Chapter 5 - The Village With No Light

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Crystal heard knocking coming from outside Eric’s house, as she got up and walked towards the door. She saw William sleeping on the floor and rolled her eyes as he snored, apparently brainstorming on how to prevent a monster from harming anyone else is exhausting. Crystal grabbed the door handle and opened it, "Oh hello Ryan". Ryan was a tall man with a healthy physique, he wore a tidy dark brown uniform with a silver necklace tucked into his pocket signifying his status of being married, due to being the village head, he has many responsibilities on his shoulders. "Evening, Miss Crystal. Could I talk to Eric?" Ryan greeted Crystal, "Oh of course, come in". Crystal let Ryan in as he slightly bowed politely. Crystal then walked him around the house to Eric’s room, she knocked on the door, "Eric, you have a visitor". Eric opened the door and saw Ryan, "Sir Ryan, what has brought you here?" Eric looked suspiciously at Ryan, he knew the village head wouldn’t just come to his house to have a cup of tea. "Miss Crystal, would you mind giving me a minute with Eric?" "Oh I won’t mind" Crystal then went to Eric’s living room and sat next to the sleeping Will.

Eric turned to Ryan and asked, "What is wrong?". Ryan looked worried, "We found Old Man Ben", Eric’s eyes widened. "Where did you find him?", Ryan sighed before replying, "Our scouts found his body on a tree branch with bite marks all over him, he bled to death", Ryan looked down in sadness. Eric just stood there, speechless. He couldn’t process the information, what kind of sadistic psychopath of a creature would kill it’s victim in such a gruesome way?

"Did your scouts find anything else?" Eric prayed in his mind for good news, but... "We found another body, that of a young girl, she… looked to have starved to death", Ryan worriedly scratched his arm, Eric could feel his heart sink. His legs trembled, a sudden chill in the air. "What?" A voice came from behind Eric, as he turned around, it was Will.

Will stood, "I-Is Ben…?", Ryan looked away in sadness, Will looked at Eric with anger in his eyes. "We should’ve saved him while we had the chance!" Will yelled, Eric stood there and took in all the insults and yelling Will is giving him. "Great idea, Eric! We should leave Ben to die in the woods!" Will yelled, "Alright that’s enough!" Ryan scolded, Will scoffed and backed off. "Look, there are a lot of things I need to handle in this village, and fighting amongst each other isn’t going to fix any problems. Ben’s death was no one’s fault, alright?!" Ryan sighs and looks at William, the latter merely looked down. Ryan later said farewells to the three and left Eric’s house.

"Guys?!" Crystal screamed from the living room, Will and Eric rushed out of the room to see what caused her to scream. "What’s wrong?" Will asked, Crystal merely pointed at the hanging lanterns as it flickered aggressively, all of the lanterns in the house were flickering, before one by one the flames extinguished. The entire house went dark as the three tried to blindly feel around, Eric managed to find the door and opened it, "Get outside!". William and Crystal rushed outside, as soon as they leave the house, they were shocked at how dark the outside was.

The once starry night sky illuminated by the moon was now covered by dark clouds, the entire village was shrouded in darkness, not a single speck of light across the entire village, all the villagers running outside their houses and panicking across the streets. Crystal could see out in the distance the medical center, it looked as if it was being distorted out of reality. "Will", William turned to Crystal as she pointed at the medical center, William’s eyes widen as he realized.

"Drew!"

Drew stared at the ceiling, the lights are all off as several nurses can be heard outside his room panicking and running around. Drew simply sighed as he sat up, he looked at the door and saw… nothing. Drew looked around and noticed the walls of the room, they are shifting and darkening in color, like slowly being painted in black. Drew could feel a sudden chill in the air as the room turned into a dark void with nothing but him in it, and suddenly right in front of Drew emerged the thing. It’s body cloaked in darkness with only it’s four white eyes visible to him. It began chittering, it’s chittering reminded Drew of a mix between a grasshopper’s chittering and a woodpecker’s pecking, albeit lower in pitch and less frequency. Drew mustered up all his courage and shouted, "What do you want from me?!". It stopped chittering and simply stared at him, not moving an inch.

