I woke up in Hospital with Zora asleep in the chair next to my bed. I could make out someone's figure standing in the corner. Why is my vision so blurry? I put a hand to my head and felt a sharp pain. My arm was burned down to the muscle and was bandaged up tightly. The rest of my body was just throbbing like it usually does when I do something stupid. Zora started to wake up when she heard a nurse drop something in the hallway.
"How are you feeling?" she asked rubbing her eyes. Her arm was bandaged up and her hair was a complete mess. She was even still wearing the same clothes as before.
"Oh, what I wouldn't give for some morphine right now. How long have I been out for?" I began to sit up and my vision blurred even more than before. Jordan stepped out of the corner. His hair was freshly cut into a military cut and his clothes looked brand new. He was wearing a white shirt with jeans and a gray jacket with his sword strapped to his back and a necklace with his symbol on it. "What happened to your arm?"
"The stupid mark got the better of me a week ago when I was arguing with Jaune about if they should let you back in Beacon and 2 weeks. You slipped into a coma until just the other day. Are you sure you're okay?" I nodded then swung my legs over the side of the bed. Racing pain shot up into my heart. "Brendan you shouldn't be moving around like this! You're still really hurt!" I stood up and ripped the IV drip out my wrist. "What do you think you're doing Brendan? I can't let you do this!"
"Do what Zora? Give up and lie in this bed then return to Beacon and hope this freak of a creature doesn't pop up again? I don't think so! I'm going into the forests until I can fully control this thing! I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me! Don't you understand that?" I grabbed my clothes out of the closet and changed in the bathroom. Slipping the familiar machete sheath and jacket over my shoulders was comforting. I unwrapped my arm and got a good look at it. "Completely healed, but how? I could feel muscle rubbing the bandage just a few minutes ago."
I walked out of the Hospital leaving Zora in the room crying, she may be hurt now but I can't risk killing her or anyone else, I was already worried enough about Ren. Jordan for some reason said he wouldn't leave me completely alone in the forest so he's following me. I'm actually grateful for that, he's the only person besides me who's gone through this. Zora could at some point but her curse mark seems to be weaker than mine.
4 hours later
"Hey Brendan, let's head to that cave I was at before, there's already a bed and some food there." He walked directly beside me in a reassuring way. So far I'd already collapsed 6 times from pain shooting from somewhere in my body and crippling me. It was astounding how fast I was healing but it just couldn't keep up with how much I wanted to get away from town.
"Alright, let's start gathering some firewood first though; it's starting to get pretty dark out here. If we get into a fight with some Grimm you'll be the only able body who can fight them off. The fire will at least ward a few of those little fuckers off."
"Good idea."
"Hey Jordan…" He looked over at me with an eyebrow raised. "What did I look like when I turned into that Grimm?"
"Well, sort of like a skeleton, but not. Your bones were muscular somehow and you had the wings of a Nevermore and a Death Stalker tail. Your hands were Beowulf claws that cut right through Jaune's aura and knocked him down. It was almost like a mesh of every deadly force on the planet." We left the conversation at that and continued to gather our supplies. We threw the sticks and branches into a large pile and I loaded a single fire bullet into Eld in order to make a bon fire. Jordan climbed a tree and fell asleep in the branches while I took first watch.
"That's a lot different from last time." He didn't say anything else for the longest time that it scared me how much more serious he'd become since the curse took over.
Everything was almost too quiet. The only thing I could hear was Jordan breathing and the occasional cricket or owl. I hadn't noticed until now but my night vision had vastly improved while I had been in that coma. While we were walking Jordan had told me that a couple students had reported me to the press and they were on a man hunt. Supposedly I was the big foot of our generation and more than one scientist wanted to experiments on me.
I focused my vision a bit more and noticed a group of small Nevermore sitting in a tree about 500 feet away. I stared one straight in the eye and the bird seemed to bow at me. Hello my young King, would you like us to keep the other Grimm away from you?
"If you would be so kind, then yes." The birds spread out in a tight circle around Jordan and myself. "Might as well get some sleep." I closed my eyes and instantly dropped like a rock. I can only remember so much of the dream I had that night but I do know that a girl my age was in it. She had light brown hair with a pink streak in it, she was about 5 foot 4 inches and was very slim.
