Silent rift

The next page seemed to be another entry and Aiden as usual was eager to read its content.

[Entry 5: I finally did it, after dying seventeen times I finally found a solution to half of our problems, I killed a creature on one of my outings and I smelled something delightful, it was a floating white orb that appeared after I killed the thing, this orb will alleviate your hunger, now after finding a way to feed myself I can finally focus on my task.]

Once again Aiden flipped to the next page, his gaze was filled with interest as a desire to know more enticed him.

[Entry 6: I've been killed 4 more times and I have 99,976 lives left, I discovered something new about the orbs, it doesn't just alleviate my hunger it made me stronger, and not just by a little.]

[Whatever you do don't let your power get to your head, I have tried to fight the tall lady but she is ten times stronger, she heals from every wound and is practically immortal, but I've not given up, this is everything I know about the tall lady and I hope it will help you.]

Flipping to the next page Aiden continued reading.

[I could never find her first, to find her I needed to find a human child and make it cry, and make no mistake the moment you step into the mist there is a chance that she has already spotted you.]

[After coming out of the cave it takes about half an hour for the tall lady to pinpoint your location, she likes to watch but never mistake her quietness for weakness.]

[In one of your outings there is a possibility that you might spot her, and if you spot her and you haven't killed a crying human child pretend as if you haven't seen her, never react or else she will kill you.]

[if you kill any being that isn't a human child after eating the orb quickly walk away, you will most likely hear the sound PO from behind you, never react to that sound, don't flinch, and most certainly don't run.]

[She is always watching you, she seems to be a scavenger of some sort eating everything you kill, if you don't kill something for a while and she grows bored of you, she will kill you.]

Aiden turned to the next page and the content inside made his eyes widen.

[Entry 7: Sorry it took so long to write up till now though I doubt you would even notice, After 99,994 more deaths I have finally killed her, I'm down to 6 lives, I would have liked to tell you the details but a strange force is stopping me from writing it, I guess there is no point in the trial if I tell you how to pass it.]

[Well that's all the help I can give, you will not be able to turn to the next page, so don't bother]

[I hope you survive and I hope I can meet you in person one day.]

[I'm quite curious about who the next candidate will be, are you a powerful Contractor, and are you the head of your hunting family, I would be quite disappointed if you were anything but the HEAD, it's so lonely here I wish I had someone with me here, maybe we could tell old stories, my favorite is the story of the foolish general.]

After reading this Aiden tried to open the next page but just as the book said he couldn't, no matter how much he tried he couldn't open it.

Letting out a breath Aiden closed the book, this was trickier than he thought, not to mention being the head of a hunting family Aiden couldn't even fight normal humans.

"The foolish general huh," Aiden muttered while thinking, "What kind of Contractor would proudly say that his favorite story is the foolish general?"

Looking through the book again Aiden noticed a few things, the first thing he noticed was the word head which was written in bold capital letters that stood out from the smaller letters, thinking about it Aiden suddenly connected a few dots.

"The family head, and the foolish general, it can't be. Is that how he passed?" Aiden asked himself, he suddenly came up with a theory so absurd that he couldn't quite believe it.

"Guru, guru," the sound of Aiden's stomach rumbling abruptly filled the cave sounding louder than it was supposed to he was hungry.

Honestly, Aiden didn't want to go outside again but he didn't have a choice.

If he wanted to survive he had to go outside and if he wanted to escape he had to kill the tall lady.

With this in mind, Aiden didn't delay; he had a rough sketch of a plan in his mind so he made haste, "half an hour huh," he muttered to himself.

Walking towards the open space Aiden looked for the statue or the shattered bits of the statue he had just re-spawned from.

He was after the rocks, the reason he chose the rocks used to make this statue was beacuse they were much stronger than the normal rocks you could find around the cave, they were sharper too, and easy to assess.

