Into the fields of Summer - 74. Aftermath 2

I was alone in the streets of an abandoned small town, the sky was gloomy, the sun hidden behind the dark clouds, all that accompanied me were the empty parked cars that lined the pavement, and the bicycles left behind on the road, the images of blood and gore and the piercing sounds of screams, cries, and never ending pleas for help have stopped. I look around, and it was as if I was just in any other typical mid-sized town in America. I walk around, the air was cold, and the chill of the wind crisp against my skin.

I walk around and approach a deserted shop, I look at my reflection against the glass window. I looked like myself, blonde, blue eyes, and had a shirt that hugged my body, but the longer I looked at my reflection, my face started to change, and what I started to see looking back at me wasn’t me anymore but instead morphed to Gustav.

“This isn’t over” he said, hate and vitriol in his voice, as if he was promising revenge against me.

I looked at my arms and I saw scales started to erupt from my skin, I screamed in agony as I started to transform to the reptilian being that I’d slain. And just like that it was total darkness again.

I felt darkness and light spin around me, I felt dizzy as I found myself in another nightmare, this time, I was back in that horrid night I wanted to forget, the time I’d been raped.

I was seeing myself from the outside, I was in the room as the guys took turns on me, my body, helpless and my muffled screams unanswered, I felt a knot form in my stomach as the abuse continued to play itself in front of me.

This never ending cycle of hellish visions drove me crazy, I felt unwell, I felt sick, and deep inside I was angry. But why? I know that the things I’m seeing are all tricks working themselves into my mind. However the emotions continued to well inside me, I felt a sudden flood of despondency overcome me as the visions cycled through, it felt endless. I was going mad.

Then out of nowhere I felt myself grow warm. A tickle of energy from inside me trying to pinch me to wake up. I reached out to whatever it was trying to wake me, and just like that. The nightmare faded.

My eyes burst open and I gasped for air. I looked around and I was in a white room, in a bed, with crisp white sheets draped over my body.

I was in some sort of hospital. ‘Could this be another dream?’ I asked myself.

“You’re awake” I heard from my left.

I lifted my head and looked at a very concerned Etalos looking back at me.

“Where am I?” I ask.

“The palace’s med bay, the King and Prince Selvenus rushed you here just in time” he said.

“What? What happened?” I was confused.

I looked around again and felt and saw two IV drips in my left arm. And with my right arm I felt 3 small metal patches on my chest.

“What are these for?” I asked Etalos, referring to the metal plates.

“They’re there to monitor you heart beat, blood pressure, and toxicity levels”

“Toxicity?” I asked.

“You were in toxic shock” he explained.

“How long have I been here?”

“Not that long actually, just a few hours”

“Where’s Patri?”

“He’s talking to the Master Healer, you gave them quite the fright” Etalos said.

I then scooted up the bed, in an almost sitting position, and rested my back on the elevated portion of the bed.

“When Patri mentioned a Master Healer, I didn’t expect to be in a hospital room” I laughed a bit.

Etalos smiled a bit when he saw me laugh. “Well...the magical part of your treatment was indeed done by the Master Healer, but there was poison in your blood as well”

“Poison?”

“Yes...but I believe I’m not in the best position to explain”

“Ah, I understand”

“Do you need anything Chris?”

At that point I was happy Etalos didn’t feel the need to be formal with me anymore when we were both alone.

“Water would be fine” I said.

And with that, Etalos got off his chair and went over the nearby water dispenser and gave me a lukewarm glass of water.

“Thanks” I said after having several sips of the more than needed drink.

“I’ll let them know you’re awake” Etalos remarked. He pushed a button beside my bed and I heard a small bell ring; “they’ll be here in a few” Etalos smiled, his warm smile reassuring me that all will be fine, for now.

After a minute or two, the opaque glass door of my room slid open, and in came Patri, and a guy in gray medical like robe, but with white and blue trimmings. Etalos stood and bowed towards Patri, and said “Your majesty”

“Thank you, Etalos” Patri warmly smiled at the young elf. He gave him a soft pat on the shoulder and I reckon that was Etalos’ being signaled to give us some privacy. I gave the elf an appreciative smile which he responded to with a nod.

The glass door slid open again as Etalos left the room. The room had a very modern aesthetic, and white and gray color motifs, aside from my bed, there were the thin glass monitors on the walls, that displayed my key vital signs. Aside from the comfortable looking gray chair that Etalos has been sitting on earlier, there’s also a large couch not far away.

“It’s good that you’ve finally regained consciousness” Patri observed. His hands brushing my hair.

“What happened? Etalos wouldn’t tell me more” I replied.

“Maybe the Master Healer can explain more to you” Patri nodding towards the guy that was just a few steps behind him.

The guy looked to be in his mid forties, and just like Patri and me had Germanic features, making me think he’s from the Elurdeya tribe as well. He stood at around 6’1, piercing gray eyes, and a freshly shaven face, that only highlighted his square jaw. His medical robe barely hiding the trim torso he had underneath.

“I’m Master Healer Sarad” he warmly said to me.

“Hello...I’m Chris” I said reaching over to him with my right hand for a handshake which he gladly reciprocated.

“It’s a pleasure to be of service your highness” he said giving me a small bow.

“None of that please...just Chris”

I remarked.

“Hmm...humility does run deep in this House” he mused.

“I guess I owe you my life” I said to him.

“Just doing my job” he warmly replied.

Then I looked at Patri and back at

Sarad. “So...what happened?”

The Master Healer looked conflicted for a moment while Patri avoided my eyes.

“So...care to explain to me why I hear I nearly died?” I pushed.

