Lie To Me~Ticci Toby X Reader

Chapter 18 In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death

A/N: Alright, who is ready for 2020 to be over? THIS GIRL!!! Honestly, I don't even know what happened in this chapter, is it good? no, is it bad? no, do I know anything? also no.... All I know is that while I was writing this chapter, I got the news that a very dear relative of mine has brain cancer (very aggressive) and I'm not well. It's tough, I don't want to whine to ya all so I won't, I just hope for a miracle at this point... Shout-outs for the ko-fis in the next chapter, commissions are also open. I hope each and every single one of you, are safe and healthy my loves <3 Cheers!

Death is neither an endless, ebony, silent void nor the luxurious fields under a cerulean sky where calmness is all that a soul knows. Death is not fiery pits or bubbling cauldrons with little red men with horns nor wandering souls traveling within the river Lethe.

Death for you, was the burning touch of coldness within the tight confines of your mind as it ordered your body to completely shut down.

You knew things were not going to end well for you from the moment the monsters had first appeared when you were little; when the shadows danced under the door to your room or static poisoned the air of your back yard, pulling your attention towards the darkness of the forest beyond the safety of your house. Nothing is consoling to that knowledge of course, not when you know that walking among the monsters always, always, ends badly for the human. Alas, hope is an irreversible poison to the mind, nesting itself deep within our hearts and whispering, along with the monstrous voices, that there is still a chance; you can still get out of here if you try.

The last thing you would ever see was Clockwork's boot coming down on your face before the world turned black and cold. If only for a second, if only for a moment, you fooled yourself into thinking that was what death was like; endless darkness floating all around you, where you would be alone to sleep off the rest of eternity.

Alas, nothing in your life was ever that easy and it was upon the passing of that moment, that true death was thrust upon you.

Cold. It was so unimaginably cold. The liquid you were submerged within felt thick and pleasantly frosty to your burning wounds, the flesh hanging open and the blood mixing with the acid. For a moment, your brain was relieved; it was calm, quiet and so numbingly refreshing in there, there was not a single thing you had to worry about anymore, no one to torment you, no struggles, no wrong moves. Alas, the cold grew and grew and grew, and suddenly, it was no longer comforting; it was burning, savagely making your nerves twitch and recoil, only to fail and the liquid to spread, eating away at your flesh until there was nothing more but the excruciating liquid cold fire.

Lungs contracting, you tried to scream. Your body folded in half in a desperate attempt to hold yourself, to console you through the pain and suffering; only for it to fail as a blinding light enveloped your tiny figure and death suddenly was as white as the freshly fallen snow, reeking of burnt flesh, tasting like metal, feeling like oil slipping through your fingertips, sounding like the static of an old TV in a long-forgotten house where nobody lived in anymore.

It ate away at your flesh, burning your skin right off the bone and you were too preoccupied with screaming to form any coherent thought. There was only feeling, sensations raking through your innocent body, the pain of extreme magnitude, screams for a salvation that would never come, and Clockwork's smug smile as she pushed you into nothingness. It was unfair. Why do bad things happen to good people? What kind of savage God punishes the innocent and lets the guilty roam free to do the Devil's bidding? There is something to be said about tests of character and a whole other ground for pure, full-out sadism. And here you are, amidst the cold fire to burn for all eternity, until there is nothing left of your soul until there is nothing left of you. All because you wanted to survive.