“Olive eyes, olive eyes, look and you can see the flies. They kindred come, they scorn, they seethe, with blackened lungs that hardly breathe. They come for those who wish to play, and thousands follow every day.”

  -Nursery rhyme

  Evan

  Evan escaped the scene in the dance hall. He feels something evil slowly invade parts of his body. At first he thought it was just stress from seeing the woman, but after the screaming, the fire, and the colossus made of the writhing dead, he knew he was well and truly screwed.

  One of the undead creatures pounce on him and he holds his holy sword. It burns him now. What used to be his most prized weapon now cuts him as he holds it in his hands.

  He holds up his sword and cleanly bisects the creature in half. He left the remains as if it were mere rubble down a road. This was the sixth one he encountered as he held his throbbing chest in agony. It felt like a worm burrowed in his heart and refused to leave. Even the incantations and holy philters could do nothing more than delay the inevitable.

  I never should’ve come to this lousy ball in the first place. Who knew the suspiciously silent maids and butlers with similar features and always had their eyes covered were actually disguised undead sent to infect the people in the party.

  He shambled to a nearby room. He looked around to see if there is some kind of cubby he could wait out and die in.

  Suddenly he heard a whimpering sound. He slowly followed it and saw several children and their parents. They were covered in ash and dirt. Many of them wounded and close to death.

  He felt his teeth gnash in hunger. He suddenly craved violence, so much so that he was starting to see red in his vision. It was as if his body despised the warm blood and beating hearts of these people had.

  He held his head as it clouded him.

  Shit

  One of the men saw him.

  “Prince Rustrata! Everyone we’re saved!”

  The others heard this and approached him. They heard tales of his exploits, so they probably thought he could save them. Unfortunately, he thinks he would be the one to lead them to danger if they came any closer.

  “Stay back!” Evan drew his sword at the crowd. “It’s not safe to stay with me.” His breath was running ragged. It took him a huge amount of willpower to not just rip and tear at the bodies he saw infront of him. He needed to get away quick.

  He took out his belt of hidden potions and charms and threw it to them, along with his knives. He had a lot of knives so he just took out his shirt and threw it at them. His chest was darkening as grotesque threads were worming out beneath his flesh.

  “You!” He pointed at the most able-bodied person. She was covered in flour and wore an apron, a cook from the look of things. Well he doesn’t have the opportunity to be picky. “What’s your name?”

  “It’s Jeane milord.” She said in a bow. Evan threw his sword to the ground, landing on her feet.

  “Jeane take my sword and my things. Lead them away from the center and take them to Wolly pass. Tell them of the chaos that fell to this land and ask them to inform the church.” He pointed them to the safest direction he knew of and left without hearing their response. He wanted nothing more than to dismember everyone here, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t allow that to happen, not now not ever.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  He found stairs that weren’t there earlier. It was made of black stone and lit by a strange green light. He had no other option but to proceed down. Going back would only endanger everyone else.

  He took step after step, before one of the stairs were suddenly missing a brick. This made him slip and fall down to the darkness. His foot cracked and snapped as gravity pulled him towards his violent demise.

  “Gaah!”

  Amidst the pain he felt from the parasitic invasion and his broken bones, Evan felt strangely tranquil. He has gotten through worse, but he thinks his luck has finally run out.

  So it ends like this.

  He gave in to the pull of gravity and prepared for the eventual splatter on the floor. But the floor did hot come, instead it was a soft flabby material. He reached it and felt it slap him instead. In surviving, somehow, the pain of his foot stung him even more. Evan curse at the pain.

  “Motherfucker! That stings like a bitch!”

  He was felt his flesh wriggle as his foot bleed. He lasted this long, probably due to the emergency potions and holy protection charms he had in his person awhile ago. It wouldn’t have helped anyway, ever since he felt the strange prick at the ball he was probably gonna die anyways.

  He then felt the fleshy threads on his chest spool into a bud and pierced his chest. It was beating now, as if to replace the burst heart he had. It pierced him and bloomed like a blossom of blood. It’s stalk was made from his skin and the strange maggot leaves writhed in a wavy motion.

  “Hey Rob I heard something fall down there.”

  He saw two maids appear from the darkness, one was a dark haired beauty that had lips and eyes as red as blood. She had black hands that looked like they just shifted through ash. She was the one speaking. Another was a sexy red haired, green eyed maiden that held a big sack. She sneered at Evan.

