Blood 1.1

A gift given cannot be returned.

I was smiling. Why was I smiling again? I couldn't remember. I couldn't remember anything. Nothing at all. There was something warm dripping down my face. Blood. It was wet and thick, like a red paste smeared into my pores. It wasn't mine. I wasn't hurt. I wasn't in pain. In fact, I felt great. Pure Adrenaline was pumping through my veins. I felt alive.

I was holding something.

It was long and matted. Hair, it was hair. No, a head. I was holding onto a severed head. Its features were stuck into a grimace filled with nothing but horror. At some point, it was a woman. The bloody chunks strewn throughout her raven-black hair made something rise up out of my stomach. I dropped the head and with it came pain.

My head started pounding. It felt like there was some concert coming in through my ears and reverberating around my skull. More blood, this time my own, dripped from my nose. It hurt. Good God, it hurt. I could feel lashes of fire breathing their way over my skin. It was as if my muscles were turned into molten agony. Something was burning on my hand, almost like a hundred little paper cuts all centered around my left palm.

I fell to my knees. A low groan came out of my mouth. The concrete below was filled with more of the wet slop that blanketed my face. I looked around. No, the building around me was much worse.

I was in an old warehouse, abandoned beyond myself and gore contained within. There were corpses, too many corpses. They were old, some of them gray and rotted. I could smell something pungent and sweet. There were bones, bleached white with dots of brown. I could see scrapes and cuts on them as if something had long been chewing them to pieces. I was kneeling in a veritable pool of blood. Red filled my vision like some kind of obsessed lover. The outside of the pool was slowly turning crusty brown, small chips of coagulated blood floating like islands in a bright sea. It was horror. It was decay. It shocked me to my core. Despite it all, nothing could beat the monstrous corpse of the thing across from me.

It was huge, more akin to the size of a small elephant than any human. It was inhuman, a chimeric centaur with long claws lining each of its digits. A set of four goat-like legs were broken and set into something reminiscent of a pretzel. The headless human torso sticking out of the top of it was missing chunks of flesh, while one of its arms was on the floor in front of it. It looked like something had rent the flesh from parts of the creature's bones. It was a monster, a dead one but a monster all the same. Did it do this? What killed it? I felt sick, almost nauseous.

I gripped my head and a vision flashed to my mind.

I was angry, no I was absolutely pissed. She was screaming bloody murder. Begging. Pleading. It was so different than the blanket threats from before. I gripped my improvised weapon and smiled. There were no thoughts of what I was doing in my mind. It was simple. There was something to be done. I moved. The teeth in her mouth went first, splattering into a nearby wall. Blood trickled out of the beast's throat. She was crying now, babbling like a child. More, I needed more. I hit her again before throwing her severed arm to the side. For every injury she had given me, I'd return a hundredfold. Joy bubbled in my chest as she tried to flee. A child-like laugh escaped my throat. Why was I doing this? How was I doing this? It didn't matter. Nothing mattered but the thing in front of me. I wanted it to hurt. Her many limbs tangled over themselves in a sordid attempt to escape.

Vomit crawled its way up my throat.

What happened? I thought, slowly pulling myself out of the mess. I felt like I needed my Grandma's cross. I couldn't have done that. There's no way. Nothing was making sense. How did I get here? It felt like I was missing something. A small frown came over my face. I tried to think of the last thing I could remember. It came slowly, pulling itself out of my mind like a black slug. There were bright lights, a siren, and a truck. A chilling cold. Then, nothing. It was all black.

I died.

For a few long moments, I struggled to breathe. Nothing came to my mind other than abject horror. It couldn't be true. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't think. It was like the world was collapsing around me. The walls of the building were closing in on me like a cage. How did I get here? What happened? Where am I? What did I do? Am I dead? I can't be dead. I couldn't be.

Questions rolled themselves through my mind without any answers to be given. One thing was sure though, I had to get out of here. Where here was, I didn't know but doing an extended stay in a corpse-filled warehouse wasn't on my bucket list. Where would I go though? Should, I call the police? I limply pulled a hand down to my pants pocket. It was empty.

"What in the hell are the cops going to do Jack? Come on, get a hold of yourself!"

I picked myself up, deciding to put everything else aside. I had to leave. I had to get out of here. I didn't care how, and I didn't care where. It just had to be now. I couldn't stay in that foul-smelling room for one more second. If I did, I was going to snap. My palm itched.

My eyes quickly landed on an old metal door at the other end of the warehouse. I ran towards it. My muscles screamed in protest. The door creaked and groaned as I pushed it aside. Fresh air hit my lungs, and I briefly smiled.

I looked around.

I was in some little town. Everything looked off to me. It wasn't anything I'd seen before. It was completely foreign. There were small houses and businesses dotting the landscape around me. Most of them were small. As in, they almost looked as if I would barely be able to fit through the doors outside them. It was odd, especially when compared to my hometown in Texas.

The sun scorched down overhead like some great enemy I had wronged.

It was bright, yellow, and deadly hot. The beams coming down were broiling my skin on contact. It was making the already-drying blood start to crumble and crack on my skin. A frown came to my face as I turned my head back down. If the way I woke wasn't enough, the angry ball of fire overhead set home the point that I wasn't welcome here. Wherever here was.

