Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

I woke up and was happy that I still had my remaining digits. It was a constant fear when I went to sleep now. I discovered that I was on the Hag's bed again and shivered involuntarily. When she came over to peer down at me, I shivered voluntarily, because she still looked beautiful.

“Get to work.” The Hag said to me.

I hopped off the bed and ignored the slight sting of my wrist, which meant she had drunk my blood again. She couldn't have given me a full potion to heal it, which meant she didn't finish infusing the two large pots of potions that I had prepped for her. We were getting low on them and I guess she didn't want to waste another one on me.

I left the hut and did my outside chores, checking the traps and retrieving anything they caught and resetting them, gathering more potion ingredients, and then cleaning the things we caught. I worked hard, even though I felt a little weaker than I had the last two weeks. I knew she would hit or kick me if I complained and said I needed to sleep.

When she wasn't looking, I dipped my hand into the still simmering pot of stew and grabbed a piece of the tender ox meat. I almost gave myself away when I hummed in happiness. The Hag turned to stare at me and I held up the nice coax beaver. Not only were they rare, they barely ever came out of their dens.

She nodded, because she knew the rare parts would allow her to make some of her more exotic potions and give it that extra kick that she liked so much. She ignored me after that and I relaxed and kept working.

If I had known any better, I would have asked her why she was letting me do all the intricate work with a dull stub of a knife. I wasn't stupid enough to ask for the sharp knife, since it was kept out of my reach for a reason. I worked all day and when night fell, I went outside and checked the frogs I had set out for grub gathering. They were coming along nicely and I left them there for one more night.

The grubs could be harvested and then I could make a nice mulch with them that we could spread on the leavened bread she brought back from the village. I was tempted to save them for soup seasoning instead, then decided that a pate would be better. The mushrooms I had gathered before were much better as soup seasoning, anyway.

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You have a generic choice to make that will affect the story progression. Please choose one:

A) Cause Trouble. B) Stay silent. C) Work like normal. D) Wreck everything. E) Run away.

Nope! I thought as I read the choices. I decided that I don't want to die anymore. I choose C.

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I was suddenly still as a montage passed through my mind that spanned weeks, then months. The weather turned cold and snow and ice covered everything, then I was suddenly in the middle of winter and stood in the same spot I had been. I wasn't cutting up the coax beaver, though. It was a weevil and I remembered clobbering it with my pole when I had ventured out to gather snow for the water barrel.

“Hurry up, Boy.” The Hag said.

I nodded and finished up my work prepping it. I added the gizzards to the shallow pan and let them start frying, then added the cleaned meat chunks into the large pot of stew. To my surprise, the area where the fungus and mushrooms grew, never froze over. They kept growing, no matter the weather, and once a month I made the journey to gather more.

Thanks to the Hag's instructions, I learned how to refine, prepare, and convert the fungus into a fine powder. She wouldn't tell me what the powder was used for, though. She just whisked it away after I prepped each batch and I never saw it again.

The smell of great food filled the hut and I finished cooking it. I did up a large plate of fried gizzards for the Hag and added a bowl of stew. I took out the huge jar of pate I had made and spread some onto a piece of leavened bread. I was about to hand it to her when a popup appeared.

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You have a critical choice to make. What you choose will change how the story progresses significantly. Choose wisely.

A) Hand it over unaltered. B) Poison it. C) Spit in it. D). Bleed on it. E) Give more of yourself.

I looked at the Hag's face and her beauty was starting to fade. Wrinkles grew out and her black hair was shifting to grey. I liked her better as the ugly old version of herself; but, she was a lot angrier then. I took a deep breath and straightened my back, because I was about to do something that terrified me. I choose E.

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I put the piece of bread down and slowly reached for the Hag's belt.

“What do you think you are doing?” The Hag asked, her voice deadly.

I held my trembling hand out to her and pointed to her knife.

“Do you really think I'm going to hand over my killing knife?” The Hag asked. She drew it out quick as a flash and sliced it across my palm.

