15, Illusions and Terror. Part 1

When I regained my vision the scenery had changed.

The sky was still blue but the grassy field and weapons wrack were gone.

This time I was surrounded by water.

Lots and lots of water.

I was Lying on what would be called a paddle board in my past life, only I was missing the paddle so it was more like a surfboard that was a bit too big to maneuver.

Trying not to tip myself over, I sat up and looked around to see if anything else was around me.

Ideally I would have a paddle within arm reach but I wasn't expecting things to be that easy.

I found the paddle but it was floating 2 meters away behind me, just bobbing slightly in the water.

It didn't seem to be all that difficult to reach so I figured that getting the paddle wasn't the challenge and it would make itself known soon.

I didn't have long to wait.

A large, curved and pointed dorsal fin soon broke the surface of the water along with a large tail fin.

The two fins in the distance turned to point in my direction before moving towards my little raft.

I tucked my limbs in tight bracing as I refused to rock the 'boat' meanwhile my mind immediately jumped to a conclusion.

"F*ck F*ck F*ck F*ck, It has to be a shark! Why does it have to be sharks???"

My shrill panicked voice sounded especially loud in the quiet surroundings as fear took hold of my mind while petrifying my body.

I tried to take a deep breath and in a rushed voice I tried talking to myself saying that this was all an illusion.

"Calm down, calm down, calm down, CALM DOWN! It's just an illusion! I don't know if it's a shark. It could be a dolphin. A very friendly dolphin or some other friendly fish. It could be some friendly fish right? It's definitely a friendly fish. People are friends not food. Friends not food. Friends Not Food!"

I tried to talk myself down from the consuming panic and it seemed to start working since my voice started to lose its ear piercing tone, then the fin of whatever that fish was disappeared below the surface as I ended my rambling.

I finally let out a deep breath of terror as I thought that the big fish found another friend to go after.

Boy was I wrong.

Seconds Later the fin popped up once again giving me the biggest scare I'd received in this life as I got an up close and personal look at the size of it.

It popped up right next to the paddle floating 2 meters away and the length of the fin was slightly longer than the floating paddle, and it was taller than I am while sitting on the paddle board.

The distance between its tail and fin was over 3 times the length of the paddle itself.

I was leaning slightly to the left, looking behind me at the paddle when it broke the surface once more.

I screamed in terror as the creature was even bigger than I had imagined before when it was in the distance.

If this was only its fins, how big would the entire creature below be?!

My weight was already off balance and its appearance caused me to jump, sticking out my hands to catch myself, but there was nothing but water.

Everything seemed to slow down as my hands entered the water first and I felt my mouth go dry and my heart beating so hard it wanted to break out of my chest and escape.

But there was nothing it could do as I continued my fall into the water face first, cursing at my fate to be consumed by this great fearsome predator of the sea.

I finally hit the water and my vision went dark.

A few instants later when I could see again I took a deep breath of relief as I remembered that this was all an illusion and that my body was safe, this was all a test for my mind.

I closed my eyes and tried to erase the terror that the last illusion instilled in me, that experience was enough to give me plenty of nightmare material.

Only when I felt brave enough to face the next illusion did I open my eyes.

I knew that this one was different because I could feel the dry heat on my skin, as well as a burning sensation on my feet and a horrible itch from the long pants and shirt I was wearing.

Finally opening my eyes I was relieved to find my guess was correct, there was no water in sight.

Instead I was surrounded by sand, for as far as I could see there was nothing but red rolling dunes.

I was clothed in heavy itchy pants and a sweater that were made with some kind of raw wool and worse, my shoes were nowhere in sight.

The sand was uncomfortably hot on my bare soles.

It didn't take long for me to become covered in sweat, a few minutes later I had all of my clothes clinging to my body, exacerbating the itchy feeling.

I wanted to take the clothing off but I knew it was better to wear something than nothing in the sun.

Besides, even if I wanted to take it off I would either have to carry it or put it on the ground and get it covered in sand.

Carrying it would be more annoying than wearing it and if it had to be put back on later, having it covered in sand would be multiple times worse.

Neither option sounded good so I decided to bear with the itching since it was the best choice of the bad options.

I picked a direction and started walking, there was nothing to see but sand, sand, sand and more sand.

The sun was relentlessly beating down and the mix of the heat, sweat and itchy clothing were enough to make some major cracks in my resolve.

I had begun to start regretting coming to this stupid fourth floor.

It had brought me nothing but misery, panic and pain.

I was beginning to think that the illusion this time was going to be a test of endurance to try and break my will and determination to progress.

I decided to make it to the top of one the largest dunes I could see to get a better view of the surroundings.

I was hoping that there would be something in the distance that i could walk towards, maybe a city, a big rock, an oasis.

I would be happy with anything at this point

After walking for 15 minutes I was not even 1/3rd of the way to the dune I had chosen, I began to think that this was going to be far more difficult than I had anticipated.

I had been in this illusion for over an hour already and my mind was in horrible condition at this point, not to mention my body.

After another hour with the sand continuing to burn my feet, the incessantly itchy clothes sticking to every nook and cranny of my body rubbing my skin raw I finally crested the top of the hill.

Finally reaching the top of the giant sand dune I fell onto my back and looked up at the sky in exhaustion.

