I stood there staring at this thing with a slack jaw and an intrusive fear that started to overtake my every thought. I was slowly losing control over myself as this fear started to conjure up some of the horrendous things I had seen in the years that followed D-day. The days of hiding in damp, dirty cellars as a group of goblins passed overhead, the days of constant running from one hideout to the other as monsters stalked and ate members of your group. The sounds of agony echoing through the woods as your friends and group members were torn apart all so you could keep running away…

“Your fear tastes delicious.” A gravelly voice echoed through my memories as the horrors kept getting worse and worse as I relived them. In the back of my head something screamed that this wasn’t real, that this was the past, but I smelt the blood. I smelt as the mud and sweat and body odor from not being able to clean myself for weeks at a time took hold in my nose. I could feel the splatter of blood as one of my friends was hit in the eye with an arrow while we ran. The look of terror on his face as I only looked back with guilt, knowing he was already dead… I remembered it all clearly and the reason it happened…

‘This isn’t real wake UP!’ A small voice screamed from the back of my head, but I couldn’t listen to it as in front of me that day I killed my friends happened again.

We were scouting for food through the abandoned buildings when I accidentally knocked over something and caused a loud crash, that alerted a nearby horde of 20 goblins that chased us back into the nearby woods. We didn’t have a choice but to run towards our base and hope that the adults could help save us… First was my friend Tray… They got him as he was the slowest of us all… Then came Hilda, she was running too close to a bush and one of the goblins jumped at her and rushed back into the woods… My last friend Martin, the one shot by the arrow…

My eyes welled up with tears remembering their screams, but I also remembered what happened next. Hector and a few adults heard the screaming and came running, I was still running towards them even as my lungs felt like a volcano was erupting in them. They saw the blood that was splattered across my face and kept running past me. A few hours went by before they came back to the base, they were covered in disgusting and rank goblin blood but their eyes were filled with hatred and sadness.

Hector came to sit down next to me and hugged me, that was when I heard something, something just barely audible.

“M…er wa.. up, ple… wake ..!” I heard as a new voice was whispering just enough that I could hear bits and pieces.

‘This voice, this voice sounds like someone I know.’ I thought as I ran through memory after memory of terror.

‘Mast.. Please wake ..!!!” The voice was a little bit closer now, and the feelings of fear that controlled me was lessening slightly. That small voice that kept screaming in the back of my head seemed a bit louder aswell.

‘THIS IS NOT REAL! WAKE UP!’ It was my voice! I was screaming at myself this whole time! I stopped in my tracks and turned to see the goblin horde that was now catching up to me, they all seemed blurry now and seemed to shimmer and wave like a heat wave on the road in summer.

“It’s true… This isn’t real.” The fear that gripped my heart slipped away and events that happened just moments ago came flooding back. I looked around and saw as everything around me, the buildings and everything, all of it was that same shimmering, like a hazy dream… I remembered it all clearly.

I shook my head and tried to repeat how this wasn’t real, this wasn’t me anymore. This happened in the past and I am stronger now!

“You will always be weak, you will always be the cause of death for the ones around you!” That same gravelly voice spoke again as the fear started to rise up like shadowy hands from the depths of my heart in order to wrap around my body yet again.

“I AM NOT WEAK!” I screamed while focusing my magic power to envelope my body, a warm blue glow covered me and the hands that were wrapping around my throat seemed to slither back in pain.

“SURRENDER TO THE FEAR!” The voice screamed and the power behind it rattled everything around me. I covered my ears in pain but through the pain I heard what sounded like something breaking? I looked up and saw cracks spreading through the sky! Beyond the cracks was a warm orange light that was constantly being blocked as if something was running past it… It reminded me of seeing shadows run across the cracks under doors…

‘MASTER!’

‘MASTER!’

‘PAPA!’

3 voices shouted through the crack and on cue the rest of the illusions fell away as reality was once again in front of me.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I blinked away the grogginess as my vision started to sharpen, I looked around and saw as all of my pets were laying against me and nudging me to wake up. I smiled and gave each of them a head pat.

“It was you guys wasn’t it? You helped bring me back. Thank you.” I smiled as my heart thumped in happiness. Rhonda nodded her head as a tear slid down her feathered beak and Shadow yipped at me. Boney on the other hand put his wing bones all over my face like he was making sure that I was really ok, it was honestly really cute.

“Ahh it seems someone woke up, how curious.”

The gravelly voice shook me from my moment as I was reminded of a crucial point… I was in front of monster!!! I jumped up and pulled out my weapons as I stared ahead at the…. Stacy?

