"..." Asher tentatively prodded the gigantic pale mushroom laid on his plate, shuddering as its stem oozed out some kind of liquid butter, soaking the deer meat below it.
The flickering candlelights wreathed his plate with oily shadows.
He glanced at Little Red, who was staring at him from the opposite side of the kitchen counter. Only the outline of her crimson cloak was fully visible.
The woman's plate sat in front of her, untouched. She made no attempt to remove her wolf's-teeth mask, crossing her arms instead as she leaned back in her chair.
Asher spoke the obvious question on his mind.
"Er, what is this… thing? Is it safe to eat?"
"Of course. It's a Congealed Corpse. Safe to eat young, before they turn fatally poisonous."
"Huh."
Little Red narrowed her eye, forcing Asher to look down at his plate again.
Asher poked the 'Congealed Corpse' once more, hesitantly stabbing his flint knife into the fungus' flesh.
He cut out a small piece, raising it to his mouth.
Closing his eyes, he bit down.
"-!" A strange medley of flavors burst onto his tongue. A bouncy, chewy texture, combined with the undeniably savory flavor of blood and meat. It was pretty well seasoned, too. Salty and numbing.
It tasted nearly like raw flesh, but somehow Asher didn't stop at only one bite. He cut out a bigger chunk, shoving it into his mouth.
His disgusted expression contrasted with the rapid movement of his mouth.
He raised his plate, drinking the yellow oil pooled on the bottom of the plate.
Pure animal grease slid down his throat, nauseatingly delicious.
Asher cut the mushroom's cap from its stem, laying it on top of a filet of deer flesh.
Within a few minutes, his plate was entirely clean.
Asher glanced at Little Red.
"Huh?" One of the woman's hands had made its way to the edge of her mask, disappearing into the darkness of her hood.
A small noise clicked out, like the sound of a latch opening.
"Go to your room. Let me eat." The growl that came from her throat held a tinge of amusement.
"Ehe." Asher scratched his cheek, rising from his seat. Grabbing the cup of water near his plate, he left her to her own.
Gingerly, carefully, Little Red took off her mask.
The room flickered and darkened as she set the mask onto the table with a clink.
She eyed the mushroom first.
Her throat let out a noise as she sank her teeth into its delicate flesh, savoring it slowly.
…
Asher lounged on a chair in the living room, processing the events of the day.
Through the corner of his eyes, he saw Little Red walk through the front door, with a bundle of logs in her arms.
She placed the logs near the fireplace, selecting the biggest one to drop into the fire. Sparks flew into the air as the smoldering cinders were disturbed by the impact.
Asher's eyes followed one of the embers as it floated onto the table in front of him.
"What's on your mind?" Little Red took a seat opposite of him, deftly resting one of her legs to rest on the table.
The sun had already set, now the fireplace was the only source of light.
"When's bedtime?"
Little Red's eye twitched as Asher shot her a nonsensical question.
She looked at him incredulously, but the boy's eyes held her gaze with an amused, yet semi-serious glint in his eyes.
She made a careless hand gesture.
"Feel free to walk outside anytime. If you can survive the night, that is."
Asher made a moue of understanding. Then, he asked the question he was truly curious about.
"Hey… Speaking about the mission…"
"Hm?"
Asher tried to think of some way to word his question correctly. If his assumption was right, the mission would end if one of the Abnormalities, either Little Red or the Wolf (who he was sure was an Abnormality at this point) was defeated.
"The - the mission. How do I… complete it?"
Little Red growled, understanding his question. The room pulsed with uncomfortable emotions, yet her reaction wasn't as intense as last time.
Her hands had snuck into her cloak subconsciously.
"When I kill that creature, your mission will end. Help me, and I will be yours."
Asher blinked with surprise, but then shook his head to dispel his thoughts. Little Red meant those words more in servitude than anything else.
It was as if she was referring to herself as a collectible. Another Abnormality in his arsenal.
Her tone made it seem more like a pledge to the System than to him, referring to an agreement that Asher had no knowledge of.
"So when will you fight it? How long will I stay here?"
"On the night of the next full moon. I won't be able to control myself then, so stay out of my way." Asher remembered how the full moon was out on this day, too. So how long did he have to wait, a few weeks or something? A month?
