[b]DAY 21: OLD FRIEND – AID ME ONE LAST TIME[/b]

The world had changed. He didn't like it. For years the man had spent his time alone in his house, barely acting with the outside world at all. He enjoyed his solitude, other people were just a burden to him. And for so many years this arrangement had worked for him and he had hoped it would last until the day he died. But something had disturbed the delicate balance of his world. It was because of the people, he was sure of it, they had done something that couldn't be reversed. The bitter man hated them all, held a grudge against mankind. Why did they have the tendency to destroy everything around them?

Somehow they managed to murder the one thing that was bringing life into this world: the sun. How could they ever fix that?  Because the great celestial body was gone, the world was enveloped in perpetual darkness. Only electricity brought any illumination to the people at this point. The world was a chaotic mess; people were losing the grip on their own minds. The violence and madness ruled the streets; the people had been reduced to selfish beings that cared about only themselves. Everyone wanted to survive and they had the right to feel that way, but in the process, they condemned others to die. A few people had even tried to invade the man's house, but with his ax, he had been able to drive them away. But he was bitter and tired and didn't really have the strength to live through these mad times.

One evening the man was peeking out from the windows of his house. Somewhere in the distance he could see a raging fire in the middle of darkness, a sight that had become way too common at this point. Otherwise, he didn't spot movement near the house. Though, at this point, it didn't really matter, even though he hated the idea that looters would come to take his things once he was gone. But this is what the end of the world was like, he surmised. After checking the windows, the man headed to his bedroom and from there, he opened one of the closets. He rummaged through all the random things he had stored there until he found what he was looking for: a well-crafted wooden box. He hadn't touched it in years, it felt a little odd to have it in his hands again. He opened the box and inside it he found his old handgun, resting on blue velvet. The man grabbed it and eyed his weapon for a moment. So many years had passed since the last time he held it and it felt good to have it back in his hands; it was like an old friend.

And tonight would be their last reunion. The man took his gun and exited the bedroom, then went to the kitchen. He wanted to have one more celebrative drink. He snatched a bottle of whiskey which was almost full and headed to the living room. There was a fire crackling in the fireplace and the man sat on a chair in front of its warmth, the gun placed on his lap. It was a fine evening, considering it was the apocalypse. He wasn't going to live through this insanity. This would be his last evening in this world. He pondered where he would end up from here. Did an afterlife exist? Would he be reborn? Or was there something completely different waiting for him? Maybe he would just stop existing in every form once it was time.

The man leisurely enjoyed his bottle of whiskey. He reflected the life he had been having and came to the conclusion that it wasn't the worst one somebody could have. He was willing to let go of it. Once the bottle was empty, the man stared a little while into the flames. He grasped his gun. He glanced at it, old memories surfacing into his mind. He had experienced so much with this weapon, taken so many lives. And now, it would take his, too. It was possible that then somebody else would be using it as well, looters would surely come after his death.

He pointed the barrel of the gun at his head. And just like that, he pulled the trigger. The gunshot wound killed the man instantly, blood splattered on the floor and few other things. His lifeless corpse dropped the gun. His fight was done. Now he would fall into oblivion, just like he wanted.



[b]DAY 22: SHARP BRANCHES – DARK TROPHY TREE[/b]

Just a little while ago, Luke had received a phone call regarding the death of his mother. He was also informed that the mother had left her house for him. Luke had moved away from his childhood home a long time ago and hadn't visited his mother that much, which he now regretted a little bit. Her funeral was soon to be held in the nearby town and so Luke had traveled back to his homeland, to attend the funeral but to also check out the condition of his childhood home.

Luke drove a forest road toward the house where he had grown up. It was located in a pretty remote area and there wasn't really anything near it. It was one of the things Luke had resented in his childhood because there were no other children he could play with. He had made up imaginary friends instead. As he was driving closer he wondered if one of his favorite places to play at had remained the same. Though overall he was interested to see the property and what condition it was in.

Eventually the trees moved out of the way as he drove to the front yard. Luke climbed out of his car and gave a good look at the building in front of him. It looked pretty much the same as in his childhood. The red paint was a bit peeled off and some of the drainpipes were a little decayed, but other than that, Luke could still recognize the place. He decided to take a quick tour inside the house and walked towards the front door. He used the key to unlock it and stepped inside. Just like the outside of the house, the interior still looked like back in the day when he had been a child. His mother wasn't really one to rearrange and move things around. She had kept everything the same until the day she had died. Luke got a melancholy feeling because the house looked like it was just waiting for his mother to come back home. She would never do that.

