Not everyone lived in Yorktown, as some of the island's population made their homes on the gravel shores, becoming anglers or lumberjacks. While very few did this, it wasn’t strange to find a home or two by the shore or treeline, usually with a small family living in them. These folks would usually be happy with their lifestyles, opting to have the shores or trees to themselves, far from any competing folk in Yorktown. But this was not a usual night, as the threat of death hung on every single soul who lived on the island.
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Erik awoke in a cold sweat, gasping for air as he sat in bed. Despite the slight commotion he had just made, his wife slept soundly next to him. She didn’t wake up this time, as she was already used to his night terrors at this point.
Erik sighed tiredly and rubbed his eyes, trying to remember what he had dreamed. Frustratingly enough, he couldn’t remember the nightmare. The cramped bed was probably the culprit of these night terrors, especially since he and his wife had moved to his brother’s cabin in these forsaken woods.
‘No… it’s not that. It’s those fucking marauder bastards.’
The whole town had been in chaos, half wanting to find the escaped man the marauders wanted and the other half wanting to rally up a resistance. Erik initially wanted to find and give up the refugee but soon realized that the marauders weren’t bound to morals like other clans. Erik had tried to help rally up a resistance, but his wife refused for him to throw his life away. Especially since Erik had only one leg, his other being lost to frostbite years ago. He wasn’t fit to fight, even if his heart was in it.
The man looked down at his wife, who was still sleeping peacefully. He grimaced, knowing that he was all she had left, that she was trying to keep herself together throughout the stress of the marauder attack.
‘I can’t blame her for not wanting me to fight. Hel, after what she saw, I doubt anyone would have the spirit to fight back.’
She was there when the marauders had come into town while Erik was out fishing. She had seen that young man die at their hands, watched as he had bled out on the ground before they dragged him off. Erik doubted he would still have that fighting spirit if he had seen it in person.
The young fisherman sighed as he swung his legs to the side of the bed, his hand reaching for his nearby wooden leg. He needed some fresh air, perhaps even a walk to the nearby shore. It would do him some good to clear his head.
With his leg attached and his coat on, Erik stepped out into the night. He was careful to close the cabin door gently so as not to wake his sleeping wife and brother. He breathed in the cold air from outside, feeling a little better as he walked away from the cabin, hoping to reach the shores soon. The fisherman needed to see the ocean again, to taste the salty air while he watched the waves crash. Erik smiled at the thought, knowing that he needed this.
‘Maybe I can find my shack. Get my rod. Catch me a couple big ones.’
The thought excited Erik, but he knew better than to spend the entire night out there. His walk would have to be short and sweet. There would be no late-night fishing for him. Not before his wife realized he wasn’t there by her side. The last thing he wanted was another argument about his late-night strolls. His wife had always been worried about Erik, especially after recent events.
‘Perhaps she has a point. These might as well be the last of our days together. Better to spend as much time as possible before the inevitable,’
As his thoughts drifted toward the depressing topic, Erik could hear the familiar sounds of waves crashing.
“Finally,” Erik sighed in relief. He walked a little faster down the dirt trail, the taste of sea salt making itself present in the air. He had reached the shore in no time, where the waves crashed against the gravel beach. The ocean was as beautiful as always, the two moons shining clearly in the parted night sky.
‘Haven’t seen Luna and Callisto together in a while.’
Erik looked up at the two sister moons, which shone upon the sea below. Luna was the bigger of the two, her craters much more visible than Callisto’s. The older sister’s surface showed remnants of her history, telling a fascinating story to all who could see it. Erik himself wasn’t sure what the origin of those impacts was. He had heard stories from others about how they were remnants of an ancient battle between gods. Some believed they were from a long-gone civilization that had once prospered on the moons.
Erik himself cared little for those explanations. He instead liked the mystery of it—the idea that something else beyond the gods had caused it, that the nature of the stars had molded it into what it was. It was a fascinating thought, one that he had had since he was a small boy.
The fisherman stood there for what seemed like forever, enjoying the view of the two moons above. He would’ve stayed there the entire night had it not been for his aching neck.
“I should probably get back,” Erik thought aloud. “Before they figure out I’m already gone.” He took one more look at the sea before he made his way back to the cabin. Just as he did so, something caught his eye. Erik blinked, not even realizing that it had been there.
There was something black on the sand, its moisture shining in the moonlight. Erik slowly walked towards it, unsure of what he was looking at. The stench soon reached him, smelling of blood and shit. He gagged, turning his head away before forcing himself to look at it.
“Guts,” Erik realized. He noticed how they spread out in the sand. There were drag marks, too, leading from the ocean to further beyond the sand and gravel.
‘These guts fell out of the thing being dragged here…but what?’
They couldn’t be fish guts unless the fish being dragged was the size of a grown man. They existed, but you couldn’t simply drag it out of the water, let alone with its guts out.
Erik felt nauseated, knowing that he shouldn’t stay here for long. He turned to the tree line, hurrying to return to the cabin.
‘I’ll call it a night. Maybe I could get Derrick to help me find out what happened there. For now, I should get—’
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Just as Erik got past the tree line, he could feel his fake foot catch on something, offsetting his balance and making the man fall to the ground. He groaned as he sat up in the dirt.
“Dammit,” Erik muttered as he tried to look for his leg in the shadows.
‘It’s got to be here somewhere. Maybe–’
A noise cut his thoughts off, one that chilled him to the bone.