Infront of me, in the middle of a circle of unconscious people was Stacy, she had her hands splayed out to her sides and it looked like she was in the middle of a ceremony? I saw as Rob, Kelly, Hailee, and even Kyle were in that circle of people… How strong was this thing that it could even overpower Rob?

“I didn’t have the time or patience to deal with your pets so I left you be… If I had known they would be able to wake you up I would have just done away with them. No matter, I already have enough ingredients for the next phase of my evolution. Be a good boy and leave while I’m still in a good mood.” Stacy, or whatever was inside her, said before she closed her eyes and started to chant something in a language I couldn’t understand.

“What have you done with these people Stacy!” I yelled and took a step forward. I picked up a rock nearby and threw it at her but before it could make it even 2 feet away from her it bounced off of some invisible wall.

She opened one eye and glared at me. “This is my final warning boy, Leave. You left people to die once before so you can do it again.” She smirked at me before closing her eye again.

I grimaced at that before a boiling rage filled my mind, how dare this creature, this monster, talk to me like this! I am stronger now than I have ever been, and I will continue to get stronger until nothing stands in my way!

My magic reacted to my feelings and covered my body, I felt as the nature around me seemed to resonate with me for a moment. I focused the power towards my weapons in a split second experiment, I knew I needed something to break through that barrier and if this worked than it would hopefully break through.

Shadow and Rhonda both tensed up at my sides as they got ready to attack. Boney stood on my shoulder and was emitting a faint greenish glow and the bluish flame in his eye sockets was laser focused.

This whole time Stacy was still muttering that weird chant and gave me all the time I needed and with some success I was able to wrap my magic around my weapons and it looked like the edges was a little bit sharper as a side effect.

“ATTACK!” I screamed and jumped forward with a overhead swing, It clanged against the barrier but I felt as it sunk it slightly before bouncing back so I just yelled in rage and kept attacking. With each swing I felt the blades sink in more and more, Soon I was able to cut all the way through and like a curtain the barrier split apart. Shadow took that opportunity to lash out and with a swipe of his front paws send 2 blades of wind aimed right for Stacy’s? Head.

Rhonda was close behind the slashes and as soon as the blades made contact she jumped and launched a flying kick.

“I told you… TO LEAVE!” Stacy screamed, the power held within that scream made the very air vibrate and send Rhonda flying back towards me. We jumped away in time but when I stood up I felt a hand around my throat and was immediately lifted into the air. Stacy had left her circle of people and was now below me, sneering at me with her eyes filled with the power of her Avatar. From her arm came water that slithered up like snakes towards my head and wrapped around my mouth and nose to block off my air.

“I have no need of extras boy, you are not needed… But I will be hungry once I’m done. You and your pets will make a fine meal and I’ll be sure to use your little skeleton here as a toothpick.”

I couldn’t do anything but try and struggle against her monstrous strength as my lungs burned and my brain screaming to take a breath. I was scared as my vision was getting darker and the light was starting to fade.

“AGHHHHH” Stacy screamed in agony as she dropped me. I looked up while coughing and saw as she had both hands around her face and trying to wipe something off it, except what she was wiping off was more and more of her skin and flesh…

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” she yelled as her face was slowly turning into nothing but bones. Even then she was still alive and furiously trying to wipe whatever was still sizzling on her flesh. I didn’t know what happened but then heard a small happy squawk from behind me.

“Boney?” I asked as I turned to see as the little skeleton was standing in a hero pose. He wasn’t glowing with that green aura anymore though?

“What did you do buddy?” He just flapped his wings and in my head I saw a replay of seeing my body be lifted up and then a feeling of anger before a stream of greenish miasma came flowing out and covered Stacy’s face.

“I didn’t know you could do something like that Boney, good job you saved me.” I patted his head before turning back to the screaming and now skeletal Stacy. The acidic Miasma had now covered and eaten away her flesh down to her waist yet somehow she was still alive!

“I’LL KILL YOU AND DESTROY YOUR SOUL FOR THIS!” The creature roared but seeing as how by the second more and more of it’s bones was being revealed, I wasn’t too worried about it.

I ran over to the circle of people while it was distracted and started trying to wake up Rob, I needed his help and quickly. I started by shaking his shoulder and moving his body, then ended up slapping his face hoping the pain would startle him up but nothing worked. I didn’t know what to do until Boney came over and touched his forehead to Robs, he started to glow now with an ethereal ghostly aura.

I had Rhonda and Shadow keep watch on the monster while me and Boney focused on Rob. After a few minutes, Boney’s Aura seemed to grow weaker but at the same time, Rob took in a deep breath and jumped up alert and leaking out hostile intent.

“Whoa, Whoa, Rob it’s me! James!”