EndRep's Short Stories

Conra

I remember the first time I had encountered one.. A deadly snake, resting so peacefully in the branches of the jungles of uncharted territory. I've taken to calling it Venus. I digress, what happened was I had tripped and fallen while running from a mysterious predator. One of humanlike  stature, but beastly; scary, even. When I fell, my soul had been ripped from my body and forced into an alternate dimension, where I was approached by a woman who looked similar to me, but had scales, slitted pupils and a snake-like tongue. Her voice seemed to hiss at me softly as she picked me up off the cold tiles. Snakes fell all around us and slithered about, minding their own business. I sat in awe as this woman radiated power and beauty. Her cool fingers glided along my cheek as she whispered words I didn't know into my ear. Well, now I understand what she had said to me of course. But at the time, it was seductive and I accepted her words at face value. It caused my death; and then my rebirth as one of her kind.

"Well, well. Hello little miss." A burly man approaches with two spilling drinks. "What brings a young lady like you here all alone?" His drunk, lazy grin showed me why he made the mistake of approaching me. I glance around the rowdy pub and stifle a small laugh.

"I'm here to feast on your eyeballs, love." He bellows a throaty laugh. "What's in that drink?" I inquire, eyeballing it suspiciously. Not as though some ruffian poison would get me incapacitated, anyways. I was just curious.

"Ale," he responds, taking a swig from both to show there was no poison in either. "Pick your mug." He prods.

I choose the left one and lean closer to him. He sat across the bar table from where I did, arms thick with cuts and oddly one color. No bruising, or anything. That meant he hadn't gotten in a brawl lately, so more than likely he was some kind of soldier.. I take a drink and groan. It's disgusting. "How do you men drink this horse piss?"

He laughs again, taking a gulp. "It's an acquired taste. Got a name? Or are you one of those freak number fellas the clerics like to mother under their holy chantry walls?" A brave sentence, indeed. Had I been one of those 'freak number fellas' he could be dead in a minute.

I grin and straighten my back, listening for the sounds of my joints cracking one by one. "Oh no, I am much scarier than those.. what did you call them? Freak number fellas?" I giggle. "What's your motive for getting to know me?"

"Just making conversation," was the dry response. I simply nod, and finger the ring on my left hand. "May I look into the eyes of the soul before me?" I look back up at him, this time noticing he wasn't drunk at all, in fact, he was the man I needed to interrogate.

I calm my expression, and shake my hand, it disappears under my midnight cloak in an instant. He bristles at the sudden change in atmosphere. "Something wrong?" I ask curiously. His eyebrows furrow as he studies my darkened face. "I wouldn't look into them if I were you, boy." I warn in a low growl.

"Why wouldn't you?"

"You may get ensnared.. Do you know of the snake charmer? The one who can take the bite of any snake in the world, can withstand every poison in existence, and can petrify men with a single glance?" A small grunt rumbled from his throat. "Rumor has it she's been lurching around this city, and has a vendetta against a certain soldier.." before he starts to rise, I lift my hood just enough to look him in the eyes through the light. His face distorts in terror and I grin. "Something wrong? I thought you were a tough soldier boy? A man who kills and sells my children."

"Conra! Please, it was a fluke I swear, it attacked me I had no choice!" His voice shrieks like a banshee on a deathbed, shame only I could hear such an innocent sound. I clench my fist to signify his trachea snapping under the force. The world spun around us with the stroke of my arm against the air, waves of sea water rush in, and out quickly, leaving behind a thick pool of deep red blood, almost a midnight black, nearly devoid of color, yet still stirring somehow. I wave my arm in an upward motion quickly, and the pocket in time where we existed seemed to drown us, the putrid smell of metal stung my senses pleasantly.

When I kill my targets, I force their soul into an alternate dimension of fear and emptiness, so only us two can hear their screams in pain and shrieks for help.. sometimes they drown in their own regrets or pride, and on the outside, it appears as though the man or woman is having a heart constriction, as they lose consciousness clutching their chest. The best part about the whole thing, is how no other person but the guilty can see my presence at a time such as this.

"You had a choice to kill or be killed. My children are the harbingers of death for the unworthy. Rest easy in your place under the mantle of this world, and the next. I banish your soul to eternal punishment." His screams filled my soul with contentment as the dimension shatters around us, draining the immediate area of the rancid fluid, and the soldier, lay face down on the table. Eyes wide open, mouth twisted into an emotion of pain.. I shudder in exhilaration, and brush a spec of dust from my garment. I shall return soon enough to claim his soul.