The Tragic Tale of Mister Gubble

[ryocker]

The Tragic Tale of Mister Gubble

Story and concept by Ryan Jones
made with approval of the rest of the crew
Comments welcome!

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A brilliant flash of lightning soared across the sky, illuminating a bright, metropolis of a city through this bleakest of nights. The recent storm had rendered many of the city's futuristic functions unable to work- the elevators were little more than broken boxes, escalators were rendered stairs, the moving sidewalks became side lined, and worse still, because the rain was messing with bridges and some of the road ways, every single hover car in the area was little more than a glorified bumper car, unable to go very far without crashing. With this mess on top of the heavy rain, people did what they could to try making it home on foot, praying the electricity would turn back on.

One man in particular, a fella with blue skin and strange, green eyes, was trying to rush through this dreadful bout of whirlwinds and heavy rain. His dark, long blue hair was being pushed back, his umbrella forcibly closed due to the winds catching kleptomania. With no other way to prevent the rain from swiping him away, he ducked into the nearest alley, thankful most of the rain seemed to pass right over it.

"Man, what's with this crazy weather," he sighed, watching waves of water roll across the streets. "How the heck am I supposed to get home at this rate? I don't see any emergency vehicles coming up..."

As he stared at the streets and their rain-made surf, a neon green/blue square outline appeared in the alley, summoning up a door-way moments later. A disturbing creak pierced the roaring rain and wind, the man looking down the alley just to see the door hanging open. "...Was... that there before?" he asked, walking toward it. Against his better judgement, he stepped through the door, looking around the landscape before him.

Everything looked like a room in a pitch black state, obscuring any and all possible view, even with the door wide open. As the man took a few steps, the doorway he came from was slammed shut, rendering everything pitch black. On instinct, he looked behind himself- only to witness the strangest thing he had ever seen.

Golden lines were being drawn in the pitch black, creating what looked to be bricks as they continued onward. While they made outlines, only a few seemed to be completely colored in, leaving the impression this realm wasn't quite complete, or what it seemed. "What is this, the place where neon signs come from?" he asked, following the bricks laid out before him.

The man's puffy hoodie finally had a chance to dry as he walked along, his long hair still soaked with persistent rainwater. Thick boots and thicker pants squished along the road, the man keeping his eyes out as he walked along. What appeared to be red lines soon appeared on the ground, to either side of the yellow bricks embedded to the black scenery. Very strangely, the red lines only made two squares at first, but they then extended skyward, engulfing the other lines with black as they became outlined parts of the scenery.

The red lines continued to grow out and create an object, eventually forming what appeared to be a town gate. A fence soon followed the gate, the town the gate was made for following right after that. Ignoring the green fence and the multicolored town, the young man looked up, trying to find a name for this town. "...No name on the sign?" he asked, waiting a moment longer. Believing it to never be coming, he decided to walk into town, the words "Dead End Village" coming up on the side of the sign he wouldn't see when he turned around.

The blue skinned man looked around, noticing the details of this town. It all looked like something drawn on a chalk board, the buildings rarely having anything else to them but a colored outline. There were no other ways to define depth, no people walking through the town, not even something as obscure as footprints walking along in the ground. It made this town feel... empty. Abandoned.

He wasn't sure he liked this...

As he walked along, he finally noticed stairs being built in front of him, the outlined white stairway making him feel uneasy compared to the vibrant reds and blues of the town behind him. Nevertheless, feeling he had no choice in the matter, he placed one foot after the other, traversing the stairway with forced breaths. Up, down, forward, always marching, each step brought him further up this pitch black land. Upon reaching the last step, he gasped.

What he saw was no outline being made in front of him, no chalk-like lines forming solid objects. What he saw was a vibrant house, made in full color that seemed to defy the far more simplistic world surrounding it. The world previously made no sense to him, and yet now this perfectly normal looking mansion looked like something out of a surrealist art gallery.

It felt so right, yet looked so wrong.

Very cautiously, the man approached the porch of this strange, colorful house among a black world. He gently knocked on the door, not sure whether to expect someone to come out to greet him or not. As soon as he turned around to leave, the door creaked open, a small ghost eyeing him from the other side.

"Please, do come in," it offered. "The Master has been awaiting your arrival, he'll be outside to greet you very soon." The man couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this bizarre ghost, the creature's physical attributes making him question reality.