  Evan however saw that the girl was just his type.

  “Hmm, just another prick transforming into an abomination, better kill him now before it gets any worse.”

  Dear Gods, he was starting to hallucinate from the pain. Why would two maids come down this place?

  “Ooh hold on Rob. I think this is the perfect chance to test things out. Get the noose out.”

  Noose?

  The red-haired maid took out a long rope and placed it on Evan’s neck. Immediately the noose tightened and Evan was clawing the rope out of his neck. He was struggling as the rope closed in on him and the flesh flower on his chest grew. The rope was so close to snapping his vertebrae that he could feel the pressure in his skull increase.

  He felt like a grape being popped.

  “Now I just have to touch the flower liiike so!”

  The black haired girl touched the flower and it collapsed it into the shape of a rat-like creature. A furry corpse covered in blood in place of where his heart was.

  Oh cruel world, I hope to fall in love in the next life.

  Then his vision faded to black and he fell to sweet slumber.

  Rob

  The rich guy passed out and the two boys saw the noose working it’s magic. The man now had a gaping hole in the middle of his chest, but instead of a heart it now had a blue flame floating inside it.

  “Well it works, the guy is an undead now.” Lodur said as he emptied the guys pockets and wore his pants.

  “How do you know?” Rob asked.

  “Probably something with the blessing that roach guy gave. Ever since that shrine, I’ve felt like a huge fog lifted from my head and I can think clearer.”

  “Yeah, I could tell.”

  “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Hehe” Rob enjoyed teasing him. He rolled his shoulders and soon drew his attention back to the rich guy with the chest hole.

  “Alright, I guess we can take the noose back now. Help me get it off of him.” The two tried to pull off the rope, but it seemed to be fused to the guy’s body. They tried pulling with more force until the dead guy started screaming.

  “Ow! Stop that.” The guy managed to wiggle away. He moved like a well trained soldier as he pushed back against a wall.

  “Why am I naked?” He covered his sensitive areas and grew red.

  “Lodur give me the knife from the sack.”

  Lodur rummaged through the sack and found the rusted knife and handed it to Rob.

  “Here you go.”

  Rob took a low stance and immediately moved like a swift shadow. In the blink of an eye he reached the noose guy and thrust the knife to the guys head.

  The guy dodged the strike and grabbed Rob’s wrist and twisted it to his back. Rob let go of the knife and flipped the guy using his shoulder. He threw him across the room and quickly picked up the knife. He began stabbing vital areas, as if it was second nature to him. He moved quickly, but the guy was faster.

  The guy’s expression hardened and began deflecting the strikes with timed jabs and wrist flicks.

  “Rob get down!”

  Rob followed and Lodur took a few strands of his hair and blew it. In a moment several cows began flying towards the noose guy.

  The noose guy however stood still. A ripple in the air was felt and the guy suddenly had a shimmer wrap around his body. He took a deep breath and punched the flying cows. The punch was faster than anything Rob could have thought was possible. The cows burst into chunks in an explosion of gore.

  The guy quickly singled-out Lodur and took notice of the hands. He moved so fast that he covered the great distance in a moment. He used one arm to raise Lodur’s hands, careful not to get touched. He pinned him to the wall, dropping the bag Lodur held in the process.

  “Lodur!”

  Rob moved to save his friend. He moved in to decapitate the guy, unfortunately the guy spotted the move and dodged. The guy struck the blade out of his hands and into the floor and used the other arm to pin his hands onto the wall.

  “St-stop trying to kill me!”

  The guy panted, seemingly tired from the fight. He was sweating buckets as he pinned the two guys wearing maid outfits to the wall. The guy looked down and saw the hole in his chest. The noose was now shifting like it was alive. It now stood up as if hanging the man by his neck, only more like a spectral rope instead of a regular one.

  “Where am I and what’s going on?” The guy asked. “Did your master Trisha tell you to do this? Speak!” He was now pressing his face against the two with fury in his eyes.

  Rob could only pray they make it out alive. He took his eyes off from his arms for a second and faced the guy who was inches away from him.

  “Um I- Y-you b-better tell me what’s going on or-or I’ll kill y-you.” The guy began stammering with a face as red as a tomato.

  Huh?