“Awaken.” A voice boomed. I saw a flash of orange, the tents that we were using, and then, black. I awoke in what appeared to be one of my dreams. I found myself lost, like I always am, in an expanse of unknown forest. As I gazed, I fell to my knees, helpless. The forest stretched and warped around me. So… big. Its vastness was terrifying. Alien, unforgiving, indifferent land. I hated every aspect of it, but more than that, I feared it. Yet, I could do nothing but watch. The rustling of the trees went quiet. The silence lasted for a fraction of a second before… before I heard it. A most maddening screech, if it could be classified as a viable sound at all. The screeching drew closer, and closer, and closer-- I jolted upright, breaking out of the dream-prison in a cold sweat. The screech, it seemed so real, felt so close. I shuddered. I found it hard to move, but I found the strength to do so. I heaved myself out of my sleeping bag, groped around in the dark for my flask, and drank some water.
I slept again, and this time, I was not in the Forest Dream-Prison. I was in the dark, seeing naught and feeling naught. I could move, only to feel as if I was not moving. I could see, but my eyes would not forgive me for the darkness that they encountered. My brain only knew that the dark was, and that, in itself, was dreadful. My ears however, were clutched by that iron screech; I heard the screech, from all directions, again, and again, and again. It was of metal scraping against metal in a violent explosion.
I shuddered when I tried to imagine what abominable, infuriated creature could have produced the caterwaul. If only it had remained in my imagination.
YOU ARE READING
Lonely Animals
RandomA team of cavers is sent to land received in a contract with unexplored cave systems underneath, in the hopes of finding coal. However, the team finds darker things than coal in the rocky abyss. The first installation of The Squares & Lines Mythos.
