The Remnants

Day 22 - The Remnants

After killing and eating the first creature, something inside him changed.

At night, he couldn't sleep easily. The sound of the rain stopped... but inside him, something else began to speak. It felt like a pulse in his ear, faint, rapid, like a second heart.

The next day, while searching for something new to eat, he found a body he had never seen before.

It wasn't the body of a monster, nor a human from his world. It was a man wearing torn royal attire, a long cloak, a leather vest, and a ring with a black stone.

But what drew him in wasn't the clothes, but the bag tied to his side.

He opened it… and found:

A long, curved knife, engraved with strange symbols

A small booklet in a language he didn't understand

A partial map… with places marked by black circles, labeled: "Pillars of Silence" – "Mouths of the Abyss" – "Mother of Eyes"

He read the names with difficulty. He didn't understand their meaning… but they made him shiver.

He kept the map and knife, and looked at the man.

His face was mutilated… as if someone had tried to erase it. He felt something watching him from the walls.

Day 24 - The Speaking Monster

In a narrow street, as he passed, he heard a sound.

Speech.

But not in a human language.

The voice was deep… as if someone was whispering from beneath water… first one voice, then two, then ten, and then back to one.

He turned.

He saw it.

It was a creature much taller than any monster he had seen. Its body was wrapped in moving strips of cloth, as if they were breathing. Its face was covered with a bone mask. And its eyes… there were no eyes. Only a blue light pulsing from within.

It spoke again, looking at him.

The boy didn't understand… but the words struck him. They felt like they were shaking his bones.

He stepped back, his heart racing, but the monster didn't attack him.

It only raised its hand and pointed toward an alley… and then disappeared.

Day 25 - The First Vision

At night, he heard his mother's voice.

"My little one... come... I am here..."

He ran, half-asleep.

He entered a place he had never seen before… an iron door, behind an abandoned building.

But he didn't find her.

He only found a small room… with bodies… hanging from the ceiling… upside down, their eyes wide open.

He screamed and ran out.

But he didn't hear his own voice.

He had entered an area where no sound existed.

Day 26 - The Body's Transformation

He woke after long nightmares.

But something in him was different.

His hearing was sharper. He could hear the steps of an ant. His sense of smell had changed… he could smell blood through the walls.

Even his skin… he felt it had become more resistant, as if something was protecting him.

He didn't know if this was normal… but he didn't ask.

He didn't care.

He only smiled for the first time without reason.

Elsewhere… something rises.

A shredded, cracked body, stitched together.

A monster… made from remnants.

...

...

...

He no longer knew how much time had passed. A day? A week? A month? The sky was always dark… and the cold had become part of his skin. He walked slowly, dragging his thin body through the alleys, not searching for safety, but for prey. But he knew… the more desperate he became, the closer he came to being devoured by something older than hunger.

In a narrow alley, the smell was different. It wasn't the usual smell of blood… but the sharp stench of rust… and old death.

Then… he heard chains.

The sound was heavy. Not like normal chains… it sounded like they were tied to a mountain.

It came from behind him.

He turned slowly.

He saw it.

That thing… that creature that should not exist.

At first, its shape was human… but each step it took made it more strange and terrifying.

Its upper body was bare, showing thick, deformed muscles, its hands pierced with nails, and on its back… rows of nails, as if someone had slowly planted them inside it.

Its face… had no skin. It was a living skull, half-covered with a bone mask, revealing inhuman teeth and black, empty eyes… but they could see everything.

In its hand, a weapon that should not be wielded by one hand: a giant blade, tied with long chains, ending in a butcher's axe, larger than its own body.

Every step the monster took left a deep mark in the ground, but it didn't run.

It walked… painfully slowly, as if time meant nothing to it.

The boy, despite his hunger, despite his weakness, despite everything he had endured…

He took the dagger from his pocket.

Hesitate? No.

This time… he didn't hesitate.

He ran toward the monster, screamed, jumped, and stabbed with all the strength he had left into its chest.

But the chains moved.

Suddenly, the monster turned with a speed that didn't match its size, raised its weapon, and struck the ground behind the boy with force… the ground shook, stones flew, and the sound of the explosion drowned everything.

The boy fell. He hurt. He lifted his head… and saw the monster standing in front of him.

But strangely…

The monster didn't kill him.

It bent slightly toward him… and said something… in a language not made on Earth.

Strange, deep words, like the sound of iron breaking underwater. Words… he felt them in his bones.

Then it turned… and disappeared into the shadows… but the sound of chains continued… as if they dragged behind them a promise of a return.

This was the first encounter… but it wouldn't be the last. The boy didn't know what any of this meant, but something inside him had changed.

And for the first time… he wasn't just afraid.

...

Hunger was no longer a feeling… it had become like a heavy stone in his stomach, slowly crushing his organs. Fear was no longer a sensation… it had become a distant sound, ringing in his chest, then disappearing. And time no longer mattered… the sky was always gray. The wind was always cold. And hope… had become something he hated.

He walked among the ruins, among the dried corpses, searching for something… anything, to eat. His feet couldn't carry him well, but he didn't stop. Death was not an option. Neither was turning back. Nor shouting.

But something strange happened this day.

The corpses he saw in the corners… were not the same. There was small movement. A slight tremor in the neck… a twitch in a finger. At first, he thought it was just a hallucination. But he got closer to one… a woman's body with a distorted face… and clearly saw: something small and black, like an insect, moving beneath the skin of her neck.

He backed away immediately. Then saw the corpse shake… and its eyes open. But they weren't human eyes… they were completely black.

He ran. He didn't think. He just ran. But he saw something else at the corner: another corpse moving, then another… then another.

He screamed silently. Ran through the narrow alley, found a small place behind old debris… and hid. He took a piece of metal and began digging into the muddy ground… then buried himself up to his neck, closing his mouth with his teeth, not making a sound.

He remained still… for hours. Those corpses passed… as if they were sniffing the air looking for him. But they couldn't see… nor hear… they only moved when a sound was made.

Since that day… he learned a new lesson: silence is life.

Two days later, he found a body covered with old cloth. It looked relatively recent, as if it hadn't fully decomposed. He opened its mouth, no worms, no strange smells. He hesitated.

But he was so hungry. He took a small piece from the thigh, roasted it on a small fire he made from wood and ash.

He ate.

An hour later… disaster began.

Pain in his chest. Intense dizziness. He screamed silently, and began vomiting blood. He saw things moving around him… walls breathing… screams seeping from inside his skull.

He thought he was dying. But he didn't die.

He searched for something… anything. He found a small pool of water, contaminated with blood and dirt. He drank from it without thinking… and after long hours of nausea and shivering, he began to regain his senses.

He sat. He looked at his thin hands… and spoke in a soft voice:

"I need to be smarter."

And from that moment on, he only ate what he had watched for days.

One night… he entered an area he now calls: "The Echo of Death."

Everything there echoes… not as it is, but louder. A whisper becomes a scream. A scream becomes a storm that destroys your ear.

There… he sat. Not moving. Breathing slowly. Watching. Hearing the steps of creatures walking nearby… searching, but finding nothing. Because complete silence was now his shield.

...

Days passed… and something changed in him.

He had first been a victim.

Then hungry.

Then mad.

Now… he had become a predator waiting for the opportunity.

His face was no longer the same… his eyes no longer held fear. His skin was pale… his dirty golden hair stuck to his forehead.

But now… he was only waiting for one of the monsters to make a mistake. And if it did… he wouldn't use the dagger alone.

He would use everything he had learned from pain.