Into the Fire Part 1

We are alive still. Out of the frying pan and into... Hell, more than likely. Heh. Magog was onto my escape plans... I didn't get far before getting tased and locked up. For some incomprehensible reason, they want ME for something.

I have come to find out they are not the only ones.

Roland and I were of course in seperate cell blocks. I was in darkness for about three days... Still fed well, but kept locked up in a padded cell in a block full of gibbering madmen. I think I cracked a bit by the second day... I was raving right along with them. Then I heard the music playing. A small... Joyous sound. It was soothing.... I felt my eyes shut and I heard the mad raving silence as the music echoed through the dark hall.

I was barely awake when it stopped. I came to the cell door and peered out the hole given. The Oathbreaker guards were on the floor, sleeping. But I also another man. He was carrying a flute and dressed in... I can only describe it as overwhelmingly purple renaissance fair gear. He looked ridiculous.

Then I saw him remove the masks of the Oathbreakers and put his lips to theirs. With each one, I saw a faint... Light of a color I cannot describe, rising from their throat into the stranger's mouth. They stopped breathing when he had finished. I saw him lick his lips and look at me through the hole with a cheery smile.

I backed away from the door, for what good it would have done had he been there to kill me. He opened the door and took a bow, introducing himself as "The Piper of the Court." He told me "The King of the Court" wished to have an "Audience with me."

I told him that if he was breaking me out, we had to go free Roland before I would come. To my surprise, he agreed to do so. So I followed him out. Isn't it laughable? This insanity? I didn't even question it at the time. Ha. I just... Followed the Purple Piper, trusting that we would keep his word.

I suppose I didn't really have a choice though, did I.

Roland was surprisingly happy to see me. Turns out the Oathbreakers mentioned my escape attempt and started playing mind games with him about my fate. Ha. Proxies and Oathbreakers are not as dissimilar as they think.

Of course there was no teary eyed reunion or anything so dramatic. We had no time. The Piper ushered us out and informed us that we would be escaping in a truck parked nearby. Before he could expand, we heard shouting, some angry and some afraid. I saw Piper smile wide as he told us not to worry.

"The King anticipated this. In fact, it is why I am able to rescue you fine gentlemen tonight."

I asked him what was going on.

"The harsh Light of God shines down on this place. It will burn away all of Magog's petty little coven. Uriel comes, and your 'Pale Men' come with him... Make haste now, as I would rather not have a confrontation with one of Them."

I honestly still have no idea what he was talking about when he said "The Light of God." But as for this Uriel, Roland was able to explain that one.

So we "made haste" for the nearest window. Unfortunately, I saw those black cloaked bastards down below. More disturbingly, I saw around half a dozen. We only thought there were four of them... And there were clearly more inside the building, judging by the sounds of fighting.

Most of the other windows were too close to the Pale Men, so we moved towards another hallway. I tripped over a dead Oathbreaker on the way. I think I had a conversation with him a few days ago... Strangely though, I cannot say I am sad he is dead. Maybe it is for the best. Nevertheless, we moved on but stumbled into a... A sea of darkness. Only it wasn't the night. It was the blackness of long coats and black hats. Illumination coming from pale skin and shining knives.

In front of them was a strange man in an indigo robe. He looked like a... Stereotypical fortune teller. Appropriate, as Roland recognized the man as "Yuri L. Polzin." Not a familiar name? Roland mentioned him in an early post as a local fortune teller that directed him to ME after he started seeing Dumah.

And what does this revelation mean?

... I honestly have no idea. Obviously the man sent the Pale Men after us, but I STILL don't know why. Piper knows. The rest of "The Court" knows. But they won't tell me. Or let me leave for that matter. In fact, I am only being allowed to use this computer because I BEGGED them.

Do I sound a bit blase about this? If so. It's because I am. This is the THIRD TIME I have been captured by someone.

I suppose I might vent on here later, assuming they don't do whatever it is they plan to use me for first. I'll get to it in a minute.

So. Uriel immediately turned and smiled at Roland, saying.

"Roland! My dearest of all friends! How have you been? I see you made it to Dr. Marsh alright... Have my cherubim been providing you will all sorts of... eh... Entertainment?

And Dr. Marsh... Or Jon, if you will allow me to call you that. So good to finally meet you in person. I am sure we will become... eh... fast friends, in the regrettably little time you have left in this world. If you... eh... would kindly come with me, I can promise you... All the answers you seek, and didn't know to seek, will become... eh... Clear."

