A Grave Man (Solo)

[Hysteria]

Thunder cracked across the sky marked only by the suddenly prelude of lighting. Rain fell in heavy wet pelts turning the ground into a sloppy wet mud bowl. It had been like this for days and Talen Shadowalker, the shadow puppeteer was regretting his decision to take on this accursed contract.

"Find out who has been robbing graves on the outskirts of town" had been all the local constable had told him. Apparently, they didn't have any more information, nor the manpower to do it themselves. Talen thought the rain also played a part in the lack of motivation. Planted on some unkown gravestone the shadow puppeteer had pulled his cloak around him tightly in order to ward off the rain, but to little avail. Through grumpy thoughts about how this would be the last time he tried to make some extra money by helping the local law enforcement, Talen scanned the area for any signs of movement. The last two nights had proved a waste of time, but as they say, third times a charm.

The cemetary was quiet except for the sound of rain as Talen sat in the shadows. The sun had gone down a few hours ago and only mottled moonlight and the occasional lightning managed to provide a clear picture of the graveyard. There were the normal lines of dark tombstones and slightly raised mounds of dirt with the edge of the cemetary lined with large dark trees with twisted limbs that seemed to be lifted right out of a horror book. What little grass that grew around the graves was in tuffs spread far apart. Talen sat and waited.

[Hysteria]

It was just before midnight when Talen heard voices through the rain. He slid off the tombstone and crouched behind its large stone face. Soon hunched figures shambled through the darkness towards the fresh graves a little over a hundred metres away from him. Hidden in the shadows Talen watched on. He didn't know much about grave robbing, but he knew that digging in the rain was not going to be easy. It was probably desperation that was causing them to persue this difficult task.

Strange voices danced through the driping rain and ended at Talen's ears. He had been joined by five dark figures that made their way across the open ground of the cemetary. The words that reached his ears were a mixture of grunts and harsh short words. There were two distinct voices which seemed to belong to two slightly bigger shapes. Other stooped figures milled around with occasional groans and grunts.

Talen was trying to make out the figures without moving from his spot behind the tombstone. Soon the sound of shovels could be heard through the rain. Talen had succeded in finding the grave robbers, but how he was going to actually capture them was another matter. The dark clad figure pulled his cloak tighter around himself as he thought of what to do. He had hoped that there would only one, or at most two people, but he could not handle five. Something seemed off about the dark figures hunched low. They might not be human, perhaps dwarf or some other stunted humanoid.

I suppose I will just have to follow them back to where ever they are going. I can't really do much else. Though I wonder how they are going to dig in this rain?

A few minutes past and Talen was listening more to the rain hitting his hood than the mumbling and grunting from the dark figures. Lets face it, watching five men dig a hole in the ground was just as fun as it sounds. Finally they seemed done, or at least they were not moving around as much and had quieted down. There was some more grunting and the sound of wood creaking open.

I have to get closer... dammit.

Still crouched low Talen made his way forwards, making sure to keep behind the grave stones. Managing to get a dozen or so metres closer he could now make out the forms of the grave robbers a bit better. Two were definetly human. They had pale, gaunt features which looked more rat than human. The smaller figures looked disjointed somehow, though they were mostly hidden with mismatched cloths roughtly sown together. One of them was standing in the open grave and pushing the corpse up to the others. The sounds of splashing came to Talen as the grave quickly filled up water.

"That 'ole is gonna collapse." Said one of the taller figures.

"Leave it then, it was falling apart anyway." Replied the other.

The two tall figures started off through the rain, leaving the two smaller ones carry the corpse and follow. Talen watched them head towards the cemetary entrace and made his way towards the open grave. The rain was running into the opening and causing the sides to cave in. Half submerged in mud Talen could see the third and unluckiest of the minions. Now close to it, the features were easily recognisable.

The creature was a mess of mismatched body parts joined with a rapidly decaying quality of thread. It was a zombie of sorts, a sad frankenstine creation that failed to even dig itself out of the hole it was in. Two different colored hands dug at the dirt, but it was simply nt enough. Talen watched the water raise up to its mouth and then over. It struggled for a second and then was swallowed up. The shadow puppeteer shook his head and followed after the remaining four.

[Hysteria]

Talen had been following the four remaining grave robbers for half an hour through the stormy night. The road they were using was small and mostly overgrown, but during its peak use would have been quite wide. Talen's plan was simple, find the base and then return to the town and alert the town guard. They could be the ones to handle the problem.

