She Has A Pretty Face Though (Part XXXIV)

Disclaimer

The following is one of many installments for a story designed specifically for my blog.  While it does step out of my usual genre, there are some things still not suitable for a younger audience.  Violent/Graphic descriptions, strong language and sexual situations may be found through different sections.  Each entry will tell a small portion of the story during different times and may not directly follow the one prior to it.  

This story follows the direct interactions, as well as the deteriorating thoughts of a young man who is struggling not only with the relationships he has with those around him, but with the relationship he has with himself as well.

Finally, all work is strictly fiction and does not reflect the views of the author.  Any resemblance to actual person(s) is only a coincidence.

If this isn’t your cup of tea, then avoid these excerpts and hopefully I’ll see you around my other posts and webseries!

———

In the city of All Saints, all was as it should be.  Its citizens rested safely behind bolted doors and there was very little movement on the streets.  The occasional A.S.P.D vehicle broke through the shadows, inside of which two sets of watchful eyes kept to their promise of peace.  Even less frequently, the silence was broken as a startled dog warned against those who would trespass onto its territory.  All was as it should be, except in one dark alley which ran parallel to Munson Avenue.  

With night falling heavily upon the city’s shoulders, there were few places still filled with human activity.  So it was that no-one saw the bloodied figure as he limped slowly between the worn tire tracks.  But had there been a single soul nearby, it would have been chased into a week’s worth of nightmares by the ghostly face whose haunted eyes told a tale of something darker than the shadows covering the young man’s tracks.

And though there was only the lone figure passing through the murky depths, there were two very distinct voices arguing amongst themselves.

“It hurts…”

“Leave it in.”

The young man reached down and grasped the wooden handle protruding from his abdomen.

“I can’t take it anymore, I have to take it out.”

“You do, and you die.”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.

He began to slowly pull handle away from his body, drawing forth the seven inches of stainless steel so recently sheathed inside of him.  Pain flared through every nerve in his stomach as small lightning bolts fired along the highways of his nervous system and into his brain.  He groaned and paused, reluctant to continue along his current course of action.

“Don’t,” the other warned.

“Why not,” he pleaded desperately.

“Because, you idiot, we’re not finished yet.”

The young man stumbled weakly to the side and into the wooden fence at his right.  His knees began to buckle beneath him, but before he could tumble to the ground, his right hand grasped the weather worn oak and steadied him falling.

“I can’t…  I’m so tired.”

But there was no answer.  None that anyone would have heard.  He continued to stand against the tall privacy fence, one hand wrapped around the wooden handle of the butcher knife while the other continued to hold him up.  He stared down the path before him, his eyes seemingly studying the deep ruts worn by years of passage as the minutes slowly ticked by.  

The minutes grew into the double digits before he began to move once more, and when he did, there was the beginnings of a smile forming on his expression.  And, punctuated by his pale skin with the promise of murder in his eyes, the effect was very sinister indeed.

The Box (Part XV)

The tunnels began to widen as he drew ever closer to the lair of the beast.  The darkness fled before a soft golden glow which spread into the tunnels as if to reach for the one approaching. The breath of the dragon stank of rotten flesh and grew unbearably hot as he closed the distance between himself and its lair.

All of these things he noticed with only a passing interest.  His mind had turned within itself as he reviewed what magic he had prepared to use.  His arm shook beneath the weight of the elf’s sword and he absently shifted it from one hand to the other as he pressed on.

He knew full well the power of the creature he was about to face. After claiming his master’s tower for his own, he’d spent many hours pouring himself into the research necessary for such a confrontation.  Many books had succumbed to him their knowledge.  Through trial and error, he’d summoned different creatures from various planes of existence, including (but not limited to) demons.  It had taken many years off of his life to do so, but he’d finally coerced the answers he needed.

The ancient dragon was looked upon as a god amongst other creatures.  It had lived for many millenia, consuming man and magic alike, gaining as much knowledge as it had in power, over those beneath it.  Malifgorranaka had become a name that was not only feared by every other species, but of its own as well!

There was very little to be found in the books.  Most were stories of the creature’s deeds, of how it had leveled entire nations as it sought to placate its hunger.  They were of heroes who stood before it, giving their lives so that others might live.  Or they were of villains who sought it out for their own power, never to be heard from again.

One thing remained consistent in these stories; Malifgorranaka’s hunger.  It was written to be a beast even greater than the monster itself.  For nearly a thousand years, it decimated entire landscapes in order to quell the ache in its midsection.

But it was not just a hunger for flesh.  It was the hunger for knowledge, for power, that drove it as well.  It was said that as the creature consumed its enemies, it absorbed its knowledge as well.

It’s not known if The Great Flame retained said knowledge, only that the next time it was seen, it used whatever magic or power it had taken from its previous victim.

Oramiir again switched the blade from one hand to the other as his mind replayed the things he had learned.  The books had been easy enough, his former master had done all of the work for him.

The summonings were slightly more difficult.

He didn’t spend enough time creating the protection glyphs around the circle and as a result, it was a Pit Fiend which nearly killed him.  The cambion, a half fiend/half human, had found the weakest point of the circle and had broken it with-in seconds of the summoning.  It not for the contingency spell hidden in his former master’s cloak, which he had been wearing at the time, he would have been consumed by the creature’s magic.

The contingency, however, was a defense against other worldly creatures, and when it sent its flames against him, reacted with a spell designed to paralyze such beings.

