*Drip*
"...."
*Drip*
"....."
*Drip*
My eyes twitched open to the sound of something next to me. I tried to feel my arms yet I could only feel my fingers twitching. I tried to raise my head only to feel a throbbing pain on the back of my head. Yet I slowly raised my head and blinked before closing my eyes to help clear my vision. When I opened my eyes, I was met with a horrifying scene. Mutilated body parts lay scattered around me and I was covered from head to toe with an unfamiliar words written in blood.
I tried to move my hands once again only to find them chained to the wall. It was then I heard footsteps approaching. I held my breath and waited for the approaching person. A door opened in the back of the room and Madison stepped inside grinning from ear to ear followed by Kayla. She stopped a few feet away from me. "Morning sleepyhead. How was your nap?." She said in a sing song tone.
I struggled to speak due to the pain but I managed ask this "Why?". Madison giggled before she started to circle around me. "Let me tell you a little story. The town that we stand on was founded by a cardinal who was exiled by the Vatican after he was suspected of witchcraft. Now they didn't have enough proof yet so they only exiled him to quell the masses. The priest who was now vulnerable gathered his followers from all over Asia, Africa and Europe and set sail to the newly discovered America. His entourage consisted of witches and warlocks from different races and cultures. Each of whom who were brought together due to their common goals.
When they had arrived the natives of this land and the colonial forces were more or less at war. So it was pretty easy for us to lay down our roots in this valley. Eventually they even allied with a native tribe who were practicing witchcraft themselves."
At this point I was getting impatient as I wanted a clear answer not a history lesson. I glared at her before hissing " What does that have to do with my situation?" Madison looked at me with irritation before retorting "I'm getting to it. Calm down. Anyways the priest and his followers spent years experimenting with dark magic while the colonials and other tribes were none the wiser. The slaves brought by the Europeans provided ample amounts of lab rats for their cause. Their blood allowed us to summon a demon straight from hell to our world. It is called Inferus or the Faceless. A unique kind of demon who is an amalgamation of several species of demons. With "it" by our side they would have been nothing that could stop us from bringing the entire world to our knees.
However, something went wrong with the ritual and Inferus came out with its soul splintered. This enraged Inferus and he slaughtered a lot of our my people. To atone for our mistake "it" gave us exactly 2 centuries to collect all fragments of its soul. Otherwise "it" would kill every living thing in this valley. So our people set out to recover the soul fragments and we succeeded in gathering all fragments except for one. No matter how much we searched, we could never find it and eventually we gave up and waited for our inevitable demise. Until fate led you to us. You arrived to this town like at moth to the flame with the last fragment embedded in you body a day before the deadline." Madison cupped my face as she said the last sentence.
She then pulled back her hands before saying " I know it's hard to believe but it doesn't matter anyways. Once the clock strikes 3 at midnight, Inferus will arrive and none of it will matter anymore. Once Inferus becomes complete, our brotherhood will rise once more and the world will tremble before us." Madison started to laugh maniacally before turning to Kayla. "Clean and bandage his wound. We cannot have him die before the ritual." Madison giggled once more before leaving me with Kayla.
I was still trying to register what had happened in my head. So I remained quiet the entire time Kayla spent bandaging my head. However, I was brought back to my senses by what happend next. Kayla brought her face close to me as she whispered. "Listen to me. The cultists will leave the cabin half an hour before the the clock strikes 12. I have hidden something for you on the shelf opposite to the fireplace." I tried to to talk before he put her hand over my mouth. "Don't talk. Make sure you get out before "it" comes then come to the place marked on this map. I'll be waiting there for 3 days." She then took out a piece of paper and put it inside one of my pockets. "Don't be late or I'll leave without you. I'll leave one of the shackles unlocked." She then unlocked one of my shackles with a key before putting the key inside my pocket with the map before leaving the room.
I wanted to escape immediately but I could still hear people outside the room. Moreover, I was still disoriented due to my wound so I stayed put. Unfortunately, it was the very same wound that caused me to doze off.
I don't know how much time passed before I woke up again. But the moment I woke up, I freed my arm before unlocking the shackle. I listened for any movement outside of the room but only got silence. I tiptoed out the room and went up the stairs. Much like how the room I was held captive was a generic horror movie sacrificial chamber room, the cabin I was in was also a generic horror movie cabin in the woods. Meaning bear rugs, creepy animal trophies, and I swear I saw I book bound in human skin, a bloody chainsaw, and a bloody machete.
