The Monsters We Are

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Solo. The events of this thread occur sometime during What Else Is There? (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28276-What-Else-Is-There-(Closed))

When I came to, I was surrounded by utter darkness. It was an inky, pitch-black nothingness. The ground I laid upon was hard and rocky. Underneath me, I could feel the pointed edges of stones and roots digging into my legs and back, sharper than they normally should be. I ached all over, physically and mentally.

I sat up and tried to regain my focus. My head was swimming; from what, I do not know. Poisons? No, impossible; I'm immune to that shit... Strange, unknown magics? That was unlikely. The last thing I remembered--

An indescribable voice that wasn't my own shrieked inside my head, rattling around and scraping the inside of my skull. I clutched my head with my briar-knit hands and grit my teeth, resisting the urge to scream with it.

The voice had shaken me down to the core of my very being, right down to my blackened soul. It was unnerving, and it left me feeling frightened as it faded out with a soft echo. My body shook as I sat there on the ground in the shadow-drenched night. I felt an unnatural chill creep through me, one that broke through the enchantments of my vest. I wrapped my arms around me tight and shivered.

I don't know where I am all. I cannot see a single gods-damned thing, nor can I hear anything, and I do not know how I got here.

For the first time in a long time, I am scared.

I hate uncertainty. I hate the unknown. And I am currently surrounded by it.

I started breathing heavier and heavier. Frantically, I searched around for a source of light--anything, anywhere at all--but found none. There was no sound at all, save for the rustling of the leaves as a light breeze blew through the branches.

Trees... Breeze... Am I still in the Red Forest?

The cursed wood was a terrifying enough place with several traveling companions during the daytime. Shape-shifting wolves, venomous reptiles of various sizes, deadly vines, flowers that will rip your soul from your body without hesitation. And I would be unable to see a single fucking one of them if they came after me right now. I took a deep breath. I had no torches, no light sources whatsoever on me. I was screwed. I took a step forward into the abyss.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Mere inches from my feet as I took that first step, a small blue glow emerged. I hesitated for a brief moment before I knelt down. What sort of curious thing was this? I brushed the object lightly with a briar-knit finger. It was soft to the touch, and bent easily. As it turns out, it was a small mushroom... A mushroom with a bit of bioluminescence.

Another one, slightly bigger, sprouted up from the ground next to the first. Its cap unfurled and cast off a similar soft, bluish light. I slowly rose to my feet. What the heck is going on here, I thought to myself. One by one, more and more mushrooms emerged from everywhere. They grew from the soft ground covered in moss, twigs, and rot. They grew from the trunks of trees, worming their way through cracks in the dead bark. They grew in the bushes, the leaves and vines failing to keep the tinted light from reaching me.

I slowly turned in a circle, my feeling of dread slowly dissipating with each new orb of light that glowed. I was still surrounded by the inky black night, but at least I could see in front of me now. I could clearly see the path that I was on, and the forest that held me in its deep, deadly embrace.

But... Where do I go? What do I do? Do I just stand here? Do I continue down the path?

As if it were answering my questions for me, the path ahead was slowly being lit up by the continually-growing fungus. I watched in awe as more and more, the way deeper into the deadly wood was revealed to me. The voice inside my head returned, less shrill, less violent. It whispered to me quietly. "Come," it said. "Come to me."

I spun around violently, looking for the source of the call. "Who are you? Where are you?"

There was no answer.

"Show yourself," I almost yelled. The return of the mysterious voice caused me to panic a little bit. Panic was not something I needed when I was alone in a place like this. Panic makes you do stupid things, like shout into the dark unknown. But I did it anyway.

"I swear to the gods, if you don't show yourself--"

My words caught in my throat as the laugh echoed all around me. It wasn't quite a laugh--it was somewhere between a cough, a chuckle, and a cackle, really. But it was incredibly unnerving. A shiver crept down my spine, and that feeling of dread that choked me ever since I regained consciousness once more had its icy fingers around my throat. I reached down towards The Last Resort, unsnapping the clasp on the leather holster and wrapping my vine-woven digits around the wooden hilt. I'm not sure what good the revolver would do me, what with the multitude of horrors that inhabited this place and all, but it made me feel safer.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

The haunting, raspy voice returned. "Come, my child. Come to me."

My eyes scanned my blue-tinged surroundings, searching for the source of the call even though deep down I knew I would not find it. "No, that's quite alright, I'm happy where I am, thank you very much."

I could practically hear the unknown force smiling in my mind. Whoever it was, it knew that it had the upper hand in this situation. I was lost, alone, and scared. Behind me, there was some light rustling. Before I could spin around to address it, several gnarled branches from trees overhead drooped down and pushed me forward. I squeaked in surprise and jumped at the touch of their dead bark and brittle leaves on my back. I whipped around and swatted at the branches with a briar-knit fist. "Alright, alright!" I hissed.

Well, if the forest itself wants me to press on, who am I to argue?

I took my first few tentative steps forward. With each step, more glowing mushrooms grew from further down the path, continuously lighting my way through this strange place. There were no sounds but my boots crunching leaves, twigs, and dirt and the light breeze that rustled the dead trees above me.

It was a long while before I realized that, this entire time, I've been holding my breath. What was wrong with me? I'm stronger than this. I'm tougher than this. Nothing rattles me, dammit! I've stared down demons and psychopaths, made my home among a den of killers, and have shown those who thought themselves to be horrors what one is truly like. But why was I so unnerved now?

Was it that I had no idea whatsoever how I got here? Was it the dark unknown that threatened to suffocate me at any moment? Was it the voice in my head, beckoning me to keep moving towards an unknown fate?

Let's try and put some facts together, that way I can get back on track here. I was summoned to the Red Forest by Duffy Bracken and his stupid elf buddy Alistair. Their intentions were noble; to cure the ancient wood of the curse that had choked the life out of it for countless generations. I had originally agreed to the expedition in order to research the curse itself in order to find out how to take it into my own being first, help wipe it out second. We had been on the path deep into the wood for a couple days when a thick vine lashed out from the red-tinted bushes and wrapped itself around my throat. I felt its thorns grow, piercing my throat in multiple places, then I blacked out. And then I came to surrounded by utter darkness.

And now, here I am, walking down a fungus-lit path towards an unknown fate, an eldritch voice leading me deep into the abyss. Nothing to protect me but my wits and a flintlock revolver with a few dozen bullets.

I was so lost in the myriad of thoughts swirling around in my head that I nearly didn't hear the rustling of bushes behind me.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I spun around just in time to see the mass of fur, teeth, and muscle bound from the fungus-lit underbrush, arms reaching for me with nasty claws extended. There was no noise to alert me, and no time to prepare. I reached for my flintlock revolver, but was too slow on the draw. The wretched beast pushed me to the ground, knocking the gun from my hand. The iron piece spun away from me, hitting stones and twigs and breaking a couple of the bio-luminescent stalks as it continued in its path away from being useful to me.

I spat out a curse and grappled with the giant wolf. It was nearly as heavy as I was, and acted with far more ferocity that I could ever muster as a civilized human being--well, half-human now, thanks to some cultists in Eiskalt.

The black-furred beast's claws dug themselves into my shoulders, drawing blood that was a few shades darker than usual. Tears welled up in my eyes with each blast of fetid breath that hit me. It gnashed its teeth at me, trying to tear off my face for a bit of a late night snack. I had my hands around its snout and lower jaw, trying hard to push it off of me. With each effort it made to bite me, its sharp teeth peeled away bits of my vine-woven fingers. I pushed through the pain. I had to do something, and fast.

