March 25, 2022

Harmonia appears in a dusty hall of the bunker lined with unlit candles.

She looks around. "I appear to have made a mistake."

She hears laughter echoing from one of the rooms.

Harmonia sighs, bringing out her claws and looking around.

“Terminal”, who is really just Jack, steps out from a room, he's smiling ear to ear and looks over at Harmonia. "How's this for an alter huh? But I'm not the first one to do it either."

Harmonia growls. "Fuck off."

He starts walking towards her, holding out his arms. "Come on! I thought you liked me"

Harmonia backs away. "You might have tricked the others into thinking you're innocent but I know you're not.”

Jack continues walking forward. "Oh little me oh my, I'm not innocent, I'm just right~"

Harmonia tries to move around him. "Right about what?"

Jack grabs her arm as she tries to get by. “What is it?"

Harmonia growls and grabs him, pulling him off her. "What’s what??"

"You said about that? What about it?"

"What are you right about?"

"Everything.”

"Uh huh. Like what?" Harmonia asks.

"Yes.” Jack responds.

"Sureeee. So, did ya bring me here to walk around as November, or do you have a goal?"

"You antagonized me so I’ll annoy you.”

"You responded to my tweet first soooo-” Harmonia responds.

"Lmao.”

Harmonia starts walking toward the stairs to go to the basement.

Jack stands there, watching with a grin.

Harmonia sighs and goes up the stairs, heading to the basement.

She walks up the stairs and finds herself in the woods somehow.

Harmonia is in an overgrown forest with pine trees bushes and weeds and she starts walking around.

Jack, still disguised as Terminal, is following behind her. “Really thought that bunker bit would be upsetting.”

"Have enough nightmares already.” She comments.

"That and needed to take you somewhere the saints wouldn’t freak out at hearing you screaming~"

"They haven't before.” Harmonia laughs, just walking more.

She starts to grow more and more tired.

"Oh, you cunt..." Harmonia groans, laying down.

Jack walks over beside her and watches with a smile as the tiredness turns into seeing flashing colors and hearing dial-up sounds.

Harmonia groans, whimpering at the sounds and lights.

"That's what I thought." Jack makes a snide remark. After a moment the alter seems to stop as all effects fade. On coming back to her senses she can see Jack trying swat away a nightjar attacking him. "What the fuck, get away-”

Harmonia looks at it, groaning. "Bird..."

He's still swatting at the bird as it screeches trying to peck at him. "Fucking- The alter was almost done too what the fuck why are you attacking me!?!?!"

Harmonia just laughs. "Get him!"

You hear more birds in the woods chirping, calling, and screeching as he keeps swatting. "FUCK OFF" Jack manages to hit the nightjar rather hard as it hits a tree with a thunk and falls to the ground.

Harmonia’s eyes widen as she gets up, attempting to grab the bird and escape.

"Oh no you don't" Jack grabs her by the wing and yanks.

Harmonia yelps and turns to try and claw at Jack.

Jack blocks with his arms still with a long smile. "Oh, that hurt did it?" Harmonia sees a few barn owls land in the trees nearby as they watch.

She tries to kick him in the stomach and run again.

Jack barely steps back from the hit as he grabs onto the leg she kicked with.

Harmonia tries to claw at his arms but upon clawing his arm she gets sprayed with black blood that burns to the touch. "𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝒾𝑒 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒, 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉?"

Harmonia screams at the pain, pulling away. "Not the first time I've died.”

The blood sticks and continues burning. Jack starts laughing as Harmonia slowly gets tired.

Harmonia is freaking out, starting to wobble. "G-get away get away-"

"𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝓊𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓇 𝒶 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓈𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝓌𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽.." He aggressively pushes her into a tree and his appearance flickers back into Jack, a pure silver fox with a melted ceramic mask and white striped pants. He has a short tail and an ear missing. Harmonia can see his orange eyes in the dark under the mask as he snarls. She starts to feel pure fear.

Harmonia is terrified and struggles, screaming.

Jack reaches for her throat before she hears an owl screech, 5 nightjars fly at Jack and start attacking him, he backs up as he swats at them, the feeling of fear fading. "WHAT THE FUCK-"

Harmonia growls and tries to put her claws through his eyes.

Her claw goes in as he backs away with a scream, the nightjars then start aiming for his eyes, pecking and scratching, he swats one that falls to the ground as a few more nightjars join in.

Harmonia plucks his eyes out and puts them in her pocket. "Good birds!"

The birds are still attacking him as he falls on his back screaming...the birds are starting to tear at his flesh.

"Wooo yeahhh go go go-” Harmonia cheers them on.

A few barn owls swoop in with the nightjars, joining in on the attack.

"YEAHH, GET EM!”

Jack has stopped moving and the birds fly back into the trees suddenly as the nightjar from before is still on the ground. Jack lays motionless on the ground, blood pouring from the eye sockets of the melted mask.

