However, stepping through the portal, you immediately feel the same cold breeze wash over you; this time, however, it's far more bone-chilling as it stops you in your tracks.
And despite your thick clothes, the harsh wind gets into all possible crevasses.
Looking around, you see that you're in a frozen hell hole, also known as Russia. You recognize it from the writing on a nearby sign.
which mind you still look like a drunk person tried to write with their piss, but it's recognizable.
When you finally decide to move forward, you pull your coat tighter and step forward. As you do, your foot is suddenly sucked down, and looking down, you see that it has been engulfed by the snow itself.
At first, you grab your pants and try to pull them out gently, tugging at them, hoping they will release.
But instead, you simply move your foot backwards through the snow, something that makes you start wobbling and sends you toppling forward into the snow.
You take a deep breath, sigh deeply, and, after a while, murmur to yourself, "At least it's better than swords and mud."
You slowly sit up in the snow, wipe off the excess snow, clamber up to the spot where you just were, and continue pulling on your leg.
However, when that doesn't work, you go ham on it, tugging at it with all your strength. You pull, and pull, and pull...until it lets go.
However, when you let go, it's quite violent, and you're sent flying back into the snow. Thankfully, you land on your back, but as you lay on the white power, you start wondering about your choices and whether they are right and contemplating whether you should just run away to Argentina.
Before your eyes flash multiple images,
One of your headquarters.
707...smiling broadly at you.
...Jerry? Crying.
Emilie is staring daggers at you.
Nora is giving you a wink.
Harry...with folded arms and looking down on you.
'Yup, that embodies them pretty well,' you think to yourself.
And, of course, Jessica complaining; the image starts getting closer, and you can hear her properly.
"Get back to work!"
You shoot up and scan the area, making sure you are safe from charging rhinos.
"Jesus Christ, how does she do it?!"
She's in a whole other dimension, and yet she can still spoil your fun.
You try getting out of the snow but quickly find out that it is impossible, as the snow is waist-deep and, like a good game, it sucks you in.
So, you soldier on.
As you push your way onto what you believe is the street by the texture beneath your boots, you see you can either go left or right, but there are also some interesting-looking houses here, some old-looking houses made of timber.
Like a Warhammer store calling to you, You decide to investigate a house, and against your better judgment, you decide to go inside.
After you drag yourself through the snow, you end up at the front door; unfortunately, it's blocked by the snow, so you start shovelling it away using your hands.
Thank God you have gloves, or your hands would freeze off. When you finally break through, you slowly open the door, letting the outside light shine through.
As you walk in slowly, the boards beneath you creak and squeak.
When you push away some cobwebs, the door to the outside suddenly slams shut behind you.
You're about to head back out by any means when you hear loud scuttling from behind.
You decide to go invest-
"What!? This ain't no scooby-doo; you go investigate!"
YOU DECIDE TO GO AND INVESTIGATE.
You resign in your defeat, so you head towards the sound. You round the corner into what seems to be the kitchen; however, you're shocked when, instead of a peeled potato, you see a cobweb the size of your entire body.
You gasp and back away a little, murmuring, "Oh, fuck me."
What the hell did this do?
Your train of thought is interrupted by loud scuttling right next to your head.
In a panic, you summon your scythe and start slashing everything and anything around you in blind fright.
By the time you're done, the wooden structure has crumbled to the ground and could be considered match sticks.
As the snow begins to land in the hut and on the chunks of wood, you make the skulls search for the wreckage.
As they shift the wood out of the way, you suddenly remember the big cocoon-like object in the kitchen, so you shift your attention to it.
After a short while, you uncover the cocoon and, using your boot knife, slice it open.
When the cocoon flies open, you jump back as a green substance spills out of it, followed by a green vapor. Once it's done oozing out, you slowly approach to look inside.
What you see inside disgusts you to no end; it appears to be a human, or what's left of him.
The green goo seems to have been "digesting" him; you know this as the man's cheeks are just muscle and his eyes are a little droopy.
Unfortunately, right after you recognize what it looks like, the smell hits you. It's so nauseating that you flip off your mask and start puking.
After a good 5 minutes of puking, you finally gather the strength and stomach to pull on your mask and turn back towards the body.
"Jesus, that stinks almost as bad as teenagers' rooms."
your attention, however, is dragged back to the wreckage when you hear light stirring, but when you turn around to see what made the sound, you scream out as a giant spider jumps on your face
"FUCK
FUCK FUCK
GET IT OFF ME!!"
As you struggle against the creature, you see something open on its stomach, and an arm with a pincer emerges. It slowly slithers down onto your mask, brushing against your lips.
You gather your strength and hold the creature back using your right hand; however, for such a small beast, it has an ungodly amount of strength.
As your arm begins to weaken, you see something move in the corner of your eye.
