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Adflict, Lord of Torment
Chapter 1
Average Diablo Fan Fiction Club Review Score: 8/10
A child of 6 years played innocently in a field behind the house in which she and her family had lived for the duration of her short life. She knelt on the ground, holding a short stick, nudging a small beetle across the ground. She wasn't precisely sure where the bug was going, but she was certain that she was helping him get there more quickly. After each 'helpful' push from the stick, the beetle stumbled awkwardly in an attempt to reorient himself in the direction he had initially been traveling.
When the beetle had traveled to a point the girl could no longer reach with her stick, she stood, took a few steps, and knelt back down being careful to set her knees on a grassy patch to keep her long, dark-brown skirt from getting dirty. She then flipped a tress of hair over her shoulder that was so light-blonde it had often been mistaken for white. This ensured that her hair wouldn't interfere with her work, as it was long enough to reach the ground from her kneeling position.
Just as she extended her arm to give the beetle another helpful nudge, she noticed the ground seemed to darken as if obscured by shadow. She took the sun's extinguishing to be the work of a cloud wandering overhead and ignored the minor inconvenience. After all, if she didn't help the beetle, who would?
"Jessa!" The girl's mother called from a strong stone's throw away, by the house. "Jessa, come inside my love, there's a storm on the way!"
Jessa looked in the direction the warning had come from, expecting to see her mother waving from across the field. Instead, she saw a darkness that struck her as quite unusual, even considering her short lifetime. She looked on for a moment, tilting her head from one side to the other. Somehow she thought this head-bobbing motion would help her see further in the darkness. After a few seconds she was able to make out the silhouette of her mother, in fact, waving at her from across the field.
The head-bobbing works! Jessa thought as she rose to her feet. She loosened her grip on the stick and allowed it to drop to the ground. This stick would mark her spot so that she could come back and finish helping the beetle once the storm had passed. She didn't feel as though she was in any hurry, but her youthful abundance of energy compelled her to run towards her mother.
After only a few steps progress the world brightened once more with intense ferocity, only this time the field, house, and Jessa's mother were all tinged a vibrant-red color. In this light, Jessa could see her mother's face, but her expression had changed wildly. The face, at one point, had been content and casual but now was marked with fear. Immediately after Jessa recognized her mother's emotion, there was a loud crash of thunder, louder than any Jessa had ever heard before.
BOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jessa felt her whole body shake from the violent burst of sound, and she was subsequently thrown toward the ground. However, she wasn't totally sure if the thunder had pushed her to the ground or if the earth itself shook. Just as she hit the ground, the light vanished, but the enormous blast of thunder continued to echo as if from all directions.
"Lerrick! Oh, Lerrick, come at once!" Jessa's mother cried as she witnessed these events. She sprinted full-speed towards her daughter who was trying to bring herself back to her feet.
Jessa had risen to her hands and knees in an effort to regain her composure but stopped short upon feeling an intense pain in her arm. She supported herself on her legs and her good arm, then inspected the pained limb to see what damage had been done. She found a deep scratch on her elbow that bled a bit, but no worse than other cuts and scrapes she had received throughout her years as an adventurous child.
Jessa lifted the leg opposite her good arm and rose to one knee in a renewed effort to stand up. Then, suddenly, the world shone red once more. This burst of light was also accompanied by the monstrous thunder, however, on this occasion she was sure she felt the ground tremble beneath her and she found herself falling down once more.
BOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This time Jessa landed on her back, facing the opposite direction of her mother. With this point of view she saw a wicked, jagged bolt of crimson lightning spanning from an impossibly dark mass of clouds in the sky to the freshly broken and upheaved terrain that used to be the center of her family's field. She hadn't experienced anything of this nature before, but she was young enough to not know if this was a naturally ocurring phenomenon. Judging from her mother's reaction, she decided, whether natural or not, it was an event that was to be feared.
The door to their house flung open, and a tall man came running out. His hair and his pants were soaking wet and he had beads of water all over his skin. It was fairly obvious that he had been bathing when he heard his wife's call for help. "Great Heavens almighty, Jennice, what is going on out here?!" Lerrick questioned direly as he saw the unnatural darkness, having heard the loud crashes of thunder and felt the tremors while he was bathing.
"J-Jessa!" Was all Jennice could reply as she ran out into the field. Lerrick's heart jumped into his throat upon hearing his wife's distressed proclamation of his only child's name. He started after her as soon as his wits returned.
Just as Lerrick began running the earth jolted underneath him. The ground seemed to lurch backward several feet in the blink of an eye, causing both he and Jennice to fall flat on their stomachs. This quake was accompanied by more red light and great thunder, both of which refused to go away, unlike those before.
Lerrick pressed his arms forward, vaulting himself to his knees. When he looked back to the field he saw a sight that nothing he had witnessed in all his years of life could have prepared him for. The dark-red lightning had now coalesced into an enormous swirling maelstrom that stood at least twice the height of his house. From the top of the crimson vortex forked undying beams of the red lightning, sprawling upwards into the black clouds. The electricity crackled and buzzed in the air as its tendrils danced through the sky. He saw the ground surrounding the red maelstrom was falling away at a rapid pace, leaving only a narrow pathway of broken earth which appeared to him to be a bridge leading out from the vortex. In place of the fallen land, Lerrick viewed a lake of fire. The lake seemed to flow underneath the ground as if the entirety of the field's remains floated atop a massive river of flame. He seemed to notice just then that Jessa lay sobbing at the edge of the newly-formed bridge of earth.
