Humanity Lost (ch 2)

Without food or water for days now I stumbled slowly along the back roads and ditches of the countryside. My only companion was a demonic voice in my head that insisted I raise the corpse of a man for his purposes.

“You must give me a body! I will not stay here in your paltry shell for eternity!” this was the same voice I had been hearing for the last three days. One good thing had come of this unholy union though, I was immortal. This would have been great if I did not now have to live with the fact in an 80 year old body and my hands soaked in my loving family’s blood. The voice also became grating after a time…

“I demand you do something to release me rather than sulk in this horrid cesspool!” Every time I heard this voice the demands were always to release it. I wouldn’t of course until I could keep the immortality from fleeing my cursed body. As I stood now the weather alone would kill me, nothing but rain and cold for days. My bones were weary and I could hardly stand, Chaos the first, or Asmodeus as he called himself was right. The immortal do feel pain.

The pain in my bones was masked by the throbbing pain of my heart though. My mentor, the man I had called father and loved, had cast me away. I held no ill will toward him though, I had done unspeakable things. The blood and smoke from that hellish display of weakness still assailed my nostrils. Still the current aches of age still reared their ugly head.

“I must rest now, be silent!” though I knew he would be able to hear my thoughts, shouting made me feel more relieved as I slid to the muddy ground. I could feel the wet earth soak through the thin cloak I wore, so green, so beautiful. But now covered in mental and actual filth. Holding out one of my hands I could see the thin veins carry my now unneeded blood past wiry and weak muscle. The countless wrinkles on my hands were filled with dirt and grime. The hair on my head had gone from a weak brown to a strange, shining grey, nearly silver. Asmodeus told me this was the god’s punishment to necromancers, so we could be marked for hell upon entering the next world.
Visions flashed past my eyes as I drifted to sleep. Chaos standing before me, eyes red with tears, fists clenched in rage. I nearly wished I could kill myself so I could receive this ‘punishment’ and reconcile myself, but my fear of the beyond kept me at bay. As I slept I dreamt of the past and of the future that could have been. Days with my brothers hunting and riding, nights reading with my sister. Now I had cast them away and it burned me to know it. I saw them as they might be, forgetting about me in their vast lives and shunning the memory of the evil child that Chaos sent off. This hurt the most. It wasn’t the fear of death but of being forgotten that plagued me. I needed to be known, ever since I began to learn magic, it was only to be seen and recognized. People would say ‘there goes that boy, he’s quite the magician’ they would say. Not anymore. If Chaos had told the neighboring towns it would be ‘look it’s the raiser of dead protect the children’! The crueler fate may be the former, forced to live a lie to maintain normalcy.

“I won’t live that life Chaos! I won’t do it!” the only ones who heard me were the rain drops and the dreaded beast inside me. I rolled onto my side trying to find a drier spot under the tree. The cloak was chaffing in the rain and I feared I may bleed from its abrasions. I removed it and laid back down to rest my weary body. Sleep had taken me soundly when I heard a faint crack from the trees behind me. I came alert but remained still so as not to give away I was awake. My mind raced, bandits, wolves, perhaps Chaos himself? The anticipation was killing me and I could hardly remain still. The voice of Asmodeus mumbled quietly in the background as the sounds of footsteps came nearer. There were several men by the sound of it, and judging by their quite pace they were not out traveling. I glanced them through my slitted eyes as one man stepped into the clearing I lay in. He walked carefully towards me and my cloak, the only item of value on my person, with greed in his eyes.

As the man approached I felt a small tingle of heat in my left arm, like it was being held by a person’s hand. I felt for sure that I had been grabbed by an accomplice, but the robbers face said otherwise. The grip on my left arm grew tighter as the bandit drew nearer. Tighter, and nearer, and then tighter again until I thought my arm must break. It was then I heard the crazed chanting of Asmodeus in my mind! He was casting a spell! My heart stopped as I picked up the incantation, he was trying to control my body with a spell! I tried to make the counter spell in my mind but it was hardly powerful enough to stop the control of my arm without speaking aloud. I tried desperately to wrestle control of my mind and body from this lunatic. Finally the incantation was done and Asmodeus had gotten control of all but my right arm and head.

