Nightmare

Darkness, Darkness was the only thing I saw when I woke up, followed by the feeling of floating in this dark world, then I realized, that I couldn't breathe, I was drowning, fear took hold of my body and my survival instincts immediately screamed, making my naked-body swim upwards frantically to reach the surface, after what seemed like an eternity, or perhaps seconds, each one suffocating the life out of me, I finally reached the surface, and greedily took big gulps of air.

'God..where the hell am I ?!' tiredly glancing around, everything I saw was red, the darkness was no water, but blood instead, and from the looks of it, a whole sea of it.

An even deeper fear permeated my body, looking for any hope in this cursed red sea, I finally found a shore.

'i-i gotta find someone, I don't know where I am, and I really Really don't wanna stay in this weird bloody sea any longer'

swimming as hard as I could, I finally got to the shore and left the disgusting water behind, now I finally started getting some breath back. After feeling strong again I started looking around, and let me tell ya, it wasn't good at all...

The sand beneath my feet was as black as ash, the sky was dark like an abyss, and the only thing floating in it was a menacing red moon, shining with a malevolence that threatened to shatter the sanity of whoever stared at it for too long, a distance in front of me lay a forest, if it even deserved to be called that, it's trees were dead, it's wood as black as the sand beneath me, empty trunks rising at the dark sky above, overall it looked like a scene straight out of a horror movie, and I did not like that at all! 

Looking in the distance, a mist stretched as far as the eye could see, covering whatever was hiding behind it.

'What the hell is happening?! Couldn't I wake up in a comfy bed? It just had to be this eery place huh'

Trying to shrug off the heart-wrenching fear gnawing on my heart, I clenched my hand, steeling my soul to strive into the grey mist.

Entering it was...a new experience to say the least...not like I remembered any other experience, seems like I lost my memory, but I wouldn't want to try this adventure again. Walking barefoot in a creepy forest surely wasn't on my to-do list, but it was my only hope to get the hell outa here.

The dark trees loomed above me as I walked forward, and my feet quickly got worn out, accumulating scratches and bruises from hidden roots, the eery quietness didn't help in calming my heart, I walked and walked and walked; without rest, the mist seemed infinite, and as I marched deeper, a sensation started to fill my being, that of tiredness.

'...maybe I should rest..' but my instincts, were telling me otherwise. 'there is something wrong with this mist'

going deeper and deeper into the mist, an overwhelming sleepiness came over me, but that also gave me hope.

I'm getting closer, I'll finally escape the mist!' and so I kept moving forward, trying to distract my mind from sleeping, after a while, I noticed the ground became uneven, which piqued my interest, so I crouched down and removed a piece of weird-looking dirt.

"What the fuck!" the thing I saw made me lose my balance, and I fell to the ground, scratching my elbow on something, the pain cleared my mind a bit of whatever was influencing my mind, and then my face turned grim.

"bones... the ground is filled with bones!" a huge amount of bones were buried in the dirt, the skulls and bones looked eerily whole as if they died peacefully, and the mist started to look way more dangerous than it was.

I gritted my teeth and kept walking, an unknown amount of time passed, and I lost count of how many steps I took, I was hungry, scared, and tired, a part of me wanted to just lay down and be done with it, was my forgotten life worth it? But I didn't stop at all, moving without reason, the desire to lay down and sleep getting stronger and stronger, which further fueled my resolve.

Luckily, I was able to get out of the mist after what seemed like an eternity.

'Thank god! My legs were about to shut down any second.'

tiredly looking at where I'm at, I finally found something new, which made my hope stronger, but hope is like a virus, a seed that defies logic.

'A temple! Yes! There could be some people!' and so hope bloomed and disregarded the obvious dangers that could be lurking within, clinging to the small chance to find help instead.

Not caring about my bleeding bare feet, I ran to the black temple, and as I got near the entrance, not noticing the lack of doors, my legs came to a halt.

'...H-holy shit...' my voice came out in a weird shaky whisper.

Inside the temple, lay a blood-curdling scene, bones, skulls, flesh, and organs splattered all over the insides of the temple, it was pure carnage.

