Subject 27

by Phyrexian

A New Horror Comes Out To Play

Chapter 27 - A New Horror Comes Out To Play

I come to in the darkness again, I’m surprised to see that it's not another memory as usual. My own little happy place feels different now that the Horror has been taking up residence; the darkness around me doesn't feel welcoming anymore, but twisted and alienated. My own sanctuary is becoming corrupted and it scares the hell out of me. Without Friend or Fade here to help I’m on my own and I need to do something about this unwanted guest.

I see the Horror lurking around as it makes itself at home, its staying away from the white box, hissing at it every time it passes it; Still probably mad at the box when it was zapped the first time it tried to poke it. It comes to a stop as it catches me in its sights. I stand there, waiting to see what it would do at the sudden appearance of something new in its ‘new’ home. The clicking started up again as it slowly made its way towards me, approaching me with caution. I merely stand there studying its movements. I notice its mouth is not moving when it clicks, was it something in its body that mutated that was creating the clicking sound? Or was it simply just fucking with its prey?

It nears me, still approaching cautiously, its head hung low and its claws to the side like it was unready to attack. Was it just studying me as I studied it? I recall the memory of when Arkis mimicked the Alpha Horror; I attempt to do the same. I open my mouth and started to click my teeth together; The Horror comes to a stop only ten feet away from me as it raises its head and tilts it to the side. I have no idea if I was doing this correctly but the Horror seems to be intrigued enough by my imitation. I stop clicking and the Horror continues, we stand there clicking at each other before the Horror stops completely and raises its talons in preparation for an attack.

I ready myself for it to lunge at me. I need to take care of this unwanted guest for once in for all; Its been staying here for far too long and is no longer welcomed. It releases a powerful roar, staggering me briefly but enough time for it to close the gap in between us. Its left claw comes at me from the side but I sidestep it with ease, only to step into the right one as it bears down into my right shoulder. I grab the right claw with both my hands and roll backwards, causing the Horror to lose its balance. I place my right foot on its chest as we roll, I toss it onto its back and quickly get to my feet.

I pivot on my right foot and start to bring my left heel down upon the Horror, it roles to the side and dodges my attack and lunges at me as it gets to all fours. We hit the ground with the Horror on top of me, I quickly jab my right fist into the side of its head repeatedly. It cries in pain after the fifth punch. The Horror rears up and opens it mouth, as it brings down its open mouth I place one hand on its lower jaw and the other on the top trying to stop it as drool starts to ooze from its mouth.

The amount of force it’s using to bite my head off is too strong for me to hold it back for much longer, every second the open maw gets closer as I struggle to keep its teeth from sinking into my body. My right arm buckles under the amount of pressure and I quickly bring my left arm into the path of its mouth as it comes down at me. The Horror’s teeth sink deep into my left forearm. I scream out in pain as it bears down, I can feel the bone in my arm starting to crack under the pressure.

“Demon, awaken from your slumber.” I hear Nyuel calling out to me, forcing me from the darkness to the real world.

- - -

I awake with my left arm spasming out of control, I look down to my arm and see no wounds; But It feels as if the Horror actually did bite my arm. I grab my arm trying to stop it from twitching out of control, Nyuel places her hoof on my left arm, causing me to look up to see a worried look upon her face.

“Are you well, Demon? You were grunting as though you were in pain. Your body twitched every now and then.”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine. I was just dealing with my own ‘personal demons’, so to speak.” Trying to smile and comfort Nyuel.

“A demon with his own demons? You just keep on getting stranger and stranger by the day, Demon.” My arm now starting to calm down.

“Yeah, I usually have them in check but ever since my powers were sealed they’ve been rampaging through my mind and tearing up the place. I fear for the worst as I only have a few days before I become a danger to everyone here on Unyasi.” My fake smile turns into the frown that I’ve been trying to mask.

“Well, let us make haste to Caesar’s palace and hopefully he’ll have the answers you seek.” She slowly retracts her hoof and makes her way to her bags and begins to put them on.

I get to my feet and start to stretch out before we make our descent back to the ground. I make my way out of the small room like hole in the tree and look over the edge of the branch. I turn around to see Nyuel nervously standing there as she double checks her saddlebags, I walk towards her and pet her mane before kneeling down so she climb up on my back.

