Chapter Five – Awakened

There was a deep unease in Rezzie as the two men trekked through the park trail. Nighttime had set in, and it was difficult to see without any form of light to guide their way. So he and Nesha were having to resort to adjusting their eyesight to see better in the darkness. Having spent most of his childhood in the forest, even when there was no light to guide his way, he didn't fear the dark by itself. He was more afraid of what lurked inside of it.

But the capitol wasn't a safe place at night, even worse so during the weekend. In the forests, Rezzie would've had to worry about mountain lions, snakes and other creatures that would bump in the night. But in the cities, it was a different story as it was humans that become such creatures. Muggers, gangsters, deviants, and killers ran free through the alleyways and the shadows of the buildings. Such things make Rezzie wish that he never came to the city in the first place.

Rezzie looked over at Nesha, "Hey, Nesha, I hope we're going the right way," Rezzie grumbled, 'it'd be a bitch if we end up getting lost in here."
"I agree, and the night isn't helping us out, either," Nesha looked around, "I can barely see within 20 feet of me."
"Same. Next time, we should invest in a flash light," Rezzie groaned.

As the duo went further down the trail, they came down to a fork in the road. Both of them looked almost similar in terms of appearance. Nesha was about to go down the right path, but turned to Rezzie, who was wide-eyed with his legs firmly planted into the paved trail. Every danger flag was going off in his mind as his instincts were screaming at him not to proceed forward. If Rezzie had never once heeded his instincts before in a day of his life, he was certainly doing so now.

"Okay, no. Screw that, I'm not doing this," Rezzie backed away, "this is a trap and a half waiting to happen. I'm out."
"Come on, Rezzie, quit being a bitch," Nesha teased as he chuckled at his friend.
"Call me a bitch all you want, but THAT is ripped straight out of a horror flick," Rezzie pointed at the fork in the road to emphasize his point, "if we go down either path, or worse – split up, we'll both get butchered. Forget that noise, I'm getting out of here. Tell your dad I'm taking the long way around."
"Fine by me, bitch. I'm going on ahead. Then I'm going on Facebook and make fun of you for wimping out."
"You can go right ahead. See you back at your place."

Rezzie turned around, and went up the trail back the way he came, leaving Nesha behind as he took the route on the right on the forked road. From then on, the two went their separate ways. As much as it pained him to leave his friend behind, Rezzie knew deep down that turning back was the right thing to do. All he can hope is that Nesha would come to his senses and make the same decision that he did.

Nesha continued down the trail path alone, feeling smug about himself. He found it hilarious that Rezzie, in his eyes, had second thoughts and turned back around. Growing up with him as a kid, his friend was usually the confident one. But now it seemed that the tables have turned. Nesha planned on making sure that his friend would never live this down.

While Rezzie felt nervous in this situation, he however did not. Nesha had watched so many horror films during his life that they were just that to him – films. Fake, false. He felt confident enough in his own surroundings to where he felt safe. Or maybe his pride was telling him not to turn back out of some misplaced fear of losing face. Either way, he was too hungry and too cocky to care.

As he continued further down the road, he finally came onto a source of light he had seen during this entire walk, a sole street lamp, illuminating the path. Either through relief or primal instinct, Nehsa headed straight for it. Standing under it, he basked in the light around him for a while before looking around him to get a better defined grasp of his surroundings.

The trail that he was walking was moderately visible, with large trees with large spaces in-between them big enough for a truck to drive through with little effort. On the right side ten yards away was a stream that ran forward parallel with the paved trail. On the left, the ground was inclined upwards, with the tree leaned towards the path to give natural cover to the trail. Bushes and vines littered the ground as a natural deterrent to prevent anyone from going up the hill.

Looking down the path, he could see faint lights off in the distance. Guessing that was where the end of the path, where civilization lied, he chuckled to himself. He was almost out of the woods, almost back home. As he was about to make his way out of the street lamp's light, he heard the sound of metal scraping against stone behind him. Stopping in his tracks, he turned around to see the source of the noise.

Standing in the edge of the street lamp's light stood a large man with a dark green trench coat. The hood was pulled over his face, shrouding his face. His right hand, clenched into a tight fist, was coated in metal, which reflected the sheen of the light above. Gripped in his left hand was a metal pipe with thick, bulky nails sticking out all over the place. The nails were dipped in a black, oily-like substance that Nesha never heard of.

Nesha was visibly frightened at first, but he regained his composure and spoke towards the man, "hey, buddy, I think you're in the wrong place," Nesha tried to keep calm, "Halloween isn't for another month."
"Trust me, bitch, I'm right where I want to be," the man spoke, pointing his pipe at Nesha.
Nesha's ears perked at what the man said, "wait, that voice sounds familiar…"
"Been a while, Nesha."

