Chapter 4: Insert awesome title here
Rick sat on one of the bean bags in the living room next to Al. The folding card table was leaned against the wall. Rick had the remote and he was channel flipping. "Damn, we have to wait a full three hours before we can go back to the festival." He sighed. "Why can't it be a 24-hour three day festival?"
Al looked at Rick and blinked. "Because that would be seventy-two hours?"
Rick smirked and handed Al the remote so he could rub his arm with a sponge, trying to rub the faded writing off his arm. He wasn't paying attention, but his bag was leaning against his bean bag chair with the Terror Mask tied to it. He had been noticeably tense, even while at the festival and was a little concerned since Jamie hadn't come home yet.
"A video taken by a witness shows the brutal murder of ten boys by some kind of monster." Rick looked up, it was the local news and a woman was explaining the situation on the screen. "The video is too graphic to show on television, but it is available on the company website." The woman said. She looked at an officer next to her. "What exactly is your take on this?"
He shrugged. "I have no clue, I have honestly never seen anything like this before in my life. The thing is, even in the darkness, the video is very clear and it is extremely compelling. At first we didn't know what to think, we investigated the scene and found the bodies. We believe we have tissue samples from this thing. Our only guess right now is that it's some type of new species of animal. If it really did do what we saw, then this thing is extremely dangerous and must be captured or killed at all costs." He sighed. "But we are still conducting an investigation, so the area is off limits until we finish."
Rick looked at Al with a serious look. "Get me a computer, I want to see this monster."
Al cringed a bit as Rick looked at him. He'd been getting progressively less jumpy as he spent more time with Rick, like he was getting used to the feeling. "What? Right now?"
Rick nodded and Al got up and retrieved a laptop. They went to the appropriate website and clicked on the video, having to type in a year of birth to get access.
"I want to see!" The mask said and Rick grabbed his back and put it in his lap. His eyes widened as he saw a shower of blood. There was screams as within a matter of seconds, all 9 males were cut to pieces and crushed alive. Rick's eyes narrowed with interest. The camera shook, it was behind some plants and two vehicles. One was toppled over and the other vehicle looked like it had been heavily scorched.
"Oh my god!" Al covered his mouth and ran into the kitchen. The sound of him puking in the sink could be heard. Rick didn't seem phased by the intense violence. The thing crouched low and the camera turned away as the one holding the camera ran up a hill. In the background, the sound of crying could be heard in the background, along with the heavy breathing of the one holding the camera. He stopped and the camera pointed at the ground. Vomit hit the ground and the video cut off. It was clearly from the perspective of someone's phone.
"Play it again!" The mask sounded excited. "Pity that guy couldn't have gotten a shot of the things front."
Rick looked at it. "What is that thing?"
"I have absolutely no clue, but I can't wait to meet it." He could hear the bloodlust in its voice. "Put me on! I want to find it right now!" It was obviously pent up from seeing real blood for the first time in two years.
Rick watched as Al held his stomach, looking disgusted. "What the fuck was that?"
"I'm not sure, but I don't think it's a good idea to go to that festival anymore." He watched the television as he noted the area the murders had occurred in.
"Come on! Put me on! Put me on! Put me on! Blood; Rick! REAL FUCKING BLOOD!" It was begging. Clearly this "baby" wanted his "bottle" right now.
"Okay," He said.
"What?!" The mask sounded as though someone had just handed him a freshly severed head as a present.
"I'll do it," He said, leaning back and looking at the laptop.
"YES! YES! YES! YES!" The mask cheered out loud.
"But not here."
"YOU SUCK!"
"What are you talking about, Rick?" Al looked confused and belched, bending over. "Oooohhh,"
Rick paused, he had forgotten Al was standing so close. "I'm talking about... changing my clothes?"
Al looked unimpressed. "You're a really shitty liar." He walked past Rick and into the hallway. "But I hardly care because I'm too busy being sick. That made Two Girls, One Cup look like "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood"." Rick gripped his shirt and looked at it. He was wearing one of his favorite shirts. He probably should change clothes to something he didn't mind getting destroyed when he put on the mask.
It didn't take long to find out where the incident had occurred. He hid in the brush and looked at the people below, there were police cars around the area. He was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and shorts that reached to his knees. The mask was pressed against his stomach by the lining of his shorts, he didn't see the point in bringing anything else. "So what do we do? That place may contain the only clues telling where that thing went."
"Put me on, I'll scare em' off."
Rick paused and looked at his stomach, where the mask was. "I am not letting you kill them."
The mask laughed a bit. "I wasn't going to kill them."
Rick remained silent and looked at the outline of the mask..
"Maybe a little maiming... okay, I was going to kill them." The mask sighed.
The two paused as screaming shot through the air. The officers all moved into the abandoned mill.
