Here's chapter two which is the continuation of my trial for writing this story. I ran into a few problems that caused the release of this chapter to be delayed but everything is good now. I noticed that the last chapter had little dialog whatsoever. I tried to add more "dialog" in this chapter, if you can call it that. However, internal thoughts are still technically dialog...I think. Well, whether it is or not, here's chapter two.
It took a few moments for Coal to recompose himself. The scene before him was terrifyingly gruesome and the reason for all of the town's citizens to be rushing into he mines was quite clear. Swarming around the entrance of the mine were about twenty-five various species of Grimm. The worst part of what he was seeing were the bodies laying scattered on the ground. Though many were dead, town apart by the ferocious beasts, there were several people that were still alive. Most lay on the ground in pain from wounds they received most likely from the Grimm. Coal also spotted a small group of four miners trapped in a corner by a pair of Beowulf, fending them off with one of their pickaxes.
How did it get so bad? Coal thought to himself. Grimm rarely bother our town, and when they do, its only about one or two of them that happened to come too close.
He began to run through several courses of action he could take in his head. He figured the best two would be either to try and escape the cave in order to get to his home and meet up with his family, or to head deeper into the mines and catch up with the group David had been caught in. Coal let out a sigh.
Sorry, David, I don't want to be trapped down here and I need to make sure my family is alright.
Coal surveyed the area, trying to form a plan to get out of the mine without being injured, or worse, killed. After studying the area carefully, he noticed that all of the Grimm were focused on the left side of the mine entrance where the injured citizens tried to crawl away down a tunnel, all except for the two Beowulf that were still trying to find a way to get at the miners in the corner without getting hit with the pickax. He estimated that there was about seven feet in between the Beowulf and the next closest Grimm, an Ursa that seemed larger than most others.
I could try to get through there but if I get too close while trying to pass, there will be no way that I can get away from them.
A sudden shout caused Coal to look back at the group of miners. The one with the pickax had taken a careless swing and one Beowulf had swatted the pickax out of his hands while the other pounced on him, taking a huge bite from his neck. Luck seemed to at least be on his side, if not the miners'. Coal took advantage of the Beowulf being distracted and he sprinted towards the gap between them and the large Ursa. As Coal passed by, the Ursa turned and took a swing at him, missing by only a few inches from his head. Coal continued on, not looking back. While he ran away, he heard bloodcurdling screams, brought about as the pair of Beowulf claimed their prey.
Upon reaching the end of the path that led up to the mine's entrance, Coal saw that the situation was much worse than he had originally thought. Grimm could be spotted everywhere. Each street he could see had at least three Grimm on it.
Man, the Grimm really seem to be overrunning the town. With this many, they must have spread out enough by now to have reached the housing dist-
Coal froze, his unfinished thought sitting in his body like a dead weight.
Oh crap...
He took off sprinting towards the center of town, swearing under his breath the whole way. After a few minutes of running, occasionally having to dodge and outrun a Grimm or two, Coal made it to the area located at the center of the town: the housing district. Almost completely out of breath, he made his way down the road he was on until he came to the familiar street that he had grown up on.
At first, Coal was relieved to see that there was almost no Grimm in sight of the road. His state of calm only lasted until he saw that many of the buildings had scratch marks on them. His heart sank as he realized that the only reason there weren't many Grimm here, was because they had already passed through. His heart dropped even lower as he approached his house. The front door of his house was broken down, knocked over from the outside.
One thought ran through his mind: I'm too late.
Coal hurried into his house, being careful as he entered each room so he wouldn't end up walking into a Grimm that may have stayed he reached his kitchen, he heard a low growl come from the second floor, followed by a shout that could only have come from his father. Coal quickly grabbed a pair of kitchen knives that had been left out next to a half made meal. Knives in his hands, he rushed up into the adjacent room, and hurried up the stairs.
As he reached the top of the stairs, Coal heard a crash come from his parent's room. He made his way into the room in time to see his father go flying to the far wall. A small cracking sound could be heard along with the thud as his father made contact with the wooden wall. Coal stood paralyzed in the doorway from what he had just witnessed. As he stood there, a large Ursa crossed the room to his father's limp body.
Enraged, Coal ran towards the Ursa that had begun to raise its paw, preparing to smash it down on its prey. Coal jumped at it from behind with a shout, making it turn its head, distracted by the sudden noise. Coal took the two kitchen knives, still tightly clutched in his hands, and plunged the blades deep into the Ursa's upper back. The large Grimm let out a roar as it stumbled backwards, trying to shake Coal from its back unsuccessfully.
