Chapter 2 – The Chained Snake
Gwyn’s heels tapped on the ornamented stone path that led up to the cathedral in the center of the graveyard.
“Hmm,” he mumbled as he caught himself staring at the huge metal wicket that was awaiting him at the end of the stairs, leading into the building. With a quick side glimpse, he saw the flickering of the candle through the stained glass. “Well, someone's busy with his nightshift.”
It didn't take long for his curiosity to take over, which was empowered by his tipsy mood. The sparkling in his eyes began to grow with every passing moment “Why the hell not? Everything beats being at my desk at this point,” he slurred slightly, in a whispering tone and with a determined nod. His heels still knocked on the ground with every step he took and echoed through the silent night, just until he finally reached the gate. It didn't escape his eyes how wonderfully crafted the object in front of him actually was. The massive, and round handles placed in the middle where rusted, almost to a disgustingly strong degree, which Gwyn still felt the need to caress with his fingertips. He also noticed two grand knockers, which seemed to replicate the head of a large reptile, all while protruding their extravagantly long tongues at their guest.
Before he could even hope to fathom why someone would craft something like that, his hand moved, he grabbed one of the heavy looking tongues, and knocked on the gate. To his surprise, the gate opened without any additional effort.
A loud squeaking noise roamed the dimly lit hall. Still filled with curiosity, but a healthy dose of skepticism, Gwyn entered the building.
“H-hello?! I-ss someone here?” he nervously yelled. “I know, I should not be here, but I have to admit, if you have the choice yourself it's actually quite tempting.”
A smug smile appeared on his face as his mind began to wander, while he started his own little adventure.
Excited by the fact that he shouldn't be here his eyes scanned the room.
He was surrounded by old, wooden pews which here submerged in a dim light projected by a few candles burning in the main and side halls. In addition, semicircular arches and statues, made out of stone, decorated the room. The big red carpet beneath his feet led up to an altar at the end of the pathway. Somehow he wasn't overcome with a sense of dread, but more with a feeling of familiarity. His hand cautiously swept alongside the seating-accommodations, just until he held it up against his lips to shout, “Heeello-oo?! The gate was already open. I hope I'm not interrupting something. I just went for a quick visit myself, and I'm already on my way out,” he stopped as he realized no one was even trying to answer him.
“Well, at least, that's the only reason I'm willing to admit openly,” Gwyn thought. “Not that anybody would care anyway,” he added afterward.
He decided to scan the area once more and slowly walked towards the big altar at the end. The light from the candles didn't seem to reach this far, everything was almost pitch black in front of him. With an exerted gaze and wrinkles building up around his eyes, he looked for anything that stood out. As his vision slowly adapted to the darkness surrounding him, he finally recognized a massive cross that was standing in front of him.
“Huh, just what I expected. Nothing special. As always,” though something felt wrong as Gwyn realized the cross wasn't the only thing that was messing with his eyesight. His gaze became more focused and intense, as his senses sharpened and he leaned in cautiously towards the gigantic cross.
“WAAAAAHHHH,” a sudden scream burst forth out of the young man, as he stumbled over his own feet and knocked his head on one of the wooden pews.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” he screamed.
Before his eyes something began to move. All that he could see was a shadowy figure that slowly slumped down from the cross until it hit the ground with a dull thud. It was something that seemed to rest on the altar. He didn't want to think about it or who was responsible for this. He tried to lean on one of the benches as he attempted to make a run for it as quickly as he could. In his haste he nearly tumbled again, moving forward towards the exit, panting, without looking back.
What almost stopped him, was Gwyn himself, as he was about to body-check the closed front gate. His desperation only increased when he realized that the gate was shut and didn't even flinch when he jolted it with all his might.
“H-how is this possible?! W-what is going on?!” he stuttered in his anxiety driven state.
“The door was open the whole time. Nobody could've closed such a massive door without me noticing it. What the hell is going here?!” his mind was racing, as his thoughts tried to keep up with his emotions.
