context : what if the neglected reader finds the book of king in yellow and ends up marrying an eldritch horror being
When the one whose hand you’re holdingIs the one one who holds your heartWhen the one whose eyes you gaze intoGives your hopes and dreams their start,When the one you think of first and lastIs the one who holds you tight,And the things you plan togetherMake the whole world seem just right,When the one whom you believe inPuts their faith and trust in you,You’ve found the one and only loveYou’ll share your whole life through.
You were never a special person.
There was nothing special or amazing about you, nothing that would make people look at you and say, "wow it's her!"
You had tried to be special, of course! Everyone wants to be special.
You dedicated yourself to art; you learned piano, went to theater classes, painted, sculpted, tried to write poetry or books, took dance lessons.
But it seemed no matter how hard you tried, you never reached perfection.
Your family was literally the opposite of you.
Even as a child, before you lived with your father, you could feel the difference between yourself and your mother.
Your mother, Lilia, was a professional journalist in Gotham; a very beautiful woman, long hair, full lips, tall, curvy in all the right places, but at the same time athletic, professional, charming, hardworking with a gentle and attractive sense of humor; truly a brilliant woman! …
Lilia met your father while trying to get a private interview with Wayne about his opinion on Batman.
Your mother suspected your father was Batman.
The interview turned into a one-night stand, and for some reason, your mother decided never to publish the evidence that proved Bruce Wayne is Batman.
And nine months later, you were born.
Your mother thought Bruce was a good man, but she was more comfortable raising you herself, and your mother had a relatively good job and never felt the need to ask your father for help.
You had a very good memory from childhood; you still remember how people looked at you when you went out with your mother, you could understand their thoughts from their faces.
She's nothing like her mother.
She must take after her father.
I expected her to be prettier.
You knew you weren't as beautiful as your mother, and that was okay… your mother was beautiful enough for both of you, and that was enough for you.
Your life went on calmly like this until you were 7 years old.
You would wake up, your mother would make breakfast and then go to work, and you would wait for your mother until night.
She would come back at night, and you would watch a cheap romantic series on TV together, over and over.
Until one night your mother didn't come back.
You waited in the apartment for a week, cooked, watched TV, went to school and studied.
Until your neighbor noticed you were living alone and called the police.
And that's how a police officer came, told you to pack all your belongings into your suitcases, took you to the police station, and told you your mother was dead.
It seemed your mother had been investigating the death of Bruce Wayne's adopted son, Jason Todd, and now your mother's body was found in one of Gotham's alleys.
You had a DNA test, and you spent a week in an orphanage. After a week, your test results came back, and you were sent to your father.
And you moved into Wayne Manor. From the very beginning, you could tell you had entered this family at its lowest point.
Every time your father looked at you, you could see fear and guilt on his face, so you avoided confronting him as much as possible (though you wished you could hug him and tell him everything would be alright).
The butler, Alfred, tried to appear strong and spend time with you, comb your hair, but one night you saw him crying, so you decided to help him with the housework (Alfred wasn't paid enough for all his work).
Your older brother, Dick, was no different from your father, and it was clear he wasn't in a good enough mood for you to approach him, so you kept your distance.
And then Tim came. Tim and you never really talked. You tried, but each time he told you he was busy and always looked at you awkwardly.
And Stephanie came. Stephanie reminded you a lot of your mother, so she quickly became your favorite. You tried hard to become close with Stephanie, but it seemed she never had time to spend with you.
Cass came. You tried to give her space and not bother her too much, and like Tim, you couldn't really get to know her.
And then it turned out Jason was alive. This is when you realized your father was Batman.
And then Damian came, your father's bio son. When you saw Damian, it was like your heart broke.
He was so young… so small; what must have happened to a child who tried to fight you with a katana the first time he met you.You decided to take care of Damian as much as possible, eat dinner with him, praise him, encourage him in martial arts, hang his paintings on the wall, if you understood he liked something, you would get it for him every week, if his clothes were torn because of one of the villains, you would sew them for him.
but you had a very special family.
You came to your senses with the sound of the alarm clock. You had woken up earlier than the alarm, but the alarm wasn't to wake you up, it was to tell you that there was time to walk outside.
