Opening his eyes Sook quickly decided it wasn't worth the bother: before him was nothing but darkness. Not the darkness you find in one's non-light bedroom at night but the thick black darkthat is found in the depths of caves and in the deepest depths of the ocean.
Sook could see nothing, not even his hand which he held an inch from his eyes. The world was a void and he would think he was floating if not for the cold feeling seeping into his bare feet.
Feeling himself he figured he wore a shirt of some kind as well as baggy trousers. Apart from that he had almost nothing else; his pockets were empty, devoid of everything but a rusty old key.
Concentrating on the surrounding darkness once more he had more senses than he believed.
The virtual reality industry had boasted about its ability to recreate all 5 senses within the game, although Sook did not know this information beforehand he was figuring it out at his own leisure.
He could smell a thick mustiness from the air as well as a thin layer of rot. He guessed he was somewhere underground. This was also because he felt the dense hot air around him furthering his suspicions.
However this information was not important to Sook as something else had his mind occupied: There was no sound, not asignle drip of water or moan of wind. It was almost unnatural as if the darkness had swallowed the sound giving that feeling of emptiness, like a vaccum.
This state of nothingness lasted for only a minute at most and suddenly a dim crimson light shone, no, it pulsated slowly a few feet away from Sook. The odd light gave Sook the chance to see the outline of his body and also a small part of a moss covered stone wall.
The light's origin was a row of words, although too small to see from where he was, they were words of some kind.
Taking a step towards the light he raised an eyebrow at the familiarity, the natural feeling he had of the body, as if it were his own and not a game body.
Making his way over to the words quickly he made the place he was in echo continuously with his resounding slap of his feet on cold stone. The floor felt smooth and well carved without juts and broken stones thus making his fumbling journey easier.
Reaching the words with ease he notices the reason the glow was red; the words were written with blood, or at least that was what it seemed like. However unlike the ominous visual of the words suggests the information was not some murderer's name or curse. it read as such;
[I cannot remember anything, not why I am here nor where 'here is. I cannot remember where i lost my shoes or when I ate my last food. All I can remember my name but the memory is slowly fading. So before i lose it for good I'll record it on this paper, the only thing I seem to have.]
At the end of the 'blood text' there is a browning sheet of paper nailed to the wall. With mild curiosity Sook takes the paper, carefully removing it before checking both sides. There are words on the paper but Sook cannot read them properly so he hugs the dmily lit wall getting as much light on the paper as possible.With that the words become clear:
{Sook}
So it was him who wrote the message, and he cannot remember it. It seems quite game-like to him and he feels mildly impressed with the way he starts. However his attention is stolen as he eyed the wall to his right which is now faintly lit with another 'blood text'. Walking over ,once again sending slapping echoes, he reads the text as it pulsates crimson
[I hear them, the wails the screams that fill this void of silence. They whisper dark thoughts to me or taunt me from the shadows. They gather in the darkness gathering around me clawing away at my mind. I cannot stand them in the darkness, Only in the light can I bear their evil intents and black thoughts that try their best to rip my sanity from me.]
Another brown paper lies nailed to the wall. Taking it Sook sees {Sanity:???} written on it.
Feeling goosebumps rise at seeing the 'sanity:???' he wonders why it sounds ominous and also why there is a reason for that. He never played games when he was young, prefering sports of all kinds as it was what he excelled at due to his natural athleticism, However sanity in a game just doesn't...fit in some way. But Sook attributes it to it being a game so he dismisses it without another thought.
He spots another dim glow from the right side, opposite the two previous glows, forming a triangle of sorts. Moving away he feels another substance under his feet; soft and smooth but waxy. Stooping down he picks up the small cylindrical object and it turns out to be a candle, unused.
