A satisfying series of crunches rang out as the fallen twigs snapped under Adagio’s feet. She focused on the sound, allowed herself the luxury of imagining that it came from the crushing of something more than mere twigs. But, alas, even if she closed her eyes, (which was a bad idea in a dense forest) the sound wasn’t quite right, and that gave it away. Her fingers drifted to the broken gem hanging from her neck, and silently cursed the girls who had ruined everything for her, for the millionth time. The surrounding symphony of bird calls failed to soothe her, feeling instead like cacophonous, mocking laughter. She grit her teeth and kept walking.
She wasn’t sure where she was exactly, if this forest, this unflinching wall of brown and green where the thick tree cover blotted out the afternoon sun, had a name, and she didn’t care. She just wanted to be alone, and to keep her body occupied, so she left her idiotic sisters always blaming her for their failure, along with her phone, in the filthy hotel room they had been staying at, and just walked and walked, until she found this forest, then walked some more. Her legs felt like they were on fire despite the near freezing temperature outside, but she didn’t stop. She registered movement in the corner of her eye, and she tilted her head slightly to see a squirrel scurrying across the ground and partway up one of the many impossibly tall trees. She briefly considered the possibility of encountering a much larger and more dangerous animal out here, but she figured that she didn’t have to worry about the “large” part, at least. A bear trying to navigate between these trees would be an amusing sight; she could barely fit between them, herself. Venomous snakes or spiders were another matter, but she hoped the high skin cover of her clothing was enough to mitigate that danger. She reached a point where the trees suddenly stopped, the sunlight struck her in the face, as if to say “did you miss me?”, and the ground slowly started to tilt upwards, getting steeper and steeper, all the ground beside her doing so at the same rate, straining her legs more and more, but she fought through the burn until she finally reached the top of the hill, which would mark the first time she had stopped for more than a couple of seconds in what might have been hours.
This afforded her a good view of the incoming forest, and just how much more of it there was. The ground immediately dropped back down just a couple feet in front of her, and the trees started up again at the bottom of the hill, but they were more spread out, and significantly shorter. If she was going to run into a bear, this was the part of the forest where it would happen. She looked over the upcoming forest as she panted painfully to refill herself with oxygen, and noticed a perfectly circular ring of trees marking a significant area where there seemed to be none at all, which struck her as rather unnatural. Nature is many things, but it is rarely that neat.
She awkwardly began making her way down the hill, having to be very careful to avoid tumbling all the way down and likely ending up with cuts all over her face, but she managed and was able to safely reach the point where it became shallow enough of an incline for her to walk normally again, now all she had to worry about was possibly tripping on some stray tree root. When the ground had almost completely flattened out, she took another pause to survey her surroundings and re-orient herself. As she resumed walking, she questioned her decision to specifically head for the clearing. After all, she did want to be alone to stew in her thoughts, and traveling towards an unnatural formation was fairly antithetical to that goal. But she was curious, too curious to simply pass it by. That curiosity only grew when she felt something in the air, growing stronger as she got closer. Is that? No, it can’t be… But, despite the part of her that could only muster doubt when she caught any whiff of hope, she was still able to will her exhausted body to speed up her approach, even with the fire burning in her lungs, even when she almost tripped on something multiple times, and barely missed colliding face first into several trees, her mind was laser focused on reaching the source. Eventually, a curtain of trees entered her view, and a glimpse of the tree-barren area beyond shone through. Finally, she slowed down, coming to a stop at the border and taking a moment to catch her breath before she entered. She rested her hand on the tree to the right of her.
Or at least, she tried to, but it felt less like touching a tree, and more like touching a hot stove, and her hand recoiled accordingly.
“Fuck! What the hell!?”
She inspected the tree more closely, but it never ceased looking like just a regular, perfectly ordinary oak tree. Though, some part at the back of her brain noted, it and the other trees surrounding it were the only trees of its kind she’d seen in this forest. More evidence that this isn’t a natural formation, she supposed. More importantly, the sensation that hastened her arrival here was very strong at this point, and she smiled despite the pain. For her vestigial siren powers were greeted with the unmistakable profile of Equestrian magic, and she basked in its glory, excitement building up inside her. She knew it was not even close to a guarantee, but she couldn’t help but lose herself in the fantasy of discovering some powerful magical artifact that she could use to restore her power, get her life back on track, and enact some sweet, sweet revenge while she was at it. In any case, for her to actually physically feel the magic like this must mean it’s very powerful, indeed.
