Anubis’s POV.

I knew that I was dreaming but when I realised that I wasn’t in the void my first thought was where’s Zodiac, that’s when he spoke. “Mortal, it seems that your mind has dragged us into the depths of your subconscious. I’ll admit that this is a very interesting occurrence.”

“Yeah, interesting is one way of putting it.”

“You don’t seem to pleased, may I know why and for that matter, what is this place Anubis.”

“This is…. Or was known as Test Site Alpha before I got a bit too creative with my experiments. The reason I’m not too excited about being here is because it always ends the same way. With me being eaten alive.”

“Sorry to bring it up then.”

“Don’t apologise, after all just being here annoys me Zodiac. But somethings off, it seems to be too eerie and there’s a large lack of pained screams echoing throughout the halls?”

“And that’s a concern, why?”

“Because it’s different from all my previous dreams, heck not even the real place was this quiet.” I started on my way through the usual route I had taken a thousand times before. The facility was even more ran down and as I proceeded through the inner walls of this complex, the rusty steel walls and pipes slowly started to ooze out a deep red goo that had a metallic shine to it. I avoided it like the plague.

Every room was locked or sealed, I could only go forwards down to the lower levels of the Test site. The eerie atmosphere only continued to grow, and a fleshy mass that had replaced the old ran down hallways and pipes.

The noise of unnatural squelching now filled the air and I stopped as suddenly as the walls had changed. “Hey, Zodiac what the hell happened to everything?”

“Um not entirely sure, it’s turned into a pinky gooey mess of flesh but I believe that you should keep going Anubis.”

Oh yay, I’ve got the guy from every horror movie in my head, Lucky me. “Zodiac you’re meant to be a great one right? So give me great ideas.”

“Well it’s not as if you can go back, so I still think going forward is a great idea.”

“What?” I spun around and to my horror a wall of thick flesh was blocking the path back. “And you only told me this now.”

“It wasn’t relevant a minute ago because your were going forward. It only became relevant when you stopped.”

I guess I’m over reacting, it’s not like I’m in any danger whatsoever. It’s just a dream, a fucked up twisted dream. It can’t hurt me.

With the reminder that I’m dreaming, I pressed forward further down into this building of flesh and ooze.

It felt like I’ve been walking for hours and nothing looked different. The endless sound of squelching was driving me mad by this point and Zodiac hadn’t uttered a word since we last spoke.

That’s when I suddenly felt a cold tiled floor under my claw and to my relief the fleshy ground had stopped just before a door, my office door?

It was slightly open and i gently pulled the door open, looking inside I saw nothing but my desk surrounded by darkness. “So what are you waiting for Anubis, go in.”

“Shut the fuck up. I’m just being cautious, this may be a dream but I’ll be damned if I’m just gonna jump head first into this.” To be honest I didn’t know why I was being so careful but something told me that this was dangerous.

I slowly crept into the dark room and gave myself a second to adjust to the light or lack of, the only thing that I could see clearly was my desk with a golden plaque with my name on it. The name I had gone by for many years back on Earth, but why?

“Dr Cot….”

“Do not read that!! Zodiac, please”

“Ok Anubis but may I ask why?”

“No.”

It’s not like my name had any meaning back then, hell I barely used it but that doesn’t change the fact that I’d rather forget about it. So I grabbed the plaque and flipped it face down.

I then inspected the desk and it was beginning to rot and splinter. I noticed that there was a hole underneath it, I grabbed a paper weight and dropped it into the hole. It took a whole 10 seconds to hit the bottom.

“You should jump.”

“What? Are you dumb Zodiac, I’m not going down there.”

“I don’t see any other options.”

What is wrong with my mind? Oh fuck it, here goes nothing. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!” (Splash!!!!!!)

———————————————————————

“Anubis, wake up, you need to get up.” Why’s Zodiac telling me to get up and why am I wet, oh never mind.

“Agh why did I jump?”

“That doesn’t matter right now just get up and get more Anubis.”

“Why?”

“Just do it now!!” The urgency from Zodiac was like nothing I’ve ever heard before, this made me panic and jump forward. He said move he never specified where. I land with a splash and some water when into my beak, it tasted rancid. That’s when I noticed that there was a dim glow flickering in the distance, I quickly splashed my way through the water and got to the light. It was a small light bulb that illuminated a broken mirror and…. That’s not water. Oh fuck that’s definitely not water that I swallowed, shit i don’t even want to think of it. I’m so glad that this is a nightmare.

