The Four Territories

by Stevie Collier

  He fell to his butt and quickly started to crawl backwards as the Rektop’s head spike thrust over and over deep into the ashy ground as it struggled with its trapped head.

  Esh’s feet finally decided to work and he turned, stood, and ran like he had never before. The Elder ran passed him in the direction of doom, pulling out both of his daggers. Esh turned to watch the Elder leap onto the Rektop’s face. Temporarily forgetting about the trap, the beast turned his attention to the male stabbing at its forehead.

  The Rektops swept its third arm in a massive sweep, knocking the Elder off onto the ground. It then grabbed him by the waste and picked him up with ease, bringing them face to face. Esh stopped running and turned to find the Elder squirming in the grip of the beast that now sniffed its dinner. With a lucky strike to its own face, the Rektops was successful in ripping off the trap revealing bright red fresh cuts that would later become hideous scar tissue.

  The beast’s lips curled back and a forked tongue slipped through its teeth, licking the top of the Elder’s face. The Elder stopped wiggling and Esh thought his mentor must have been crushed. He wanted to turn and continue running but just couldn’t mentally bring himself to do it. What would he be running back to Zel for? There was nothing for him there. The only future he had was in the grips of the three armed beast… If it wasn’t already dead. But what would he do? He had no skill and his only training had resulted in him merely being beaten up.

  He looked down at his new armor and began searching it. No daggers, no secret compartments, not even a liquid canister. The only thing he had was himself and his new found bravery that was sure to get him killed.

  His feet began to take steps without him really telling them to. He had no plan of action, none whatsoever. Something began to feel strange in his head, directly behind his eye balls. Dark strings whipped into his vision until he saw nothing but blackness. He was effectively blind, but his feet still moved without his brain telling him to. A dull ache started somewhere in his gut and it spread through his entire body. The ache turned to pain, and the pain turned excruciating. His mouth opened and a roar of his own left him, except… It wasn’t his roar, but something else’s deep inside of him.

  His vision came back, but this time the entire world was in a tint of bright red and he could see everything as clear as if they were under the sun-cycle. The pain he had once felt turned to pure pleasure and his thoughts became more confident and… crueler.

  The Rektops hadn’t noticed him and took his first bite from its victim, sending its teeth directly into the top part of the Elder’s torso. Esh was now close enough to receive the fresh blood to his face and he found himself feeling even more sinister.

  Ideas formed in his head on how much he hated the creature before him. He wanted it dead, but not just that, oh no, he wanted it to suffer and suffer greatly! He imagined cutting its gut open and replacing its innards with sand. He thought about surgically removing its eyes so it could watch Esh dismantle its own body piece by piece.

  The Rektops finally noticed the adolescent male and threw the Elder to the side, his body falling to the ground in an unnatural position. The beast bent over and roared into Esh’s face, its eyes filled with murderous intent. It tried to lift a foot off the ground to begin its charge but couldn’t. It looked down to see black goo had formed over both feet pinning the beast where it stood. It roared again and tried with all its might to move, but to no avail.

  Esh stepped closer, his hands at his side and a disgusting smile on his face. He could see all the details of the beast’s face and hated it for living. He finally decided on a way he wanted to kill it.

  More black goo conjured itself at different heights around the Rektops’ body. Without moving, Esh commanded the goo mentally to slap a string to different parts of the its body. The goo listened instantly and each began to speak back to Esh thanking him for his kindness. Strings of blackness were now attached to the Rektop’s mouth, eyes, arms, claws, feet, different teeth, and even its groin.

  Pleased with what he saw, Esh gave a final command and his goo servants pulled the beast completely apart. It was an explosion of blood that washed over Esh and rained down from the sky. The adolescent male just stood there, his head forward, and in a state of pure bliss as different body parts smacked into the ash.

