When the footsteps moved away, Liselle opened her eyes. Insect-like wings hung loosely down the creature’s hunched back. There were four sets of arms like the Rojuun, but the lower two were misshapen and deformed as though they had never fully developed.
Tears flowed from Liselle’s eyes as she began shaking in terror. She couldn’t help the sobs that broke from her chest. Liselle desperately hoped it wouldn’t hear her and come back. She caught her breath and tried to focus. Her robe was dirty from webbing, slime and dirt. The sleeves were hanging down, leaving her arms exposed. An acrid odor clogged her nostrils. Heavy silence was broken by the crackling of a fire.
The unnatural fire sent shivers down her body. When Liselle noticed the tools of torture, she began to sob again.
She wished that she hadn’t gone with the party into the cavern. She wished that she had never even heard of Rojuun. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to be in her own bed back in the valley with her mother running fingers through her hair.
Suddenly Liselle calmed down and stopped sobbing. What she really wanted was for Vevin to come and rescue her. He would run his fingers through her hair and kiss her cheek, earlobe and lips. Liselle remembered the web the malformed creature had cast and how Vevin had screamed. Fear shot up her spine and she began sobbing again.
She wanted to be strong, but it was so dark and frightening. The tools on the wall looked cruel and she knew that diseased monster wanted to cut into her with them. Liselle could feel them eagerly reaching out for her, wanting her skin. She sobbed again and gasped for air. Her body was weak. There were no plants anywhere and the evil mist that he had cast into her face had sapped all of her strength. Liselle felt the room spinning and dizziness overtaking her. Desperately, she tried to focus her mind, but darkness overwhelmed her.
***
Liselle felt a tug in her hair. She didn’t wake, instead entering what felt like a dream. A purple flower, which looked a lot like the flower pin she wore, formed in her mind. It let her know that it would tell her what to do when the time was right. The flower told her that she must do it, no matter how frightened she would be. Liselle mentally agreed before darkness beset her again.
When she regained consciousness, red cat-like eyes stared through her soul like jagged knives. She tried not to react, but an involuntary sob escaped her lips. The creature was more frightening than anything she had seen. There was no hair on top of the overly large head and its skin was sickly yellow with blue splotches that glistened in the murky firelight. The twisted creature sneered with yellowed, rotting fangs as it studied her.
Liselle whimpered and struggled against the bonds that held her tight. The creature was over six feet tall. It kept the wings that grew out of its back tucked away as though ashamed of them. Two arms ended in hands that were twisted with oversized knuckles on the fingers. Below those were useless, misshapen limbs that made Liselle’s stomach turn just to look at them.
It appeared as though someone had taken a Rojuun and twisted it with dark magics. “You glow brighter again,” it said in eerie tones. “Your glow will fix me and make me better.” Its voices were shrill, like a twisted version of the Rojuun, hurting Liselle’s head. A putrid odor emanated from the creature, filling her nostrils.
She desperately tried to think. Perhaps if she offered to heal the monster it wouldn’t hurt her. “D . . . Do you want me to h . . . heal you?” she stammered weakly between sobs.
“No, not heal,” the creature said, tilting its head slightly. “Your glow will fix me. I will take it, wrap it around me and fix me.” It shuffled a little closer to the table, reaching out a twisted finger. “I will take the glow,” it said with a sinister smile.
Liselle writhed in her bindings, struggling to get away. A dreadful laugh emitted from the creature, echoing throughout the room. The torture devices along the wall seemed to laugh along with the creature, taking on a malicious life of their own.
The creature grabbed a small hooked knife and moved to her side. Liselle arched away as much as she could, but to no avail. “Do you scream, glowing one?” it whispered in her ear. Then it put the tip of the brutal knife against the soft inner skin of her stretched arm. He didn’t cut deep, but it burned badly.
Liselle did scream. Then she felt another tug in her hair. The flower in her mind told her to relax, the time was coming soon when she would need to do what it asked.
“Such a pretty glow,” the creature said in a creepy, high pitched tone. “I must taste it.” Liselle saw the aberration sink its teeth into her arm. Agony rocketed to her fingertips and down her side. She screamed even louder, wanting it to stop more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.
The creature pulled away from her arm, though the burning agony did not ease. It licked its disgusting lips in pleasure. “Ohh, the glow tastes so very nice,” it said. Then it gave a shrill, haunting giggle. “It will fix me so nicely and I will have so much fun pulling it out of you.” He moved his face even closer to Liselle’s. “You scream nicely. I like it very much.”
She pulled away from him as much as she could, her eyes wide in terror. Heaving sobs racked her body as she tried to wrap her mind around what the creature was doing to her. What she didn’t understand more than anything was why. Why did the creature exist, why did it hate the Rojuun, why did it want her glow and why did it want her to suffer? All she could get past her lips was, “W . . . why? ”
“Why? Because you glow and your glow will fix me,” it said, moving back to study her. “I hurt. My body isn’t finished and I need your glow to finish it.
