-Huff... Huff...
[What... just happened?]
My arms felt heavy and numb as I scratched at my skin, grasping at the fleeting sensation of control.
Eyes still closed, my body quivered, sensation returning in small, fractured waves as I pushed myself up from the ground.
At last, I opened my eyes.
Gray mist stretched endlessly in all directions, swirling in an ominous, suffocating circle around me.
-Tak!
I took a step forward, watching as the mist recoiled slightly.
Another step.
Each step drove the fog back, parting the shroud with every movement I made. By the time I counted twenty, the mist settled into place again, solidifying into a circular barrier around me.
[Is... this it?]
-SWOOSH!
The mist pulled away again, almost eagerly, forming a narrow, darkened path to my right. It stretched ahead like a twisted street, cloaked in a dull, creeping darkness, a void that seemed to swallow the world.
A chill tightened my chest. The unknown loomed ahead, and my instincts screamed at me not to follow it. Yet there was no other choice.
[Hoo. Let's... find a way out of this fucking place.]
-Tak... Tak... Tak...
My footsteps alone echoed in the darkness.
Ahead, the path came to a sudden end—a majestic towering wall, impossibly high, stretching upward beyond sight.
[Is this... the end?]
Bitter disappointment gnawed at me as I scanned the area. Then, just at the edge of my vision, a small figure caught my attention.
A child.
A doll.
A little girl, barely visible through the mist, stood clutching a tattered doll. Her dark eyes peered out at me from behind the corner of a wall.
For an instant, I wanted to feel relief. A familiar, innocent figure. But my instincts screamed otherwise.
Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
Suddenly, she wide smiled, but it didn't relieved me but sent chill down the spine.
[What the hell…?]
She raised her hand, waving slowly, beckoning me forward.
[I don't... I don't want to get closer.]
But my feet moved without my consent and pulled forward, step by step, until I was following her down the path.
I tried to stop, tried to turn back, but my body ignored me, moving of its own accord as if on strings.
[No, not again!]
The child led me back, deeper into the fog, toward the center of the mist, where a circle of figures knelt, their faces hidden, tears of black streaming from their eyes.
[Save Us.TheGArWatchin.]
The broken, disjointed words slithered into my ears, twisting through my mind like poison. Their voices were a chorus of madness, each syllable like a crack in my sanity, pressing in from all sides.
[They're… chanting.]
Dark figures surrounded me, their mouths moving in unison, spilling corrupted sounds into the air that distorted and fractured reality around me. My chest felt tight, as if my heart itself were being wrapped in barbed wire, constricting, breaking.
[The walls... closing in]
There was nowhere to go.
The mist had solidified, trapping me, every direction sealed. Panic clawed at my throat, instinct overriding reason as I staggered back, my eyes darting between the kneeling figures.
Desperation surged within me.
I reached out, grabbing the nearest figure's shoulder, shaking him, and screaming to break him out of the trance.
[Hey. Wake up... Wake up!]
But he was lost, his body stiff and unresponsive, his mouth still chanting, a machine of madness. My grip tightened, desperation fueling my every movement as I dug my fingers into him, but he didn't even flinch.
-ARRRRHHHH!
Barely suppressing the corruption, I knew there was not much time, so killing them was the only answer I could find.
With a surge of resolve, I raised my hand and tried to dig the heart out of the man.
-SWISH!
But my hand was thrown back as if struck by an invisible barrier. Golden light flared from the figure, rippling through his form.
The golden light protected them from any danger.
Golden light now enveloped them all, shining brighter, illuminating their expressions.
Hollow, empty, and lost.
My blows were useless, bouncing back each time, no matter how hard I struck.
Still, I fought.
My fists swung, slamming into each other over and over, desperation driving me to exhaustion.
The corruption dug into my mind, filling every corner, drowning my thoughts in chaos.
-Clinch!
My grip loosened. My mind fractured, sinking under the weight of the whispers and the endless chanting.
[RealityIsGonBre.EveSouWiBSacr.]
The words slithered in, wrapping around me, seeping into my bones. I could feel the darkness creeping closer, corrupting and overtaking everything I knew and everything I was.
I dropped to my knees, my hands clutching my head as the chanting consumed me. My resistance crumbled, every ounce of will draining, lost to the ceaseless, merciless rhythm of corruption.
And then... it was over.
I'd succumbed.
Through a sliver of remaining consciousness, I watched myself from the other side of the wall, observing my body as it joined the others, hands clasped in prayer, my lips moving in time with their chant.
[RealityIsGonBre.EveSouWiBSacr.]
But there was something... off.
I wasn't kneeling. No black tears ran down my cheeks; my posture was still straight.
[OnlReOG.V.CaSav.]