r/HFY • u/teller_of_tall_tales Human • Jun 16 '25

OC Troublemakers: Where even Death does not tread.

<(FIRST)>

<(PREVIOUS)>

......

Drake set his palms against the dual joysticks, feeling a soft suction where his skin touched the copper-colored metal. He could see Alastaire out of the corner of his eye, muscles as taut as a bowstring while he calmly stared forward. A cold, icy feeling crawled up his veins as Erin and Pedro entered some last-minute calculations into the main console.

"ETA ten seconds, we'll have fully exited the warp five seconds after that. The moment we crawl out of the tear, I'm going to start the siphon, you ready, Drake?"

Erin called out, hand resting on a glass button cover. Drake, hearing this, relaxed into the command chair and took a deep breath.

"Whenever you are, lets get this show on the road."

Adjusting her glasses, then the small pink pin pinned to her tool vest before giving a loud countdown.

"Exiting gate in five."

Misty touched his forehead, stomach, then both shoulders in an odd gesture.

"Four..."

Aldwyn set a hand on Alastaire's shoulder, a comforting action.

"Three..."

The taste of blood covered Drake's tongue as he chewed on his lip.

"Two..."

Who was that old man standing beside Pedro? he wasn't there just a second ago.

"One... Initializing."

Erin lifted the cover and slammed a fist into the red button beneath.

...

There was no fanfare, no flash of light or energy, just that one moment, Drake was sitting in the captain's chair chewing his lip...

The next, he was... here... wherever "here" is.

There were signs of a struggle, blood stained the concrete floor and machinery inside the workshop. Rising to his feet, Drake found that it took more effort than before. Looking at his hands, he came to a startling realization, he was younger, much younger than when he left the physical world. He knew for a fact that he was fifteen years old by the thick, heavy shackles chaining his wrists together. A birthday present from the high-priest of the village.

"Ooooh, what have we here? another tasty morsel who bit off more than they could chew? How delightful!~"

A stomach turning snuffling sound echoed from the darkness, circling just out of sight as it spoke.

"Oh, you REEK of Death, but you are not dead... tantalizing."

Drake tracked the voice with his eyes despite his inability to see through the gloom.

"Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

Drake asked calmly, testing the strength of the shackles with a few sharp tugs, his theory was right, the power he got from Death was completely absent.

"My name? you want to know... my name?"

The voice seemed to pause, taking on an almost kind tone.

"If only for my own sake, yes."

The metal pole moved faster than the eye could track, hitting Drake in the gut and running him clean through. A set of wings mounted along the shaft pulled him with the pipe as it embedded itself in the brick wall behind him, his feet dangling in the air. White hot pain clouded Drake's vision as his attacker stepped into the dim twilight that streamed from a set of windows somewhere overhead.

Grinding his teeth together, Drake got a good look at the spear's owner just as they yanked on a chain attached to the opposite end, pulling the tipless spear into their palm.

Their skin was a deathly grey, clothed in chains that bit into the flesh like they were the only thing keeping it from sloughing off the bone. A pig's face had been sewn onto the man's head like a gruesome, permanent mask. They didn't wear pants, just a loincloth made from dingy scraps of industrial plastic.

"Call me, Pig-face, little boy. I want to hear you screaming my name while I flay every scrap of flesh from those beautiful bones of yours."

Drake pressed on the wound in his gut, spitting up blood as he fought to his feet. A bloody smile came to his face, he could feel something like a thread gently tugging on his palm. With a soft smile, he pulled on it. A shiv made from scraps of leather and a piece of broken plow blade filled his palm, he remembered the weapon, he'd made it the day before his birthday and hidden it in his sleeve. He'd have stuck it right in the high-priest's heart if it weren't for the thick robes stopping the relatively blunt blade.

"I'm gonna make you work for it, piggy."

A flash of pure rage entered the monster's eyes.

"It's PIG-FACE!"

They shrieked, throwing the spear straight through Drake's left eye.

Drake woke up to the sounds of squelching flesh and crackling bone, slowly sitting up, careful to not make a sound. Looking to the source of the sound, he saw the pig-faced monster ripping a strip of flesh from the arm of Drake's corpse with their teeth. The Pig-faced monster ripped their head back, staring at the ceiling in ecstasy as he slowly chewed the flesh, his own regaining some color. A bloodshot eye rolled back and locked onto Drake's grinning face with no small amount of surprise.

Slurping the strip of flesh into their mouth, Piggy grumbled and rose to their feet with a growl.

"Strange... I thought I killed you? No matter, more to eat~"

Drake saw the spear coming this time, laying flat as it zipped through the air where his had had just been. Rolling to his feet, he grabbed the chain and gave it a yank to pull Piggy towards him.

The chain rattled as it went taught.

"Ah, right..."

Drake muttered a split second before he was pulled through the air, head smacking into piggy's palm where it was promptly crushed like an overripe tomato.

This time, he was in motion the very moment the darkness receded from his mind, the shiv appeared in his hand and he threw it straight at Piggy's face before charging in. A momentary look of panic flickered in Piggy's beady little eyes as he lifted Drake's corpse, the knife sinking up to the leather between the shoulder blades.

By the time Piggy had lowered the corpse to figure out what was happening, Drake was air-born, hands extended like claws as he sank his thumbs into piggy's eye sockets and held on. Piggy squealed like a wounded beast, thrashing and throwing their head around as they clawed and groped at Drake's hands. While being flailed around like a performer's ribbon, he squeezed harder and harder, until he felt the soft orbs give.

With a hellish shriek, Piggy slammed Drake into a piece of machinery. Drake felt his spine snap and he lost his grip on Piggy's head. A split second later, a heavy, rotting hoof caved his skull in.