“Not finished?” Liselle asked, desperately clutching at anything to make him stop hurting her. She took a deep breath, releasing it in a sob while trying to stay focused. Her head was swimming with pain and fear. “What do you mean not finished?”
“You don’t know of me? They didn’t tell you of my kind?” he asked, suddenly interested in talking. The creature stepped back and played with his hooked knife. He licked the blood off the tip. “No, they wouldn’t would they? They are ashamed of me, aren’t they? Did they tell you of my pets, glowing one?” he asked, tilting his head sideways as he looked at her.
“P . . . pets? They didn’t t . . . tell me a . . . anything.” Liselle could feel blood trickling down her arm and side.
“Of course they didn’t tell you. You wouldn’t help them if they did.” The creature began pacing back and forth, getting angry. It was a shuffling pace, not at all like the graceful glide of the Rojuun. Then it stopped and smiled at Liselle. “I will tell you, glowing one. I will tell you what they won’t. You’ll like that, won’t you?” There was a cajoling tone to one of its voices and a whining tone to the other. The combination sent chills down her spine.
She didn’t want it to tell her anything. Liselle just wanted it to go away. More than that, she didn’t want it cutting the glow out of her even if she didn’t understand what that meant. “Y . . . yes. I would like that,” she answered in a wavering voice. Her head swam with pain.
“My name is Krraa.” The name sounded like pebbles being crushed together. “I am hhorrj. My pets are sstejj. They tried to make us, but they failed.” The words were spit out as an accusation. “Rojuun thought to create life. They thought they were gods. They thought they could create animals and people. Rojuun were arrogant and foolish to try.” Hatred oozed from both voices.
Liselle only whimpered.
“The Rojuun did not finish the job. They did not make us right. They gave me wings!” Krraa yelled in fury. “I don’t want wings! I hate wings!” He slashed through the air with his knife. The creature stared into the fire. “Rojuun caged us, laughed at us, studied us, and . . .” it trailed off, looking back into its memory. Turning back to Liselle, it said, “Other Rojuun came to put those who made us on trial. They executed those who made us.” His voices were sinister and cold. “They said we were pitiful creatures that should not be seen and then they cast us into pits to fall deep into the world.”
He stepped closer, running the tip of the hooked knife along her cheek, drawing blood. Something about his knife made the cuts burn. Liselle turned her head in fear, sobbing at the pain. “They did not finish us.”
Krraa stepped back, tilting his head as he studied her. “I make more pets like the arrogant ones made. I watched as they created the sstejj and I learned how to make more. It’s easy. I make many more and send them to kill Rojuun.”
“Then I see you. You glow a pretty blue glow.” The monster ran his finger along the cut on her cheek. The pain in her arm was throbbing. She could smell infection in it even though Krraa had just made the wound. “I can take the glow out of you and it will fix me,” he said, licking her blood off his finger. “The glow will finish me. The glow will feel good.”
The creature put his hooked knife back on the wall and took down two other devices. They looked very sharp and Liselle began to sob in fear once more. She wanted so desperately for Vevin to rescue her.
There was another tug in her hair. “Relax now, beautiful child. Shh. Relax now,” The flower said in her mind. Liselle took a deep breath and, with the help of the flower, relaxed her entire body. “Good, beautiful child. Listen carefully for this will be more difficult than anything you have known,” it said. “The beast is going to hurt you.”
She saw the thin, sharp devices moving toward her belly. Everything slowed to a snail’s pace.
“When it does, you must die,” the flower said softly in her mind. A description of how to die appeared. It would require great willpower on her part.
Time resumed its normal movement. Liselle watched as the first device pierced her belly through the gown. She screamed yet again at the explosion of pain and hunched over as much as the bindings would let her. It was so overwhelming that she couldn’t remember how to die.
Liselle dug deep within her own mind and concentrated on the instructions the flower had given her. The other device cut into her next to the first, causing even more pain.
She remembered the instructions and followed them. Liselle let the life flow out of her body.
***
Krraa stared at his treasure as the glow vanished. He quickly pulled the implements out of her stomach. She wasn’t supposed to die. He hadn’t done anything that would kill her. Krraa needed the glow to fix him. The glow couldn’t disappear. “NO!” he screeched with both voices.
A light appeared on her finger. Krraa looked closely and saw the ring. It was glowing brighter and brighter. Suddenly, the ring flared with a great white radiance. Krraa hated light and shielded his eyes with his arms. The light flared, filling the room. It was hotter than Krraa had ever felt.
How could this happen? It wasn’t fair! He was supposed to get his glow and become whole again! The deformed creature screamed terribly as the light seared flesh from his misshapen bones.
Everything in the room caught fire including the stone walls, which began to melt. The holy light from the ring obliterated the hhorrj named Krraa, leaving nothing. The radiance destroyed all of the creature’s tools of suffering and the table holding Liselle. It even burned the sick, unnatural fire until it too was obliterated. Then the light flared out and one of the rubies in the ring was gone. Liselle’s lifeless body collapsed in the middle of the empty cave.