Four knotted briars erupted from my wrists, heading straight down the wolf's gullet. To say that the animal was surprised by this sudden change of events would be an understatement. You could tell by the look in its eyes that it was not expecting this kind of snack. Actually, you'd have to look at the sudden jolt of fear its eyes, because any attempt it made to cry out was stifled by a throat full of writhing, gnarled vines.

The wet, slimy feeling of the creature's innards pushed a wave of bile up my throat. I tried hard to both loosen the wolf's grip on my shoulders and push myself out from underneath its bulk while cramming more and more vines into its mouth. It violently wrenched its head left and right, trying desperately to free itself. But, it was too late. I was sure that I had pushed my way into the creature's stomach. Immediately, the lengths of vine began secreting acid.

The effect was immediate. The violent shaking of the wolf picked up with a sense of urgency, as it futilely fought for its freedom. I withdrew the vines from the animal's throat, drawing out melted scraps of muscle and gore with them that splattered harmlessly against the dirt of the forest floor. The smoke that comes with searing, melting flesh began pouring from the open mouth of the wretched beast as it finally bolted off me. It made a sound that I'm sure was supposed to be a cry or a howl; instead it was more like the mewling gurgles a newborn baby would make.

Wasting no time, I was on my hands and knees, frantically looking around for The Last Resort. As the beast writhed and coughed and spat up bits of its rotting esophagus just feet away from me, I spotted the firearm a good ten feet away, resting up against one of the thousands of mushrooms that offered up a soft blue glow. I scrambled across the small clearing and snatched up my beloved revolver.

I rose to my feet, cocked back the hammer, and took aim at the dying wolf. I've heard tales and read stories about the dangerous shape-shifting beasts that dwell within the Red Forest; about their tenacity, about their ruthlessness, about their endurance. The dark, twisted beast was in my sights, and a tattered, bloodied finger was pressing hard against the trigger.

The bullets wouldn't be necessary. The wolf was in its final moments, acids quickly working to dissolve his insides as it stumbled around the clearing. As its movements slowed, my heartbeat quickened. My gaze shifted around the clearing, my mind no longer on the beast before me. There would be others. There's always others. That's just how these things go.

My finger was still tight against the trigger of the gun. I waved the barrel around me in a complete circle; waiting, just waiting for the next one to leap from the darkness that suffocated me.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Right on cue, another one of the oversized beasts exploded from beyond the blue glow of the forest. Thunder and fire burst from the barrel of my flintlock revolver, the iron bullet cleanly entering the wolf's skull right above its left eye and bursting out the back of its head, bringing bits of bone and brain with it. The damned thing went limp in midair, collapsing to the ground in a lifeless heap.

I cocked back the hammer and hurriedly spun around to look for more attackers when I felt a heavy weight hit me in the back. I cried out and fell to the ground, dropping The Last Resort once again (I really need to wrap the grip in spidersilk or my vines or something so this stops happening). My jaw smashed against the hard-packed dirt of the forest floor, an errant stone slashing my chin along the left side. Warm, sticky liquid began oozing out, pooling on the ground and mixing with the dead twigs and red leaves that littered the area.

Immediately, I felt a pair of strong, powerful jaws close around my neck. I began to panic--if I didn't do anything, and fucking fast, this would be the end of me. Teeth tore into flesh, drawing more blood and releasing the metallic scent into the air to lure more of the fiends closer. In that moment, I made a desperate play. Before the wolf could wrench my spine in a manner that would greatly inconvenience me with an untimely death, I grew two vines from my neck and began to push against the insides of the drooling creature's mouth.

The wolf fought back with an intense growl, trying hard to bite down against the briars. But after a few seconds, I was able to pry it loose, freeing me from its vice-like grip. I grew two more lengths of vines from somewhere on my right arm and wrapped it around the neck and upper body of the animal, pulling it off my back with all my might.

It yelped in surprise as it tumbled ass over head several feet away, but quickly righted itself and prepared to pounce again to finish the job it started. I was able to get up to one knee. I was bleeding from my neck and shoulders, and my fingers were a tattered mess of plant matter and crimson ooze. My breath was ragged, and adrenaline was coursing through my veins. "Come on, you bastard," I hissed at the wolf through a snarl that matched the intense bloodlust of his.

These animals were really good at hitting their spots and following cues, for it leaped at me once more, blood-specked teeth bared and glowing blue from the light of the fungus. I extended my right arm, forming a thick pool of acid in my hand that crystallized into shards of not-quite-glass as it mixed with the humid air. At the last second, I rolled out of the way of the beast and brought my shard-covered hand up as it sailed past. The razor-sharp collection of crystals scraped against the wolf's throat, effortlessly slicing through fur, flesh, and muscle. Foul-smelling blood burst from the freshly-opened jugular, splattering against the ground as the animal collapsed to the ground. It twitched around for a few seconds before its life left it with an unceremonious whimper.

I knelt on the rough ground, surrounded by death, blood, and acid. Thank the gods that the attack seemed to be over with. I started breathing deeply in order to slow my heart down a bit and calm the hell down. The poor thing was about to explode, it was beating so fast. For the first time in what seemed like forever, all was quiet once more.

Eventually, I mustered up the energy to rise to my feet. My neck throbbed with a dull, pulsing pain as I stood. I winced and grit my teeth. I would need to do something about those wounds, and fast. There was no telling what kind of shit was on the teeth of the wolf that bit me. I know that they say that the mouths of dogs are cleaner than men, but given that these were the animals that eked out a life in the cursed Raiaerian forest...?

I slowly walked over to where my gun laid on the ground, and knelt down to pick it up. That's when I heard another low growl. I looked up to see a fourth wolf emerge from the blue-tinted brush, its eyes glowing with anger and death.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" I screamed, tired of all of this shit happening to me. In a blur of motion, I picked up the gun, aimed it at the skulking beast, and pulled the trigger. There was another burst of fire and thunder, and the space between the wolf's eyes exploded in a shower of blood and bone.

As its lifeless body collapsed to the ground, another light cackle echoed in my ears.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

"Well now... Aren't you a curious little creature..."

I ignored the cackling, disembodied voice and began working. I dragged each of the fresh wolf corpses through the small, fungus-lit clearing and piled them up on top of one another in stacks of two. They were not... whole, per se, but they were still in decent enough condition. I wouldn't need functional, intact brains in order to raise them from the dead. While traditional zombies may need them, the things that I create can work just as well without them, thank you very much.

I could feel the mysterious presence smiling. "Yes, a curious little creature indeed. Very powerful, very... angry."

My eyes drifted upwards towards the dark canopy of the woods as I worked, adjusting the weight of the corpses to prevent them from sliding off one another. "I am not a creature," I said flatly.

"Perhaps you would rather be called a monster instead?" I froze, my feelings twisted in a mess of emotions the moment I heard the M-word. It was the one word I hated the most. I am not a fucking monster, no matter what everyone thinks. Monsters act on impulse and instinct. Monsters are monsters because they have no other means of interacting with the world around them. I am not a monster.

As if the unseen presence could read my thoughts, it continued with a hint of sick glee in its voice. "No, of course you aren't a monster. The blood of untold numbers on your hands..." I tried my damnedest to shut out the voice as its laugh echoed in my head. I wrapped up piling the wolf corpses and reached into my traveling satchel for a small knife and a small bottle of antiseptic. I began work on one of my pant legs, cutting the cloth from below the knee and tearing a wide strip of the material off.

"No, you're not a monster at all, spreading your disease across the world," the voice prattled on, much to my annoyance. I grit my teeth, trying hard not to snap at whoever it was speaking into my head, reading my thoughts, playing off my hatred of what I've become. "You claim that you are not a monster, Freebird." A small chill crept up my spine as the voice uttered my name. "But you are simply in denial. You have been in denial about your true nature for years."

