Reed woke with a yell and frantic scrambling only to find himself again in the backseat of the brown sedan, driving along the highway.
"Everything alright back there?"
Reed looked up to see the driver looking at him through the rear-view mirror with a concerned expression.
"Yeah… yeah everything's fine," Reed muttered as he looked down and felt his torso which betrayed no differences from when he had dozed off, "Just had a nightmare."
"Well do me a favor and try not to have any more panic attacks, you nearly made me wreck the car."
"Sorry. How much longer is it going to be?"
"We only just left the city. It's gonna be another four and a half hours of driving at least."
Reed responded with a grunt of acknowledgment before turning to stare out the window as he had done before. He watched the passing trees, fields, and towns in something of a trance until they arrived in Charleston. Thanking the driver, he got out of the car in front of his modest apartment building and took a moment to admire the night sky. There was no inky blackness on the horizon nor was there an orange-red haze consuming the sky, it was just the moon and stars in an otherwise empty night sky. Although still shaken from the horrible dream, the calm and normalcy of the area helped to put his mind at ease. It made him feel safe, distanced from the threats of the wider universe.
Reed made his way up to the third story of the building, entered his homely one-bedroom apartment, and proceeded to get ready for bed. It was nearly two in the morning and Reed would have to wake up at eight for work, so he wasted no time and within ten minutes he had crashed into his mattress and was drifting off into an exhausted sleep.
He woke up to find himself lying upon a stone street, a familiar gate before him and orange-red light pervading his surroundings. Turning around he was once again met with the horrifically beautiful stone city.
"What the HELL?!" Reed yelled as he anxiously ran both hands through his hair.
He spun around in a circle, taking in the surrounding stone architecture, as his thoughts began to run rampant. He had lacked the presence of mind the last time he was here, but this time he knew there was something off. He was far too lucid for this to be a normal dream, his thoughts were clear as ever and he could remember every excruciating detail of his last instance here, the unimaginable pain he had felt in those brief final moments of being torn apart.
It was in the midst of his panicking that Reed saw it. The gangling gray monstrosity with its intertwined arms trailing across the ground behind it. As Reed had not been so preoccupied with the gate behind him, he had been able to spot the creature before it spotted him. It was aimlessly lumbering down the street in his direction, vacant eyes scanning its surroundings for what he presumed was any sign of life.
Not wanting to reenact being skewered alive, Reed made the decision to bolt towards the nearest building, a massive complex somewhat lacking in the pointed architecture and intricate detailing prevalent in what he had seen so far of the city. As he sprinted towards the oversized opening of a doorway, Reed noticed a rapid movement out of the corner of his eye. The creature had noticed him when he had begun running and was now racing towards him at an unbelievably fast speed. Reed, however, was too close to the building for the creature to catch up to him despite its inhuman speed.
Rushing through the opening in stone and into what he hoped would act as some form of shelter, Reed hurriedly searched for someplace to hide from the creature that would doubtlessly be here any moment. His searching eyes were met with nothing of the sort, instead revealing more bars of bone, this time in the form of cages arrayed in columns and rows throughout the entirety of the structure. Within many of the cages were the sleeping forms of animals. Doglike in appearance although entirely too massive to be such, and hairless to boot.
The canine creatures varied in size, ranging from five to fifteen feet long, and thanks to the grotesque flesh that adorned them their muscular physiques were plain to see. That was where any semblance of natural biology ended, as scattered across their bodies were shards of bone protruding from their flesh like horrific quills, with the exception of a single large bone plate that covered the top of their backs. The beasts had inordinately large snouts, filled to the brim with oversized teeth jutting out every which way. Not a single one of the beasts' mouths were closed, most likely unable due to the aberrant nature of their fangs. No eyes were to be found on the heads of the animals, but from the few who were awake and peering at him, Reed could see tendrils attached at the neck that hovered around the creature, an eye on the end of each, slit horizontally and crimson in color.
