Two

The forest towered around him. Large trees crowded toward him, their low branches and long, twisting roots coiling around him like starving snakes. The air was hot and humid like a jungle; only it carried a twinge of corruption that seeped into everything around him. The roots and vines holding him in place quickly succumbed to the corruption, their bark peeling back in long, rotted splinters that revealed a plague-ridden pulp that bubbled to the surface.

A stabbing scream echoed through the poisoned forest, a scream of fear and pain. It was followed immediately by another, then another; a cacophony of misery filled his ears with a discordant symphony that turned his stomach and rattled his very soul. It was so loud that Marcus could only think about clasping his hands over his ears, but he had no hands.

He was in the sky now. High up over the land, looking down as the corruption spread like cancer. Verdant forests evaporated before his eyes, leaving nothing but twisted groves of desiccated timber. Vast oceans, teeming with life, boiled as the corruption spread through them, leaving behind a slurry of tepid waters and toxic foam.

He found himself under the ground, standing inside an immense cavern too deep for him to see completely. A galaxy of stars burst into being in front of him, tiny pinpricks of light all swirling around an invisible point far off in front of him. The stars continued to spin and churn, condensing down until each individual point of light was indiscernible from another.

Then, an explosion.

Marcus recoiled from the sudden burst of light, fully expecting a wave of intense heat to turn him to ash. Instead, a pleasant warmth filled him to the brim with energy, so much so that his muscles and even his bones began to ache.

Marcus opened his eyes. The never-ending cave was gone, the bright light from the explosion of stars replaced by a dim glow radiating from the stone still cradled against his naked chest. His body felt stiff, like he hadn’t moved for several days, and his head still held on to the last remnants of a headache that quickly vanished as his mind cleared.

“Damnit… I’m still here.” Marcus cursed as his eyes adjusted to the low light, filling his vision with the domed room and the complex etchings that blanketed it. Before he had fully awoken, he had held out hope that the previous day was nothing but a fever dream, a hallucination brought upon by some illness or perhaps a blow to the head. Any one of those would have been preferable to what turned out to be reality.

Using the plinth behind him for support, Marcus dragged himself to his feet. The pain that had coursed through his broken leg was now gone, and with the utmost care, he slowly started to put some weight onto it.

“What the hell?” He muttered as he put his full weight onto his previously broken leg. “Maybe it wasn’t broken after all?”

With a thought, he flexed his fingers on the hand he had struck the door with. They, too, were perfectly fine, the throbbing pain nothing more than a fading memory. Having healed was strange, to say the least, but when compared to everything else happening to him lately, it hardly registered. He was just thankful that he could now walk normally, and with the dusky glow given off by the stone, he actually had a chance to escape in one piece.

With no other entrance to the room that he could see, Marcus started making his way back the way he had come. With the light from the stone, he could see that the walls of the tunnel had the same complex engravings as the larger room. In fact, the engravings continued uninterrupted all the way back to the long shaft leading back up to the ground floor of the tower.

On his walk back, Marcus had discovered no other rooms, so he knew that the only way out was up. Most of the iron rungs were missing, with large gaps between the ones that were still anchored into the stone wall. Even if they could support his weight, Marcus had doubts if he would be able to bridge the distance between them.

But he had to try.

Tucking the smooth stone into his thin pocket, barely feeling the warmth that still radiated off of it, he rubbed his hands together as he prepared to jump up to the first rusted rung. In one fluid motion, Marcus’ coiled legs sprung upward, his thick fingers wrapping around the metal rod as he reached his apex. It held.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Marcus then focused on the next rung some four feet further up. Using only his upper body, he launched himself upwards, finding the motion much easier to do than he feared. He had always kept himself in good shape; being a bouncer, even at a less-than-reputable strip club, required him to have the strength to back up his station. That need had led him to spend many hours in the gym and for him to dabble in some recreational steroid use. Something he wasn’t entirely proud of.

The next rung, although much further away than the last, was much easier to get to due to the fact that he was able to push off against the first rung with his feet. This put him a little more than halfway to ground level, and the fresh air filtering down to him only urged him forward. The next couple of rungs were within reach, so Marcus simply moved hand over hand until he reached the last one, distributing his weight as best as he could.

With one final jump, Marcus pushed off against the metal rung, his eyes going wide as he felt the rusted iron crumbling with the force. This caused him to fall frighteningly short of the lip of the shaft, his body quickly falling back down towards the hard ground below. Panicking, Marcus flailed his arms, desperately reaching for anything he could as his fingernails dug into the unforgiving stone walls.

