-Two And A half Hours Ago-
[Arteus and Hannah’s Home]
“…You…”
A sharp crack in her voice and its immediately apparent that whoever stands opposite Hannah at the door wears a familiar face, but not one she had expected to see today… not after all these years.
“…”
“What are you doing here.”
???
“…”
“Won’t you answer me?”
??? *stretches out hand.
“…”
“Wh-what about Art?”
???
*SMACK!!
*POOOOAOAOAAAAAAAAA!!!
…Horns blare
“…”
“Arty…”
-The Present-
[Arteus Montfreed]
“MOM!”
“MOM!!”
Arteus’ thoughts are full…
“Please be okay!!”
The pain is written across his face…
*BAM!
“AAAhh….”
He trips…
“CRAP! CRAP! CRAPP!!!!”
Arteus runs…
The wind did not howl a savage cold this time… it howled something sinister.
Arteus chest was tightening with every stride he took.
The clouds gathered. And day was slowly turning to night and that sixth instinct that tells someone when they’re being watched was working around the clock for Art.
The hungry eyes that watched him as he darted through the forestry more than apparent to him.
“HUH?!”
The exclamation came with a sudden halt when Art was faced with a shortcut back home.
Two steps forward and looking over the hill he was thrown off as a kid Art could see the village. Art could see Barley.
“…haaa…haaaa…”
Not much of a shortcut now is it, Art?
Couple paces back and Art’s only concern is getting back home. His only worry is not seeing her smile ever again. Not feeling her warmth.
“haaa… haaaaa”
Two deep breathes in… a calmed heart… and slowed breathing.
“HUP!”
*TUT! *TUT! *TUT!
For the first time in his life Arteus uses all the strength in his body.
His speed is incomprehensible.
Cracks form on the ground with every stride he takes.
And with a great big leap.
Arteus flies through the sky…
“…”
*fwwooOOOSSSHHH!!!!
!!!BANG!!!!
One thunderous explosion later and Art breaks through the thatched roof of Red Square. The biggest store in the Barley marketplace.
Smashing through the thick logs that act as the roofs support at a great velocity.
*BAM!!
“*coughs… haaeeeee… *coughs… haaeeee…”
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Arteus rolls around the Red Square’s concrete floor. Wind knocked out of his sails.
He landed hard.
“*coughs…haaaeeee …mom… *coughs… haeeeee”
He calls out in between gasps for air…
“…mom…”
Crawling to the front of the store, Arteus uses a shelf to pull himself up…
“…mom… mom…”
The boy calls out struggling to the door, swaying from side to side before…
*Cling!
“…haaa…haaa
A door swung open and the once vibrant Barley marketplace comes into the focus.
The devastation… of the ‘once’ vibrant Barley marketplace comes into focus…
“haaa….”
Without a single word Arteus slowly limps across the snow.
The intersection he passed not too long ago.
The crowds of people he was met with not so long ago.
“It’s gone.”
“They’re gone…”
“No, that’s not right. It’s still here but…”
Torn down buildings and lamp posts…. The white snow being accented by a crimson red… An eerie silence that is louder than any sound composed.
This is Barley.
But is it?
This ‘was’ Barley.
*tut… *tut… *tut
Slow steps in the snow… bodies everywhere… Corpses everywhere.
Men… women… children…
There’s no segregation.
They all lay here.
Parts of them at least...
Never would Arteus have thought before today that a person’s intestine could be used to decorate a lamp post.
Its disgusting. He should puke but he can’t…
Right now, it doesn’t seem possible… right now ‘NONE’ of this seems possible.
He was here, just a while ago and now…
“Huh?”
Oh? That’s Ulreich. One of the kids who befriended Art all those years ago.
Didn’t know your arms could bend that way…
“Hm?”
Ah! Jeffery. The kid who pushed Art off the cliff.
Looks like he died trying to protect his mother... she slammed the door on Art’s face once when he made a delivery for Hannah.
Well… at least they died together.
What with her ribs being used to impale him and all…
What caused all this?...
‘WHO’ caused all this??
The dark and horrific things that lay around Art now, no one should ever have to see.
The things that happened here.
To the village of Barley… to the residents of Barley.
No one should ever have to endure.
[Barley.]
-Two Hours Later-
A slow trek through the cold snow with wind that now boarders on a full-on Blizzard and Arteus finally catches a glimpse of home right ahead.
The path he cleared doesn’t exist anymore…. Sure, hope Hannah didn’t trip over the snow…
Unlike most houses, the shack is relatively unscathed.
A short pause… and a silent heartbeat as Arteus ponders what to expect.
