Corrupted Bodies

Dreams were frightful and full of restless twitches as Tomita’s mind struggled to process and compartmentalize the events that had just occurred. Worse yet, Izhari’s unpleasant beverage had tided over his psychological need to be inebriated, but it had not matched the chemical dependence his body had created. Thus, in the midst of nightmares and memory glitches flooded by drunken stupor, tremors and fever sweats were building in Tomita’s body. All of those were soon ended when Tomita was ripped back to consciousness by a clawed hand grabbing his leg and a monstrous roar screaming at him.

“WHERE IS THE PAIL?!” roared the mutated form of Izhari that stood before him.

Drunken terror shook through Tomita’s body as he looked out at the black mass that was pulsing from Izhari’s leg and across the entirety of her left side, including her face. Black, dripping claws as long as his fingers bent from her digits, and her blinded eye was no longer blue and white, but as black as ink. Twitches snapped her body as though she was fighting to control the monster she was becoming. Again, she screamed.

“Where is it?!!! I told you to return it to its exact spot you foolish human!!” she roared.

Tomita’s mind finally cleared as his body activated its twenty year familiarity with functioning alcoholism. His hands shakily found the pail and extended it forward to Izhari.

“Here! It’s here!” he choked.

Claws clasped the pail and Izhari limped away without her cane towards the doorway.

“Do as I say from now on!” the beast growled.

Tomita nodded but she did not see nor care. As the door opened, Tomita was greeted by a pale grey dawn. Fog hung heavy in the air. Izhari crawled into the open lawn in front of her hut and collapsed onto the ground. The sensation in Tomita’s spirit was purely pain now, with the void of despair taking a side role to physical agony.

After a moment, Tomita stood and hobbled out into the muted daylight, where Izhari was now clawing the ground as she wretched and lurched.

“I should have known you couldn’t even handle a simple request like putting a pail back in its correct place!” Izhari snarled.

As she growled, she glanced over her shoulder, and in her white eye, Tomita saw a hint of fear and regret, not the hate that radiated from her corrupted side. The blackened fangs continued to taunt.

“I sense your shame and humiliation and I know this is not the first time your pathetic dependence has made you fail even the simplest of tasks! If we were not so bound, I would point you in the direction of the nearest ledge and tell you to jump once more and pray that this time it stuck!!” she roared.

Her fur was bristling now, but still Tomita moved forward. The sensation in his chest had softened. Izhari twitched in great struggle and hacked. Even though it was a single body, it seemed as though two beings or mental states were at war within Izhari.

“I am sorry,” she whispered through the fight.

“D-do you need me to help you?” Tomita asked.

Izhari did not respond.

“Listen, I am right here. I can be of help in some manner if you tell me what you need me to do…”

In a surprising turn, Izhari exhaled and nodded.

“There is a stream ahead of me to the right. I need water and two river stones. You will be able to it faster than I,” she acknowledged.

Tomita was off before you 

Tomita was off before she could finish. As he ran forward, he briefly saw flashes of floating specks of golden light that were drifting in the air like weightless crystal shards. Beyond that, he noticed the ancient moss covered trees and stones that jutted out from long forgotten ruins. Still, the current situation did not afford him time to take in the wondrous, surreal landscape around him. He needed to get to the water.

Up ahead, Tomita could hear a bubbling stream. Once the path opened, he saw the small curve of glowing blue water sparkling like sapphire before him. He knelt and filled the pail, then grabbed two stones and placed them in his pocket. With his task complete, he turned and hurried back to the hut.

By the time he had returned, Izhari was collapsed and dry heaving in the grass.

“I’m here, what do you need me to do?” Tomita asked as Izhari’s claws dug deeper into the damp soil.

“I need you to never exist!” she snarled.

“I am sorry…” she fought to say as she shook her head and twisted her spine.

“You’re a failure. Of course you would summon a failure,” the darkness purred to Izhari.

“Calm down inky!” Tomita blurted out.

Izhari and her corrupted form both seemed surprised and turned to him.

“I’ve heard a hundred wounded, miserable people belittle their coworkers and subordinates. You don’t get to t-talk that way and hurt her while she’s vulnerable,” Tomita said in defiance.

“And what are you going to do? You are a weak, broken human!” the darkness growled.

“I am, but I’m great at following directions. So she’s going to tell me how to rip you out of her body, then you’ll just be a shitty little blob of black, like leftover toner that gets thrown out when it’s time to change a printer cartridge!” Tomita smirked.

With that, he handed the pail of water and two stones to Izhari’s uncorrupted paw.

“I need my staff…” she whispered as she extended a claw and began to scratch a symbol onto the stones.

Tomita ran back into the hut and grabbed the small wooden stick from the shelves. Back outside, Izhari was almost done carving.

“This is all you will ever be. This is why they left you. Look at you,” said the darkness.

“Will you shut up? Izhari, don’t listen to it. What do you need me to do with your staff?” Tomita asked.

Izhari extended her hand and Tomita placed the staff in her grasp.

“Spread removed. Pact completed. A year for a hex. Drain now and evaporate!” Izhari choked as she flinched and the darkness snapped her forward.

Still, she continued. Each hand grabbed a stone. Her uncorrupted hand placed its stone into the pail of water. The other placed the stone on the soil. There was an inhale, then the water began to drain into Izhari’s body on one side, while the poison poured out on the other side and pooled in a puddle at her palm.

As the black bled out from her hand, the corruption of her body burned away.

“I will be gone, but you know I am right. You are… a failure. You.., are… the abandoned one…” said the voice as it faded.

After a moment, it was gone. Immediately after it was gone from her body, then ink on the ground sizzled then vanished. Tomita could not help but be surprised, and rushed forward to help Izhari. Before he could reach her, she stopped him with her staff.

“I told you to put the pail back. Due to my sight and my body, my entire life has a flow and order to it. I cannot have you be powerless AND disrupt my structure. Do I make myself clear?” she asked.

Tomita wanted to say something, but deep down he knew she was not wrong.

“Yes. I understand,” he replied.

“…What was that thing?” Tomita asked.

“It was me. Or, just, it was a part of me. All of us have monsters within us. My pact let it take control for a moment. I didn’t cut it out fast enough, so it festered and grew overnight…”

Tomita did not fully understand her answer, but he did at least understand the danger of letting one’s demons run rampant. His trembling hands and splitting headache were proof.

“Thank you for helping. I am going to meditate. I need time alone…” Izhari grunted as she hoisted herself up.

“I will be back in a few days. Eat the salted meat in the dark box. Do NOT leave the hut!” she commanded with a sigh.

“Hey, wait!” Tomita called out, but it did not stop her.

Before Tomita could formulate anything else, she set off without another word. He was left alone. Standing in the hazy dawn, Tomita felt more alone and lost than ever before. All he had now was the strange liquid that would at least let him escape his mind, but he feared what his body was about to do to him. Beads of sweat and ringing ears told him it was not going to be a pleasant few days. The withdrawal process was beginning.