Really Strange Stuff - Ch.27 - Relics (Patreon)

=::= Serenity's PoV =::=

"I don't mind saying it," Callie announced with a blush and a grimace, "I was one scared little kitty."

I shook my head, "Not just you. I think it's safe to say all three of us were pretty frightened at that point."

Then I turned my attention back to the camera as I explained, "What you're seeing on your screens now folks is a series of pictures Bailey took of this whole sequence, starting with Callie making a run for the car."

The image on our stream monitor was dark and a bit blurry, but the small calico was obviously terrified. That was clear from the way her ears were folded back and how wide her eyes were, not to mention how her puffy tail was tucked down between her legs.

Bailey spoke up as she put the next picture up on the stream, "This is what had Callie so scared. And as soon as it came into view, both Serenity and I were just as freaked out."

The second picture was as dark and blurry as the first, and it was harder to make out exactly what was in the shot. The thing mostly just looked large and pale, and it was kind of reared up at the front like it was about to strike.

"Sorry about the quality of these pictures," I commented. "The earlier eyewitness interviews made it clear the Walden Worm is sensitive to light, so if we'd had flashlights or used the camera flash we wouldn't have had any chance of seeing it at all."

Callie nodded, "That's right Sere. So we kept everything dark, which unfortunately meant these shots aren't the clearest."

She continued, "For our audio listeners, or folks who just want a better idea of what we're looking at, the Worm was about two, maybe two and half feet in diameter? And I'm going to say it's at least fifteen to twenty feet long. The body seemed to be made up of a bunch of pale white fleshy segments about ten to twelve inches long? And both the front and back kind of tapered to a blunt rounded end."

Another picture went up on the stream as Bailey took over once again, "This is a clearer shot of it just a few feet away from the car. And honestly this picture still gives me the creeps. The thing doesn't seem to have any eyes, it doesn't even have a face. Just a mouth. I don't even know if it's got teeth in there, or how it consumes its victims. And I really don't want to find out."

"Right after this picture was taken the Walden Worm slammed into the side of the car," I stated. "Callie's door was damaged and her side window shattered. That's when our brave calico told the thing what for and sent it on its way."

Callie cringed slightly but she was smiling, "I just acted out of reflex. Honestly I have no idea why it took off. Anyways here's a short video clip of that. And once again folks, sorry about the quality."

I suppressed a little shudder as Bailey ran the clip. That was my contribution, I set my camera to video mode while Callie left the car to answer the call of nature. And when she came racing back everything happened so fast I pretty much forgot I was filming. It was all just panic and adrenaline, so the video was all over the place. Hearing myself screaming at her to start the car made me cringe, but at least I managed to capture the money shot. That's the only reason we were sharing the blurry shaky footage with our viewers.

"Scram!" Callie shouted at the monster as she gave it a whack with her baton. There was an inexplicable flash of pinkish light that came out of nowhere just as the car started, and between the light and the noise of the car engine it seemed like the Worm was scared off. It recoiled away from the car, then turned and fled back into the woods the way it came.

When the clip ended my cohost and I appeared on the monitor again. I gave the cameras a grim smile, "So there you have it folks. Even though the Walden Worm disappeared back into the trees the three of us were shook up enough by the experience we decided to call it a night. So we headed straight back to our hotel, and ended up spending the next two days hanging around Elkview waiting for the car to get fixed."

"The Worm dented the driver's side door bad enough it wouldn't open," Callie added. "It took two whole days in a body shop to get that repaired and the side window replaced."

"And by that point it was time for us to start heading back home to the Really Strange Stuff world headquarters here, just outside of Chicago," I concluded.

That was about all we had planned for tonight's live stream, but before we started the closing segment Bailey suggested, "There's a lot of questions coming up on the chat. Maybe we should take a few of them?"

"Good thinking Bails," Callie replied.

She reached for her phone while I checked my tablet, then we spent the next ten minutes or so answering our viewers' questions. We had to scroll back a ways to get to the first ones, then gradually worked our way through them.

"We can't take responsibility for the name," I explained at one point. "Folks were already calling it the Walden Worm before we'd even heard of the thing."

Then Callie answered another one, "We haven't talked about going back out there yet, but I definitely won't rule it out."

"If any of our viewers are thinking about going out there themselves," I added, "Just bear in mind this thing is dangerous. It's big, it's fast, and it's aggressive."

Bailey chimed in, "We'd also ask that if any of our viewers do head out that way, please be respectful of the local residents and their right to privacy."

"I see a few folks are asking about my magic wand," Callie commented with a grin.

She reached around the side of the sofa then picked up her baton and held it out for the camera as she explained, "It's just one of those twirly things you see drum majorettes using in marching bands? Or I think they also use these things in gymnastics. Anyways Sere and Bails and me all picked up some ah, unconventional equipment before our trek into the woods to find the Walden Worm."

Bailey put a still picture up on the stream of all three of us, that we'd taken in our hotel room the day after the encounter. It was a posed shot of my girlfriends and I all holding our 'wands' at the ready.

I couldn't help smiling as I explained, "So Callie's got her Magical-Girl Sceptre, I have the Sacred Nine-Iron, and Bailey wields her Holy Staff of Lacrosse."

"And yes," I added with a smirk as my face re-appeared on the stream, "All three of us know how silly that looks and sounds."

