Epiphany of The Roller

Albrecht Nachtnebel

"What…huh…?"

I froze in my spot, my breath ragged and a ringing sound echoing in my ears, as I tried to make sense of what was happening in front of me. Or what I just happened to cause. In the palm of my…disfigured hand. Embedded with black teardrop scales around the edges of my fingers, dorsal side, and wrist. My fingers had been enveloped in a rough jagged talon, dripping with a crimson red ichor as I held the pulsing meat of another being.

I slowly looked down, coming face to face with the last facial expression my recent victim had before he died. One of pure terror and fear as blood poured from his mouth. Further down, his entire chest had been torn open. Ribs were splayed apart, organs visible and irreparably damaged with large claw marks, and the heart was missing in between his lungs, and it was nestled gently in the palm of my hands.

"AH-! What the fuck-!"

"Jesus Christ!"

It appeared that I wasn't alone in this. Two other people had joined me in this murder. The one who scurried back as I did was another girl, with blue tear-dropped shaped scales instead of black. And pearly white eyes, We met each other's horrified eyes, gazing upon the other's monstrous form.

She was almost the exact same as me. With blue tear-dropped scales and white eyes instead, "The hell-?! Get away from me!" She jumped back.

"Me?!"

"Who else is holding a man's heart in their hands-?! OF COURSE YOU!"

I quickly dropped it to the ground, "Ew! Fuck!"

"What…the hell?" She muttered, "A-Al…? Is that you, Albrecht?" I recognized her voice.

"L-Luna…?"

"Yeah…that's me." Before I knew it, the scales around her face and hands slowly sank into her skin, revealing the familiar face I had known for years. "God…What was all that?"

I looked at my hands, going through the same shift as her. The scales sunk deep into my body, and the jagged talons shed off my fingers, revealing my familiar human-like fingers. It was good to know this was only temporary.

The two of us turned to the other person standing in front of us. His hands were drenched in entrails, his upper body slithering with multiple tendrils that retracted into his body, and his golden flowing hair alluded to his identity, as I called out to him, "Einar…Is that you?"

He turned around to face me, his eyes wide and blood stained his jaw. His shirt was completely torn apart, letting the two of us lay eyes on the horrid maw that inhabited his abdomen. Its fangs were a pearly white dripping with ichor as it slowly chewed on the head of the leader.

The sight activated a tingle in my brain, and my stomach clamped in on itself, as I turned to the side, hurling out whatever I had eaten, "Dude?! What are you doing?!"

Einar's maw swallowed the head of the leader, "I…I don't know…"

"God…what the hell are WE doing?"

Luna stood up while I gave myself a bit more time to recuperate after what I just saw. I was in no place to judge what he did. But it didn't matter, I could have easily puked up more but I did my best to steel myself. And stand up with the help of Einar.

A set of footsteps were approaching us as we turned to face it, Sebastian had a certain glow in his eyes, bristling with a green tinge that he had never before owned. His smile had disappeared for a moment, replaced with a complacent expression.

"Gentleman. And Luna." He turned to her, "You might want to help the others bury the casualties. You might have a chance to say goodbye."

"What are you…"

"I'm sorry. But you're the only surviving girl from that group of misfits." Sebastian broke the ice.

I saw Luna's expression shift into something else. One that I never expected her to have as she bolted to the cart, my body reacted, trying to chase after her, but Sebastian held me back, "Let her mourn. I have more important news for you."

"Dude?! What's more important than the deaths of her friends?! Of kids, we know?! They're seniors like us!"

"Our survival," Sebastian answered, "If we don't want to end up like them. Or have the others suffer? We gotta cut our losses. They died and that's unfortunate. But we can't stay and mourn until the end of the day."

I stood frozen in place, staring at him with bewildered eyes, he had the same voice, face, and body as the Sebastian I knew. But… "I never thought you would say that out of everyone. I don't really-"

"Recognize me? Mate. You and Einar turned to…something and look what you did." He presented the bodies of our victims, "You can't be talking."

Even if I tried to argue, it was of no use, he was right. And he knows it, "That's what I thought. Anyways, back to my point. We have about… twenty-four people including us. That's a lot of mouths to feed."

"Then what can we do about it?" Einar muttered, I caught him staring at the body of our most recent victim.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of cannibal-"

"NO." Einar shut that down, "I'm not going to make people eat these corpses…Thinking about it…it's not technically cannibalism. Since we're not the same species as them-"

"Still no." Sebastian shut that down, "But we do have a gamble. A guard camp not too far from here. That was our original destination, and it may have what we need-"

"So essentially, we're still heading to our enslavement. Just minus the chains." I scoffed, "What would be so different now?"

Sebastian stared at the two of us with a raised eyebrow, before shaking his head. A smile formed on his face, "There are five different factors now. One you already mentioned, we're not going there in chains. Second, they don't know we escaped. And for the other three?"

 He pointed behind him. Luna was on her knees, holding her face as she watched as the adults carried out the bodies of her friends. A painful sting rummaged through my heart watching her suffer like this, I had never seen her like this, the closest to that was prom. Both of our friends didn't expect us to go together, but we did anyway, "Don't get distracted now, Albrecht." Sebastian snapped his fingers, "You and Einar, alongside Luna, are the deciding factor of whether or not we succeed. And our chances are higher if you snap out of it. And get your shit together."

I wondered if I was even talking to the same person I knew before, "What happened to the gambling Sebastian I knew?"

"And what happened to fantasy nerd Albrecht I knew?" He rebuked, "Instead of slaying dragons in D&D, you became one, ain't that a surprise? And for Einar…To be honest, I don't know what the fuck happened to you."

"Touché…"

That reminded me. Gazing upon my hand, I could feel the tingle under my skin, a low hum echoed in my head as I tried to wrap my brain around this, "How did I…" But then, something clicked in my head, as my eyes widened, piecing everything together, but missing out on one puzzle piece.

"You good, Albrecht?" Sebastian crossed his arms.

"Do you know…where we are?" I asked them.

"What do you mean?"

"The continent…What continent are we on?"

Einar answered for me, "We're not on one. But we are located on an island, maybe fifty kilometers away from the mainland. Which happened to be Fengári."

"And how do you know that?" We turned to him.

He rubbed the maw on his abdomen, the sight still gave me the creeps, "I just know." Einar turned to the headless corpse of the leader, alluding to something else while I completed the puzzle. And it seemed Sebastian realized the same thing.

"Wait…Fengári sounds familiar-"

"It is," I answered, fixing my shirt and rubbing my temple, "You're right Sebastian. We do need somewhere to stay. And we're luckier than the others." We moved towards the cart again, as the others awaited our arrival.

"Just get to the point, Albrecht." Sebastian nudged my shoulder.

"We're in a book, dude. 'Apocalypse of the sole human.'"