Harmonia goes to the nightjar from before to see if it's alive. It looks over at her and seems hurt.

"Hey,," Her voice is soft and gentle as she walks over, taking off her sweatshirt to put over her hands, attempting to gently scoop the bird up.

Harmonia picks up the bird as it stays still while watching her.

Suddenly she hears a distant loud noise, the bird turns his head toward the sound as she hears birds fly from the trees.

"That's not good..." Harmonia holds the bird to her chest and starts running in the opposite direction, careful to not let the bird fall.

The bird starts trying to get free.

She stops running and looks down. "You okay lil buddy?"

It keeps trying to get free as it screeches.

Harmonia opens her palms to let it free.

The nightjar hops off and lands on the ground clumsily as it starts hopping towards the sound.

Harmonia sighs and picks it back up, this time heading towards the sound.

It doesn't fight this time since she is walking towards it.

As she walks she can hear other birds in the trees.

Harmonia follows the sound, holding the bird gentle.

She can faintly make out birds in the night flying in the same direction she is walking, all of them are going to the sound.

"Time to meet bird Jesus I guess...." Harmonia sighs and continues walking.

The bird calls are growing, there have to be hundreds of them just out of sight, nightjars, potoos, owls of various sizes, and one call that doesn't sound quite right, almost digital.

The haunting calls in the woods start changing tones, some higher or lower than their normal calls should be.

Harmonia is disturbed but keeps walking. "Oh my god, I'm gonna die to bird Jesus..."

It’s so dark she can barely see as it seems to somehow get darker.

Harmonia can hear something making digital bird calls ahead.

She is freaking out quite a bit. "I should run away probably…”

The nightjar she’s holding doesn't seem scared at all as it looks forward. Harmonia can make out the ghostly white faces of the owls sitting in the branches watching her. She can then see 3 small lights blinking in a row, blue, green, and red.

"I'm not here to hurt anyone-" She says softly, looking around nervously.

The three dots blink in the dark.

"H-hi.” Harmonia walks closer to the dots.

As she gets closer the lights disappear, she can see what looks like an entrance to a cave, a cool draft of air coming from it along with the echoes of some birds.

Harmonia takes a deep breath as she enters, trying to be quiet.

The cave starts going down slightly, she occasionally feels the wind from an owl glide past her quietly in the dark.

"Hello?" Harmonia asks.

Her voice echoes as bats from the ceiling drop and fly towards the way Harmonia came from, a few smacking her in the face with their wings by mistake.

"OOF-” Harmonia yelps, stumbling back a bit.

The bats are gone as she can make out another cave opening ahead, it looks like trees.

Harmonia reaches it and steps out into the woods again, but this night sky is more familiar. She’s back in her world, in the forest in Meridian.

Harmonia walks back to Apollo's house, the nightjar having fallen asleep in her hands.

Eventually, she arrives home and sets the bird on the table, washing her hands and arms off the blood and putting the eyes in a jar before putting it in the fridge. Then she picks the bird back up and goes to the guest bedroom, laying down with the bird next to her.

The nightjar watches her curiously. Harmonia tries to gently pet it. The nightjar closes its eyes as it stays still.

Harmonia pets it very gently with only a finger. She looks tired.

It vibes there, its wing looks fucked.

"I'll get you healed tomorrow I promise..." Harmonia says softly, close to falling asleep.

Harmonia has the slightest feeling of being watched.

"Do you feel that?” Harmonia asks the bird.

There’s a knock on the door.

"Um..." Harmonia gets up, leaving the bird as she answers the door.

Harmonia opens the door to see the front step covered in nightjars.

"Uh.... hi?"

They make nightjar sounds but some of them sound slightly off-tone.

"Uhhhh…”

They keep making noises.

"Meow?"

Harmonia hears a loud knocking on her bedroom door.

"Uhhh…” Harmonia goes to the bedroom door.

She can see a nail sticking out of it from this side.

Harmonia opens the door to see the nightjar with the broken wing now nailed onto the door by the other wing as it flaps its wing and screeches trying to get free, there's blood writing on the door, making 3 dots.

Harmonia’s eyes widen. "Oh my god, you poor thing-" She rips the nail out and takes the bird, holding it gently and going to the bathroom.

She can feel its shaking. "I'm sorry I'm sorry-" Harmonia tears up and tries to use an alcohol wipe and bandages to help it. It screeches at the alcohol wipes. "I'm sorry I'm sorry-" She bandages it gently, crying quietly. It’s shaking trying to stay on its wee lil legs.

Cole appears next to Harmonia with a disappointed look and walks over to the bird and heals it.

"Thank you-” She cradles it. "It's okay it’s okay it’s okay baby-" Harmonia’s crying.

Cole disappears.

The nightjar gives a weak screech.

Harmonia pets him gently and it closes its eyes.

Harmonia takes the bird back to bed, laying next to it and holding a hand near it so it's safe and within reach but has enough personal space. The two soon drift off to sleep.