You closed your computer screen, got up, tidied your bedsheets, and drew back your room's curtains, allowing light to fill your room, which moments ago resembled your father's cave.
You picked out a gray shirt and paired it with a lighter gray skirt, and after combing your hair, you grabbed your handbag and left your room.
It was Friday, so Damian was probably training, Dick was out with his girlfriend, Tim was doing research, Stephanie was out with her friends and Cas, Bruce was busy with his cases, and today was the only day Alfred could get some rest;
So it was the best time to go for a walk.
Martha Wayne's cemetery was always the best place for a walk. The cemetery was located on a plain a little further from Wayne's Manor, so it was close enough that you could walk there without needing transportation. It was a quiet place, and the weather was cool this time of year.
You silently went down the stairs and walked towards the mansion door, then walked along the paved road until you reached the cemetery grounds.
Johan, the old cemetery caretaker, smiled as soon as he saw you and said, "Good evening, Y/N, I see you've come here again…"
You returned his smile and said, "You know how much I enjoy being here. You've done a great job making this place peaceful."
Johan's cheeks flushed slightly with embarrassment, and he humbly said, "You're praising this old man too much, I haven't done anything special."
You chuckled softly and then walked towards the cemetery until you reached your favorite grave.
It was a strange grave. There was no name or sign on the tombstone, nothing at all, as if the person in this grave had never even existed. You knew it wasn't here for no reason, after all, Martha Wayne's cemetery was a high society cemetery, so surely a homeless person couldn't have a grave here, and that's what had drawn you to this grave.
You sat beside the grave and calmly said, "Hello, Fantine, I'm sorry I couldn't bring you flowers today, but next week I'll bring you a bouquet of white tulips…"
You had decided to call her Fantine.
Every Friday, you came here and talked to Fantine.
The color yellow caught your eye.
A somewhat old book with a yellow leather cover lay on Fantine's tombstone.
Hesitantly, you picked up the book and read the black writing on it.
Holding the book in your hand felt strange. You had a peculiar eagerness to read the book. The book wasn't yours, probably someone else had come here and left this book behind; you shouldn't have touched the book, it wasn't polite, but the strange eagerness that had formed in your chest was drawing you to read the book.
Despite your reason telling you not to read the book, you opened the cover and stared at the first page of the book, reading the text carefully.
"Along the shore the cloud waves break, the twin suns sink behind the lake. The shadows lengthen
The strange is night where the black stars rise and strange moons circle through the skies but stranger still is
Songs that the Hyades shall sing, where flap the tatt~s of the king must die unheard in
Song of my soul, my voice is dead, die thou, unsung, as tears unshed, shall dry and die in
You could feel the cold sweat running down your forehead. You could hear your heartbeat in your ears, and your mouth was dry.
You couldn't understand why you felt so much terror from a simple poem. The poem was beautiful, very beautiful, and the world described in it was enchanting.
Your hands trembled, but you continued. When act i finished, your hands were almost shaking, and yet you continued.act ii made you throw up twice, cry, and laugh, and then the final act
When you finished the final act, you lay on the nameless tombstone with terror, your whole being was frozen, you couldn't blink without fear, you felt as if you had lived too long, your hands trembled
But you clutched the book to your chest with silent terror
And then you walked, you didn't even notice that you no longer wore your shoes, and you passed Johan without even looking at him
Until you reached the nearest high bridge.
Your body was shaking, you were cold and trembling, you went to the top of the bridge, the night wind swirled in your hair, you held the book so tightly that your hands had turned white and the marks of your nails remained on the leather cover of the book.
Tears streamed from your eyes and the sobs of terror consumed your whole being, you cursed the author just as he had cursed the whole world with this book.
And you took a step forward
You expected to fall but you felt your feet on the warm sand,
And you were no longer on the bridge, you were in a place like a desert
But still, it didn't matter
Despite the heat of the desert, you still felt like you were freezing and had a strong urge to walk
Until you no longer felt your hair
And you didn't understand
Until the yellow sand was no longer visible under your feet and instead you found yourself in a garden
If you hadn't been so focused on the damned book you were clutching to your chest, you might have seen a very beautiful and marble harp in the middle of the garden, its strings seemingly made of gold.
A large shadow fell over you, you looked up and the last thing you saw before losing consciousness was a pale mask.
he who is not to be named
Admitting that HE felt lonely was not interesting.
