Pain Purity and Apocalypse

Chapter 12: Man of Stone

Saturday, May 20, 1993
(Location: Hawk Mountain, Pensilvania)

Dull wind snakes through the wild flowers, they rustle with a dull, quiet hiss. Although the scenery is beautiful, and the radiant sun warms the air... The land is too silent. Lok, Trinity, and Xander follow a safe distance behind Sebastian Standish. He walks with an inhuman stiffness, yet his movement is smooth and almost wispy. Trinity sees his fists clench in tight binds, and she notices his nails are sharper than normal, faded in an almost silver colour. She takes another step back, forgetting Lok walks right behind her.

"Eh— what's—" She slams her palm over his lips, and leans in close to his left ear. Xander turns back, and she gives a fake smile. Though, her eyes read: 'Be careful.'

"Do you feel that eerie tension?" He shifts his eyes towards her face, and nods, whispering back,

"I didn't before, but, yeah— actually, it's very similar too—"
"Lucifer's energy? I know, I was thinking the same thing." His eyes widen, a bit startled that she knew what he was thinking.

Damn, Xander was right about her impeccable eye for detail, and perception.
They continue walking in silence, all but the wind, and their footsteps make no sound.
Soon, the group comes to the edge of the forest, a dirt path leads the way into the darkness. The moment they follow Sebastian across the grassy barrier, the quietness becomes almost suffocating. Not a single bird chirps, not a critter scampers through the brush. Not a leaf above moves, the breeze has been left behind them.

Xander falls back in step with Trinity and Lok. He inches closer to the middle of them, so they can both hear his words.

"It's like— everything just vanished. I'm getting a bit worried. Do you—" he stops, looking forward to the General, "do you think he is the reason everything suddenly got really weird?"
Lok also brings his gaze to the General, and Trinity does the same. That stiff, robotic march has morphed into a broken limp... Almost— like a zombie. Half his upper body droops forward, swaying like a rag-doll.

Trinity slowly, shakily extends her arm, and opens her fingers to her empty palm. Forming from white particles is her death scythe. Standing still on the path, she doesn't flinch during this process. Slowly, steadily, her fingers lock around the wood stick, and she sighs deeply. She held her breath the entire time.

"Something isn't right, so tell us, Trinity... What's about to happen?" Her head lifts, revealing two horrified, emerald eyes. Sebastian has stopped, and as he raises his upper body, they hear every spinal-ring crack.
Where there were only a few scales lining his neck, they pattern all the way up to the line of his hair now. His hands, now completely covered in rough, black scales, adorn sharp, silver claws. They shimmer in the dim, canopy light peeking out from above the treetops.

"What the hell..." Breathes Xander. He shouldn't have spoken, the General heard him... And now, his scarlet eyes glare into the three of them, etching fear through their skin like the bone chilling wind atop a mountain's peak.
None of them have the courage to move, that look is enough to ground their feet, and send their hearts pounding.

Is this how a rabbit feels, when it knows it's being stalked? Doesn't know from where, or when the attack will come.
They can't take their eyes off the still figure. A man they know so well, yet looks so unfamiliar, so starkly different, it's disturbing.
Suddenly, the wind picks up, rustling the trees above. This blip in silence does not bring comfort, but it snaps the three out of their paralyzed states.

From somewhere within the scaly husk of their friend, a low voice echoes from a distant place.

"just... Run..."
The hollowness shakes them to their core, and Trinity takes a jittery step forward.