Artemis Child

Monster Earth Ch7

   The sound of scraping in the dim light seemed to come from all over. A low bowl of liquid layed under me, it was my blood that dribbled down my body and escaped from my fingertips. A silhouette of someone poured some kind of liquid in the blood that gave the room a complete alcoholic scent. She scooped some blood out and placed it in a mortar bowl. The material she mixed in the firefight sloshed out the side onto her hands, she quickly wiped it of with some cloth.
  "Salad dressing?" I asked sarcastically optimistic. She splashed the material onto my face. It burned immediately as the fumes rushed through my nose making me gag and choke on the unavoidable evil salad mix. There was a fast pain to the back of my head as I must have been knocked out. I awoke in an alley way of a very bad street. I was leaning against a damp dumpster on the cold ground shivering. It was a week after my family died, the passing of late night cars passed less and less frequently as the night would drag on.
   My stomach grumbled as I contemplated digging into the trash to find something to eat. "Why do I feel like I'm having deja vu?" I asked myself as I got up shaking my head, my recent memories seemed to be there but when I focused on them they felt like a dream. A low growl came from the street, where a man was standing. His shadow crept along the ground towards me and then back as cars passed.
  "Lost now are we?" The silhouette asked me from the intersection of the alleyway and the sidewalk. "No I'm good." I stated feeling uneasy from all of this, I knew what was going to happen. The shadow shifted into a multi-armed beast as did the man, seeming to be unreal. A large head of teeth began to rise out of the shadows, its eyes bright glowing against its black fur.
  I took off in a run down the alleyway towards a deep web of alleyways that hid him now from the world. "Not this shit again." I said slipping on trash and running my shoulder into a building as I tried to turn the corner. Pushing away from the wall I felt the material against the skin of my left hand.
  "My arms back!" I said only to realize I was in younger me's body. This was the first time I realized how different the world was. The dark monster hands broke through the corners of the building as it raced after me. Knocked over trashcans and object as I ran to try and slow it down. My ring wouldn't summon my spear just like that night I didn't know how. It was gaining on me and my younger untrained body couldn't keep up. One of its arms knocked my leg sending me into a hands forward sprawl.
  I crashed into a corner of trash that bleed into the active sidewalk. Eyes on me as I looked to them. Greasy hair, muck cover clothing, bloodshot eyes, no one approached me. "Fuck you then!" I said to them, this was the second time they didn't help me. I was now getting dragged back into the darkness of the alleyway. The monsters arms pinning my legs down, its massive head of teeth ready to rip me open. Slinging a punch only had it bite down on my arm breaking the bones and drenching its mouth in my blood. Before it could rip the chunk clean off my spear came to life puncturing its head. It pulled away letting go of my legs as it wanted to scream. I climbed onto its massive head and pulled on the spear like a lever. Its arms swung wildly clipping my shoulder, my right arm being useless I couldn't get a good grip on the spear. It grabbed me by the shoulder and I was thrown at the wall, my spear clattered loudly on the ground as it fled.
  I tied my shirt to my fucked up arm trying to stop the bleeding, tears rolled down my face from the pain. "Dad...help me." I beg to myself, crying a low sob. Using the wall I pulled myself up to my feet, my spear compressed back into a ring as I tried to grab it. I did my best not to limp, I wanted sleep but I knew if I closed my eyes for rest, they might never open again. I began looking for a way to the ER, it was that or die in the streets.
  "What am I doing? I know what's supposed to happen." I said to myself seeming to loose more and more of my sanity. Blood dripped through the breathable fabric I used to wrap it up, trailing behind me as I stubblingly made my way to where the I needed to go.
   My stomach heaved forcing my hanging body to lurch upward awaking me from that memory coma. I was being punched to silence me as I started yelling against the emotions that were trying to claw their way out with that dream. "Put him back in." The war chief said as the woman mixed more of that concoction. I was punch my ribs blacked by this point, internal bleeding might have already be underway at this point. The splash of more liquid waterboarding me and the thump of my head I was back in what ever they were doing to me.
