Nyctophobia - 2 Dark Omens

-Day 20-

It had been a few days since the death of the family to the disease and discovered the infected woman named Lilac Brighten whom was discovered to have extreme paranoia believed to be symptom of the disease. Adam had ben observing Lilac since the Shrine Maiden had taken her in to slow down the symptoms of the disease using passed down methods further confirming his suspicions of the village having at least some knowledge about the disease despite their claims. He had decided to give the disease a name after observation of Lilac when he presumed she had reached the final stages of disease being the fear of darkness he named it Nyctophobia Syndrome in honour of the final symptoms. After she gained the extreme fear of darkness it was also noted that no new symptoms had arisen and she was afraid of the darkness mixed with extreme paranoia.

After observing her deterioration in mental health over the past few days he grew concerned and decided to write a formal request for containment and research of this disease to the Federation’s Health Institution or FHI for short and have more equipped professionals contain and research the disease however due to their being only him, Miss Rose, Eric and his band of 12 adventurers they may lose control of the situation if they lose one person to send to mail the request. He decided that he would have to ask Eric to send someone even if he is still hesitant to do so after the disappearance of the group sent after what they thought was a goblin refugee group when they first discovered the disease a few days ago.

He sat down at his desk pen in hand and began to write the request:

‘To whom it may concern,

I, Doctor Adam Pablovich have discovered a highly dangerous and disturbing disease on my expedition into DarkWood Forest and request immediate aid to contain and research the disease we have name Nyctophobia Syndrome. The symptoms can go in two ways from what we have seen with the discovery of almost instant death when entire goblin villages where found dead from the disease and also have an extreme lack of rotting even days after death or discovery. The second being slow collapse of mental health through extreme paranoia and eventual fear of darkness sending the infected into a mania and even at time acting violent. It has been proven to infect humans due to the discovery of a family whom was found deceased in their home with signs pointing towards the disease in question and another infected woman named Lilac Brighten whom entered mania stage a few days ago resulting in the death of her husband at her hands when he said she couldn’t leave the room she was being kept in.

With utmost urgency I request assistance with the containment and eventual eradication of Nyctophobia Syndrome.

Many thanks,

Sir Adam Pablovich.’

He put the pen down on the desk and sighed breaking the eerie silence that covered his room and reached to a shelf on his side where he pulled out an envelope and placed the letter in side and sealed it with a stamp upon his desk. He climbed too is feet and leg this house and made his way to the town hall where he gave the letter to Eric and asked him to get one of his guys to deliver it to the FHI clinic in the nearby town. Eric understood what he was getting at however he had a nagging feeling at the back of his mind as he gave the letter to one of his subordinates and sent them to deliver the letter to the town of Grey Wolf.

Adam caught up with Eric and passed him a lit cigar and sat down on a nearby bench and began to smoke alleviating some of the stress they had compiled from the past few days. Eric’s face darkened and faced Eric. “Do you think the disease killed all the goblins in the forest?” He puffed smoke out of his mouth once more. Adam looked at him and contemplated his words taking into account the already displayed contagious aspect of the disease. “Possibly, with how fast it spread between the two villages and wiped them both out in one night I wouldn’t be surprised if most goblins, orcs and the likes are already dead from Nyctophobia Syndrome.” Adam nodded his head as he puffed out another plume of smoke “Yeah I thought as much.”

-Day 21-

Hunters had encountered an orc settlement that had been claimed by the disease with signs of infighting and murder being common this time meaning most there had reached the mania stage without dying instantly. They all most likely attacked each over in madness turning the entire town into a scene from hell where mothers would gleefully butcher their children, there was even evidence of cannibalism and torture via cannibalism and other methods on other orcs and they had found some form of documentation as to what happened and it only said about the sudden degradation in their mental health and then the next day they began to kill each over shortly after people who hadn’t gone insane died mysteriously with no sign of struggle and had no sign of injury.

