Eryn Cutler: The Life Taker

Chapter 9- Possessed

"You will always be a monster- there is not turning back from it. But what kind of monster you become is entirely up to you" -Julie Kagawa, The Eternity Cure

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The freckled man dropped the gold coins and performed a dance around a puddle of black blood seeping out of a sewer. As he danced, he swayed from side to side. His body, limp and flaccid as a wilting plant, knew no bounds. He was doing its own form of gymnastics. A sharp pain seized me lower hip, the part where the freckled man bended. I swayed along with the rhythmic motion until I could no longer feel my legs.

I gasped as the freckled man jumped and twirled in midair. My entire body was moving by itself. I tried to resist but this man's voodoo was stronger than futile resistance. Finally, as the freckled man dropped to the ground, crimson red squirted out of his fingertips. Oh damn.

I felt something at the end of my fingertips. I felt some sort of liquid pushing itself out of my body, trying to break free of the prison it had been trapped inside of for many years. Deducing what would happen next, I made the Sign of the Cross to stop whatever dark magic that was happening to me.

After I whispered a prayer to the One Above, the facial features of the freckled man contorted into an eerie grin when he faced me. Whatever it was doing, whether it was trying to seduce me or scare me, it succeeded in making my heart thud against my chest. I then heard cruel laughter coming from behind me. Never in my three years of living in tandem with Death have I felt so scaed and alone. It was as if Death had abandoned me, which should not be the case.

This freckled man, or should i say, freckled puppet, knew I was following him all along. He stretched his left hand towards me. I could see the horrors of what it was truly made of. In normal firefly light, he would look ordinary but one look at close range would tell you otherwise. 

His bloodstained fingers were bound together by loose nails. The wooden hand he held out creaked as it seemed to get closer and closer. I must be hallucinating.

As I inched backward, I bumped something hard, then fell to the ground. I was panting and hyperventilating...and when Iooked behind, I turned pale with fright.

The man standing behind me wore a white mask, which concealed all his emotions within. He was wearing an expensive-looking coat and a blue tie with matching black corduroys. His black shoes were the same brand as mine. I could recognize that genuine Fleur de lis sign on the tops of shoes anytime. 

His immacualately white gloved hand reached out towards me. His other gloved hand was holding a similar puppet made out of wood, a replica of the freckled man I just saw. Confused and bewildered, I looked behind me and noticed that the man I saw with the gold coins dissipated into thin air. All that was left were ashes and sawdust arranged in a neat pile.