[The Daniels Estate, Piasu, Ryomania, 10:35 AM, May 7th, Tuesday, 2025]
Only a few minutes had passed since I had entered The Null.
Cathy was still in her room, thinking about all that had happened and regretting it. Erika was nowhere in sight, suspiciously and Amelia was cleaning the downstairs hallway with a mop, jauntily humming a tune.
Jack had finished raking the grass of the lawn back onto the dirt patch the three of us had destroyed the previous day by landing unceremoniously outside.
Jack Daniels: "Whew..." Jack said as he wiped his forehead of non-existent sweat and threw the rake down, making his way back inside the house.
Jack Daniels: "Man, I've gotta take a pee break after all that!" Jack muttered to himself, pulling out from the pocket of his jacket an earphone case, putting in the two earbuds into his ears and listening to famous artist and musician 'The Weekday'.
Jack made his way upstairs, to the second floor bathroom.
The house had at least six different bathrooms, three downstairs and three upstairs. He decided to use the one closest to his room, the upstairs hallway bathroom.
He walked down the hallway, enjoying his music and smiling and he passed by Cathy's room.
Out of pure curiosity he decided to take off his right earbud and press his ear against the door, nothing, she must've been asleep.
Jack Daniels: "Oh well!" He shrugged and continued walking down the hallway and into the bathroom.
He had locked the door, but unbeknownst to him, a strange energy had begun flowing through the walls of the room.
Jack then started to pee.
Toilet Head: "Skii...!" The sound came from the toilet, Jack was not paying attention and was looking at the ceiling, enjoying his music.
Out of the toilet rose a man's head, the man had short black hair and eyes and looked to be in his thirties—A complete stranger.
Toilet Head: "Skib... Skibidi!" The man uttered once more.
Jack finally looked down, his eyes widened, he blinked once, twice. And screamed.
Jack Daniels: "HUH?! W-WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!"
Jack fell backwards, his fall broken by the door, he quickly pulled up his pants as the stranger opened his mouth.
A jet of water came from his mouth and shot out at Jack's head.
With a huff Jack dropped to his knees and onto his palms, dodging the jet.
Jack Daniels: "I'm sorry for peeing on you! But what the heck is this about?! Who are you?!"
Toilet Head: "Skibidi! Skibi! Bi..." The stranger in the toilet responded, shooting out more water at Jack.
Jack reached for the door handle, but out of the keyhole came out the head of the same stranger, except smaller.
There were now two matching heads of this stranger in the same room of different sizes and in two different places at once, this had to be the work of The Syndicate.
Jack Daniels: "I didn't know they hired freaks like you!" Jack punched the keyhole, the tiny head retreating back in and then popping back out, its mouth opening to spit a spray of sawdust at Jack.
Keyhole Head: "Dop, dop... dop..."
The head in the keyhole said as it shot out a stream of sawdust towards Jack's head, it was pressurized like a laser beam, so Jack once again dropped to the floor and pushed himself up, kicking the door open.
Jack Daniels: "James?! Erika?! Who... Damn it!" Jack looked around the hallway and hid behind the now open bathroom door.
He peeked inside, once. A jet of both water and sawdust aimed right for his eyes, he fell backwards just before it could hit him, a speck of it entered his left eye.
Jack Daniels: "Ah! This— Who are you weirdos?! Leave me alone!" Jack said as he rubbed his eye, getting the sawdust particle out.
He stood up and shut the door, leaning against the wall.
Jack Daniels: "Phew... I didn't think I'd get to have another battle so soon, and in my own house too."
The hallway itself was very beautiful, flower vases lined the hallway as they were laid on top of small wooden tables with drawers.
A head came out of the vase in front of Jack, his eyes widening again at the sight of it.
Vase Head: "Yes, yes yes..." It muttered to itself as its mouth opened wide
Jack took the chance to sprint down the hallway, every subsequent vase alongside the right wall had a new head growing out of it, all resembling the same strange man and all uttering the same sentences.
They began shooting at him from their mouth's with flower seeds, many pressurized jets of flower seeds.
Vase Heads: "Skibi, skibi, skibi!" They all chanted in unison.
Jack took off the jacket off his arms and raised it above his head like a covering to protect himself from the onslaught.
Jack Daniels: "Leave me alone! You weirdos!"
Jack made his way to the end of the hallway, where Cathy and James' guest rooms were. Jack ran inside of Cathy's room.
She sat up startled from her sleep and instinctively threw a pillow at him.
Cathy Ariston: "What...? Oh, it's you... What do you want you bloody idiot? Can't you seem I'm sleeping? What's with all the yelling anyway..."
Jack took a deep breath and slid down the door, lying at the bottom of it with his legs stretched out to the other side of the door, forming a sort of barricade with his body.
