Brandy's Torment
After over ten years of wandering alone in a world with only himself, his wife and a monster who would stop at nothing to devour him, the unstable Brandy Somnium has a close encounter with the monster and death by extension.
How long had it been? A month? A year? A decade even? Brandy’s pounding headache clouded his already weary senses as he wandered aimlessly. His hands shuddered and twitched indefinitely, the silence of this cursed place was maddening. He hadn’t seen Barbara in some time, and the last he saw of Theta... his hair stood on end, his heartbeat quickened as it always tended to do, his fear climbed to new ungodly heights. He looked up at the pitch black sky as he moved on, the twisted gangly forms of the trees that surrounded him almost blocked out the sky entirely. He moved forward, trying desperately to create distance between himself and the monster. It was all he could think of, it was all there was to fear. The totem is death itself his inner voice bellowed, and with that thought he began to run; soon after it became a powerful sprint fueled only by a will to see the next day.
Several voices screamed all at once, petrified thoughts rattled around furiously in his mind as his sprint was cut short. Instantaneously, his legs gave out, leading Brandy to fall face first into the grass with a thud. Upon impact, he jolted upright. It heard my fall! It heard my fall, god damn it, it heard my fall!On his shuddering legs he managed to stand, almost reflexively he heaved in as much air as his lungs could manage to squeeze inside; and then he screamed. Heaving, gasping for air, screaming more. Years worth of agony and terror all contained into one horrible sound. He had no control, this was the first he’d heard his own voice in what could have been a decade. In this world of silence he didn’t dare speak, not while he was prey. At this moment, his resolve of silence had been broken. He fell to the ground once more with only a whimper and a sputter.
Four heads swiveled and pivoted, eight eyes darted around in the search for fulfillment. The ground rumbled as it moved, five minds thought together in unison. This world offered them nothing but silence, until in an instant, for only a moment, the silence broke. To the right, somewhere far in the distance there was sound. Piercing, gravely and packed with anguish, it was a delicious scream that caused four heads to snap into place. Locked on, the creature plowed through the dirt towards it’s kill.
Darkness faded in and out of his vision, awareness slowly overtook Brandy until his fearful mind and aching body jostled him upright. Pebbles and dust seemed to come to life around Brandy's feet, spazzing and jumping on the ground. Tremors sent a shudder along his spine; it was near. The rumble strengthened with each moment passing as the world began to spin. It could be coming from any direction. Blood boiled with the heat of dread, all reasonable thought evaporated from Brandy's broken mind as he broke into a mad dash for freedom. Four voices wailed at Brandy, a ghastly united chant. Somnium, Sooomniuum! He'd darted right towards it, a familiar shape towered before him.
"Kill it! Kill it now, kill it now!" one voice screamed, trying to drown out all others that dared to think within their unified mind.
They eyed their prey, an unhinged, suffering, bleeding and insane Somnium. It's eyes were bulging out with fear, juicy veins colouring the edges red. Tattered clothes hung down a from broken, shaking body. Before another crucial moment of hunting could go to waste, the totem barreled through the ground, wailing and chanting the cursed name all the while.
Memories blipped in and out of his head as he twisted his heels away from the totem and ran. Surely it hadn't occurred so long ago, the final memory of his dearly departed daughter. Of course it wasn't Brandy's doing, but the doing of the monster. The image of what was left of her overtook his vision as he twisted and turned his body through the spaces between trees upon trees. The last of his Theta Somnium was a deep red crater in the ground with a totem in the center of it all twisting, spinning and chanting with glee. Yes, he had thrown his daughter to the monster and yes, indeed it led to her death but it was not without purpose. The name Somnium persisted, within the putrid body of Brandy M. Somnium.