The Creators Ch. 15

"Am I wrong?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You're either the most perceptive woman in the world, or I talk in my sleep too."

Gloria smiled toothily at me.

"Kind of contradicts that whole spiel about pretending to be someone you're not, doesn't it?" I grumbled.

"Oh, I know I'm full of shit," Gloria giggled. "But at least I'm honest with myself."

As we walked through the snarled woodlands, I spotted the other vampire once more. She didn't vanish like last time, but followed me with her crimson gaze, her entire figure shrouded in darkness.

"There she is again," I muttered. "She's probably wondering why you're letting your lunch ride on your shoulders."

Gloria turned and frowned at the figure, and the red eyes faded into the shadows.

"Hand me a rock, and I'll brain the bitch," I said.

"She's already gone, and that would be rude," Gloria said, though she did bend down to pick up a rock. She handed it to me, and the weight of it broke my weak grip and sent it tumbling from my hands.

"Goddamn!" I gasped, "What the fuck is wrong with me?!"

Gloria caught the stone, and examined it. "You expended yourself past your lethal limit when you fought Julia. Only adrenaline kept you going for as long as you did." Gloria crushed the rock in her hand, and the dust floated from her fingers. "Unbound power is borrowed power, and you borrowed deep into your future. That's why you're so weak right now. That's why you're not getting any better. You almost died, Willowbud."

I felt a cold fear crawl through me. "Gloria, how long am I going to be like this?"

"Maybe a few months."

"A FEW MONTHS?!"

She looked up at me through her veil, and frowned ruefully. "I'm sorry."

A few days of this, I could handle—maybe a week—but the idea of spending months in Gloria's bed as she fed me mushrooms and milked my cock was nearly enough to drive me mad right there. Gone were any hopes of hopping caravans to the Gratoran Desert, of finding bliss in the freedom of slavery. Now I was just a prisoner in my own flesh, stuck with a woman I'd murdered barely a fortnight ago. It was too much; it was way too fucking much! The world spun around me, my stomach turned over, and clammy sweat secreted from my pores. I pitched forward, vomited on Gloria's head, and blacked out.

Mother's face appeared in the void. She was smiling down at me as tears of blood cascaded along her cheeks. "You were an idea," she said. "You cannot know how much joy that idea brought me, Willow. After the dark one told me that you would be my child, I spent every night imagining you. I would bundle blankets together and cradle them in my arms. I'd put pillows beneath my tunic and walk around the bedroom with you in my pretend belly." Her eyeballs melted out of her head, leaving deep black pits. The pits brightened, and then rolled forward as black eyeballs ringing white sclera, Corruption's horrible gaze staring down at me from Mother's face. You were supposed to be my joy, Mother and Corruption said as one, their voices created a terrible harmony, but you were the blight upon my life. If I knew what you'd become, I would've drowned you in the river the moment after I birthed you.

Mom's head fell to the side, then toppled from her shoulders, and rolled to my feet. Only now it wasn't Mom's head, but Julia's. She grinned up at me, her mouth peeled in a horrific grimace, the cheeks pulled so far back that her molars were exposed, a skeleton's smile. Her eyes were as black as coal. You killed her, Night Eyes, she giggled. You killed her with your love. That's what you do, isn't it? Diamond, Lucilla, God. Diamond, Lucilla, God. Diamond, Lucilla, God. Mother, Astrid, Father. Mother, Astrid, Father. Mother, Astrid, Father. MOTHER, ASTRID, FATHER!

I looked up, and there was my father. He was staring at me with eyes wide in horror, but his cock stood rigid between his legs. "Love me, Willow," he said. "Love me like I know you want to." He ripped off his hand, and tossed it to my feet. "Is that the part you love the most?" He ripped off his cock, and tossed it after. "Or was that what you needed from me? You took everything, after all, so why not take it bit by bit. Keep me alive. Keep me fresh. Eat it. Eat it. Eat it."

Eat it, Willowbud, Astrid's decapitated head whispered at my feet, her eyes black with Corruption. It will make you stronger. What doesn't kill you, cripples you, so you must kill and cripple to become stronger. Eat it. Eat it. Eat it. EAT IT! EAT IT! EAT IT!