The grave robbers turned suddenly around a corner and disappeared from sight. Talen moved quickly to catch up, his feet squelching through the puddles on the road. Near the edge of the corner he slowed down. The dense bushes and trees on either side of the road might has well of been a wall as the Shadow Puppeteer peaked around the corner.

Suddenly his entire field of vision was filled with a twisted smiling face. The grave robber had already lifted a cudgel into the air as Talen stumbled backwards. With a crack he brought it down hard on Talen's head. The boy's vision suddenly went black and he hit the ground with a moist thud.

[Hysteria]

Slowly blue eyes opened and through a splitting headache they scanned the surrounds. Talen found himself sitting in an old chair with his hands bound behind him. The room had a stone floor and walls and some old matting pushed to the side. It only had one entrance, a large wooden door. It seemed like a perfect jail cell. Talen's muddled mind tried to make sense of what had happened.

The brave investigator caught like some stupid rat. Thought Talen thought acidly.

There was some mumbling outside the door and then it creaked open, letting a tall and dark figure enter. He was pale, much like Talen, though his features were curved and cruel. His hands were clasp behind his back as he walked with the upmost arrogance to stand in front of Talen.

"Who are you?" the figure sneered.

Talen's mind raced. He was no longer carrying his weapons or his cloak and was not in any situation to defend himself. His ony hope was to be smart... he nearly gave up straight away.

"I just.. um wanted to...uh.” stammered Talen.

“Spit it out.” Spat the man.

“To... uh... learn.” Managed Talen.

“Learn?” The man repeated slightly less agressivly.

“Oh... yes. I wanted to learn from you.” Talen said, pretty much just going with it, "The job you did on that golum was a work of genius.”

The dark figure lifted an eyebrow.

"What do you know of the fine dark arts boy?" Questioned the figure.

Talen conentraited. Shadows jumped into existance around his face, bending and twisting into a grotesce snarling wolf face. Large curved teeth dripped shadowy drool and lips were curved into a crule snarl. The interrigator stepped back, surprised by the transformation. He quickly remembered himself and straighted up.

"Shadow play, nothing more." Said the figure a little bit breathlessly.

The wolven face dissapeared, leaving Talen as he was.

"I admit my art could never compare to yours, hence why I have come to marvel, and perhaps learn from you." Replied Talen.

The dark figure mulled over the statement. With a shrug he turned with a swish of his cloths and walked out of the room. Talen hoped that he managed to convince his captive. Probably just as importantly, the shadow pupetteer was trying to figure out what was the motivation of the group. If that was their leader, of which seemed to be true given his attitude, it was probably arrogance and a love of his sick trade. His trade. Talen paused on the thought. What was it that he actually was doing? The creature he had seen may have been a golem, a mixture of body parts cut together and animated, or some sort of frankenstine monster, a living creature brought back to life with all terror of knowing death. These were stories on the streets though, Talen knew not if they were true or false. It seemed that he had struck a cord with his captive though... Perhaps there was truth in them.

[Hysteria]

Hours had past. One of the men keeping Talen captive had entered the cell to tend the wound on his head from the hit, but had refused to speak and left. Talen had been left alone with his thoughts, which mostly were about a grousme death and being stiched together as a zombie.

"Open the door." said a voice from outside the room.

The sound of bolts opening precursed the dark figure entering the door again. The tall pale man entered and waved his hand at Talen.

"Untie the ropes." He said stiffly.

A small hunched figure shuffled through the door and over to Talen. The hodgepodge of human parts stiched together undid the ties holding the shadow puppeteer. Talen tried not to look at the disfigured man standing so close it was disgusting. Instead he focused on the relief of having his hands freed. Talen rubbed the red sores on his wrists but didn't stand up.

"I do not trust you, but I also do not fear you either." Said the dark figure.

"I don't understand." Said Talen glancing from the figure to the small stunted one standing by it's masters side.

"You will do some things for me. In return you will gain my trust. But fail me and I shall tear you asunder." Said the figure placing his hand on Talen's shoulder. Talen swallowed, trying to push the images of himself as a small stunted abominationg from his mind and missing that the man's hand was glowing slightly on his shoulder.

"uh... what should I call you, my lord?" Said Talen adding formality to the list of things preventing him from being killed and cut into little mismatching pieces.

"You may call me..." said the figure drawing himself up to his full height, "the Doctor!"

Talen's eyes glazed over.

[Hysteria]

Talen walked down the stone hall following one of the only three humans that lived in the building. The man's name was John, but he refused to engage Talen in conversation at all. He seemed to be a smaller version of the Doctor, the same cruel features and lofty attitute but without the same pressence. John stopped outisde a door and turned around. He was smiling, an odd twisted toothy grin.