It appears that I had jumped into a pit of dismembered corpses that were in the late stages of decay. I had swallowed… ugh, a slurry of rotten blood and decayed flesh. It was all over me and the smell was so strong that I think it broke my nostrils. Then there was the colour, it was muddy reddish brown with clumps of green and grey all over. I was coated in it, anycreature else would have most likely broke down and panicked but I was desensitised to gore thanks to my past life. That didn’t mean I was okay with it, I just pushed the thought to the back of my mind.

“Anubis you need to keep moving something’s down here with us.”

“How do you know? And what in the hell is down here with us for that matter.”

“Doesn’t matter right now but you need to get moving, I sense a path to your left. Follow it and do not look behind you.”

“Okay it’s not like I have any other choice. This way right,”

“Yes, now go forward quickly Anubis.” I went as fast as one can when they’re in a shallow pool of blood, congealed fatty goo and rotten flesh. So pretty fucking slow, my heart rate was increasing rapidly to the point where I could hear it in my ear.

Then I heard rapid splashing from behind and tried my hardest to move faster but the noise got louder. I saw a platform that was elevated above the pool and I bee lined to it but I couldn’t go any faster. “I’m nearly there just a bit further, come on.” (Clank) I grabbed the metal side rails with my claws and began to pull myself out of the soup of decay but something borrowed itself into my right hind leg and wrapped around the bone. “AAAAGGH!!!! AAh!! What the fuck!!!” The sensation was indescribably painful, I kicked, twisted and pulled until I got loose.

I never got a glimpse of what attacked me but it stayed under the surface, which I was thankful for.

“Z-Zodiac that was very real for a fucking dream, mind explaining what that was!” The panic was apparent in my voice.

“Sorry but I’m in the dark here Anubis, this clearly is a creation of your design from what I’ve gathered. The only way to get back to the waking world is to escape alive, for a lack of a better term. So let’s work on that, shall we?”

“I haven’t got words to express how done I am with this madness.” I mean zodiac just dumped an information nuke on my head with the shit he’s implying. Apparently I’ve created that thing in the goo and I might not make it back to the waking world, this is a lot to process and not enough time to do so.

“Ok I’m ready to get moving, let’s get out of this mess Zodiac.”

“Yes, ok do you see that ladder over there?”

“Yeah but not too well, I have some form of night vision but it’s not all that good if I’m being honest. Wait isn’t this a dream, can’t I just make my vision better?”

“Well yes and no. In any other case, you would be able to do that but right now you can’t because if that was the case we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Okay so what’s causing this?”

“No idea.”

“You’re joking right?”

“No.”

“Wonderful.”

“I would disagree with you there Anubis.”

“That was sarcasm Zodiac.”

I then rolled over and got up to my claws. Searching for an exit I saw that there was a ladder that ascended into the void above and I knew that this was a better option than going back into the water. I shook the ladder and made sure that it was some what sturdy before climbing.

As I pulled myself up this rusty ladder, I wondered if I could get tetanus from a more than real dream. I kept on climbing into the void above, at this point all I could see was the ladder and my claws. It was becoming increasingly harder to breathe and I didn’t know why but I pressed on until I finally made it to the top. At the top of the ladder I was greeted by a dark red steel blast door.

I reached out for the wheel on the door and tried to turn it but no luck, it’s locked tight with rust. I looked around for anything else that might help me open this door, that’s when I saw an air vent duct sticking out of the ceiling that had the fan missing. “That’s going to be my way out Zodiac, what do you think?”

“I don’t think you’ll fit.”

“Well it’s better that going back down and I can feel an air current coming out of it.”

“Well go ahead then.”

I jumped up and grabbed the steel bar that would have held the fan, had it still been there. I proceeded to shimmy my way up and tried to dig my claws into the wall of the vent for grip.

I suddenly hit my head and saw that the vent made a 90 degree turn and I pulled myself in. I was making my way through the vent at a snail’s pace but progress is progress no matter how slow it is.

I don’t know how long I’ve been in this blasted air vent but I just want out so I started crawling faster. Then I suddenly slipped forward and instinctively dug my claws into whatever I could and it made a horrible noise that put any chalkboard to shame. Although I had found the exit I wanted so desperately, the only problem was a fan that was spinning insanely fast for anything that should be in an air vent.