THE HUNTRESS

The nymph rolled off the predator's shoulders and sprawled onto the ground. The predator battled with her vomit-soaked face and hair, blinded by bile and stomach acid. I wouldn't get a better chance than this. I opened my bat-like wings, and launched myself from the treetop. It was a risky move; it was barely midday, but the overcast sky provided the cover I needed. I swooped down between the snarling tunnel of trees, gliding carefully through the hooking branches and ensnaring thorns. It was almost like I floated down, and I adjusted my trajectory through the unnatural shifts of my body. The torpid nature of my descent was a farce, for at any moment, I could attack with such blinding speed and ferocity that it would leave the prey stunned at the suddenness of it. That was my game. How many poor creatures had stared at my silhouette against the moon, unsure of what they were looking at? Just a floating paper crane enslaved by the whims of the wind, and then I was atop them the next second. That was what I did to the nymph. With the predator's back turned and a clear path through the tunnel of trees, I closed my wings with a great flap, and launched myself. I was as accurate as ever. I barely brushed the top of the predator's head as I made my way over her, and snatched her quarry from the earth.

A strong hand took me by the ankle, and I was driven into the ground. Great blood, she was fast! I whipped around with my claws retracted, and swiped the air where her face once was, but of course, she was already behind me, and the points of her talon-like fingers were digging into my neck.

"Give her back," she growled in my ear.

"We can share, yes we can," I hissed.

"I don't share," the predator said evenly, her claws puncturing my flesh.

"Just give me a taste!"

"This one's not for eating."

I sniffed the wrist of the woman, and glared at her from the tops of my red eyes. "She is deep in your blood. Do not lie to me."

"You're in no position to bargain."

"Am I not?" I asked, securing my claws beneath the nymph's chin, ready to rip her head off. Her eyes narrowed and her claws dug deeper, but the pain meant little to me. Pain and I were so well acquainted that the puncturing of my throat was but a tickle. I tilted back the nymph's chin, and slowly began prying her head from her neck.

"Stop!" the predator screamed.

I ceased my prying, and inclined my head with a smile. "Does this one mean something to you? Didn't your mother tell you not to play with your food?"

"I know for a fact your mother did," the predator snarled.

I giggled. "Do you know her? Next time you see her, could you do me a favor and rip her guts out? I'd like to make sausage out of them."

The predator scowled down at me. "So, we're at an impasse then."

"I'd say we are."

She chewed on her lower lip, her fangs poking out. "We can make a deal."

"I'm all ears."

"I'll give you two casks of vintage virgin dawn-elf."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "That's a hefty price for one half-dead nymph, yes it is. I'm inclined to believe you're just saying whatever you think will make me let go of this prize."

"The price isn't just for you to let go; it's for you to leave these woods entirely."

"I've hunted these woods since the day I was born. You're the trespasser here."

"My offer is final."

I searched her eyes, and slowly shook my head. "I have a counteroffer."

"Speak it then."

"You're faster than I am; you let go of me, take one step back, and I'll let go of her."

"You must think I'm stupid."

My lips curled into a cruel smile. "And you must think the same of me. This nymph is precious to you, yes she is, but you are trying to play coy. She has a secret, and I will know it." I slowly retracted my claws. "I will not stop hunting her, but I will let her go, for now. Do you believe the sincerity of my offer now?"

The predator's red lips curled into something akin to a snarl, and she retracted her claws. "You've met the limits of my mercy, girl. If I see you again, I'll feed you your beating heart."

"Then we shall meet again for the last time, one way or another," I giggled, took one step forward, then laid the nymph down. I launched myself into the air with a great beat of my batwings, and shot just beneath the canopy of the snarled oak branches. Behind me, the predator delicately took the nymph girl into her arms, and cradled her like a babe. Like a wee little succulent.

Interlude: Peace and Piece of Mind

DIAMOND

The bodies floated below me. Black-eyed corpses grinning with horrific smiles, their bloated faces upturned to the heavens as they slowly ascended. Their living brethren swam between them, following the same path to the flickering sunlight so far above us. I had let the bloodbath continue for weeks before I opened the gates to Voda and released the survivors. These few thousand would be the very worst of the lot. I freed them into the wild like they were my hatched children, and bid them to wreak havoc wherever they went. Ships would be raided, island kingdoms would be massacred, and shorelines would become hunting grounds. I waved to them, and they sneered back at me, an unspoken understanding passing between us. They only respected me because I was worse than all of them.