“Prepare yourself.” he said.

The man pushed opened the door, and too late Talen noticed that he had pinched his nose closed. There was a blast of rancid air that struck Talen like a fist. It was the worse thing he had ever been in the presence of. Without even having time to think about it, his stomach decided to add its input to the situation. With his eyes watering from the stench, vomit exploded out of his mouth and onto the stone floor. Talen buckled, still dry wrenching amid John's laughter.

“Figured that might happen.” Said John taking a step into the room.

The room was fairly small, about six by six. The cause of the smell was what the room have been used for. Apparently the room had been used as storage for body parts that had not yet been used. It had shelves stocked with bits of rotting body parts. Most of the limbs had been claimed by flies, the rotting green flesh covered with maggots. The sight was far worse than the relatively mundane vomit that was on the floor near Talen.

“Right. You have to go through the body parts and try and salvage whatever pieces are not too badly infested. It seemed that some flies got in and before we knew it this happened.” Said John shaking his head. “Because your new at this, I'll give you a heads up. If you throw out more body parts than you need to, it'll be hell to pay, right?”

“Won't th.... *cough* ugh, won't they all be bad?” Said Talen holding his nose shut.

“Oh no.” mumbled John, “The ones that were buried recently would have had preservatives put with 'em. Those ones will probably be fine. The flies will go for the older ones first. For the ones that only have a few maggots, I'll get a bucket of alcohol for you to dump 'em in.”

John reached into his cloak and pulled out a few hessian bags and handed them to Talen.

“Fill them up with the bad parts and give 'em to one of the shufflers to dispose of. Tell 'em to dispose of it and they'll know what to do. The buggers aren't good at think'n but'll follow orders good enough.” Said John before turning and walking down the hall to leave Talen at it.

The first limb had been a problem. The walls were covered in disgusting rotting limbs, but Talen wasn't sure how he should go about picking them up. It was such logical question that Talen grabbed hold of it firmly rather than letting the horror of the situation overwhelm him. He had a small handkerchief in his pocket and he pulled it out and managed to pick up the first rotting limb, a hand. It was covered with maggots, so the boy opened the bag and dropped it in. A second later he emptied the last remaining bit of his stomach into the bag as well.

This is going to take a while...


* * * *

It took about four hours to shift through the body parts. Too many maggots, too much mould, bag it, only a few maggots, dump in alcohol and put back, when the bags full, tell the zombie to empty it, start filling up a new bag. The process was as disgusting as it was tedious. The room smelt of alcohol and rotting flesh and so did Talen.

At the end Talen just stood there, an odd sense of disconnection from reality has settled over him. It was probably the only thing stopping him from going completely catatonic. John came back soon after and snapped the youth out of his daze.

“Come on then, food and then to bed. Lots of work to do tomorrow.” Said John gesturing Talen to move.

Four hours of work would not normally drain Talen so much, he figured that the disgusting nature of the would must have had an effect on him. The Puppeteer followed John down the hall and into another room with a musty bed. On the bed there was a small plate with a hunk of bread. If Talen hadn't been so mentally and physically tired he would have tried to escape, but instead he ate the bread and went to bed.

[Hysteria]

The next day started with Talen awaking from a restless sleep. All night he had been plagued by a dream of a giant rotting hand chasing him down a stone corridor while a zombie played 'Baby Elephant Walk' on an organ.

“Uuur.” Replied Talen to a large knock on the door.

“Oi, get your fucking face out of bed you piece of shit.” Shouted a voice from the door way.

It was Tony, the other of the Doctors 'helpers', he didn't bother to introduce himself, just order Talen around.

“I SAID! GET UP SWINE!” Shouted Tony.

Talen jumped out of the old bed as quickly as he could. He was suddenly hit by the smell of his own cloths... kinda like puke on a stick.

“This way.” Said Tony with an upturned nose.

Still half asleep, Talen followed the weaselly man through the stone corridors. All Talen could think about was if he was going to have to face the same horrible treatment that he had gone through the day before. The memory of feeling rotting flesh in his hands and the smell still haunted him.

Tony stopped at a door and Talen felt his stomach turn. This time the helper didn't bother to say anything as he pushed open the door and walked in. The room's smell hit Talen again, but this time it was mostly alcohol with only an undercurrent of rotting body parts.

“What is this place?” Asked Talen.

“The bleed'n operating room.” Replied Tony, not bothering to look at Talen.

The room was quite large and contained five operating tables. On each of them were different body parts, some larger than others, but none of them whole. There were several small benches covered with various tools; scalpels, needles, saws and a few weirdly shaped metal things. Light came in by a large opening in the roof and several small windows.