The man used the pipe to unshroud himself of his hood, revealing his face to Nesha. At that point, Nesha was as white as a sheet as he recognized the man. The sight had left him paralyzed in shock and fear, keeping him from moving properly. The man charged forward in a full sprint, pipe in the air, and brought it downwards towards Nesha's skull.

"No way," Nesha breathed, before screaming aloud as the maniac advanced on the attack, "NoNONONONO-!"

Rezzie was almost back to the entrance of the park, seeing the street lights fifty yards away. He felt much calmer going back the way that he came. Back at the crossroads, his instincts were telling him to turn around. He didn't care if he had to take longer to get back to Nesha's house. As long as he was safe, that was more satisfying to him in the end.

Overall he was torn on his choice on having to leave Nesha behind. On one hand, his friend seemed confident in himself. However, Rezzie known for that same confidence turn into recklessness. And from his own personal experience, reckless behavior has often brought more harm than good. He hoped that Nesha would've had a moment of clarity and joined Rezzie on his way out, but at this point it seemed that Nesha's mind was fully made up.

On the other hand, Rezzie felt a sense of dread inside of him. He was worried that Nesha would be in serious danger, that he would wind up getting injured or worse while he was out there by himself. Neither Nesha or Rezzie had a cell phone or any way of reaching out to anyone. If the worst were to happen, he would have no one to help him. Rezzie was bothered immensely by the thought of it.

As soon as he reached the entrance of the park, he was about to turn onto the sidewalk but then he stopped in place. He couldn't take the nagging sensation any longer. He felt guilty enough for having to leave Nesha behind. But if something were to actually happen to him, Rezzie would never forgive himself. On a personal level, he could care less about being mocked for loss of his nerve. But he would never tolerate a loss of ethics, especially if they were his own.

Rezzie looked up into the sky, and groaned for a moment before cursing to himself, "Goddamn it!"

Turning around, he charged back down the park trail at a full sprint. While he was focused moving forward, he couldn't help but to be surprised at his speed. He was running faster than he thought that he could. He wasn't sure whether it was adrenaline or the amount of focus it was to get where he needed to be. All he knew was that he needed to get to Nesha as he could.

As he was nearing the fork in the road, he was confused as to which way that he could've gone. He then remembered that Nesha tried to go to the right before Rezzie left. Hoping he was right about his hunch, he sharply cut to the right and ran down the trail. As he sprinted a ways down the trail, he was a hundred feet away from the street lamp that was basking the bit of trail in light. But what he saw forced him to stop dead in his tracks in horror.

In the center of the street lamp's light, Nesha was lying on the ground in a pool of blood, still as a statue. He had numerous lacerations and signs of blunt-force trauma all over his head and chest. Standing over his body was the trench-coated man, who had his back to Rezzie. In his hands was the lead pipe, which was lodged in Nesha's abdomen.

Without thinking, Rezzie charged forward at full sprint, his sneakers making hard grinding noises against the pavement. Hearing the noise, the man perked up in confusion as to where it came from. As he turned around to try to find out the source of the noise, Rezzie had leapt into the air and aimed a spear kick into the side of the man's body. He only had just enough time to see his attacker coming, but he had no time to do anything about it.

As Rezzie touched down on the ground, the man flew back and was sprawled on the ground fifteen feet away, just within the edge of the light. The lead pipe bounced off the ground before rolling a few feet in front of him. Scrambling to his feet, he kept his stance lowered to where he would be able to keep himself prepared to get physical. When the man slowly rose to his feet to face the man that struck him down, Rezzie finally got a good look at him.

The man was none other than Randall, or at least that was what Rezzie could make of him. His long black hair was haggard, and pulled back into a ponytail. His facial hair on the right side of his face was mated into a full moustache and beard. But the left side of his face was severely disfigured, with burn scars and lacerations all over from his left cheek all the way to the left side of his forehead. The same injury that Rezzie had personally gave Randall the last time they met.

"Randall?" Rezzie asked as a mix of emotions were fluttering through his mind.
"You," Randall growled as he recognized the face of his enemy, "you're gonna pay for what you did to me, you son of a bitch! You ruined my life!"
"Uh, no I didn't."
"You cost me my meth lab!" Randall continued, as he picked up the nailed pipe off the pavement.
"Wait, isn't that illegal as hell?"
"AND YOU MELTED MY FACE!" Randall roared as he charged at Rezzie.
"Okay, you got me on that one," Rezzie conceded on the accusation.

