Sorry for those who are getting bored of me butting in, but I like to write so just a fair warning: RP Coming up, read at own peril.
Beat. Beat. Beat.
Is that my heart? I do not know. I am walking, head high, through the lack lustre halls. I am walking, trying to find someone, any one, to whom I can speak. It happened again...IT was waiting for me. I feel so drained...no! I will not give in. I must walk. That's what I'm doing, walking though my legs feel like rubber, though my heart feels like a drum and my head feels like it is being pounded by the hammers I can hear ringing many floors below. I must walk!
And I do. Walking, slipping, sliding. Making a path through the bustling corridors and packed rooms.Somewhere, fuzzily at the back of my mind I know that there shouldn't be so many people. They are the dead, of both Necrothreat I and II mingling with the alive. Neither group seems to be aware of the other. I stumble through the dead, walk into the living. Some shout curses, others offer me help; all believe me to be drunk. The irony is not wasted even on my sleep deprived and blood lacking self. I am not drunk, but drunk from. Still I walk, still I hold my head high. My muscles strain with the effort, veins bulging with exhaustion. The people now begin to look at me with concern, for no drunk Forumite ever looks worse than when they are sober. But I walk with my head high, and I keep my face as of the stone which surrounds us. They see what they think is strength and, reassured, walk on. I wish they were right.
There! Ahead, a flash of fancy clothing which is so impractical only those high in authority would wear them. I myself wore them once, what seems like lifetimes ago. I manage a weak, wan smile. I suppose, for me, it was a few lives and bodies ago. But my mind wanders from my purpose. It is getting harder to concentrate.... Shuffling forward, I put my hand on the embroidered shoulder. The person under the cloth gives a jump and turns around. "Why, Dwarfy, whatever's the problem? Are you okay?" He says with concern as he sees my ghoulishly pale face and purple lips.
"R..R..uhn. I am...well. Well enough." I manage to squeeze past my unwilling lips. " I need to...to talk to you. The deaths...I know the cause...blood. The blood is..taken from them. It is taken from me!" With a fevered intensity I grab the cuffs of his jacket and pull him close to my face. Our noses nearly touching, I continue. "It is HIM. You know who I mean. Him, he has sent a creature amongst us....one bonded to me...you must...help. I need help" Ruhn looked confused, then a partial realisation dawned on him
"You mean"...he lowered his voice to a whisper "Him? He who haunts the shadows and the dreams, the font of evil? Armok himself" With supreme weariness, I nod. A look of eagerness, eagerness for the kill enters his eyes. I begin to tell him the name of the creature sent to haunt us, but a voice drifting across the hall cuts me off.
"Dear, there you are. Are you all right? Thanks for looking after him Ruhn, he's been feverish and babbling nonsense. The doc thinks he has an infection of some kind...something about puncture holes getting infected. Will you help me bring him back to our room?" Gasping with horror, I let Ruhn's coat slip through my limp fingers, the bunched cloth suddenly let free. My knees like jelly, I sink to the floor. It found me. I was too late, and it found me. Tense joints giving way, I topple to the side. The last words which swim towards me through the darkness are in Ruhn's voice "Sure...er, yes, sure. Of course I will help. Punctures, you say? How odd...."
I awaken. It is cold, chill even, despite the bed sheet pulled up to my neck. Slowly I crack open my eyes. I see no one and, made bold by this, try to sit up. A darker shadow in the corner stirs and the vampire stands up and walks into the light, a sadistic grin twisting its face. I cringe, and hate myself for it. My only defense is that I had endured its...administrations... for months, my resolve being gradually ripped apart.
"So, you thought to betray me did you?" it spat through its smile. Odd how its eyes always stay the same expressionless wall and its smile is so changeable, expresses so many levels of spite, hate and...hunger. "Well, I'll soon teach you why you should obey me." Its smile grew deeper, more evil, and it drew from behind its back an axe with a wicked-looking spike. "Your friend Ruhn lent this to me. You know, his real name is Peruhn? Pronounced Perrin he says. Strange fellow, but he gave me the axe he carries everywhere when I asked for it. Seemed glad to give it in fact. I said I was going to chop some fire wood. It leaned in closer to me and shivered,the smile never leaving its face. "It is cold in here, isn't it? Well, time to get chopping" With that, it casually chopped off my left foot and then my right hand, smile never slipping from its face.
I freeze, mind numb. Then, like the tide coming in I feel the pain, a sea of fire which threatens to sweep me away. The room seems to shake, especially the door, And a growing cloak of darkness drops slowly before my eyes. My stumps throb like erupting volcanoes, spewing red hot blood everywhere, the wall, floor. The vampire seems entranced by it. The door bursts open, and I see Apiks, Highmax and a troop of the spear-forumites framed in it. I feel a vague amusement, despite the overwhelming pain, at seeing Highmax holding a spear. And then the darkness falls softly into place, and the rest is hidden from me.
I wake screaming this time, thrashing and kicking, feeling my tender but blessedly no longer bleeding stumps rub up against the bed sheets. Gradually I subside as I feel comforting hands petting me and hear soothing words whispered in my ear. I look around me and see I am in hospital, Apiks, Highmax and some nurses surrounding the bed. I collapse back into the pillow. "What...what happened?" I whisper, voice hoarse."
"You're lucky to be alive, is what happened", one of the nurses said sternly. "No more thrashing, and get some rest!" She glared at Highmax "I'd make you leave, the both of you, were you not the overseer, Highmax. But make it quick, or feel my anger." With a sniff she twirled and stalked away, the other nurses following like an indignant gaggle of geese.
Highmax flashes a boyish grin and sticks his tongue out at her retreating back, but Apiks is more serious. "We were talking to Ruhn. He said he was retiring and was going to pass his position to Highmax, but also mentioned his run in with you and your talk of evil and blood. And then that mention of you being bonded to this evil, and then of punctures, and..."
Highmax leaps into the conversation "And we thought that the only evil bond any Forumite could have was marriage, so we went and investigated. Good thing too. We found it gazing at your blood. It didn't even fight us, seemed focused only on the blood, so we locked it away and got you down here double-quick"
I start laughing, tears streaming down my face. "It's over. Over. Thank you. THANK YOU" I yelled at the ceiling, at anything that would listen to me and feel pride in helping. "thank you", I whisper, tears streaming down my face. "thank you."
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Topic: Necrothreat II - A Fort Cursed by the Gods! (Read 471491 times)