Stewart Rico

It hurt like a bitch. The mass of tendrils had carved into my chest and my blood began to paint the ground.

“Fuck," I winced.

“What ?” Victor, my student and person of interest asked. He had, through some miracle, saved me from an abomination. He looked like he was just hard labor which I guessed made sense he did just kill a monster.

“It cut me, right on the chest. Shit, it hurts. Take off your shirt, I need to make a compress for the wound” I ordered.

“Take your advice. The wound might get infected with your shirt like that," Victor responded.

“That's fair. Not the point brat. Need a place to go, "I spurted.

“ Hey now, time and place. Do you want help back to your place?” he retorted.

“Need to stop the bleeding first. How do you know where I live ?” I asked, the strain was getting too much. The blood was slowly but surely draining out of me.

I turned only to see Victor stand. The decrepit brat was closer to a ghoul than a normal human. He had a gaunt bastard’s unkempt birdnest hair that barely covered his broken wounded eyes. They were gangly like if they froze mid-squint and something extended it. Those damned irises were dark brown with pulsing red lines that reached toward his pupils. Black bags hung beneath world-weary eyes, which was more haunting for someone his age. He looked elongated, holding out his hand to me. I knew he was different once, but now I saw a bad ending. His filthy hospital swab hung loosely over a wiry form and smelt like fish. Thankfully, he was at least still wearing pants. Still, the brat lifted me slowly with some unknown strength. Great, I get to bleed out vertically.

“Shit, you're not wearing anything under there," I spat the blood dribbling from my mouth. The pain was mind-numbing, and the blood that was leaking out of my body was just a reminder that I was going to die.

“That’s a lot of blood,” Victor said," Do you want to call a doctor or something?”

“Yo ha. That should be held back and I need to get this compressed. Move me up a bit then I need you to make something to stop the bleeding," I retorted.

I had my clothes, maybe I have to make a compress. But infection would be another issue that would bite me in the ass. Maybe I could call my other contact to get out of this damned place, but what would we do with Victor? My partner and my handler wanted to go with scorched earth tactics but that would make a bad situation worse. I coughed up more blood as I was dragged off. Victor slowly and weakly moved us back closer to the town, but I would at least hope to come back to my house. Back home I had a list of dates with that one girlfriend. I could maybe have even settled down with one. But now I am bleeding out in the backwater away from my girlfriend and everyone else I know. Damn it, I should have married her.

We moved forward with a crimson carpet behind us making a wonderful trail to my final resting place. I was dozing off only to hear the brat speak.

“Hey, are you still alive ?” Victor mutered.

“Yes, bleeding out is a process. But I am still here and you haven’t answered my question. How the hell do you know where I live ?” I sputtered through my coughs.

“I looked up from your school address. So… you know what attacked us?” he asked, moving towards the bench. Tossing me down onto the chair Victor sighed, flopping beside me.

“No, why would I? Do you ?” It was stupid, but he may know something I didn’t.

“No. I think it may be shoggoth, but I dunno,"

“Shoggoth? Is that what you think it is?” I asked. This was an opportunity. The briefing told me nothing but general facts without information. I would at least give me some answers.

“Yeah I mean it is the only thing that made sense. Anyway, what is a Fed doing here?” Victor asked.

“What? How did you know I’m a Fed?” I mused.

“I mean you got that look and I just felt the outline of your badge,"

“First, it could be my wallet, and second you could be wrong. But just this once, good job. So why did you bother to keep watching that family? These things can and will shatter you,“ I spoke through the steady stream of blood.

“Really? I couldn’t figure that part out. It's a bit too late for the warning. I’ve been monitoring them for a while. Ever since they moved in,'' Victor said offhandedly.

“You have been looking at them?”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Yeah, I have been making notes and watching all of the monster stuff. I don’t get all that but I have been recording it,” Victor retorted.

I moved to open my mouth but coughed looking up back to Victor. He was crazy beyond madness, but for what? He needed to stop. The blood loss was a thorn in my side, but the fact remained. As long as I was conscious I needed to get answers. If I managed to see tomorrow i would debate the morality of the situation.

“That has been months since I have been undercover. Those things appeared at the beginning of the term so at the very least been three months. Based on the report your mind should be long gone by now. The hallucinations and terror should have you running mad. How are you still sane?” I asked looking up at the stars. My life was on the line, and if I died the last thing I want to see are the heavens.

“I dunno. Energy drinks, and the hope for life. People need to know about this,” Victor said, sitting beside me.

“No one should even know this, it is insane. I barely know shit, and I can’t even sleep properly. You have to stop, the truth would break the society. It’s already started to break you,” I pleaded. He was an arrogant, self-righteous distant kid, but that resulted from the monsters he glared at. He still had a chance to be sane and avoid this waking nightmare.

