, don’t trust them.” She put up a spoon and started mixing everything she poured in the bowl.

“With all due respect,” I dared to say, “why should I trust you?”

She showed me her hoof and seconds later it lit up on fire. She didn’t break her focus off of the bowl. “You know what I can do. I could have easily killed you and that little girl.”

“Why didn’t you?” I tried figuring out what she was making. I couldn’t tell what she was using as nothing had labels on them.

“Why did you come here? That is your answer.” She paused and made eye contact. “You should talk to that little girl now. We’ll see how much truth she tells you. Be careful though. I can sense her desires. They are much darker than mine.” She went back to her potion. Her body was lighting up on fire again.

I took that as a hint that it was time to go. I didn’t understand why she thought of Cozy like that. She didn’t think of that for the other students so why her? “She’s only a child.”

“So? Weren’t we all children at some point? Yet, here we all are.”

I trotted away from the table and spread my wings ready to fly back out of the room. Right as I took off, Savannah gave me one piece of advice.

“There is nothing stopping anyone from wanting to harm those they believe are beneath them.”

I headed over to the school and sat down at the same table I spoke to Spike at. Now all that was left to do was wait for Cozy Glow.

Author's Note:

It's all coming together. What shall they do next? Find out soon enough.

Till Next Time!!!:pinkiehappy: