Sing for the Moment

The devil wears a skull and hood

     The sound of a bell would ring out, filling their ears with its rhythmic tolling. As they kept marching on, the sound slowly got louder, making them pause for a moment. 'Wait, could that be real?' They thought as they picked up their pace to a jog, placing their rifle on their back.

     As the tolling reached a peak, it stopped, determined, they kept going, picking up the pace once more, their soul filled with determination. Spotting what looks to be the end of the tree line, they started a sprint, before a whistle rang out, cold and almost deafening in their ears.

     When the whistle faded out, they felt a sharp pain in the back of their neck, causing them to stumble, their pace causing the stumble to turn into a fall. As they fell, they twisted around to see what happened, seeing a hooded figure, almost resembling that from their dream.

     Before panic could set in, ghost tried to move and get up. The figure spotting this, quickly raised their leg up, giving a swift kick to the chin of ghost, sending their head banging back into the ground. Apparently more force was put into the kick than they thought, before they could even let out a noise their vision quickly filled with black spots, darkness quickly taking over them, a sentence ringing out in their mind, 'don't fear the reaper'.

     Opening their eyes, they noted the lack of pain in their head, sitting up, they realized they were no longer in a forest. Looking around they spotted walls painted a painfully bright shade of white, and beds made of more metal than anything else, covered in green. As they blinked they heard a commotion nearby, looking over to a green door they noticed as four other made their way inside.

The four people were joking around and laughing, seemingly knowing each other quite well. They soon stop as they notice them, before what seems to be their leader smiles. "Well well well, look who finally decided to wake up. Took you long enough asshole" it didn't have an air of being rude, infact it seemed friendly, as if they knew them.

     A noise rang out as they tried to stand up, an alarm it sounded like, the ringing filling their ears. As they closed their eyes and tried to drown out the noise, they felt something change, it felt hotter than it had just moments before. As they looked up, opening their eyes they spotted a wall of fire, looking around they saw it wasn't just a wall, but a burning ring of fire.

     Their attention was snapped back to their front as they heard humming and the faint sound of metal clinking together. The flames yielded for one man, the one cloaked in black. The flames yielded just enough for the man to pass through, dragging something, before returning to their place as he was clear. Their eyes widened when they realized what was being dragged, a figure, with armor similar to theirs under one arm, before it was dropped onto its hands and knees.

     The hooded one reach a hand into his cloak, producing a weapon unlike what they had seen before, still humming their eery tune. A sound rang out as they pulled back a handle on the weapon and pushed it back in place, a distinct clacking sound. Before they could think about what that clacking meant, they watched as the man, with swift precision, one handedly pointed the weapon to the head of the one on the ground, pulling the trigger.

     The helmet of the person flew off, hitting the ground with a crack, as it rolled right up to their legs, it's shattered visor staring up at them, a hole straight through. Looking back up that the figure, they saw as a flame flashed from inside their cloak, lighting up the inside revealing glowing pieces of metal, different colors ranging from a brown, to a bright silver.

     As the figure took steps closer they realized the flame was slowly dying out, and as it did they noticed a new piece of metal was replacing it each step of the way. As it finished the metal glowed for a second, a name visible on it followed by a quote. But they paid no attention to the words as their eyes shifted to the hands of the figure, watching as they gripped the weapon in an odd way, as they did the pumping motion once more, but seeming to palm something.

     The figure stopped right in front of them, putting the weapon back into his cloak, dropping something right into their lap, as they stay frozen, staring in shock at the hooded figure. "A memento mori, Exspiravit" his gravely voice spoke, almost singsongy, before he turned away, walking back out the way he came, stepping nonchalantly over the corpse left without a head, as the flames retreated once more.

     As they looked down, regaining control of themselves, they saw just what it was that was dropped in their lap. They were left with a shell, picking it up, they spotted something engraved onto the shell, a single I. As thoughts about what it meant rand through their mind, they felt a rumbling, the ground started to crumble around them, as a tune rang out, recognizing it as what the hooded figure was humming, their eyes widened.

     The ground beneath them gave way, falling into a free fall, they reached out to the fading scene. The sound of a bell tolling rung out,
Once....
Twice....
Thrice....
The tolling seeming to be endless as it rung out and echoed around them. The sound slowly faded out from around them, replaced by the bell, before it too faded away into nothing.

  A splash of cold water hit them in the face, causing them to jolt awake, taking in a deep breath of air. Their fight or flight instinct kicked in, releasing a yell as they went to throw a punch, but finding the movement never came. Looking to their sides they saw why, they were bound to a chair.

"Looks like you've still got some fight in ya" a voice called out from their side. Looking over they spotted a figure coming from the shadows, calling them a mountain of a person would be an understatement. "Looks like your ass got resurrected too" the figure spoke again, stepping into the light, a faint flickering coming from their body as if they were engulfed in transparent flames. "So, who might you be? Or should i just call you the FNG?" The figure smirked, leaning against a wall

"I.... I dont know... who are you?" They questioned the figure, mostly trying to buy time to get their thoughts in order "me? Well, you can call me Bellum, I'm the Envoy for war" he flexed his arm to show off the muscle, as if to prove a point "and no, i didn't choose that name myself, each of us are given our names from our... benefactors, shall we say. So. What should i call you" the figure now known only as bellum asks once more, pointing a finger to them once more.

     Thinking for a second they looked down, realizing their armor was gone, they panicked slightly before pausing. As they gathered their thoughts one name popped into the forefront of their mind, ringing out like a bell. "Exspiravit" they respond as they looked up, meeting the gaze of bellum with a newfound fire burning in them