Chapter 1: Awakenings
Chapter Text
Darkness, That was all Charles saw when he opened his eyes… he couldn’t see anything, and felt like absolute shit, like he had slept for years. His head was pounding as he tried to piece together where he was. He was cold, so...so cold, and his limbs felt numb, he heard the slight drip of water. He blinked a few times as his eyes got used to the darkness..there was moonlight streaming in from a hole in the wall.
After a few moments he was able to get a look at where he was recognizing the dungeon...oh…..oh that’s right..it all started to flood back to him now...Vanessa….Vanessa. He feels a sudden surge of anger fill him as he thought of her, how could she do this to him??? What did he do??? He didn’t do ANYTHING to deserve this! He gains the energy to angrily tug at his chains, letting out a noise of surprise as he suddenly lurched forewards landing face first on the dungeon floor.
He lets out a groan of pain as he pushes himself up slowly, what the hell?? Last he knew he was secured to that wall pretty tightly...had...had Vanessa loosened his chains while he was asleep? That would be a pretty shitty way to let him free if you ask him. He looks behind himself at the wall, his eyes going wide and his mouth opening in a silent scream at what he saw.
Him...he saw...him himself...chained to the wall limp….what no that..that can’t.. He felt his breathing start to become rapid as he tried to stand up, only for his legs to crumple under him, falling on his ass as he stares up in disbelief at his corpse. He..no..he couldn’t have what was happening? He felt his vision start to go blurry as tears start to drip down his face, he let out a choked sob and covered his mouth, shaking violently as he backed up looking over at the wall to avoid staring at the body.
He felt like he was gonna throw up, he...he had to get out of here, he couldn’t be here anymore. He turned and started to crawl along the floor towards where he knew where an exit was, he could feel his legs starting to get feeling back in them but he wasn’t confident enough to try standing up again. He was still crying as his hand suddenly hit a cold puddle. He looked down as he pulled his hand away, catching his reflection and nearly let out a scream at what stared back at him.
Yellow eyes and a deep purple shadow like silhouette of his former self. But the main thing that startled him was the way his face looked like it had been melting. This caused him to start hyperventilating as he stared down at himself, the melting getting worse. One of his eyes starting to melt with his mouth a bit before dripping off of his face and into the puddle spreading out and staining it yellow.
Charles couldn’t believe it..he..he was dead… he was actually dead and Vanessa killed him. He started crawling forewords again desperately trying to get the image out of his head as he managed to get his way to the stairs that would lead him outside. He reached up to the railing using it to haul himself upwards, his legs shaking violently as he clung to it to keep himself upright, trying to catch his breath from not only his panic but also the strain of using legs that he hasn’t used in who knows how long.
He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down slightly finally taking a moment to look around the room still taking shaky breaths. The dungeon looked to be in a state of disrepair, with ice clung to various places. A crossed from him a glint of something caught his eye, in the moonlight he caught a glimpse of something familiur...his crown, discarded and forgotten on the floor.
He pushed himself off the wall letting go of the railing and wobbling slightly before getting his balance and taking a shaky step towards it. It took him a few moments but he eventually managed to cross the room and kneel down to grab it looking down at it solemnly. He ran his fingers along the edge of the crown pulling his hand away and rubbing his fingers together at the dust that came off of it.
how long was I gone for?
Charle’s head snapped towards the door of the Dungeon, frozen in fear as he hears a voice
“I’m coming my prince~” He recognized the voice, one that he used to find comfort in but now it just brought a sense of fear and panic into him. He started to back up clutching the crown to his chest as he suddenly starts to run for the stairs, Yelping as his legs decided that no, he was not ready to run and gave out underneath him making him fall to the floor, dropping the crown with a loud clatter.
“Who’s there?!?!” A sudden screech rang out and He quickly grabbed the crown and scrambled to his feet looking behind him as the door SLAMMED open, making him shout in surprise. There she was staring at him, twisted into a horrible beast of shadow, her eyes red and glowing.
“Charles? Is that you? It’s about time you woke up!” Her tone is sickeningly sweet.
“Come here dear this was all just a big misunderstanding I'm sure you can agree!" Charles stared at her for a few moments, stepping back towards the stairs.
“Charles? What are you doing?” her voice suddenly turns dark and dangerous
“Don’t you dare go any farther Charles you get back here right- CHARLES!” It was too late he was scrambling up the stairs away from her making her let out another unholy screech.
