Child of the Profane (LOTM fanfic)

Faust sat down on the rags as he looked at the two sealed artifacts he had gotten after his haunt. He didn't know what they did and he wasn't too keen about testing them. "Maybe I can kidnap someone. Have them test them and they tell me what they do." His thoughts wandered but he soon scrapped the idea.

He sat there, as he had been doing since night. It was now morning and he could hear the rushed feet of people walking towards their place of work and also the shuffling of the homeless as they came from the many holes they had crawled into to survive the night.

The sun shone lazily, the sunlight sweet on the skin and the cold from the night slowly gave way to a very small amount of mist that was soon dissipated by the heat of furnaces, oven and fireplaces that were rekindled to continue their work.

Faust had climbed to a higher point and created a small hidden platform. On the corner was a hole that he used to observe the streets and on top of him was another hole. An emergency exit. "I should really try to make a planned kill, maybe something on the other side." As he laid on the rags and his thoughts wandered, an idea formed. It wasn't complete but what had formed made him smile so he got up.

Jumping from his small platform, making sure to leave the cursed sealed artifacts behind, he went on his way. As he was walking, at the corner of his eye he saw a young man. He was short, as short as Faust. He wore what could be called high quality clothes, at least compared to what the people in the slums wore and he was just sleeping.

His once expensive pants were torn and filled with mud, his shirt wasn't any better and also had blood. Most probably from his mouth or nose, courtesy of a pinch by whoever left him there. "Are you just going to stare or are you going to help?" As Faust was observing he heard him ask. "Do I need to repeat myself?" The question rang out again.

Looking around he found himself a distance from the sole building that seemed to separate the two sections of the town. The same building, whose alley was witness to the first murder.

The man reached into his pocket and took out a packet of cigarettes, they were twisted and crumbled. You could see the tobacco dripping from the torn wrapping paper. He searched through the four or five cigarettes in the packet, took the best one and the rest were thrown haphazardly into the dirty mud.

"You got a match kid?" The same voice asked while looking at Faust. Almost on reflex he reached his hand out and a pure flame appeared on one of his fingers. "I can see you are a Beyonder, maybe a hunter." After a deep exhale of the tobacco smoke the man spoke. His hair stuck to his broad forehead while his eyes kept shifting periodically.

'He's nervous. What could possibly make him nervous.' He didn't speak, but reached forward and slowly let the flames consume the tobacco. He stood there, a few steps from the man and watched as a grin appeared on his lips when the tobacco smoke reached his lungs. He took it from his lips, smoke pouring from his nose and mouth. "I love you."

Faust saw that the interesting man had nothing else interesting, just an abnormal love for tobacco. He turned around and left the poor man alone with his love. As he was walking, he saw another man. The streets had cleared of the few people that walked on them and even the sun had slightly dimmed. He saw that the house seemed like shells, with the open doors leading to darkness.The man was dressed the same way and with the same features, broad forehead, deep green eyes and brown hair. This caused him to stop.

"Do you have a match? You seem like someone who enjoys the gifts of nature." The man asked with the same foolish grin while he held up a cigarette. Faust was confused but he still provided the man with fire. However, while last time he gave the man pure fire, one without his various curses, this time he filled it with curses. The once pure white flames took on a crimson like color and it seemed the man had noticed as he tried to lean further back when he was approached by it.

"Enjoy." Faust didn't leave. He watched as the reluctant man inhaled the cursed tobacco and watched as his face morphed into horror when he exhalled black smoke. "What have you–" He didn't get to finish as he felt his chest tighten. Like a drum and his lungs became stretched to their maximum. The once cocky eyes turned into horror and then pleading before he seemed to accept his fate, closing his eyes and waiting.

He waited for a few seconds but he didn't die and from the shadow hanging b fore him, the man hadn't left. "What do you want from me?" He wanted to add other words but each word he spoke caused him unimaginable pain. He could feel the continuous stretching of his lungs and he felt as his ribs slowly dug into them.

"What are you?" A simple question but it caused the man to shiver. "Why are you so nervous, it's like we aren't alone and you are scared that something will

jump from the shadows." His voice was clear, he wanted to know the answers and didn't have time to play along.

The man looked at him, his eyes shifted to the right and then to his shadow. Faust followed his vision. His shadow seemed to have morphed into a smiling silhouette. It was still a shadow but it was smiling and had red glowing eyes.

"What is that thing?" Faust asked the man. He looked around and saw that every shadow had the same things as his shadow. A smiling figure with red glowing eyes. He looked back at the man and saw that his shadow wasn't there. 'I really shouldn't have cursed him.'

Faust wanted answers but he felt his curse fade. It would either do that when the target was dead or when he was cured. Looking at the man, lying face down in the mud. He wasn't optimistic about his survival. "Now what." He muttered as he continued walking. A few hours later, he had walked past the dead body ten times. There existed nothing in this place, he didn't even know how he found himself in this place.

Finally he had had enough and climbed a building. It was nearly broken down, as were all the buildings but it seemed to be like those he had seen when he first entered the town but with a more simple design. On the roof, he looked outwards and saw that a few houses from where he stood was a sea of darkness, and when he turned back he saw the same darkness.

"So every time you hit that wall it takes you there. How the hell I'm I going to go back." His frustration was reaching an all time high and with no one to reign him in, some people were going to die. " There isn't even–" His rant was cut short. He smelt blood in the air. 'Fresh and a lot of it.' His thoughts started to rush.

He looked towards the middle of this place, where a small clearing stood. It was strangely visible through even when buildings, although short ones filled his vision. The blood came from there. He didn't waste any time, jumping from building to building, and when the distance was greater than he can jump he exploded a small fireball under his feet causing him to be propelled higher.

He was close to the clearing but stopped. In the corner of his eye he saw a group, hunched together close to a fire. He didn't think much of them and jumped down. "Hello there friends." His voice started the group and when they saw him appear so close to them, they did nothing but run. All of the people scartered leaving nothing but a lonely fire and some clothes.

Faust didn't mind them leaving, he would have killed them anyway. He actually apriciated that they had clothes that he could change into. 'Why didn't I just take from the dead guy? So stupid.' The thought appeared and suddenly he stopped.

"Something is wrong." This was less of a feeling and more of intuition. How did I get here, why did I leave the artifacts, why did t I kill the man the first time, why didn't he have a grinning shadow. These and many more questions ran through his head. He stood there, under the glow of the fire surrounded by shadows, each grinning and staring at him.

Slowly marks started appearing in the air. They were black and no sane man could translate them into anything coherent, but the insane would saw it all meant burn. That statement aligned with Faust's mental state right now. "Why was I going to the clearing anyway, let them all burn under the flames of the Abyss." He sounded half crazy but the marks stopped turning for a moment. As if aligned with the thoughts of their master, they all glowed a deep red. In a moment the alleyway he was in was filled with red before all the marks dissapeared.

Heat intensified, air became visible in the heat before it started to burn also and just as the marks were about to explode out with fire that would burn the poor souls that were stuck inside this cage with Faust, he fainted. The amount of spirituality that he had funneled into the spell was enormous greater than what he could muster and in that weakened state the shadow attacked.