River of Bodies

Please read the Prologue first

River of Bodies
Chapter One

         A thousand painful memories flooded through his mind, obviously from his past. A thousand unrecognized images of brutalized events. Each horrid in it's own way, none of which Mikel could remember. He was naked on the black ground which was warm and fleshy. That was a first, he thought to himself.

         The smell of death was overwhelming as was the humidity of the place. Almost like breath, Mikel thought lifting his body from the fleshy ground. Looking around he noticed that he was on a small island which was connected to a much larger land mass by a wooden bridge.

         "Where am I," he said just to hear his voice in the unreal situation he found himself in. There didn't seem to be a sun, but the sky glowed as if one was fading into the distant giving it a red color. The mountains in the distance were black spikes stabbing the sky for recognition.

         Mikel figured they were charred, like the ground beneath him. Walking to the beginning of the bridge Mikel thought it was to the point of turning to dust at the slightest touch.

         The water beneath it was a dark red, almost as if it was blood. Mikel didn't really want to cross the bridge, but it was the only way off the small island. Fear crept across him as he made his first steps onto the hazardous bridge.

         One step, and two steps. Mikel walked at a faster pace knowing the bridge wasn't going to crumble beneath him, he thought he was safe was the contents of the water.

         Somewhere in the middle of the bridge, for it was a fairly long bridge Mikel heard a snap. He hesitated, looked back, and was about to continue when he heard another snap. "Man, talking about some shitty luck." One more step, and the board beneath him broke plunging him into the liquid, confirming his suspicions about it being blood.

         It was a thick blood, the kind that came from the deepest parts of your body, the kind that was almost black. Mikel sank in deep into the liquid before before his bare feet touched the bottom. There was no swimming up, it was so thick. Mikel attempted to scream landing him a mouthful of the blood, he tried his hardest not to swallow.

         The hard edges of the ring on a finger were clear to Mikel as it was between his toes. His feet told him of the bodies beneath him, that was the source of the blood. A river of bodies, but from what? It didn't matter, what did was the fact that Mikel was paddling his way away from the bodies to no prevail.

         Every stroke took him nowhere, it seemed as if the liquid was pushing him down. Mikel could easily describe the faces he felt beneath him with his feet. A sickening thought to which his stomach rejected on the ground upon later thinking about it.

         Mikel was about this for a while, and one thing he noticed was that he didn't have to breath. That still didn't take away the feeling of claustrophobia at not being able to breath fresh air. The hours were long, as he attempted feebly to escape the gore.

         Eventually he gave up, for the ring finger was still in between his toes. Mikel was beginning to think he was to stay here until his body were as mutated by the water as the ones beneath him. How long did he stand there, having only his death and his future to think about before he fell unconscious?

         Mikel had a dream, well more of a nightmare. Which was odd because he always thought dreams were the mind being creative. Shouldn't that have been took away in hell?



         "I see you," the voice echoed. A voice so deep it was compelling, a a steady beat  throughout the darkness. There was nothing to see, only the voice. "Do not be afraid at the reality of what is beneath you my friend. Worry not about the path you are about to follow, because in the end you will come to enjoy the pain."

         A light flickered in somewhere below Mikel, revealing a black robed figure. The light cast a shadow conjoining the the shadow with the darkness. The figures face was blackened out.

          Mikel's vision begins to zoom in on the the face, or to the hollowness of what should have been his face more like. Coming closer and closer to the empty face, you could see the rips in the hood of the robe, revealing empty spots just like on his face.

         The hollow face was all Mikel could see now, and all of a sudden there was an eye opened in the darkness. The eye was a normal eye, except the pupil.

         Mikel's nightmare continued to zoom in to the figures mystic pupils to reveal a vision. The vision was of Mikel and of a random woman, most likely one he had fucked.

         This woman did not want to fuck, so it seemed to Mikel. The Jim Beam bottle in his right hand, and the way he staggered with it told him he was drunk.          

         The woman's voice was shaky as she screamed," Let me fucking go! If I wouldn't known you was like that....oooh your getting your ass kicked! Bet bitch!"

         Mikel in the vision didn't like the woman's tone and wrapped his hands into her hair. He yanked hard, gaining another scream from the tearful girl. "Shut your fuckin' mouth okay," his voice was slurred from the booze.

         He struck the woman hard across the face, causing a hideous red mark. "You're putting out, and I'm seeing to that." Mikel withdrew a knife from his pants, it was a wonder he didn't cut off his dick in the process.

         With the woman bound by the hair in one hand, he clenched the knife by the blade with his teeth. He then continued to unzip his pants, the woman continued to scream constantly........

         Mikel's vision seems to zoom away from the pupil, and slowly back to the entire eye in the blackness. When it reached the point of the entire face, it was no longer just emptiness.

         Outlining the edge of the ripped hood was a line of vicious teeth. Each were yellow, and the drool seemed to drip endlessly from them. Mikel's vision didn't zoom out fast enough for just when he thought he was safe, the jaws snapped around his vision.
         


         The adrenaline from the bite was till pulsating Mikel's nerves as he woke on the same black fleshy ground. His naked body was red with the thick blood, which also gobbed in his hair.

         He lay there afraid at what he might uncover upon looking up. He could see the blood washing ashore resembling waves, and he could see the small island where he was at. Most importantly though he could see the bridge that had snapped under his weight standing whole and in perfect condition.

         After laying there a moment Mikel was well recovered, and getting ready to face the horrors that lay beyond. Just before he lifted his voice he heard a voice, one in which the ears actually heard. "He'll be waking up any minute now. Seraph don't fucking scare him, for God's sake the boy just went through the River of Bodies."

         The adrenaline came over him once again this time mixed with a shit load of fear. The voice was distorted almost as if it was multiple of voices. The other was more rough, almost a growl," Whatever. Why should we take it easy on him? Did they decide to take it easy on me when they ripped my arms off in the Pit!"

         The anger showed in his voiced," I say we take him straight there. It's going to happen sooner or later anyway."

         "Shut the fuck up I told you not to scare him." The voice must have agreed because of several moments of silence. Mikel wasn't to for sure if it was safe, but the more he heard the waves, and felt them on his naked body the more he wanted to vomit.

         In the end it was the vomiting that alerted the creatures of his awareness. Mikel knew he was caught, no use hiding it now. The creatures were mostly hideously deformed but in some places still resembled their former human selves.

         The one called Seraph growled menacingly, revealing only two teeth. Two fangs, vampire fangs if you will, though he was no vampire. Other then the teeth that somehow seem to protrude a great deal from his mouth when he opened it, there was only holes of where the other teeth had fell out.                    Seraph thought that roaring and showing these up close and personal to Mikel was a great introduction into their world," Don't be scared!" Once again Mikel found himself unconscious.