"Why?! Why me?!", Drew stood up momentarily before falling down. He looked up and saw it now inches away from his face, it’s gleaming eyes staring directly into his soul. He tried to thrust his fist at it, but before he could do that, he was hurled back by an invisible force. He looked up again as it chittered and chattered, suddenly the thing let out a cry that shook the room as it transformed, it’s body began gleaming with ancient energy not from this world. Drew tried to close his eyes or at least look away from it, but he couldn’t. He was frozen, his retinas burning up at the sight of this primeval abomination, he could feel the otherworldly energy entering him, incinerating him from the inside. He felt like… nothing. He felt worthless, he felt like an insect to this unspeakable being, he groaned as he can feel his mind twisting and shattering at the sight of this eldritch being.

William, Crystal, and Eric raced across the village to the medical center, they were pushing aside several villagers that were in their way, eventually they arrived at the entrance to the medical center. A group of doctors and nurses bursted out of the entrance door, panicking and screaming. The trio got through the panicking group and went inside the building, once they were in, they felt cold. William tried to light up a lantern but… the flame never came. William sighed as he turned to Crystal and Eric, there’s no way they can get a light source in here. Despite that, the trio slowly walked through the dark medical center, staying close to the walls as they traversed it. William was in front, and thankfully he memorized the way to Drew’s room. They reached the room as Crystal wrapped her hands on the doorknob, as she opened it, the three look inside and saw…

"Drew", William whispered, Drew was standing there frozen in the center of the seemingly normal room. Drew merely stared at the three with a blank expression. William and Crystal rushed to Drew’s side and each grabbed his shoulders, they began slowly guiding him out of the medical center.

Once they reached outside, it was chaos. All the villagers were screaming and panicking, mothers were covering their kids’ eyes, patrollers on horses were trying to calm down the villagers. William can see Ryan trying to calm down everyone, he noticed that Phillip was rushing towards him.

"What’s happening, Phillip?" William inquired with panic in his voice, "All the lights in the village were gone, every candle or lantern was extinguished, besides that the animals-" Phillip was cut off as a large cow mooed and rushed through the crowd, the villagers panicked as they got out of the way of the cattle.

All the villagers were escorted towards three large houses, the patrollers led by Ryan tried as best as they can to give the villagers some comfort. Drew was "taken care of" by the nurses, meanwhile Will, Crystal, Eric, and Phillip sat on the grass as Phillip reveals the next step. "We have plans on…" Phillip thinks on how he should say it, "leaving the village". The other three had bewildered eyes, "L-Leave the village?" Will repeated, Phillip nodded and looked down.

"We don’t know what is happening but… it is certainly causing distress towards the folks. I mean- few days ago, a cow was killed by an unidentified predator, then two bodies were found in the woods, one of Old Man Ben… and one of a young girl." Phillip paused, Will looked down and sighed, Crystal looked at him and had the thought of comforting him however she doesn’t know how to so she just stays silent. "Just now, all the lights in the entire village went out and then some of the folks reported they saw their children talking to a shadowy figure, 11 families reported this." They all felt a chill run down their spines as the air grew cold again, "In 20 minutes, Ryan is going to lead some volunteers to pave a way for us to leave tomorrow. I should really prepare myself." Phillip gets up to prepare, "We’re coming too." Will exclaimed, Phillip was surprised as he turned around, he looked at Eric and Crystal as they nodded in agreement to William’s statement. "Alright then, let’s go".

A group comprised of eight individuals were marching through the woods, Ryan lead the group, riding his brown steed, meanwhile William, Eric, and Crystal walked alongside two other hunters, Phillip and another were riding a small carriage as Phillip steered the carriage’s steed. They were going through the oak forest, they were closing in on an opening in the mountain range, this was the only path out of the valley. William looked up and was in awe with the mountains, indeed he went hunting close to them but he never got a good view while hunting. Suddenly, due to Will’s eyes fixated on the mountains, he bumps into Crystal, the latter yelps as the two fall down onto the dirt. William awkwardly looks at her and quickly gets up, "I-I’m sorry, I didn- didn’t mean to- I was distracted", William apologized to Crystal, "Heh, well then could you help me up?" Crystal giggled as she extended her hand, William quickly took her hand and heaved her off the ground. Crystal brushed off the dirt on her clothes and grinned at William, "I- I’m sorry", William mutters, "It’s fine, Will. I don’t mind", Crystal chuckles, the two look at each other’s eyes, like they entered a trance. "Hey! Will! Crystal! Come on!" Phillip yelled, the two stopped staring at each other and quickly hurried towards the others. Once they reached the group, they see that the group has stopped and are gazing at something, "What’s everyone staring a-", William’s mouth drop as he gazed at the familiar lanky jet-black figure of an Enderman, it’s glowing eyes spinning wildly in an almost panicking fashion. It was looking around swiftly, like a terrified child who is desperately searching for his mother. William merely gazed low and made sure not to look at it’s eyes or it’s face, the Enderman made squeals and shrieks as it shuffles around, it seems startled, like something had scared it. William looked back to see the others gazing low, he turned around again and suddenly a bright flash of light occurred. Two more Endermen appeared as they encircled the shrieking one, they seem to be trying to protect it, but from what?

