Akko's eyes widened, as he looked down at his brothers face in shock. Where once was an eye, only darkness remained and in its middle burning in a fierce red was a pupil, devoid of any emotions and sign of life. The area immediately around it seemed like it had turned into a light shade of grey, while not too different from his brother's otherwise light skin, it was noticeable enough to give off an inhuman look. Strange marks surrounded the eye, as black as the eye itself. However, compared to the lifeless abyss of darkness that had replaced Vito's eye, these seemed to brim with life and energy. The rest of his face seemed to be left mostly unscathed. His other eye still had the same colour as his own and his stubbly beard was matching the untamed brown hair, although the right side of his beard seemed to have got a similar treatment as the skin around his eye.
He just stared at him for a couple of seconds, his mouth wide open, unable to describe what he was seeing. Despite his years of service, he had lost his cool for a moment. Akko had seen all kinds of injuries, from strangely deformed bodies to missing limbs. However, while all of these were horrific, they were also natural. What he saw here though eluded everything he thought possible. So it was his brother who broke the silence again, as he waved his hands in front of his face and moved them around carefully around the area where his eye used to be. With fear written on his face and his voice shaking, he said in a coarsely
"I can't see… I can't see anything with this eye. Tell me what happened to my eye, it feels strange… like stone or glass!"
Vito's voice pulled him out of his stasis, and he mustered
"I have no clue. Your eye, it looks like I am looking into a black hole and your pupil…"
He paused for a second trying to find the right words, when he realised something that made the hairs on the back of his hair stand up. The silence. Where there had been droves of birds singing just a moment ago, there was nothing. The only sounds that reaches his ears were the sound of the wind and the leaves rustling within it. No… there was something. As he listened closely, strange sounds reached his ears, they sounded like the distant cries of pained animals.
'Shit.'
Akko shook his head, as his training kicked in and his body started moving. He threw a quick glance around himself, attempting to determine anything out of the ordinary and spot potential threats. Whatever it was they had headed out to find was definitely related to this. Around an hour ago, the first of these strange shockwaves had reached the family house where Akko and his brother were staying to celebrate with their parents. At first, they ignored the curious phenomenon, but after the third one reached them, the two had decided to go check it out. So he had grabbed his father's hunting rifle, and they went out, using this as an opportunity to enjoy the nice walk in nature surrounded by green and fresh air, both rarities in the city he usually lived in.
"We need to get the fuck out of here. Can you walk?"
His brother nodded so, Akko reached to grab his right arm, threw it around his shoulder and helped him stand up. Lingering for a moment to let Vito regain his balance, they soon started walking back in the direction they had come from. Half dragging his brother, they weight seemed surprisingly light. Vito was no small man, yet he was not struggling the slighted.
That was not the only unsettling change. The familiar forest light seemed subtly distorted around the edges of things, shimmering faintly like heat haze where none should be. Faint, almost unnoticeable motes of light seemed to drift in the air, catching the sun in ways that felt unnatural. It was not just the blood in his veins… a low, resonant thrum buzzed beneath his skin, making him feel warmer, and oddly lighter. He glanced down at Vito, half-carried, half-dragged - the weight seemed strangely insignificant, his own fatigue not nearly as noticeable as it should be.
He focussed inward for a second, trying to parse the thrumming sensation. It pulsed like a heartbeat, yet felt distinctly alien, - an energy flowing with his blood, but not of it. He shook his head, pushing the bizarre feelings aside.
'Focus. Get out.'
The familiar feeling of adrenalin was rushing through his body, but there was also something else. The unmistakable sense of danger. His intuition had been honed in his relatively short, but rich time in the military and too many operations for somebody this young, and it was screaming at him to get out of this forest and away from whatever it was that was emitting these waves.