A memory… recent from the devastation of Barley, corruption to his hopes.
A door… set ajar to his home.
Hope or horror?
Reaching a feint hand to his home, Art’s head sinks. His hand with it.
And the slow trek continues.
Silently through the snow.
The once muffled sounds of his boots on the snow now louder than ever.
Each stride… louder… and louder!
Achingly slow… achingly painful…
He doesn’t want to think anymore.
“…Ma--“
Another pause… words swallowed at the entrance to his home.
“…”
“hhhhh…. MOM!”
*SWINGS DOOR FORCIBLY OPEN!
…
“…What is this?...”
Furniture a wreck…
“…What’s going on…”
Blood trail to the rooms…
“…Wha--“
Entire walls torn off…
“Ma--“
A single step in, and Arteus turns his head to the broken walls to his right.
The holes span across both bedrooms.
And although the blood trail rounds the corner, the right way to get to the rooms, Arteus cannot ignore the giant splat of blood that decorates his mother’s bedroom wall.
*tu-crack!
“Grrr…”
Stepping over a piece of broken wood and a sudden growl emanates from Hannah’s room
“…”
With his sight fixated on the room and a short flash of black later, Art sees a hand pokes out.
Half his full height, it grabs the shattered wall cracking it further and breaking more pieces off.
Rough fingers, three of them. With pitch black nails and tiny cuts all over. The beast pulls itself forward.
“!!!”
Its not a beast Arteus is not familiar with…
Standing on its hind legs it towers over Art. Reaching the ceiling length with ease.
Its black fur is littered with mixes of white. Its chest is big and strong… imposing all on its own without a need to show any bloodlust and a horrifying gaze that highlights its pitch-black eyes.
It’s a titan yeti.
But this one is different; its eye colour and fur make it look much more like a gorilla, albeit overgrown.
Why is it here?
Why has it abandoned its natural habitat?
Why is its body coloured a mesmerising red he can’t look away from?
And why… Oh why does it hold Hannah in its right palm?!
…
Arteus doesn’t shiver.
Nor does he fret… worry… complain… or cry…
He only stands.
Before a great beast over three times his size.
He only watches…
With multiple cracks of the remaining walls and the swaying of Hannah’s lifeless body in its right palm, the beast approaches.
Paying no mind to it whatever lay ahead of it, focussed only on its next prey.
Whimsical in nature, animals are.
Irrational and incomprehensible.
So, while to everyone what happened next was an obviously foolish move by the beast.
To it, it was nothing more than discarding a cold meal in exchange for something warm.
With an effortless movement of its palm the beast tossed Hannah’s body to the side as it approached Art.
And in that one instance Art’s body moved for the first time since he saw the beast.
His heartbeat restarted.
It all happened in a flash.
*Zip!
BANG!
!!BOOOOM!!
In one swift unending motion, Arteus tore right through the beast and caught Hannah.
Its blood poured like a fountain.
Spewing a crimson rain all over the shack before its body had even fallen to the ground.
*CRACK! *CRACK!
!!!BOOOOOM!!!
The beast fell to the backyard, wrecking Hannah’s lab.
Arteus did not turn from his mother however.
Holding her like you would a newborn. Supporting the neck as he rose to his feet, the boy was bathed in crimson red having literally passed through the beast.
The mother was bathed in crimson red too… having had her all her limbs stolen from her.
Arteus caressed his mother’s cheeks, pulling her long black hair behind her ear.
Her face though unscathed was the most haunting sight he had seen all day.
Skin pale as the whitest snow… lips blue from the severe cold and eye’s… lifeless… not unlike a doll, but without the refinement of dollmaker’s talents.
Hannah Montfreed had passed.
A good person had left this world.
And they had left it in the most painful way possible…
She no longer had any limbs; the beast had taken those from her.
And the only thing she retained was plastered with an expression that told more about her closing moments than any words could.
Her passing, was not a comfortable one.
“Sorry I didn’t come back fast enough…”
“…But had I known this would happen I would never have--”
“…”
“…How am I supposed to keep going without you…”
“…”
“Am sorry…”
“…Am sorry”
“AM SORRY MOM!”
“…”
“But also…”
“Thank you.”
With those closing words, the Boy silently placed his mother on her bed.
Moving to her bedside, he searched until he found a clean white sheet to wrap her in. Closing her eyes and leaving her resting in her bed.
Wiping his face and body of the beast’s innards. Arteus searched the crates of his home, and had a change of clothes.
And with a hesitant pause before leaving the house he grew up in…
He looked to where his mom lay once more and set the house ablaze.
“…”
“…”
-To be Continued-