The LoST 8

Author's Note: Beware, some scenes near the bottom may be disturbing.

The Lone Shadow Templar

8: Downfall of Life

My entire body was numb.

I opened my eyes to darkness. It was pitch black. I was alone in the shadows of my life, amongst the sins that I have created, that I have suffered through. My life was already over.

There would be no happy ending. We had passed the point of no return thousands of miles ago. From here on out it was only me and a stretch of infinite wilderness.

The entire room erupted in a piercing white light. I gasped aloud, convulsing at the sudden intake of air. My lungs felt as if they had not breathed in ages. My hands tried to shield my eyes, but I could still see the crimson through the back of my eyelids, burning into my soul.

And then the alarm, the mechanical feminine voice, a warning message, a self-destruct sequence initiated. They had to be already gone.

I inched my body up, trying to block out the cacophonous noises around me, when a sudden pain seared through my spine. I screamed again, my hands reaching up to clutch my head, when I realized there was a wire connected to my brain through the side of my temple. Gritting my teeth in agony, I wrenched it out. A sudden relief of pressure, and the pain subsided.

The concrete floor was stone cold as my flesh made contact. After a few wobbly steps, I managed to catch myself on a table of surgical instruments stained with blood, my blood. Grabbing a scalpel and tucking it into my back pocket, I stumbled for the door, which surprisingly fell open with a touch. I fell into a dark hallway being lit up by numerous flashing yellow lights.

Her voice repeated the remaining time left. Four minutes was plenty. I moved down the corridor, one hand sliding along the wall to keep me from keeling over. The pain in my mind was unbearable. Whatever they did, whatever Nass took, it killed me.

After a series of twists and turns, I miraculously managed to find my way to the hole in the wall that we had blasted through who knows how long. My sense of day was going haywire. I didn’t even know if it was day or night.

Two minutes remaining.

The freezing cold night air punctured my lungs, making me stagger. Looking down, I noticed numerous sets of footprints all leading to the west. Kerning City was that way…

After a few more steps into the midnight torture, I heard a deep rumble come from behind me. The woman’s voice had met its end. A chain of explosions steadily grew stronger until from within the blackness of the hole came a roiling fireball that twisted and turned like a dragon towards the moon.

Almost immediately, the faint sound of sirens reached my ears. The city could not be more than a few miles away…

Gathering up my strength, I put one feet in front of the other and made my trek through the wilderness, following after their footsteps.

Who knows what he has now.

Who knows what I gave him…

She wasn’t looking, so I took it. I would return it some time so technically speaking, it wasn’t stealing. I snagged the black hooded cloak and wrapped it around my shoulders. Raising the hood to cover my eyes, I stepped out of the alley and into the orange colored streets lit by artificial light and pollution. Kerning… the City of Thieves…

The bell ringed jocosely under the most morbid atmosphere. Alcohol and smoke floated through my nostrils, sending revulsion through my body that almost made me puke. Regardless, I sat down at the bar.

Suddenly I realized. The others’ voices were not inside of my head. I could not feel them anymore. Everything was now purely physical. I was not me anymore. He had taken everything, leaving me normal again.

I couldn’t make up my mind whether that was a curse or not.

A voice suddenly made my ears perk up. I shifted my glance to the right and saw a few scraggly looking men staring at me. My fingers naturally came up and used my hood to block them from view.

A glass of foaming puke suddenly slid in front of me. I looked up and the bartender that had seen better days smiled half heartedly, “First one’s on the house.” My eyes stared, fixated on his lips. His smile was so fake. “Seems like you could use some cheering up,” he finished, and walked off to tend to his other customers.

I looked into the beer, wrinkling my nose as its putrid odor flowed into me. I almost got up to walk out when I realized I had nowhere to go. I knew they came to Kerning, but there was no lead. My mind was blind. I couldn’t track them anymore. My friends were gone, my enemies were gone. Who the hell was left…

The answer came to me in a heartbeat.

