How to Beat Fried Worms
Disclaimer: Worm is owned by Wildbow, and he can keep it.
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Chapter 55: Insidious
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Chort felt like he was being watched.
That wasn't anything new for the massive wall of muscles. He knew he was being watched, that there was a monster inside of him, watching and judging his every action and word.
This felt different, however. The eyes on him felt cold, downright frigid...
The pre-teen ran a hand through his long, brown hair and shuddered in discomfort as he rocked back and forth in a rocking chair, just outside of a secluded cabin.
"The fuck's your problem?" Eligos, another member of the Fallen, though from a different branch, harshly asked. "You been jumpin' at shadows all fuckin' day."
"There's somethin' in the woods," Chort said, jerking his chin to the treeline near the cabin he was guarding. "Bear or bobcat or somethin'. Been feeling them eyes on me all day."
Chort shivered in discomfort as he tried to look out, to the snow-blighted landscape.
He wanted to be inside, where it was good and warm. Even if he had to deal with the sounds and smells of what the folks inside were doing.
But Mama wanted him outside, keeping watch. And what Mama wanted, Mama got.
Chort shivered and pulled the flannel blanket tighter against his chest, his breath fogging in the evening air. The shadows were growing longer and longer and the boy could swear he heard things, skitterin' about in the woods.
"Ain't nothin' out there, ya li'l shit," Eligos harshly scolded him. "Jus' wind in the trees. Swear to the 'Hemoth, Mathers gets a kick outta grabbin' cowards-"
The man was cut off by the sound of a branch snapping in the distance, the crack echoing loudly in the still, winter air.
"...Y'sure there ain't nothin' out there?" Chort asked, his teeth chattering.
"Shut yer li'l whore mouth," Eligos hissed as he stood up. The man glared in the distance, off towards the setting sun. He held his hand up over his forehead to try and shield his eyes-
Then he dropped back down into his chair, flopping back so hard it nearly fell over.
"What was it?!" Chort asked, his eyes wide as he turned to the direction Eligos had been looking. "What'd y'see? I don't see nothin'!"
Nothing but trees and shadows and snow.
The sounds coming from inside the cabin stopped for a moment.
"Get out there!" Mama screamed, her shrill voice ripping through the wooden walls of the cabin. "Some slut thinks they gonna get us!"
The door ripped open and a shirtless man wearing a horse's head got caught in the screen door for a moment before he ripped it off the hinges. For every step the man took, a copy of him crawled its way out of his shadow.
"Get up, boy!" the man, Seir, demanded. "Or you wanna end up like Eli!?"
"What?" Chort asked, turning his frightened eyes over to Eligos. The older boy was sitting, sprawled out on the chair where he'd flopped. "Eli? Wha's goin' on?"
In response, the older, obese man grabbed Eligos's head and turned it to face Chort, letting him see the hole that had formed through the older boy's head. A great, bloody mess that went right through his nose and clear out the back.
"Oh..." Chort whispered as he stood up while Seir's shadows spread out and into the woods. "Oh, lord. That's- I didn't- I thought-"
The preteen couldn't get another word out.
But the can of beef stew he'd eaten earlier in the day, that came up right quick.
"Fuckin' useless," Seir complained as he stepped out towards the woods himself-
And then stopped, freezing in place as he looked down. Down to the great, bloody hole that went straight through his chest.
Chort whimpered as he dropped to his knees, bile coming up his throat as Seir fell back and began screaming.
"No," Chort whimpered as some... thing broke its way out of the shadow of the woods. It separated like ink on paper, a black blot that absorbed the light like some kind of hole in the world. The creature was large, larger than Chort but it didn't make a sound, didn't leave a single footprint in the snow as it approached the cabin. "Get away! Don't hurt me- please! I don't- I didn't- I don't want this!"
He could hear Mama's voice, screaming in his ear. Could feel her slapping him, the sting of her fingernails tearing at his skin but it couldn't break the primordial fear he felt at seeing the creature looming closer and-
"Stop!" Valefor demanded, the fair-haired teen standing in the light of the front door. "Look at me, slut! You're going to do as I command!"
The creature did stop and Chort looked up, hope warring against fear as he saw the yellow eyes of the creature meet Valefor's.
And then it disappeared!
"What?!" Valefor shrieked, his voice so similar to Mama's. Chort turned to the side, vomit trailing down his chin, and felt fear grip his heart like a vice. "Let go of me!"
The creature had a massive claw wrapped around Valefor's head. Valefor, in turn, had both of his hands wrapped around the black, scaly wrist of the creature as it lifted him into the air. The Master continued to struggle and fight-
*CRUNCH!*
-until the thing... closed its hand. Valefor's body twitched and spasmed for a moment before the beast negligently tossed the fair-haired boy to the side, knocking over the corpse of Eligos in the process.
Chort stared, urine warming his leg as the thing turned one massive, slitted, yellow eye to meet his gaze.
"Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come," Chort desperately prayed, pressing his forehead into the ground, ignoring the vomit and bile. "Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation."
The beast snorted dismissively before it turned away from him, forcing its way through the too-small doorway with contemptuous ease.
Chort could still hear Mama screaming as Seir lay dying just a few feet away but the young Brute refused to move.
'Help me!' Mama demanded.
"Father, hallowed be your name..." Chort repeated, his eyes closed.
He could hear the back door of the cabin slam open.
"Father, hallowed be your name..." he chanted, ignoring the sounds of breaking wood. Of Mama screaming.
Except she wasn't just screaming in his head, not no more.
The boy shuddered, trembling in his own filth as Mama screamed, and screamed, and... stopped.
He... couldn't feel her eyes, not no more. He couldn't feel the whisper of her voice, the edge of her touch.
Looking up furtively, Chort didn't see much. Seir's corpse, now still. Eligos and Valefor, together in death.
"Oh... god..." Chort whispered before he started to laugh.
Mama was dead. She had to be! And so was Valefor, Eligos and Seir. The folks she kept on hand, kept about to keep Chort and the other whores in line.
"I'm... free!" Chort brokenly laughed. "She's gone! She's finally gone!"
"Yess..." a voice whispered from the darkness as the beast came back, its black claws stained crimson. "She iss."
Chort swallowed, his joy doused with fear as the creature turned its arrow-like face on him, focused both of its mad, yellow eyes on his own.
"What... whad'ya want with me?" Chort asked.
He was strong. Strong enough to fight, that's for sure.
But the creature had killed Eligos and Seir without even touching them and Chort's powers made him strong, sure, but he didn't know how strong.
"You whill help mhe free the oth-ers," the creature demanded. "Then you are free az whell."
Chort stared, barely suppressing a laugh that was bubbling its way up his chest.
That was all the creature wanted?
Before Mama got him, Chort had wanted to be a hero. He wanted to use his strength to help people, to be like Alexandria or Hero.
After Mama, though...
But... she was gone.
"Okay," Chort agreed, a mad giggle on his lips. "Okay..."
Chort had prayed, every single day since he'd been captured. Since he'd seen Mama, and she started looking through his eyes. Since he'd heard Mama and she started listening through his ears. He'd prayed inside of his mind, the one place she never touched, she could never reach.
He'd never thought those prayers would be answered.
