The silence in the castle was deafening. It was beyond quiet, eerily so. I didn't pay much attention, but the music coming from that room was almost soothing in a way. The undead, which I never thought I would even have these thoughts in my head was also kind of comforting.
I could hear them, see them, and determine threat levels. But, now all there was silence. No bird, no insects, no footsteps, no music, nothing. With absolutely nothing to do, I decided to do the white-boy thing and explore the castle.
As I walked through the halls, I thought about my time in the service. On the time I froze up with fear, and my superior gave me the talk.
"Get your ass in the game. If you can't then you're dead." "Move that ass"
I hadn't thought about that guy in a long time. He saved my ass, more than once. They never tell you but the first combat deployment is easy. Do what you need to do, and go home. Easy, Leadership gives you this whole thing about how bad these guys are. Shows you picture, intel, all that stuff.
By the time their done, you think to yourself 'damn those motherfuckers aren't humans, cant wait to put a bullet to their heads'. Then combat happens, and you finally kill the enemy. The enemy doesn't look evil, doesn't even look like a terrorist but a normal dude you saw during your patrol. That guy that you had joke to turn out to be the evil terrorist you had learned about.
I didn't like remembering it, the first time I killed someone on deployment. But, It was the only thing I could think of in this silent castle. The regrets I had in my life, if this was a type of hell then somehow, I would believe it.
I remember the IED that went off, on my second patrol. I remember the shooting, the chaos.
"Contact left"
"Contact right"
"Fuck, my legs"
I could hear their voices clearly even after all this time. The voices of my friends screaming in pain, bleeding, dying. I remember how angry I was, how much I hated those guys for what they did.
I didn't think and just shot back at them. Did what leadership had trained me for. What I signed up for, giving the good old freedom. But, when the fighting stopped I saw the guy I shot.
He was a normal dude that we had met in a small town. He had a wife, and children that lived with them. Fuck, I had even helped his family because they were sick and being the medic I was I did what I could to help them. His kids made it through the sickness thanks to me, and I made a friend. The leadership was happy because they got intel they needed from my new friend I made.
It was a good time, but I remember seeing his body laying there on the ground. With bullet holes in his body. He kept saying over and over again "They took them" "They took them".
Found out much later that the enemy group didn't like my friend. So, they gave him a choice join the cause and they would release his family OR have his wife raped, his son killed, and his daughter told as a sex slave.
I didn't fully recover mentally from it, even now after actually dying did it still…haunt the deep parts of my mind. I killed a father, because he was told and I was told. After that the thinking happened, and thinking in war is NEVER good. You hesitate, panic, get scared and lose focus.
My second deployment, we made contact. Shots were fired, and instead of firing I froze with fear and panic.
My superior got me going on my ass, got me moving, most importantly got me saved. Told me don't think about the enemy, don't think about anything but the mission and the objective.
The objective was clear the area, and the area got cleared. Nothing more, nothing less. It was that horrible situation, that horrible shit I went through back then that I wasn't panicking right now. Why I was focused. I kept telling myself objectives, on my mission.
My mission was to get out. Exploring was the thing I had to do. I had a weapon, and my mission. Nothing more, and nothing less.
I walked upstairs to the, what I assumed was the ballroom. The decorative large door gave it away. I decided to start there because one there was candlelight, which was better than barely any light that came from the other halls on the second and first floor.
When I entered the ballroom, which I was right, it was a ballroom. My first thought was the movie beauty and the beast. It looked almost the same. Marble columns in a circle formation supporting the room. A giant window at the end of the hall, with what had to be a glass chandelier. The room was only lit by the multiple candle lights on the columns, the moonlight and the chandelier above.
It was bright enough to see the room, but not enough to see the whole room. There were shadow corners every which way. At the end of the room where the window was, there was an slightly elevated stand. I wasn't sure what it actually was, but I could tell that was the place where they played their instruments. A piano, and some other instruments that I couldn't identify. I was never a music guy anyway.
I held my sword close, and ultimately came to the conclusion that I wouldn't find shit here. It wasn't because I was scared, but because…yeah fuck it I was scared. I swear I saw shadows move and decided that I wouldn't fucking risk it.
I promptly walked back, and shut that door. Nothing for me there. I continue my exploration walking down the Right hall way. The door rooms were locked all the way down. It was when I was walking that I got startled, swung my sword hitting an art piece that I thought had moved. When the art piece fall to the floor I thought I would hear something, anything. But, I heard nothing, curious I said 'strange' out loud but again there was no sounds.
