Faded

A Nice Old Man

WARNING: EXTREME GORE AND BODY HORROR

It was catastrophic at the other end of the hall as the witch’s petite little feet barely carried her weight as she sped down the hall to the devil’s room. There were shatters and crashes and loud booms of what she could only assume was furniture. Nearly breathing in the black ooze as she ran through it to gain access to Kcalb’s room, Wadanohara saw the broken bodily temple of the devil of destruction. His hair was askew, and he looked… insane, no matter how bad she had wanted to avoid using the word. His hands were tremoring as he held a desk above his head.

The nurse almost wanted to scream, but her throat was locked tight. Whether it was a scream of fear or a shrill of agony, she could not think of what to categorize it. She wanted to tell him to stop… she wanted to tell him to calm down; that everything would be alright. He snarled at her ferociously, back hunched over, before he shot up ramrod straight, sobbing out what Wadanohara assumed was a name.

“Eti! Eti!! Eti!!!”

The devil nearly choked on air as painful sobs escaped from him; his cryptic black eyes seeming more intimidating than ever. He began pulling on his snow white hair, before the nurse finally took initiative to make attempts to stop him. She pounced on top of him with the little weight she had; successfully pinning him to what looked like a foldable table (one that you could easily find at a party). His eyes darted towards her; staring through her eyes as if he wanted to melt her brain from the inside.

“Kcalb, what’s wrong?! Please… tell me what’s the matter!”

Wadanohara’s pleas cracked as they traveled out of her burning throat. Kcalb did not seem to respond, but showed enough resistance to begin thrashing about. If she wasn’t careful, she could be thrown off like a rider on a bull. His eyes were screwed shut, and he continued to cry out Etihw’s name.

“Etihw!!! Please, Eti, LISTEN TO ME!!!! I’M SO SORRY PLEEEEEASE FORGIVE ME!”

The devil let out a reverberating scream, which even sent the crows into a frenzy as they swirled around like the funnel of a tornado around the nurse and her patient. Perched up upon his chest, the nurse shut her eyes in fear that she might fly right off of him if he kept this up. He was… crying. All of this time, was this what was happening in his head?

“Kcalb, please! Stop this! You’re going to hurt yourself!! Tell me what I can do to help you!”

The crows began to squawk, cutting at her arms as their razor sharp wings raced past her repeatedly. Tears began to swell in her eyes, and soon enough, were falling onto the devil below her. Kcalb was unresponsive towards this gesture; only shouting out incoherent apologies into the air as they were eaten up by the crows and projected out as ear shattering caws.

“ETIHW, HEAR ME WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU! I’M SORRY, I’M SO INCREDIBLY SORRY FOR THE PAIN I HAVE CAUSED TOWARDS YOU AND OUR GARDEN! IF THIS PAIN IS RECOMPENSE FOR THAT TURMOIL, THEN SO BE IT!”

Another long yell of utter pain followed, as Wadanohara finally mustered up the courage to use magic to get through him; to see what was making him tick. Her hands began to glow a fluorescent sea blue color, glimmering in what appeared to be shimmers of a sparkly substance. The white pupil of his eye began to absorb the light reflecting from it, before trying to shut it out by creating the pupil into a black hole, where nothing could come in. Fortunately for the witch, she was able to access what was creating this catastrophe, and upon discovery, froze; her features completely pale and lifeless.

“A tumor… this is a brain tumor… K…Kcalb… I’m… so sorry…”

The furious flapping of wings was brought to a silence; their motions not ceasing. Kcalb’s pupil opened up once more as he glanced up at her fear-stricken features. With a single hand, he touched the mark that Satanick bestowed upon her millennia ago; sending the smallest fragment of his power within the tabernacle it seemed to provide. A smile crept past his lips, before he lied his arm back down; looking straight up at the ceiling, into the opening of the never ending funnel of crows.

“This is… the end. I’m sorry I couldn’t stay not even for you… it’s enough that I have… failed… Eti… perhaps… having my power within you… will bring the feeling back… the feeling… Satanick… had given you while he was still alive… …. …. Think of me as one of the many who adored you as much as he did.”

With a single breath, he murmured an apology before the murder of crows dispersed in all directions. The carcass of the devil lay beneath her, and her body suddenly began to shake violently. Her hands launched for one of Kcalb’s horns; yanking it up forcefully with a newly found strength. With a bone cracking snap, she hopped off of the dead body and elevated his body with a magical force to where he was sitting, before plunging the sharp end of the horn into his scalp.

“I’ll remove the tumor… you won’t be hurt anymore… It’ll be all gone…”

It was as if Wadanohara were possessed, or in a less likely scenario, in an extreme moment of grief. Blood splattered onto her blue dress as she continued to press the horn through the skull to access the brain. Summoning a glove onto her right hand, she pulled back some of the brain’s tissue before digging out the tumor violently with the sharp tip of the horn.  It was black and disgusting as she held it in her hand; blood and juices gushing out of every corner as the concentration of magic on the devil was removed in an instant when she pulled away; sending his bloody body plummeting to the floor (not without spraying her with plenty of blood).

With the mass of the tumor in her hands and his snapped off horn in the other, she fell down to her knees, but instead of remaining in a kneeling position, collapsed until she was lying on the floor completely. Staring at the black, disgusting matter of the tumor in her hand with her eyes fluttering shut, the nurse barely smiled knowing that she had removed what was ailing him before drifting into unconsciousness.

“You’re okay now, Kcalb… you’re okay…”