Chapter 2 - Probing the wound

The mosquito was still plastered to the inside of her elbow when she began to come awake. She observed it for a while, half asleep and unable to tell the sight apart from the lingering images of dreams:

Empty faces gawking at her with blank eyes, then tearing open across the middle into gaping, black mouths which screamed and buzzed as they spun around her, trying to suck the blood from her veins.

Her eyes were still wet with tears, which made the blood on her forearm seem to be flowing. Along her fingers shimmered red streams, rising to meet on her wrist as a river, then growing over the belly of her forearm to the hollow of her elbow where it pooled as an ocean of blood. The mosquito’s crushed and partially submerged body was like an island, surrounded by a reef made of the broken segments of its legs & wings.

And yet, mosquito was a word that barely seemed to suit the creature. The image associated with mosquito flying around in the girl’s head wasn’t nearly as big as this one. It should have been roughly the span of a fingernail, not nearly as large as her palm.

Come to think of it, how had there been so much blood? It had completely covered the anterior aspect of her forearm and hand. And yet, when she wiped at the still-wet blood with her thumb, she couldn't find a puncture wound, nor even any bruising.

The girl blinked and focused as she noticed the proboscis, detached from the mosquito’s head and yet surprisingly still intact. It was thick and sharp, nearly as long as her pinky, and rolling it between her thumb and index welled up a thought: fourteen gauge. It was made for pulling large volumes of blood quickly, her blood. The memory of a sensation surged up her arm, and she couldn’t tell whether it came from her now-faded dreams or from the preceding events.

She remembered a rushing sting, her basilic vein being quickly drained. A sudden flash filled her mind: the entire venal system of her arm, steadily coursing up to the subclavian vein, down the superior vena cava, and to her heart.

Her head felt heavy, throbbing in pain as jolts of questions and unexpected knowledge menaced to burst her skull open. What was this creature, this mosquito? How did she know about it, about the gauge of its proboscis, about the layout of her venal system? She needed to slow down, take one thing at a time.

Once again, she decided to settle her mind on a single thing. And, although the proboscis felt important, perhaps even valuable, she first turned her attention to her environment: this room.

Upon scrutiny, it seemed to have been made to suit her own size: each of its dimensions approximately one-and-a-half times her own height. She could stand and lay unhindered, but little more. The walls and ceiling were featureless and yet somehow reassuring, firm but not unpleasant to the touch, emanating a soothing warmth. Settled on the floor was some kind of fine dust, a motley of browns, greys and yellows. She fanned it with her hand to test its volatility, but instead of rising in her wake the dust only shifted slightly.

Beneath the dust was beaten earth, similar to that of the other place she’d first been - What could she call it? The circular room, bordered by walls, surrounded by faces, watching, waiting… The thought of the round place made her uneasy, so she quickly put the thought aside and turned her attention to something else.

She’d kept the mosquito’s proboscis in her hand, idly rolling and pressing it. For such a small thing it felt surprisingly resilient, able to bend and give without losing its shape. Looking more closely, she could see that the outside was covered in some kind of sheath, which she could pull back from the tip. From within emerged the mosquito’s mouthparts, the fascicle, amazingly appearing to be in good shape.

The fascicle was composed of six needles of various sizes, each made for a purpose. Two were saw-like, the maxillae, meant to cut through flesh, while two others, the mandibles, held the prey’s tissues in place to be cut. Of the remaining two was a thicker one, the labrum, shaped like a gutter to suck up blood, topped by the tongue-like hypopharynx which served to inject saliva, hindering the victim's defences.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The girl reeled back from her analysis, holding her head. She hadn't expected that a quick look would fill her mind with so much information, and for a moment she felt queasy. She felt the need to put the proboscis down but also thought that it’d be best to keep it clean. The dusty floor was therefore ill-suited and yet was the only available option. Half-heartedly she held it out, and just as she was about to put it down she noticed something that hadn’t been there moments before: a small shelf within reach of her hand, sticking out of the wall and made of the same, grey, material.

At first, she was hesitant to interact with something that had appeared so unexpectedly, obviously tailored to her needs. After a moment’s consideration, she deposited the proboscis, wondering at how perfectly the shelf suited its size. One mystery at a time, she thought. Anyway, the shelf was much better than the floor, no matter how strange it was. Wouldn’t want to roll over in her sleep and stick this bundle of needles in her-

Just then, a single tone rang through the room, low and mellow -

Toooooooom

And on the wall opposite the shelf, there came into being hazy, glowing symbols, wavering and difficult to focus on. The girl tried squinting, then shook her head and tilted side to side, but it wasn’t until she used her fingers to follow the outlines that she realized - they were letters - no, words! And she could read them:

Notice of Commencement

Prepare for

Second Bout

Begin

More

The excitement she felt upon realizing that she could read was short-lived. She didn’t even have time to consider the implications before the meaning of the text dawned on her: she’d have to return to The Round Place, and soon.

Dread rose within her. Could there be a way to avoid having to go to that place again? Hoping to glean some hidden meaning she continued running her hands over the text, then let them linger on the lowest part. Begin More… What could that mean? Was it referring to some additional thing she had to start doing?

Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice the word Begin grow and become brighter under her touch. It was only when the word started to hum that she realized something was happening. She jerked away and stepped back, hoping she hadn’t done anything she’d regret.

Unfortunately, even though she’d ceased touching the wall, Begin had clearly become the biggest and brightest of the words. Then, all at once, it snapped out of existence in a flash of light.

In place of the text now stood an archway, and within it the same shimmering veil of silver and blue she’d seen before. This time, however, the dancing lights mesmerized the girl and drew her closer. Unaware of what she was doing, she approached the veil. And as she neared she began to see through it more clearly, until she stood with her nose nearly touching it.

On the other side was The Round Place: a large, circular space bordered by tall walls. However, there seemed to be some kind of cloud obscuring the tops of the walls where the faces had been. But the visual effect was strange, badly layered, giving the girl the impression that the cloudiness was caused by the veil itself. The only purpose this could have would be to stop her from seeing the faces, until, perhaps, she stepped through…

The thought of doing this filled her with anxiety, a feeling which worsened terribly when she noticed that her right foot had begun to step forward, nearly touching the veil. She leaped backwards, then pressed herself against the wall where the shelf had appeared. From here the veil was entirely opaque, and the girl felt some calm return at being further away.

Her breath had nearly returned to normal when she felt something push against the skin of her back, forcing her to move forward. She whipped around and found that the wall was covered in a veil similar to the archway’s, a forcefield, but glimmering red and purple, slowly moving towards her. She desperately sought for something to grab onto, but the room’s only feature was the… shelf! In panic, the girl grabbed the mosquito’s proboscis, her only possession, before the forcefield could cover it.

No matter how hard she struggled, hitting and grasping for some gap along its edges, the wall of light moved her without any hindrance. Before long it had brought her to the middle of the room, then nearly all the way through. The forcefield bent and swept along the walls on either side, forcing her into a funnel that led her directly toward the archway.

With a mighty roar, the girl braced her feet and rammed her shoulder against the force. But, when her roar died with the end of her breath, and she reluctantly opened her eyes, she found herself in The Round Place, once again watched by the cold, black eyes of these faces. These… spectators.

End of Chapter 2