After some time Luke headed back outside. Memories of his childhood were flooding back to his mind and he decided to check a nearby place in the woods. He had spent a lot of time playing in the forest, wielding only his imagination. He came up with various friends he played with, one of his favorites being a creature he called Noki. Luke was close to a place where he had imagined adventures with Noki specifically; it was an odd dark tree which had strangely sharp branches.

Luke could still remember the path to his secret playground as if he had visited it just yesterday. Eventually he spotted the tree, which was rather easy to distinguish because of its dark trunk; somehow it looked even darker than Luke had remembered. Once he reached the tree, he wore a smile as he glanced at its top.

But then his smile faded, replaced by shock. Right there, in the sharp branches of the tree, countless body parts of both human and animals were pierced. It was almost like a grotesque Christmas tree. They had been put on display so carefully, but who could possibly do something this sick? It couldn't be his mother, right?

“Luke…?” A raspy voice came from somewhere above him.

Luke saw how something was slithering down the tree. The thing had a scaly snake-like body and four legs that resembled a bird's feet. The head was horse-like with a long black mane and unsettling white eyes. The creature was frightening, but the worst part of it was that Luke could recognize it: it was Noki, almost like how he had imagined it.

“How can this be…?” Luke was in disbelief, Noki was supposed to be just an imaginary friend.

“I've been waiting for you, Luke”, Noki said as it descended even lower. “Look! This is my gift for you! Do you like it?”

Luke quickly glanced at the branches filled with body parts and shook his head. “How could I like something this repulsive?”

Noki tilted its head slightly. “Oh, but Luke, I remember it clearly! When you were tiny and lonely, you were also full of anger! You were bullied a lot in school, remember? And once while we were playing here, you wished for those bullies to be pierced by the tree! You wanted their bodies to dangle here until the end of time!”

“What? No, that can't be right…” Luke didn't remember most of this at all; sure, he could recall he was being bullied but the rest of this? He didn't have a memory of it.

“Yes, I did the deed! I slaughtered and chopped them into pieces! And their beloved pets, too! I've been waiting for you, all these years, enclosed in a pocket where time doesn't march forward so the meat can remain fresh! All for your dark satisfaction!”

“Look, Noki, I don't know how you're real, but this is really messed up”, Luke said defiantly.

Noki stared at him for a little while, remaining completely silent. “So… You don't like my gift?”

“No, I don't”, Luke answered.

“Fine! Traitor!” Noki screeched in a horrible way and quickly came down from the tree; in fact, its movements were so quick that Luke didn't have much time to react at all.

The creature took a hold of Luke's throat with one of its feet and the grip was so firm Luke wasn't able to struggle against it. Then Noki started to climb the tree again, pulling Luke up. Once Noki found what it was looking for, a perfect branch for its latest victim, it violently thrusted Luke's upper body into the branch, impaling right through his chest. It pierced Luke's heart, effectively killing him. His lifeless body now became one of the macabre decorations on the tree, his blood flowing out of his body and running across the tree's trunk all the way down.

Noki let out a few sounds that resembled singing. “Oh Luke, you broke my heart. It's only fair that I broke yours.”



[b]DAY 23: LIFELIKE STATUES – ARTIST'S FINEST WORK[/b]

Two traveling companions Jarath and Bethin had to unfortunately admit they had got lost. It was because of the heavy mist lingering in the air, it was hard to see anything around them so of course they had missed some landmarks. Since the fog had plagued them for two days already, it was to be expected that they had strayed from their designated path. Especially Bethin was puzzled and embarrassed, he had wandered around these parts before, though many years ago. Still, he had been pretty sure he could navigate this region, only to be proven wrong. Jarath didn't mock his friend for this, but still, Bethin remained ashamed.

The mist felt unnatural somehow and the travelers couldn't possibly know when it would pass, so they just had to keep going inside its belly. Eventually they would reach some sort of settlement, right? Both Jarath and Bethin held their hopes up. The world was eerily silent around them, though occasionally some birds would cry out. Other than that, there were just the steps of the two travelers. They kept a light conversation up every now and then, but then they would stay silent for a while.

It seemed like that they were in luck for once as they saw dark buildings starting to form before their eyes. They felt incredibly relieved and grateful for whatever entity had guided them here.

“Oh, finally! A village!” Jarath exclaimed.

“The folks here will surely help us get on the right path”, Bethin said.

