Cruel & Blue (Eyeless Jack story)

Chapter 72

I sunk my teeth deeper into his flesh and blood stained his shoulder and spurt into my mouth. Before I could completely chew through his neck, I felt sharp, jagged teeth bite into my chest. I screamed and pushed myself away from him. Part of my shirt was torn away and I felt blood seep down my chest. I held onto my new wound and growled at the man.

Suddenly, a loud, screeching howl startled me and I froze. It wasn't that of any other monster or Corrupted. I've only ever heard it from myself, and from Mom. The cry of a wendigo.

Everything about the man suddenly changed. I felt him move around me much more faster and I nearly struggled to keep up. Whenever he grabbed onto me, I felt claws. Was he a wendigo this whole time? No, he didn't have that scent on him. Plus, wendigo or not, any living thing would have died from getting its stomach torn open. This man isn't human. So what is he?

Our fighting became speedier and more heated. I felt myself moving around to different areas of the lobby as we maneuvered past each other. He was able to land more hits on me, and even slashed at my leg at one point. The side of my thigh was burning, and blood dripped down to my ankle, but I couldn't stop moving. You never stop moving when facing a wendigo, which is why they always end up winning.

The man howled at me again, so I howled back even louder. He came at me again but I dodged under his oncoming fist. Quickly, I wrapped my arms around his torso and began lifting him up. As I hauled him up onto my shoulder, he slashed at my back and I growled from the searing pain of a new cut. Before he could land another hit on me, I fell back to suplex him.

An audible crack echoed from his body but I knew this fight was far from over. As I stood up, the man got up much faster than I anticipated and I felt him ram into me. What I also didn't expect, though, was the white-hot burning sensation of something puncturing into my side. I gagged and froze in my place as whatever pierced into me moved about into my flesh. With trembling hands, I reached out and touched what felt like branches. They were antlers. I was impaled with an antler...

Whenever I tried to step back, the man would step forward--even further. I couldn't pull myself away from him. He howled defiantly as I trembled in his hold. This...no way this is the end of me. Dying by this monster. Out of everything I've been through, I can't die like this. I don't want to die. I don't want to die without feeling Ao's presence one last time.

Blood started spilling down my skin, staining my shirt and pants. I could feel it pushing up through my throat.

I don't want to die... I don't want to die...

My strength was starting to fade, and I was trying to hold onto it with everything I had.

I don't want to die...

My legs can't hold me up for long. The antler kept pushing into me. The pain kept burning. My head was swirling with too many thoughts and emotions. Ao kept coming to mind. She flooded everything. Her existence was a damned tsunami and I didn't want to run away. Something else inside of me started to burn as well, like a wild fire.

I'm not going to die...!

A loud, booming howl escaped from my lips as I mustered up the strength to push the antler out of me, then break it. More blood spilled from my wound, but it meant nothing to me. The top of my head started to ache like my very core was splitting apart, and what used to be a grasp of anger and a will to live, was now a roaring fire--too alive to stop itself from burning everything around it.