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The Warlock VII by Mackinley Clevinger, July 26, 2016
It was a small town, nothing more than a single road bordered by disused buildings decorated with destruction and the dead. The road veered to the right in front of a squat, official looking building that I was now charging towards while screaming obscenities.
“You’re fucking kidding me!”
Letting out a wordless cry of frustration, I pushed my tired legs harder with the end of my flight in sight. If everyone in the only sign of civilized life I’d been able to find was dead and useless to me, then their spirits would have to put up with me using their homes for my survival. They could haunt me for all I cared; I’d been pushed around and disappointed enough for one day already. I was done.
The building I was approaching looked like a town hall, the defunct clock rising above the two stories of officious design a familiar look. A memory stirred within me; the suspicious wooden-slat windows and single, watching, glass porthole set above the protruding entranceway in tandem with my rapid approach with a horde of creatures in tow…
Another time, another life, a different reason.
Twisting the scythe around to keep its blade away from me, I made my final approach on the doors with no intention on stopping to see if they were locked. I could feel my pulse pounding in my temples, the flush of nervous energy through my veins not helped by thinking how much easier this would be if I’d still had my power and was in a body that moved the way it should.
The doors lay in an enclosed alcove, its contents shaded from the setting sun but still visible enough to show how unfeasible my plan of charging through the doors was. I had as much a chance of breaking through those as I did going through the wall; how had I thought I was going to just break them down?
A flood of emotions – frustration, despair, regret – sank into my gut, a weight that sapped me of strength as I slowed before the doors, panic ready to bloom throughout me. The world froze as my foot landed on the line drawn in shadow between the alcove and the wider world, my mind racing as the fear tried to take control.
I could run. Turn to follow the road and keep going, maybe find someone along the road who could help… There might be someone, but… It was getting dark, and I didn’t have the strength to keep running. I’d slow down, need to stop, and then they’d be on me. If I put it off, I’d have to fight them when I was completely drained of any strength instead of on my terms, and yet…
What… what the hell was I thinking? Where did this doubt come from? This wasn’t what I’d meant in rejecting the old ways, refusing to deal in blood for power. I wasn’t trading my old life – being the Warlock – for weakness. I was avoiding old mistakes, recognizing what had gone wrong and led to my death, not becoming a victim of the past who fled at the sight of danger.
I fell into the step, the world moving again as I crossed into the alcove and pushed against the ground as hard as I could, aware of the futility of the trying to shoulder-charge the solid doors but unwilling to give up, either.
My shoulder met the door. Hard. Whatever might have gone wrong with the revival process to make me a woman, it had brought me back with more than a little bit of myself to throw around the place. Pain erupted in my shoulder, bone-deep but not debilitating as the wood ruptured beneath my mass and admitted me into the shadowed town hall.
I hit the ground in a shower of splinters and dry-rotten wood, what little light poured through the door hanging off of one hinge letting me look around the foyer of the town hall. Rotten benches lay toppled near the walls, fallen end-tables and shattered pottery lying among scattered bones that shone brightly amongst the darker wood flooring. Another set of doors lay across from the entrance, hanging enticingly open.
I scrambled towards the open door, hand recoiling as it grabbed ahold of a gnawed bone before I finally got my feet underneath me and dashed through the door into a deeper darkness unlit by the fading sunlight. I turned and set my weight against the door, shutting it firmly to the protest of my aching shoulder.
I remained leaning against the door, panting heavily while my legs began to quiver underneath me. I lay the scythe against the door beside myself, relief spreading through my chest at having made it this far. It wasn’t over yet, but I’d managed to buy myself a few minutes and put something solid between me and my hunters.
The sound of claws scraping against wood slid their way beneath the door, the following blasts of impact against the door suspected but still surprising in their ferocity. The scythe clattered to the ground in front of me, lost in the darkness as silence bloomed around the ongoing ringing sound of metal falling.
I sighed, pushing myself away from the door before they got back to breaking it down. I could barely see within the building, the slatted windows admitting miniscule amounts of the thin light of dusk outside. Roaming along the floor with hands nervous of the scythe’s blade, I searched for the fallen weapon as the sound of wood splitting rose up again.
From what I could tell, the building wide but didn’t stretch back very far except near the entrance, where a wide hallway disappeared into shadows. The dark was unsettling, anything capable of hiding in its unknown depths. In all likelihood, there was probably nothing more than bones and cobwebs, but the idea of being ambushed made me all the more cautious.
My hand fell on the scythe’s handle. Pushing myself into a standing position with exhausted legs, I held the scythe with both hands, fingers falling into the grooves I’d forced into it as I faced the door. All that was left was to wait, to remain calm and remember that they…
They’d stopped breaking down the door.
My eyes fell on a front-facing slatted window on the east-side as a shadow passed in front of it, a second’s warning before the twisted body crashed through it and let in the last traces of sunlight. I raced forward, scythe trailing behind me as the creature scrambled to its feet after its awkward landing. All around me windows were being smashed as they leapt into the town hall, light drifting through the numerous holes left behind by the deformed men I’d designed and Carmen had created.
