"This isn't right... where... where am I?" I ask aloud.
Nothing but a long road stretches out in front of me. The sky above is strange and frightening. Overhead, a raging storm looms. As the clouds pass by, it feels like time is elapsing. They seem to pass by for an eternity, like watching a never-ending movie. Lightning strikes the landscape before me and all around me. It's a sterile environment devoid of all life. Nothing but a dead desert stretches in all directions as far as the eye can see. For some reason, I look at my hands and forearms. That's when I notice I'm wearing a long, flowing white dress. It seems out of place. 'Why am I wearing this?' Before, I was naked. A gust of wind blows my long, silky black hair over my shoulders. An overwhelming sense of ominousness fills me. It's not right for me to be here. Humans don't belong here. 'In the face of an ungodly horror, what could I gain by turning around?'
The land seems cast in a shadow. The weight of it presses heavily on me. Fear swells inside me as my instincts warn me to turn around. My back is against a wall of darkness. There's nothing I want more than to leave this forsaken place. 'In the face of an ungodly horror, what could I gain by turning around?'
Nevertheless, I feel compelled to turn around. Unseen hands pull at me. My ears fill with the whispers of an invisible presence.
"Turn around," a voice whispers so low I barely hear it.
Shivers run down my back, and I hold myself. I want no part of this... this... I don't know what it is. I only know it's there, and it wants me to turn around. What were my eyes seeing? What could this frightening sight be?' A bitter, icy wind sweeps past me, sending chills through my soul. I have to run! There's no way I can stay here. Death awaits me. I try to take a step to run, but my body doesn't move an inch. I can't move. I can't get away from this thing. The temptation to turn around is strong. Turning my head slightly, I glance over my shoulder. I don't want to, but the urge to look is overwhelming. My teeth chatter, and my body shudders at what is behind me. It takes unrelenting effort to stop myself from looking over my shoulder. Crackling thunder lashes out from behind me. It sounds like lightning, but it isn't. The crackling echoes like a gigantic beast roaring over the landscape. No, this is nothing like lightning. It sounds more like massive tree limbs breaking and cracking in the wind. The overwhelming crackling is louder than any tree I've ever heard.
"Turn around," the voice whispers.
A shudder overtakes my body, and all my efforts to resist are futile. My body moves on its own, and I slowly step forward, pivoting to turn around. The sight I witness sends fear through my soul like I've never experienced. 'Was this even a tree?' A massively tall, towering tree rises into the atmosphere, its top disappearing into space. The blackened tree is just twisted, but its limbs move like a living creature. Turning, mixing into each other, and forming new limbs. They grow and shrink all at once. The black and scarred tree emits an ear-shattering pulse that feels like a heartbeat, its trunk taking up a significant portion of the landscape, with black bark covered in deep cracks that glow faintly from the gaps.
I look behind this monstrosity of a tree at a mountain range. The silhouette is one I recognize from home. This... this... is the city I grew up in. I'm miles away, yet I know the tree sits where my house was. The blackened land around the eerie tree absorbs all the light like a black abyss. Its roots spill malice into the ground, creeping farther and farther away. The road I stand on leads straight to it. None of this makes any sense. All I feel is impending doom. My life is in danger just standing here. 'What is happening?' I must run, get as far away as possible. My body won't move. I have no control over my movements for the second time. Something is holding me back this time. A force of unknowable power keeps me here. It wants me to see. To fear. This force feeds on my fear, and it will not let me go.
Somehow, I find the strength to turn. I run... I run as fast as I can. The long stretch of road is my only guide. 'Where is this place? Am I dreaming, or is this real?' All I want to do is get away from here. This strange and abnormal world reeks of pure evil. The towering, ominous, blackened tree is a sure sign of the evil lurking here. I run faster and faster down the highway until I step on something wet and sticky. This thick, icky black substance covers the ground, swallowing my bare foot. I take a step, only to fall down into the dark liquid. It has the consistency of tar but seems to move and ripple. Tiny black droplets slowly levitate around me before falling toward the sky. It defies the laws of physics. It looks like a reverse rainstorm of black goo pouring upwards. There's a purplish tint to the blackish tar. I try sitting up, but the goo clings, holding me in place.
