Two imps fought to the death; their make-shift swords made of bone and leather clashed together. The creature was perching on an overlooking position of the make-shift arena. As time went on the more it was maturing, its skin darkened to a gray, the spikes darkened and more rock-like in appearance, The wings were more stable and less see-through, it watched on as the two imps against their will went for vital points, even when their bodies wanted to give up they forced to dance, like puppets.
The creature let out a loud screech as one imp stabbed through another’s heart. The monster jumped down, not having mastered flight, it flapped frantically but ended up plummeting downward and landing in the arena, sizing up to the still alive imp it was probably around twice the height. In a fraction of a second, a massive tube was forced from its mouth and encapsulated the entire of imp’s head, thousands of barbs inside peeled the head like a grape palpating the brain and slurping it down its gullet.
The imp dropped out of the creature’s mouth, the face was shredded, and the top of the head looked like it was melting. The corpse was left in the dirt as the creature climbed the walls to its perch.
Moments after, hungry imps came and started tearing away the skin eating handfuls of imp-meat. The creature watched them cannibalize their own kind with a certain amount of joy only it could understand.
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“...” A monster with an ever-shifting face continued to mouth words in front of L’aysisa. The faces kept distorting, blurring with every change, the eyes were sunken and blackened, the mouth extended far beyond anything humanly possible.
L’aysisa stared back at the monster. Dark circles developed underneath her eyes from the lack of sleep. As the monster continued to move and change its expressions, she was staying silent. She tried to readjust her arms, but the straightjacket was preventing her.
“... I’m tired,” she mentioned to the monster.
Her actual words incited a specific reaction as two more monsters walked in from the open door in front of her. They took her by the arms and hoisted her up to her feet. L’aysisa followed her escorts to a room with nothing but a bed, sink, and toilet. From there, she was released from the staff’s care, and the restrictive jacket was removed. The first thing she did was look at herself.
Her short blonde hair was kept even shorter than it usually was; the months of getting an hour of sleep every day was taking a toll on her natural elven beauty. She touched her forehead, a scar one in the shape of a tiny black frilly diamond. The devil did its job. She was able to see her tribe again, but the unseen catch was that she acted as a beacon for them; whenever she’d look at another person, the spirits would latch on, distorting her perception.
“You’re a dumb bitch,” she confessed to her mirrored self. She walked over to the bed to lie down. She didn’t even bother with the sheets. Despite being put on at least six different sleep medications, none made her any more tired. She’d lay there with her eyes fixated on the same square on the ceiling day after day. However, today was different. She was able to close her eyes and slowly felt herself drifting. A sudden image flashed in her head, something she quite didn’t understand or make out what it was just that it came with the feeling of dread, anguish, and disgust. She shot up from her bed, nauseated. She sprinted to the toilet and began evacuating the contents of her stomach. She violently heaved and gagged to the point even her bile was coming up alongside. Eventually, she did stop throwing up long enough to see inside the bowl. It was black, pitch black. The consistency was almost like tar; it bubbled and pulsated every few seconds.
“Fuck!” L’aysisa shouted and leaned up against her privacy wall.
“Are you okay, Lisa!?” A woman with jet black hair and wearing white scrubs shouted. She busted through the door with two other humans; both of them were highly muscular and bald. “I was walking by and-” She stopped and smelled the air, she instantly recoiled and gripped her nose. There was an almost miasmatic effect emanating from the toilet. “Gruuh,” the woman heaved audibly. “This smell!”
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“It’s pronounced Lah-ay-sis-ah, not Lisa,” L’aysisa said, ignoring the woman’s disgust. Gripping her stomach, L’aysisa climbed up the wall for support.
For a second, the woman didn’t know what to say. But she was positively surprised. She leaned over and whispered in the ears of two males; they both nodded while she left the room.
L’aysisa stared wide-eyed at the two men; it was the first time she could see their faces not being distorted by some parasitic spirit.
It didn’t take long for the woman to return with a straight jacket. “Would you mind… its procedure considering your history.”
L’aysisa sighed and groaned, “Just get it over with.” She allowed the men to put the jacket on her.
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The creature sensed a feeling, one that felt both far and close at the same time. Something that only it could experience, a purely mental link. It picked its eyeless head up, looking in the same direction it felt the feeling.
It climbed down the side of the perch, slithering into the center of the make-shift arena. It roared, sending another giant invisible pulse. The wave became so concentrated that the very foundations it stood on had scrape marks. The crypt vibrated and threatened to cause a cave-in.
Seconds later, every imp; small, red, big, hungry came out of their hiding holes; they had no choice—hundreds of them all congregating around the creature. The creature roared, and each imp broke out in a sprint towards the nearest exit, which just so happened to be the same small hole that Arthur used to escape.
The imps plowed into the rocks; they smashed their skulls in, fainted and died, tore at the walls until their fingers bled, and their claws were ripping off. But they chipped away, making the hole just big enough for the creature. When it approached, every imp stepped to the side, pulling the corpses to the sides for maximized space.
Using its snake-like anatomy, it squeezed through with very little resistance; the imps followed behind but switched off leading the way to the surface, as they were the ones who knew the ruins. The creature slithered its way up the steps and immediately greeted an intense storm.
The rain was falling at an impossible rate; a few imps that traveled too far from the creature tried to run away but failed. They got stuck in the mud, and with so much rain and wind, they began drowning. The Imps that stayed close-fought against the angry gales of wind and dug their claws into the ground.
Lightning struck several times all around the ruins and hit the ground. The creature looked up to the clouds despite not seeing it knew just what and where the storm was. It roared once more. The influence was spherical and only stretched out a quarter of a mile. The clouds above it parted, creating a storm eye where no rain dared even to enter. The creature flapped its fleshy wings, sending the moisture on its skin flying in all directions—the creature then began slithering to the north, the city of Algihani.
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Tryth shivered and put down his drink on the wooden railing, the noise from the bar died down behind him as the wind picked up. He suddenly started to see his breath being carried away in the setting sun. He squinted his eyes at a dark splotch over the horizon, an oncoming storm.
“Hey, stranger. What’re you doing out here?” purred a woman as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
Tryth turned around to face the woman, she had two golden curly horns on top of her red hair and olive-colored skin, a long red tail gently curled around his leg, she was a demi-dragon.
“Hey,” Trythe smiled, pulling her in for a kiss. He ran his hand through her hair as she accepted his lip. When the two parted seconds later he said, “Had a lot to think about, just came out to breathe a little, sorry.”
He suddenly heard a sharp ringing and it was deafening. The sudden nature of it caused him to drop to his knees and grip at his ears, then it was silent. The demi-dragon screamed, yet he couldn’t hear it. He could see her and tell that she was, but nothing was being processed until he heard a voice calm, smooth, and indescribable say, “Hear my song, dance to my words.”
And just like that, the experience was over.
“Honey!” The demi-dragon shouted. “What’s wrong!?” She looked as though she was nearing a panic attack.
“Yeah, Yeah. I’m fine,” Trythe reassured her. “Did you he-” He started to say but cut himself off, she was already worried about him suddenly dropping to the ground.
“Did I what?” she repeated while helping him to his feet.
He hugged her tightly, “Nothing, it’s fine…” Trythe looked over his shoulder at the splotch in the horizon. The storm was just a little closer, but he could definitely see that it was a violent one.