RWBY: The Nightmare
W.T. Roberts
1
To every prisoner in the compound, it was lights-out. However, one prisoner was as awake as the guards were weary. The nightguard on duty, tired of such nights, flicked on the light to the appropriate cell. And, making sure his gun was loaded and primed, the officer marched down the block to the door. "I order you to release me!" General Ironwood growled from his side of the cell. "I am General Ironwood!" He roared again. "I order you to release me at once!" The guard, fatigued from this sequence night after night, plainly stated. "Oh, General," And with a hint of spite, went on, "Shut the hell up!" As the guard turned, a mistake given the circumstance, a spike-headed tentacle lashed from another cell… to paint the bulkhead with the officer's blood and brains. That same tentacle snaked forward to hook the guard's keys, and to unlatch the padlock holding the cell door closed. Out slithered an ominous cloud of black, followed by a ghostly pale hand grasping the lip of the doorway. That hand, with each finger tipped with a grotesque talon, crumpled the industrial-grade alloy like it was tissue paper. Then a foot, just as ghastly, stepped forward from the blackness. In the murky void, a pair of glowing amber eyes suddenly opened. The voice that belonged to those eyes was rather deep, raspy, yet resonant. "It's good to be back."
The escapee alarm blared repeatedly, just as dozens of heavily armed and armored guards locked, loaded, and rechecked weapons and accouterments of armor. The contingent of troops lined up at the forefront of the cell block, expecting the blast door to blow in at any moment. However, when it did, the guardsmen were unprepared for an assault from dozens of spiked tentacles. The appendages ripped and slashed at the armed men, until only two of them remained; a seasoned veteran, and the supplest rookie. The two were being constricted by a brace of tentacles, so much that their ribs began fracturing at the greenstick level. And, just as the two officers felt that their time had come, the makeshift ropes loosened. Even so, the guards thinking that there couldn't be a worse kind of hell, the body that the arms were attached to appeared out of the blackness. The veteran, whose hair had long ago turned to iron, seemed barely unfazed by such a sight. The newbie, on the other hand, was in near-shock. "I see." Was all that the prisoner intoned. He fixed his gaze on the far younger of his victims. "Witness hell." And with that phrase, the nightmare buried one of his spiked arms into the bull face of the seasoned soldier. The recruit, horrified at such an outcome, stared blankly as his commander's faceless body careened to the floor in a bloody mess.
The monster, not one to let such an opportunity pass by, released his grip on his final victim. The fresh-faced youngster, coughing up a storm, dared to gaze up at the creature before him. "I leave you with your life, for one reason." The monster stated. "You are to report to General Ironwood, and tell him what has taken place here." The recruit shifted his body to rise, but was forced back down by the point of a tentacle. "We're not finished here." The creature's tone was stern. "Tell Ironwood… that Jonas the Nightmare has returned."