Pausing momentarily in shock at the horrors he had stumbled upon, Reed considered turning around and running back out the doorway. Reminding himself of the certain death that awaited should he do so, he took a deep shuddering breath and continued running along the corridors of cages, now trying to silence the noise of his steps as much as possible. Reed zigzagged through the walls of bone to the passive eyes of the canine beasts who were waking up in spades, attempting to rid himself of a line of sight to the door. A task he knew he had failed upon seeing the long-armed creature burst into view through the building's doorway.
Of the three eye appendages attached to each of the beasts within the cages, at least one from each swiveled to inspect the new arrival. Like Reed had, the pursuing monster stopped upon seeing the inhabitants of the building. Having seemingly forgotten its pursuit its pursuit of Reed, the creature stalked up to the nearest of cages, the beast within watching it approach with each of its three eyes. The creature came within several feet of the cage before it paused, its trailing amalgamation of arms whipping forward to spear through the beast within the cage. Its appendage flexed and enlarged as it moved in such a way that the impaled beast was effortlessly torn apart.
A chorus of high-pitched screeches flooded the building as the beasts raged against their cages, furious at the monster for killing one of their own. The long-armed monster grew more proactive with its slaughter, sensing the hostilities towards it. The creature rushed to the next cage and speared yet another of the defenseless beasts, acting with terrifying speed and ferocity. Watching this through the bone cages a fair distance away, Reed high-tailed his way towards the large doorway located at the opposite end of the building that was now within his view. The pounding of his footsteps and flurry of movement were drowned out by the aggregate disturbance of the enraged animals.
He made it out of through the large arched doorway, once more into a landscape imbued with the haunting glow cast by the sky. Mutilated and rotting corpses were scattered across the courtyard Reed now found himself in. They looked quite human-like at a glance, save for the elongated features and gray skin. The courtyard itself was covered in tables and racks that were filled to the brim with dull white weapons, most likely made of the same bone as the cages and gate. Speaking of gates, there was yet another in the large enclosure, however, it looked slightly different than the one he had seen earlier, lacking the elegant construction and giving off more of an impression of efficiency.
From the stone wall to the right of the gate came a great dull white chain, and attached to it was a hulking abomination of flesh, massive and horribly misshapen. It currently lay slumped against the wall, but slight twitching betrayed the fact that it was very much alive.
Reed reached towards a nearby rack and grabbed two of the smaller swords from it, both reaching a length slightly over three feet. He set his feet a good distance from the giant monstrosity before making sure he had an adequate grip on the sword in his right hand, all the while his arms and legs shook something fierce. Reed took a deep breath and with all his strength hurled the sword at the sleeping abomination.
He was nowhere near skillful or lucky enough to have the sword hit the giant point first, but the edge did make contact, slicing through its abdomen like butter. It woke with an ear-deafening roar, getting to its feet with a speed that belied its size and caused the chain to jerk and sway. The chain appeared to be embedded within the thing's back. Locking its round, crimson eyes on Reed, the abomination hurtled forward towards him. As it did so, the gate behind it rapidly began to rise.
Upon seeing that his hunch had been correct, Reed sprinted towards the oncoming monstrosity. Once he was close enough that the thing lunged for him, he dove between its legs. The adrenaline racing through him was enough to quell the pain of the impacting stone and allow him to scramble back to his feet before bolting towards the gate. The giant quickly recovered and turned to chase him, indicated by the now rapidly falling gate. Pushing every ounce of his being into the mad rush, Reed made another leap as the gate was near being closed. He skidded across the ground as the gate crashed to the ground, one of the bone rods gouging into his calf. The giant slammed into the gate behind him, the stone walls surrounding it groaned and let loose bits of stone, however, the dull white gate stood as if untouched.
As the huge monster continued to ram itself into the gate, Reed limped away from the towering stone walls and city within, the ground underneath his feet changing from hard stone to gravel. Not having any idea what to do but wishing to get as far away from the city as possible, he just carried on walking in the opposite direction.