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Militem Dominum · (11-02-2013)

Chapter Four

The scream lingered in the air, echoing without repentance and filling Mani's ears with the frightened, shrill final sounds of the man who had brought him to this town. Stopping in the middle of the road, the young man was faced with two options, it had appeared. Come back the way he came, or press further on, into the mysterious town. Pulling at his hair, he takes a deep breath before forcing his feet to move forward, further into the grasp of Freemont Peak.

Ears now trained on the winds blowing in from the west, the scream fading its way out of Mani's brain with the damage already done, another sound greeted the weary traveler. The sound of a serrated metal scraping along the road behind him. Cautiously, he turns his head to look backwards, greeted by the sight of a large blade disappearing into the night.

"What the hell?" His eyes remain fixed on the location where the, thing, disappeared. Curiosity awaited movement, any movement at all. Rationality didn't have time to wait. Reluctantly, he pulled himself from the scene, closer to the center of town. The darkness that had engulfed the outskirts gently washed away as he made his way further into the town, replaced by a dim glow coming from nowhere in particular.

Minutes pass, and finally he finds himself nearing some sign of civilization. Empty storefronts played the role of his savior in this excursion. No more signs of the mysteriously disappearing blade or whatever was dragging it. He eased himself, walking in front of the first store front, paying no attention to what it was, or the display window. Oh, that display window...

The glass shatters, and the cause of that leaps from the store, onto the passerby, its claws drilling into his shoulder.

"Fuck!"

Summoning all of his strength, he manages to shove the creature off of him, struggling back his feet and clutching his now bleeding shoulder. Scanning the ground around him, he sights a large rock and picks it up before approaching the being. Raising the object high above his head; he smashes the rock down onto the creature, a sharp cracking sound came first, followed the drips of liquid oozing from the wound hitting the pavement.

Looking around once more, he notices something resting on the ledge of the store where the creature made its appearance. Picking it up, he realizes that it is indeed a flashlight. Clicking it on, he shines it at the beast, cringing at what he saw.

The legs were small and folded inward, as if it were stuck in a position of perpetual sitting, but its elongated arms made up for the size of the nubs it had for legs. Claws that reached a length of nearly half a foot tipped each of the things metaphorical fingers. Its eyes had rolled to his feet, dead black irises stared up at him, causing him to fall back some more.

Bits and pieces of the thing's head lay splattered against the ground, covered in a thick, purple tinted liquid.

"What the fuck is that thing?" His nervous voiced whispered to himself, wary to not attract any others. For that same reason, he hesitantly flipped off the flashlight and slid it into his back pocket. The rock he had used to kill the beast had the same liquid dripping from where it impacted.

Taking the new point of entry as a sign, he pushes the shards of broken glass from the ledge onto the ground before climbing into the dark, dank main room of the first store.

A rustle, a shadow, a burst of movement darting across the room startle him, sending him jumping back almost out of the store itself. The more, humanoid, movement from the shadow gives him a sense of confidence, allowing him to ease back again. Thinking it through for an entirety of fifteen seconds, he calls out to the dark figure:

"Hey! Hey!"

Stepping out from the shadows of the room, the face of the man was a familiar one, a shock to Mani.

It was Anthony.

"What the fuck, man? Where's Ivan?!" Without thinking, Anthony rushes further, wrapping his arms around the first friendly face he had seen in a while. Too long...

"Where did you go?" Mani, in no mood for formalities, snaps at his friend, whom he was sure had been swallowed up in the darkness earlier on in the night. Shoving him off of him, Mani follows the action and words by ducking the inevitable swing from his companion, that never came.

"Where's Ivan?" Anthony stated once more, not willing to get off this topic.

"He's gone," Mani ashamedly admitted.

"He's, what?" Anthony's dark blue eyes maintained uneasy contact with Mani's, drowning the latter's with silent intensity.

"Gone. Disappeared. Vanished. He tried finding you."

"I don't fuckin' believe this shit."

"Yeah well, you might want to start."

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode The Search For God Act One, Chapter Four: First Impressions
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