'who...no..What caused this...'

I paled as a strong feeling of nausea came over me, luckily or unluckily my stomach was empty, so nothing came out, I stood there for a minute, the harrowing scene shaking my very being, but with no other place to go, I stepped inside.

I was able to find some kind of black robe in a pile of bones, I also found a dagger, a sword, and a worn-out chest plate, considering what happened to these people, wearing it seemed a good choice, and as I did that, I tried to gather clues of the thing that caused this massacre.

"...claw marks... a bitten half corpse...a pierced skull, whatever was that killed these people must have been a beast, and by the size of that bite and claw mark, it was of a really big size" I shuddered at the thought.

The temple was of moderate size, but it was weirdly deep, and as I ventured deeper and far from the skulls, corpses with weird gross flesh started to appear, covering these corpses was a red-like mucus, and their bodies looked a bit intact compared to the others if you don't count some bitten off limbs and torsos.

...but something didn't feel right, perhaps due to the shock of this whole murder scene and the weakness I'm feeling after a long journey in the mist, I didn't notice it fast enough, these red-covered corpses were moving!

"shit!" I quickly took some steps back as a mangled arm nearly caught my leg, the corpse was slow, sluggish, and inaccurate, but it sure as hell didn't look weak, all in front of me, countless dead crawled, limped, and the further back ones even ran towards me.

"Ah hell nah!" I turned around and ran as quickly as I could, which was honestly not that fast, to leave this horror place, a weak corpse of a child blocked the way, and before I even thought about it, guided by instinct, I grabbed my sword and waved it, it was awkward and looked embarrassing, but it still landed on its head, slicing it from top to it's the lower jaw, splitting the skull into two uneven pieces, the corpse fell and a weird thing happened. A melodious voice whispered in my ear.

[You have slain a dormant beast, cursed flesh]

'What in god's name is happening!?' I grimaced as I ran outside, but then, surprise surprise, another shitty horrific thing happened, the earth quaked... as if a heavy giant was stepping towards my direction, every stomp shaking the ground and my mind with it, crushing trees and dissipating the mist around it, and then I saw it...

My already pale face became white, that...thing was no beast... I-it was an abomination, a monster! A freak in nature's law!

A 5-meter tall amalgamation of red disgusting flesh, it was 7 meters long, had numerous mouths full of sharps teeth, and a multitude of different eyes covering its flesh-like body, it had 4 strong limbs ending in sharp claws, a tail could be seen at its back, ending with a metallic needle, perhaps the thing that pierced that skull from earlier, but somehow the monster seemed tired and weak, not that it made any difference as it was still beyond my fragile self, a large hole showed a red glow inside the monster, pounding and making it shine in a bloody hue every beat, maybe it's heart.

Its countless eyes fixed on me, and as it did, an unholy pressure almost made me faint, I fell to the ground clutching my chest, my heart beating loudly and my mind in shambles, the fear seemed to have multiplied, threatening to completely devour my sanity, maybe making me turn into one of those cursed flesh. 

'fuck fuck FUCK! Move legs MOVE' I bit my tongue and the pain fought off a bit of the fear holding me, and as I got up and started running, it was already too late.

The monster lunged towards me, wanting to rip me to shreds with its many mouths and rows of sharp protruding teeth, I jumped sideways at the last second, making it miss my body, but it still caught my arm in one of its mouths.

"GAAAAH" I screamed, hoping to be heard, to be saved, but to no one, hopelessness started to eat me, the monster sank its teeth in my arm, mangling it instantly, and the sharp pain made my mind go blank, then the pain turned to rage, the rage of a cornered rat.

"AAAAH!" the beast twisted its head, nearly severing my arm, in a desperate attempt, I took my sword and plunged into into one of its many eyes.

"Let GO!" I barely said from gritted teeth. Tears streaming out of my eyes, the monster shuddered for a bit, seemingly not shaken at all at the mosquito bite, and then it completely closed its mouth, severing my arm.

I screamed as I fell to the ground, clutching my severed arm to lessen the blood loss, my swords still in one of the beast's eyes, not that it mattered, the monster watched me with a twisted dark glee, as if enjoying my suffering.