I braced myself as I poured the antiseptic into my cupped hand and brought it up to my neck. The sharp jolt of pain caused me to cry out as I worked the alcoholic mixture into the open wounds covering my neck from the wolf's attack, hopefully killing whatever might be in there even though I knew full-well that I was immune to whatever might have been living in the deceased beast's mouth. It was more of a force of habit thing than anything else. I dropped the antiseptic, opting not to take care of the wounds on my shoulders and fingers, and wrapped the stripped piece of pant leg around my neck in order to stop the bleeding further.

Leaning back over towards the pile of corpses in front of me, I extended both of my hands. The vines in the palm of my hands parted, showing off two thick, blue fungal pods. I pointed them towards the faces of the wolves--or what remained of them, anyway--and fired off two bursts of Nemo's Marionette. The cordyceps spores entered the nostrils and mouths of the beasts and began working to revive them. If I were to survive in this forest for much longer, I would need help. And they do say that dog is man's best friend...

The presence smiled again. "Yes, a most curious little monster indeed. Come, Freebird. Come to me. Let me unlock your true potential."

I gazed up into the dark abyss again, weary, exhausted, and annoyed. "Fuck off. I'll get to you soon enough." The presence promptly did so, content to wait however long it took.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

It was a long while before the wolves stirred, their lives renewed thanks to Nemo's Marionette. In that time, I sat there cross-legged on the floor of this cursed forest, undisturbed. There was nothing to keep me company but the stench of blood and melted flesh, the soft glow of bio-luminescent mushrooms, and my own thoughts. I kept returning to the one word that the voice taunted me with.

Monster.

"I am not a monster," I caught myself softly muttering to the absolute emptiness that surrounded me, that choked me.

Whoever the voice belonged to, it knew the right words to say. Whoever the voice belonged to, it was aware of the atrocities I've committed. It knew about the thousands I condemned to die through blight and sickness in Eiskalt. It was probably aware of my actions regarding Kyla Orlouge and Lichensith Ulroke. It knew of all the throats I've slit, skulls I've caved in, and blood I've turned to poison just to make a few pieces of gold as an assassin. It knew of the innocent lives I've spent in order the obtain the power I've long craved and searched the world over for. Of the innocent old man who died by my hands so I could make a deal for knowledge with Maladim.

Maybe the voice was right. Maybe I am the very thing that I'm afraid of actually being.

I violently shook my head. No, no no no. I am not a monster. Everything I've done has been done with a purpose. Everything I've done I did because I had to. This was my path in life. This is what the fates have desired from me. It was unfortunate that the path I've walked would be one that would allow people to label me "horrible" and "evil"; but this was my path to walk, my burden to bear, my lot in life.

Besides, I knew many, many others more horrible, more violent, more wretched than I am that were deserving of the label of monster. Hells, I'm even friends with a few of them. These are people who kill on a whim and destroy the minds and lives of anyone unlucky enough to cross them on a bad day. These people deliver their own particular services with a smile without a second thought. I am not one of these people.

I am not a monster.

I don't even like what I've done. I've acted out of necessity. I've acted in the ways I've done so because that's how I am. That's how I was raised. That's the only way I know how to do things. I can't help it that I've become extremely... good at what I do. Acting and reacting in the ways that I've grown accustomed to, most of which end up with people hurt or dying... That's it. That's the only way I've ever learned to interact with the world. I'm conscious of my actions as I commit them, I'm aware of the consequences of my crimes. I do not like them. I do not like what I do. But it's the only way I've known how to go about life. And, I have to admit, it does come incredibly easy to me...

The concept swam around in my jumbled miasma of feelings and memories. I thought about it long and hard, sitting alone in that darkened abyss of the forest, with nothing but a pile of corpses keeping me company. I thought about the chain of events that brought me here. I thought about my interest in the curse that held its death grip on the Red Forest, and about my own personal desire to harness its power for my own uses, and for the Crimson Hands' uses as well. I inevitably thought about the hell that such power could and most certainly would unleash throughout the known world once it was under my control. I found a small grin forcing its way onto my face, only to suddenly be replaced by a frown born of a sudden, horrible realization.

Maybe the voice is right. Maybe I am a monster.

The M-word lingered for a second as the first of the wolves stirred. One by one, oozing bits of congealed blood and torn flesh, their fur matted down by viscera and dirt, the beasts rose to their paws. Stalks of dark bluish fungus grew from their necks, folding over one another and braiding themselves into makeshift collars. I reached out mentally, contacting them one by one. They answered with feelings of eagerness and obedience, their prior urges to tear and rip my flesh apart long gone. I rose to my feet, dusted off the seat of my pants, and crammed all of my thoughts into a mental box labeled "deal with this shit later". "Come on, let's go," I cooed softly as I continued along the fungus-lit path deeper into the woods.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I traveled undisturbed for what felt like hours. The undead wolves flanked me, two on each side, keeping keen eyes out and ears perked up as they searched for telltale signs of trouble but never finding any. With each step down the twisted dirt path, new stalks of fungus grew ahead of me on the ground and within the trees, continuously casting a soft blue glow throughout the cursed wood. If it wasn't for the uncertainty and death that stalked me throughout the darkness, I would have probably thought that it was a beautiful scene to behold.

For my entire journey, the voice I had been hearing since I came to in the darkness had been silent, thank the gods. The path widened with each passing... mile? Yes, by now, I must have walked miles. Two, three, twenty, I was not sure. I was not sore or fatigued from all the walking. The only pain I had felt was from the bites that my companions got in on my fingers and neck, and even now it too had quieted down to something more like a dull throb. But back to the path. Slowly, had it widened itself, opening up from roughly five to ten feet on either side into another clearing the size of an arena. Dirt and stone had turned to neatly-cut grass. Glowing fungus continued to grow with each passing step, but its illumination reached no further than the edges of the small field deep within the forest.

I paused for a moment, and the wolves came to a stop at my heels. They looked up at me expectantly, like a group of pet Retrievers would. I peered into the darkness ahead of me trying to make out any sort of shape or hint of an object, but finding only the inky blackness of the abyss. I was starting to get anxious as the seconds ticked by. I pursed my lips, tapped my foot against the short grass, and clicked my tongue. One of the wolves--well, one that had a fully-intact face, anyway--looked forward and began to sniff the air. It took one good whiff of something I could not sense, and lowered itself. A thick, heavy growl grumbled from deep within the beast. I looked down at it briefly. "What is it? What's out there?"

Moments later, mushrooms burst from every conceivable surface in the clearing, saturating the area with bright blue light. I close my eyes and wince briefly before slowly opening them once more. Stood before me with a metal gate set into low brickwork that was choked in vines--thick, gnarled, dead masses of vines that broke through the wall like it was paper. Beyond the gate, I could make out the battered remains of a three-floored house that too had bio-luminescent fungi growing from its walls and briars--some as wide as tree trucks--woven through its shattered windows and stonework. It was a maze of rotting plant matter that long ago embraced this odd little manor nestled deep within the forest in a death grip--

--Wait just a fucking minute, I thought to myself as a wave of incredible dread came over me. All of the blood drained from my face, my heart began racing, and I absentmindedly clenched my briar-knit fists until my knuckles turned white (or would have, if I had them). I know this place. I know this house.

The pattern of the rusted iron gate. The well off to the right of the crumbling manor. The intricate, well-kept garden of deadly alchemical ingredients in front of its face that was now overrun with thorny vines. It was all very, very familiar to me. "This is my family's home," I said out loud. My voice sounded incredibly foreign to me. It was soft, and it carried a hint of fear in it.

What the fuck was my home doing in the middle of this gods-forsaken forest?

What in every conceivable hell in existence was going on here?

