Into The Darkness

After walking for a few minutes, finally, he could no longer hear the woman screaming, and he was alone once more.

"What the fuck is going on?" He said to himself. "Where the hell am I?" The coat he wore was not as good as the one he had left at home, and it was not long before the rain started to soak through it, followed by his shirt. He started to shiver. "God damn it man." Suddenly there was a quick flash of lightning nearby that made him jump, and that illuminated the surrounding area for the briefest of moments, but it was long enough for him to spot a structure of some kind just up ahead and to the left slightly. He probably would not have noticed it had the lightning not struck. Thunder roared as he changed his direction and lit up the structure with his flashlight.

It was an archway of some kind, built out of stone bricks, but it looked horribly worn down. As he approached, he could see cracks, patches of moss, and chunks of it that were missing entirely. He took shelter underneath it, but it was hardly large enough to provide any decent protection from the downpour. Just then though, there was another flash of lightning, this time allowing him to get a quick glance of a whole set of ruins just beyond the archway, including what looked like a small stone building that had most of the ceiling missing, but at least a small bit of it was still there. He ran over to it, finding a way inside through a hole in the wall just big enough for him, and got underneath the remaining piece of ceiling. There was a small wooden bench inside, half of it was exposed to the rain, but the rest was under the cover, so we went and sat down. He took a few deep breaths. "What do I do now?" He heard a loud crash in the distance. A tree falling? He ignored it and put his head in his hands. He groaned. "How do I get back home?" There was another crash, this time it was closer.

"Nicholas." A voice whispered. Nicholas jumped up and looked around frantically. It sounded like someone was whispering right into both of his ears, but there was nobody around him. "Nicholas." It said again. Another crash, even closer than the last one, accompanied by a flash of dim, red light coming from above the missing parts of the ceiling. Another crash, coming from right outside the building. Nicholas held his breath. What the hell is that? Red light beamed in from the ceiling, lighting up the immediate area around Nicholas, and just as it did, there was a deep, guttural growl coming from its source. He shone his light in its direction, and caught a glimpse of a towering figure, looming over the building. It was covered in a black, dented metallic substance, almost like a suit of armour, especially around its head, which looked like a poorly forged, horned helmet with a single, large visor from which the red light was coming from. From this angle, he could also just about see the creature's chest. There was something embedded within it, about the length of his own arm, emitting a faint white glow.

Before he could inspect the giant any further however, it let out an immensely loud roar and raised its 2 arms, one of which held a massive sword with a black, crystalline blade, which alone was the size of a large garden fence.

Nicholas didn't hesitate, and ran right to the hole in the wall he had entered from. Once he was through he continued to run. He was holding the flashlight's beam in front of him, but the giant's red light was doing more to light his way than he was. He heard its booming footsteps slowly, and steadily make their way around the building and towards him. He chanced a quick look back and saw the monster in full, easily as tall as his house, and looked just as heavy too with its armour and heft, and it was catching up to him.

He turned to watch where he was going, catching sight of another small, mostly wrecked building in the red light. There was a door frame that led inside, with the door itself off its hinges and broken in half on the ground just in front of it. He darted inside just as the giant was about to reach him.

He ran straight to the other side of the building, where he saw a hole in the wall, and had an idea. He clicked off the flashlight and slipped it into his pocket. Before he could do anything else, the entire wall behind him exploded as the giant's blade swept through it, sending chunks of stone flying. Nicholas ducked down but he was still hit in the arm, it hurt but his coat cushioned the impact, causing it to do no real damage. As soon as he recovered from the hit, he quickly jumped through the hole in the wall, before the giant could look inside. He crouched low behind the wall and didn't move, then he saw the giant's light shining through the hole just next to him. Gotta get out of here. He thought.