"Must be a Corrupted place." Rick said. "Bet this is the area West is staying in." He pulled the mask out from under his shirt and took off his glasses, he put them in his pocket. "Hopefully I'm not rusty." He put the mask over his face as he heard gunshots and more screaming. "I wonder why they weren't att-" He cut off and started screaming out loud as he hunched over, his muscles writhing under his skin. He fell over and punched the ground. "I can't believe I FORGOT how much this HURT!"
The mask laughed out loud in his mind. "Quit crying you pussy!" Rick grit his teeth and breathed loudly, trying to not to scream as his muscles swelled painfully, his body turning into that of a lumbering brute of pure muscle. His shirt tore apart from his increase in size as his chest swelled from the increase in muscle. His bones even growing in size, he was at least ten feet or more in height. Rick got back to his feet and he felt a surge, growling a bit under the mask. "Free again!" The mask shouted through Rick, laughing out loud.
Rick raised his right arm and looked at the grizzled muscle, he flexed it and smiled. He felt pretty good, his heart raced with excitement as it hit him, all that power he had was back in his hands. He couldn't wait to start using it. He ran down, through the brush. Most of the officers had gone into the building. The screams stopped. He jumped over a car and an officer on the radio screamed, cringing as the masked brute jumped over his head. Rick stopped and looked at the officer. "I'd run if I were you."
The officer jumped into the car and drove in one direction, he crashed into a tree, obviously not looking where he was going. The other two outside pulled out their guns and pointed them at Rick.
"Freeze... thing!" The officer recoiled as he looked at Rick's glowing yellow eyes and stepped backwards several steps. Rick walked towards him and the officer stepped back as the titan of muscle approached him. He knelt down to the officer's height and grabbed the gun between two fingers, pulling it out of the man's grip and crushing it between his fingers. He dropped the crushed hunk of metal in front of the officer, who visibly wet himself and passed out. Rick stood up and looked at the last officer, who was hiding behind the car, peeking at Rick.
More screams and gunshots came from the building, a body was tossed out a nearby window. Rick ran forwards, and towards the entrance of the old mill. It was quite large, he stopped by the edge of the river, which had the closest entrance. The masks eyes glowed and Rick lost the color in his vision, only seeing the blood red stains on the ground that led into the mill and splattered all over the grounds in front of the building. His vision returned to normal and he ran into the building. "Something crawled out of the river."
"Probably just one of the kids… or what's left of them anyway." The mask clearly was dismissing this as unimportant. "By now the Corrupted may have selected a new Overlord, but something doesn't feel right. I don't think the Corrupted's influence is here." It paused. "No, there's something here… but it's not the Corrupted."
Rick looked at the small entrance and then at the hole in the wall next to it, splintered wood was on the ground. It was just about his size, but it was a touch short. He knelt low as he walked through the hole. He looked at the bloodstains on the walls and . The bottom of the floor had splintered wood, something had burst open from the ground. An officer was laying on the ground, he had been impaled by a chunk of wood. The area was open and had a set of stairs on the edge of the room. There was virtually nothing in the building, but its original purpose was still obvious.
"Wait a minute," The mask sniffed the air. "Waaaiit a minute!"
"What is it?"
"Slightest hint of madness." It inhaled the air. "Terror and confusion, uncontrollable panic." He paused. "That's Jamie, he was here."
"Are you serious?" Rick ran along the edge of the room to the left, passing by two mangled bodies. He glanced at a particularly strange stain on the ground around the edge of the hole in the ground, rather close to the hole in the wall. The remains looked like someone had tried to pick them up. Most of it was just burst in fragments of bone and flesh across the ground. Rick shivered a bit, wondering what could have caused that.
"Yeah, positive. Only he seems to be about half way between insanity and rationality like that. Seems he may have tilted a little more towards madness though." It took in the air once more. "And something else, blood lust and aggression." He paused. "Smells pretty nice, it probably killed him and ate him."
Rick sighed, his heart sinking slightly. "Poor Jamie," He ran up the stairs and took a right onto the second floor railings. Screams and gunshots issued from the top-most floor. He ran down the rails, the wood creaking loudly under him. It was obvious that with his increased weight, the ground was in danger of giving.
"Eh, he was probably going to fuck up his life anyway." The railing covered the perimeter of the room and reached a door against one of the walls. He ducked low and backed up, he rammed forwards, bursting through the small door and taking out part of the wall. It was the only way he could fit through at his size.
The ground creaked loudly and bent low as he stepped with care on the rotting wood. There was something growing on the wall, it was a massive white organ that seemed to be slowly issuing puss. It looked like it was slowly spreading across the wall, comfortably sitting in the back right corner of the room. It jiggled slightly and a flap opened up near the top of this cocoon-like thing. It spewed out a yellow mist and Rick stepped away from it, covering his face. "Ugh, smells like crap."
"I think you should break it." The mask said.