'This is the longest mission yet, then.'
Asher sipped from his cup, thinking about what she said.
'I have to help her somehow, right? How can I do that if I stay out of the way? …Or is this mission just to survive?'
Questions whizzed in his mind. There was one he wanted to ask the most, but he stopped himself just in time.
'There would be no way to explain what I saw in that hallucination earlier.' The red shadow who the girl called 'Little Red'... Who did the title go to then? The girl, or the shadow?
And the Abnormality in front of him…
Asher stared at the woman's face.
It was hidden behind an imperceptible shadow.
"Got a fever or something?" Little Red interrupted his little staring session with one of her own.
Asher shrank back, embarrassed.
"I-I'll go to sleep now."
"'Night."
Little Red gave him no further attention as he returned to his bedroom.
The woman took out her gun and blade, placing them on the table.
Her eye followed the blade's reflection as the dim light danced around it, in contemplative silence.
…
Asher took off his cloak, laying it across the nightstand.
He plopped onto the bed, raising one of his hands into the air. Through the enveloping darkness, he could see the fuzzy outline of his fingers.
Hours passed by like this. Whenever one of his arms got tired, he would switch to his other to rest his muscles.
Suddenly, he clenched his fist and sat up.
The feeling of drowsiness had completely evaded him. In fact, he still felt energetic.
The strange fungus he ate for dinner pulsed inside his body, giving him a sense of foreign energy and strength.
Was that the reason for this restlessness?
Asher fit on his cloak once more, attempting to light a candle beside him for some light in the darkness.
Before he could strike the flint, a prompt confirmed his guess.
['Congealed Corpse' has been digested. +10 Temperance, +10 Insight for thirty minutes. Warmth spreads into your limbs.]
No wonder he felt so energetic.
He pulled down his hood as a bead of sweat dripped down his neck.
Even the wildlife here are entirely abnormal, he thought to himself as he lit the candle beside him.
*Tap Tap*
Something hard tapped onto his window, interrupting his thoughts.
Moving his candle closer to the window, Asher smiled as he saw a cute little bird tapping on the glass with its tiny yellow beak.
Its body was an angelic white, except for an oval of bright red feathers on its stomach.
It let out a muffled chirp before ceasing its taps, fluttering away into the forest, like it was inviting him to follow it outside.
Asher thought it looked a bit familiar, but he couldn't remember when he had seen it before.
Shrugging his shoulders, he opened his bedroom door, the candle in his left hand giving him enough light to penetrate the darkness.
He explored the house in silence, careful not to make any noise.
However, there wasn't much to be found. There was only one more door in the cabin, presumably the entrance to Little Red's bedroom.
He had no reason to go inside, so he opened the door to the outside instead.
Instantly, the frigid night air cut through any insulation his cloak brought him.
One further step, and the warmth of the fireplace merely meters behind him abruptly faded away.
The candle flame in his hand flickered ominously as he tried to peer into the all-encompassing darkness.
The drug-like warmth from the mushroom inside him had disappeared.
Frost crackled under his shoes as he treaded forward with caution.
He glanced behind-
The cabin was gone, like it was never there in the first place. He distinctly remembered taking only five steps forward..
Behind him, he could only see a grove of black trees, stretching to the sky.
Enveloping him in a cage of wood, like the bars of a prison.
His candle vanished from his hand, leaving him in complete darkness.
Asher flailed his arms, staggering a step from the sudden shock.
"W-Who's there! That - My candle!" His arms snatched at the empty air, attempting to grab something, anything to hold on to. But it was in vain.
He stumbled to the floor, wincing as frost spread onto his fingers.
*Peep!*
In front of him, a bird chirped. Although he couldn't see the bird's form through the darkness, Asher could tell that it was the same bird that tapped on his window earlier, from the sound of its shrill voice.
He looked down, where the chirp came from.
"H-Hello?"
The darkness crushed him as his voice echoed uselessly across the forest. Asher shivered as his lips had unknowingly turned pale.
[Thirty minutes have passed. Effects of 'Congealed Corpse' fades.]
'It's been t-thirty minutes?!'
