Work Text:
Bemoaning its dreadful existence, the many voices of the Dredge weeped and cried, crawling and misplacing the floating dirt and roots of its lonesome realm, amongst the decrepit old home where it would sometimes reside. The garden now void of people and pleasure, it dragged its many limbs and tendrils over the many textures of wood, plastic, and earth. Absorbing the life that once would have lived here. It rumbled with dissatisfaction, knowing loneliness, even with its many selves inside. Each voice stolen; woman or man, still begging to live a life untainted. The crowd gave a melancholic sigh, looking towards the sky of dusk, purple and orange with the fading of the sun.
A branch snapped, and the Dredge turned around, looking for the culprit, a low growl rising in its long throat, mouth sealing and opening again, saliva coating its teeth, dripping from the elongated maw. At first, it saw nothing. No human, no animal. It tilted its head, curious as it began to approach the trees that surrounded the side of the fence.
It noted some black tendrils, floating gently in the air. Cloth-like, maybe? It couldn’t tell, but it could make out a sliver of a figure hiding just out of sight. The dredge vanished into a cloud of smoke and arms, disappearing into the air, and reappearing in a locker nearby the figure. It carefully opened the door, peeking through the crack with just its eye, narrowing as it examined the cloaked figure that was there, crouching, leaning out from behind its cover. Like a stalker. Or it was a stalker. No matter its intentions, the dredge threw itself from the locker with a roar, thrusting itself upon the smaller creature, grasping its floating tendrils and its body with its many hands in an instant. It could feel it now, and it was a very smooth leather. The creature shrieked in fear, dropping a device of some kind to the ground as the dredge lifted it off its feet, pinning it aggressively to the rough bark of the tree, making the thing wheeze.
“Sh-shit man,” It choked, regaining its breath. Its voice was somewhat deep; masculine. ”They didn’t tell me you could just ambush me like that!” It laughed, panting a little, raising its hands to show it was unarmed. A white, long face looked back at the Dredge, void of eyes or teeth or anything. “This is cool and all but… can you put me down?”
The Dredge pondered its request, its face nearing the other’s, as if to smell it. Its many voices remarked in a chorus, that it wasn’t its real face, instead a mask. It dropped it, withdrawing all its appendages, backing up like a frightened cat, crouched as if on all fours.
The other landed in a crouched position, rubbing its back, hesitant to stand back up. It held out a hand, like the dredge was an approaching wild animal. “Listen, listen… I’m Danny. Your— uh… coworker, let’s say. Ghostface? Heard of me?”
It snarled at him, making itself look big, the bones protruding from its skin undulating, to try and frighten him off.
“I’m not gonna hurt you. Okay?” He took the knife out of the sheath at his thigh, showing it the shining blade. “I’m not a survivor either though. Cut me some slack for sneaking in unannounced, yeah?”
It made no noise, entranced by the blade in his hand, but cautious all at the same time. Its many voices mumbled incoherently at the sight of it. Some of its hands reaching forward, in a beckoning motion. It began to approach the ghostly man, still low to the ground.
“… You want it?” He said softly, holding it out to the creature. It flinched back, squealing in fear. “Sorry! Sorry.” Danny offered it slowly, holding it in an open palm. One of its hands snatched it quickly from him, backing up again, adjusting in what could be considered a seated position. It looked at its own reflection in the metal, its eye widening and narrowing at the sight, the tortured souls simply shrieking in unison with glee.
“Jesus. You’re… sorry, I don’t wanna be rude. Cuz I think you might kill me.” He rubbed the top of his head, adjusting his hood. “Can I have that back?” The dredge held onto the knife possessively, glaring at Danny with a hiss. He held up his hands defensively again. “Alright, alright.”
The dredge was enamored by the knife, the hilt slightly worn from use by Ghostface, black like the rest of his outfit. The blade was shiny and sharpened with care, another one of the Dredge’s extra appendages stroked the sharp edge of the knife, coming away with a shallow cut. It made a bubbling noise, a mixture of growls and various voices. An expected result, but it was still surprised. Its gaze snapped to the Ghostface as he moved, freezing as he noticed the thing’s eyes on him, with an outstretched hand towards the thing he had dropped whilst getting grabbed earlier. It was thin, and white— maybe silver, but the lack of light made it hard to tell. Before Ghostface could retrieve it, the dredge slinked over to the device, plucking it up as well with an inquisitive noise.