The voice in my head... The mushrooms lighting my path... The attack of the wolves... Everything... Is this all a dream? Am I just making all this stuff up?

I started to get very confused and incredibly angry with the lack of answers. "Alright you stupid bitch," I roared into the nothingness of the forest. "Tell me what the fuck is going on, right now! Tell me before I hunt you down and force an answer out of you!"

The voice that had tormented me what seemed like hours ago returned, louder than ever. "In due time, my little monster. In due time."

As I stared slack-jawed at the ruins of my childhood home before me, the echoing laughter rattling around inside my skull, my pack of zombified wolves turned to my left and all hunched over. It took me hearing several seconds of their half-growling, half-gurgling noises before I turned to see what had grabbed their attention.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Three figures emerged from the shadows, lurching towards me. With every inch of ground they covered, the growling of my companions intensified into a dull roar. Teeth were bared, claws were digging at the dirt, my little pack of bloodthirsty killers were just itching to tear the intruders into tiny little shreds.

I stood there frozen as the trio advanced. I squinted hard into the blue light, trying to get a good look at them. After several seconds, however I did--and immediately, my throat closed and my stomach tied itself in knots. These weren't ordinary faceless arrivals. All three of them were my friends.

Diggs, Hedge, and... and Nell. Poor, sweet little Nell, who dropped everything she had in Corone to make the trip to Salvar with me to become my assistant only to be abandoned when I joined the Crimson Hands under the excuse of keeping her safe and distanced from my horrible activities.

I felt numb. These were my friends. My closest friends. Three of the only people I could trust my life with, and confide every deep, dark secret I had. Three poor, unfortunate souls that I would do anything for to keep them safe from the world around us.

And here they were. Their faces were pale, their expressions blank, their clothes tattered. Diggs' thick glasses were set askew on his face, the right side dragging across his cheek. Hedge's dark, shaggy hair was matted down and clumped together by what appeared to be blood, and his leather armor was sliced cleanly through across his chest to reveal muscle and bone underneath. And Nell... Her sun dress had little bloodied gashes in it everywhere... And to my horror, there appeared to be a piece of jagged piece of glass jammed into her eye, which caused crimson and gore to leak down her smooth features...

A little voice deep down inside me said that it wasn't glass that was embedded in her socket, and suddenly I felt really sick. Every fiber of my being shouted down this intruder, telling it kindly to go fuck itself with whatever rusty object was convenient for it. The voice calmly whispered back that it was surprised that I'm surprised, since horrible things have a tendency to happen to those who get close to me, and then remarked with a sadistic sort of glee that said horrible things also have a tendency to happen by my own hand...

I knew it was right, and it made me even sicker. I thought back to the band of mercenaries I gathered after Lichensith disappeared in Eiskalt and everything went all to hell. There were three survivors out of the twenty-one souls--myself, and two of the figures slowly drawing closer and closer.

Beads of sweat were forming on my forehead. My lungs quickly filled with purple plague smoke in a fit of panic. No, this is all a dream, I kept telling myself. It's all a dream. None of this is real. One of the wolves looked up at me and let out a confused whimper.

Nell's head twitched and wrenched up towards the sky, cracking her neck. I could see that, emerging from her throat, were interwoven stalks of a dark blue fungus. The Marionette. One of the many unique things growing and festering inside my body. And it had somehow made its way into my three friends, three of the only things I care about in this wretched, horrible world. It had raised them from whatever horrible deaths they suffered.

And now, they were here before me. Drawing nearer with each breath. Their hands outstretched, grasping for me, for my flesh and blood.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

A flicker of thought entered my mind. Hey, you stupid bitch, if they're infected with the Marionette, then you should be able to telepathically talk to them, right? It works for everything else you've stuffed, breathed, or injected it into!

The voice was right. I tried to reach out through the air to my friends. Tried to contact them, tried to get a response.

"Diggs... Hedge... Nell, sweetie... Please... Answer me."

There was no response.

"Fucking answer me for the love of gods!" I screamed into the forest. A single tear streamed down my face while my voice cracked as it escaped my throat.

The only answer I heard was the warning barks of the wolves as they drew closer to me in a semi-circle, protecting me from my three friends. Their best efforts did nothing to deter the three of them. They continued to shamble their way towards me. Diggs craned his head up, and I noticed that a throwing dagger was nestled neatly in this throat, hidden by layers of folded fat.

I wiped the tears from my face. A defeated plea escaped my lips. "Please, just answer me..."

A croak sounded from one of the trio. It was Nell. "M... Ma... Mah-mah-mah Madisssssssssson-on-on..." I took a step backward. The sweet sound of her voice drained the color from my face and made my entire body go numb. It was the wonder tones I associated with Nell; but there was something... something horrible behind them. Her words were filled with vitriol. With hatred. With a burning desire to see me suffer for some crimes I did not commit--the crimes of her untimely demise and resurrection.

No, dammit, this is only a dream! This is nothing more than a bad dream!

I wanted to believe the shouting in my head. I really did.

Diggs stumbled a little bit, and noises came from his mouth that sounded like an attempt at speech that was blocked by the knife embedded in his throat. Hedge simply offered a bestial snarl at the pack of wolves at my feet. Nell's neck wrenched again, and she blinked. The piece of glass--I kept telling myself it was just glass--twitched in her eye socket. She spoke again, her haunting tones filled with sheer malice. "Ma-aaadisonnnn.. How... How c-c-c-ouuuuld you... Do thiiiiissssssssssss--"

"I didn't fucking do anything to you! I would never do anything to you--to any of you! I swear on my life!"

Hedge chuckled through is undead sneer. Nell shot a crazy eye at the mercenaries, and then locked her gaze on my own frightened eyes. "You... you... did this. Alwa.... Always diiid this.... Always will... Will do this. Baaaaad th-th-th-thiiiings happen to every... everyone around.... you..."

Another round of hot, salty tears streamed down my face. These words she said, dream or not, were cutting my heart out. Each syllable was like a fresh laceration on my very soul. "Nell, sweetie," I said, my voice shaking and unsure. "I would never--"

She shrieked, her voice soaked with an impossible amount of anger and venom. "Yes--yes youuuu d-d-did!" My assistant raised an accusatory finger at me as she lurched on. "You did th-this! Your ffff... fault! You... you you youyouyouyou mmmmmooooonnnnsssst--"

I never let her finish the word. "SIC 'EM!" I howled. In a flash, the four fungus-infected wolves were upon my... what remained of my loved ones as I bolted through the rusted iron gate and into the Freebird manor.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I slammed the front door behind me, putting the heavy slab of iron-reinforced oak between me and the carnage that was taking place outside. I could hear the unearthly screams of Nell, Diggs, and Hedge as they fought against the four wolves as they teared through flesh and blood, muscle and bone. Sounds that I could not bear to hear any longer. I jammed my briar-knit hands against my ears to block out the horrible, faint noises and began crying again.

I was hurt. Honestly, seriously, legitimately hurt. I've suffered plenty of loss, been despised and kicked around by many people who claimed to be ally, friend, and family. I've grown used to it. Betrayal was in my daily schedule, usually somewhere between my morning bath and lunch.

But to hear that abominable word coming out of the mouth of the one person I cared about the most in this world...

Monster. Nell was going to call me a monster. It was on the tip of her tongue, and she was saying it. That horrible, wretched, spiteful word.

I felt like I had my heart ripped from me when she uttered that first hateful syllable. She had torn my chest open, reached in with her chubby little fingers, grabbed hold of my heart, and gave it a good yank. And what did I do in return? I sent a pack of wild animals to feast on her by now assuredly dead again corpse.

