Albie walked into the stone guard house. The walls and guard barracks were old. The stone had been there for hundreds of years. Grey stone and a heavy wooden door were supposed to save the men inside from him. To the left of the guard house door was a cloth buzzing with flies. A hand with a yellow sleeve hanging out. Albie checked under the blanket to find a handful of dead men in yellow army coats. The dead solders must have been the locals and the residents of the barracks a few nights ago.
His scouting bee returned to him. It transmitted thoughts of motionlessness and loud snoring. Albie put the blanket back down over the dead soldiers. Albie opened the heavy wood door to see a large room built into the city wall. Two roads of ten beds six of which were occupied. The floors were very clean. The smell of strong soap filled the room. The men sleeping must have spent a day or two cleaning the floors maybe the walls and beds as well. Some of the beads had no mattresses. The vengeful wizard entered the building silently. The monstrous bees silently skittered across the floor. Albie walked to the first man sleeping peacefully.
The mans calm face made the phantom wounds in Albies chest burn. He was a murderer. Killed the previous occupants of this bed earlier this week killed the people of Yourz and now slept in their home. It angered him his chest hurt the black liquid in his lungs squirmed. The mad mage placed his hands over the solders mouth and began draining the life force from his body.
For a minute the man seemed calm until his body began to shiver beneath his blanket. The man tossed and turned in his sleep then the mans eyes opened. Above him was a pallid man with red eyes who hadn't eaten in days. He wore a jeweled cloak. The mans hand felt as cold and bitter over his mouth like a long-frozen night. He grabbed at the pail arm weakly to attempt to break the hold but couldn't muster his strength. Helpless ness and fear crept from the places in his mind where he hid them and consumed his reason. He tried to scream but no voice would escape his nightmares hands. His body was not his to move anymore the world grew darker and colder by the second and after what felt like an eternity of freezing to the young man, he lost sight and then soon after stopped being.
The solder had died from suffocation before the vengeful mage could take all the life force. He could continue to drain the body of the man, but he felt little relief from his pain for eating this ones life and had other things to do tonight. He had other men to kill tonight and then had to escape into the city. Albie sent a thought to his monster bees to kill the other men sleeping in this room while he went to kill the officer. There were three doors on the back wall. One the mage knew was occupied. He opened the door as the bees climbed the walls and beds of the barracks. The dog sized bees slunk into the remaining men's beds and began killing them with acid bites to the thoughts and stingers though the eyes.
Grunts and wheezing of pain were heard from the occupied beds followed by the sounds of melting meat and the slurping of bees. Albie opened the large wooden door to the officer's quarters were a large man slept in his bed. He was a big man at least 7 feet tall who didn't quite fit on the bed. He had on an evening gown and night cap and slept very loudly. Albie saw his things on a dresser nearby. A pistol and saber. The room seemed tidy. The man had made himself at home. If Albie checked the drawers, he expected to find the man's cloths neatly folded in the dresser. This false guard captain perhaps wanted to prove to his commander he was worthy of such a post. It made Albie wonder if the man was just a turn coat.
Could someone who killed his neighbors be trusted as a guard captain. Could a man who murdered his howl city sleep so well at night? Not possible thought Albie. The mage took the flint lock pistol of the nearby dresser and loaded it from the cartridge box beside it. He pulled the hammer back with a click and walked over to the bed. Albie channeled the moonlight into his limbs to give himself the strength of ten men then kicked the bed over. With a thud and a groan, the bed spun over and fell on the man.
The large officer pushed the bed off himself to find a cloaked figure with his gun aimed at him.
"Who are you," asked the man, not quite awake and unable to understand the situation.
"On your feet," responded the hooded mage.
The large officer stood up. He was well taller than the man holding the pistol but was not awake enough to understand what was happening.
"Walk," ordered the hooded man.
The groggy officer still half-asleep walks slowly to the door. This was a weird dream. The giant bees eating his men in the next room was strange. These large bugs couldn't possibly exist. What kind of strange nightmare was this?
"Outside," ordered the mage in the crystal covered cloak.
"Look I don't care what kind of nightmare this is," answered the tall officer. "I'm not going outside in my night shirt and no weird dream person will get me to do otherwise."
The mage sent a message to one of the bees. It was to hurt the man. The bee responded with frustration and hunger but flew to the man's shoulder and stabbed him with its stinger.
The man let out a cry of pain. Unable to understand what was happening. This dream hurt so much but the bees couldn't be real. His men couldn't be getting eaten by giant bees this was impossible.
"Outside!" shouted the gun wielding mage.
The bee stabbed him again causing him to bleed more from his shoulder. The officer began to walk to the door and started laughing hysterically. Giant bees and a hooded man killing him in the middle of the night was not possible. This wasn't happening. The pain couldn't be real. He was an officer in a lord's army. This was not how he was supposed to die. He was going to be commander of the walls when Yourz was resettled. This wasn't how he would die. The bees and hooded man couldn't be real.
The officer stepped into the brisk night air. His bare feet touching the cold stones of the city sidewalk. The night was clear the moon was radiant. The bee slew of his shoulder. All the world seemed silent to him. He felt a pain in his neck then the front of his body felt warm and he felt cold. His legs got week and he dropped to his knees. The world went black.
The hooded mage cleaned his knife on the dead mans night gown before putting it away. He got on a knee in front of the dead officer. He sent to the bees a need to be somewhere else and a desire to take the men's hearts. The bees left the house soon after. Hearts held in their claws. The Mage wheezed and brought some of the black flehm into his mouth. He kissed the corpse and forced the evil liquid into the body. Albie stood up and with the help of the moon light ran into the city. The corpse of the tall officer stirred and groaned as it began to stand. It sniffed the air and found the pile of dead solders outside the barracks. The hungry monster began to eat the dead men. Cloth bone and all. It cared not for its creator. It did not wonder how it came to be. It was mindless and hollow except for the need to fill an emptiness inside that only the lifeforce of untainted flesh could provide. It gorged on the bodies. The eating brought it no pleasure and did very little to lessen the emptiness, but the hunger was all and it would eat until it was full or there was nothing left.