Chapter Text
Michael was up early. He was antsy thinking about having to do something weird with his goth friend and the old lady who tried to kill him. He still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. Something about evil book collecting? What does that even mean?
Michael prepared himself for the day ahead. He had to stay in his human form to get dressed and thought about how he’d have to maintain that form all day. He almost doubted that he’d be able to stay like that all day but he didn’t have much of a choice. Staying in that form took energy and effort that he wasn’t sure he could totally maintain for too long. Similar to wearing high heels but all over his body, not that he’d tell anyone he knew what that was like.
He looked in the mirror and saw a person rather than a colorful mess. It looked just like the person he used to be, but he wasn’t sure how much of that still remained. He still acted the same and now looked the same but he was painfully aware that he just wasn’t the person he saw in the mirror. Michael knew that he was a monster like thing now and could never really be a person.
He waited outside his apartment building waiting for Gerard. He never specified what time he was going to show up but he didn’t want to be late. He patiently waited on a bench for about half an hour, checking his phone every so often, before Gerard’s car pulled up with Gertrude in the passenger seat. Michael sat in the back, having the whole booth to himself.
“Hey, glad you made it.” Gerard said, turning to face Michael, slightly smiling.
“If I’ll be honest, I’m surprised you didn’t chicken out.” Gertrude remarked, making it seem like a bit of a joke.
“Oh, well I sort of didn’t want you hunting me down so…I’m here” Michael nervously answered.
“I forgot to ask, you can keep up that body for a few hours, right?” Gerard asked, making sure he didn’t bring him along for nothing.
“I think so. It takes effort to do but it’s manageable so far. Kind of like an All Might situation.” Michael thought out loud.
“A what situation?” Gerard responded, having no idea what an All Might was supposed to be.
“It’s not important. Anyway what are we even doing?” Michael asked the two of them.
“Now that everyone’s here, I suppose I’ll tell you. This one’s going to be quite simple, it’s just in a thrift store but we’ll have to search for the exact place. Small area though. The one we’re looking for is called Erosion but if there are any others there, you know what to do.” Gertrude explained.
“Buried? Seems a little weird for them to erode though” Gerard guessed.
“Flesh actually. You know how sometimes a thin layer of skin will peel off of you sometimes? Basically reading it makes more and more layers seemingly vanish until you’re just a lump of viscera and bone by the end of it.” Gertrude explained even further.
“Ooh, spooky. So burning it should do the job, unless someone else here could do something about it.” Gerard was clearly directing his voice at Michael but Michael was extremely confused.
“I guess maybe I could but I have no idea what’s going on. Can one of you just explain everything?” Michael was too frustrated in his confusion to not ask.
“Like, about Leitners or more broad?” Gerard asked.
“Everything. I was just pushed through a weird door and then went through some hellscape that fucked me up and suddenly I’m free and now this. I don’t know anything. I know I’m like the spiral or something and there are things sorta like me but I don’t even know what that means.” Michael elaborated, overwhelmed by all of the unanswered questions in his life.
“I think it’s only fair that you explain it,” Gerard said to Gertrude. “Besides, I’m driving.”
Gertrude gave Michael the whole spiel about the fourteen fears and how they can manifest in people and objects as well as the rituals they can perform. She explained why she did what she did to Michael and how he’s an avatar of the distortion, although she wasn’t sure what to expect from someone who was freed from the distortion after only being soaked in it for a couple of weeks. She spoke with no remorse although she understood that Michael was right there. However, this didn’t keep Michael from getting upset with her, although not outwardly expressing it.
“And she’s very sorry about what she did to you.” Gerard pushed Gertrude to apologize to Michael.
“I’m not. The world would be a distorted mess otherwise.” Gertrude was stubborn and didn’t want to apologize.
Gerard pulled over the car. “Yes she is. She’s very sorry she fucked your body up and we’re not moving until she admits it.”
“Fine. I’m sorry, if I could’ve stopped the ritual without killing you, I would’ve done it.” Gertrude said, clearly not taking it to heart.
“And Michael, do you accept her apology?” Gerard said, prompting Michael to forgive her.
“I guess.” Michael could see how little she cared and he was still pissed about everything. That being said, he was also afraid and didn’t want to start a scene.
“Good, so we can keep going now?”
He began driving again and soon enough, they stopped at their first destination. It was a small and worn looking thrift shop that must’ve been there for ages. As Michael got out of the car, he felt somewhat confident that he could keep up his human form for a few hours, he wasn’t in too much discomfort after the hour or so spent in the car and he was getting used to it.
As they walked in, they were greeted by a musty smell and several book shelves. The building wasn’t very big but they crammed lots of things into the small space they had. There were dozens of shelves full of old things, many made of glass or porcelain that Michael felt uneasy around. He was still readjusting to his body and he didn’t like the thought of taking one wrong move and knocking over the whole shelf, which would collide with more shelves until the whole place was in disarray. Michael snapped himself out of his imagination when Gertrude began speaking.
“Right so the book we’re looking for is relatively small and a bright read, simply titled Erosion, with no author. It could be anywhere in the building and maybe not even here. Let me know if you find it.” Gertrude explained before going off and scanning some shelves.
Gerard and Michael searched some other shelves together, looking thoroughly through each title and occasionally checking the covers, just in case.
“Holy shit, Gerry.” Michael said in shock as he pulled out a book and tapped on Gerard’s arm a few times for his attention.
“What the fuck-” Gerard said in an entertained shock as he saw what Michael was holding. In Michael’s hand was a book, and on the cover of said book was a woman embracing a hyper realistic anthropomorphic horse. Michael couldn’t keep himself from busting out laughing.