“Alright, bring it in.” Said Tony.

Talen paused, unsure what he was supposed to do. Through the door behind him shambled a zombie carrying a large wooden tub of soapy water.

“Well paste face, wash all those instruments and put them out to dry. We have a procedure planed for the afternoon.” Tony smiled, a sight worse than rotting limbs, and walked out.

Talen looked around with bleary eyes. The whole ordeal was turning out to be some sort of twisted nightmare, but at least this part wasn't too bad. As he gathered up the different implements, Talen could almost pretend that they were not covered with decomposing flesh, but rather left over food. It was hard, but he tried.

[Hysteria]

After an hour or so of cleaning utensils, Talen had finished. The clean and dried apparatus were all neatly aligned back in there positions on the metal trays around the room. The job wasn't that hard at all, much better than what he had been doing day before. Talen sat down on one of the benches not covered with zombie parts. He had time to think, but was not sure what to think about. How am I going to get out of here? The bounty on the graver robbers now seemed worthless, Talen just wanted to escape the hell hole.

The door creaked open and Talen snapped out of this dilemma. The Doctor entered flagged by John and Tony. The trio looked like a family of rodents who had just found some food. Talen swallowed away his fear.

“Ahh, Talen.” Said the Doctor flourishing his hand, “Good to see you proving your worth. Now you get to see me work my art.”

The Doctor motioned Talen to join him at the centre table and Talen went to his side. The Doctor was smiling and it sent a chill down Talen's back. John and Tony were already moving the body parts from the other tables to the centre one in front of Talen and The Doctor.

All four pale men looked down at the mess of body parts. With them all on the centre table the groutesque form could be made out. The Doctor pulled out a small bag from his robes and pulled out a large needle and muttered a few words. A thin dark string appeared threaded through the eye of the needle and trailed behind the needle like smoke. As The Doctor started stiching the body parts together the thread grew longer and longer. Talen watched on with a mixture of fascination and apprihenson. While it was digusting, it was an impressive magic The Doctor seemed to wield. It seemed the torso was made of two parts, a torso split in half with another placed between it to create a much bigger frame. Into the giant torso there were four arms and two massive legs to support it. In perportion the head looked relativly small.

As Talen watched the Doctor work he felt himself start to get woozy and cursed his weak stomach at getting sick at the sight of more dismemberd bodies. Perhaps he was being to hard on himself, or perhaps he was just wrong.

"The secret I have found in making my creations is the life essence." Said the Dcotor still focusing on his stiching, "To make bigger and more powerfull zombies you need to transfer a large amount of life essence into them. The ones I have made thus far were from animals. Dogs mostly."

The words seemed muddled to Talen. He looked down and the doctor had already attached two arms and was working on conecting the torso together.

When did he get that far ahead....? Though Talen as he squinted at the corpse. He looked at the thread coming out of the needle. The thin black thread twisted around and came up to Talen's shoulder.

"So when you came along I thought it was the perfect time to make a new and bigger creation." boasted the Doctor.

"What life force are you usein... oh sh..." Talen fainted.

[Hysteria]

Slowly mismatching eyes opened to flickering candle light. A grinning face appeared. Pale and grinning.

"Its awake! I did it!" Screamed the Doctor, his face a twisted smile.

"Won't he be pissed?" Asked Tony

The two underlings were standing back against the stone wall. The room had gotten dark, it seemed hours had past since the operation had started. The mismatched eyes shifted to them.

"No you fools. The memories are located in the brain, we took his life essence." Spat the Doctor before breaking out into a big grin again. He stroked his fingers across the giant's bare chest with a look of exileration on his face.

Where am I? What was I doing? I remember pain, a pain in my chest and not being able to breath... wait no. I remember the rain. Watching the graves.
What?

Where am I?

Who am I?

The ground was wet, very wet. I remember the Doctor. Take your pills, don't stress yourself, rest.... wait, there was another Doctor. Cut cut! Cut them up and stich them back together. I am confused. I can see the Doctor. The bad Doctor. Did he kill me? Did my heart stop? I don't remember... I don't remember.

"Rise my creation!" announced the Doctor, his face twisted with the joy of power.

The massive deformed creature felt a force at work bending his actions to the will of the Doctor. The large zombie lifted itself into a sitting position using the two bottom arms to steady itself. The Doctor laughed even louder at the sight of the creature obeying him.

"Doctor we did it!" Exclamined John in glee.