It looked round, like a balloon, the creature lacking a mouth or anything resembling proper hands or arms. a pair of black, beady eyes watched the man, a small bow-tie placed upon his chest. Its tiny tail wiggled, the beast feeling proud of itself for a good job of bringing this guest in.

The thick clothed man wasn't sure what to say or do about this situation, only walking through the door because he wasn't sure what else could be done at this point. Perhaps he could flee, but where to? The only door he had ever seen in this realm of darkness had vanished mere moments after he had used it. For now, the best he could do was just walk into this mansion, and hope for the best.

---

The ghost hurriedly shut the door, flying toward the blue skinned man as it seemed to be bowing to him. "Please, make yourself at home in our waiting room," he offered. "My master will be here to see you shortly."

"Um, thank you," the blue man offered, waiting for the ghost to leave. Rather than float off, it simply stared at him, switching between the man and one of the lavish, very plush and foreign looking chairs in the room. Realizing the ghost was absolutely bent on him being comfortable, he gave a grumbling growl, approaching a chair before he let his whole weight flop into it.

"Don't harass the chairs, they're very special," the ghost offered, floating up and out of visible range. The man kicked back, sighing as he looked around. Though it was simply a waiting room, the decor of this particular space coming off as particularly lavish; plush, airy couches and chairs; a multitude of framed pictures; an old clock that no longer seemed to work, the tall king of the room staring on with its perpetually still clock hands making a very uneven mustache- everything about this waiting room gave off a very mysterious presence.

For one, who were those people in the framed pictures? Were they anyone important? Perhaps multiple past owners of this house, the only ones here seemed to be ghosts after all-

"Sir?" a booming, yet humble voice sounded. I do hope I didn't keep you for very long, please. Enter though the doors across from the entrance, I would like to meet you."

Just the sound of that voice made chills run up and down his spine, like a sixth sense trying to tell him that something was very wrong. Ignoring the feelings, brushing them off as just paranoia, he got up, walking into the next room. He didn't see anything too bizarre- in fact, the whole room just appeared to be a dining room, albeit one with a much smaller table than expected- and a much bigger host...

The ghost before him was quite a bit bigger than the last one, wearing a very finely woven suit with a remarkably red tie to top it off. He had stiff gray cuffs, the man's body lacking a proper head- instead of a head, he just seemed to have a face peering out of the hole in his suit, said face resembling the one of the earlier ghost, albeit with a notable mouth. Another noticeable difference was the ghost's much grander arms, looking capable of punching through three layers of brick if they didn't belong to a ghost.

"Please, do excuse the lack of decoration," the large ghost sighed, wiping away at sweat upon his ghostly brow. "Coming across decent house decor when you live in a different world is not the easiest thing to do."

"Hey, honestly I don't see why it matters if you get quality stuff," the blue man offered, catching the ghost's attention. "From the looks of things outside, you could get all the furniture you wanted just by waiting for it to appear."

The ghost seemed to ponder on his words, a hand stroking where his chin would be if he had a proper head. "While you have a point, I feel you would be far more comfortable in a house that did not look a black and bleak as the rest of the world. I care about the state of my guests, even if they're only here for a short while.

"But please, do take a seat," he offered, his large arms pulling the chair on the opposite end of the table out for the colorful guest. Taking a cue, the man took his seat, scooting in. "Do you have any particular preference when it comes to your meals?"

"Not particularly," he offered. "...is it alright if I ask for the name of my host?"

"Oh, do pardon me- I completely forgot my manners. I am Mister Gubble, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir. May I know the name of my guest?"

The man seemed taken aback by the question. "Um... Indigo," he offered. Gubble smiled, chuckling.

"That's quite the interesting name, Mr. Indigo," he offered. A loud crash came from another room, the ghost groaning with an other-worldly grumble. "I leave them alone to cook and they completely destroy the kitchen- I'm so sorry, but I must see to this myself. Please, if you want to look around the house, go ahead- just don't go into my private room, please." With his piece said, the large ghost got up, floating through the doorway into what seemed to be the kitchen.

Listening to a constant back and forth between the massive ghost and many smaller ones, Indigo decided to take his advice and stood up, looking around the dining room for other ways around the mansion. Taking note of an open archway leading into a hallway, the hood wearing man walked toward it.