It crawls up my body like it has a living purpose. A black and purplish mist rises from the black rain around me. Malevolent energy emits from it, threatening to swallow me whole. Fear and adrenaline kick in. I claw and tear the blackish goo off my body. I struggle to fight the substance's grip but scramble through the dark water with all my will. My hands sink more and more with each motion I make. My body falls into the road like the black goo is a pond or creek, but that's impossible. Ahead of me, I can still see the highway in the distance. There's no way my body should be sinking. "It covers the road like rain would. How can this even be possible?" The reverse rain picks up as if the storm above is attempting to drown me in its torrential rains. Except the thunderstorm rages under my hands and feet.
This is nothing like the place I woke up in. I can't be here. I have to find a way out... any way out. Anywhere but here would be worlds better. I don't care anymore how I got here. My only goal is to get away. The thought of drowning beneath this goo consumes me. The black goo creeps up to my chest, bogging me down. My body feels heavier and heavier by the second as it engulfs me. The thick haze around me grows thicker.
"I can't get this stuff off me!" I yell, fighting to crawl my way out.
As I try to pull the goo off, my hands become increasingly encrusted with black goo. It feels like I have an impossibly thick layer of cheese covering my arms, hands, and body. Strings of it fall off my body like tentacles... They move.
"My God, they're moving!" I shout in fear.
More and more of the black water gathers. The small pool turns into a large pond, getting deeper with each moment. I crawl through it like I'm in deep mud. It tightens and wraps around my extremities, pulling me down and weighing me down. It won't let me go. I see the edge growing further away as I look over the pond. At my current speed, the new embankment is an impossible distance away. I might as well be in quicksand. This is the end for me. I'm going to be sucked into this crap. I kick and scream, trying to swim in the unnatural waters. Every fiber of my being fights to stay afloat. Just when I think things couldn't get any worse, hundreds of hands creep out of the surrounding water. Hands with eyes and red pupils fight to pull me under. The tentacles entangle my body along with the hundreds of hands. I can't even scream in terror, lest I swallow whatever hellish substance this is. They pull at my body, making me sink faster. Before I know it, my head lingers just above the water. A bulge in the water emerges in front of me. A pair of red eyes appears as the shape of a human head forms. Right before my eyes, the thing begins resembling me, the way I look in this world. This other me grabs my face with fury. Her eyes burn with a rage I have never known.
Then, in a moment, there is nothing. Just the absence of anything. All the fear and dread drain away in an instant. I stand still in a heap of sweat. I feel the rapid respiration of my chest as I try to calm down. The darkness still obscures my vision. No sound of any kind. Just the dark and my thoughts. Then, an abrupt, loud knock at the door frightens me, and I jump backward in hesitation. On instinct, my bare feet slip on something, causing me to stumble as I lose my footing. I overcompensate in a panic as my body twists, and I fight to balance myself. I fail miserably, spinning off and around in a circle against the canopy bed.
"Ouch… Ouch… Ouch!" I yell.
I instinctively clutch my breasts tightly with both hands. I'm breathing harder than a few moments before. My hands squeeze them without me registering it. The pounding of my heart thumps like a jackhammer in my chest. Sweat drips down my forehead as my vision goes from blurry to clear and back again. My head rings as if I've been repeatedly beaten over the head. Another booming knock at the door prompts me to look up and gasp. I've been standing in front of the door. Tears well up in my eyes as I gaze at it. There are scratches... the door... has scratches. Hundreds of scratches were etched into it as if something wanted out. But the only being in the room is me. What can I do but sit there, gently squeezing my ample breasts in my hands, with no words to explain what I see? I look cautiously at my fingers. I cringe... My stomach instantly drops, and I feel like gagging, but all I can do is stare at them in shock.