Musa's Fearless Curse

Amoeba was one of the largest men in Khelifa, his six and a half feet hulking frame towering over most of the other villagers. His jet hair flowed over his shoulders in waves, accentuating his broad jaw and prominent cheekbones. His eyes were a startling shade of blue, overshadowed by the dark circles beneath them from an almost constant lack of sleep; Amoeba was not one for the sun, even when it was the only thing keeping him alive.

The man was a hermit; he rarely left the village proper, preferring to stay close to the fields which he tended to on his own. He preferred it that way; there were fewer people to talk to, fewer people to get annoyed at him for being useless. Amoeba wasn’t stupid, but he definitely wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. It pained him that this had always been so apparent in his younger years; it had caused him many problems as a child, not least because of his size. He had been born with it though- so much so that people used to tease him about it before he had even learnt how to speak properly. The severity of this disability had almost cost him his life on too many occasions for him to count; something which was made clear to him very early on in his life by his cruel classmates. One particular boy in particular had taken great pleasure in beating Amoeba up every now and then until one day Amoeba decided that enough was enough and snapped.

He couldn’t remember what exactly had happened after that point; all he remembered was waking up drenched in sweat and covered in dirt with a strange weight on top of him. When he tried to move it off himself, he realised with horror that it was actually someone’s arm- albeit part of it was missing- while the rest of their body lay motionless on the ground beside him. Looking around frantically he realised that there were several more bodies lying around him; some looked like they were still breathing but most didn’t look so good. Realising what he must have done, Amoeba had fled from school as fast as he could without looking back once; ever since then he hadn’t mixed outside of Khelifa for fear of being caught or worse- interrogated by law enforcement who would probably lock him up in some hole somewhere if they found out what he did.

Since then Amoeba has lived alone with no one except for a few stray dogs for company. That is until recently when a young girl from Khelifa came wandering into his field asking for help one night after her parents died under mysterious circumstances and she had nowhere else to go. He took pity on the helpless child and allowed her stay with him until she managed to find other relatives willing to take care of her instead. However, due to her young age she couldn’t handle living away from civilisation especially while she went through such a trying time adjusting to her new life and environment so far away from home so she ended up returning back to Amoeba again after just two weeks had passed since they first met each other. They continued living together until one fateful day when everything changed forever…

It began with a crumbling noise under Amoeba’s feet as he walked across one of his fields early one morning while tending to the crops before sunrise. At first he thought nothing of it but then as another small crack appeared beneath his feet followed by another and another even louder than before, Amoeba began stumbling backwards in shock until eventually tripping over and falling onto his backside next to a small crater which had suddenly appeared where he just stood moments ago. Confused and curious at once, Amoeba crawled closer towards the newly formed hole only stopping when another loud rumble echoed from within it causing him to freeze instantly on all fours, staring down at its dark depths with wide eyes as yet another shuddering rumble shook the ground beneath his hands forcing the frightened man backwards onto his behind again where he sat clutching at soil beneath himself as tightly as possible while sweat began trickling down either side of his head and face into his ears while minutes passed by filled only by silence punctuated by his own ragged breaths echoing loudly throughout the quiet morning air around him…

Then suddenly there was a creaking noise above him accompanied by an odd gurgling sound which quickly escalated into an ear piercing screech followed by several smaller ones before finally dying down again suddenly along with footsteps echoing softly within their distance while Amoeba struggled desperately against whatever held onto him keeping him pinned to ground below while tears streamed down both sides of his face out of sheer terror as heavy footsteps approached ever closer bringing whatever stood above ever nearer only stopping mere inches from where head lay buried within soil below…