“GET BACK HERE! YOU’RE MY PRINCE YOU BELONG TO ME!!” She screams her tone becoming obsessive and desperate, and Charles can hear her running towards him. He throws the doors to the cellar open and is blasted with the sudden cold and wind of a blizzard.
He squints and puts a hand over his face as he takes one more look back down into the cellar, seeing Vanessa at the bottom of the stairs quickly clawing her way up towards him her claws icy and ready to do some serious damage.
He doesn't waste anymore time bracing himself and dashing out into the snow, running as fast as he could, was it the middle of winter? what the hell?? He struggled to run through the deep snow hearing her footsteps behind him practically feeling her right behind him.
“STOP RUNNING!! COME BACK!” She yelled.
“IF YOU KEEP RUNNING I WON’T GO EASY ON YOU!” Charles of course, did not listen to this crazy bitch, he kept running, not even really knowing where he was going , just that he needed to get away from her.
That was when he heard her scream in frustration and a sudden wall of Ice shot up in front of him. He skidded to a stop a little too late, slamming face first into the wall. He desperately tried to gather himself before he started to climb over the ice, but a clawed hand clamped down on his ankle and suddenly tried to yank him back. He clung to the ice as she dug her claws into his ankle.
He felt panic rise in him, his hair suddenly bristling and his fingers turning into wicked claws and digging into the ice leaving deep scores as he was yanked off the spike and onto the ground. Vanessa toward over him menacingly as he scrambled away from her only to be grabbed again. This time he let out a feral sounding hiss and twisted around swiping at her with his claws. It was enough to throw Vanessa off and make her let go of him, stumbling backwards in surprise before she hisses back at him and launches at him again. She really was a determined one huh?
He put his hands up to shield himself and closed his eyes waiting for the sting of claws and ice but all that came was a pained scream from Vanessa. Charles opened his eyes seeing a pillar of fire between the two of them..d..did he do that?? He didn’t know and he wasn’t gonna stick around to find out, He quickly righted himself and launched himself up and over the Ice and he kept running.
He didn’t stop running until he ran past the bridge that led to the manor..he slowed down...looking behind him...okay she wasn’t following him..but still, he should find somewhere to hide. He stumbled along taking note of how the entirety of subcon seemed to be covered from head to toe in snow and ice, even more so than with some of their toughest winters. There was no sign of any kind of life and that made him nervous.
He kept walking for who knew how long until he found a snowy alcove, stepping inside. This seemed like a safe a place as any to rest and..god he was tired a LOT just happened. He made his way further inside and flopped against the wall, sliding down and letting out a loud sigh, closing his eyes.
Well...here he was...a Prince murdered by his queen, brought back to life by who knows what. That was...a lot to take in...and honestly..it pissed him off. None of this was his fault! He didn’t have to die but apparently Vanessa was some crazy bitch! He felt his anger fade as he realized he should have seen this coming, there were SO many red flags. He sighed and ran a hand a crossed his face staring up at the ceiling of the little alcove he was in before he felt his eyes droop shut slowly, a little nap sounded good right about now. He started to feel himself fall asleep and just let it happen..drifting into a dreamless sleep..he’ll deal with this all when he wakes up.
Chapter 2: Dead Hearts
Summary:
Charles wanders into whats left of the village and finds out about what happened to his subjects.
Notes:
I have no idea what I'm doing with this fic.
also dumbass me accidently like deleted all of my editing so I had to go back and edit this twice its 3 am , also I can't tell if this is shorter than the other chapter or not but honestly I'm just vibing expect chapters to be very inconsistant in length as I despretly try to condense the story I wanna tell into chapters.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Eventually Charles felt himself suddenly jolt awake, looking around in minor confusion...where was he? Why was it cold? He dug his hands into the snow for a moment as he blinked slowly. It started to come back to him as he looked around the small Alcove he was in.
He realized what had woken him up after a few moments..he was on the ground now..he must have fallen over...right onto the crown he had set aside. He just kinda laid there in the cold snow for a few moments before pushing himself up, trying to ignore the slight pain from where he had landed on the solid chunk of metal, before gathering up said item and heading back out.
He didn’t like how quiet everything was..Subcon was usually a lively place, and if you couldn’t hear any wildlife you could probably hear one of the younger villagers playing with one another loudly..but there was none of that..only eerie silence as he wandered through the forest he called home.
Everything felt off..the air felt thick and tense and he couldn’t shrug this feeling of dread that something horrible had happened when Vanessa lost her shit. He continued on slowly, stopping at the sight of a large tree surrounded by a small pond. It was one he knew well, it was old and hollow, and one he had come to many times to gather his thoughts.
