Inside a space station located within the solar system, the clerk sat at the computer screen and looked through the data collected by the satellites stationed in orbit around the planet below. The satellites were hidden and therefore unlikely to attract the attention of the primitive peoples that lived there. Though they collected a significant amount of data, their primary function was taking pictures of the planet for research and analysis. That’s what the clerk was reviewing now.

The clerk hated their job because, in their eyes, it was boring and pointless.

Why do I have to sit here and do this? the clerk wondered.

A particular piece of the map was highlighted on the screen as a point of interest by the AI functions that analyzed the map data.

What’s this? the clerk thought as they took a closer look at the highlighted spot on the map. It was an unassuming area, just a forest next to a large mountain range. Then again, to the clerk, everything on this planet was unassuming compared to the luxuries back home. Even the biggest cities on the planet were tiny compared to the metropolises of home. Not to mention the lack of even basic electronics.

What a shithole, the clerk thought. There was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” the clerk said. The door opened and a sleek humanoid with metal skin walked in carrying a platter with a bowl and dark liquid in a sleek cup. The bowl contained enormous white worms that were wiggling every which way. The humanoid set the platter down next to the clerk.

“Ah, thank you android,” the clerk said.

“Happy to be of assistance,” the android replied and left the room. The clerk dragged the bowl closer and started chewing on the squirming mealworms before turning their attention back to the screen.

“Hmmm,” the clerk said while zooming in on the highlighted spot. It was a dark patch in the forest that, according to the map historical data, was growing bigger. “Eh, I’m sure it's nothing important. Just another wildfire.”

—

The next day, after a difficult trek through the forest, the group stood at the blackened ground that marked the beginning of Isabelle’s primary territory. The trees and greenery past the boundary looked twisted and dark. Not a shred of green was left, only blackness. Fae stopped and hesitated a few feet before the boundary.

“What’s wrong?” Isabelle asked the frozen Fae.

“It’s, uh… it looks kind of different. I don’t remember this being here before,” Fae replied in a disturbed tone.

“It’s completely safe. I know it looks a bit odd but don’t worry,” Isabelle said. Fae smiled and started to laugh.

“I’m usually okay with weird stuff but it just looks kind of scary. I mean, wow. So you live here, huh?” Fae said.

“Why don’t you hold my hand?” Isabelle said, reaching her hand out to Fae. “If it’s that scary, you don’t have to go.” Fae grabbed Isabelle’s hand and steeled her resolve.

“No, no. I want to. I’ll go,” she said. Fae placed her hand in Isabelle’s and noticed the size difference. Her hand easily fit in the palm of Isabelle’s.

Isabelle grasped Fae’s hand and gently pulled her along, deeper into the creepy blackness that was her home. Some time later they stood at the opening to the clearing of the enormous tower.

“Wow. That tower’s a lot bigger than it was last time,” Fae commented.

“Yeah. It grew a lot while we were in Unalia,” Isabelle said. Fae turned her head towards Isabelle with a confused look on her face.

“Did you just say it grew?” Fae said.

“Yeah, it grew. Well, the top part, the bottom part was more or less crafted,” Isabelle said. The two of them walked across the hard and flat blackened landscape to the semicircular entrance of the tower.

“So… what are we doing here?” Fae asked.

“I live here,” Isabelle replied.

“You live here? I thought you lived in a house or something,” Fae said.

“It’s so big,” Fae said while staring at the 30’ tall entrance. “Why is it so big?”

“The creatures that give birth to other creatures like Bo and Eva are very big. They wouldn’t fit in a smaller entrance,” Isabelle explained.

“They must be enormous,” Fae said with a drooping mouth.

“Come on, let’s go inside!” Isabelle exclaimed. Fae stared into the circular black abyss in front of her and hesitated once more.

“Uh, uhhhh… I can’t see anything in there,” Fae said.

“Oh. Right. Well, let’s get a torch from your bag. If you don’t have one I can go inside and get one,” Isabelle said.

Fae put down her heavy bag and searched through it for a torch. “Nope, I don’t have one.”

“Ah. Shoot. I’ll be right back with one,” Isabelle said before disappearing into the enormous abyssal corridor. Fae stood outside with Bo and Eva for company. Every second felt like an eternity as her anxiety grew. She stared into the dark abyss in front of her and tried to turn away, but something stopped her. She couldn’t turn away. Her heartbeat felt like an explosion inside getting louder and louder, closer and closer.

