Carnival: Mother Knows Best

Onyx sipped her tea. She considered following Courage. Thinking of all the times Courage took initiative, she giggled to herself.

His first day seeing a baby bird? He ran over to Onyx with the baby bird in hand, confused on why the bird looked so sick. Onyx explained that the baby bird was not sick but just hasn’t grown all its feathers yet. She told him to put it back after he asked if they could keep it. He would do this with everything new he saw. Be it flowers, rocks, animals, living things, dead things, sharp things, poisonous things, venomous things, harmless things, gross things, soft things, it didn’t matter to Courage. If it was new, he would show it off to Onyx, Onyx would explain it, he would try to keep it, she would tell him to put it back where it was found.

Teaching him was easy for her. She had plenty of knowledge and wisdom. He had plenty of curiosity and space in his head.

She decided it would be best to go for a walk to relax. Grabbing an umbrella, she noticed the clear blue sky and bright rays of light through the tree. “It’s a terrible day.” she sighed. She walked out with her veil down and umbrella up. Humming to the song she hears every time someone wanders into her forest, she walked around aimlessly. Before she knew it, she had arrived in town. She sighed and figured she might as well check on Courage.

She walked to the school just in time to see Courage skipping into school. She giggled to herself, “De rien Onyx, ce n’est rien. You were worried for nothing.” she walked away, humming. Seeing an outdoor product junction, Onyx decided that she should shop a bit to make Courage’s favorite meal. She bent over to inspect the apples. As she went to touch one, her hypnotic blue eyes flashed light green for a moment. She tilted her umbrella to block an incoming fish.

“Leave our town! We have no interest in the Widow Witch of the Woods!”

Onyx continued inspecting apples.

“Leave and take your death magic with you!”

Onyx asked the fruit vendor about the price of the apples. The man threw another fish. It hit the umbrella.

“I know you can hear me bitch!”

Onyx stood upright and gave the man a side glare. He hesitated to move or speak. Onyx adjusted her umbrella to where it would cover her face. She turned to the fruit vendor and pulled out a small purse from her corset. She paid for the apples and turned towards the man. She put on black lipstick and walked up to the man. He hid behind his fish stand and begged for mercy. Onyx kissed the only yellow apple she bought and placed it on the fish stand. “May you have a productive day Mr. Sunes.” she walked away. Mr. Sunes panicked over how she knew his name and how now he was going to die. He forgot that his name was on his stand. Other townsfolk tried to console him while chastising her.

Before she could leave the town, her eyes turned light green. She turned around and noticed that the world had a light green hue and everything appeared to stop moving. Onyx lifted her veil and lowered her umbrella, “A new nightmare? Here? Oh no…. Courage!”

Courage curled into a ball and began to cry. But his tears were floating upward. The tears collected and expanded, forming a bubble as large as Courage. As the light green hue began to fade from the air, the bubble turned green. The bubble condensed and formed an appearance similar to Courage with very clear differences. The creature was wearing a black shirt with brown overalls, red shoes, and a white hat. Courage backed away holding his elbows.

“Who… Who are you?”

“Je m'appelle Larmes. And I’m here to help.” she continued to float over him.

“Help. Me?”

“Of course. I can get back at those mean bullies from class.”

“How?”

“I can make them float away.” Both her eyes turned light green.

Courage held his stomach, “No-no….”

Larmes frowned for a moment but smirked, “I’ll show you that I’m the only one you can trust.”

Larmes began to cry loudly. Students and staff came to see what was going on. Larmes smirked as she flung her tears at the students and staff. The tears encased them in bubbles that made them all float. Courage watched in fear seeing everyone in bubbles as they floated to the ceiling.

“This isn’t good…”

“But they should pay for what they did and what they allowed to happen.”

“But…”

“But nothing! If we let them get away with this now. They will always make us feel like you did. Weak and afraid.”

Courage looked down, feeling shame for the first time, “We?... We could?”

“Yes, we could.”

“Wait… No. Momma said that being mean just because isn’t good.”

“But it feels good.”

“... No.”

“What?”

“No. No it doesn’t. You aren’t my friend. A friend wouldn’t do this.” Courage stood tall, staring Larmes down. “You’re just being a bigger bully!”

Larmes seemed to lower a bit. Courage’s legs started to shake but he refused to move. Larmes growled, “You’re going to help me. Whether you want to or not!” Larmes threw her tears at Courage. Courage put up his arms, to block, “MAMA!!”

The tears hit a large black umbrella. Larmes was shocked to see her tears evaporate on contact. The umbrella moved to show that Onyx was holding Courage in her arms. Her veil burned away to show that her eyes were light green with a dark blue diamond within the pupil. She glared at Larmes’ smug face. “What do you think you’re doing to my son?”

“I am just helping him with his fear.”

Courage held onto Onyx tighter. Onyx saw that he was shaking with his face buried in her chest, she leered at Larmes, “Cauchemar fragile. You will experience overwhelming fear.”