Marissa was never expecting to be in the house of a boy that she liked, but here she was sitting at a table with his mother and father. The boy wrote notes to her for months and eventually was invited to meet his parents at a dinner. All during the meal she felt her head ache a bit but she shrugged it off ‘I just need some water’ she thought to herself. The house the boy lived in was very nice and large, pictures of old family relatives with fun names lined the walls all around, one had particularly caught her eye. When she read it she could feel chills run down her spine for some reason: ‘Hiram Marwood’ the label at the bottom of the portrait read. All throughout dinner she stared at the portrait and it got to the point where she began feeling sick and asked to go to the bathroom. As she walked out the bathroom she heard a voice call her name, “Marisssaaaaa….” she looked around in confusion, “Hello?” she couldn’t tell if she was hearing her name being called from down the hall or in her own head, “You have to save me Marissa” the voice called. She felt her head turn towards a door a little further down the hall, “Save me Marissa” the voice begged. She began to walk towards the door and she stopped for a second, ‘Should I really be snooping around this house?’ she thought, “Help me Marissa ''. Without a second to spare she opened the door and looked down at the staircase, ‘The basement’. Marissa looked back to see if anyone was around and made her descent, she found a flashlight lying on the floor and shined it around the dark basement, nothing about it was particularly eye catching. There were boxes strewn around it but the basement was large, as she continued searching she eventually found several boxes stacked in a clump. “I’m here Marissa” she moved the boxes and behind it was an old stone door, several odd symbols lined it and she could feel that something was behind it. “They’ve trapped me in here Marissa” the voice echoed from behind the door, as she put her hand to the door her mind was filled with millions of memories. An exploding star, a comet that hurled through the cosmos and landed on a planet, ancient earth, she could feel the being’s awe and wonder of the world around it. As it walked the ancient worlds animals stayed away from it in fear Marissa could only make out its form through the shadows in the memories. As the being grew over time it had amassed a power but before it could use it a man stabbed through its heart, a glowering light emerged from the being and as it fell to the ground it looked up at its attacker, it was Hiram Marwood. Marissa took her hand off the door and held it up to her pounding head, “Marissa” the being called, “They took everything from me, each full moon they weaken me.” Images of the beast being stabbed as a full moon glowered from a ceiling window filled Marissa’s mind. It happened every full moon, different attackers in robes, and as the most recent memory flashed through her mind the robed attacker removed their hood. The Boy.“He didn’t like hurting me, I could feel his guilt, so I made him a deal. He’d never release me, he’s too scared, someone like you Marissa? You love helping those in need, I’ve seen you through his eyes”. Marissa was shivering, “You can release me I know it”. She wanted to say no, but she wondered if she really had a choice, she had helped so many others and who was she to deny the being. “What do I do”.
“In their library there’s an orrery, you must bring it down here and I'll tell you the rest”. Marissa began to walk to the stairs determined, she felt a doubting voice in the back of her head but she brushed it off. ‘I can talk to you in here’ she heard the being echoing through her mind ‘what if i’m caught?’ ‘You won’t be, I have numbed their thoughts, I have never been this close to freedom’. She opened the library doors, as she walked around a bit she saw it, the orrery glimmered gold. The solar system it replicated looked like the natural one but a little older, some planets hadn’t formed yet. ‘I found it’ Marissa called, ‘Amazing, bring it down here’ the being answered. The orrery was heavy but Marissa didn’t care, she had to help the being, it’s all that she could think about, everything else in her mind was fading away the closer she came to the basement. Her life, her friends, her family, all of those thoughts melted in her head, all she could think about was freeing the being. She made it to the door, ‘the sun at the center, open it’ the being spoke in a serious tone she looked down at the orrery and opened the sun in the middle. As it opened a glowing ball of light emerged, ‘You've done it, you’ve really done it! I knew you could. The handle of the door shook a bit, ‘open the door please’. She knew that even if she tried she couldn’t stop herself from opening it. As the door opened a tentacle reached out to the light, and as it did Marissa saw more memories. Worlds destroyed, the being destroying planet after planet across the cosmos, leaving nothing behind. Over what seemed like eons this being wiped out millions of planets, “After all this time” the entity's voice echoed through her head, “I am finally free, no matter how hard beings have tried the cycle always ends with the end of all organic life”. As the being consumed the light Marissa heard the last thoughts reverberate through her mind.
“Thank you Marissa, you’re my hero”
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