After looking for a while Aiden finally found something suitable, it was a rock with a sharp and pointed end, all Aiden had to do was a little carving and he could maybe make use of it, with that Aiden looked towards the narrow hole.

Crawling through the narrow passageway Aiden noticed something new, his surroundings were much brighter than before as a blood-red glow could be seen shining on the pitch-black soil.

Looking up Aiden noticed that the thunder clouds had cleared up revealing the blood-red sun in all its glory.

But the red sun didn't light up the realm by that much, instead, it seemed to hinder Aiden's vision even more as the red color mixed up with the mist.

Aiden didn't want to waste time, so he immediately got to work.

After about twenty minutes worth of time, he stopped what he was doing as he didn't want to attract attention.

And he certainly didn't want the tall lady to spot him just yet.

Choosing a random direction Aiden walked that way, his steps were a bit guarded, as he held onto his sharpened rock.

"This place just gets creeper and creeper," Aiden thought.

"Chi, chi, chi," Aiden suddenly heard a sound he was familiar with, the sound of digging.

Walking towards the origin of that sound Aiden was half expecting to see another child, but it seemed as though he was wrong.

In front of him, there was a huge hole in the ground with lumps of dirt being thrown out of the hole, clearly whatever was in there was still digging.

As Aiden moved closer the lumps of dirt stopped as whatever was digging seemed to have sensed Aiden and stopped.

A head poked out of the dirt as it silently looked toward Aiden.

"Dose the dirt in this place taste that good?" Aiden asked himself, as he stared at the creature in front of him.

Thankfully it wasn't a human child so even though that cursed lady might be watching she wouldn't attack yet.

The head of the creature in front of him looked like a jade skeleton, it resembled the skeleton of a human being but strangely Aiden wasn't that scared of it.

On another note the skeleton looked quite comical due to the fact that it had a purple gem on its forehead and its mouth or teeth were stuffed with dirt.

As if seeing Aiden as a treat the skeleton stood up, and now Aiden could see how tall it was, it was a head taller than him.

"Chi, Chi," with robotic and unnatural movements it slowly stepped towards Aiden who tightened his grip around the rock.

Aiden didn't fear the skeleton that much because it looked like a Halloween decoration but he had learned the hard way that anything that could survive here was dangerous.

Getting himself ready Aiden lowered his stance trying to imitate a stance he saw in a martial arts movie.

His stance was poor, but one couldn't blame Aiden it could even be called an achievement to be able to keep his sanity up to this point, some humans would have completely broken down.

The both of them stared at each other for a while man versus skeleton, until the skeleton finally made a move, "whoosh," it suddenly sped up eliminating the distance between it and Aiden quite quickly.

"Swoosh," it curled its bony claws into a fist and struck, but Aiden was quick on his feet, he ducked avoiding the strike by a hair breath, the attack missed but it seemed too close for comfort, and not only that, the skeleton packed quite the punch.

"Bam," before Aiden could regain his balance he was Spartan kicked in the chest causing him to stagger backwards.

"Grunt!"

Aiden gritted his teeth, and the attack just now hurt a lot, "I can't believe I'm getting beat up by a Halloween decoration." He thought.

The skeleton was quick, as soon as it kicked Aiden it ran towards him hoping to deliver another punch but Aiden seemed to have had enough.

With all the force he could muster he flung his arm, "Bang," he hit the skeleton right on the forehead breaking the purple gem on it.

As if losing its energy source the skeleton stopped immediately and before he knew it the skeleton slumped down to the floor.

"I guess, I won," Aiden thought as he stared at the pile of bones in front of him, the fight was short but by some stroke of luck Aiden had managed to win.

Looking back at the fight the skeleton did seem more skilled than he was, "sniff, sniff," Aiden sniffed, he smelled something nice again, looking towards the pile of bones he could see something above it, a floating orb as big as a child's palm.

Instinctively Aiden reached towards it, holding the orb carefully in his hands he savored the warm feeling it gave him, "Is this what the book was talking about?" Aiden thought as he looked at the pleasant-smelling orb in front of him.