There's got to be something... My eyes were drawn to a sign. It was large and white with black lettering. It wasn't a language that I could understand. In fact, it didn't have letters at all. It was more akin to a set of curly symbols than anything I had ever seen. Though, it was vaguely familiar. Confused, I thought, Chinese? Japanese? Korean maybe?

I couldn't make any sense of it. Then, a male voice called out from behind me.

"Oi, omae. Anata wa daijōbu?"

Startled, I turned around. It was a man dressed in blue. He had a bowler hat on his head, and a duty belt on his hips. A police officer. There was an alarmed look on his face. I could feel a sense of nervousness settle over the both of us. The officer stood ramrod straight as he looked me over. He quickly turned pale. The small revolver at his hip shined in the broiling sun.

I took a step backward. My heart started to thump in my ears. I didn't know what to do. Should I try to explain what happened? That I woke up standing in a pool of blood, with a severed head in my hand, and a dead monster at my feet. Like anyone would believe that. He wouldn't even understand me anyway. I couldn't even get a lick of what he said. He definitely wasn't speaking English.

It was a question, in Japanese I think, if some of those old anime I watched when I was in high school weren't lying to me. It's been a long time since then. I hadn't had the time to really keep up with all of my hobbies out of school, but that wasn't important. It wouldn't help me now.

A string of words came flying at me faster than I could ever hope to understand. The officer slowly put his right hand on the butt of his pistol and stared me dead in the eyes. Quietly, I stared back. Nervously, he asked, "Dō shita no? Anata... Chi ga takusan dete imasu. Nani..."

I didn't respond.

My heart beat like a jackhammer. There was a pregnant silence. He was watching me intently, rightfully scared. I know I would be in his situation. There wasn't anything I could say to explain myself. It's not like he would understand me anyway.

Wait, maybe... I thought. A bit of hope came into my chest. Maybe, I could make it out of this. He might be able to help me figure out what was going on. Either way, I'd take what I could get. Quickly, I asked, "Do you speak English?"

"Anata wa kankōkyakudesu ka? Amerikahito? Anata no iu koto ga rikai dekimasen."

I took that as a no. I let out a small puff of air and turned my eyes to the ground. Fuck. This isn't good. Nothing about this is good. I was in a foreign country. Speaking to a police officer, soaked from head to toe in blood outside a warehouse that was filled with who knows how many corpses. I probably looked like some serial killer who just got back from a slaughter.

Why wasn't I freaking out more about this?

I know I should be. I really should be. I should've collapsed at the sight of that mess in the warehouse, but I didn't. In fact, beyond the pain, I felt fine. I'd never been in a situation even remotely like the one I was currently in. It was incomparable to my otherwise mundane life. My heart continued to thump in my chest. It wasn't panic. Adrenaline? No. I couldn't quite tell what it was. It was there though, keeping me grounded. Keeping me thinking. It stopped me from freezing up.

I winced and grabbed my left hand. It itched. I should do something.

"Anata mo watashitoisshoni konakereba narimasen, Keisatsusho." The man said. The officer made a small motion with his hands and pointed in the distance. He shakily watched for my reaction. I didn't move. He continued, "Dareka o soko ni yonde, subete o kaiketsu shite moraimasu."

What in the hell is he saying? I thought. I had to do something. I couldn't just stand there gawking at him like an idiot. He was wanting me to do something. I glanced at where he pointed off in the distance. Was he wanting me to follow him? I looked back to the officer, Maybe I should...

My hand burned. It felt like something was pouring molten metal onto my palm. I gasped and curled my back, using my right hand to grasp my wrist. I could vaguely make out the feeling of someone touching my back. My eyes glazed over as molten metal roared in my mind. Instinct took over.

It was primal. It was simple. My eyes darted back and forth. The officer. The warehouse. Fight or Flight. I had to do something. My head was pounding. Fight or Flight. I was going to do something. It hurt. Fight or Flight. I was going to do it, now.

I pushed the man off me with a low grunt. I heard him call out something in surprise, but I was already moving. The warehouse had an alley next to it. The only thing blocking my entry was a chain-link fence. I leaped up, pulling myself over its top. I could hear the officer yelling from behind me. I ignored him. Blood roared in my ears. This was the most insane thing I've done in my entire life.

My joints creaked in protest as I landed on the other side. Small tongues of fire licked at my bones I kept pushing. I heard an alley-cat hiss at me as I sprinted through, knocking over an old rusted trashcan. More shouting came from behind me. My legs moved faster.

This was stupid. I knew it was stupid. I shouldn't have run. I should have just gone with him, tried to explain myself. My head hurt. My ears felt like they were on fire. My hand was still burning. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but I kept on running.

AN: Howdy folks! I'll keep it brief here. This is a little writing project of mine to get me back into writing again as I've finally found the free time to do so. You can expect a chapter at least once a week of similar if not bigger size. You can probably expect the next chapter within the next few days, at least by Monday. If I haven't posted it, feel free to come yell at me in my PMs.

Otherwise, tell me what you think. I won't spoil anything plot-wise on what is actually going on, but feel free to speculate. If you notice any errors in the English/Grammar please point them out. The same goes with the Japanese, I tried with it but as I don't speak Japanese it probably sucks. Anyway, please let me know what you think. Until next time...

~ciao