Chapter 2
The ground shifts beneath Julie’s feet.
She stumbles as walls grow around her, up, up, up, and twisting into a high cathedral-like ceiling. Ornate designs swirl at the edges and glow with neon colors, as if they’d been swathed with the guts of a glow stick. Dilapidated furniture sit around her and dusty diamond chandeliers hang from the ceiling. She’s hit by a sudden acrid smell of rot and decay, pulling dark memories from the depths of her mind.
War’s never been something that leaves behind positive ones.
She shoves down the things she’s tried to forget, and turns to take inventory of the world around her. Creaking and thumping echoes, reverberating off the tall walls and the blacked-out stained glass windows. Disembodied, indecipherable whispers scrape her skin, circling her and weaving themselves through her hair. Her skin crawls with a sixth sense: the feeling of someone here in the castle with her, watching from the shadows.
Taking a shaky breath, she presses forward, her footsteps diluting the random creepy noises in her ears.
Unhinged doors create strange shadows in the low glow from the walls, and she swears she can see shadows of things moving, following her, targeting her.
She forces her fears from her throat, swallowing as she clears her mind. No matter what she thinks is happening, no matter what is going on around her, she has to keep moving and find a way out. It’s her number one priority right now.
She exits the large room and into a hallway, the glowing growing on the walls like vines ceasing, and the temperature seems to drop a few degrees, raising the hairs on her arms. Goosebumps prick as she shudders, a bad feeling settling in her stomach.
The lighting spilling over into the hall is gloomy and almost too dim to see anything.
As the rancid air fills her lungs, she steps forward, staying nice and slow and quiet. She keeps her hands up in case anything jumps out of the shadows. In abandoned buildings, one can find rather territorial homeless people, wild animals, and even violent paranormal beings—if you believe in that kind of thing.
Her bare foot feels something sharp beneath it, and, believing it’s glass, she moves to another spot of flat area, struggling to make as little sound as possible. The tension in her muscles makes her sore, but she grits her teeth, forcing her mind to turn away from it. Soreness isn’t what’s important right now.
There’s a shuffling to her right, inside a darkened doorway. She swears she sees something dart across the threshold, practically making her stumble, distracted. Yet she still presses forward, her eyes dead-set on reaching the light. She just has to keep moving.
Her foot kicks something metal, loud as it clatters across the floor. Stilling, she listens to see if she’s disturbed anything. There’s a soft moan from the second door to her right, nothing but a solid wall to her left. Holding her breath and willing her heart to slow, she waits until the moaning and shuffling has disappeared.
She never assumed she was alone, but the moaning makes it official.
She could be in more danger than she originally presumed.
One quiet, deep breath later, she bends down, feeling for the object she had kicked. It sounded like a pole or a rod, and it had a bit of weight to it; her big toe throbs slightly.
Her fingers close around a cold cylindrical object. In what little lighting she has, she can make out its shape.
So it had been a short, broken pole. The texture tells her it’s going through the process of oxidation, which makes her believe it’s been here for quite a while.
She holds it like a bat, continuing to move forward bit by bit, getting closer to the double doors.
Not too far now.
Her breathing shallows out but she checks it, forcing her lungs to take in more oxygen.
Something moves in the doorway. A disfigured humanoid shape, hunched over as it crouches, its head twitching arrhythmically. It’s at this that Julie stops dead in her tracks, her blood running cold.
The figure seems to stop, and she can feel its eyes on her, her skin crawling. There’s a brief silence as she stares at the figure, another moan shifting from the room next to her. Nerves spiked, she retraces her steps.
She could head back into the room she’d appeared in, but if this creature is a predator, it might take her running as a challenge: catch the prey. And the moaning beside her could very well be something that doesn’t want to approach since it hasn’t made a move yet. It’s possible they’re sizing her up, trying to see if she’s a threat to them... whatever they are. Normally, predators won’t go up against something if they believe they will lose. Humans are one of the few species that does.
The creature in the doorway slowly stands upright, its entire body twitching. Ratty, stringy hair hangs off what looks like a bulbous head, and fur seems to be glinting in the back light, although dim. Two pincer-like hands are at the end of two very asymmetrical arm-like appendages, and it appears to have long, thin, bird-like legs with several knobs—probably joints.