Just looking at the clearing, it didn’t seem like much. There were no trees except for those that marked the return of the surrounding forest, as she had gathered previously, and for that matter there didn’t appear to be any plant life at all. Just a completely flat circle of dirt that did a decent job of camouflaging the dark rocks that littered it. And despite the likely human origin of this area, she couldn’t see any artificial buildings or structures of any kind, either. But something magical lurked within there, or possibly just outside it, but she was reasonably confident it was coming from within the circle itself. So, she stepped in.
It took about fifteen steps or so before she realized she couldn’t hear the sound of birdsong. She stopped in place, listened for it, but nothing. The entire time she walked through that forest, they would never shut up, but now there was silence. And that silence raged on as she stood there. No birds, no crickets, nor anything else. About a minute passed before she shook her head and continued looking for the source of the magic. She had more important things to worry about. Besides, the silence was what she wanted all along. Why should she worry when she finally got it? Her gaze mostly stuck to the ground, as she kicked up the dirt, cutting through the silence, in case what she was looking for was buried slightly beneath. The possibility of something being buried much deeper underground rolled around in her head, but if that was the case, she’d end up having to come back later, much as she’d rather not. But, the more she kicked up without finding anything, the likelier and likelier that possibility became. Regardless, her search was bolstered by the increasing intensity of the magic coursing through her, hungrily seeking its source in the monolithic patch of dry dirt. Then, she found something.
A hole, as circular as the plot of land it was found in, and slightly wider than Adagio herself, had been punched into the ground, the bottom of it shrouded in darkness. Now that she found herself in front of it, it became obvious that the magic she felt was seeping out through this hole. She smirked for a brief moment at the discovery, before realizing two things that soured her mood somewhat. One: if she jumped down there, she’d almost certainly be stuck. And, two: the magic felt… off in a way that was difficult for her to describe. It was like looking at a realistic painting of a landscape – easily mistakable for the real thing from a distance, but take a closer look and the illusion revealed itself. The replication undeniably impressive, but certainly not perfect. She considered her next course of action for a moment, then picked up one of the rocks, dropping it down. About three seconds, maybe more like three and a half, passed before she heard a quiet thump. Frustration welled up within her, but she tried to renew at least some of her hope by reminding herself of the possibility of another one of these holes being somewhere around here, hopefully one she could climb back out of. As uneasy as this magic made her feel, she still felt like she couldn’t just ignore it. Even if it wasn’t exactly the same kind of magic as in Equestria, she might still be able to make use of it. Of course, that’s assuming she can even reach it. She started walking again, combing the dirt for that mystical other entrance, but even after a desperate second search, she found none. She took in a deep icy breath, and looked back towards the forest. Maybe she could find that other entrance there, but it definitely wasn’t in the clearing, so either way, she was heading back into it.
Her attempt to do so was blocked by a wall of nothing. For a brief moment, the strangeness of this failed to register, superseded by the pain from walking headfirst into a solid wall at moderate speed, grunting in pain and rubbing her head, before realizing that the “solid wall” in question appeared to be nothing but air. Slowly, she reached forward with her hand, right up to the point where the invisible barrier prevented her from moving any further. It felt like air, too. She knocked on the barrier as if requesting entry into a home, but this motion didn’t even slightly interrupt the total silence of the area. She stood stock still for several seconds, staring through the gap, to the small slice of the vast forest beyond, before sidestepping over to the next gap and trying to pass through there. That one was blocked, too. As was the next. And the next. And the next.
Every single opening forbade exit. Including the one she entered from.
