Death | Teen Ink

Death

December 10, 2013
By Anonymous

Hurried footsteps echoed through the empty chamber. A deep growl rang through the tunnel, as the footsteps continued. The man could barely see anything, but he could see the sole single light source that led outside the mine. That was all that mattered. He could trip, stumble, even break bones, but he knew he had to get out of there. The man was covered in blood, most of it already congelated. The light was growing bigger. The white wisps of light was devoid of warmth, and the man started to realize it as he neared the source.
“What kind of magick is this?! I’ve never seen such a thing!” The man whispered to himself. “I don’t believe it. This has all got to be a trick. Yeah, that’s right. Some creepy woman with an obsession. Of course, everything makes sense now.”
Still whispering to himself, finally convinced that the whole deal he’s went through was a scam, he neared the exit. He almost made it. But the beast was simply faster as it sank it’s needle pointed teeth into the man’s back. Dark blood splattered the ground. Dragging it’s prey back to its master, the shadows swallowed up the beast and its victim. The man’s family has left the area, as all of the other families cower behind their house walls. The beast continues to roam freely in the mine shaft. Policemen have tried to “block off all the exits” (ha! policemen terms...) of the mine shaft, but none of them knew about the twelve other openings, all guarded by powerful demons summoned by the beast’s master. No one has been unable to stop the sorceress’s black magick, and thousands of other demons have escaped from the prisons of hell.

With the beast lurking around in the abandoned mine shaft, the city that is just two kilometers away from it has been mostly destroyed. The corrupt government of that province has been overthrown by the locals, and the city is in shambles. The beast has taken advantage of the citizen’s fear, and continues to devour more people as they are led away from their homes. No one knows why the “abducted” people decided to go out into the forest, but in truth, it was really because of the beast’s black magick, whispering into their ears, pulling the people into the jaws of the beast. With the beast’s ever hungry appetite, people are getting devoured every day. The country is already dead, oh, I knew we should have picked up a religion, these were all people talked about all day.
The Actual Story

I lolled around pointlessly, looking for the entrance. This was always hard. Everytime, the entrance’s location shifts, and I look like a fool, muttering words to myself as I walk around the fence. Finally, the fence blurred away. I stepped inside, and went to work. (If being a mercenary counts as work.) Immediately, I start getting gold offers but I say no to all of them. I was a relatively well-known mercenary, but I wasn’t the best. If I were, I wouldn’t be telling this story. After all, I would be in my own house, being awesome and not caring about telling my story. Word was was that there was a man on the far side of this dimension who would pay large amounts of gold for a relatively easy task. I set out there immediately, with only one, no two nagging doubts in the back of my mind. I wondered why the people who were talking about this man seemed angry. That, and I also wondered why I ate cheese with honey for breakfast. Weird.
As I neared the said location of the man, I noticed a significant change in the environment. The housing became more primitive, and strange spikes of dark wood sprang out of the ground everywhere. (I assumed it was wood, after all, what else could it be? I highly doubt it could be poop.) Anyways, I was leaping from spike to spike, with the poop thought still in my head, until I finally leaped right into a wall. I was jolted by what seemed like electricity, and I began to see spots in my eyes. I bounced off with tremendous force, and crashed right into a spike behind me. I crashed through it, the impact of the force as devastating as the surprise. I shoot through a few more, until I finally stop, with my body immobilized deep in a huge spike.
I groaned, as pieces of sharp gravel dug into my skin (turns out it was wood. Whew). I tried unhitching myself, which resulted in more pain. I gritted my teeth, determined to not to die here, as that would be lame, and finally a struggled free. I landed on the ground with a small “ploff” sound, as blood, my blood, ran down my flesh while cutting through the debris on my skin. I was dispirited. I couldn’t believe I was so careless, and how easily I could be injured. This is just like something that would happen in some short story written by a seventh grader who wanted to shorten his story in time to turn it in. Ugh. I sensed a movement behind, and so I turned around slowly, hoping it wouldn’t be obliged to attack. Behind me was a shrine with a few bushes surrounding it. Water pooled at the center of the shrines “bowl” for offerings. I heard a few words. Suddenly aware of my surroundings, I heard more behind a small shrine.
“...yeah, so then I was all like, y’know, don’t use your hypnosis on me, that ain’t gonna work. Well, at least that’s what I had thought. Then, it was all like, abracadabra, and I was under his control.”
I stopped. Edging closer to where I first heard the sound, the conversation continued.
“But still, what happened to our mother wasn’t my fault,” The voice continued, as the temperature rises another few degrees. “She was the one who wanted to die so badly. All I did was to help her do that, and plus, we’re demons, we’re supposed to kill each other. Also, a narxus had entered my body, this really wasn’t my fault. He was the one who froze my body, and also made me lose consciousness. We all suffered losses, especially us, brother, you and I.”
“Whatever, man. She was our mother, but wasn’t a very good one anyways.”
“Shut up! The human behind us may easily overhear us. In fact, I’m pretty sure he has, due to the increased rate of his heartbeat. It seems that he’s reaching for a dagger. Let’s go kill him now shall we, brother?”
“Well… Uhm…”
A shadow, no two shadows whipped out behind the shrine, and rocketed through the black spikes. I gripped my dagger, while my other hand searched for my needles. I began following the two shadowy figures, careful not to make a miscalculation. I frown as my hands continue to grope for my needles to no avail. Dang! Apparently I had dropped my nerve needles back when I had hit the colossal rock. I gritted my teeth as I my body slowly, determined to keep calm, as much as my heart protested. There! I whipped around sensing a movement, and to my surprise, I see an spear headed toward me. I’ve never known how I’m able to do this, but whenever I need it enough, I am able to raise my awareness level and somehow brush off any immediate danger. I grab the arrow, but the force of it was too strong. It continued through my hand, the metal fletchings slicing deep red gashes into my arm. Another arrow flashes out, and I instinctively try to grab, careful to let go before the shaft slipped through my hands, until I see though ominous spikes peeking out of the shaft itself. I roll out of the way, and three more arrows hit my back. I yell out in pain, but am able to see one more arrow coming. Unlike the others, this one had a drill shaped front. So that means he wants to finish me. Let him come.
I was already tired, with a lot of my muscles contracting over my wounds on my back, but I force them to ease out. The contraction could only make me stiff and a lot slower. I raise my awareness level and concentrate, and am awarded with a small movement. I see the shadow, and I leap after it. Already barely able to keep up, I also need to be careful to not get hit by any of the arrows the black shadow shoots. I try running faster, but to no prevail. I sense another batch of arrows coming,and I concentrate on dodging all of them. I waited one…. two…. three…. seconds. Where were they? I continued to keep my “technique” on, but when I finally realized that the arrows were coming from behind me, it was too late. The two arrows seared two holes right through my body, and I fell into the darkness. I was faintly aware of two people arguing, but that was beyond my care. I let myself be embraced into the pit blackness.



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