Haul woke up to the sound of dripping as it hit the cold floor. He looked around real slow before his body and mind remembered. Haul tried to jolt up, but he was stuck in place. Confusion hit his face as he looked at his leg and arm and saw chains. He began to tug at the chains in a frantic attempt to escape, but it was for naught.

  “Let me go!” Haul screamed, but the echoes of the sacrificial sanction rang hollow.

  Haul laid his head back and looked around to see dimly lit candles all around him in a circular shape. The echoing of a rusted gate could be heard. Haul turned his head to the sound as footsteps got closer.

  A sinister voice spoke amongst the solemn sanction. “Good, you’re awake.”

  Haul followed the echoing voice with his head until his eyes landed on one of the disciples standing there with sinister peacefulness.

  “You have been chosen by the Watcher’s Eye to be the Great White Lamb. You should be proud of this. The Lord does not pick anyone to carry out such holy tasks,” the disciple said as he walked slowly toward Haul with his arms tucked in his sleeves.

  Haul looked at the disciple. “Why me? What makes me so goddamn special to you sick fucks that you wage war on me and threaten my whole kingdom and my people? So please, what do I have that no royal pig doesn’t?”

  The disciple’s face turned sour. “You shouldn’t say that word. You should not take our God’s name in vain.”

  Haul spat. “I don’t give a damn.”

  The disciple smiled. “You will when you become the vessel for our god. When he storms your kingdom and rips that fucking baby from your whore, then you will give a damn.”

  Haul’s eyes turned red. “You aren’t going to put a damn finger on my people or my queen.”

  The disciple got right in Haul’s face. “You didn’t know, huh? You have a son on the way. The Watcher has foreseen his future, and let’s just say the Lord said all he saw was black.”

  Haul screamed, “You bastard! I might not have an arm or a leg, but I’ll get free and burn this place to the fucking ground! I promise you, you bastard!”

  More footsteps could be heard walking in the sanction.

  “It’s begun.”

  Haul looked at the other twelve disciples standing there. One of the disciples said to the one taunting Haul, “You should really stop taunting the people we sacrifice. It spoils the blood.”

  He bowed. “I apologize, brother. Do we have the ingredients to begin?”

  The fourth disciple spoke. “Yes, brother, we do. Four newborns, three white roses, and a newborn white lamb.”

  Haul looked at the disciples. “What do you mean newborn?”

  The disciples all smiled in unison. “Human newborns stripped from the hands of eager mothers.”

  They laughed.

  Haul could feel himself going crazy. “You’re all sick. They’re children. Why are you sacrificing children? It’s wrong. What about those mothers you took? What they held dear? It’s inhumane.”

  Disciple Eight grabbed one of the crying babies. “Why do we sacrifice children? It’s quite easy. They’re innocent, and in a world where innocence is worth more than gold, we take it and destroy it. For the innocent are pure, and purity is for gods, not humans. And for their mothers, we sent them to God.”

  Haul screamed as he looked the crying baby in its eyes. “That look that baby is giving — it knows it’s in danger, and it’s looking to me for help, and I’m as helpless as it.”

  Disciple One spoke. “Enough talking. Let it begin.”

  The thirteen disciples grabbed the ingredients and put them all in a massive cauldron.

  “First, we pour holy water in.”

  They grabbed a bucket of holy water and poured it in.

  Haul looked at the bucket. “What makes that holy? You just grabbed water from that hole.”

  The disciples looked at Haul. “It’s holy because it was blessed by God.”

  They turned back to the cauldron and put the white roses in and mixed it. Then they grabbed a knife and slit the throat of the white lamb and poured the blood into the water and mixed it. Then they grabbed one of the babies and lifted it in the air.

  Haul watched in horror, but as he watched, he prayed to himself, “God, I do not care what happens to me as long as my blood is saved for future generations, but please, God, save those babies from such a horrible death.”

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  As the disciple raised the baby in the air, he chanted, “Watcher’s Eye, please take this innocent life and form it for your cause and plan for this world, for you know the path to righteousness.”

  As the disciple began to pull on the baby’s head and leg, a great light beamed from above, and a great voice rang out, “You shall not harm the innocent, you pagans!”

  A great light shone upon Haul as his arm and leg grew back, and the chains were broken free.

  Haul sat up as the disciples all screamed, “You are not a GOD! You will never be like our Lord!”

  The disciple tried to rip the baby in half but was stopped by Haul.

  “Put the baby down.”

  The disciple looked at Haul. “Not possible. Your arm and leg should not be back.”

  Haul smiled. “I have favor with God. What can I say?”

  Haul kneed the disciple in the gut and took the baby from his hands and laid it on the altar and turned around.

  “Now remember what you said, how you were going to rip my son from my queen’s stomach? How’s that looking right about now?”

  The disciple looked at Haul in terror. “You’re not human. You’re a monster.”

  Haul laughed. “Funny coming from you all.”

  Haul grabbed the knife from the disciple on the ground and stabbed him in the head and stood up and looked at the others as he slowly walked toward them. They stood in fear, unable to move. Haul killed all of them quickly and grabbed all the babies and walked out of the sanction and found a nice warm spot for them.

  “I’ll be back for you all. I have a score to settle.”

  Haul turned around and walked out the door, entering into the first floor in the castle.

  “I was in the castle the whole time. Good. Saves me time.”