The Doctor shot a death stare at John. The rat-like man shrank back from his glare. How dare he think that he had contributed to the masterwoork that now sat before them. It was he, the Doctor that had crafted the wonderous abomination that sat in front of them with his own genious. He started to laugh, a hideous cackling sound.

The monstours creation turned its attention back to the Doctor, but he saw something out of the corner of his eyes. There was a figure lying on one of the tables. He had short black hair, a pale complextion and seemed very, very familiar.

The giant zombie lifted one of his hands towards the lifeless body. The Doctor's laughter stopped straight away.

“Don't look at that!” He screamed, trying to turn the zombie's attention away from Talen's lifeless corpse.

“Dok... tore.” The giant growled, “Doktore did dis.”

“No! Pay attention to me!” Screamed The Doctor with fear in his voice, “You are mine! Mine!”

“Re... venge.” Said the Zombie.

[Hysteria]

The Doctor stood there dumbstruck. The giant zombie flicked his top right arm and caught the man in the chest. He flew across the room and smashed into the wall. Tony and John were already running towards the door before The Doctor had hit the ground. Talen reached out and grabbed the small table that had the instruments on it and without so much as a pause flung it across the room towards them. John managed to duck through the door in time, but Tony was hit square on. The man went down and didn't move.

Zombie Talen pushed himself off the operating table to a standing position. The sensation was one that was nearly indescribable. His entire body groaned with every movement and the stitches felt like they would break any second. The feeling was like being in a costume that was too small for you. Everything felt slightly different, like you weren't really there.

“Urg....” The Doctor pushed himself to his feet and stumbled towards the door. The massive Talen reached out for him but his hand was just short and The Doctor managed to slip through the door. Zombie Talen pushed his feet forwards and stumbled after him. The massive form got to the doorway and didn't slow down, or even twist to fit his massive frame through the small doorway, instead he pushed through in a shower of stone and wood.

“John you coward! Get back here and sacrifice yourself for me!” Screamed The Doctor as he half ran and half stumbled down the hall.

The giant form of the zombie stopped running and punched his hands into the wall, smashing four large holes into it. Each of the hands grabbed a revealed stone and yanked them free. With a flick of his top right arm he threw one of the massive stones at the fleeing man. The thick grey rock skimmed just above its target and smashed into the wall in front of the The Doctor as the hall turned a corner.

“AAAHHHHHHHHH!” Screamed the fleeing man pausing for a second as he was showed with shards of rock. Just as soon as he had stopped he started running against and turned the corner with Talen lumbering after him.

[Hysteria]

The Doctor had managed to get outside the building with Zombie Talen following behind quickly. Exiting the building they found themselves in a large roofed area that seemed to be a loading station for the building. The raging Talen maybe have realised that the building was a sawmill if he was in his normal state of mind, but as he was, the fact passed right by him. The area contained some large rotting cutting stations, two old wagons and surprisingly John. The man had managed to escape and gather the remaining five mindless zombies that had been spread though the building. The Doctor ran over to the group and turned to face Talen with renewed confidence than before.

“Rip him apart!” Yelled the Doctor triumphantly.

The zombies shambled forwards with outstretched hands. A flick of one of Talen's arms and a flying stone ended with a crack and a splatter of zombie brains. Their number was cut to five, but they showed no signs of slowing down. Behind the wall of reanimated dead bodies the Doctor started weaving his hands. Darkness formed in long streaks with each movement and built up into a large glowing ball of darkness in front of him.

“I'm surprised that you remembered who you were. You didn't even notice that the last day I was slowly draining you life force. A stupid boy like you, you really think I would make something I couldn't destroy!” Screamed The Doctor pushing his hands forwards and sending the massive charge of energy towards Talen, “Now be destroyed by darkness!”

“No we won't” The voice like a whisper echoed through the loading area to the confusion of all there.

The spell shot into one of the zombies and blasted the creature apart and continued forwards. Talen lifted his hands up to protect himself but as the spell struck the massive zombie form it dissipated and left him unharmed. If Talen's mind had been operating above the level of a dazed four year old he would have probably pondered what had happened. Instead he grabbed the wrists of one of the zombies and pulled. There was a slight cracking sound and a splatter of congealed blood and Talen was holding two severed arms.

With powerful swings of the dismembered limbs and smashing the stones in his other hands into the zombies, Talen drastically reduced their number. The zombies were however not defeated yet. They clawed, hacked and bit the larger creature. Chunks of dead flesh fell to ground amid the beating of torn limbs and stone; bones broke, limbs fell to the ground and various juices splattered.