Panic now had a firm hold on her soul, and it only tightened its chokehold every time she tried one again, in the far off hope that if she persisted enough, the barrier would take pity on her and let her through. It did not. Her next plan was to select a gap at random, and start punching and kicking away at it, hoping to break what wasn’t really there, or at least let out some frustration. This was just as useless at achieving the former goal, and didn’t do much for the latter goal, either; when you couldn’t feel or hear the impact of your attacks, it just wasn’t the same. She grabbed a rock from the ground, threw it, and it passed right through the barrier. She foolishly let this get her hopes up, but when she tried to follow the rock, she was blocked just as before. She let out a despaired scream, and fell to the ground in exhaustion, the rocks digging painfully into her back as she looked up at the sky, which was starting to darken, even the sun getting ready to abandon her. Uncomfortable as she was, she made no move to get up, reflecting on how thoroughly fucked she was, trapped in the middle of an unoccupied forest, with no food or water, nightfall approaching on an already cold day, and to make it worse, she was literally encircled by what should be an easy escape route. Her eyes drifted lazily back towards the ground. Maybe there was another way out…
She forced her aching limbs to push herself upright, and hobbled back over to the hole in the earth. She stood over the entrance for a while, staring at the abyssal darkness staring at her in return, considering whether she was really going to head down there. Then, like she was testing the waters of a pool, she sat down and dangled her legs over the edge. That she found it surprising nothing seemed to block her from doing so forced a bitter laugh out of her. That’s the point I’m at now, huh? But whatever was responsible for trapping her here must be down there. Her breathing rapid, she constantly almost dropped down and recoiled back, knowing that there may be no return. At least someone might find her if she stayed above ground. Then they could get stuck in here, too, possibly with a frozen corpse as company. Wouldn’t that be great?
On one of those almost drop-ins, she noticed something she didn’t before. Lowering her head to peer deeper in, the sighting was confirmed. A faint light. Barely visible from up here, but definitely there. This was finally enough to tip her over the figurative and literal edge. The benefit of her previous uncertainty was it gave her enough time to consider that she should drop her coat down first. Just as something that would potentially cushion her fall, if only slightly. A final glance towards the trees preceded her drop.
She wasn’t sure how much the coat helped, but it didn’t stop her feet from crying in pain at the landing. She didn’t seem to sprain anything, however, so that was one little piece of good news. She looked up, out through the ground’s eye at the sky above, at the lone cloud indifferently floating overhead. She was down here now, all she could do was hope she’d be able to find her way out. Instead of a circle of trees, she was now surrounded by a cylinder of dirt, and experimental grabs of that cylinder confirmed that there was no way she’d be getting out the way she came in, as clumps of dirt broke off at every little touch. The light she had barely seen from above wasn’t that much more prominent down here, lightly poking at her feet. She dropped down even further to inspect the light source, where she saw that it was poking out through a little slit cut out of the wall, a tiny little crawlspace that, she judged from sticking an arm in, might just barely be big enough for her to squeeze herself through. She glared at it, as if she could force it to widen with a look alone. But it stubbornly insisted on staying narrow, and Adagio resigned herself to having to try and force her way through this passageway that may or may not allow her to leave, or at least allow her to find out where the light and the magic were coming from. The latter felt even more intense down here, to the point where the inside of her body felt like it was rumbling, and her head felt like she had drunk three bottles of vodka the night before.
She elected to not re-don her coat, just to give herself the tiniest extra bit of wriggle room; heaven knew she needed it. She stretched her arms out into the space, having to position herself like a pouncing cat due to the hole’s small diameter, and began pushing herself in, her shoulders rubbing against the side when she got to that point, the trend continuing as she forced the rest of her body through, her head raised just barely enough for it to escape scraping against the floor, though dirt still fell towards it every time she dragged herself an inch further. Despite the cold outside, she was already starting to feel uncomfortably warm, when her body wasn’t even fully in. It would only be a couple more drags before her entire body was inside, the weight of the Earth beside and above her, as confirmed by the feel of her feet knocking against the side.
The pinprick of light still shone from an unknown distance away, and she let that be her motivator, even as her body ached more and more with every push forward, as her brain tried to escape her skull, as her stomach grumbled, and as she began sweating from the heat. The light wasn’t enough to see where she was putting her hand, so she mostly kept her eyes closed to prevent any of the soil getting in them, and as a result it wasn’t long until she cut herself on some mystery sharpness, leaving a wound that stung like the fires of hell, renewing itself at every small application of pressure, and that was not the only one of its kind she sustained, as she kept pushing forward. But, she continued to do so. Reach the light. Reach the magic.
