Pure darkness makes up my vision, but my other senses are a complete contrast; beneath my fingertips I feel as if a soft quilt sheet lays under me, and a comforting smell of bread fills my nostrils, it reminds me of Ava’s cooking, how we always snuck off and ate bread together while exploring the forest. Even the gentle humming reminds me of her… wait, sheets? Smell of bread? Humming?! Where the hell am I? I scream eternally.
Sitting up hastily on the bed I lay upon, my gaze scrambles and runs all around the room I’m in, the wooden walls, dim lights, and cozy décor. What the fuck is happening? Wasn’t I just shot dead? The last memory I have is…
As I recall my memories I clench my burned hands into fists, balling up some of the fabric into my palms in sudden panic.
“Failing Ava…” I finish my inner thoughts out loud, muttering to myself with utter disappointment and loathing.
Just as a small Tear begins to roll down my cheek, the cause of the earlier humming emerges through the door. Causing a gentle creak of the rusted hinges of the door.
I immediately snap my eyes towards the door, and my gaze meets that of an older man; the man having short grey hair, his brown eyes having a soft gaze to him, and his physique being slightly chubby… this man looked so… welcoming? Like he wouldn’t hurt a fly…
After a few seconds of staring at each other, the man lets out a small raspy chuckle.
“I thought you wouldn’t make it, kid…” he begins, speaking with a smile.
“You looked pretty roughed up when I found you at the riverbank. It was hard dragging you over here.” He says while stepping closer to the bed.
At his approach I instinctively flinch and put my guard up, glaring up at the man’s gentle gaze.
The old man’s eyes widen for a brief second at the defensiveness, but he quickly shakes it off and moves closer. He pulls over a wooden chair from his desk nearby and settles down about a foot away from the bed.
“It’s okay, son.” He reassures with a soft voice.
“I have no intention of killing you.”
At his words and gaze, I slowly loosen my shoulder muscles, relaxing.
“Where am I?” I mutter.
“Take a guess kid.” He chuckles. Leaning back against the chair.
“You’re in my humble abode.” He raises his arms up and outwards, like he’s gesturing towards the whole room.
I roll my eyes at his antics and glare at him again. I don’t have time for this.
‘Where am I?’ I repeat, showing a bit more irritation in my tone.
The man stares down at me with an unreadable look for a few seconds before letting out a small sigh, lowering his hands back down to his lap.
“You’re in Roosevelt territory, I’m Samuel Lin. And this is my home.”
Hearing him, my eyes widen and my fingers curl into the fabric once more.
“Roosevelt!?” I yell; I’m in ROOSEVELT? That’s at least 100 miles away from Veil! How did I drift that far in the river?
I try to get up from the bed, but a sharp pain shoots throughout my body, starting from my shoulder and spreading. I reach my left hand to my right shoulder, grabbing onto it. But that movement not only worsens the pain from the arrow, but the rough texture of my burnt and bloodied shirt scrapes against my burned and scarred hands, irritating the flesh.
“Agh… fuck…” I whimpered, once again leaning back into the bed and staring up at the wooden ceiling.
Samuel doesn’t say a word as he watches my painful squirms. He just simply… gazes with weird intent… its slightly off putting.
“You look so much like my late Wife.” That man suddenly says, staring directly at my face with a gentle smile, tilting his head to the side.
Glancing at the man, I stay silent for a few seconds, trying to process what he just said. I look like his wife? First of all, I’m a dude… a pretty majestic one at that. Secondly, I have never met anyone else with my ‘cursed’ looks, I mean, pure red eyes are not common right?
Clearing my throat, I mutter. “Thank you?” I’m not even sure why I’m thanking him for this info.
“Don’t be kid…” Samuel mutters while standing up.
“I’ll get you some bandages, stay right there.” He orders, stalking across the room and out the door. Shutting it behind him
I look at the closed door with a stunned confused expression. That was awfully sudden, wasn’t it? And what did he mean by “don’t be.”?