Randall tried to hit Rezzie with a wide downward swing, hoping to gouge his head with the large nails that were imbedded into the pipe. However, Rezzie rolled to the side and dodged the pipe, which clanged hard on the ground. The force of impact knocked a few of the nails out of the pipe and bent several more, lessening the lethality of the weapon. As Rezzie rolled to his feet, he found himself backed up to the street lamp. Turning the weapon to its undamaged side, Randall swung at Rezzie horizontally with the pipe. However, Rezzie ducked down and the nails dug deep into the steel street lamp, lodging it in place.

Randall grunted as he tried futilly to pry his weapon free, but to no avail. Rezzie swooped in and aimed an elbow towards Randall's groin, causing him to reel back in pain, cupping his testicles. Seeing an opening, Rezzie hit Randall across the chin with a haymaker, nearly knocking Randall to the ground. However, he recovered quickly and struck Rezzie in the side of the head with his metal fist, knocking Rezzie to the ground several feet away.

Using the momentum of the knockdown to his advantage, Rezzie rolled back to his feet. The side of his head was bleeding as a gash from the metal fist cut his head open. Feeling the side of his head, he was internally relieved that his skull wasn't cracked open from the strike. Randall spat out a wad of blood from his mouth. Rezzie had to admire his opponent's resilience.

"By the Gods, what the hell is up with your hand?" Rezzie asked incredulously, "why is it metal?"
"After you broke my hand and I became wanted by every cop in the capitol, I had it dipped and coated in molten steel," Randall explained.
"And because of that, you now you jerk off with your left," Rezzie shook his head at his opponent's stupidity, "you're a freaking idiot."
"Not like it matters at this point. If I'm going to jail, I might as well go all in. After when I'm done with you, I'm gonna take care of Nesha's fatass brother and his family."

Randall charged at Rezzie once more and tried to rain down hammer blows with the metal fist in an attempt to repeatedly bludgeon Rezzie. However, the smaller opponent brought his arms up and endured the assault. Catching the last hammer blow, Rezzie tossed Randall over his shoulder, causing his opponent to tumble and smack headfirst into the street lamp. Seeing the opportunity, Rezzie rushed forward and tried to pounce on Randall. However, he turned around and cocked the metal fist back and caught Rezzie cleanly in the diaphragm with a counter, causing Rezzie to fall backwards, gasping for air.

As Rezzie got himself to one knee in his struggle to get to his feet, he saw Randall rise to his feet. His face was split open by blunt force trauma, with blood rushing down his face. Placing his foot on the street lamp as leverage, Randall tore the lead pipe free. However, when he tore the pipe free, the nails that were lodged in the street lamp cut several wires that were powering the light, causing the lamp to start dimming out. Approaching his fallen enemy, Randall raised the lead pipe over his head.

"End of the line, asshole," Randall grinned savagely as he stood over him, "when you make it to Hell, tell Nesha that he's still a bitch."

As the lights dimmed away completely, Randall went for the kill. Bringing the lead pipe back, he swung it over his head and brought it down towards Rezzie's head. With every fiber of his being, Rezzie raised his right arm up to block the strike, just before everything went black…

Rezzie blinked as he found himself in complete darkness. He was no longer on the park trail awaiting execution from Randall. Nor was Nesha's mangled body. From where he stood, he was alone in the empty darkness. Rising to his feet, he looked around in surprise of his new surroundings.

Oddly enough, his body didn't hurt at all. He first checked his torso to find that there was no pain or blemishes from where Randall's metal fist drove into him. He checked the side of his head to find there was no blood nor any gash from where he was bludgeoned. Deciding the recovery was a silver lining, he didn't bother to further address it.

"Hello! Somebody!" Rezzie shouted as he called out into the empty, "Anybody!"

[If you could trade, would you?]

Rezzie shivered as the voice reverberated around him and pierced him deep into his core. Hearing it, he found that it sounded just like him, only far more gnarled and carrying an echo. He wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not. All he wanted to do at this point was wake up back at his house, back with his family.

"Who's there? Who are you?" Rezzie asked, nervous of this new development.
[If you could trade, would you?] the voice repeated.
Feeling his thoughts suddenly calm down, Rezzie looked up and answered, "yes."
[Well, of course. But all miracles demand sacrifice. For their lives?]
While he certainly found it weird as to why he was giving the answer, he felt deep inside that it was the right thing to say at the time, "Mine."
[Yours.]