His last hope of regaining his composure was destroyed by a haunting rattling of chains that came after being slowly being dragged around on the stony soil. In his hopeless situation, he reflexively turned his head around. A shiver ran down his spine, and his pupils dilated, as he saw the black silhouette stand upright and slowly march towards him. Trembling with fear, Gwyn didn't realize that he receded backward, almost cornering himself, while the sweat on his forehead started to drip into his eyes, stinging him with pain. With every blink, he felt his heart beating harder and harder, trying to escape on its own.
“Oi! Oi!” yelled the shadow all of a sudden.
“How can you be so rude to such a lovely guest such as myself?” a bugged out voice, resembling that of a man, rang through his ears. It was almost as if the dark shadow before his eyes resembled the shape of a human, only taller and much more frightening. A loud snap resounded as the silhouette calmly and quickly adjusted its neck .
It was all too much to handle for Gwyn. He didn't want to know what it was or where it came from. Talking was out of the question as well, which lead to him trying to break open the massive gate behind him yet again. His fingernails crawled along the sturdy steel until the pain overcame his willpower. He was trapped like a mouse in a maze. Suddenly the feeling he had inside him became all too real. Once more his desperation manifested itself, and the young man grabbed one of the candlesticks beside him and threw it at the shadow-like figure.
At that moment, a heavy gust passed by him, and he held his arms upwards to protect his face. His coat fluttered wildly in the wind, while the creature disappeared in front of his eyes. Blown away, the candlestick rotated around its axis with its candles blown out. The drawback of the breeze bolted through the whole cathedral, and almost took him down to his knees. The candlestick crash-landed a bit further ahead and had missed its target entirely.
His sense of touch left his palms as he cursed his very existence. The only wish left for him was to close his eyes forever and make everything disappear, telling him it was but a dreadful nightmare.
“Oi! I'm talking to you, you know?” it spoke again, this time from Gwyn’s left-hand side, who immediately flinched backward with yet another fearful scream. This time he could almost clearly see what strange thing appeared before him.
Without a care in the world, it sat on top of the little domes at the end of each wooden bank, squatting and staring directly at him. It had gruesome, but also intoxicating green eyes with pointy pupils which glistened menacingly in the dark. Snake-like eyes were analyzing and focused on him, like a predator ready to devour his prey. There wasn't much else he could make out in his current mental state beside the human-like figure, which was about two heads taller than he was. It was cloaked in a long-sleeved black coat with green glyphs embedded upon it, with a hood that almost covered up its entire face.
“Kikiki,” unusual giggling prompted out from the figure, while a big, white grin appeared from underneath the hood.
It was the type of grin that would send another shiver down Gwyn's spine. With every hair standing on end, his heart stopped beating for an instant. The white, fang-like teeth smiling at him in the dim candlelight were the most terrifying things he had ever come across. Transcending even the events from earlier that day.
“I hope you know what my arrival here means for you, little human,” the creature
rejoiced as it hopped from the top of the bank and mustered itself up before Gwyn.
Without even answering, the young man was already crawling deeper and deeper into the nooks of the cathedral, trying to hide in the shadows.
“Fufufu,” it laughed yet again, and the devilish green eyes started to focus solely on him. It was as if they were drilling a deep hole into his soul, chaining him down forever in an empty space. The more they exchanged glances, the more he felt the throbbing pain in his chest increasing.
“You know, I always hoped that the gate would open for me someday. Just once”, it calmly explained all while gently placing its fists on its slender hips and looking around, fascinated by the interior.
“Ay, ay,” it sighed while raking the back of its head. “It still feels like one hell of a blurred up dream. Do you know that feeling? As if you tried to remember something important, but you don't really know what it was.”
As the creature started talking to itself, Gwyn was motivated to grab the next best object. First, he picked up the donation plate on top of the altar and threw it at him. To his surprise, he missed yet again, while the seemingly human looking creature disappeared before his very eyes and reappeared at the other end of the hall – still very much into his own monologue.
