Flesh & Bone

“Is this what you saw?” Filk asked from behind the trunk of a thick tree and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. Filk, the youngest of the two brothers, disapproved of going deeper into the woods and suggested that they could find other materials elsewhere but his older brother begged to differ.

Thaedas bent his knees and poked at a moss covered breastplate with a stick, “In my dreams yes,” it clanged against the wooden tip and Thaedas knew that they hit the jackpot. “Told you I’m not crazy, now hand me the machete.”

The eldest among the two smiled with great delight. The voices that pulled him deeper and deeper to this part of the woods were not just his imagination. The dreams that called him to the place where ancient trees rest in solitude promised them riches beyond their wildest imagination. Right from where the eldest of the ancient trees grew a hulking body of armor laid rest. It was covered in moss, constricted by vines and thick roots. He grinded his teeth and quickened his pace.

Filk nodded, rummaged his bag and handed Thaedas the machete. He backed away and kept his eyes and ears sharp. There were no birds that sang here, there were no animals skittering on the forest floor. It was just them and this repetitive noise of a blade cutting through tough wood.

“We better hurry up or we’re never gonna find our way back home.” Filk said quietly with a quivering voice.

To Thaedas his brother's words were muffled and faint. He kept his hand steady, eyes heavily fixated on the body of armor, and the only voices he heard are promises offered by it. He grinded his teeth and quickened his pace.

Bone and Flesh. Bone and Flesh.

Filk swept his eyes back and forth, clenching tightly onto his bag. “Brother I think we have to go now.” he felt it right through his bones that something was wrong.

“Bone and flesh, Bone and flesh.” Thaedas chanted under his breath and continued to hack once more. His posture became more primal as he leaned into the forest floor almost as if he was about to kiss the armor. He grinded his teeth and quickened his pace.

His little brother wondered why he was taking so long because from the sound of it the roots were getting easier to cut but he just sat there. Hacking it again and again. Down to his bones he felt something was wrong.

“Brother!” Filk reached out for his brother’s shoulder and peeked at what was taking him so long, they were just vines and roots and nothing more. His heart stopped in his chest. The forest floor was covered in bloodstain.

“Bone and flesh, bone and flesh, bone and flesh.” Thaedas grinded his teeth and quickened his pace.

Filk gagged and jumped back. Fear clawed through his throat and his stomach was twisted from inside out. What they found was not treasure, but something much worse.

“Help!” he screamed, a loud one that snapped Thadeas from his fixation. He stood up. The fingers on his right hand were missing as blood continued to splurt out of his mangled arm. He smiled a devilish grin and his mouth bled like a crimson waterfall. His eyes bulged out of his eye sockets almost as if they wanted to escape the young man’s body.

“Bone and flesh, bone and flesh.”

“Back away! Back away!” Filk dug his nails onto the dirt, scurrying away from his brother.

The two brothers never came out of the woods and once again the forest rested in silence.

Except for a beating heart coming out of a corpse encased In a body of armor.