MARK:

I gape, both awed and horrified.

A never-ending stream of red is shooting out of a purple portal that randomly appeared. The line of pouring red stops mid-air, just a couple meters in front of the portal, and as if stopped by a fish net, it begins condensing into a constantly swelling ball right in front of the portal. The ball, at its maximum size, is roughly the size of a soccer field. Then, without warning, the ball of red explodes, violently dispersing in four directions, like beams of light shooting out of a supernova. This mesmerizing process of condensing, inflating and dispersing plays on repeat.

"Aaaaaa!"

The screech jars me out of my trance, and I am finally able to tear my eyes away from the ethereal collection of red. I stare off into the distance, trying to locate the source of the sound. And after a minute of searching, my weaving eyes finally land on the source of the screech.

A miniscule red flies up in the distance, with a tiny human-like form squirming beneath it – like a bird carrying off its worm – and judging by the distance it seems like the victim was picked from the crowded masses of foot-walkers and office goers of early morning Wall Street.

Ahh, what a pity.

What a pity that it wasn't me who got carried away.

Should I just die?

A tempting offer. It, for sure, is a surefire way to let this wallowing misery end quickly. I mean, all I have to do is to just allow myself to be seen.

To be found.

I silently watch as the tiny flying red dot – with its dangling, wriggling prey underneath – flies back into one of the branches of the giant red stream that leads to Who-Knows-Where.

Following this excellent demonstration, a thousand more red dots detach from the giant red stream, touch down to the ground, and rise back up into the air—with their tiny worms wriggling in their claws underneath. They head straight back into the red pulsing vortex and merge back into it.

I ponder on the sight before me – laminating my choice – but then I hear an echoing crack descending from the sky above, an extremely eerie crack, one that is followed by a 'Kree' of harmonious ecstasy.

Blood rains before me.

The sky fills with pouring fountains of blood as both the moans of ecstasy and crying screams mingle together into one giant orchestra of hell.

That doesn't sound very good.

The undigested contents of my hasty morning meal threaten to bounce back into my mouth as the situation I most desired, and now dread, lands right in front of me—the tiny red dot.

Instinctually, I cower; my head bent low, my body freezing in spot, my feet supplant to the pavement below me. Like a deer caught in the headlights, unsure whether to duck and run, or stand and accept death.

Mustering together the sparse entropies of courage left within me, I look up, my eyes quivering with uncontrollable tears. And I find it just standing there, staring back at me like a curious little kid. But just as I start to relax, a little smile stretches across its hideous face, an array of pointed jagged fangs protruding to decorate its canine snarl.

That's a red dot no more.

The stark red hue of its otherworldly body mesmerizes me. It's as if its whole body is covered in blood–and maybe it was–I just wasn't able to tell it apart. Getting over the fact that even its entire body resembled a big 'Danger!' sign, I look it in the eyes; if I am to die here, I won't do it lying down.

Eyes the color of hellfire shine back at me—my whole body shudders involuntarily. This must be what a prey feels when it's stuck in front of its predator with no way out, just stuck wallowing in its own self-doubt.

I can escape, no I can't.

I can flee, no I shall perish by thee.

A pointed tongue pokes out of its mouth and wraps around the sharp fang-like teeth, cleaning them diligently, in anticipation of biting into me. A trident tail whips around behind it - like it's a tiger enjoying its hunt.

It steps towards me, and I instinctually flinch, backing away.

I feel the hourglass of my life dropping to its last few grains of sand.

"#•{$×°•[¢{$}|" a screeching laugh. I understand nothing but the laugh, the horrid laugh clears my foggy mind a little.

'Oh shit, what the fuck do I do now? I wanted this to happen, so, should I just die?'

No, you have too many people relying on you.

Shouts my conscience. I gotta run.

I turn around and sprint, with my non-existent tail tucked between my feet. "Kree!" I hear its cry of glee behind me, and that only pumps me into a more desperate flee. Flailing my arms and legs around me I try to run as fast as I can, but my years of inactivity show through even with an adrenaline pump aiding me.

'Ack' I trip on the elevated sidewalk and fall face-first upon the hard pavement. The enclosing laugh of joy prompts me to roll over on my back just in time to see the tiny red demon striding towards me. It's back hunched, eyes wide, it looks like a tiger crouching for its kill.

No.

I look for an escape, any escape. My eyes desperately search the area for a way out, but with the limited time available I find myself unable to locate any, but just as I am about to give up, I see it.

If I can't escape from it above ground, then I shall dive underground.

Dragging myself backwards like a prey about to give up I scurry on backwards to my square shaped way out of this damned mess. The demon lunges towards me, its fangs bared and claws pointed to daggers to impale me.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Thunk

Face-planting against the cold hard metal lid that I pulled at the last second, the creature lies splat on the ground in front of me, presumably unconscious, but not for long.

Wasting not a second longer, I slip my feet into the manhole, and finding my feet hit a deftly sturdy ladder I shimmy my way in, closing the lid behind me.

