The ground wasn’t beneath Tom’s feet and yet he was standing. That was, until he fell over. A string of vulgar breath poured from his mouth.

“Anger. Mustn’t have…” came the voice like whittled bone and mirrors at midnight, but Tom only registered his own ragged inhalation.

Tom gasped, battling his asthma and holding his eyes shut. Had he just heard a voice? “What the hell just happened guys?” he asked.

“In light you aren’t. Welcome to my darkness…” it told him.

Tom opened his eye’s and was met with the raw hideousness of whatever entity had attacked them earlier. His heart stopped for the briefest of moments.

“I am Volthrigrax,” it told him.

Tom reigned his terror with ropes of adrenalin and scrabbled away from the creature, no sound leaving his lips.

“Fear is a force of life.”

Yes. A force that kept life alive.

Tom took off, barreling in whatever direction was away from the foul monster before him. His powerful steps made no sound against the wispy navy ground that swirled around his ankles.

Where the hell am I? What on earth is this…

Something snagged the toe of his battered skateboard shoe and set him tumbling down what must’ve been a hill. His sense of up and down deserted his mind as he thudded against solid ground several times before coming to a halt.

Coughs. Many coughs followed by drawn out wheezing.

Jesus Christ. I’m dead. I’m freaking dead. This is hell.

Tom was flat on his back, the wispiness of the ground swirling above his eyes.

He sat up and coughed more, then let his gaze wander, searching for the creature that sought to destroy him. It hadn’t pursued him.

Ha! The demon couldn’t keep up!

Whatever the hell this place was, Tom knew he had to get out. He clambered to his feet and tried to brush dust from his cargo shorts but there was none. The fabric felt cold to his touch, like it had just been removed from a refrigerator.

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Tom shuffled his feet on the ground. It wasn’t flat like a floor, he was certainly outdoors, but there was no sun in the sky. Just a purple haze.

Screw this. I need to move before that demon shit catches up to me.

He started to walk, taking in the weirdly terrible environment around him. He couldn’t see far, like as if he was shrouded in fog, but the air, although cold and laden with a cocktail of disturbing scents, was not humid. Ruins of unidentifiable material crumbled like stale biscuits as he clambered over them. Spectacular luminescent plant-like formations swayed before him, like as if they were ten miles deep in the ocean. Lithe figures darted, loped, flew and scuttled, just past the end of his vision. But Tom cared for none of these.

I need to find a damn way out of here. How the hell did I even get here? C’mon Tom, use that thick head of yours and think as to why… ohhhhh… I’m tripping.

This wasn’t the first time Tom had been disoriented as a result of Alec’s ideas, but it was certainly the worst.

Ok alright… cold water, yeah? How the hell am I supposed to find cold water here? Maybe I could…

A being surged across his line of sight. Some sort of centipede with praying mantis arms and the head of a sloth with a crocodile jaw that made Tom reel backwards and terror. Something else, with feathers covering its legs and a rotund body with a gaping maw of a mouth scuttled after it.

Tom’s wheezing picked up again.

Christ. This trip is-

The first creature flew pas thing again, nearly knocking his head and letting out a blood curdling screech. Tom’s blond locks fell over his face as he staggered, and through them he saw the bigger creature barreling towards him.

“LIVING!” it seemed to holler.

Tom threw himself out of the way and took off, but it flew straight after him, swinging its gangly pincers. “Get away from me!” he cried, tripping and tumbling forwards as it glided just over him.

“The soul burns!” it screeched, veering around like a lithe shark in the gloom.

Tom slid down an ashy hill, rolled once and landed on his feet, utilizing what he’d learn through years of attempted burglary. The demon faced him, staring him down with two red, football sized, globular masses for eyes that locked onto him like a tractor-beam. “Stay the hell away from me,” Tom hollered, lifting his fists.

I don’t care if I can’t fight it. I’m not running like a pussy.

The demon swayed left and right, hovering six feet off the ground yet its pincers were brushing the ground wisps. Then, like a rocket, it surged towards him.

Oh shit.

Tom was stunned into stone as another demon, half the size but with double the appendages smashed into the mantis looking one, and like a car wreck they tumbled into the darkness.

It took a moment for thoughts to return to his mind. “Ok then,” he muttered, parting his blond locks away from his eyes.

He coughed some more, then spent a minute wheezing as he waited for his asthma to calm, then looked around. More ruins, weird plants, bones and movement in his peripheral vision.

When there’s nowhere to go, best place to head is forwards.

He took a last deep breath and took a step forward.

However, his foot never reached the ground.

And quite literally, he vanished from existence.

For a moment at least.