It is a weird thing to watch zombies fight. They tear off limbs, but don't slow down. With a roar of anger, Talen lifted one of the zombies and threw it towards the Doctor and John. The Doctor dived to the ground, but John wasn't as quick. The mess smashed into him leaving the man prostrate on the ground. The attack though opened up the giant zombie. Two zombies grabbed his arms and started to pull. The force pulled and ripped the stitching that held him together. With a final pull, the arms were ripped off.

The giant roared again and brought two heavy fists down on the heads of two zombies. His fists met with little resistance and a squelching sound. That bought the zombie total to two, and one of those was missing its arms. It was a simple swipe and crack of bone that ended the unlife of one of the zombies and a swift kick smashed the ribs and back of the other.

Then it was just Talen, short two arms, but standing, against The Doctor. The weasel in the mud tuned scared eyes towards Talen. The was only one hope left for the madman, to undo the bounds holding Talen's soul to the monster. He pushed himself to his feet and started waving magical signs in the air. The dark writing paused in the air and then shot towards Talen. In retaliation a large stone was thrown through the air. The two projectiles passed through each other without slowing down, and then both hit their targets. There was a shower of stones as the rock smashed into The Doctors shoulder and an explosion of darkness against Talen. Then, for Talen, everything went dark.

[Hysteria]

Slowly darkness split and parted to reveal a cascade of grey. Talen's mind awakened slowly through a muddled mixture of sensations. As his sight started to return he found himself looking over the same area he had just been, but confusingly he was standing up. The young shadow puppeteer looked at his hands, unsure of what he would see. They were normal, a little paler than usual, but normal. The youth was back in something similar to his normal form, but strangely different. He was incorporeal, just his spirit manifested in its remembered shape.

What is going on? thought Talen.

“You have been released from that constructed body and have taken the form of your original.” spoke an unseen voice.

Who... what are you? Where are you?

“Really? Have you forgotten so much already?” Came another voice slightly different to the other.

“Don't tease him, you know that is a common result of the transformation.” interjected the first.

Are you going to answer me or just talk amongst yourselves?

A black blob of darkness seemed to spring to life just in front of Talen. The shape rapidly grew larger and started to take form... and an attractive form at that. A woman, dressed in a black leather like outfit stood in front of the dumb struck Talen. She was tall, dark haired, ivory skinned and with a balcony you could do opera off. If Talen been more than a mass of energy he would probably have blushed.

“Does that help little one?” The woman said with a wink.

“....” replied Talen eloquently.

“Ugh....” Replied the woman shaking her head.

She reached out a hand and placed it Talen's shoulder as one would do to a child. She smiled at him, the familiar smile of one who cares about you because she had known you for a lifetime.

“Come on Talen, lets get you back to that body of yours.”

[Hysteria]

Talen followed the woman through the corridors of the building. His eyes were focused firmly on the swish of her walk and he was only dimly aware of the carnage that he had inflicted on the building while being in the body of that massive zombie.

“Alright, there it is.”

Talen snapped out of his hypnosis at the woman's words. He glanced around, they had walked back to the operating room, the scene of his transference to the massive zombie. Talen's body lay on the of the tables amidst the destruction. In the ethereal light Talen's body gave off an eerie glow of darkness.

“Touch your body Talen.” Said the women.

Talen reached out a quivering hand towards his body. The prospect of touching your own dead body didn't generate confidence. Gently touching the body there was a sudden crackle of energy. The body convulsed on the table and tendrils of darkness shot out of the body, twisted through the air, and stuck Talen. The boy lifted into the air as the energy pushed itself into him. He tried to yell out, but no sound came to him. The body on the table started to fade and then, as if it had never existed, it was gone.

Talen's form shifted and convulsed in the air. It shrank and became smaller, regressing Talen back to a size of a younger age. He then slowly lowered to the ground and colour flowed back to into the world around him.

“I don't understand...” Mumbled Talen looking at his small hands.

The woman smiled and spoke but Talen could not hear what she was saying. He twisted his head to the side in confusion.

“I can't hear you.” He said.

The woman stopped talking and lifted his hands to his head. She placed them on his temples and focused her eyes on his.

“You have reabsorbed the energy that made up your body, but it looks like you didn't manage to absorb it all and compensated by taking on a younger form.” She said, “Now I am going to take my hands away. You need to concentrate to listen to me until you get used to it. Alright?”

“Alright” Echoed Talen.

The woman took her hands away and smiled again.

“You make a cute kid.” She said with a grin.

“Thanks...” replied Talen acidly.

“Talen.” Said the girl, snapping to a serious voice, “the things that have happened here were unfortunate, but they have revealed some things that you had forgotten.”

