Arghh!....it hurts, I painfully open my eyes, gasping, “Where am I, who am I?”.

I look around and see an orange light, its blurry. I open and close my eyes in an effort to clear my eyes but it's no use, all I see is the smothered outlines of what seems to be a room? There's something on my head, it is cold to the touch. I try to take it off but my arm seems to be dead? No that isn’t right, I can slightly feel my hands moving but I can’t seem to move my arms. I try with my legs but it's the same feeling, however, there’s something off about my left leg, its itchy….am I bound?

Yes, that must be it, I can't turn my head, I struggle to take off my constraints but its of no use, I feel tired, I’m thirsty…..hungry. My eyes, I can't control them, I try my hardest to stay conscious but my eyelids won't obey, I…I’m thirsty..wait no! whats wrong with me? Thoughts of red intrude my mind as I try to focus on my surroundings but to no avail, I just can't stop thinking of flesh?...yes!..I want it…..give it to me, that sweet succulent meat and that wonderful crimson substance…..GiVE IT to ME!!

As if to answer my prayers, something trickles through my deserted mouth, down my throat…..sweet….warm…delicious! I force my eyelids to open and I see a blurry silhouette that had two symmetrical red orbs staring into my own, “Who-”, but before I could even continue, there was that sweet taste again, I lose my focus. That ‘something’ felt oddly viscous…like honey..its dripping onto my tongue as I wiggle it around in an effort to get more of the unknown substance….its driving me insane, I want more…I NEED MORE! It is filling me with energy, a nice, pleasant feeling, Its flowing through my whole body, warm, tasty, and….itchy? Arggh! an unbearable itch invades my entire body further concentrating down to my lower half…towards my left side….my leg.

I clench both my fists and feel with it a stinging pain along with an insurmountable itch…it hurts! However, that trickling dark substance keeps flooding my mouth giving with it a sense of undesired delight, what is this feeling? Such a mixture of complicating feelings invades my brain bringing with it hindered bodily convulsions, but it is delightful. I feel somewhat satiated thus I look up at my ‘saviour’ and see a clearer outline of a figure, he seems to be holding a ‘meaty stick’ above my head, its dripping a crimson red substance from the end of it, what is that? I wonder.

Suddenly, ‘he’ flicks the unknown delight away from my face with an audible, Splat! I watched it move away from my sight with an undesirable want….No! I want more. I lick my lips voraciously, slightly tasting traces of the leftover substance around my face. Wait, what is that smell? A strong pungent smell diffuses itself within the insides of my nostrils, it’s disgusting yet familiar.

“The stumpy brat stinks”, ushered a nearby voice in a condescending tone. I couldn’t see where this voice came from as the constraints placed on my forehead restricted my head movements.

“Be quiet!” shouted the silhouette in my view, it was loud and dominating, a very distinct voice, it was almost like a growl. “I’m trying to think.”

Despite the dim environment of the space, I could vaguely distinguish the dark apparition, ‘it’ seemed like an adult man going by the tone of his voice and his buff figure. However, I can’t quite picture his face, it seems flat? Sort of like a mask, yes that must be it, it covered the entirety of his visage, I do not recognise this man or the voice behind him. “W-who are you…what do you want from me?” I shouted.

“Silence! You lowly mutt” demanded the silhouette, he seemed to cover my mouth with some unknown material preventing me from talking ever again.

“This test subject is surprisingly robust, a very peculiar situation don’t you think Des?”

“Indeed sire, he demonstrates similar recovery speeds to that of our brethren albeit slightly less efficient” voiced Des.

“That is to be expected, he isn’t quite there yet after all, but what I’m concerned about is something else”.

‘Test subject, recovery, brethren?’, what is that? What are they talking about? I fight the constant tremors of hunger that permeates my body, I’m still fighting the urge to devour the piece of flesh on the floor beside me, I can smell it…I can taste it.

“It bothers me that the infection hasn’t totally consumed his entirety you, see? there’s something special about this bastard, I must get to the bottom of it”.

“Shall we open him up, sire?”

“No! not yet, I don’t believe he won't turn after being bitten again, send him to the thralls” demanded the silhouette.

“As you wish” cackled ‘Des’.

‘Wait, wait’ I cried out but all that I could hear was the muffled cries hindered by the thing over my mouth. Then I feel my surroundings moving as a different silhouette moves into view, physically pushing me towards a direction. I seem to be strapped onto a moving object. What do they mean by ‘being bitten again’?

A feeling of terror suddenly washed over my face, this can't end well. I observe my moving surroundings as I am being pushed by this ‘Des’, all I see is the smothered colour of grey. It seemed like flattened stone blocks as I try to pinpoint my blurred vision towards the areas where the blocks were separated by rough lines. Eventually, I feel myself being pushed upwards, and with it came a wave of motion sickness, up..down…up…down, it was a rough terrain it seemed like. I fought the urge to puke as I was ushered upwards, it seemed as if I was underground.

