that night, unlike the others, the man had a dream
a young version of the man was running in an empty black space, there was nothing around but darkness but the young boy's legs urged him to go forward as if his muscles knew that there was somewhere he needed to be
the young boy finally could see a broken down wooden shack after the long endless obscurity.
a ripped beige curtain covered its entrance, the boy's heart started to beat wildly the more he got closer, his pace slowed down exponentially until he stopped a few meters away from the house. he put his hand on his beating heart squeezing the linen shirt with his small soft hand. he tried to control his breathing and took the last few steps, he pulled the curtains with a shaking heart..
"ah!"
the man woke up in a start, his heart heavily beating in his chest, he heaved a long sigh and touched his sweat soaked face where the only scar he had before coming into this cave
was. it was a long slash that went from his left eyebrow and faded down towards his cheek
his shaking fingers touched it softly, a few tears ran down his stoic face
" i can't even find solace during my naps either anymore" he chuckled humourlessly
he then felt a warm ball of fur next to his chest and turned around, a soft disgusting breath hit his face and he scrunched up his noise
but no matter how foul benny's breath smelled he felt an unexpected weight lift off his chest when the puppy wolf jumped on his head
he laughed out loud and grabbed its tiny body, pulling it away from his face
'' okay okay, i will not cry anymore benny. i promise" he smiled and 'looked' at the puppy's face
after putting it down, the man wiped his face and stared at the where the mountain of corpses in front of him stood, he sat up and stretched his back
" since i'm already awake, i might as well share my misery with some other bastards"
he got up and went to hunt with his small furry friend.
but even with benny's cheering he still felt weak this morning. he knew that the fact that he could only remember the outline of his old home, or the shack, and not anything else from the place where he used to live was an indication of how much he lost of himself.
but instead, he went and directed his wrath at any living body he could find, desperate to hide the hollowness in his soul..
..
2 years later,
the man was staggering back to his personal space while dragging a huge dark blue colored bird that had a giraffe like neck, the head and wings of an eagle, and feathers as sharp as metal. it had 4 eyes on its head and long fangs that were shining in the obscure cave, droplets of a blue goo were dripping from the fangs.. it was poison
the man finally arrived, his knees shook and dropped on the floor, if one could see the man's face and body right now they would notice him covered in bulging dark bleu veins that looked like they would burst out of his skin at any moment
he rolled on the ground, his body shaking in cold sweat. he groaned in pain and dragged his painful body with one arm, the only functional one, towards the moss field.
a small furry beast, that looked like it had grew a few inshes, ran towards the man and barked senselessly. it was moving around him frantically and pulling at his once pants turned into ripped shorts, it then walked towards his face with a sad expression that he couldn't see and licked his face
he smiled softly, eyes closed, and murmured
" i'm sorry benny"
he ignored the puppy and started to touch the ground in search for the moss. the only working sense left, touch, helped him grab unto the damp plant and he ingested them. he held back the nausea and tried to grab another handful to rub them on tge huge open gash on his shoulder but his arm went completely numb.
the man gave up and layed on the cold floor in pain, staring at the ceiling with one arm on his shoulder, a wolf puppy barking anxiously at his side, as he recalled the events of the past 24hours...
24 hours ago,
the man woke up, another dull day awaited him and he felt no motivation. he wanted to survive, he needed to survive but as the days passed by his drive was slowly dimming. and now it was almost non existing
he really was surprised that he lasted this long, he counted approximately 8-10 years have passed since he first came here. he tried to run his fingers down his ever growing hair but to no avail. his hair was so hard and cracked from the dried blood, shit and dirt that he couldn't bother to fix it anymore after the 1 year mark had passed.
he smiled softly as he remebered how scared he felt the first year, he barely slept at all at that time fearing that the beasts would attack while his guard was lowered.
but as time past, he learned how to sleep with one eye opened. after being attacked countless times during his sleep and almost dying more than a hundred times, he learned how to stay alert even when his body was resting.
his sharpened instincts and senses, his strong fists and his unwielding mental fortitude were some of the reasons he survived, but the real reason was because the voice didn't want him to die easily.
so at crucial times when it seemed like his end would come it always gave him bits and pieces to help him barely grab unto the thin thread of life holding him from falling into the deep pits of death.
it wanted to have fun watching him suffer to survive by an insignificant margin. the reason he is dying over and over again was because of the same entity that helped him survive every time. he never encountered beasts that were impossibly strong, they were very strong but always beatable one way or the other. and as the man got stronger the strength of the beasts increased too as if to keep the balance.
he asked the voice about it but never got an answer, in fact he asked a lot of things to the voice over the years but it never responded. it only responded to this one question
" how close did i get yesterday?" the man spoke softly in a defeated voice
" you're warm" it responded in its usually wicked voice
this time around, the man didn't hysterically laugh like last time when he first realized he jumped from very cold to cold. unironically, the void inside his heart overwhelmed him so much that it left nothing else to be desired.
benny came to his side as if sensing its savior's despair and rubbed itself on his leg. the man smiled at the puppy internally and petted him softly
at this point he knew the only reason he could still smile is cause of the fur ball next to him. he feared what would happen to the small benny everyday when he went out but knew that despite its size, the puppy wolf was quite strong
he got up and started walking towards where he stopped yesterday, his pace quickened from a jog to a fast run.
he went to continue his hunt, to continue searching for new paths that might lead him to his captor but this time his unyielding will was not why he moved at a speed unfathomable to humans, but it was his instincts. he ran so fast because it was the only thing he knew,
he changed so much since the first day he entered this hell but one thing stayed the same and it was his fear of death. so with only his nose and sense of touch he paved his way towards the next massacre