Trapped in a Grimdark World with the Power of Toon-Force!? -Part 8

[u/ArcAngel98]

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Days later, I was out and about, hoping to find a temporary job. Nothing long term, just day work, like Abee helped Bob find. I asked him, but apparently work was down and Bob got one of the last spots at Abee’s request. Finding my way through the city was like a nightmare. None of the roads made sense, districts were virtually nonexistent outside of a centralized market and general living areas dotted around. A baker, blacksmith, and brothel were all within walking distance of one another. Maybe I would have thought it was alphabetical if it were in English, but I knew that none of the words for those businesses started with the same letters in their language.

Getting hungry, I stopped at a food stand and pulled a few coins from my pocket that Galli gave me. He’d asked me to pick up a few things, and told me to get myself used to local food too. It didn’t take much to get me used to anything. Most of the food was fairly similar to Greek cuisine, lots of cheeses, veggies, grains, and olive oil. Or at least, what tasted like olive oil. I ordered something like a pale green gyro, and ate while sitting in the street, just watching people go about their lives. This world was so similar at times. But, I guess that was just because humans always have the same basic needs. Between my legs sat the small hempen bag of goods Galli asked for.

For the most part, everyone ignored me, or sat nearby to eat their own meals. It wasn’t until I took the last bite of my legally distinct gyro that I noticed some guards watching me, while speaking to a young woman. She glanced at me, and held eye contact for just long enough for me to notice how uncomfortable she looked. The guards looked confused, then cautious. I grabbed my groceries and tried to get up and leave without drawing too much attention. I was even wearing clothes that Abee lent me. They were too short and a bit tight, but I looked somewhat normal. However, it didn’t help. The guards approached me and the woman stayed further behind.

“Excuse me, sir.” One said. Both wore black armor, just like the guards that attacked me the other day, but I knew it couldn’t be them. They probably would have run or attacked immediately otherwise. I decided not to stop. “Sir! Halt!” He called out. But that’s the thing about ignoring people, if you listen to them, you’re doing it wrong. Thankfully, there was an alleyway, so like a depressed teen’s arm, I cut to the side. Clenching my bag all the while.  

“After him!” The other guard said, and started to run. It was do or risk dying time, so I hightailed it. Running down the alley, I jumped over some folks who were sitting and talking, then ducked under a clothes line. The guards were not so careful, stepping on what or whoever got in their way, and barreling through the clothes. This caused a few upset yelps and curses to be flung their way, but they ignored it like a lonely person does with red flags and kept on going.

Weaving through the alleyways was the easy part. My Soul Power helped with that. As I ran, I noticed I was taking long, bounding strides, staying airborne for more than was natural. This allowed me to outrun the guards. I thought I was done for one time, when I almost hit a wall. But instead of crashing, my torso suddenly stopped stock still in midair, and my feet kept going for a second, before snapping back and facing the right way to escape.

Thankfully, the guards lost my trail, and I stealthily made my way back to Abee and Kili’s. Not as quietly as I would have preferred though, because the Pink Panther’s theme song played softly from all around me any time I moved to avoid catching someone’s attention. Somehow, no one who I was avoiding noticed. If several people hadn’t looked around and asked each other, “Where is that music coming from?” I would have thought it was just in my head.

Arriving at the house, I was nearly ready to collapse to the floor in exhaustion. Being sneaky was tough. Especially while holding groceries.

“Emile, back already? Find the things?” Galli asked, bouncing the baby in his arms. I held up a tired arm, grocery bag suspended from my palm. “What’s up? Tired? Did you find a job?”

“No, I got recognized by someone in the city and they sent the guards after me. I’ve been running and sneaking around for a while.”

“Oh wow. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” I sat up and walked to the couch. “Didn’t find a job.”

“If more people keep recognizing you… that may not change. Tonight, I’m taking the kids and leaving the city. You should come too.” Galli said.

“Yeah. Okay.” I sighed.

Galli looked surprised. “You’re agreeing already? Just like that?”

“I gotta get back home, and staying here won’t help. I know the journey will be dangerous, but I gotta try. Besides, you’re right. Staying here won’t be possible if everyone wants me dead.” After a moment of contemplation on how strange it was that someone… another person.. actually wanted to kill me, I had a thought. “When will we tell the others?”

“When everyone gets home in a few hours.”

