Nostalgic/Starve - Day 5 - DWC ( @daily-writing-challenge )
[ I have to make massive content warnings for blood, gore and just fucked up shit in general with this story. So, please, if you are squeamish, do not read it as it is Nightmare Fuel for Megahes. ]
It was that time of year, Pilgrim’s Bounty! Every year the Frostbite’s would come and gather at the Filthy Animal in Dalaran and throw a massive Pilgrim’s Bounty party! Megahes spared no expense in making foods and hiring a Bartender to make sure the drinks kept coming and for the largest part, what food wasn’t made by Naturasu or himself, was brought in via pot-luck style from the rest of the company! It was an amazing time where Megahes got to lavish his people with thanks for their efforts, for all the jobs well done.
It really was a wonderful time and probably one of the most cheerful times outside of Winter’s Veil! Now that holiday popped off even more so!
That aside, the thanks were past and so were the cheers and calls. Everyone around the table was eating and conversing with one another. Some of them laugh and tell stories. Darla and Scratch, down on their end laughing and flirting while in a way, trying to make it not obvious. Mako and Axl, flirting not only amongst themselves in clever and coy ways, but Axl making sure to spread the love via his Tentacles whenever he was caught toying with someone in some coy, flirtatious manner. Naturasu was of course her usual shameless self and any man at the table was free game with the flirts, heck, today was such a good day that she was even spreading it over the women too! Kappi and Zimble went back and forth, as much as a composed scout and mechanically gob-posedTech-lin can as they discussed jobs that went sideways and then jobs that went so well that they could orchestrate their efforts. Heck, even Attzi was here and she brought Dave, who, despite being undead, did his best to fit in food wise and brought some specialty Stuffed Shrooms which had apparently been some Forsaken Specialty!
He wasn’t even sure how, but they managed to bring Maeris into the mix who absolutely refused to keep referring to Zokkine as a ‘New Hire’ despite having worked with him for nearly two years now. Megahes sat at the Head of the Table, smiling from ear to ear with a moment of pride at the group of people he’d somehow managed to hire or attract to revolve around the company in some fashion. Content to have watched for several minutes, he broke his gaze and leaned in, practically diving into the plate of Barbecued Ribs and Meat that… oddly enough reminded him of Ranek’s recipe! Perhaps Naturasu meant it as a surprise of some sort?
Eat up Sugar, don’t starve yaself now.
Whatever it was, it made Mega feel absolutely ravenous as if he hadn’t just eaten several plates of food and junk that’d he’d definitely hate himself for later that night or the next day. He needed more. Faster and faster, biting into the food so haphazardly that he was nearly biting at his own fingers as he broke bones and chomped on them till swallowable all while stripping away meat and licking the sauce from his fingers. It was until someone grabbed him and gave him a hard shake that he realized someone was not only talking to him, but the whole table was looking at him in absolute horror.
That’s when it registered. The food wasn’t quite food… It was his company. His friends. The men and women he hired and who had saved his life several times over. Their bodies had been torn through and ravaged as if by a pack of wild animals, only, the only creature who’d done it was…
“Boss Megahes.” The cold mechanical voice of Zimble shook him hard and he’d realized he was perched on the table, shirt torn open and bloody handprints all over him as the people he tore into probably tried to fight him off to no avail.
Naturasu and others, faces he couldn’t place now spun around him at the horror as he looked down at what he had been eating. His stomach bulged hard, curdling as his stomach lining most likely burst in an effort to fit everything. He looked more akin to a feral monster than himself but… that quickly went out the window as he realized he had been eating on… on… his vision blurred hard and he went to scramble backwards at the revelation that he had been eating what looked to be a Troll and Goblin half breed child… Was that his… His…?
Immediately he began to scream as panic kicked in! What had he done?! He’d shove his hand into his mouth in an effort to induce vomiting but nothing came! His stomach churned and he’d grab at it, feeling his innards violently roil and roll. Something moved inside of him and his panic went haywire, looking up at Nat and Zimble both as he tried to crawl away while also holding himself.
They were on him in no time at all. Naturasu holding him down as she became hard, indifferent, to him. There was no love there, no hate either… pure clinical treatment like some ward doctor.
“Zimble. You have to get them out of there…”
“Of course, Miss Nat.” Suddenly, a musical tune begins to play, one Megahes immediately knew and for the first time ever, it made fear sink so deep into his bones that all he could do was start to choke.
Zimble came to Megahes’ side, looking him in the eye with his own robotic oculus. “Clear your mind Mister Frostbite. I have detected elevated levels of stress, fear, and corruption in your system… we will purge this for you.” Zimble’s mechanical arm lifted, its gears and plates shifting as wire’s were pulled and rearranged. What had once been a hand was now a power saw, aiming to come down on top of Mega’s body-filled gut.
"Just allow the Nostalgic Melodies lure you onto Easy Street…"
Megahes immediately bolted upright from his bed, screaming in horror unlike what he had had just nights ago with his Legion PTSD. This was so real to him. Not a memory, obviously, but it was so real. He could smell the metal from Zimble’s Tech’lin augmentations. He could smell the alcohol and hear the laughter and even taste Ranek’s sauce!
Poor Naturasu, she’d nearly been thrown from the bed entirely as she’d been trying to wake him up from a Nightmare that did not allow him to come to. His hands burned hot and hard with white fire with the mixture of his Holy and Fire Magic. Fire burning blisters just as quickly as the Light was healing him. His skin bubbled and flattened in weird patches all over until he realized he was under no threat here. Naturasu didn’t dare try to wrestle him down, not like this.
Not when he was like this.
Mega’s powers slowly faded, and there in the Zocolo, they were left in the dark of their home and he’d crumble to the floor.
“ImsorryImsorryImsorryImsorryImsorry…” It was all the man could manage as his knees his the floor and like the darkness that enveloped their bedroom, Nat too, was on him just as quickly, offering sweet shushes and calming words as her fingers ran through his sweat soaked hair. It’d take some time before he’d calm from this and by morning, the two were sitting in the corner of their bedroom, Mega’s spine shoved into the point between two walls, as he explained his dream over coffee with her.
…..
Unbeknownst to either, a dark blob of ooze thrums under the mattress, slowly churning as its form shrunk more and more, until finally, nothing was left in the slightest.
Somewhere, in the dark, a heavy laugh comes as if another victory has been achieved.
[ I borrowed Tim Curry's Laugh from Hexus in Ferngully! All credit goes to that amazing man! ]