I could feel the exultation of the creature as he rose up from the ground with my limbs. The bandit panicked and pulled a knife from his jacket. My legs moved as if they were inhuman, diving at the young man and knocking him firmly down. His friends dove out from their hiding places, swords drawn and ready to use them. The arm not under my control began working in a complicated series of shapes and figures. As the hand extended, a fireball of mammoth proportions flew from the fingertips and tossed the would be thieves aside like a breeze moves leafs. I saw the charred remains of one man split apart on contact with a trees trunk. But this wasn’t enough carnage for the insane Asmodeus. Once again my body flew towards the boy who had stepped towards me initially. The left hand of my body was extended into a knife like shape and glowed eerily. Stunned, boy could only watch in aghast horror as the hand spread the ribs and broke through the chest, towards the still beating heart. I could feel my hand drinking in the life of this lad and knew what the glow was. A Vampiric spell. One more step along the path of evil I wanted to avoid.
The hand in the boy’s body writhed about seeking sustenance to feed its thirsting master, the usurper of my body. A shriveled scream was all the resistance given before he fell to the earth forever. The others stood starring, jaws open at the grisly sight before them. “Run you fools!” I gasped this out and grasped a tree with my right hand to stop the beast from pursuing. “Damn you run!” I broke out in tears of frustration as the remaining men fled for their lives.

“Release this branch you imbecile! They are getting away!” the pure malice and disgusting bloodlust in Asmodeus voice made me shiver.
“NEVER!” I cast out into my frail frame for any scrap of talent and willpower I could muster to my cause, and then I began chanting. It was the most perfect spell I could remember in my life, the words and form were flawless. The spell was working the way it was meant to, it was stopping Asmodeus.

“No! Would you let those that hurt you get away!” I knew that these were the desperate words of a losing man. The bandits would have taken my cloak and left, he knew this. I had to stop him now. I could feel my body return to my control slowly. It felt like someone was pulling away a sticky paper from my skin. Finally I could feel the grip loosen on my mind and I knew that soon I would be free.

“So then would you die to be rid of me?” I stopped. Though I hated him beyond reason I needed Asmodeus to stay alive. The slip of my resolve was all he needed though, and my left arm returned to his control.

“Let go of me devil.” Though I no longer had the strength to fight him I had to try. Before I passed out from exhaustion I let one more spell pass my lips. Asmodeus, the creature, was sealed in my left arm.


I was awoken in what appeared to be the early morning. The trees looked beautiful, glistening with a crystal layer of water. A small leaf was dripping cool, crisp water onto my nose and the sun shone brilliantly through the canopy. Slowly I tried to stand but was met with resistance by my aged and now very cold body. “If only I were younger this immortality would not be such a curse,” I grumbled softly as I rose from my muddy nest. I could see the remains of the young thief who had come in the night, so far no scavengers had picked at him. I used my powers to dig him a grave, as deep as I could manage, and felt better for what I had done. Something though struck me as odd.

“Asmodeus voice! I can’t hear it!” I danced gleefully for a moment before remembering hazily the seconds before I passed out. I looked at my left arm like a serpent and held it out gingerly. Slowly I pulled back the sleeve of the shirt clinging to my frail limbs. A gasp escaped my lips as I saw what had become of my appendage. “No, this cannot be.” My arm was covered in a spider web of black lines that writhed as I moved. Some moved through the skin as a ghost would a wall, and others rose steadily from the skin, probing, for someone or something. Without even asking I knew this to be the work of Asmodeus, only he could pollute something so polluted already. “Announce yourself. I know your in their,” my cry seemed to fall on deaf ears but the lines of black formed a mouth after a few moments and spoke.
“What have you done to me, you damned fool,” the voice was hardly a whisper, “why can’t I see”! I starred at the mouth as two slim eyes appeared near it. A face arose from the black lines, it stood in horrid relief on my skin. “Why am I on your arm!” the voice seemed to be shouting but it still was covered by the sound of leafs in the trees so I leaned closer. “You bound me here didn’t you!”

