The Trickster’s Hat

Trick couldn't believe his eyes, he shut them, rubbing them once more in disbelief at his current predicament.

When he finally pried them open, his grim situation still remained. Unchanging before his very sight.

"What in the world is going on?" He questioned to himself, stepping back in terror to fully observe the strange realm he was cast into.

In a profane plight, an endless series of desecrated bodies stretched as far as Trick's eyes could see, bathing the vile world in the unholy blood of both monsters and beasts.

The ominous sky was cast into an ever scarlet hue, and the sun was brought down, the bleeding moon alone being made to occupy the sorrowful skies.

Trick slowly began to walk through the eerie world, passing headless corpses or atimes mangled body parts of monsters with each step.

He buried his nostrils into his elbow in a bid to escape the repulsive odour the air was cursed with. But his trek was instantly cut short by something unsettling that graced his hearing—

A MOTHER'S LULLABY.

The realm's scarlet skies gleamed an even greater degree of red maliciousness, as every constitution within the world laid in wait for the woman's puerile songs.

Her pink hair which seemed to emanate a radiant glow danced gracefully at her back.

And she held unto a child lovingly as she stroked his golden blonde hair with every tune.

"Ohh little golden star, little golden star." The strange woman's berceuse songs began.

"Do not stray from your constellation of joy."

"Rather hold unto the warmth of your gladness, and overtake your heart with mirth."

A harrowing feeling of fright overtook Trick as he observed the woman sing so melodiously without showing the slightest regard for the desecrated state her world was cast into.

But yet even watching the woman sing from such a far distance he couldn't help but feel an uneasy—

Sense of familiarity.

"Relieve your worries dear." The woman continued, dragging the child closer to her bosom.

"Let your sorrows drown, forever lost within the embrace of your mother—"

"TRICK, MY MOST PRIZED GIFT" 

"How—did she…" Trick tried to question but was interrupted by an unprecedented disaster.

In an instant, the world pulsed with a red wave of sinister energy causing his body to begin a violent contortion.

His body transmogrified rapidly, sending severe stings of pain burning through the entirety of his being.

Trick groaned in torment as he watched his body contort in different shapes and sizes.

He was lost within the maddening torment of his own flesh bubbling and contorting in different forms. There was only but one thing he could do in this agonizing predicament.

Shut his eyes to prevent seeing the torturing sight that befell him.

His eyes remained shut, his consciousness drifting in the slight calm the darkness provided.

"…"

There was a strange silence.

"What?" Trick mumbled, his eyes still firmly shut.

"Why is it suddenly so peaceful?" The pain had seized, the agonizing sensation of his body morphing following suit. 

He then slowly opened his eyes, his crimson eyes gleaming with a woeful red glow at the shocking presence before him.

"Yes—"

"Rest within the embrace of your mother, Trick my dearly beloved." The odd woman voiced out soothingly as she rested Trick firmly against her mollifying embrace.

In utter dubiety Trick eyed his body that rested firmly in the uncanny woman's arms, for some reason he felt slightly—

Smaller?

His crimson eyes widened in even greater disbelief as he looked frightfully at his current form.

All the maddening morphing, agonizing contortion and tormenting vibrations had all been aimed at the single purpose…

Of molding Trick into the form of her child.

"Trick, Trick my most prized gift." The soothing voice of the woman made its way to Trick's hearing, driving him from his frantic thoughts.

She stared at Trick compassionately before rubbing her slender arms across his golden hair lovingly.

"You are kind"

Like an ocean of complete dumbfoundment that sweeps across the coasts of reason Trick was lost in a sea of mystification, the boats of reason cast destitute from ever guiding him to the truth.

The former child that donned golden blonde hair was nowhere in sight, only the mangled bodies of beasts, the bleeding moon, the woefully scarlet skies, and he within the tender care of a strange woman now remained within the realm.

Trick then proceeded to finally get a look at the woman in whose arms he laid, but what he saw left him with more spaces than there were pieces of the otherworldly puzzle he now bootlessly tried to construct.

Like a hazy mist that wished its secrets masked, her face was but a blur, leaving only her lips which contorted to speak, visible.

"Trick my little trickster, you're as kind as your father even."

Just then Trick's eyes widened in reminiscent feelings of familiarity for one single sentence—

'My little trickster?' Her statement audibly resounded within Trick's mind, causing an unsettling feeling of conversance to creep once more within him.

'I've heard that before.' Like a flash of multifarious stars, Trick's mind raced restlessly, trying so desperately hard to unravel where exactly he had made contact with those amiable wordings.

As his eyes redirected from her's in thought, she tenderly reached for his chin, turning his attention back to her.

"But in all your kindness." The world suddenly sunk into a tranquil silence.

"Just like your father did." The woman's formerly gleeful demeanor adopted a grim expression as she bit her lip in worry.

"Please do not…"

Ominous, strange, otherworldly. These were the exact words that summed up Trick's eerie predicament. His heart, yes embraced with fear was even more shrouded in a dark veil of confusion.

Yet what left him most befuddled about his perplexing situation was—

The noiseless words her lips uttered, words that felt to Trick like an inaudible whisper. Her lips moved but the sounds she tried to voice never reached Trick's ears. Instead what he heard was even more concerning.

"KRAAAAAA!" A loud human-like caw echoed from the air. A pitch black crow seeming to be the culprit of the screeching noise flew hurriedly across the realm as it cried out troublesome warnings.

"Destruction awaits!, destruction awaits! Those who remain—"

"DESTRUCTION AWAITS!"

As if adopting the quirks of a raging waterfall, downpours of blood escaped from the bleeding moon, flooding the ground beneath it.

The sky was dyed in a more ominous scarlet hue, casting its red light across the flooding world.

The dreaded blood which still poured relentlessly from the crescent moon impetuously began to flood the realm, swallowing the bodies of monsters and beasts alike.

"What the heck?!"

Alarmed by the catastrophe which he saw, Trick then began to beckon unto the woman, dragging unto her hand to signal that they should leave immediately.

"We need to get outta here!" His eyes remained fixed on the destructive rivers of blood that hurriedly ran in their direction.

"Can't you hear m—" He finally tore his attention from the encroaching rivers of blood, shifting back in shock immediately he fixed his sight back on the woman.

Her face was no longer a blur, the formerly masking mist had faded off, leaving her face to be visibly seen by Trick.

What he saw made him regret ever wanting to see her face behind the covering of the haze.

The woman's eyes were replaced with a dark void that seemed to bear depthless darkness within it and streams of blood slowly flowed from the darkness, streaming down through her cheek.

Her before pink glowing hair spread out in a rough manner, being smeared by the red stains of blood.

And as the blood that dreadfully flowed out her eyes spread across her body, so did a grayish paleness wash over her formerly gleaming skin.

An unknown sense of bother suddenly pulsed over Trick's body as he found himself frantically trying his best to push away the blood that encroached around the woman from the earlier flood.

'What is going on?' Trick wondered in a panic forcing himself to once more look upon the woman's face.

A stinging sensation pierced his cheeks as salty tears welled up within his eyes slowly pouring unto the floor. He looked once more at what had made him erupt into uncontrollable tears—

The joyous smile that spread across the woman's dying face.