1 month later
"Wake up Brendan, got us some breakfast" Jordan tossed a hard bread with apples cooked into it. So far we had decided to just stay in the forest without the cave, we did grab some pots and pans though. During the day I would try to master the mark with Jordan offering help as much as he could. We often stayed near the lake because the working my aura like that burned my skin a lot.
"Thanks man. I think in another week we should be able to head back to the school. It's becoming easier to suppress it entirely now and the Grimm's thoughts are becoming easier to hear."
"Remember that it's not necessarily a good thing though. It could mean that you're just giving the curse more slack and it's getting stronger."
"I don't think so. Just watch this." I flipped my arm so the mark showed to him. I let go of it for a second and watched as it spread to my entire arm, immediately after that I retracted it to the size of quarter. "To be honest I just can't wait to get back and see Zora again."
"That's not the only thing you're thinking about, I can tell. You had a dream about that girl again didn't you?" He sat down next to me and put his arm around me. "Sounds like someone is either in love or a stalker."
"Fuck off" I laughed. We ate our breakfast and I moved over to the sandy area next to the lake. I watched the water for a moment and I saw tail pop up and splash the water. I sat cross-legged in the sand and focused all my energy into one spot in my chest and slowly seeped that into my arm.
The darkness crept slowly up my arm and sent chills of cold down my spine. It took over my chest and was starting to spread to my other arm when I heard something rustle in the bushes nearby me. My eyes shot open and I leaped to my feet waiting for something to attack me. A Beowulf came charging directly with his claws already poised to slash my neck.
I rose my right arm to block and then drew Winlen with my left hand and cut its arm off. The beast leapt back in surprise and licked the injured arm quickly before diving at me trying to get a grip with the powerful jaw it possess. I simply side stepped and drove my fist into the small of its back forcing it to the ground with a crash. I lifted Winlen high in the air and drove it down through the monsters skull.
"Why do these things always attack me when I'm trying to focus? Geez, you think they'd have a little compassion. You know what, forget that. Note to self, stop talking to myself." I sat back down in the sand and picked up where I left off. I felt the buildup of energy condense itself and I made for the final push. The curse suddenly surged enveloping my entire body but without the transformation from before.
My body was still the same size and shape except for my skin was pitch black and the only facial feature I had was blood red eyes that glowed. All my clothes had vanished and were replaced by the bone-like armor of a Grimm. Covering the outsides of my arms, crotch, chest, back and shins. All my joints were exposed for the best movement possible. I lifted my hand and looked at my reflection in the lake.
"The prince state, you're able to control it now. That's very impressive you know. Especially for someone as unskilled as yourself" Jordan said dropping from the tree. I just rolled my eyes seeing as how with no mouth I could argue back. I forced the curse back into the usual mark on my arm and got a drink of water.
"Hey Jordan, I've always wondered. When you had the curse did you meet anyone else like us? Truly desperate people who wanted help to control themselves." I looked over at him and he tossed me a pear from the tree he'd been hanging in.
"Once or twice yah, I can't really remember their faces though. I do know that one of them was a little girl. It was sad to see someone suffering from this that was so pure and innocent; she was probably only 7 or 8"
"Huh, maybe we should start a school for others like us after this. And after we buy a bar of course."
"You mean others like you, I'm too afraid and my aura isn't strong enough to activate it anymore."
"Just try it one more time, right here. If anything goes wrong I can take you down until you come to your senses" I said sitting him down on the beach. He didn't even bother to argue. His eyes closed and the air around him swirled in a ring getting an inch taller every couple minutes. After about half an hour the mark appeared on his arm spreading to his shoulder in a matter of seconds. In one minute his body was enveloped in darkness.
He was basically what he described I'd looked like except with flesh and he was missing the wings which were replaced by spines running down his back. He rose to his feet and turned towards me. Jordan nodded to say he had control then shrunk back down to his usual self. Dropping straight to the ground out of exhaustion.
"Well, it took longer than I expected but you got it! If I can master the King form at some point and as long as you have the Knight form we will be unstoppable!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself Brendan. Clearly you've got the hang of it now and I guess I still do, there's no reason keeping us here now besides no classes. Plus I want to flirt with a real girl instead of some daydream one."
