It took fourteen straight hours of retracing his steps, walking in circles, and occasionally recognizing stones or trees that he passed. But, at along last, Gray found himself pounding on the door of Oscar's cabin.
His legs were tired and sweat was pouring from his face, stinging his minor cuts and bruises, but he felt alive.
"Oscar," he called, pounding loud enough to rattle the door on its hinges. Still no answer. This was weird... too weird.
Gray took a step back and looked around the side of the building, seeing nothing but a few trees and a window. He walked back to the front door and checked the doorknob. Locked.
Something was definitely wrong. "Oscar!" Gray yelled. He jumped over the porch rail and ran to the side of the house.
Gray banged on the window to no avail. It was dim inside, but he could tell the room was a mess. More of a mess than usual.
"That can't be a good sign," He groaned, glancing wildly around the ground.
What he wouldn't have done for Venso Rock in that moment. Instead he lowered his backpack off of his shoulder.
I'm going to regret this later. He thought, but he lifted it over his head anyway.
He slung the bag against the window, and, to his surprise, easily broke through the glass. But Gray didn't waste any time analyzing it. He simply leapt off the ground and climbed through the opening.
Gray landed on the hardwood, and barely even spared his backpack a glance.
Instead he glanced carefully around the room. At the burned corner, with it's scorch marks making strange design on the walls. There was blood on the ground. And the table, flipped on top of a goopy, mess of a corpse.
Gray crawled over to the body and scanned it's clothing. "This isn't Oscar..."
Maybe he got away.
His eyes landed on the necklace that Oscar had dropped upon being attacked, and he carefully lifted it up, by it's chain.
The scorch marks, the wreckage, the body. There was an unnerving amount of destruction throughout that one room. "Who could have done this?"
"I'll give you one guess," Rivet's voice echoed from the corner of the room.
Gray spun around and found that he wasn't alone. And his living nightmare stared right back at him. "Where are your goons, Rivet?" He gulped, trying to sound brave.
Rivet rolled his eyes with a mechanical whir. "Enough. My sons are doing my bidding at the moment. This isn't about them," he gestured at the walls. "Random slashes here and there, room half destroyed, gruesome murders. It screams out a name loud and clear to me..."
"Dare," Gray seethed. But, as angry as he was, his stomach clenched at the sound of the name. Fear slowly overtook the rage, and choked it out.
The name had come to mean something to him recently, more than it had when this was all just make believe. And just the state of the room, told him that it was far worse than he'd ever imagined.
"Smart Child," River hummed. He paced to the far wall, and ran his finger along the marks left by the madman's dagger. "Nothing can tame his bloodlust. Dare destroys everything he comes across, without a second thought. His so called friends. Oscar... Me,"
Gray looked up at Rivet. "Why are you here?"
"I came to see you, Grayson,"
The sound of his full name, coming from this monster's mouth, sent chills down Gray's spine. "Don't call me that,"
YOU ARE READING
The Skelitin Saga: Volume One
FantasyWhen he was younger, Grayson Ritcher had been searching for something that didn't exist. Something from his favorite childhood book. A fragment of someone's imagination. The statues of two wizards, frozen in time, mid-duel. He never thought that he'...
