What awaits us

His spine was rearranging, he woke to one cracking and shifting. Pain shot through his body, staggering while getting up he felt his skin starting to close. He was in a strange room, hexes everywhere, candles melted but still hot. In a mix of pain and confusion, he slipped on a piece of paper, crashing into a wardrobe. The floor was already uneven, it tipped over falling onto the floor, falling through the floor.

“Oh.” He said with a concerned look.

The wardrobe continued to crash through the floors, 3 floors down it stopped in the basement. He got up and hobbled to the wall to steady himself still in a daze, sliding his hand on the wall while walking, he could feel how old it was. The wood felt cracked and splintered and being closer to it, it smelled musty. Making his way downstairs, the building creaked, it felt as if the building was swaying; as if it had forgotten the feel of people inside it. Taking his time, he made his way to the basement to check on the damage. The wardrobe was completely intact, looking up at where the holes should be, they were gone. Looking back at the wardrobe, it was standing upright. It began to glow bright red; the doors shot wide open and leather wraps came out and wrapped around the unnamed man. The wraps began heating up, chains shot out at high speed. One cracked him in the face sending him flying into a wooden box. The rest wrapped around his body, protruding spikes he yelled in paint as they pierced his body

“WHAT THE FUCK?” He fidgeted while wincing in pain.

He tried crawling over to a hook to attempt to pull the chains off but the spikes only dug deeper. His vision began to blur as the pain was starting to get to him but something else was happening to his body; a different type of pain, a familiar pain. His skin began to stretch and tear, his bones shifted and he felt his muscles bulging. Black scales began forming on his body, sharp nails shot out from where his normal ones were. Sharp teeth replaced his normal ones, his eyes filled with red and black; hair grew longer, wilder. The wraps began to get hotter and the small runes on the chains began lighting up. Smaller chains with teeth came out of the runes, they dug into him but using this new yet familiar strength he burst out of his restraints.

“What…..what am I?” He said trembling.

The wardrobe began shaking again, violently, chains shot out again but in greater quantity. He stepped to the side, nearly getting caught again. Thinking of the pain he felt moments ago and not wanting that feeling again he ran to the side of the wardrobe and latched onto the door on its right side. Pulling on it, he swiftly ripped it off its hinges; the wardrobe began shaking. The door flew up hitting him in the chin, staggering back into the wall a chain came up from under the ground wrapped around his leg.

“I can’t keep this up, my head is killing me right now and I feel like I’m starting to blackout.” He thought to himself while being pulled towards the wardrobe.

Digging his nails into the floor of the basement, a second chain came out and whipped him on his back. His eyes shimmered with anger. Allowing the wardrobe to pull him in, he grabbed onto the other door and ripped it off.

He opened his mouth to shout but black fire came out instead. The chains loosened as he dropped onto all fours, his vision began to fade……

Three hours earlier

It was a cold afternoon, the air was frigid and the streets were empty. Sarah was walking home from yoga when she ran into her friend Sebastian.

“Oh! Hey Seb, what’re you doing here?” She said nervously.

“What do you mean? You asked me to wait for you here so I can walk you home.” He said with a confused look.

“Oh.” She said sheepishly

Sebastian is tall, fairly built, and has shaggy brown hair with light brown skin. His glasses are a little bit too big for his face and behind them were soft grey eyes. He had freckles under his eyes and a scar on the corner of his mouth. He always wore casual clothes that seemed slightly big on him but he made it work. Sarah was a short, busty woman with silver hair. Her skin was very pale and she had bright blue eyes, she’s a very timid person and has a huge crush on Sebastian, they’re both 24. They walked quietly together, minutes passed before Seb said something.

“Hey, are you ok? You haven’t really said much is something bothering you?” Seb said tilting his head.

“Yeah well no, I’ve asked you to walk me home for a reason today.” Sarah said, twiddling her fingers.

“Some weird things have been happening recently, I’ve been seeing strange men around at places you like to hang out at.” She said with a worried face.

“There are weird men everywhere, that’s not fair to them.” He said with a smile.

“No, you don’t understand they always wear the same clothing, a long black trench coat with a white circle on the back of it with designs in it looks like runes or something.” She said looking at the ground.

They were almost at her apartment building when a shadow was cast over them, it formed around them like a dome. The pitch-black dome was sealed and all that could be seen were Seb and Sarah, the air began to grow colder as they shivered more and more, like walking into a freezer.

“What’s going-” Before she could even finish her question, a hand came into the void and grabbed her face.

Seb grabbed onto her hand and tried pulling in the opposite direction, using all his strength, he pulled her glove off falling to the ground. Her scream was cut short, endless silence took her place, it began getting colder and it felt as if the void was closing in around him. Circles with symbols began forming slowly around the dome.

“Runes?...” Seb said, shaking.

They started to glow dark red, a low humming could be heard as Seb hunched over in pain. His eyes began to slowly change to black and red.

“It’s him.” Whispered many faint voices randomly.

A hand came through, gripping the back of his head and slamming it into the ground knocking him out.

Present time

The front door of the house opened and a woman wearing a black trench coat walked in. The inside of the house began blaring red as if to sound an alarm.

“Presoto!!” She said with a stern look.

The red lights subsided and she began to walk towards the stairs to the basement. A loud thud could be heard and loud heavy stepping could be heard coming up the stairs. A black shadow shot up the stairs, jumping onto the mysterious woman and sinking its fangs into her.

“Ah, I see you’ve finally transformed Sebastian.” she said, wincing in pain.

“Storez!!” She shouted.

A soft white glow shimmered around her body, grabbing Seb by his hair she flung him through a wall. She gripped her shoulder as the wound began to throb, Seb threw a fridge through the wall, the woman caught it but just as she did Seb’s hand came through grabbing her by her coat and pulling her towards the fridge, slamming her face into it.

“Gravo!!” She shouted angrily.

Seb and the fridge were both forced to the ground, the floor began creaking under the pressure. Seb began trying to stand, the floor began to creak noisily.

“ Shit, I have no choice. Stiase!!” She shouted as she stuck her hand out at Seb.

A condensed orange ball formed in her hand, it then expanded and exploded at point-blank range into Seb. The blast sent Seb crashing through the wall of the house and into a nearby parked car. The floor beneath the woman gave in which caused the woman to fall into the basement, the house creaked and then collapsed in on itself. Seb began to change back into his human form, he got up from the cold grass, glass shards cutting his feet. He stared at the rubble as his foggy breath filled the sky.