  Haul walked through the castle looking for anyone but couldn’t see anyone until a loud banging got closer and closer until it sent Haul flying across the castle, landing him in the king’s hall, which was made of obsidian and brimstone.

  Haul skidded across the floor, hitting the wall. Haul looked up and saw a massive mutant-looking human.

  Haul covered his nose. “It stinks to high heaven in this place.”

  The mutant started to growl and charged Haul at inhuman speed. Haul was too slow to dodge and got clipped by the beast. It grabbed Haul by the leg and slammed him on the ground over and over — one slam to the right and one to the left — then threw Haul in the air as the mutant kicked Haul in the gut, sending him crashing out of the castle, leaving a gaping hole.

  Haul slammed right into the castle gate, leaving a massive dent. Haul spat blood as he stood up slowly.

  “If I wasn’t blessed by God, I would be mash.”

  Haul looked to his left and saw two spears and picked them up and adjusted them in his grip and waited until the mutant beast charged again. When it did, Haul ran directly at it and threw one of the spears with all his might at the mutant’s face, piercing it. Haul used the second one — at the last second — to vault over the mutant and looked at the beast midair and charged straight down, splitting it in half.

  Haul rolled on the ground and removed the spear from the dirt and walked out the castle gates to see the whole army standing by as Haul opened the gate. Haul looked at the soldiers and shrugged, then charged at them, cutting them down one by one, blocking and dodging their attacks and counterattacking each soldier until there were none left.

  Haul looked behind him, looked up at the Eye, and smiled. “You’re next.”

  Haul ran inside the castle and climbed the stairs until he got to the top and walked out onto a balcony and looked up, and right above Haul was the Watcher’s Eye staring at him.

  Haul cocked his arm back and was about to throw one of his spears at the Eye but quickly had to block the Eye’s attack, sending it back at the Eye.

  Haul thought to himself, “When you’re close to the Eye, you can hear it attack. How interesting.”

  Haul jumped on the railing of the balcony and, with the spear, lifted himself higher in the air, where he stabbed one of his spears into the castle, climbing it until he got to the very top, where there was a small platform for Haul to stand on.

  “You didn’t shoot me off. Why is that?”

  The Eye just looked at Haul as blood poured from it.

  “Your plan is dead. It won’t work any longer.”

  Haul cocked his hand back and pierced the Eye, splitting it open. Haul kept stabbing it over and over until a bright light formed from the center. Haul looked at it as it got brighter until a loud explosion erupted through the sky, splitting it.

  Haul was sent flying off the castle. He tried to pierce the castle with his spear but kept falling until, at the last second, he was able to save himself.

  Haul stood on the ground and looked up as a holy figure stood above, looking down. It lifted its arm and pointed at Haul, then disappeared and appeared behind Haul. Haul whipped his head back, but the Watcher’s Eye disappeared again, then appeared in front of Haul, meeting him eye to eye.

  It smiled, moved its hand toward Haul, and made a flicking motion, sending Haul across Hill Land Point. Then Haul froze mid-fall and started to fly upward, meeting the Watcher’s Eye in the air, where it lightly touched Haul’s third eye.

  Haul found himself flying through galaxies. He saw bright colors pass him over and over. Haul couldn’t think or talk. The Watcher’s Eye grabbed Haul while he was flying across galaxies and smiled and, with his finger, touched the top of Haul’s head, sending him falling straight down.

  But mid-fall, Haul found himself back on the ground, where he jolted backward.

  “What the hell is going on? What is that thing?”

  Haul looked around and saw nothing and made his way to his boat to sail back to Enora.

  “I did what I came here for, but if I stay any longer, I’ll die by that thing.”

  Haul got his boat back in the sea and sailed off, but as he sailed off, his eyes wandered onto the beach and saw the Watcher’s Eye waving goodbye as it smiled. It sent chills down Haul’s spine.

  Haul turned around to meet the Watcher’s Eye’s gaze as it stood on Haul’s deck.

  “Leaving so soon?” it said.

  Haul jolted back. “What the hell are you?”

  The Eye smiled. “I’m the Watcher’s Eye, and I chose you to lead my onslaught, and you leave? This can’t be. Why leave?”

  Haul looked at it. “I have a kingdom to rule and a soon-to-be queen to accompany.”

  The Watcher’s Eye nodded. “How fun. But I can’t let you do that.”

  Haul looked at the being. “Well, I’m lucky I didn’t ask for your permission.”

  The Watcher’s Eye’s face turned sour. “You see this form I’m in? It’s incomplete. I’m all white with eyes. I need a body, and I chose the blood of a Blackmoor. So you see, I can’t let you leave.”

  The Watcher’s Eye stomped his foot, and Haul’s ship crumbled to ash as Haul floated in the air.

  “Leave me the hell alone, you sick bastard! I won’t let you kill the innocent in my body!”

  The Watcher’s Eye laughed. “Kill? Have my dead disciples told you nothing?”

  The Watcher laughed and put his hand behind his head in amusement. “I’m freeing them.”

  Haul spat. “Is that your sick definition of freeing someone?”

  The Watcher teleported them back to the altar, where the Eye laughed.

  “You forgot the babies. You said you would be back, but you forgot about them.”

  Haul looked at the babies as the Watcher made them appear.

  “I didn’t forget them. I wouldn’t have.”

  The Watcher shook his head. “It would seem so. Well, no matter. Let’s begin.”