Chapter One: Ignition 

Jarod stands up.  

He is here again.  

Above him, a dead sky with wheeling, screaming streamers of dark grey cloud, racing like ghosts seeking to escape the torments of the damned. Around him, a desolate landscape of scraggled brush, cracked, dry stone, bleached bones reaching upwards, and steaming, blood-red pools. Before him, a deep, twisting defile between two towering plinths of dark rock, filled with shadows against the blazing light that streams down from the sunless sky.  

Shadows that seem to writhe and twirl between the rock walls, but despite the oddity, also seem cool and inviting, a shelter against the unreasonable heat that seeks to wring him dry. Jarod blinks, and it seems to him that the distant defile has somehow drawn slightly closer than it was a moment before. 

He shakes his head, wiping the sweat from his heavy eyebrows. This isn’t the first time he has been here, he is sure. He remembers this place, but faintly, as if from an all-but-forgotten dream. But he doesn’t remember how he had come here, nor how he had escaped this terrible place before. The thought seeps up from that place in the back of his mind that he doesn’t quite control – has never really controlled. “Looks like you aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.” 

“Shut up,” he tells himself. “You know that shit’s old.” He looks around himself, one last glance seeking anything more promising than those twisting shadows, but there is nothing else around him that stands out against that stark, angry landscape. Distantly, a part of him notes that it is odd that he isn’t wearing clothing, but he doesn’t really pay attention. His thoughts are a whirling storm, slipping through his head faster than he can hold onto them. The heat, though... the heat is a constant presence in his mind. He needs to do something to get out of the heat. He teeters, slightly, catching his balance. Movement feels strange, here, his balance somehow off, his weight centered higher than it should be, higher than he is used to. There is an odd... echo of sensation, as he moves his arms, that somehow reminds him of that one time he had gotten high in Justin’s basement with his friends - against his better judgement. He shakes his head at the memory, but that is a mistake, as his balance abandons him entirely and he spirals down to the ground in a dizzied heap. The impact against the dry, cracked ground doesn’t hurt like it should have. It feels oddly muffled, as if a thin layer of invisible packing peanuts has eased his fall.  

Jarod lays there, taking short, shallow breaths. His vision is out of focus, but after a few moments, his eyesight sharpens. He stares at the drops of sweat falling off the sharp tip of his too-narrow nose, watching as they splash onto the dry ground, to be instantly sucked away, leaving not even a darkened spot of moisture behind. It occurs to him, not for the first time, that things are strange, here; that this place is not at all normal. 

“Focus, fool,” the other side of his mind says sharply. “You don’t want to die here, do you?” 

“Nobody asked you.” Steeling himself, Jarod forces himself from his hands and knees back to his feet. “Nobody ever asks you,” he adds, offhandedly. He forces his mind to pay attention as, one foot after the next, he staggers towards the defile, and the welcoming shadows. 

***** 

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As Jarod finally reaches the comfort of the shadows, he breathes a sigh of relief. The heat which has felt like it was slowly strangling him falls away, left behind as he leans against the chalky wall inside the shadowed space. He can’t see very far, but something about this place feels safer, sheltering. He slides downwards, resting on his haunches as he waits for the sweat to stop rising from his overheated skin. There are uncomfortable tingles from places on his anatomy that are unused to such extremes, and he chuckles softly to himself. It would be awkward, he thinks, trying to explain how he got sunburned below the belt to his girlfriend. 

“If you actually *had* a girlfriend.” 

“I told you to shut up,” he grunts. He’s wasting his breath, he knows. That part of his mind that constantly seeks to belittle and mock him doesn’t care if he wants its input. It will always put its two cents in, and no amount of trying to silence it will achieve anything. His only option, as always, is to ignore it. Too bad he sucks at that.  

Pushing back up to his feet, Jarod holds one hand against the wall and moves forward, deeper into the shadowed space. It slopes slightly downward, he notices, the ground covered in some kind of fine silt that puffs up around his footfalls. The strange twisting of the shadows isn’t visible now, here inside of them. He decides it was a mirage, an illusion caused by the intense heat outside. The slight breeze drifting through adds to his relief. As the way progresses downward, the opposite side of the passage also pulls farther away, widening what he now thinks of as a path leading deeper into the earth. “Where do you think this is taking us?” He asks himself, aloud, but quietly. He’s starting to consider the possibility that he might not be the only one here. 

With careful steps, Jarod makes his way ahead. He’s not sure why he’s here, or how to leave, but he knows that he can’t just stay where he is. Somehow, he must find a way to escape, and there isn’t anything behind him, so whatever he’s looking for, it must be ahead of him. He needs to be careful, though. In the gloom, he can only see a short distance, and something could be on him before he knows it. The path begins to slope more, and his footing isn’t the greatest; the layer of dust, or whatever it is, doesn’t really give great traction.  

Time passes. He isn’t sure how long he’s been here, but eventually he realizes that the area has changed. Around him, a large cavern opens up, and in the distance ahead, he can see light. He will have to move away from the wall if he wants to head towards it. He considers for a moment; he doesn’t really want to go back out into the bright heat, but an increasing feeling of foreboding tells him that staying here in the cool darkness isn’t safe. Just as he makes up his mind and pushes himself away from the wall, he hears a faint sound nearby.  

It sounds like... hissing? Mostly. There’s a deep, rumbling undercurrent to it, though, like a motorcycle engine, idling. The disturbing part is that it’s slowing growing louder. As if whatever is making the sound is moving towards him. 

Jarod is normally a fairly curious guy, and under other circumstances, he would want to at least find out what the odd sound is coming from. Right now, however, he doesn’t need the other part of his mind to tell him that staying to see what is making the noise wouldn’t be wise. He starts out towards the light in the distance, the dark gloom around him more menacing now that he doesn’t have a solid wall to prop against. He hasn’t even taken a dozen steps when he hears a second rumbling hissing sound, this one ahead and to his left. At least, that’s where he thinks it’s coming from. In the shadowed cavern, he doesn’t know how well he can orient from sound alone. On the positive side, it sounds like it’s farther away than the noise behind him. 

He isn’t really able to see the ground at his feet clearly. It doesn’t occur to him until he stumbles that the floor might not be as even away from the wall. 

Again, there’s the odd feeling that something is muffling his fall as he hits the ground. The fine silt covering the floor splashes up all around him, getting into his nose and his mouth as he inhales sharply from the impact. It coats the inside of his nose, the inside of his throat, and he tastes it for the first time. 

It tastes like burnt hair smells. He gags and coughs, then wretches as he tries to stop himself from vomiting. The hissing sounds come closer, and Jarod feels fear blossom inside him. He scrambles his way to his feet, still hacking and gasping, and starts running towards the light, all thought of the uneven floor beneath him forgotten. He’s scarcely gone five feet when his foot slips in the silt and slides into an unseen hole. He tumbles forwards, and his foot, caught on something he can’t see, twists sideways underneath him. Sharp pain blooms in his ankle, and this time when he hits the ground, something sharp tears into his side. Jarod shouts in pain, and in terror. 

Something unseen in the darkness ahead shouts back.