Adam was appalled at the scene of the village and the story it left behind, it made his skin crawl when he found what they did to their own. It made him sick and he was getting more desperate to find a way to contain the disease before the villages and towns nearby end up the same. He just hoped that this was a unique case and not what the virus had become instead of an instant killer. He had the adventurers burn down the village in case of any remnants of the disease being present and returned to the village where he found out that Lilac had finally died of the disease.

The problem however wasn’t just that she died it was that her soul stone was missing meaning that there is a chance that the disease removes any chances of reincarnation. This disease is becoming more terrifying by the minute and he wondered where such a disease could have came from.

“Maybe the disease was unearthed during the battle of DarkWood hill a few years ago?” Miss Rose interjected. Adam thought it to be a possible explanation however he is convinced that the entire forest would be dead already and so he kept thinking of where this disease would have originated. If he could figure out that much then he would be able to find a way to eradicate or just identify the type of disease it is.

He decided to lull over it later as he had to attend the burial for Lilac Brighten and try to notice any form of information that could say the village has some form of knowledge about the disease according to his suspicions. He arrived at the funeral service only to be greeted with an odd ceremony where they burned her body inside a wicker man and the Shrine Maiden was chanting about something which he couldn’t really hear except a phrase that disturbed him ‘The one who watches.’ He was very confused by this statement and had no idea s to what they meant by this phrase and continued to listen in only this time he could not hear her at all over the crackling flames the covered the wicker man dancing up into the evening sky.

He looked over to the sun setting beneath the mountains and trees in the distance and prayed that the disease claimed no other.

It had enough of waiting for the deranged woman to leave so it entered the strange building un the human village. When it entered the room the observed kept creaming and clawing at the wall as it approached her. It reached forth and pulled out a golden glowing stone similarly to how it pulled the stones from the goblins and orcs. It absorbed the stones and felt its presence grow stronger as it began to understand more about itself and its capabilities. The creature’s blood red eyes ominously searched around the room before it dissipated once again leaving nothing but the corpse of Lilac Brighten.

-Day 22-

Luckily there had been no incident that night much to Doctor Adams delight, he began to search the village’s library for any information on ‘the one who watches’ to try and understand what the shrine maiden was talking about and if it was connected the disease in any way. Searching through he library he encountered a large book with a leather cover. The front of the cover curiously only having an eye engrained on its surface. He opened the book and saw a picture that baffled him, one of a dark figure with the shape of a little girl and even what seemed to be hair the colour of its body. He also notice there was scratch marks where the eyes of the ‘girl’ was meant to be which made him very curious and he continued through the book. There was no writing in the book only blank pages, the picture and on the last page the words ‘The one who watches’.

He had a lead. He knew that somehow this must coincide with the Nyctophobia syndrome but he didn’t know how to follow it. All he had was this book and it only had a book with a picot of what seems to be a little girl in a dark room or area with the eyes of the book scratched out and the phrase ‘the one who watches’. He doesn’t know how to piece it all together yet but he swears on his name that he will found out what is happening in these.

_______________________________

‘Don’t wanna be sly and defile you

Desecrate my mind and rely on you

I just wanna break this crown

But it’s hard when I’m so run down

And you’re so cynical, Narcissistic Cannibal

Got to bring myself back from the dead

Sometimes, I hate, the life, I made

Everything’s wrong every time

Pushing on I can’t escape

Everything that comes my way

Is haunting me taking its sweet time

Holding on I’m lost in a haze

Fighting life to the end of my days

Don’t wanna be rude but I have to

Nothing’s good about the hell you put me through

I just need to look around

See that life that has come unbound

And you’re so cynical, Narcissistic Cannibal

Got to bring myself back from the dead

Sometimes, I hate, the life I made

Everything’s wrong every time

Pushing on I can’t escape

Everything that comes my way

Is haunting me taking its sweet time

Sometimes, I hate, the life I made

Everything’s wrong every time

Pushing on I can’t escape

Everything that comes my way

Is haunting me taking its sweet time

Holding on I’m lost in a haze

Fighting life to the end of my days

Holding on I’m lost in a haze

Fighting life to the end of my days’ -Korn