I woke up screaming in pain, my whole body shook in the shade of a glowing tree. Is this what death feels like? Glowing orbs flew into my vision dancing. I definitely was dying.
Caligo hovers over me and dumps cold water all over my head, drenching my burning skin for a second before it rolls off and evaporates. I was a stovetop, was full of fiery flashes. Something was wrong with my ghoul body and I didn't know how to fix it.
"I am not sure what is happening to you, but I am trying to help." His voice diverts my senses from the pain in my spine to him. I watch him intently, the only thing my eyes can latch onto was his hazy form.
"Keep talking," I let out a screech "Please!" He looks concerned but listens and kneels down beside me. His pale hands were waving around me in some formation glowing faintly of green. He was flashing between a humanoid to a forestry creature. One moment his skin was pale as milk, the next his hair was moss, and his skin was bark. The eyes remained pale silver pools of mercury.
"What are you." he ignores my whispers and speaks in another language. A poem from the cadence and feel. It lulled the pain.
"Du liebes Kind, komm, geh mit mir!
Gar schöne Spiele spiel' ich mit dir;
Manch' bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand,
Meine Mutter hat manch gülden Gewand."
His words echoed in a sorrowful tune that cascaded over the tongue. I wavered in and out of consciousness as he recited the poem. A glow surrounded me now.
"Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt;
Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch ich Gewalt.
Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt fasst er mich an!
Erlkönig hat mir ein Leids getan!
Dem Vater grausets, er reitet geschwind,
Er hält in Armen das ächzende Kind,
Erreicht den Hof mit Mühe und Not:
In seinen Armen das Kind war tot."
I was barely awake when he finished, his words brought me into a sleep like no other.
➳
I was back home, my house, my home full of memories. The walls were a creamy color and hung pictures of my friend and me at the beach, and the school festival. A poster for my favorite band was hanging on the door, slightly crooked.
"Mom, what's for breakfast!" I called out, I smelled something cooking. No reply. I gathered myself up off the bed. The clock read 3:33, weird I needed to get that fixed. I hit it once and the alarm clock shattered. Pieces of it littered my bedstand and floor. A problem for later. I had to get ready to go out for the day. I was meeting… A friend?
Yes, that's what I had to do today. Who was it?
I brushed my silky hair, and put on my flannel and jeans, about to do my makeup I grabbed the mirror on my desk. Something was right behind me. With vicious green eyes like a pool ball. The mirror fell from my fingers and broke and I turned to see the creature behind me. It was a horror of a thing. Grey skin stretched in some places, hanging loose in others. The clothing looked out of place on the creature. Torn and ragged, a sleeve was torn off except a small thread dangling next to its long arm resting on the ground.
It was humanoid but on all fours almost spiderlike with its thin legs.
Terror bled into my mind, why was this thing in my room? It moved and wobbled to the door and left into the hall. I stood there standing on the glass of my shattered mirror. I scrunched my toes together, shards poking into my feet. Black blood welled up. The clock was back on the nightstand reading 3:33.
"Mom, where are you?" I poke my head into the hall, and walk towards our modest kitchen. The carpet was rough and torn in three slashes every few feet. Wonder how that happened. The kitchen was dark except for the light over the stove, a pot of something rested on the burner turned up to 7. The pot overflowed creating a hissing noise. Resting on the linoleum was the ripped carcass of my mother. Blood was soaking her yellow shirt from the three red gashes.
Her eyes were glassy, "Tristina, run." a single tear ran down her whitened cheek. The monster rounded the corner and came into view. Its mouth gaping open and blood staining its teeth. I did not run my mind was blank. My mother started to cry, a huffing sound that was pitiful. I did not move to comfort her. The monster stepped closer eyeing her body, ignoring me completely. In one swift move quicker, than my mind could comprehend it was upon her throat ripping and tearing her to pieces. There were no more noises after her initial scream. She was dead in seconds, but the monster was ripping her apart still. Blood splattered on the cabinets, on my leg, the ceiling, and one slash on my cheek.
My mouth watered. Something about the scene made me hungry, a starved beast awoke inside of me. All consuming like a black hole. The monster stopped, and a cloud of white rose out of the dead body. It was a soul, something that powered life, and gave purpose and desires. You could faintly see movement within the white cloud, memories, or regrets. For this, the monster went in a craze its green eyes glowing, and devoured the soul in its black gaping mouth. You could see the white glow dissipate down its esophagus. There would be no saving my mother's soul.
In an instant I was the creature bending ove my mother as blood dripped from my teeth spattering her forehead.
"So you are finally awake." A voice crawled up my skin. Deep and dark and negative energy held in the air.