I hissed at the open cut, then turned my hand over and dripped the blood into the stew. Her eyes widened at the gesture, then I turned my hand back, palm upwards, and made a 'give me' motion to the knife.

She looked like she was seriously considering cutting off my hand, then she frowned and turned her knife around and placed the handle into my hand. I almost dropped it, because I only had three fingers, then gripped it tightly. The Hag prepared herself to jump away from the warming fire as I sat back.

I pulled off the old and dirty blanket I had on to stay warm. It had a huge hole in it and I wore it like a poncho. I took off my top next and the Hag stared at me as I raised a trembling hand.

“No.” The Hag whispered.

My hand became steady and I made a proper cut across part of my chest muscle. I had seen and felt her do it to me hundreds of times and I repeated her motions. I couldn't do it in an instant like her, though. By the time I had finished cutting the fillet out, I was sweating and the terror in the air was so thick that I could taste it. To my surprise, the taste was sweet.

I peeled the fillet out of my skin and plopped it onto the piece of leavened bread with the grub pate on it, then I slowly handed the knife back. My hand shook and I almost cut my wrist with it. The Hag took the knife and put it to her lips. She stuck out her tongue and slowly licked it as she stared into my eyes. I was already terrified, so I saw the look for what it actually was.

She was teasing herself.

I somehow knew that she was forcing herself to not chow down the stew with my delicious blood in it. The bread that now had a piece of my precious beauty restoring flesh on it was so tempting that she was feeding on her own greed and anticipation. They were the strangest feelings I had ever felt.

I picked up the bread and held it out to her, and she thought I was going to poison her. I didn't know how I knew that, I just did. I put the bread to my own mouth and was about to bite into it, when it suddenly disappeared and the Hag moaned as she bit into it. The combination of my blood on the bottom of it and my flesh on the top, with the great tasting grub pate, was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted.

I reached for a number four potion and she didn't stop me from drinking it. I felt the cut on my hand heal and my chest regrew out to the way it used to be. I put my top back on and my blanket poncho, then served myself a half bowl of stew. It stopped partway to my mouth and I looked to see the Hag was beautiful again and she had her hand on the edge of the bowl.

We looked into each other's eyes for several moments, then she let an evil smile spread across her face and let the bowl go. I saw the glob of blood slide down the inside edge of the bowl and looked back at her face. I knew that she was daring me to do it.

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Will you accept the dare or concede that she is stronger than you?

A) Eat it. B) Toss it in her face. C) Try to scoop out the blood. D) Dump it in the pot. E) Tease her.

Finally! I get an option to start doing it back! I choose E!

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I held the bowl with one hand and put my bare finger into the boiling hot stew. I slowly stirred it around to make sure that her blood was mixed in well and watched her eyes the entire time. She was staring at my finger. I pulled it out and sucked on it, which somehow made my lips tingle, then I tipped the bowl up and drank the broth.

The Hag was suddenly standing over me and stared down into the bowl to see if I was actually drinking it. When she saw that I was, her face gained that same odd look she had given me several times before.

“You did it. You really did it.” The Hag said, her voice full of disbelief. “I never thought...”

I shovelled the solid contents into my mouth and chewed them as that tingling feeling moved out of my stomach and filled my body. I didn't let her see that it was affecting me, though.

The Hag walked back to her side of the warming fire and sat down. “Tell me when you pass out.”

“Huh?” I asked. “What do you...”

The tingling sensation filled my head and everything went black.

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Account Management break ordered. Initiated. Cool down time: 30 minutes.

Stress level: 87% Physical Trauma: 21% Mental Trauma: 66%

Will you survive the Hag's corruption? Will the terror be too much for your young mind to handle? Will you become a Hag yourself? Will you die and have to start over?

What the heck is all this? I asked myself.

Constant stress levels above 75% have been maintained for an extended period of time. Your mind needs time to adjust to the circumstances and a mandatory break has been established.

I want to keep playing! I was finally getting back at that sadistic bitch!

Story play will resume when break ends. Cool down time: 28 minutes.

Goddammit. I thought in frustration, then waited in pitch blackness for the story to resume.

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