We had driven until six at night, reaching the absolute outskirts of Crestland, and by now the apartments and houses were much further apart. We spoke to each other as we drove, but most of it was just nonsense. After what had happened, we were just trying to assure each other that we weren't dreaming, and that we weren't under some kind of hallucination at any given moment. I told myself and the others that I would notice if it happened again, because it had happened twice to me, Jared and Aaron so far, so we knew what it was like... but of course, I was just saying that to comfort myself and the others. Did I really have any way of telling? Often, I would think something along those lines, and start to lose a grip on reality... I just had to bury it. I just had to focus on getting to the manor. Illusions or not, these things were deadly. We just had to survive.

Soon, we decided on a place to stay, when we saw a strange orange glow close to the horizon, covering as far as we could see, actually lighting up the sky as we drove closer to it.

"Is that a fire?" Sarah asked, peeking through the windshield from her seat.

"It kind of looks like a sunset," I said, "But the sun should have already set by now."

I felt the tension rising in the air as we came closer to it. What was it? Were we going to regret coming this way? But... that was the only way, because... the light was all around us. There was no other road.

By then, we were almost to the source. The light shone as far as I could see.

I slowed the van, and Jared opened his door and stepped outside. The rest of us followed him with our knives in hand. I stared at mine as we walked towards the light. Yeah... it didn't even work as a placebo. What the hell was a kitchen knife going to do against the kind of things we've seen? If only it had just a little bit more of a reach to it, then I could have deluded myself into feeling almost comfortable. I lifted my head up again; we were about twenty feet from the source of the glow. It wasn't all that bright, despite covering a wide area it was dim.

I squinted... did I see a ledge at the source?

Yes. It was definitely a ledge. We made it close enough that I could see the light was coming from a huge crack in the ground. It must have been about thirty feet or so to the other side.

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Our pace slowed as we dreaded what we would see in that crevasse. I glanced to the West. The glow, and by extension the huge crevasse... it went on pretty far that way. I felt a slight squeeze in my stomach.

It actually looked like it went on for... a very long distance.

We had made it to the edge of the crevasse.

"Hey..." Jared muttered, staring down at the mind boggling sight before us, "Hey, hey, hey, hey... what the hell does this mean?"

The crevasse was around forty feet across to the other side, there was no way in hell we'd be able to cross it. The glow... it was coming from over a hundred feet below us.

The bottom of the crevasse was filled with magma, the rain sizzling away before it reached the bottom, and...

I heard Sarah stumble and fall back behind us. Aaron grabbed tightly onto my arm.

"What...?" was all I could mutter.

Halfway submerged in the magma, crawling and writhing forward, was a massive worm-like shape that jiggled like rotted jelly as it moved. It covered almost the entirety of the crevasse. From what I could see under the... things... that covered its body, the texture of its skin was more like a jellyfish than any worm I had ever seen, and was slightly transparent so that the glow of the magma came through its body. Whenever it moved or magma splashed up against it, its whole length would wriggle and dance. It inched forward, its two heads, both of which hardened into a cone shaped face made of a more opaque and fleshy substance, felt around it as it moved.

It took a moment for my brain to process what was piled all along its body, slowly sinking in and melding with its jelly skin. Mountains of earth, mud, metal, scraps, pieces of cars, buildings and other things, pipes, and... human corpses. Hundreds of rotting human corpses and skeletons blanketed its body, seeping and melting into its flesh, like ice-cream left out on a hot day.

The four of us wordlessly followed it with our eyes as it inched along out of our sight, showing us that the glow and by extension the crevasse... went on as far as I could see. My stomach tied itself into a knot as I realized it went on much farther than my vision could even reach. And even worse... the glow curved to the south. Meaning... the crevasse barred our passage to the West.

"Look..." Sarah managed to choke out, pointing down at our right in the crevasse.

A pair of fleshy cone-shaped heads twirled and squirmed forward, dragging its massive jiggling body behind it. This one too was carrying a morbid load on its back. We watched its corpse filled form until it passed us by... and another one entered our sight. The corpses melding into it looked like they were screaming and writhing in agony as its body jiggled. My God...