The man sounded like Germussiastantian Dracula. Roland was too in shock seeing him to reply. I myself was too scared. Piper stepped in front of us and I saw Uriel cock his head to the side at a strange angle, his eyes shining a strange violet in the dark. Piper told us to run the other way as fast as we could until we get out. Our escape driver would be waiting nearby.

Who am I to question a soul stealing carnie. Haha.

So we ran away, down the winding halls, and the Pale Men and Oathbreakers were too busy to impede us. The Pale Men were chattering away, with that strange insect clicking... Just not stopping no matter what the Oathbreakers threw at them. They were using guns, clubs, saws... Anything they could get their hands on. But the most they were able to do is get the Pale Men to fall. But they always got back up. You know, I refuse to believe all Proxies or Oathbreakers are evil sadists. So odds are, some of the men here didn't deserve to die like this... But they did. The Oathbreakers were panicking horribly.

The various different Pale Men... And I use "various" loosely... Were simply unstoppable in such numbers. It reminded me of a swarm of insects... An army of ants marching forward on their prey. Slow and juggernaut, but utterly unstoppable. None of them seemed different from the others... Black wide brimmed hats, long dark coats.... Bone white skin, hairless heads and dead blue eyes. The only variation was in height and weight. Their knives possessed the same gleam in the dim light... Only the different patterns of the wet blood coating them could set them apart. Even then, they all eventually become a solid red... They took little notice of us, instead focusing on their panicking prey. The fear is a weakness that they can sense, I think. So we remained ignored and forgotten as we made our escape.

Until we ran into Magog that is. I saw him ram a Pale Man's head through a computer monitor and begin yelling at us.

"GET BACK TO YOUR CELL NOW MARSH."

The Pale Man got back up and distracted Magog further, until he smashed some bottle of clear fluid on it's head. It went down once again. But they never stay down. They don't die. We tried, we tried, we tried. Magog took the opportunity to calm down and threaten me in a more characteristic way.

"Get back in your Cell, or I will amputate your legs and drag you back myself"

He almost took some steps towards us to try it. The Pale Man was having none of it though. Who are you supposed to root for in that fight... Even if it is obvious who would win. Heh. The worst part of it all is that are worse things than the Pale Men out there in the dark... Not just Dumah... You know, that name has become inappropriate. He isn't an angel. He is a God. And here I sit in the Devil's House, hiding from God's Light.

So we left Magog to his fate... I wonder if he died. Or rather, how he died.... I suppose however it happened, he deserved worse. Remember... Me discussing those "Afflicted" that I merely caught glimpses of? Well I saw a few. In the confusion some had escaped and were mindlessly shuffling around the back exit.  The Pale Men gave them little thought... Imagine Bones wearing sewn up suits of meat. Imagine that meat coming alive with billions of tiny bacteria and cancerous cells of such potency they give a life to every square inch of that meat. Imagine it trying to rip itself apart to end the living hell is calls a life. Imagine the blood from wounds trying to open and shut. The pus pouring from rotting sores. Eyeballs swollen and a veritable rainbow of variants of red, brown and yellow. Glossy and dull. When they were even visible from all the swelling. I saw torsos swollen from the stomach trying to devour itself with acid. I saw feet missing all skin and many chunks of flesh, leaving a trail of blood and stinking meat as the Afflicted shambled mindlessly around...

And they talked too. They babbled. Introduced themselves over and over. Talked about loved ones. Dreams and aspirations. Repeating endlessly and in contradictory ways. Some even mistook the babblings of the others for their own thoughts. Others simply sat on the ground and made sounds like crying or laughing. Picking at the decaying flesh that made up their bodies.... And the exit was past them.

We had to hug the wall to escape. It was... Nerve wracking. If just one of them touched us. Bled on us... Spat or vomitted on us. God only knows what would have happened. But we made it unmolested. We opened the door and we took off running away from the Asylum Grounds... I was almost too scared to look back. To see if any Oathbreakers, Afflicted or Pale Men were following.

When I did turn, I was grabbed by a Pale Man. Roland stopped and... Looked for a moment at me. Hesitating of course. It didn't matter. As I tried to keep the thing's knife from my gut, I heard a bang and the Pale Men fell, for a time. I looked and saw The Creature wearing Silas' face, with it's rifle in hand in a tree. It pointed towards the road and smiled.

So we followed the direction of an abomination... A large truck drove up from a hidden spot in some trees, and it's doors swung open. Inside was a Large man with dark blonde hair and deep blue eyes, in a set of navy blue kevlar armor, with a large claymore beside him.

We climbed in with him and he sped off.

So we let ourselves get taken prisoner again.

Would have been better off just letting the Pale Men finish us. Hindsight is a terrible thing. Ha.