Chapter 509

Kai felt it in the bones of the island, a subtle tremble beneath the soles of his feet that had nothing to do with the earth. Something was wrong, something deeply, sickeningly off-kilter. The air itself carried a sense of trepidation.

He'd grown up in the quiet corners of Oahu, his life an almost predictable rhythm of fishing, hiking, and family gatherings, until now. His twenty-eight years had taught him to read the language of the land, the shifts in the ocean currents, the nuances of the jungle.

But this was new, this wasn't an ecological shift, more akin to something from deep, hidden nightmares.

The birds had grown silent days prior. That, more than anything, had set a gnawing unease deep in his gut. There were no calls, no songs, only an oppressive quiet that the world did not agree with.

Even the surf, the endless roar of the ocean that was the very sound of the island, seemed subdued, almost holding its breath, waiting. He walked down the dirt path towards his home with dread.

His Uncle Leif greeted him, "The old gods, Kai, they feel distant. Like they went on a trip and aren't returning"

"Don't start with your crazy ramblings Uncle" he responded, feeling his unease intensify tenfold. His uncle was the island mystic.

His eyes, usually twinkling with humor, held a deep, disquieting seriousness today. "Something stirs beneath our world, nephew. A sleeping thing awakening from the heart of the earth"

Kai pushed away the odd comments.

"Whatever it is, it better not touch my mango tree" he retorted. "That thing is my prize"

The day wore on, a blanket of oppressive humidity draping over the island. There was an undeniable shift in the air, the buzz of insects completely vanished and nature was devoid of any sound.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in hues of blood orange and deep purple, the sounds finally came. They started as a distant scrape, low and guttural, emanating from the heart of the lush green mountain that loomed over his town.

It quickly grew, morphing into a chorus of scraping, clicking and snapping. The sounds were biological, like countless teeth being crushed together. It had no place in the nature he had known his whole life.

He looked to his uncle, a deep fear written on both their faces as the night started. The island that gave them peace had turned into the very nightmare that they tried to leave behind.

His mother emerged from her home and began the usual dinnertime calls, oblivious to what the island was quickly turning into, with the sounds coming from beyond. She called his name a couple times, and finally, it hit her what she could be calling into.

A shriek, pure unfiltered terror echoed as something moved on her porch and took his mother before he even could utter a single sound. "Mom" was all that managed to come out.

Panic, immediate and unyielding, washed over him.

Leif was by his side. "The thing I felt earlier, Kai. The monsters under our land." He moved towards the back to grab a spear and handed Kai another. "They are here."

His vision felt as if it was slipping, he felt himself start to hyperventilate as he struggled to look ahead, unable to face the fact that those things… that that had just happened in front of him. He felt his tears build.

With his spear, and a deep rage forming, Kai moved beside Leif into the black night. The night swallowed the light from their little hut with absolute ease. The sounds grew louder and closer, no longer muffled.

The once familiar landscape now seemed alien, trees twisting into grotesque shapes against the dying light, long appendages scraping and clicking at anything they could.

Their village was now an all too silent place, something so horrific must've overtaken them with such immense strength.

What Kai was now experiencing, this was more horrifying than any myth, story, or tale his uncle had spoken. What came out from within the Earth? He wasn't sure if they could have possibly evolved or grown here.

His uncle spoke up, "The mountain, the caves. The darkness. They were down there and now they aren't."

A series of long, skeletal shapes slid through the shadows. Not human, but bipedal with too many arms, too many legs, skin stretched taut over elongated bone. Jaws agape with too many teeth and devoid of any emotion. The sound… those unnatural snapping noises… were coming from within them.

The island, it turned out, was not alone. The myths about creatures from the deep under were very, very real. But they were from the land deep below.

They attacked without any vocalization.

They lunged forward with a horrific speed, and what seemed like multiple arms attempted to rip Kai apart as they swarmed forward.

Leif positioned himself in between, he thrust his spear into the closest one's mouth. It cracked and broke apart like it was mere porcelain. "Go Kai!" he barked out, and pushed the horde back towards a dark ravine.

Kai, against the horror that seemed to consume every last bit of him, he moved away quickly. He felt that he couldn't stop or he'd lose everything he has, every second was so incredibly precious now, even if the moment seemed to have been painted by dread.

The village they grew up in, the only world he ever knew was getting slaughtered before his very eyes and there wasn't any amount of training to help him with the events that are about to come. It wasn't just some island fever; they were being hunted down to extinction by monsters they didn't know.

He reached a rocky outcrop, the edge of the village. There he saw the true nature of what has been set upon them. These were not animals, they were weapons with way too many limbs, moving with inhuman speed and coordinated assaults that looked well practiced.

