I struggled against an unseen force, my body immobilized as if bound by invisible chains. Panic surged through me when the cold pair of eyes transformed into gaping maws.
Descending rapidly towards me.
"Aaargh!!!"
My voice cracked under the strain of sheer terror.
Instinctively, I raised my arms in an attempt to shield myself.
MUNCH!!!
MUNCH!!!!
My body convulsed with each sickening bite. My eyes bulged, bloodshot veins tracing their way across my sclera, and my mouth was wide in an endless scream.
"AAAAAAAAGHHHHH!"
Yet, this wasn't the end, if nothing, it had only started. The pain only continued to grow, it grew unceasingly. The maws gnawed faster, faster and faster, and all I could do was scream and scream continuously.
AAAAAGGHHHH!!!
It reached a point where my surroundings were covered in blood, and l couldn't even identify or feel myself again. How many parts of my body had been torn or ripped off my body?
I could keep count no longer.
...How many organs? Liver? Tendons?
At this point, I don't even know. Yet somehow, I was still alive. Somehow...I was still kicking and breathing.
Then, just as suddenly, the gnawing stopped.
'What if this is all an illusion?'
The thoughts crept into my tortured mind, a way of salvation amidst this endless torment.
Maybe none of this was real. Perhaps it only existed in some twisted corner of my subconsciousness.
With a surge of desperate hope. I shut my eyes, willing myself to believe it wasn't real. My heart raced, the drumbeat of fear overpowering my senses, but i clung to the idea. I clung desperately to it, holding onto it with everything I had got.
"It's all in your head Dean," I whispered to myself. "It's all just an illusion."
I forced myself to belief.
B-ut the pain refused to fade. Each stab, each drill into my psyche was as real as the cold water crawling over my skin.
Stay calm Dean.
Just stay calm.
I repeated the mantra until it was the only tether holding me to reality. I descended deeper into myself, into a space that was numb to the horror outside. The torment stretched on, minutes feeling like hours.
When the water stilled, I dared not move. The unseen predators were probably gone, but the dread lingered around me- like a shadow.
Eyes still closed, I remained in that fragile cocoon of consciousness. I couldn't trust my senses, and I also couldn't yet trust that the horror had passed either.
Time slipped through my fingers. Seconds? Hours? I couldn't say. Finally...after what felt like a lifetime.
I breathed a sigh of relief before opening my eyes.
I now stood at the entrance of a door.
'...When the fuck did I get here?'
I couldn't help but shiver in fear.
I thought hard on it, yet I wasn't able to come up with a logical explanation.
Except for a fact that chilled my bones to the core:
Everything I had seen, felt and touched so far had been nothing more than mere illusions!
At the thought of this, my heart thumped violently, dread slowly creeping in. I took in a gulp of saliva, feeling a cold wind running down my spine.
Taking one final look at the building, I hesitated in opening the door.
Who knew what was outside?
But...I couldn't afford to stop.
Not now.
With trembling hands, my hands moved towards the door's knob.
CREAK!
The door slowly got opened, and then, right before me was an endless darkness stretching for as far as my eyes could see.
...The moment I closed the door behind me- I bolted!
I didn't care where I was running to- only that I needed to get away.
As far away as possible!
As I fled, the world warped behind me. The house, and its looming presence receded into the ground.
Swallowed by some- unseen force.
My eyes widened at the sight, but I didn't stop.
I didn't dare stop.
I ran even faster, the cobblestone streets echoing my frantic steps.
I kept running, and running.
My lungs at this point, hurt like hell.
B-ut... I kept going.
I had no choice.
I had finally had enough of all these illusions and stuff. They were already taking over my mind slowly but surely. And I was afraid that if I wasn't careful enough, they would soon turn me into a paranoid psychopath.
Hence I needed to run away and be as far away from all this as possible.
And most importantly, I needed to find other humans.
'Or…no no…. definitely no.'
'They have to be other humans around.
They have to…'
Despair and desperation settled within me for a second there.
Yet I tried to convince myself that they were certainly other humans around here.
I couldn't be the only one right?
I questioned no one but myself and perhaps the endless void within me.
Cold chilling wind ran down my spine.
Dread slowly crept in as i ran along the cobblestone in search of nearby humans.
I ran with every ounce of strength contained within me; and slowly, I lost the sense of time.
Slowly, I lost the sense of feeling, and slowly, I lost the sense of life itself.
At a point, I couldn't even feel the passage of time, the sense of emotions, nor the sense of life itself.
I couldn't even hear my heartbeat.
Couldn't hear my frantic footsteps, nor could I see the despair flashing within my eyes every single moment- every single second.
A point was finally reached where I could feel them no more.
...I had no idea how long I had been running for.
What I was running from.
Where I was running to.
Where exactly is this place?
The thought couldn't help but creep into my tortured mind.
"Please someone! Anyone!!"
I called out.
I yelled and screamed. Every fiber of my muscles giving in.
Soon, I started to lose hope, I started to cry, and eventually, I cried no more.
I continued running, my pant weaving into the sullen atmosphere. Every intake of air as precious as gold is to a nobleman, women to a flirtatious prince and power to a power hunger.
My eyes soon turned red until they became inferno-like. My blood boiled- akin to a rampaging tsunami. And with the passage of time, even my rampaging blood soon ceased to flow.
My blood had slown down incredulously, and every step I took felt like I was straining myself… straining my body… my being beyond its very limit.
My eyes grew blurry, and my legs soon grew chaotic.
My hands at this point had long become the very extension of feebleness.
Soon, I lost sense of the world around me. All I could see around me were chaotic faces, worms writhing in and out of their dark crimson faces, and eyes that told stories of untold horrors.
...And bodies that screamed of the extremity of monstrosity.
Their shapes wrapping into something…things unknown.
My mind screamed in horror and despair.
And I could almost feel the fear settling within me.
It was palpable and cloying.
But strangely enough, they seemed to be an invisible force that protected him from all these various supernatural forces that encompass the very essence of life itself.
...How long has it been?
I had no idea.
My mind seemed to be keeping records of my surroundings, yet it seemed my body…no, it seems like I was too weak to accept them.
Time.
Time seemed to have lost all meaning.
Time…time seemed to have been lost in this never-ending darkness of abyssal torment.
My very being screamed to be saved.
It screamed to be out of this weird place.
I want to survive… I want to see the outside world.
With no memory whatsoever, I still had to figure out who I am.
Who are my parents?
Where do I come from?
Various chaotic thoughts ran into my mind, hitting hard and fast.
Brutal and unforgiving even.
In this never-ending world of sullenness and desolation.Time seemed to have lost all meaning as I slowly descended into profanity.