Untamed Chroma

Chapter 25 - Loyalty to Tumult

A completely silent forest. Completely dark. Completely vacant. Not a single whisper besides Freyja's frantic breathing. It was a miracle she was even conscious. Her body covered and littered with scars and burns. Every time he touched her... her skin would... sizzle and crackle... as if it was burning or being bitten off, but if she ever dared to scream he would only grab at her face more and more.

This specific night he... was extra frantic, a hint of... twisted excitement in his voice. He kept mumbling something... a language she didn't recognize, one she couldn't even begin to guess what it would be. She couldn't focus on him too much though, her mind was racing at all the other... things... watching her. Too cursed and broken to be called humans. Too... uncanny. They looked human, but... they couldn't be. Each one looked completely different. One with extended limbs, one with a twisted jaw, one with a permanent forced smile ripped into his mouth, one with... features she didn't even want to dwell on. They were all watching her. Every single one. Standing behind a tree, peaking from around the trunk, seemingly nervous to get too close to... Thökk, but still watching. He sat in front of her. Looking at her for a few silent minutes that  felt like years. She couldn't even begin to think of what he was up to.

His hand raised, opening his palm as she saw some... shriveled, gray, ill looking mushrooms, and he nudged his hand against her

"Eat" he said, his face emotionless, his tone blunt and tough. She didn't reply, but she didn't accept, she kept her mouth shut. He just, stared at her. His eyes wide like dinner plates, his pupils, tiny like dots in the wide empty white of his eyes littered with veins. He kept looking at her. Despite her very agitated state, Freyja could notice... Thökk wasn't blinking. He wasn't... inhaling or exhaling. He wasn't swallowing, his pupils weren't moving, there wasn't a single regular bodily function she could pick up. For minutes, if not close to an hour. He stared at her. The rotten mushrooms in his hand, eerily close to her face. "EAT IT" Her heart raced and she whimpered as he suddenly screamed at her. But.... his expression didn't change. His eyes were still wide as they stared at him. His mouth and face didn't crease or wrinkle when he yelled. His voice was loud, but it's like there was no effort to scream. She was petrified. What little logic and reasoning left in her brain ORDERED her not to eat those mushrooms.

He suddenly got up, after hours of remaining motionless with his eyes glued to her. The sudden movements scaring her more, frightened as to what he was about to do, as he grabbed her face with one hand, and started forcefully opening her mouth with his other hand. She shook her head trying to stop him, crying and begging and she resisted, but he held her firmly, and opened her mouth more. Before he could get the mushrooms in, she suddenly bit his hand as hard as she could, leaving marks and even breaking skin, making him stop, still holding her, but no longer moving. Suddenly, in an instant, his lips parted widely showing his teeth as they grit, his eyebrows frowning extensively showing the most anger and hate filled expression she has ever seen, before quickly turning back to the silent monotone face he kept staring at her with. Its as if he did not know how to portray emotion, and these were his attempts at expressing is anger. He maintained a hold on her, and with his other hand grabbed one of his... knives, making her eyes widen and her heart drop.

"N-No- NO I- PLEASE!" She pleaded before he brought the knife closer and put it at the edge of her mouth, the serrated rusty knife slicing the edge of her lips, opening her cheek as he forcibly stuffed the mushrooms in.

"Eat it. Eat it. Eat it" He yelled as she screamed, he once again had that same... 'angry' face. It was very... VERY exaggerated. But he was still.... talking in a monotone voice. It did not match. Seeing such an anger and hate filled expression, with an unbearably monotone voice, it was extremally uncanny. Blood spilt on his hand as he kept pushing the mushrooms into her mouth with tears pouring down her face as the pain was unbearable. His hands went so deep that he forced the mushrooms down her throat, and at that point, the angry expression in an instant, changed to an unnaturally gleeful one. His smile stretched from ear to ear, his eyes extraordinarily joyous, as he stared at her with that expression for a while, the blood still gushing, before he finally let go of her face.