'Sh*t! That hurt!'
Gen cursed as he flung his body to the side, hiding behind a tree.
His left arm was split open to the bone, leaking blood and pus.
He hurriedly stuck a Recovery charm onto it, his movements slower than usual, before quickly moving away as the tree split into two.
Gen heard a sharp, metallic creak, followed by a grotesque sound of something heavy dragging against bark and soil
He gritted his teeth, forcing his body to turn around, facing the darkness of the night forest.
The red moonlight reflected agains a bloody blade as a figure emerged.
It could barely be called a figure, more of a nightmare stitched together.
Half of it resembled a boy, no older than 16, with short, dark-brown hair.
The boy's frame was slim, his clothes torn and burned, clinging feebly to his body.
But that wasn't why Gen's thoughts turned sluggish, neither was it the reason why his forearm was split.
Gen's eyes paused on the other half, especially the arm, of the worn-out boy.
It was a marionette's limb, stretched impossibly long, almost twice longer than the boy's arm.
Its jagged and rusty metal joints gridded and groaned with each stuttered movement.
Each body part seemed to be made out of wood, but with ugly white granules covering its surface.
Rusted metal twisted through the wooden body like veins, catching and reflecting the crimson moonlight.
The warped and long limbs twisted and bent unnaturally.
The leg snapped backwards, forcing the creature's hunched frame to shift and contort gruesomely just to balance its two asymmetrical halves.
The mask it wore made the grotesque silhouette even more horrifying.
It was split in two, yet still showed the same expression.
The hollow, glowing eyes stared and observed Gen, filling him with dread.
Its mouth was pulled into a wide, toothy smirk that seemed too sharp... too hungry.
The human side showed a black face, plastered onto a smooth white mask.
The marionette side mirrored the grin with a white face on black.
But it's features were jagged, showing cracks and splits in the corners of the teeth.
The mask pulsed faintly, dark mist swirling from its edges and the cracks like a living thing.
The fog tried, and failed repeatedly, to contain and absorb the abomination beneath.
It mended the cracked features only on for them to split back with a loud noise.
Gen swallowed back his discomfort, his pupils shaking.
The creature moved.
Its steps were broken and lagged, jerking forward in rapid, stuttering motions.
Each movement sliced through the silent forest with a sharp, jarring creak.
A serrated blade was sliding in and out of its marionette wrist, trying to unhitch itself.
Each movement came with a sickening scrape of metal, like nails on a chalkboard.
The blade itself looked frail, as it was thin and rusted all over.
YOU ARE READING
Thrown Into Madness - Lord of the Mysteries
Historical Fiction"... I just wanted to read a book, What's with the bloody scene?! And what? I'm a child? And whose memories are these? Where am I? Who am I? I don't want this! Who would want this?! Get me back! I wanna go back! Please!" ... Who would think that bu...