They traversed through the fog and reached the first buildings of the settlement soon enough. They proceeded further in, but at some point, the two friends got a strange feeling. No one was around. Supposedly this place should have been bustling with life, but they didn't see a single soul. All the houses seemed to be in good condition too, so this place hadn't been abandoned for long. All this was so weird.

While Jarath had been eyeing their surroundings, Bethin suddenly yelled: “Look! I can see a person ahead!”

Jarath looked at the direction where Bethin was pointing at and he could see it too; there was a human-shaped figure in the distance. The friends rushed towards it in hopes it was a villager, but as they came near it, they were disappointed. It wasn't a real person after all, it was just a statue, though very lifelike – and odd. It was a man who was seemingly spreading open his own ribcage, all his organs visible. Who could do such a sickening piece of art?

Jarath noticed more figures ahead and walked past the strange statue, Bethin following him. They were probably statues too since they weren't moving at all, but the travelers wanted to check them out. They hadn't expected to witness something so morbid within the settlement. It looked like all the villagers were replaced by these statues that were all in a horrifying and agonizing condition. As Jarath was examining one statue of a woman whose throat was cut, he was shocked to see that it was blinking and the eyes were somewhat following him.

“Fucking hell!” Jarath shouted and took a few steps backwards.

“What?” Bethin asked, giving a curious look.

“This thing is blinking!” Jarath answered. “Is it… is it alive?”

Now that his friend had mentioned this, Bethin took a better look at some of the statues only to notice the same thing. Indeed, their eyes moved.

Completely freaked out by this and realizing that this place was definitely cursed, Jarath said: “We have to get out of here!”

But before they managed to get anywhere, the village started to rumble violently. Something huge was moving. From the mist came a large dark dragon that had a long snake-like body. It had wings on its back but they were way too small for it to be able to fly. It had a monstrous face and especially the huge yellow eyes were captivating.

“Do you like my creations?” The dragon's voice was deep and loud like thunder.

Frozen with fear and disbelief, Jarath and Bethin didn't speak or move an inch.

This didn't seem to bother the dragon. “Beautiful, aren't they? There is unparalleled beauty in suffering. It is what I desire to represent in my works.” Then the dragon looked directly at the frightened men. “You will become pieces of art, too.”

The dragon's eyes started to glow and turned purple. Jarath and Bethin were shocked to realize they couldn't move at all. They had no control over their own bodies – but horrifyingly, the dragon seemed to have. It forced their bodies to move, twisting in unnatural positions, some of which cracked their bones. They couldn't even scream from pain. The dragon continued to move them like puppets until it was finally satisfied with their stances. With an invisible force, it then dealt damage to them, something that would normally kill a man. Jarath got a huge wound on his stomach, spilling out of guts. Bethin was pierced by something that made a hole in his chest and back.

They were statues now, frozen in the moment of great agony.



[b]DAY 24: TANGLED VINES – QUEEN OF THE HURT[/b]

An ordinary day had suddenly turned into a nightmare. The town was struck by huge, dark green vines that infiltrated every nook and cranny, causing destruction and death as they slithered around the town like enormous snakes. People were terrified and their screams filled the air as they desperately tried to get away from this strange threat. One local man, Vinric, was one of those trying to flee the town, but not out of fear. He believed that he knew who was responsible for this chaos and he rushed towards the nearby woods as the source of the vicious vines seemed to be located in there. He just hoped he could get in there in time, to minimize the damage.

Vinric managed to avoid the vines well enough and made it to the darkness of the woods. He followed the vines deeper and deeper, into a world where man wasn't welcome. It was the kingdom of animals, but he hoped that just this once, he was allowed to pass. The vines had completely taken over the forest, they were everywhere in a tangled mess, moving in unnatural ways. While Vinric had the suspicion of who the culprit was, he didn't know why they were doing this. That was probably the most terrifying part.

The woods were getting more dense. For a moment Vinric was afraid that he had been bewitched, doomed to wander these parts forever since he was still going deeper. Luckily, this wasn't the case for him, and after a while he got to a clearing. Soon enough he realized that this was the source of madness. In the middle of everything was a huge cocoon of some kind and it seemed like the vines were coming from its insides. Vinric slowed down his pace and walked towards this mystifying sight, not sure what to do.

“Vinric, my dear.”

