Stunned. Despair and agony overwhelmed Charlie as he found himself in the encirclement of the monstrous cow people. Charlies already weak mental fortitude snapped and he broke down. As if roused by his screams and wails, they began moving in closer, slowly closing in on the enclosure. Charlie, noticing their change in response, tried to stand but only fell over as dizziness overwhelmed him. His hand moved to his head only to be met with blood and porcelain shards. Before he could respond, a hoof of a minotaur met his chest with a sickening crunch. Charlie could feel his ribs being shattered. The force of the kick sent him off his feet and onto his back. Unable to scream, only gasping, choking noises could escape his throat. Blood filled his mouth, and as he coughed it burst from his lips. Now, with the floodgates open, he began to vomit blood and what appeared to be chunks of bone and organ.
After vomiting multiple pints of blood, Charlie fell face first into the puddle, gasping and crying. His skin was now deathly pale, and he was shivering in his own blood. Now that he had a moment of respite, he heard the daunting jeers and laughs of the hundreds of minotaur's surrounding him. They had watched as he vomited his insides out, and now they loomed over him like vultures over roadkill.
With one fluid motion, one brought his heavy hoof onto Charlie's pale and skinny wrist. Instantly the bone broke with a loud snapping sound. Screams of agony along with jeers and taunts filled the apocalyptic landscape. This went on for hours and hours. The only reason it stopped was due to the flapping sound of the air being ripped apart by large bat wings.
Every minotaur's laugh died immediately, and they all began to scurry as if they were caught slacking by a coworker. They moved to broken houses all around, gathering debris and scraps, and began to build a large platform. Charlie, being face down in his own blood with his body broken and crippled, couldn't see the miraculous sight of hundreds of beasts expertly building a sturdy and perfect platform. Within just ten minutes, when they had the platform finished, they began to build a large crucifix upon it. A small platform for feet to stand on was placed at the bottom.
Before the large goblin-like bat creatures could arrive, they had already finished the whole project. When it was all finished, they quickly moved toward Charlie and took him by his bent and disfigured arm, tearing another bone-chilling scream from his hoarse and broken throat. They forcefully dragged him up to the platform and placed him on the crucifix. Forcing his disfigured arms back to being straight with many sickening crunches, they nailed his arms to the cross. Crying and wailing mixed with the sound of hammering iron as the nails were pounded into his palms.
Once he was secure, they all stepped back, leaving him hanging there, dripping with and covered in his own blood. After Charlie stopped wailing from his continuous torment, he heard screams pierce the otherwise quiet sky. The first sound of people he had heard since being in this realm. With great difficulty, Charlie raised his head, gazing into the sky. He saw a large group of familiar bat-winged goblins—hundreds, maybe a thousand—blotting the sky. In front of the flock were six slightly larger, hobgoblin-like creatures. And in their eagle talons, they held one person each. Charlie couldn't recognize them right away, but as they got closer, he recognized them very quickly. And when he did, despair took over. Unable to take it anymore, he began to bash his head against the head of the cross, splattering blood on it and opening the already grievous wound on his head. He started to plead and beg for them to leave the people alone and to let them go free, but it was only met with laughter. It was his family, screaming in terror and pain as massive talons pierced their skin.
When the flying creatures flew above the area where Charlie was, they let go of their prisoners, letting them drop and splat on the ground with a sickening crunch. They all groaned. Some screamed as they broke a limb or two. When they all took in their surroundings, at first fear, agony, and despair overcame them. But when they caught sight of their child crucified and on display, beaten and bloodied, Charlie's mother let out a shrill scream. His father and brother took off to help him down. His grandfather took off too, albeit a bit slower. His grandmother cried as she huddled around Charlie's mother.
The fifth person was still on the ground, stunned and trembling as they looked dazed up at Charlie. Bloody and broken both in body and spirit, all she could do was shake. Her eyes filled with tears, but they were unable to fall. Flashes of the man she used to love moved across her mind. Charlie's one and only ex-girlfriend was the other person. Looking around, she shivered, being alone in the large encirclement of such monsters. Slowly and awkwardly, she moved toward Charlie's mother and grandmother. Without even saying anything, they quickly pulled her into their circle as they continued to cry. Now with this sudden kindness, her tears began to fall.