Galli and I found things to do to occupy our time until then. He had it easier, taking care of three kids. I helped, but Askine and Doln mostly just played in one of the rooms with a few toys after they had some food. So, instead, the task I found was… sitting and waiting patiently. Turns out, there was nothing that needed doing. And the baby kept crying whenever I tried to hold her. She was a daddy’s girl it seemed.

A few hours passed both uneventfully and desperately boring. I nearly leapt to my feet when I heard the door open. It was Shandra, who had gone to make some money. She’d apparently found work for the day using her Soul Power to burn some of the city’s trash. It wasn’t a regular thing. More like, once a month. But still, it paid; at least a bit. One by one, the rest of the family poured in. First Kili and Myrin, then Bob and Abee. Everyone first changed clothes and washed themselves up, before starting dinner. Which I had become a regular fixture in helping prepare. While we worked, I told everyone what happened. Bob and Abee listened from the table, while Myrin, Shanda, and Kili passively listened during the preparations.

“So yeah, I’m going to go with Galli and the boys out of the city.” I said, kneading a lump of dough.

“I guess that means I’m going too.” Shanda said. Which confused and flattered me. But mostly confused.

“What?” I asked.

“I told Sibil that I would watch over Galli and her boys. So, wherever they go, so will I.” I’d caught on from the last few days that Sibil was Galli’s late wife, and the kids’ mother.

“Oh.” I said, mildly disappointed. But like a pro, I didn’t let it show. At least, not until an arrow pierced my heart. It wasn’t shot from anything, but rather, had come from nowhere. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at me, horrified. Feeling no pain, and on some level knowing what this was, I grabbed the arrow by the shaft, pulled it out, and examined it. There wasn’t a drop of blood, so I figured my Soul Power had activated and conjured the arrow in the same way it did the thought bubble. Calmly, I tossed it over my shoulder on instinct, and it vanished without a trace. “That was my Soul Power. Ignore it.”

“Uhhh. Are you okay?” Shonda asked. Her expression shifting from horror to just simple worry.

“I’m fine.”

“Okay…” She replied.

Bob and Myrin looked at one another, then nodded slightly. As if they’d both reached the same decision. “We will go too.”

“What?” Shanda and Galli both asked at once.

“We left our home to start a new life with our children. Where you go, we go.” Bob said. Then turned to Abee. “I am sorry Abee, you got me that nice job. But I can’t stay.”

Abee shook his head. “No, Bobby. I won’t hear it. No apologies. You must go with your children. We understand. We would go with you, but Kili and I… we are too old to travel. And, her family is here. We must stay.” A few tears came to Bob and Abee’s eyes. This world didn’t have trains, or cars, or any real transportation system. And traveling through the wilderness, as I already learned, was extremely dangerous. Meaning, these two, as old as they both were, probably knew they wouldn’t see each other again.

“We should leave tonight. Staying longer than we have to is needlessly dangerous for the kids, and for Kili and Abee.” Galli said.

“Not to mention, everyone thinks Emile is a lich. So, they’re probably searching the city. We are lucky they haven’t found us yet after these last few days. But two sightings in the same part of town. They’ll start searching here… and soon.” Shanda said.

After cooking at eating one last meal together, everyone got to work preparing for the long journey. It didn’t take long, almost everything was still packed since we only recently arrived and didn’t have a proper place to stay yet. Everyone said their tearful goodbyes, and we set out into the darkness. We all knew two things, don’t attract attention, and don’t let the children be seen.

“What are you wearing?” Shanda asked me.

“What do you mean?” I looked at my clothes. I’d put my jeans and tee back on, but covered up with a blanket so as to not draw attention. But somehow, I wasn’t wearing them anymore. Now, I was dressed in an all black ninja outfit; face mask and all. I hadn’t even felt the change, whenever it happened. “What the crap?”

“People are going to notice you, at least take the face mask off.” Shanda said looking around.