“Chris...that beast you’ve fought, the one that injured you is an Anami, a bite, or scratch from them is fatal to us...actually to any being for that matter, I’m glad we got to you in time” Patri explained.

“Anami?” I asked as I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

Then Sarad took over and explained more, “Anami, they’re spawns of the demon race, we’d thought them extinct until you showed the King the image and memory of you fighting one”

“So the demons are back?” I asked.

“That we don’t know” The Healer replied which only earned an affirmative nodded from Patri.

“But what of the Anami?” i asked.

“Based on what we know, demons are very adept with dark magic as expected, Anami, are their weapons of choice in battle” Patri answered, he paused a bit as if to gather his thoughts and then continued “We all thought the Anami disappeared together with the Demons centuries ago”

“But Gustav said his masters will be back”

“That’s another question we don’t have an answer for” Patri replied. Then he touched my right hand and said “but for now, let’s focus on your recovery, okay?”

I nodded in agreement and laid back down.

“If I may, I just have to do one more scan for some testing” Sarad said.

“Please...be my guest, I replied”

Sarad took out a thin metal tube, that looked liked a sharpie from his pocket. With it, he pointed one end towards me and after a second or two, he hid it back in his pocket.

“Just like that?” I asked.

“Yes...just like that” he smiled back as he excused himself. And with a soft swishing sound, the glass door slid and Sarad left me and Patri alone.

Patri sat on the chair near me and sighed. He looked at me with so much care and love that I felt warm inside. The only thing I could do was smile back at him.

“Thank goodness we got to you in time” he remarked.

“I guess it could have gotten pretty ugly if I didn’t decide to pop for a visit then huh?”

“Very ugly, and would have resulted in something none of us here would

even dare think of” Patri nearly hissed when he answer.

“I gather it could have been fatal?”

“Yes...“ Patri avoided my gaze when he answered.

“I thought Gustav was a vampire”

I thought out loud.

“Yes...he was” Patri replied.

His answer confused me and he explained a bit more. “Demons...well...from what we know, Anami are created from either Vampires, Elves, or Werewolves...Humans don’t survive the process” Patri then looked straight at me to explain more. “From what we know, The Anami are created when a demon infects a creature with a fragment of its soul, it festers inside for days if not weeks or months, until the original soul is replaced by the demon’s spawn...effectively an Anami left to its own devices for years if not decades becomes a mirror image of the original demon that spawned it, and based on behavior and from the images and memories you’ve shared, Gustav could have been an Anami for centuries”

“Wow...”

“Gustav might as well be the oldest Anami on record, most were used in battles centuries ago, none have been used like Gustav, someone who’s become some sort of covert agent for dark forces, whoever spawned him had plans for him and long term plans at that”

“That’s...scary Patri” I remarked.

“Well...at least you’ve proven that even old Anami’s can be taken down, we’ll take what we’ve gathered from your battle with Gustav and study it for future use”

“Future use?” I asked, confused and concerned.

“There’s one more thing we haven’t been very forthright with you...the Setalus Incident”

“Ah...yeah...that’s what that journalist Retasa is looking into right?”

“She doesn’t know what she’s playing with” Patri bitterly answered then he gripped my hand and said “but you’re right, that’s it”

“So what’s with this thing? Why the secrecy?” I asked.

“It’s a matter we’ve been trying to investigate for several weeks now, but what we find are more questions rather than answers. And what happened to you just adds another piece to the puzzle.”

“So what happened?” I asked, unsure if I wanted to know the answer.

“We’ve actually recovered a memory from one of the survivors, but you need to rest before we can show it to you, it’s an upsetting scene” Patri grimly replied.

“Ah...I see.”

“But I can explain to you what happened” Patri looked at me as if he was about tell me something that might upset me, his eyes sad and his smile barely there.

“Go on” I said.

Patri sighed and clutched both his hands on his stomach. “Setalus...Setalus is a town up north...no...not a town more like a village actually” he paused, he looked at me and I nodded for him to go on. “It’s a village of not more than a few dozen families, and had a very charismatic young leader, who was barely into his seventies”

I had to stifle a snort when Patri said that, but then again, for Elves seventy must be pretty young.

I then nodded again for him to go on. “This village chief, started to have visions of the end of times as he calls it a few months ago, the villagers thought of it as a joke or some sort of prank from the chief but this escalated to the chief actually preaching a vision of doomsday, vision of hell fire in the realm and scores if not hundreds of Anami blocking the sun in the sky”

“Shit” I muttered.

“With that, he was deemed psychologically unstable and removed from office, however, this didn’t stop him. He started to preach house to house and in weeks he was able to gather a small following of his own, they proclaimed that the demons would be back, and that the humans, werewolves, vampires, and elves would fall and be forced into servitude to the demon race, he preached for acceptance of this fate, the other local officials tried to get him some help with some mind healers but all mind healing attempts failed, then it reached a point where most of the village joined his movement” Patri sighed.

“Then?”

“A few weeks ago, they committed mass suicide”

I gasped, mass suicide. Shit.

“Why would they do that?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out” Patri said with sadness in his voice. “The news of this kind go out, a doomsday cult in the realm? Mass suicide? That would cause panic, elves don’t have suicidal tendencies, this is a marked deviation to how elves behave” Patri firmly said.

“And what of the memory?” I asked.

“It’s from a child, from one of the few families that haven’t joined the movement” Patri said.

“Show me” I said to Patri.

“You need to rest”

“I can handle it”

“Physically...maybe...but...mentally?”

I took a moment to think about it and Patri was right. I sighed in agreement. “Fine...next time then”

“Rest”

“How long will I be here?”

“A few more hours” Patri smiled. “How about some food?”

“Yes please...” I smiled back.