Whumpcember Day 27 - Bleeding Out (Alt 1. Stabbed)
Trilby stared at the stump that was flashing in and out of the hell dimension. Finally, he found the source of the reality shift. If only he could find some way to stop it.
"Trilby!" A familiar voice rang out behind him. He whirled around to see a familiar red-headed girl.
"Siobhan? You were supposed to leave!"
"I couldn't, I just..." She hiccuped. "Abed... The professor... He's dead..."
"I know." His mind flashed back to the professor slumped over at the bar, a mannequin head replacing the one he lost. "He was killed by the shadows. Just like they will kill you if you don't get away from here."
"What is this place?" Siobhan asked.
Trilby looked to the stump. "This cave is the center of the reality shift. This stump is what's causing it all."
"It is the vessel for the soul of the Tall Man."
They all looked to see who spoke. It was a familiar man wearing a grey anorak, looking at them with a strange expression. "The acolyte of Chzo."
"Lenkmann." Trilby said blankly. "Nice to see a friendly face."
"Amazing, isn't it? Of all the things Sir Roderick could have used to murder his son, he chose that idol . Placing the soul of John Defoe into the wood alongside Cabadath's. Infusing the poor boy with Chzo's magick, allowing him to come back infinitely more powerful than before."
Trilby narrowed his eyes. "Certainly pretty lucky."
"Lucky? Chzo had to wait two thousand years for that opportunity. The opportunity to blend magick and science in a single entity. The opportunity to create the Bridge."
"What are you talking about?"
Lenkmann strolled over to the other side of the cave, a small smile floating up on his face. "The Bridge between the realms. Over which Chzo will cross into our universe and purify mankind. Our order has waited two hundred years for the prophecy to be fulfilled."
Trilby was beginning to understand now. His weird behavior when he met Lenkmann at the hotel, the notes... "You're not with the Ministry of Occultism. Who are you?"
"Two hundred years ago, the prophet Jack Frehorn founded the Order of Blessed Agonies. Since then, we have grown and watched and waited. It was only in recent years that the events foretold in the Book of Chzo began to occur. It mentioned John Defoe. And it mentioned you."
"Me?!" Trilby asked in shock.
Siobhan was only looking at the unfolding events with growing confusion.
Lenkmann stepped forward. "You were the one prophesied to guide the Bridgekeeper to his destiny. But you didn't finish the job! All three aspects of John Defoe had to be destroyed in order to create the Bridge. Body, Mind and Soul. You only destroyed his body. His soul and mind remained."
The house... Jim and Simone...
"Had I known about this... I wouldn't even have done that."
"That will truly disappoint my superiors. They were quite adamant that I should try to persuade you to join our cause and fulfill your foretold duty..."
"Is that why you were helping me?"
"They thought if I guided you through your visions and showed you the appropriate passages from our holy books, you'd understand that the prophecy is real."
Trilby gave him a bewildered look. "You honestly believed I'd join some insane cult just because you handed me some leaflets?!"
Lenkmann put his hand on the older man's shoulder. "Personally? No."
He felt an explosion of ice cold agony. Looking down, he could see Lenkmann had plunged a knife into his gut. He heard the pitter-patter of his blood on the rocky floor. The pain, the surprise, and his exhaustion went together to create immediate unconsciousness. He could only hear Siobhan's screams as he blacked out.
He awoke to find himself splayed upon the stump, blood still slowly leaking from his wound. In his injured state, he couldn't move. His limbs refused to respond. He was as weak as a newborn. "L-Lenk... mann?"
"Oh good, you're awake. I was afraid you'd miss this." He had just finished tying up Siobhan who was struggling against her binds.
Lenkmann stood over him. "After your staggering ineptitude in Defoe Manor, the Order needed to nudge things along. We need a connection to Chzo to help administrate his coming. And today might be the only opportunity we have all year to summon the Tall Man."
"You're going to... bring that... THING... into our world?"
"With a standard ritual of Blessed Agonies and an offering. After he takes your life, he will be grateful to us. And then, he will guide us to our destiny."
"So why did you... stab me?! What if I'm already dead... by the time he gets here?"
"You won't be. Men like you, Trilby, die on their own terms. They won't let their lives slip away from one measly knife wound." He put a finger to his lips. "Hush now. Cabadath is coming."
