Locked in my fathers study, we waited riddled with anxiety as the sounds of battle echoed through the halls. Sometimes the commotion would sound hopeful, guards clashing against the vile undead, cheers echoing at the monster's defeat, only for them to be soon cut down by the wicked monsters they were at war with, a vicious cycle that seemed to repeat ad nauseam. Crawling over and on top of the bookcase that we used to block the door, we were able to piece together some of what was going on through troop orders and rally cries. From what we could tell, the reason why the manor was so unprepared was due to the lack of maids, who we learned were all also clerics of the elder moon goddess Heke, were repositioned to the city to protect the townsfolk because that's were the brunt of the attack was supposed to be, leaving only a few behind in case the attack made it this far. As far as we could tell the Cleric’s holy magic was very effective against the undead, the guards on the other hand, while strong in their own right, were being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, leaving us in this predicament.
“Dammit dammit dammit” - Finde screamed, fists clenched shaking with rage as she fought back even more tears.
“Everyone is getting slaughtered out there and we can’t do a damn thing about it.” - She continued.
“I know, it's so gods damn frustrating. All we can do is sit and wait for someone to rescue us. I’m almost completely out of mana, and these undead bastards are murdering everyone I care about.” - I replied through my clenched teeth, holding back tears of my own.
Sitting there for what seemed like hours as the carnage continued to rage outside, we did our best to remain quiet while boiling in our own rage and anxieties. After a while things started to quiet down outside, apprehensive to leave we decided to stay put until we knew for sure what was happening outside. As the hands on the clock continued to turn, I noticed Finde staring at me, her now sitting opposite to me, arms wrapped around her legs.
“What,”- I murmured, her eyes piercing right through me. After gathering her thoughts for a moment she spoke up.
“I’ve just been thinking, you were able to tell what we were fighting at a glance, and you seemed to know that strange fox thing when we were in your room. The first thing I could chalk up to you just being a big nerd, but the other thing I can't shake out of my mind. I feel like you know more than you’re telling me Raffin.” - Finde exclaimed, a certain degree of disgust in her voice that made my eyes shoot wide as I broke out in a cold sweat.
“I um… well that is…” - I started off, stuttering over every word, unable to form a coherent thought due to my panic.
“Spit it out Raffin, after everything they’ve taken away from me tonight you owe me that much dont you!?” - Finde yelled, jumping to her feet, rage radiating off of her body. A new found wave of guilt and pain washed over me as I heard the anguish in her voice.
With a new sense of responsibility and shame, my mind was able to let me calm down long enough to explain everything to Finde. From the first night that I razed the forest and resurrected my first undead, to the ever growing hoard of monsters I had repairing it, I even included the incident not too long ago with the humanoid zombie. My past sins pour from my mouth like vomit, the look on Findes face first began to soften from her rage, then to shock, then to anger once more.
“You saw one of these…these things and you decided that the best thing to do was to keep it a secret from everyone! From the crazy tale you just told me, I understand the animals but that was a human being Raffin! Maybe this entire thing could have been avoided if you said something, maybe my damn dad wouldn't be dead!” - She screamed, as she lay into me, the guilt began eating me alive as I sunk further and further down where I was sitting.
“I’m sorry…I…I don’t know, I wanted to tell someone but something kept me from doing it. I don’t know at that point I was worried about getting in trouble and how my mom would react and I,” - Unable to finish, Finde continued her onslaught.
“Oh, you didn't want to get in trouble, I completely understand. I wouldn't want people to know either if I had become the kind of MONSTER that plays with the damn dead. I trusted you Raffin, you were like a part of my family, like brother to me dammit, but because you didn't want people to know about your little ‘night time activities’, mom’s who knows were, all of my dads friends are being murdered left and right, and oh right, MY FATHER DIED PROTECTING YOU!” - She yelled, voluming piercing my eardrums and words piercing my soul, after a moment she calmed and sat back down, the harshites of the night still reflected in the stare she directed at me.
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“I’m sorry, I never meant for any of this. I don’t,” - I uttered quietly, trying everything in my power not to spiral.
“Just, shut up Raffin, I don’t want to hear anymore of it. Let's just be quiet until someone comes to get us.” - She replied, cutting me off to sit in silence.
Just as the silence began to creep in again, we heard a banging, loud as thunder on the door. Terrified, we scurried quickly trying to find a place to hide, unfortunately under my father’s desk being the only acceptable option. Side by side with anxiety and anger radiating off Finde, we sat holding our breath being as quiet as possible while the banging started to get louder and louder until the door started to splinter. Creaking and cracking the hardwood barrier that separated us from certain death was destroyed and the bookshelf we used as a barrier was tipped on its side crashing onto the floor. Steps so heavy they shook the floor approached us as our hearts swelled into our throats as we kept our breaths shallow and sharp, trying not to give away our position. Louder and louder the footsteps approached us, crushing anything under its foot until for some reason, silence.