I genuinely had no clue how I was going to get around it but I definitely couldn’t go back, heck I couldn’t even turn around in this cramped space.
The fan was held in place by a quick release bolt which made me question how the fan hadn’t already broken off.

I gave it a hard tug and the fan immediately flew off and out of the vent but I was more pleased to find that I still had all my claws. “Fuck me that was lucky as hell.”

“I would not like to have intercourse with you Anubis and that was stupid, why would you even risk that? The fan blades could have done a lot more than chop your claws off.”

“I didn’t mean that you should fuck me, it’s an expression and It ain’t stupid if it works.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“And I don’t get you but I still deal with you.”

“That’s not the same thing Anubis.”

“Sh sh ssh.” We both when silent and watched with intense curiosity as a six legged creature investigated the fan that had collided with the tiled floor. It looked like a giant dirty white dog with six legs and no eyes, parts of its body were rotting. I watched the thing sniff the fan and in an instant it’s muzzled split into three separate jaws that were lined with rows of serrated teeth. It tongue shot out and laughed onto the fan and pulled it in (CRUNCH!) it bit a chunk of a steel fan blade clean off and my heart sank.

Could that have been the thing in the water that drilled through my leg and wrapped around the bone. Just how close to losing my leg had I been? But I could have just regenerated it, right?

“Psss Anubis it’s gone, you need to be quiet. I’m sure that you don’t want to find out how good that things ears are, I know I don’t.”

“Y-Yeah you’re right.” I was properly shaken by this thing because I knew that it probably was better at traversing tight spaces and narrow corridors. I was at a disadvantage and that scared me, I had no trick, no weapon and no idea how to get out, hell I didn’t even know what I was up against or how many. This was a completely hopeless situation and I hated that.

“I need to understand this creature first Zodiac.”

“What? Why?”

“Ssh keep it down before you get me killed.”

“Ok, so why do you want to understand it?”

“Because I have no idea what I’m dealing with.” I then threw the bolt at the tile and just as I thought it ran towards the noise. That’s good I can use this to make my situation less hopeless. I then gently lowered myself out of the vent and my claws slowly touched the ground making no noise. I stood there for a few seconds before placing my front claws down on the ground all whilst keeping a watchful eye on the thing about 8 feet in front of me.

Not even a slight reaction, which was promising but it suddenly shot off through a hole that was carved into the steel wall to my right. I saw an open door to my left and opted to go that way instead of where the creature went. I slowly tiptoed my way down this corridor and took in my surroundings, this place look clean? Which was a complete anomaly compared with everything else I have seen. The walls were polished and I could see my reflection on them, it didn’t make sense.

There was two separate paths to take and the only thing to indicate where they lead to, was two wooden plaques that were worn down. I could barely make out what the writing said, I believe the one pointing to the left claw-side said storeroom and the other…. I think says armoury? I hope I’m reading that right.

I turned sharply and my tail accidentally hit a food cart that had a bunch of cutlery on it. (Smack!) (Crash!) (smash!) “shit.”

I immediately took off running to the armoury, refusing to look back I relied on my ears to listen out for the creature. I heard it crash into the wall and instantly bounded towards me, now that I think about it running was a stupid idea.

Come on think, think Anubis how am I going to get out of this. Maybe fight back? No don’t be dumb, I’d be ripped to shreds with out a weapon. There better be a fucking weapon in that armoury and please don’t be locked. I don’t want to die tired.

My heart was racing, legs aching and my lungs burned but I couldn’t stop I needed to keep going. That’s when I saw a slightly open door and I changed my direction and squeezed in between the blast doors and pushed with all my strength. The creature’s claws stopped the door from closing and my eyes widen in horror, and I searched for anywhere I could hide. Thanks when I saw a red button and I slammed my claw on, hoping that it would do something.

A load hiss came from the door and it started to close. The creature let out a high pitched screech and one of its legs was crushed by the door.

“AAAAGGH!! fuck!! What i-is that sound?!?” I covered my ears and curled up into a ball before losing all control of my body and dropping to the cold ground limply.

That high frequency screech paralysed me and everything began to fade into white.

Author's Note

Let’s be real here, there was no way that coming into contact with an ancient magical artefact and an incomprehensible entity would be all sunshine and rainbows.

But still, that’s a scary thought. A creature that can paralyse you with its screech. Let’s hope that it doesn’t find out that it can do this.