“Hey cutes, you gonna drink that?” The men staring at me had mustered up the courage or the idiocy to confront me.

Ogres…

His breath smelled like stale cigarettes and last week’s lunch. Just when I thought nothing could smell worse than beer…

“Mind if I buy you another drink then, since this one obviously doesn’t seem to fit your high standards,” he said sarcastically; his breath made me want to die.

“I don’t want anything from you,” I whispered, still looking down at the beer, avoiding eye contact.

“Ooh,” he laughed and turned to his buddies, “She doesn’t want anything from me. Well I can assure you, young lady, I can deliver, if you know what I mean.” His so called buddies laughed like a bunch of retarded one armed lupins.

I didn’t have time for this bullsh**.

But then again, seeing as how everything dear to me was gone, I had all the time in the world. My life was over anyways right?

“Bite me,” I whispered coldly, still looking at the countertop.

“My pleasure, shall we do it somewhere a little more appropriate?” he mocked.

Before I could reply, something blunt hit me over the head. I hit the countertop. Black.

“Well good morning sunshine,” someone warbled. His voice floated in and out of existence. The world was blurry as I tried to open my eyes.

We were in a cheap motel off the main Kerning road. The slummiest of slums, the most ghetto of ghettos. Figures he would take me here where no one could hear me scream, where no one could hear me beg for death. Perhaps it was better this way.

A bald head emerged from the shadows, followed by a torso with a distinctive beer belly. Four men came out of the blackness after him and held me down. Convenient…

He didn’t even wait for my reaction. I felt his teeth sink into my neck, his tongue roughly scratching the flesh like sandpaper. His hand immediately went down my shirt, grabbing me way too roughly. He was animalistic.

Well I too have a beast within me, growling to be let loose.

So I kissed him back, hard and furious. He backed off in surprise, a wide grin spreading across his disgusting face. Motioning for his henchmen to back off, he lunged forwards on top of me; he must have weight over 9000 pounds.

My fingers wrapped around his neck, forcing his face against mine. My body was being assaulted by his greedy hands, hastily sticking in places they should never be in. I took one of his hands and slapped it onto my ass and moved it up towards my back.

Then I found it. Within a second, I wrapped his fingers around the scalpel and thrust his fist into the side of his head. His scream brought me my satisfaction as he tumbled off of me, writhing in agony.

His henchmen were moving in, but even though I didn’t have my mental potency anymore, I still had possessed strength, and it was all I needed for these bumbling fools. A hand smashed down next to me, missing me by an inch. I jumped up on the bed and plowed my shoulder into the man to my left. His body hit the ground with a sickening crunch as my elbow crushed his throat.

Whipping back up, I dodged a stab just in time and sent another one’s body slamming into the lamp, breaking it into millions of pieces.

The two left rushed at me; one wielding a wooden bat. I reached out and pulled the first man’s body on top of me, taking the solid impact. I could almost feel his bones crunch. He cried out in pain as I kicked his body into the other, making him release his grip on the bat.

My emerald eyes traced the wooden weapon in its arcing flight and I caught it deftly in my right hand. With a swift motion, I swung it straight into the side of his face, sending blood and a few teeth spurting out of his twisted mouth.

The only sound left was his whimper. I climbed on top of him, still lying on his back on the bed. Ruthlessly, I wrenched out the scalpel from his head and wiped it on his stained shirt.

Only one thing left to do.

Disregarding his begs, I raised the blade and slashed out, bringing an unfortunate end to his “deliverance”.

The blood sprayed through the entire room. You didn’t need a black light to figure out what happened.

I shut the door behind me and concealed the scalpel. The gruff man at the front desk grunted a goodbye. I ignored him.

Walking out into the streets, I took a deep breath of the musty cold air and put my hood back on. With my eyes veiled, I headed back towards the main city lights. There would be more blood to spill. I disappeared into the blackness, becoming Night once more.