Wiggle.

Wiggle-wiggle.

…

“—’re too heavy,” Lukas complained, his eyes still closed as a growing sensation of wakefulness began to spread throughout his lethargic body.

Wiggle-wiggle.

And what the hell was that feeling? Lukas rolled over on his back, his eyes stubbornly shut and refusing to open.

Normally he would have woken up by now, but his muscles felt heavy and tired and he really just wanted to sleep for a while longer.

Wiggle-wiggle.

“Stop,” Lukas moaned. Who was bothering him this early in the morning? He opened his eyes blearily and—

You have entered ‘The Crypt Of Fiendish Worms’.

Lukas blinked.

And then blinked again.

It was a screen.

A strange, semi-translucent screen floating in the darkness.

Lukas poked it instinctively.

Huh?

His finger passed through it, almost as if it was an illusion or… a projection?

Lukas carefully cupped his hand around the screen, moving his hand all around it. The window did not disappear, nor did it seem like it was being projected from anywhere.

Weird.

Lukas sat up slowly, staring at the strange screen in front of him. Pushing himself backward made the screen float towards him, and squinting only made it look sharper. He tried glancing away, but the window kept sneaking back into his line of sight. Kind of like a lost puppy.

Am I hallucinating?

It was possible. Lukas tried to remember just what he had been before waking up in this… wherever this was. Now that he thought about it, where was he anyway? He tried to look past the screen and—

Wiggle-wiggle.

Frustrated, Lukas looked down at his shirt and immediately froze at the sight. Peeking out from within, with its ugly, black, beady eyes, was a rat.

A big, fat rat.

A big, fat rat covered in grime, with fangs as long as toothpicks.

Before he could react— and likely let out a most unmanly scream —the not-so-little rodent leapt out of his shirt and skittered away into the darkness.

Lukas stared.

It was so surreal that he didn’t even know how to react. Shaking his head, Lukas pushed himself up and looked around.

He was in an enclosed room, a cave of some sort if the large stony walls were any indication. The walls were covered in patches of fluorescent moss, which provided a mild, eerie illumination to the entire area. It was still dark, but it was possible to navigate, especially near the walls.

Classic setup for a horror story.

Lukas snorted at the idea and continued looking around. The floor beneath his feet was cluttered with small chips of rock, and it appeared that he’d been sleeping in a narrow passageway of sorts.

“What is this place?” he wondered aloud.

Naturally, his persistent companion was all too happy to provide him with answers. The window wiggled a bit, like it was shaking off imaginary dust off itself, as the letters on it sharpened.

You have entered ‘The Crypt Of Fiendish Worms’.

“Crypt of fiendish worms?” Lukas muttered, a slow ringing escalating inside his ears. “Is this a joke?”

It is ‘The Crypt Of Fiendish Worms’.

“How… literal.”

The screen obviously didn’t understand sarcasm or rhetoric. Was it some kind of AI? It clearly seemed to have some kind of intelligence, seeing as it was answering his questions.

Still… what was going on?

Lukas frowned. He couldn’t see anyone, but that didn’t mean much here— both the limited light and the screen stubbornly blocking his view made it very hard to ascertain anything.

It felt too real to be a dream but… a floating screen? Really? It was weird and obnoxious and—

And then his memories hit him like a ton of bricks.

Gathering his laptop, rushing out only to be stopped at the door. His apartment falling to pieces—the collapsing walls— a giant chasm —

This time, Lukas really did scream. His head was throbbing as the memories began to become more and more vivid.

Falling bricks and plaster— his twisted leg— working on an article— the pendant cutting into his chest and drinking his blood—

The pendant.

His eyes widened before he yanked it off his neck and tossed it away as far as he could. The ornament bounced off the moss-covered wall, before sliding across the rocky floor and slowly coming to a stop.

…

Nothing happened.

Lukas frowned. It had definitely attacked him. Stabbed him, even. Lukas looked into his shirt, and sure enough, a thin red cut lay across the center of his chest.

Which meant that this was likely not a dream. Or if it was, it was at least a consistent one.

He glanced back at the pendant.

Still no reaction.

Lukas’s fear gave in to his curiosity. Cautiously taking a step forward, he took a closer look at the pendant while still maintaining a respectable distance. And what he found shocked him.

The pendant— something he’d possessed for years —had changed completely.

Gone was the dry grayish sheen and coat of rustic silver. Instead, it was covered in a crystalline sheen of the deepest blue he had ever seen. Ornate gold strands formed a web around it, tapering at the nib.

Unable to help himself, Lukas walked over and picked it up. A strange yet oddly familiar feeling of oneness and comfort sunk deeply into him. Merely picking up the pendant and holding it, touching it made him feel better.

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More complete.

But now another thought, one not so comforting, reared its ugly head.

This was not his pendant.

Or at least, not what it was supposed to be.

His grandfather had told him it was a family heirloom, something that blessed the family with fortune and protection. Lukas had taken the old man’s ramblings with a grain of salt.

Now, he wasn’t so sure. Ordinary pendants didn’t suck your blood, or transform into ornate jewelry for that matter.

Lukas pursed his lips. The cut on his chest, the transforming pendant… if all of that really happened, did that mean the rest was true as well?

The earthquake— the chasm opening and him falling—

Lukas staggered forward, his hand grabbing at the wall for support. Taking deep breaths, he tried to compose himself.

And within his stomach, the pit of uneasiness grew. Whatever was happening, whatever this place was— he needed to get out. Away from this strange mind-fuckery that was the screen that kept calling this—

‘The Crypt of Fiendish Worms’

Lukas shuddered.

This… this screen was somehow able to read his every thought, and it scared the shit out of him. Horrible possibilities were going through his head— from aliens having captured him to perhaps being in some kind of government experiment to—

Deep breaths, Lukas told himself. As helpful as the screen was trying to be, it was freaking him out too much to be of any use.

