Crimson Road - Touch of Ichor

➶ Heavy Rain ➶

#001

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"Damnit...." the young man in his early 20's whispers to himself as the rain pours onto the top of his black car.
Squinting his eyes, in order to get a better look at the street he is driving on, he can make out a silhouette. The rain seems to become stronger with every passing meter, so he can barely tell the humanoid silhouette apart from an animals. The headlights of his car contribute to the separation of the black, tall blob he's seeing in front of him though.

As his car gets closer, getting slower with the attempt of stopping in front of the creature, he can definitely make out that the silhouette is the one of a human. A female. The figure doesn't seem to move nor breath.

Checking his car locks to see if he is safe he slowly opened the window. Trying to not make any kind of noise. It's not like his car motor didn't make noises but he felt safer with opening the window that way.

"Ma'am? Can I help you?" His voice is clearly showing his insecurity and light paranoia but he tries to cover it. His hands- no- his whole body is is tense and trembling as he waits for a response.

"Get out of the car." Blinking as he tries to comprehend the words he just heard, he raises his voice.
"What? I will not?"
"Get our of the car. Now."
"Are you trying to rob me? Or is this som sick teen prank? Get off the road and go home, kid. No one has time for this bullshit. What are you doing outside, in the middle of the night, while it's pouring out of buckets, anyways?"
"Crimson will stain this road wether you like it or not and it's your choice if you will contribute to that or not. If you don't want to end up scattered across the asphalt, crimson making it's way out of your dismembered limbs, I suggest you get out of the car immediately." He's just sitting there. His body frozen as the terrifying scene creeps into his head.

He opens the locks of his car. This is insane.

His body tenses up as he slowly opened the door. He carefully steps out of the car, his eyes glued to the female which still has her back turned towards him. His hands are cold and his hair and clothes soaked as he stands behind the opened door, keeping it between the two of them.
"Are you going to kill me?"
"No."
That plain answer made him sigh in relief. It doesn't change his his alarmed state though.
"We should get off the road now. Follow me."
"What? We? Excuse me- who said that I will be following you? You are clearly not in your right mind."
"Why did you get out of the car then?"
"I-" He started to stutter. He has no answer. Why did he get out of the car? Why did he listen to this creep? He collects his thoughts and tries to answer but gets interrupted by the girl. She didn't say anything. She started to walk towards the left side of the road. The alarm ringing in his head, his body's tensing up even more now.

"Come here. Now." Her voice echoes through the rain. It sounds more demanding then before. But aside from the more demanding nature there is something else in her voice.
It sounded like a hint of fear or paranoia and he absolutely doesn't like hearing it. It makes him uncomfortable. Uncomfortable and freaked out. It freaks him out and washes away the fear of this girl. He follows her to the side of the road.

Her head is turned towards the direction she was staring at before he got out of the car. He can't properly make out any facial features of hers. It's too dark.
"They're coming for the palace..." Her voice trails off towards the end of her sentence. It seems like her words weren't supposed to be heard by him but he did anyways.
"Palace?" The man tilts his head in confusion. The females head snaps into his direction. He can't make out her eye movements but guessing from her posture she was eyeing him intensely.

Suddenly he drops to his knees. Eyes bound to the road, resting on his car. The lights from within cast a slight shadow. His vision turns red and unfocused. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to focus on anything. The red shade that tints his vision strains his eyes. Everything looks dead, bloody, unnatural.

People. He can see a group of people. It looks like some sort of parade- or... caravan? He can't properly make out their features either. He can only see a few humanoids. Around twelve. There's one in front with something that looks like a banner of some sort. It's seems to not be affected by the rain. Much like the rain wasn't affecting any of those people. They just walk down the road, towards the car. As they slowly get closer to the car, the illuminated road looks like it's soaking with a red liquid. Veins slowly creeping over the road and finding their way upon the car.

The group of people came to a halt. The man stared terrified into their direction and gasped in fear. The girl that was standing beside him covers his mouth with the palm of her hand while she watches those things slowly crush the car, devouring it in darkness in the process. Nothing was left. They continued their way down the road.

Still covering the males mouth, the girl dragged him deeper into the nearby woods. Letting go of him after she checked if they're safe. His heavy panting can be heard through the rough rain.

He started to cry. Out of all the things he could do in that moment his, his brain decided to make him cry. He covered his face, muffling his sobs in the process.

"Stop doing whatever this is, human." Her Voice sounds harsh and disgusted at the same time. "I demand to know your name, human." She gets to him. As she approaches, she can clearly see that he's trembling.
"Joel... My name is Joel Barnes." That's all he got out. His shaky voice didn't allow him to say more. His heavy stuttering doesn't make it easy to understand what he says but in the end she's able to make out what he said.
"What's your name?" He slowly calms down.
"Lunette was the name given to me."
He suddenly passes out due to the stress of the last few minutes. Lunette manages to catch him before he collides with the grass and sits him down safely.  She makes him lean up against the next tree she sees. She sits down right next to him with no intention of sleeping. Her eyes wide open and alerted she waits until early dawn.

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