Legacies || Hermitcraft

Chapter XV - The Abomination

Timeline: April 2015

Word Count: 3.5k

TW: Mentions of death, violence, implied abuse/mistreatment 

Xisuma didn't know where he was going, and he certainly didn't know how he was going to get back.

It was stupid of him to shout at the Hermits the way he did without going back to apologise, but perhaps it was even worse of him not to follow after Ezra and find his brother again. He didn't know what to do, what to say or who to turn to. He couldn't look to the Hermits for help, certainly not after what he'd done just a few hours ago, but there was nobody else left to support him and Xisuma was once again alone.

Perhaps that was why he was aimlessly wandering the Main World, to find something that would help him, or perhaps that was what he was telling himself instead of admitting to running from his own fears. Fear was the only thing that held him back from going home or going in search of his brother, and Xisuma knew it, but despite this he still couldn't bring himself to do either.

What would he even say to Ezra? His twin was scarred and traumatised beyond repair, and all these years Xisuma had left him for dead. He never went back to find him in the remains of their village, and if he had, Ezra would be safe and okay and huddled close by his side. He couldn't bear the thought of facing his brother, who likely still thought he was dead, after abandoning him to face three years of pain and torment alone.

Xisuma couldn't even find joy in knowing that Ezra had survived. He felt nothing but guilt and anguish each time he thought of his brother, and somehow the idea of being hated by Ezra for the rest of their lives was worse than the idea of him being dead. He didn't know what to do, which was perhaps why he was here, to find either a solution or a distraction.

And, although it wasn't what he had been hoping for, Xisuma ended up coming across the latter soon later. He didn't know where he was or how long it had been since he left Hermitcraft, but the soft humming of an electric fence was certainly something he'd never heard before. 

Xisuma looked up at the fence in question, which was plastered with signs reading things like "Warnung", "Gefahr" and "Nicht Betreten". He didn't understand any of them, and kept wandering along the edge of the electric fence until he came to a gate that was ever so slightly ajar. Far beyond the fence was a large, grey rectangular building with a notably large hole blown into one side. 

The place seemed more or less abandoned, and although another sign beside the gate clearly read "DANGER, DO NOT ENTER" in a language he could understand, Xisuma found himself very tempted to enter the premises. Which, after realising that the open gate wasn't electrically powered like the rest of the fence, was exactly what he did.

Throughout the grounds of the building, which appeared to be some form of testing facility, scraps of rusted metal were scattered in the grass. Some were smaller than the palm of his hand, others nearly twice his height, all presumably from the ravaged side of the building. However, more interesting were the papers littered around the place, most of which were too old and faded to be legible.

Xisuma picked up a page that had been torn in half, displaying a graph of names and statistics. Things like "Experiment #1 - Successful" and "Experiment #8 - Failed" were written on it, and although Xisuma didn't know what these experiments were or who was conducting them, something about the situation gave him a very bad feeling. Especially if one of these 'experiments' was what had destroyed the building.