I took one last look at the two cubes beneath me, then was carried away by the beast I rode. The megalodon had been attracted by the great volume of blood that had been expelled upon Voda's opening, and had taken his fill of the buffet. He had jaws big enough to swallow a mammoth in one mouthful, so I was small enough that he didn't even consider me as food, and so I rode free of charge on his dorsal fin, and let the water around me keep me snuggly secured to his immense muscular frame. As I marveled upon the creature, I felt a pang of regret that Brandon was dead. If he were alive, I would've asked him to make me a ten-headed megalodon with diamond-studded teeth and big girly eyelashes. Then me and Aunt Lucilla could play all... well, me and Angela could... how about me and Justina?

"Shucks," I muttered to myself, "I'm all out of friends." I glanced down at the megalodon. "Hey Bruce," (I named him Bruce) "you got any funny stories for me? I'm feeling kinda lonely."

The megalodon continued to swim as though I was just one of the many urchins taking refuge on his sleek dorsal. I sighed, letting out a bubble of air, and relaxed back on the beast's flank. It was at that moment that I felt a tug on my mind. It wasn't a headache, nor a pop of air in my submerged eardrum. It wasn't a physical feeling at all.

"I don't wanna go!" I grumbled.

The tug became more persistent.

"I said I don't wanna!" I glowered down at the cubes below me. "Did you hear me?!"

The tug became uncomfortable.

"Hey!" I screamed. "I said I don't wanna fricken go back to the astral—"

I was lying on my back beneath the eclipsed astral sun. Palm trees swayed overhead. An eagle's silhouette moved across the sky. I was a torturer. I was a rapist. I was a murderer. These realizations came upon me in waves, and as each one crashed upon me, I became sicker. A moment later, I was on my knees and retching into the grass, my fists balled with white-knuckled intensity as my astral projection tried to expel all the evil that I had done. But there was no expelling it, for the memories were permanent fixtures in my mind—this mind—this jungle of chaos that had been invaded by an interloper. There was no escaping it. I had killed those valkyries. I had ripped Tera away before Justina's eyes. All the things I had done in the chaotic bowels of Voda, laughing over the shrieks as the blood rained from the ceiling... oh my god, the things I had done. I had taken one of the world's most ancient beautiful minds, and I had poured poison into it at the behest of my master, my slaver who did not give me orders or even make requests, but simply played with the compulsions that had already been in my mind. I had made every choice. I had made every choice. I HAD MADE EVERY CHOICE!

"No!" I screamed into the grass, and sobbed. I sobbed until my breath was gone, and my body was wracked with spasms of anguish. Through my weeping tears, I raised my head, and stared at her from beneath my bangs. There she was, standing in the entrance. Her body was as black as her eyes, but her patterns were brighter than the sun overhead. "You did this," I snarled at her. "It was you. IT WAS YOU! COME BACK HERE AND FACE ME!"

Corruption just looked away, and closed the gate behind her. My head shot to the left, then to the right. There was no one there. I looked straight ahead. The iron box stood unguarded, and the forbidden memories were there. Carefully, quietly, I got to my hands and feet, then stood upright. The whistle of wind carried through the tropical trees, and the caw of birds echoed in the distance. There was no sign of my jailor. I was only twenty paces away from the box, and I was fast. Without another moment's hesitation, I rushed it. I made it ten paces before Xaya dropped on my back from the treetops, and sent me sprawling on the ground.

"No!" I shrieked. "No, no, no, no!"

The reptilian woman paid me no heed. The more I struggled, the more she subdued me, and I struggled. I struggled with every ounce of my astral being to free myself, but there was no universe in which I could escape her clutches. She toyed with me, giggling all the while like it was a game, and when I finally lost the last bit of my strength, she dragged me away. Through the brush and foliage, she hauled me like some dead carcass. We reached a clearing in the dense jungle where she'd set up a nest of straw, and that was where she tossed me. Without ceremony or reservation, she flipped me on my back, stuck her fingers in my holes, and compelled my manhood to unbidden arousal. I tried to fight her, and my resolve lasted far longer than my muscles did, but in the end, even that faded. Xaya was relentless, untameable, and beautiful, and when exhaustion took hold of me, and the pain of my situation began to settle, I sought a numbing outlet to surrender to. She smiled victoriously against my lips, and took what she wanted.

Part Two: Depression

WILLOWBUD

My eyes fluttered open. I was staring at the ceiling of Gloria's cottage. I turned to my left, and there was Gloria, sitting in her chair and watching me.