At some point, she swore she heard a faint mechanical hum coming from below her. But, when she stopped for a moment to listen for the sound again, she heard nothing, leaving her unsure whether she simply imagined it. She began moving forward once more, until she reached a fork. Left or right? She didn’t have to dwell on the question for very long, as the light was clearly coming from the right, so that was the way she would go. Turning down that way required a little bit of contortion that did not do her aching joints any favors, but the light she was approaching was now a little bit brighter. She wished the tunnel became a little bit wider, too, but if she could get what she wanted she wouldn’t be crawling through a thin cut-out in an ocean of dry soil, cooking alive with cuts all over her clothes and body, now would she?
Another smell entered her nose than that of the earth. The smell of rot. And it got stronger and stronger as she dragged herself across, but so did the white light, so did the magic. She felt lightheaded. More blood pooled below her, not from a cut this time, but from a nosebleed. She ignored it as best she could, like she had done with every bodily symptom up to this point, and kept pushing, and pushing, as the blood kept flowing, even beyond what felt possible. But at some point, at one particular attempt at pushing forward, her strength failed her, with her not even able to summon enough to keep her head up, it flopping to the ground, and she laid still, soaking the dirt with her blood. She heard the hum again. The light flashed before her…
She came to an unknown amount of time later, still trapped, still starving, still burning, still hurting everywhere, but at least not bleeding anymore. The blood on her face had dried, its metallic scent still invading her nostrils, alongside the rotten stench she noticed before she passed out. If anything, the latter had only gotten stronger. And so did the hum, not just lasting for a brief moment this time, but remaining as a sustained drone, distant but noisy. Regardless, she now had barely enough energy to weakly resume her crawl toward the light, having to pause to catch her breath of air that felt thinner and thinner after every few pushes. During one of these breaks, she noticed something illuminated in the distance, and that gave her the ability to travel further without stopping than she had since waking up, until she could clearly see what it was.
Well, she knew what that rotten smell was, now.
A rabbit lay on its side in the middle of the crawlspace, its white fur matted with dried blood, its eyes removed, and its body cut open, organs trailing out of its body. Actually, she wasn’t an expert on rabbit biology, but there seemed to be some missing. It had been here for a while, the smell alone was enough to make that clear, definitely longer than she had been in here. That meant she couldn’t use this as evidence that there was another entrance; it could well have gotten here the same way she did, at least if it wasn’t injured by the fall. Even if it got here via another entrance, said entrance could be rabbit-sized. Now, she allowed herself to catch her breath, as she looked into the eyeless sockets of the rabbit, and wondered what happened to it. Was this the work of an animal? If so, it seemed strange that it killed it in such a manner without actually eating it. Not much of it, anyway. They just left it here, in this state.
And she was going to have to crawl over it.
Adagio wasn’t exactly squeamish, but she’d prefer not to potentially drag along a piece of decayed rabbit guts through here, but there wasn’t exactly much room to move it out of the way, it was big enough for some contact with it to be unavoidable. She opted to turn it upright, such that the body somewhat shielded her from what was supposed to be inside it.
The futility of this action quickly made itself apparent as she began clambering her way over it, the little bit of extra height making her hit her head, and the rabbit rolled over with her movement. So, she ended up climbing over its exposed guts anyway, slimy and cold. It’s a million fucking degrees in here, how are they so cold? When the bunny was level with her legs, there was just enough space for her to move her legs such that they only just bumped against it. In the end, she did end up dragging part of its innards below, and trying to dislodge it would require too awkward an arm movement, so she didn’t bother.
The light was notably brighter now, and she wasn’t sure how much of that was because she was getting close, or as a result of the light no longer being blocked by a rabbit’s corpse. Either way, the brighter light imbued her with determination and impatience, thus she approached faster, breaking less, into the burning light, to the source of the dizzying magic.
A while later, she noticed a sudden increase in both the height and width of the space within at some point, nowhere near enough of the latter for her to even think about crouching, but her head could rise just a little higher now, and the width was such that she could just barely go through without touching the side. This didn’t make the trek all that more comfortable, but she’d take any meager blessing she could get at this point. It continued to get wider and wider, enough for her to be able comfortably move her arms enough for her to toss aside the piece of rabbit that was stuck on her shirt, but unfortunately for her that initial little bit of extra height was all she was getting in that department, so she still had to crawl her battered body through the dirt, which she found herself looking down at whenever she opened her eyes, the light bright enough now that she didn’t want to look right at it. She could tell it was getting closer, and that was enough.