Jack Daniels: "There were heads coming out of everything! First there was a head in the toilet and then the keyhole and then the vases shot at me and—"
Cathy rose from the bed, throwing another pillow at him.
Cathy Ariston: "Hold on... You're telling me heads started coming out of holes to shoot at you?"
Jack Daniels: "Yes! With increasingly smaller projectiles in pressured streams!"
Cathy snickered and shook her head.
Cathy Ariston: "Ha, ha, very funny Jack... Tell that to Amelia or Erika, I'm going back to sleep."
Just as Cathy turned around, yet another head rose from the opened pillowcase of one of the pillows on the bed.
Pillow Head: "Dop, dop, dop, yes yes..." The strange head uttered and opened its mouth, shooting a stream of pressurized sharp feathers.
They didn't stop on Cathy's aura, something strange happened. They passed through it.
She quickly put her hands to her eyes but it was too late, a few of them had already stabbed her stomach and arms.
Jack Daniels: "First Step: Apex!"
Jack moved in a blur, his eyes began glowing, he quickly kicked Cathy's shin as the aura began flickering, his foot connecting with her leg made her drop down to the floor, Jack caught her and they both rolled underneath the bed itself.
Cathy Ariston: "Wh—WHAT THE FUCK?! JACK?! WHAT WAS THAT?! IT... MY ARMS! Ahh... It hurts! Why didn't you tell me you asshat?!"
Jack Daniels: "I literally just told you! You didn't listen to me! But... how did the feathers get through your aura?"
Cathy Ariston: "I don't know! Shut up! Maybe it'll leave if we're quiet..."
The head on top of the bed looked around, being unable to find its targets.
Pillow Head: "Skibi..." It said as it retracted back into the pillow.
The room was suddenly very quiet, other than Jack and Cathy's heavy breathing, her aura seemingly flickered to life again, pushing Jack back against the foot of the bed.
Jack Daniels: "Ow! I'm fine..." He rubbed his head as they both remained quiet.
Suddenly, a deep voice could be heard behind them.
Bed Head: "Dop dop dop... yes... yes..."
They both slowly turned to see a giant head forming from the back of the wall under the bed, glowing into existence from the wall itself. The head's large black eyes stared back at them.
Something seemed familiar to Jack about them, the head's mouth opened.
Cathy Ariston: "QUICK! MOVE YOUR ARSE, YOU MORON!"
Cathy grabbed Jack and threw him towards the door with too much panicked force, the door flung open and Jack fell back against the railing of the staircase leading downstairs.
Cathy flew out from under the bed, pulling the blanket from up top with her to cover the underside of the bed with, but it was too late.
From below the bed, the head began shooting out a massive beam of wooden blocks, about the same size as a nightstand's legs.
Cathy shut the door with a flick of her wrist but the wood burst through it anyway, she threw herself down onto the floor and to the left of Jack, both ducking from the beam.
The beam itself hit a large window just above the foyer with a beautiful mosaic design, the window broke, shards of glass flying everywhere as the wooden blocks flew outside onto the lawn, the mosaic was no longer recognizable.
Jack Daniels: "Holy crap... Look! They're glowing!"
Jack pointed to one of the stray wooden blocks that fell alongside them, it had been glowing with the same white light as Jack's eyes, a faint white mist around it.
Jack Daniels: "Cathy, I think these are imbued with Flow!"
Cathy Ariston: "Is that really that important right now?! If we die, I'm suing you! W-what's Flow anyway?!"
Jack grabbed the wooden block and stood up, moving to Cathy's left side. He took a deep breath and threw the wooden block back into the beam, not before imbuing it with his own Flow.
Jack didn't know what he was doing, it just felt natural.
Every single other wooden block in the beam, exploded in splinters. Cathy quickly ducked behind Jack, no longer confident in her aura to protect her. Jack took off his leather jacket and used it as a shield, closing his eyes.
The wooden blocks burst all the way into the room, and into the head's mouth, causing it to explode.
Bed Head: "SKI-SKIBI!—" The head yelled out as it popped grossly, flinging the bed upside down and throwing wood and debris everywhere through the room.
Jack Daniels: "Hah... oh man, I think we killed it."
Jack put his leather jacket onto Cathy and went over to the now fallen door.
Cathy Ariston: "Don't lose your eyes idiot! We have NO idea what this is!"
Cathy clutched her abdomen in pain and pulled out the earlier feather that got stuck in it, the aura quickly flung it away, embedding it into the wall.
Jack gave her a quick nod and made a shush gesture as he peeked inside the room.
The head was simply gone, no blood, no guts, just destruction and wood.
Everything suddenly felt way too quiet.