Confused, I turned away and returned to the desk, my thoughts shooting confused. Was that a trap? Did someone lock me up? Then – this sound. Quiet, barely perceptible, but still unmistakable.
The room was silent. Only the soft crackling of the candle flame on the wall could be heard. I shook my head. Maybe I was just too tense.
I let my gaze roam over the room. Who had locked me up? Or had the door closed automatically? It didn't have a keyhole, and I hadn't seen any locking on the other side either.
A bright flash flashed behind the window and bathed the entire room in shimmering violet light for a moment. At that moment I saw it: a silhouette on the wall. My heart almost stopped.
It had been almost invisible, but the pulsating purple veins on his skin had betrayed it in the light of the lightning. The creature moved silently, sneaking along the ceiling, its limbs anchored to the wall like spider legs. An icy shiver ran down my spine.
Instinctively, I called out – a mistake. The creature paused. Her shining eyes twitched in my direction. A freezing moment. Then – a twitch, a jump. With inhuman speed, she broke free from the wall and landed with a dull impact right in front of the door.
Now I saw her in full form. The thing stood on two legs, its body long and bony, crisscrossed by purple veins that pulsed under the scaly skin. Two mighty claws, shaped like the sickle legs of a praying mantis, protruded from his arms.
His head was lizard-like with pointed teeth, his mouth twisted into an unnatural, greedy grin. The same violet light shone inside, as if something were burning in it, as if the flesh were only a shell for a strange, pulsating force.
It raced towards me.
Instinctively, I whirled around and ran between the pillars of the room towards the desk. Something—a dagger, a weapon, anything that could help me! My hands groped frantically over the surface of the table – nothing! Only parchments, quills, an ink jar.
A shrill screech cut through the air. I turned around just in time to see the creature leap towards me with a huge leap. I threw myself aside. It crashed onto the table, causing parchments and the ink glass to fall to the floor. The black liquid spread and drew dark lines across the stone floor.
The monster rose, its claws flashing in the candlelight. It struck. I backed away, but too slowly—one of the blades went over my side. A burning pain ran through my skin. My shirt tore open, warm blood ran down my hip. I screamed, staggering backwards as my breath gasped and I leaned against one of the pillars.
But the monster didn't give me any time. It followed me, its sickle claws twitching forward. I tore myself free, stumbled and caught myself just in time – but it was faster. A stabbing pain ran through my left leg.
I screamed again and fell to the ground. It had grazed my left leg, blood ran down my calves while my head pounded in painful rhythms. My fingers dug into the ground as if they were looking for support. "I have to keep fleeing," I gasped and straightened up with the last of my strength, ignoring the pain.
I stumbled back, ran – somewhere, just away. The creature swung again, its claws hissing through the air. I dived to the side. A loud bang.
The creature's blade had shattered the wood of the shelf. Books fell to the ground, parchments whirled through the air. I gasped, pressed myself flat against the wall, while my gaze darted around in panic. No door. No window. No hiding place.
The monster was right in front of me. His violet eyes sparkled with ominous greed. I could feel his foul breath, hot and moldy, like a cold breath of corruption. His jaws chattered, a throaty growl vibrated through the air as the purple mass pulsed inside him—alive, hungry.
It roared, a terrible, piercing sound, and leaped at me with a terrifying force. Instinctively, I threw up my arms in the vain hope of defending myself—but then...
A soft giggle, a mocking, mocking laugh that echoed in my ears, followed by a woman's voice: "What are you doing there? The path is behind you!"
Confused, I turned around. "Who's there?" But before I could react, the wall behind me gave way. A sudden jerk, as if an invisible hand were pulling me into the darkness. I stumbled backwards, lost my balance – the wall behind me was gone.
A narrow corridor, a tunnel, hidden in the shadows. Without thinking, without having a choice, I ran in.
Torches were attached to the walls, bathing the narrow corridor in a spooky, deep blue light. Behind me, I heard the monster's growl, then the scratching of claws on stone. It followed me. I ran.
My breath burned in my throat, my legs hurt, but I forced myself on. The heat of my own blood stuck to my body, my muscles screamed, but I couldn't stop.
A roar. A shrill, bloodcurdling screech that made the walls of the tunnel tremble. It came closer. My heart was pounding, sweat ran down my forehead.
I stumbled into a room that was swallowed up by complete darkness. No light, no exit, only the all-encompassing nothingness. My breathing was shallow, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. Then, a sudden flare-up. Blue flames ignited one after the other in rhythmic succession.
The room lit up in front of me. It was circular, the blue flames in the fire bowls on the walls flickered, casting ghostly shadows that stretched across the floor like mist.
The hall was made of dark stone, the same heavy, cold cloth as the rest of the castle. I was standing in the middle of an arena, surrounded by columns grouped in a perfect circle around the room. The floor was decorated with recessed grooves, and the shadows of the flames enveloped the walls in a gloomy light that did not adequately banish the darkness.
A sudden clink behind me made my heart stop. The monster stepped out of the shadows of the entrance and blocked my only escape route. In panic, I looked around – no other way out. This place was like an arena, and I was the prey. The monster walked slowly towards me, its claws clinking on the stone.