Putting the candle in his trouser pocket he continues to the new 'blood text'
[Should I ever wake up again then I will want to leave this damned place. There is a door just to the left of this writing, what is behind it I cannot remember and the voices are thicker there. I hear them knocking on the door sometimes asking me to let them in, but I wont because those...things are not my allies. They are there to hurt me but I can do nothing to stop them, only the light and fire lessens their approach]
Checking the floor by rubbing my hands blindly around I soon clutch at a small box; a matchbox. Inside are 3 matches.
Pocketing the matches Sook sidles by the wall until the thick rusty bulb of an iron door handle reaches his fingers.
He hesitates before opening it due to having a thought about these 'voices', he wondered why he could hear nothing but silence whereas his 'previous self' couldn't stop hearing them. Maybe it had to so with the sanity? That seemed like the case to him and the light stopped or at least delayed the sanity level dropping is what he suspected. Although there was a slight mention of light also holding the voices back and that the voices attack. This made him question whether the voices were just a sanity thing or were physical. That they could be hurt and give pain as well.
After making sure he analyzed the words propery he lit his candle illuminating the stone cube of a room with a soft glow. He could see a meter or two in front of him now.
Opening the door with a rusty creak he finds a corridor.
Walking down the corridor leisurely he notes that still no other sounds but from himself are present.
Soon reaching the end of the corridor he finds another rusted iron door. Taking a few seconds to listen on the other side; nothing, he opens up the door.
As he steps through he notices the new room is similar to the first one in its shape and size; about 10 steps to reach either side, most illuminated by his candle. However there is one slight difference in this room; in the far right corner is a man, well a corpse sitting back to the wall, along with some dimly pulsating 'blood text' above his head. The man had light brown hair, scruffy looking as well as blue eyes but apart from that no other defining features.
Moving towards the corpse the rank smell of death and rot invades his nostrils, but he doesn't mind in the slightest.
[I was not alone, I was with this man, whoever he may be, I think. I can't quite remember who he is or why he was here with me. however I feel a bit wrong taking things from his corpse, so I decided to leave his belongings alone. As to why he died, seems like his heart was ripped out by...something]
The man wore a dark vest of some sort and Sook opening the vest confirmed the missing heart as a gaping hole was there instead. The hole was not a perfect circle; it was more like a ripped chunk.
Unlike his possible previous self, Sook had no qualms about looting the dead. He rummaged in the man's vest pockets and trouser pockets. Finding another candle 2 more matchs and a mouldy piece of bread he believes he was quite lucky. But he wasn't finished with the body just yet.
Stripping the man of his clothes he checked the inner linings of everything and then the teeth. In the lining were a total of 3 jagged rusty coins. The teeth were all normal which was no surprise to Sook.
Putting on the vest Sook felt a little more protected due to its bulkiness as well as it having multiple pockets.
Turning away from the corpse he headed over to the door in the left side of the room.
Back in another corridor he decided to extinguish his candle temporarily as the corridor didn't seem to end soon. Walking slowly in the pitch black with his hands carressing the wall along the way, he was able to notice that it was just a corridor with no junctions.
The silence came and left with the soft echoing sounds of feet on stone floor. However soon it was not the only noise.
Just barely, a muffled sound floated in the air; the sound of someone talking but the words were lost. Sook frowned at the noise wondering what it was but did not turn the candle on because he was curious. The sound grew lounder as the minutes passed until its words could be heard
"Come to me, come closer, no need to be afraid. I just want to see you in the Flesh"
The voice was soft like a caring elder but the last word dripped with hunger.
Taking out a candle slowly, Sook lit it and let the dim light invade the darkness. The voice continued its caring image but soon it started to sound disinterested and became quiteter and quieter till it disappeared completely.(I see so that is the use of light)
Reaching the end of the corridor after another good while Sook opened the new rusty door.
He was surprised at first, thinking he had returned back to the room he just left but immediately thought otherwise due to the corpse in the corner havings its clothes still on. This man was identical to the other to the clothes, as if they were both twins.
(So it explains why i'd see the two of them but not why I would be here with them)
Also just like before there was 'blood text' above the corpse.
