Episode 4: Nightmarish Encounter

The relentless goblins eventually came back, they had carried and dragged Leo for what felt like an eternity, their bony fingers digging into his flesh with malicious intent. His body was aching, and he drifted in and out of consciousness, the pain a constant reminder of his perilous situation. Amidst the haze, thoughts of Aurora consumed him, wondering if she was safe and if she had managed to escape and return to Asher for help. Perhaps Asher was already devising a plan to rescue him. But as hours blurred into days, doubt crept into Leo's mind. Did they even care that he was missing? Had he lost everything he finally wanted? His inner turmoil left him feeling unworthy of any rescue.

Finally, Leo awoke, groggily, on the dusty and cold concrete floor of a dimly lit cell. The room was a tiny, cramped space with just a solitary glimmer of light filtering in from a small opening in the wall. It barely illuminated the corner, leaving the rest of the room in ominous shadows. It was a square enclosure, barely large enough to accommodate him and one other person.

As he tried to get up, a sharp pain shot through his body, and he winced, clutching his injured side. With a labored effort, he managed to prop himself up into a sitting position, wryly remarking, "Oh, so it wasn't a dream. I really did just beat those goblins to oblivion," he murmured, but his laughter was stifled by a violent cough, intensifying the pain and reminding him of the harsh reality of his injuries.

As he surveyed his surroundings, his hands gripping the cage bars for support, he realized there was no means of escape. In that moment, the door to the cell room creaked open, unleashing a flood of blinding light into the dim space. Shielding his eyes, Leo noticed a small goblin kid standing just outside the cell.

"Hey, mister human elf, who are you?" the little goblin inquired, curiously stroking its nonexistent beard with a tiny hand.

"I'm your friend, little one," Leo responded, a convincing smile dancing on his lips. He beckoned the goblin to come closer, intending to manipulate it into helping him. However, seizing the moment, he grabbed the goblin's arm, twisting it until the little creature yelped in pain. Muffling the goblin's cry by covering its mouth, Leo whispered in its ear, demanding that it find whoever imprisoned him, or else face a fearsome nightmare. The little goblin fled, tripping over its own feet in fear.

Amused, Leo chuckled, watching the goblin scamper away. Gazing down at his own bloodied and battered form, he wondered whether Asher would be proud of him. Suddenly, a much larger goblin, adorned with a bizarre bird tattoo across his neck and with one arm significantly larger than the other, entered the room with a disdainful snort. The goblin seemed eager to spit on Leo as he threatened him, "So I hear you want me, and also you hurt this little one?"

Unwavering, Leo locked eyes with the goblin, who took aim and spat at him. Leo sidestepped with astonishing agility, dodging the spit while maintaining a piercing gaze. "Yes, release me from this cage, and it is only your life I will take for putting me in here," Leo declared, his intimidation evident as the goblin trembled in response.

Another goblin, wearing a tiny bottle cap as a hat, appeared, stuttering in confusion as he tried to intervene. But Leo saw an opportunity and seized the moment, pulling the goblin closer to the cage and subjecting him to a powerful chokehold. "As I said so kindly, sir, let me out, and it will only be you who pays!" Leo taunted with sarcasm.

Fearful, the goblin complied and threw the key into the cage. In a theatrical display, Leo sarcastically addressed the goblin as his king, whilst snapping the neck of the goblin and mockingly letting go of the creature's lifeless body as it fell to the floor. Grabbing the key by his feet, he moved to take it, but a sudden burn on his back stunned him, rendering him motionless.

Vivid memories inundated his mind, revealing glimpses of his life before he met Asher, Aurora, and the village. Breaking free from the overwhelming images, Leo unleashed a deafening roar that shattered the cage, the walls, and everything in the room. It obliterated the goblin who had provided him with the key, leaving a pink mist in its wake. He realized he was in the midst of a goblin village, having captured the attention of every goblin in the vicinity. "W-What was that? If only I knew I could've done that earlier. No need for keys anymore, I guess," he said to himself, holding out his hands and looking down at his body.

With chants of "Get the abomination!" echoing, Leo felt an overwhelming sense of urgency. He extended his hand toward the approaching crowd of goblins, expecting some miraculous power to manifest, but was left bewildered when nothing happened.

"Well, that was anticlimactic if I say so myself," unfazed, he decided to make a beeline for a blacksmithing station where he saw a dwarf in chains, working diligently.

Racing towards the dwarf, Leo recognized him as Billy, who had been missing from the village for months. Excitement surged within Leo, temporarily forgetting the goblin threat.

"Billy, is that you?" Billy, worn out from being enslaved by the goblins, raised his head weakly, questioning if Leo's appearance was a trick of the gods.

As Billy spoke, Leo noticed the goblins inching closer, so he tossed Leo a sword and freed himself by breaking the chains with an ax. With a swing, Billy dispatched a goblin by striking it right between the eyes, splitting its head in half. "What are you standing there for, mi'boy? Let's get to smashing some goblin heads. They deserve it after what I've witnessed here these last few months," Billy proclaimed in an eager yet weary tone.

Without hesitation, Leo replied, "Thought you'd never ask, old friend," and they charged together toward the approaching goblin horde.

In the heat of the battle, Leo's sword impaled a goblin's stomach, and he flung the lifeless body into the crowd. He then bit into another goblin's neck, tossing its body with force. Spotting Billy, Leo marveled as his friend lifted two goblins, one in each hand, smashing their skulls together until they became one gruesome heap.

Goblins surrounded them, and a barrage of arrows pierced the air, with some hitting Billy's thigh and stomach. Wounded but determined, Billy fought on, breaking the arrows to slow the bleeding. He charged into the crowd, disappearing from Leo's view.