I sent those animals after her and my two mercenary friends from the Crimson Hand--Diggs and Hedge, who survived a hellish war by my side, who trusted my every word with their lives--without a second thought. I did not hesitate one second to utter the command that damned them once more to death as soon as my assistant pursed her lips to call me that name. The three of them are now lying in piles of shredded clothing and body parts while wolves feast on their remains all because of one word--one simple, stupid little fucking word.

Maybe they're right. Maybe I am a monster.

A small voice in the back of my head cried out, pushing through all the sorrow, trying to scream at me that this was all just a dream; that none of this was real. That Diggs and Hedge were still within the Seventh Sanctum, polishing their blades and spellcraft, preparing for their next assignment as Blades. That Nell was still holed up safely in her apartment in Tirel, continuing to tinker away on small little artifacts and alchemy mixtures.

I wanted desperately to believe that this little voice was right. I wanted so hard for none of this to be real. But if it were nothing more a dream, why hadn't I woken up by now? Why hadn't I woken up covered in a cold sweat the moment that the wolf had its jaws around my throat--or when I encountered the reanimated corpses of my three best friends? Why has this dream lasted what feels like an eternity? Why did seeing the shard in Nell's face and her words that followed hurt me so fucking much?

I curled up into a ball against the front door to my childhood home and wept. I could not tell you how long I was there.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Eventually, I had run myself dry. My eyes and chest ached, and I felt hollow. Empty inside. I slowly rose to my feet, wiping away the remaining tears that stained my cheek. I was mildly thankful that I opted not to wear any makeup today, otherwise I would've made a horrible sight indeed.

I found myself in the dimly-lit foyer of my family's manor. Everything was as I remembered it; the plain floral print wallpaper, the dark hardwood floors, the red carpeting leading from the entryway towards the staircase at the end of the hall that split left and right as you would walk up to the second floor. Everything was as I remembered it, but everything was wrong. Thick, dead lengths of vines had grown from cracks in the walls. The carpet was torn up in places, and the floors were covered in a thick layer of dust. Errant mushrooms had grown inside the manor as well, casting off their eerie blue glow and providing a modicum of light. The family portraits that hung off to the right were cracked and warped, and everyone in them seemed a little off.

The paintings in particular called out to me. Drawing closer to one of the pictures in the hallway, I reached into the drawer of a nearby table. As I always did when I was a kid, I found a book of matches. I fumbled around in the near-darkness until I found the oil lamp that usually rest on top of that very table. I struck a match and lit the lamp. The scent of burning oil immediately filled my nostrils as the lamp cast off its warm glow. I brought the lamp up to the painting to get a closer look, and my breath was stolen by what I saw.

Sitting in front of a dark backdrop on a short couch were the three Freebird children. You had, from left to right, myself, Justin, and Trevor. But, it wasn't the young versions of ourselves from the picture I remembered. Across Trevor's throat was a thick cut that was oozing copious amounts of blood that stained his brown outfit a darker shade. Memories of the double-cross that lead to Trevor's death flashed in my mind, which I quickly pushed out. My eyes drifted to the center of the picture, where Justin sat. His face was absolutely mangled. His nose was smeared halfway across his skull, there was a severe laceration adorning climbing up his forehead into his hairline that exposed cracked bone, and both of his eyes were closed with bruises and swelling--changes to his visage that were in line with the fatal beating I gave him in Lorinus after he hunted me down during the LCC.

I noted the hands on his shoulders and followed the arms up to see the horrifying visages of my parents. Everything about them was right; but at the same time everything was wrong. Their bird-like features were sharper than I remembered, their normally pursed lips twisted into disapproving snarls, and their jaw and cheekbones more defined. It was like a twisted parody of their normal selves. They looked in that painting as I had always imagined them being: Horrifying, malevolent beings that didn't deserve the sweet release of death that I so often wanted to give them.

Lastly, my eyes drifted down to the last figure in the painting--myself. In the portrait, I was not depicted as the sullen-faced teenager that I was when it was commissioned. It was my current, true form. Dark purple circles filled with poison surrounded my eyes, my skin was an ashen shade of pale, and I could see that underneath my dress, my shoulders were made of vines that were woven into my torso...

I briefly looked away from the portrait, unable to take in any more of it. But after a few seconds, something else occurred to me that was a little off with the painting. I leaned in closer to the part of it that had me in it, and I raised the oil lamp up to cast more light upon it. Was that... Was that a ghostly, faded hand on my right shoulder? I rubbed at that section with the tip of a briar-knit finger, trying to decide if my eyes were playing tricks on me or if it was just a crack in the painting. Whatever I thought I had seen, it disappeared.

I took a step back from the painting, offering it nothing more than a blank stare. The pose was right from what I remembered of the thing that hung in my old home, but everything was wrong. It was a twisted parody of itself that reflected the horrible thoughts I held as truth in my mind. I clicked my tongue at it, because I honestly had no other reaction ready for it. I was drained of any other emotion that wasn't mild disapproval.

As I took another step away from the wall, I heard it echoing through the air. At first I thought it was the creaking of the floorboards that sighed under my weight, but then I realized it was something else--something far more horrible. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard, like breaking glass, like a boiling kettle sitting ignored on the stove. It was a long string of crazed laughter, a familiar laughter... The laughter that belonged to the voice that tormented me ever since I came to in the dark depths of the forest outside.

My grip tightened around the handle of the oil lamp and a scowl etched itself on my lips. Whoever had dragged me through this hell was inside this house. With a resolve fuelled by a simmering anger, I began searching for its source.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

The crazed laughter continued to echo through the dark crumbling halls of the Freebird manor as I walked through it. I threw open every door hoping to find the asshole who had been causing me so many fucking problems, but found nothing but the vine-choked ruins of my childhood.

"Come to me, Madison," the mysterious voice teased from somewhere deep in the house.

Believe me, I'm fucking trying to.

I had no plan as to what I would do once I found the source of all my troubles. Would I immediately go on the attack with a storm of vines and acid? Would I calmly stand there and let them speak? Would I just break down in tears as the weight of this horrible nightmare crushed me? I had no idea. I honestly was at a lost.

Minutes ticked by as I continued my search. I tore through bedrooms, guest rooms, bathrooms, the kitchen, the training room, the alchemy lab, and even the storerooms where my mother kept her extensive collection of wines and spirits. I found nothing but dust, artifacts, and memories of the shitty years I spent here. The soft blue glow of the strange fungus mixed with the warm orange light from my oil lamp to lead me from room to room.

And then in front of one door in particular, I came to sudden pause as I reached for the door. This was the door that led into my room. This was the room I spent most of my life in, my own safe haven from the horrors that I lived with. My own little plane of existence where I felt perfectly safe among my books and stuffed animals, away from my family and the life they were forcing me to live.

Everything else in this nightmare manifest was twisted with the venom of my memories. Would I be able to open the door and face down the darkness that would inevitably greet me? How would all of the hatred that boiled inside me greet me in my old bedroom? What would I even find inside?

My hand hovered over the doorknob for several uncertain seconds. I hesitated, took a deep breath, and gripped the handle.

The voice in the house interrupted me, making me jump. "Behind you, dear."

I spun around, expecting... well, I wasn't sure what I was expecting. But I was greeted by one of the last doors I had yet to open within the old house. If my memory served me correctly, this was the door that lead to the reading room. From behind the door came some light, feminine giggling. It was the same voice that had taunted me with laughter ever since I came to and called me monster. I had finally found the stupid bitch. My resolve renewed with a shot of venomous anger, I tightly gripped the metal handle and pushed the door open.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

The reading room was exactly as I remember it after almost a decade.

