The village leader's eyes widened as if filled with terror itself. His fingers clenched around the edge of his worn-out coat, as if searching for something physical to hold onto in the face of this intangible catastrophe.
"How... how did you know?" he whispered in a broken voice, each word emerging like a shard of glass from his throat.
Arion turned his head with painful slowness, his glassy eyes—which had lost their childhood sparkle—staring into the distant horizon as if gazing through a window open to hell. "I see them... swarming like black ants. They crush trees under their feet... I feel the heat of their breath from here. Only three days separate us from the end."
In the dark corner of the room, Jacob watched this strange dialogue as if witnessing his friend transform into a prophet of doom. Silent tears streamed down his cheeks as he saw the stranger who had occupied his friend's body, speaking in a metallic tone devoid of any trace of the childhood he knew. His small hands pressed against his chest, as if trying to prevent his heart from exploding.
The doctor and the village leader stepped out onto the weathered wooden balcony, where the cold air carried the omen of death. The low moon cast long, gloomy shadows on their pale faces.
"Do we believe what the boy said?" the doctor asked in a hushed voice, his hands still trembling from the shock of what he had heard.
"It can't be a coincidence..." the Leader replied, staring into the dark horizon. "You know we requested weapons from Isaac, fearing a Savage Horde. Fate mocks us."
"But the boy has been through so much... those seven days in a coma, that strange transformation. Perhaps he's confused, mixing nightmares with reality."
The Leader smiled a bitter smile that deepened the wrinkles of his age on his face. "Do we act on the words of a confused boy? Or do we not act and risk everyone's lives? If there's even a one percent chance he's right..."
The doctor fell silent, his gaze turning towards the window where the two boys lay. "And if he's wrong?"
"Then we've wasted three days in fear." The Leader shook his head. "But if he's right... We would have saved lives."
That evening, the village elders gathered in the main hall. The oil lamps cast a flickering glow on their grim faces. The strange thing wasn't the accusation against Arion, but the silent acceptance; they welcomed it with open arms. Despite his strange symptoms and his previous reputation in Ashwood village, no one accused him of lying or exaggerating.
"You are free..." said the Leader in a resonant voice carrying a weight of sorrow. "Whoever wishes to leave may flee. As for me, I will stay to face that Savage Horde. I will not run away again."
The doctor let out a hollow laugh that echoed in the empty hall. "You know this village is a village of survivors. Everyone here has lost everything to the monster tide or some other reason. From the village's founder to the last member who joined us—the young boy Jacob—there is no one here who has something precious enough to flee for."
An old woman whispered in a voice carrying deep pain: "If the adults flee and leave two helpless boys, barely eight years old... what does that make us? What kind of people would we become?"
Another young man added, his eyes shining with defiance: "If everyone must die, let us die before the children. I won't let a beast touch them before it crosses my corpse."
An old man sitting in the corner, his voice shaking as he spoke: "We must find someone to take the children and escape with them, don't get overheated and forget about them."
The doctor sighed sadly: "Unfortunately, Arion and Jacob are not in a condition to escape with anyone. Their wounds haven't healed yet."
In the room where Arion was tied to the bed with cloth ropes—to protect him from harming himself during his pain episodes—he was trying to convince Jacob for the last time. "You damned fool! Didn't I tell you to leave? I can't stand the sight of your face! Get out of here!"
But Arion didn't know he had made a mistake. For Jacob exploded at him with a torrent of curses that made Arion realise he had unleashed the most foul-mouthed beast in his friend.
"can't stand the sight of my face? With your rat-like eyes and all those bandadges, you look like a mummy, not even a mummy might smell better ....." The curses fell out like rain
"You think I'm scared?" Jacob shouted, his eyes flashing with anger. "You're the scared one! You're scared to see someone care about you! You're scared to bear the responsibility of those who love you!"
Arion trembled at these words, as if they were a knife piercing through all his defences. "I know you're trembling... look at your hands. Run, please don't wait here. Everyone here will die."