“What things? I have no idea what happened! I can barely remember being in that body!” Talen shouted at the girl and felt his gut get heavy. The return of his body was bringing back the emotional side of being alive.

“I didn't want to tell you this, but I guess you are leaving me no choice.” Said the woman.

Talen tried to calm himself and focus on the woman. He sat down on one of the benches and took a deep breath, he had a feeling this was going to be big.

“Did you ever wonder why shadows answered when you asked them to do things? Its not because you think of them as friends, its because they ARE your friends, friends you've had long before deciding to take on a corporeal form. You are a shadow that has decided to take on human form. I don't know why you did, you wouldn't tell anyone. Your body, your soul and your mind are all shadow, you are one of us.”

The woman waited for Talen to take in the information. The now even younger youth just sat there, shocked at what he was hearing.

“But I remember my parents! I remember them, the warmth and the love!” Talen replied fighting against the truth.

“You do have parents, but I cannot go into that now, because I cannot sustain this form for much longer. Know that you were the most powerful of us and you had a reason for what you did. Even though you have forgotten, you need to find it again and fulfill whatever it was you needed to do.” the woman paused and smiled, “I didn't let The Doctor use my power to hurt you, but I can't promise the same of other shadows next time.”

“Wait, isn't he dead?” Asked Talen as the woman in front of him smiled and slowly faded away. He was alone on once more.

[Hysteria]

The miniaturised Talen sat on the bench for a while. The event of the last few days were more than the average person could take in stride. The truth about his reality was shocking, but so much so that it seemed meaningless, he could not comprehend the full gravity of it.

“Doctor...”

Talen's head snapped to the corner of the room where the sound had come from. There was only darkness. The youth realised that he needed to make sure that The Doctor was dead, unless he wanted to risk the madman coming back.

Talen jumped down from the bench onto the floor and was about to rush out of the room when he realised that all of his cloths were way to big for him. He was surprised, but mostly at the fact that his cloths had been transported onto his body with the energy. Accepting it as one of those magic things that he didn't understand, the boy pulled off his oversized cloak and put it down on the bench. He quickly rolled up his sleeves and pulled his belt tight. Then he grabbed a scalpel that was lying on the ground and cut around the bottom of his pants so they were somewhere near the right length. Talen looked at his pants with a critical eye, they would do but he would need to find some new ones when he could. He tossed the scalpel aside and jogged to the door.

From the corner of his eye Talen saw two legs sticking out from under a knocked over bench. He slowly stepped up to the table and carefully lifted up the edge and peered at the body underneath. It was Tony, the man that Talen had clobbered with a bench. The man's neck was twisted at an odd angle, apparently snapped from the impact. Talen lowered the table back on the dead body.

“Jerk.” Mumbled Talen walking out of the room.

It didn't take long for Talen to find his swords. They had been piled with what Talen assumed were the belongings of the dead that had been dug up with the corpses. He push the pair of blades into his belt and rushed back down the corridor and outside. The grizzly scene was pretty disgusting. There were the remains of the zombies lying in bits around the yard, but surprisingly not The Doctor.

There was another body lying on the ground and as Talen walked over to it he realised it was John. The Doctor's minion had not been killed in the fight, at least as much as Talen could remember, but here he was. The body looked emaciated and there was a black hand print across his face. The cause of the death was a mystery, but with The Doctor missing and it seemed like he might have used his minions life to sustain his own somehow. Talen looked around outside the building, but there was only shrubby forest.

The Doctor had escaped.

[Hysteria]

Part of Talen wanted to leave the accursed sawmill as quickly as possible, but the street kid in him wanted to case the place for any valuables that were left behind. The building was surprisingly empty as Talen moved from room to room searching. He moved tables, looked under mattresses but only came up with a few coins and a lot of silverfish.

The only room that proved to have anything of use was The Doctors. The room was sparsely furbished, a smile wooden desk and a small, dirty bed. The first thing that he saw was a gold watch on the desk. The youth pocketed it and then rummaged through the various notes and papers on the desk, but for the illiterate they were meaningless. Talen turned to the bed, his young eyes focused on the mattress. He pulled off the covers but there was nothing. Dismayed he went to walk out of the room by stopped. His eyes lit up and he dropped to the floor and reach a hand under the bed. He moved it around until his hand grasp something. He pulled out a book. It was a large leather bound volume with dark black ink across the cover which spelt “Summoning the Dead and various other entities”.

This has to be worth something, otherwise he wouldn't have hid it... looks impressive too.