A second later, with a loud squeal, the spider jumps back and starts running away, snow crunching under it as it does.
Looking over, you see one of the skulls bit two of the spider's legs clean off.
With a sigh of relief, you pat the skulls and say, "Hey, nice job, little guy."
The skulls, however, don't care for sentiments and simply hiss at you.
"Hey, you do not have to be a dic. Oh my god, now I know what it feels like," you say as you think back to all the times you shit talked to Jessica.
You were snapped back to reality by one of the skulls nipping you on the cheek.
You slap it away and start scanning the room, and you spot the monster cowering and grovelling in the corner.
This, however, doesn't stop you from summoning your scythe and using all your strength to plunge the weapon into the creature's back.
As life leaves its body, it squirms, unleashing noises you don't even expect to hear from the toilet of someone who's passing kidney stones. When the creature finally stops moving, only then do you try to pull out.
You, however, encounter a small problem. As you smashed the creature so hard, your weapon penetrated the dirt below, and now you are unable to pull it out.
After a while of struggling, with one mighty tug, your weapon is free from the corpse, along with its bioluminescent organs, which splash all over you.
"God, and I thought New York was disgusting," you say as you wipe the muck off your clothes.
After your done almost throwing up and cleaning yourself up, you start searching the house for anything useful.
Unfortunately, after rigorous searching (5 minutes of you laying around while skulls were searched), you didn't find anything and decided to leave the house.
As you make your way outside through the deep snow, a blizzard picks up and ravages you more than your uncle at the Thanksgiving family gathering.
After what feels like you just climbed K2 and wandered through the blizzard for hours, you finally arrive back at the crossroads.
Looking around, you spot the rubble of the house you destroyed earlier, or you think it is, but you can't tell all that well as its already buried beneath the snow.
In the distance, however, you faintly see a house silhouette through the blizzard, and seeing that, you start moving toward it.
The snow is getting thicker and thicker, making it difficult to move; fortunately, you're almost there.
As you walk down the street further and push through, you get a strange feeling, and looking around, you spot the small house. You almost missed it thanks to the storm.
You walk towards it, shovelling the snow away with your hands, and open the door. It slowly creaks open, and you make your way inside.
Almost instantly, a smell so bad it makes you gag hits you like a truck.
"Jesus smells like someone didn't shower for a week and instead wiped themselves with a week-dead raccoon," you choke out as you try to stop yourself from throwing up and breathe through your mouth. You hear squeaking from outside; it breaks through the howling of the wind.
Walking to what seems to be the front room and staring out into the garden, I see a single swing set, and on it is the spirit of a little girl.
Opening the sliding door, you step outside, snow crunching under your boots.
Stepping forward, you take a seat on the swing next to her. Looking over, she exudes a certain warmth despite the blizzard. Her hair, though slightly dishevelled, has a soft and silky texture to it, and she's dressed in simple farming clothes.
"Hello, sir," she says without even looking at you.
"Uhh, yeah, hi," you murmur out as you pull up your menu and slowly scan the girl
Name: unknown
Age: 8
Cause of death: starvation
"What's your name, mister?" The girl speaks again, in the same hushed tone, but this time actually looking at you.
Looking up from your menu, you now meet the girl's eyes. Lift off your mask, letting your hair and bangs fall forward, and with a smile, say, "I don't have a name."
"....Why?" The girl asks, looking even more curious. You laugh at how wide her eyes are getting.
"I wasn't given one," you say with a simple shrug.
Like a switch, she somehow gets even more excited.
"Do you want me to give you one?!"
I raise my hand and wave a little while still smiling. "Ahaha, no, it's fine."
You pat her head lightly as she pouts, trying to break the silence. You ask, "But tell me, what's your name?"
"I'm Anastasia Golod!" She says, The smile is returning to her face.
"Well, isn't that a wonderful name?"
trying to keep a light-hearted mood, you ask, "So, Anastasia, tell me, what's your favourite animal?"
Suddenly, her face drops, and the happy smile that dawned on her face is gone. Concerned, you ask, "What's wrong?"
She stays silent for a moment longer before saying meekily, "Nothing. My favourite animals are bunnies."
feeling the mood has turned very dark for some unknown reason, you decide it's the best time to move forward and get to the point of why your here.
Shifting on the swing and gripping the chains harder in almost...anxiousness? Something that confuses you: "Tell me, Anastasia, do you know why I am here?" You ask cautiously, but Anastasia answers without pause.
"It's because I am dead, isn't it?"
And that's all for this week, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed editing it. God, it's good to be back to writing. I know I promised the full chapter 4, but I just don't have the energy. Besides, I just got a mechanical keyboard, and this shit is Louuud. My family might kill me. Anyway, see you next week!!