[Not everything that dies is dead]
Sook had about two seconds to think what it meant before it hit him, literally.
Standing but inches away from the supposed corpse Sook had no time to react when it jumped from its position barreling into him thus knocking him onto the floor. The corpse, no, Zombie straddeled Sook trying to pin his arms down with his claws. His right clawed hand was red with drying blood and the dye was up to its elbow, as if it had run its arm through something. Locking fingers with the Zombie he stopped its movements with its razorlike fingers however that was not its only weapon. Its mouth opened wide revealing bloody and broken teeth with red meaty bits stuck between the gaps, its drool dripped splashing droplets on his forehead. Lunging at Sooks neck, Sook quickly bashed into the Zombie's head with his own resulting in a sickening crunch as brain fluid splattered on his face. The impact caused the Zombie's lower jaw to break and cause the Zombie to bite the floor an inch above Sook's right shoulder. The sound of breaking teeth could be heard. Planting his teeth in the Zombie's neck, he moved his neck above the Zombie's and then proceeded to move his body above since he had a better positioning. The zombie tried to move its head back up but was stopped by Sook holding it in place with his jaw and upper-body weight. A lough crack sounded on the Zombie's right arm as Sook finally broke its shoulder blade and thus caused the arm to fling on its back. With ease Sook slid above the Zombie and soon broke the Zombie's other arm. Now sitting on the back of the Zombie whose head was locked on the floor along with two broken arms he quickly finished the job by repeatedly pummeling the back of its squishy head until it was flattened on the floor. The Zombie stopped moving but to make sure Sook completely ripped the arms off.
After doing so he turned the now proper corpse and checked its body.
Unlike the body before its clothes and lining had nothing, the lining looked like it was ripped as if someone else had already looked through. However there was one thing that remained on the body; a small knife, like one of those you use to spread butter. The knife was embedded into the chest of the zombie and it was stuck quite deep; only a small part of the handle showed.
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Ripping out the knife a larsh gush of blackened blood spewed out wetting his chest. (Hmm seems it hit the Aorta)
Also by checking the teeth of the Zombie he found the iconic heart strings and other tough bits of meat which he believed was parts of a heart. He knew on contact as it wasn't the first time he felt a heart, although this one was severly minced up.
By now the story was slowly making some sense to him: It seemed as though the man here became a zombie and they/we stabbed it with the knife, but they/we didn't kill it as they/we might have thought, this must've been the point that previous Sook wrote the message. Therefore it must've come and killed the other man by ripping out and eating his heart, hence the bloody arm and heart bits in teeth.
Sook decided that he was writing all the 'blood texts' because the handwriting was the same as the ones he know 'he' wrote and that was his best lead as to who wrote the rest.
After taking his old vest off since it was covered in Zombie drool as well as its blood and brain juices, he put on the slightly cleaner Zombie's vest. Taking off the Zombie's trousers he wiped away at his face cleaning off the better part of whatever he got splashed with and feeling slightly less slimed up he decided to have a bite of the bread.
The bread was as bitter and mouldy as suspected but at least he felt like it was filling him up somewhat.
After his quick bite he saw his candle had reached about half its original size, when comparing it to the other one. It seemed like the candle should last another hour since it had been about an hour since he had lit it.
Quickly finding the usual door he opened it and walked onwards through the new corridor.
This corridor was not as long as the last one however Sook had slowed his pace dramatically till he was almost at crawling speed. Why? So that he did not make a large enough sound for it to be heard by the strange sobbing noise that came from the darkness in the corridor in front of him. The sobbing noise was light toned thinking it must be a girl of some sort crying. Sook thought it may be another person he travelled with but some animal instinct told him otherwise.
He slowly moved through the corridor till he saw the dim pulsating 'blood text' but he found it strange because it was on the door outside the room rather than inside like usual giving off this ominous warning feeling.
