Chapter 4 - - Perditus anima

**Note: the bare skeleton of chapter 4. POV switched to an unimportant character, just to nail some things. **

 

Unbeknownst to those held captive within the desecrated church, there was a fate much worse meted out by their infernal captors. 

 

Blurry, dark shapes passed overhead, possibly tree branches, only two larger shapes seemed to be constant, staying at his sides, stretched out upward, as if they had been people skewed out unnaturally tall, and most features blurred out. Save for the black robes and pointy hoods, everything about them was surrounded in a translucent haze. Everything faded from view as consciousness slipped away again. 

 

  The black embrace of forced sleep didn't bring with it the brief reprieve of dreams, nothing, just blackness. 

 

 Moist and chill air soon registered, as a breeze touched his face, afloat in it, the stench of blood, that soon invaded his nose. Images faded from view briefly. 

 

  The circular pit bellow seemed close, but a blink later it was far away.. Some hellish red glowing liquid bubbled in it, on its shore lay countless shapes, each with a horrific resemblance to dismembered people. Severed limbs and headless necks hanging out above the eldritch pond below. 

 

His vision slowly cleared, and realization dawned together with the sensations.. Cold, tight embrace of steel cuffs, and the edgy pain in his back. 

 

Suspended by his arms, chained tightly against the jagged rock surface, he soon discovered other restraints. Regardless of the pulsing agony in his back, no cry or scream escaped his throat, not even a whimper. Nothing responded to his minds urging impulses, all the effort yielded no results at all, save for the maddening futility. 

 

Dread and horror made thoughts erratic and irrational, and that worsened just as his mind belatedly registered many smaller bodies among the dead below, thrown and dragged together into the hellish circle. There had to have been a hundred dismembered corpses at least, completely surrounding that large cesspool of blood and no doubt some kind of infernal magic. 

 

A constant low frequency noise rang in his ears and the air around him seemed to be pulsating, as if some transparent blob of substance had covered him up. Something similar to what he's seen around the two figures earlier. When did it happen, was it maybe just some nightmare.. 

 

The unnatural force prevented any movements, he couldn't even shift his gaze. 

 

Just then, in the eerie hum of silence, the trickling noise registered, and the warm, wet sensation on his back suddenly made terrible sense… 

 

His lifeblood drained from savage rips and tears on his flesh.. Flowed out and painted red lines upon the ebony, hard, jagged rock surface. 

Lines that connected to the pool below. 

 

Despite the throbbing edgy heated pain, no cry escaped his throat. 

 

Mere moments later, an outlandish heat materialized within his body, spreading from his guts upward. The world around became increasingly blurry, and thoughts shrank to mere impulses.. He could only listen to the devilish melody of his blood running along the rock surface, occasionally dripping from ledges. 

 

All else faded with the voices chattering..

 

Deep, muffled voices, that left him with an ageless dread. 

 

"We should use that one for the main act.."

 

No pause occurred, the other cut in.. 

 

"No, we need a sizable force present here before we can do that." 

 

No footsteps presaged the arrival of two black robed figures below. They each towered at seven or eight feet, unnaturally thin for their heights. The pointy black hoods obscured the faces below them, save for the red glow of eyes. 

 

He felt it, their gaze on his skin, as if they were flaying him. But struggle as he might, no sounds came out and none of his body wanted to move. 

 

The figure on the right reached its seemingly empty sleeves out, toward him and a second later, six black, thin metal spears shot from the garment's mouth. 

 

Pain struck briefly in his chest, but faded under a thousand Inexplicable other sensations. 

 

Belatedly he registered, the spears were actually claws, and they had merely extended from the figure's hand rather than shoot out from it. 

 

All sensations soon faded away as unintelligible words, uttered in a harsh, distorted grimy voice, pierced the brief silence again. A hellish orange glow replaced the previous translucent blob hovering about him, moments later everything went black.