    I running through woods, fresh stitches on my abdomen stinging as I moved. "If this keeps up I'll die before I get to my next birthday." My arm was still healing in a cast as the monster behind me chased on. The heavy flapping of wings were getting so close I could feel the pressure of the force they gave of. Claws came down and grabbed my shoulders throwing me towards a tree, must have been trying to open my skull like a coconut. I had some practice now changing my body direction as I've at this point been thrown far more times then I've been caught. With my left arm I grabbed the side of the tree and swung around but my grip slid off the flaky pine. I landed behind the tree but I felt the sting of a few stitches opening. "Ooooooh" I said holding my abdomen. Claws came down again, my spear sprung to life cutting out a talon and having it back up to rethink its plans. "Harpie slut." I said as the naked chested monster perched on a tree. "You furry little bitch." She called back taking a dive for me, I threw myself to the ground to get out of the way. It grabbed my foot and started dragging me ready to swing me like a stick at the tree. I stabbed my spear into a pine root before I could get too far.
  The root broke and sent us both off trajectory. I landed spear first onto the harpie, blood sprayed my face as it punches hole through her heart. My arm stinging, my shirt bloody again, my hair full of pine needles that made this itchiness creep up on me, and now the blood. "Perfect." I said wiping my face with the harpie's wing before it turned into dust.
   I awoke again the liquid that was splashed on my face was bubbling up from my nose making me start coughing the liquid up from the back of my throat. "Why are you doing this?" I asked them but was struck with something metal across my face making my body spin on the rope.
  It was my weapon, the segmented staff that Gena made. "You seem to be from somewhere else. The world you see in there." The shaman said tapping my skull on the last sentence. "How do we get there?" She asked getting ready to mix some more material.
  "Those memory jumps are pretty short, you are gonna need a lot more." I said with a cough of laugh. She mixed more material but this time she pored it into the large bowl that was now under me. "I had to open my fuckin-" they lowered the rope dropping me in the blood concoction. The burning feeling came up to my shoulder as I was headfirst on the liquid unable to breath.
  I was running through all my memories like it was happening again. The fuzzy feeling of deja vu and sadness choking me the whole time. I was brought up to breath for barely a real minute before plunged back into the liquid. "Come get me if anything changes." The warchief said silently disappearing into the far darker areas of the room, a dim opening in the far distance opened for a second before I was plunged back in. They kept dunking me for hours. I had enough.
   "Fhhghck ogghf." I yelled in the liquid, they pulled me up, to see what I said. I spit some liquid in one of their faces. They dropped me screaming from the burning feeling I had been experiencing. Dropped completely into the liquid, rope and all. The faint glow on my rope shined faintly in the liquid before fading. I could move my hands again, the liquid either washed what ever it was away or someone had to be holding it. The rope was in here with me now. I jumped out and slung the rope around the shaman before she could get a weapon on me. Rope around the throat I pulled her into the liquid face first drowning her til she stopped moving. Her body went limp and I let go. It slung liquid as the lifeless hung of a Centuaride woman flopped against the ground with a slushy thud. I climbed out and picked up my weapon, with a flick of the weapon I cracked the skull of the previous rope holder blood splashed across the floor in the firefight. I stomped on the head over and over til I was absolutely sure they were dead.
  Using the spear part of the weapon Gena gave me I skinned the fur part of each and tied the skin with the rope to make clothing. "I know you are here." I said throwing the spear into the dark, where wide eyed pupils reflected the firelight with fear. It made a fleshy pop as it pierced its target. "No more of this bullshit." I said grabbing my weapon and setting the room on fire as I headed to exit that the fire now illuminated. The material I had been dunked in started to dry a translucent brown color like maple syrup. I slicked my hair back to get it out of my way, the bloody panther and jaguar fur was starting to try to my skin as I walked down this narrow corridor of dirt and wood. It was slightly on a incline so as I got higher my skin tingled by the temperature and humidity change.
   I didn't get far as there was an electric like hum in the air. A shock of some kind rippled throughout my body. My muscles locked up and I was forced to my the ground. "Ready for more?" I was asked before another swift shock was delivered from some weird slug thing in a centuaride hand.