This is not good, I need to escape, I wiggle my limbs about, but I struggle, my cuffs are much too hard to forcefully break off. “There’s no escape mutt” laughed the amused man. He directed me towards a darker room which stunk of indescribable smells.

“Enjoy! Don’t kill him though” he remarked before pushing me forcefully towards a certain direction followed by the sound of a closing door, Thud!

I tense up, fear crippling my hopes of escaping, I feel the presence of multiple entities around me, a few of them letting out low growls like that of a monster. I see blurred darkness but there are multiple red orbs within my sight lavishly moving left to right at blinking speeds, on the ceiling, to my sides and close to my face.

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They’re here! No..no please..noo Argghhh!

Crunch! Rip!

Argghh! I feel my own flesh being ripped apart, torn….slashed…..punctured….eaten. My bones being crushed, split, and gnawed at. I hear loud growls satiating in the sounds of flesh being chewed. I smell that pungent, familiar smell again. I see red, splashes of it, covering my vision, I feel my nose ripping, my mouth being….. pulled, fuck! Argghh!

“S-sa…vveerr…..m-mi…eee”

Snap! Splat! Splash!

And then, darkness, I feel nothing, no pain….no sense of touch…I see nothing but feel the eternal embrace of numbness. An absolute pleasure compared to the sound of bones breaking, of flesh being ripped apart, and of blood being splattered across surfaces. This is it…this is death, right?

What now? Suddenly, a scene played out in my mind, I saw a field of wheat, I walked in the middle of it, opening both my arms out as I moved across the field feeling each strand of wheat smacking against my open palms, soft…delightful. In front of me was a young girl, she had long auburn hair that swayed ever so slightly in the wind, she wore a simple cotton dress in interchanging colours of soft blues and whites. She had her back towards me, walking forwards across the field.

I followed behind her with a sense of longing, she slightly turned her head around indicating something. I didn’t quite see her face clearly; it was blurred but I could make out her petite mouth. I saw it move up and down, I didn’t know what she was saying but I felt that she was telling me to follow behind her. In front of us, in the distance was a humble cottage made of wood, smoke billowing from a protruding small opening on the roof, behind it was a dense forest with trees moving left and right, following the winds sway.

It was a bright summer's day albeit a bit windy, but it was lovely. I felt the sun's soft kiss on my entire body whilst being complimented by the chilly wind’s touch. With the earthly smell of wheat diffusing in the air around me, I could not help but fight back the urge to joyfully skip across the field, laying down between the bundles of wheat and moving my limbs up and down in the shape of an angel.

 A scene of…serenity and youth.

However, much like a torch being extinguished, the sky abruptly transformed into a crimson hue, wildly coalescing around the sun which turned pitch black covering everything in near darkness. I no longer felt its heat, instead, I felt a sense of foreboding terror and fear, the hairs on my skin stood up. Off in the distance rumbled a torrent of red river seeping in between the trees from the forest, it quickly swallowed up the small wooden house extinguishing the light inside. The river of blood rapidly made its way into view, rushing forwards like the mouth of a never-ending monster. I heard the sound of screeches and growls as I witness bats looming over the trees, red eyes moving in the shadows.

The girl in front of me turned around fully, showing her faceless head, there was an absence of skin, her eyes were empty and shallow quickly transforming into a skull. Her once healthy body disintegrated into nothingness, leaving with it a grey skeleton, the hair atop her scalp wilted into thin air, blown away by the sharp wind. She held her bony arm forwards pointing towards me producing a sound of hollow clattering before being devoured by the sea of blood behind her, effortlessly engulfing her. Then it was my turn.

Darkness, once again.

“Wake up brat!” Splat! Mmrfggh! The sound of flesh being punctured with muffled cries resounded outwards. I resist against my constraints feeling the piercing pain on my stomach, something unfamiliar seems to be sticking out from it. I also felt extremely itchy around the entirety of my body similar to the sensation I felt around my left leg, I look up and see the familiar silhouette once again staring into my soul.

“Hmm…he’s surprisingly still alive despite the missing parts” chuckled a familiar voice, it was the so-called ‘Des’.

“Interesting specimen, he remains in his previous state….how quaint”,

“Des, prepare the tools”.

“Yes sire” cackled the man unreservedly, it seemed like he had been waiting for this exact moment.

Tools? No!..no don’t tell me…

But against my wishes, I hear the sound of metallic clutter being rolled in, then I see the silhouette figure pick out a blurry metallic object that reflected the bright orange light around its small structure. Immediately afterwards, I felt the stinging pain around my chest, Arggghh! Shit! The cold exterior of the metal object traced around my upper area in a large rectangle from my collarbone down to my diaphragm, it was extremely painful. Then something I wished I never saw occurred.

