Chapter Text
They left him here.
He wasn’t sure how long it’s been since they had, the time passed slowly and each second seemed to stretch longer than the last. Tommy kicked his feet in a feeble attempt to swing himself forward. The rope around his thin wrists dug deeper into the skin and he whimpered around the rag in his mouth. He could feel his muscles beginning to ache and the beads of sweat running down his face.
They had strung his arms up to a scratched wooden beam and left the soles of his feet barely brushing against the ground. If he lifted his head and looked in front of him all he could see was desert. Flat empty space stretching for miles and massive sand dunes that looked small in the distance.
The sun was starting to set behind them and the sky was lit by a beautiful melting pot of colours. There were no clouds and the heavens looked like it was painted by an artist's steady hand. The result was a soft warm light that streamed across the terrain. He had grown up amongst the scenery and once considered this his favourite time of day, work done and sitting along with Tubbo on the roof with a bowl of goat's milk passing between them.
Now it made coils of dread creep up his spine.
The settlement he was from could be found far away from the capital city and the bustling life of the Empire of the Eastern Sun. The small surrounding villages on the banks of the Great River that connected to other territories were months of travel away. It was considered the life of the people and very little could survive without it, no one dared to venture away and into the endless sea of sand.
His village was one of the last of its kind, if you were to come upon it, it would seem like something out of a dream. In the middle of the vast nothingness, there stood an oasis, clean blue water with a healthy population of fish, it was the heart of this place.
The banks of the dam were fertile and lined with trees and farmland. The edge of the strange village was marked by the clean white stone houses that were built with a technique long lost to the rest of the world. If you were to run your hand along them, you would feel a smooth surface resembling the marble of the grand palace.
The people who lived here did so in relative peace and tranquillity. They were honest and did their work well, never having to worry about famine or the water of their oasis running dry. No kings called upon them to fight and they didn’t serve any temple or set of gods. There weren’t many rules or laws, rather they followed a set of moral code that was at its base a guide to being kind to all living things.
They had only one exception to this code.
Tommy knew it well, many nights spent sitting along the fire with music and jars of arak lulling their senses until they became completely captivated by the tale. The smoke in the air would twist and twirl as one of the elders spoke, small glowing embers floating up into the sky.
The legend of the Mammon.
Creatures of hell that roamed the empty desert plains surrounding them, they were said to be something that escaped from one of the spirit realms. Massive human-like forms that were faster and stronger than anything they could fight against, no one has seen one up close and live to tell the tale. The worst thing about these elusive monsters were that they ate human meat, they tore into flesh like sand and snapped bones beneath their teeth easily.
Many thought them only myths, but the people of the village knew better, having lived for centuries with the hulking beasts right in their backyard.
This meant they also knew how to survive them or keep them pleased at the very least. It was simple in hindsight for creatures that lived in hunger and greed; keep them fed. The fact that they lived on a strictly human diet was easily overcome.
The village practised the art of human sacrifice.
Every few years when the screams of the dead would come closer and sheep would start to go missing, the elders knew it was time. They held a meeting under the cover of darkness and weighed the options of who to send. The person who was the most disposable, would cause the least amount of grief among their people. The person they could knowingly send to their death and go on living with a clear conscious.
That person was Tommy.
From the day he was born, he had been considered unlucky. His mother having slept with an already married man and died at childbirth, leaving him a bastard orphan among his people. They weren’t ever intentionally cruel to him, but he knew they held no fondness in their hearts either.
Everything he touched seemed to fall apart, it started with the farms that withered away when he helped plough them. Then the family he use to stay with all came down with red fever and passed away in their sleep. Even the dog he found injured and nursed back to health went rabid, frothing at the mouth and with madness in its eyes it killed one of the women.
They were afraid, no one wanting to go near him in fear of what happened to those who did. Tubbo had eventually convinced his father to let Tommy sleep in their barn. He had given in reluctantly if only to keep his son happy. They put him in charge of the jobs no one wanted, clearing stables, washing urinary pots, or going out to search for rocks that contained metal for the welders. Despite all of this Tommy didn’t resent them, he understood their reasoning, even if it hurt.
Somehow, he hadn’t considered the possibility of becoming a sacrifice.
He was sure someone had slipped something into his water pouch because when he woke up, he was already bound, sitting in a cramped space with his head between his knees. They had travelled far away from the settlement with him being dragged along in a wooden crate on a camel’s back. At first he was hysterical but once time had passed the reality of the situation set in. The crate had a small hole on the left side that he could peer out of, but he hadn’t bothered, he knew where they were going.
