𝖫𝗒𝗇𝖾𝗍𝗍𝖾 𝗑 𝖱𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾r - 𝖡𝖠𝖢𝖪𝖲𝖳𝖠𝖦𝖤 𝖢𝖱𝖤𝖶

Chapter ten: An End to Your Pain

(gore warning I guess. Incase you don't like reading about guts n stuff but there isn't much but just fyi)

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆.｡.:*╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮.⋆｡⋆☂˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.

        "H-Hah.." You trudged through the wet mud, turning your bright blue rainboots brown. What a shame it had to rain just this morning as you were about to head out. Midnight meowed from his travel carrier at you before going feral again, trying to claw at your skin from behind its bars.

You'd been walking for about thirty to forty minutes, the rain had stopped not too long ago. Roots from below were in the way and the tree branches whacked you in the face with no mercy.  The map was partially soaked and the ink became diluted, which made some parts of the map unreadable.

        "Ah.." You whispered, a small wooden house was just up ahead at the peak of the mountain, you started running upwards with all your strength, going as fast as you could. The mud slowed you down and you'd exerted all your strength in a matter of seconds. You were out of breath when you finally reached the house, your knees weak and giving out. You set the blue travel carrier down with Midnight in it as you knocked lightly on the door. There was a singular window at the front, curtains blinding you from the inside. You also tried the handle to find the door locked.

You waited, and waited, and waited, but still, there was nobody. You knocked once more and tried the handle once more only to find it was unlocked this time. You picked up the travel carrier, Midnight's meows being the only sound in the silence. You slowly twisted the knob and pushed open the door carefully. 

Inside was a dusty looking living room, it looked as if it dated back to the 1900s. A small table, rug and broken lamp sat still and in the corner was a grey rocking chair. You walked up to it and grazed your finger over the gray, its original brown paint becoming visible. You coughed, the room was extremely dusty, a thick tint of gray over every inch of the place.

        "H-Hello? Anyone there?" You called out in the abandoned looking house. You saw a door and peeked your head out into the other room, curious if there was anybody here. You found yourself inspecting every inch of this place and ultimately decided it had to have been abandoned. 

Your head faced the ground and you sighed loudly, disappointed and your hope lost. You decided to go outside and saw Midnight, scratching himself violently. You gasped at the red marks and blood coming out of him, it must've been agonizing, and yet, he continued to scratch. Loud shrieks of pain came out his mouth and you took small steps towards him.

        "Midnight...no no no..." You whispered, your eyes began to water and you tried to blink them away. You watched, paralyzed as your cat continued to violently scratch itself, the deep gashes spilt blood all over the floor of the travel carrier. He must've caught something on the trip here..

        "No.. I knew I shouldn't have left you on the grass.. Midnight, I-I'm so..so sorry." Your breath hitching in your throat, it was as if you couldn't breathe, caught up in the moment. The already intense itching got more and more intense as the second went by, Midnight scratched himself faster and harder, the shrieks never-ending.

It was only after about ten minutes when you came to your senses, you peeked inside the travel carrier to find the corpse of Midnight, his deep gashes still spilling blood. You could see his intestines poking from under the skin. Bugs had already made their way to the corpse, feasting on the fresh meal.  

The sight sickened you to your bones and, with a shaky hand, you picked up the travel carrier and slowly walked in the direction of home. Nothing could be better now than going to sleep, sleep was the only thing you wanted. You wanted to cry, you wanted to sob and scream but it was so, so tiring. 

As you hiked back down, you felt small droplets hit your shoulder, one became two and two because five. As soon as you knew it, the rain was pouring down on you,  soaking your hair, clothes and getting into your rainboots. The mud was thick and permeable, each step was a gamble.

The rain was enough to cover the scent of Midnight's fresh corpse somewhat and you slowly made your way there. It soon became night and the rain was relentless, you were still very far away from Fontaine city so you spent the night in a cave. You felt insects crawl on you, from centipedes to spiders to ants and didn't have the energy to cringe or jump away. The night was dark and far from over, though, it was like something was watching you.

⋆. ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆.｡.:*╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯.⋆｡⋆☂˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.