“I did, and I am not ashamed of it. I will not stand by as you kill anymore people,” my voice quivered with checked rage, “I know that it was your hand that held the knife in my brother’s neck!” the face seemed startled. “You thirst for blood and yet you have none of your own, you are no better than the vampires.” This last word struck a chord and the face pulled away.
“I will not be chased by men sneaking through the woods after me! I did that for a hundred years and I will not run from anyone another second.” I could feel the sad tone of Asmodeus rather than see it. I felt no pity though.

“I do not care how long you were stalked and attacked by others! These were not them and you know it. I will stop you at every turn if your plot is to kill the innocent.” A strange thought occurred to me then. I was a necromancer with morals… even in the oldest books, necromancers were creatures of evil that hated life and would end it in a second if given the choice. Perhaps I could be forgiven yet. I wrapped my cloak around the cursed arm as tightly as possible and tied a boot lace around it to keep it closed tight. Any protest from the inside was lost in the thick cloth. Steadily I paced to the main road that I had been traveling, feeling my age with every step. Upon reaching the side of the path I saw a small cart coming toward me. A farmer and his wife were on it and had a load of hay they must have been taking to town. “Lord old timer! What are you doing out in this dreadful weather, here ride with us for a while. It’s not a lot of a seat but its better than walking.” I smiled brightly at the man; I truly couldn’t have gone farther on foot.
“Thank you lad. What is your name?” He answered me, but I had already begun to fall asleep upon reaching the load of hay and didn’t hear his answer. It sounded like –lor, but I’m not sure. As sleep overcame me again I wondered how my family would cover up their ‘dark’ child. It was hours later when I awoke, surrounded by warm, heavy blankets and a bleary vision of a farmhouse. “Where am I?” the question sounded foolish as soon as I spoke it. I lay in the farmer’s cottage, where his wife had set up a bed for me to rest in. a young girl of five or six stumbled in the room with the uneasy balance of the young. She walked up to me with a purpose in her stride and stopped firmly in front of me, head up, back straight, eyes resolute.

“Hi,” perked the young girl. I had to laugh at her formality in approaching me. “What’s so funny?” again I had to laugh.

“Why you are!” the words cam out with a beaming smile. I felt too good to describe as I spoke to this child while wrapped in soft warmth. She starred at me with her head cocked sideways, trying to view me at a different angle.

“Mommy the old man is awake!” the girl scampered off, curly blonde hair bouncing. I rolled onto my back and looked at the ceiling. I never realized what work must go into keeping thatched roof water tight. No holes were present in the cover and the only light coming in was trough a window. Footsteps announced the farmer as he strode up the hallway to my room. As he entered the doorway I got a good look at him. A short man, the farmer stood at about five and a half feet tall. He had wiry brown hair so I assumed the daughter looked like the mother. He had a grizzled look about him, the face showing a life of hard times and harder work. He stepped next to the bed and gave me a smile.

“Well good morning to you,” the farmer looked like he truly meant the words. I grinned back. This had become one of the happiest days of my life. “I hope the girl didn’t wake you?”
“Oh no, she came in after I was up.” The farmer nodded his head to acknowledge this and pointed at me with a pipe he had removed from a pocket.
“The wife noticed you were bandaged up pretty heavy there so she is going to clean it up and redo it now that your up.” At first the scope of what had been said escaped me so I nodded. It only took a moment though to realize what this farmer intended.

“Umm, really there is no need to do that” I quivered in fear but the farmer mistook it for pain.