Rick moved towards it and punched into the soft white surface, his fist sank in and his skin burned. He pulled out his fist and saw a bloody chunk had been taken out of his forearm. He shook off the puss and watched as the white thing burst open, its contents splattering on the ground. A small crouched figure was inside. It was clearly chewing on the missing piece of Rick's arm. It stood up, it slightly resembled a little girl. It was covered in the puss and wiped off the stuff to reveal a rather old and soggy dress. Clearly it had once been human. It ran forwards, swinging mutated arms with blades of bone extending past its wrists, running with clawed feet. Rick ran back at it and tackled it to the ground. He sat on its chest and put his fists together and pounded down on its skull twice. He then grabbed its head, lifting it and slamming it down, crushing it entirely. He got to his feet and looked at the cocoon. "What is that thing?"
"Think of it like this. Anything that gets sucked into the cocoon gets turned into a beautiful, flesh devouring Butterfly. Then the Butterfly comes out and the cocoon sucks in anything else stupid enough to come near it."
Rick looked around. "So West has nothing to do with this?"
"I'd recognize the stink of the Corrupted a mile away. This ain't them. Don't know what it is though, I just want to eat it."
Rick ran out of the room and down the hallway, having to break the doors open so he could fit through, often breaking apart parts of the wall. He ducked low in the hallway, feeling cramped. "So does this mean that thing we saw on the video was a "Butterfly"?"
"I don't think so. I think it might be something more upper class."
"Do you think it's still here?" He burst through another door and looked around a large room, fresh blood was splattered on the walls, which crawled towards Rick. The walls were lined with numerous cocoons, there was at least twenty. Some were sticking out of the ground, some were nestled comfortably in the corners, some were hanging five feet above the ground. In the center of the room, there was a creature hunched over. It was chewing on a few corpses. Three had been piled neatly on the ground. Whatever it was, it was quite large. It was a little bigger than Rick.
It seemed to have more than one set of legs and arms, like a contorted compilation of bodies. The dominant head seemed more like two skulls half way fused together to make an exceptionally wide mouth. It had thick, strong legs and muscular arms with loose limbs hanging from its body. Some of them waved around, the extra arm sticking out of his right forearm was gripping the waist of a corpse. It sank its teeth around the skull and its mouth widened like a snake. It pulled the body up, sliding it into its thickening mouth and throat. The bones of the corpse snapped and it swallowed the corpse whole. The creature grew in size, its muscles bulging. It gained a few inches and the face of the corpse it had just eaten pressed out of the back of its right shoulder.
"Hey look, dinner and a show."
Rick rolled his eyes and charged at the beast. He felt his adrenaline pumping already and he sped up, ramming into the creature and knocking it backwards. It stumbled back as he passed by and stopped. He turned towards it and moved in close, his fists glowing orange, he pulled his right fist back and slammed it into the creatures rib cage from the side. A circle of energy was released and cuts appeared across its mutated flesh. It staggered to the side and as Rick moved in to strike with his other fist, it grabbed him by the head and threw him to the side. Rick tried to get to his feet, only for the creature to slam down its main arms on top of him. He pushed himself to his hands and knees and the creature kicked him in the stomach.
He rolled away and got to his feet. He dashed around it as it slowly tried to follow him. He jumped onto the creatures back and gripped one of its heads. He planted a foot on the monsters back and pulled, the head came loose and Rick fell backwards as the bones tore off.
The creature howled in agony and reached at the missing head. Rick ran forwards and jumped onto its back again, he planted his feet on its lower back and grabbed the throat with his left hand and proceeded to beat the creature with its own skull.
"You know, I didn't even think this was physically possible, but here it is." The mask commented.
Rick pounded mercilessly at its main head. With each blow it staggered and finally fell to its knees. Rick raised the head and slammed it down with both hands and crushed it against the monsters main head, it caved in and Rick ended up crushing its brains. He lifted his hands and stood up, he felt the familiar surge that went through him at victory. "YEEAH!" He shouted, but his victory was short lived as the wooden ground began to give below him.
The wood crunched loudly beneath their weight and the floor collapsed, he fell to the floor below, crashing through the moldy wood and into the basement below, he crash-landed on another cocoon, which burst below him. He felt something crunch beneath him. He stood up, covered in the puss; he wiped it off and looked at the crushed remains of one of the "butterflies".
He looked around and his eyes widened. "Oh fuck…"
Every inch of wall had a cocoon on it. The ground had them and some of them appeared to be growing on top of each other. The basement was a large rectangle shaped room. There were no visible stairs, but a large pile of cocoons led up to a small crack in the slime that obviously seemed to be a handle. It was possible that they had covered the stairs. The things around him moved and jiggled, vibrating, a hissing sound cut through the air.
"Seems a little unfair having us against all of them."
Rick sighed. "Let me guess, it's unfair for them?"
The mask stayed silent for a few seconds while many of the cocoons burst open. "Couldn't let me reach the punch-line, could you?"
Well, there it is, the latest chapter…. I spent my last two classes writing down ideas for what I want to happen in the story. I think I have something that will work. Hope ya like it.