He just stares for a few more moments before turning to take note of the swamp he knew was nearby..now frozen over and buried under snow. Well at least he knew where he was now, he should be able to make his way back to the village.
He turned away from the tree and started to make his way quickly down the way. He hoped, he PRAYED that this bad hunch he had wasn’t right..that everyone would be okay..that they would be a little chilly but fine. He starts to speed up about half way. He had to know..he HAD to know.
Eventually he froze staring at the frozen over town in shock, half of the buildings were completely covered in ice, if not in horrible disrepair. He slowly steps his way towards the ruined buildings stopping and trying to open the gate, only to find it frozen shut.
He tries to force it open before he just settles for climbing OVER the fence as best he could, dropping over the edge and continuing on. Staring at the frozen buildings in quiet shock he made his way to the center of the village looking around in hope for any sign of the villagers..just because the village was like this didn’t mean they were gone right? Maybe they had moved on to somewhere else??
That was when he nearly tripped over a larger chunk of Ice with A noise of surprise. Looking down at it..squinting as the shape seem vaguely familiar. He squats down and brushes some of the snow off of the shape and suddenly shouts and scrambles backwards, as he’s met with the vague shape of a masked face.
He stared at the little figure recognizing it immediately as one of the kids of the village, just staring in disbelief...no..No! NonononononononO! She didn’t!? She wouldn’t??? This had to just be him seeing things! He scooted closer brushing more of the snow off to reveal the rest of the small form confirming his fears. He takes a shaky breath and reaches one of his hands to touch the face of the child carefully, the other covering his mouth as he tried to hold back a sob.
Charles could already feel his eyes starting to do that weird melting thing that he guesses was just his crying now but he didn’t care. He wrapped his arms around the tiny frozen form and just sobbed, his form heaving as he cried. Soon noticing more of these shapes hidden under the snow.
Vanessa….Vanessa she did this..she killed them...she killed ALL of theM! His sobbing grew louder as he pulled himself away from the Frozen body and just taking in the carnage...the carnage that SHE caused, all the people she killed who had nothing to DO with her anger at him! The literal CHILDREN she dragged into a fight that wasn’t THEIRS.
Charles felt a snarl of rage rise in his throat before he suddenly let out an almost bestial Scream of anger. His hair ruffling up almost like a mane and his fingers turning into claws and igniting in blue flames, the rest of his form soon following, melting the snow around him as he screamed his anger.
He calmed down after a few moments, the flames dying out as he just stood there in shock...his hair smoothing out and his claws returning to hands as he looked down at them, panting heavily...he doesn’t know why he was..it’s not like he needed to breath..maybe it had to do something with how angry he was.. he slowly put his hands down to his sides staring off in the distance blankly.
The sudden outburst left him confused...what was that all about? He means...he knows it was cause he’s angry but...the flames, the claws...how his scream sounded less like a man more like an angry beast.
He stepped back before he turned and made his way towards one of the frozen buildings, slumping against it and plopping to the ground. Holding his head in his hands as he stared at nothing in particular. He takes a deep breath...This was his fault...If he hadn’t..if...if he only… He growls and digs his fingers into his hair..no NO! This WASN’t his fault! It was all HERS!
Charles closed his eyes...his whole life had been taken away from him..his love, his kingdom, his ability to experience living. It was all a lot to realize, and he still was having trouble wrapping his head around it... that the one he loved and trusted the most BETRAYED him so hard, that she not only betrayed HIM but the whole kingdom that loved and trusted HER.
He had never felt so broken and conflicted in his life..he wanted nothing more than to curl up and not do anything for the rest of his life….Unlife? Afterlife?? God he didn’t know what to call it… he really didn’t know what to do at this point.
He was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts by a soft jingling sound. He didn’t look up at first, trying to judge if he had actually heard it or not before he heard the noise again. Glancing up, nearly yelling when he came face to face with a couple of ..rather odd creatures.
He stared at them in fear for a moment as they floated near him tilting their masked heads. They had long worm like bodies that were glowing slightly and sparkled with a strange light, it would be pretty if not for the masks staring at him blankly with no expressions. One was more of an orange fox like mask with piercing green eyes that stared directly at him, vibrating slightly, and the other had a blue mask, marked with odd black arrow markings and ears akin to that of a rabbit, having the same vibrating eyes as the other only this one was in blue.