The man held a rectangular ‘sheet’ by its edges above my head, fluttering it as if he was showing it off, this action of his produced flicks of warm liquid which splattered across my face before he proceeded to throw it effortlessly across the room unperturbed, an act of savagery. What the fuck! I screamed at the top of my lungs at the sick sight. Argghh! No more please, I beg you, Stop! Incessant muffled screams and inhuman wails kept sounding out of the dimly lit room.

His next movements caused the boy to go into shock and eventually unconsciousness as the man proceeded to precisely cut into his ribcage with a different ‘tool’. The man-made sure not to damage any of his organs as he carefully carved out the perimeter of the subject’s ribcage. Once he was done, he lifted the shield of bones glancing at it for a second before throwing it away, he was quite pleased with his own handy work.

“Marvelous! His heart still beats, it’s completely human…..how strange”. In his eyes, he could ‘see’ and feel the rush of blood being pumped in and out of the organ through the vessels.

“This…this is unprecedented sire”.

“Not a single trace of infection around the organ…..”, Black root-like veins took over the majority of the boy’s organs apart from his beating heart which looked quite normal. It was like the ‘roots’ actively avoided the unassuming organ. The man slightly moved the lungs aside to carefully analyse the heart and to his surprise, it was indeed untouched.

He was even tempted on removing the organ and analysing it, but he was sure of himself that his test subject would likely die if he did so, although the boy was capable of extreme recovery, he wasn’t entirely ‘complete’. The heart was human through and through no matter the angle he looked at. He truly wished to pluck it out. This was his first time seeing this splendid occurrence. As a matter of fact, almost all of his subjects had similar hearts; a blackened organ filled with sprouting veins that encapsulated it with extreme vitality. The ‘core’ which makes them who they are: monsters.

“Tell me, Des, what is the origin of this boy?”.

Des became silent for a few seconds, troubled, “Well?” growled the dominating man.

“I-I…don’t know sire, he’s likely another peasant received from our nightly raids”. He replied, feeling droplets of sweat forming around his forehead.

“What of his memories?” ushered the angry man in a contained rage.

“I-I… regret to inform you sire, but his memories have already been…..e-erased” gulped Des, swallowing a pocket of dry air as he looked at the dirty dungeon floor.

“INSOLENCE!!” shouted the crimson-eyed ‘man’, he was seething in rage, but he quickly calmed down showing some restraint. “Investigate his origins immediately!” he ordered.

“Understood sire” hushed Des as he vanished into a puff of smoke, disappearing from the man’s sight.

The man caressed the unconscious boy’s bloodied and disfigured face smiling to himself, “I will uncover your secrets, one way or another”.

[3 Days Later]

I open my eyes gasping for air as if I have just been deprived of oxygen for a long period of time. I look around and find myself in a cell, I can now move my head from side to side, it looks like I’m not strapped down to something anymore. However, I trace my arms to my hands and find out that I’m chained to the wall, similarly my feet are cuffed around the ankles joined by a metal chain fastened to a metal plate on the wall.

I still feel somewhat itchy, and like a bolt of lightning, I look downwards at my chest and see my bare chest still intact, untouched, It’s still there, I sighed. The same went with each of my limbs, nothing was out of place, Was that a…dream?... No, it can’t be, I felt pain, I felt everything. That was definitely....real. I open and close my eyes and find that I can see clearly once more, Why were my eyes so blurry before?….there’s so many things I can’t fully comprehend.

Although my upper body was bare, my lower half was covered by some torn bloodied pants that appeared brown in colour, it extended down to just below my knees. It stunk of the same pungent smell which whiffed into my nostrils, physically assaulting me. Fuck! Now I know why it smelled so familiar. Looking further down, I stare at my pale uncovered feet which felt the cold, hard ground.  

I swear that I was dead, I felt my everything being torn apart by those strange creatures lurking in that dark…dark room. I tense up just thinking about it again. Just what the hell happened to me? How am I still alive?, these were the thoughts proliferating inside my head, I should be dead. No! this isn’t the time to mull about, I must escape before ‘he’ comes for me again, that godforsaken masked silhouette.    

Calming down, I carefully observe my surroundings, in front of me stood another similar cell enclosed by metal bars, inside was someone chained to the wall. My cell and that person’s cell were separated by a narrow hallway, we were at the right-most end of the said hallway. I look to my left and see a solid stone wall which more than likely housed another cell.

To my right is a similar wall but this time at the bottom middle was a small semi-circle opening closed by a metal cage, darkness ensued if you stared into it. Looking up, I see a lit torch bolted onto the wall on the hallway’s side, it provided a small source of light and heat in the damp, poorly-lit space.

Where the hell am I, who were those silhouettes, and what was that dream about?