“Do you think it left?” - Finde whispered, and just as the words left her lips, the solid oak desk we were hiding under flew over are heads crashing into the wall, exploding into a million pieces. Terror and panic gripping us we tried to bolt, only to be grabbed by massive and familiar hands around the back of our necks. Raising us off of our feet the assailant began squeezing the life out of us, continuing to strangle us as our eyes began to glaze over. Fighting and kicking to break free, Finde was the first to loosen herself enough to crane her neck and get a view at our attacker.
“Dad?”- She choked, face now pale from both shock and lack of air. Surprised by her exclamation, I attempted to free myself by summoning what little mana I had left, grasping my hands around the zombie’s wrist intensifying the heat in my palm, not quite fire but the heat would be enough to cause it to drop me out of pain I thought in my panic. Instead my hands melted through its rotting skin, separating its wrist from the rest of its arm, although its hand was still wrapped around my neck I was dropped to the floor where I pried its fingers off of me. Flipping around while kicking my legs furiously to create some distance, sucking in as much air as I could, it was all immediately knocked out of me as my eyes were able to focus on the face of our attacker.
“Amos,” - I muttered in shock, before me stood what was left of the living mountain, towering over us still enlarged from his rage when he was alive. His eyes glowing a crimson red that illuminated the room around us, invoking a feeling of pure terror.
“Dad, please it's us, it’s Finde and Raffin. Please Dad I…I can’t breathe.” - Finde pleaded with the remains of her father as the strength faded from her body, desperately trying to appeal to what I thought was now his absent humanity.
“Don’t bother Finde, it's just a soulless puppet now, he doesn't remember us.” - I exclaimed, gripping my staff in both hands to use as a makeshift mace. Running at the abomination, its face suddenly softened, and with a guttural growl it muttered,
“Fiiiin deee, Raaaf fiiiin,”- dropping his daughter to the floor, with a stream of tears now falling from it’s face the hulking monstrosity dropped to its knees, its face in its one remaining hand it let out a blood curdling screech that rattled the walls and nearly shattered our eardrums. As the creature continued to wail, my mind began to race with theories as to how he seemed to remember us. Could his brain still hold memories since the corpse is fresh? If the rot had already set in, it didn't seem likely. Curiosity overriding my fear once again, I tried to muster my Deadeye, vision fuzzy but still clear enough to make out some details, I was able to peer into the mana of the ghoul of Amos. What I saw was a golden ball of light, seemingly magically bound, as if chained off center to the core of the body. Around it flowed the familiar sickly green mana of the undead. Due to his massive size the mana flowed out erratically, struggling to keep up with his massive body, if alive it would have killed him in an instant, somehow the light was refueling him just enough to keep him moving. Mind racing, mulling over every little detail in my mind as I shielded my ears from the monster cries with my palms, pushing through the echoing pain I tried recalling every last thing I know about the undead at this point, that's when it hit me. The lights I had been seeing, from the animals, from the people that I’ve peered into. They were souls, our very being separate yet bound to our body until death when it's supposed to move on. And someone somehow returned Amos’s back into his. So nauseated I could throw up at this revelation, I ended up doubling back into the wall tripping over my own feet. Exhausted and sick, my regular vision began to blur as I fell into a sitting position unable to stand any longer. Finde didn't seem to be faring much better, sitting silently dumbfounded trying and failing to process what was going on.
“Quiet down my new pet, shhh it’ll all be over soon,” - a snide voice sounded from right outside the room causing what was left of Amos to stop its shrieking. Over the rubble walked a rather rotund man wearing a long dark green robe with golden trim around its edges and sleeves. On his left breast was an embroidered skull with red jewels where the eyes should be. His face was regal and sharp in places but was mostly inflated by fat, much like the rest of his body. His long ears led me to believe he was an elf of some sort but his skin was a light grayish color, like a dark elf with all its blood drained. In his left hand he held a staff, top adorned like the symbol on his robe, a skull with jeweled red eyes although this one’s mouth was opened holding a larger green orb inside it, and in his right and entire human arm, chunks of meat missing where he had clearly been taking bites. As his teeth ripped through his morbid snack, as he entered the room I noticed two other monstrosities, creatures unlike anything I had ever seen before. Long in the body the each had four spindly long arms and with two joints, their hands had claws sharp as daggers. Their legs were twice as long as their arms, twisted back at the knee like a grasshopper, their faces similar to a human’s except they were sunken in, as if someone had plastered their skin directly to their skulls without any fat or tissue in between. As their master walked through the door, they spidered up the sides of the wall while he slowly approached his creation.
“Oh I seeee, you were just alerting me to these two new sacrifices for my lord, oh what a wonderful monster you have become already.” - He said in a mocking yet poetic, flashing a sinister grin as he looked down at the two of us. Fear, anger, pain, regret, and just about every other emotion my body could muster all flowed into me at once, upon laying eyes on the rotund freak, I knew, this was the bastard behind it all.