Inhuman Chapter 1

The Visitor

Author’s Note: This is a webnovel. First 10 chapters are free to all Substack subscribers. After that, you can access the ongoing chapters plus receive access to the digital file at the end of each arc by becoming a paid subscriber to morbidink.substack.com. As a paying customer, you will also receive special chapters and illustrations of the characters.

Pain finally faded to nothingness, a black hole where time and senses meant nothing. He sensed his being in a place where substance and form were irrelevant. Memories and passions blended together in a shared cause.

Payback!

Revenge!

Vengeance!

The terms burned through the conscious. The need for a terrible unyielding punishment against people. No, not just a few, but an entire land filled with humanity. Memories flowed about people he once cared about, but now he only saw disgusting creatures wrapped in hypocrisy and soulless passions. Joy filled his mind with the images of vengeful mobs stringing up tyrants, betrayers, and their sheep followers amid burning cities.

You amuse me!

The voice broke through his awareness like a sudden comet.

I don’t care unless you can give me revenge!

A bizarre wobbly type of laughter, reedy and obnoxious, came through.

Dead one, your body feeds my pet. What can you offer me?

The hatred flowed out with a flurry of curses, followed by a long silence.

I have only my conscience to extract revenge upon the world. I will never give up!

The reedy chuckle irritated the lucid experience of silence.

Let’s see if we can come to terms. I’ll give you immortality!

No, I want more!

I’ll give you a path to your revenge!

Then, tell me your terms.

Can you accept the cost?

In the stillness, the dead man’s spirit mulled over the idea.

I trust you no more than the one who laughed while cutting my throat for their sacrifice. Keeping my will and mind are the only requirements for me. Accept those terms or go away.

This time a giggle, with the same infuriating tone, entered his thoughts amid the blackness. This time, images flickered like a candle in the window. Scenes of his past and pictures of those he hated and despised. However, the other conscious melded with his ideas and showed a path, illuminated shining path leading into the clouds. Comfort gradually settled amid the thoughts.

You’ll become a beast, nothing more than a monster for eternity! Only utter solitude and condemnation wait for the one who accepts the power I give.

No hesitation came in the reply.