Their movements precise, almost mechanical. His home was gone, along with his family. Those things, those monsters were all there was left now. And the screams… They were going to forever play in his memory.

It was almost absolute. Everything was now covered in that horrid, almost blood-soaked black substance that was almost glowing in the dark night. He ran in the opposite direction of where he last saw Leif, towards the forest and deeper into the mountain range.

He ran, without thinking. His mind couldn't compute what happened just a minute ago. His mom, uncle Leif... the island... and whatever else happened, he could almost swear he heard it.

Days turned into nights and the forests, what used to bring peace, were now an active hunting ground, filled with the very monsters that came from within their beloved earth.

The landscape changed as the life they brought died out.

Kai became a phantom, always moving, a mere echo in his own world, a world that now wanted him dead, like it has always wanted him dead.

The once verdant forests grew dark and twisted, vines like grasping claws now hung all over them. Those black growths took place and had no reason to belong, to be there.

His island, this beautiful island he knew was dead. Nothing seemed natural now. Nothing made sense. It seemed that their Gods never loved this island after all. Maybe, never really protected them at all.

He scavenged for anything edible, moving like a ghost and with utmost care, as if even the very wind could betray his location to those monsters.

There was no escape, not anymore. They seemed to move faster, there were many now, more than before. It seems like every passing moment the island gives birth to even more of them.

He found his way up to a rocky crag that overlooked the whole valley, what was once green, filled with life was now covered in black with barely anything alive left on its surface. Kai felt sick to his very stomach. The earth wept a tear for its beauty being turned into something monstrous.

A pang, raw and visceral, went straight through Kai's chest. They were multiplying, their number a dark plague, their horrid clicking sound filling the air. It was everything, all around him and there wasn't anywhere to go to that wasn't already ruined.

And in their twisted way, they began to reconstruct the island's very nature itself, into some semblance of what they thought was home. An area filled with an impossible black fungus. A testament to their terrible existence and an insult to what once was.

Their bodies, always moving, never seemed to slow or halt, there were so many. Some climbed through the canopies, others slithered within the shadows of trees that bent towards the unnatural blackness that clung onto everything like a plague.

With each step, each click and scrape, it seemed that he was nearing his doom and he could taste it in the stale and corrupted air. He had never been this close to absolute dread, his every heartbeat hammering against his skull and with it came a deafening echo of despair.

Kai was so incredibly tired, exhausted and had nothing left to give to this doomed island that tried so incredibly hard to steal everything he had and every bit of hope, all in one night.

There was no use in moving, he had no more safe spaces to retreat into, they are now everywhere. It became very obvious there was no safe zone on his island anymore, everything had already become them.

The sun began its slow descent, casting a reddish hue onto the ravaged island, he waited. He had decided he'd end it there. There were no dreams he had for his life anymore. Only the wish of having it end as quickly as possible and maybe… to be reunited with those he has lost.

They converged onto his position, it seems as if those monstrosities, with their dark and empty sockets locked in on where Kai was standing. There wasn't any escape at this point.

They didn't rush at first, and almost surrounded him like he was prey. Each body poised for the assault, they closed in one after the other. They moved in some sort of pattern now, a slow and painful assault, never ceasing or faltering in their efforts.

Kai simply waited. It would seem, with every step, they were taking time, moving at an unbearably agonizing pace. He welcomed them to end his pathetic existence. And at least in the very end, it could finally end with him on his terms.

And then they leaped forward, an avalanche of limbs and snapping jaws all around him and it hurt, it was so terrible but somehow.. even worse then before, they were taking him alive, like what happened to his mother and how he watched and screamed for her.

He thrashed, but his feeble attempts at resistance were met with indifference. His very flesh and entrails being turned into playthings. Each piece he felt leave his body felt cold and numb, like ice piercing through every vein.

As darkness began to creep in around the edge of his sight, he could almost swear that he could see faces… twisted and malformed features staring deep inside his own soul with absolute pleasure at the very site of their new toy, Kai, almost no different than anything else that has been torn from life.

The sounds became muted as those horrible beings pulled and pulled at every last bit of him until his very soul itself began to detach from his dying husk. He began to see himself, lying broken and empty being mangled.

His blood was quickly pulled up by a mass of writhing roots, reaching out like dark and cruel veins, soaking his remains deep within the black of the island, and making it into a part of themselves. They consumed everything of what was Kai, the earth having successfully taking him as one of its own now, like every single other lost person and creature that was part of his land.

The monsters stopped when he no longer felt, his very life was torn apart with his very final moments. There was only the land now, and these beings now ruled all they could. The sun finally fell as they, in twisted grace, now completely claimed everything that once lived.