I was awoken by the sound of chanting. I can smell… blood and flesh… it’s like the smell of an open wound… urgh… it’s disgusting. I opened my eyes and looked towards the sound. It took my eyes a second to adjust… there was a crowd of people in white robes looking at a raised alter. The chanting was coming from atop the alter. What I saw caused me to throw up… I had nowhere to throw up however… I realised that I was in a small cage. I attempted to throw up through the metal bars to keep the vomit away from me, but that was only marginally successful.

  On the alter was Flynn. He was clearly screaming… but no sound was coming out of his mouth. They must have silenced him… either his screams were interrupting the chanting, or whatever they have used to paralyse him has affected his vocal chords.

  He was naked. They had flayed the skin from his entire lower half and were currently removing strips from his arms. His body lay limp… they have definitely paralysed him in some way. But judging by his face they did not do so with a numbing agent. He can clearly feel everything that they are doing.

  Gods… oh gods… why are they doing this? This is awful. Is this what they did to all of those people that went missing? I threw up again.

  Dwynfel: “Please stop… for the love of the gods… please stop!”

  They didn’t even glance at me. They simply continued flaying him. How is he still conscious? He should have passed out from the pain or died of shock by now… they must be doing something to keep him alive.

  As they removed a strip of skin they flung it into a large hole in the ground behind them. I never heard the skin land however… the hole must be disturbingly deep.

  Dwynfel: “Please! Why are you doing this? He’s done nothing to you! Please stop!”

  Again, they ignored me and continued with their ritual. I can’t make out the language that they are chanting in. It isn’t like any of the tongues that I have ever encountered. Who the hell are these people? Have they murdered this entire village? What is their endgame here?

  I couldn’t bring myself to watch what was happening to Flynn. Nobody deserves to go through that. I just want to end his suffering. After being flayed like that… even if they don’t fully kill him… his life will be nothing but pain and suffering. Please… please… just end this.

  It was at this point that I cast my eyes across the rest of the room. The situation was way worse than I was expecting. Behind the crowd of people was a vast sea of bodies… they all hung from hooks… bodies of men, women, and children… all with their entire bodies flayed. There looked to be almost a hundred.

  Dwynfel: “What the hell is this? What is wrong with you people?”

  The floor was coated in blood and there was a strange glowing device in the middle of the room. It looked kind of like a large urn with light shining from various runes that were set into it. It had what looked like a sceptre poking out of the top of it that glowed so brightly that it lit the entire room. What the hell is that?

  It was at that moment that I became aware of the fact that I could feel cold metal against my skin… not pressing against my armour… but pressing against my skin. I looked down and saw that I had been stripped. They had taken everything… oh gods… are they planning on flaying me next… please… please gods… please… don’t let me go out like that… I don’t want to die like that.

  I started smashing my skull against the metal bars in an attempt to cave my skull in. I can’t go out like that… I can’t. An arm reached into my cage and grabbed my ear… pulling me back, away from the bars.

  I turned to see an adjoining cage. Kin’Ayesha was staring back at me from within the other cage.

  Kin’Ayesha: “They have no intention of flaying you. Calm down.”

  He too was naked. I’ve never seen him out of his armour before. He looks… so… vulnerable. His fur is as black as the armour he wears… but… he has this adorable little bunny tail and oh my god… the ears… the fluffy droopy ears… and the big doe eyes. How is something that looks so sweet such a persistent arsehole?

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Kin’ Ayesha: “They would not sacrifice a goblin. You are considered unclean.”

  Dwynfel: “We need to stop them!”

  Kin’Ayesha: “How? We are unable to break these bars… and your lockpicking kit is in your pack. All we can do right now is wait and see what happens.”

  Dwynfel: “I don’t want to see what happens… I need to end this!”

  Kin’Ayesha: “What you wish to do and what you are able to do, do not coincide at this moment.”

  The chanting stopped… why has the chanting stopped… what does that mean? I turned to the alter once more. Only one person stood next to Flynn on the alter now. It was a hunched figure… but not hunched because it was doing anything to Flynn… I think the creature… or person… or whatever it is is just old.

