Oscar fell from high.
He felt his bones tingling as he was falling. The fall lasted just a few seconds—splashing into a pile of something brown?
"Incredible,its mud" murmuring, Oscar stood—patting his clothes rid of the viscous liquid.
Rubbing his face of the drops—starting to look at where he landed; the area around was barren, looked like a desert at first glance. No trees as far as he could see, sun burning his skin. Oscar kept glancing around, he then started to walk ahead.
'There must be people close by' he imagined.
There very well was the possibility he was stranded far away from any form of civilization—but that wasn't the best thought he could have.
He pressed on, No one would come to grab him now.
The sun was at its prime when he landed, but now it was getting dark—quick. He still hadn't seen any sign of people on his journey—but he did notice one thing.
As he kept on going forward he saw more and more skeletons, different animals each time but not one had an ounce of flesh on it. The dried blood was prominent, but not a sign of it on the skeleton. There weren't any vultures around either.
'It's quite a pattern,once one notices you can't help but see it again 'n again' he thought.
As his gaze wandered he saw a dim light far away—looking closer he saw houses.
"PEOPLE YES FINALLY!" Oscar cried,both thrilled and exhausted.
He started treading towards it to finally meet actual people.
'Let's see if I can guess the sin… I am observant after all.
But why am I observant?' He stopped, letting the thought settle.
'I remember the air, then falling ... .on something?. Then the library. Why didn't I ask him about my memory, he could've told me something. I remember solving problems with ease…the finer details elude me, a blur of white lights….How can one even worry about something they can't recall?'
His eyes were on the small town-like area, but he wasn't looking at it. His question made him worry.
He started shaking his head, and started jogging towards the town.
The bones started showing up more as he neared.
As Oscar approached what looked like the village's main gate, the place struck him with a strange, worn-out Wild West feel. The houses stood in a straight line, their wooden frames leaning slightly as if tired of holding themselves up. A weathered sheriff's sign creaked above a post, and just across from it sat a bar with its doors half-hanging.
'How do I know what the wild west is?' He groaned and shook his head. 'These questions are getting too repetitive'
At the far end of the road loomed a church—empty, abandoned, its walls streaked with dirt. Even from a distance, Oscar could tell no one had stepped inside for years.
He walked through the sand ridden main gate. He saw someone, he blinked trying to adjust to the dark, in that split around the man he saw ran towards him—nails grotesquely long and sharp dug in Oscar's right arm like syringes, without a second's thought he swung his left arm towards the man that grabbed him.
His knuckles felt a jaw moving as they landed—Oscar jumped back as soon as his arm was free. He took a glance at what grabbed him. That man had somehow run about 10 feet in the blink of an eye.
Oscar kept staring at him, it was a disrespect to people to call him a man.
He was barely holding flesh under that skin. His bones protrude from each angle. His face seemed like wet paper on bone.
Oscar himself was in no way a person of great strength, but his punch left the man's right cheek purple.
The man stood up;brushing the sand off him. Oscar tightened his fists,in case he tried to grab him again.
The man noticed.
"I-ii-m Sorry..!! I didn't mean to startle you-u." The man whined, scared.
"W-we-e haven't had any one in…A very long Time!, i was really surprised to see mister so i grabbed to se if he was really real or aa a fake thing my brain madee"
"A figment of your imagination?" Oscar asked.
" YYYyEs th-aath" the man was shaking so much that it made Oscar feel like winter was approaching.
They exchanged a few more words—oscar barely able to understand the malnourished man, stuttering at every word. The man told Oscar his name.
Lloyd.
Loyld apologized to him again and took him through the dead streets.
Oscar could feel eyes staring at him—the covered windows couldn't hide that. He felt his neck burn more and more as they walked.
They reached a barely standing inn.
There were about 10 people in the lobby, one tall lanky fellow behind the counter. The entire place was full of dust, a rotten smell filled each crevice. Cockroaches running behind sofas.
The place was anything but a fine establishment.
The tall fella didn't want to have any introductions and cut straight to the chase
His bony face and sunken eyes staring straight at Oscar.
Compared to everyone he'd seen, he looked like the most well fed person to exist. They all looked as though they hadn't eaten actual food in years.
