The boy woke up slowly and confused. The light from the few half burned candles was barely enough to illuminate the room. The wooden floor was ripe with holes and the smell of wet ashes and mould ever present and suffocating. But the worst were the low chants reverberating in the stale, stagnant air.

The chants crawled into the child’s bones and made his heart beat twice as fast. Frighted, he clutched the fabric of the strange white robe he was wearing.

The voices rose and lowered in waves.

He tried to make out the people singing, but they were hidden within the darkness of the room.

A wall of stagnant air was pushed against his back.

A strange coppery smell brushed over him.

He bit his cheek and forced his face into a stone-like mask.

“Witness”, said the leader behind him.

Frightened, the boy tried to turn around. The leader grabbed his face with both ice-cold wet hands, the copper-smell becoming nauseatingly intense. The child struggled against the sickness welling up within his throat.

“A vessel needs no soul but the one it was made for”, the leader continued to address the unseen crowd, while keeping the boy’s head locked. “That wench caused the worthless mortal soul to remain within the vessel. Now, to make amends, she has decided to give herself to our master and exorcise this wretched soul from the vessel!”

The boy could feel a presence manifest behind him and the leader. Another smell entered the wooden room. A smell so abhorrent, words could never describe it. At the same time, in the rhythm of the chant, the air grew hotter and unbearable moist.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The boy started to struggle. His innermost being screamed at him to flee. To run. He couldn’t. The leader was tightening his grip.

A feverish breath, pregnant with foul odour, flooded the room.

The wet-nurse was carried into the room by two hooded people. She was bleeding. Her dress soaked in old and fresh blood and crusted with dirt. Her face was swollen into a misshapen mockery of a human one. Like a sack of floor, she was dropped to the ground and fell without any resistance. The people, who had brought her into the room, bowed and vanished into the dark.

The singing became much more intense.

The woman twitched and moved. As she did so, the boy noticed her legs. They were broken into multiple parts and reshaped into something inhuman.

The boy felt his throat tighten. Tears welled up in his eyes and ran down his face.

“Oh, Great Revered One, this mortal flesh has sinned against you”, the leader said softly, almost lovingly. “It has caused a soul to manifest in your vessel. So, I, your most devote and humble servant, have made sure she knows where she erred, and her sins won’t go unpunished. Once her penance was completed, she accepted her error and devoted herself once more to you to rectify her wrong. Take her, Great Revered One, and do with her as you please.”

Suddenly, a shadowy figure manifested standing above the woman. Whatever the figure was appeared just remotely human. But instead of taking her, the being suddenly jumped towards the boy and the leader. Startled, the boy tried to back away, but the leader kept him where he was with his soft yet iron-tight grip.

“Is she not to your liking, oh, Revered One?”, the leader asked, for the first time, with a minuscule hint of uncertainty in his voice. “If you so desire, I shall offer you more mortal flesh to toy with.”

“The fool can only hear and see me when he dreams”, the figure said with a voice so deep it appeared capable of breaking the ground they were standing on. “In the waking world, he can just see the results of my actions. What a fool… As for you, boy, feast your eyes on your future!”

Suddenly, the figure was gone and upon the wet-nurse. The boy wanted to look away, but couldn’t. He wanted to close his eyes, but couldn’t. He wanted to throw himself between the figure and the only person who had ever shown him some kindness, but couldn’t.

Once the muffled screams stopped, the leader let go of the boy’s head. Utterly shocked at what he witnessed, the child remained where he was, staring at the pool of blood left on the ground.