This Darkness was unlike the one the undead had grown intimate with. It did not cling to their body, muffle their pain, or empower them it instead only impeded their sight.
The darkness the undead was in brought them solace but not in the same way true dark did. This darkness had no embrace for the undead to wrap itself in. It was instead the confinement of both the darkness and the undead inside the stone casket that brought the undead peace as it served as protection from the beastly gaze watching the casket intently.
It could hear the heavy footfalls of the opponent outside as they crunched and made depressions in the shores pale sand.
The undead had, after a time inside the coffin, come to two conclusions about the enemy beyond. Either the ogre they had seen had taken to walking on all fours or a second, equally large, enemy had emerged from some hidden recess.
The undead knew it could not remain in the casket indefinitely if it did it might as well go hollow for all the world cared.
They raised their hands to the lid of the casket and pushed it away from them, breaking the dark seal and allowing a sickeningly ethereal light to force itself upon them. They lifted themselves from the coffin and swung their legs over the side and onto the sand.
The undead was conscious of the ogres to their right, and watched as the closest approached while the farthest simply strafed side to side. Quickly, they equipping their halberd and shield with a few practiced flexes of their arms.
Just as the first ogre advanced the undead became distracted. It looked down at it self and became confused at its now shapely chest where their had been only lean muscle before.
They were a woman now it seemed.
The change in physique was a most severe surprise and so the cyclops were forgotten...until she quickly took a battle stance only to see two large hands with an equally large mouth reaching for her. The mouth descended around her head as the hands grabbed at her arms. Her sword and shield in her hands but her elbows unable to bend meaning she could do nothing but swivel her wrists. The creature stood up with her in its mouth, lifting her feet from the ground, pressing down hard on her with its jaws and digits.
The pressure eased slightly and the undead struggled. She dropped her equipment and instead tried to push herself away form the creature but she could do no such thing.
She felt air whip past her as the creature took in a deep breath and widened its mouth further, allowing enough light to reach the undeads eyes as to see her imminent demise.
She observed how the tongue and gums had scores and cuts along them from where weapons or perhaps armor had left their marks, signalling that she was not the first to suffer this fate.
She noticed how thick the muscle around the back of the jaws was and how large and yet blunt the teeth of those jaws were.
She saw the throat contract and relax slowly.
She noticed this all in an instant.
The jaws forced themselves together, with her pinned between.
The pain was too real.
The teeth splintered her armor and in turn tore her flesh in a most discomforting fashion. The metal, having crumpled easily under the pressure, was biting into her as much as, or more so, than the teeth themselves. The grip on her arms had fractured the bones in her elbows and upper arms into shards which stabbed into her muscle from the inside.
As the metal that encased her chest was punctured the teeth pulled back. When they returned and came down hard enough on her collarbones to cause them to crack and break into pieces about the size of her teeth, the teeth biting down on her being about the size of her fist.
She wasn't screaming, not just because of the lack of anyone to help her but also the fact that her screams would be directed into the gaping maw that was consuming her. Her yells of pain would have been swallowed by a swollen was as the sickening crunch of her upper rib cage reached the creatures small ears that the mouth was removed from around her head a second time.
She couldn't breathe. The bones that were her respiratory organs armor had buckled much like her chest plate. Her arms had received a similar treatment by this point.
Her head lolled back on her neck, her helm slipping off, and her gaze was forced upward. What she saw was a monstrous mouth filled with blunt teeth, unevenly spaced around the gums. The amount of strength in those jaws required to force those stubs of enamel through metal must have been immense.
As her eyes rolled back her stare passed over the cliff face far above her killers one eyed head and onward to the fluctuating dark-light 'ceiling' of Things Betwixt.
All she had wanted was to see where the casket took her.
She refocused her eyes on the third inevitable sinking of the teeth into her body. The maw descended on her and like the snapping of a scorpions claws the jaws of the beast closed suddenly and with great force. A sound emanated from her body, much like the eviscerating of flesh but far more visceral in its own way. Gently, the ogre let her fall to the sand with a puff of stony particles.
She stumbled, her head lolling on a limp neck as she let out a feeble and sad groan. Her very body, broken and battered, dissipated into mist as the creature that had so thoroughly killed her raised its meaty paws above its head and slammed them into the ground where her from had been a second before. It returned to a neutral stance and looked onward at its handy work, a cluster of bright essence and a bloodstain.
She was gone from the world and even though it was a momentary inconvenience, for an undead such as her, the actual event had left her marked...
...It foreshadowed a long and death riddled journey against the odds and the plain impossible.
She rose up from the first bonfire she had encountered, like a phoenix from the ashes but less magnificent, and looked at it solemnly.
She ran her hands up and down her face vigorously to wipe away the expression of horror and pain that was stained there, trying to get over her most recent death.
She stood up and with little thought equipped her bow before using the bonfire to travel away to where she would buy the hundreds or so arrows necessary for her next task.
Author's Note: It is evident I am not used to writing this breed of story thanks to how much gore I use. A good horror writer can instill horror through description of other less stark sensation.
I have witnessed many entries for Terror Souls before this one and so know the sort of quality exected...It doesn't look promising for me.
I am unsure as to how graphic I can be with a 'Rated T' story, if you think this is too much I will remove it promptly.
Nevertheless I thank 'Alone in the blight' and 'ASouffleToServeTwo' for the invitation to write for them.
Happy Terror Souls Halloween and to all a good fight.
-NathanEryk