Staring up at a strange ceiling from the floor was not precisely how Lanek envisioned his morning going, but that is exactly where he found himself. The last thing he remembered was walking into his small one-bedroom apartment, so how in the hell had he ended up lying on a stone floor staring up at wooden beams?
This doesn’t make any sense. Was I kidnapped? He chuckled at the thought, they really would be wasting their time as he had no living family and was pretty much living paycheck to paycheck.
A moment later he frantically started to pat himself down. Oh, thank god for that! He breathed out a sigh of relief, My kidneys are still there.
Lanek stood up slowly and scanned the room, noting the simple furniture consisting of a small table, a chair, and a bed that was little more than a cot. He walked toward the open window that was the only source of light in the room. There were pieces of wood, presumably shutters, littered on the ground near the window, but no glass.
He leaned out what turned out to be a second-story window and froze in place. The window overlooked a wide cobblestone street lined by wood and stone buildings, some of which had signs that most likely denoted shops of some kind. In the distance, he could see what appeared to be a large stone wall that one would see surrounding a castle or medieval city.
Aside from the unfamiliar city laid out before him, something seemed off. People. Where are all the people? It’s the middle of the day, SOMEONE should be out. He thought as he noticed the silence and lack of any movement in the street. To make matters worse, he couldn’t hear any noise from birds or insects.
Disturbed by the utter lack of life signs, Lanek eased away from the window and crouched out of view. Something was very wrong here and he didn’t want to advertise his presence to anything that could be lurking out there. Turning from the window and settling into a corner of the room with his eyes on the only door in the room, he took stock of his situation.
At least I won’t get too cold, he thought as he looked at the clothing he was wearing. He had awoken wearing his favorite dark green hoodie and black joggers that he tended to wear when he went out for a walk. He counted himself lucky as he saw he was also wearing the new hiking boots he had purchased and had been attempting to break in for an upcoming camping trip with his friends. Sadly, that was the extent of his possessions as a cursory search of his pockets produced nothing.
He had just made his way to the door and grabbed the handle when he heard a bang from somewhere underneath him. Lanek took a step away from the door and moved away very quickly as another bang sounded from the floor below. It sounded like someone was attempting to break into the building. Had they spotted him leaning out the window?
The next bang was followed by a shriek that left Lanek frozen in horror. Whatever the hell that was, it wasn’t human and he had zero desire to run into it. Moving as quietly as possible, he lifted the only chair in the room and wedged it under the door handle. He was confident that he hadn’t been heard moving about, he’d always had a talent for moving quietly, even when he wasn’t actively trying to. Lanek couldn’t begin to guess how often he had scared the life out of anyone he had lived with over the years simply by walking through his home normally.
He moved toward the window and assessed his options. Drop to the street? Climb onto the roof? No, the roof is a trap, I have no idea how far it is from the next rooftop and if I could make the jump. If that thing follows me up there, I have no guarantee of getting away.
Time to go! he thought as he heard a crashing sound from the first floor, followed by another shriek. Whatever it was, it had gotten inside. He hung from the window frame to minimize the drop and let go. Thankfully, there was no window where he landed and thus no chance of the thing spotting him.
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He took off down the street, spurred on by the sound of the thing slamming into the door he had just barricaded with a chair. Ducking into an alley to get out of sight, he continued running. While Lanek wasn’t an athlete, he was in somewhat decent shape from hiking whenever he got the chance and doing some rock climbing at the gym several times a week. Another shriek echoed from behind him, this one sounding more angry and frustrated if that was possible. Even worse, it sounded closer.
Panic grew in his chest as he ran, weaving through alleys and streets trying to throw the beast off, but still it followed him. The shrieking grew ever louder. He couldn’t outrun the creature, he needed to hide, but where? As he ran, he couldn’t help but notice that the city was in rough shape, with many buildings having no doors or the tattered remains of doors hanging from the hinges.
Breathing hard, he stopped in an alley to catch his breath and noticed what he hoped was a cellar door. Please don’t be locked, he prayed as he pulled up on the door handle. To his immense relief, the door opened.
Almost jumping down into the cellar in his haste, he pulled the door shut behind him. Lanek felt around for a latch or some other locking mechanism in the dark but found nothing. He worked his way down into the cellar with agonizing slowness, trying his hardest to not make any noise that would lead the beast to him. He reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped around the corner so he wouldn’t be visible if the cellar door was opened.
Lanek fought to calm himself, even as he strained his ears for any sound from the alley above. He could hear the shrieking getting closer and closer. Please keep going, don’t check the alley.
One last shriek echoed out, but it sounded further away. Silence followed, but Lanek didn’t know if he could bring himself to go outside again. He felt around in the darkness, hoping for something to defend himself with when his hand grasped a small sphere of some kind. As soon as his fingers grasped the sphere, a faint light began to radiate from it. Lanek almost dropped it for fear of giving himself away when the light stopped increasing in intensity, giving off as much light as a candle, but chose to keep it on him just in case. Inspecting the orb, he found no clue as to what was providing it with power.
First, I get chased by some THING through a ruined medieval town and now I find a magic light-giving orb. Yeah, perfectly normal. I’m not going crazy at all, right?
Chasing those unproductive thoughts from his mind, he looked around the cellar. Shelves filled the room. Sadly, no food was found by the time Lanek had explored all of the shelves, only dust and empty containers. Sighing, Lanek made his way to the stairs that he assumed would lead into the building above.
He emerged into a shop that miraculously still had an intact door. With quick movements, he crossed to the front door and found it to be already secured with a door bar in place. The creature could most likely tear through the door with ease, but at least this would slow it down a bit and let Lanek know it was coming. There were no other doors, just a handful of display cases that could have held anything at one point, but were empty now.
Wait… Why was the cellar door unsecured but this door is barred? Did the owner of this place sneak through the cellar and into the alley? Were they afraid of going out openly? What the hell happened in this city?
All of the display cases appeared to be empty as he gave them a cursory glance. Just as he was about to turn away, he caught a brief flash as something reflected the light of the orb. He approached the case and couldn’t help but laugh in both disbelief and relief. Inside the display case rested a blade attached to a chain that looked roughly two and half meters in length and as wide as his finger.
A chain whip? Really? How the hell am I supposed to use that without stabbing or smacking myself? Sure, he had tried learning how to use various weapons as a hobby, but never seriously and never anything as outlandish as this thing.
Removing the weapon from the case, he noticed that the blade was not a simple blade, but an actual dagger with a handle. Clearly, this was to allow for close-quarters use. It wasn’t ideal for fighting the thing that was chasing him, but at least he could use a dagger without hurting himself in the process.
The front door of the shop shook from a massive impact even as he heard a familiar screech from just outside. He stepped toward the cellar door but paused. Yes, he could get into the cellar and out to the alley, but this thing had already proven itself capable of tracking him. This left him with two options, run and tire himself or make a stand while he could still put up a fight.
Gripping his new dagger, he stared at the door. Come on then, asshole.