  The blood splatter sent electrical excitement through his body and he dropped to the ground to lap it up with his tongue. He drank and drank, stuffing chunks of cold meat into his mouth and swallowing it hole. He had enough sense in him to know what he was doing was completely mental, but his body refused to stop until he was uncomfortably full.

  Now that the excitement was over, Esh’s vision slowly lost its red tent and his thoughts were becoming his own again. He remembered everything but found himself to be in a dream like state. He kept bringing up the memory of the beast exploding into a thousand pieces and was shocked to find that he still enjoyed the feeling.

  “What the four hells am I?” he said out loud to himself.

  The weariness in his head faded and his mind became clearer. He turned to rush to the Elder but found him awake and staring at him.

  “What did you do?” the Elder asked, not blinking.

  “I… I don’t know.” Esh said.

  The Elder just stared and Esh looked away, not sure whether to feel ashamed of what he had done or excited that he had killed the Rektops. Was that some sort of sorcery? Or was he some sort of monster stuck inside a humanoid’s body?

  “What’s the damage?” the Elder asked, pointing at his shoulder or… at least where his shoulder had been.

  Esh tried to speak but his lips wouldn’t move. He had never had to tell anyone they were probably not going to make it. He had only just met his new mentor and was already going to have to say good bye. Cold tears filled his eyes and he felt a lump in his throat as his heart climbed his chest. Why couldn’t he have anything in his life? Why did everything have to be this way for him?

  He began to feel the same dull ache start in his toes and strings of black were coming back. Esh smacked his own face but the strings continued to grow. Diabolic ideas started to pop up in his head and he hated himself for them. Perhaps it was the Elder’s fault all this bad luck had occurred to him. Why hadn’t he helped him when he was being cut open by the orphans? Why wasn’t he there?

  Esh began to relish the idea of performing the same sick surgery on the wounded Elder in front of him. How would he like to be cut in half by his own dagger?

  He summoned the goo and several floating black orbs formed around the Elder. One of the black goo orbs grabbed the dagger that had fallen to the ground and started to cut off the Elder’s shirt.

  “It’s time you felt what I felt,” Esh said in a voice that was a mixture of his and something else. “I’m gonna make you wish you hadn’t turned your back on me, letting those mean humanoids vivisect me.”

  The orb slowly pressed the dagger at the Elder’s shoulder, but before it could dig in Esh commanded it to halt. The Elder was crying.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Esh’s heart was still and his mind was empty.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t there!” the Elder whimpered. He fell on his back and tears fell over his face. “I promised to keep you safe but I failed! Do it! Cut me! I deserve it…”

  The red tint faded and the goo disappeared. Esh knelt by the sobbing Elder and stared at him. He looked weak and older than usual. Esh held out a hand and the Elder looked at it for a few seconds before grabbing it. Esh hoisted him up and placed himself under the good shoulder.

  They made their way back to the dungeon, battle wounded and no Rektops meat to show for it.

  18 - Inner Demons

  They made it back to the dungeon without saying a word to each other. Esh was completely drained of all energy and his body ached. He didn’t even ponder about the fact that he had just conjured up some crazy black mass that wanted nothing better than to torture anything and eve
rything around it.

  “You are very special,” the Elder said, using the moonlight to examine the searing wound on his shoulder.

  Esh was having a difficult time comprehending speech as he could actually smell the Elder’s open wound from across the room. It was delectable.

  “You want this, don’t you?” the Elder asked, peering at Esh in the darkness.

  He nodded.

  The Elder stayed very still as he thought about his next words. “I guess we have a difficult decision ahead of us. I can’t stop you from finishing me off and I also can’t live without your help.”

  The smell faded. The Elder actually had a chance of survival? “What do you mean?” Esh asked, “How can you survive a wound like that?”

  The Elder laughed, “It’s a long shot, but it’s possible.”

  The adolescent male felt all primal instincts leave his body immediately, feeling himself once again. Adrenaline rushed through him and he temporarily forgot about the incident that had just happened an hour before. “What do I need to do?”

