Sequence Seven: Unholy II

‘I never thought things would end up like this!’ Josh thought as he looks to the man who has a grayish-white hair that is around his fifty’s but seems to be robust for his age and is wearing what some people calls as a ‘butler uniform’ in front of him.

“What is happening, Gearfried?!” Stella shouted on where she is currently sitting after hearing a commotion in the room.

“Please, don’t take this personally. I am just following my orders.” The man in front of Josh said who Stella called as Gearfried.

A few seconds after he said it, Gearfried pulls out the stiletto from Josh’s abdomen, at the same time Josh kneels on the floor due to the pain of the stab wound he has on his stomach and spits out a few blood on the carpet of the room where he is kneeling while holding his abdomen placing some pressure to it to prevent further blood loss.

“This would have been easier if the orcs just did their jobs properly.” He said while wiping off the blood on his weapon with a handkerchief he has on his hand that he pulls out of his pocket.

After cleaning the blade, he throws the piece of clothing stained with Josh’s blood on the floor.

The man then walks towards Stella and grabs her neck, wrapping his firm and strong left hand around the neck of the girl, lifting her with a single hand and slowly choking her.

Upon feeling the pain and the difficulty to breath, Stella struggles with all her might. She grabs the hand of the man with her hands trying to loosen up the tight grip on her neck.

“G-Gearfried… W-why?” she said, as the grip of the man slowly tightens around her neck, making it harder for her to breath every passing second and is about to lose her consciousness.

“Why are you doing this you bastard?!” Josh yelled, turning to the direction of the man who stabbed him and saw Stella being strangled by him.

Josh immediately tackles the man pushing him on the side of the room, knocking the man’s head on the edge of the table nearby making him unconscious.

“Are you okay Stella?” Josh asked Stella, while he forces himself to stand up.

Coughing due to the choke she experienced and still catching her breath, Stella just nod to Josh confirming him that she is fine.

Josh immediately walks towards Stella after he’s been able to stand and carries her away from the room to find a safe place to hide.

Running on the corridor of the mansion, Josh searches for a room that they could both hide from the assailant, after finding one, Josh placed Stella on a chair and let her sat there while he locks the door of the room and sat on the floor next to the chair where Stella is sitting.

“Things are so messed up now.” He said, while catching his own breath as he feels the pain on his abdomen spreading throughout his body, making it cold and numb.

‘This room sure is dark, good thing there is a full moon outside.’ He thought, as he looks around the dark room. It is cold and he’s starting to feel sleepy, many thoughts are running back and forth in his mind and everything is starting to get fuzzy.

‘This scene feels somehow familiar.’ he thought, as if something similar like this happened to him in the past.

But his train of thoughts were broken by a sobbing sound he heard close to him. As he follows where the sound is coming from, he saw Stella wiping her eyes again cleaning the fine drops of tears that is flowing from her eyes.

“I’m so sorry.” She said while still wiping her tears.

“Maybe if I just agreed to run away with you back then, then maybe…” she continued while still crying.

Josh, trying to ease the worry of Stella, gently grabs her hand and held it tightly, telling her that she must not worry for him.

“I promise when everything will turn back to normal again, I’ll do my very best in every aspects I could.” Said Stella, holding back Josh’s hand as she continues on crying.

“Please don’t raise a death flag in this kind of situation.” He said taking it lightly with a somehow bothered look.

But it seems like he was jinxed at the same time, because the door that he locked is now being banged up by someone on the other side.

“Seems like he found us.” He said, finding themselves in a dire situation again.

After a few hard hits, the door slammed open and revealed the man he just knocked on the table.

“Finally, I found you two.” He said coming closer to them.

“Stella, if you walk straight behind the chair you are currently sitting at, there is an open window and a thick pile of bush down…” he said, standing on the floor he is sitting.

“…I want you to trust me and jump from the window with your back facing the ground, then run to your left.” He instructed her so that she can escape a certain death.

But before he could finish his instructions the man dashes forward to Stella with the stiletto he recently stabbed Josh with. Seeing it, Josh rushes to Stella’s location and grabs the blade with his bare hand, stopping the man from reaching Stella.

“Stella now!” He screamed, forcing the girl to do what he just instructed.

Stella immediately rushes behind the chair and to the open window, preparing herself to jump from it when she heard Josh speaks again.

“And if you happen to meet Cerise outside, please tell her that Josh said ‘Thanks for the treat’.” He said while being pushed backwards by the man closer to the window where Stella is.

“Josh…” Stella muttered.

The stiletto slowly sliding on his hand and is about to pierce his chest, he then took the initiative to push Stella that is currently standing on the window frame with his unoccupied hand, launching her off, down to the ground where the thick pile of bush he mentioned where.

Falling with her back first on the shrubs, she manage to land safely with just a few scratch and light bruises on her. He followed Josh instruction and walks to her left side, leaning on the mansion wall with her hands as she feels her surroundings to avoid being disoriented on her location.

In the meantime, back at the room where Josh is, the man is still struggling with Josh, pushing the blade further down to his chest.

“Why would you do such things to the one you should serve with your life at stake?!” Josh asked the man angrily as he tries to push the stiletto back to the man.

“Please, don’t misunderstand things. I am working directly under the Duke’s command, so her safety is more or less not my concern.” He answered Josh, now pushing down the blade with both of his hands.