Creeping up to the door he looked at the bloody writing
[She sobs and she sobs. Her voice is constant filling these halls, but it doesn't terrify me, no. What terrifies me is when she stops, when she goes silent. That is when I know that I am not safe, that is when I know I MUST run]
(So she's dangerous when she stops crying and running is the best option, how interesting)
Curious about this sobbing thing he quietly opens the door. Luckily this door seems less rusted so there is only a small creak. He stops for a second in anticipation but the sobbing has not stopped.
Peeking inside he sees two things; Firstly is a door to his left, the way out he assumes. To his right is a small child wearing luminescent white dress and flowing black hair. Her back is to him and she is curled up in a ball, sobbing. Something about her doesn't seem human, she definitely isn't. Its because of her luminescent clothes as he pale arms are of the same tint as well as being slightly see through.
(A ghost? so thats why I must run)
Thankfully there is no 'blood text' in the similarly shaped stone cube room, so he sneaks through the room stopping and checking the ghosts reactions every step. Reaching the other side without problem he takes a last peek at the ghost, seeing her still sob and then ever so carefully opens the door with only a tiny creak.
Taking two tiny steps through the doorway he is about to close the door when he stops
...
..
.
The place is quiet, too quiet.
He knew he should heed the advice, he shouldn't look back but his curiosity got the better of him. Turning round his vision is filled with the ghost standing arms length from him.
She looks up at him with her bulbous blue eyes rimmed a puffy red. She is a child as he suspected only reaching up to his waist. Her flowing white dress seemed to flow unnaturally as if wind were blowing through it but her hair was sticking to her skin and clothes as if it wer glued.
"I'm hungry..." She said with puppy-like eyes piercing his giving her a pleading look
Although the child ghost was talking with her high innocent voice Sook could not help but feel the hair rise on his arms. Simply running may not help him.
"I have some bread" Trying to appease the ghost may be his best way out he believes
"I'm hungry..." Saying it with the same innocent tone as before.(Did she not hear me? no that cant be it...)
"Well then what do you want"
"Can I eat you?" her voice remained with the same innocent tone but her eyes flashed to black as she cocked her head questioningly. Lashing out with her left hand claws seemed to grow from her fingers. Jumping back, Sook avoided the claws gutting him but still recieved 5 thin red lines across his stomach. Turning round immediately he began running through the corridor not caring about the revertebrating echo of his footsteps.
He quickly looked behind after a few seconds seeing the ghost teleport about 10 feet in his direction which was just enough to land a scratch on his back with her sharp claws. Feeling the scratch he continued running checking back every couple of seconds to see that instead of walking she stood still flashing around 10 feet every 4 or 5 seconds. Sook has a well trained body so once gaining some momentum he was able to outrun the teleporting ghost with ease but not before suffering another two rounds of scratching leaving his back with a dull feeling.
Running through the corridor the candle blew out and Sook completely blinded continued running anyways. Although there was no light, due to the ghosts luminescent clothes and body she could still be seen in the distance behind him.
Running for another few minutes he saw a dim red light in front of him.
[ Doors do not stop here, however the light is one thing she cannot handle, I found that out when I entered this room,the light here is strong enough to keep her at bay, She doesn't seem to want to touch the light, for some reason I don't understand why]
Opening the door with a great screech I am bathed in a new wave of darkness.
Grabbing another match I relight the candle, slam the door behind me and survey the room: This room is different, it is small and narrow like an entrance of sorts. Actually it is an entrance he decides as he sees a set of curved stairs leading up. On both walls are torches in their brackets, unlit and cold. There are 4 torches on each side, symmetrical. Placing the fire of the candle on the wick of the torch he waits for a few seconds with no reaction. Touching the wick shows it is damp, possibly from the humid atmosphere. Jumping to the next torch he finds it to be damp and the next one and the next one. He continues checking them till he finds the last one to be dry to the touch. Setting his fire on it he watches the wick glow dimly with embers. Blowing softly on the growing embers light starts to spread into the room, but it is not the torch light.