They floated closer to him making him scoot back in fear before he recognized the masks they wore...Much like the kids of the village.. He stares at them silently as They jingle at him in confusion before getting closer. He reaches a hand to the blue one...who’s mask matched that of the first one he had stumbled upon.
“You..your…” The little specter set it’s head in his hand and stared at him, making another soft jingling noise.
“You guys are..” Well he couldn’t say alive but...He reaches up with his other hand and pulls the two ghosts closer to him, they do not fight against him and even move closer to him willingly as he embraced them carefully, fighting back the urge to cry...he honestly had thought he had been all alone in this odd, being brought back to life thing..he doesn’t know how he feels about them having to go through this as well.
“Are you all like this?” He asks quietly as he lets go of them and they float away slightly. The little ghosts stare at him for a moment before they look at one another. The fox masked one turns back to him and nods a little. He frowns, Still having mixed feelings about the situation but at the moment he’s mostly happy that he doesn’t have to be alone.
He stands up and looks around
“Where is everyone else?” He asks, knowing they can’t respond. However they jingle excitedly and start to zip away. He follows after them quickly assuming that they were trying to lead him somewhere.
He followed the little specters through the trees, thankfully the blizzard had stopped and turned into only simply a light snow. However it was still kinda hard to navigate through the good couple feet of snow. The ghosts would never get too far ahead of him, they would stop and wait for him any time he lagged behind too far.
Eventually the three of them came over a slight hill, there were more of these little worm like ghosts milling about a cluster of snow covered stumps. Once they noticed Charles however they scattered and hid. He frowned as they did so...they were probably shy, I mean he would be too after going through everything they have been through.
The two that had escorted him floated towards the center of the little cluster, jingling loudly and excitedly. The blue one making it’s way over to float around Charles a bit. Eventually a mask or two peeked out from around a tree, more soon joining. They slowly jingled in return and inched their way out from hiding.
Charles watches as they start to make their way over to him, making confused noises as they float around him, looking him over and tilting their heads. A couple even nudging him or trying to curl around his shoulder or something. He chuckles a little.
“Hey..hey guys...it’s..it’s me Charles…”
A few more make even more confused noises and kind of jingle at one another as if they were discussing something, before one suddenly shot off in another direction. He stared in confusion but decided to let it be.
One of the little ghosts nudges him to get him to move forwards
“Oh Oh all right I’m moving!” He says as he starts Following along. He’s lightly pushed until they get to a little area that seemed to be more so cleared of snow.
He watches as one of the little ghosts nudges over a snow ball, he stares at it in confusion before it makes a noise at him and he reaches out to push it, making it roll a few feet away, watching as the ghosts that had gathered around him dashed after it, trying to steal it from one another and bring it back to him. This brought a smile to his face and warmed his height..even in death they were playful as ever...good...he wouldn’t want all of this to ruin their spirits.
He pushes the ball again and watches in amusement as they all chase after it again. He repeats this process with them for a few minutes before he suddenly hears a voice from behind him causing him to freeze up.
“Who are you?? And why are you here??”
He jumps in surprise turning around to stare with wide eyes at who had spoken up. There in front of him was an odd blue...well he was just gonna assume ghost, staring at him. He was thin and lanky , with an angular face, and two horns(?) Curled atop his head in an almost crescent moon shape both tipped in red. He stared at him distrustfully with some of the oddest eyes he’s ever seen..but what really through him off about this guy was his clothes...and it’s..similarties to the outfit he once wore.
“Who ARE you?” The stranger repeats in a hostile tone, making him jump again.
“Ah Uh well..” He takes a deep breath and straightens himself back up from where he had been squatted down playing with the ghosts.
“I….Am...Prince Charles…” He hoped whoever this guy had been in life wasn’t one of the people who despised royalty.
the stranger got a confused look on his face that soon turned into one of anger.
“No...You can’t be Him! I’m Charles!”
Notes:
I have some art I've done of my version of Moonjumper *dances*
https://twitter.com/cronchlord/status/1256047739768655872?s=20
Ph03nixs_FicStop on Chapter 2 Sun 10 May 2020 06:18PM UTC
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microwaveswithlegs on Chapter 2 Wed 20 May 2020 07:22PM UTC
Last Edited Wed 20 May 2020 09:23PM UTC
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RainyTownTime on Chapter 2 Tue 26 May 2020 02:59AM UTC
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microwaveswithlegs on Chapter 2 Wed 27 May 2020 07:02PM UTC
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