Klack klack klack
The sound rang out softly into the night, making Erik freeze up in fear. It sounded like teeth chattering, but it carried a sense of danger with it. Erik looked for his leg again, this time with haste.
Klick klick klick
The awful sound rang out again, this time a little closer. The fisherman hurried, his hands searching the dirt and snow. His desperate movements would soon pay off as his fingers brushed against the smooth surface of polished wood.
‘Got it!’
Erik rejoiced silently as he found his leg, putting it back on as quickly as possible. The sound didn’t return this time, which should’ve been a godsend to the fisherman. Instead, Erik felt uneasy, eyes scanning the forest as he slowly got up. Then he heard it.
“I’m sorry,” a soft, groaning voice rang out, ethereal and horrifying.
Erik slowly turned to see the source of the voice. He had to force himself not to react loudly at the sight. The thing wasn’t human. At least, not anymore. It reassembled a man, but his proportions and skin were all wrong and discolored. Bits of his flesh were rotted and missing, exposing muscle and bone. Even his guts were out, hanging from his open stomach. Parts of his body were covered in a familiar pitch-black.
‘Frostbite.’
Erik’s missing leg ached from a distant memory. The most horrifying part of it all, however, was the crystals. Sharp blue crystals, almost resembling ice, covered half of its body. The corpse’s face had the worst of it. Most of the head was engulfed in the sharp crystals, a lone eye glowing a soft blue in the shadows of the night. The bottom half of his face was a deathly purple, his lips pruned and pulled back to showcase bloodied teeth. Almost on cue, the corpse’s jaw chattered, making the awful noise Erik had been hearing.
“What the fuck are you?” Erik asked. He stepped back as the thing groaned again, its mouth opening to make a guttural noise.
“Kill me,” it rasped. The glowing eye flared as the corpse stumbled to Erik, who stepped back again.
'What in the gods are you?!'
“Get back! I mean it!” Erik shouted. He formed his fingers into the holy symbol of a triangle. He tried to think of a prayer, specifically one to Delphine, the Goddess of Healing and Light. “Heed my words, Goddess! I pray to thee! Please d–”
Without warning, the thing lunged at the terrified man, lightning fast as it swung its crystalized arm at Erik. The strike barely missed the fisherman, its crystals grazing against his tunic. Erik stumbled back before deciding to run for it, his heart beating out of his chest as he screamed.
“Derrick!” He shouted, hoping his brother could hear him from this distance.
Klick klick klick
He could hear the awful chattering and even feel the thing’s presence behind his back. It was gaining on him with every second that passed.
“Derri–!” Erik was interrupted when something impacted his back, knocking the air out of him and pushing his body to the ground. He groaned as he turned around, now face to face with the monster that had chased him. Its glowing eye was inches away from his own, its teeth chattering as it approached Erik, who was frozen in fear.
“Please,” Erik whispered just as the thing croaked.
“I’m sorry.”
Erik tried to fight back, using his good foot to push it away. The creature grabbed it, effortlessly forcing the leg to bend the other way. Erik’s leg broke with ease and drew a pained scream from him. The man tried to use his hand, but the thing grabbed it and crushed his fingers without hesitation. It shifted closer before using its crystalized hand to plunge deep into Erik’s guts. The agonizing pain was enough to make the fisherman scream. Erik could feel its hand force its way inside, an unbearable cold soon spreading throughout his insides. His body temperature dropped significantly before the monster finally ripped out whatever it grabbed.
Erik tried to crawl away, to kick the monster back, but the creature would only pull him back, using its crystalized arm to tear into him.
‘I shouldn’t be alive for this! This is hel, pure hel!’
Erik could only watch helplessly as the thing continued to maul him, tearing out organs and ripping him open.
'Someone help me! Delphine! Freyja! Even Myr! Any God! Please!'
“Just kill me…please!” Erik would beg in breathless gasps. The thing simply ignored him. It only plunged deeper, torturing whatever was left of the fisherman.
“Erik!? Where are you?!” Derrick’s voice rang out in the darkness.
‘No… please run! Get away!’
Erik tried to scream at his brother to warn him, but he couldn’t speak. His body was paralyzed, with burning sensations spreading throughout his body. Soon enough, Erik would pass out, darkness engulfing him.
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The sun’s light reflected off the crystals covering Frederick’s body, doing nothing to warm him up from the unbearable cold he had been suffering from. He could feel everything and see everything, yet he couldn’t control his own body. Neither could he control the voices that drove him mad.
‘Kill.’
‘Destroy.’
‘Consume.’
Frederick wanted them to shut up; he wanted to be alone, and most of all, he wanted to die. Yet his body slowly regenerated, becoming bigger and tougher from the bodies he had consumed. Disgusting crystals covered his left arm, as well as his chest and back.
His only eye looked at the cabin he was in earlier that morning. Gore covered the walls and windows, as well as what remained of the two innocent people he had consumed after he had killed the first one. All of their remains were crystalized, which worried Frederick.
‘I hope none of them suffer the same fate as me. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy…’
‘More…Must have more!’
The voices came back in full force, whispering.
Frederick angrily shoved them into the back of his mind, but it was futile. They came back in full force, angrily demanding more.
“No! Please,” he begged aloud. Yet, no matter how hard he resisted, he could feel his body move independently. His teeth chattered from the cold, which he had been feeling nonstop since he had turned. The creature he was now moved into the forest, slowly heading off to find more victims to consume.