The boy looked around the room once more and then walked out. Talen made his way through the halls to the operating room where he had left his cloak. Next to it there was a small bag that he hadn't noticed before. He opened the small pouch and realised it was a surgical kit of sorts. It held a scalpel, a few needles, some scissors and a small bandage. These weren't part of the implements that Talen had cleaned and were The Doctors personal tools. Talen took it, and his cloak and walked out of the building.

[Hysteria]

Talen was sitting facing a constable in the small and cramp office. Talen had just recounted his story to the constable and he sat there with a look on his face that spoke loudly the words 'why me?'.

“So let me get this straight,” Said the policeman slowly, “You found the grave robbers, were caught, were transformed into a zomb...”

“Transferred.” Interjected Talen.

“Ur, Transferred into a zombie,” he continued, “Killed the other zombies, were freed during the fight, made it back to your body with the help of some mysterious girl, turned into a young boy, then came back here to collect the reward.”

“...and couldn't find The Doctor afterwards.” Finished Talen

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in.” called the constable.

A policeman walked in and over to the constable and whispered something into his ear. The constable nodded and the policeman left.

“Well, the place was where you said and there were the bodies, just like you said. Its just possible that you are telling the truth. But who'd be so stupid to actually come and tell me the truth?”

“uh... what?” replied the confused Talen.

“I see. Well I think that you managed to find the grave robbers in the middle of an in-fight. Came back to tell us and claim the reward. When we got there, they had already killed each other, with maybe one of them escaping.” The constable pulled out a piece of paper and started writing on it, “That is much... cleaner. Take the money and scat kid, before you give me work work to do.”

The policeman pulled out a small pouch from his desk and tossed it to Talen. The boy caught it and, feeling like he was being tossed out, walked out of the station. The street was cold outside. Talen looked up and down the narrow road and sighed. He pulled the massive cloak around his small frame and walked down the street.


Thankyou for reading my first solo!

[Silence Sei]

• STORY ~

14/30

Continuity (5/10) ~ You did what you could given that this is your first quest, and an Underwood Mission Board quest at that.

Setting (5/10) ~ Your setting score could use some work. Remember that setting just doesn’t include what you see. Noting the stench of the body parts was good, but you have to note whether or not the smell wafted through the entire building. If there was a mountain of limbs like I assumed there to be, and unless that door was anti-air sealed upon closing, the whole area would reek of death.

Pacing (4/10) ~ At times you moved too slowly, and others you just jumped from one thing to the next. Talen waited in his first post, and then the robbers were there in his second, finshed what they were doing, and Talen followed them leading into the third post. I would take a few steps back to try and be more detailed with the scenery and the features of the people in the shadows, rather than just trying to jump onto the next thing.
• CHARACTER ~
15/30

Dialogue (5/10) ~ Average dialogue, if some of it was a bit cliché.

Action (7/10) ~ This thread was nothing if not action packed. From digging through corpse parts (which I would have liked to see more of) to surgery to the zombie attack, it very much kept me enthralled.

Persona (3/10) ~ Talen’s reaction to finding out his soul was to be transferred seemed a bit awkward. ‘Aw crap’ doesn’t seem like the sort of reaction anyone would have unless they were some emo goth kid who really didn’t want to die, but slit his wrist too far down to do anything about it. You need to capture the sense of fear, terror. Talen was –going to die- if he didn’t listen to these men, and then he found he was going to ‘die’ anyways. That should have had some pull on his emotions as a character.
• WRITING STYLE ~
14/40

Mechanics (2/10) ~ Several misspellings, especially around post 5. I can recall you spelling ‘nt’ instead of ‘not’ in one post, and then there were a few errors in spelling here and there. I would highly suggest running the posts through word, double checking, and then triple-checking the entire quest before submission. It’s a great way to catch errors.

Technique (3/10) ~ You suffered greatly here with the way you took us out of the third person writing style. Try not to use phrases like ‘it felt as if you were being covered’ unless someone is describing something to someone else in dialogue. Keep the third person detatched from the events if you’re going to write in the third person. Try something like ‘It felt as though somebody was wrapping him in covers’ or something similar next time.

Clarity (4/10) ~ I couldn’t get a grip on much of anything during the fight, which was a good few posts. You also weren’t very clear in the graveyard, or the constables office. The ending also left me with a ‘meh’ feeling.
Wild Card (5/10) ~ A good read overall, just watch the spelling errors and the breaking away from third person.

Total: 53/100

Non-special spoils approved, Medical kit approved, skill up to RoG discretion but can be used until level 1 update.

Hysteria receives 170 GP, 660 Exp.

[Silence Sei]

EXP-GP added, you crazy SoB