  “Prepare yourself lad… We’ve got work to do.”

  There wasn’t nearly enough light above ground for what needed to be done. The dying mentor would have to be somehow lowered underground. Both of them thought hard about what they could possibly do but there just wasn’t any options.

  “I have an idea but you are not going to like it,” the Elder said finally. “You’re gonna have to call on that power of yours for help.”

  “Are you insane? Did you not see what I did? I’m a monster!”

  “That you are,” the Elder agreed, nodding his head. “But if you want to be trained under me then you’re gonna have to listen to me, lad. It’s the only way and you know it.”

  “But… I don’t even know what it is or how to… bring it out.”

  The Elder looked at his shoulder and made a disgusted look. “What did you feel before it took control?”

  Esh took a second to think. What had he felt? It had all happened so fast and he had basically just lost himself in all things black. But what had he thought beforehand?

  “Despair… Loneliness…” Esh admitted.

  “Good! Call upon those again!”

  “No!” Esh screamed, standing up. “Do you know what you’re asking me! Did you see the way I devoured that blood! It felt good and I couldn’t control it!”

  The Elder was silent for a few moments before letting his head lay back down onto the ground. “You’re right,” he said, “I am asking too much of you.”

  Death was close to the Elder and Esh knew the window of his survival, if there even was a window, was rapidly coming to a close. The red tint came back into his eyes without him even having to try. He didn’t want his mentor to die and he was willing to try anything at all to save him.

  The black strings filled his vision again and the evil thoughts rose out of nowhere. The Elder must have noticed for he was sitting back up, he was now face to face with two types of death.

  “Good, Esh, good. Now control it before it controls you!”

  “Shut up you fool!” said a foreign voice from Esh’s mouth. He moved with incredible speed and grabbed the Elder by his throat and lifted him up effortlessly. He could feel the Elder’s heart beat and a sudden clarity filled his head as he felt his weak pulse.

  As much as his second self hated him for this, Esh conjured up black goo and commanded it to attach itself to the Elder. He felt as though at any moment he would relinquish himself to the dark power and shred the Elder like he had done with the rektops but he was able to muster up just enough strength to keep the beast at bay. He lowered his mentor slowly down into the dungeon.

  Now that that was over Esh had to figure out how to stop the dark frenzy within him. He wanted to jump down the hull and stomp the Elder’s head in, but he refused. What if he went outside, barged into a random humanoid’s house and killed them instead? Would that satiate his inner demons?

  “Your mother was a sassy thing, but she loved you so very much,” Esh heard the Elder cry up through the hole. “Did ya hear me, lad? Your mother would be very proud if she were here with us.”

  Esh heard his words and an image of his mother came into his mind. He didn’t know exactly what she looked like but his imagination did the work for him. He thought about her shaking her head at him and wagging her finger. She then opened her arms out to him and Esh did the same. He walked forward to hug her but was only met with coldness. He realized that it was the goo that had embraced him and he watched as it soaked up into his skin. The dark feelings exited his mind.

  “Did that work?” the Elder called up.

  “Yeah,” Esh replied. He shook the thoughts of his mother aside and began to climb down into the dungeon.

  “Oh thank the Creator,” the Elder laughed which created a fit of coughing, sending blood dripping down his chin.

  Esh went to work on the Elder’s armor, completely stripping him to his underwear. Where a saggy Elder’s body should have been was actually a strong healthy looking one. All the muscles were tight, large, and firm; the white chest hair was the only thing that gave him away.

  “What now?” Esh asked.

  “We gotta clean this wound before we cauterize it.”

  “Cauterize it?” Esh asked.

  “It means to burn it to stop the bleeding.”

  “So how do I clean it?” The wound was a mixture of bright red mixed with black from the ash. Sand had also found its way inside and it looked to be visibly throbbing. Two bones stuck out from either end of where the Elder’s shoulder should have been and Esh thought he might throw up.

