Another sleepless night, filled with thoughts and conjectures of my own. I keep replaying the last day, my actions, my mannerisms, everything about me is changing at a fast pace. Yet part of me believes it is not a fast enough one. Still, the way I acted with both Lissana and Roy were completely out of hand, unwarrented even. Can't help but wonder though... was I right? Lissana wanting to follow me out of nowhere didn't make any sense. I get the unsettling thought that she actually came looking for me, and not with any good intentions. Weird things have been happening since that bloody green moon. The villagers disosition towards me took a turn for the worse and I always feel like I'm being watched.

  Am I getting a tad bit too paranoid perhaps?

  Are these changes happening to me, making me stress and fuss over little things?

  I don't know... And that infuriates me.

  Sigh...

  Nothing I can do for now though.

  My inner thoughts are interrupted as I feel the uncomfortable presence of the sun nearly rising in the horizon. My eyes open slowly, my breathing quickens a bit and my slow beating heart pulses with a little more intensity.

  And then, I smell it.

  Rot.

  Raw, putrid, thick enough to coat my throat.

  My brow furrows. Weird... I haven't been able to smell anything recently. Except for... 'that one thing'. The only scent that still reaches me.

  I sit up, my movements stiff, searching for the source. But as I do so, the stench follows.

  No... it clings.

  Realization hits me like a battering ram.

  It's coming from me...

  I look downwards to my pale chest, only to notice dark green spots with yellow edges, my veins which were a purplish color before have turned a dark gray as more of them have become aparent. My eyes widen, as the faintest hint of utter despair threatens to burst out. I reach my fingertip to one of the spots on my frail and thin biceps, only for my nail to end up sinking into it. My skin tearing itself apart with ease and the putrid smell become slightly stronger. Beneath the ripped skin, I see a muscle, with a mixture of pale grey and sickly green colors, the distinctive signs of rotten meat.

  The despair escapes my control and washes over me. I start hyperventilating. Jumbled up emotions, thoughts that I feel aren't completely mine, inability to eat, drink or sleep, a paler body and whatever happens when I kill and poke around a body... those are utterly nonsensical thigs. But those I can deal with. My own body rotting? That's a bit too fucking much for me. My hands tremble uncontrollably, my eyes shiver wildly, but my heart is still beating slowly, too fucking slowly, I can't even sweat now.

  I'm dying...

  Or are you already dead? KeKeKeKe...

  As I hear those cold unfeeling words and that manic laughter, my world shatters itself apart. It loses its colors, and is instead overcome by an unyielding gray. My eyes turn dull, as I'm left standing in the dark with thoughts even I can't fully comprehend.

  I look at the 'wound' again, my fingers once more dig into it, pulling it apart. It can't have spread too much further right?

  It can't!

  But as I foolishly cling to this hope, my flesh unravels, showing that the extent of the decay, goes way beyond just the visible spots. The flesh feels unnervingly soft, like fresh mud, its dampness spreads over my fingers.

  How's this possible?

  It has only been a day!

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Roy shifts in his bed, not too far away from mine. He is waking up, maybe the smell is bothering him?

  I can't let anyone see this, so I get up quickly. I pick a bandage to hide my wound, and stop the pus that is now leaking from it.

  I wrap my biceps with it, turn after turn, too absorbed in my own world to realize I'm walking and where I'm walking even. The village's houses blend into one another, I walk past them in a reverie. As I finish dressing my wound I find myself sitting against the wall of one of the houses. When did I stop walking, how did I fucking sit without noticing?

  Bah! Weirder things have been happening anyway...

  As I'm about to become imersed in my own thoughts, I hear an old raspy voice.

  That voice belongs to the village elder.

  So this is where I am huh.

  Then I hear a sweet melodious voice. That of Lissana. I don't quite listen to what they are saying since I'm quite busy with my own thoughts. That is until I listen... my own name being said by her, and my ears perk up.

  "... yeah he is indeed behaving strangely." Her sweet voice trails off with uncertainty.

  "How strangely girl?" The old man's voice raises with impatience.

  "I don't know! He is feeling colder, he seems sick and he... seems fascinated with animals innards."

