The Journeyman..........Monday, bloody Monday
Monday....small hours of this morning.
The 'thing' was on me, arms like iron stanchions supporting a desiccated husk of a body, unmoving and stead fast; try as I might I could not move them, bend them or free myself from their grasp. I felt sick to my stomach, there was blood flowing warm and fast from my body and down my chest and arms dropping in thick splats to the floor. My heart was thumping hard within my chest as I tried to scream and thrash around, anything to give me leverage to get this beast off of me.
I could taste blood in my mouth and I now kicked out under the monster and used my nails to rake at its face then with handfuls of lank greasy strands of stinking hair I pulled trying to retract the head from my neck. I got a thumb to its left eye and pushed as if my life depended on it. The beast relented and raised its head, blood, MY blood dripping from its lips and tears of my flesh between its decayed teeth,
"Does the pretty want to play?" It squealed tilting its head to the side to better look at the horror on my face. "I have need hiding from you little human hunter. Look at you so small but so sweet."
It smiled with cracked grey lips and a rasp like laugh gurgled within its gnarled throat.
I could not reply as my own throat was thick and unresponsive. I shook my head as that was all I could do. I prayed (if that's the correct wordage to use in this situation) for Ludo to come and save me - I'm sure he would have seen the irony if I could live to tell him. I thought my heart was going to rip free as it pumped harder and faster than ever before. Colour started to drain from my vision and in my panic I could swear it was floating away from me and to the hag thing that was laughing over me. I could see the sagging mottled skin on its face tighten and smooth out. Its lank grey hair filled out and a deep shine slipped from roots down to tip. The hag was no more and turning into a young woman before my eyes.
The colour was almost all gone, I was close to passing out, I knew it as all the pain was gone and my head was heavy and sleep was waiting all around me. My hands started to shake, as bid my body, a last natural reflex to escape an imminent expiry. A flash of white light flew past my vision and a pin prick of pain spasmed through my right arm like an electric shock. Fingers cold and unfeeling wrapped around a shaft and I remembered the knife I had securely taped to my side. I struggled to free it and brought it out to my side. I did not have the strength to deliver a killing blow nor did I have the manoeuvrability to inflict any real damage to my foe. I just hoped Ludo, Xanthic or any sympathetic soul would see it and assist where I could not.
With the colour finally fading from my sight, and the rest of my vision reducing to a pin prick like an old black and white TV set being turned off I convulsed one last time before total darkness enveloped me.
The 'thing' was on me, arms like iron stanchions supporting a desiccated husk of a body, unmoving and stead fast; try as I might I could not move them, bend them or free myself from their grasp. I felt sick to my stomach, there was blood flowing warm and fast from my body and down my chest and arms dropping in thick splats to the floor. My heart was thumping hard within my chest as I tried to scream and thrash around, anything to give me leverage to get this beast off of me.
I could taste blood in my mouth and I now kicked out under the monster and used my nails to rake at its face then with handfuls of lank greasy strands of stinking hair I pulled trying to retract the head from my neck. I got a thumb to its left eye and pushed as if my life depended on it. The beast relented and raised its head, blood, MY blood dripping from its lips and tears of my flesh between its decayed teeth,
"Does the pretty want to play?" It squealed tilting its head to the side to better look at the horror on my face. "I have need hiding from you little human hunter. Look at you so small but so sweet."
It smiled with cracked grey lips and a rasp like laugh gurgled within its gnarled throat.
I could not reply as my own throat was thick and unresponsive. I shook my head as that was all I could do. I prayed (if that's the correct wordage to use in this situation) for Ludo to come and save me - I'm sure he would have seen the irony if I could live to tell him. I thought my heart was going to rip free as it pumped harder and faster than ever before. Colour started to drain from my vision and in my panic I could swear it was floating away from me and to the hag thing that was laughing over me. I could see the sagging mottled skin on its face tighten and smooth out. Its lank grey hair filled out and a deep shine slipped from roots down to tip. The hag was no more and turning into a young woman before my eyes.
The colour was almost all gone, I was close to passing out, I knew it as all the pain was gone and my head was heavy and sleep was waiting all around me. My hands started to shake, as bid my body, a last natural reflex to escape an imminent expiry. A flash of white light flew past my vision and a pin prick of pain spasmed through my right arm like an electric shock. Fingers cold and unfeeling wrapped around a shaft and I remembered the knife I had securely taped to my side. I struggled to free it and brought it out to my side. I did not have the strength to deliver a killing blow nor did I have the manoeuvrability to inflict any real damage to my foe. I just hoped Ludo, Xanthic or any sympathetic soul would see it and assist where I could not.
With the colour finally fading from my sight, and the rest of my vision reducing to a pin prick like an old black and white TV set being turned off I convulsed one last time before total darkness enveloped me.
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