A stunning lady was cooking food in a cluttered kitchen late at night. Her smooth skin glistened in the light of a nearby lantern and her gorgeous eyes reflected the flame. Lustrous hair cascaded down her back, overlapping the apron's tie.
The window was slightly cracked open, allowing the cool wind and pale moonlight to flow in.
She was currently preparing a light midnight snack, it seemed she was conflicted about something judging from the periodic miserable expressions on her glamorous face. She was making her favorite, waffles topped with smooth syrup and sliced berries on the side.
She hummed a harmonic tune with her angelic voice until she heard the door crash open followed by long, dragged footsteps.
"Darling? Is that you?"
She wiped her hands on her apron and turned around, only to see Michael entering the kitchen. He was in a grim state, covered in loose snow and shrouded under his hood. Although she couldn't see his face, his slumped shoulders were enough of a sign.
She dropped everything she was doing and ran towards him, supporting him while he sat down on a chair.
"Sweetie? Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
After taking off his hood and seeing his distraught expression, she knew something terrible must've happened. Fortunately, he didn't appear to be injured or bleeding.
"Wait here, I'll go make your favorite tea so you can feel better."
She rushed towards one of the chalky counters and opened the colored cabinet underneath. Perusing through the clutter, she prepared the ingredients for Michael's favorite beverage, Ginseng tea.
While the roots boiled in the water, she turned around to reaffirm Michael's condition again, but her eyes widened after she felt Michael's hands suddenly grip her delicate neck...
They fell down to the ground in a scuffle as he tightened his clutch, causing her to try and scream, but it was useless.
'I'm sorry, I just want to escape.'
Michael's face remained distraught and cold, not even the warmth he cherished could change that.
A few moments passed by as she tried to speak, but it was all in vain. She didn't even try to punch or push him off, he was simply too strong for her.
'I'm sorry, I don't want to become an abomination.'
After he saw her eyes daze and glisten like a like, he could no longer hold back his silent tears.
'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'
Agonizing seconds passed as Michael witnessed her lips pale and eyes grow cloudy.
Michael closed his eyes and began to uncontrollably cry like no one was listening. He yelled and screamed at the world, at the gods, at the Spell, at himself.
Michael only stopped when he opened his eyes to see his wife's expression. There was no more movement, no more tears, no more warmth, no more sounds.
Besides his own cries.
"Why did you make me do this!? Why couldn't you just let me live in peace!?"
Michael balled up next to his wife's lifeless body and bawled his heart out. It wasn't long before his voice grew raspy and quiet.
"Why do you hate me so much!? Why am I cursed!? Why do I have to be the one who suffers!?"
He quickly lost his voice, forcing him to whimper into his wife's shoulder. She was so... so cold.
"I just wanted to be happy... was that so much to ask?"
Michael felt a glimpse of happiness once he heard a woman's voice softly enter his ears.
[The gods are dead, they cannot hear you,]
[But the gods aren't the only divine, another will do.]
[You're stained with divinity, one not yours to own,]
[You've borne your own curse, now carry another and atone.]
[Written in your blood, you're a source of calamity and damnation,]
[You can't escape your nightmare, your hope lies in your imagination.]
[Michael, receive your curse!]
'You... you're not her...'
Michael stopped his sobbing and tightly clenched his wife once more.
'I'm so tired... please, just let me sleep...'
[Wake up, Michael! Your nightmare is over!]
[You have slain a dormant beast.]
[You have received a memory: Precious Cloak.]
Michael didn't pay attention to the voice in his ears.
[Aspirant! your trial is over!]
[The broken one abandoned fate to bring forth their imagination, only to destroy the illusion once the nightmare called it's name once more.]
[The broken one pities it's reflection.]
[You are cursed to bear it's sins.]
[Final appraisal: glorious. You can't escape your nightmare, only dream of an end.]
'...'
[Dreamer Michael, receive your boon!]
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Sole Survivor.]
'...'
[Dormant Aspect Blood Thrall is evolving...]
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine.]
[Aspect Name: Bloodborne.]
'...'
[You have discovered your Aspect Legacy: Blood Art.]
[You have achieved the First Stage.]
[The First Seal has been broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers...]
=====
'Spell... my head is killing me.'
Michael groaned and softly massaged his forehead. It felt like he's been crying for hours. He rubbed his exhausted eyes and opened them, shocked by the sight before him.