Jacob smiled at him, a smile that held all the sorrow in the world. "You're the fool, Arion. Every person in this village has already fled once and regretted it. They will all stay here to die together. This time... we will not run."
And at that moment, Arion's eyes widened. "They've arrived..."
The beasts began to crawl from the forest like a tide of living darkness. They weren't just beasts, but embodied nightmares:
Lions with bull bodies and branching horns like dead branches, their eyes glowing crimson.
Giant lizards that melted the ground beneath their feet, leaving trails of lava behind.
Unidentifiable creatures that ate parts of their own bodies and then regenerated, like the embodiment of insatiable gluttony.
Wolves with serpent tails slithering in the darkness, their fangs dripping green venom.
Horse-sized spiders weaving threads of death between the trees.
"Look! It seems that the gates of hell opened upon us!" shouted one of the guards before a group of flying creatures with leathery wings tore him apart and swallowed him.
The village was turning into hell. But strangely, no one fled. Everyone fought with all their might:
An old woman stabbed a beast with a small kitchen knife, and soon after was crushed under the feet of a massive creature.
A young man in his twenties tried to save a group of children, but he was torn to shreds while fending off an attack.
The Doctor shielded a child with his body soon after the house wall collapsed on them.
Arion, without moving, witnessed the catastrophe with that new sense that he woke up with, his eyes overflowing with tears of black blood. "The old woman died... the young man who tried to save the children died... the doctor died..."
He heard their final screams, saw their souls freeing themselves from their bodies. Each death left a scar on his soul, as if he were losing a part of himself with every departing spirit.
Jacob stood by the window, his hands trembling, but he didn't move. "How do you know all this?" he whispered, staring at Arion. "What happened to you in those seven days? The real Arion never lied."
And his tears overflowed despite his denial. Deep down, he knew that Arion was telling him the truth.
"BOOOOOM", the outer wall of the doctor's house collapsed
The collapse mimicked the angry roar of Mother Nature. Doorwood splintered, walls crumbled under the weight of brute force.
"We have to move now!" Jacob whispered, his voice a mixture of pain and determination.
With an effort surpassing the strength of his slender body, the boy tore his friend from the bed. Every movement tore at their bleeding wounds, leaving a crimson painting of pain on the floor. Blood flowed like the sad tears of the earth.
Jacob dragged Arion through the dark corridors, each step costing him breaths of his life. Arion's groans mixed with the sound of the house collapsing around them. When they reached the worn wooden hatch, Jacob took a deep breath, and they plunged into the bowels of darkness.
With a deafening roar, the building collapsed like a house of cards. Walls tumbled, the roof folded in on itself. A cloud of dust and despair settled over the scene.
Jacob woke up hours later. Pain was a fire raging in his body. He tried to move his head and look towards Arion... A harsh shock - his right eye hung out of its socket, suspended by thin threads of tissue. Dried blood adorned his pale face.
"Ar...ion?" he whispered in a voice like the rustling of dead leaves.
Arion was watching the horrifying scene, his eyes frozen in tragic bewilderment. In his silence, he was fighting a storm of emotions - guilt, fear, and shame.
---
As the first day passed, Arion's body persisted strangely. His wounds healed slowly, as if drawing life from his surroundings. But the price was steep - with every wound that healed in his body, he felt a piece of his humanity die, what was left of it at least.
The air grew heavy, the wilted plants in the corners bearing witness to this dark miracle. Arion felt like a stranger in his own body, as if evil forces inhabited him.
As for Jacob... his wounds festered. The pallor of death crept into his features. His single eye gleamed in the darkness, holding remnants of hope.
"Don't worry..." Jacob whispered, his voice carrying a final plea, "We will live..., somehow"
But Arion saw something different - he saw the real fear in his friend's eye, the fear that Jacob had tried to hide with desperate bravery.