Suddenly, his hands found purchase, his entire body slamming against the hard wall and other metal rundles. Then, just as abruptly, the rung he had grabbed onto broke from the wall, sending Marcus falling further down the shaft. With most of his momentum halted, it was much easier for him to clutch onto another rung, this one managing to hold his weight. Unfortunately, the one that had broken free of the wall continued down, hitting him squarely in the face.

“Goddamnit… Fuck!” Marcus shouted as he swung limply from his arms. He could feel the warm trickle of blood flowing from the cut on his forehead, and he tried desperately to keep the crimson fluid from getting into his eyes.

Once he centered himself and the blood seeping from the gash on his forehead slowed, Marcus once again started on his journey to the surface. With two more missing rungs, it was slightly more difficult for him to make any progress, but with his peculiar, newfound strength, he quickly found himself dragging his body out of the shaft and into the light of day.

The inside of the tower didn’t appear nearly as large as it did during the night. Without the shroud of darkness, the space would have been much less intimidating… if it weren’t for the tall mounds of bleach-white bones scattered across the ground.

“Out of the pan and into the fire, huh?” he mumbled to himself as he got to his feet as quietly as he could. He didn’t immediately see what had created the macabre sight in front of him, but that didn’t mean whatever had wasn’t hiding someplace close by.

He really didn’t want to find out if it was.

The empty doorway beckoned him forward with promises of freedom and the warmth of the sun. Still, he fought back the temptation to run as he weaved between the piles of bones. Suddenly, the hollow clatter of shifting bones from the pile next to him caused him to jump with freight, an emasculate squeal finding its way out between his lips.

Turning only his head, Marcus watched the pile of bones with an intensity that would shame the most stalwart watchmen. A viscous fluid, reminding him of thick snot, oozed out from between the disturbing remains. It was semi-transparent, colored a sickening green. Whisker-thin veins ran through it like crimson spiderwebs, and a small heart-like ball trembled in its center.

Marcus was disgusted but also extremely curious. He wondered what kind of mold or fungus this could be but was obviously very hesitant to touch it. Giving in to his intrusive thoughts, he plucked a broken antler from the pile of bones and used it to poke at the phlegmy blob.

It hardly reacted at all as the piece of bone penetrated its surface, only jiggling slightly as Marcus pushed. But as he pulled back, he felt it cling to the bone, refusing to let go.

“Gross…” Marcus whispered with a grimace on his face, letting go of the antler still stuck inside the veiny blob of goo. Having already lost interest in the blob, he turned to continue on his way, only to step into something wet and cold. Looking down, he saw another jiggling mass of snot, its green-hued ‘body’ clinging to his bare foot. It was like stepping in cold dog shit and equally as disgusting. He tried to shake the blob off his foot, but no matter how hard he flung his limb, it refused to let go.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Soon enough, a strange tingle started to crawl across his skin wherever the blob touched. That development concerned him greatly. Marcus grabbed another bone and tried to scrape the goo off of his foot. It didn’t help. The blob ‘climbed’ up his leg, his skin prickling as it did so. Once it touched his ragged pants, the soft fabric actually started to dissolve right before his eyes.

“Oh, shit! Get the fuck off of me!” He shouted out, forgetting everything that was around him as he swatted at the thing climbing his leg. Every time his hands touched the encroaching blob, a wet, squelching sound echoed throughout the open tower, but other than that, nothing happened. It wasn’t until it had slimed its way halfway up his thigh that he got a reaction.

In his frantic slapping, Marcus had managed to hit the trembling ‘heart’ in the center of the mass of snot. The entire thing froze before it began to shake uncontrollably. A hissing sound came from it like an angry teakettle boiling over, and the crisscrossing veins within it pulsed with a faint crimson light. But still, it clung to him like glue.

Latching onto the reaction, Marcus plunged his hand into the mass of slime. Immediately, his hand started to tingle, pinpricks of electricity running across his skin. Wrapping his fingers around the trembling heart, he squeezed with all of his strength. He felt the sinewy mass crumble beneath his grip, breaking apart like a clod of dirt. Instantly, the accumulation of slime lost all of its cohesion, sloughing off of him like a broken water balloon and splattering onto the floor.

A shiver ran down Marcus’ spine as he shook his hand. “Egh… Fucking gross.”