I snapped my fingers and no sound. Screamed as loud as I could, nothing. I didn't know if the silence was because of this place or I was going deaf. I heard the undead, could make and produce sounds not more than 8 minutes ago so where did it go?
I could feel that cold breath on my shoulders, the feeling of being watched from behind. There was also another feeling I hadn't felt in a while…death. That feeling when you know something is going to happen and its ride or die. I didn't stay in the hall for long and made my way back to the main entrance.
I was half way at the end of the hall facing the main entrance that something popped in my mind. The mythology of hades, and a hero. The hero`s wife had been taken by hades and when the hero confronted hades about it hades made a deal with him.
"If you can go through the whole underworld and not look back. I will free your wife" He told the hero
The hero agreed. He made his way all the way through the underworld not once looking back, but at the very end. At the very last second he turned around and lose the bet. Lost his wife to hades.
I don't know why I thought of that stupid story or why it popped in my head. But, when I felt something behind me. I turned and looked back and there I saw it.
Slenderman was my very first thought. He had a completely blank mannequin face I couldn't tell if he was facing me or the wall. He had a black suit on, with long arms and legs. He had shadow tentacles coming from his back.
I froze with fear. Not primal fear when you met an animal that can kill you in the wild, nor the fear of a ghost in the house and not the fear of being in war next to death. No, this was something else. Something…that couldn't be explained in words alone. Never in my life had I ever felt this. I had been in war, seen ghost, attacked by wild animals, fuck I even had night terror sleep paralysis. NOTHING…NOTHING came close. My blood drained from my face, faster than I could realize. My skin crawled and tingled. Sweat poured from my skin. My eyes were hyper focused on its shadow tentacles that waved from its long casted shadow.
Was I even breathing? Was my heart beating? What do I do? Did he hear? Does it see? Does it know I am here?
How many thoughts can you have in your head at a single moment in your life before your brain is overloaded and shut down. My internal fight and flight response was going off not knowing what to do. One part said run, but was drowned out by possible facts about monsters. The other part said don't move, again drowned out by the reasoning that he could possibly see me.
I don't know how long I stared at it, but it didn't move its body only its head. The head moved 360 degrees around its neck and I saw Black lifeless eyes staring back at me. It started with a thin mark, then lips form, then a smile, and then smiling with sharp teeth. At that moment I ran.
Didn't think, didn't do nothing but ran. Where to my body didn't care, mind would figure some shit out.
Didn't even know when I made it down the stairs, I tripped and fell down I don't know how many stairs. I didn't feel pain when I finally hit the floor only continuous fear. Continuous feeling of something was just barely behind me, breathing down my neck.
I slammed into the front door, tried to bang but nothing happened. Looking around, I was trying to find an escape but there was nothing. I realized now, what would scare an undead…a demon.
That thing was a demon, and even if God came down and told me 'its not a demon' I would tell him to go eat a dick. That thing was a demon and no one would tell me otherwise. I was trapped here with a demon, the only safe place I could possibly go to was the dungeon. My mind didn't even finish the thought, before my body moved.
I turned and for the second time saw it. Slowly making its way down the stairs, those lifeless black eyes, that smile with those sharp teeth. I ran for the hallway that led to the dungeon. "Safe". Was the only thought in my head. I ran, and ran, and ran as fast as I could. The hallway never got any closer, the stairs never further but that thing did ,IT, did.
It got closer, still walking so slowly towards me. I cried, ran faster than anything else. My chest hurt, my legs were on fire but I kept going. I had realized the moment that I wasn't getting closer to the hallway that I was stuck IT had used something, done something that made it so I couldn't leave. I knew that, but my body didn't care and continued to run. It said 'there has to be a limit'
But, that wasn't the case not at all. I didn't turn around, didn't need to. I knew, based on the shadow that was casted in front of me, and the shadow tentacles that wiggled near my shadow that I was fucked. Not fucked but FUCKED. I could feel its breath on my neck, could smell it too. The smell of rotten meat, and disease was what I could smell.
I never stopped running until I tripped and fell. How did I fall? There was no pain, but I felt slightly lighter than before. How did I fall down if I was lighter? That didn't make sense.
When I turned around I saw that IT had something in arms. He was smelling it like how someone would savor a cigar and began to eat it. But what did the monster have?
I looked down to see that one of my legs had gone missing. It didn't hurt, the fear, despair, and everything else prevented me from feeling the pain.
I screamed, but no sound came out, only silence greeted me.