The next time she did look forward, she could see a wall.
Her heart seemed to stop for a moment, before starting up again with a newfound feverish intensity. How dare this tunnel lead only to a dead end, after all the time spent crawling her way along it, the amount of white hot burning cuts she sustained. The magic that bounced around in her skull, in her entire skeleton. The source was close. She forced herself through the final stretch.
She saw the light and felt the magic emanating from a little round panel stuck into the wall, a tiny artificial thing among the dirt. She reached out to it, ignored the instinct to pull away from it, felt around it. It was embedded deep in there; she wiped away some of the surrounding dirt, revealing more of its depth, and it remained in place. Her nose started bleeding again, but she tried her best to ignore that, too.
Which was made a little more difficult when she started coughing up blood from her mouth, as well. Each cough felt like a punch to her lungs, but she couldn’t stop herself from hacking up more and more blood, which she could now clearly see splashing onto the ground and her body, could see and feel how it dried up unnaturally quickly. She didn’t have much time to think about why that might be, as she was quickly distracted by another fit of deathly coughs.
But even that wouldn’t stop her noticing her broken gem light up, a steady stream of ephemeral red dancing in the little available air, flowing into the white panel. And Adagio could only watch helplessly as the little magic that remained in the gem escaped and absorbed itself into that panel.
A loud electronic beep fell on her ears, and the panel turned from white to green. Everything was still for a moment; Adagio was allowed the luxury of a break from her coughing fit, and even the hum saw fit to give her a reprieve.
Then, a rumble.
As the wall in front of her sank into the ground, revealing that this wasn’t a dead end, after all. It wasn’t a continuation of the dirt tunnel she had just crawled through though, but instead its ground and walls were made up of polished tiles, similar to the panel that had just sunk into the earth, but slightly darker in color. Her coughing resumed, but she forced herself to squeeze into the newly revealed area, fearing that the gate would close soon without her being able to reopen it.
Sure enough, the ground slowly rose up, taking her feet with it, but she’s able to barely pull them through before they get crushed.
Mercifully, she only has to crawl through her new environment for a few seconds before the roof switches from threatening to press her head into mush when she’s lying down, to having enough clearance that she could stand at full height and jump without hitting her head. Although she only actually did the former, just rising up off the ground requiring a great deal of effort, and setting off a wave of cracks all throughout her body. The ceiling was lined with a series of florescent lights that allowed her to see it stretch on and on in front of her. Unfortunately, it also forced her to clearly see all the myriad little cuts that pockmarked her clothes and her skin. Not that she didn’t know they were there before, the constant stinging made sure of that, but actually seeing herself in this ruined state was another matter entirely. At least the upgrade to a corridor instead of a tunnel meant she could move a lot faster than before, despite how weakened she was.
She was beginning to think that that panel was not the sole source of the magic.
She wasn’t necessarily sure if the actual strength of the magic was increasing as she moved forward, but that painting of Equestrian magic grew less and less realistic, and with it, her head hurt more and more. She felt nauseous. She started coughing less, but blood still spewed from her mouth, mixing with vomit, so she had to stop every few steps to painfully expel some more of her insides, a little more always sneaking its way just as she was prepared to move again, but at least she wasn’t crawling anymore. The humming sound grew louder the more she lumbered along the walls of the hallway, and as it did she could more clearly hear crackling sounds within in, like the continuous tone was threatening to break apart. The sound became her compass, she just wanted to reach a place where there would be people who could lead her out. That was all she wanted. Whatever purpose this facility served, she could tell she wasn’t meant to be here, so she hoped that was all they’d do to her when she was discovered. Of course, that’s assuming this place isn’t abandoned or that the workers haven’t simply gone home, and if that’s the case she’d have to find her own way out.
Another stream of blood escaping her mouth made her seriously question her ability to do that.
But, when she shifted her focus from the puddle of her own blood and puke cocktail back to the corridor in front of her, she noticed something. Something cylindrical was not too far ahead. She sped up slightly to reach it, and it soon became apparent that she was looking at a massive glass container. However, as she got closer, it also became apparent that there was nothing in that glass container.
