Deranged Writer's Afterword

170  A World Dyed In Red

“ Woah…”, Lydia exclaimed, staring at the strange river.

The river was strange because half of it was frozen and the other half wasn’t, the climate on their side was freezing, snow covering every inch of the land while the other side was warm with various strange flora and fauna residing within it.

“ Yeah…this place is really weird.”, Greydor added from behind Lydia.

Greydor seemed to be nervous as he kept looking around,

“ We should hurry….they come here sometimes..”

Lydia nodded and gave Greydor one of the containers, their hands briefly touched while doing so. Lydia noticed that Greydor’s hand lingered but didn’t think that he had any hidden agenda.

Just like that Lydia started filling up the container, the river’s water was cool and refreshing. Lydia slightly shuddered at the cold as she continued to fill the container but strangely enough, she felt as if the world was spinning.

It took her a minute to realize that the world wasn’t actually spinning, she had just fallen.

….

Yeah, she was pretty dumb.

Lydia flailed weakly in the water unable to comprehend what was going on, her body wasn’t listening to her. Panic seized her heart as she tried desperately to call to Greydor, unfortunately for her, she was successful as Greydor dragged her body out of the water and she could properly breathe once again.

She would have celebrated, but the look on Greydor’s face threw her off, it was…unsettling. Saliva slowly oozed out of his mouth as he lowered himself to her level and stared intently at her arm.

Lydia tried to question him but she couldn’t utter a single word, she was completely immobile.

A look of craving passed through Greydor’s face and soon after that, he took in a big gulp of saliva. He opened his mouth widely and-

‘Much’

-took a bite out of Lydia’s flesh.

Immense pain assaulted Lydia but even then all that came out of her mouth was just a whimper, blood slowly oozed out of the holes in Greydor’s teeth as he continued chewing her flesh slowly, thoroughly enjoying her taste.

But soon, a look of displeasure passed through Greydor’s face as he spat out bits of Lydia’s fur that had entered his mouth along with her flesh.

“ I’ll have to skin her just as I thought…”, Greydor muttered to himself.

Hearing him, Lydia’s eyes widened,

‘What the fuck ?’

Lydia couldn’t understand what was happening, why would Greydor do something like this?

….

As Greydor took out a small dagger with a sharp glint, Lydia realized that it didn’t matter why Greydor was doing this…

She was absolutely sure about one thing…

She was completely and entirely fucked.

Greydor didn’t hesitate and started getting on with skinning her….alive. Lydia felt so much pain…..she wanted to yell out, to fight back but her body refused to budge even as she was slowly but surely getting killed.

Lydia didn’t know how much time had passed, but Greydor had managed to completely remove the skin covering her left hand. With a satisfied smile, Greydor reached for her red flesh but just before he could relish on his delicacy, a cold voice echoed across them,

“ Could I get a bite ?”

Greydor turned around in surprise, Lydia could see a familiar figure from the corner of her eyes….

It was Adam.

~~~~

Adam’s POV:

I’ve always been curious about cannibalism, not like ‘ I want to eat human brains', it was more akin to intrigue.

What could make someone eat their own kind?

From where I’m standing, Greydor looks like a parasite….I can see the crazy in his eyes.

A parasite that is addicted to eating its kind.

A parasite.

Parasite…..

Abruptly I began to feel angry, it was strange because this didn’t feel like my anger….it felt like someone else’s… whatever it was…it was making me feel angrier by the second. Just looking at Greydor pissed me off.

The word ‘parasite’ kept ringing in my head increasing my anger.

“ Could I get a bite ?”, I ask, feeling something strange awaken within me.

“ Huh ?”Greydor turned around in surprise, we stared at each other silently as I made my way to them.

“ H-how did you find me ?”, he asked edging away from me.

I shrugged my head and stared at Lydia, her hand seemed to be the only part that was hurt badly….I suppose that’s a relief…

“ What did you do to her ?”

“ It’s a s-skill….stay back or I’ll do the same to you !” Greydor exclaimed, baring his sharp teeth at me.

……

“ Stay back.”

……

“ I said, stay back dammit !”

……

~~~~

Greydor couldn’t understand why he was feeling so afraid.

He had survived all these years in this harsh dungeon alone, why would he be afraid of a kid?

But under those cold red eyes that seemed to look down on him, Greydor felt helpless.

‘ I can’t give up now….not when I’m so close.’

Greydor pushed back his fear and rushed toward Adam, extending his hand out he managed to touch Adam. A smirk glued itself to his face as he had just won, he had just used one of the skills he had stolen called ‘ Move Not.’ on Adam…he had used the same skill on Lydia.

The skill did have a condition that it can only be used on one person at a time, so it would naturally stop affecting Lydia but Greydor couldn’t care less since he had damaged her enough to take her own even with his measly strength.

‘Huh ?’

The skill should have gone into effect but Adam seemed fine.

‘What’s happening ?’

It was then that Greydor remembered Adam wearing a whole lot of sweaters on top of each other, if it had been just one the skill might have worked, but since the barrage of sweaters blocked complete contact with his skin…the skill obviously wouldn’t work.

Adam smiled gently at and pat Greydor on the shoulder,

‘Crack’

“ ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”, Greydor screamed in pain as he felt his arm break. Even though he had a variety of skills that were mildly useful…his body had grown feeble with time so it wasn’t that surprising.

The pain made him kneel.

“ Please….please f-forgive me….I’ll do anything.”

Adam’s face remained stoic as he asked Greydor,

“ What happened to the rest of the members on your team ?”

Greydor avoided Adam’s eyes,

“ Answer me.”

“ I swear…I didn’t mean to…..it was an accident……we were stuck, he died first….I did it to survive….I would never…”

“ Why did you kill them all ?”

“ I- I–....the taste was too g-reat…the more I ate….the m-more p-powerful I became…I even got one of their skills….it was t-too addicting….I didn’t mean to…”

Adam silently stared at Greydor, without uttering a word.

Greydor’s mind raced to find a way to save himself, in the end, he knew what to do even if it wasn’t something he really wanted to do….he just need to share his meal.

“ I can give you h-half of h-her if you l-leave me alone….I promi-”

Adam closed his eyes and walked away.

Seeing him head towards the river, Greydor sighed in relief and waited for him to come back with their meal,

‘Crack’

Hearing a ‘cracking’ sound, Greydor found Adam coming back towards him, and in his hands was a huge block of ice, he had broken it off from the river. Greydor felt an ominous feeling but it was already too late.

Before he could even process anything, Adam had gotten on top of him.

Without uttering a single word, Adam raised the huge block of ice high in the air,

“ P-please, we can jus-t t-talk this ou-”

‘Splat’

Blood splattered on Adam’s face, but he paid that no mind and continued,

‘Splat’

The snow was slowly being dyed red.

‘Splat’

Brain matter and enzymes oozed out of his head and yet Adam did not stop.

‘Splat’

The world was being dyed in red-

‘Splat’

-and Adam wasn’t planning on stopping anytime soon.