The Horror of Blood II

This day we found ourselves completely hemmed in by the ice, and our prospects looked cheerless indeed.
Eric finally made good on his promise.

Other than the food and shelter thing, I mean. He's been quite helpful there. No, what I mean is that he helped me, directly, with a Fear. A Dying Man shard, to be exact. I actually encountered one of them, lucky me.

It was a huge thing, huge and skeletal. There was some meat on its bones, but not much. The rest of it was rotted away. The flesh and bones on its face had slash marks; Eric said it was because the human the shard's body used to be tried to tear out the thing inside them before it took over. Poor bastard.

It showed itself in a remote area. Frankly, I'm surprised such a thing exists in as big a city as this, but apparently miracles do happen, and they result in encounters with flesh-eating revenants.

Anyways.

Eric saved me, like I said. It showed itself when we were all alone. Eric shot at it a few times. I asked why. He said he combatted the anomalous, and if he wasn't sure what properties any particular anomaly had, figuring out firsthand whether it was bulletproof was as good a thing to try out as any. Then he ran, and I followed suit.

It followed us. I guess I can't say I'm surprised. We ducked into a back alley. Apparently I was breathing heavily, because Eric put his hand over my mouth to silence it. It took some time, but a while after the shard finally passed, Eric's judgment saved me. I nearly left the alley too early, but Eric pointed out my mistake, in the whispered tones you might expect.

I still don't like him.

- Poe