Among the Dead

Fengge (Before)

Fengge (before)

Fengge struggled to find the tools he needed to excavate the plant he was after, he wasn't even sure he was going to find it in here, but he had a good feeling.

He heard a slight noise from deep in the cave system and froze to the spot. He forgot what he needed from his bag and slowly cast his light around the cave, trying to spot where the noise was coming from.

He saw movement from the corner of his eye. With a gasp he switched off his torch and crouched down where he was.

The bats fell silent and all Fengge could hear was his heavy breathing and his humming bird fluttering of his heart beat; but then he heard something being dragged across the floor of faeces.

A creature as dark as the cave came into the light of the fire and Fengge could see what it was for the first time. From the distance it looked human in shape with long matted hair down its back. It dragged the woman from earlier behind it and once it got her to the fire pit; it crouched down next to her and started ripping away her clothes.

When the first crunch of bones echoed around the cave is made Fengge stare frozen at its movements. He watched in horror as the creature bent its head and ripped away at her flesh. Within seconds, his stomach emptied all over the floor and he fell forwards onto all fours as he continued to heave and shaking uncontrollable.

When the dry heaving stopped, he looked up and noticed the creature was no longer by the fire.

He wasn't worried about being spotted by the creature. The dark hid him well enough; he would be surprised if anything but a bat could find him.

Chattering of teeth filled the silence a moment before something hard hit the back of his head and he fell further into darkness.

When Fengge woke, his head felt as if someone had shoved a spike through his eyes and was wedged at the back of his head. When the world around him stopped moving, he found himself next to the fire across from the creature and the dead woman.

She was missing her shirt but Fengge could only stare at the exposed bones of her rib cage. Her hair was once long and mousy brown, now it was darker and matted with blood and dirty and part of her skull gleaning a blood stained white in the fire light.

Fengge almost threw up again, but found he had nothing left to come up, he could only watch as the creature slurped the blood off its long fingers.

"Please let me go," Fengge muttered, he knew the creature probably didn't understand him but his common sense went out the window at this point.

The creature quickly whipped around just as trickle of blood dripped down its mouth and down its neck.

Fengge gasped with horror as he realised what he took for dark skin was actually made darker by the dried blood covering the body. The creature didn't just look human; it was human.

"Please don't eat me," Fengge begged, "I'll do whatever you want or give you whatever you want."

The creature tilted his head in an inhuman way as if he was studying Fengge's words and trying to understand them.

He edged closer to Fengge, chomping his teeth as he got closer as if to try scaring Fengge for fun.

"Leave me alone," Fengge shouted as the creature got closer.

The creature tilted his head in that inhuman way before quickly skipping back to the body. He pulled the head roughly, grabby the lower jaw and snapping it open with sheer force. Reaching inside, he grabbed the tongue and pulled it out.

Fengge almost emptied his stomach again if he hadn't already done so as the creature munched hungrily at the long bloody muscle.

Once he finished, the creature ran into the darkness; leaving Fengge alone to straighten himself and fight against the ropes that round him.

His wrists were being rubbed raw by the rough and fraying rope when the creature slunk back into the light of the fire. In his hand he held a plant, twisted stems and almost colourless buds.

The creature pulled a small amount off and headed back to the body; leaving the rest at Fengge's feet.

He smashed the skull until it shattered into small pieces and roughly pulled out part of the brain. He wrapped the plant around the handful and swallowed it whole.

Fengge watched in disgust as the blood oozed down the monsters chin. "What are you?" he hissed.

The creature hopped over the fire and squatted in front of Fengge. He licked his blood cracked lips. "I..." he breathed so softly it almost made no sound "I...am..." he paused and tried to make his voice louder.

"Death."

Fengge sat staring at the creature unsure if heheard anything or if he had made it up. "What did you say?"