A normal day became my last. They picked me up in the middle of the day when I was alone, they were nice at first. You don't see many new people in my village, I can't remember what I'm supposed to do, as if it matters. Weak, I want to struggle, to run , but I can barely move a finger, I feel my head stutter. I see... two figures in the room, but no torches, light just shining, born from moon's loosing sight from distance. The boy is talking, reading from a book.
AAAHG... I feel my scalp throbbing when his sister lifts my head by my hair.
"Cut her throat." a hurried tone from the boy sends fear to my bones.
The sharp pressure of the knife moved in a parabolic line over my anterior triangle. The first thing I stopped feeling were my legs, numb with fear and now just dead silent.
She lets my head drop. I try to make eye contact with her, but I'm ignored. Finally she turns and moves next to her brother. My heart tried so hard to beat. To pump missing blood to flow even after the lack of pressure in the bloodstream, now sounding in my head like a drum, followed by the horrible pain of organs as they stopped functioning.
"Now what's next?" the girl asks curiously.
"Nothing, in a few moments everything should be over and the spell will be complete." Now both waiting for their work' result. The girl takes sit on an old chair next to a destroyed wall of the building as she stretches in a more comfortable stand. Time ticked by- few minutes passed slowly, yet to no avail. The boy shuffled through pages, searching for clues, for an error in the magic matrix or incantations...
The spell in essence is simple. A human sacrifice, a circle with the necessary inscriptions, a statue and the spell spoken. Is the spell properly written? What's missing?
"We screwed up, didn't we?" said the annoyed girl with a mixe of scoff and adult whining. "What were we supposed to do? We just risked taking this girl for this dumb spell and got nothing out of it." her hands crossed under the shirt as she jumped off the chair back next to her brother.
The young man was still looking through the book but came out with next to none witty attitude. "We've never tried such a spell before and our preacher never showed it to us..."
"Screw it." The girl turns to her brother. "We were supposed to stick to simple things, stealing and surviving until we get to meet up with the rest of the of the group." Looking around the abandoned church and the statue they wanted to turn into their golem servant she felt disappointed. "Let's just get out of here before someone finds us. These yokels have got their own approach in taking care of themselves."
"It's my fault big sister, but I don't understand what I did wrong." Still thinking, the boy put the book back in his backpack and gathered his possessions which were including some candles, brushes and lost paper.
"Eeeh...it's ok, I thought it would be interesting to have something do our jobs for once. Maybe-- when we meet up with the others, they can tell what we did wrong. I'm sure you'll feel better afterward." Her hand resting on the boy's shoulder was not gentle, as she shook him lightly, tryin' to bring his mind back in the moment. She needed her brother with his mind in the game.
"What do we do with the body?" the boy asks his older sister.
"Nothing, when the villagers find her they will know they have been visited by the Black Blood Acolytes. If they even know who we are..." She looks at the sky and pulls a watch from her pocket. "It's after midnight, let's turn camp and be on our way in the morning."
The brother nodded positively and took the road behind his sister through the dark of night where only the moon illuminated the path, though no torch, this was enough.
------(A few hours before sunrise)-------------
Non-existence, a sick void was everywhere. It felt like a prison with no bars, no walls and no guards, just the overwhelming sensation of being submerged in a dense goo full of rot. Sometimes you don't even think. Others are filled with screams that no one can hear.
But right now, after God knows how long I feel something. I feel myself being lifted to the surface. Is there a surface? Must be one. Even if I move the goo is the same. I just feel it going faster. And after a moment of regaining consciousness, I stop.
I don't feel it, but I'm sure I was standing on my feet. I couldn't hear anything, but I had no trouble keeping my balance. But my eyes were partially functioning, all in a bit of a haze.
Sitting still and waiting for something to happen, slowly I can move my neck. I begin to regain movement in different parts of my body, flex my hand, rotate my shoulder and finally force a first step. Yes, finally I'm moving.
My first step was met by a cold sensation. Strange, I can't see, I can't feel, I can't hear, but I feel a liquid on the sole of my foot. For the first time after the effort of moving, I begin to regain my focus. No lights nearby, I find myself in a building with a hole through a wall, probably something abandoned and now I find myself looking at a body not two feet away from me.
That liquid... is blood...someone's blood. I move my hand closer, push that hair to one side and the other hand against the floor. Even with lousy eyesight I can't pick up any movement. It's a girl, dead. But something was moving, I could feel it moving, the blood in which my leg was sitting was slowly being absorbed through what was his skin.
I put my left hand in the puddle. Same result. Slowly I feel it spreading through me. Disgusting, though it feels like a mouthful of fresh spring water on a hot day. Slowly my sight improves. I can now distinguish different shapes and shadows across the room.
Mhhh..but my hearing barely works. But finally I turn my eyes to the collapsed wall and focus on the moonlight.
I begin to move, stiff, but not as stiff as my first step. I step out of the shadows of the roof and step outside. Full moon, full of light now finally seeing myself. I see my hands smudged with grimy dirt, touch my face but feel nothing. I feel myself moving but not touching my own face. The natural sensory ability of my skin is gone. Or did I ever had one..? A smooth face with no nose, mouth or other distinguishing features.
I'm a statue...how..?
I shouldn't be like this...I...I wasn't like this...What was I before? Panic gripped me and I turned to face the building. A church. By the old, slightly faded icons on the walls of would-be saints. And the girl. She was a sacrifice. It doesn't need to be a magician to recognize a dark sickening ritual.
I'm slowly coming back inside. I look at the girl again. Blond hair, tall, wearing a coat.
Now what?
I'll take the coat. I step closer and slowly pull the coat off her shoulders until it's loose and flaps in my hands. The size fits. Better than nothing even if I don't have genitals.
Now that the coat and hair are out of the way, I see a mark on the girl's neck. The stain was black, but no evidence of cuts or bruising. Poison, that's how she was abducted..right in the spine.
Monsters.
I slip my hand under her waist and on her lower back, and lift. To my horror, the limp body slips through my arms. She falls again on the floor, this time hitting her face directly on a sharp rock.
Oh I'm so sorry. I lean over her and close her ajar eyes. The wound on her neck was horrible, having the shape of a second evil smile. But better not to touch her anymore. No better than the people who killed you. Everything left to do... there was none but to leave.
I step back outside..much brighter than before.
That Sun. The sunlight did not hurt whatever he thought he was supposed to have instead of eyes. The feeling of melancholy was succeeded by an inexplicable sweetness, something like the taste of a cold beer after a long fast in the middle of summer. But it haven't crossed much the horizon yet.
A few minutes later, it finally makes its presence known in the sky, blooming the colors of the forest ahead with life.
Yeah. I'm among the living again. Among nature.
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