Shaking it off, thinking it meant nothing. I push through the pain and sit up again, throwing my feet over the edge of the bed, then sighing deeply to myself.
“Ava…” I whisper. Then, glancing over towards the bedside drawer, I notice a journal; it’s a finely crafted journal, with a thick number of papers, along with an old and worn-out leather cover. Seeing as how there’s a thick sheen of dust on top of the surface of the journal, it’s clear it hasn’t been touched in a while.
I try my absolute hardest to fight my goofy ass inner thoughts, the ones slapping me silly and yelling at me to invade this poor old man’s privacy… but they won.
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I quickly snatch the journal off the drawer, like a starving man seeing a single crumb of food. And without a thought in my mind, I open the book with a stupid smile. I love being nosy.
Scanning through the first few pages, I could tell it’s a women’s journal because I’m so smart... definitely not because of the name “Irene Lin” being at the top right of the first page.
The pages mostly go in depth about how she first met Samuel, and the cute little dates they would go on… ill ignore the spicy bits. I tell myself.
She writes about how much she was captivated by her husband, the sweet nothings he would speak, the gentle touches, the way he would stare at her with adoring eyes.
But as I continue to read, the words become more cryptid and filled with mistakes. Then the air fills strained as I read a certain… discomfited sentence…
“I’m scared… scared… scared… scared… he’s slamming his head against the wall. I told him to stop, but… but he wont listen. Every time I try to get near, he cracks his head towards me and smiles… but, its not a normal smile… I don’t think the man inside my house is my husba-“ the words are abruptly cut off, like she just stopped writing. But the most haunting part isn’t the cut off… it’s the splatter stain of a dark red substance across the bottom of the page.
Crreeaak. I freeze, feeling the hairs on my neck stand on end as I blankly gaze down at the journal. I can hear his heavy breathes and the settling of the cabin, and every little movement he makes… its like all my senses are yelling at me that something isn’t right. Not right at all.
After a lengthy tense inducing minute, I mutter, not looking back at him. “Samuel… how did you say your wife died again?”
I hear a low cackle from behind, followed by the most gut-wrenching words.
“oh, I forgot to tell you…”
Slowly, I look over my shoulder, breathing heavily, until my eyes finally land on Samuel… he’s grinning ear to ear while tilting his head, his eyes wide and bloodshot, like he hasn’t blinked for a few minutes. But the most unsettling thing was… the hunting knife in his hand.
“I ate her, because she’s a demon that can give power.” He says with a calm voice, like he didn’t just admit to killing his own spouse. Then suddenly he lunges towards me, crawling over the bed like an animal, limbs twisting in weird angles while he swings his knife down towards me.
Eyes widening at his pounce, I turn around and step off the bed, bringing my right arm up and blocking my face with my forearm. Which wasn’t the best idea I’ve had. His knife pierces right through my forearm, the point of the blade, narrowly poking my face.
Blood gushes down my arm as he tries to pull the blade out. But I fight through the pain, biting my lip, I pull my arm to the side, making his arm follow due to holding the blade that saws the muscle and flesh inside my arm. the maneuver causing his face and chest to be wide open.
Seeing an opening, I use my left hand to deliver a hard hook into the side of his face, but it doesn’t do anything, he just snaps his face back towards me with the same creepy, gummy grin.
I hold back a gag and instead grab onto the collar of his shirt and twirl around, pressing my back against his chest and bending forwards, pulling his collar down, lifting him off the ground, and throwing him over my shoulder into the glass mirror that hangs on the wall.
As he’s thrown, the knife follows, but not easily, the blade slices downwards through more of my flesh and making the thin hole in my arm bigger before sliding out.
I clench my opposite hand around my forearm, panting and holing back tears. And just as I thought I had a moment to breathe, Samuel was already getting back up, stumbling and grinning up at me. Jesus, this guy’s fuckass smile is so creepy.
He lunges towards me once more while screaming.
“Come here, BOY! I need your life for power!” he throws a right hook.