Rezzie felt himself become surged with energy as a blood orange light shone around his body. The light felt warm against his skin as the energy invigorated him and gave him life. As the light further consumed him, he vanished from the black void. Before that happened, though, the voice rang out one last time.

[Now go forth brazen into that cold, dark night. And rage, rage…against the dying of the light.]

As Randall's pipe made contact with Rezzie's arm, the metal shattered into pieces against his skin, sending several pieces of shrapnel clanking off the pavement. Shocked, the pipe's wielder looked down to witness a greater horror. Rezzie was staring up at him, only his eyes were glowing a blood orange light, which creeped Randall out even more as his eyes were the only thing illuminated by its glow. Rising to his feet, he saw up close that Rezzie was completely expressionless, with no noise coming from him except for his long, calm breaths.

Holding his hand out, Rezzie quickly gave a short push forward against Randall's chest. With inhuman force, he was knocked clean off his feet and sent flying backwards ten yards before collapsing on the ground in a heap, The remains of the lead pipe was sent into the stream nearby, sinking to the bottom. Struggling to his feet, Randall held his chest in pain as he found that his sternum was broken.

Looking up, his eyes widened as the glowing pair of eyes was on the move, advancing towards him. Rezzie's footsteps made no noise as he calmly approached. Going on the offensive, Randall swung at Rezzie's face to try to cave it in. However, Rezzie caught the punch in his left hand mere inches from his face. Holding out his free hand, he channeled it with the same blood orange light that was shining in his eyes. With a swift motion of his right hand, Rezzie brought it down on Randall's forearm in a chopping motion. The strike cut cleanly into Randall's arm and chopped it cleanly and silently.

Initially, Randall wasn't able to process the fact that his hand was gone. There was no blood, no pain. The only thing that was there was the smell of cooked flesh as the wound was cauterized to prevent blood loss. After staggering back, he fell to his knees as the horror set in and let out an agonizing wail into the night sky. The screams echoed off the trees around them, but no one apart from Rezzie was there to hear it.

"What the hell!? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?" Randall howled as he writhed on the ground.

Rezzie silent as he dropped the metal fist on the pavement. He then walked over and grabbed Randall by his face with one hand, hoisting him up two feet off the ground like a rag doll. Randall could feel the firm grip that was placed on him, and could feel the bones that made his face start to crack. The new wave of pain made him groggy to the point of passing out. All that he could think of was the realization that he was going to die. The worst thought that went through Randall's mind was that this monster was going to do it slowly with a great deal of suffering.

Looking over to Nesha's body, Rezzie walked over to him while still holding Randall in the air. In a few paces, he was standing in front of it while looking down staring at it. Randall couldn't tell how long that this monster took, but before he could find out Rezzie turned his face to make eye contact with his captive. His glowing eyes narrowed at the man, and Randall took it as a sign that the end was near.

"Wait, wait man. I give up," Randall pleaded as his struggled in vain to break free, "I'll get clean, I'll turn myself into the police-wait, what are you doing?"

Rezzie then released his grip on his face, only for him to re-grab Randall by the throat with the same hand. He then slammed him into the pavement right next to Nesha's body. The force cracked the pavement and fractured the vertebrae in Randall's neck. With his free hand, he placed it over Nesha's chest where his heart was. Nesha's body began to glow with light as his body. His body began to knit itself back together as the holes, dents and gashes that Randall inflicted on the man earlier. Slowly but surely, Nesha's body would eventually be made whole.

Randall was marveled by the sight, but he failed to see what was happening to him until he saw his own body glow in the exact same light. Starting with his feet going up, his body was being deconstructed into nothing. That's when he understood what was happening – he was being sacrificed. To save Nesha's life, to piece his body back together, Randall was going to die and be destroyed in his place.

As his lower body was disintegrated by the light, Randall was mortified, "No, please! NO!" Randall screamed in his death throes as he begged for his life, "I'll do anything, man! Please don't kill me! Not like this!"

Within a minute, Randall's body disappeared without a trace. The only thing left of him was the right hand that Rezzie took from him. As the light left Nesha's body and the orange glow in Rezzie's eyes dissipated, the last bit of mending was done. His body looked unscathed, alive and with no injuries in sight. While he was no longer dead, the only problem now was that Nesha was still knocked out cold.

Carefully picking up his body and slinging him over his shoulder, Rezzie hoisted him over his shoulders and went own the trail back to Nesha's house. Seeing lights off into the distance, he knew that he as almost out of the woods. However, he knew that Nesha's family would be alarmed to see Rezzie walking in with one of their kin slumped over his shoulder. He was sure he would have a lot of explaining to do once he got there.