“Now that the time has finally come, I don't really know how I should act. I mean, who knows what kind of fucked up person you are, to call forth m-” its sentence was interrupted by yet another flying object that was flung in his direction.
“I got it!” it declared full of joy, with its fist clapping on its bare hand and skillfully dodging the projectile. “You!” It turned around towards Gwyn, who already had the next lifeless item ready.
Another useless attempt followed. Everything seemed hopeless. Gwyn could only describe it as some sort of teleportation, as the creature disappeared and reappeared at different locations each time. The swirled up dust and repercussion of the wind were the only indicators of its moving presence.
“Enough with the child's play, little human! You listen up real good, or otherwise I won't guarantee for the safety of that scared face of yours,” the creature suddenly emerged in front of him and grabbed his hand, while it pressed its face almost onto Gwyn's. With one of its long fingers, it started to spread the area around Gwyn's right eye as if it tried to plug it out of his skull. It was the first time he and the creepy figure were standing face to face.
“From today on we are partners,” its green, and blackish reptile eyes squinted, and tightened as they were staring deep into the eyes of Gwyn.
“Though I originally planned not to become friends with you, I changed my plans. Since you're the reason I'm finally free, I think we should start to throw the world upside down together! What do you say that?!” Gwyn stayed silent and so the creature continued. “Just what I thought, great minds think alike! Fabulous! Let's get going and screw up reality,” Without Gwyn even having an ounce of courage to answer, the figure ended the dialogue for him. Cowering in fear, he realized it was meaningless to struggle, though something seemed off for him. The feeling of an ember, resting deep in his subconsciousness, waiting to be ignited, made him feel restless.
“H-how d-do you do that?!” he burst forth all of a sudden.
“How do I do – what?” addressed the carefree being.
“That strange teleportation. I've never seen something like it,” Gwyn's eyes almost began to light up as his fascination began to grow, tuning out the fear.
“Kiki, ooohhh, you mean that? That is what you're curious about?” it asked arrogantly, right before disappearing from Gwyn’s sight and reemerging behind him, on top of the altar with flailing arms.
“This is no teleportation. It's just that your puny human senses can't keep up,” it explained narcissistically. “Oh dear, don't tell me every human is this easily impressed. I thought the one to free me would be someone special, but I'm already bored... Hm?!” it paused as it discovered chains running down its arms.
“Freed? What does that mean? Who are you?!” asked Gwyn, only encouraged in his curiosity. Though the only thing he could do was sit and watch as the creature tried to childishly, and almost desperately, remove the chains from its sleeves, but without success.
“So they don't belong to him? Does that mean he really was a prisoner?” Gwyn thought upon seeing the figures struggle. In hopes of getting the attention of his counterpart, he shouted, “Hey! Answer me already, will you? Who are you and what do you want from me?!”
For a moment the mysterious being stopped its movements and slowly turned its head towards Gwyn.
“Just a second ago I could've sworn you were pissing your little panties. What happened?! Did you suddenly find your balls, scattered on the floor, or are you just an incredibly naive fellow, huh?”
With an almost defiant look, Gwyn answered, “if you were to harm me you would've already done so.”
“Kikiki, maybe I just like to play with my prey before I torture them?” He heard the creature chuckling, almost rolling on the floor laughing because of his answer.
“You seriously have no idea what kind of situation you stumbled into, do you?! It may be true that I won't pull your measly bones one after another for now, but there is no turning back from this. From today forth we are one.”
With incredible speed it reappeared on one of the pews and stretched itself with a bored yawn. With a slight grin, it continued, “The moment you allowed me to escape sealed both of our fates. The reality you knew will be gone. Your old life is done. It's a responsibility you cannot run from.” It chuckled again. “I'm truly excited to see if being around you is actually worthwhile.”