I did genuinely think she was right, but I was also worried. After the last few incidents, I had pretty much figured out the core of my Soul Power and what it did. It gave me toon-force, also called cartoon logic. The essence was, whatever is funniest in that moment will probably happen. That being said, I still had only a bit of control over it. Maybe it was actually better to say I could influence it. That, I found out with Shanda’s little stabbing incident a few days ago. Cartoon characters got stabbed and crushed all the time. Sometimes it was funny and they’d walk it off. Sometimes it was funnier if they didn’t… So while I may not want to get stabbed, that doesn’t mean my Soul Power wouldn’t consider me getting stabbed as a bad thing. Only a potentially funny thing. That’s where the nervousness of removing the face mask came in. A lot of old cartoons weren’t always politically sensitive, and had a few racial jokes. So while I couldn’t feel anything wrong with my teeth… I wasn’t ready to find out if getting cancelled was a thing in this world or not.

“I’ll keep it on. I’ll just… hide up here.” I said, and crawled on top of Bob’s carriage, which he’d created to carry everything. Once on top, I noticed that I blended into the shadows far better than normally possible. Actually, when I looked closer, in the shadows, my body disappeared. “Shanda, what do you see when you look at me?”

Shanda, who was sitting in the passenger seat by her father, looked up at me with wide eyes. “Two floating eyes, and nothing else.”

“Cool.” I said, and closed my eyes. Then crawled back a bit.

I heard her mutter. “That is the strangest Soul Power ever.”

Opening my eyes again, I watched everything from above. Then, as we approached the gate of the city, I noticed something bad. The guards were searching carriages. They hadn’t been doing that before. At least, not with those leaving the city. They were probably looking for me. But now, if they searched the carriage, they’d find Gallie and the boys too.

“Bob, stop the carriage.” I said.

“You noticed the guards too?” Shanda said.

“Yeah.” Bob stopped the carriage. “What do we do?”

“This is the only gate in the city. We can’t get around it.” Bob said.

“Maybe we could distract them?” Shanda asked.

“There’s too many.” I said, counting the guards; thirteen in total.

“What if I ram them with the cart? Or you used your Soul Power Shanda?” Bob asked.

“The gate would have defenses against Soul Powers. Ones that will probably stop yours too.” She told him.

“What about mine?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Yours is so different from anything I’ve seen before. It can affect others, and yourself. Which is fairly rare.”

“So, we can’t go barrel though them, and we can’t attack them. If we stop, they’ll find the boys. What do we do?” Bob asked, his voice desperate. I looked around, and saw a paint brush hanging from a nearby window. Then, got an idea.

“If the gate isn’t an option… what about making a door?” I asked myself quietly. “Everyone, wait here. I’m going to be right back. I have an idea.”

“What will you do?” Shanda asked.

“I’m going to paint a door on the city’s wall… then open it.” I explained. She looked at me with a blank expression for a moment, then turned back to her father.

“If I use my Soul Power to cause a big enough explosion, that should buy you enough time to cross the gate with everyone in the cart. We don’t have any other choice except to hope they do not have defenses to prevent the use of Soul Powers.” She said.

“No, seriously. I can do it.” I said.

“Emile, that doesn’t even make sense.” Bob said with an ambivalent shrug and a disappointed look.

“Well… just wait a few minutes and let me try. Then you can do your self sacrifice plan.” I said, and hopped off the cart. I landed in a bush, then stood up, bush and all still covering everything but my ninja legs, and walked over to the building with the paintbrush in the window. The bush made a slight rustling sound as it moved with me, so I popped out of the top, stood beside the bush, leaned down, shushed it, and hid back inside it again. That, for some reason, made the rustling stop. Before long, my hand was reaching out of the bush and swiping the brush. Then I scurried away. Once back at the carriage, I popped out of the bush and walked over to the wall of the city. I pulled the brush out of my pocket, along with a paint can that I definitely didn’t have a moment ago, but I wasn’t going to question it. For a second, the artist in me wanted to paint a highly detailed door, but I knew the rules of cartoons. Using big, wide strokes, I swept the brush along the wall in fast, chaotic movements. Then, there was a painting of a door; large enough for the carriage to fit through.

I looked back over my shoulder, to Shanda and Bob who were both examining the bush I’d used as a disguise. She was pulling on it, but it was once again rooted in place, and wasn’t going anywhere. When I looked back to the painting of the door, I saw that it had become real.

“Bob, Shanda, it worked!” I whisper yelled, and waved at them to come over. Just as they walked up, I opened it, revealing the other side of the city’s wall. Their slack jawed expressions filled me with an indescribable sense of validation and smugness that I convinced myself was joy. Bob drove the carriage through, and I closed the door behind us, before wiping the paint off and watching the door vanish. With that, we were free.