“I’m back!” called out Isabelle through the darkness, snapping Fae back to normal. She approached Fae with the torch.

“Here, I’ll light it,” Fae said and took the torch. She lit it with a fire striker she kept in her bag.

“Great! You’ll be able to see now,” Isabelle said before stepping into the tunnel with Fae. Fae spoke up a few minutes in.

“It’s so dark down here. I’m surprised you can see when you’re down here by yourself without a torch,” she said.

“Well, I can see in the dark! It’s a useful skill to have,” Isabelle said.

“I wish I could see in the dark. That’s so cool,” Fae said.

“Here we are!” Isabelle exclaimed as she stood in front of a set of enormous pitch black doors. A simple, yet appealing design in the form of a semicircle extruding out of the edge of the doors was imprinted on the doors which made them stand out. Might as well be gaudy, Isabelle thought with a smile. No other room in Isabelle’s home had doors and no doors Isabelle had come across had looked like hers.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Fae analyzed the doors in front of her, noticing the strange design and unusual crafting material.

“This is my room,” Isabelle said and opened one of the doors with a gentle push. Fae pushed on the door next to it. The door slowly opened as she struggled to push it. Isabelle grabbed it with her hand and helped her open the door the rest of the way and the torchlight flooded into the room.

Fae peered inside. The room was filled with a variety of pitch black furniture. A table, dresser, chairs, etc. However, the star of the room was an enormous white bed positioned against the back wall. Isabelle and Fae walked up to the specially crafted bed. It looked alive, but fundamentally different from anything else existing in the hive with a crosshatched pattern of indented lines that almost looked like wide veins. Isabelle threw herself onto the bed and pulled the sheets over herself. It was strangely comfortable. It was the perfect temperature, and it felt soft to the touch. She quickly fell asleep.

Fae pushed her palm into the soft bed. “Wow. That’s really soft, even if its a bit gross looking.” She noticed Isabelle didn’t respond and tilted her head to see Isabelle’s head with its eyes shut. Fae poked her sleeping friend, “hey. Get up.”

Isabelle wouldn’t get up, so she looked around. She saw a few candles lying around and lit them. She ran her hand across the dresser. It felt strange. It was incredibly smooth and hard, like stone.

“What’s this made out of?” she asked herself. When she was finished in the room, she stepped into the tunnel that connected to Isabelle’s room. There were only two directions to go in but she had seen numerous diverting paths on the way there. Fae went deeper into the tunnel, further from the entrance, holding her torch out in her extended hand arm.

There were numerous diverting paths as she walked through the tunnel. Each of them were of a similar enormous size to the tunnel she was walking through.

“Wow, this place is huge. I can’t believe she lives here. It’s so creepy, even for me,” Fae said. “But I suppose you can get used to anything.” She stopped walking when she noticed a glow emitting from a branching pathway that led deeper underground. It was green and extremely faint, but it was there. She stood still and looked back and forth as she debated whether to go check it out or not.

She turned into the forking pathway and walked towards the green glow. It emitted from a corridor to the side of the tunnel. When she reached it, she took a look inside.

The inside smelled and looked disgusting. Fae’s hand rushed to her face to cover her mouth and nose. It was a circular pit with a bubbling green liquid at the bottom. The walls were unlike the tunnel walls, they were made of darkened flesh.

“What in the world is this?!” Fae said in utter shock. “Ugh, it smells so bad.” She turned and left down the tunnel. She kept walking and found herself at the end of the tunnel, which opened up to a room.

“Must’ve gone the wrong way,” Fae said, but she was still curious. She walked forward to get a closer look at the section ahead. Inside the room, she saw what must have been hundreds upon hundreds of eggs nestled in single-egg nests. Then. Then. She looked up and saw, clinging to the walls and ceiling, dozens upon dozens of creatures that looked exactly like Bo and Eva. They were standing perfectly, completely, utterly still. Fae almost thought they were statues, but she remembered common sense wouldn’t allow that. She gulped and took a few steps back, exiting the chamber. She took a few more and turned around, quickening her pace and looking back frequently. Once more, she wished she could see in the dark, but quickly changed her mind—perhaps it would be better not to know what lay behind the flickering torchlight… that seemed to be getting dimmer.

“Nononononononono,” she said out loud as she watched the torch’s light start to fade to nothingness, until blackness remained. No, wait. She could see the dim, green light down the hall. A beacon to guide her! She hastily followed the beacon and found herself in front of the room of flesh and bubbling green liquid, but there wasn’t any time to stop.