Which was completely confirmed when she exited the hallway to the room where it was contained, the wide double doors connecting the two wide open. It seemed to be a lab of some sort, with rows of smashed computer terminals, and other equipment she didn’t recognize. The glass wall facing away from the direction she entered was also broken, a large hole scarring the surface, nowhere near as perfect a circle as the ring of trees or the hole she dropped down to get here. Whatever had smashed through this didn’t care about being neat. Or cleaning up the glass shards, which crunched underfoot. No sign of any people, though. Dead or alive.
She slumped down against the glass wall, wanting to look around for an exit, but desperately needing the rest. She massaged her temples in a fruitless attempt to ease her pounding head, listening out for any sign of people, or other creatures, being in here somewhere. But she heard nothing, other than her growling stomach and that constant humming. Whatever was causing that sound didn’t seem to be in this room, but it was rather loud now, not doing her head any favors, so it was probably close by. On that note, there were four pairs of double doors leading out of this room. One of them being the open set she came in from, one of two that were open. The other open one didn’t allow her to see where it might lead, all she saw through it was another wall. Maybe a hallway? If so, hopefully it wasn’t as long as the one she just walked through. The noisy hum continuing to drill into her ears made her wonder which way would lead her closer to the source, whether she could end up going through one and moving further away from it, and also whether that would be a good thing or not. From where she was sitting, she couldn’t tell, the hum felt like it was attacking from all directions. Maybe it was actually multiple hums, and she was just too far away to properly distinguish them.
Anyway, it would be a long time spent sitting on the ground before she felt just about well enough to get up and try and find her way out of here, still awful on just about every front – her headache and nausea in particular had only gotten worse – but she was slightly less exhausted now, slightly less sore. When faced with the option of which set of doors to go through, she decided to investigate the open set first. She slowly approached it, as much out of caution as it was out of weakness, and peeked her way out of the doors. It did appear to be a hallway, with a wall to the left, and a 90 degree turn to the right that blocked her view. The only notable thing she could see from here was another one of those lights, broken and hanging from the ceiling. She took a tentative step beyond the threshold, considering whether she should head down this path, or scope out what was through the other doorways. She decided to at least see where that turn led, if there was anything there. If it turned out to just be another long hallway, she’d definitely try another doorway. She stuck to moving along the inner wall, both for something to support her body, helpful when she puked again midway through the short journey, and to allow her to hide, as much as that was possible, if need be. The hum was getting louder at a faster rate than ever before. As it did, it seemed more like it was multiple sources, multiple hums just different enough to be dissonant. It could be multiple sounds coming from one speaker, though. By the time she reached the turn, it felt more like the hum was coming from inside her own head, not an attack from outside forces, but an inside job. Maybe that was all it ever was. Regardless, she braced herself as much as she could, but still felt uneasy as she peered around the walls. There, she was greeted by another hallway, albeit a significantly wider one with more doors leading off of it. But the location wasn’t what mattered here. She was much more struck by its occupant.
She wasn’t sure what kind of creature this was, but she was glad it was facing away from her. It was almost humanoid in its general outline, as if someone had badly described what a person looked like to an alien, but its almost pure white body twisted around and back in on itself, with multiple appendages sticking out of its spirals that stretched unnaturally far, and would stretch even farther if someone where to straighten out their curves. Even stranger than its body plan, however, was the way its form oscillated between two slightly different points, not like it was actually moving between the two positions, more like it was struggling to decide where it had always been standing all along, all with occasional brief complete disappearances, like its very tether to this world was about to snap, and that wasn’t the only thing that gave that impression. Looking at it, the magical sensation was the strongest it had ever been, but also the most unrecognizable as the magic she knew, less a realistic portrait, more an abstract canvas vaguely inspired by the scene. Her nausea was worse than ever, and her headache pulsed in phase with the now uncomfortably loud drone. And, just below it, a person, whom Adagio could see just well enough to see was in a similar state to the rabbit she had crawled over.
