O'brien's

I feel sick.

The previous commenter, the Dral person. They were right.

I'll just get on with the story, then I need to rest. I really hope I don't dream about this.

We got to the place, shitty looking restaurant called "O'brien's". I couldn't read the name at first, whoever made the place had decided to slap a big X through the first letter for some reason. This place had grime creeping up the sides of the walls, windows were cracked, sometimes sloppily repaired with duct tape, the wooden door looked like someone had taken a sword to it at some point. There were all of these little, off-colored patches across the front outside of the restaurant, I didn't realize what they were until after we were opening the door.

Sealed bullet holes.

Rill and Narl walked on opposite sides of me as we entered, there were a handful of other people inside already; a bunch of guys wearing leather jackets sitting at a table, several people at the bar, one of whom had bright red hair, and the bartender who wore an odd, burlap coat.

Everyone froze the moment we stepped in, eyes locked on Rill and Narl. My bodyguards didn't even seem to notice the change as they calmly slid themselves into an open place at the bar; several of the other people at the counter scooted away. The burlap coat bartender made his way over to us, but kept to the back wall.

"Well hello you two. I must admit I'm surprised to see you here," he said, "what can I do for you and your…"

He fixed me with a quizzical look before continuing.

"Your guest."

Everyone was still staring at Rill and Narl, it seemed like the guy was the only person who had actually noticed me. My two protectors exchanged glances, then Narl spoke to the man.

"We seek the learned one. Answer speaker. The king's guard and cavern finder, we must trade words with them."

The bartender shifted uncomfortably before talking again.

"I might be able to help you, but I honestly can't understand what they hell you're asking for."

Narl clicked his teeth several times. One of the people at the bar flinched.

"The mountain, the truth castle. Atlas, who holds the world above him. There is one here who knows his location. They must tell us. We will go when they have given the thought of that place."

The man furrowed his brow for a moment, deep in thought, then seemed to realize what Narl was asking about.

"Nobody knows where the king under the mountain is. You'd be better off raiding the archive's deep vaults than asking around here," he chewed his lip for a moment before continuing, "we can't help you."

Rill turned her head mechanically towards him, and spoke.

"I am hungry."

The people at the table began to stand. The bartender went slightly pale.

"Well we do have food, what are you interested in?"

Rill smiled, and her mouth stretched across her face.

She whipped her arm forward and it twisted, bone ripping out of the side and lengthening. The man shrieked as the gory spear planted itself in his shoulder and pinned him to the far wall. I slipped off my stool, turning to see a girl at the table pull a gun and take aim, but Narl got there first. He rushed her, hands stretching into claws as he tackled the girl to the ground. She screamed and I could just barely make out Narl's jaw unhinging as he sank teeth into her face. There was a wet crunch, and the noise was silenced.

Narl turned and slashed upward, ripping out the kneecap of the nearest watcher. The man yelled, toppling to the ground and into Narl's waiting fangs.

Rill stepped over me, bone spear sliding back into her arm as fingers lengthened into knives. I could hear her whispering quietly to herself.

"Rise. Rise. Rise. Rise into the shining darkness. Rise into the miracle of flesh. Rise. Rise. Rise. Rise into the cleansing pain. Rise into the jaws of beginning."

She turned and stared at the other people at the bar, who had now backed up against the wall. They were arranged to place the red haired girl in the back, farthest from the fight. Rill looked right at her and, without stopping her soliloquy, extended a bladed hand and gestured forward. The people shuffled for a moment, but didn't move. Rill's eyes widened and there was and audible crack. Rill began to grow taller, arms and legs extending, back hunching over; her face became twisted and more bestial. Eyes sunk into their sockets as her face stretched outward, teeth lengthening into yellow fangs.

Rill loomed over them, inhuman. In the background, Narl lifted one of the leather jacket men and slamming him into the floor before tearing into the man's ribs. Rill stepped forward, still whispering to herself.

"Rise into the eternal song. Rise into the perfect agony. Rise Rise Rise."

She held up a hand again, reaching forward and gingerly grabbing the closest watcher, pulling them away. The man struggled, pushing against the vice like fingers, but couldn't tug free. Rill dragged him toward her then, staring at the red haired girl, slowly sunk her claw into the man's lung.

