The Key Keeper

Chapter 1

A man stood, sweat dripping from his brow, his nostrils flaring angrily, his curly brown hair falling onto his bleeding face. He looked disheveled and exhausted, holding onto a glaive; he shielded himself anticipating an attack. His grayish-blue eyes pierced through his opponent as he drew in a shallow breath as if he were threatening his opponent to attack. His worn black, now almost gray-looking cloak shows various scars up his arms, each one telling a different story.

"Why" a scratchy voice rose from his opponent who looked far from human.

The opponent's arms bulge with vines wrapping around what appears to be open flesh, the muscles flaring out from beneath the foliage. The torso was covered in bark-like armor, and glowing green eyes darted back and forth between the man and his weapon.

"You could have joined him... Then you would all be together!" The scratchy voice shakes the ground as it speaks. The man uses the end of his glaive to stand in place and his eyes flash with a series of emotions, eventually ending with a frown planted on his face.

"I will take Gabriel Edmond down for what he did to him..." The man spoke, his voice was calm and quiet. His hands grasped his glaive as he knew this would provoke the being.

The being's armor softens and the vines retreat from the arms and form a thorny whip in its hand. The vines now being used as weapons expose flexing muscles under its foliage. The whip strikes like lightning towards the man. The thorns inches long impaled his skin, and the creature let out a cackle.

The man groaned as it struck, sticking to him he took both of his hands to plunge the Glaive deeper into the ground and used one hand to hold the vine tighter to him. He yanked on the vine to try and pull the monster off balance. He groaned and looked at the being, one hand being free it darted beneath his cloak. Strapped to his chest he had a dagger and throwing blades. With his shaky hands and his tiring breaths, his fingers trembled on the cool metal underneath his cloak. Freeing a blade, he threw it, each muscle in his body clenching, praying for the accuracy of the throw. His heart beat so loud and slow he felt time must have stopped. He gasped for another breath as he watched the knife plunge into the stomach of the monster.

The monster let out a hiss and pulled the vine tighter, but the man was already walking forward, cutting the vine free from his body. He stumbled, almost tripping over his own feet from the pain, he took out another knife and stopped moving to cut the vine from the thorns. He remembers reading something about never taking a knife out when you get stabbed, a smirk forms on his face as if he was going to laugh. The being's demeanor almost instantly changed as a green mist started pulling out from the wound. The mist was almost like a glowing light and the man's face started to pale. Finally reaching where the being stood, it looked almost horrified. The man spitting blood on the dirt path next to the being reached up to grab the blade.

"Please... It hurts, don't take it." The hoarse voice of the being was echoed by a young boy pleading for life. The foliage of the being's body started to wrap tighter, covering every inch of the body besides the chest. He scoffed, and a look of fear crossed his own eyes. He wondered if it had all been worth it.

"Sir, please! I'll die for real this time. I don't want to die again." The voice of the boy begins to overpower that of the eerie being and the man's hands hesitate as he looks the being in the eyes and gently removes the knife, touching the boy's chest. A key forms like a tattoo on the boy. The boy pleads with him to stop and tries to push him away, but the man does not hesitate to push him to the ground and step on the vines wiggling like muscles.

"It's gonna be alright kid. It won't hurt anymore." The man seems almost dizzy and as if he could fall over but the boy nods a little and closes his green eyes. The man is confused as he starts feeling the pain from his wounds dissipate.

Cutting into the boy's chest the man watches more green mist form, and slowly condense. The man watched it very carefully, as if it were a danger, as if he was more scared of this than the boy that had tried to murder him. His shaky breaths start coming back to normal as the boy looks up at him and smiles.

"Thank you, mister" The foliage on the boy began to brown, the leaves beginning to fall off, and beneath it was a young boy, he looked 12 years old. His corpse smiles up at the man who took his life.

The man looked at the mist that had finally condensed as a key, and took it into his hands, holding it tightly he sighed. The boy used his power to temporarily stop the bleeding on his internal wounds, and the man knew this. His face didn't show an ounce of guilt as he looked at this boy's corpse, his gaze was that of anger and discontent. He knew he had to do it, so he did. He cannot afford to feel guilt anymore.

Standing up to walk back to his glaive, he removed it from the ground and used it like a cane to walk back to his home.

"I made it at home." soft words arose from his chest that heaved with pain.

The cat meowed as it greeted him at the entrance. Setting his stuff down and locking the door he placed the key on his key chain with 2 others, and from exhaustion he stumbled over to a seat with a brown bag spilling onto it. Opening the backpack he pulled out a first aid kit.

The first aid kit had been used, it looks like it had been used a lot. The man had pulled out a sock resting on top of the bottle with a clear liquid in it. The cat ran off knowing what would come next..

Putting the sock in his mouth he then removed his shirt to reveal the thorns embedded in his sides. A muffled screaming was heard with one thorn being removed, and another scream as the second one had hit the floor. His jaw clenched as he pulled the cork out of the bottle -taking a rag out from the kit- he dumped it on the rag and some onto a hooked needle, and went to work patching himself up.