That voice… He hadn't heard it for a long time, but still it made his heart tremble. Vinric glanced around, trying to spot the person who had just spoken, and noticed them coming from behind the cocoon. It was a beautiful man dressed in black dress and he was slowly lowered to the ground by a bunch of vines that were attached to his back. He was smiling, but Vinric couldn't recognize that smile anymore; it was twisted and mad, not affectionate as it once was. Other than that, he looked exactly as Vinric remembered.

“So, it was you…” Vinric said, his voice barely more audible than a whisper. “Nelau…”

Nelau's smile widened slightly as he stepped closer to Vinric, raising his hand to tenderly touch Vinric's cheek. “Yes, it's been a long time… But you're still as handsome as ever. I'm glad to see you.”

“But… why?” Vinric lifted his hand to touch Nelau's own. “Why are you doing this? I thought you wouldn't use your power to do wicked things…”

“Oh, my dear, there are a lot of things you don't understand because of your simple human mind”, Nelau said. “There are certain things, great things, that I must do, no matter how unpleasant they are.”

Vinric was on the verge of tears. “You're not my Nelau… But please, I beg you, if what we had meant anything to you, you stop this attack immediately.”

“Can't do that”, Nelau responded heartlessly. “This is more important than either of us.”

Vinric grasped both of Nelau's hands. “Please! You have to stop this, right now! You're killing innocent people!”

Nelau's smile turned into a frown. “You're getting in my way. Do you know what happens to obstacles? They'll get destroyed.”

The vines on Nelau's back lunged forward and captured Vinric, wrapping around all his limbs and neck. He tried to struggle against them, but in vain. With monstrous strength, the vines started to pull these different parts of his body, until his body couldn't take it anymore and all his limbs and head were torn apart. The pieces of Vinric's body now lay scattered on the ground, his blood staining the soil.

Nelau had once loved this man. But still, he heartlessly just left the fleshy remains of his love on the ground to rot. There were important tasks he had to do. The vines on his back lifted him back to the top of the cocoon. The invasion of the town was far from over.



[b]DAY 25: SPARE PARTS – REGENERATIVE HELL[/b]

Declan had a gag in his mouth to muffle his screams of pain as the scalpel made a clean cut on his chest; he had been in this same scenario countless times before even though there was no visible indication of it. He had never been anaesthetized or even sedated during these procedures, he had been fully conscious and felt everything that was done to his body. Once Declan's chest had been cut open, a rib spreader was put in place so the one doing this operation had a better access to his chest cavity. The doctor performing this surgery was skilled and handled her tools well as she neatly started to cut off Declan's heart. She was able to do so without much mess and took the precious organ out; it was still beating although it wasn't part of Declan anymore. Having no heart is painful and soon after this he blacked out.

It was alright, though. His body would grow a new heart soon – though it would get harvested as well sooner or later. Never before had Declan thought that being an immortal with regenerative abilities would become his curse, until a deranged doctor had captured him and would chop off his organs to sell in the black market or be used to treat some patients. They have no idea how horrible the backstory behind these organs were. The doctor was a sneaky and wicked individual, having no problem with inflicting pain upon others, but mostly to Declan. Why had a person like that even become a doctor in the first place, he didn't know. He didn't know for how long she had kept him captive, but it felt like an eternity, especially with the constant fear that plagued him because he would never know when the frightening steps would once more descend into the basement where he was kept against his will.

This was his life now, just fear and agony. Declan had tried to make escape plans multiple times but it seemed like nothing would work. He had even tried to confront the doctor head on, but hadn't been able to overpower her; she definitely wasn't a normal human being. Besides, after these attempts she had given him less food so he would be too weak to try anything. It was also just one more thing to torment him, she enjoyed making new ways to cause suffering.

Declan was sitting on the bed of his little room. His chest was hurting; the new heart was currently trying to regenerate. Immortality hurts. Especially in his case; a normal person could just die and get away from this torturous existence that way, but he couldn't even do that. He was forced to endure and suffer all this.

He stood up from his bed and paced around a little bit; there wasn't really anything for him to do. The light in the ceiling started to flicker ominously, which he found quite annoying. At some point he walked to a wall and started to bash his head against it. He did this so violently that his head started to bleed; there were numerous blood splatters on the walls as an indication he had done the same thing many times before. If only he could crack his own skull open and destroy his brains… But they would just heal by themselves no matter how severe the damage was.

Declan didn't want to accept this, that he was now just an object or a vessel to get harvested from. But he had no idea how to get out of this situation.

He froze suddenly as he heard footsteps coming closer to his room. Fear tiptoed into his still recovering heart as he recognized those steps. She was coming again. What would she tear off of him next?