“Too late for that. I can’t quit now. It is all my cross to bear,” he responded," Maybe I should have stopped, but I think I already have gone mad,"

I sighed, looking up to the bitter sky. It was bullshit. The trained and seasoned adult was bleeding out on a random bench, but the stupid kid in the wrong place at the wrong time was damned to the nightmares ahead. It wasn’t fair, nor was it right. My breathing started to slow, my life ebbing away. I heard Victor begin to panic, rocking me. It was distant.

But then another entered the area, and I snapped back while staring at the cold night sky.

Something held me between life and death, but I dare not state what it was. It wasn’t real. It was something that could never be. I was breathing a harsh haggard air intake in a slow cold monotone pattern as my mind revolted against this new creature.

“What a gay eve for you wer’s. What amusement holds you under the queer sky?” Someone—no, something said. It was too smooth to be human but had a strange hum-like undertone. It was melodious but held a strange chittering, like the chirp of crickets.

The medallion sat on my chest, burning like a marking iron. The pain was as bad as my chest wound as it approached us. My eyes couldn’t look at the monster, so my head simply looked up into the sky. Victor however gulped and stood up to walk away. My mind revolted against this event especially that thing approaching me. I preferred bleeding out to this. It simply sat down looking back at Victor escaping form with a cruel mockery of human eyes. Slowly it moved over to me. I couldn’t see it, but I knew its abominable limb was reaching for me. There had to be a way out. I needed a way out.

There was no one. I was going to be consumed. Oh, God no. God was not here, it was just this thing coming for me. Nothing, not even the chasm of death would save me. I was merely a toy, a pawn in a game I would never understand, one I never wanted to know. It would use all before it then abandon it to its fate.

“I want to make a deal," someone said as I felt the monster grasp on my soul. It held me with a cold, unknowable limb and held me. This was an eldritch anchor that hooked down into my spirit.

“ What to maketh a deal? What would be offren?” the entity spoke, looking at that being that dared to hold him. It was Victor. That idiot didn’t run off when he had the chance. He stood in front of a hurricane. He should have left me. It would have been cruel, but that would be the only thing to make any sense. Victor was a pawn that offered this beast something rare. He was a fool to play batter with this beast was something that should never have been, that mocked all that was hallowed, within the light of god and sanity. For what is rarer than a willing sacrifice?

“A.., a... a… trade,” Victor sputtered, looking at the ground. His teeth violently clattered as his body quivered under the stare of this thing, “My soul for his."

“Valourous and Idiotic? Thou art foolish. Merely your soul? Why not thy kin? Thy entire bloodline, for my playthings’ It mused with a mad glee. My mind drifted between madness and normality, I understood for a mere moment the dark monolith that held me.

“Yeah, just me,” Victor said, "A fair one for one. I will do anything, and be your pawn. Just save him."

He looked at me. From the creature’s eyes, I could see that we were small and pointless insects. Why did it bother talking to him?

“Thou would be condoned to death. Your mere pointless mind shattered as it wanders beside me in the void. Thy would castigate thy self to this state for no other reason than charity?“ It spoke softly, each word rocking both Victor and my soul. “The mere traces of my power have already begun to mark you, yet you would dare plead to me ?”

Victor shivered at the question, a cold sweat covering his tense face. His eyes fixed on something on the ground, but I could not tell why. I knew the reason at least for that moment, but it felt inexplicable; pointless like the tears of maggots. Still, despite his coughing, wrinkled chins, and the pale cold sweat that consumed his body, he stood. Even with the constant twitching of his left leg through the rough intake of breath. The little ember of courage held him up.

“Yes, but he needs to heal completely. Then I would become your… your…” He sputtered for a moment, still looking down. The idea had finally become real and naturally, he was going to be unable to handle it, to escape into the mundane, the real. However, I knew Victor was already crazy. The entity made no motion, still waiting for Victor's final word. It was a comedy, a grand play only needing the final catchphrase.

“Janssair," Victor spoke with a soft shaken breath.

“Oh? Thou speaks another term. It is true thou are a folt, dancing the tune of azoth," It then lurched forward toward Victor. A cacophony erupted, and an insane orchestra of beetles, goat, and dog growls blended with the foreign drums, cymbals, and wind chimes. It was all-consuming, forcing Victor to the ground. I couldn’t even try to escape. Screaming, I joined in this mad performance, losing myself to the—OH, GOD. It was merely laughing. “Very well. Thy being is my Janissary forever, my pet.“

Victor shook silently as if facing the end. He stood nobly, but foolishly against something that could kill him and all mankind with ease. He stood with that weak little dagger called bravery and pointed it at a god.

“Deal,” was his only reply.

My mind could no longer handle it. Thankfully, I lost myself in the waves of darkness and despair. I dared not to pray, for I feared what would hear me.