He was surrounded by an abyssal darkness broken by bright lights like a starry sky. It was the void between the waking world and the dream realm.
'What... where am I?'
He sharply turned his head around, yet he saw nothing.
'Where is she? Where is she!?'
Michael's search for his wife was interrupted when suddenly his visioned blackened. When he opened his weary eyes again, he was somewhere different.
All around him, he was completely surrounded by an ocean of crimson. He moved his feet around and the sensation felt similar, it was blood.
He gazed above to see thick silver clouds with no sky in sight. It looked like the calm before a destructive blizzard, like the ones in the outskirts.
Michael continued to look around in panic until he stopped at a certain sight in terror. What he thought was the sun at first, was a spherical convergence of ruby blood, pulsing repeatedly like a heart. Thin lines connected the orb to the rest of the ocean below like veins and arteries.
'Is this... my soul sea? Why does it look so weird?'
Michael could only discern the continuous sound of a heartbeat until he heard the faint noise of water moving at his feet.
He slowly looked down...
…And found his wife.
"Dar...ling..."
She spoke in an eerily inhuman tone gargling like a corpse.
"N-no..."
"Why... did you... kill me..."
"No! I didn't! This is just a dream, a bad dream!"
[All power comes at a price.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
[Your Flaw is: Guts.]
[You are cursed.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
[Your Flaw is: Burden.]
The vermilion corpse grabbed Michael's ankles, causing him to full back.
"Come... sleep... with me... I'm... so cold..."
"N-no!"
Michael tried to crawl away but the corpse's grip suddenly doubled. He looked down in horror as he witnessed another corpse at his feet.
"Mother?"
"Michael... You killed... me..."
"No I didn't!"
Another corpse grabbed his torso.
"Mr Daniels?"
"You were... such a... bright boy..."
"No! No! Please no!"
Michael tried to scream, but it was in vain. The only thing that could hear him were corpses.
He killed his mother.
He killed his teacher.
He killed his wife.
A killer deserved helplessness.
A killer deserved loneliness.
A killer deserved to suffer.
He deserved a gruesome death at the hands of the ones he killed.
He deserved to lose everything.
He deserved this nightmare.
He was no longer a son.
He was no longer a boy.
He was no longer a husband.
He was cursed.
Michael continued to scream as he was pulled into the ocean of crimson. His voice broke and screeched with hopelessness.
It wasn't long before his legs were pulled beneath, then his torso, then his shoulders. Even after being fully submerged, he still tried to scream.
The corpse's fingers dug into his skin the more he fought, breaking his muscles and snapping his bones. After his vision was completely obscured with blood, it began to darken, little by little, as he got dragged into the depths.
The crimson ocean was once again permeated in a tranquil silence. The only noise came from the pulsating of blood converging high in the sky, beating like a heart.
[Wake up, Sole Survivor!]
=====
Michael suddenly awoke to a violent pain puncturing his skin. He quickly looked but his thoughts were slow. He was in the middle of a terrifying snowstorm, and once he stumbled up and looked at his arm, he realized what the pain was.
The blistering cold was biting into his skin, freezing his veins. Shards of ice carried by the veil of snow pierced his body, slowly freezing his muscles. Michael noticed the frost spreading across his body, slithering to his heart.
The unbelievable pain that coursed throughout his body was unbearable. It was possibly the most painful thing he had ever experienced, he couldn't even think straight from the torment.
It felt like something was constantly stabbing him and reaching deep within him, never relenting it's furious attacks. Every second, Michael's body would convulse and violently twitch from the extreme suffering.
His body instantly went into shock.
Michael fell backwards like a statue of ice. His blood was frozen, he couldn't move at all.
What little thoughts his mindless brain had left fell apart when he noticed a vague figure approach, parting the snow with it's mighty body. He didn't even know what it was until he felt a sharp pain from his hip to his chest.
He used what little strength he had left to lift his head up, and lost all hope.
A beast wrapped in thick fur coated in frost had it's enormous maws in his body, resembling a fearsome wolf. The gigantic fangs pierced him all the way through as if he was a bug.
His entire body broke and fell apart, with blood and guts dyeing the snow like a gruesome painting.
'What's... happening?'
Michael lost all of his strength and his neck went limp, causing his head to crash against the ground.
'Guess there's nothing I can do... I deserve this...'