The offering circle.
Seemingly in the middle of nowhere a large wooden pole stood above them, any outsider would think it strange but not scary, at least not yet. A steel band was wrapped around the top with a thick circle pushing away from the wood, the wood itself had deep marks running along it as if someone had taken a knife to it. Under the pole the sand was stained with blood that never seemed to wash out no matter how much time passed, or rain fell.
Dream along with some other men lifted Tommy out of the box, stringing him up against the wood easily. He was already tired from the hours of travel and his body hurt from being cramped up for that long. Not to mention he was already dehydrated from the lack of water. They had designed the travel method carefully beforehand, not wanting any fuss from the offerings once they reached the circle.
No one had looked back at him when they left.
The cloth gag stopped any choice words he might have or screams of terror alike. The tears streaming down his cheeks eventually lessoned, likely from exhaustion. The sun high above his head started to move and by the time it was setting he could feel himself suffering from sunstroke. Soon the heat would subdue and, in its place, would come a freezing cold, the hostile temperament of the desert showed no mercy.
He would likely be eaten before he could freeze to death.
Tommy struggled to keep his head lifted, each time the sun sunk lower behind the dunes he could feel the fear in his stomach grow. Physically he was strung out very thin, even if he wanted to put up a fight he couldn’t, just swinging his feet forward had already tired him out. He knew there was no point in trying to put up a fight against a Mammon.
The anger he had felt earlier had cooled until it was just a light simmer. The elders taught them that the sacrifices they made were willing, that they chose to go and save the people they loved. That they were honoured and treasured for their bravery.
That was evidently just a pile of horse shit.
The last one to be given to the Mammon had been before his time, they had said it was a woman who lost her new-born child. That she was so overtaken with grief that she made the journey to the circle herself and gave up her life so she and her child could be reunited. It was a story that always had him on the edge of his seat, amazed that someone could care about something that much.
The only person who died around that period, not from old age, had been his mother.
He feels so fucking stupid, how had he not seen it? Had they kept him around only for this? Is this why no one ever wanted to become attached, because he was a lamb raised for the slaughter from the beginning? The thought made him sick, in the place of the anger from earlier betrayal and sadness had uncomfortably settled. He couldn’t keep his mother out of his thoughts, is this the last thing she felt? This all-consuming dread.
Was the sun disappearing behind those dunes the last thing she had seen too?
He could hear the vultures screaming above his head, they must have already sensed he was dead. The gag in his mouth was wet with spit and his hands were starting to lose their feeling, he thought that if he was able to see them they would have to be a nice shade of purple by now. A few hours ago, his bladder had finally given out and his leg had dried to be sticky in the sun. The orange was fading from the sky and creatures of the night starting to wake, the snakes and scorpions and monsters.
He was about to let his head drop again when he spotted it.
Slightly to the left of his field of vision something was fast approaching, it looked small but was growing bigger by the second. Tommy couldn’t tare his eyes away; it was as if a hand had reached down his throat and stolen the air out of his lungs. He clenched his teeth on the fabric in his mouth and tried to keep in his scream. It was petrifying not being able to move with something like that running straight at you.
He didn’t have any more time to prepare himself because the next moment it was there.
A few meters away from him it came to a halt, leaving some sand floating up into the air around its feet. The first thing that struck him was the way it moved, the wrongness of it sending terror through his system. The Mammon had an almost human-like body if humans were crossed with a wolf, almost seven-foot-tall and had extended limbs.
Its limbs were elongated as if they had extra joints, two knees, two elbows on each arm and leg. They were bent in an unsettling way leaving the bones to shift beneath the tight speel wrapped around them. The grey skin clung to the rest of its body, from broad shoulders down to its waist that was almost as thin as his own. Bones protruded from its chest and Tommy watched the flat stomach inflate and deflate as it breathed.
It looked like it was starving.
The way it approached was unnatural, fluid and then stuttering a second later as if its bones fell into place repeatedly. It moved like something trying to imitate a human but that didn’t understand how their body anatomy worked. Jerking a long limb forward and then painstakingly slowly it brushed its long black claws along the sand.
Tommy didn’t breathe, it was watching him.
It's head that was covered in bone and resembled the skull of a deer buck tilted ever so slightly. The moss and plants hanging from the antlers attached to its head swung along with the movement, he couldn’t see the thing's mouth but teeth were still attached to the top half that made the skull. Standing unnaturally still the dark holes where eyes were supposed to be regarded Tommy closely.