It moves stiffly, its tall frame facing Julie head-on now. There’s an airy sound that comes from the creature as its body inflates, taking in air.
“Foooood,” it whispers.
In the blink of an eye, it’s down on its four haunches, the many joints in the legs sticking out at horrendous angles. Julie stiffens and clenches the pole tighter in her fists as the monster lunges. She doesn’t want to run away. It might make the situation worse.
Slap, slap, slap, slap! The monster’s duck-like feet pound the ground, making the most noise Julie thinks she’s ever heard.
Julie is pulled to the side.
She slams against the ground, a small yelp exploding from her gut. Something grips her upper arm, freezing cold against her skin.
The darkness thickens as the creature scrabbles past. It lets out a screech more terrible than anything a banshee ever could and circles back, standing in the doorway. There’s another, taller and more human looking figure distorting what little view Julie has as it stands between them.
The creature snarls and stands upright, a foot taller than the figure seeming to protect Julie, and it growls, a low, terrible sound.
There’s a slight grunt from the more human figure, sounding a lot like the same thing that had been moaning earlier.
“Mine,” the second figure says, his voice gravelly and angry.
The creature in the hallway crouches, growling as it twitches.
“Fooood,” the creature hisses.
The humanoid figure takes a light step forward and counters with an even stronger and more forceful “Mine.”
The first creature lets out a small whine and falls back down onto all fours. It growls and returns to where it had come from: through the double doors at the end of the hall.
Julie stays silent, straining her eyes to watch the figure in the nearly pitch-black. He stands completely still, a soft and strange shushing sound coming from his body. Then, slowly, he turns around. And although she can’t see him, her body trembles.
“Who...” the figure says with his deep voice, taking a step forward.
There’s a gust of wind and the shushing sound is so, so much louder. She can make out the rises and falls of a face in the darkness, but can see nothing beyond that as he comes within an inch of her own.
“Are...”
A hand grab her arm, freezing cold like the winter, and jerks her forward, her shoulder alight with pain. Another hand suddenly but gently covers her face, making her gasp as the freezing cold skin meets her own.
“You?”
She stumbles as walls grow around her, up, up, up, and twisting into a high cathedral-like ceiling. Ornate designs swirl at the edges and glow with neon colors, as if they’d been swathed with the guts of a glow stick. Dilapidated furniture sit around her and dusty diamond chandeliers hang from the ceiling. She’s hit by a sudden acrid smell of rot and decay, pulling dark memories from the depths of her mind.
War’s never been something that leaves behind positive ones.
She shoves down the things she’s tried to forget, and turns to take inventory of the world around her. Creaking and thumping echoes, reverberating off the tall walls and the blacked-out stained glass windows. Disembodied, indecipherable whispers scrape her skin, circling her and weaving themselves through her hair. Her skin crawls with a sixth sense: the feeling of someone here in the castle with her, watching from the shadows.
Taking a shaky breath, she presses forward, her footsteps diluting the random creepy noises in her ears.
Unhinged doors create strange shadows in the low glow from the walls, and she swears she can see shadows of things moving, following her, targeting her.
She forces her fears from her throat, swallowing as she clears her mind. No matter what she thinks is happening, no matter what is going on around her, she has to keep moving and find a way out. It’s her number one priority right now.
She exits the large room and into a hallway, the glowing growing on the walls like vines ceasing, and the temperature seems to drop a few degrees, raising the hairs on her arms. Goosebumps prick as she shudders, a bad feeling settling in her stomach.
The lighting spilling over into the hall is gloomy and almost too dim to see anything.
As the rancid air fills her lungs, she steps forward, staying nice and slow and quiet. She keeps her hands up in case anything jumps out of the shadows. In abandoned buildings, one can find rather territorial homeless people, wild animals, and even violent paranormal beings—if you believe in that kind of thing.
Her bare foot feels something sharp beneath it, and, believing it’s glass, she moves to another spot of flat area, struggling to make as little sound as possible. The tension in her muscles makes her sore, but she grits her teeth, forcing her mind to turn away from it. Soreness isn’t what’s important right now.
