Chapter 7 Part 5

A Nightmare Reborn

Chapter 7 Part 5

We were both right at the door of where our pursuer waited for us, like a banshee haunting the halls of a long-forgotten castle. A thick fog had surrounded us, obscuring both our eyes and tired bodies. Gustaf, not to be underestimated even now, has not seemed to loose a single bit of his eroded resolve. His clothes, his body, his hair, all of it was covered in blood, sweat, and the filth that comes from possessing a mortal coil. Honestly, he looked no different than me, except for that one key difference that came from my invested emotion. He was ready to kill, without any doubt or regard. I was ready, also, but I had my regrets. Yes, regrets. Not doubts, not second thoughts, but regrets. That's what I have, as in my mind I have already killed her. Alice is already dead inside of me. This is what I accepted that I must believe if I am do the task that is at hand. Yes, tremble at my disregard for rationality and sanity. I am madman incarnate! Human love and emotion be damned! Fiends must pay, as must she. Alice must die in me as much as she must die to this world. If I keep her alive in my mind then I fear that the nightmare that threatens to overthrow this earth will succeed in its nefarious plot. Dreams and nightmares alike exist not only in this world but our own unconscious minds, giving our lives a dark backdrop that is hardly ever seen but is always present. I've came to know this as simply "The Nightmare." This is the only name that seemed suiting to me. Now, as this old mentor of mine, dog as he is, urges me to dredge on, and I accept the fact that Alice will be completely dead very soon.

Gustaf took the first step, pushing me aside with his brute force that only one such as he can truly wield. As he received the first glimpse upon the ghastly denizen that Alice had became, I cursed him, wishing even more for his gift of fortune. She had became what everyone but I had feared. She was no longer mysterious and serene. She was now dark, insidious, and a true sight to behold! She towered above us, her head far above before even where the giant that was the good father stood. Her mouth had long teeth, rows and rows of them, dripping with crimson red frothing saliva. Her hair had became stringy and sharp, it amounting to several yards in length. Her nose had became part of a concave snout, and the only thing that remained me of her were her unmistakable eyes, which had now became black, obsidian, more jaded than the coal pits of Hades. Her body had shed all formalities, becoming like an upright centipede. Each of her ribs extended well over twenty feet, the bones showing from beneath her now ashen skin. Her arms had lost their former shape as well, becoming bladed protrusions that could serve her no practical application. They looked as if they belonged to a jungle bat more than anything else. Her legs had became broken and useless, and she slithered across the ground on a tail that Medusa would envy. As she neared us, both Gustaf and I drew whatever makeshift weapons we had assembled, but, what once was Alice had stopped before us, and I sensed her still resonate mind, keeping its former loose grasp of sanity. As she opened her mouth that could only be described as a fiend's jaws, I cursed what came out of it. I had expected a roar, a snarl, or an unearthly hiss. Instead, what Alice had became, said, pleading,

"Don't do this!"

She didn't say to not kill her. This beast is fringing its former heart. As I drew a shiv, one that I had sharpened on a beast's bones, I tossed it high into the air, it drawing Alice's black blood from her bottom jaw. She did not flinch or let out a contest of pain, knowing fully well that this act is one she is continuing. As pus and putrid fluids oozed from where my knife had punctured, it having fallen out easily with Alice's true body's state of decay, it let out a clang, it making the only sound in the cavernous region that was this room. She did not fight back. Instead, Alice asked, groaning in mocking despair,

"Is this what you truly want?"

Gustaf could not continue his attempt at patience. He let out a loud and boisterous war cry, charging Alice's tail. As he climbed up her back, he drove his axe into her ribs, and as her body gushed like a foul geyser, I realized his intention was not to wound her. He was scaling her, as if his crude weapon had became a mountaineer's dependable tool. As Alice cried out, in an unholy, deafening scream, I knew it was in vain. She said,

"No, what are you doing?"

It was in vain. Gustaf had used his proud beasthood to mount her narrow ridge. He swung his axe into the top of her head with all of his might, and I realized it was over. Alice did not cry again, and as I rolled away from her timbering body, I narrowly dodged a crushing accident. As her body lacked life, I knew she would forever be no more. Gustaf, the silver beast, picked me up, and strapped me across his back. He ran with me, as he said, in a bellowing, gruff, wolven shout,

"Come on!"

Thank you, friend, my partner. Thank you for not letting me have time to process or believe what she had became. Thank you for not making my life fall to her still worthy charms. Thank you, unrivaled hunter father Gustaf, for helping me kill all of my lust and mortality, forever. Let it die, for it hath now. I am no longer at all human, but instead a wicked hunting beast. Praise the nightmare and its ability to warp even me.