Chapter 7
"W-what is this place…" Shirou gasp as the reality of the situation sunk into his mind, The world made his nose go crazy, it was the same scent as the dream but viler. The distant screech of a creature he couldn't put a name to, confirming in his mind that he wasn't alone.
After taking in the shock of being transported to a place that most certainly wasn't Yharnam, he began to walk towards the large clock tower in the distance. If there were anyone that could explain where he was, if there were anyone in this world he'd bet they'd be in that clock tower as it was probably the most noticeable structure in this place.
Or it could be something less pleasant, like a beast twice the size of the one that got me into this whole debacle, he thought somewhat dimly.
He could see that he was on a steep jagged cliff which ended in a dried up river, though the water was a deep crimson of colour due to the amount of blood that was in it. On the other side stood the high gothic structures he had come to associate all things Yharnam with. Behind those, the clock tower.
"Alright now where are w-gHK!" Buckshot bullets punctured his lungs and spine, staggering Shirou and rendering him paralysed for a few seconds. However those seconds gave his assailant enough time to attack with a vicious whip-like weapon. But calling it whip-like was undermining the sheer size and mass of it.
It looked like a club that had been fashioned into a blade then sharpened into a serrated blade more akin to the teeth of beasts, before cutting the blade into pieces and a wire run through the middle of it.
The man wore hunter garbs however unlike those he saw Gascoigne, Henryk and the few other hunters he had seen wear, it was old, frayed and unkempt a telling sign that it was not maintained like the ones he had seen others wear.
"W-why di-ack you...attack me?" he asked the old hunter, Eyes blood shot and maddened were his only answer as the man pulled back on his tricked weapon which had been coiled around Shirou like a thorny vine, a sent him spinning in the air and over the cliff edge and plummeting down to the bloody floor below.
Jagged rocks and outcrops broke his fall as he tumbled down, allowing him to survive. He lands with his face half submerged in the bloody water.
"Brr-bla-spsh-eck" he spluttered, trying to breath with a mouth full of viscous blood.
He attempts to rise only to realise that his body won't obey a single command. The fall had broken his bones and his spine, he was paralysed and completely vulnerable.
"Come on, get up. Get up, Get up!" his immobility causes him to panic, the fear felt like he was being suffocated. He tried reinforcement, pushing all he could into the body's natural repair process with the aid of the lingering healing blood in his veins.
"Dammit- Kos be cursed." But to no avail, the natural healing process of his body couldn't even begin to repair the critical nerve and other bodily systems, even with the residual blood. It was a miracle that he even was still alive in fact.
Then Shirou heard something scurry across the wet floor.
Looking around with one good eye he realises that there is nothing that he can see. "No, impossible I can still hear it. Then where? Where is it coming from?" he keeps looking trying desperately to see what exactly the cause of that noise was.
More scurrying, yet no entity was visible to him. Where was it?! If Shirou was panicking before he was going hysterical now. His breathing labour and wheezing with stress, all his remaining senses were focused on finding this remaining threat.
*Slop splash slosh* his hairs on the back of his neck rose as he realised that in his vain pursuit to find the creature he had forgotten a rather significant detail. The noise had sounded as if it had come from behind him.
"Harr… haar grrr" he could not so much as hear the monster as he could feel its breath down the back of his neck. The thing sniffed his body a bit before rolling Shirou onto his back, Now that Shirou had a good look at the monster the more he wanted to puke.
The beast looked more like a bloated mosquito that then was transformed into a man-like form. It was like any beast he had seen. The creature had dark grey like skin with a belly that hung out like a pouch filled with blood.
Yellow jagged teeth line its mouth and it had red soulless eyes that seemed to hold rage and hunger at the same time. The claw which had turned him over was now pushing down onto his chest, slowly crushing his lungs.
'Get off get off get off get off-'he continued to rage internally. Trying his best to scream a single syllable and raise his arm to fight off his offender.
All he was able to do was let out a wet cough and watch helplessly as the beast's mouth widened to gorge on the crippled body of the young hunter. Eyes widening in fear and pain as he watch himself be devoured alive. Feeling every single bit of it, every bite every claw shredding his skin as the beast rip his body apart for the blood lining his flesh.
Shirou could say nothing in his helpless situation but the shock was slowly reaching his mind, past the internal screaming that raked against his skull.
For over ten minutes the blood helped his regeneration, keeping him alive just enough to feel every bit of the torture he was going through.