  "I always knew that accursed child would end up bringing trouble to us. Look at his dead parents..." Hearing that my fists clench tightly, my eyes go a bit bloodshot.

  I dare you old man, say one more fucking word...

  "... I bet he was the one that killed them. He cursed them! Just as he will do with the rest of us."

  Yeah I'm going to kill you shrivelled sack of meat!

  My thoughts turn tumultuous, as I cling to a final ray of hope, maybe Lissana will put some sense in this fool. She was never one for superstitions after all.

  "Well I don't know about that..." Yeah tell him! I should apologize to her latter, what I did was definetly uncalled for.

  But never in my wieldest nightmares, would I have been prepared for what followed. "Ever since you asked me to watch him, he has indeed behaving strangely, but I don't think he has a droplet of magic on him. He always sulked about that."

  As I hear her merciless words, my heart drops, the world seems to be getting colorless again.

  So I was right huh?

  She wasn't hanging around with me to be a better wife for Roy, or wathever other bulshit I had cooking up my mind... She was just fucking spying on me. At that old geezer's words at that. Just a little pawn for him to pull the strings.

  My eyes lose that glimmer of life, they clung to so desperately. They turn empty, as empty as this dark abyss my mind is sinking into. I swear, I can almost feel whatever it is that's causing me to rot, getting more ravenous, as if i just poked the fucking thing.

  HaHaHaHaHa...

  I start laughing like a maniac, my tone ever so slightly becoming more like the skeleton from my dreams. I can't stop laughing, not that I would want to anyway. The absurdness of it all is so fucking funny.

  KaKaKaKaKa...

  In the corner of my vision I see figures moving. But I couldn't care less, I just continue laughing, louder and more bizarrely.

  "Kael... what are you doing here?" Hearing the bitch's voice makes my laughter slowly die down.

  I look up in annoyance, noticing the elder is here, along some other villagers who heard the commotion.

  "I was having such a blast. You just had to ruin it for me didn't you Lissana? Like you ruin everything else." My voice sounds colder than ever before...

  "What are you talking about?" She asks as her brows are furrowing. "Is this about yesterday? If so you're better be here to apologize to me!"

  "Apologize?" My voice gradually shifts to that of a rutheless tone. "For what? For calling you out on your bullshit? For being smarter than you give me credit for?"

  "What?" This time the one to speak is the elder, his face completely deadpan as his eyes scurry through my entire body.

  "Buzz off you old geezer, I'm talking to your little puppet here." I say as I slowly get up from the ground, dusting off my clothes.

  It is at this point that the two of them narrow their eyes. The rest of the crowd looking with newfound curiosity and intensity.

  "Tell me little puppet... Did you even bloody object? Huh? Or were you overjoyed at the opportunity to make good old Kael for a fool?" I say rather menacingly as my gaze shifts over to her.

  "What are you on about Kael?"

  "Ah, I should comend you, really! You should be an actress in one of the big cities, you're waisting your potencial in this hellhole." I delect myself in her confusion, her growing unease, a pity I can't just bottle those up... "Let me ask you this. Are you just his little spy, or are you his little plaything as well? Actually can he even get it up?" I ask with a playfull but curious gaze.

  Her face twists itself in anger, she takes a step back, looking at the elder, seeking his help.

  "That's enough Kael! You ungratefull brat." My gaze shifts once more, losing it's playfullness, only to be replaced by ice cold fury.

  I walk over to him in slow steps, the old man doesn't even move an inch. "This is the second time you have interrupted my conversation with your puppet. There will not be a third." Once I finish those words, my hand darts towards his neck at a surprising speed.

  I raise the old man high in the air, his old flesh unable to escape my grasp.

  I slowly apply more strenght to my grasp. Strenght that I previously did not possess.

  The old man's throat is so thin. So frail. My fingers tighten, and his heartbeat stutters. A strangled gurgle escapes his lips, it's intoxicating.

  I give one last squeeze.

  The body goes limp under my grasp. A bag of brittle bones and useless flesh. The last breath leaves his lips in a pathetic rasp. That's it. That's all it took.

  I let him go and he hits the ground lifeless.

  My smile turns into a demonic grin.