“Huh? What?”
John Matthews groggily opened his eyes, stealing a weary glance around the room. The back wall of the dingy apartment was relatively sparse, adorned only with a table, a few chairs, and 3 pictures of differently colored guitars. To his front, John noticed a guitar, bass, and keyboard, all entangled in a cobweb of wires and amplifiers. The cables snaked around the tiny room, encircling his feet like chains.
“Well… still not the worst place I’ve randomly woken up in. Not even in the top ten, really,” John jokingly remarked to himself. As he attempted to stand, John’s ankle snags a cable, sending his other foot straight into the coffee table.
“Argh! Son of a - ”
“Bitch.” A cold voice echoes from the darkened corner across the room.
A thin, hollow yelp rapidly forces its way out of John’s throat as a thunderous chill rushes down his spine. An unbearable pressure exerts around his whole body, air currents howling like freight trains as a wave of metal whips around his torso, squeezing his ribcage tighter and tighter. The building trembles to its very foundation, the wind nearly rending his flesh. John is lifted and spun turbulently around, until at last his bleary eyes face towards a familiar shadow.
“K-Kali?”
“It’s nice to see you, John.” She smiled. Kind of.
“What are you doing?” John hissed.
“I am initiating a ‘hug’. Because it is nice to see you,” Kali replied dryly.
“This is NOT a hug! Put me down!” John croaks, feeling traces of blood entering his trachea.
“Oh… Sorry.” The chains loosen and the building ceases to shake as John plummets to the floor. Kali looms above him motionlessly as John struggles to get back to his feet.
“Kali, what the hell are you doing? What’s going on?” John inquires.
Kali slowly raises one of her chain tendrils, the spike driven shish kebab style through a book. The title reads ‘Social Interaction For Dummies’.
“It says you’re supposed to ‘hug’ your friend tightly when you greet them.” Kali points accusatorially at the book. “Then you say how nice it is to see them.”
“I.. Jesus. Ok. Then why did you call me a bitch?” John pants demandingly.
“I was informed that people find it ‘cute’ when you finish other’s sentences.” Kali moves one hand in front of her eye, then removes it. “Also, I cannot wink, so…” She moves her hand in front of her eye and back again.
“That’s-“ John takes a step forward, bashing his foot into the coffee table again.
“FFFFFFFFFFFffffffine. It’s fine.” He hops, gritting his teeth and clutching his foot.
“Any idea where we are?” Kali shakes her head. Before he can speak again, John hears a rumbling noise in the distance. He quickly embraces Kali, wrapping his arms around very loosely.
“Here, this is a hug. Please don’t lift me up again.” The rumbling gets louder. And closer.
“The noise isn’t me, John.” Kali’s eyes darken as she widens her stance and raises her chains. The rumbling has gotten even louder. Even closer.
The lights flicker as the air itself seems to compress. Louder. Closer.
Suddenly, the TV opposite them in the room crackles on, the image of a strange man John doesn’t recognize wearing a stylish black shirt and holding a guitar. John’s phone rings.
“H…Hello?” John weakly breathes.
“Hi John, this is Julie! Can I be in this story too-“
“NO!” John and Kali both shout as one of Kali’s chains instinctively splits the phone in half.
“Well at least we avoided THAT one.” John exclaims.
“Agreed.” nodded Kali.
“I know, right?” said the man in the TV.
“…What?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Original song by Liam Vickers and XData. Kali art was shamelessly stolen from the original Kali theme video and the intro to Design Season 2.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video. And the little story there. As a reward for reading this far, I'll let you in on a little secret. There's gonna be another Puppet Game music video coming soon!
29 сен 2024