The soft luminescent glow of the ghost appears in the corner of his eyes as she teleports through the door.
Continuing to blow gently on the torch he pays no heed to the ghost.
"Can I eat now?" The glow gets brighter in his eyes as she teleports next to him and lifts her claw-hand to strike.
Dodging away he feels her claws dig through his right side and pull out a chunk of his flesh below his ribs. Without wasting time he continues to blow on the growing torch fire. The ghost nibbles on his flesh licking away at two fist sized chunks with sounds of delight, as if it were as tasty as candy.
"mmm that was good, can I have more?" Raising her arm once more she goes for another chunk.
*AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
The torch bursts into flame visibly dissolving the ghost with its light. Retreating quickly with holes in her face and body she darts into the darkness huffing with eyes closed as she slowly regenerates. Sook putting his right arm under his now exposed right hand ribcage, holds it up while carrying the dismounted torch with his left. He darts towards the ghost girl opens her eyes only to have them filled with strong light thus causing her to dissolve.
Screaming she teleports back but Sook follows her rushing at her with light.
He figured out as he ran that she could only teleport every couple of seconds and only a certain distance. Since he was faster than her he was able to keep up constantly burning her with his light. After a minute of running and dissolving her the last part of her body, her two childlike feet kept going but with Sook smashing his torch on them he burnt them to oblivion.
The feet vanish and all that's left is Sook bleeding steadily, but a lot less than a minute ago, in complete silence.
He stayed that way for a minute doing nothing but stuffing the hold in his side with ripped pieces of his shirt to try stop the blood flow some. He waited to see whether she would regenerate or whether she was well and truly gone.
Luckily for him it seemed it was the latter as if by a way of proof he saw a small ghostly silver coin, the same crude shape as the rusted ones, lying on the floor emmitting a soft glow.
Picking up the coin he added it to the others and started hobbling, putting most of his weight on his left side, towards the stairs.
The stairs themselves looked quite sturdy.
Going up the stairs dripping a small trail of blood from his back he made it to the top where he saw a thick iron door with a long wall of 'blood text' covering it.
[We found ourselves here after Lee died. We don't know what happened but it seems like he was infected with something. He died as we were down there. Leaving his body we came back this way running from the girl and found ourselves at this door, that we must ahve come through but we can't remember for some reason. The door was locked, we couldn't get out, the only thing we could do now was delve deeper and find the key that fits into this hole. Dammit and we almost got out of here, Long and I]
(So those were the names of the twins then. And with that the story seems complete in a way, it explains pretty much everything down here, even the key that I'm holding)
Taking the key out of one of his numerous pockets he quickly found the keyhole and gently twisted the key hearing the click sound of an unlocking door.
Opening the door he meets a small ray of dim light, natural light, the dawn light. Another corridor is infront of him but it is rock and dirt rather than cut stone, it is a tunnel. The light shines into the tunnel because the tunnel is quite short, a dozen metres at most.
Stepping into the tunnel he notices more 'blood text' on the wall to his left
[We arrived at this cave, we do not remember why but according to Lee it seems this isn't the first time we've encountered such a thing. We are all losing our memories, only our names and some basic knowledge remains. I can remember a few days before at most, the same with Long however Lee seems to remember about a week. So we rely on him for past information. None of us know why we come to this place or what this place is, however I have a feeling it has something to do with our memory loss. If things go badly we will try to escape and if,, in the worst case scenario, we lose our minds the text here that I write in my blood, since we lack ink, will allow us to remember or at least learn what our thoughts were and knowledge about this place. Good luck to whomever of the three reads this, We do not have any memories and you probably won't either, so please with all your soul find them]
"I have enough memories as it is, and believe me I'd like to forget them, all of them"
Stepping out of the cave Sook basks in the morning light
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Author's notes:
Ok so if you did not notice, anything in (...) is Sook's thoughts. That should be it on notes for now, just wait for the next chapter