Yellow Fruit, chapter Two

He knew where he was. Narrow path pawed with reddish stone snaked between giant trunks of milenia old trees. Forest on both sides of the path was dark, pitch black impenetrable darkness that can not exist in real world. He was aware that it was dream that he was stuck into. After he tried to walk he realised one more thing –  he was shackled. Touching his left elbow he felt manackle on his right hand and some heavy load too. Tapping blindly he felt chain and the moment he touched it chain started to glow, faint at first but brighter with every moment that passed. Soon, it glowed like molten metal but was barely warm to touch. It was a long chain, streching into darkness, following the path trough the forest. He tried to pull it but nothing happened at first, then he realised that he heard something. Almost inaudible voice coming from the direction in which chain was leading. He pulled again, much stronger now and then he heard scream that froze his blood. He pulled with all his power now and scream that followed was itself followed by monstrous roar.
He recognised the voice in that scream. It was her, his beloved one. Abandoning all fear he started to run, following the chain, pulling it  and mere moments later he realised where this path was leading.
Graveyard.
He woke up with his heart beating, covered in ice cold sweat, lying on the ground somewhere deep in the frost covered forest. It was dusk and there was barely some light remaining left. Knowing what he had to to, he started to walk towards the graveyard. She was calling him to join her there, he thought. I will die there on her grave, he decided, so I can be with her forever, as we both dreamed.
It was a long walk and when he arrived it was already night. Graveyard was ancient,  with large, gloomy monuments dedicated to people long time gone. There was no fear in him as he passed thousands of sepulchres. He knew where her family tomb was so he walked straight there. It was one of the biggest tombs on the graveyard, marked with massive white marble cube with 4 crying angels carved from black stone and all 4 corners.


He knew that tomb itself was hidden below the masive stone, locked with intricate mechanism that only family members could open. Knowing that there is no way to go inside and die next to her coffin, he sat and leaned on cold marble, took long, strange looking knife he aquired on the forsaken world Dunja was growing and started to cut veins on his hands.

Blood started to flow and soon, darkness arround him started coagulating too. He discarded it as a simple halutination due to blood loss and continued to patiently wait for death. Soon, even though his mind was already fading, he realized that something strange is happening. Darkness first turned to unreal, pitch dark, forest and other graveyard monuments dissapeared and even sky, clear mere moments ago, was empty, veiled in black. Then shapes came. In blacknes he started to notice different forms, many small but few of them were gigantic behemots. The one he could see with most clarity had a form that shifted in every moment yet one contextual shape was allways there and it remindedn him on a carrion bird that lived in desert regions in the far East. Giand beaked head, naked without any feathers with eyes filled with vortex of void.
“Strong is the chain have you forged“, it said. „A ritual you have started, mortal“, giant carrion bird said, his head tiltet to one side. „A ritual you should bring to an end“, it finished, turning his head toward new shape that was forming in coiling darkens. Buzzing sound penetrated the silence as vast, bloathed form appeared, towering above the white marble cube. Miasmic stench rolled in thick, worm-like clouds down the mountain of rotten flesh, its eyes emerald green.
„My minions will not touch her, my worms will not spoil her flesh“, it gurgled in the voice of a dead. „I will keep her fresh for you, if you finish the ritual, my child...“ it blarred, turning its head left, toward another form coagulating in the dark.




Iron clad monstrosity, its skeletal red wings spaning to eternity. Blood started to rain as it roared.
„You have proven yourself to be worthy of my heed in the years that passed, you worm“ it roared in a voice made of thunder, endless skulls on its armour making klicking sounds as it moved. „Many skulls you have brought to me, rivers of blood spilled in honour of the vow you gave. Not once have you tricked anyone, not once have you stabbed one with a knife from behind. You cherished the blood spilling while looking in their dying eyes. Strong is the chain you forged, mortal, for not even axes of my princes are no able to undone it.“ It howled.
Finish the ritual, and I will bring her back to you. I will tear her soul from the guts of the leviathan that is devouring her, choking on the chain you made!“ it finished, raising its giant axe and, slashing darknes where new figure emerged in horrible parody of birth.
„Pleasures you will have, child“, serpentine figure hissed, its feminine form destilate of all desires, all obscenity, all the pain and all the joy, all monstrous perversity imaginable and unimaginable. „All you ever wanted and all she ever desired, it will be yours to do and have for I will bless all your pleasures with the blessing no mortals ever witnessed. Finish the ritual and I will bring her back to you, beautifull like she once was, more desirable then you ever imagined, her flesh warm and fresh for she and thou will no longer fear perishment of age. Finish the ritual and she will be yours for eternity do to as you please“, it hissed in a voice of snake.
Still bleeding, barely alive, he whispered.
„But what ritual....“, almost inaudible he was. „What do I...need to do?“
All four forms gained clarity in their appearance, and one by one they spoke.




„Mutilate and enjoy, torture and charge for the pain you suffered, remember me while you do it“, snakelike feminine form said.
„Bring contagion to ones that rejected you, charge for the love they have taken away that you deserved, my child, as my love for all my children is endless“, rotten mass with eyes like green jewels said.
„Kill and maim, mortal, and charge for the shame you suffered. Spill the blood of eight, place their skull on the grave of your beloved, let their blood paint it red. Remember me and let them know who slaughtered them“, winged giant said in a voice that shaked the soil beneath them.
„Kill in the night without moon, mortal“, carrion bird said. „Remember the knowlege you gained with my blessing and remember their spit on your face. Spill the blood, bring the skulls, mutilate and finish the ritual. We will honour you and your bellowed one for stong  is the chain you forged.“
„I will do it!, he said. „I will do anything for her, as I vowed I will“ he screamed in horror as his own almost frozen blood started to shift from a puddle between his legs. Like tentacles it started to climb over his body and pour trough the wound on his hand back insde, crawling like worms, black and cold as ice. He screamed in pain as it coiled in his flesh but pain was soon gone, scars sewn shut only proof that he cut his hand at all. He felt alive for the first time in many years.
He was completely alone. Managing to stand up, he turned and raised his hand against the cold marble, teasing it. It was completely covered with ice. Then he turned and started to walk towards the town,not knowing what came after him, what claws were holding the chain he pulled.Forest started to die where he passed, birds falling dead from the air, air turned to miasmic stench.
Night without moon was tommorow.