"How come I didn't see that coming? As long as you're not flirting with my sister or Yang and Ruby. Definitely not Garnet because if you hit on him he'll probably stab you in the eyes with those katanas of his."
"I'd almost forgotten about Garnet, how is he doing?"
"I haven't seen him much because he's been off whispering sweet-nothings in his girlfriend's ear. He wouldn't talk to me for a while when he got depressed and now that he will talk to me he's always gone."
"At least you have family like that man, I was an orphan remember? The only thing I had was Signal and trying to keep you from pulling pranks. By the way, how did you start out this year's prank? It has been killing me knowing you did something awesome and not knowing how much Yang beat you up for it."
"I broke into the school's office and delivered a little message to the other students about how bad they are via the intercom. Oh the look on Goodwitch's face was priceless! After that I stuck together a couple air horns and alarm clocks to give Ruby and the others a little wake up call. Especially Weiss, that girl is about as bitchy as they get!" I said helping him stand up.
We packed up all of our stuff and moved deeper into the forest than we had ever been before. We came upon a cave right as the sun set and decided to stay there for a week or so. It was slim, maybe 4 foot wide at most but had a ceiling that you almost couldn't see.
"My bet is that this place used to be a waterfall, makes sense to me" Jordan said sitting down on his sleeping-bag.
"That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. If that were the case than there would be a big dent in the ground right in front of this place from where the water would collect then start to flow."
"Water you up to talking like that?" He laughed.
"The puns! I'm suffocating from their awfulness!" Jordan rummaged through his bag for a couple minutes then pulled a large bottle. "What'cha got over there?"
"Just a little whisky, helps me to fall asleep. You want any?" he shook the bottle around a little bit and raised one eyebrow. "Come on man, it's not even that strong."
"Nah, I'm good man. I'm an adrenaline junkie not an alcoholic" I said lying down. "Tomorrow we should head into town and see if they have any ammo for Eld and maybe hit a dust shop for your swo-"the sound of a Beowulf howling pierced the night air above our cave. I took a few steps out of the cave and a pack of the Grimm leaped down from their perch. They circled around the cave entrance; Jordan grabbed his sword and walked up next to me.
"Well, I figure these ones aren't like the little guys who like you?" He said taking a fighting stance. His left hand was straight out in front of him with his sword behind him in a horizontal line and his feet were spread far apart from each other. I drew Winlen and charged the nearest monster, it raised an arm to block my swipe but only succeeded in getting it cut off and a huge gash on its face. In total there were 10 Grimm around us minus the 2 Jordan and I had taken out already.
I aimed Eld at what appeared to be the alpha and fired three shots directly into the thick skull. Jordan came in with a follow-up and cut its right arm off then threw his sword into a Grimm directly across from him taking out 2 at once. I stabbed one of the smaller ones then used the lifeless body to stop another Beowulf that was coming at me from the air ready to slash my face. I heard its spine snap on impact. 6 left, let's try getting rid of 3 at once. I tossed Winlen above my head and sprinted up to a Beowulf kicking it back then firing a shot into one to the right of it, when my machete came down low enough I jumped up and threw it into the chest of one to the left of the one I had kicked that was now sprinting towards me and right before I was in his range I fired a single round into its eye.
The blade of Jordan's sword started to glow bright green and out of nowhere a huge gust of wind sent the remaining Grimm flying 50 feet when the blade changed colors to red and shot fireballs, incinerating them in seconds.
"Maybe instead of just going into town for ammo and supplies we stay there for a couple days. I don't think it'd really hurt to get away from all this fighting for awhile, let our minds rest, all the good stuff" Jordan said sheathing his sword. We went back into the cave and talked for another 20 minutes about staying in town and decided that if we're thinking about that we might as well just head back to Beacon. The others are probably worried about us by now, Yang is going to kill me when she finds out I'm back.
That's the end of the chapter guys! Sorry it wasn't as good as it normally is but the gap between my writing was too big for me to remember the original plan for this. Later all my wild people! And remember PEOPLE LIKE GRAPES!