Rojuun

by John H. Carroll

  ***

  When she regained consciousness, red cat-like eyes stared through her soul like jagged knives. She tried not to react, but an involuntary sob escaped her lips.

  The creature was terrifying. There was no hair on top of the overly large head. Its skin was sickly yellow with blue splotches that glistened in the murky firelight. The twisted creature sneered with yellowed, rotting fangs as it studied her.

  Liselle whimpered and struggled against the bonds that held her tight. The creature was over six feet tall. It kept the wings that grew out of its back tucked away as though ashamed of them. It appeared as though someone had taken a Rojuun and twisted it with dark magics.

  “You glow brighter again,” it said in eerie tones. “Your glow will fix me and make me better.” Its voices were shrill, like a twisted version of the Rojuun, hurting Liselle’s head. A putrid odor emanated from the creature, filling her nostrils.

  She desperately tried to think. Perhaps if she offered to heal the monster it wouldn’t hurt her. “D . . . Do you want me to h . . . heal you?” she stammered weakly between sobs.

  “No, not heal.” The creature tilted its head. “Your glow will fix me. I will take it, wrap it around me and fix me.” It shuffled a little closer to the table, reaching out a twisted finger. “I will take the glow.”

  Liselle writhed in her bindings, struggling to get away.

  A dreadful laugh emanated from the creature, echoing throughout the room. The torture devices along the wall seemed to laugh along with the creature, taking on a malicious life of their own.

  The creature grabbed a small hooked knife and moved to her side.

  Liselle arched away as much as she could.

  “Do you scream, glowing one?” it whispered in her ear. Then it put the tip of the brutal knife against the soft inner skin of her stretched arm. It didn’t cut deep, but it burned badly.

  Liselle did scream.

  She felt another tug in her hair. The flower in her mind told her to relax, the time was coming soon when she would need to do what it asked.

  “Such a pretty glow. I must taste it.” The aberration sunk its teeth into her arm.

  Agony rocketed to her fingertips and down her side. She screamed louder, wanting it to stop more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.

  The creature pulled away from her arm, though the burning agony did not ease. It licked its disgusting lips in pleasure. “Ohh, the glow tastes so very nice.” It gave a shrill, haunting giggle. “It will fix me so nicely and I will have so much fun pulling it out of you.” He moved his face even closer to Liselle’s. “You scream nicely. I like it very much.”

  She pulled away from him as much as she could, her eyes wide in terror. Heaving sobs racked her body as she tried to wrap her mind around what the creature was doing to her. What she didn’t understand more than anything was why. Why did the creature exist, why did it hate the Rojuun, why did it want her glow and why did it want her to suffer? All she could get past her lips was, “W . . . why? ”

  “Why? Because your glow will fix me.” It stepped back to study her. “I hurt. My body isn’t finished and I need your glow to finish it.”

  “Not finished?” Liselle desperately clutching at anything to make him stop hurting her. She took a deep breath, releasing it in a sob while trying to stay focused. Her head swam with pain and fear. “What do you mean not finished?”

  “You don’t know of me? They didn’t tell you of my kind?” The creature stepped back and played with its hooked knife. He licked the blood off the tip. “No, they wouldn’t would they? They are ashamed of me, aren’t they? Did they tell you of my pets, glowing one?” It tilted his head sideways as he looked at her.

  “P . . . pets? They didn’t t . . . tell me a . . . anything.” Liselle felt blood trickling down her arm and side.

  “Of course they didn’t tell you. You wouldn’t help them if they did.” The creature paced, getting angry. It was a shuffling pace, not at all like the graceful glide of the Rojuun. Then it stopped and smiled at Liselle. “I will tell you, glowing one. I will tell you what they won’t. You’ll like that, won’t you?” There was a cajoling tone to one of its voices and a whining tone to the other. The combination sent chills down her spine.

  She didn’t want it to tell her anything. Liselle just wanted it to go away. More than that, she didn’t want it cutting the glow out of her even if she didn’t understand what that meant. “Y . . . yes. I would like that,” she answered in a wavering voice.

  “My name is Krraa.” The name sounded like pebbles being crushed together. “I am hhorrj. My pets are sstejj. They tried to make us, but they failed.” The words were spit out as an accusation. “Rojuun thought to create life. They thought they were gods. They thought they could create animals and people. Rojuun were arrogant and foolish to try.” Hatred oozed from both voices.

  Liselle only whimpered.

  “The Rojuun did not finish the job. They did not make us right. They gave me wings!” Krraa yelled in fury. “I don’t want wings! I hate wings!” He slashed through the air with his knife. The creature stared into the fire. “Rojuun caged us, laughed at us, studied us, and . . .” it trailed off, looking back into its memory.

  Turning back to Liselle, it said, “Other Rojuun came to put those who made us on trial. They executed those who made us.” His voices were sinister and cold. “They said we were pitiful creatures that should not be seen and then they cast us into pits to fall deep into the world.”

  He stepped closer, running the tip of the hooked knife along her cheek, drawing blood. Something about his knife made the cuts burn.

  Liselle turned her head in fear, sobbing at the pain.

  “They did not finish us.”

  Krraa stepped back, tilting his head as he studied her. “I make more pets like the arrogant ones made. I watched as they created the sstejj and I learned how to make more. It’s easy. I make many more and send them to kill Rojuun.”

  “Then I see you. You glow a pretty blue glow.” The monster ran his finger along the cut on her cheek.

  The pain in her arm throbbed. She smelled infection in it even though Krraa had just made the wound.

  “I will take the glow out of you and it will fix me.” He licked her blood off his finger. “The glow will finish me. The glow will feel good.”

  The creature put his hooked knife back on the wall and took down two other devices. The wicked tools had sharp protrusions that lusted to cut her skin

  Liselle sobbed in fear once more. She wanted so desperately for Vevin to rescue her.

  There was another tug in her hair. “Relax now, beautiful child. Shh. Relax now,” The flower said in her mind.

  Liselle took a deep breath and, with the help of the flower, relaxed her entire body. “Good, beautiful child. Listen carefully for this will be more difficult than anything you have known,” it said. “The beast is going to hurt you.”

  She saw the thin, sharp devices moving toward her belly. Everything slowed to a snail’s pace.

  “When it does, you must die,” the flower said softly in her mind. A description of how to die appeared. It would require great willpower on her part.

  Time resumed its normal movement. Liselle watched as the first device pierced her belly through the gown. She screamed yet again at the explosion of pain and hunched over as much as the bindings would let her. It was so overwhelming that she couldn’t remember how to die.

  Liselle dug deep within her own mind and concentrated on the instructions the flower had given her. The other device cut into her next to the first, causing even more pain.

  She remembered the instructions and followed them. Liselle let the life flow out of her body.