Bringing my fucked up right arm once more, I block his hit, but the force alone causes me to get pushed back towards his desk.
He continued his pursuit throwing an uppercut that was aiming towards my chin.
As he throws his hit, I lift my head fully up and take another step back, barely dodging the hit. And quickly, I feel my butt hitting the desk behind me, just as he’s getting ready to throw another hit, I take a quick glance at the objects on the desk, noticing a pen.
And as he swings, I reach over and grab the pen, swinging it towards Samuel’s neck without a second thought. Mere meters before his hit was about to connect with my face… he realizes my pen was faster. It penetrates right through the soft skin of his neck and slides into the warmness of his neck easily, blood slowly leaking out around the pen and dripping down his neck.
With wide eyes he stares at me, like he’s staring deep into my soul, somehow making me feel violated.
And as he begins gargling on the blood that’s starting to fill his throat, I roughly shove him back onto his bed, getting on top of him and wrapping my charred hands around his throat, choking him as he’s drowning upon his own blood.
But as my fingers dig into his flesh, I don’t feel happy that I lived, or that I’m winning… I feel guilt, anger, and intense longing.
“Why…” I mutter, tightening my grip and pushing him down harder against the bed.
“Why would you kill her!? The… the woman you’re supposed to love and die for!” I screamed as a few tears leak out the corner of my eyes, going down my cheeks until finally falling down and onto his face.
He gargles, unable to answer. He just simply looks up at me, with a bloodied smile and widened eyes.
Anger getting the better of me, I snarl at his weird enjoyment. I push my face closer and glare directly into his eyes, even as the tears continue to flow.
“Don’t you know what I would SACRAFICE, to see my Ava again. To hold her!” during my screams of anger, I don’t even notice the weird parasitic like bug crawling out of the flesh of neck and moving to my hand. burrowing itself into the skin of my hand.
“you don’t deserve it…” I mutter.
“you don’t deserve your strength!” I yell once more.
And when I continue to choke him, I notice something odd… way odder than what I’ve seen so far. Samuel… it looks like he’s deflating, and turning lighter in tone, the glimmering in his eyes fading.
It doesn’t even take a minute for Samuel to look like all the blood is drained from him, likes he’s a husk… or a dried-up pickle in the sun. but I can’t release my grip, it’s like my fingers submerged into the flesh of his neck.
Then I notice it, something that utterly horrifies me… the wounds on my shoulder and forearm… are healing? I can see each individual strand of flesh reaching to the other and dragging it over and connecting with it. And my fatigue is fading, as well as any other aches I once had. Not even just that… I feel stronger than before. It’s almost like… I stole Samuel’s life… his strength.
Starting to hyperventilate, I pry my fingers out of Samuel’s neck, leaving 10 holes in his flesh in their wake. I feel completely and utterly confused by what’s happening to my body.
“What the hell...” I mutter while pulling my trembling hands up to my face.
Feeling both fear and confusion I pull myself away from Samuel’s lifeless body, stepping back away from the bed and pushing flat against the closet cabinet behind me. What’s going on, what’s going on, WHAT’S GOING ON? I constantly yell internally. Did I just really steal his strength? The power I wish I had to protect Ava? wait… AVA… I can’t worry about this now, I need to find Ava. She’s in danger.
I swiftly turn around and swing open the closet doors, grabbing a simple change of clothes, ones that are far better than my bloodied and charred rags. It’s a simple white button-up and black pants, but most of it is covered up by the leather chest piece, shoulder pads, and kneed guards I found.
Once geared I step out of the remote cabin.
The smell of grass and other nature delights fill my nose as I Step out into the pitch blackness of the night, I breath a long stretch of air. Fuck, a lot went down when I just woke up. How long was I even out?
Patting my hip and feeling the holstered hunting knife that I picked up on my way out. I let out my breath and began moving towards the woods. I will find Ava, even if I must kill once more… or use this ghastly draining ability on another.
