"Cold..."
Sol's voice was low, his eyes half-open, vision blurry. He opened his eyes slowly and saw a white ceiling with long extended lights and crimson lines running through them.
When he caught sight of that ceiling, his eyes flew wide open. He jumped up from the ground quickly, standing to examine the place he was in—his face showing pure terror, absolute fear.
He was in what looked like an underground corridor. The walls were bright white with words written in crimson: "EXIT." Next to it, an arrow in the same color. The floor was deep black, so clean it had become like a black mirror, reflecting Sol's shape back at him.
He was wearing a light black wool shirt with long sleeves and a high collar, over it a dark gray coat, and black pants.
Silence ruled completely. No sound louder than his frightened breathing—except for his cowardly heartbeat, like consecutive drumbeats. Fast beats. Strong beats.
Sol was sweating heavily. His face showed more panic, his eyes darting wildly in their sockets, examining everything around him. Not surprised—scared. He looked like he was watching something terrible happen. Something he didn't want to happen. But it would happen no matter how much he wished otherwise.
"No... not again..."
He got into a ready stance, his sweaty hands trembling like his knees below—knees that were about to give out and drop him to the floor.
A terrifying roar shattered the silence.
A disgusting sound, repulsive. It was a twisted mix of screeching, gurgling, tearing flesh, and pained human screams. The echo bounced continuously through the corridor, then bounced inside Sol, making his heart beat faster—like the sound entered and slammed into his heart, making it pound so hard it might burst from his ribs.
Sol went silent. Stopped breathing. His eyes trembled violently, same as his body. Slowly, his eyes turned, followed by his head, then his whole body, toward the source of the sound.
That twisted, strange creature was standing just a distance away in the corridor.
Its appearance was something hideous, come straight from the depths of hell. It was a deformed, disgusting mass of naked human corpses—torn, burned, stuck together. The sound came from those damned torn mouths of the many corpses, and their eyes rolled everywhere randomly, making sticky sounds.
Sol stood frozen, his gaze fixed on that twisted thing. Eyes wide open. Mouth wide open. Unable to move or speak. His mind was completely scrambled in that moment. Sol was truly disconnected from everything around him.
That thing's eyes moved randomly everywhere. Then suddenly stopped. Then moved quickly, making those sticky sounds, and focused on Sol—who wasn't far away. Many twisted human eyes stared at him.
ROOOAR!
The corpse pile roared again with its twisted sound before moving slowly at first toward Sol. It moved on limbs made of burned, twisted human arms and legs. With every step, it oozed blood and made disgusting sounds. Its steps gradually quickened, its voice rising. Everything it passed became plunged in deep darkness—impossible to see through.
Sol watched fearfully as the monster advanced toward him quickly, while he stood frozen in place without moving. Then he thought, scattered and chaotic:
"No... no! I don't want this!..."
"Help!... Help!... Someone help me!... Anyone! I need help!..."
While he screamed in his mind for rescue, he heard his own voice say in a cold tone:
"No... no one's coming for you... nobody wants you... you're a devil... you're bad... you're guilty... no one will save you... actually... they'll enjoy watching you suffer alone... run if you want to escape—don't wait for what won't happen..."
ROOOOAR!
The corpse pile's roar pierced Sol's scattered mind, finally pushing him to move. Sol turned and ran in the opposite direction of the arrow pointing to "EXIT" in crimson.
He ran fast, ran crazily without stopping. Ran and ran. Passed another "EXIT" sign with an arrow pointing toward the thing. Ran and ran without stopping or slowing down—so much that the twisted corpse pile fell behind him. Then a survivor's smile traced itself on his trembling lips, on his sweaty face. But not for long.
Sol noticed something strange happening. It was as if time had slowed down—he was running in very slow motion. But weirdly, Sol himself didn't feel that slowness . It was like only his body, without his head, was affected by this slowdown.
"Nooooo!..Noooo!..."
Sol shouted while staring intensely at his body's exaggeratedly slow movement, unable to do anything. Then he heard a sound approaching—a horrible sound of crushing, tearing, sticky things rubbing together. It was the corpse pile again, getting closer bit by bit. This slowdown effect didn't seem to affect it.
Sol panicked. His face transformed like his soul had left him. He ran as fast as he could—but no effect. Then breathing and snorting sounds right behind him made him freeze in place. Slowly, he turned back.