Despite knowing he was safe, the hallway held a very strange, other-worldly essence to it. It was well decorated with similar paintings from before, and had a multitude of doors to it. However, the only door that caught his eye...

Was a door, holding a very sloppily painted "DO NOT ENTER" in bright, red letters.

Indigo was fairly certain this was the door Gubble was talking about, the door that lead to his private chambers. He felt Gubble's warning was very fair, yet a nagging curiousity kept telling him to look inside. Throwing caution to the wind, he opened the door wide, walking in.

The entire room seemed... out of place, like it was cut out of a different era and stuck to the mansion's bedroom. The only things notable about this place was the fact that a small replica of the chalk drawn village outside was being made here, albeit the village was in full color... the other odd thing were small bubbles floating around it.

Each bubble had a small, ghastly fire within it, the flames looking desperate to pop the bubbles as some seemed to take notice of Indigo's presence. With the flames gathering around him, he finally realized something else- the village was decorated with small, very realistic looking toys.

He could have sworn he'd seen some of them before...

"Is the inability to follow instructions a problem with everyone from your world?" Gubble's voice echoed, the ghost passing through the walls. Something strange began to happen- the beast was sucking the color out of the walls, making everything a colored outline on a black surface, just like outside. Indigo gulped, backing away.

"I very specifically said not to enter my private chamber... then you DID..." Everything in the room seemed to be bleached black, the only things untouched by this effect being Indigo himself, and the small toys decorating the crafted village. The bubbles desperately floated behind Indigo, each one shaking in a very frightened manner, the growing anger in Gubble's face letting Indigo know they seemed scared for a reason...

"I had every intention of letting you go home, every intention of letting everyone that came here go home! But now that you've seen my secret... Now that you know what I do in here..." Indigo looked back, seeing a small, feminine doll in an open house. She reminded him of something... And like himself, the dolls weren't being drained of any colors...

...Oh no...

"YOU CAN'T BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE ANYMORE." Gubble's suit looked like it was being torn apart, shredding right down the middle as a large, drooling mouth screamed on his stomach. Multiple arms stretched out from this hidden maw, grabbing Indigo's limbs and preventing him from mounting any form of escape.

"C-can't we talk about this?!" Indigo pleaded. "Why can't you let me go?!?"

"Forgive me for this, but i can't trust you to keep your mouth shut." One of the ghostly, thin arms shot right into Indigo's chest, plucking a bright fire from him, just like the many others in the room that were trapped within bubbles. Indigo's entire point of view had moved to this small flaming bubble, watching in terror as the hand retracted into the mouth, closing on him moments later.

To his complete horror, multiple arms began wrapping around him, his new, firy soul being ejected from the ghost in a new bubble, just like the bubbles of others. He thought he was going crazy, but he could swear he could hear muffled screams for help...

"I do hope you can forgive me... Perhaps one day, freedom will be given to you all, but for right now, I must keep you here. Please understand," The well dressed ghost sighed, re-buttoning his suit as he looked at Indigo's body. "As for this... You're not really using it anymore, Indigo," he frowned, his large arms burning with black fire as he reached for the man's body. Indigo's soul was trapped, unable to do anything but watch on in complete terror.

---

"I'm sorry it had to end this way, Miss Jennifer," Gubble sighed, staring at the doll within the open doll house. Seated across the small table was a doll resembling Indigo, a smile forcibly molded onto his face. "You know I only want the best for my guests, but I don't want people to hunt me down just to slay me... I want to survive as long as I can, you understand?"

"I do understand," a muffled voice called out, a bubbled soul coming close to him. "And I am grateful that you've found my betrothed, but please... why can't we be free?"

The large ghost sighed. "I can't do it myself, even if I want to," he admitted. His arm shifted into a needle shape, trying to burst her bubble- the needle simply being absorbed. "Perhaps someone else will lay me to waste, and set every one of you free... but for right now, you are all prisoners in my home, and I do apologize."

"Apologizing won't set us free you horrible beast!"

"If you really care for us, just let us free!"

"You blasted goon, we'll get the police on you!"

"None of you can, live with that fact." he growled. A knock sounded moments later, color returning to the room they were trapped in. "Another guest... Hopefully this one understands the concept of following instruction. Until I return, everyone."

He opened the door, leaving the room full of screaming souls. This, unfortunately, was their new fate.

A fate they shared with him, trapped souls in a place they don't belong.