Drops of saliva fell from his open mouth, and his small, insect-like eyes sparkled greedily with bloodlust. It twisted its mouth into an eerie grin while its two sickle-like claws twitched. The tail, which resembled a shark's fin—thin and bony—snaked after him. Suddenly I heard an agonizing grinding of stone on stone.
The entrance behind him closed. The faint blue light behind him went out, and the room was enveloped in total silence. Only the clinking of his claws broke through the darkness. What was that? A trap?
Was I lured here? "Shit," I cursed softly and gritted my teeth. "What should I do?" A feeling of helplessness grew in me. I took a step back, the monster stepped on, his eyes fixed on me like a predator. Then his jaw twitched. With a leap it rushed towards me, its mouth wide open as if it were feasting on my despair.
I ran, tossing myself to the side as his claws cut at me. It missed me by a hair's breadth, I rolled over the floor and straightened up again. It followed me with uncanny speed. In front of me rose a hill lined with fire bowls.
I jumped on the elevation, which was barely a meter high. The monster followed me, jumped after me, I dodged behind a fire bowl. With a furious blow, it toppled her over, and the bowl fell crashing to the ground. The magical fire in it was extinguished. I fell down the elevation and landed painfully on my side.
Before I could stand up, the monster jumped towards me. His claws dug into the stone floor, right next to me. I rolled to the side, but the pain in my leg made me wince. It cut my calves with a precise blow, and I fell to the ground again. "No..." A sob left my throat. I had to keep fleeing.
With trembling hands, I leaned on the floor, tried to sit up. But the monster was faster. With another painful jerk, his sharp claw dug into my back. I fell to the ground again, the blood running in streams.
It enjoyed my pain, my despair. The walls of the arena seemed to narrow, the room became smaller while the monster continued to maltreat me. The pain was brutal.
But slowly it began to fade, as if every feeling in me was fading. My vision distorted, blurred before my eyes, and I felt the weakness that ran through my body like a cold poison.
It was as if I was dying. Slowly, without knowing who I was, without memory, without meaning. The hell in which I was born only seemed to torment me and then forget me. Despair seized me.
It cut through my skin, my flesh, to my soul. But at some point I didn't feel anything anymore. Blood ran out of my mouth, forming a puddle under me. "What shit," I gargled through the blood running down my throat.
A spark. A burning glow. A faint glow that formed where my heart was beating. A soft throbbing. Would I die now? The throbbing grew louder, grew into a booming blow, and suddenly the despair vanished. A different feeling filled the room, displacing everything that had been there before.
It was so intense that it dwarfed everything else. But above all, it wasn't my feeling. It flowed through me like my own blood flowing out of me – like water from an overturned bottle. It was anger. Ice-cold, unbridled anger. The monster's beat echoed louder and louder, the sounds that had faded away before returned. I took a deep breath, the air burning in my bleeding throat. "I won't let that happen," I gargled through the blood flowing from my mouth. "You will not determine my fate!"
With a violent movement I thrust my hand into the ground and rose. The monster above me, surprised that its supposedly dead prey got up again. Blood dripped from me as I rose from my pool. It ran over me like a waterfall, but I didn't care.
This anger filled me with new strength. I formed a fist and slammed it into the monster's ugly face. The blow hit it right next to the jaw. Its teeth clinked as they broke, and it staggered back, falling to the ground. I straightened up completely. My limbs felt weak, my arms hung limply before me, but my anger was strong. Covered in blood, I stepped towards the monster, which picked itself up again.
Purple blood flowed down his jaw, and he roared as if he were angry. "Are you kidding me? You want to be angry?" I yelled. I laughed. "No, no, no... The wrath is mine" I ran towards the monster, half dead, half alive.
It rushed towards me, its claws outstretched to me. But then a wave of strength flowed through me again. A throbbing that began deep inside me and spread. Purple veins formed faintly on my chest and ran all over my body.
It felt like I was burning. His claws shot towards me, but I hit them with my fist. Hardly any resistance – the claws broke like glass. A bloodcurdling screech escaped the monster. Without hesitation, my knee hit his skull.
Blood splattered in all directions. Then I aimed my flat hand directly at his torso and pierced him right through the chest. I slid through it as if his flesh was buttery soft. Blood poured out of the wound, it spurted out of his mouth as if it were jumping out uncontrollably. I stared into his pained face.
"How does that feel?" I hissed and pulled my hand out again. Then a blow to his skull, and the monster fell to the ground. Blood flowed into the grooves of the stone floor, filling them with his purple life. His violet eyes, which had looked so menacing before, lost their luster.
I looked down at it, trembling, my body swaying as if I was going to topple over at any moment. I fell to my knees. But before I finally collapsed, the monster began to disintegrate.
It disintegrated into purple particles that blew away like grains of sand in the wind until they finally disappeared completely. The anger that had filled me slowly subsided, and the weakness returned. But then the purple veins suddenly burned more intensely than before.
The purple particles into which the monster had dissolved moved into me as if pulled by a magnet. I felt dizzy, my vision blurred. Would I still die now? How frustrating... Then I fell to the ground, and everything went dark. The deep abyss of darkness engulfed me.