“Why is it- Oh god I hate it!” Gerard continued while joining Michael’s laugh.
“I know! She’s just- The lady looks so in love with this fucking horse and-” Michael tried forming a sentence but he couldn’t stop laughing. Every time one of them tries calming down, they see the other laughing and the whole process starts over.
“What are you boys doing over there?” Gertrude asked in a stern voice from somewhere else in the shop.
“Nothing- We’re just looking through these books is all.” Gerard answered, in the most collected tone he could manage.
“Right. Don’t make me regret keeping you.” Gertrude knew she got her point across and continued with her business.
Michael and Gerard continued searching for the book, still occasionally snickering to themselves about whatever they could. None of the group could find any book like that in the book section so they scanned the rest of the shop for any misplaced books. There were a few books strewn about in everything else but none fit the description Gertrude described.
The three of them decided that place was a bust and decided to go to their other lead. This other place was a much larger second hand shop nearby. The place seemed about as large as a supermarket but their book section was about the same size as the previous shop’s.
“It should be somewhere in here. Same drill as last time. If it’s not here, we’ll have to dig deeper.” Gertrude explained as they entered the building.
They all hoped that it was just in the book section to make their lives easier. They didn’t have to look through all of their hundreds of clothing racks and shoe shelves, just in case a spooky book was hiding somewhere else.
The group headed towards the books and investigated each title carefully. Gerard and Michael would still point out odd and questionably funny books but none of them came anywhere near the horse book. That being said, they did find their fair share of hideous fashion magazines from the early 2000’s but that was standard thrift store material.
After what must’ve been an hour of searching through the various books, they all felt pretty certain that it wasn’t in that section. The three of them split up, or at least Gertrude did. They had all decided that Michael and Gerard should stick together while he’s still learning the ropes. The two of them headed to the electronics section since that was the nearest. Electronic was a strong word for their selection. It mostly consisted of bulky tvs and weird devices with questionable purposes. At least this section was organized though.
Michael looked up at a few old looking televisions sitting in a row on some shelf. Reflected back at him was Michael’s distorted form, but it looked different. This form was much more colorful and distorted than Michael ever was. You couldn’t even begin to tell where he begins or ends in this reflection, which was much worse than Michael had ever gotten. He immediately tried his best to focus on keeping up a human form but noticed that he was already in it.
Panicked, he turned to Gerard. “Gerry, do I look alright to you?” Michael asked impatiently.
“Yeah, your hair’s a little messy but that’s normal.” Gerard reached up and fixed Michael’s hair with his hands for a moment before continuing. “Why?”
Michael pointed at his reflection, hoping that was enough of an explanation.
“That’s weird. I guess that has something to do with the distortion… Either way, you’re fine. It’s not you, I promise. Let’s keep walking” Gerry tried comforting Michael a little bit but wasn’t sure what to say.
The two of them walked away from that display. As they left, Michael noticed that the image of his reflection was warped into the glass of the screen. As much as this unsettled him, he decided it was best to ignore it.
They searched through some bins of random wires and machines, neither of them felt very hopeful about their searching but they both knew they had to try.
Michael reached his hand into one of the bins and felt something soft. He pulled it upwards and it was a small bright red book fitting Gertrude’s description. However, the book was covered in spider webs although nothing else in the bin was. He brushed them off with his hand before getting Gerard’s attention.
“Holy shit, Gerry, look.” Michael was shocked that he found the thing they had spent all day looking for.
“Hell yeah! You did it! I’m proud, lemme tell Gertrude.” Gerard exclaimed, relieved that their day was finally over.
“So… do we just buy it or destroy it here or…?” Michael asked, unsure if it would be a waste to buy it before destroying it.
“Of course we’re buying it. We don’t want to start a scene.” Gerard said, thinking this was obvious.
They made their way to the front of the store where Gertrude was waiting for them. They bought the book and the cashier didn’t bat an eye at the fact that they bought one spooky book without an author and nothing else.
The three of them went out to the side of the parking lot, making sure nobody was watching. Gerard and Gertrude watched Michael expectantly from the sidelines.
“So what exactly do I do?” Michael asked, unsure of how to go about destroying a book.
“I don’t know. Put it on the ground and use your distortion powers.” Gerard answered, also unsure but curious to watch.
“I have no idea what that means but ok.” Michael placed the book on the ground and concentrated on making it hurt. He didn’t know what that meant but he wanted something to happen. After a moment or two, he noticed that absolutely nothing was happening.
Just then, Michael had an epiphany. Since he was fucked up by being shoved in a spirallic hellscape, he could do the same to this dumb book. He wasn’t sure how he knew how to do this but he summoned a small yellow door in front of him. Michael opened the door slightly and chucked the book into the eye straining abyss as hard as he could.
“Fuck yeah! I knew you could do it!” Gerard exclaimed, clearly proud of Michael for his accomplishments today.
“Maybe letting you live was a good thing.” Gertrude remarked before cackling to herself. Michael didn’t know how to handle her sense of humor but was getting a bit of a grip on it.
The three of them got back into the car and decided it was time to go home. Michael felt proud of himself but was also unsure if that was the right thing to do. He wondered if embracing the distortion inside him would make him worse somehow and less human. All he wanted was to be a normal person again and he didn’t think that throwing scary books into the spiral was good for that desire. Despite all of that, Gerard and Gertrude were proud of him for his new abilities and the last thing he’d want to do is let them down.