Diseased

Prologue - Medicine

Pick it up, pick it all up

And start againYou've got a second chance

You could go home
Escape it all
It's just irrelevant

                                                                                It's just medicine

An icy glare pierces the darkness, freezing you in your tracks.
It's cold. 
Oh, so cold.
You can feel the wind against you, a gentle breeze like hands running across your body, threatening to take you from the ground and lift you through the sky. That is no distraction to the fear that grips you, though.
It forces its way through your bloodstream, claws like ice gripping your very core, your being unable to move as though in invisible restraints.

Drip. 

Drip.

Hiiissssss.

Strange noises send a wave of chills down your spine as if somebody had raked a frozen blade across it. You try to run, but your limbs are fixed in place. 
Are you glued down?
Ensnared?
Fear paralyses you more so as fretful questions fill your head, threatening to spill out as a strangled cry of panic. 
All the while, the dark shape grows closer.

You can see it now.

How it's eyes glow and the ruffled blue-grey pelt is stained. 
Stained with mud and the burgundy fluid of those it had taken before you.
It was absolutely humongous. 
The beast seemed to dwarf you as it drew nearer. It's jaw hung limply below it's snout, muzzle bared to give you the perfect view into its foaming, froth-ridden maw.
Blood stained teeth glinted in the moonlight as it approached even closer, looming over you. 
You crouch, limbs shaking as your entire body trembles in fear. 
Sheer panic prevents you from running, like it had beforehand. 
Burgundy liquid remained after every step the creature took. A low, rumbling of a growl seemed to empty itself out of the animal's neck, despite the fact it's jaws hung loose and it's tongue remained still.
Lifeless eyes bore into your own, stilling you. 
The foam dangling from it's jaws seemed to keep coming in a steady stream, cascading from each sharp, pointed fang, onto the floor. It created a steady, foul-smelling stream.

In fact, the entire alleyway you were both in stunk of death. 
It reeked as if hundreds of corpses had been dumped before you.
The pungent odor assaulted your olfactory senses, forcing you to struggle for breath. 
The stench only seemed to be coming closer as the despairing beast crept closer yet, and you were able to somewhat conclude that the decrepit scent of decay was emerging from it's jaws.

As it grew closer yet, you began to tremble more. You could see the detail in it's teeth now. Rotted chunks of flesh were flecked between the dirtied dentistry, a good majority oozing and secreting differing liquids that you did not want to know the origin nor names of. Death floated about this creature like a fly would a fruit, the fear of which felt as if it was either going to stop or cause your heart to implode.

Speaking of, you could feel the organ pulsing violently in your chest as it struggled to contain the sheer adrenaline rush you felt. Blood pounded in your ears and every part of your body was screaming at you to run, yet when you tried, you found you were fixed to the spot, body motionless and unable to move.

Forcing your eyes shut, you draw in heavy, rattled breaths as the snarling reaches its peak, overhead vantage point. No matter what you did now, no doubt it would catch you. Four steps for you seemed to be one of it's, judging by the humongous paws that had carried the demon towards you.

Until it isn't. 

Silence instead hit the air, electrifying it with static sparks of tension and unease. 

You never dared to open your eyes.

That was, until, you felt a drop of liquid splash the top of your head. 

Fear stretched your eyes wide as a strangled shriek escaped your throat, only to be choked out by a serrated set of fangs appearing immediately in your throat. Caterwauling, you attempted to force and buck yourself free, only to succeed in simply impaling yourself more onto the teeth, thrashing pressing them deeper into the delicate veins of your neck. You cries turned to weakend, choked whimpers of fear before the flavour of copper in your mouth, mixed with steadily rising bile in response only sought to make you choke every time you sought to make a sound.

Within the last moments of your existence, you vaguely register violent thrashing, the cold touch of these blood-smeared fangs, and the feeling of hot liquid spurting from your neck the second a sickening crunch erupts through the air.  Hot blood lapped at the back of your throat, oozing out of the side of the monster's jaws and spattering onto the floor below. You let out a choked warble of surprise and fear mixed as one, thrashing weakly now. The energy felt as if it were being sucked from your being at this very moment.

Waves of darkness began to lap at the edge of your sight, vision swimming as a bone-chilling coolness swept over you. You'd lost your hearing the second the snap erupted. It was as if a gentle being was holding onto you closely now. You were calm as could be, surprisingly. If these were to be your last moments, fear seemed to only ebb away as acceptance replaced it. 

If you were to die at the jaws of this horrifying beast, so be it. This was your time. Nothing else seemed to matter in this moment.

With the remnants of your failing energy, you blindly swung out, hoping to snag anything. With a final thrash, you impaled yourself completely, losing sight the second the jaws sunk any further. Who knows how long you had left? Seconds, if you were luck enough.

Unbeknownst to you, you took the beast's snout, claws sticking. 

It dropped you.

As you lay there, drowning in your own blood, you realised dying may not be that bad. 

No, not by any means at all.

Anything would be better than the hell that monster must be experiencing.