[The chemical warmth fades to harsh, bitter cold. -30 Temperance, -30 Insight. Duration: Fifteen minutes.]
Asher screamed as a soul piercing cold crushed his bones like a vice. Compounded with the already icy atmosphere, he helplessly collapsed to the ground.
Like a madman, he dug his fingers into the freezing earth.
The ground was so warm… so warm!!
He bashed his head into a rock, shivering as the warm blood froze into a crimson layer of ice on his face.
Asher's vision and hearing swam as he staggered to his feet with inhuman effort.
His eyes twitched frantically as they heard the clinks of chains behind him.
His ears bled as visions of purple and red filled his eardrums.
He gasped, clutching his chest in an attempt to calm himself.
'D-Deep breaths! Get yourself together! You've been through this!!' Asher raised his hand, slapping himself on the face with all his strength. The stinging pain brought him back to a semblance of sanity.
The sounds of chains circled him methodically, and Asher's breathing quickly became unstable again.
He moaned, clutching his head in pain. He could feel it, his soul being judged by God.
*Peep!*
A small weight pressed against his shoulder, and two tiny claws clamped into his cloak.
Asher took in a shuddering breath.
"You're that bird… A-Are you… nice?" His voice babbled out, delirious and feverish.
A nauseating noise gurgled from it in response, like the sound of flesh snapping and tearing.
He flinched, and the noise abruptly stopped. The two claws dug deeper into his shoulder, tearing through the fabric of the cloak.
Before he could scream, a blinding lamplight appeared in the distance.
The lamp was a large, traditional birdcage, with a smoldering, floating orange flame in its center. Light filtered through the cage's bars, melting the frost around him, bathing him in glorious light.
"Little Red!" Asher nearly shouted in joy as he saw the crimson-cloaked figure holding onto the top of the birdcage to her chest, a guide in the abyss.
The bird on his shoulder and the sounds of chains had disappeared.
Asher broke into a sprint, running to the light.
And the light held fragments of illusion. With each step, the figure behind the birdcage shifted.
Hopeful visions.
"Sophie!"
It was Sophie, smiling as the Room shimmered behind her.
Addicting visions.
"Mei!"
It was Mei, her lip trembling in a pout as she spread her arms for an embrace.
Death.
"Y-You!" Asher screeched to a halt.
'Asher' held the birdcage. A glimpse of unhidden shock entered the figure's face as he stared at him.
"...'Sup?" 'Asher' clutched his sides, bursting into hysterical, cackling laughter.
Suddenly, he straightened his posture, his expression turning serious.
The man's arms popped with veins, twisting the birdcage apart with ease.
The illusion of the forest cracked and tore, starting from inside the mangled bars of the metal cage. Inside the lamp, the bright orange flame slowly dissolved into ash.
"Sticky situation you got us into, huh? But," his gaze sharpened, "I don't feel like dying just yet."
The man stomped on the ground, creating a metallic, bell-like ring to churn inside the earth.
"-!"
Asher gasped, his eyes refocusing onto the real world.
…
Little Red growled, violently twisting open Asher's door.
The room was empty.
"Shit! ASHER!!" The cabin rumbled as she shouted with all her strength. She perked her ears for a reply that never came.
She ran outside, and the footsteps leading into the darkness confirmed her terrible premonition.
"I shouldn't have said that…" Just because she could wander around after dusk didn't mean Asher could survive out there.
Especially at night.
The three twisted gods of the forest ruled the night.
One that consumed everything in its path with impunity.
One who held the scales of corrupt justice, of predetermined fate.
One of enchanting light, its thousands of eyes piercing the night.
She let out a breath, closing her eyes.
Gods or not, this was her freedom on the line.
She brought out her gun and her blade from her cloak, flicking her scythe-like weapon open with a slash.
Raising the blade toward the darkness, she pointed her gun toward it at a slight angle.
"Don't you dare take my chance away." Her eye snapped open, glaring into the darkness with a wide, manic eye.
*BOOM*
The sound of metal on metal echoed in the air as thousands of pellets grinded against the metal of her blade, showering the forest with glittering red sparks.
Before the sparks had a chance to fizzle away, she had already disappeared into the night.