[b]The Return of Vorgramith[/b]


VHS cassettes, nineteenth century suitcases, bags full of curtains, a rocking chair half eaten by woodworms, preserving jars, several boxes with sewing and knitting stuff, ancient toys and dolls, more preserving jars... This attic was a mess! Stuffed to the brim with junk old enough you might expect to find in a museum. There even was a creepy, gnarled African mask sitting in the back that definitely didn't look like a replica, or cheap souvenir. This stuff couldn't possibly be all from his aunt, could it?

"Uh, where do I even start...?" Antony sighed as he tried to pick up a pillow that practically crumbled to dust in his fingers.

He didn't really knew his aunt that well. Actually, he hadn't seen her since he was six, so her recent death didn't hit him hard. But aside from him, she only had one relative left, her sister, who wouldn't even have been able to climb up here in her age, so it was to Antony to get rid off all the stuff in her house. He could have declined - he probably should have - but Antony wasn't that much of a dick. Besides, he could keep anything he found interesting, and old people's hoards often held hidden treasures. Maybe he'd have some luck?

So far he didn't find anything of value, though, but he'd just begun and this would probably take all day. "Hm, what's this...?" the mouse wondered as he found an ancient looking clay vase behind a few cardboard boxes. The dusty thing looked like stolen from an excavation site and was plastered on all sides with chipping paper stripes that were scribbled on in once red ink. The signs didn't look familiar at all.

The vase was corked, felt heavy and a careful shake confirmed that something was inside. Something... metallic? "God, please let that be some ancient gold treasure!" Antony mumbled as he brushed off the decayed paper from the stopper, which opened easily. "I'd be content already with some jewelry, or even silverware..." Though once he peered inside, the vase was empty, safe for some dust.

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Gha!" The sudden seething voice behind him, made Antony drop the vase, which shattered on the floor. When the mouse turned, he likewise hit the floor and scuttled back until his back hit the mountain of old rubbish. A creature stood there. A massive one! With a hide (or fur?) as black as the night. Pale, violet patterns that almost looked like eyes, or flames flickered over the grotesque body, which was covered in thorns of all sizes. A set of three such patterns sat on it's forehead, facing in different directions, though the middle one peered straight down at the scared mouse.

A huge, nasty grin spread from one side of the large skull to the other, with slimy, purple drool dripping from a row of uneven, but very, very sharp teeth. "Your terror flatters me, mortal," it said in that eery voice, though without moving its mouth. "But where are my manners?! The name is Vorgramith." With that grin spreading further and further, the black giant turned his head left and right and rolled his beefy shoulders to stretch out his body. And in doing so, his huge horns scraped over the ceiling. "I must thank you, mortal, for freeing me. One hundred sixty years trapped in that rotten THING!"

The monster slammed his foot down on the clay shards in front of Antony's paws and literally pulverized them. The powerful impact that rattled the entire house, made him almost wet his pants. This couldn't be real! Was there some foul gas trapped in that vase that made him halucinate? "W-w-wha..." the cowering mouse swallowed. "What the hell are you?!"

"Huhu, that's hitting home, actually," it sneered, flexing its deadly claws. "I'm known as Vorgramith, death in the shadows and tormentor of dreams! Spawned in the third circle of the Underworld and ascended to the Middleworld by the grace of Jagthon, the flaming rage of the ninth circle. The pleasure is all mine... obviously."

Anxiously Antony was looking for a way out, though the massive demon blocked the attic hatch, his only escape. Quite a few more questions were going through the mouse's head right now, though he didn't find the strength to voice them. Judging by that brute's byname, he probably wouldn't like the answers anyway. Eventually Antony closed his eyes and hoped that, once he dared to open them again, all of this would turn out to be just a nightmare, or delusion.

"Aww, don't be afraid, little mortal. I wouldn't kill the one who dared to unseal me - not straightaway, at least," Vorgramith sneered, now with all his three eye-things focused on the trembling rodent at his mercy. "I want to have some fun with you first. I've been stuck in that bloody pot for centuries, after all!"

The evil voice remained, despite Antony's intense prayer, and when he carefully opened his eyes again, the mouse chocked with horror. "Argh! God, no!" Desperately he kicked his legs over the wooden floor in a vain attempt to retreat further into the heap of clutter. Before him, the hideous demon shamelessly revealed what sort of fun he had in mind: A dreadful, purple cock was bouncing and dripping between the creature's crooked legs!

"God won't come and help you!" the demon laughed as he stepped closer. "But if you are a good mortal and serve me well, I might spare your pathetic life..."





