Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens) by Heath Pfaff Read Free Book Online Page A

direction are consistent within the mists. The distance traveled back to the stone seemed longer, but it was impossible to say for sure. It may have only been the pain of being dragged across the forest floor that made me think we'd come further. All that seemed certain to me in that moment was that whatever lay ahead for me wasn't good. I almost welcomed death, and I certainly regretted not having taken Melody's hand when it was offered. These creatures constructed of dead flesh and wood seemed to offer a far more horrific fate than whatever might have met me at Melody's side. The monster that had dragged me through the woods released my arm just long enough to grab me by the neck and hoist me from the ground. I was slammed backward against the cold stone pillar with bone rattling force. The air was knocked from my lungs, not that I had much fight left in me anyway. From all around the hill I could hear the hollow knocking of more of the creatures as they shook their awful wooden heads. They were drawing nearer.
    "It wasn't long before dozens of the creatures were pouring from the woods and climbing the hills. They were taking up positions all around me, drumming their heads in some form of macabre communication. I thought the terrible sound would drive me crazy, and just then it suddenly ceased. Not one of the creatures so much as stirred, and that was when real fear set in. The silence was unnatural. It seemed to stifle even the wind and the crunch of the fallen leaves on the ground. It was as though my ears had stopped working for a moment, and when next I heard something it was a set of lone footsteps coming towards me up the hill.
    "I couldn't turn my head, but I could move my eyes far enough to see a figure clad in shadows walking up the hill with an unnatural gate. I recognized it immediately. It was me. More accurately, it was the thing that looked like me but wasn't. Apparently it hadn't actually died before, or if it had, this was another one. It strode up the hill with its inhuman gate, smiling with an expression I hoped was never actually found on my face. It cocked its head as it approached and opened its terrible mouth. "Of you, I'm not afraid." It croaked, and then it reached for me. I thought all fight was gone, but I screamed and kicked as it took a grip with hands that looked somewhat like mine, but the fingers were far too long and they ended in sharp points as though someone had filed down the ends of those overly long fingers and sharpened the bone beneath.
    "It began to rip into my shoulder through the cloth and into the flesh. I tried to struggled, but I was pinned by my throat. A moment later two more of the wooden-limbed torsos grabbed my arm and held it steady as the broken version of me ripped through my skin and muscle towards my bone. They began to pull and bend on my arm, and I was suddenly too keenly aware that they were trying to rip it off. In that moment I knew what they intended to do. They were going to turn me into one of them. They were going to rip off my arms and legs, probably saving my head for last, and then I would be another one of the torso-beasts wandering through the world within the glimmer mist. I fought back with renewed vigor, screaming, kicking, and struggling to break free. I might as well have tried to take down the largest tree in the woods with my bare hands. My assailants did not relent, and soon there was a burst of blinding pain as my first arm tore free of my body. They started on the second immediately after.
    "I wanted to pass out, or to bleed out and die, but somehow I stayed awake as they removed both of my arms, and then my legs. Horror and fear were pulling my mind apart as readily as the creatures of the mist were pulling my body apart. They started on my head next, and I could feel them ripping at the skin on my neck, and tugging at my head. I thought I felt my spine splitting and, as if it all were a nightmare that could be broken by the dawn, I suddenly