Chapter 6 Part 3

A Nightmare Reborn

Chapter 6 Part 3

Now, I've truly lost it. This place, and of its inhabitants, be them Father Gustaf, Alice, Althia, or the beasts,  and everything else, is nothing more than absolute madness. As we walked deeper and deeper into the inner shafts of this horrendous place, Gustaf stopped, and stood there, staring at me. He examined every square inch of me, especially my face, as if he were trying to determine how I was feeling. After a long hesitation, he bore his always notable toothy grin, and asked, 

“Can you feel the change?”

Of course, I had felt different ever since the start of this journey. This isn't what he meant, though. He was asking me if I've became one of them. We both know that the beast has taken refuge in my heart, where it has been clawing away at my once mortal flesh. Those women that I had copulated with weren't even human. With them, I had felt the beast emerge, and I now can no longer control it. Not wishing to entertain these thoughts any longer, I answered him, 

“I can…and it feels…good…”

I wasn't lying, not in the least. My previously inferior state had been replaced by a murderous beast that strives only to hunt. I've became a hunter, pupil to this grizzled master that I know as Father Gustaf. What church would ever employ such a man as him? For this mere fact, it's not him that I question, but more the church from which he has taken his title. My curiosity that had been gradually fostered throughout my years as a detective was now at large. I felt I must know. I asked Gustaf, 

“What church do you frequent?”

He did not seem surprised at all by my daring question. Instead, he pulled at his hat, letting me see his enlarged eyes more clearly, and answered, 

“The Cleansing Church. It's quite far from here.”

How odd. I've never heard of anywhere with that name before, nor do I think I ever would have, had I not met him. The Cleansing Church? Yes, I suppose that would be the perfect name for a church that would use such a man as him. Gustaf is an incredible man, one who is brutally honest and charmingly dry. Wishing not a word more, we proceeded forth, finally reaching our next obstacle. The only way to go any further into the mine was down the tracks. The passageway was barely wide enough for us to squeeze through. Gustaf, as always, did not show any alarm. As I struggled to keep up with him, I lit my hand lamp, and shuddered as I saw what lined the walls of this shaft. Bones, and not just any bones, but the ones of beast and human alike. No, wait? The skeletons affixed and buried into the walls were of both! Where normal digits should have been resting were claws, and their skulls were drawn out with long maws. These are more than just the standard beasts, but instead ones that would make their home more readily in Victorian myth. How could actual werebeasts be a reality? Some even resembled birds and rats! This is incredible! No matter how macabre the grotesque display was, with some of the skeletons being fresh, with shreds of flesh hanging off of them, I could not bring myself look away! As if your standard fare beasts were not enough! 

A grim realization came to mind. What I had encountered before had not been what I believed it to be. They were not demons, nor were they ghosts or monsters. What I had killed before were humans. Neither Gustaf nor I were the ones who could claim to be of mortal men. We were the ones who were the beasts, not them. As more hollow visions filled my head, I knew the truth. The only person that is truly upright in this world is a beast. Humans are the ones who are the villains. They violate person after person, spreading their filth and destruction wherever they go. Those dog-like women that we had saved were like us, at least in so many ways. They were not the ones who had attacked us here in this desolate pit. Though their bodies had fur and their eyes were yellow, they had a more rightful claim to humanity than anyone else, including us. Damn this conspiracy and all that it encompasses. I wished that I had knew it before. Knowing the truth now seems so...empty. 

My eyes had now fully opened. I will call beast man and man beast. There is no other way to justify my crimes. We are the legacy of a bastard creator, be them the god or Althia. Neither is trustworthy, as my bloodlust played privy to my urges. I'm not someone to give up, but, right now, I wanted to. The road ahead is long and arduous. What happens from now on will be a constant trial, a continual battle to stay alive. As we finished traveling down the shaft full of the skeletons, I wiped my brow of its sweat, filling an unnatural heat rising up throughout my body. Is this what it is like to be a thoughtful beast, a restrained hunter of evil? After all, what is more evil than man?