“Hey, hey, hey. Drop it.” Ghostface said sternly, pointing down at the ground with a finger, like commanding a dog who was eating something it shouldn’t have been. “Drop it. Please.”
The Dredge whined, its voices moaning, but it listened, placing the thing back into the grass. Gently. It must have understood it was fragile, or important at least. Danny snatched it back up quickly, sighing.
“You’re a lot more handsy with my things than anybody else. I guess I know why the others are always getting mad at me now. Not that it’s gonna stop me.” He chuckled, turning the thing on and looking at the screen in the back. “Few words too. Well, you can talk but I can’t really understand you.”
The Dredge mumbled something incoherent again, craning its neck to try and look at the device he was holding. One of its smaller claw appendages reached out to examine the thing, but it didn’t touch it. There were pictures of itself on the screen. From afar, and behind. They must have been taken before it had seen Danny. It growled softly, more of a purr than an angry sound. That feeling of being admired, if that’s what you could call this. The Dredge enjoyed it.
“You like that? The pictures?” He turned the screen a little more, allowing it to see. He scrolled through to a picture he had taken from a trial of his own, the bleeding mouth of a poor Dwight and his broken glasses bombarded by the flash. He laughed softly to himself, sighing.
The Dredge didn’t know this man very well, in fact it had only been a few minutes since he had attempted to attack him. It understood now what he meant when he said “co-worker”. It growled softly, the sound wracking through its entire body.
“So… Can we take a picture together? I’m kind of making it a mission to at least try and take one with everybody, y’know.” He turned the camera around, glancing at the Dredge’s face. The creature paused for a moment, its voices mumbling in affirmation, sliding ever closer to the smaller man.
“Alright, ready?” Ghostface held up a peace sign near the Dredge’s throat, looking to the camera. “Say cheese.” He said cheerfully, the camera lighting up with a flash, momentarily blinding the Dredge, after which it recoiled with a hideous cry.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay! Just light. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Ghostface stood up, attempting to calm the enraged beast, which flailed and thrashed with its claws. There was a slight tinge of fear in his voice. “I won’t do it again, okay?”
The Dredge growled, feeling somewhat betrayed for a reason it didn’t understand, but seeing the Ghostface standing with his hands up subdued its momentary rage. It rumbled with noise, settling into itself. Ghostface wordlessly turned the camera around, showing it the selfie he had taken.
It came out better than expected, as the Dredge had been still during the actual picture being taken. The monster purred with satisfaction, getting even closer to the camera, crooning as it admired the photograph.
“See? All done. Don’t have to do that again.” Danny laughed, taking the camera away much to the creature’s dismay, withdrawing a whine from it when he tucked it into a small case on his belt. It bumped into him, a bit rough, but it intended to be playful. It gurgled at the other killer, like an affectionate kitten rubbing up to its owner. “This is— not what I expected out of you. Usually I’m the annoying one.”
The Dredge made a confused noise, incredulous; annoying? How come? Its many voices wailed, seeking an answer to a question it could not coherently ask. It slinked away from Danny, eyeing him cautiously again. In an instant it spat out his knife from someplace in its smoke-like body, falling into the grass with a soft thump. Now uninterested in the cloaked figure that had shown interest in him. Too good to be true.
“Oh, thanks…” Danny bent over to pick up his blade, and when he stood back up, the dredge had dissipated, faint remnants of smoke floating where it had been standing. He looked around briefly, tucking the knife into the sheath on his thigh.
The Dredge watched longingly from afar as the Ghostface searched, privately from the comfort of the dilapidated home. It wailed again, the body’s agonizing cries carrying through the garden, and into the outer edges of the realm. Maybe it could try again another time, but today was not the day to make friends.
Goodbye , Ghost. Haunt me no longer.