On the side of Charlie's father, brother, and grandfather, they were almost immediately stopped by minotaur's. Charlie's father got angry and attempted to push through. He was met with the same kick Charlie had been subjected to, sending him flying and coughing blood. They no longer tried to move closer. They quickly moved back to the group of crying women and encircled them in protection, save for the father, who was now the subject of the wails of the women. Due to their sudden action, the encirclement stopped moving inward. However, now that the charade was up, they continued to move closer and closer, like a pack of wolves with a family of deer surrounded. No one would make it out unscathed.
Screams of terror filled the space around them as Charlie's mother was pulled away along with his old lover. From behind, the others were taken and held, being made to watch as they were beaten and tortured. Slowly their bones were crushed and limbs severed, not unlike Charlie's. However, they weren't as slow and meticulous as they had been with him. With great force, they stomped on their thin arms. Crunches and screams followed immediately after. The ones being held wailed and flailed as they watched their wife and mother be obliterated. Charlie watched, horrified, as his mother and only lover were grimly beaten and eventually beheaded. Time froze as their bodies simultaneously fell lifelessly to the floor. Charlie's throat, unable to make anymore words, could only pathetically croak and whine.
The frozen moment was quickly interrupted as two more were pulled into the same position. This time it was his grandparents. They shakily yelled reassurances, but they were quickly cut off by screams of pain and misery. Meanwhile, the two minotaur's who had previously murdered his mother and lover sauntered up to the platform and placed their severed heads on two pillars perfectly placed in front of the crucifix. There were six total, one for each hostage. Charlie's heart plummeted as he looked into the lifeless eyes of his family, full of misery and suffering. The air was heavy and full of screams, which were eventually and abruptly cut off, and another two heads were placed on the pillar next to the other two. The familiar and warm expressions of his grandparents were long gone. Only gruesome dismemberment remained. Their faces were black and blue. Grandma was missing an eye, and Grandpa was missing both ears and his nose.
Charlie couldn't hold back and vomited all over himself. He began to sob. All too soon, more screams replaced the quiet. The only other sound that could occasionally be heard were the soft chuckles of the brutes that couldn't be contained. Soon all six heads were lined up, all differently dismembered and deformed. The only thing Charlie could do was vomit and shake. Occasionally, the minotaur's would pull him down and continue to torture him when they got bored. Sometimes they'd get creative and fly him around from a flying goblin while being hung by a rope around the throat, crashing him into buildings and street poles. When they were done, they'd drop him from an incredibly high height and then put him back on the crucifix.
After hours and hours, days and days of constant torment and torture, without warning or reason, Charlie disappeared. And instantaneously, he reappeared in the exact crater he had woken up in when he first arrived in this hellish place. Standing up, he almost immediately realized that all of his wounds were completely healed. Stunned and bewildered, he checked himself, but very quickly came to his senses and took off in the opposite direction of the school. "Never again am I going there. I'm just going to run and never stop running away from here," he muttered. After running for a few minutes, he soon realized that he wasn't in the area of the town he should be in. He had run in the opposite direction of the school, which should have taken him to the commercial area of the town. However, he was in a neighborhood. Looking behind him, he saw that he had run in the wrong direction. He was running toward the school again. Freezing in place, he thought, No, I'm not that messed up, right? He took off in the opposite direction, back to where he wanted to go. He passed his original location and went in the correct direction.
After running for what seemed like hours, he finally saw a new landmark: a broken restaurant. Seeing the building, a churning feeling afflicted Charlie. He realized that he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten something. Even before he died, he was so weak he couldn't get up to eat for a few days. Rushing toward the building, he wrenched open the door and then immediately froze in place. Inside this restaurant was a long empty hallway. Exactly like that of the school that haunted his nightmares. Taking a step back, he looked up to see the restaurant had transformed into the school building. Turning to flee, he tried to escape. However, a chair flew out of the door, hitting Charlie in the head and knocking him to the ground. A curtain from a classroom door flew outside, grabbed Charlie by the ankle, and yanked him inside. Charlies screams echo through the deafeningly silent town. The heavy doors slammed behind him, sealing the sound of Charlie's screams as well as his fate for another loop.
