Malevolent shrine

Estel pale and scared, terrified of his own mind, of his own self, of who or at this point rather what he has become since he came to this very place. He looks at all of us as if he forgot who he was before entering this place, before even working for the drug lord. Forgetting himself, scared to the point that he fell, and started pushing himself back with his legs, screaming from the fear.

"No! No no no no no no! Don't! No! Who… Am I!? Why!? What happened to me!?" He was screaming inside of the cave with it resonating and echoing inside. I, scared. Them, as well. Even Bog wavered what he couldn't believe that was happening. His face even though he was dark skinned felt as if also went completely pale as far as it can be for him. "Don't come close! Don't touch me! What do you want?!" Screaming even louder at this point and making the sound almost unbearable.

Is he trying to imagine himself? What is going on inside him? He is seeing something, something maybe. He is really afraid, screaming just like me when I was getting scolded by my brother back then… Pain, fear, and just clear agony.

"What is going on?! Estel!" I screamed to him, overtaking the fear to try and help him.

"Stop! You bastard! I'm going to kill you! Don't come to me!" Still screaming, not answering my question. Does he know what he sees or is he… Lost? "Why are you me?! Why are there two mes!? What do you want to do!" Now in agony, he crumbled into a ball and started slowly swinging forward and back. Like a child that is scared for his life. But not screaming anymore at the very least.

I crawled to him and poked him with my hand trying to communicate. But there was no answer at all, just swinging as before forward and backward without rest. All of us were completely stunned by what he just did, another insane fall.

"What just happened…" Bog asked all of us that are completely scared. And me as the first person to overcome the fear and now feeling normal after what happened. I understand him. The same thing happened to me, the second me… Trying to do something. Being there, existing in my mind, and still is there but I am still able to sustain sanity. At least for the time being. Their faces were scarier than what happened, for me that is.

"A second himself? Inside… Of himself?" Matthew answered completely frightened with me sitting beside Estel trying to hug him.

"I know what is going in there," I pointed at Estel's head without touching it with the finger. "You don't want to know what is in there now. At least from my experience. Try to ignore what just happened, scared and misunderstood by his own self. Doubting. Just ignore it." I defended the elf still doing his weird thing, almost haunting.

"I get it but… Why now? Why not before?" Marcus couldn't believe that Estel in the last week lost it twice. A thing almost impossible to him as he was also the man that helped him a lot.

"Pressure, fear. We are going to leave this place in a few days and that may have affected his thinking. Slowly distorting his own self from the self before he came here. Both of those realities cling to each other. That's why his mind which was now fully onto survival started overriding the one from before coming here. The feelings of love, affection, and overall… Feelings." I explained to them what just happened and he couldn't believe what they've just heard. Their mouths opened. I couldn't stand them. Looking at me maliciously almost. "Don't stare at him," I added and then left the cave. I can't stand them looking at me as they do now.

"That shrine from before… Tomorrow? I need to go there!" The thought now is the only one thought in my mind. The blood, the monsters, the animals, Estel. Everything needs to be saved. I started running and jumping over the roots of the trees, avoiding them trying to just not fall. And I managed to get to the pointed trees without falling.

From there I remembered Estel's words, it was straight from our cave which was really convenient as it will always remember me how to come back. Now in a full on sprint once again just jumping and just going further. I need to see if the fountain is still there, maybe what just happened to Estel maybe is connected to the shrine itself.

I was right behind the tree where we found the shrine, leaning against it. The blood fountain must be right behind me right now, if not. It means I went crazy. This moment felt long and sluggish, I very slowly started looking behind the wooden log. And behind it? The shrine. At least I kept some of the sanity but not much. There were no animals though, only some bugs flying in something like a swarm around the shrine but also not too close to it.

It must have done something to Estel, or Estel's second him just happened to be the one to see that and not the real him. Am I overthinking stuff? Or what I am saying is correct. How can I know that? That just makes sense since this happened in the cave just now. He forgot about us running away from there? Like as if that ten minutes of straight running away was just cut out and him not being there completely. That's how it feels to be but it is just weird…

The swarm stopped flying now. Stopped, and the face once again appeared on the fountain. Manifesting itself from the blood flowing down, now in a pond made of some stones around itself. The face was now fully visible with no special features on itself. There is just a bold face with no other facial hair and just an emotionless, expressionless being.

"We will rise above! And thrive on their corpses! Drink their blood and take all of them over!" The voice resonating much louder than before, even my own mind was very weird. Everything appeared weird, blue, and distorted. Destroyed and mowed even seems to try and take me over. Has he grown stronger? In just a single day? Before when talking he didn't do much actually. "We will rise!" He said once again and those words made everything even weirder than they already are. Everything seemed more nauseous and overall blurry.

"I need to get out of here…" I thought and even my thoughts are now getting distorted and twisted. I started slowly walking because of the pain now being very explicit and now I was actually able to feel it. Holding my head with one hand and with the other one pressing on my thigh as it wasn't listening to me as it is supposed to.

I heard loud stomps around me, a tree beside. I leaned against it and even more stomps, louder and. More. A lot, making me jump a little bit as well. A second or two and a lot of animals started running beside me, avoiding the tree I leaned against. Bears, boars, even rhinos passing by me. I am afraid, scared completely. They are going to do something once again, talk about their plan for tomorrow.

My head went back to normal, nothing special happening. No pain, I started running. I started sprinting with fear, animosity. Running away as fast as possible to get back to the cave, to the nice, hot, cave. I need to help them, tell them about what is happening and what will happen.

"What the fuck!" I started screaming under my nose. Not too loud to not get notified by any other creature. I am expecting anything at this point, even god himself or the enemy of his in front of me. "What the fuck!" Repeating this under my nose so many times that I lost count of it.

Now another thought, Lucas. What is happening to him and what would he do if I died… If we died. The people that actually saved me. Helped me, became my brothers. What would he actually do? Kill… Someone? Himself… Them? Whom?

Too many questions, no answers, running. Jumps and fear just all around, I feel as if many eyes were looking at me. Red eyes on every tree I pass by, every plant I see and even stars themselves became red. More stress, and fear. Too many of those negatives.

"Don't think about it." I stopped murmuring the words before and now repeating them. 'Don't think about it'. Trying to do everything to keep my thoughts away from the bad thoughts that tried to take me away. But I have to warn them before it will happen... Before it all begins. The carnage.