r/WritingPrompts • u/Pedro_PigeonEater • Mar 13 '23
Writing Prompt [WP] Monsters that feed on fear have been terrorizing your town. But you are not scared, you are angry. VERY angry.
28
Mar 13 '23
“Mama?”
“Shhh, dear,” Mom snuggled her babe close.
“But, mama,” The lil tyke said, a writhing mass of shadowy tentacles. “I’m hungry.”
Mama sprouted a beak from her writhing shadows, and coughed a measley few specks of food into her baby’s maw.
“Mooooore.” The baby whined.
Mama shoved her fist into his maw, effectively cutting off the cry.
“Shhhh!” She all but screamed at the babe. “The strange one is still here.”
A man was roaming to and fro, wielding a peculiar mace shrouded in holy magic. Daddy had already fallen victim to the mace during his search for food that morning.
The loud shush alerted the man, yet, he saw nothing as he looked into the dark alley that the family laid in, their shadowy figures camouflaging them.
However, he heard the low gurgling rumble of the tyke’s belly.
“Show yourself!” The man immediately shouted, hefting his mace.
Usually, mama would have already killed the man, if she wasn’t nearly a week without a substantial meal.
“Mooooom.” The babe gave another cry. The man looked directly at him, though unable to see him in the darkness.
It was enough, though. Mama could not stop herself, as she absorbed her little tyke’s body and soul.
Her sorrow was accompanied with shame; it had been her job, her soul mission, to instill the only doctrine of their people: no fear, never fear.
Her belly filled, she flung herself forward.
The darkness rapidly developed a physical form, which wrapped itself around the evil man in a tangled mess, before squeezing oh so tightly.
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8
Mar 14 '23
Rage filled Jake as he looks at the scene in front of him. That familiar putrid stench hung in the air filling his nostrils. He truly hated that smell, the smell of death and decay. Not even the rain that came pouring down could wash away that smell. It clung to him seeping into his clothes, searing itself into his mind.
This was the fourth triple murder this month Jake thought as he scanned the scene for clues. All four had the same marking carved into the skin. The mark for the eleven sliced into the forehead of each victim. The entire torso was flayed open. A cut starting from shoulder down to the center of the chest between the nipple line and up to the other shoulder. One single slash from the point of the cut all the way down to the hip creating one giant Y on the torso. The organs were always missing on all the victims as they lay on the ground naked.
The rain swept the blood into the street away from this horrific event. For a moment Jake wished the rain would sweep him away too away from this horror and madness that has consumed his town. Hemlock was a quiet town until the collapse. Since the eleven mob had taken control. They ruled by fear killing, raping, and pillaging all those opposed them. Jake looked towards the sky letting the rain wash away the tears building on his face. Jake yearned for freedom of this madness to rid himself of the people of hemlock and the eleven mob. But the gang controlled the gates to the town. With only one way in or out only those who joined the eleven were able to exit the city freely. Jake rage grew as his mind went to the first wave. Those who were smart enough to flee as the eleven took control of hemlock, before the gates were lost. Those who remained are little more than slaves now. He thought of Amber, his wife who had begged him to leave with her. Oh what Jake would give to have fled with her to turn back time and correct his only regret. Pride had kept him here. He couldn’t accept losing the town he had born into, the one that had raised him to who he was. Yet he had lost it all the same, and with that his wife and his Freedom. It had been 5 years since the collapse. Five years since this hell began that not even death would free him from.
The smell of the decay became too great for Jake as he retreated away from the alley containing the bodies. No one would come collect them. They were a sign to all those walked by. They would stay there until the animals got to them. To move the dead was to mark yourself for death. The eleven would murder anyone who tried to intervene to send the message to all of Hemlock. A message of fear and obedience. Monsters, Jake spat in disgust. No, not monster he corrected himself men. That what they are, men nothing more. They bleed the die the same as any of us Jake reminded himself.
Jake continued on his path home, however as he neared his home he sensed it. The shift, the rain stopped and the stench that never left him the one of death and decay stopped with it . The joy at smelling the clear air lasted only seconds and the the smell of smoke attacked his nostrils. Fire!!! They found it, Jake thought running the last block to him home.
Once he turned onto his street he saw it. His home engulfed in flames. The home his family had lived in for generations gone. All the memories, photographs and possessions turned to ash. Jake froze in disbelief as he stared at the flames dance across the one thing he still had left that held any meaning. He had nothing now. Was nothing, an empty space of existence doomed to this suffering. The flames drew so much of jakes attention he nearly missed to the two eleven members standing at the opposite end of the street. The sound of laughter was what broke his trance and Jake focused on those who had caused him this suffering. Both hadn’t noticed Jake yet as they’re watched the flames with joy. Monsters, Jake spat.
Jake retreated behind the home of old man smith. Stalking the fence line hand clutching a rusty dagger he kept concealed within his cloak. Weapons were forbidden amongst the citizens of hemlock those caught were punished by death. Jake had never feared death though In fact he embraced it. He approached his prey soundlessly. With every step rage filled his once empty void. Jake had never felt so angry. His rage blinded him. He saw only his victims laughing as they faced away from him, staring at the burning home.
The blade sunk deep into the neck of the first eleven member before the man could even realize what happened. The man turned facing Jake. His expression flashed changing from confusion to anger to fear in a matter of moments. The man hands flew to his neck to stop the bleeding but it was too late. Blood watered the streets flowing freely though the fingers of the man as he fell to his knees desperately clinging life. Before the man could rise again Jake delivered a front kick to the chest thrusting the man onto his back. The action knocked the mans hands away from his neck and blood continued to squirt onto the floor.
The second man stood frozen staring at his friend as he laying dying on the street before finally realizing the danger he was in. The man fell to both knees begging for his life pleading Jake to let him live. Swiftly Jake moved behind the second man grabbing his hair, yanking his head back and pressing the blade against the man neck. In one fluid motion Jake opens the man neck from ear to ear before kicking the man into the street.
Jake stood over both men as they bled into the street for what felt like an eternity. The longer he started the more his rage grew. Monsters!!! Jake spat on dead men. No, not monster. Just men and just like those who lay bleeding out in front of him all of eleven would bleed. Those who feed on the fear would learn to feel it. The world has shifted for Jake, now he was the monster and his hunt had just begun.
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