I was asleep.
Not beside the graves of my parents. Not in the makeshift bed I called home.
No.
This was different.
The cold here wasn't the familiar bite of the frozen wastes I grew up in. It wasn't even the chill of the dead. This was something else. Something unnatural.
It didn't feel like anything I had ever known.
I tried to open my eyes, but they were unbearably heavy. My arms refused to obey, bound by what felt like thousands of invisible strings pulling me taut, holding me prisoner.
Still, I resisted. I twisted and strained against the unseen restraints, refusing to remain still. At last, the tension eased. My arms broke free.
I reached for my face, forcing my eyelids apart.
And saw… nothing.
Darkness.
I blinked, once, twice, over and over again, hoping it was just my vision failing me, or perhaps another cruel hallucination. But no — the void remained.
I stood frozen in the endless black, too afraid to move. Some instinct whispered that to step forward might mean something worse than death.
Then, movement.
At the edge of my sight, something flickered. Four pairs of eyes — glowing, watching.
I blinked, and they were gone. Yet the certainty remained: I wasn't alone.
I reached for my back, desperate for the familiar weight of my blade. My fingers closed on empty air.
Panic rose in my chest.
Behind me — a shift in the air. Something brushed past. I spun, dropping low into a defensive stance, scanning the dark.
And then I saw them again.
Four pairs of eyes, hovering far above where I would normally look.
They stared, unblinking, studying me.
Then they moved.
Faster than thought. Faster than sight.
Before I could even react, they shot forward — straight into my chest.
Agony tore through me. My skull felt like it was splitting apart, my ears rang with piercing shrieks, and something deeper — something vital — was being ripped away from me.
I collapsed to my knees, convulsing, then fell to all fours, dragging myself forward. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't care.
My body twisted and burned, every breath catching in my throat.
Is this how I die…? I thought bitterly. I had hoped to die in my bed, or by my parents' side. Not here. Not in this void. Not by something I couldn't even see.
And then — a light.
A single point of crimson, glowing ahead of me.
Hope.
Energy surged through me. I forced myself upright, legs pumping as I sprinted toward it.
But the light drifted farther, always just out of reach. I ran harder, faster, desperate. Again it slipped away.
I pushed myself beyond reason, my body screaming in protest. At last, I leapt.
The light swallowed me whole.
Blinding radiance seared my eyes. I threw up my arms, shielding my face.
And then, as quickly as it came, the brilliance was gone.
I lay on something solid, hard against my cheek.
I opened my eyes. A forest.
But not like any forest I had ever seen.
I stood quickly, the pain gone as though it had never been. The air was thick, heavy, tainted. The trees loomed unnaturally tall, their bark and leaves crimson red, as though they were painted in blood. Worse, they seemed sharp — violent, almost designed to harm.
Unease coiled in my gut. Where was I?
I walked in no particular direction, hoping to stumble on a clearing. My senses prickled. Something followed.
I turned.
A massive wolf — crimson as the trees.
Two pairs of eyes glared at me. Two pairs of horns jutted from its skull. Enormous batlike wings spread wide, blotting out the light.
It stared at me as though I were nothing more than prey.
I backed away slowly. Not again. I refused to die like this.
Then it lunged.
A guttural snarl tore from its throat as it charged.
I dove, barely dodging the strike, and my hand instinctively reached for my back. This time, I felt a weapon.
Relief surged — until I looked.
Not my blade.
A nail.
No time to question it. The beast spun and attacked again.
I braced myself. This time, I would not miss.
It leapt, jaws wide, aiming for my throat. Fatal mistake.
I drove the nail upward. It pierced the creature's eye, sinking deep into its brain.
The wolf hit the ground with a bone-shaking thud.
I yanked the weapon free, black ichor staining its edge.
The beast twitched violently. I prepared for another strike — but then its body broke apart, dissolving into thick, black sludge. Slowly, it seeped into the earth and was gone.
I exhaled. Strange. Even after all the mutant horrors I had faced, this was unlike anything I had ever known.
I strapped the weapon to my back and pressed on.
Minutes passed before I reached a clearing. Above me stretched a crimson sky, marked by a strange symbol I could not name.
At the center of the clearing was a pond.
Parched, I staggered toward it, kneeling to drink.
But as my hand touched the surface, I froze.
My skin — no, not skin. Hard. Black. Armor-like.
My gaze swept my body. Naked, yet covered in the same material.
Trembling, I leaned over the pond.
The reflection that stared back was not human.
It was something else.
A bug.
"What the hell."