The man behind the counter smiled and told Oscar he could stay for free.
"Furst tiem gettin a person in a luong whike" The man was almost forcing the air out his lungs to sound out the words.
"I appreciate the hospitality, thank you"
The man just smiled, his misplaced teeth more prominent, each cavity visible.
Oscar smiled a fake smile and followed Lloyd to the stairs.
He noticed Lloyd had a small smirk on his face. He continued to follow him nonetheless.
'Lloyd looks like a tooth pick' he told himself as reassurance.
As they were climbing the stairs to the second floor, Oscar started to think about what sin is this world or more accurately "book" controlled by.
The bones he saw before arriving here kept coming to his head. The wasteland of an area he dropped into, the morbidly malnourished people.
'Which of the seven sins embodies this?' he kept thinking.
He barely remembered what each sin was.
Loyld jotted him out of his thoughts.
"H-here is Yyour room" he pointed to the room at the edge of the hallway.
The hallway began at the stairs and ended going straight, the walls were an ugly off-white color. The doors of each room have either their handles broken, loose or just not there.
The room inside was barely anything to talk about. A bed at the left corner....and that was it. The right side had a simple wooden table but that's all.
Oscar thanked Lloyd for leading him to the room.
Loyld told him it was no worries,scratching the back of his right hand for some reason.
"Anxious.." Oscar whispered under his breath as Lloyd left.
"There's most definitely something bad about to happen…but i dont mind"
'What they do next will just give me more information' he thought.
Even if it was going to be something physical
It isn't much of a gamble. It's just deciding which is less worse., he would've most definitely been killed by whatever left all those bones if he didn't come to this town.
If not for that, he would've starved anyway.
This was the most logical choice.
A few hours passed, he laid on the bed thinking. The hardness of the bed and the windowless room made even more uncomfortable for him.
"This is getting annoying…" he sighed
"I need some air"
He got up from the bed and opened his door and left the room.
As he was walking down the hallway, he saw one of the doors without a handle.
'Curiosity killed the cat' I don't know why that saying came to his mind, but it did.
He opened the door and looked inside.
His mind immediately went numb, his nose physically recoiling from the stench of rotten flesh.In front of him was a corpose—disemboweled—intestines out and ripped across the floor. Roaches eating away at the remains.
Oscar put his hand to his mouth. He was just about to puke everywhere.
He jolted out of the room, trying to calm his stomach.
'There were bite marks on the corpse' he kept thinking.
The image ingrained in his retinas.
As he calmed down, breathing more regularly. He figured out the sin.
He ran down the stairs, he knew he was next. As he went into the lobby.
He saw the counter man holding a long knife, flanked by five more people. At the end he could see Lloyd.
Each's mouths drooling, as soon as they saw Oscar.
"Weh plahned toh make it pahnless" the man directed at Oscar.
"Buht nowh ur here, so lets juhst geht this over with"
Oscar stared at them with a grim expression, he spoke under his breath, his tongue licking his teeth as he spoke the word.
"Gluttony"
They all started to slowly walk to Oscar like one would a scared dog.
As they were cutting the distance and Oscar kept backing up.
A barrage of stampedes came from outside and a loud horn could be heard.
"Fuck! its the The Luminar" one of them spoke.
Oscar took the chance of them being distracted and blitzed between them. As he ran out he saw none of them came after him.
He then stood in the middle of the street,church behind him, and the entrance a run away.
And from the sand covered entrance came a dozen horses glamoured in gold with riders wearing silver armour.
They stopped at the gate, the air went quiet. The only thing moving was the sand twisting around their hooves.
The one in gold dropped from his horse, his steps heavy but slow. He yelled something in a language Oscar couldn't understand—each word sounding like it scraped through metal.
Then he pulled a sword from his side, white fire crawling up the blade like it was alive.
The man pointed the burning sword at Oscar—Making sure his eyes stared into oscar. He looked intrigued.
He then gave a small smirk to Oscar and moved his head towards the inn.
"These people have been causing alot of trouble to us all now" he spoke to no one in particular. He then announced.
"I am The Radiant of The Luminar—Loius Everhart.
You people have sunk too deep into the sin that cursed these lands. Innocents died before their time because of your hunger. Weak scum like you will be dealt with properly."