As he was getting ripped apart and cleansed in his own blood, his imagination became strangely surreal.
He dreamt of him and his mother. She was sitting on a dainty chair next to the window, sunlight softly caressing her healthy face. She was reading to him a picture book and told him the craziest, most unbelievable tales of his father.
He was a saint of Valor, a hero among his comrades. He rode on a horse-like echo and fought nightmare creatures in steel armor, vanquishing evil and saving innocents.
Michael still remembered how much he bawled his eyes out when told they could never meet.
'I wanted to be... like him...'
He then dreamt of his big brother, Joel. They were playing and laughing, kicking a ball around and chasing each other down alleys.
'It was so... peaceful back then...'
His vision blurred with tears that quickly froze. He killed his mother and threw his brother away. If he wasn't a failure, they would've been a happy family.
A sudden thought entered his slow mind. He still had his brother...
'No... I'll only curse him too...'
He was cursed by the strings of fate, defying the divine was useless.
'Defy...'
Michael tried imagining his wife... but he couldn't. Every time he tried, his imagination would just shatter.
'My wife... I can't... remember her...'
Michael's hollow face slightly scowled.
'Why... can't I remember her...'
He couldn't remember the one person who he truly loved with all his heart. Her lustrous hair, her picturesque eyes, her smooth skin and angelic voice.
Nothing.
The only thing he could feel was the fleeting remnants of her warm touch, slowly fading as the frost consumed his body. The cold... it felt just like... like her lifeless body.
'No... no.'
Michael's muscles began to tremble as his mind became clearer.
'Why can't I remember her?'
He could feel his hands and legs again, kicking them around wildly.
'Remember! Why can't I remember her!?'
Finally, he regained control of his body.
'My father!'
His blood slowly began to move towards him as it crept up the creature's legs and crawled into it's mouth.
'My brother!'
Blood pooled around the beast's eyes as it reeled back in the pain from it's insides being toyed with.
'My wife!'
The nightmare creature tried to retreat but simply slipped among the blood and guts beneath it's feet, squirming in pain and roaring in agony.
'I need to find them!'
Michael sluggishly turned onto his stomach and crawled towards the dismayed creature. His intestines dragged behind him as he slithered forward.
'I will find them!'
Michael mounted the struggling beast and sunk his teeth into it's head. He chomped the flesh, crunched the bones and drank the blood. He wrathfully consumed the beast with fiendish gluttony and incandescent anger.
'Fuck what the gods say!'
The nightmare creature yelped in torment and sliced Michael, yet it was all in vain. Every time he bled, it would simply come back to him.
'Fuck their laws!'
Michael's blood and guts were slowly coming back to him, as if he was a god willing his authority.
'And fuck you!'
He continued feasting on the nightmare creature despite it's feeble resistance. After a few minutes of desperate struggle, slicing Michael with worthless determination and pointless defiance, he could sense the beast's heart slowing, bit by bit, until it finally died.
The absurdity of the situation almost made him smile. That was it? Was this all that the Dream Realm had to offer?
[You have slain an awakened beast: White Wolf.]
[Your blood grows thicker.]
Michael refused to stop, devouring the sickly blood in his mouth and hands like a starved prisoner. It tasted so horrible, so corrupt. Michael could barely hold it down in his stomach without convulsing. It was the most disgusting thing he had ever tasted in his life. It tasted like he was swallowing rotten meat covered in vomit.
His mouth was stained in crimson and feral intestines hung between his teeth, dripping down his chin and onto his breached torso.
From his waist to his chest was nothing but a gaping hole. His organs gradually retracted up his kneeled legs and nestled inside his broken body, chalky bones forming over them like animals stuck in a cage. Strands of muscle formed across his cavernous abdomen like it was cleverly weaving a gruesome tapestry of tissue and flesh. His pale skin wasn't far behind, covering the exposed muscle within seconds.
Hideous scars adorned his body like a sadistic art piece. Where the fangs pierced through him, and where the beast tore his body apart like someone would a juicy steak. No matter how much filthy blood or nauseating entrails he hesitantly pushed down his throat, the disfigurements never restored.
'What? But everything else healed. Do I need to... eat more?'
Michael felt his stomach twitch in loathing until he saw more hazy figures through the blinding veil of snow and ice. He calmly stood up, looked at the carcass he left behind and stared forward with a furious scowl.
"Come on! Are you afraid!? Die like the abominations you are!"