Arching the scythe above my head, I brought it down on the body in front of me, too focused on regaining its balance to notice my approach. The blade bit into its back, maroon blood oozing around the metal as its body stiffened momentarily before going limp. I jerked the scythe free and cast my eyes around the now-crowded room, seeking out my next target.
Further along the east-wing of the building, a corpse-bruised mass leapt through the air towards me, unnaturally-bent arms and claws stretched wide to encompass me in an embrace of death. I spun the scythe around and stabbed forward with the butt of the weapon, feeling fragile bones break beneath the dense wood as I caught the body and spun it around, pinning it against the wall as I pushed the blunt end through the skin.
As I heard the sound of wood impacting wood, a clawed hand flashed across the edge of my vision and I jerked back, narrowly missing the claws scraping their way down my face as they instead fell upon the scythe’s handle, breaking it in two. The impaled corpse fell the ground in a heap as I gripped the much shorter scythe and turned, lashing out with a foot at the unsteady creature.
It fell over, eyes intent on me as I stepped away and took in the state I was in. I could see inside the town hall, at least, now that the windows had been opened. Two of the deformities were dead, but there were another three in the room with me that I could see, the nearest regaining its footing uncomfortably fast.
Claws scrambling against wood behind me sent me dashing forward, swinging the half-scythe at the creature ahead of me as I approached. It leapt aside, dodging but giving me the room I needed to get by it without slowing down too much. I was breathing heavily, but the exhaustion I’d felt was gone as the heat of battle spread throughout me.
A flash of movement in front of me drew my eyes from the deformity I’d run by to the one leaping through the air in front of me. I dropped, swinging the scythe up above me, but not in time to avoid a claw slicing along my temple, shallow but painful. The scythe caught it in the chest, scraping along its belly and releasing its putrid intestines onto the floor.
Gasping in pain, I dashed a hand across the wound and felt my hand come away with blood. I could work with this, it was a minor injury, nothing more. Just… don’t let it happen again, and everything would be fine. Pay attention to everything at once. Nothing to it.
I pushed myself to my feet, momentum still carrying me forward and away from the messy bodies I’d left behind. There were two of them ahead of me, just past the double doors I’d come through earlier. I held the scythe out at my side as I ran, ready to swing the shortened weapon at the first one to get close enough. I needed to be able to put my back against something and not worry about a surprise –
The doors exploded open in a mess of wood-chips and flailing bodies, catching me off-guard and sending me rolling along the ground into the central hallway. I picked myself up, mind scrambled for a brief second as blood rolled down my face. I wiped it off again, eyes finally registering the open doorway and stairs I’d come to a stop besides.
I crawled forward, tensing my foot behind me to push myself into a stand moments before pain erupted in my ankle, jagged teeth grinding into the flesh and claws gripping tight around my leg, immobilizing me. I spun around, spine screaming from the angle, and drew myself closer to the creature tearing into my leg. Reaching out with both hands, the half-scythe flung into the stairwell, I gripped the creature around the neck and jerked its head to one side, grimacing at how the teeth dug into my leg but glad to hear the crack as it sagged, dead.
Freeing my leg, I scrambled into the stairwell, leaving behind a bloody trail as I picked up the scythe and limped up the stairs, pain blooming through me with each step. I was in utter darkness, no windows to light my way and only a bloody hand on the railing to guide me. The sound of claws scrambling against wood arose behind me, urging me onwards as they tentatively entered the stairwell.
I dragged myself further up, passing through a thinly lit doorway as the sounds behind me drew nearer. I sagged beside the doorway, easing my weight off of my injured foot, and waited. My eyes were adjusting the lack of light, whatever thin admittance of the post-dusk gloom giving me a usable view of the upper floor, though the blood trying to pool in my eyes was not so helpful.
The moment a claw passed through the doorway, I swung the half-scythe into the empty space and caught one of the creatures in its oversized mouth, scythe piercing through the back of skull. The momentum of the body carried it past me, snapping the scythe’s blade off at the base and jerking me from my resting place to the ground.
I scrambled along the floor in the direction the light seemed to come from, claws scraping against wood behind me as the deformities slid along the floor trying to turn to follow me. I was feeling light-headed, and my ankle seemed to be bleeding a lot, but I wasn’t done yet. I was still alive; I could still finish this.
I got my feet underneath me again, thighs burning from propelling my weight as I shambled down the hall towards the glass window I’d seen from outside that admitted the silvery light of the risen moon. Light was better than darkness, and I had to go somewhere. Staying still would only –
A force caught me from behind, impacting my midriff and lifting me from my feet to crash against the floor underneath a ravenous body. I spun around before it could set its weight down and trap me, freeing an arm and beating at it with the remnants of the scythe.
It shrugged off the blows and bared its teeth, lunging down towards my neck. I moved as far as I could, replacing my neck with the shoulder that had crashed through the door as its teeth missed their mark but dug into whatever flesh was available, grinding against the bone and ripping the bruised muscle as its shook its head.
I lifted the broken scythe again, mind awash with pain and entire body tensed, and brought it crashing down on the back of its skull, the metal fragments still attached to it digging through the bone and opening up the back of its head. It jerked, teeth still embedded in my shoulder but lying still on top of me, now. Another swing loosened its jaws, killing it and loosening its jaw.
