Beyond Shut Doors

Character Arc 2: Typhus | Chapter 2

„Shut your fucking mouth!"

An antagonistic and loud voice came from the distance. As I came closer to the scenery, I kept a low profile, hiding behind some bushes and trees. This was the situation: A woman - quite tall, big horns and black and yellow decorated coat - was pushing her foot onto another woman. However the one on the ground appeared completely different. She had short brown hair and wore mostly leather clothing. I noticed her wounds and bruises on the arms and legs, so I already knew that this fight must've been going on for quite a while already. Though this was no actual „fight", which I failed to notice in that moment. The brunette was being tortured for no reason I knew of.
There is something else you should know of before I continue: Viruses like myself, receive certain abilities as they're being created or born. Mine is to manipulate the earth as I please. So in this impulsive moment, I decided to use this ability to attack the taller woman. To my surprise however she dodged quite perfectly and I instead got trapped into heavy chains that appeared by her will and held onto my body tightly. Then she dragged me close to her, staring right into my soul with her void black eyes. Intimidating.

„And what do you think you are doing, hm? Feeling brave, huh?"

I sensed the tension in her dark, threatening voice. She was going to kill me if I was unable to get myself out of this situation, so I kept as straight of a face as I could. The moment she were to notice that I was sincerely terrified of her could've been the one she'd decide to end it all. Suddenly she forced her chains up high, which she still used to hold me in a tight grip. She made me swing back a bit.

„Mind your fucking business!!"

With a large amount of energy she threw me far from the place as I hit a tree before falling on the ground. The amount of pain made me cough and gasp for air for a moment before I managed to take some deeper breaths. That woman was indeed powerful, yet either failed or did not intend to majorly harm me. After reflecting the passing moment while I just kept laying on the ground, I slowly made my way back on my feet. I felt myself to be in desperate need of company and guidance. If my goal was to save that brunette, then being a loner would be out of question. Despite feeling horrible for leaving further from the scene, I decided to return to that town I first witnessed. Many people seemed to be living there and for sure there would be somebody who'd have been able to help me out. Had I only known how naive I was back then. Majority of those people appeared to be too busy to help someone like me out, however this gave me the opportunity to explore even further and in doing so I discovered that I'm quite good at memorizing places and routes. There was another issue arising though; it was becoming night. Granted the view became increasingly mesmerizing, nonetheless I had nowhere to stay and since the locals seemed uncooperative, I didn't even bother asking anybody if I could stay for a night. For twenty more minutes I wandered, away from the city, hoping to find yet another. My eyes kept on closing out of exhaustion and so I quickly decided to nap on the ground next to a tree that was surrounded by bushes. It gave me a sense of security. However that was abruptly stolen from me, as after an hour I sat up in pain. Tiredly I discovered that had been bitten into my leg by something. Alarmed I moved my head around, expecting to find some sort of animal nearby, but it was dead silent in that very moment. So silent that I shrieked after noticing two ravens flying off from a tree. Fortunately this gave me the bright idea to climb up onto one of the bigger trees and make myself comfortable there. It was even more fortunate to find out that the tree had a convenient space between many branches, so I was very unlikely to fall in my sleep. Despite the rough night I was sleeping perfectly fine up there. I couldn't sleep in trees forever though, so the following day I left back to the town. It was the only place I knew as of yet where other people existed. One thing I caught from the day before is that I needed money, fast, and sure as hell not earned. A crowd would be appreciated, so, I had to enter a store. Little did I know the one I chose to visit was the most random and small one I'd ever seen. There were merely a few shelves and drawers, some fabric was hanging around everywhere and there were many, seemingly handcrafted decorations placed down almost everywhere. An elderly lady suddenly rang the bell on her counter to get my attention as she had a genuine smile on her face.

„Can I help you, young man?"

Her voice was soft, yet also slightly cracked, if that is a way to describe it correctly. I struggled to respond. My intentions were far from kind, yet now I felt empathy for this old woman. There was no way I could possibly rob her. She came up to me, unexpectedly touching my arm.

„Ah would you look at that, you have big strong arms, like a warrior. Those were the days, I tell you..."

While she was reminiscing about the past and speaking of things I didn't understand, the door to the shop opened up and inside stepped two people that couldn't have been more different from each other; a tiny virus girl, by my guess 2 or 3ft tall, with a pink dress and messy white hair and a man with purple horns, who was double her size, wearing a mix of purple and silver clothing as well as a crown. All of our eyes met for a brief moment before the older woman got back behind her counter.