The corpse pile was right behind him. Its size was enormous compared to Sol. The corpses at the front moved, pulling the remaining parts aside to open a massive gap—the mouth of that thing. Inside was a long abyss, and at its end, pitch darkness that touched the soul of whoever gazed into it. The edges of the abyss were full of corpses stretching out their arms, demanding Sol, frozen before them.
The corpses climbed over each other in twisted movements, making themselves bridges of corpses to reach Sol—four bridges, actually. The corpses latched onto helpless Sol, then he was pulled inside that thing's belly. His screaming mixed with the screaming of the twisted corpses. Then everything went dark...
Sol jumped up frightened, eyes wide open, gasping for breath with difficulty. He looked at his hands, his body. The corners of his mouth rose, a smile tracing on his face—but it didn't complete, falling back down when he saw his surroundings.
He had returned to the starting point. Before that thing came. The same corridor with white walls, the word "EXIT" with an arrow pointing in one direction, and the black floor.
"No... no... not again... please stop..."
Sol's voice was broken, pleading—but the same roar from the same corpse pile interrupted him, coming from the same direction that crimson arrow pointed. Sol did the same thing as before—stood up and ran terrified, running away with the thing chasing him.
Everything happened just like moments ago. He passed the second crimson "EXIT" and the arrow beside it. The slowdown should have started—but it didn't. Something else happened instead.
The shiny, reflective black floor turned into deep muddy ground. With every step he took, he sank deeper, while the corpse pile was right behind him. Sol had sunk almost completely into that black ground—only his head remained.
The corpse pile's belly opened again, and corpses rushed quickly toward Sol's head to grab it before he sank under—but they didn't reach him. Sol's head sank into the ground, and everything went dark again.
Sol opened his eyes again. Stood again. Looked around again. Panicked again—because he was in the same spot in the corridor. But something was different this time. Something Sol hadn't noticed before. Crimson liquid covered the entire floor, turning the black mirror crimson.
"Run... escape... run before it comes... run without looking back... get as far away as possible..."
His voice spoke inside his mind involuntarily, commanding him to flee. Sol stood and started running opposite the crimson arrow and the word "EXIT"—before even hearing the thing's roar.
His feet sank into something liquid and crimson on the floor. From its look and consistency, it seemed like blood. Splashing sounds rose. Sol tripped and fell onto the crimson liquid floor. He turned to see what tripped him—and found a human arm gripping his leg.
Panicked, he kicked it hard, many times, to make it let go. Eventually it did. He crawled away from it and leaned against the wall behind him, trying to stand—but failed.
Many arms emerged around him. They grabbed him and pinned him in place. He tried to free himself but couldn't. Then he heard a sound coming from in front of him. The blood surface before him trembled before something slowly rises from it.
A woman emerged, completely covered in blood, with short hair. She rose from the blood, then crawled slowly toward Sol. She climbed his body slowly, up to his face, and placed her face right in front of his.
Her face was fixed right in front of Sol's face—almost touching. She had no eyes—just two dark hollows. Cold features, with that short hair. Her lips trembled slowly, a very slight movement.
"Wh... why... wh... why..."
The words escaped with difficulty from between her lips, directed at Sol, whose head and eyes were pinned so he couldn't close them.
"I'm... I'm..I'm.."
Sol said, terrified For some strange reason, he couldn't finish his sentence, as if a hand was gripping his throat and preventing him from uttering it.
before those eye-sockets expanded and made a sound like a high-pitched scream. Then everything turned black.
Sol woke up suddenly and sat up in place, panicked, drenched in sweat, gasping for breath with difficulty, eyes wide open. In his mind, the last scene replayed continuously—especially the features of that woman, not completely clear, and her short hair.
"Arlin... I'm... sorry... I'm sorry..."
Sol's voice was pained before he noticed the large leaves covering him—the same leaves from that tree with the poisonous fruit. Then he looked around.
He found himself inside some kind of cave, fairly deep. He thought this was strange—how did he get here? Then he knew immediately he wasn't alone. He looked beside him and found two large fruits, purplish-pink with some thorn-like parts sticking out, giving off a slightly bad smell—not like that fruit he'd eaten earlier. They were placed on a leaf, like the one covering him. He wanted to pick them up but...
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Footsteps sounds, coming from outside the cave mouth. He stood up and He focused his eyes