Witnessing his friend in danger, Leo roared in anguish, "BILLYYYY," turning his attention away from the goblins in front of him. A goblin took advantage, striking Leo's jaw with a vicious blow, causing bloody spittle to fly from his mouth. Leo was sent sprawling backward, landing on the ground, his vision blurring as he struggled to focus.

As he looked up at the approaching massive goblin with a club, Leo realized the grave danger he was in. The goblin's intent was clear, aiming to crush Leo's skull with a single swing.

Just as the club descended, Leo saw a magnificent sword, adorned with leaf-like designs and a gleaming emerald pommel, parry the club's blow. Grunts and the sound of flesh tearing filled the air, and to Leo's astonishment, the massive goblin's head fell to the ground. The goblins suddenly retreated, chanting, "It's him, the mighty elf warrior! RUN!"

Leo's vision blurred, and he felt himself being lifted by a tall elf with greyish hair and intricate tattoos. The elf reassured him, "Don't worry, son. Let's get you home."

Leo woke up in his room with bandages all over his wounds; Aurora, Asher, and Mary surrounded him at the foot of his bed. Candles lit behind them, the lights leaving shadows much bigger than they really are, going across the ceiling. Leo weakly said, "Billy? Father, where's Billy?" "Billy? He has been missing for months. What are.."

Before Asher could even finish, Leo quickly said, "I know what I saw; he freed himself and helped me try to escape the goblins."

With that news, Asher left the room in a hurry; to go grab the village watchers and tell them to go check it out and report back in the morning. Mary left not too shortly after Asher did; it was pretty late.

Now all that was left in the room were Aurora and Leo. Leo went to say something but was quickly cut off. "Leo, what were you thinking? You could've got killed! It's not fair to do that to me. You can't scare me like that!" She tears up, covering her face from Leo.

"I-I was looking for you; we were to go to the woods, remember? I figured you ran back and escaped the goblins to tell Asher." Leo says, trying to explain himself.

Aurora wipes the tears from her cheeks and looks confused. "I didn't go to the woods or tell Asher anything?"

Before Leo could respond to Aurora's question, his attention was drawn to the window he had left open the night the goblins took him. A faint, shadowy figure stood outside, obscured by the dim moonlight filtering into his room. Struggling to see clearly, he strained his eyes, attempting to decipher the identity of the mysterious visitor.

As if guided by some unseen hand, the moonlight shifted, casting an eerie glow that slowly illuminated the face of the figure. Leo's heart skipped a beat, and a shiver ran down his spine as recognition washed over him. It was Aurora, but not the Aurora he knew. Her eyes were pitch black, leaking thick rivulets of blood that trailed down her cheeks. And her smile... her smile was grotesquely wide, stretching far beyond the limits of her lips.

Leo's breath caught in his throat, and he could feel a mixture of fear and confusion welling up inside him. Was this a hallucination, a twisted nightmare brought on by his harrowing ordeal with the goblins? He tried to speak, but his voice faltered, and only fragmented words escaped his trembling lips.

"A-Aurora?"

His mind raced, attempting to grasp the unsettling sight before him. This couldn't be the same sweet and gentle Aurora he had known and cared for. Something was terribly wrong. He blinked, hoping that the morbid vision would dissipate, but the haunting image of Aurora persisted, her unnaturally wide grin etched into his mind.

In the darkness, the figure's twisted smile seemed to widen even further, as if mocking his disbelief. Leo's heart pounded in his chest, and he tried to move, to flee from the surreal nightmare that had invaded his room. But his body felt paralyzed, as if an invisible force held him in place, trapped in the oppressive gaze of this sinister apparition.

Aurora's dark, oozing eyes remained fixed on him, seeming to pierce through his soul. The room felt suffocating, and the air hung heavy with an aura of malevolence. Leo could barely comprehend what he was witnessing, struggling to distinguish reality from delusion.

As panic threatened to consume him, Leo's mind raced back to the night he was captured by the goblins. He remembered the terrifying chase through the woods, the relentless pursuit of the malevolent creatures, and the moment they had overwhelmed him. But what had they done to him during those lost hours? Were his senses betraying him, or had they unleashed some dark magic upon him?

With a surge of willpower, Leo finally managed to utter a question, his voice trembling, "Aurora, what... what happened to you?"

But the distorted version of Aurora only continued to grin, the eerie sight unnerving Leo to the core. He felt an overwhelming urge to turn away, to shut his eyes and deny this haunting reality, but a morbid fascination kept him locked in her gaze.

As Leo struggled against the invisible restraints holding him, a strange realization dawned on him. The window through which he observed this nightmarish apparition wasn't open before; he distinctly remembered closing it earlier. This figure, this dreadful vision of Aurora, was something beyond the natural world.

In a desperate attempt to break free from this nightmarish encounter, Leo summoned all his strength, finally tearing his gaze away from the twisted visage. He closed his eyes, trying to block out the unsettling sight, hoping that when he opened them again, everything would return to normal.

When Leo dared to look once more, the window was empty, and the moonlight now gently cast its silver glow over his room, no trace of the grotesque apparition remaining. Panting, he tried to steady his racing heart and grasp the reality of what he had just witnessed.

Was it a figment of his imagination, a manifestation of his fears, or something more sinister? The answers eluded him, leaving him haunted by the chilling encounter with the corrupted version of Aurora. As the first rays of dawn approached, Leo sat there, contemplating the mysteries that surrounded him, unsure of what was real and what was merely a product of the horrors he had endured.