CHAPTER 1 - PART 1

Sweat dripped slowly from his forehead, his deep black fringes of matted hair sprawled wildly along the canvas of his frontal lobe like the roots of an enormous oak tree. The baying crowd roared like inhuman monsters, bloodlust in their voices and madness swimming like fell leviathans in the pools of all their eyes.

“Kill him!”

“Decapitate him!”

“Tear out his throat!”

“Impale him!”

He was their puppet, their plaything. The slab of still-struggling meat beset by a deliverer of death and carnage for no other purpose than their collective entertainment. Damn them all. Damn them all to the darkest pits of Hell! He would not falter. Not here.

The monstrous beast flung its arm wide, the impact driving itself deep into his torso, blood and saliva bursting forth from his mouth and nostrils, the air that once filled his lungs leaving him for dead. He felt the wires of the cage’s fencing dig into his skin with all the eagerness of a starved dog searching for its interred bone before they flung him back forward akin to a lifeless ragdoll against the canvas covering of the ring. Coughing, choking, on the verge of vomiting the breakfast he hadn’t had, he rolled onto his back dazed. The world became nothing more than an indistinguishable blur all around him, time seeming to decelerate, disembodied voices shouting in muffled tongues he couldn’t comprehend. He needed not comprehend them, however, for what better interpreter could there have been in that moment than the serrated, bony, purple limb of that creature’s appendage diving down straight at his throat, clawing its way out through his foggy vision to appear so clearly before him to remind him of where he was and why he was fighting?

His blood raced like devil stallions stampeding across an open prairie, mere seconds ticking away as he disappeared from the appendage’s path and manifested once more upon his two bare feet at the creature’s side, his teeth clenched, hands trembling, and pupils dilated so as to eclipse the unyielding frenzy, the tireless rage, beating, throbbing, pulsing just behind them. The monster looked into the beaten and bloodied boy’s eyes and, for a mere moment, stood still. It stood still as if pondering if mayhaps what it was seeing was itself or something far more sinister.

The boy threw himself back to the farthest edge of the cage and sprinted at top speed back toward the skeletal monster. It moved to try and meet him, but was immediately reminded of its serrated appendage with which it had moments before failed in taking the young man’s life and which now lay impaled in the wooden planks of their fateful arena. It mattered not, for what was this mortal, this son of man, that he should think of himself capable of being able to charge at a being so mighty as it? Enraged as he might be, he was no more than a plain child, a naïve brat throwing a callow temper tantrum for no other reason than because he hadn’t gotten his way. It had plenty more extremities at its disposal. What difference would one stymied leg make? It would not have to wait long to find out the answer.

The boy’s feral footsteps resounded through the wooden floor like a death bell tolling its final farewell to the watchers around them. Three more scythe appendages sprang forth from its sides, flailing themselves toward the boy to slice him to bloody ribbons; but it mattered not. He weaved through them like the spectral shadow of the grim reaper himself, his clenched teeth resembling almost a smile. He was taunting it! Outrage and offense fueled the monster's final attack as it lunged its neck forward, maw gaping broad as falcon wings to swallow the boy whole; but when at last it brought together the two halves of its mouth to bite down, it was met only by the force of its own jaw with no cushioning to soften the self-inflicted blow.

Violently, its head whipped back, leaving it dizzy and wholly unprepared for what was to follow. The spectators all scooted to the edges of their seats in anticipation. Some raised eyebrows in suspicion, some shook their heads in disbelief, some simply smiled at the spectacle of it all, and some laughed heartily in approval of the young lad’s madness. In the end, they all trembled in amazement at what followed thereafter. His pace unbroken, his charge undisturbed, he broke through the monster’s stuck arm as if it were rotten wood hollowed out by the ceaseless indulgence of insatiable termites. Yet better, bigger, and sweeter than the sight was the sound, the smell. A deep, violent, ageless boom echoed forth from the impact, bits of dagger-sharp bone flying in all directions like fireworks, the hot and dizzying smell of bleeding marrow seeping through the air and violating the nostrils of everyone present. He had done the impossible.

The monster’s shriek shook the earth, it rattled the cage as though it were but an insignificant toy! Wine glasses were reduced to dust, beer bottles were smashed to countless pieces, and numerous watchers soon found themselves writhing on the ground from the blood dripping down their ears! Those who were able to cover their own ears in time, though not suffering from blood bursting from them, nevertheless had the world around them turn to thick fog as vertigo robbed them of whatever contents their stomachs may have been carrying at the time; some from the same way through which they had entered, others out the other through which they would’ve left.