Three of the walls were lined from floor to ceiling with bookshelves packed with all sorts of tomes. Fiction, biographies, spellbooks, alchemy guides, manuals on some of the darker arts that my family dabbled in from time to time... Each shelf was packed full of dusty books that looked like they hadn't been touched in ages--and for all I know given how often I remember my parents ever using this room when I was younger, it was possible that it might have been the case. Halfway across the wall opposite of where I stood, the shelves were broken up by a wide window with the curtains pulled shut to hide me from the dark forest outside.

Along the fourth wall, to my left, sat a fireplace deep within the stonework. A small blaze burned from within, casting its light out and illuminating the room softly. The fire flickered, cracked, and popped as ominous shadows danced along the far wall. As there always had been, four pieces of furniture were arranged in a circle. There were two padded red leather chairs, a matching lounger sofa that could just barely fit the three of us Freebird children on it when we were kids, and a round wooden table with a three legs that combined to form a single column to support it. On the table sat a square glass decanter with a glass stopper, filled with my father's favorite whiskey as it always had been. Next to that sat a trio of glass tumblers waiting to have thirsty lips pressed up against their rims.

I noticed three figures in the room as well, but my eyes were drawn to the two on the sofa first. From what I could tell from the soft light from the fireplace, the two were wrapped up in red-stained vines like presents. They struggled and squirmed, trying their damnedest to escape from their binds. The briars had sprouted directly from the couch itself and had wrapped themselves around the black-robed couple, trapping their arms against their chests and keeping them from standing up. More vines were pulled tight across their opened mouths, preventing anything more than muffled grunts and cries from coming out of their throats.

I took me several seconds to actually recognize the two. One was an older man, his cropped black hair giving way to shades of gray around the sideburns. A large scar crossed his tall forehead. Cold steel eyes betrayed a sort of anger mixed with fear--the latter of which was a feeling obviously foreign to him. The woman, who was on the right side of the sofa, had her own salt-and-pepper hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, strands of which had managed to free themselves in her struggle and were waving about in the air. Her features were porcelain, sharp like a bird's and unblemished. Eyes as blue as the glow of the fungus out in the hallway were fixated upon me, oozing a sheer hatred that I've only witnessed once or twice before.

There was a long silence that threatened to choke us all before I could find the energy to speak. "...Mom? ...Dad?"

The sound of creaking furniture snapped me out of my daze. Rising from the leather chair next to the lounger was a woman roughly as tall as myself. She had pale skin that betrayed the thick, purple veins that traveled up her arms and neck, but stopped at her jawline to curve out and up towards her piercing green eyes. She wore a sleeved gown that was as red as blood. A piece of the chest was cut out, revealing her cleavage, and a tight red bodice was strapped around her waist that accentuated the curves of her hips. A head of ginger hair spilled out in waves, going down to the small of her back.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A thin smile curled her lips as she spoke. "All of this... The decrepit nature of this pitiful home, the vines that choke the life from it, the memories and hatred you have of this place suffocating it with darkness... The... helplessness of those of you who twisted you into what you are now..." She gestured with a vein-choked hand towards my parents next to us.

My voice was measured and calm, considering all that has transpired within the past few hours. "Who are you?"

The woman continued to smile, her head cocked to the side as if I has just asked the stupidest question in the world. "Why, Madison dear, I'm everything you've ever wanted. I'm the ultimate power you've craved for so long. The respect that you've yearned for since you were little. Everything that your blackened little heart desires."

The red vines. The mutated wolves in the forest. The darkness that has suffocated me since my arrival. "Podë," I whispered.

The Forgotten One simply nodded.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

My head was swimming with a swarm of emotions and thoughts. One of the five monsters from antiquity, whose dark deeds were forever canonized in The War of the Tap and manifested through The Red Forest, a blight upon the beauty that was Raiaera (before another Forgotten One, Xem'Zund, tore the place up with an unstoppable army of the undead). A sorceress of unimaginable power with the ability to control nature. She could sink countries into the earth, crush all living beings, and warp the world around her into a feral parody of itself.

The Red Witch. And she was here. In the remains of my house. She had been the one who beckoned to me, the one who summoned me before her. The one who brought me into this darkness, who sent wolves after me, ambushed me with the murdered, animated remains of my dearest friends.

Here I was, her little monster. Her words echoed inside my head.

I was struck dumb for once in my life. Why had she led me here? What use could I possibly be to her? It was true that her power was what I craved, but... Thankfully, Podë sensed my vast unease and indecision, and motioned for me to have a seat. I fell back into the padded red chair behind me, and waited for her to speak.

"It's pleases me that you recognize who I am. That means I can skip the tedious introductions." She made her way over to the decanter on the round table between myself and the couch my parents were on. The sorceress took the stopper off the glass and set it aside. Picking one of the tumblers up, she poured a couple shots of whiskey into it and held it out in front of me.

I took the drink in my briar-knit hands. It seemed awfully rude to refuse the kindness of a Forgotten One.

"It also means we can skip the introductions for you, my dear," Podë said as she turned back towards the decanter and poured herself a glass as well, the red fabric of her dress flowing behind her like the waves of an ocean. She took a long sip of the bitter amber liquid before continuing. "I've been keeping my eyes on your for a long time. There are forces that you cannot even begin to comprehend in this world of ours, Madison. They are always lurking in the shadows, waiting in the dark areas just beyond your sight. They are always watching, always waiting. They know everything, they see everything. Some of these forces, they tell me about people. They tell me about events. They tell me about stuff that I may be interested in."

The sorceress slowly walked back over towards the other leather chair. My gaze fluttered over to my parents, bound in vines like chains, and back over to my host. "They've told me about you, Madison Freebird. They've told me about the simply awful things you've done in your life. All of those sacrifices, both personal and of others, you've made to amass whatever scraps of power and knowledge you could. All of those innocent lives you've claimed with that wonderful little plague you've been spreading around."

A lump formed in my throat. She knows about Eiskalt, I thought to myself.

Podë's eyes narrowed at me over the rim of her glass. "Of course I know about Eiskalt, my dear." I gulped hard. Of course she can read my thoughts.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

The Forgotten one rested her nearly-empty tumbler on the right arm of her chair. "The minute you stepped into my domain, the very second you crossed the threshold into my forest with Duffy Bracken and that elf Alistair, I picked through your brain like an open book. I know everything you've ever known. I've seen everything you've ever desired. I've felt every ounce of pain, fury, sadness, joy, and utter hatred you've ever felt. And I've tasted your ambition." Podë smiled as she brought the glass up to her thin lips and took another drink.

Welp, there goes any sort of subtle planning and trickery in order to find out what the hell was going on. I swirled my own whiskey around as I spoke plainly. "So then you ultimately know why I agreed to accompany Duffy and Alistair on their little journey."

"Of course I do," The Red Witch said dismissively. "And that's what I find the most intriguing about you. You've spent your years searching out the means to grow more and more powerful than those around you, while denying anyone you see as a personal threat anything their own little hearts desire. Like Lichensith Ulrokë."

My thoughts briefly flashed to the afternoon that I laughed in his face and stole from him the one thing he truly desired to keep his tenuous grip on the Crimson Hands intact--the death of Kyla Orlouge. "That is true," I replied flatly.

Podë reclined in her seat and crossed her left leg over her right. My eyes flickered momentarily over to my parents, who continued to fight the blood red vines that had wrapped them up tightly. They were in such a weakened state, like I have never seen them in before--let alone even imagined them being in. The two horrible excuses for life forms were absolutely vulnerable right now. I could stand up, walk over to them, and jam shards of crystallized acid into their hearts and watch them as their life slowly drained from their gasping mouths--

No. I violently shook my head. This is all a dream. This is all just a dream.

"Is it, though? Is it really?" The Forgotten One smirked. My attention snapped back to the woman who had tormented me all this time as she sat there, taunting me. "Is this all really a dream?"