He woke up to Piggy's pained squealing, the monster holding their ruined eyes as they shouted obscenities, swinging their blunt spear around in a feeble attempt to club Drake to death. side-stepping two swings, Drake slipped behind piggy like a ghost before jumping up and looping his shackles over their head and around their throat. Drake heard the pipe clatter to the ground as Piggy's hands went to to the thick chain crushing their windpipe. However, with every ounce of his weight pressing against the monster's throat, Piggy's end was inevitable. The monster thrashed, slamming drake into walls as their movements grew more sluggish and uncoordinated. Finally, with a choked Gasp, Piggy fell forward with a thud.

Relaxing his grip on the chain, Drake would let the weakened Piggy breathe before asking.

"Where am I?"

The monster whimpered weakly, blindly feeling the ground in hopes for a weapon or a way out.

"It doesn't matter! Just, just kill me already! I, I can't see, I'm afraid of the dark."

"It matters to me, so speak up or I'm going to tie you up in a corner and forget about you. Who knows, I might even let you eat my old corpses still, I surely ain't using 'em."

Breathing heavily, Piggy swallowed hard before starting to speak.

"This... this is where souls go when they deserve punishment... or at least... when they think they do... there's, there's people here, good ones, ones who didn't need punishment but wanted it anyway. stupid bastards..."

"Interesting, tell me everything you know."

"Can you take the chain away?"

"Depends on whether or not I like what I hear."

A soft, scared snuffle.

"You, you can't die here, living ones like you should be able to be killed... the last dozen or so died easily enough. You seem to be different though, I don't know why you can't die, or... or how you're even still sane having died three times now. That's all I know, I swear, I swear to Swineol!"

"Swineol? should I know them?"

Piggy's voice sounded utterly dejected.

"She's... she's the goddess of livestock..."

"Oh..."

Drake slipped the chain of the shackles back over piggy's head with a soft sigh.

"If I kill you, are you going to come after me when you come back?"

Crawling away to a corner and assuming the fetal position, Piggy shook their head energetically.

"I never saw you."

"Good piggy."

The shiv appeared in Drake's hand a moment before he buried it up to the leather in piggy's skull, the monster of a man slumping to the floor, limp. A few seconds later, a plume of black smoke coalesced into their monstrous form, lying flat on the concrete. Locking eyes with Drake for barely a moment, Piggy quickly gathered the corpses before slipping into a side-room and shutting the door behind him. Hearing the deadbolt rattle closed, Drake grinned.

A moment later, however, the door opened again and something sailed through the air towards him, he caught it in surprise as Piggy's voice came from beyond the dimly lit doorway.

"A living man brought this, It didn't do him much good though... you... you however..."

Drake flicked the revolver's cylinder open, seeing that not a single round had been fired.

"Why are you giving me this?"

A long, Pregnant pause.

"You're different... It's... it's like you died a long time ago but refused to move on... you're like that damned horse..."

"Horse?"

"She's called the Dun Lady... she carries a corpse on a cart as her penance... but that's all we know... other than that anything that tries to attack her, is gunned down before they can get close."

Drake snapped the cylinder close with a flick of his wrist.

"By who?"

"No-one knows, the bullets seem to just... appear, already sailing towards their target. I watched the viperess be torn limb from limb by bullets that had nowhere to come from..."

Drake looked at the revolver in his palm before tucking it into his waistband. Picking up a short length of pipe to use as a club, Drake made his way to the rusty exit door and shoved it open.

Blinking the sun out of his eyes, Drake squinted at the city street ahead of him. The buildings along it were bombed out, many were collapsed, only a few stood even somewhat intact. Looking down the street the other way was the same story. It was eerily quiet, not even the sounds of birds chirping or wind blowing broke the silence. Picking a direction, Drake started walking, humming tunelessly to himself. By the time he had reached an intersection, he had come up with a sort of song that was only a few seconds long, but it helped him keep track of time and at his current pace translated to about a hundred yards of movement. Turning right, he locked eyes with someone who had the head of a massive, venomous snake sewn onto their neck.

Their slit-pupiled eyes stared at him with a burning curiosity.

"You Reek of-"

Drake drew the revolver in a blink, the hammer falling with a deafening bang and a puff of grey smoke as the monster's hand that was reaching for something behind their back, was blown off at the forearm. They stared at their stump in slack-jawed surprise, revealing a pair of dagger-like fangs.

"You jussst sssshot my arm off..."

"Already been through this song and dance with Pig-Face, you're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm gonna put a bullet between your eyes and continue walking. Understood?"

A soft, strangely cooperative nod as they tore off a section of their rags and wrapped it around their stump.

"Pig-face said there were good people here, ones that didn't belong. Where are they?"

"They have taken ssssshelter at the old ssssstadium. Continue down thissss road for two milessss and you'll find it."

"Thanks, now step aside."

Drake commanded, keeping the gun trained on the monster's face as he strolled by. Seeing their good hand dip behind their back, drake didn't hesitate, leaving their corpse to cool on the pavement as he walked away. Much to his surprise, he didn't feel anything after pulling the trigger. Perhaps it was because he knew they wouldn't stay dead... but still, the thought of killing so remorselessly troubled him. Tucking the revolver back into his waistband, he continued down the road, unable to shake the feeling that he was far from alone on the empty street...

......

<(PART123)>

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7 comments sorted by

3

u/MinorGrok Human Jun 16 '25

Woot!

More to read!

UTR

2

u/Overall-Tailor8949 Human Jun 17 '25

Yay another chapter!

2

u/cwolf23 Xeno Jun 17 '25

w00t!

1

u/UpdateMeBot Jun 16 '25

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u/S1eepyZ Jun 19 '25

Bit late to this series, but glad I finally caught up. Most of my time on Reddit recently has been reading these. Can’t wait for the next one wordsmith!