She wraps her hooves around my neck and holds on tight as I slowly lower myself from the branch to the vines. Wrapping the vines around my left arm and around my leg I slowly loosen my grip around to vines as I control our descent. Nyuel buries her head deep into my back as we descend, as we reach the halfway point I can feel Nyuel starting to slip; I come to a stop to help her get a better grip but a foul yet rather intriguing idea comes to mind.

I should just let her slip off my back and fall to her death. How beautiful her blood would look painted on the jungle’s floor below. Her screams and cries she would make as she fell would be music to my ears. Oh, what wonderful pleasures her death could bring me! As I ponder over these fantasies that now plague my mind, Nyuel tries to kick herself up as she flails about on my back, desperately trying to hang on for dear life.

“D-Demon! W-What has gotten into you?!” She sounds terrified, her voice is like singing birds to my ears.

Oh I wonder how big of a splatter she would make if I let her fall to her doom; A sinister smile creeps its way onto my face as I just hang in the air. I can feel her hooves unravel around my neck as gravity takes control and Nyuel starts to slide off my back.

“DEMON!” Her cry brings me back to my senses as she starts to fall.

“NYUEL!” I open my left hand and let myself fall.

I grab Nyuel with my right hand and quickly close my left hand to stop my rapid descent, the vines dig into my left arm and hand as I fall. We come to a stop as I barely hold Nyuel by the tail, she's dangling only a few feet off the ground, her eyes are shut tight as she nears the ground. I bring Nyuel up to my chest and cradling her as I let go, dropping roughly two feet to the ground and landing on my feet.

Rope burn, well vine burn now affects my left arm and hand, I can tolerate the pain but my body has to regenerate this wound on its own, or maybe a healing potion could fix this up for me. I can feel Nyuel trembling in my arms as she bear hugs me, holding me very tight.

“Nyuel, you’re safe now. I’m sorry about that... I-I just don’t know what’s gotten into me up there, but I’m glad I was able to catch you before it was too late.” She still shakes in fear as I hold her.

She stays silent, still holding me tightly. I just held her as I walked through the jungle back towards Caesar’s palace, my left arm swings lazily as I walked. Every now and a then it bumps into my side, causing it to flare in pain; I walk for a short before Nyuel speaks again.

“D-Demon, you may put me down now. I am fine.” I come to a stop and put Nyuel back on her feet, she’s still a little shaken up from that event.

“Once again, I’m very sorry about that.”

“I know, Demon. I-I’m glad you were able to catch me in time before I met my untimely demise. We still have some ways to go before we reach Caesar’s palace. Let’s make haste and reach it before the new moon rises.” She trots ahead with me in tow.

We walk through the jungle, occasionally stopping to pick up herbs and ingredients. Nyuel gives me one of the prototype healing potions and I down it, the sting in my arm starts to subside as the healing potion makes its way through me. As we walk I feel a little off, more on edge than usual, all I want to do is just find something beautiful and destroy it; Wipe it off from the face of this world and then do it again.

It must be the next stage of the virus, it worries me that I’m a day ahead of schedule. My aggression towards everything is increasing as the day goes on. If this continues on unchecked, my bloodlust will need to be quenched. I don’t know if I will be able to control myself for much longer.

Nyuel tells me about the local wildlife, she goes on and starts to talk about Unyasi, just making idle chit-chat to pass the time. I tell her about Earth’s jungles to the best of my knowledge. She’s intrigued by how massive the jungles on Earth are and how beautiful I made them sound.

My bloodlust starts to stir again as the Horror moves around my mind making its clicking noises. My fists ball up as I control my rage, I look down at Nyuel as she trots in front of me, I try to bury the urge to paint the jungle red with her blood. I come to a dead stop as I feel a familiar feeling, as if someone is watching me, and I sure do hope they are so I can relieve them of their lifeblood. I let out a whistle, causing Nyuel to stop and turn her head and look at me.

“Nyuel, whatever you do, stay calm and follow my lead. We’re being watched and I doubt they want to be friends.” Nyuel gives me a deep as she watches me closely.

“Now, when and they will ambush us, I want you to stay behind me at all time. I’ll keep myself in between them and you the best I can, I need you to stay back and stay out of the fight. Now, I’m going to walk ahead and you’ll stay behind me by at least ten feet, if they come from behind you I want you to run as fast as you can to put me in between you and them.” I look around and see make my way in a different direction than what we’ve been walking in.