He started to creep away, ducking into some tall grass. He looked back and saw the giant stepping around the building, its light briefly moved over the grass but it didn't notice him. It reached the back of the building where Nicholas had just been and looked around as he continued to move away. When it saw he wasn't there it emitted a deep, long groan and kicked the wall knocking a hole into it, then it turned to face the grass. Nicholas froze and ducked even lower as the giant stomped closer, lowering its sword and slowly sweeping it through the grass like a rake. Shit! He kept moving as quickly as he could without making any noise, but the giant moved faster. He looked back again and saw the searching blade gaining on him quickly. If he stayed here the giant would surely find him. He looked around, trying to spot any cover through the grass, and saw a hill just on his right. He moved a little closer and there it was, just barely illuminated by the gian's light, was a small hole in the hill, a cave just big enough for him to fit inside, but the giant would have no chance squeezing in.

He felt the sword touch the back of his foot and tripped, and before the giant could do anything he threw himself up and sprinted for the cave. It roared and quickly swung its blade but Nicholas was too fast and it missed. Within seconds he had reached the cave and scrambled to get inside, and just barely managed to get his head under the surface when the giant slammed its blade down on the entrance, causing a tremor that shook the cave and made him bash his leg and arm on the wall, but he managed to protect his head with his arms. He didn't wait for the tremor to cease before continuing to move down the passage. There was another shockwave as the giant attacked the entrance again, making his ankle strike the wall hard, he felt a sharp bit of rock cut his skin. He yelled from the pain but endured, continuing downwards, letting the giant's light guide him further down as it peered into the cave with a loud grumble, watching him escape.

The passage opened up and straightened out after he went a little further, turning into a tunnel only slightly taller than he was, with just enough space for him to stand up straight. He took out his own light again and affirmed that there was nobody else around before kneeling down and looking at his ankle. His trouser leg and sock were both torn and blood had soaked into them. "What the fuck was that thing?" He said, looking back at the way he came. He took a deep breath.

He pulled up the sleeve of his coat to reveal his still damp shirt sleeve, and grabbed and pulled at it until a piece tore off. He wrapped it around his ankle then pulled his sock over it, before tightly tucking his trouser leg into it. He stood up and tested it, feeling his ankle stinging with pain, but the covering held firm. "That'll have to do." He said.

He moved on as the passage started to steadily open up more and more. Before long it had doubled in height and width, and as it opened up, the floor became saturated with dirt mingling with the rock. Some of it had grass growing, and from it he could see dew dripping. "What?" He knelt down and inspected a blade of it. "How's that possible?" There were no gaps in the ceiling where light or water could be coming down. How'd this grow here? He thought. Just a little further forward, the dirt began to overtake the rock fully, and the grass became taller, up to his knees.

The passage finally opened up into a full, large chamber, his flashlight's beam couldn't reach the other side, nor could it reach the ceiling. He continued forward, his light landing on a pile of ruined wooden planks and broken chunks of stone. A man was sitting hunched upon it, looking towards him. He was fully dressed in black, and his clothes were all stained with dirt and blood, Nicholas could smell it before even getting close. He wore a chipped, wooden mask that was painted to match his clothes, and he was bristling with weapons. A row of serrated knives were attached to leather loops on both of his thighs and a few more on his left calf, 2 curved swords sheathed at his back, and his gloves were adorned with long, bloody spikes at the knuckles. In his hands was a bundle of grass, tied into some kind of knot that he continued to fiddle with even as he was not looking at it. Nicholas sighed angrily. "You're not gonna try to kill me now, are you? Like everything else here?" The man chuckled, his voice sounded sickly, it was coarse and rough. He turned his attention back to the grass in his hands.

"I'll take it as my relatives have not treated you well, if that's the first thing you say to me. But unlike them I can control myself, so unless Shyna asks me to gut you…I suppose you can consider yourself safe around me." Nicholas glared at the man and stepped away. "She hasn't." The man followed up. Nicholas tried to think of something to say, a question to ask, but he had so many that he couldn't think of which he wanted to ask first. The man looked at him again. "You must be Nicholas, I presume?" Nicholas rolled his eyes.

"I'd ask how you knew my name, but really that's the last damn thing on my list of questions." He approached and sat down on the pile near the man, but was careful to keep enough distance between them.

"Shyna told me you'd be coming."

"Well who the hell is that?" The man straightened up and tilted his head slightly.