I ran, straight to the temple, I noticed the beast hesitate but it swiftly followed its miserable prey, letting it hide to further the vermin's suffering.

I entered the temple with hurried steps, dodged the rotten flesh hands of the corpses inside, and ran further into the temple, the further I went, the weirder the corpses looked, as if drained of blood, but my thoughts stopped as an explosion sounded behind me, the monster is here.

I ran and ran amidst the dead, countless claws injured my body, and then the wind was cut behind me as something swung my way faster than I could react, separating my left leg from the rest of my tortured body, indescribable pain shot through my brain.

Even then I crawled, with a weird but futile desire to get to the end of the temple, there were no corpses anymore, but in front of me lay a well, filled to the brim with blood, I crawled to get near it. And as I did, a giant limb came down and turned my right leg to mush, it was death, there was no escape, the abomination only cared for my death and suffering, hate, an unbearable hate consumed me, why? Why did I deserve to meet my end at the claws of this...abomination, as the monster's claw came my way again, I rolled to the side, evading a deadly blow, but one of its claws still pierced me, the beast shrieked, laughing with a monstrous sound, making my ears bleed, as it lifted me near it, I felt hopeless, weak, small, blood poured from me, some of it landing in the deep weird well.

But even when facing death's door, I was spitful, wrathful, as a last act, I used the dagger I held with my only left arm before falling and pierced the bare heart of the beast, its horrendous laugh finally stopped, replaced with a pained scream, which made the temple tremble, but even then I failed to kill it, it didn't expect my last attack, I knew it wasn't as strong as usual, as it followed me earlier with weird steps as if it was limping, but even in that state it was way stronger than my human body, and so my dagger failed to end it.

I closed my eyes tiredly, I was barely awake after all, it was a miracle I didn't just die from this much blood loss, not that it mattered now, a harrowing death awaited me.

as I fell from the beast's clutches, it fixed its many eyes on me, its twisted face blossomed a harrowing grin, drooling a black liquid that smelled like corroded iron and blood, the abomination started walking towards me, slowly, relishing in my pathetic state.

I was cornered, behind me a mysterious well, and in front of me was a beast of nightmares, I will die soon, I could feel it, and so I laughed, this never-ending torment filled me with dread, but do you know what I felt even more? HATE, hate at my weakness, hate at my lowly fate, hate at this unholy being, hate at this world.

I glared at the beast, "...work for it." I laughed as I exerted one last push, The next thing I saw was my body falling into the well, welcoming me in its crimson bloody embrace, it was deeper than it looked, and I kept drowning deeper and deeper.

'...how am I still alive?' my broken mind formed a question, then I felt a tremble in my soul, as a voice sounded in my head, [a fragment of [unknown] has offered you his blessing, do you accept?]

Without even thinking much I confirmed, 'yes', and then the blood surrounding me turned and created a vortex around me, weird tendrils pierced my eyes, my mouth, my ears, my heart, and one pierced even deeper, at my soul, an inhuman scream left my mouth as my whole being was destroyed and remade, whatever pain assaulted wasn't made for humans to bear, I felt my heart break and reconstruct itself, my eyes rupture and be made anew, my soul shatter and forcefully gathered with renewed power.

The torment soon finished, I was healed, my body was remade, and the well spat me back from its hold, I stood in front of the beast, forged anew, covering me was a crimson black armor that glowed with a deep bloody hue as if it was perpetually drenched in fresh blood, with veins of molten gold and black coursing through its jagged and ridged surface, like fissures in volcanic rock. The colors kept shifting subtly, glowing faintly as if alive, radiating heat and malevolence, on the chest plate was an imposing insignia resembling a burning eye, I looked down at my arms, I was wearing clawed and segmented gauntlets, each finger tipped with blade-like talons, crimson veins snaked up my arms, pulsing with an unnatural rhythm that echoed my beating heart.

*growl* the abominations growl woke me from my reverie, as I looked at it indifferently with my new eyes, all I could see was a sheep waiting to be slaughtered.