The looming death

He returned to his house with all the questions still ringing inside his head. He quickly went through all of the rooms in search of his mother. Only to found her doing calligraphy on the ceiling.

”Mom, What are you doing again?. At least leave the ceiling clean ”

”You are home, where were you? ”

”I was with Edward ” he half lied.

”Hmmm…. okay, Its time for dinner help me prepare it ”

”Today i only found mantises in the hill so we have to make do with them ”

”Whaaat, that thing again, you know mom that thing stinks like poop ”

”So you want to eat poop then? ”

Arsh surrendered himself to his fate and started chopping the hands and legs of the beast. While cleaning the stinky meat of mantis monster.

After 2 hours of cooking Arsh was on dining table with his mother. When they started eating silently Arsh murmurs in a low voice-

”Why we don follow any gods? Mom. The villagers says every person is born for the purpose of praying to the gods ”

His mother face turns expressionless and she says enraged-

”So it was your presence outside the cottage . I thought it was Edward. There is a reason why i told you to stay out of the cottage ”

She looked at him who was not unfazed by her shouting and sighed to herself.

”Sigh if you really want to know, then listen closely ”

Samanthas tone changed to complete seriousness.

”There is no benevolent beings in the world. You are curious as to why we don pray to gods, it is because they abandoned us long ago. They are not the kind of beings you heard from other people. And I don want you to know how they really are. At least not yet ”

After some time of silence , his mother continued with a sad voice.

”You asked in the morning why we live in the most far away wasteland . It is because we are forsaken by the humankind and being hunted by the churches of those filthy creatures ”

She looks him straight into eyes and asks with completely serious tone-

”Promise me arsh you will never leave this village ”

Arsh stays silent for a bit, then lift his head up.

”I will promise it , if you promise me to tell everything about it. Otherwise i will do my best to get to the heart of the matter. This is obviously not the full story ”

A pained expression appears on his mother face. While holding all the bitterness inside, she responds.

”Ok I promise, i will tell you everything ”

…

The next day came. It was early in the morning Arsh wakes up from his slumber and moves out of bed to wsh his face .

”Hey mom, i am going to get the firewood for today ”

Arsh says as he leaves the house behind.

Why the other villagers pray to gods if we are forsaken , why was we forsaken anyway. Is mythical beings even exist?

Arsh ask himself all the questions on top of his head but never be able to get a hint of the answers. He knew this was all connected to him somehow.

From the previous conversations he knew something is about to happen in the village as his mother and most of adults of the village was always seemed restless everyday.

He moves deep into forest. only to found Edward there camping there with corpses of monsters. He had piles of monster around his camp some were big enough to swallow a human whole.

”Is this some kind of picnic spot ”

Arsh asked Edward with a smile while moving toward his camp avoiding the corpses lying around.

”You can also camp here if you want . I just have to see for how many seconds you are going to survive. I bet 40 sec. ”

”I am here for firewood. Help me out ”

”Kid we are literally in a forest. Go cut some trees and go back home . I have something to do ”

Edward started moving toward the village in high speed leaving only afterimages behind.

Arsh sighs, and due to his weak physique he was only capable of taking a days worth of wood with him .

After cutting some branches and collecting it he starts moving towards him home still curious about what his mother was going to tell him.

He starts moving back toward his home. It was then when he heard a sound of lightning from the village.

Panicked he starts running back towards the village while leaving all the things behind. He was quite far away from the village so it took him around 5 minutes to reach the village.

When he reached there out of breath, he saw the most grotesque sight the human can ever hope to see.

Blood and body parts all over the Village . Corpses of more than 15 people lying there. Some with head , some without it. There was not a single complete corpse it was all slashed in several pieces making the sight even more dreadful.

Arsh moved between the corpse with pure terror. He saw a familiar head lying around decapitated from its body.It was the kid that used to bully Arsh everyday. With Horror dawning on his senses , he started running.

He ran toward his house which was slightly outside of the village. He reached there and his heart stopped beating for several moments and all of his life force leaved his body. He fell to his knees and mumbled in a voice full of terror.

” ”m….mo…m ” ”

He saw five people with different white robes standing in front of his house with her moms body parts. While her head was in the hand of one of those men. They had an extreme aura of bloodlust around them which made even breathing harder for Arsh.

The man with samanthas head in his hands turned towards arsh and said with a smile.

”You are late to the party kid ”

”Arlo we are here for a reason, not for your entertainment ”

The other man says with emotionless way his voice full of authority.

Arsh broke down on the floor with sobs and tears . His mind went blank and his body felt powerless and every bit of light started leaving his eyes. He was dead inside. He stopped feeling anything in that moment.

”Hey cutie, you should stop your crying its annoying. And its your fault we have to kill our old comrade– ”

”CURSED CHILD OF THE UNKNOWN ”

”Your very existence is stain on this world. Now tell me from where i should start tearing you apart . It really took us 12 years to find you . So you can be sure that you are not going to get an easy death ”

The man said again , A clover drawn over his robe.

Arsh was in the deepest pit of despair. He can hear everything but his mind was completely blank. He was just lying on the ground while barely breathing.

It was at that moment a wind of black fog start blowing with very high speed around the house and every village started attacking the intruders in the matter of seconds. Spells began to fly around everywhere while some of them using swords and daggers.

The remaining villagers started getting slashed apart by the intruding 5 men. Arsh was lying there just watching this massacre with no emotion on his face.

”Save Samanthas kid , Edward ” The chief shouted at Edward who was busy blocking one of the intruders with his swords.

”Stop this bastard . I will take care of Arsh ”

Edward picked arsh up and started running towards the highest peak of the mountain while every bit of chaos leaping everywhere around him. Fire, water, cracking all around the little part of mountain . It was like all calamities of world came together.

Edward ran with frantic speed he turns his head towards Arsh and ask him in worried voice.

”Arsh, you are alive right??. Answer me ”

But he got no response from the kid. He knew the kid was alive as he was breathing in his hold. But Arshs eyes were hollow and seemed to lost every meaning of life.

Edward gritted his teeth together and grabbed Arshs collar. While slamming him doen on the forest ground. He looked straight into his hollow eyes and shouted at him.

”Stop your mopping this moment. Samantha died for you over and over again for years. If she just have abandoned you , she could have got a safe and luxurious life. She still chose you above everything. For you she died the most gruesome death. Just to Keep you safe ”

”For the last 12 years she always go out to keep you safe from your death in the name of hunt. Killing emissaries of those churches in the forest while you sleep soundly on your bed ”

”You are going to let them walk free after what they did to our village and samantha. I know i am not going to. I am not going to let them live , even if i have to sacrifice every single limb of my body. They will pay for everything they did to Samantha ”

”Be strong Arsh, they are going to keep coming after you until you are dead. And this time samantha won be here to save you. Be alive that was Samanthas greatest wish don let her sacrifice go in vain ”

”Listen to me kid. You and only you still have a chance to save samantha and the villagers, we just have to reach the highest peak ”

Edward started running again and added in a sad voice.

”She always loved you for what you were Arsh ”