Thak

Landing on solid ground at the bottom of the ladder I stand up straight. I didn't even fall down one third of the amount I thought I did. Turning around to survey the area I hit a wall, "The heck, is this just a hole in the ground that someone randomly dug and forgot to complete?" I murmur to myself, my frustration seeping into speech. It's like I hurried myself into my own metaphysical grave.

Running my hands along the ice-cold wall in front of me I find a small opening – a vent like gap at the bottom – on level with my feet. Squatting down I inspect the hole in the wall, and find it to be just the right size for me, but further examination shows it'd be a tight fit, if I were to actually try going in. Hmm, maybe I can wait my time out here in this nice little metaphysical grave.

"KREE!" the demon begs to differ. Looking up I find a pair of red tiny hands jutting in through the bar gaps on the lid, trying desperately to reach me, to rip into me.

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Ha, such irony.

Looking back and forth between the hole at my feet and the jutting hands above my head I again have the sinking feeling that the aforementioned hourglass is accelerating its draining. I hesitate only a second longer until I hear another pair of Kree add to the chorus of Krees, now two pairs of red hands jutting in through the gaps. Red bodies violently bashing against the thrashing lid, the ferocity on display utterly savage in its nature.

With an unintended yelp, I practically dive into the hole and start crawling along it on all fours, the width of it is only enough for me to do push ups, not that I could do them anyways.

The speed of my crawl rises in tandem with the rising melody of bashing bodies behind me, I hope I'm hallucinating all those increasingly adding Krees.

"Oh shit!"

My hands almost slipped - turns out constantly looking back while crawling on all fours was more of a risk than a precaution. So I finally dedicate the entirety of my attention to 'watch where I'm going'.

In trying to visualize my surroundings with my extremely limited vision and a general feel of the area by my bare searching hands, I discover that the gaping void in front of me is just a bend in this oddly shaped passageway – which I assume is a ventilation pipeway – and luckily my bare groping hands finally land on a ladder leading to its dangerous cryptic depths.

"Ouch!"

I cut myself on a jutting metal spike as I clumsily attempt to realigning myself to go down the ladder. I think I'm going to need a tetanus shot for this, but where the hell am I even gonna find that? Hell's broken loose upstairs.

"KREE!"

Thrash

"Fuck." A spotlight shines in the distance. The demons have finally broken in, no doubt aggravated by the smell of fresh blood that's still dripping from my right forearm. Pushing my back against the wall of the vent I try to keep my feet as steady as possible on the ladder as I fish out the handkerchief I always carry in my back pocket. I need to tourniquet the open wound on my forearm.

I only get a further two minutes before I see a toddler sized red head with horns poking its head into the opening of the hole. And then the outpour begins. A second redhead joins the first, then three, four and finally five. As the first demon enters in through the opening, it's claws already reaching for me, multiple hands grab onto it – tugging so hard that the creatures legs tear right off with a chree sound, and still the God forbidden creature crawls towards me on its arms – and following this all the remaining creatures jump into the opening, blocking the light off completely. I'm blind yet again.

Wasting not a second longer I begin to descend the steps in a panic – my palms sweating buckets – and sure enough, I slip.

"Aaaaaaaaa."

Thwack

Crack

I land hard – straight on my legs – unable to even change my posture to better suit the fall due to the narrow space around me. With the crack I heard upon impact, accompanied by the immense stabbing pain in my left leg right now, I conclude that I've fractured my left ankle. I begin to move my leg though, an attempt to try and assess the degree of damage.

"Ack!" Any kind of movement seems to exacerbate the pain.

Closing my eyes I take a deep breath, hoping that my darkened vision adjusts within the few seconds I can give it. Looking up I see nothing – but wait – ahh, THANK GOD! I hear an ongoing massacre above me. I imagine the demons are still preoccupied tearing each other up, trying to get to me. Retightening the makeshift tourniquet on my forearm I turn to see where the ducts will lead me to next, I only pray that I don't end up at a dead end.

I hope not. I think I've finally been given a break from the constantly looming ill fate that has assaulted me today. The passage in front of me is spacious enough to allow me to walk from here on out, and I just hope it stays this way.

Limping as fast as my broken ankle allows me to, I reach a seemingly closed off end, but, if I've learnt anything in here in the past half hour then it's that this vent passageway is more deceitful than even my past SicroMoft colleagues. So, again, I resort to feeling my way through to the seemingly dead end - and sure enough, I find a ladder at the very end of the passageway, a ladder leading up.

A bandaged right arm and a limping left leg - what an optimal condition to climb ladders.

Gripping the ladder tightly with my left hand I try to consciously pump adrenaline into my brain—to no avail. I desperately begin to think of a way to work my way around my injuries to climb this ladder all the way up, fast.

Thwack

"Oh, what now!" exclaiming silently I turn – half irritated, and fully terrified – and I just gape, mouth ajar. I stare dumbfoundedly for two minutes straight, completely unbelieving at the scene displayed before me. In about half a day, I did not just see all hell break loose – hellish creatures swarming all around – but I also got to see a mauled corpse of said hellish creature, dead.

In front of me, laying splat like a drenched piece of cloth, was the presumably red dead demon. And it looked almost as if its insides were scooped out by a massive spoon and only the skin left remaining—like how you would separate the skin of a cow after slaughter. I avert my eyes, my mouth thickening with bile again, I feel like I'm gonna puke.