  Hunched Figure: “And now… for the final part of our ritual…”

  The voice was laboured… and crackly. It was the voice of a very old woman. Which would explain the hunched back. She has the kind of voice that you would expect to be offering you tea and biscuits or a cold glass of lemonade on a sunny day. There are many old ladies like that around Kataravonia. Sweet, caring, and lovable. But this one… she may sound like that… but she is none of those things.

  Old Woman: “I would like to welcome the youngest members of our congregation to this… pivotal moment in history. For it is the young who will inherit the earth… therefore they should be the ones to bring about its rebirth.”

  The crowd cheered as two children stepped up towards the alter. One looked tiny… maybe three or four years old. The other looked a bit older probably seven or eight. They both seemed completely unfazed by their surroundings. They stood next to Flynn without even flinching… as he lay there, skinless, and silently screaming. The old woman presented a knife to the older child.

  Old Woman: “Young Dorothy… do you accept the responsibility of bringing about the new age?”

  Dorothy: “I do.”

  Old Woman: “Then you may begin.”

  The girl stepped towards Flynn. She took the knife and began to cut through what remained of the flesh on his chest. She followed the collarbones in diagonal lines, meeting in the centre and then straight down, between his ribs. When she reached his belly button, she stopped. She then pulled the skin back, I say skin, he had been flayed… I’m not really sure what you would call it… membrane maybe?

  I felt the vomit welling in my mouth again as she revealed his bare ribcage. The white bones reflecting the light from the curious device in the middle of the room. Still, Flynn was not dead… still… he made no sound… but I could make out what he was saying from his lips… he was begging for death.

  Dorothy stepped to one side and the old woman presented the smaller child with a hammer.

  Old Woman: “Young Henry… do you accept the responsibility of bringing about the new age?”

  Henry: “Yesh.”

  Old Woman: “Then you may begin.”

  The older child moved a little stool forward for him to stand on and Henry stepped up onto it. He lifted his hammer and started clumsily smashing it down on Flynn’s chest. Unlike the girl, who had clearly practiced what she needed to do in advance, the boy was just smashing the hammer down… often missing the ribs and hitting the stomach, the neck and even the face on one occasion. After an agonising couple of minutes, he eventually broke all of the ribs.

  The boy stepped off his stool and handed his hammer back to the old woman.

  Dwynfel: “What the fuck is wrong with you?! Why would you make children do this?! Why would anybody do this?! You people are insane!”

  My words once more fell on deaf ears and they continued as if I wasn’t even present. The girl stepped forward again… she plunged her knife into Flynn’s chest and performed several cutting motions. It wasn’t long before she placed the knife down on the alter and plunged her hands into his chest. When her hands emerged, they were clutching his heart.

  Flynn’s attempts at screaming had stopped… his head just lay there… twitching. The girl held the heart out to the boy. They both crushed it between their hands and threw it into the hole, as had been done with the skin before. The crowd cheered and the children raised their hands in triumph. They then returned to the crowd where they were lorded by everyone.

  Old Women: “And with that… our final sacrifice is performed. Let us descend upon Kataravonia and prepare it for the arrival of the new world!”

  The crowd started to leave the room… cheering as they went. I screamed at them… I pleaded for them to stop. This can’t be real… this can’t be happening… they can’t destroy Kataravonia… they can’t. It’s my home… everyone I love and care about is there… they can’t hurt my family… they can’t. I need to stop them… I need to.

  After the crowd had departed… it was just the old woman left. She had hobbled to the centre of the of the room as everyone else was leaving. She simply stood in the middle of all of the hanging bodies. She dropped her walking stick and opened out her arms. She stood up straight, her hunch disappearing, her limbs displayed a suppleness that they had not previously. She turned to us and began to walk towards us. As she did, she removed the hood of her robe… and… oh shit… oh gods… it’s the head priestess of the church of Laezel.