Chapter 0 : Nothing New Under The Sun

“I'm so sorry.”

He munched down again slowly, hesitantly. Fresh blood coated the cavern floor, its shimmering surface reflecting the moonlight’s foreboding glow. 

“I'm so sorry!”

Hot tears spilled from the man's crimson eyes, soaking the small child’s body in the rain of his own cursed soul.

“Please forgive me…”

He took another desperate crunch into the boy’s leg, drawing more of his victim’s life into his forsaken stomach. His mouth twisted in excitement, betraying the melancholic sadness of his broken self.

“Please… I don’t want to, but I have to! Please forgive me!”

The man wobbled and trembled, distraught at his own helplessness as he consumed more and more flesh.
The sound of bones being crushed made the river of blood reverberate like a funeral choir.

The tears never stopped leaving his demonic eyes. They only blurred his vision, making the sight of desecrating the innocent a little more bearable as his fangs sank deeper into the flesh until there was nothing left.

“It’s finished… oh God, no. Oh God, no! Please forgive me!”

The man — no, the Fiend —who had committed such a cursed act was a priest. His clothes, meant to redeem others, were now bloodstained with the death of the innocent. His soul was tarnished by the boy he had victimised, his spirit tainted by the Devil’s work.

“Do you repent for your sins?”

The priest turned around as a solemn voice echoed through the cavern. Footsteps approached, ominous and heavy, splashing through the river of red.

“Who are you!?”

The priest shrieked. The voice of a man long gone, replaced now by the corruption of an unknown entity.
His fangs glistened as he licked the remaining blood from his lips with an abhorrent sense of glee.

“Release the soul of the innocent man inside, spirit! He did not ask for such a fate, as to be forced into murder against the helpless.” The voice roared with righteous fury. The silhouette of a tall, imposing man entered the priest’s line of sight.

“We have already merged—
—Please sav—
—Be quiet.”

The priest’s soul twisted in agony as the demon’s oppression smothered what little control he had left over his own body.

“You chose this path, did you not? You asked me to bring your wife back, did you not? The wife you kept hidden from the church so you would not lose your sacred position. You chose to commit sacrilege against your ‘glorious’ institution, did you not? And now…”

The fiend opened its arms to the moonlight, basking in the weight of its own sin as it gazed upon the pile of corpses beneath the cavern’s shadow.

“We have sacrificed the innocent lives of many for your selfish desires. What a beautiful tale of freedom… how blasphe—”

“—Enough of your useless rambling. Release the man. Now!”

“Does he want me to release him, hmm? If you wish to break our contract, I will allow it. But are you prepared to never see your beloved wife again? Answer honestly, priest.”

The crimson red in his eyes dulled for a moment. The spirit of the man surfaced, reclaiming a fragile moment of consciousness.

“Repent for your sins at once and be free of this curse, priest,” the righteous man urged, lowering himself to eye level.

I—
—she will be gone forever…
—But I…

Beautiful memories of her flooded his mind, intertwined with the decrepit visions of his murdered congregation; the people he had guided in their darkest moments, only to sacrifice them at the altar of his own desire.

His crimson eyes reflected the emerald glow of the silhouette’s gaze.

“I—”

The emerald eyes watched with hope, if only for a fleeting heartbeat.

“I can’t do it.”

The priest’s shoulders slumped in resignation to his fate.

“I’m so sorry…”

The broken man’s soul finally surrendered, no longer even attempting to fight against the evil consuming him.

“I see… and what if you can’t bring her back?”

“That is a possibility I am unwilling to accept.”

The priest snapped, burning rage flooding his eyes crimson. His fangs gleamed with feral violence. Was this the evil spirit? No.
This was the truest self of the man. Decrepit, shameless, and corrupted long before the demon ever touched him.

“I see…”

The man rose to his full height, looking down at the priest with quiet resolve, his hand resting against his sheath.

“Then I must execute you here.”

The priest lowered his gaze once more, for the final time, allowing the spirit of evil to consume him completely.

“You see now? Mankind’s patheticness is truly amusing. Their desire to hope, even when it is hopeless… an exquisite sight.”

The fiend stared into the man’s eyes, an inhuman growl rolling from its throat.
The katana at the man’s side began to lift, almost imperceptibly, from its hilt.

The fiend lunged.

Slash!

Its body froze mid-motion. Its gaze drifted back to the man’s hilt, the katana resting in its sheath as though it had never been drawn at all.

The body fell forward. The head fell back.

Decapitated in a single unseen stroke, the light in its eyes flickering once more at the moon above.

The crimson glow faded from the man's eyes, returning to the beautiful azure that had once enchanted his beloved at first sight.

The evil spirit dispersed into the wind, leaving the priest’s severed head lying among the blood of its victims.

…I'm going to hell, aren’t I?

The priest gazed in silence, wondering if his wife would ever have loved him had he succeeded.
Would she still love those eyes of his, even if they were a forsaken crimson?
Would she still see the man she married, or a creature drowning in sin and regret?

Could she still love an evil man?
A forsaken man?
Would she even want to?

He continued to believe she would.
Even if it was an unrealistic thought, it was the last happy thought he had left.

A small smile slipped across his lips one final time, and his soul finally embraced the fiery judgement of the damned.

The bodies of the slumped dead remained silent. And the man who had slain their murderer walked away into the shadows, his emerald eyes slipping out of the moon’s gaze.

“Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.”

He glanced over his shoulder one last time before stepping out of the cave with a quiet sigh.

“You would not have brought her back. Trust me. I’ve tried…”

Far away, the demon laughed. Knowing that night… it had won.