That's right, die in agony like your kind has made so many of the people in this town die.
Coal's face was full of rage as he clung onto the handles of the two knives, still stuck in the Ursa's back. Slowly, he managed to loosen one of the knives enough that he could pull it out. Gripping it in his hand, he raised it above his head. With as much force as he could put into his swing, he brought the blade of the knife down, plunging into the head of the Ursa, causing it to let out roar of pain.
Coal let go of the knives, both of which were stuck in the Ursa's body, and dropped to the floor. He moved out of the way as the Ursa stumbled backwards and toppled over, life quickly draining from its body. It was only a matter of seconds before the Grimm's body began to disintegrate. Relieved that the Grimm was completely dead, Coal turned to where his father lay motionless. He ran over to him and put his head to his father's chest and was met by the thing he feared: silence.
Coal sat in silence for a moment, replaying the events that had occurred in the past half-hour in his head. In so little time, he had witnessed more death than he ever thought possible, including his own father's.
Things will get better. The world needs balance. With all that's happened today, something wonderful must happen.
Coal's mother had always talked about how events always were balanced out. She claimed that tragedies would always go hand-in-hand with miracles. Coal clung onto this concept as he sat there, hoping that things might turn around any moment.
Maybe this is all just a nightmare? At any moment, I could wake up, ready for a nice peaceful-
Coal was brought back to reality when he heard a clattering sound behind him. He whipped his head around to see that one of the knives had fallen to the floor, the body that it had been stuck in now almost completely gone. Coal stood and walked over to the knife. He picked it up, afterwords pulling the other knife from the head, loosened now that the head had begun to vanish as well. He headed out of the room, hoping that he could possibly find that his mother and sister had fared better.
Mother will most likely have stayed with Emma to protect her. The only place I haven't checked is the rest of the bedrooms.
His hope did not last very long, however. The moment he entered the hallway that held the doors to his sister's room and his own, a dreadful sight foretold him of what must have become of his mother and sister. A single arm, detached from the body it belonged to, lay not a foot from his sister's room, the bracelet he had bought with his own money for his mother's birthday wrapped around its wrist.
Horrified by the sight, Coal stumbled down the stairs he had come up before, trying to not let his stomach empty itself for the second time that day. As he came out of his house, he made his way to the road and looked around. He tried to push the memories of what had occurred inside his house to the back of his mind, not wanting to remember, and instead tried to focus on the situation outside.
He stood there for a moment, listening for any sign of a Grimm nearby. He heard nothing.
It looks like I'm safe for now, I can't hear a thing. Coal's muscles tensed up. I can't hear anything...but I should be able to at least hear signs of them in the distance.
Coal looked in the direction of the mine, wondering what might have happened to everyone who went there. Still gripping the knives he had taken from his house, Coal ran back towards the mine with what little energy he had left after fighting the Ursa.
As Coal approached the mine, he became even more worried; despite getting closer to where most of the town had fled, he hadn't spotted a single Grimm. He rounded the corner and the mine's entrance became visible. Nothing. There was nobody in sight other than the corpses of those who had never made it inside in the first place.
I don't like this at all. Coal gripped the knives even tighter, keeping the blades at the bottom side of his hands so that he could easily slash at anything that might try to sneak up on him. He slowly made his way into the mine, keeping an eye on the shadows to make sure no Grimm were hiding nearby.
Coal turned a corner and immediately tripped over something on the ground. After nearly impaling himself with the knife in his right hand in an attempt to stop his fall with his hands, he struggled to his feet and looked down at what had caused his fall. It took less than a second for Coal to comprehend what he was seeing.
A body. More specifically: the corpse of the old man that David stayed with. Wait, I thought they continued past here. Why is his body so close to the entrance? Coal looked around and realized that the whole section of tunnel at the turn had become the equivalent of a mass-grave.
He began scanning the bodies for anyone he recognized. Coal quickly identified the bodies of the old woman who helped house David, not far from the old man's body, and the mine's manager, still holding a pickax in his hand, revealing that he at least went down fighting.
"-oal."
What? Coal's head snapped to face the direction he had heard the noise come from.
"Coal."
Coal finally was able to clearly hear the weak voice and identified it as David's. "David? Where are you?"
He heard a jumbled noise that he assumed was an attempt to say 'here' and saw a hand rise up a bit away from where he was standing. Coal made his way past the corpses and finally made it to his friend's side.
"Great to," David let out a painful sounding cough, "see you're alright, Coal."
"Idiot," Coal replied, "worry about yourself, you sound terrible."
"Don't worry about it." David rolled over onto his side so he was looking directly at Coal. "Did you manage to leave the mine, or did you hide somewhere so the Grimm couldn't find you?"
