Enjoy! Trying to take this interesting places, and I might be achieving that. Have yourself a lovely day, and see you Friday.
The Warlock V - Mackinley Clevinger, July 20, 2016
The sound of a snapping branch broke the silence that had fallen over the forest, stirring me out of my thoughts and back into a world where the only signs of life I’d found were coupled with crushed skulls. I reached for power that wasn’t there to sense what had made that noise, inwardly screaming at how empty and alone I felt with no special connection to the world around me.
More sounds reached my ears, fanning out from the first snapped branch to either side of me. I cast my eyes around me, keeping my head still as I took in surroundings that had changed greatly from the overgrown path through the woods. The path was invisible beneath a shifting field of verdant grass, an indent in the tree line the only hint at where an exit to the clearing may be.
I let the scythe spin lazily in one hand, immediately halting the encroaching sounds behind me as the hiss of wind whistling past the sharpened blade took over the clearing. Something had killed those farmers, leaving nothing but broken skeletons and their faint memories behind. Something had kept their bodies from being recovered, presumably been enough of a threat to keep people away.
My hands tightened on the scythe’s haft, the six shambling creatures frozen in place as they watched me, a hungry look in their eyes and recognition in mine. My memory from before was spotty, but the arched spines, bruised-corpse color, and twisted limbs brought to mind an image: A twisted hand emerging from a woolen robe, newer than the one I’d burnt, and a flailing body with smoke pouring into its mouth beneath me…
One of the twisted men suddenly lunged forward, and instinctually I stepped forward and threw a hand forward, reaching for the cold pit of death that nestled within its breast and beat an unholy heart that gave life to the abomination. Mid-flight the creature collapsed, scrambling away from me in fear after tumbling to the ground in a tangle of mangled limbs and sending the others into a nervous frenzy.
I hadn’t done anything, hadn’t been able to reach out and touch the darkness that swirled throughout its body, but I’d remembered the pose, how I had channeled the foul energy so long ago, in a heartbeat. It was going to realize I hadn’t touched it, only had the bearing of… whoever had created it. Carmen, most likely, who’d learnt it from me.
I lay the scythe down and crouched, holding my arms wide and welcoming while looking into the thing’s eyes. They were foul, yes. Cold without a doubt. Abominations, twisted creatures meant for the purpose of terror and devastation with their minds shattered to long only for the look of fear in their victim’s eyes before devouring them alive, sure. They were truly terrible, and yet…
I looked on it as it approached, an artist enjoying their student’s craft, and couldn’t deny that Carmen had done something impressive. It was rough around the edges, not the elegant things I’d designed and perfected so long ago, but… I frowned, immediately changing my face to something more welcoming as the approaching creature froze for a second at my change of expression.
I tried to remember clearly, but I couldn’t shake the sense that Carmen had never… Had he ever managed to make one of these? Or had that been Adrian? The thin outline of a memory was present, something I could barely keep ahold of as I tried to remember something more, but before even an errant thought was released the memory was gone and I was left with nothing.
The creature was getting closer, shuffling towards me in an awkward gait that seemed unfamiliar. Was it wounded? Did Carmen not know how to… It didn’t matter. If I lost control of it, I’d be face-to-face with a creature designed to wreak havoc and terrorize anyone it came across, namely by killing them. This needed tact, and a special care that only I knew how to apply.
I held its head in my hands, feeling the tensed muscles of its neck and the warped jaw that pushed eagerly to split the skin it hid beneath. I couldn’t help but look fondly at the monstrosity, a thing of beauty to eyes that saw beneath the horror and understood the craft that went into its creation. It was a product of horrible things, an art form I couldn’t allow myself to pursue again, but I still held the utmost respect for it; could spot every difference between the creature and how it should have been made.
I locked eyes with the beast and let it search within me for the power it had been answering to; felt the moment that it found nothing of its master within me; let my hands tense against its skin as it suddenly bucked in my grasp, desperate to free itself and rend me with its overgrown nails and jutting teeth… Heard the snap as I delicately twisted the malformed section of bone beneath its skull and let it drop to the grass, dead.