Fae stumbled through the darkness, abandoning her torch and using the wall as a guide. She felt the slight ascent of the floor and knew she was getting close to where she had to turn. The ground leveled out and she let go of the wall, intending to go in a certain direction.

Wait… is that the right way? her inner monologue questioned. She went to place her hand back on the wall, but all that was there was empty air. “Nononono.”

Her anxiety grew, knowing she was very likely not alone and making the wrong choice could get her unquestionably lost deep within this place. She extended her arms out and felt for the nearest wall. When she found it, she pulled herself against it and sat down with her back against the wall, burying her head in her knees.

“Fae?” came a voice out of the darkness. Fae looked up and saw Isabelle standing there, with a candle stick in her hand. She jumped up and hugged the massive woman.

“Can we go back to your room?” Fae asked.

“Sure, let’s go,” Isabelle said in response. A few minutes later they were back at Isavelle’s room.

“Why don’t you lay down for a bit? You could use the rest,” Isabelle said. Fae didn’t hesitate and went straight to Isabelle’s bed.

Fae felt the bed and the bedding on top of it more closely than she had before. The bedsheets had a strange feeling to them, as did the bed itself. She couldn’t quite place it, but decided that it didn’t matter and slid under the sheets to fall asleep. A few minutes later, she was out.

When she woke, she felt much better. Her negative experience earlier had been temporarily erased from her mind and replaced with the exuberant, youthful smile on her face.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” Isabelle said to Fae as she awoke.

“Good morning to you, too!” Fae replied. “What are you doing?”

“I’m playing with one of the young creatures. They’re so cute and fun to play with,” Isabelle said.

“They are. I remember playing with Bo and Eva when they were little. They grew shockingly fast. I mean really, really fast,” Fae replied. Then her expression turned serious. “So, I went looking around yesterday,”

“Yes, I noticed,” Isabelle said.

“Sorry, I should’ve asked,” Fae said.

“No, it’s alright. I don’t mind. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep on you in the first place. But I don’t recommend it, you’ll get lost if you aren’t me,” Isabelle said. “But I’m happy to give you a tour.” Fae hesitated.

Would a tour really be a good idea? she asked herself. No, I’m safe with her here. It’ll be alright.

“That would be great,” Fae said. Isabelle smiled.

“Okay, let me get a torch for you.” She rifled through her things until she pulled out a heavy wooden torch and lit it using a firestarter.

“Alright, let’s go,” Isabelle said. Fae pulled herself out from under the weird looking sheets and put on her boots.

“Coming!” she replied.

“So, I don’t think I’ve really said this, but this place is really, really big,” Isabelle told Fae. “Like, huge. There are tons of tunnels down here and they go deep.”

“Why are there so many?” Fae asked as they were walking, the tunnel illuminated by the torchlight.

“Because there’s a lot of creatures like Bo and Eva that live in them. Kind of like what you saw yesterday,” Isabelle said.

“How’d…” Fae said before being interrupted.

“Is this where you turned?” Isabelle asked, at an intersection. Fae looked down and noticed the faint green glow, “yes, this is it. I was curious about the green glow.” Isabelle turned into the tunnel and walked towards it with Fae.

“Oh, that’s the restroom,” Isabelle said. “Kind of. It dissolves leaves and wood and stuff, or dead animals.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?! What if someone fell in?” Fae said.

“Well, that’s happened before. Sometimes the creatures fall in, but then they just climb out. It’s not instant or anything, but they also have a really tough shell,” Isabelle replied. Fae stared into the bubbling chamber.

“It’s so fleshy,” she said.

“Yeah… I’ll admit that’s a bit creepy, even for me, and I’m used to this stuff,” Isabelle said. The two of them walked further down the tunnel until they reached the large chamber from before. Fae looked at the walls and ceiling and as before, there were dozens upon dozens of creatures like Bo and Eva clinging to the walls and ceiling. This time they were even standing on the floor of the chamber, completely ignoring her.

“This is where they hatch,” Isabelle said as she pushed through the sea of eggs with Fae tightly behind, until an enormous creature at the back of the room was illuminated by the torchlight. It was laying on the floor, inert.

“Woah. That thing is huge,” Fae said as she inspected the massive creature. It looked distinctly different from the smaller ones like Bo and Eva, but the similarities were immediately recognizable. A black shell. A long tail with a point at the end. A giant row of teeth that would shred flesh like paper.

What’s her connection to these creatures? Surely they’re not of the same kind, Fae thought.