“Don’t worry it’s not gonna hurt, she’s got medicines for that.” With ‘that’ the wife walked into the room. I had been right, mother and daughter could have been twins. She approached me poultices and wrappings in hand despite my refusal for help.

“Please it’s really ok. I beg you not to, PLEASE!” the farmer held me as the arm was extricated from the blankets, and brought out for re-bandaging. The child stepped into the room to view the commotion. “I said no, just please don’t!”

“I told you you’ll be fine. Now hold still!” a pair of shears were brought out to cut away the laces holding the cloak on. My eyes bulged and I screamed in terror but no one was listening. I tried again and again to pull away but I was still too tired to fight the farmer stoic arms. That was when I felt my left arm twitch. As soon as the laces were gone the entire arm gave a spasm, now that it was no longer bound tightly blood rushed back into the limb.

“No! What have you done!” I shouted though it was too late. The farmer was the first to realize that the black wires on the arm were not of this world and he quickly shoved his wife away. Fingers lashed out like the knife they had been a few nights ago but were to slow to catch the farmer. The confused farmer ran to the wall and grabbed a hoe from its hook. He swung it at the hand with a fervor that is only achieved when protecting the beloved. Sadly his passion was no match for the dark magic’s bound into the tainted flesh. The hand grabbed the end of the tool and pushed against it, forcing the other end into the farmer. Slowly the farmer slid to the ground, grasping at the blunt wooden pole extending from his middle. A small gurgle rose from his throat along with a spatter of blood.

“Run away!” with this the righteous farmer collapsed in a growing pool of nearly black fluid. The wife stood aghast with terror as she watched the remains of her husband. A scream ripped the air asunder as she fled to her dead mate. I closed my eyes to avoid the carnage that would surely ensue, but slim black wires pushed my eyelids open. The cursed arm, under the control of Asmodeus the daemon, was sending out the lines that covered its surface like shoots from a tree. The woman was weeping over her fallen husband when the wires of death grabbed her and pushed her against the wall. The farmer’s wife struggled against them but the supernatural power of the black extensions was unshakeable. The wire began to cut, as they pushed harder against the skin of the woman. Scream after scream rent her throat, but the razor thin juggernauts pushed on. The wires caused lines of blood to appear on the body, and cut clothing as they went. I cried for her but was unable to move, so petrified of the atrocities I was witnessing. First the hands fell to the floor, then the feet, and finally the torso as the neck was severed. Pouring down the wall was the blood, the blood this woman had used to live an honest and kind life. I shivered as I realized their kindness had been their death.

A bloody figure was imprinted on the wall as the last bits of the wife slid down. I realized the child was in this room! I had to find her before the devil in my arm did, I had to find some way to salvage my humanity in face of these travesties! My glance shot about the room so fast I was sure my neck would break. Then I saw her. Crying in a far corner of the room the girl starred on as the bloody pieces of her parents leaked their essence onto the dirt floor. Small thin shadows twisted towards the child and I knew if I were to live with myself in some form I had to save this girl. I stood up and dashed to the wall where the farmer had found the hoe. Quickly I scanned the wall looking for something, anything with which to stop the beast from ravaging the girl. There it was my salvation. A long sharp knife used to cut away vines from trees, this would save the child. I knew that to stop the wires I had to cut them off at the source, but the arm was nearly impervious as the farmer had proved, only one choice. Why do I always get left with one dark option? I attacked my own left shoulder with the knife, hacking away to sever it from my body so it could no longer move. The pain was excruciating and so was the sight of my shoulder. I wasn’t strong enough to go right through the arm so I had to saw at it. The blood poured freely down the cursed arm as tendons were loosed and muscle was cut.

Finally I had nothing left but bone. The shoulder was a red mess with a single white ring in the center, so I cut past that as well. The severed limb dropped to the floor and the arm spat blood violently as it stopped moving it’s tendrils towards the child. The girl screamed one last time and thankfully ran away as I collapsed over my own dismembered arm. “I win this time Asmodeus”