Nyuel slowly walks behind me, I keep my eyes peeled for any sudden movements. A flock of birds fly up through a nearby tree, causing me to jump a little.

“Demon, look out!” I snap my head back to see vials flying at me.

“Nyuel, GET BACK!” One of the vials lands at my feet, one on each of my sides.

As each one lands on the ground, breaking open and releasing the contents out around me. The air is filled with a thick blue haze and a sickeningly sweet aroma, it hits me that these bombs were made with Poison Joke.

I thick blue haze fills my lungs, causing me to choke and fall to the ground. My vision starts blur as I scramble on the ground trying to get back up on my feet. The Horror becomes active again as I breathe in more of the haze, my bloodlust becomes too great for me to contain. The Horror starts to roar as I’m being choked by the Joke Bombs.

I get to my hands and knees and start coughing violently, small blotches of blood land on the ground in front of me the more I cough. My vision is completely blurred now and the air in my body is now replaced with this gas, my whole body starts to ache, it feels as if someone strapped me down on The Rack.

I collapse again on the ground, holding my sides as I curl up into the fetal position coughing up more blood. The Horror seems to be energized by the Poison Joke that fills my body, I can feel the Horror’s taint spreading throughout my body. My body is beginning to rapidly mutating, as if the Horror itself was on steroids.

The pain is too great to bear, I lay screaming out in pain, my scream starting to resemble the Horror’s roar; I must get out of this haze before it speeds up the progression any further. I struggle to gain any ounce of strength to crawl, I reach out with my hands and dig my fingers into the dirt, slowly pulling my way with each new reach.

My lower back flairs up in a fiery white-hot pain, causing me to let loose another ear shattering roar; I desperately crawl on the ground trying to escape the haze. Each passing second my body feels as if I’m being ripped apart by fish hooks as my lower back reaches a truly agonizing level of pain. I start to cough violently again, this time the blood splotches were bigger than before.

My vision starts to go black as I reach the edge of the haze, I must stay conscious long enough to escape. The Horror feels as if its squealing in joy and ecstasy the longer I choke on the gas. My body is begging me just bend over and accept the Horror as the dominant one in my body; But I will not give in so easily, If I’m going to die than I’m going to die kicking and screaming every single second.

My blurred vision becomes darker as I do everything thing I can to muster up every ounce of strength I have just to crawl. I’m quickly losing control over my bloodlust; If I make it out of this haze the next thing I see is dead. A hellish new pain starts to make itself known in lower back, it feels as if someone is violently ripping my spine out through my own behind.

I roar out once more as my lower backs erupts like a volcano spewing agony and suffering. I can feel my own warm blood oozing down my back and onto the ground as I lay there. My body fails me as the all my strength starts to fade away, I’m only able to turn my head slightly; My horns digging through the dirt as I do. My eyes go wide as I see what had managed to rend my lower back asunder. The darkness finally takes over my vision and I black out from the unbearable pain and the blue haze.

- - -

I woke up in the Darkness, my soul feels as though it wasn't my own anymore, as if it was now the Horror’s; I felt as though I had been violated over and over again, making me sick to my stomach as I’m now a prisoner in my own body.

I get up off the dark floor that was the Darkness and got my feet. I take a few steps, only to be tripped. I catch myself with my hands before landing face first on the floor, I turn my head to see what caused me to trip in the first place... What I see I couldn’t even comprehend it... My mind struggling to process what tripped me... I kneeled there dumbfounded to no end as I saw a new limb jutting out from my lower back..

Credits

Editor

frieD195

Comments

[Neon Slate]

Damn that's creepy. I'm hooked on the story. I have to know what happens. MUST HAVE MOAR

[Tsujin Rilauco]

Good, let the black mana flow through you!

Still trying to figure out if 27's turning into anything I'd recognize.

[EXbronymaster]

shits always getting more real son

[Phyrexian]

738939 Made me laugh heartily, thank you for that.

[the_sane_maniac]

i KNEW that the horror virus was gonna give him some new kick ass power and/or mutation. so now he has a alien tail huh? that. is. so AWESOME!!! can't wait to read the next chapter

[Dragaen]

ummm, I keep imaging the horror looks kind of like a wolf, with that said I think the wolf is what rutted the night with cloud, any objections speak now or forever hold your piece.