"Was I screaming again?" I croaked. My throat was knotted and dry.

She nodded.

"How long was I out?" I muttered to the ceiling.

"Two days."

"TWO DAYS?!"

Gloria nodded again, looking even paler than usual. "I thought... I thought you were getting better, Willowbud, but you're getting worse. You're getting much worse."

I closed my eyes, and let out a long breath. "Gloria, I don't think you're supposed to tell a mental patient that."

"I don't know what to tell you." She folded her hands uncomfortably in her lap. "The last time you separated from Corruption, what happened? Night Eyes left for a year and then came back. Where did she go?"

"I just hopped from caravan to caravan for a while," I muttered. "Sometimes I'd wake up, and everyone in the caravan was dead."

"When did the terrors stop?"

I smiled ruefully at her. "They never stopped, Gloria." I tapped my head. "Once she gets in, she burrows a nice hole for herself that only she can fill. I guess she dug even deeper this time."

"Where were you going on these caravans?"

"Anywhere. Everywhere. I don't know. I got this idea in my head of going to the far west, deep in the Gratoran Desert where the map ends. Find some desolate place that might as well be on another planet, and let some orc warlord take me."

"Uh-huh," Gloria said, "and where did Corruption find you again?"

"She spoke to me on the Gratoran Wall, next to a mountaintop pool."

Gloria tapped her hands against the arm of the chair. "You want to go west again, don't you?"

"Did I say that in my sleep?"

"You didn't have to. I can see it every time you woefully look out the window." Gloria sighed, and sat back. She pulled out a file beside her, and thumbed through the notes. "Tera, Justina, Angela, Lucilla and Diamond were all working to save you. Diamond even traveled the astral plane."

"What the fuck?" I muttered, too exhausted to be shocked by the revelation.

"Tera sent me her notes before her last gladiatorial fight. It was fortunate that her eagle escaped the city before it went up in flames, for these insights are priceless. Diamond traveled through several astral realms, including Halok's—" Gloria caught herself, and for a moment, I wondered if I saw tears in her red eyes. "...including Wrath's, Sorrow's, Greed's, Hatred's, Guilt's and Corruption's."

I just blinked at Gloria, unsure if I was still dreaming or not. "Who the fuck are Greed, Hatred and Guilt?"

"It doesn't matter now. Tera's team was on the cusp of something amazing, but their work was unfinished. And they were so close!" Gloria stopped on the last page of notes, and pulled it out. "There are rumors of a book called 'The Broken Bridge.' If I had it, I could cross-reference some of these findings and prove their validations. Most of this last page is just speculation on the origin of Corruption and Hatred, but there are facts on here. One such fact is that Corruption always emerges from the water." Gloria looked at me. "Now, why do think it is that you have the compulsion to run off to the desert?"

"Not a lot of water in the desert," I muttered.

"Really narrows down her options, doesn't it?" Gloria sighed, and rubbed at her forehead. "Corruption found you in that pool on the Gratoran Wall, and she compelled you to Tentigo, forced you to commit a soul-breaking atrocity, then merged with you while you were weak."

"I guess that makes sense."

"No, it doesn't, Willowbud," Gloria said. "If you were compelled westward to find some way to numb the pain and forget, then you were already low. These terrors you feel and that compulsion that drives you westward are both engineered to bring you right back into Corruption's arms. And you were going willingly; riding some slave cart to nowhere."

"Yes."

"So why did she make you go to Tentigo then? Why not just take you in that pool on the Gratoran Wall?"

"I don't fucking know," I grumbled.

"Yes, you do."

"Fuck off."

"Say it."

"I said fuck off! How many times do I need to tell you to go fuck yourself?!"

Gloria just stared at me, not even blinking at my outburst. "She was waiting for you, Willowbud, but someone else got you first, and that someone made you strong."

"So what?" I growled, tears running down my cheeks. "What's your fucking point?! They're dead now; both of them! I don't need to go to the astral plane to know that Corruption's gone! She was hanging on by a thread as it was!" I ground my fist into the bedding, feeling hot tears pour down my nose. "She couldn't take all the pain away, Gloria. She tried so hard, but even she couldn't fix me. No one can."

"Astrid did."

"What the fuck do you know about her?!" I snapped. "To you, she was just one of my thugs. You never knew her!"