“Do you even know why that cursed urn is here? Of course you don’t! The Duke ordered his men to get that urn from an ancient ruin on the far northern plains of the land knowing that it attracts evil creatures to it and brought it to this village where his youngest daughter is.” The man explained pushing the blade harder towards Josh.

“Now if you ask me why, then the answer is easy…”

“It is for a sole reason, he wants his daughter to be dead!”

‘So does that mean it is Stella’s father that wants her dead?’ Josh thought, then he came up with a possible explanation for why the orcs are attacking the village.

“So this whole orc attack was just a cover for her assassination, is that what you’re saying?” Josh said as he tries to push back the tip of blade that is now touching his skin.

“Aren’t you one intelligent man? Yes it is, after the orcs ravage this whole village and massacre all its villagers, isn’t it just normal to find at least one noble dead on the ground? And it will cost less paper works for the others and there will be no investigations involved about her death.” He said while giving off a wicked smile to Josh.

“Why would he do that to his own daughter?!” Josh screamed in anger after hearing his explanation.

“I am not oblige to answer your question, I just need to do what they asked me to do.” He said thrusting the stiletto into Josh’s chest making Josh loosen his grip on the blade’s edges.

As the blade pierces into Josh’s heart, he falls on the cold floor of the room slowly losing his consciousness. His eyes follows the man who stabs him, that is currently heading out of the room. He desperately reaches out his hand to him as if he is still trying to stop the man from going, a futile attempt as it seems but he still did until his eyes closes by its own.

“Hey…”

“You there…”

Josh heard a voice calling for him echoing from a distance, so he forcefully opens his eyes one last time and searches for the person who is calling.

“Over here.”

“Yes look this way…”

He’s eyes follows the voice and found a certain ceramic jar resting on top of a slim wooden stand with a very unique design engraved on it.

He crawls desperately with all the remaining strength he has left until he reaches the wooden stand and lays on his back while his head turns towards the jar, staring at it like an ant who can’t reach a container full of sugar.

“Is it you who’s calling me?” he said with the remaining life he has.

But the call from the voice stops, like there is no one who is actually calling him.

“Why aren’t you answering?” he added

‘Looks like I’m hallucinating things now?’

‘Is this how it feels to die?’

‘Ironically, I already experienced dying.’ He thought as he gently closes his eyes letting the darkness and the cold floor take his remaining warmth.

“So you have nothing to lose then?”

‘There it goes again.’ He thought, as he hears the voice talking to him again.

“Then why don’t we have a deal then?”

‘Hmmm? And what would it be?’ He though.

“What if I tell you that you can save the life of those people outside? Stella and that girl you mentioned earlier.”

‘Well, since I am already dying that would be best. I don’t want them to perish just yet, I mean they have lots of things that they could accomplish in the near future, great things if you ask me.’ He answered the voice that is conversing to him.

“But if you do, you’ll be walking a bloody path to hell. Do you still have the courage to do so?”

‘It’s better to have ‘a sacrifice’ than multiple sacrifices.’

“You sure? There is no turning back.”

“What the hell! Are you going to save them or what?!” he exclaimed because of their lengthy conversation.

“Ha ha ha ha, you are one unpredictable man.” The voice said as he sinisterly laugh.

“Then, you only need to do one thing.” The voice continued.

“What would it be?” Josh asked the voice, catching his breath and forcing his self to stay awake.

“Break this prison I am in.”

The vase seems to emit a blackish-purple light, signaling Josh that it is what the voice is referring to as his prison.

Pushing the stand with all his might, the stand falls down, tossing the jar forward hitting the concrete floor as it gives off a glimmering dark colored light upon impact.

The jar shattered into pieces and a black smoke appears from the residue of the jar. Floating on mid-air, the black smoke glides towards Josh and enters his body through his stab wounds. In his surprise, the wounds stops on bleeding and he feels revitalized every passing moment.

But in an instant, his heart suddenly stops on beating but what makes it more intriguing is that he feels fine, as if he doesn’t even need to breathe at all.

‘What is this light I see?” he though, seeing different radiating waves of light that is so colorful, he thought those are rainbows crossing around each other. He reaches out his hand trying to make a riffle out of the flowing waves of light.

But the light and dreamy feelings of the wave-like lights has been altered into something heavy and painful. Like someone is pulling off every fingernails he has, he feels like his eyes are being gouge out, like his insides are being battered by something and his body is scorching but there is no flame he can see, but he feels like he is being burned alive.

As Josh agonizes the pain that is spreading throughout his whole body, the bright waving lights are somewhat being consumed by a black wave mixed with horrifying screams that he doesn’t understand. Turning the colors into pitch-black and the bright rays of hope he felt earlier changes into something that even he, himself couldn’t believe.

“What is happening?” he said as he grabs his chest almost reaping the clothes he is wearing. The feeling of being stabbed twice is not even comparable from what he is feeling now.

“I told you before right? You’ll be walking a path to hell.” The voice answered him, restating what it tells him earlier.

After a few twist and turns on the floor, Josh stops his actions and gently stands up, with a miserable air surrounding him and a dark presence that is following him behind.

“Kill…”

“Now it is time.” the voice said

‘Slaughter them…’

“After hundreds of years…”

‘Slay them…’

“…Blood will flow.” He continued

‘Murder those who oppose!’

‘It’s time for some bloodbath…’

“This will be a massacre!” Josh and the voice inside him said in unison, as Josh gives off a devilishly smile.