Crimson Flesh

Chapter 2:

"If the way to kill these things is with holiness, then I don't know what I'm supposed to do. We both know I'm not the most religious person." Isaac says. "Well, I've always left my faith with the lord." Mike replies with. "It can't be THAT hard, right? Can you teach me some prayers or something like that?" Michael laughs. "It's a lot more complicated than that, but it's a good start. Repeat after me." Michael and Isaac start reciting "Saint Michael, the Archangel". Isaac looks at Michael and says, "I think I've got it. In name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. O glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, defend us in battle, and in the struggle which is ours against the principalities and Powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against spirits of evil in high places." Michael gets a surprised look on his face. "Wow! I'm impressed! Here, take this. It's another necklace." Michael hands him a smaller necklace that is similar to his.

"Thanks man, but, we really need to get out of this place. And I'm starving bro." Isaac says, groaning. "I know... Oh, by the way. How's your eye doing? Does it still hurt?" Michael asks. "Oh shit. I totally forgot about it. It doesn't hurt all that bad, if anything, it feels like a light sunburn. Hardly noticeable." Mike and Isaac begin to travel their area. "Dude. I just realized, this place doesn't look like anything I've ever seen." Michael points out. "Yeah. Hey, you see those mushrooms over there?" Isaac says. "Umm... Oh, yeah. What about them?" Isaac smiles. "They're edible. I can tell by the colors. And, there's a shit-load of them. Let's eat!" Isaac lunges towards the mushrooms, and begins to shove handfuls of them in his mouth. "How do they taste?" Michael asks, laughing. "Kinda funky. Not bad though." Isaac responds with. "I guess I'll have some too." Michael and Isaac stuff themselves full with mushrooms. "Ugh... Dude... I'm so full... I feel weird too-"

Isaac looks at Michael, and notices his face changing colors, and enlarging in size, then shrinking. "WoAh DuDe... I'm TrIpPiNg BaLls OveR HeRE..." Mike looks at Isaac, and the place where his eye was, eyes kept coming in, then falling out. Each time a different color. Their faces seem to melt, and the puddles of their "melted" faces, seem to open up, leaving a world of colors to be seen. "LoOK aT My HanDS, BrO..." Michael says. "WoAh... ThEY LooK LikE NoOdLeS..." Isaac says, clearly out of his mind. "ThEsE AreN'T ReGuLaR mUShrOOms..." Isaac vomits violently, coughing up a little bit of blood. "I'M GonNa TakE A NAp..." Isaac passes out cold. "SaMe hE-" Mike passes out next to him.

More than a few hours pass by. Michael jolts up suddenly, having the worst headache in his entire life. "Ugh... My head..." Isaac hears Michael, and says, "5 more minutes... It's not a school day..." Mike shakes Isaac until he wakes up. "What the hell happened?" Michael picks up one of the mushrooms. "Aw shit." Isaac looks at him. "What? What's wrong?" Michael looks at him. "These are Psilocybin mushrooms. These are also known as magic mushrooms. We totally got fucked up." The two of them muster up the strength and motivation to keep moving forward. "We've gotta be a good 40-50 miles away from any type of civilization. The stars are abundant., and there's no evidence of people being here for a few years." Michael says. "Yeah. But we should still keep an eye out for people." Isaac replies with. The two walk around until about 9:00 p.m, until they see an abandoned cabin. "Dude! Let's check it out! There could be some useful stuff in there." Mike yells. They run inside the pitch-black cabin, and use their flashlight to look around. "I found some bandages!" Michael yells. "Oh shit! We should wrap it around my eye so it doesn't get infected." Isaac says. They wrap the roll of bandages around his head, protecting his eye.

"Anything else?" Isaac searches everywhere. He looks in drawers, cabinets, but didn't find anything. Until he stepped in something warm, and squishy. "What is that?" He asks, pointing the light at the ground beneath him. "Oh. My. God." It was a mutilated corpse. A new one at that. Something that had to of happened at least 20 minutes beforehand. Isaac attempts to dart out of the cabin, but the door slams shut in front of him. He feels a whisper in his ear, sending a chill down his spine. Not because of the words, it was because of the lack of words. Suddenly, black lights light the room, making everything somewhat visible. The body he had stepped in, was a dog. Scratch that, multiple dogs. But their bodies were so mutilated, that you couldn't tell what breed they were. A pale, tall, skinny creature with claws as long as a forearm emerges from the shadows. It's face had marks that resembled 3rd degree burns. It had no eyes. Just a "mouth" that was made out of melted skin, leaving needle-like teeth to be shown.

It walked on all fours, crawling onto the ceiling. It jumped down, landing on top of Michael. "Help!" is what he tried to yell, but no words came out. The air was knocked out of his lungs, leaving him breathless. Isaac leaps onto the monster, knife brandished, and he stabbed it's back over and over again, but to no avail. "SKRAWCH!" It shrieks, and it throws Isaac off of him. It leaps towards Isaac, and it tries to end him quickly by aiming for his throat. He dodges it narrowly, and while the two of them go at it, Michael collects his thoughts. "Wh-What? Hey! Get off of him!" The creature turns it's head 180 degrees, and runs towards him. "Shit. Shit!" Michael begins to run as fast as he can, but the creature trips him by cutting a huge gash in his leg. "Fuck!" Michael falls to the ground, slamming his head on the floor, knocking him out. The monster jumps on top of him, but suddenly freezes, when Isaac places the cross onto it's back.

"RAAAUGH! SHRAWK!" the creature roars in agony. A large, black, spot remains where the cross was placed, and it began to spread across it's body. Greenish blood began to burst out of the creatures body, and the blood began to harden when it escaped, turning the blood into needles, which hurt the beast more. A puddle of it's blood was underneath it's body, and when the creature thought it was over, the blood impaled it through it's chest. "Holy fucking shit. That's pretty metal." Isaac says. He glances over at Michael, then at the rest of the cabin. "I'll try and find some other stuff that we could take with us." Isaac says. He finds some rubbing alcohol, a lighter, 2 gallons of water, and a bible. "I'll take these." Isaac walks towards Michael and picks him up over his shoulder, and walks out of the cabin with the materials, and tries to find a place to stay for the night.