He shrieked, grabbing and flailing at the blade; hopelessly trying to stop it's invasion. Rill didn't even turn, her eyes still directed at the single girl, then lifted her other hand. She lined it up, placing two claws over the man's face. He struggled, twisting his head from side to side, but couldn't avoid the knives. Rill dug into his eyes, methodically stabbing, lifting and stabbing again; reducing the eyes to a bloody paste as the man writhed and screamed.

After an eternity the man stopped, twitching for a final time before being still. Rill extracted her claws, and began to reach for the next person.

"Devil's tower."

Rill paused; from across the room, Narl stopped his dissection. He stood, and made his way over, standing next to Rill.

"The place, secret home and hiding. The answer bed?"

The red haired girl nodded, and spoke again.

"The blood found out years ago, shame and truth go hand in hand. Now let us leave. You have what you want, our kind has no quarrel."

Narl, smiled. Teeth spattered with chunks of flesh.

"Come An-Drew-Gee. We must make go."

Narl gestured at me, then began to make his way to the exit, I struggled to my feet and followed, trying not to look at Rill. She didn't follow us, still gazing at the red haired girl. As we left, Narl turned and spoke to the room at large.

"Honor. No higher. To be consumed by the body of perfection. Experience the perfect kill. Rill will be our gateway of teeth."

We walked off, behind us the screaming began; tearing at me ears. I blocked it out, everything. It's not me, it's not going to happen to me. This is just the way things are. This is how it's supposed to be.

~Ji

Journey

We're almost there, my "bodyguards" called for a midday rest, apparently they want to wait for a while -I'm not sure how long- before we go to wherever this place is.

Right now I'm typing at my computer in a new hotel room, and I'm pleased to say that on the way here I picked up some more things:

• set of silver spoons and forks
• Vinyl recording of Johnny Cash's Greatest Hits
• Linoleum carving tool kit

All of which were really cheep at the garage sale that we passed by, I imagine the people who were giving them out had no idea of their value; which is all the better for me. It seems that Rill and Narl disappear the moment I approach other people, which makes me question even more how they're supposed to be protecting me. Come to think of it, I don't know how they could protect me; compared to something like that dog or the bird-helmet-machete-man, they just look like disturbed individuals. I'm not even sure what they can do in a fight.

Why were they chosen to be the ones to protect me, and for what purpose? What am I doing that is so important that it needs any sort of defense?

I suppose those are just more questions to add to the pile; but I'm getting ahead of myself; I should explain how we got here and why I haven't posted for several days. I'm going to rewind this back a bit, right after my previous post.

They met me outside, both of them hidden in the shadows. I could just barely make out their outline, the green reflections of their eyes. Narl spoke first.

"You have prepared? Taken the items for your life?"

"Uh, yeah. I packed."

"Narl will go before," Rill spoke next, "I will go after. He will take you to the goal, the next step. Prerequisite."

Narl quickly stepped to the side, still partially obscured in the darkness, and gestured to me before dashing to the next patch of shadow. I started jogging in pursuit,  I could hear Rill shuffling somewhere behind me.

It's weird, going from traveling only in the daylight to navigating a city at night; I followed Narl to the best of my ability, guided more by the sounds of his footfalls than by sight. Sometimes he would vanish entirely, and I would stop in confusion. Each time this happened, Rill would appear by my side, and point to somewhere off in the distance; directing me to the next location. Narl would already by there, gesture once more to me, and we would continue on our way. This made travel incredibly disorienting and I'm fairly certain that we backtracked multiple times. After awhile I realized we had passed into the next state, I found that we were crossing into the next state, which shouldn't have been possible.

The thing that bothers me more though is the amount of time we traveled. We left fairly early in the night, just passed nine o'cock; but about halfway through our trip the sun came up, and we still moved on for a while after. I can't speak for either of my protectors, but I'm nowhere near strong enough to jog that long in a single sitting; that's some kind of super athlete level endurance. I don't even feel winded now.

Rill and Narl paid for a hotel this the night, using spitball-tight-crumpled-nasty bills. They're curled up in the corner of the room. The two of them look like they're sleeping, but I can see them staring at me out of the corner of my eye.

Normally I'd be creeped out by them, but I'm not. I've been thinking about it, and they probably weren't any different from me at some point; who even knows what horrors they had to go through to make them like they are now. Maybe they're just people who fell on hard times, and this was how they made it through. I can't really blame them for that.

Kind of tragic, actually.

I don't know how long we're going to be staying here, but I think that our destination isn't far off now.

~Ji