Wander

//Crazed//

The room that Wander found himself in was by far the largest that he had seen since waking up. Large pillars supported the ceiling far above them every so often, jutting from the ground into the endless abyss of darkness above. As the two of them walked in silence, Wander couldn't help himself from constantly checking over his shoulder every few seconds or so. 

He couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened. He had almost hurt Little Wander. He had been only a split second away from swinging that piece of wood, he had been only a second away from the wood hitting her, he had been only...

He shuddered, trying his best to clear his thoughts. What was wrong with him? It was almost as if the shadows had entered his mind, his very being, invading his thoughts and tainting everything in a horrific manner.

Finally, judging by the layout of the surrounding pillars, the duo reached the center of the room. He held the lantern up, though it did little to get rid of the shadows that clung to their surroundings, to get a better sense of where they could possibly be now.

He couldn't quite tell - it was hard to when the only source of light wasn't doing all that well at illuminating his surroundings. He frowned, continuing to move around, searching for some hint, some sliver of escape. He noticed an odd array of shapes at the very edge of the lantern's light, moving towards it to investigate. He hadn't gone more then a few feet when he stopped again, feeling the overwhelming feeling of despair crush his lungs, making it hard to breathe. 

It was a church...most definitely a church of some sort.

Pushed up against a large set of oak doors that Wander could only compare in size with those that he had sat against waiting for the monster to leave at the start of this horrible nightmare was a large pile of pew's stacked in a barricade of some sort, a small collection of dead bodies still struggling to keep the doors shut.

Wander steeled his nerves, stepping closer to investigate the scene despite every part of himself screaming to turn around and run. Unlike the last time he had come across a scene like this, only a few bodies lay before him. Blood soaked their clothes, the ground underneath them a large puddle of blood that had followed the mortar grooves further away from their original vessels. 

Steeling his nerves, Wander decided that he had to check to see if the men had anything that was worth taking, seeing as they wouldn't be needing any of their belonging's anytime soon. Taking a deep breath, he reached out to the closest of the men, retracting it moments later as a collection of insects of all kinds suddenly sprang to life, skittering along the dead body. 

And just like that, they where gone. One moment they had been there, and then they weren't. He hadn't looked away, yet they had literally vanished into thin air. He let out a small sound of confusion, rubbing his eyes roughly with his hands. He returned his gaze to the man, finding no trace of the small army of beetles, spiders, wasps, or ants. 

He carefully reached his hand out again, poking the cold flesh on the man's shoulder, pulling back his arm quickly. Nothing. No trace of whatever Wander had just witnessed. He frowned, backing away from the man slowly, deciding it better to just leave him be. His gaze lingered on the scene before him a moment longer before he turned around.

The girl was gone.

He held the lantern up, frowning. She had just been here, right here, only a few moments before. He looked around, feeling himself start to lose his cool at the thought of once again being alone in this wretched place. Hissing through closed teeth, he called out into the darkness for his companion, but no reply could be heard.

He cursed to himself, quickly moving through the room, praying that he would find her safe and sound, hoping that she had accidentally wandered off, hoping that she was okay. He let out a shaky breathe he hadn't realized he had been holding when he had finished coming the empty room. She was gone. He had promised to protect her, and she was GONE. He had looked away for only half a second, and she was gone, she couldn't make it on her own, even HE could barely make it on his own!

He froze, barely hearing a low hiss from behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move - he couldn't quite tell how big it was, but he knew exactly who it was. He set the lantern at his feet, wrapping his hands around the large piece of wood so hard that his knuckles started to turn white. 

He could feel himself smiling for some reason that he couldn't discern, a laugh rising in his throat from somewhere inside of him that he had never felt before. It was a crazy sound, something a human shouldn't ever be able to make, yet it felt so good.

He suddenly didn't care any more, yelling out into the darkness at the top of his lungs. "That's right you son of a bitch, come at me! I know you're here, I fucking know your're here! So why don't you come at me and try to get me like you did the others?!" His voice was raspy and dry, sounding more feral then human. 

His words where greeted by another hiss, this time much closer, off to Wander's side. He spun to face the noise, his eyes scanning the darkness before him. He laughed again, feeling blood drip from down his palms from holding onto the jagged edges of his weapon too hard. 

He heard a sound behind him so faint that it was almost non existent, yet at the same time, sounded like a clap of thunder so loud that it could shake the Earth. Wander let out a loud yell, putting all of his strength into a swing as he spun around, hitting nothing but air, sending him stumbling forward a few feet in that direction.

And then there it was. 

It was on all fours, just at the edge of the light that the lantern was casting, four horrible tentacles protruding from it's back, swinging and swaying wildly. It was a horrible sight, yet Wander felt himself not caring at all what it was. It opened what he could only call it's mouth, horrible fangs lining the inside of his opponents mouth. A large, white tongue slowly extending form it's hiding place, the clinging saliva dripping to the floor, twisting at impossible angles. It was far larger then Wander could imagine, slithering and writhing around in the air, disgustingly drooling everywhere.

"Come on, do it! Kill me!" He cried out at it wildly, managing to tighten his grip around the wood even tighter then it had been before. It lunged at him with a terrible sound that he couldn't begin to describe - screams of the damned, cries of pain, sounds that only the dying could produce - it's tentacles flailing wildly in excitement. 

Wander matched it's terrifying sound with one as equally unnerving, putting everything that he had into a swing aimed directly at the terrifying thing's head. It clipped the monster's jaw, eliciting a scream of pain, sending it off it's course and onto the floor next to Wander. Before Wander could react, one of it's tentacles wrapped around his leg, and with a hefty pull, sent him on to his back, knocking the wind out of him.

He growled lowly, screaming as he battered the tentacle with the fragment of the door. After a few good strikes, the tentacle retracted back to the terrifying creature, who had regained it's footing. Wander scrabbled to his feet, just in time to get knocked back to the ground by another attack by the monster's tentacles. He cried out in frustration, twisting around and delivering another blow aimed at the monsters face, though his strike never landed - the thing's horrible tongue caught it before it could make contact. 

Wander gave his weapon a hard pull trying to free it from the monster' grip, but wan't strong enough to break it free. He lifted his free leg, slamming it into his attackers face with a satisfying crack. The monster stumbled back, screeching loudly, it's grip loosening on the wooden shard just enough that Wander was able to pull it free. He quickly got to his feet, ready to strike the monster again before it could recover, but froze as the monster was gone. 

He turned around, listening for any sound that would betray the monster's location, searching for the thing that had terrified his every moment since awaking in this nightmare. "Come on, I'm not done with you!" His yell had lost some of it's crazed conviction from before, sounding weaker with each word. "That's...that's right, come at me you monster...."

Wander fell to his knees, dropping the wood on the floor with a clatter, sobbing into his hands.