[b]Hungry Hellspawn[/b]


As he walked through the darkening Streets, Antony felt like a junkie everyone was staring at with a mix of morbid curiosity and disgust. Though some awkward stares of passersby were his smallest problem right now. The demon he accidentally had unleashed from his prison, Vorgramith, was still around and walked right behind him, his bloodthirsty eyes ogling the people around them like they did with the mouse.

"H-how come they can't see you?" Antony carefully asked in a whisper. This thing was a gruesome creature without any sense of moral, or conscience, though it was also sentient and thinking. It might not have been gentle, but so far it had spared Antony's life. If he could keep Vorgramith satisfied, maybe it would stay this way? Right now he could only hope.

"Because I chose not to be seen," he answered cryptically and promptly made a toddler in its mother's arm cry as they passed them. He gave the innocent baby a look as though he wanted to eat him alive, which... honestly just might be Vorgramith's intention. "Keep walking, mortal!" the demon growled and roughly shoved the mouse forward.

"Hrmg..." Stiffly Antony caught his balance and tried to pick up his speed with small, awkward steps. That fucking beast had left him sore after it was done ravaging him! Ever since then he knew for certain that this black monstrosity was not just a product of his mind, but in fact, real.

"How much longer, till we get to the meat market?" Vorgramith demanded to know impatiently.

The mouse swallowed. "A-almost there..." he promised anxiously. The sole reason for this trip was to prevent the demon from actually eating babies, or Antony himself. It was a desperate idea that he hoped wouldn't turn Vorgramith against him. "And it's... just a super market..." he added carefully.

"A super meat market?! Hchfff...!" With his purple, dripping tongue lolling out of his likewise dripping mouth, the demon was probably imagining unspeakable things. "Hm, maybe keeping you was not such a bad idea? This place has changed a lot since I was locked up. Slrfff!" With a hot, foul breath Vorgramith let his long tongue flop down on Antony's shoulder and let it slither around his neck. "But don't think I wouldn't gnaw off your corpse, if this super meat market of yours was a lie!"





[b]Ascension and Downfall[/b]


"Ah~!" Laying on (and basically destroying) Antony's deceased aunt's couch, Vorgramith held up a large piece of raw spare ribs and fed it to himself, bones and all. "This 'packed meat' isn't nearly bloody enough for my taste, but it fucking betas spending decades on an empty stomach."

"That cart full of meat has cost a fortune..." the mouse complained in a whisper, though apparently demons didn't care for such worldly concerns. Oh well, a few dollars to keep your life, that's not such a bad deal in the end. In any case, that demon had to leave! "C-can I dress myself again, now," the mouse pleaded, shivering in the unheated living room. "Please..."

One of Vorgramith's shifting eye-things turned towards the naked mouse, than a second one joined in and his munching grin spread. "Don't be so coy, slave. You're not that ugly - for an ensouled. I deserve some eye-candy after so much time alone, don't I?"

Antony swallowed unsettled. From pathetic mortal degraded to slave, this wasn't going well. Not at all! "Y-yes..."

"Yes WHAT?!" the overbearing demon demanded in a snarl.

Trembling with fear, Antony curled his tail tighter around his leg. "Yes, master Vorgramith!"

"Hah! That's better!" he sneered, reaching for yet more meat to sate his seemingly insatiable hunger. "And now: On your knees, slave, and worship your new god!" Though the rodent hesitated clumsily. "What? Am I not worth of your praise?" the demon added in a threatening tone.

"Yes. Of course!" Shaken from his state of shock, Antony swiftly dropped to his knees, lest his unwelcome guest decided to punish his reluctancy. "You-you are the only one worth of praise, master Vorgramith! You are the mightiest, most wicked and most terrible creature that was ever unleashed upon this world. The deadliest, cruelest demon of them all. I am eternally grateful to be the one who had the honor to release you from your prison. Your return is a blessing fo-- uhm, a condemnation for this world!"

With a satisfied huff, the glutton stuffed himself with more meat. "Not bad, chisel tooth. But a true god demands more than just vocal extolment. I am worthy of your physical adoration and worship as well, am I not?"

Submissively Antony nodded, though was close to tears. "Y-yes, master Vorgramith. My b-body is at... y-your service..." He swallowed down a sob. "God, please not this again!"

"Music to my ears!" the demon chuckled and then moved on the creaking couch. In a swift, powerful movement, that shook the groveling mouse to its core, Vorgramith slammed his pitch black, clawed paws down on the neat coffee table and immediately destroyed the antiquated furniture. "Now then, show me how much you adore your new overlord and you might see another sun rise. And keep on begging, it makes me horny!"