Chapter 6 - Meeting With Their God/ Desperate Escape

I opened my eyes and was met with a complete red void. Right away I noticed that this wasn't entirely real. Not in the sense that this wasn't happening but I could feel something like grass against my feet, wherever I was only existed in my head.

Everything that had happened before came rushing back in a wave of panic as I searched the empty void for Elizabeth but she wasn't there.

Thank God, so where am I then? I was taken by… something, some dark thing, and now I was here.

After some time, I noticed something resembling an eye but obscured by some screen that masked any detail. Where fright should've set in, a festering annoyance at the sight of it took its place.

It is a pleasure to meet you finally.

I was caught off guard by its voice. It was authoritative as if it demanded my respect, yet it was unpleasant, almost too guttural to understand. Its long drawn-out pauses between each word were the only way I understood it. Despite all that I was uncharacteristically calm. Strange.

Its words were disconnected from a mouth, somehow whatever it was saying was being directly heard in my head. Maybe I was going crazy, I thought

"Hello… and what are you supposed to be."

I am your guiding light who has watched your every move. I am the Eye of Rendition and have summoned you for a purpose.

"And what may that be?"

I yearn for change. What better vessel than a man that harbors the ideas fit to do so?

"Still doesn't answer my question"

Ignorance is bliss

"Not to me"

What you believe is irrelevant. The outcome of this meeting has already been settled. You will obey me or else perish under the clutches of Erebus the Wandering Shadow. It pursues you and it comes quickly.

"I'll do fine by myself. I'm capable enough"

Your hubris blinds you. Without my guidance, you will die, and I cannot allow that.

"Why do you care what happens to me?"

Interest, common interests.

"I don't understand."

Because you are a fool.

"Then enlighten me."

In time, but at the moment there is little. Listen to my command and you will prosper, Gryce Harlington, The Visitor.

A crack forms on the ground. I looked down at myself and my eyes went wide. My skin had begun to crumble leaving only the bone. But I couldn't panic, I couldn't scream, but I was scared, it was allowing me to feel fear.

"What are you doing?"

You continue to resist.

"You're still not answering me! What are you doing?"

Finishing the inevitable. Refuse and you will fade into nothingness.

It continued up my arm like poison, I couldn't stop it, I couldn't even move. All I could do was look down in disbelief as my body crumbled as it reached my chest.

"No, no, I accept, I accept!.

Then we shall proceed.

***

I listened to its words and yet still found myself in a treacherous escape from a beast shadowed in the forest. It's growls coming from all around me.

Only my instincts guided me, invisible sharp thorns jutting from every corner cut my skin. But I couldn't stop, it's movement was getting closer by the second.

Panic seeped through me, my body ran on instinct alone. Before I knew it, my foot was caught by a loose vein, flying down a steep slope. A mound of bramble cushioned my fall.

"Agh!"

Your first order, upon consciousness, will be to run. Run until you meet a slope, this will be your first opportunity to gain distance away from the beast. Avoid its gaze, your effort will be in vain otherwise.

"If I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have listened to it."

Something was definitely broken. I felt a sharp pain in my arm, It took everything I had to crawl my way out. I could still move my arm, that was the most important part.

"Dammit, what was its next order!."

The moon's embrace will shine your path. Follow it's light and continue.

It was right, just a few steps ahead was a path of light but there it had come back.

"Shit!." I ducked, something had shot over me, I felt its heat against my head like a plane had flown over me. I fell back down.

It's came voice came back to me, an extra command, Go into the light, It said.

That's what I'm trying to do! I just gotta-

I looked down, my legs were shaking. Come on now's not the time.

My hand dug into the soil, reaching for anything to propel myself forward. Dammit, come on!.

There was something else around me. I couldn't see anything but that didn't matter. Its faint whisper was enough.

Here we go! It was too late, the creature had returned, and its target was my leg. I received yet another command, Stand! It bellowed.

Thats what… I'm trying to DO!."

I shot up, stumbling into the light as it landed behind me but not before something sharp and serrated had plunged into my foot.

"AGH!" It took its time, plunging its teeth deeper into my foot, ripping apart my boot as if it wasn't there in the first place.

I felt like vomiting, I could feel its hot breath, and the imminent follow-up If I didn't react now.

Desperately I reached out for a loose root, each time I'd get closer, it would drag me back out, It was enjoying it. If I didn't do something now that would be it. Give me another command! I received nothing in return.

Fine, fine! I'll do it myself… I don't… I don't need you!

One more time, with all my strength, I lunged. Its teeth glided through my foot until when I reached I broke through, flinging myself into the moonlight.

"What else do you want from me!" I received nothing again.

"You're kidding." It was getting closer, I could feel it.

This was it then, I went against my best judgment and trusted it. And now I waited for my inevitable death at the hands of a creature I couldn't even see. Yet, all I received was silence.

"Huh?"

I looked back, finally able to see my pursuer. A tall black humanoid being was staring back at me. Devoid of detail, like a living shadow. Its hands splayed out, struggling to reach my foot. The light from the moon prevented it from reaching any closer. My only salvation was the moonlight that could barely hold me.

"It can't." I took a deep breath. "It can't get to me?"

It thrashed against the invisible barrier a blood-curdling scream coming from it as it struggled. Dashing from one end to the other, attempting to pry open whatever stood before it.

"So that's." I took another deep breath, my head felt light. "So that's…" Oh yeah that's right, it bit me How does it-

I couldn't breathe, I couldn't focus, I couldn't tell how much it took but I was too hot, too hot for it to be anything small. Was there poison? Did that thing have poison in its teeth? Is that why it burned this bad?

If I thought about it any longer the pain would set in. I needed to go, I needed to stand up.

Gritting my teeth plunging my hand into the dirt, I forced my leg up until one knee still lay in the dirt while the order, dug into the earth, a firm stance.

I jolted up, the heat from my foot traveling up my legs as it reached my stomach I fell on my knees. Just for a second, my pinky stood out of the light and in one swoop, it slid along the ground, slicing it clean off, and leaping back into the forest.

Why was this happening? I didn't do anything and yet, and yet..

"Guh" All at once it hit me, a heat too overwhelming to ignore, it was asking too much of me. I was only one man, how much did it expect me to do? Everything felt heavy, it was too much for me to handle.

"If this is what it took to start a new life then, I should've just died in that water!."

Me being important, what a lie, how could someone important go through this? How could they do this without even a shred of evidence?

I'd prove them wrong, and in doing so, I'd make the people that dragged me down, eat their words. I wouldn't let this become a repeat of my last life. If I died they'd win.

I had to try again, taking each step, slower than the last until finally as I attempted to stand up, I stumbled forward catching myself and preventing any part of my body from leaving the barrier light.

"I did it!." Now all that was left was to follow the light and remember its last command. I could do that. One step,

"Ss" Searing pain coursed through my leg. At a time.

I limped to the end of the light. A dark void lay in front of me, the creature was nowhere to be seen but I could feel its presence around me and the crunching of sticks against its weight coming from every angle my hearing could catch.

Its last command was to,

Jump

I made it this far under its instruction, I don't think I would've made it without it. So why doubt it now?

I took one final step dropping into the void, suspending into a free fall. My next destination awaited me.