I looked up at her, my expression unreadable. "How do I know it isn't?"

"You would've waken up a long time ago if it were. No, Madison, you're here because I desire you to be." She leaned forward in her chair, clasping her whiskey between her vein-marked hands. "You see, my dear, that I already haven't murdered your pathetic little traveling party deep within my woods and scattered your bloodied remains to the four corners of the world already is because I know that it will fail. For all of the power that Duffy Bracken has coursing through his ancient bones, he cannot even begin to hope to cure Lindequalmë of its horrible affliction. He will fail, he will fall, and it will break his spirit."

The red-haired, red-clad woman looked into her glass for a few seconds. She then looked up, her piercing emerald gaze locking into my own. There was a certain fire, a certain desire in her eyes. "And I want you to be the vessel of my retribution for his foolhardy, misguided attempts to do so."

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I sat there silent, the sorceress' last words echoing in my head. The vessel of her retribution.

Podë's face turned sour, her voice dripping with venom. "For too long I have suffered; living a tortured, atrophied existence between life and death. Slowly, my work comes undone with every simple creature that walks the realm, trying to immortalize themselves by undoing my work--trying to validate their pitiful, miserable existences in order to make their lives mean something." Her grip tightened on the arms of the leather chair. Dark red vines that cast horrifying dancing shadows on the bookshelf-lined walls began to sprout from behind her. She paused for a brief second, and the vines receded as she regained her composure.

"But you and I... We won't let that happen, now will we?" The smile returned to The Red Witch's face, all traces of her fury melting away into the night. "No... We won't. We mustn't. For that would be a tragic thing to let happen."

I sat there, silent as ever, as the Forgotten One spoke to me. My mind remained empty--not out of fear, but out of necessity. I tried my hardest not to feel anything. By the gods, I wanted to feel something, but I quickly extinguished any thoughts I might have had the moment they flickered to life. I was simply biding my time, waiting for my twisted, terrible host to show her entire hand.

She pointed a finger at me. "While I may not be able to fully return to the land of the living right now, for I am too weak... I have a means to spread my message throughout world." Her smile widened, revealing a set of perfectly-white teeth. "I have you. My little monster Madison."

"I am not a monster," I whispered involuntarily. It doesn't matter who said the word; it still hurt me to hear it. My eyes flashed over once more to my parents once more. Two people wholly deserving of the label.

"Ah, but that's where you are horribly wrong, my dear." Podë's voice dropped, becoming far more menacing in tone. "You are a monster. I want you to look deep inside your soul, Madison. I want you to bask in the dark glory of everything that you've fought for in your life... Everything that you've scraped, betrayed, and murdered for. All of the power that you've accumulated on the backs of others--those you call allies, enemies, and... friends."

Memories of my life as an assassin flooded my mind. I saw flashes of the faces of each of my targets, their features contorted in abject horror in the moments before my blade met their throats and hearts. I thought of the old man in the Eiskalt refugee camp, and clearly heard his screams once more as I jammed my thumbs into his eye sockets and melted his face with acid. I heard the pained moans of every one of the thousands I infected with my plague. I re-lived the entire events of the coup within the Order of the Crimson Hands, and the horrors that came with it"

I thought of Diggs and Hedge, and the horrible things I've ordered them to do in my name.

I thought of poor, sweet Nell, locked away in her apartment in Tirel, innocently working on improving her artificing and alchemy skills by following instructions for nasty little concoctions and devices that I kept sending to her.

I clenched my eyes shut and grit my teeth. I tightly gripped the sides of my head. Tears began to well up in my eyes once more. I tried to scream, but it came out more as a whimper. "No! No! I am not a monster! I am not!"

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Podë climbed of out of her chair and knelt before me. With the tenderness I would never expect from one of the most vile, wretched beings in history, she grabbed my hands and held them in her own. My eyes were blurry with a fresh round of tears as she pursed her lips together in a slight frown.

"It's okay, Madison," she said in a motherly way. "I can understand what you're feeling and what you're going through. I know you don't want to admit it, because that word has such a negative connotation to it for you. But I want you to understand something, okay? I want you to understand that I know you in ways that you'll never know yourself. You're in denial about your true nature. You're in denial because you know that by admitting you're a monster, you're admitting that you're just like them." The Forgotten One's eyes flickered over to my parents, and my own gaze followed.

It was true. What Podë said was absolutely correct. Deep down, my hatred of the word "monster" is all because of those fuckers on the couch over there. I have met a lot of rotten souls in my life, and they're the worst of them. They truly are monsters. Not once ever was I shown even the tiniest scraps of love and care by them. They beat me, they worked me hard, they forced me to follow in their footsteps. And I hated them for it. I despised them with every fiber of my being. And, I was utterly terrified of ever becoming like them.

The smile returned to Podë's face as she read the flood of emotions and memories that filled my mind. "Your fears are entirely unfounded, my dear. You are nothing like your parents. They're not monsters at all; they are cowards. They act out of fear, sulking in the shadows, acting on opportunity. No; they are entirely different from you.

"You see, Madison, you're the perfect kind of monster for my needs. You take a perverse joy in the chaos you sow throughout the world. No matter how much try to deny it, you enjoy your work. You enjoy creating the horrors you do in your laboratory. You enjoy snuffing out the lives of others in order to achieve your goals. You have a certain steel about you that has gotten you this far in life. It is a steel that will take you even further." A long pause filled the space between the sorceress and myself. "Now, I want you to think long and hard about this before you answer me--do you understand what you truly are? Can you admit it?"

I did indeed understand. I had always been in denial about everything I am as I walked my path in life. But The Forgotten One's words illuminated my way once more. Slowly, I nodded. "Yes, I do. I can."

Podë stood before me and clapped her hands together. "Good. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. That's exactly what you needed to say. Come, stand up, my dear."

I stood. The sorceress moved towards the couch, beckoning me to follow her with a gesture. The fire roared off to my left, casting our shadows against the bookshelves as we slowly walked across the room. We stopped in front of the red leather couch where my parents sat, bound by red vines.

The Forgotten One turned to me and smiled. "I will grant you three gifts tonight, Madison. The first is the truth about yourself, which I have already given to you."

"What are the others?"

My mother cried out in fear, her words muffled by the briars that gagged her while my father tried to fight against the tight grip of his bindings.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

"Why, just the only two things you've ever wanted in life," Podë said matter-of-factly as she turned towards the defenseless couple. "Do me a favor, and place your hands on their faces, will you?"

I hesitated for a brief moment. My fingers twitched with anticipation. Mother and Father were at their most vulnerable. They were sitting there, unable to speak, unable to move.

A twinge of doubt entered my mind. "No," I said, shaking my head. "This isn't real. I'm dreaming..." It wasn't so much of a protest as it was an involuntary statement.

"But they are, Madison. They are real, and this much is real. They are here for the same reason you are here--because I simply desired that they see what monsters we are."

I took a step closer to them. I raised my briar-knit hands up, and lightly touched their faces. The both tried their hardest to worm their way out of my grasp. My mom squeaked in fear, her voice choked by the vines wrapped tightly around her open mouth. I said not a word to either of them. I just looked deep into their eyes. I saw fear; I saw hatred. I saw their blackened hearts and souls as they silently pleaded for their release. They saw only an emotionless child; my eyes blank, my face expressionless.

My movements almost felt as if they weren't my own. Both of them winced in pain as I tightened my grip. I dug my vine-woven thumbs and pinkie fingers into their temples and drove my fore and middle fingers into the softer spots on top of their heads--universal pressure points that they taught me when I was younger. I hope that they remember that moment. I hope it's playing back in their minds right now, the day Father latched on to my own skull in those same spots to offer a personal demonstration of its effectiveness, and the searing pain that would linger long after he released me.

