The Old House:
By Luke the Duke
“Screams erupted from the Earth. A violent explosion went off on the battlefield that was once
Budapest. All over the ruined buildings were massive tanks capable of massive genocide. A shell fired from one of our turrets leveled a hostile tank and caused many casualties by the excess shrapnel. Everything went quickly, me barely able to see the fray. I looked down, and found out instead of an arm there was a bloody stump. I fell a bit, slowly losing consciousness on the red soil. Suddenly, a humanoid blot appeared on my vision, dodging the ruthless bullets streaming past him. He picked me up, rushing what was left of my body to a makeshift hospital filled with medics that could bring me back to health. He panted like a dog, only a few more meters till the door. Blood splattered on my chest, but it wasn’t mine. It seemed my savior had no head, but I could’ve sworn he had one a few seconds ago. I ignored it, now staring at my bloody stump. He fell like a dead weight on me, pouring out of his neck a delightful scarlet juice that dribbled onto my chest. The army hospital was suddenly replaced with flames, all medical personnel running like a rooster without a head, except they were spouting flames from their succulent bodies. I finally passed out, still focusing on my bleeding arm.

“I awoke, but I was in a different position. An old house, coming to shambles. Everything was deathly quiet; a body laying by the ruined house, a dagger in his gullet and a terrified-looking face. I paid it no heed, and from that moment on, I lived in that old house, scrounging on whatever I could find that was edible.
“A year after my stay in this house, I finally acknowledged the fact that after my arm was shot off, I went insane, switching between myself and the sadistic monster that lived inside my brain. This same monster provided me someone to talk to, but eventually, we disagreed too often. My head provided more ‘friends’ to talk to, and then you came. Are you, perhaps, a ‘friend’ of mine? Are you a real person, whom I have been looking for for many years? I do not know, but all that I do know is that you’re someone to talk to, and it was unfortunate you met me when my insane side was in control. A definite shame,” said the hunchback that was sitting a dead corpse. The hunchback sighed. After a few seconds, he took the cadaver and brought him to a hole full of decomposing bodies, all of which seemed to be former soldiers.
“At least you will make a good addition to my other friends. They weren’t as fortunate as they could’ve been, and all of them met the same fate as you,” the hunchback said sadly. He threw his corpse into the pile of dead soldiers. As he walked away, he gazed again at the makeshift graveyard. Each of the soldiers had a terrified expression and a knife in each of their gullets.