Chapter 5

Dread continued to mount in the pit of my stomach. Before I discovered the broken skeletons littering a room, there had been only my imagination to fear. Well, that and horrible monster rats. Now, after seeing irrefutable proof that people had died in these hallways, I wanted to leave. Besides, I had accomplished my primary goal of finding a more suitable weapon.

I returned to the light of the lobby to address the new rank options from the scroll. The shattered pieces of the mirror that decorated the floor after my fight with the Colo Colo, lit the lobby with a star-like quality that was strange and wondrous. Light from the real world sparkled in a thousand different pieces all around the check-in counter.

Though it made an uncomfortable racket, I shut the rickety and weathered grand doors from the lobby to the first-floor rooms by leaning them against the wall. I doubted the doors could stop a toddler, but at least the noise from opening them would give me warning.

Leaning against the counter, I addressed the new prompting from the scroll.

[Rank 2 Legacy of the Dead achieved]

[Please choose one of the following (Lesser) Blessings:]

[1. (Lesser) Blessing of Bereavement: (+1 Ka) Ignore Pain: 1 Ichor for an hour, immune to all Pain] [You have received this death blessing for accepting your loss.]

[2. (Lesser) Blessing of the Ghoul: (+1 Ib) Blood Scent: ability to track living organisms by scent.] [You have received this death blessing for attempting to eat a living creature alive.]

[3. (Lesser) Blessing of Final Rites: (+1 Sahu) Consecrate: 1 Ichor, preserve or destroy normal corpses in an area.] [You have received this death blessing for showing proper respect for the dead.]

Attempting to eat a living creature? Is that because I bit that monster on the ear? Who is making this crap up!? I thought.

“Scroll, I just want to say thanks for at least explaining some of this to me. It’s a big step up from our previous interactions.” I said sarcastically and re-read the document for a third time.

Now that I understood the blessings made me superior to my former self, I wanted to make sure I chose correctly. I immediately ruled out Final Rites, because playing with corpses seemed useless. For all I knew, I could be the only person alive in this abandoned hell. Even if I wasn’t, it’s not like I really cared about dead people. The only real tangible benefit would be that it might increase the power of my Barghest by increasing my steps in Sahu. Since I still wasn’t sure what that did, I ignored the blessing.

The only real choice was between Bereavement and Ghoul. Right off the bat, I found an aversion to Ghoul. An enhanced olfactory sense in a place that already stunk sounded abhorrent. Then there was the other thing, drinking blood. I was trying my best to avoid thinking about it, and a Ghoul did not sound like it was the right direction to go in. There were just too many questions about my situation I needed answered first to pick a trait like that on practicality.

Bereavement had the benefit of letting me ignore pain. Given the amount of injury I had suffered in the last 24 hours, it was very attractive. However, I still had a distrust of “magic”. If I used Ichor to Ignore Pain, would it be gone forever? I didn’t think it likely, because it didn’t say permanently like the Barghest ritual did, but how long would it take to come back? As expected, scroll refused to answer my questions for these issues.

I ignored the two traits on those merits and focused on the bonuses to my Aspects. Looked at from that perspective; the choice became easy. Scroll had described [Ib] as the Maat measure of one’s senses. The temptation to lessen the pain of my real-world problems was strong, but it would not help me survive being attacked by a dangerous beast in the dark. I needed to stop walking around here blind. Hopefully, steps in [Ib] would give me better night vision.

“I choose the blessing of the Ghoul.” I said, before I could change my mind.

The scroll winked out of existence for a second before reappearing again.

Unlike last time when I made a choice, this time there were immediate and painful consequences. A sharp gorging pain started at the base of my throat and began inching its way toward my mouth. It felt like a bull was trying to yank a wet rag from my esophagus with a rope. I fell to the ground and began flailing. Because what else could you do when something was erupting from your mouth? When it was over, my tongue rolled out of my mouth and hung down past my chin. The organ had become long and a sickening shade of purple, wiggling beyond my ability to control.

“Wat tha thuck!?” I yelled, which almost seemed to trigger the second stage of my transformation. Both of my arms began cracking and painfully popping, extending outward and stretching my skin. I begged through the pain, “SKOLL STAP IT PEEZE!” But the force changing me ignored my pleas, and my arms, and then fingers all grew in length.

From my position on the ground, I stared up at my extra-long fingers and arms. It has turned me into a freak! I thought.

After a careful, less panicked inspection, I decided it wasn’t as bad as I first concluded. My arms and fingers only increased to about 10% longer than their original length. There had been no pain in my torso, neck, or legs during the growth, so I assumed that only my arms grew. Without being able to look at a mirror, I couldn’t be sure.

Not being able to see myself was a bit of a relief. Just thinking about my spindle arms and rolling tongue left me in the beginning stages of a depression.

Can my life get any more wrecked at this point? I thought.

Scroll continued to shine at him with an updated Soul Record, but I ignored it trying to control my tongue. It took some effort, doing things like gulping and neck wiggles, but eventually I figured out a way to retract the organ to its original state.

Thank God I don’t have to live like Gene Simmons!

An interesting side effect was a sudden hunger for meat. With my tongue stretched out, I could practically taste the flesh of the Colo Colo still lying in the lobby. It reminded me of fried onion rings.