The unease in his stomach had grown into fear and seeped straight into his bloodstream. The sight of the thing had made every part of his brain that screamed danger light up like a firework show. He still wasn’t breathing and at this rate, he might suffocate, not allowing himself to move for even his basic bodily necessities. The instinct buried deep inside him told him to freeze, that movement might set off the predator.
This stalemate lasted only a moment.
It was getting darker by the second and the shadow that the massive Mammon cast at his feet was the first to move. Tommy hadn’t taken his eyes off it, he hadn’t, but somehow, he didn’t see it shift. One moment it was still a few meters away from him regarding him curiously and the next in a blur of black and white it was right in front of his face, the horrifying skulled head centimetres away from him.
He screamed.
It came out more of a low keen in his throat, but he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t want to die. The strange trance he had in before vanished and he struggled against his bindings. Not feeling the blood drip down his wrists or the way his aching muscles fought with him. He was fully panicking now, desperately trying to free himself as all logic and coherent thought went out the window.
This thing was going to eat him, consume him alive and tear off chunks of his flesh between its teeth.
He continued struggling, swinging around in the bindings, and hurting himself in the process. The vultures were still circling above them and screamed louder as he let out a string of whimpers. His desperate but futile attempts only worsened when it moved again, extending a clawed hand with unnaturally long fingers towards him.
He didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die.
Its hand was so big it could cover Tommy’s whole head in its palm if it wanted, the cold flesh on its fingers met his face. They felt like they belonged to a corpse, he let out another cry when it cupped his cheek. He snapped his eyes shut, trying to brace himself as a finger brushed under his eye.
The Mammon didn’t move.
Tommy’s heart was beating in his ears so loud it felt like the sound was bouncing off the inside of his head. He was trembling in the creature's grasp helpless and unable to protect himself from what was about to happen. Going to die alone and weak in the place of people who threw him away as soon as they had the chance.
It pulled its hand away.
Tommy opened his eyes despite himself when the cold fingers left his cheek. It was close, so close that he could feel the warm breath that smelled like a rotting corpse on his face. He knew he was going to die, death itself was right in front of him in the form of a creature that looked like it was recently disinterred from the grave. In a spasmodic movement the long unnatural limb came up to the deer skull.
It opened its mouth.
A grey chin made an appearance as its mouth stretched into view from the covering on its face. Hundreds of sharp teeth lined its bottom jaw as it stretched even further, any human would have to unhinge their jaw to get it this wide open. The lips were tattered and bloody and Tommy watched as a blue tongue appeared between them darting around the finger in its mouth. The creature brought its hand back down but didn’t close its jaw, two lines of razor-sharp teeth still visible.
Its head came towards Tommy, he didn’t dare move. Not closing his eyes this time just watching in horror as it was getting ready to eat him. Everything it did was sluggish and that seemed to spread out the terror of its prey more than if it would just have killed him already.
‘It’s playing with me’ he realised dully a knot at the back of his throat.
Then the cold blue tongue darted across his cheek
Tommy flinched struggling not to move and another unwilling whimper escaped him. ‘Please, please just kill me’ he wanted to plead. The thing was leaning closer and closer, successfully trapping him between the Mammon and the wooden pole he was tied to. It put its weight onto his body so tightly that some of the strain was taken off his bindings.
The tongue continued to dart across his swollen cheeks and lick up the tears, goosebumps rose all over his arms at the strange sensation. His head was pounding and he was close to passing out when a sound graced the still suffocating air between them. Low and deep it was coming from the Mammon's chest.
It was purring.
The sound caused his joints to lock into place, and he inhaled sharply. It sounded almost reminiscent of when he would feed fish to the village cats, but at the same time, it was very different. Coming from within the Mammon’s chest the rumbling against Tommy making him vibrate along with the creature. It was loud but not in an uncomfortable way and didn’t seem to be aggressive.
The Mammon pulled away from his cheek, tongue darting back in its mouth.
Tommy had stopped crying, too in shock to understand what was happening and the fear making his thoughts turn and jump in nonsensical ways. The Mammon hadn’t moved its body, but the head tilted forward, he was met with those dark soulless circles staring at him again. There were no whites or pupils, it was just empty slots where eyes were supposed to be.
The rumbling got louder when it laid a hand on him again, this time the clawed fingers took Tommy’s chin. His head was jerked upwards, and the back of his scalp pressed against the pole.
He swallowed nervously, his adams apple moving in his throat and catching the attention of the monster. The fingers trailed down his chin but he couldn’t move his head from this position. A cold hand wrapped around his throat, it felt like steel, the monster could snap his neck between its thumb and pointer finger alone.
