A normal day became my last. They picked me up in the middle of the day when I was alone, they were nice. You don't see new people in this village, I can't remember what I'm supposed to do, as if it matters. Weak, I try to move but I can barely move a finger, I feel my head shaking. I see different shadows across the room, no torches, just the moon. The boy is talking, reading from a book.
AAAHG...the girl pulls my hair and lifts my head.
"Cut her throat" a hurried tone from the boy sends fear to my bones.
The pressure of the knife moves in a line along the skin. The first thing she stopped feeling was her legs, numb with fear. Her vision began to dim and she began to drown in her own blood.
She lets my head drop. I try to make eye contact with her, but I'm ignored. Finally she turns and moves next to her brother.
"Now what's next?" the girl asks curiously.
"Nothing, in a few moments everything should be over and the spell will be complete". They both wait for a result. The girl sits on an old chair behind a destroyed wall. The thoughtful boy tries to search whether he has made a mistake or not but sees nothing.
The spell in essence is simple. A human sacrifice, a circle with the necessary inscriptions, a statue and the spell spoken. Is the spell properly written? What's missing?
"We screwed up, didn't we?" said the annoyed girl. "What were we supposed to do? We just risked taking this girl as a sacrifice and got nothing out of it."
The brother was still looking through the book. "We've never tried such a spell before and our preacher never showed it to us."
"Screw it." The girl turns to her brother. "We were supposed to stick to simple things, stealing and learning different spells until we meet up with the rest of the acolytes." Looking around the abandoned church and the statue they wanted to turn into their golem servant she felt disappointed. "Let's just get out of here before someone finds us, the villagers will eventually search this run down place."
"It's my fault big sister, but I don't understand what I did wrong." Still thinking, the boy put the book back in his backpack and gathered his possessions.
"Eeeh...it's ok, I thought it would be interesting to have someone listen to us for once. Maybe when we meet up with the others they can explain what we did wrong. I'm sure you'll feel better afterward."
"What do we do with the body?" the boy asks his older sister.
"Nothing, when the villagers find her they will know they have been visited by the Black Blood Acolytes." She looks at the sky and pulls a watch from her pocket. "It's after midnight, let's turn camp and be on our way in the morning."
The brother nodded positively and took the road behind his sister through the dark of night where only the moon illuminated the path, though no torch, this was enough.
------(A few hours before sunrise)-------------
Non-existence was everywhere. It felt like a prison with no bars, no walls and no guards, just the overwhelming sensation of being submerged in a dense goo full of rot. Sometimes you don't even think. Others are filled with screams that no one can hear.
But right now, after God knows how long I feel something. I feel myself being lifted to the surface. Is there a surface? Must be one. Even if I move the goo is the same. I just feel it going faster. And after a moment of regaining consciousness, I stop.
I don't feel it, but I'm sure I was standing on my feet. I couldn't hear anything, but I had no trouble keeping my balance but my eyes were partially functioning, all in a bit of a haze.
Still sitting still and waiting for something to happen, slowly I can move my neck. I begin to regain movement in different parts of my body, flex my hand, rotate my shoulder and finally force a first step. Yes, finally I'm moving.
My first step was met by a cold sensation. Strange, I can't see, I can't feel, I can't hear, but I feel a liquid on the sole of my foot. For the first time after the effort of moving, I begin to regain my focus. No lights nearby, I find myself in a building with a hole through a wall, probably something abandoned and now I find myself looking at a body not two feet away from me.
That liquid... is blood...someone's blood. I move my hand closer, push that hair to one side and the other hand against the floor. Even with lousy eyesight I can't pick up any movement. It's a girl, dead. But something was moving, I could feel it moving, the blood in which his leg was sitting was slowly being absorbed through what was his skin.
I put my left hand in the puddle. Same result. Slowly I feel it spreading through me. Disgusting, though it feels like a mouthful of fresh spring water on a hot day. Slowly my sight improves. I can now distinguish different shapes and shadows across the room.
Mhhh..but my hearing barely works. But finally I turn my eyes to the collapsed wall and focus on the moonlight.
I begin to move, stiff, but not as stiff as my first step. I step out of the shadows of the roof and step outside. Full moon, full of light now finally seeing myself. I see my hands smudged with grimy dirt, touch my face but feel nothing. I feel myself moving but not touching my own face. A smooth face with no nose, mouth or other distinguishing features.
I'm a statue...how..?
I shouldn't be like this...I...I wasn't like this...What was I before? Panic gripped me and I turned to face the building. A church. By the old, slightly faded icons on the walls of would-be saints. And the girl. She was a sacrifice. It doesn't need to be a magician to recognize a dark ritual.
I'm slowly coming back inside. I look at the girl again. Blond hair, tall, wearing a coat.
Now what?
I'll take the coat. I step closer and slowly pull the coat off her shoulders until it's loose and flaps in my hands. The size fits. Better than nothing even if I don't have genitals.
Now that the coat and hair are out of the way, I see a mark on the girl's neck. The stain was black, but no evidence of cuts or bruising. Poison, that's how she was abducted..right in the spine.
Monsters.
I slip my hand under her waist and behind her back and lift. To my horror, the limp body slips through my arms. She falls again on the floor, but this time she hits her face directly on a sharp rock.
Oh I'm so sorry. I lean over her and close her eyes. I better not touch her anymore. No better than the people who killed you.
I step back outside..much brighter than before. That Sun. Oooooh.. so long since I've stood in your light. But you haven't crossed the horizon yet.
A few minutes later it finally makes its presence in the sky.
Yeah. I'm among the living again. Among nature.
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