It wasn't like that at first, but when you exist for too long, at some point loneliness will eventually come to you
And company was not an option
No creature could look at or approach Hastur, their small useless brains couldn't tolerate him.
And the most hateful of these creatures was man, Hastur watched how humans went mad just by reading a book….
At one point, in one era, the dream land was somewhat like a real realm, houses, citizens, markets, festivals; that era was very joyful for Hastur
Until that cursed woman came, Camilla
And with the death of that woman, a void was created in Hastur's indescribable being.
A void that made Hastur feel lonely.
Now there were no more markets and houses, and with the passage of time, sandstorms, the golden desert, destroyed every trace of those houses that were once under the sky of black stars and twin suns.
And only the castle of the king in yellow remained.
So when he felt that a cursed creature had entered his garden, instead of immediately removing the creature from every existing reality, he decided to go and take a look at the creature.
It was not shocking when the creature fainted as soon as it saw Hastur.
He looked at the creature,
She was wearing a gray dress that was torn and dirty, her hair was full of sand, her feet were blistered and bleeding, and it was holding the King in Yellow book so tightly even in unconsciousness that its fingers were bruised.
Perhaps this is what made Hastur curious, usually creatures who read his book do not survive long enough to reach this place and certainly do not embrace the book after reading it as if it were their child, especially humans.
And Hastur took the human body in his hands and carried it into the castle.
He repaired the human's foot, replaced the human's shirt with a long shirt, and placed the human on a bed and stared at the human beside the bed.
You woke up with a severe headache, at first you didn't exactly remember what had happened, you rubbed your eyes with your hands and opened them and faced HIM.
Tall, his whole body covered with a yellow cloak, a pale mask on his face and a black crown on his head
For a moment you looked at him in silent wonder
He tilted his head as if imitating a cat and said, "You woke up…"You stared at him in silence, unable to think of an answer quickly, but after a few moments, you calmly replied, "I woke up…"
After a while of staring, you asked, "Where am I?…"
He asked you almost mockingly, "Where do you think you are?"
You looked at him confused as he stood up, walked to the nearest window, and with his black hands, which seemed to be made of shadow and had sharp claws, he slightly pulled back the curtain so you could see it in the sky.
With a shock, you turned your gaze back to him and said in amazement, "You are the king in yellow!"
The king let out a sound like a sneer and said, "indeed…"
And then you realized you no longer held the book, and your eyes quickly searched for it. When the king noticed your gaze, he said, "Don't look for the book. If you don't want madness to kill you, it's shocking enough that you're alive right now…!"
You froze like a deer caught in headlights and blinked before quickly averting your gaze so you wouldn't have to look at the king.
Your eyes widen slightly, and you look at the king, then shyly thank him, "Thank you… for my feet…"
The king remains silent and only replies, "Wear shoes next time…."
A smile forms on your face.
And you think, maybe it's not so bad here after all…
After this encounter, the king did not allow you to leave, and you showed little interest in doing so.
And so, you and the king spent a lot of time together.
The king took you to his library, where books that had been destroyed or did not exist were kept.
He showed you his paintings.
He took you to the garden and played music for you with his harp.
He prepared very delicious food for you and made sure you were full.
He would let you ride dragons and taught you to fly with them in the sky of Carcosa.
He dressed you in beautiful silk clothes and scarves.
And at night, as you both sat on the balcony of his room, he explained to you about the black stars hanging from the night sky of Carcosa;
You had spent a full year with the king in Carcosa.
You had to admit, the king's company made you feel seen.
It made you feel special….
And at the end of winter,
As spring was approaching,
and become his companion.
You didn't care if you were making the right decision or not,
because you were more than happy to marry the king.
And you, in early spring,
were married in the hall of the king's palace.
There were only the two of you at the wedding, but that was enough.
You might not have been special,
but your husband made you feel special.
So here it is , the first chapter i intended to post it last night but I couldn't stay awake completely so I'm posting it right now , hope you guys like it please comment and say your thoughts and opinions ( my first language isn't English so I would be glad if you guys tell me if I made a mistake or not )
@lostsomewhereinthegarden
@strawberry-gato-holding-you
@brown-eyes-cello-and-books