‘’Nerw ygo je, ’Ogh hjno ygo gohho muddud?’’ Tommy couldn’t see if its mouth was open when the sounds spilt from it, they were grated and hoarse as if it hadn’t bothered to use its voice in a while. The way it rolled the growling syllables over on its tongue made him shiver, it was clear the thing was trying to speak to him in whatever language that was.
He didn’t reply or give any sign he heard the monster.
‘’Bogd spwjl cgro.’’ It whispered in his ear; hand still wrapped around his throat. The same horrible sound as before but this time softer. The breath on his skin made his ears tingle, and he could feel the sharp tips of the claws pressing into him. The creature wasn’t purring anymore and obviously wanted Tommy to react to it, he refused.
A moment passed between them and stubbornly he kept quiet.
‘’Hello,’’ It said breaking all will he had of ignoring it. The word had Tommy’s head snapping forward and pressing itself deeper into the talons. He couldn’t help it, this thing, this thing was speaking to him. It was alarming and somehow made it even more terrifying, they were smart. Sentient enough to try and communicate or at the very least mimic.
He had heard legends of Mammon being able to speak and tempt their prey but never thought them to be true. They were demons, why would they ever want to talk to their food?
It watched him closely, not bothering to lessen the force he was gripping Tommy with. A few drops of blood spilt down where the child had cut himself with the sudden movement.
‘’You’ll hurt yourself.’’ It said slowly, tilting its head again. The words were strange and unlike in the demon tongue, it made the creature seem more human. Gone were the animalistic growling vowels now replaced with a smooth higher sound. It felt a bit enchanting as if it echoed through the air and rested longer than it was supposed to.
Tommy’s mind was racing as if something was fast in pursuit of him, it hadn’t eaten him yet? Why hasn’t it eaten him yet? How did it know how to fucking talk? Why was this thing bothering to try and talk at all? Was this part of whatever game it was playing?
‘’What to do, what to do.’’ It asked with light amusement colouring its strangely alluring voice. The hand around his neck didn’t loosen and Tommy was sure his skin must be bruised by now.
‘’I can’t eat you...’’ It said slower, considering something as it leaned to sniff him. ‘’…pity really, you smell mouth-watering.’’ The Mammon let go of his neck and Tommy choked violently on the air now that he was able to fill his lungs again. He didn’t notice the creature lick the small amount of blood dripping from his throat.
Struggling to breathe through the gag he tried hard not to throw up knowing he’d have to swallow it.
‘’Oh, poor little nisf.’’ It said with mock pity, the last word growled out in that strange language. Something about the way the monster said it left Tommy feeling alarmed. ‘’Those stupid humans gave you away so easily, didn’t they?’’ It cooed at him pushing away some blond curls from Tommy’s forehead.
He was so confused; what the fuck was happening.
‘’Phil is going to adore you,’’ It made another strange sound, this one higher than the one it used before, it seemed like it was meant to be a hum. ‘’Small and fragile, like a pretty little desert flower.’’
Tommy was getting more lightheaded by the second, the adrenaline in his system starting to crash and mixing with the symptoms of sun stroke.
‘’Don’t worry, you’re ours now, none of those useless humans will ever lay a hand on you again.’’ The creature said with such conviction it made Tommy want to cry. Not out of terror or anger but rather confusion and a different kind of fear that was starting to brew.
It wasn’t going to eat him here, it wanted to share him instead.
‘’Hmpf!’’ He yelled through the gag when it moved in its twitchy unsettling way and took a step back. Tommy hung limply again, his wrists burning anew at the stress the restraints put on them. A fresh wave of panic was about to start in his hazy mind when he suddenly found himself falling.
The creature had cut the thick rope with a small flick of its razor-sharp hands.
He was only plummeting towards the ground for a second before the thing caught him in its arms. The cold flesh pressed uncomfortably against his exposed skin, he was wearing only a white tunic, the village having stripped him of his other clothes. It left only a thin layer of material between him and the monsters’ hands with his arms and legs completely vulnerable.
‘’Careful.’’ It muttered as Tommy tried to wiggle his way out of the creature’s grip. It turned him around easily and he was struck with the sudden feeling of powerlessness, it moved him around like he was some kind of doll. The grey fingers traced over his skin and snagged under the back of his exposed tunic causing him to tremble.
He couldn’t help but let out a small wine, no one had dared to touch him back in the village. Even Tubbo had only gone as far as holding his hand on occasion. Despite the fear and pounding heart, something inside him burned at the contact. He could almost pretend it was someone else tracing along his skin and not a horrifying cannibalistic monster.