Taking a few moments to mentally calm himself, Lukas warily stared at the screen floating before him. It had shown itself to be able to respond to him, to communicate with him.

“What are you?”

The window flickered for a second before—

Status Report.

“Right,” Lukas groaned, rolling his eyes. It was very literal. Kind of like in the programming course he’d once taken on a whim— you’d have to put in the perfect questions to get a proper response. That didn’t stop it from being annoying, though.

“You’ve been very informative,” Lukas snarked somewhat pettily, especially considering that it was probably an AI. “Now go away.”

Nothing happened.

Strange. The screen had responded to his thoughts and queries multiple times earlier, so he was fairly certain it was able to understand him.

“Go away.”

Still nothing.

“Disappear! Vanish!” He was practically yelling now. But the screen was still floating in front of him, blocking his vision. Was it planning on just floating there for the rest of his life? Was it waiting for something?

Acknowledgment?

“I have entered the crypt of fiendish worms,” Lukas told the screen, feeling quite silly. Thank god no one was there to hear him.

It ignored him. And this time, it flickered a bit, as if amused by his antics.

Deep breaths, Lukas reminded himself once more.

Deciding to temporarily ignore his stubborn companion, Lukas rubbed his forehead. At least he wasn’t still bleeding. Plus, if the earthquake had really happened, then he should have been feeling a lot worse than he did now.

Chunks of plaster had fallen on him. The very building had collapsed. And if his memory was to be trusted, the very earth had opened up and swallowed him whole.

But despite all that, he felt nothing other than some minor bruising and an aching head.

“How do I—” Lukas paused, clearing his throat. “How do I get out of this place?”

The screen stayed the same, unwavering.

Lukas frowned. Was it unresponsive because it didn’t have enough information, or would it only answer questions of a certain type?

“Okay, how big is this place?” Lukas tried again.

Nothing.

“How did I get here?”

Still nothing.

“DAMNIT!” Lukas felt the urge to break something. It wouldn’t help, but maybe it would make him feel better. He really needed to deal with his growing anxiety.

Deep breaths.

Exhaling, Lukas tried one final time. “Show me a map of this place.”

Lukas nearly cheered when the screen flickered.

Insufficient Local Data.

“...”

Well, it wasn’t particularly helpful, but it showed that the screen was capable of showing messages other than the ‘fiendish worms’ bullshit.

And that, in turn, meant that the screen— whatever it was — was working. All he had to do was ask the right questions.

Lukas stood up straighter. He was a lawyer. He could do this.

“Alright, how do I get sufficient data?”

Consumption of prey in an anomaly absorbs local data.

“And how do I do that?” Lukas asked patiently. Badgering rarely did much good. Instead, he began to treat this like a courtroom, taking a much more nuanced approach to his questions. In his eyes, extracting information was an art form.

Consumption of prey in the Anomaly absorbs local data.

“And what is… that?”

A word used to indicate something, often in a particular direction.

“Are you doing this on purpose?” Lukas asked, unable to help himself.

Yes.

Son of a bitch.

Playing twenty questions was going to lead him nowhere, but this was getting obnoxious. He needed to think this through, ask the right questions with more specificity.

“What are prey?”

Monsters spawned from an Anomaly.

“Monsters,” Lukas said bemusedly. “And you want me to… hunt them?”

Yes.

“And I’m in...?”

‘The Crypt of Fiendish Worms’

“Is this— is the crypt of fiendish worms an anomaly?”

Yes.

Lukas let out a sigh of relief. Quite frankly, getting any information felt mildly euphoric. He was getting somewhere, and this was a good start as any. At least he hoped so.

But more importantly— monsters.

Not animals. Not beasts.

Monsters.

Forget about making them ‘prey’, he’d rather stay the hell away from them.

What did they even look like? And how would he even find them anyway?

This time, there was no witty retort or dry, irritating statement.

Scan - Level 1

So it could… scan?

This was interesting, though. It implied that the screen could actually do things other than just simply hand out information.

“What does scan do?” Lukas asked.

Locates prey.

Lukas nodded. That… would actually be helpful. If there were monsters here, whatever that meant, he’d need to be careful to avoid them.

“Scan for prey.”

Scan (Level 1)

Prey found within scanned range: 0

Lukas peered around at the cavernous environment. There wasn’t anyone here that he could make out at the moment. Not to mention, the wording on the skill was telling.

Within scanned range.

In retrospect, it should have been obvious. Without a range, the screen would scan everything, which would make the information meaningless in relation to himself. And that meant he’d need to figure out exactly how far it could scan, but there was time for that later.

Right now, he was feeling really hungry and thirsty.

He needed to find food and water. And a safe place to sleep, seeing as there were apparently ‘monsters’ here.

But if there were indeed other life-forms here, they’d need to survive somehow. They’d need food and drink, which meant there was likely a water-source here. Maybe an underground water reservoir or something. And if by some chance he found himself a tunnel or drain of something…

It’d mean a way out.

Win-win either way.

Lukas felt his eyes begin to droop. He was beginning to feel thirsty.

No, not thirsty. Tired. Extremely tired.

Sleepy.

Lukas blinked. What was going on?

He tried to regain focus, but the vision in front of his eyes kept zooming in and out of focus. Was he hallucinating again? Was this a dream? Was this—

Something large and black rammed into him, biting into his neck.

“Wha—?”

Lukas’s knees gave away, and he fell face-first onto the ground.

He tried to move, but his body refused to obey him.

He tried to scream, but no sound escaped his throat.

Is this… it?

The last thing he remembered was a new window popping up, its words strangely ironic—

Prey, found you.