As the red drenched skin lay there, it's shining golden eye – reflecting the miniscule beams of light – stares back at me, and a morbid kind of curiosity creeps up within me; to touch it, see how it's coarse looking skin feels against mine. Unbeknownst to me, I inch forwards, towards the damned creature. The creature that two minutes ago tried to dig into me, to rip me apart. But, even before I take a proper step forwards, the red skin starts to glow. And the intensity of that glow just keeps increasing, it increases to such a high luminosity that it resembles a red light bulb. And then with a sudden 'poof!' the demon – or rather demon skin – bursts. It showers its immediate vicinity with a brilliance of red and gold flakes of ashes. On the ground, the corners of those ashes are still alight with the embers of flames – flames of hell – presumably.

I snap back into reality with a resounding echo of screeching Krees. What the hell are you screeching for, you're the ones who killed this damned creature.

I need to run, I need to get out of here, if I want to stay alive.

With no time left to spare to hesitate over my choices, I turn, the ladder is still where I left it.

I honestly am unable to discern fact from fiction anymore.

Grabbing onto the ladder with my left hand, I heave myself up, securing my right leg firmly on the step of the ladder, I wince at the jolting pain that goes down my left leg on the slightest contact.

Senses of flight, fear, and pain rages a war within me.

Instigated by the howls of massacre that progressively inch closer to me, I fully extend my right arm to start my ascension, wincing at the stretching wound on my forearm. A tiny stream of blood leaks from my stretching wound, and spirals down my arm, but I have no more time to spare. Ascending at a moderate pace I cautiously begin to hope for salvation, I have an odd feeling that I'm close to an end of sorts, whatever the nature of that end may be.

Thud

I did it! I've reached the end. Never in my life have I been so happy to bump my head against a hard surface. Descending a little, I utilize my left arm to feel around above my head, and my patience pays out. I find a latch, this must be like a trap door that opens up. My hope of salvation has not betrayed-

"KREEEEE!"

Thwack

No. Not now, not when I'm this close to the end. It's not real as long as I don't look at it, right? Yes, it's not real. But the snarls of battle prove my delusions wrong.

Trembling – whether from the cold or from my exhaustion I know not – I turn my head to take a peak, but am faced with a sight no human should have to look at.

It looks like rabid beasts fighting - with the ferocity amped up to the max. Clawing, scratching, snarling, tearing. The havoc continues. And I stay still, absolutely still.

They won't notice me if I don't move, right?

The raging, mauling, screeching sounds, however, abruptly die down to a whisper—following a moaning whimper. Have they killed each other? The space is as dark as it is quiet.

Bam!

I stare in absolute awe as brilliant bursts of red and gold flakes light the closed space into full brightness. And that's when I see it.

In the midst of three other corpses, standing with its head bent down and its back turned to me, is a towering demon that is truly washed with red, a disturbing red—a stark contrast to the ethereal red that naturally colors it.

Explosions blast all around it. The elegant red and gold flakes spotlight it wholly, exposing its starkly vivid form. Like paparazzis taking flash photography, thus allowing me to see it all.

Towering approximately at six feet – the size of some adult humans – the giant stands tall. Its elongated claws, drenched with blood, are sharpened to a piercing point. It's back is lined with hard muscles, muscles that similarly coat its entire form. And to finish its horrific form; a thick trident tail juts out from its rear end, with its terminal end raised aloft—touching a pair of massive red wings that are tipped with horns.

Twisting its neck, it looks at me, a glowing golden orb of eye looking straight through me, like I'm the only drop of water left in a well gone dry. Its demonic face breaks into a snarling smile, jagged fangs decorating its wide brimmed smile.

Thok, thok, thok.

"IS ANYONE!"

Thok, thok, thok.

"Is anyone there! Please-"

Thok, thok, thok.

"HELP, HELP ME!"

The demon turns completely and begins to walk towards me, it strides calmly – patiently – savoring its hunt to the end. The remaining of the explosions slowly die out, leaving me in darkness yet again. The last image I have of it is of its snake-like tongue swiveling around its sharp pointed fangs, cleaning them in wild anticipation.

The darkness is scary.

I hear noises, yells, and shouts above me—but do I care at all now? It's the end for me.

Sighing out deeply for the first time since all this mess began, I take a deep breath in, and close my eyes, preparing myself for the death that walks towards me. My fear subsides as I think of the ones I've truly loved in my life. There's no benefit in pining after the regrets, so instead I try to find peace in having lived a life, and hope that I've done some good in it. I feel the ladder strain under me, the demon si probably shaking it to drop me. It doesn't even bother to fly. Ha, as if I care.

I just hope I can go painlessly.

Creak, creu, THOOM.

Light. A brilliant white light bathes me from above. Heavenly light, it's here, take me. I ascend, pulled up by the arms, do the angels assist me?

It all goes black as I slip into a peaceful sleep. The last thing I hear is a guttural cry of frustration and fury—and . . .

"Quick, help me you idiot, pull him up."

"What the fuck, is that- is that Mark?"