"You haven't met her yet? Unusual. Normally she's very swift to address new arrivals here." Nicholas thought back to that woman that tried to kill him.

"If by 'address' you mean 'stab and choke to death', then actually, yeah I might've met her."

"No, Shyna doesn't get her hands dirty like that, that was probably Nagima you ran into. No surprise you got past her, damn good reason Shyna prefers me over her."

Please don't let her find me. Nicholas remembered what the woman said.

"She seemed scared about something, didn't want me near her. I wanted to help but…" He tried to think of the right way to finish the sentence. "Let's just say there was some blood, alright?" The man snickered.

"Sounds like Nagima alright. If there's one thing Shyna enjoys, it's humiliating her favourite little slave."

"You know this Shyna sounds like a fucking jerk, right?" The man quietly gasped.

"I would not speak about her like that, unless you'd like for her to demand your head. That's how Nagima ended up the way she did, never knew when to shut up and accept it." He ended with an angry flourish, making Nicholas hesitate to question further. He took a deep, bitter breath and went back to fiddling with the grass.

"Accept…what exactly?" Nicholas said. The man stopped and put the grass bundle down next to him. He took a long time to answer, awkwardly, quietly muttering a few words at a time as if struggling to find the right thing to say.

"Shyna." He said, eventually. "You have to accept Shyna." His tone had changed, he sounded regretful, and depressed. "It's been that way for a long time. Ever since it first came to our family we had to accept what it meant for us. No point fighting it, only making it worse for yourself if you do." He looked at Nicholas and shifted closer. "You want my advice?"

"Hit me."

"Shyna's going to find out you're here, one way or another she'll find you. She sees and hears everything in this place, this is her world. But when you do meet her, I would greatly advise you give yourself up. Don't put up no fight." The man removed his glove and raised his hand towards Nicholas, who was left gawking in response.

His hand was not human, the skin of his palm and the underside of his fingers were a pale green, and the top half of his hand was covered in green scales so darkly shaded they looked pitch black at first glance. His nails were black and glass-like, and looked like they could easily slash through Nicholas's coat and rend his flesh.

"God, what happened to you?" He said.

"Everything she touches turns into a monster." The man said, putting his glove back on. "I was lucky. Lucky enough to realise in time that there was no point in fighting it. I gave myself up, and she was merciful in what she did to me. I'd follow my example, lest you end up like the rest of them." Nicholas thought back to that woman, and that monstrous giant. Holy fuck. He thought.

"Is there any way I can avoid her?"

"You can try, but she's beyond anything you could do to her. My father gave everything he had to try and repel her but it was all for nothing in the end. He got the worst punishment out of all of us, poor bastard." Nicholas stood up and shone his light past the man, lighting up the cave wall and in it, another passage. "You can keep going." The man said, seemingly sensing his desire to leave. "But I can assure you that once you've gotten this far into it, there's no going back, you understand?"

"Yeah…I got it." Nicholas lied. He did not want to believe what the man was saying. There must be some way out of this. He thought to himself. He started to walk away, but the man put his hand out to stop him before he could take more than a couple steps. He opened his mouth to protest, but the man quickly reached for his waist and grabbed one of the many knives there, holding it by the blade and handing it to Nicholas.

"Don't tell her I gave you this." He said as Nicholas took it. "Shyna doesn't like it when I help the new arrivals, but trust me, it's better to make her only a little upset, than to be defenceless and end up getting rent in half by the collapsed before she gets to you." Nicholas inspected the blade, running his fingers along the chipped wooden handle. The blade itself was stained with a solid black substance, Nicholas caught a faint scent of burning wood as he leaned in to look closer.

"Collapsed?" He said.

"Everything she touches turns into a monster." The man repeated himself. "That's what the collapsed are, monsters. Stupid, clumsy things, but they don't care if Shyna had another plan for you, they'll shred you all the same. At least you get to live if Shyna finds you first." He picked up the grass bundle and went back to tying the knots. "You'd best get going. Better to not keep her waiting."

"Ok." Nicholas walked past him, towards the passage. "Thank you."