Out of all the shops at the port, the one that had the largest crowd was now Demalyn’s. She had enlisted the two deputies and Keoma’s students to do the majority of the work at the tables. Demalyn entertained the townsfolk with flashy sigils that she conjured with her orb wrapped in vines. When that grew old, she would pull out her pipe, proving she was just as apt at doing tricks with smoke. She would only take a break when someone requested a mark. Several people had asked for marks for protection and fertility, which she happily gave. Yulsif appeared exasperated when he noticed the mark for fertility was not dissimilar to the one he received for courage before but couldn’t help getting caught up in Demalyn’s good spirits with the townsfolk.
Even Ensi had warmed up to the whole affair, assisting where he could. He sat beside Demalyn after she had completed a marking of fortune, a goldfish, for one of the fellow shop owners. Ensi said to her, “This is the first time in a while that Leoris hasn’t felt lifeless. Everyone has been so uncertain as of late that people only pretend to smile and go about their business. It is nice seeing the people I care about enjoying themselves. Thanks for that.”
Demalyn gave Ensi a wry look. She then said, “For a lazy boy, you say some pretty things.” Ensi retreated to reticence after that statement. She then said, “But I like this town. Not many towns are as welcoming to foreigners when we first arrive. It is refreshing. And I get where you come from with people you care about. I love my halcyon days in the van with my friends. They try to do good wherever they go, but there are always obstacles. Days like this, I can see why they still wake up and try their best, regardless.”
Demalyn reached down and gripped her black orb. It sparked, shocking her, and a chill tore through her from head to toe. Everything around her appeared hazy. She could see an ethereal thread attached to her chest. When she pulled on it, a translucent and bloodied yellow maw roared at her. Everything around her snapped back to normal.
Ensi, seeing her frightened expression, asked, “Are you okay?”
Demalyn looked around, panicked. “Something is coming. Get the people out of here and arm yourselves if possible.” Ensi stared at her, dumbfounded. She screamed at him, “Now!”
Cherry arrived at the hospital to see two covered bodies being carted off to what she assumed was the morgue. Standing in front of the circular station in the center of the lobby were Hobe and Walstaff. They both glanced in her direction as she walked up to join the conversation. “Did some patients have a turn for the worse?”
Walstaff was the first to say something to her. “Five bodies showed up at the edge of town near a break in our exterior border wall. I recognized them as members of the lodge that had been missing for a couple of weeks. So, I loaded up what I could into my vehicle and brought two of the bodies and brought them here. I have one of my deputies coming and came to enlist someone from the hospital to investigate the scene for any clues. You said you had worked forensics before, correct?”
She raised an arm with a palm turned up. “Enough to tell the circumstances of death and about how long they may have been deceased.”
Hobe grunted before shuffling away and saying, “I’ll send a nurse out with you both and inspect the two that you brought in myself. Just remember, a cat lays dead mice at your feet so that you may feed them in return.”
A deputy arrived soon after to accompany Cherry, Walstaff, and the nurse hopped in a long car specialized for emergency use. It moved slower than the other transports, but had a coat of bright red paint to caution casual citizens. They soon arrived at the break in the wall, where a large clearing was visible. They walked a short distance to the border of the clearing and the forest.
Three bodies all laid face down, some twenty to thirty feet apart. Their scalps were sparse of hair and their skin had turned a shade of gray. Their arms were all outstretched and balled into fists. Cherry kneeled beside one body, setting her bag down and taking a small metal rod out. She used it gently to prod open the fist. “Rigor mortis hasn’t set in yet,” she said, with enough volume for everyone to hear. She looked at the fingernails, noting the flesh shredded down to the bone and covered in blood and mud. Cherry then noticed the trail leading from behind the corpse into the woods. “I don’t think they’ve been dead long. I believe they dragged themselves here.” Walstaff put up a sickened expression upon this news. The leaves had stopped crunching between their feet as they moved to examine the bodies. The wind rustled ominously as each person on the scene wore their concern.