Looking at his hand, he noticed that it was red and irritated like he had poison ivy all over him. His leg was worse, though, with large, inflamed welts that showed exactly where the slime had touched and stung even worse when he touched them. Not wanting to wait around for any more of those nasty things to converge on him, Marcus made his way outside, feeling the stiff breeze blowing through his now-ruined pants.

From the position of the sun, Marcus surmised that it was about noon, but by the thick stubble on his chin and the fact that it felt like his stomach was trying to eat itself, he couldn’t say for certain how long he had been underneath the tower. Most likely longer than a day. He needed to find some water; he didn’t know exactly how he had survived this long without any, but he didn’t want to push it any more than he had to.

Marcus thought that the forest would never end, he had been walking now for days. After leaving the abandoned tower and luckily not running into whatever called it home, he found a small river meandering between the trees. After nearly drinking himself sick and praying that he wouldn’t come down with dysentery, he started to follow the churning waters downstream. He knew that if anyone were nearby, they would most likely be close to a source of water. At least, that was what all of his very limited knowledge about surviving out in the wilderness told him.

So far, though, he hadn’t had any luck. There were several times he thought about turning around and moving upstream, but he had committed himself to this direction. Being wishy-washy over his decisions could very easily lead him to his death.

He had been spending his days walking and eating plump berries from the many thorny bushes lining the banks of the river, while his nights were spent cradling the large stone against his chest to stay warm, all the while listening to the eerie calls of the nightlife amongst the strange forest. He still had no clue where he was, and the strange constellations in the night sky only caused him to grow even more concerned. Still, he had to move on, and that’s just what he did.

Another night fell over the forest, the darkness consuming everything around him. He had made a lot of progress that day; several more miles of forest lay behind him, but an untold distance still awaited him tomorrow. He held the large stone in his hand above his head. The light given off by it had diminished considerably since he had found it, casting a glow scarcely brighter than the stars shining above.

Marcus was on the hunt for someplace to hole up for the night. Ever since he had woken up after finding the stone, the chilly night air hadn’t affected him nearly as much, but that didn’t mean he wished to sleep out in the open, an easy snack for any hungry animal, or those disgusting globs of snot.

Just as he was eyeballing a large tree to climb up into, a sudden shout echoed through the trees. It wasn’t nearby. The voice was almost lost amongst the churning river next to him. He froze, straining his ears against the usual din of the nocturnal forest.

Nothing.

Still, he knew he had heard something and had to find out what it was. If it was a person, then he could finally figure out what was going on.

Marcus forgot all about shelter and went deeper into the forest in the direction he thought he had heard the shout. He wished that they would call out again, but as time passed, he knew that was unlikely. Maybe he had been hearing things?

Just then, a flicker of light shining through the thick trees caught his eye. It was small, but it was there. With anticipation growing in his heart, Marcus changed course and walked towards it as silently as he could. He had to be careful. As badly as he wanted to find someone to talk to, he didn’t know if they were going to be friendly; they could just as easily think him a threat and attack him.

Marcus found his caution to be unnecessary. A burning torch lay discarded on the ground, its hot flames scorching the green vegetation around it. He quickly picked it up, not wanting to burn the forest down around him.

Using the light from the torch, he looked around the immediate area, a deep scowl on his face. Where was the torch’s owner? They must have been the ones who shouted. What happened to them? Did something attack them? All of these questions raced through his mind as he played Sherlock Holmes and investigated his surroundings.

“Well, shit.” He was a very poor detective. Marcus didn’t find any clues to what may have happened, it was a total mystery. “At least there’s that…”

A very obvious trail opened up before him, the thick vegetation cut away by something sharp. He could imagine those jungle explorers with their machetes, cutting away thick vines and imposing shrubs as they cleared a path toward an ancient ruin.

Maybe they were heading toward the tower he had left behind?

Whatever the reason, they had left a path back to wherever they had come from, and he would take advantage of that. Maybe they had a camp? He just had to keep an eye out for whatever had snatched up the torch’s previous owner.

Following the trail back only took Marcus half an hour, and what he found at the end of it was nothing short of life-saving. A small tent had been pitched next to a fallen tree. It was made of thick canvas and was just big enough for two people. A bed of embers smoldered not far from the entrance to the tent, a ring of fist-sized stones keeping it contained.

What really caught his eye, though, were the two portly birds roasting on spits just above the glowing embers, dripping fat onto them with a satisfying sizzle that filled the air with a mouthwatering aroma. Marcus’ stomach spasmed in ravenous expectation as he eyed the meat, and he didn’t even bother removing the bones as he tore into them with gusto.

It had turned out to be a wonderful night.