It felt... it felt good, you know? To have a complete and total advantage over those who have caused you a lifetime of suffering, pain, and fear for once...

The Forgotten One stepped behind me and laid her soft hands on my exposed biceps. I flinched slightly, not use to contact as intimate as this. The woman in the red dress squeezed my arms lightly, reassuring me that everything was going to be alright. She leaned in close. The sorceress was only an inch or two taller than me, but she felt far more oppressive and imposing than her stature implied.

Her voice was a soft whisper as it entered my ear, her breath causing goosebumps on my pale skin. "Let me show you first-hand the power you crave so much, Madison my dear."

A small humming filled my ears and a dark, chaotic energy flowed through my arms where her fingers touched me. I clenched my jaw and grit my teeth, fighting every impulse to close my eyes and shut out the intense sensation that was wracking my body. Inch by inch, the vines that made up my limbs turned a deep crimson hue--the same blood coloring of the plant life that managed to thrive within The Red Forest. This was it--this was Podë's Curse!

There was a small popping sound, and then another, and another. Popping, cracking, ripping, and tearing mixed with the muffled screams of my parents as The Red Witch's vile energies filled them. Muscle and bone snapped and broke and then reformed as the Curse took hold of them. Their bodies were swiftly mutated and mutilated under my touch. Mother and Father shook in unknowable agony, struggling to free themselves from the red vines that were holding them fast to the leather couch as they grew tighter and tighter against them.

I could not take my eyes off the two as their physical forms changed before their very eyes. Father's sleeves were beginning to rip along their seams as his chest and arms expanded with newly-created muscle. His hair had grown several inches, making him look like a cave-dweller from ages long-gone. His near perfect teeth grew sharp and yellow, slowly tearing against the vines that suffocated him as his jaw wrenched back and forth.

Mother... Mother had been similarly affected by my touch. Bits of her already tight dress had burst apart as her body expanded with new muscle and bone structures. Her chest heaved with each new breath she took, shaking her half of the couch and scraping it against the dusty hardwood floors of the reading room as she too tried to wrestle herself free from the grip of the vines. I could see her right eye peeking out from between my thumb and forefinger. There was this... look... that I'll never forget until my dying day. It wasn't a look of simmering anger, which was her standard go-to mood.

No... It was the look of a feral beast. A creature fueled by instinct and need--and that need was to tear me from limb to limb.

It was a look that went past vile, venomous, burning hatred and went straight towards primal hunger. And for a brief second, it scared me.

Podë sensed my unease, and pressed herself up against me. Pouring more of her limitless power into my body, the mutations my parents were suffering quickened. The sound of growing and expanding muscle and snapping and reforming of bones... I'll never forget it. Their painful screams that soon evolved into primal howls... I'll never forget them either.

I kept pouring more and more of the Curse into them. For all that they've done to me, for what they've turned me into... No, they hadn't suffered enough. Not yet.

Not ever.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

And just like that--after moments or minutes, I couldn't quite tell--it was over.

Mother and Father stopped their unnatural twitching. They stopped screaming, they stopped moving, they stopped breathing.

It was over. It was finally all over. The nightmare of their continued existence, the fears I had that they would find me and burn down everything that I've worked so hard for, and all for a simple misunderstanding and a bruised ego...

It was over.

My vine arms returned to their natural shades of green as Podë's Curse settled into a dormant state inside me. I could feel its presence, its power... Feel it resting deep within the core of my very being. My soul.

There were no words I could say. I just simply stared at the mutilated, destroyed corpses of my parents. Their skin had darkened with countless popped blood vessels, and even cracked in some placed--just completely split apart from the twisting and pressure it underwent. Their bodies were bleeding from several places where these splits happened, their crimson blood staining their black garments. Mother's neck was wrenched at an impossible angle, her vacant stare still managing to look incredibly angry and disappointed even in death. Father's jaw was broken and turned halfway across his face, his teeth chipped and stained with blood while his eyes were rolled up in the back of his head.

Slowly, the vines slithered out from around them and receded into the depths of the red leather sofa. Their corpses collapsed onto one another in a heap of mutilation.

I simply watched them slump down, feeling nothing but a dull ache from it finally being over with. I couldn't find the words to say anywhere... I just stood there, arms at my sides, a powerful sorceress at my back, and said nothing.

Podë's hands let go of my vine-knit biceps, the tips of her fingers tickling my skin as her hands traveled elsewhere. "Tell me, Madison Freebird. Did that feel... good? Was that enjoyable for you?"

"Yes," I said, a hollow whisper.

My body tingled as the Forgotten One's hands traveled across my body. Her left hand lightly brushed against my chest, sending a chill down my spine. I craned my head upwards, exposing my neck to her as cold fingers drew themselves around my throat lightly as a lover would. With a practiced skill, she undid my makeshift pant leg bandage and allowed the gore-soaked scrap to flutter to the floor. The sorceress' other hand found its way around my waist. She pulled me in tighter against her own body. My breathing became heavy, my heart beating faster and faster. I could feel her breath on my ear.

"My other gifts to you, my little monster. My Curse at your very disposal, and a little something special to ensure your eternal cooperation..." Her emerald eyes flickered at the bloodied, mutated bodies before us.

She leaned in even closer, her fingernails playfully digging into the skin of my throat, her thumb tracing the edges of my jaw. I breathed in sharply and closed my eyes as she whispered into my ear, "Let us work wonders together..."

And then, everything went red.

[Silence Sei]

Story

This was a really powerful story told through the perspective of a woman trying to fight what she truly is. We have all these characters here on the site who start out 'corrupted', or get corrupted by other characters with nothing more than sweet words and possible promises. It's very refreshing to see a story wherein the character is actually given something in order to garner obedience. The setting could have been done better, but the way you left the reader wanting more out of every post, as well as the internal struggle and satisfying conclusion to this chapter of Madisons left more than made up for the avrage setting.

Score: 24

Character

Madisons personal struggle as well as her conversations with the death-Nell group and Pode herself sent the occasional chill down my spine. This was really where you excelled at, keeping Maddy from trying to become a beast while knowing that that is exactly what she is kept me intrigued. Pode's gifts to Maddy, and her accepting of the 'trophies' so to speak were really intense, and I found myself trying hard to veer away from the computer.

Score: 26

Prose

Sometimes, it took me a re-read in order to determine what exactly Madison had done to the wolves, which was by far the lowest mark of this thread. While the fight was awesome, and the odd mushrooms made for a great wildcard in the mix, I had a hard time determining on occasion if Madison was fighting the same wolf or a different one. There were very few errors in the actual mechanics that I spotted, and there was a ton of techniques used such as metaphor, similes, and even foreshadowing and symbolism. I just wonder how Nell would think of Maddy and now that the latter has accepted her true persona?

Score: 22

Wildcard

I loved this thread. As I said, it kept me hooked on every single post and left me wanting more. Given your recent light hearted and coup-inspiring endeavors with our former flying Freebird, I can't help but ask myself if this is a new, darker Madison that the whole of Althanas now has to deal with. And. I. Love. It.

Score: 7

Final Results: 79.

I am also nominating this thread for a JC, just so you know.


BlackAndBlueEyes receives 4010 exp, and 500 GP, with a possible bonus should this thread become a JC. It will also have the prestiege of being 1 of the 2 JCs in 2014, if approved. So great job!

[Lye]

Added thingz.

[Lye]

Congratulations! You have been awarded a Judge's Choice Award for your efforts in this thread! In addition to the prestige, you will receive an additional 20% boost to your rewards in this thread.

802 EXP
100 GP

These have been added.

Again, congratulations!