'We have to go faster'
A loud screech interrupted his thought and sent shivers down his spine. As the two of them came to a stop, they stared in the direction of the sound. Akko carefully let go of his brother and shouldered his hunting rifle. Twigs crackled and bushes rustled as a bizarre animal stepped out of the depths of the forest. It seemed to be a horrifically malformed deer, twisting and turning. It had 5 legs and a row of black spikes protruded from its spine. The creature let out another screech as its side contorted and, behind its left front leg, a sixth leg started to form.
The two brothers froze, silence stretching between them as they stared at the suffering deer. Akko's knuckles whitened on the rifle stock, his breath catching in his throat. Vito took an involuntary step back, his visible eye wide, his mouth slightly agape as he tracked the grotesque twitching of the creature's malformed limbs. Continuing to stumble forwards, just as he started to hope that the abomination would just pass them, it seemed to become aware of them. Its head spun around and as its eyes locked onto them, Akko realised, those were the eyes of a predator. In the next second, he took aim and fired. The deer stumbled… more than before, however it regained some of its balance and continued advancing towards them. He reloaded, aimed, and released again. Another hit, and this time it seemed to have more of an effect. One of its legs gave in, forcing it to turn slightly, which meant it opened up its side to Akko, giving him a better shot. Seizing the opportunity, he landed another hit, finally bringing the deer down. He locked eyes with his brother for a second as they slowly started walking towards the creature, which was somehow still alive and convulsing on the ground. Not wanting to step anywhere near this thing, he raised his rifle again and gave the poor being a final shot.
"What the hell is this?"
His brother broke the silence. Akko shook slightly, tilted his head as he looked at him with a concerned look
"It seems kind of similar to that eye of yours."
'Also, 4 shots? Sure, two of the shots were from the front and I might have missed the vitals, but looking at the body, they look pretty solid, especially the broadside one. Still, I might have just missed.'
They had no time to stay too long, as it was clear that something way beyond their imagination was happening here. He tore his gaze away from the abomination that once was a deer and followed Vito, who had moved around it and was inspecting it. He looked at his brother for a second, as a thought shot through his head
"Mom and dad!"
His brother's eyes widened as a stood up abruptly and the two of them started running down the path. In all the panic, they had completely forgotten about their parents, who were not too far away. Vito was still recovering, so he started falling behind. Suddenly he let out a groan
"Wait!"
Akko whipped around only to see his brother collapse to his knees, hands clamped to his head, a strangled noise escaping him. A cold dread washed over him, tightening its grip in his gut as he sprinted back.
'No, not again. Is he turning also turning into such an abomination?"
The thought flashed, sharp and terrifying, as he reached Vito's side. The second he reached him, however, his body slumped, and he took a deep breath and seemed to calm down.
"Stay close to me."
His brother groaned in a pained voice, before he could even get out a word
"For some reason, when you get too far away I start to get hallucinations, my head feels like it is going to explode."
Vito looked up at him, and grimaced
"I'm pretty sure the exact same thing happened to that deer. You're the only reason I haven't turned something like that… well, not fully"
He added, pointing at his eye. Grunting, putting one hand on his tensed, distorted face, he stood up and continued walking. Following his brother quietly, Akko tried to make sense of what was going on. He glanced at Vito, whose pained grimace had lightened slightly. It seemed to be true. Whatever afflicted his brother seemed lessened by his proximity, as if his presence somehow… diluted the wrongness in the air.
Analysing the situation, nothing he could think of made any sense. It was pointless, they needed more information. They switched into a fast jog, and after a while both of them started panting as they silently ran. Soon they reached a lake, from which point the path followed the shore, which meant that they were close. As they stepped into the open by the lake, a bone-chilling sound ripped through the air, stopping them dead in their tracks. It was a scream, twisted and ragged, barely human. Akko's head snapped towards the sound, his eyes wide, exchanging a lightning-fast, dreadful glance with Vito. Without a word, adrenaline surged, hearts hammering against ribs, and they broke into a desperate sprint along the shore, the horrifying sound echoing in their minds – it came from the direction of their parents" home.