There’s a shuffling to her right, inside a darkened doorway. She swears she sees something dart across the threshold, practically making her stumble, distracted. Yet she still presses forward, her eyes dead-set on reaching the light. She just has to keep moving.
Her foot kicks something metal, loud as it clatters across the floor. Stilling, she listens to see if she’s disturbed anything. There’s a soft moan from the second door to her right, nothing but a solid wall to her left. Holding her breath and willing her heart to slow, she waits until the moaning and shuffling has disappeared.
She never assumed she was alone, but the moaning makes it official.
She could be in more danger than she originally presumed.
One quiet, deep breath later, she bends down, feeling for the object she had kicked. It sounded like a pole or a rod, and it had a bit of weight to it; her big toe throbs slightly.
Her fingers close around a cold cylindrical object. In what little lighting she has, she can make out its shape.
So it had been a short, broken pole. The texture tells her it’s going through the process of oxidation, which makes her believe it’s been here for quite a while.
She holds it like a bat, continuing to move forward bit by bit, getting closer to the double doors.
Not too far now.
Her breathing shallows out but she checks it, forcing her lungs to take in more oxygen.
Something moves in the doorway. A disfigured humanoid shape, hunched over as it crouches, its head twitching arrhythmically. It’s at this that Julie stops dead in her tracks, her blood running cold.
The figure seems to stop, and she can feel its eyes on her, her skin crawling. There’s a brief silence as she stares at the figure, another moan shifting from the room next to her. Nerves spiked, she retraces her steps.
She could head back into the room she’d appeared in, but if this creature is a predator, it might take her running as a challenge: catch the prey. And the moaning beside her could very well be something that doesn’t want to approach since it hasn’t made a move yet. It’s possible they’re sizing her up, trying to see if she’s a threat to them... whatever they are. Normally, predators won’t go up against something if they believe they will lose. Humans are one of the few species that does.
The creature in the doorway slowly stands upright, its entire body twitching. Ratty, stringy hair hangs off what looks like a bulbous head, and fur seems to be glinting in the back light, although dim. Two pincer-like hands are at the end of two very asymmetrical arm-like appendages, and it appears to have long, thin, bird-like legs with several knobs—probably joints.
It moves stiffly, its tall frame facing Julie head-on now. There’s an airy sound that comes from the creature as its body inflates, taking in air.
“Foooood,” it whispers.
In the blink of an eye, it’s down on its four haunches, the many joints in the legs sticking out at horrendous angles. Julie stiffens and clenches the pole tighter in her fists as the monster lunges. She doesn’t want to run away. It might make the situation worse.
Slap, slap, slap, slap! The monster’s duck-like feet pound the ground, making the most noise Julie thinks she’s ever heard.
Julie is pulled to the side.
She slams against the ground, a small yelp exploding from her gut. Something grips her upper arm, freezing cold against her skin.
The darkness thickens as the creature scrabbles past. It lets out a screech more terrible than anything a banshee ever could and circles back, standing in the doorway. There’s another, taller and more human looking figure distorting what little view Julie has as it stands between them.
The creature snarls and stands upright, a foot taller than the figure seeming to protect Julie, and it growls, a low, terrible sound.
There’s a slight grunt from the more human figure, sounding a lot like the same thing that had been moaning earlier.
“Mine,” the second figure says, his voice gravelly and angry.
The creature in the hallway crouches, growling as it twitches.
“Fooood,” the creature hisses.
The humanoid figure takes a light step forward and counters with an even stronger and more forceful “Mine.”
The first creature lets out a small whine and falls back down onto all fours. It growls and returns to where it had come from: through the double doors at the end of the hall.
Julie stays silent, straining her eyes to watch the figure in the nearly pitch-black. He stands completely still, a soft and strange shushing sound coming from his body. Then, slowly, he turns around. And although she can’t see him, her body trembles.
“Who...” the figure says with his deep voice, taking a step forward.
There’s a gust of wind and the shushing sound is so, so much louder. She can make out the rises and falls of a face in the darkness, but can see nothing beyond that as he comes within an inch of her own.
“Are...”
A hand grab her arm, freezing cold like the winter, and jerks her forward, her shoulder alight with pain. Another hand suddenly but gently covers her face, making her gasp as the freezing cold skin meets her own.
“You?”
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