  “You’re not gonna like what I’m about to ask you,” the Elder said staring at him. Esh wondered if he was ever going to like anything the Elder had to say. “I don’t have enough canisters of liquid to clean this out thoroughly.”

  “So do I go steal some more or something?”

  “No time. You’re gonna have to do what you did to that rektops and lick all of this mess up.”

  Esh did vomit this time and found himself gagging even more when he saw what was coming out of him. He was hurling bits and pieces of rektops along with all of its juices.

  “You done?” the Elder asked coldly. “Time isn’t on our side so why don’t you conjure up that special ability of yours?”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Esh said, wiping his mouth. “You act as if I asked for this and that it is some easy thing for me to do! Don’t you realize that I want to kill you when I’m in that state?”

  “But you haven’t yet,” the Elder retorted.

  “But what if I do this time?”

  “I’m gonna die anyway, lad.”

  Esh had no other arguments and just stood there in his own gut juices looking down at his dying mentor. Screw it, he would try.

  He thought about all the bad things that had happened to him. He thought about Mehch and how he had cut him. He thought about Korp’s sick desire for young males. He thought about his mentor, his only true friend, dying beside him. He would be so lonely.

  The red tint hit hard and fast this time. He jumped onto the Elder’s stomach and conjured hundreds of black orbs, deciding that he would filet him alive! No, no he wouldn’t! He had a job to do, but what was it? Was he to kill the Elder off as quickly as possible? End his suffering? No, that wasn’t it.

  The Dark Esh saw the wound and his heart began to race with excitement. He wanted to suck on it and he did. The cold metallic liquid was all over his face now and he became barely aware that he was gnawing on his mentor’s bone. He forced himself to stop and to just lick and suck at the dirty wound. After about five minutes of pure joy the Elder punched him across the face and the force sent him half way across the room, his back landing in the sand.

  Esh stood up with pure hatred coursing through him. Oh he would make the Elder suffer for that one!

  “You have your mother’s ears, lad,” the Elder said laying back with his eyes shut, “And your dad’s hai
r. His was so thick! Any male would have killed for his hairline.”

  Esh remembered now, and he tried to think of positive and warm things! He pictured his mother again but found it not to be working, so he imagined her and his father hugging each other and staring back at him. His shoulders drooped and he began to cry out of happiness. He wanted nothing more than to be with them now. Their faces lost all of their details and aspects as they turned into goo and morphed with his body, disappearing deep inside him.

  “Grab one of them torches and let’s get this over with.”

  Esh didn’t think it was even possible to move anymore. His body screamed at him and he felt as though at any moment he would pass out only to wake up to a dead elderly male four feet away from him.

  He forced himself to trudge over to the nearest torch and grab it.

  “Now what do I do?”

  No answer.

  “Elder?”

  Esh flashed the torch over his mentor’s face and saw that his eyes were closed and his mouth was open. Panicking, Esh move the torch to the Elder’s chest and was relieved to see that it was moving up and down but was taking unnatural pauses. Esh was all alone.

  It was probably for the best that the Elder passed out for he would not want to feel what was coming next. Esh didn’t know exactly what to do. He had never purposely burned someone in order to save their life before.

  He slowly tipped the torch sideways and moved it to the wound. Bits of the flame began to lick at the skin turning it black and releasing a yellow smoke with a horrific smell. Esh checked the Elder’s face again to make sure he was still unconscious and continued his work. He slowly moved the torch over the entire crater that once was a shoulder and turned the entire laceration black.

  With the last bit of his strength, Esh picked up the Elder under his arm pits and drug him to the nearest bed where he awkwardly placed him.

  Esh let himself fall onto his back into the soft sand. Before he fell asleep he wondered what he would do if he woke up to his mentor being dead. He would be by himself with no plans and nowhere to go. He had grown to enjoy his mentor’s companionship and would even allow himself to call him a friend.