Chapter 50: Chapter 50

Michael sat on the doorstep of the wendigo's hideout next to a small fire.

After several minutes Keith was the one to break the silence, “So you’re stuck here for the time being, what’s the plan?”

Michael scratched his beard for a moment before sighing, “Well, I guess I’ll need to find some furniture to trade with the IKEA manager. She has a portal back to our world, but she's not gonna let me use it unless I grease her hands a bit. So for the moment we’re stuck in this shithole.”

The mask raised a porcelain eyebrow and spoke in a condescending voice, “Well what’s got you in such a rush to get back? Already missing your mommy and daddy?”

Michael’s eyes narrowed, “I’m in a rush, Keith, because this place is horrible, and I have an ongoing promise with the O5 council to break all their legs that I’d really like to get to. Also, for your information my parents are dead. They died in a car crash when I was young. The only living person I had before all this shit went down was my roommate, a friend I’d had since highschool, and apparently he was more concerned with the fact I wouldn't be there to pay my half of the rent than that I’d just died. Not that you care, ya prick.”

The expression on the mask faltered for a moment, and his face clouded as many emotions seemed to go across his face, until he seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. Then he spoke once again, but this time without his usual mocking tone.

“A long, long time ago I was just an orphan in a world that didn’t care for them. The powers that be sent me off to what passed for an orphanage in that world, where every now and then, slowly but surely, the people around me would die from disease or starvation. The kingdom was supposed to support the orphanage financially; but they never did.”

The mask’s frown deepened, “I'd had an ability since birth. One that I’d never shared with a single soul up till that point. I could see deep into the hearts of men, what makes them get up in the morning, what they fear, and what they try so desperately to hide.”

“So I used it to my advantage. I started small. A little coercion here, a little blackmail there, but I was destined for more, because powerful humans are creatures who harbor terrible secrets, and because I could exploit that. Little by little my power grew, up until I became a viscount, and then a duke, and then I usurped the title of king from its rightful owner.”

A slight grin made its way onto the mask's face, “It was so, so easy. The correct path was always laid right out in front of me. It was impossible to fail. No rebellion could grow, no disloyalty could brew. The only threat to my rein was my own mortality. So I gathered my armies, and sent them to kill our kingdom’s immortal protector. An old man who’d lived for longer than anyone could remember. A god in his own right, and when he finally fell, his body was thrown into our smeltery and made into the mask that I now inhabit.”

Michael stared towards Keith, a mixture of emotions on his face, “But how’d you wind up stuck in the mask?”

Keith's slight grin faded, “I’d lived for centuries, never once taking off the mask, and then one day he came. It started as a feeling in the air. Anyone with a brain could tell something was off. That feeling became visible in the sky, taking the form of blood red veins etched above the world. Then the bodies of animals began to shift and warp as they attacked the citizens, the hundreds of thousands of dead buried in the tombs beneath the city began to rise, and the heat from the sun began to melt skin to the cobblestone streets. Reality itself had begun to break down at an alarming rate, and I knew why. The Scarlet King was there. I didn’t hesitate, any being considered a god knows of the things he can do. I’d accumulated many treasures over the centuries of my reign, and one such treasure took the form of a locket housing a small piece of flesh. A one-way ticket out of the universe, and I didn’t hesitate to use it. Reality began to warp around me as the true monsters began to arrive and space itself became unstable by their presence. I was pulled into a crack in space, and the influence of the Scarlet King on the world changed me. My body was destroyed during my escape attempt, but I was immortal, so my soul moved to the mask. All other changes to me are simply a result of his influence during that time. The acid that drips off me, and my abilities to control the bodies of others fall within this category. Once I’d escaped I found myself in the very world you discovered me in, where the foundation quickly picked me up. The rest of the story doesn’t matter, not to me anyways.”

Michael stared towards Keith, “...it’s a tiny bit hard to believe you when you’re so well known for manipulating people. You do realize that, right?”

“That’s a hobby of mine. I’ll admit that.”, Keith chuckled.

“... I do want to believe you, but why’d you even tell me this?”

“Oh who knows? Maybe it’s because I can’t see into your mind, that I can’t see the secrets hiding in your soul or that I can’t predict what you’ll do next. Honestly, it’s like I’m talking to an actual person for the first time in my life.”

Michael stared at the mask for several moments.

“Thank you for sharing, Keith.”

He turned towards the abyss, “What about you, want to share your mysterious backstory?”

The abyss remained silent, but that was an illusion. Michael could sense the creature lurking in the shadows just out of the reach of the light. Waiting for it to fade away so it could once again try to pull him into the void.

“Keith, can you read his mind?”

“Well yeah, but it’s all jumbled. Not insane mind you. It’s more like one thought overlayed hundreds of times.

“And what would that be?”

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“He simply wants to kill monsters, but I don’t really think it's his emotion.”

Michael sighed, “Then that’s probably the man at the bottom of the abyss you’re reading.”

“I agree.”

“Did you ever get the chance to look inside his mind?”

“...yes.”

Michael grinned, “Well don’t leave me in suspense.”

“Fine, but it’s not a nice story.”

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A small boy ran through the woods in peasant clothes. He could still hear the monsters around him. The very ones that found his village and tore apart his father before his eyes. He clung to a spear he’d taken off the corpse of a decapitated guard as he’d fled the village.

He could see smoke rising in the distance from the house he’d set ablaze, but he tried his best to ignore it and make as much distance from the place as possible.

Tears flowed down his face as he ran, until he couldn't manage to move his legs anymore and hid himself amongst the vegetation beside the path.

He curled up into a ball and hid his face in his knees. The darkness of night had long fallen, and every noise he heard off in the forest could easily have been one of the monsters coming to kill him. 

Then after some time left alone in the dark, he heard growling of creatures all around him and knew deep down that the monsters had finally found him.

He kept his face buried in his knees. He refused to look, refused to acknowledge what was about to happen to him and refused to look them in the eyes as they tore him apart like his father.

He hid his mind from the world; determined to not see his position for what it was, utterly hopeless.

The smell of blood wafted off their warm breath next to his face. He didn’t look up, he pictured himself being anywhere else. Being anyone else, and then he quite literally fell into himself.

The sounds of the forest and the breath of the beast disappeared so suddenly that the boy found the courage to open his eyes.

He sat at the bottom of an inky dark abyss. He quickly stood up, frantically looking every which way only to find nothing in any direction.

He gripped the spear tightly, and after a short moment began to walk. He moved out of necessity. He needed food, water, something to live off of and he had none. At least he’d thought he would need those things, but he never grew hungry or thirsty as he walked through the empty void. In all that time walking he didn't come across a single thing.

At least he didn’t for the first three days.

After that monsters finally started to hit the ground.

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