Each second was a slow and agonising blur, in which Shirou could barely think as the world he was in was pain.
'sTOpp DAmIt gRaK' he gurgled in his mind as the pain became more and more unbearable. His chest was now a fully exposed cavity with his organs exposed to the elements.
It was then the beast ripped through his deflating lungs and plunged his claws into his heart. Heart punctured what remained of his blood began to pump out of the wounds, spraying the beast as it screamed in what could only be called delight.
Finally the suffering was over, Shirou thought as his conscious faded along with his body into a deep mist. Once again, Shirou thought no longer.
In this darkness Shirou saw a scene that occurred a year ago on the night which pushed him to leave his homeland and take the perilous journey to the moon cursed "Blessed" land that is Yharnam.
In the darkness of the abyss between the sea of the cosmos, Shirou once again looked upon what he saw on the night he stood on that cliff after running from that beast.
Fire, Screams, Horror, Blood…
Beasts.
Miyama was a slaughterhouse, the clearing on the mountain gave of a perfect view of the carnage that was occurring below. Howls of the freshly transformed beasts was a chilling orchestra which was accompanied by the choir of screams of their victims, a visceral opera of death, beast and fire that Shirou was forced to watch from above as a spectator safe from the horror on stage.
Well… almost completely safe as the beast that had been in pursuit of him broke into the clearing. It was growling and was even now continuing to change further and further away from the human it once was.
"Grr… hrraack ck ck ck gurr…" it gurgled, safe to say it could no longer speak as its mind was lost to primitive urges.
Shirou forced himself to fully face the threat and turn himself away from the burning town. Clenching his fist he steeled himself for what was about to occur next.
"I-I don't want to kill him though… he's human right…?" in the void, Shirou turned to see the source of the childish voice and saw a younger form of himself looking at the memory alongside him.
"That was our first thought, wasn't it? No… wasn't it…" young Shirou stared up at him again, now that he could see the boy's face he realised he had no eyes.
"Not again."
Shirou wordlessly turned back to the memory, watching as the past continued to show as he closed his eyes and muttering…
"Trace on"
Eyes now opened and emotionless he raced towards the beast as his body was reinforced and a katana formed in his hand, taking the beast off guard he gutted the sword into the beasts chest before letting go of the katana and projecting a new one to then puncture the blade into the skull of the beast.
The beast halted its ragged movements, its eyes recovering a small glean of intelligence before it sighed and breathed it finally breath as if it was relieved. Shirou stood their and simple watched it as the life faded from the body.
He just stood there for a while, silently gazing at the fallen body before turning to Miyama and run towards the chaos.
As the memory faded he could remember that beast, the second time he had taken a life, the place he resolved to save the beasts the only way he knew how.
Sadly, the beasts where the only ones he could save that day as his memory faded back into the void and Shirou saw a flash, a glimpse of the being that had been born that day and how it had floated above Mt Enzou before the strain on his mind was too much.
Then all of a sudden even he began fading into the void.
"Ah young hunter, you've returned so soon." Said the doll as he was reformed by the mist of the dream.
"I-ah ar I-mrr! Ah arrhh! Pweh psss gah ahrck cack!" Shirou panicked as he tried to formulate words, but to no avail. Why? How? Why couldn't he talk!? wHY cOuLdn't hE TaLk!? W C*!$^(_) #*()E&)H!?
Pat pat "There there young hunter, it's alright the hunter's nightmare is a perilous place and no mind leaves unscathed. A deep breath and some rest will do you some good. Come, sit down beside me and let the dream and blood heal thy mind."
Sitting beside the doll his addled mind free from his ordinarily strong will and desensitised emotions now let all of the grief, pain and madness out as his broken mind began to repair itself.
Shirou had rarely cried like this before in his life, the only other times he could remember were his father's death and that day.
"ph-phank kyu D-dwol." He slurred as he struggled to reconnect his ruin mind to formulate even the simplest of sentences.
"Shh shh do not speak. Relax, my duty is to care for hunters, it is my purpose." The doll comforted, as Shirou broke out into another fit.
"It's alright, it's alright… it was just a nightmare."
AN: Honestly, felt bout as braindead as shirou when fighting in the nightmare. (first time?)
Anyway sorry I didn't update sooner, some girl in my class decide to chuck her bag onto my computer which then fell off the edge as its collective weight dragged my computer off the table and onto the floor… I mean come on girl we have lockers so we DON'T need to drag our bags around!