Cherry then rolled the corpse over with care. First feeling the chest cavity before using the rod to peel back one eyelid. Fresh red blood spilled out from the eye socket running down the face. Without being prompted, the other eyelid opened on its own, resulting in the same phenomenon. As if rolling from the back of the skull back to their proper place, both eyes unveiled themselves, presenting a dull yellow color. Fragmented black crosses were in the place of the pupils. Its mouth opened wide now and rasped for air. Cherry stumbled back in shock.
The body sat straight up in a deafening screech. As if woken up by the call, the other two bodies responded in the same way. There was a gut wrenching sound of bones breaking and snapping out of place into inhuman positions. Elbows and knees both bent backwards while hands and feet compacted into themselves and pounded into the ground until they were a sharpened point of fragmented bone.
Steadying itself on all fours, the reanimated outstretched their jaws, leaping at whomever was closest to them. Cherry dodged and scrambled for her bag while breaking out into a desperate run towards Walstaff with what was now a monster in hot pursuit. She could hear the unfortunate screams and protests of both the deputy and the nurse behind her. When she looked back, she could only see that the reanimated corpses had them pinned down while impaling them in a frenzy. They were gnashing downward with their now bloodied jaws.
Walstaff walked past Cherry as she only saw a blur of him as they passed one another. He had pulled out a wood handled chrism pistol with one hand from his duster and a silver handled short sword with the other. He parried the spear like arm of the monster that chased her with the sword as the beast first impaled his leg at the thigh and then his shoulder. Blood splattered and sprayed down his coat and up to his face.
Stolen story; please report.
He gritted his teeth as the monster tried with desperation to bite down on his face. After missing once, it raised its one free arm to finish off the sheriff. Walstaff saw his opening and raised his pistol below the jaw of the beast and pulled the trigger. A flash of blue and purple flame banged out, sending bits of skull, brain, and black sludge flying. Walstaff collapsed to the ground right after pulling the bone spears out.
Cherry yelled out, “Fuck me!”, as she emptied the contents of her bag, searching for the leather strap holding the syringes. She kept a fearful eye up to make sure the other two monsters were still busy. Finding the metal syringe filled with glowing chrism she pulled off her gloves. She jammed the needle into her wrist and slammed the plunger down. Her body shook with tremors, and she dug her fingers into her arm and shut her eyes. The old wounds on her hands no longer appeared like scars but pulsing neon purple veins. When her eyes opened, they shimmered in the same light.
Everything in the world around Cherry now looked abstract and different. The trees and the grass were a vibrant, glowing green. She looked back at the town. All the structures were a dull color, but the people inside and on the streets pulsed red. She could see all the chrism flowing throughout Leoris. She looked toward the monsters and only saw clouds of darkness.
She stood and began running at the first beast she set her eyes on. In the natural world, she would appear to anyone as moving static chrism. She lunged and landed a clean blow on the face of the monster. The ground beneath her was clearly marked as she slid to a stop. Blue smoke emitted from the face of the reanimated and as she went to slam her palm into it again, the entire head burst into chrism flames burning right down to the skull that was crumbling to ash.
The other beast had set upon her, but she dodged with ease. Cherry placed her hand inside of its chest with no resistance. It crumpled almost as soon as she pulled her hand out. A vague mist had begun to envelop her body.
She glanced around. The deputy and nurse were clearly dead, but Walstaff still showed signs of life. She made her way to his side. He had lost a lot of blood and was unconscious. She placed her hands over his wounds, making sure to only cauterize them to stop the bleeding. The mist became more prominent around her. Focusing, she looked across at Leoris. She could see two black clouds at the hospital. And then she could see a mass of darkness at the docks. She cursed under her breath.
