Lost Soul

Chapter 7: Don't Wander Into A Massacre

Nat took the lead, daggers at the ready. Words couldn't describe the scene that greeted them.

Bodies littered the pathways. Some seemed to have had relatively clean deaths, whilst others were broken and twisted in terrible ways. Blood splattered the walls, pooling on the ground and making it slippery. The noxious smell poisoned the air, choking the Avengers. Rotting corpses were being stripped apart by flies and crows, and the crops were uprooted, half-eaten, and strewn across the village. Half the town was charred.

The Avengers were speechless. Bruce gagged, ducking behind a building to vomit. Clint and Nat were unable to pry their eyes away from the scene, and Steve had his head bowed. Tony was uncharacteristically silent, seeming to be lost in his memories.

Clint finally broke the silence, his voice wavering. "What happened here?"

"A massacre," Nat replied. Her face was blank and emotionless, but her voice was angry.

"Who would do this?" Bruce whispered once he had finished coughing up his lunch.

"Someone with no heart," Tony growled. His eyes caught something in the blood-splattered grass. He bent down, scooping up a piece of lavender, and now red, cloth. He clenched it in his fist, furious. "And I think I just found something that belongs to them."

"Guys," Steve softly called. He had taken to exploring the gore-strewn houses, and he seemed to have found something.

They all rushed over to where he was hiding. Around the corner, a child could be seen dragging one of the more gruesome corpses into a large hole. Nat slowly crept around the corner, not wanting to frighten the child. The guys could only stare in horror.

"Hey, little guy," Nat murmured. The child whipped his head around so violently, they were surprised he didn't snap his neck. The kid let out a bloodcurdling screech. His eyes displayed that of pure fear, and he began to tremble. He seemed to want to move, but his legs didn't allow it.

"Shh," Nat hushed soothingly. The boy did not calm down. "It's okay."

"Ar-are you here to kill-to kill me?" the boy whimpered.

"No, no," Nat denied. She motioned for her team to come out of hiding, and one by one they did. "We're here to help, not hurt."

This seemed to calm the child a little, but he still visibly quivered.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Timmy," the boy sniffled, swiping at his abnormally large nose.

"Can you tell us what happened here, Timmy?" Steve inquired.

Timmy's eyes welled up with tears. "The-the Enderman," he sobbed, eyes drowning in grief. "The Enderman ca-came. She-she set my friend's house on fire! She began to slaughter everyone, swinging her axe left and right, blood flying everywhere! She killed my family right in front of me, but left me alone. The whole time she was singing this terrifying song about feeding the machine, or whatever that means. Then she moved on, just as fast as she had come."

Timmy was in hysterics at that point. His story only made the Avengers more and more angry.

"Oh, kid," Clint came next to Nat and placed a tender hand on Timmy's shoulder. The boy flinched hard. "We'll avenge your village."

"Can you tell us about this, what did you call it?" Tony interrogated. "Enderman?"

Timmy nodded. "Her name is Mellohi, like the music disc. She's very tall, with midnight black skin and vivid purple eyes. She's a tale the mothers told us kids to frighten us. They said she goes around killing the children for misbehaving, and you know she's coming when she begins to sing her scary songs." His eyes welled up again. "We always thought she was a myth. They say she lives in the forest just to the east, about a day's walk from here."

His words made the Avengers' blood freeze over. They had slept in the camp of a serial killer.

"We have to find her," Tony snarled. "We have to make her pay."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Steve inquired, finally speaking. "We can't kill her."

"And what's stopping us?"

"Morality, Tony," Nat replied coldly. "If we kill her, are we any worse?"

"Says the ex-assassin," he snapped.

The group went silent again. Steve moved to help Timmy bury the dead, whilst Nat, Clint, Tony, and Bruce came up with a plan.

"I say we keep heading west," Clint declared. "We may get lucky and stumble upon her."

"Man, this mission has really taken a turn, hasn't it," Bruce grimaced. "Hey! Perhaps we'll run into the DreamSMP along the way!"

"What are the chances?" Tony grumbled. "It's not like she'll be there. She's a serial killer. She'd want to hide until this whole thing blows over."

"Have you ever met a serial killer?" Nat quizzed.

"Well, no, but-"

"I agree with Bruce," Clint pipped up. "I say we take a risk."

"And if we're wrong?" Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Best not to think about that," Clint responded.

"Gee, you guys are really starting to sound like Star Spangled Banner over there," Tony frustratedly jerked his thumb at Cap, who was beginning to fill the mass grave with dirt.

They fell into an uncomfortable silence. They all looked at each other, daring them to speak. Bruce relented first.

"We can't leave the kid here," he sighed.

"We can't bring him with us," Clint argued.

"Why not?" Bruce shot back.

"We only have so much food," Nat replied sympathetically. "Add an extra mouth and that supply depletes even faster."

Just then, Timmy shyly crept up to them, leaving Steve to finish the grave.

"I have relatives in other villages," he mentioned. "I've gone there on my own. I think I'll be okay."

"But-" Bruce tried.

"Really," Timmy interrupted. "I'll be okay."

The four glanced at each other, then reluctantly nodded.

"Okay," Nat agreed.

"We will have to wait until morning before I depart," Timmy pointed out, yawning and looking extremely exhausted. "And I'm sure you don't want to stay in this retched place either."

They nodded. Steve finished giving Timmy's village a proper burial, and the living bid the dead a final farewell. They trudged through the broken, bloody, horrific streets looking for a reasonably clean house to stay in. Thankfully the biggest one was the least messy.

Everyone got relatively comfortable on the cold wooden floors as they, one by one, melted into the hellish nightmare realm.