The quakes subsided at long last, reminding Lerrick to stand up and run to his daughter. Jennice apparently had the same thought as she also jumped to her feet and renewed her sprint.
Before they could get to her, however, a blinding light came from the crimson maelstrom, which caused both of them to stop in their tracks and shield their eyes. The flash dissipated and all three family members stared awestruck toward the vortex, petrified from whatever might happen next.
A creature formed from within the whirling pool of lightning, at least half again as tall as Lerrick. The being appeared to have a human-like body, but was certainly anything but human. The thing's skin was black and leathery. Its skull was extended upward and back, at least the length of it's arm, ending in what looked to be a crown formed from its bone and flesh. It's hands were gaunt and bony, and, in place of fingernails, had claws that were as long and as sharp as a blade Lerrick might have used to cut the grass in the field. It was obvious that the creature had legs, but they were thin and hung from the torso uselessly. There was a black mist shrouding the bottom of its legs, but it looked as though the being didn't walk. It was as if it hovered a hand's-length above the ground. Behind its back appeared to be a tail of black and red flame. This tail drifted slowly back and forth as the creature moved along the ground.
Lerrick watched in grim awe as the abomination drifted out along the earthen pathway... and towards Jessa! Apparently Jennice had already noticed the fiend's trajectory and had launched toward her daughter to pull her out of harm's way. Lerrick looked on in horror to see the thing's head turn toward Jennice... and what seemed to be a smile grew on its face. Fire shown through its jagged teeth, but its mouth did not move as it spoke, "So, mortals are as foolish as I've heard..." The voice seemed to come not from its mouth, but from inside of Lerrick's head.
The beast raised a clawed hand, the palm facing upward, in Jennice's direction. Lerrick saw her stop instantly. Her arms shot up from her sides, and her body began lifting off of the ground! He tried to run to her, but his body couldn't comply. In fact, he couldn't even blink! It was as though he was being forced to look at his suspended wife.
The monster then raised its other hand, the palm facing sideways, and raked its claws above the first hand. As the creature did this, Jennice's clothing ripped off to one side in shreds, and Lerrick saw crimson lines form across his wife's body. One above her ankles, one just below her hips, another across her wrists and midsection, and a fourth across her neck. He reluctantly watched in abhorrance as her body separated into pieces and fell one at a time. Her feet and legs split from her body, blood spilling out onto the ground. then her hands detached, her fingers twitching as they fell. Her lower torso then slipped away with a disgusting sloshing sound. Intestines and other organs slung downward from her upper torso upon the relievance of the lower half. The upper half then followed suit and crashed atop the other body parts with a sickening thud.
Jennice's neck dripped streams of blood, but it did not fall. Instead, the evil being motioned his hand in Lerrick's direction and his wife's head flew over, coming to a stop hovering just in front of his face.
Lerrick wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to close his eyes, but he simply had no control over his body. He was forced to stare at his wife's face, contorted by anguish and terror, her eyes rolled so far back that he could see only their bloodshot whites. After several seconds, that seemed like hours, of being tortured by this vision, the beast flung his hand outward and Jennice's head flew away into the field. Blood from her neck stained his bare chest and flung to the ground as the head spun.
Lerrick's body now raised off of the ground and approached the killer, he was certain that he was going to meet a similar fate. His body drifted over the ground and stopped near his daughter, who had her face cupped in her hands as she bawled. Lerrick hoped with all his soul that Jessa hadn't seen what had happened to her mother, and that she wouldn't see what was about to happen to him...
To Lerrick's surprise, and horror, the fiend once more extended a clawed hand, this time in the direction of Jessa. Just as had happened to her mother, Jessa's arms and legs shot out from under her and she hovered above the ground. The evil creature gestured toward Lerrick and her tiny body raised up to meet her father's stare from a few foot-lengths away. Neither of them could do, or say, anything, but Lerrick was certain that she knew all he wanted to say to her in their last moments.
The horrible being brought up its other arm and moved it around a bit, as if drawing something in the air. Black smoke appeared in front of the beast. The smoke began swirling and tightening until it took a shape that looked like several spears attached together by a cross-shaped bar. Lerrick watched helplessly as the spears lined up perfectly behind his daughter, Jessa's body. The being flicked his clawed hand and the spears stabbed through her little wrists and ankles from behind. She couldn't cry out in pain, but tears poured down her reddened cheeks as the hellforged device pierced her skin.
The demon dropped his first hand and Jessa's body went limp, still suspended by the spears. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she fainted from the overwhelming pain she felt.
Lerrick's body was then propelled around Jessa's and towards the creature. He stopped a body's length away from the terrifying being, all of his hellish features now easily visible up close. Its mouth opened in a smile, once more revealing flame. As he spoke, all varieties of nightmarish demons started cascading forth from the crimson-lightning maelstrom, some so large they had to squat their bodies to fit through the giant portal.
"Mortal, I am Adflict, Lord of Torment! Your time in this realm has come to an end. Go forth and tell all in your 'Sanctuary' that the reign of mortals is over. Your family's suffering will have been paltry in comparison to the agony I bring!"
With that, Adflict raised his clawed hands and Lerrick vanished.
This post has been edited by Number1SuperGuy: 12 May 2009 - 03:15 PM
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