Pulling her head back, she kept her breathing as quiet as she could manage. She had to slip away. She perhaps should be grateful to that mutilated human for providing the creature something it found interesting enough to stare at for long enough that it never looked back at her. The echoes of her footsteps seemed louder now, even as she tried to keep them as soft as possible. The drone also sounded louder, but she forced herself to not look back. To not freeze in fear. To not puke. To not cough.
Her throat burned. Don’t do it. Do. Not. She was right in front of the door leading back to the lab, hoping that stepping through it would constitute an escape from the monster, despite every part of her telling her she was as stupid as Sonata for thinking that would be the case. After all, it clearly had gotten from the lab to the hall. Either way, she had to go through this door, then another one. God, she hoped they weren’t locked. Or ended up looping back to where the monster was.
When she tried to step through, she found herself blocked by an invisible barrier.
Thereafter, there was a brief moment where she stood stock still, staring at the unreachable room right in front of her. Fear, frustration and resignation creating a stew that simmered within her, as she silently made another attempt at passing through. No luck. At that point, she almost laughed at the sheer rug-pulling cruelty of it all, but she kept her mouth shut.
What now, then? Her only real option would be to try and sneak past the creature, probably best achieved by entering one of the other doors in the hallway, and praying that they will actually lead her towards escape. And also that she’ll be able to enter them in the first place. She noticed a flash of white reflected in the glass cylinder…
Panic rushed through her, as she instinctively turned around to face the hallway corner, where she saw a white appendage curl around and stretch halfway between the end and her current position. Another one made itself visible, and Adagio made one last ditch attempt at pushing her way through the door, but it did not see fit to be lenient on her now. So, she slowly walked backwards, fully aware that she was just backing herself into a corner, but she wasn’t about to barrel towards this thing. A gulp caught in her throat, and she violently hacked up more blood, as her back collided with the wall. The ends of its arms, which taper off into a single point rather than connect to any sort of hand, rested upon the walls. Now their only movement was the constant oscillation that makes their position shift between a small ring of points on the wall, to slightly off the wall, to through the wall.
Its legs finally began to make itself visible from behind the corner, then its body, and all the while Adagio could only stand there, helplessly, her body shaking almost as much as the monster’s. When it rounded the corner, she was able to look at the front of the creature, which for the most part looked about the same as a rear view. There was one major difference, however. As she was now looking at the front of it, she was able to see its face.
Or rather, the swirling black hole in place of its face, standing in stark contrast to the rest of its white form. But even though it had no eyes, she could feel it staring her down from across the hallway. It physically hurt her to look at it, and the extremely loud crackling droning didn’t help, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from it as it approached her with its gradual, deliberate pace. She felt the blood rising up her throat, but when it escaped it was neither through coughs nor emesis, instead simply falling out, a low pressure escape that somehow felt worse than either of the other options. She collapsed against the wall, continually spitting blood and bile, as the arms tore away from the wall, going on their own journey towards her. As the creature was now halfway across the hallway, they were close enough to require Adagio to dodge if she wanted to avoid them, but she didn’t have the energy to do so. Thus, she felt one touch her face, burning her with a deathly cold. Despite it already being close enough to touch her, the being kept up its steady approach, all the while running its arms over her, the pain increasing more and more the longer they remained there, and her own tether to the world fading. She had to remove them, but Adagio found herself unable to do so. Her arms failed her, so she tried to shake them off, but the only movement she could muster was far too weak to have an effect, assuming any amount would do it. Besides, even if she managed to escape its grasp, she knew it’d be on her again right away.
The being oscillated, and suddenly she found its arms phasing through her skin.
This, surprisingly, didn’t exactly hurt any more than the previous setup, but it did fill her with a bottomless discomfort unlike anything else she had ever felt before, and triggered another visceral expulsion from her mouth.
Eventually, when the being was close enough that Adagio could herself reach out and touch its main body, it stopped before her, tilting its black hole face as if considering her for a moment, before lifting her up such that she was eye level with the black hole, not changing the relative position of its arms to do so. The magic, or whatever this sensation was, tunneled through her whole body, feeling like she was being torn apart from the inside, the noise was almost deafening, and she was too weak to struggle. Despite all that, some deep part of her forced herself to keep her eyes open, keep staring into the void. And for a moment, she thought she saw an image form from the blackness.
She saw what must have been thousands of these creatures, standing still as trees, in a vast tiling of impossible shapes.