I don’t know if it was because of the transformation, or the healing my body had done while I slept, but a sudden onset of that alien hunger made me consider trying to see if Colo Colo tasted like it smelled. Before I realized what I was doing, my legs carried me to the less than a day-old corpse.

“I don’t know if I’m sure about this.” I said. Talking turned out to be a mistake. My opened mouth caught another whiff of that sweet bloomin’ onion aroma. Fuck it, I thought. I need to listen to these new instincts.

It was delicious. Digging into the creature would have disgusted me yesterday, but now it came like second nature. I headed straight for the heart, slurping on the dried blood, and chewing loudly on the tough meat. At one point I decided I should freak out about drinking blood and eating raw flesh. I stopped eating and reasoned it over for a moment. Native Americans used to eat parts of some animals raw. And if it was good enough for those people for a few thousand years, why should I be all high and mighty about it? To offer a compromise to my reason and warring conscience, I decided if people ever made me hungry, I would revisit the argument.

[+1 Ichor]

Scroll did not appear to explain it to me. I just knew I gained some life essence from eating the creature's heart. The same as when I drank its blood, I realized. I must have spent Ichor on healing those wounds. It had gone up to 4 of 9, then dropped after I woke up back down to 3. With this heart, I was back at 4 again.

After satisfying my hunger, I went back out into the rain to wash off and drink more water. Clear of anxiety for a moment, I turned my attention to the scroll again. Eating flesh was an unlisted benefit on the soul record. Somehow, I just knew it was because of the blessing of the ghoul. I would have to be more careful choosing in the future.

-Soul Record-

[Rn - Name:] Julian Nelson Ortega Marco the IV

[Bloodline:] Hades

[Legacy:] Rank 2 of the Dead (0%)

[Ichor:] 4/9

-Aspects-

[Khet - Physical:] 1 Step

[Sahu - Spiritual Body:] 3 Steps

[Ib - Heart:] 1 Step

[Ka - Vitality:] 0

[Ba - Personality:] 0

[Khaibit – Shadow:] 0

[Sekhem- Form:] 0

[Akh- Mind:] 0

-Blessings-

[(Greater) Barghest]: (+3 Sahu) Summon Barghest: You know the necromantic heka ritual to summon a Barghest.

[(Lesser) Iron Strength]: (+1 Khet) Enhanced Strength: Your strength is significantly enhanced, and your body is renewed.

[(Lesser) Blessing of the Ghoul]: (+1 Ib) Blood Scent: ability to track living organisms by scent.

-Heka-

Summon Barghest: Use of this ritual costs 1 Ichor permanently. If the Barghest is slain, it will return in nine hours.

“Scroll you piece of shit, I have so many questions.” I told the document. “Why does it say I have zero percent now, when by my count it should be five percent? Does that mean it doesn’t carry over from rank to rank? Why didn’t you tell me about a stupid long tongue, and speaking of which, what is the fucking point of it? It just seems cruel and has no bearing on my ability to smell.”

It did me good to get all my grievances out in the open, even if I got no reply. The scroll winked out of existence again, and I smiled.

The good news was, I could see slightly better in the dark. The bad news was that everything stank even more to hell.

While I stood in the cool rain, I turned my head to the sky and saw nothing but a thick fog. Intermittently within the dense gloom above were flashes of light, like tiny lightning bolts without the sounds of thunder. In this accursed place, it was always dreary and dark. Maybe that was a good thing for a Vampire, or Ghoul, or whatever I was?

I watched the rain for a time, reflecting on what I had experienced in the last 24 hours. My heart was still every bit as shattered as that lobby mirror, I knew, but the fear and fight for survival had probably been the only thing keeping consuming pain away. While I relived that terrible conversation with Heather in my head, I came to realize that my time in this horror world had made me feel more alive than I had in a long time. I loved Heather, but I was unhappy. She had pulled away from me, no doubt because she was fucking Chase, and that had left me with nothing but an awful job and a toxic family for the better part of a year. A year is a long time when you are miserable.

I tilted my head to the sky, feeling the freezing rain caress my bare chest. My disregard of the elements made me feel powerful. But… Something registered against my new senses.

An overpowering odor of fresh onion rings hit me from behind. I turned around and spotted two black and red feathered Colo Colo at the foot of the main stairs. One stood up on its hind legs licking the air, and the other took a more aggressive approach by roaming around. The patter of rain masked the expected tick sound of its claws on the marbled flooring.

I ducked around the outside of the door frame to hide my presence, then peeked to see if they pursued. Both had their forked tongues out sniffing the air, not unlike me now that I saw it. For a moment, I thought the one on two legs spotted me because it looked in my direction with its beady eyes. I froze solid, fearing that it might catch motion. After a few uncomfortable seconds it turned away from me to follow its companion.

I guess they have poor eyesight. Those things should have seen me. I realized. The one that hadn’t looked at me walked over toward the partially eaten corpse that I had left behind.

Soon, they would probably pick out my scent. Two of the creatures would be too much to handle. The truth was, I didn’t even want to fight one of them. What kind of person likes to fight wild animals? So, I did the smart thing and headed off down the street to find another place to shelter.