Unlikely Heroes-Draft 1

Chapter 9

Chimney shuddered in his sleep. The nightmares had arrived again, and try as he might he could not wake up. The void beasts had him in their tentacled grasps, sliding between skin and muscle, stabbing into what few internal organs he still had, prodding and probing, ignoring his pleadings for them to stop. They pulled, ripping him open, leaving him exposed to their examination. He was crying, streams of grey tears pouring from his face while the wounds they opened in him spewed forth black ichor.

A silky voice was heard from the blackness that surrounded him, "Chimney. It seems you've found yourself in quite the predicament."

"W-w-ho the fuck are you?"

"Why I am the only friend you will ever need.", the void beasts moved away from him, withdrawing their tendrils from Chim's prone form, but keeping his limbs held tight. Something moved out from the darkness, but all he could see was the form of a skull, it looked like that of some sort of goat, but with burning yellow light in its empty sockets.

"The fuck is that supposed to mean? I have no friends, I don't need them", but there was a hint of hesitation in his voice as he strained to look at the newcomer.

It advanced forward, and he could see a shadowy black skeleton attached to the skull, bony wings sprouting from its shoulders. It seemed to have a miasma of its own, but screaming faces could be made out of the swirling black and grey mist. A series of tendrils extended from the being, quickly snaking their way towards him. As much as Chim tried to struggle as one stabbed out, sliding behind his left eye and slithering through his brain, extending cold branches throughout his head. It soon was joined by another in his right eye.

He screamed, as the tendrils probed cruelly not only through his thoughts and memories but his flesh as well. He felt another tendril slide and twine it's way down his spinal cord, spreading more branches along his nervous system. By all rights he should have blacked out or died, but it would not let him.

"Do I have your attention?"

"FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?"

"Only your compliance. In exchange, you will be free of the void beasts, and the torments that lie beyond their abilities."

"Fuck you there's nothing you could do that would be-AGGHHHH!"

The tendrils burned along every nerve, like someone had ripped off his skin, covered him in gasoline, and lit a match. Only so much worse.

"Somehow, I doubt your disbelief", it laughed coldly.

"Fuck you, I won't do a fucking thing for you."

"Perhaps then...for her?"

An image was shown to him, Kira next to him, holding him softly while he twitched in his sleep.

He hesitated.

It sent more thorny tendrils, stabbing into every joint, under his flesh, below the physical, and right into his very soul, pulling it apart slowly. It had clawed its way into every part of his being, every part of him exposed and seared with fresh agony.

"You hesitation tells me volumes. You have no secrets from me. I know you better now than you even know yourself." The tendrils tensed, causing Chims body to stretch itself out, he was like a puppet to this thing. "So small. So pathetic. You think you will be able to save her? Perhaps if I treat her to my company you will be more compliant?"

Something woke up in Chim, despite the wracking pain, "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER YOU FUCK"

"Ahhh, there it is. What a small weak thing you are, but you have your uses. Do as I command, and the pain stops. Your parasite will be removed, the void beasts will be at your beck and call, and you can be living a life of pleasure with your Kira. I will give you time to decide , but shall I also give you something to remind you of our little chat..."

"YOU'RE A LIA--ACK!" Chimney's words, cut short as a tendril wrapped itself around his throat, burning into his skin as another stabbed through the tongue of the stomach-mouth, grabbing and pulling on it, ripping not only it but Chim's body with it. He screamed more than he had ever screamed before, only to wake screaming on the cold floor of the abandoned building. He sat upright, shaking and whimpering, covering his face with his hands.

No, he needed to get ahold of himself, it was just a dream. He looked around him, "Where the hell am I?", before catching sight of the four bodies and the massive puddle of black sticky fluid on the floor.

"Ugh, shit.", he got up slowly and examined them. 4 men, all appeared to be in their early to mid-20's, looking a little too well-dressed to be homeless. A blinking light caught his eye, and he reached down, picking up a small camera one of them had been carrying.

"Well, what do we have here?", he hit stop on the recording button and replayed it, hoping that they had managed to catch decent footage of him. Perfect, they had used night-vision mode. He didn't mind being caught on video, even though it only ever showed him as a vaguely man-shaped mass of shadow. In fact he reveled in it. He wished he had known they had a camera at the time, he would have put on more of a show.

He admired his handiwork, sure it was a bit wild and could have used more flair, but it would certainly scare the hell out of whoever saw it. And another urban legend would be created by him.

He chuckled at the thought of the footage being leaked to the public, "I'm going to have to keep an eye out for this one". The recording reached the point of when he had passed out, and as he went to place the camera back on the floor his eye caught strange movement in the playback. His eyes narrowed as he saw black tendrils extending out from the darkness and into his sleeping form, before the recording finally went black. Faint laughter...the same laughter that was in his dream, could be heard in the background.

He dropped the camera and backed away from it, his hand reaching for his neck as the playback continued. There, around his throat, was a ring of scorched sore flesh...