“And what if I just leave? Do you want to murder me? I find it hard to believe, after all this talk about fake unity and changed fate,” Gwyn got fed up to the surprise of the unknown figure.
“Ho?” it wondered as it saw into Gwyn's eyes which were glowing with some kind of aura that it couldn't feel before, intoxicating the atmosphere around them. It was almost as if there was a flickering amber of rebellion inside of Gwyn's gut, rebelling to this bizarre situation, that was eating him up inside, shaking him to his very core.
“Alright, little one, your sense of curiosity convinced me. I acknowledge your strong willpower. So don't let me stand in the way of your dreams,” the strange creature encouraged him out of nowhere and started to wave excessively in an attempt to say its goodbyes, as if it no longer cared.
“Fight for your country. Inject your children with your own selfish ideals and infect your life with irrelevance. From now and forever on you shall be free.” It clapped theatrically two times to let it echo through the halls.
With a burst of air the huge gate of the cathedral reopened. This was done with such power that Gwyn almost thought the doors were torn apart from their bracings, as the rumbling resounded through the building, making him cower in fear.
“R-really? I can go, just like that?” Gwyn gasped and stood up slowly as he smelled the fresh air streaming in from outside.
The creature waved uncaringly, making Gwyn forget any other thoughts as he made a run for the exit. Finally, he would be free from this nightmare. He ran as fast as his legs could take him until he reached the fountain outside unscathed.
“By any chance, did you parents lock you up in a cellar when you were young because you were something 'real special'?” a voice resounded on the top of the fountain.
With shock, Gwyn let out another shout and fell on his butt.
“Don't you listen to people when they speak to you? I just explained to you that there is no turning back. I know, I know. You humans are experts in being selfish, but that really is no good sportsmanship.”
“W-why?! W-what is happening here? WHY ME?!” Gwyn started babbling uncontrollably, as the dim hope he still held in his heart began to fade.
“Believe me, I'm not exactly thrilled either,” the ominous creature sighed. “Having to take care of the special needs kid from the toddler group. Let's
just make the best out of it, okay?”
Gwyn still couldn't believe it. It just had to be a nightmare. His hands buried themselves deep into the gravel, as his mind was grasping at straws.
“H-how can it be…”
“Oh come on now kid! Not even I'm this rude,” the figure suddenly stopped. “Oh, wait a moment…” It realized as if lightning struck and pointed his long index finger into the night sky. “I know what's missing! We haven't had a real chance to introduce ourselves correctly. Alrighty then, AHEM,” it began to pronounce.
“My name is Delirias. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. May our journey be full of adventure and turn the world on its very head,” he finished as he joyfully extended his chain riddled arm towards Gwyn.
Gwyn still was dumbfounded with fear.
“What? Too exaggerated? Bah, nonsense. Now, up with you!” the figure smiled maliciously at him.
“How can you expect me to accept something as ridiculous as this so easily?” Gwyn uttered as if he was in trance.
“Up, up little bunny,” Delirias clapped his hands together as if he was talking to a small domestic animal. “The longer you sit on your ass doing nothing, the sooner the wolves will come to take you away. You will only realize that you can no longer walk on your own, when it's already too late.”
Gwyn lifted his fingers up and started to pierce them into his own face. “Are you fricking kidding me?! Am I going insane?”
“Hmpf, as you wish. I didn't want to tell you this, but you got me, okay?! Are you happy now?” Delirias seemed upset. “Another human that could not wait to look behind the curtain and ruin the wonderful illusion for all of us. You know that not knowing something can be a blessing as well, don’t you?” He fell into a manic rant. “The illusion is gone, the curtain open, the magic lost, the assistant sliced in half, the audience on the floor. Do you have everything now that you wanted, 'o great master? NO?! How much more until you're finally satisfied?” Like a waterfall, the words poured from his mouth, as Delirias marched exuberantly in a circle. He pulled his black-green hood over his head and disguised his voice.
My Insanity Page 3