Despite knowing I had no body and this was all simulated by my mind, my mouth was parched and lips were cracked.

My feet were burning, blistered and bleeding in certain areas with sand stuck under the nails and mixed in with the cuts.

These stupid, infuriatingly, hellish itchy clothes were testing my sanity again and again each second and every step.

This sucked but the worst part of all was the thirst, I had been sweating incessantly since the first 5 minutes in this dessert and my thirst had reached unprecedented levels.

Even if I considered myself a good person and had never thought about killing anyone before, I would definitely kill for a bottle of water at this point.

Even if I had to deal with some sharks, I would take some water.

Well maybe not if there were sharks but I would definitely consider it.

All I wanted was even a drop of water, and this sweat didn't make it any easier.

The sweat had plastered my hair to my head and it constantly ran down into my eyes and stung my lips when it reached my mouth.

I knew I shouldnt stay on the ground for too much longer, I made it up the dune with great difficulty and now I had to find where to go next.

I pulled myself to my feet and winced as my injured feet rested on the burning sand again.

I quickly twisted them to get to the cooler sand below the surface, this was brutally painful but so much better than walking along the hot surface sand.

I had started walking like this halfway up the hill as I remembered the one time Lisa told me about how the top sand was always hotter than the sand below at the beach.

I had made it the rest of the way while shuffling my feet under the sand, dealing with the grits that got under my toenails as I went.

It was very uncomfortable but it was better than the sand that seemed to get hotter and hotter as I progressed.

I had never missed my shoes so much as I realized how much comfort I lived in before.

Lifting my gaze from my ruined feet I looked around me and the view from atop the hill showed me something that filled me with despair.

There was nothing.

All around for what must have been miles and miles was nothing but this infernal sand which I had grown to hate with all my heart.

It wasn't that I didn't like sand before, I simply thought there was nothing nice about it.

Now I know that it was not only unappealing but it was horrific and extrordinarily inhospitable.

As I realized that there was nowhere for me to go, that I was stranded here until the illusion let me go, I fell to my knees.

"How much more do I have to take?! Tell me!!!"

My heartbroken voice rang out in the hellish landscape.

The combination of heat, discomfort, dehydration combined with a lack of destination finally made my sanity start to slip.

"Why? Why?! Why?! Why? Why?! Why? WHY!!!!"

My emotional state was fluctuating like crazy.

I went from sad, to empty, to bitter, to remorseful, to regretful, to confused, to Furious.

This was supposed to be a fun fantasy world.

I learned that life was cruel and unfair in my last life, this life was supposed to be different.

But here I am, stuck in the sand world with nothing but this bodily pain and suffering to keep me company.

"F*ck you SAND! F*CK YOU! AHHHHHHH– "

I began to curse in my fury at this situation as I screamed out in a fit of rage that was cut short by something.

out of the corner of my crazed wide eyes I saw something dark approaching fast over the red sands.

It was like an endless black tide washing over the angry hot red sand, it filled me with conflicting emotions.

My first thought was 'WATER!' but my rational mind hadn't quite let go of me yet as it quickly dashed that hope.

Water wouldn't be that black and even if it was water I couldn't safely drink it.

I was happy regardless of what it was since it meant that the illusion would reach its climax and end soon, but it also meant that it would get worse before it was over.

The tide approached rapidly and soon it was close enough I could identify what it was.

Bugs.

All kinds of insects and crawling things.

Arachnids, scorpions, millipedes, centipedes, cockroaches, dung beetles, scarabs, and more.

Many more.

There were countless numbers of them, enough to blanket everything in sight in a sea of black carapaces.

Now if there were one or 2 of them I wouldn't be afraid at all.

I could just kill them and be done with it, but 10s of millions?

When I was already on the verge of despair with my body feeling like it is ready to fall apart regardless of my desires?

That is way too many.

With no thoughts to the condition of my body I tried to step on, slap and crush as many of them as I could but eventually they overwhelmed me.

They climbed up my front, back and sides all at the same time.

They were gnawing and stinging my feet, hands, neck and any open skin they could find.

I would wipe at myself with an arm to try and knock them off of me but more would make their way up in a never ending tide of insects whose only goal was to feast on my flesh.

All this movement was only making the rubbing of my now raw even worse.

For a small amount of time I was glad for the thick itchy garments I appeared with but it turned from a nightmare into the lowest level of hell itself when the bugs managed to get underneath them.

I thought the raw skin was bad before with just the cloth rubbing against it.

That was nothing but a cool breeze compared to being covered with insects clawing, burrowing and walking along your flesh while you can do nothing to get to them.

I began to pray that I wouldn't have to endure this for much longer as the pain was intensifying and threatening to break my mind.

Soon the weight of all the bugs became too much for me to withstand and I collapsed to the ground and lost my resistance as the swarm overwhelmed me.

It was only at this point that my vision went dark and the fresh sensations of being eaten alive ended.

I had never been so thankful to be 'dead'.

I made a vow in my heart to exterminate any insect that ever came near me again and that I would remove all sand from the world.

Never again would someone be stranded like that.

What a horrible way to die.

I began to finally relax slightly as the sensations from my time in the horrifying sandy world slowly faded away.

along with it went the stinging, biting and burrowing sensations from those wretched bugs.