Trilby's attempts to move only made things worse. He felt a stab of pain and something snapped behind his eyes, filling his vision with spots. This nutcase is going to sacrifice him to bring a tall demon from Hell over to the mortal world. All because they wanted a connection to Chzo.
"S-Siobhan... Are you there?" He tried to call out, ignoring the taste of metal on his tongue.
"She's here, but she can't answer you." Lenkmann simply answered.
"She has nothing to do with this, Lenkmann! Let her go!"
"On the contrary, it is important that all three of us be here. It is part of the ritual."
"What does this ritual entail? What are you going to do to me?"
"To you, I have done all I need. To bring Cabadath to us, we must tempt him with three Blessed Agonies. The Blessed Agonies of the Mind, the Body and Soul. I am well conditioned to act as the Mind. Your wound makes you the Body. The girl will have to suffice as the Soul."
Trilby could feel a sense of anger come over him. Siobhan doesn't deserve to be in this hellish position, to be sacrificed to some freak of nature. He wanted to move, but his limbs were still and unresponsive. He was losing blood steadily.
He could hear Lenkmann start to chant. "I call thee, Cabadath, to the wood that is your soul. I call thee from the north."
From the corner of his vision, he spotted the familiar idol of John Defoe by his feet, staring at him as if to mock him. I see. He had it all along...
"I call thee from the east."
The pain was replaced with an ice cold numbness that was spreading fast. The room was swimming before Trilby's eyes.
"I call thee from the south."
It was getting harder and harder for him to breathe. Air rattled him and out of his lungs like a buzzsaw.
"I call thee from the west."
Something flashed and he saw the Tall Man for a moment, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
"Reality flits from realm to realm, tormented, confused. End this madness that we might bring thee to us."
His vision was clouding up around the edges. It seemed like his stubborn will was the only thing keeping him alive.
His eyelids were fluttering.
"I present thee with three Blessed Agonies. Body, Mind and Soul."
"I present thee with the Guide, failed in his duties, for thee to judge."
He allowed himself to fall into darkness, slowly detaching himself from his body.
Siobhan could only watch as a tall, humanoid figure with no face wearing a long, black coat appeared in the room. Lenkmann was looking at it, appearing to have been satisfied. Stepping closer to the fallen body of her comrade, it examined him. Turning its head to Lenkmann, it spoke in an indecipherable language. He froze.
"What? He's dead? No, that's not possible!"
It continued to stare at him, its face unreadable.
"Master, please no! NO! NOAAAAAAGGH!!"
It plunged its claws into his chest, blood spilling out.In a flash, they disappeared.
Siobhan sat in shock. What the hell just happened? She saw Trilby lying on the stump and her mind snapped back to reality. She wriggled herself out of the shoddy rope Lenkmann tied her with and crawled over to him. "Trilby...?" She shook him.
He was unresponsive. His eyes were closed like he had fallen into a deep sleep. His stomach had a deep wound that was leaking blood at an alarming rate. Feeling herself start to shake, she pressed her fingers to his neck. She couldn't feel the beating of his pulse.
"Oh... Oh god... Oh no no no no..." Taking off his tie, she tied it around his waist, hoping that it was enough to staunch the flow. Then, she put her hands on his chest and started pumping. I think this is how you do it. God, Abed, if you were there, you would calm me down.
His body shook like a rag doll underneath her. She didn't understand. One minute, he was awake and talking and the next, he's dying. She felt useless. She wanted to help him, but he only responded by kicking her in the face. She was angry at him for doing that, but if he starts breathing again, she'll forgive him.
As she continued, she started to lose hope. How much blood did he lose? How long was he not breathing for? Will he ever wake up? "Trilby... Please... Please wake up..."
As if he could hear her, Trilby took a shaky breath.
"Trilby?!" She tapped his cheek, trying to get a response out of him. His eyelids fluttered, he coughed... and his eyes opened.
"You're alive! Oh god, I didn't even know if I was doing it properly... But I did it! You're alive!"
Trilby weakly looked around. "W-Where's Lenkmann...?"
Her face turned pale. "That... tall man took him. he did something... horrible to him. And then, he took him away."
"Where's... Where's my waistcoat?" Trilby tried to sit up, but Siobhan held him back.
"Shh, don't talk. I'm gonna get you an ambulance. Let's get you back upstairs."
"Wait..." He pointed a shaky finger to the idol. "See that wooden idol?"
"Bring it with us. Wrap it tightly in clothes and bring it with us. Don't let it touch your bare skin."
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