Cherry blinked several times as her eyes returned to normal. She was now sweating profusely, and the world was spinning around her. Crawling away, she became violently ill until she was dry heaving on the forest floor. She made her way back to Walstaff and pulled up his sleeve, revealing a metal band around his wrist. Tapping it several times brought up his display. She typed a message into it as a distress call to all city personnel. “Hospital and Port under attack by Devil Beasts. All armed and able, please respond!”
Cherry then pulled Walstaff to the car before uttering the command for it to make way to the hospital. She tapped furiously at the display trying to message familiar contacts from Walstaff’s display. The world was becoming a blur as she got messages out to Ingrid and Ensi. She shut her eyes and blacked out as it sped away.
Ensi got up on the table to stand out. “Everyone run for shelter at the sheriff’s office! This isn’t a drill! I need Yulsif and the lodge members to help gather people up!” A skittering noise came from underneath the dock. Wood cracked and old concrete gave way as a long spear like tentacle erupted out and impaled a crowd goer raising them high into the air until tossing them aside. The crowd panicked and began running away from the dock, with the hunters and Yulsif taking up the rear. Ensi looked back at Demalyn. He went after her as she had turned to the road leading into the woods with her orb gripped in hand.
With her back turned to him, she said, “Don’t die here, my melancholy boy. Hurry along.” The vines began winding all the way up her arm and around her shoulders. Ensi was unsure of what was happening, but he turned and took off after the townsfolk.
Besides the single body laying lifeless, everyone had fled towards the town. The dock was now motionless, and the tentacle calmly retracted underneath the dock. Demalyn kept her eyes on the woods. The vines binding her now encompassed her waist and made their way down her legs. Although her physical body was the same, she was much larger and taller as the vines grafted onto her feet and arm. Her left arm and left side of her torso and face remained untouched by the vines. Her right arm now appeared to hold a staff with the black orb as its head.
A pale woman with long wiry black hair rose up on a bed of massing tentacles to meet her between the docks and the forest. “This unknown one is strange, but familiar. So familiar. Can’t grasp the shape. Not an ant either. Bigger. Much bigger. Threads from this unknown one lead into the abyss where this one can not see. Must be careful. Will dance away for now. Children are hungry. Will swarm and feast upon you.” The tentacles beneath the fallen separated and skittered away, back into the woods along with her.
Four sets of yellow eyes came from the woods beyond. The men that stepped forward had gray skin. Their muscles and features were human, but with pointed earlobes and jagged teeth. They wore assorted scraps of clothing. From behind them leaped out a monstrosity of bone and blood twisted to steady itself on four sharp limbs. It gave an inhuman roar.
As it approached Demalyn, she raised her staff. It gave off a bright flash of purple, stopping the beast in its tracks before her. She raised what remained of its head with the staff. “No life here. You are a dead one,” she said with calm clarity before using the orb like a mace to shatter its skull into pulp with ease.
The four men approached with caution. She tapped her staff to the ground and a pulse of violet light rang through the air. “You can understand reason. You know you are alive. Now know fear and flee home.” As soon as she spoke her words, the four men fell backwards before quickly regrouping and running back into the woods.
After a few moments, the vines retracted back to Demalyn's wrist. The orb was again gripped in her right hand. She looked down at it and then felt an immense pain in her temple. She grasped her head with her left hand and fell to her knees. Moments later, Ensi ran up with sword in hand. He looked at the dead beast, then at Demalyn.
“Are you hurt?” he asked with urgent concern.
She seethed through her teeth. “Nooo.”
“Leoris is under attack. Cherry is heading to the hospital to deal with the threat there. She has Walstaff, but his injuries are severe. Some people are dead. Ingrid messaged that Desdin is coming here to assist. What happened here while I helped the others?”
Her eyes struggled to search for some stability. “I can’t. I don’t know. They fled to the forest.”
Ensi kneeled beside her. “I’m taking some hunters and Yulsif and chasing after the Devil Beast. We can end this threat today.” He placed a hand on her shoulder before motioning to the hunters behind him to follow him to the forest.