At the mention of his name the creature that was Ruben stopped. Izzy took in his vile appearance.
His skin had turned charcoal black, his mouth drooped to the side and the only thing that seemed untouched by the curse was his eyes.
Ruben cocked his head at Izzy who was still bleeding and approached her. Izzy tried to shuffle away, afraid of what he might do, but a stray branch from a tree had lodged itself into her leg.
Once she moved, another sharp pain shot up her leg.
" Dammit!" her helpless cry was unheard as Ruben steadily approached her.
"Hisss...." he sounded as his bare feet crunched against the fallen, dry leaves.
" System?" Izzy said, " Are you alive?" ...
There was no response from the broken cellphone lying far from her. Its black exterior blended into the surrounding forest and Izzy could no longer see it.
Ruben came closer and Izzy raised her arms in defence.
" No! Stay back!"
The clawed hand of Ruben reached out for her until a net was cast into the air. Ruben moved away, curling his body backwards, it appeared like he had no bones and moved fluidly.
" Hiss!" the harsh sound came out.
" Oh no you don't you evil creature !" A voice yelled in the darkness.
The net was made of rope with earth balls attached to each side. As it fell down it changed trajectory, swerving in the direction Ruben had dodged.
Izzy looked up and saw the group of adventurers she had entered the forest with.
Vina sang again and shards appeared in the air, aimed at Ruben. Dyran along with Sven crept behind the trees trying to avoid catching Ruben's attention, as Vina was distracting him.
The shards flew into the air and Ruben dodged, he jumped to the right. As he jumped Sven launched himself towards Ruben, clashing with him and forcing him back. Ruben's hiss echoed in the air as the net fell upon him.
The earth balls fell heavily onto the ground and Vina made sure they were sunk into the ground completely trapping Ruben.
" Ha ha ha! Hey, there old friend" Sven said squatting down to observe the now rabid Ruben, who was trying to escape from the net.
Vina, Dyran, Stem and Sven all stood around Ruben.
He clawed at them hissing and spewing spit from his mouth.
Vina placed her hands on her hips and shook her head.
" Tsk, it's such a shame you had to fall so low".
Stem broke away from the group and walked towards Izzy, he was the spitting image of his brother Petal.
He inspected her and saw that she was injured.
" You came into contact with him," he said flatly.
Izzy who was breathing heavily, slapped his hand away as he tried to check her wounds.
His closeness to her made her uneasy and she desperately wanted to get away.
" We'll have to kill you the, so you don't end up like him".
Izzy was horrified.
He looked at her with a blank look, as if telling her he was going to kill her, was as easy as talking about the weather.
" N-no!" Izzy's voice weakly croaked.
" Oh yeah! Stem where's Petal?" Sven asked he and Dyran were getting ready to haul Ruben back out of the forest.
Stem shrugged, he had little concern for his brother. Right now he was focused on Izzy whose left hand was coated in her own blood.
" You smell different" he commented, a knife was now in his hands and Izzy felt her body freeze.
" Protection over me-"
Waving the knife in front of her he said " Tsk tsk tsk, there won't be any chanting here".
Izzy watched slowly as the knife neared her stomach. He dipped the silver tip of the knife in her blood and inspected it.
" Hey Stem" Vina came up behind him but he ignored her, seemly engrossed in the blood on his dagger.
" Intersting"
Vina looked down at Izzy and Izzy at her.
" Ugh just kill her and let's go".
Vina was annoyed, she had been woken up in the middle of the night to run after Izzy in the Night Forest. She crossed her arms feeling cold and complaining at her teammates.
" Can we just go! This place gives me the creeps!"
Dyran laughed calling her a sissy.
Just as he was done laughing the dead body of Petal landed on the ground with a thump.
" Ahhhh!!" Vina's high pitched scream, echoed into the night and seemed to wake the sleeping forest.
The wind picked up bringing with it a haunting wail. Cracks and pops could be heard as trees seemed to move and Izzy swore she saw a shadow in the corner of her eye.
Stem, however, seemed unbothered by the body of his dead brother. He merely stood up walked to it and looked blankly at it.
" Oh, my Stem" Vina said holding back her shock.
Stem turned his head to her and a light smile played on the ends of his lips.
Vina frowned.
" Why are you…"
Her words trailed off as Stem pocketed his blade and took out a black wooden flute.
He began to play it.
His entire action was so strange that his companions stared at him thinking he had lost his mind.
Stem played a melody that was unfit for the situation. It seemed joyous and Izzy felt as if he was revelling in his brother's death.
Sven angrily approached Stem and whacked the flute out of his hands.
" What are you doing?!"
Stem ignored him and then took out his dagger and in one swift motion stabbed it into his brother's chest.
Sven was severely shocked. He grabbed Stem from behind and threw him onto the ground.
" What's wrong with you?" Stem was silent.
" I'm testing something," he said, sounding eerily calm.
Izzy watched the entire situation thinking these people were insane.
" Testing what?"
Sven said picking up Stem by his collar. " Your brother is dead-"
" He's not dead," Stem said.
A gasp from Vina and Dyran drawing his sword made Sven drop Stem.
He looked down and there was Petal casually getting to his feet.
His body looked loose and he moved like he was drunk, but Sven knew that something was wrong.
" What did you do?"
Sven asked as he too took out his cutlass pointing it at the resurrected Petal.
While the adventurers were sorting out their problems. Theonymphi appeared at Izzy's side.
" Theo," Izzy breathed. " Did you kill him?"
Theonymphi shook his head, Izzy could feel a trace of fear radiating off of him.
" We need to leave," he said, he sang in a whisper trying to heal Izzy's wounds as discreetly as possible.
Izzy groaned as she could feel her flesh knitting itself back together.
Ruben hissed and Dyran who was beside him kicked him.
" Shut up!" he said still holding out his sword at the unbalanced Petal.
Sven hesitantly approached Petal. Stem stood up looking up at the sky in a trance.
Once Sven was close to Petal he used the tip of his sword to poke Petal in the side of his leg. Petal swerved around in his direction and groaned.
Sven jumped back seeing his mouth was wide open and he swore he saw something inside of it.
" Vina shoot!" he said not wanting to take a chance.
The earth shards shot forth and struck Petal causing him to fall down.
Dyran breathed a sigh of relief. He looked down at Ruben, who was now still. His blue eyes seemed to be focused on something in the distance. He followed Ruben's eyes to look into the forest.
He squinted seeing something move.
" Vina…"
The trees rustled.
" Yeah," Vina said, she was shaken from having to kill one of her comrades.
Dyran looked behind her, then he saw something. It was tall and skinny. It was a muted grey colour and as he tried to make out its full appearance, Vina who felt a cold breath behind her, turned around.