Chapter 29: Living

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Living

Victor recoiled at the first touch, scrambling backward across the darkness.

At the same time, the creature approached him, extending its sinister, bony hand. Its long, thin claws, sharp as knives, were jet-black and oozed the same black mist that filled the world outside.

Without knowing what to do or where to go, little Victor watched as his fate loomed before his eyes. The creature placed its hand over his face, and a second later, Victor’s eyes turned completely white as pearls.

The specter’s whisper rose like an infernal choir in the darkness, while wet, clicking sounds echoed endlessly.

Victor felt every trace of emotion shatter inside his chest. Whether it was anger, sadness, or frustration, none of it mattered anymore as the mist emanating from the beast’s hand seeped into his nose, mouth, eyes, and ears.

He wanted to scream and lash out desperately, but he could do nothing except die in silence.

"Idiot!" Brika suddenly shouted.

The darkness shattered like glass, torn apart by the light of the goblin girl’s flashlight as she climbed the stairs with her weapon in hand.

From her perspective, Victor was lying on the bed while the sinister creature, wrapped in black robes with its mysterious face concealed, floated above him, performing the same disgusting ritual Victor had witnessed in his dreams.

However, when Brika’s voice reached his ears, he regained control of his body.

His eyes flew open in disbelief when he saw the damned bastard hovering over him. Then, a horrendous stench, as if hundreds of rotting corpses had been piled atop a mountain of tar, flooded his nostrils, causing an unbearable, suffocating burning sensation in his lungs and nose.

The creature, meanwhile, turned toward the light. As if it were in pain, it raised a hand in front of the nonexistent face beneath its black hood and screamed with all its might: a deafening roar, the same one Victor had heard before meeting Brika.

It sounded like a thousand tortured birds shrieking, their cries scraping deep inside his eardrums.

Brika writhed in place from the pain in her ears, while Victor covered his ears with both hands and coughed desperately, choking on the beast’s stench of decay.

"Goddammit! Make it stop!" Victor shouted.

As if that weren’t obvious, Brika frantically pulled the trigger.

Four consecutive shots rang out toward the creature, which, strangely enough, seemed desperate as it dodged the bullets and flew toward the closed window. Instead of passing through the wood, it smashed the window to pieces, its horrifying screams fading into the distance.

A few seconds later, silence returned to the scene. Victor crawled across the bed and fell to the floor. His eyes were wide with terror, and his breathing came in ragged gasps. His body trembled as he dug his fingernails into the wood.

Brika dropped to her knees. Feeling completely hollow inside, she stared at the poor bastard who was doing everything he could to keep himself from screaming. But there was more to it than the desperation consuming his mind: his body’s response to stress.

With one hand pressed against his abdomen and blood running from his nose, Victor vomited.

He stared at the mess he’d spilled across the floor and clenched his teeth.

"Goddammit," he muttered. "Goddammit..."

His fingernails began to bleed.

"Goddammit! Goddammit! Goddammit!"

He slammed his fist against the floor again and again, as if that could extinguish all the despair he’d felt in such a short time. It didn’t work. Obviously, it only made everything worse.

All he could do was try to run away from what he was feeling, but he couldn’t escape himself or his own past.

The minutes that followed were devastating for both of them. When the desperation of the moment finally subsided, a quiet fear of what might happen next took its place. Then Brika spoke in a hollow voice:

"That’s what we’re up against."

A monster unlike any other.

It took Victor a while to calm down. With his forehead against the floor and both hands pressed to his abdomen, he squeezed his eyes shut.

"We have to get out of here."

Brika let out a dry laugh.

"So they can find us again? I’ve got a better idea, human. Grab your gun and put a bullet in your head. I’ll do the same. That way, neither of us will have to suffer a horrible death at the hands of those things."

At that moment, the idea sounded tempting to Victor. After all, if he was going to die anyway, why not choose an instant, painless death? It was a good idea, the only option available at the moment.

He thought it over carefully, then remembered how hypocritical he would be if he went through with it.

’Suicide is the Path of cowards,’ he thought. He almost laughed at the irony.

He opened his eyes, feeling a little better than he’d expected. He sat up on the floor and looked at Brika. The flashlight lay on the ground, and she was staring straight at him.

"What’s your decision, human?"

After a brief pause, Victor said:

"I want to live."

That was all. The only right answer.

Brika lowered her gaze, looking somewhat disappointed. Apparently, that was the last answer she’d expected. Knowing they stood no chance against that monster, let alone a group of them, Victor’s words made no sense.

"You’d be fighting a losing battle. You won’t survive. You’ll suffer and die horribly at the hands of those monsters instead. Remember, nothing you do will hurt them."

She was right, but Victor got to his feet. He staggered a couple of times as he tried to stand, making his earlier declaration look a little ridiculous.

Even if he wanted to live, couldn’t he see that he was trembling with terror?

Victor frowned and, with a crooked smile that was clearly meant to hide how ridiculous his decision seemed, said:

"I’ll find a way to kill them, because living is what I want, and no one is going to stand in my way."