Chapter 5

Dark sleep falls as deeply as it soaks into the human psyche. Faded images from the past diminish in the face of the rampant plague that devours the nest of thought. With the last kiss, you sink to the bottom of the boundless ocean. You run forward, not paying attention to the fact that you have lost your legs a long time ago. You are left to crawl along the dirty ground, full of ashes, around the house that you once could have called your own. A hellfire burns through your guts, scattering in all directions. Your lips turn white, like crushed limestone. Full of ash, you are choking. Your lungs refuse to obey. They hardly exist... they were annihilated by hot fumes from inside the earth.

"Why do you have to do this to him ?! This is sick! I will not put in a word to you with the village head. You fucking dirty son of a bitch! "

"Teresa ... please hear me out. I have no control over it."

"Of course you have! Who in their right mind could do such a thing to their own son! "

"It's in my nature, I can't help myself."

"You'll regret being born... bastard!"

The dark forest rustles angrily... oaks bend over an ancient clearing, look for signs. Seven of them sat by the flooded river. Before people, there were only three of them. Now they need each other. Misunderstood souls weep over their own destiny. Must be equal to seven. Blood prophecy will be fulfilled when the last blood is shed. The first in the queue was... a woman from Paris, looking for forbidden arts. The other was chosen as a simple fisherman from a small fishing village. Now they wander together, looking for more who will join the hellish troupe.

The prophet is one. Everyone's and none's origin. Seeking other souls to meet the requirement. His name is ...

'Hi Zack!', a young voice broke the heavy silence, scattering the shadows gathered around the obsidian bowl. The moon cast its light on the clearing. The vase, illuminated by the moonlight, shone with bright purple. Young Zack did not know what happened. His sanity seemed to run away for a few moments, leaving him alone in the middle of a dense forest. The boy pinched the skin of his hand to confirm that the situation he found himself in was not a dream. Unfortunately for him, everything turned out to be true. Terrified, Zack couldn't move. He stood back to the place where his brother's familiar voice came from. "Zack!", He heard Grisha calling again in his head. Every time he tried to close his eyes, memories came back to his head.

"Don't be afraid... it doesn't hurt."

"You are my favourite, Zack."

"You didn't tell anyone?"

'It's okay... he left.', Zack felt a person hanging around his neck, trying to hug him. For the first time in a long time, he did not reject the love of another individual. His stone heart began to crumble. With every second, long forgotten, terrible memories came back to him.

"Zack... why did you do that? I thought you loved me... "

"I love you dad, but this... I don't like what you do."

"It's just such... fun. We're only playing a fun game ."

The young man began to cry. Tears dripped straight into the obsidian bowl, settling on its rough edges, creating the illusion of levitating tears. Zack fell to his knees, being kept in Grisha's arms all the time. His grim sobs carried with the wind, resonating like an instrument box.

"Why did you reveal our secret, Zack! I thought you trusted me! "

"Dad, I'm afraid..."

"Do not call me like that. You are not my son. You will never be as obedient as Grisha. He is my only firstborn. "

Zack stopped crying... his thoughts faded again. He felt nothing anymore. He caught Grisha's head and began hitting him against the edge of the obsidian bowl.

'It's all your fault! I loved my father! You've ruined everything! Because of you, this rag killed him!', with each beat, Grisha's head slowly resembled a crushed tomato. Zack's anger continued. One could say that murdering his brother meant that he received new strength. This violent act became his catharsis.

'If only you hadn't said it! He asked you for mercy! You killed him!', Zack's last blow left nothing left of Grisha's head. It turned into a bloody, venous mass. Zack tossed his brother's massacred body aside. He looked happily at his task. His manic eyesight slowly faded. He was panting with fatigue, and his nose was slowly bleeding.

"Daddy never hurt me... Grisha was jealous of never playing with him. That's why he took it away from me! "

There was hell on earth in Hilldawn. People killing each other. The houses were on fire and the animals were roasting in closed cowsheds, unable to free themselves from the fire. Blood and human entrails adorned the streets for the coming summer solstice. In the middle of this horror was Jaspar Gil, who was rushing to break his neck to get to the manor of the village head. He was just in the square when the crazy woman lunged at him with a pitchfork.

She managed to pierce his hand with a part of the farmer's tool. Fighting under the influence of adrenaline, Jaspar snatched the forks from her hand and quickly pierced her chest. The hostile woman fell to the ground dead, being drowned in her own blood.

'Damn ... my hand!', he crouched under the old fountain so as not to be detected by other aggressors. He took a cotton scarf from his pocket and wrapped his hand around it. It took him a moment to realize that the item he had stopped the bleeding was actually a gift from Matilda.

Jaspar began to sob. Abandoned by God, he suffered for unexplained reasons. Besides, by the situation he found himself in, he was forced to attack another human life. He could not forgive himself a terrible deed. However, a more important task for him was to reach a well-fortified manor house and help a familiar village administrator Terence Wight.

He managed to leave the square. He headed straight for the road going through the village's heart. From afar, one could see the glow of the burning town of Hilldawn. A terrible sight... the fire not only devoured the village, but it also began to spread to the surrounding fields and forests. The bloodied face of the herbalist and the massacre that took place behind him contrasted with the gentle sleeping world outside Hilldawn.

"I'm almost there! I just have to..."

Jaspar's thoughts were interrupted by a scream of a fat peasant who threw himself at him with a meat cleaver. Jaspar recognized the attacker's face. He was the butcher Sebas he knew well. He went to him every day at six o'clock and ordered veal. This time, instead of friendly and good Sebas, he saw charging cattle, ready to break his neck just to kill. Jaspar did not manage to dodge ahead of time. Sebas swung at him and cut the man's left shoulder with a cleaver. Then he threw himself like a wild pig and pinned him with his weight to the ground.

At first, the "hungry animal" only licked the blood leaking from the cleaver wound, but after a while, Sebas began to bite into Jaspar's warm flesh. The fury with which he bit off his hand equalled an angry rhino's attack on a small defenceless cat. Jaspar slowly lost consciousness from unearthly pain and blood loss. He thought he was about to die. Fortunately, the mayor of the village Terence Wight came to the rescue! The mayor quickly jumped to Sebas and stuck a kitchen knife in his back. An enraged butcher made a powerful swing with his hand, which ejected Terence at a few feet.

'Sebas! Stop your shameful deeds! Start thinking!', The words of the mayor did not reach Sebas, who was slowly approaching to finish Terence. But before he could get close enough, the butcher felt a stinging pain in his back. It was a knife that was stuck in his body by the previous attack of the village head. Sebas turned to find out what could cause such severe pain. He caught himself in the wound. The knife is gone. 'Forgive me Sebas!', before he knew what was happening, the knife landed straight on the butcher's face. Jaspar with the last of his strength curtailed the fat man's drive. The monster collapsed with a powerful whack on the ground and with him Gil. Terence quickly rushed to help Jaspar. He grabbed his arm and headed for the woods to avoid the slaughter that took place in Hilldawn.

'I can't believe we're forced to flee to this forest with such wounds. It will be a miracle if some hungry animals don't catch us.'

'At this moment... it-it's... our only... exit rout.', Jaspar lost consciousness, dripping blood marked the direction of their journey. Blood has become a currency and death has become a new life. A cruel plague once corrupted the safe and idyllic Hilldawn, leaving its inhabitants in the hands of Thanatos.

Chapter 5 of "Pirates Forest"