From the corner of William’s eye, he could see four gleaming white specks of light in the distance, moving from behind the trees. "Everybody, let’s return to the village, we have memorized the path." Ryan turns around with his horse, the others prepare to go back towards the village. William, Eric and Crystal stayed behind for a bit as the others head back, they turned their heads towards the Endermen, suddenly the figure behind the trees moved closer and closer, however it stayed out of view. The trio looked at each other as a chittering noise is heard coming from the figure, suddenly the three Endermen shrieked as they darted away, Will watched as what he heard to be the apex predators of the woods flee in terror. "We need to go.. NOW." Eric grabs William’s and Crystal’s shoulders and yanks them towards him, the two looked at him with shocked expressions but they quickly understand the reasoning for it and begin hastily walking away.

Kxakuluth noticed the three humans as they begin running as fast as their little legs can go, it was intriguing, how puny and frail these humans looked. It decides to follow the trio from a distance.

Crystal stopped for a bit and turned around, scanning whether they were being followed or not, she could see its glowing eyes behind the trees. A low growl followed by chittering echoed in her head as Crystal’s world began to be consumed by the darkness, it was as if she could only see a few inches away from her. All she could feel was… bloodlust. She didn’t know why, but sadistic thoughts were injected into her head like venom, it was hurting her, she doesn’t like these thoughts one bit, but it just kept pouring into her, the mental images of innocent people having their lives taking away for no reason but entertainment sickened her.

Will ceased running and turned around to see the confused Crystal as she looked around frantically, she raised her hands in a desperate attempt to feel something, like she was blind. Will rushed towards her as he heard Eric shouting from behind, as soon as he reached Crystal, he grabbed her shoulders and shook her desperately. "Crystal?! Crystal?! Can you hear me?!"

Crystal felt herself being levitated, she could feel someone tightly grabbing on her shoulders but she couldn’t see who. She also could faintly hear someone talking to her, it sounded like William but she was not sure. Suddenly, her vision and hearing returned as she finds herself facing a worried William as he is grabbing her shoulders and shaking her, "Huh?!" Crystal managed to say as she stops Will from shaking her. "You’re back! You’re back!" Will instantly wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, Crystal could feel water on her neck from Will, it was tears. "Wh-what happened?" Crystal asked, William pulled away from her and grabbed her arm and pulled her as they ran towards Eric who has been shouting at them to hurry up. Crystal looked back as she saw a massive shadow moving through the woods.

Drew woke up in a dark room with the door open as a dim candle light seeped in, he rose from the mattress that he has been sleeping on and looked around, dozens of other people are sleeping, he knew these were patients as some of them had old bandages on them. He got on his feet and tiptoed out of the room, he stopped at the door and looked around, there were patrollers and nurses walking around the building, he waited at the door until no one was in sight, he then quickly exited the room and made his way down the stairs and out of the back door.

Before Drew could open the door out of the building, there was a tingling sensation in his right hand, like it was submerged in water. It then felt like he was grabbing onto something made of wood, when he raised his hand near his face to inspect it, a knife magically appeared in his hand. "What the-?", he whispered to himself, he twisted the knife around, admiring it. But then, he realized the knife was covered in blood, his eyes widen, he felt the blood with his finger. Suddenly something began whispering into his ears, it was telling him to do something, he smiled as the voice began repeating over and over.

*"Carpe noctem"*

Continue to Chapter 6