Callie stifled a little giggle as she set her baton aside. Then her expression became more serious again as she addressed the cameras, "Anyways I think it's about time we wrapped this up? Thanks everyone for tuning in to our August live stream."

"Thanks again to viewer Frank for the tip," I took over. "And a big thank-you to all the good people of Walden, West Virginia."

My cohost interrupted, "Shout-out Frank! And shout-out Walden!"

Bailey echoed the shout-outs before continuing, "Thanks also to our mods for tonight. Mei-Maus, Fluffkat, and Black Rose, great job as always!"

"We'll see all you folks again real soon!" Callie stated. "Until then, keep safe and stay strange!"

A second later the title card went up on the monitor, then Bailey rolled the credits while Callie and I relaxed. I reached for my coozie for a drink of cola, while my cohost picked up her mug and drained the last of her water.

"I think that was a good show," Bailey commented as the credits came to a close and she shut down the stream.

Callie smiled, "It sure was!"

I joked, "Not bad considering we specifically said our vacation wasn't going to be about work or research and we weren't going to make a show out of it."

Sure enough my cohost protested, "We couldn't just ignore a hot tip like that! Especially not when we were already in the area and had a few days to spend following up on it!"

"I know Callie," I said as the two of us finally got to our feet.

Then as we helped Bailey shut down the studio I continued, "I just think we got lucky. In fact we got lucky over and over on that trip. Running into Frank when we did, getting the tip at that point on our vacation, right when we had a week left with no other plans? It was all a lot of lucky coincidences."

Bailey added in a serious tone, "We were also lucky we all got out of there in one piece. Callie you could have died! If you were two seconds slower or that thing was two seconds faster we might have lost you!"

Our little calico picked up her baton again as she shook her head, "Nah, I was never in danger. None of us were. Like I said all along, we've got divine protection, right? And don't forget, I had my magical-girl sceptre with me."

"We still don't know how that even worked," Bailey frowned. "Or if it did anything at all. I've looked at that clip a hundred times already and I still can't tell where that flash of light came from, or what it did."

With everything shut down we turned out the lights, then as the three of us headed upstairs Callie insisted, "I'm telling you it was magic. I know we got these things at a second-hand store, but I think they're imbued with power. We're disciples of Chaos, right? I believe these are like our official holy relics, our badges of office."

We all paused in the kitchen to grab some drinks from the fridge, then as we headed into the living-room our calico girlfriend started talking again.

"I know you were just joking when you came up with those names Sere," she stated. "But I think it's for real. This thing isn't just some girly twirly baton anymore. It really is my Magical-Girl Sceptre. And your golf club is literally The Sacred Nine-Iron. Just like Bailey's stick thing is her Holy Staff of Lacrosse."

"Although I gotta admit, I'm super tempted to call it the Holy Staff of LaCroix instead," she added with a smirk.

"Only if they're going to start paying me sponsorship money," Bailey teased right back.

I rolled my eyes then asked the other catgirl, "So are you saying these things are holy because of Cassandra? That we just happened to pick out objects that were important to her when we were in that second-hand store in West Virginia? Or are you suggesting she somehow guided us to choose those specific items because they're special?"

Callie shook her head, "No. I'm saying they became holy because we picked them. That our faith as disciples of Chaos is what made these things holy."

"Oh hey!" she added as her eyes lit up with a new idea. "We should talk about this stuff on our Praise The Chaos channel! Like explain how we found these objects, what made us pick them out, and how they became our holy tools."

Bailey raised an eyebrow and tilted her head to one side, "I still don't understand it myself, but I don't mind doing a show about it."

"Maybe I'll even learn how they work," she joked. Her smile faded a moment later when she sighed, "On the other hand we haven't even been back from vacation a whole week yet, and it already sounds like we're going to be just as busy as before."

I pointed out, "Not much we can do about that, unless we cut back on either Really Strange Stuff or Praise The Chaos. If we want to keep putting out as much content as before then we pretty much have to expect we'll be working just as hard as we did earlier."

"We can't back off on either of them!" Callie insisted. "And I know we're going to be busy again, but I'm ready for it. I think that vacation was exactly what we needed, you know? I'm ready to dive back in on both channels! And I could handle some more investigations out in the field too, maybe even another trip back to Walden if you're both up for it?"

I had a sip of my drink then nodded slowly, "It was a good vacation, and I'm glad we're not all on the edge of burning out anymore."

"The Walden Worm investigation was good too," I continued. "It reminds me of what Mei said, during one of our moderator meetings a few months ago? About getting back to our roots? That's the kind of thing we used to do all the time."

My best friend got a thoughtful look on her face as she had a few gulps of her drink. Then she asked, "So what do y'all think about wrapping up the Council series? Or at least, putting a pin in it and saying 'season one' is over? We can always go back to that stuff later if we want. But for now, maybe it's time to focus on other stuff again?"

Bailey and I looked at each other, then we both looked to our little calico again. Our foxgirl nodded, "That's not a bad idea. Maybe we put the next Council episode together with the idea that it'll be the season finale?"

"Works for me," I agreed. "We'll need to find some more content to replace it, but there's loads of really strange stuff out there. Whether it's back in Walden, or we go out and find ourselves a werewolf or a vampire who'll agree to an interview, we can figure that out as we go."

Callie grinned as she held up her baton and gave it a clumsy twirl, "I have faith that Chaos will guide us. Not necessarily where we want to go, but surely where we need to be."