An alarm clock blazed to life, causing Reed to jerk awake in his bed. He sat up, still in a haze from hours of sleep, to look at his blaring phone on the nightstand beside him. It read eight o’clock. He stumbled to his feet and walked around the room aimlessly for several moments before sitting on the end of his bed to stare at the wall, completely absorbed in his thoughts.

He was not so delusional as to dismiss the horrifying world he had now visited twice as a simple dream. Reed had long ago confirmed his experience with the yellow-eyed man from the mountains of evidence regarding the event, and he just knew that his experiences in the nightmarish world had been real. Not to mention that he retained the indescribable bodily sense from his last moments of looking at that strange… thing underneath the mountain. It was all connected in some way, he just had no idea how, or why him? Reed would need to educate himself, however, information about things alien in nature was remarkably hard to come by. He had of course tried to discreetly gather any knowledge available in the past, but other than the basic information on Bridges that could be discovered by anyone brave enough to enter one and a plethora of rumors, there was nothing of real value. Reed needed to go back to Detroit and talk to his brother, someone actually involved in such things, before something killed him for real. For the moment though he’d have to make it through the week, as his brother stayed at the academy full-time and only visited his parents’ home on the weekends.

“Fuck.” Reed said with a sigh, standing up to get ready for work. Fifteen minutes later he walked out of the bathroom and opened his closet, grabbing his typical outfit of a gray button-down, dark-brown trousers, and black boots. Facing his mirror, he grabbed one of several black ties off of his dresser and fastened it around his collar before fiddling with the knot to loosen it to a comfortable degree. Grabbing his duffel bag, Reed threw it over his shoulder and was out the door on his way to the nearest bus stop. He rode the bus with the dozens of others also commuting to work in relative silence, getting off ten minutes later and walking to his place of employment, the local recreation center. Making his way through the building, he greeted the employees he happened to walk past before reaching a door with a sign on it that displayed his name and the job title of Operations Manager.

Reed entered his crowded little office and sat down in front of his computer. Today he would have to conduct an interview, resolve god knows how many issues and complaints, and update the budgets of several facilities. This also failed to account for the random events that would occur throughout the day and he would inevitably have to deal with. Yet despite the load of unfulfilling work awaiting him, Reed was glad for the grounded simplicity of it all. It was an escape from the otherworldly nightmares he had experienced and would likely have no choice but to go through again. He buried himself in his tasks until late in the evening at which point he was inevitably forced to make his way home, catching a ride on the bus once more.

When he’d arrived at his apartment, Reed went straight to the kitchen and threw some frozen food in the oven before changing into more comfortable clothes. Grabbing his dinner when it was ready, he sat down in front of the TV in an attempt to forget his problems with a comedy. He was unsuccessful and switched to a book soon after, finding it to work slightly better. He downed three caffeinated drinks and was able to keep himself awake till early morning, but eventually he hit a slow section in his history book and could no longer stave off the exhaustion. He found himself in front of the familiar stone gate once again.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Not wasting any time, Reed immediately got to his feet and made his way towards the large building he had previously. Running straight through the dog-like beasts he entered the courtyard and grabbed one of the bone swords from a weapons rack before returning to the building of cages. He had no desire to test his luck against the flesh giant again. Reed waited with bated breath among the cages for the long-armed creature to arrive, planning to slip out as it massacred the beasts. Perhaps it had been unwise to put himself in such a position to begin with, but Reed felt much better about traversing the unknown city with a weapon and so was willing to risk encountering the creature that had previously killed him. Only the creature never came.

He had stood crouched within the array of cages waiting for it to arrive for what must have been an hour, but after no sign of it, he cautiously made his way back out onto the street. The road was clear for as far as he could see, so with a pounding heart, Reed carefully made his way down the road. He walked past a grand variety of stone buildings, all of them presenting a similar style of extravagant pointed architecture. He could see the remnants of shattered doors or gaping holes in the walls in many of the structures, electing to pass by each one. That is until he came across a rather large building, rising tall above those neighboring it. There was a rather large hole in the side of it, and through that hole, Reed could see what looked like stacks and shelves of books. There was no way he could pass up the possibility of finding a library, therefore he approached the opening in the wall and stuck his head inside, taking a moment to examine the interior. Some of the shelves and tables were trashed along with the books they had been holding, but there didn’t seem to be any signs of life.

He stepped inside and anxiously approached an intact shelf of books. Reaching to pick one up, Reed noticed that the books were of a different design than he was used to. The pages were thick and there were no covers or spines, instead containing two puncture holes on one side of the pages through which rings of bone ran through. He grabbed ahold of it and nearly dropped the book immediately. Of course the pages were made of skin, covered in dark symbols that Reed had no hope of deciphering.

He had figured that the contents would be in a language unknown to him, so without becoming disheartened he flipped through the book before setting it down to grab another in search of pictures. Reed lost track of time as he searched through book after book, finding sparse few pictures of architecture and weaponry he didn’t recognize until at last deciding to give up. While he had been searching for reading material throughout the room, however, Reed had spotted a small and inconspicuous door frame amongst the shelves that led to a set of stairs.

He grabbed his sword off of a nearby table and made his way to whatever lay above. What it turned out to be was a room of incredible height with desks and work tables scattered throughout, upon which were all manner of tools, weapons, and materials. Sitting hunched over at one of the desks was another of the gray-skinned corpses. A ladder sat in one corner of the room, leading up to a platform attached to the wall right next to a massive circular window through which orange-red light poured in. He made his way from table to table, looking for something he could glean some information from or make use of. It wasn’t until a few tables in that he found a belt laying across one, attached to it was a long spiraling formation of bone. Having a hunch as to what it was, Reed fastened it around himself and slid his sword into the long spiral. It fit perfectly.

Having finally had a measure of success with something, he was reinvigorated in his search throughout the room of study. The next table in his rummaging was the one that held the corpse. Across the table were scattered unbound pages of flesh, within which he spotted a few more illustrations of tools and weapons. Just as he was about to continue in his search, the body across the table which had been completely still erupted into motion.

“Holy shit!” Reed screamed in terror as the corpse pounced at him.