I’ll enjoy becoming retribution!

~~~

Drip!

The ceaseless sound of the water trickling amid the soft echoes barely entered her consciousness.

Drip!

Barely able to lift her head after hanging down, she forced herself to try. Pain shot into her as her neck muscles rebelled at the attempt.

Keep trying!

The woman took a deep breath and tried again to lift her head. This time, the pain lessened. Still, she saw nothing in the blackness.

Drip!

How long has it been? Days, weeks, years?

Time meant nothing inside the dark confines of her eternal tomb.

That’s what those bastards called it!

Drip!

She heard the faint scurry of an unseen creature near her. The slight sound once made the woman’s flesh crawl. However, such dreadful sensations left her long ago. She did not bother to look for the creature in the pitch-black darkness of her home. Instead, she waited for the expected pin-prick tickles of a worlbie scurrying across her skin. Suddenly, the sensation of those blood sucking creatures crept into her mind as she remembered several of them already hung down from her body.

Drip!

More are coming, I can feel it!

The woman grimaced at the thought of the coming wave she must endure. Creatures who fed upon her ravaged body. Soon, the taelis and the harpids would join to feast upon her flesh, their presence quickly followed by larger monsters. Each would hurt her farm more than the small ones. The progression occurred time after time, day after day. An endless repetition…

No, I can’t think about them! I must lose myself again.

The woman attempted to push herself into the trapdoor she made inside her mind, where the beasts could not break her sanity. Each bite into her flesh, each lick from a revolting tongue across her naked body, threatened to shatter the door and send her into reality again.

When the larger beasts arrived, Valary became a target for their pleasure. Probing her orifices like a gang rape, the rutting monsters used their appendages to absorb her aether, her essence of an immortal life.

Immortal torment given by a worthless god!

While she could not see their stinking forms in the darkness, the woman knew each beast by their size and sound. Once, her group killed them for the empire. Now, she endured the creatures’ thrusts into her body in a frenzy, driving her screaming insanity. The agonizing thrusts of her continued until she eventually lost consciousness when the aether drained from her. Still, the woman could not die, for she always awoke to the revolting feel, taste and smell of monster’s leavings which covered her.

Crunch!

Crunch!

The woman froze.

They’re too early!

Crunch!

Crunch!

Something came closer to her, but the sound of footsteps coming was lighter, unlike those of the creatures that used her.

Boots!

The woman almost forgot the sound of leather pressing into the crushed harpid shells covering the stone. She tried to lift her head, then dropped it again with a groan.

Flick!

The smell of something burning whiffed by her face. She opened her blind eyes, seeing nothing.

“Well, well, it looks like I found the eternal grave of Valary, the Hero of Idmore,” the cool, unfamiliar voice drifted to the woman. “You would think that a virgin healer could do better. It’s a shame that you can’t trust an emperor.”

The voice sighed.

“Well, the stories I overheard are true. You live in your waste while the labyrinth’s monsters enjoy your body to recharge themselves.”

Again, she looked up but still saw nothing but black. Her head dropped again.

“You’ve been here for over six months. You might say something, so I might know you keep some sanity.”

“W…what…do…” Valary struggled to remember the words. “I’m…brok..n.”

The man’s unsympathetic laugh echoed around her.

“A broken hero of the empire betrayed and forgotten. Tis a sad story I’m sure,” the sound of his crunching footsteps came from her left side as the hint of light came to her blind eyes.

“My, you are in a terrible state.” The voice’s seemed surprised when the man saw the damage on the woman.

“So, it’s true that Nazalath ordered them to cut off your arms and legs first. It’s even more amazing he had that rack modified for the monsters to enjoy you. You really know how to get people angry.”

She felt his close presence, then winced at the pain coming from her breast when the stranger pulled off a blood sucker.

“I noticed they lined these labyrinth walls with diatomite to suppress your healing magic. Even the blood suckers aren’t bothered by you anymore. I see some suckling on what remains of your body as we speak. It’s almost a shame that your life turned out this way.”

“Mock me else…where!” She spit out the words in contempt.

The man tapped on a water dish hooked to her cage.

“They’ve really thought this out,” he whistled with apparent approval. “Water dripping from the ceiling to a container close enough to drink from but too far away for her to drown herself.”

She heard a metallic tap on the other side.

“And a container of moldy food for you to feed on. I’m guessing guards show up once a month to refill this with scraps of bread and grain. Lucky for you, the rodents can’t get back here.” His tone remained steady, and his analysis was like a scientist’s.

“It really looks hopeless for you. I mean, even if you somehow get to the floor, you can’t even crawl out of here.”

The stranger chuckled, then she heard metal striking the floor. The temperature in the cold confines of the tunnel seemed to drop. Valary felt his hot breath on her face.

“So, what do you want?” His voice seemed to fill her mind like an endless echo for a moment.

The blind woman’s expression filled with pain and confusion.

“Don’t you understand the words? What do you want?” He repeated.

She spat out the words.

“To live, you idiot!”

A blurry blob of yellow light finally came through the blackness as the woman felt tears streaming along her cheeks. The brightness ebbed and flowed as her eyelids fluttered to wipe away the tunnel grit and tears. Then his bitter, smirking tone pierced her thoughts.

“Everything wants to live; it is the very essence of our planet. Even these crawling bugs eating your waste at my feet want to live. But such creatures carry neither the intelligence nor the courage to stop my boot from crushing them. Give me a better answer or stay here and rot for the emperor you…”

An echoing roar interrupted the conversation.

“Oh, it appears you have a guest coming to use you again. From the sound of the long growl, it’s probably a Dalax. I’ll bet he spends a great deal of time bleeding you of your aether while probing you with those tentacles in its head.” The man’s voice moved away from her.

“Still, you don’t cower from what’s coming,” his voice paused, then he asked a question.

“Do you enjoy this place? I’ve seen mortals who take erotic delight in the pain and humiliation of a whip or a beating. Tell me if that’s the reason you remain stoic in the face of what comes toward you. I won’t stop the monster if you so wish it.”

Valary suddenly felt rage well inside of her at his taunting tone.

“I hope the gods rip off your pole and stuff it down your throat!”

The man snickered, obviously amused at the response.

“That certainly sounds like a heroic healer who stood up to an emperor to say that he’s corrupt. Tales came to me about your work with the Infinites to defeat a demon like Thrarion.”

He sighed again.

“Still, it’s been a while since I got to see a Dalax in action. The last time a young Arok warrior stepped in front of one to save me. Unfortunately, there were two monsters. They ripped him apart in their frenzy to get inside his body with those black tentacles. As I recall, it made quite a mess.”

The crunchy sound of the man’s boots turned back to her.

“Still, the man already proved to be more of a nuisance for me. I left while he screamed his last. I know that Arok’s carry more Aether than a human like yourself, so you’re not likely to gather two of them at the same time in this small monster labyrinth. Still, I could find a place to watch this interesting spectacle while using your living carcass inside that cage. Maybe you’ll give me an answer after that.”

The footsteps continued to fade and Valary’s eyes finally saw a blurry image outlined by light.

“I want revenge!”

The woman’s nearly hysterical shout came out of her throat before she realized it. The figure stopped.

“Against who?” The man’s tone changed.

The question forced Valary to pause, trying to sort out her confused thoughts.

Everyone and the world put me in this state! But he wants something concrete.

“The empire!” Words sprang out. “Nazalath laughed when he watched his guards rape me again and again. I want his last gaze as I kill him.”

She took a deep breath, then screamed as tears streamed down her face.

“Kill everyone in his court who watched with amused grins while they butchered me! I want them burned alive!”