The young boy stumbled, kneeling forward a bit with his hands over his ears, but only drooling. One can’t throw up a meal they never had. Adrenaline still pulsing through him, he quickly regained his composure and lifted the snapped appendage over his shoulder. One last time, his feral footsteps echoed solemnly through the air, heavier now with the weight of his adversary’s severed limb on his back, beating against the canvas like the war drums of an unstoppable army. There was its chance! Its opportunity! Resisting the pain, it lifted one of its other legs to retaliate, slicing through the air to behead the damned urchin that had harmed it, that had humiliated it, that had--

CRACK

--used its own parted limb to slice through its neck and bring an end to its life.

The world became nothing more than an indistinguishable blur all around it, time seeming to decelerate, disembodied voices shouting in muffled tongues it couldn’t comprehend. It needed not comprehend them however. For what better interpreter could there have been in that moment than the small, skinny, defiant boy which had just beheaded it using a part of its own body? The monster looked into the beaten and bloodied boy’s eyes and, for a mere moment, knew. Knew that what it had been seeing this entire time was something far more sinister than it could have ever been.

His anger subsided, melting away like frigid snow before the engulfing heat of a lively sun, dissipating back until all that was left was exhaustion and the deep satisfaction of a well-earned victory. The ringing of chains echoed behind him, the cage door flinging wide open, and there before him he saw the lively sun. Rays of light, bridges of brightness, pathways of shining radiance outstretched before him as open, loving arms inviting him to take the very first steps. The very first steps down the walkway of freedom.

“Go now!”

“Be free!”

“Be happy!”

And why not? He had fought like a beast, like an inhuman monster. Why shouldn’t he be free, be happy? One foot after the other, he calmly walked towards the light, the warm voices of hearty encouragement still speaking to him.

“You’ve earned this!”

“You’ve won this!”

“Now march forward!”

“And don’t look back!”

“We’ll be okay, all right?”

“So forget about us!”

“Forget about what happened!”

“Go and live your life without us!”

His legs stiffened rigidly as stone. Those voices. Those words. He knew them; knew them well; knew well whence they’d come; knew not whither they’d gone. He turned around and there they were. A cloud of sad faces twisted and warped in front of him as endless tears flowed from their fading eyes. Outstretched hands grabbed desperately at the air all around them only to decay into dust before being able to extend themselves completely. Pained wails and dreadful screeching rang out from their broken mouths. They were monstrous! Yet he remembered them; yet he pitied them; yet he yearned so earnestly to help them; to save them.

Terror taking hold of him, he disregarded the sun and its open arms, ignored the egress victory had afforded him and ran toward them whom he’d left behind. He would not lose them now! He would save them this time!

“Leave us!”

“Abandon us!”

“Go forward!”

“Don’t look back!”

He bolted toward them quicker than ever he’d bolted before. The sweat from his pores, the tears from his eyes, the blood from his wounds, even the spit from his mouth: they all were torn from their places as he raced like a madman to save those unfortunate spirits.

The canvas of the ring stretched out and expanded under them, increasing the distance with each passing moment till it felt like he’d sprinted a thousand miles only to get no closer to them. The ring canvas turned to mud under his feet, pulling him in, dragging him down, slowing him even more. His knees bent under the pressure and he fell forward, still trying to drag himself toward them with his hands. His body failed him, his breath left him once more, and he was reduced to nothing more but an immovable slab of still-struggling meat in the middle of an endless ocean of all-consuming muck. And then, there it was! Heat! Burning, ardent, crackling, thunderous!

He turned his head one last time and bore witness to the ghastly apparition which had been approaching him, hidden just out of view by the sunlight. It too was made of fire. Vivid red fire as if spawned from the mouth of Hell itself. It tore through the skies like a harbinger of calamity, covering the bright blue hues in an impenetrable black through which only lightning cut and thunder boomed; but no rain poured. It stopped itself before him, wings spread, tail curved, and eyes scintillating in anticipation of what was to come. Try as he might, the sludge fixed him firmly in place. Though he strained and strove as best he could, it was already too late. The beast was upon him now.

With one great flap of its immense wings, the creature raised itself higher into the skies to whip its body forward and dive straight towards him, its maw opened wider than any beast he’d ever seen before. Scorching, enkindled heat pressed itself against his body as he trembled helplessly at the beast’s unstoppable advance. One last time, the world became nothing more than an indistinguishable blur all around him, time seeming to decelerate, disembodied voices shouting in muffled tongues he couldn’t comprehend. He needed not comprehend them however; for what better interpreter could there have been in that moment than the racing monster flying promptly toward him to end his life? And in that brief instance, the boy looked into the nameless beast’s eyes and, for a mere moment, stood still. He stood still as if pondering if mayhaps what he was seeing was truly a monster or simply himself. He would not have to wait long to find out the answer.

Realizing his fate, he closed his eyes in anticipation and--

THUD

--awoke to find he’d fallen onto the floor of his private chamber, the first rays of the morning sun slipping through the window curtains of the monastery and placing playful, gentle, waking smacks across his face as Blaise, his favorite and most frequent cardinal, pecked him gently on the nose.