The Coffin

Animals

                                                                                            Inside

The city went by many names. Sometimes simply "city" as it was the only one, other times "cage", "the farm" among those outside it, "literally hell" was used commonly by those within. However, its formal name was Villam, and it was hideous and unkept, as the residents had no desire to keep it livable knowing they would not live in it long. The term farm was no exaggeration. Slaughterhouse was probably more accurate even.

Two or three random times a year, the creatures outside the city would climb its tall walls after nightfall and silently attack the humans within, with what the captives thought was immeasurable, and unbeatable power. "Soldiers of the night" they called themselves, dark figures recognized only by their intricate tattoos, that few living ever got a good look of. "Caedes' ' the humans called them, meaning murderers in some ancient language. They would go leaping from tall unstable buildings to the next, pulling people out their own widows in the flash of an eye, and picking people off the streets like a bird would a fish from the ocean. Tip Toeing on delicate power lines as they balance their dead prey over their shoulders, aware the meat on there's shoulders family would wake up to nothing but blood in their loved ones place. And screams and cries of agony would shake the city in the morning, while they feasted in their castles and laughed with whom they loved.

That was how it was. A unbearably fast cycle of life and death for generation after generation of traumatized children, as stable as the rickety buildings they lived in. That is until the war. Or rather, more accurately, a single month of brutal bloody revenge.

.......

The room was a bit grimy. Dirt collecting in the corners, cobwebs on the ceiling, and dust smellable in the mutsy air but it made up for it with its warmth. Posters and pictures of nature were plastered over cracks and water stains, plastic plants hung and from about every surface in the area, the walls and furniture were all welcoming.

Strange vibe for a torture camp. Or a doctor's office. Or a temporary holding facility. All depends on who you are, or more accurately what you are. On a cloudlike grey-green couch two persons sat, a young boy and young girl, the antlers they had attached to their head banging together annoyingly on the small loveseat. However that was not what caused their unease. Or specifically the tween boys unsease as the newly adult girl was as confident and careless as usual.

"Stop shaking. You'll make us look suspicious" She said quickly without giving the boy a glance, pulling her hat lower onto her head as she leaned back, placing her arms across her chest. Sighing in her boredom. The boy couldn't even fathom what made her this way, so calm in the dangerous situations she'd impulsed their way into. Even at this point in their lives together, her aloofness still shocked him. And annoyed him greatly.

"You brought us to the place where people like us are literally tortured Joan, I apologize if I'm a bit on edge" the boy said as calmly as possible through closed teeth and wide eyes, burning with anger.

"It's a religious place, Zorry, If they found out we'd probably be treated better for god's sake relax" she said, now gracing him with a glare, through her comically large visor sunglasses.

"They're probably lyi-"

"Just shut the hell up, let me do the talki-" she begins before Zorry swiftly intejects.

"Let you do the talking?! Absolutely not you craz-"

"Hello" a man said in a strange northern accent, his head poking through the door quite suddenly, Zorry jumping at his abrupt appearance.

"Hey" Joan sayed cooly, sitting up a bit in her chair to hold her lanky hand out to the man, though not bothering to smile. Zorry, on the other hand, smiled as if he was being held at gunpoint, sweat dripping down his bright red face in the chilly room. The doctor's head bobbled with the uneven weight of his large antlers as he maneuvered his way in, which were obviously soon to drop him six feet under.