"I got ou- Bloody Hell!" Coal had glanced at David's side that had become visible to him after he had gotten on his side. It was now clearly evident that something had taken a huge chunk from David's side. "Why didn't you say something?!"
Coal took one of his knives and began cutting off parts of his sleeves. "Coal, it's not going to work. I've already checked, it's infected. Even if you stop the bleeding, I'll only live for at most two days, and that's with an actual hospital treating me.
"Don't say that, David! You're not going to die!" Tears had begun to well up in Coal's eyes. I can't let you die too! You're the only one left! "I'll go get some medicine to treat your wound, you'll be find"
Coal got up to walk away but felt something tug on his arm. "Coal. It's too late." David had reached over and grabbed his wrist as he tried to leave.
Coal looked back at David and saw that his face had gotten much paler. David's hand let go of his wrist and fell to the ground. He gave up on trying to look for medicine and turned back to his friend.
"I need you to do something for me, Coal." David's voice was raspy and was now no louder than a whisper. "The town was attacked because everyone's hearts were filled with despair. We had been forgotten by the rest of the world and had become destined to disappear." David let out a deep cough and blood trickled out of his mouth. "What I want you to do, is to carry the name of this town with you. Make sure that this is no longer the Forgotten Town."
Coal nodded as he looked at his friend. He understood what he meant. The Grimm were attracted to the despair of the town's people. David wanted him to destroy that which caused the Grimm's attack.
Another cough sounded from David's throat, sounding even worse than before. More blood dribbled out of his mouth. Coal reached down and grasped his dying friend's hand. David's eyes closed and a moment later, Coal could no longer hear a sound coming from him.
After a few moments of silence, Coal slowly got to his feet. Goodbye, David. Coal glanced at his friend for the last time before turning to leave the mine.
Outside of the mine, Coal headed over to where all of the mining equipment was usually stored. Coal already had made a plan of what he would do next. He opened the door to the storage shed and dragged out several barrels of gasoline that had been made from the oil they found while mining and was used to power the lights inside of the mine.
Coal rolled two of the barrels over to the support beams at the entrance of the mine that held up the roof of the tunnels. Lighting these supports should cause all of the tunnels to collapse. This way the Grimm can't get to any of the corpses in there. Taking another barrel, he began making a trail of gasoline leading away from the mine in the direction of the housing districts.
As Coal made his way down the streets, he rolled one barrel of gasoline in front of him while he poured another behind him, continuing the trail from the mine. Every-so-often, he splashed a bit of gas onto a house. Since every building is made of wood, this will be enough to ignite everything. After about ten minutes, Coal ran out of gas in both of the barrels.
Coal looked at his hometown, now a reminder of the events that he had witnessed that day. He solemnly made his way to his house, wanting to be inside of it one last time. As he entered, he quickly made his way to the second floor.
He purposefully made sure that he didn't look down the hall in the direction of his and his sister's rooms, not wanting to see the gruesome scene again. Instead, he walked into his parent's room. Coal went over to his father's lifeless body. In grief, he momentarily hugged his dead father, wishing that this was all a dream and that he would wake up to his mother's kind smile.
Finally managing to release his father, Coal turned to where he had left the dead Ursa. All that remained were two claws, both of which were tipped with blood.
A sense of determination rushed through Coal's mind. This is where my mission to avenge my town started. Some part of Coal's anger made him pick up the two claws. He quickly etched a message into both of them, splitting the message between the two claws.
Coal grasped the claw that held the end of the message and placed its tip on the floor. He raised up one of his knives and brought its handle down onto the top of the claw, driving the tip into the floor. Coal took the other claw and shoved it into his pocket. He took his knives and slid them into his belt, freeing his hands for other uses.
Silently saying goodbye to the house, Coal made his way out of the front door and walked towards where he had finished pouring the gasoline. As he reached the end of the trail, he spotted something he had noticed earlier: a piece of wood from a house that unfortunately burned down during the attack. He picked up the burning piece and turned to the gasoline trail.
This will protect the bodies from the Grimm. They took their lives, but they will take nothing else. Coal took the burning wood and dropped it onto the gasoline. With the fire quickly spreading throughout the town, Coal turned and walked away.
I hope you liked the first two chapters of Tales of DABL. Don't forget to leave a review so I know how I did. I will begin working on a third chapter so that its ready if I get good reviews on the first two chapters. I already have an outline of what will happen next in the story line so hopefully, if this story is liked enough for me to continue with it, future chapters will be posted quicker than these two. Thanks for reading my story!