He had tortured the creature for the entire duration of the spell, by which time he’d also prepared the banishing ritual needed to send it back to its plane.  From the foul demon he’d learned of the dragon’s weakness against elfin steel.

“STEP FORTH INTO THE LAIR OF MALIFGORRANAKA AND BEAR WITNESS TO THE END.”

The voice of the dragon thundered off of the walls, bombarding him with its fury and pulling him back to the present.  His arm faltered as the blade suddenly became too heavy for him to bear, and its tip lowered to the ground with a dull metallic clank.

The tunnel had come to an end and before him was the lair of the ancient red he had come to slay.  Whilst lost in his thoughts, it had widened until it was nearly twenty paces across, with the ceiling being nearly as high.  The edges of the wall rounded smoothly at the tunnel’s end, seamlessly becoming a part of the cavern beyond.

The lair was massive.

It spread out further than he could see and for a brief moment, he thought he had returned to the surface, albeit, at night.  The floor was littered with gold, gems and treasures, and there was not a single bit of stone visible beneath all the riches.

While the treasure was stacked into various piles around the cavern, none were so large as the mountain on the farthest end. The gold stretched along the wall, where it was piled higher even his former master’s tower!

“By the gods,” he muttered in awe.  “What have I done?”

She Has A Pretty Face Though (Part XXXIII)

Disclaimer

The following is one of many installments for a story designed specifically for my blog.  While it does step out of my usual genre, there are some things still not suitable for a younger audience.  Violent/Graphic descriptions, strong language and sexual situations may be found through different sections.  Each entry will tell a small portion of the story during different times and may not directly follow the one prior to it.  

This story follows the direct interactions, as well as the deteriorating thoughts of a young man who is struggling not only with the relationships he has with those around him, but with the relationship he has with himself as well.

Finally, all work is strictly fiction and does not reflect the views of the author.  Any resemblance to actual person(s) is only a coincidence.

If this isn’t your cup of tea, then avoid these excerpts and hopefully I’ll see you around my other posts and webseries!

———

It took an eternity for the door to open.  The hinges groaned in protest as they attempted to deny the intruder and warn everyone else in the same breath.

His stance was wide, each foot straddling the trail of blood leading into the room beyond.  Though he wasn’t conscious of his efforts, some hidden part of him insisted that he didn’t step in the viscous fluids below.  In the same regard, he pushed the door open with the back of his knuckles.

Never mind the countless hours he had spent in this house over the last few weeks.  Forget the fact that his bodily fluids could be found in multiple rooms, as well as in the person on the other side of the door.

She cowered at the foot of the kitchen counter, a blubbering mass of naked flesh, tears and unheard apologies.  As he looked down to her; as his gaze traveled over this quivering mess he had recently shared a bed with, the contents of his stomach curdled. Protruding from her massive belly was the missing piece of the end-table.

Blood continued to bubble from the end of the hollow tube.  It ran out the end, onto her stomach and split into two crimson rivers, each which contributed to the growing pool beneath her.  Her skin was growing pasty, even by her standards.

“Scott,” she begged weakly of him.  “Please?”

Her voice quivered as he continued to look down at her.  For a fleeting moment, a puzzled expression came over his face as she spoke, but it was gone as soon as it appeared.  He had seen her lips move, but the words that were spoken had originated in his head.

“You’re crazy.”

He closed his eyes and tilted his head back as he slowly inhaled through his nose.  He could feel his body temperature rising as his old familiar feelings returned.  He was in complete control.

He opened his eyes and snapped his gaze upon Lucy Winters for the final time.

“I’m.  Not. Crazy, you fat fucking BITCH,” he screamed.  His voice was so loud that the cabinet doors buzzed from its volume.

“I’m SORRY Scott,” she sobbed.  “I didn’t mean it!”  She coughed and a spray of blood flew into the air, some of which dotted the surface of his right shoe.

“Crazy, crazy, CRA-ZY,” the other taunted in sing-song.  “You’re crazy and you know it,  Mm-ah, uh HEE-haw!”

“Oh my fucking GAWD!  Will you shut the fuck UP,” he roared, lunging with his hands for her throat.

From the corner of his vision, barely perceptible outside of the tunnel of his rage and certainly too subtle for him to immediately react, her right hand raised to intercept him.  There was a sudden flare of white-hot pain in his abdomen and as his hands wrapped around her trunk-like neck, he stopped and looked down between them.

Her hand clutched the end of a butcher knife she had been holding.  He couldn’t see much more than three inches of the blade, however, for the rest was buried in his own abdomen.

“You, stabbed me,” he croaked in disbelief.

“I’m so sorry,” she answered.  Her voice wavered with true apologetic emotion.

“You, STABBED me,” he asked again.  This time his words were spoken less with confusion and more with outrage.

He pulled himself away from her, towering over her as he looked down at the handle protruding from his body.

“Leave it in.  It’s the only thing that’s going to keep you from bleeding to death with her, on the kitchen floor.”

The other spoke, unbeknownst to him, through his own mouth.

“Wha…” she began to say.

Scott raised his foot and slammed it down onto the end-table’s leg, driving it further through her.  She reached weakly toward her killer, no longer able to see his face as she struggled onto the last threads of life in her.

Seconds later, her hand fell limply at her side.

“Shut your fucking mouth when we’re talking,” Scott and the Other said simultaneously.  “We’re dealing with a life or death situation here.”