They were my creation. My design. However Carmen may have liked changing it, he – it – was working with my teachings – or, the Warlock’s teachings, – the point is, I knew how they were made, I knew how every bone shifted, every bit of skin that tightened and tore to allow them to become the pitiful creature that lay twitching before me. I knew how they ‘lived’.
“And I know how you die.”
I scooped the scythe from the grass as the other five creatures let out a howl, taking a precious second to run a hand over the bald and skin-drawn head of the dead creature and delicately reach into its core for… for… It was there. I could feel it.
Drawing my hand back, I could see a thin purple wisp follow my hand from its mouth, the features of the corpse smoothing out and becoming less extreme as I fully drained it of the dark power nestled deep within, watching with bated breath as the flow disappeared into my palm. As the last threads were absorbed into me, I felt a shudder run through me, my entire body exploding with a burning light that consumed all feeling and replaced it with…
Okay. This felt… it felt good. Amazing. It felt right, normal, the proper way of things. Alive and awake, the blindfold torn into a thousand pieces and thrown away so that all you could see was the beautiful, glorious light that was everywhere and in you at the same time and let you feel and touch in an instant and just know that things were going to be okay and… and… and I didn’t make a deal for it, no one that counted was hurt by this; it wasn’t… this wasn’t going to –
Something within me grated, sending a ringing screech that echoed in my bones and rattled my skull, sending lances of pain running all throughout my body. The power flowed through me, leaving the discord and agonizing pain in its tracks as it wound its way deeper into my core. I couldn’t… This wasn’t anything I had ever –
I let out a screech of pain, feeling my skin shift and crawl as I sensed something approaching through the pain. I could still feel around me, felt the oneness of the light that barely shined through the feeling of corruption within me. Forcing my will on it, I gathered the spreading threads of power and sent them into my right hand, barely holding them down while I waited for…
I spun, lashing out with my hand and slapping my palm against the creature’s skull. It froze mid-bite, fighting against my grip madly but unable to budge my hand an inch as I released my hold on the power I’d taken and let it race into the creature. There was another way to kill them, the reason they were so hesitant to approach me and the first had been so scared when I reached an arm out.
Purple light shone out of its eye sockets, beating back the sun and lighting the clearing with a graveyard glow for a brief spell before shutting off in a violent spasm that sent the creature falling to the ground, its eyes burnt and its spine bent over itself backwards.
I dropped to my knees, holding my numb hand and looking at it in horror as a faint sigil shone brightly for a second before fading away. I watched my fingers twitch and move, feeling nothing but a faint pulsing from where the sigil lay, nearly invisible against my dark skin but a permanent reminder of my mistake.
Or perhaps a very temporary reminder that would find its way into one of these beasts stomachs if I didn’t get moving. Leaping to my feet, I lashed out with the scythe to keep another creature at bay as I moved along the edge of the clearing, hoping that the indent in the tree line was, in fact, where the path continued and not where I’d been shouting at the longest.
My bare feet left the soft grass of the clearing and felt packed dirt, noises of bodies rampaging through the woods surrounding me as I kept the four creatures I could see at bay with the scythe. I was barren of power again, a trap lain in them to catch anyone who tried to… to what? How often would someone extract power from them to warrant that? What was Carmen thinking?
I heard a grunt from beside me and leapt back, narrowly dodging the dirty claws of another twisted man. They were things of beauty, sure, but they were also dangerous as hell and particularly skilled at hunting down single targets and ripping them to shreds. On the downside, they weren’t very agile, typically.
I spun around and ran along the path, scythe at my side and terror draining from my heart as I put distance between me and the growing horde of… amalgamations of horror, why not. The path had to end some time, and whether I’d find my salvation or doom, at least I had a direction to go and something to be doing at long last.