I attempted to turn on the chainsaw, but surprise surprise it had no juice. Instead, I took the bloody machete. I was not going to think about who or what the blood belonged to. I watched enough horror movies to know that I shouldn't mess with the book. I then searched the shelf Kayla mentioned. She left me a double barreled shotgun. Not ideal for a stealthy escape. I searched the shelf once again for spare ammunition. There were none. So in short, she left me a large, loud double barreled shotgun with no extra ammunition to help me escape from a crazy cult. I thought for sure that I was doomed. I tried to search the rest of the house for more supplies, which in hindsight was probably not the best idea. I was so engrossed in my search that I didn't realize that I forgot Kayla's instruction.
It was then, I heard the grandfather clock ring. I remembered what. Kayla had said and promptly ran out of the house. I didn't make it ten feet when I heard rustling of branches and trees in the distance. Following that, I heard a soft thump. It almost sounded like a foot step only the thumps came at slightly long intervals than a regular person or even an animal should have. Then suddenly, the footsteps stopped. I stared into forest as I tried to find whatever was making the sound. But I was met with silence. Dead silence.
It was then a pair of glowing crimson eyes appeared from the darkness. I wanted to run but stood frozen on the spot. It was then I saw a familiar sight. The irises of the creature was the same as the symbols I found on the board the other day. Then right Infront of me, the eyes began to divide like cells reproducing. This caused me to snap out of my trance as I began to back away towards the cabin. The eyes inturn began to multiply even more before a long appendage came out from the darkness followed but another. I realized that the creature was advancing towards me so I broke up into a sprint. An inhuman shriek from behind me as I reached the cabin. I shut the door, locked it then barricaded it with anything close by.
Then I waited, shotgun aimed at the door. I held on to an unlikely scenario where the creature was simply a hallucination. I was wrong.
It happened in a blink of an eye. I heard a window shatter from behind me. But before I could turn around, a scaly hand had stabbed my right leg with its claws. I shouted in pain when the hand yanked me. I fell on the floor and the arm started to drag me backwards. I tried to grab hold of whatever I could but it was of no use. Then I remembered the shotgun. I turned around and saw the creature clearly for the first time, and immediately stifled a shriek. The creatures was made of a huge mass of skinless flesh wrapped around an object in layers. And the worst part, each layer in constantly shifting like ripples on a pond when you throw a rock into it. Lastly I looked at its eyes which were also shifting their positions.
So anyways, I did what anyone who had played Resident Evil would have done in my place. I aimed at its eyes pulled both triggers of the shotgun at once.
Bang!!
I closed my eyes on instinct just as the shotgun went off. Then, I heard loud thump in the distance and felt a wet substance on my face. The arms that had been pulling me stopped and I opened my eyes. The creature had a gaping hole where his eyes were and a black liquid was oozing from it. I rubbed my face to find that the same liquid had been splattered on to me when I shot it.
A shot of pain reminded me of the creatures hold on my legs. The creature had a death grip on my wounded leg. I took the machete before promptly hacking away at the arms. It took several slashes before I managed to sever the arm. I then crawled away before inspecting my wound. Miraculously, the creature managed to avoid any major arteries so I was in no danger of bleeding to death at the moment. So I cut out piece of cloth from my shirt before wrapping it around the wound.
I then limped towards the window and looked outside. I saw a chunk of flesh several meters away lying in the ground. It was the creatures eyes, or rather what remained of it. I stared at it for a while but it remained unchanged. Perhaps I had killed it.... Nope!! Several red eyes opened and they all locked on to me. Then they started to squirm and several appendages began to come out of it.
At this point I limped farther into the house. I hoped that there was a back door from where I could exit. But just as I passed the kitchen, I found a better solution. The cabin had a dumbwaiter which was weird since it was a small cabin in the woods. But I didn't think too much of it as I opened it. The bottom of the dumbwaiter was simply a wooden sheet which I removed to find the shaft. I crawled down it just as I heard a crash from outside and promptly closed it behind me.
What followed was the sound of the creature shrieking and trashing the cabin while I prayed that it doesn't find me. Which brings us here, where I'm narrating the events of the last few days to a carving I made since I had nothing better to do.
Third-Person POV
Edge looked at the stickman he carved on the shaft as he finished his narration. The sounds of wood breaking, glasses shattering and an inhuman shrieks can be heard in the background.