But, as quickly as it had formed, it disappeared, leaving pure black once more.
And before she had any chance to see if the image would reform, the creature yanked her away from its “face”, and slammed her into the ground behind it, taking what little wind she had out of her. But, for a moment, the creature actually retracted its arms, freeing her from its grasp, and the possibility of escape almost gets into her head.
But, then they come back down, hard. They don’t phase through this time, the sharp points allowed to do their work in digging through her skin, the invasive limbs barreling through her body, ripping through her organs, before finally escaping through her back, pinning her in place. The blood and bile she expelled from her mouth this time had no where to go but right back down, leaving her to choke on her own fluids, as the monster ensured that she could no more make a slight change in her position than she could teleport. She finally managed to swallow the disgusting bloody cocktail, only for some of it to travel down her trachea, causing her to cough it back up, though thankfully with enough force for it to not land straight back in her mouth, instead flying in a morbid arc before colliding with one of the being’s arms.
Whereupon it instantly dried, and broke apart, leaving little flecks of her blood lightly dancing through the air.
“Wha-” her questioning grunt morphed into a hoarse scream, as while they were still stuck in her body, the arms began to expand, the drones increasing the amplitude of their already deafening shrieks, and all the while her body was forcefully ripped open from the inside. She saw glimpses of her innards, before its arms grew wide enough to completely block her view. Regardless of whether she could see herself be torn apart, she could certainly feel it, the pain compounding with each passing millisecond as the wave of thousands of knives cut their way through every little piece of her innards.
Eventually, though, its arms shrank again, giving her the luxury of seeing her mangled insides. She didn’t exactly have a great view from her position, but she could tell that her organs were as covered in cuts as the outer layer of her body. This finally brought to the forefront of her mind a question that until now had been lingering in the back.
How am I still alive?
Why am I still alive?
The arms laid at rest inside her body, not adding any new pain, but allowing all the myriad ones already there to spread out, to really sink in. Immobile, Adagio could only wait in torturous anticipation for the next attack.
The monster removed its arms from her body, but Adagio wasn’t going to be fooled into thinking it would leave her alone. Not that she could exactly do anything about it, even if she was no longer pinned in place, she still wasn’t in any position to move. Finally, two of its arms come back down.
To stab her in the eyes.
Her attempt at a scream came out as more of a weak choke due to her damaged lungs. Unlike the gradual tearing apart of her body, the assault on her eyes was brief, a quick fall and rise, and suddenly she didn’t have eyes anymore. She could still feel the uncomfortable presence of the creature, though, still hear the deafening drones right beside her.
And that was how she could tell that right after removing her eyes, it walked away. Content to leave her broken body to bleed out in this abandoned facility far beneath the earth, until she finally succumbed.
Adagio wasn’t sure how long she had been stuck here, too weak to move, even if she still had her sight, she was indoors without any clock nearby. It certainly felt like a very long time, long enough that she had plenty of time to mull over her life in the lulls of the pain that left her unable to think coherently, and definitely enough that she was sure death should’ve finally caught up to her by now.
But, yet, here she remained.
Breathing.
Alive.
Suffering.
But, surely this would have to end soon, right?
Right?
She tried to drag herself along, just like in the tunnel, not out of any expectation that she’d actually be able to go anywhere, but just because the attempt gave her something to do. She might’ve been able to move about an inch before the fire in her arms stilled her movement.
She woke up from her sleep. Unfortunately. She thought she had a dream. Something about a field. Or a forest. Maybe. Aria and Sonata might’ve been there. Hard to say.
The monster was back. That faux-Equestrian magic and accompanying droning was unmistakeable. Despite the accompanying axe to her head, she was thankful for its arrival. Maybe it would see that she was still alive and finish her off. Please.
She felt the cold warmth of its arms resting on her head. Then, she felt something flow from them, through her skin, directly into her brain.
Then, she saw again. She didn’t want this monster to be the first thing she saw upon regaining her sight, but she was filled with such a relieved elation that not only were her eyes back, her body was no longer torn open, and even her external wounds had healed!
For one moment.
Then, the realization of what that meant hit her like a truck.
This thing was keeping her alive, for use as its toy.
She screamed as it burrowed its way inside her once more.