I shoved the deformity off of myself, arm exploding in pain when I moved but able to see my surroundings again through a swirling, light-headed lens that revealed the form of a rearing man, twisted arms angled to bring the elongated claws down on my chest.
Screaming in pain, I shot up and lashed out with my injured arm, palm slapping against the creature’s head as the numb sigil flared to life, freezing its body against my hand. I ripped the energy out of it, felt it try to corrupt me as the creature’s body fell to the floor, lifeless and changing back to how the man had looked before being forcibly changed.
I kept the energy focused around the sigil as I sagged back to the ground, fighting against its attempts to worm its way through me and make another mindless servant while I looked around, hoping that the man lying beside me hadn’t been the last of them. How many had I –
I rolled to the side, claws digging into the space I’d inhabited a moment before, and sprung towards the off-balance creature, forcing my hand around its face and sending the corrupt energies streaming into it. Around my fingers, a violet light shone brightly out of its eyes, blinding in the gloom I’d become accustomed to.
Its body arched back, too-curved spine ripping back the opposite way as its hands withered and face pulled taut, the eyes burning out beneath my fingers as I stood and watched, pain briefly forgotten as I remembered what it had been like to wield power like this.
At the moment its spine snapped, a shockwave of energy was released, shaking the town hall to its foundations as the volatile power I’d drawn out of the first creature and forced into the second dissipated with no host to hold it. Dust and wood chips fell as the defunct bell rang, the sound as deafening as the violet light was blinding.
In a flash it was over, the light gone and the burnt body falling from my tired grasp. I could hear a keening moan between tolls of the bell, a deformity lying on its side, senses and mind addled by the blast of power.
I stumbled towards it and set a foot against its spine, pulling its head and shoulders back until I heard the bone snap and felt its throat go still.
Everything hurt. My shoulder and ankle were savaged, the cut along my temple widened and oozing blood, and the rest of my body was covered in cuts and bruises, but I’d done it. I had survived to, probably, bleed out and die.
I limped towards the window, feeling the last reserves of energy draining out of me but wanting to look outside again before I collapsed in exhaustion. I started shaking uncontrollably, mind no longer distracted by survival and instead focused on how much pain I was in, how tired I’d become, and how likely I was going to bleed out in a dead town surrounded by the monsters I’d designed and, finally, killed.
How many had that been? Two in the clearing, four downstairs, and five up top. Eleven, in total. Or… something didn’t sit right with me, some feeling I couldn’t describe, but the blood loss was making everything slow down; feel numb. Want to just… just stop, already.
I sagged against the window, face pressed against the cool glass and looking out into the night-time sky. There were stars, but I couldn’t see the moon. That’s a shame. I would’ve liked to have seen it before… before what? What was… Oh, it’s blood. On the window. I shouldn’t – wait… Eleven. Why would you send eleven? Send… send twelve.
I pushed against the glass, head swimming in the half-reflection of the glass and the shining, reflecting lights appearing all across my vision.
“Send… twelve? There’s…”
I could see the hallway in the reflection, a thin image overlapping the view of the uninhabited buildings and trees beneath the night sky. Something moved in it, approaching me slowly from behind. My head cleared, slightly; some of the fogginess and twisting vision was gone, replaced with a calm and clear purpose. There was one more deformed creature left.
It leapt towards me, silent in its approach but seen in the reflection. I spun around at the last second, catching it in my arms and letting it carry us both through the bloodied window and out onto the sharply-sloping roof, rolling over and over again towards the edge and the road far below.
My hand found its neck, wrapping around it and tightening as I moved to slap my palm against its head and end it, but its mouth was too quick and latched onto my forearm, biting into the flesh and snapping the bone with a twist of its jaw.
I released its throat and started striking its head with my free hand, wrenching my broken arm against its teeth with each blow as we rolled over the side of the roof, tangled in freefall while spinning wildly, each trying to get on top of the other.
The ground came up underneath us with my weight resting on top, slamming the creature into the pavilion outside of the town hall as I continued to beat its head with my fist, arm still trapped in its jaw. I pushed down with my broken arm, setting its head against the packed earth as blow after blow rained down upon its steadily breaking head.
With a final, bloody, punch, the jaw loosened around my arm, releasing me from its hold. I sat over it, fist bleeding and arm broken, shoulder and ankle ripped to shreds, clothing in tatters, face covered in blood, and a feeling of death all throughout myself. There was something in my wounds trying to spread, but it didn’t matter much anymore, did it?
I sagged to the ground, rolling away from the deformity and hissing in pain when I put pressure on shoulder. I lay on my back, facing the stars, and watched the shining lights as pain washed over me, a numbness to feeling observed through constant, absolute pain.
Something entered my vision, something bright that caught my eye. Something touched me, a soft, probing touch, not trying to hurt me but succeeding when everything was pain. A voice… I could hear a voice, a last call from the edge of consciousness. I tilted my head to one side, blood sliding down my face as I saw her; the shining woman in armor.
“You’re going to be okay.”