As the second day came by, Hunger tormented Arion. He began to lose control of his body, his eyes glowing with a demonic crimson colour. He tried to pull away, but his body moved against his will, driven by an irresistible force.
"I'm trying... to stop..." Arion whispered, but his voice was like someone speaking from underwater.
Then, even trying to resist this urge became faint as his consciousness
Suddenly... The cellar roof split open! - A massive beast crawled towards them, its eyes red like the embers of hell.
"The... beast!" Jacob shouted, **his eyes staring at the approaching danger with genuine terror, his body trembling like a leaf in a storm.
While Jacob was preoccupied with the creeping danger, Arion was moving towards him. A violent internal struggle raged in Arion's soul, but it was being snuffed out like a fire in the rain:
And as he tried to restrain himself, his consciousness slowly faded, leaving behind only his instinct of hunger to control him.
Before pouncing, Jacob caught Arion's gaze, filled with conflict.
A pounce! - Arion's teeth sank into his friend's face, tearing the flesh.
Bure terror held Jacops' body; he tried to stop Arion, but he couldn't, and he saw the beast crawling towards them. Then, as if by a miracle, suddenly he lost all feeling, and a moment of clarity came upon him. He saw the hazy look in Arion's golden eyes.
Jacob screamed at the beast, but his eyes met Arion's with acceptance and forgiveness.
Arion drank his comrade's blood and tore his flesh.
And Jacob died, his last thought a warning to Arion about the beast that was still approaching.
Arion woke from his nightmare. He looked around... The beast was still crawling, but something was different. Then he looked at Jacob...
The eye! - Jacob's right eye fell from its socket, rolling like a crystalline ball until it reached his feet.
And the other dim eye stared at his face as if telling him that from this moment on, Arion would always see the world through the lens of his guilt - as if Jacob's eye had become the lens through which he saw the world, both of Jacob's eyes became the gates he sees the world through one of terror and the other of pain.
And here, the memories of the final moments began to crash into him like violent waves: his approach to his friend, Jacob's scream of "Beast!", the fear in his eyes, the look of anger in the end, and then the eye rolling to hit his foot.
"No... I didn't... mean to..." Arion muttered before screaming from the depths of his soul and losing consciousness.
Before the beast reached them, it exploded into fragments. From amidst the ash and blood, a man appeared.
He was Marcus at his beak - an athletic body solid as steel, harmonious muscles moving in unison like a polished machine. Sharp eyes like an eagle's, shining with intelligence and experience. His strong features told the story of a seasoned warrior.
"Fate weaves tragic threads." His voice carried a cosmic wisdom
Marcus looked at Arion with a penetrating gaze, as if seeing the ethereal threads tangled around him. "Energy flows through him like a raging river... but it's torn apart, and his body can't even bear the current."
But the surprise came when he saw Arion: Still clutching Jacob's shirt with an iron grip, even in his unconsciousness.
"I see Fate has prepared a dramatic meeting for us," Marcus said in a calm voice.
He tried to free the shirt, but the grip was rigid. Finally, he used a blade to cut a piece of the fabric, leaving a bloody piece in Arion's hand.
Under the shirt... was Jacob's copper necklace, still glowing in the darkness. Marcus took it gently and placed it in Arion's pocket.
Marcus carried the collapsed Arion towards the light. In the boy's hand was the piece of fabric stained with his friend's blood, and in his pocket the last token of a stolen childhood.
As he was leaving, Marcus stopped at Jacob's rolled-away eye. He looked at it, then at Arion, and whispered:
"This eye will become your window to the truth... and your window to hell."
They left the cellar behind, leaving:
A child who died to become a witness to an eternal friendship.
A child who will live carrying wounds that never heal.
A man who will forge a legend from the rubble of a tragedy and become a lot more than just a legend.
And in the eternal silence, the piece of fabric and the necklace whispered the story of two friends... one who chose death to become the other's salvation, and the other who will live to reshape the known existence by his own hands.