The creature didn’t pay him any mind.
Tommy was turned upside down and held in a surprised yelp, the fingers tracing over his ankles and across his exposed feet this time. He closed his eyes as he was jostled around grimacing at the nausea that reared its ugly head. Eventually, he was brought right side up again, having stopped struggling and rather focused on not passing out.
‘’Good, nothing too bad.’’ The thing said satisfied and turned Tommy around effortlessly to face it.
‘Oh, it was looking for injuries’ the thought registered vaguely in his mind.
Kinda a funny thing to be doing when it was planning on bringing Tommy back to its friends so they could eat him together. Maybe it wanted to make sure he wasn’t damaged, like buying high-grade meat from a butcher. The thought had him almost laughing at the absurdity of it.
One of the creature’s hands supported his back and the other hooked a claw under the rope tying his wrists together. It broke as easily as the strand that was holding him suspended in the air mere moments ago.
The bloody piece of twine was left to drop to the ground. If his head wasn’t buzzing, he might have tried to fight back, but he didn’t. The creature inspected his wrists much like it had the rest of his body. The feeling of the slimy blue tongue dragging roughly across his injuries made him shudder.
It hurt, and he made a feeble attempt at pulling away.
‘’What a treat, still fighting me?’’ It said amused as it pulled away from his wrists for a moment to take in the headstrong human. Tommy was so tired that he couldn’t stop his head from lolling forward. He looked at the terrifying creature above him with some sense of apathy. The fear of death had been dragged on for long enough that at this point he felt more miserable than scared.
‘’Hold still little one, I need to clean you up before we can go home,’’ It mumbled while Tommy’s body felt light and floaty, he couldn’t find it in himself to disobey the order. Satisfied when he went limp in the creature's grasp it went back to licking the wound. His wrists started to sting again but he didn’t struggle this time.
‘’Ah, there you go, let me look after you.’’ The words were sweet and soft, they left pleasant tingles along his arms. ‘’Precious, Techno is going to be so upset that I got to have a taste of you first.’’ It purred the first word, another demon name following it.
This thing had a lot of friends apparently.
The last light of day had disappeared and his blurry vision couldn’t really make out where the creature began and the night ended. It was blending into the darkness as if this was where it was meant to be. From his position, he could make out the stars in the endless sky, little lights along with the vast backdrop. It made him feel uneasy, so much open space all around and now above him.
Tommy could feel the bones under its skin move as he was pressed against the Mammon’s chest.
He glanced briefly up at the creature above him. More melodic words tickled the inside of his head and cold smooth hands brushed against his skin. When the dirty cotton gag was taken out of his mouth, he tried to speak but it came out as a painful croak. The discomfort was a combination of dehydration and the creature squeezing his airways earlier.
‘’Shh,’’ It hushed him as he tried to speak again, unsuccessfully. ‘’Don’t speak silly thing, you couldn’t if you wanted to.’’ The monster adjusted him in their grip as they stood up on all fours, one arm clutching Tommy closely. It wasn’t warm but something about just being held made him feel slightly better, even if the thing would still eat him in the end.
In the distance he could hear a strangled scream, it was horrible, like the ones they heard in the village at night.
‘’You see? Phils already worried; we need to go back now.’’ It said more to itself than for Tommy’s benefit. The creature didn’t waste any time after that and they started moving, the stars above them flying by so fast they dazed him completely.
Tommy was pressed securely against the cold skin of its chest, and he struggled with the urge to bury his face into the creature’s arms. It wasn’t unpleasant and while a part of him screamed this was wrong and that he should be more concerned it was faint. What won, in the end, was the dizziness and the overwhelming need to rest.
The way he swayed while the Mammon ran resembled rocking someone to sleep, back and forth, back and forth he went. The stars were ever as bright and he fought to keep his eyes open, maybe he could rest them for a second.
Just for a second.
That night while the Mammon and the child ran across the empty plains the village celebrated like never before.
Plates bursting with fruits and nuts were passed around, music played all throughout the evening, and they danced. Twirled from partner to partner, hand in hand, rejoicing at the good fortune that had befallen them. Now they would be safe, no more beasts would roam around the streets at night and even better yet no cursed children by day.
It had been perfect, the lights, the colours, the laughter.
Only one person hadn’t joined the feast, curled amongst the animals and hay in their barn where their best friend had been dragged from that morning. Trying their best to ignore the voices echoing through the streets and the guilt that threatened to overtake them.
They hadn’t known, they hadn’t known the consequences of slipping a draught into their friends drink per request of their father.
Tubbo held his head in his hands and wept.