"Gruuuuu," Aiden's stomach grumbled again and a heavy feeling of hunger overwhelmed him, Aiden couldn't hold back anymore so he threw the orb in his mouth.

Immediately the orb made contact with his tongue Aiden shuddered, the world around him seemed to quiet down as a pleasant taste overwhelmed his senses, at the same time a warm stream flowed down his throat making him feel refreshed.

His chest tingled and Aiden felt something changing in the depths of his very being, but just before he could get used to it the feeling disappeared.

The feeling might have subsided but the aftertaste still lingered just like fine wine.

This aftertaste, made Aiden smack his lips in longing but just then he came back to his senses.

"That-that, what the fuck was that," Aiden thought to himself, his hunger was gone but the feeling still lingered, it was addictive.

Suddenly Aiden remembered something, he had loitered for too long, and he had to get out of there as soon as possible.

Aiden stepped away from the pile of bones trying to look as calm as possible, without much thought he picked a random direction and walked that way.

"Crack!" not too long after Aiden heard the loud sounds of bones cracking until finally "PO," that hellish sound that still sent chills down his spine sounded out.

"She's not going to eat me, she is not going to eat me," Aiden reassured himself as he endured the mental warfare going on within himself he fought the urge to simply run away.

Abruptly Aiden saw the shadow of something in the distant mist, "another creature?" Aiden muttered to himself, remembering the feeling of the orb he had just eaten Aiden walked forward, he felt a bit confident since he had successfully killed his first demon.

Aiden got himself ready slowly walking towards the creature while trying to make out its form, after a few seconds of squinting he could finally see it.

Its appearance made Aiden frown, he wasn't scared though.

He didn't seem to notice this before but ever since he arrived at this strange place his sense of fear had reduced drastically what would terrify normal people didn't scare him that much.

The being in front of him bore a faint resemblance to a chimpanzee, but the resemblance was just as stated faint.

It had no hair which was unheard of for a mammal and its skin looked old and shriveled akin to the skin of an old person but darker.

Its arms were two times longer than its body as they lay motionlessly on the floor, a long bone-like spike protruding out from its elbow while shorter spikes protruded from its shoulders.

On its expressionless face were two large human-like eyeballs that seemed as if it would never blink and as usual Aiden could faintly spot some razor-sharp teeth in its slightly open mouth.

Looking at the monster in front of him Aiden couldn't help but examine the spikes on its elbows and shoulders, looking at the pitiful rock he called a weapon Aiden suddenly felt less confident.

"I'm not fighting that," Aiden decided as he stepped back to retreat.

But upon seeing him step back the being in front of him did something weird, it stepped back as well.

"One," a familiar gender-neutral voice resounded in Aiden's head.

Aiden shuddered as the voice in his head shocked him quite a bit, "what was that?" Aiden asked out loud.

"What was that?" the being in front of Aiden repeated Aiden's words in the same tone of voice sounding extremely creepy.

"Two, Hehe you better step up your game Aiden, one more try," the voice in his head said.

"What are you doing here?" Aiden asked, the voice in his head sounded extremely familiar.

"What am I doing here?" The voice asked sarcastically before darting in, "I sent you here jumbo, but that's the least of your problems right now, you should duck." The voice said.

With that Aiden was finally able to confirm that this was indeed the demon that he had met back home.

He wanted to ask another question but the ape like being in front of him repeated what he said before in the same tone of voice, "What are you doing here?"

"Whoosh," immediately it spoke its short feet left the ground closing the distance between it and Aiden in an instant.

"Slash!"

Aiden heard the sound of his flesh tearing "He-he-he" The sound of short laughing could also be heard from behind him.

Turning back Aiden saw the ape-like being walking away paying him no further attention.

Feeling confused Aiden looked down at his stomach, and he noticed a few things.

His clothes were ripped and a narrow line could be seen on his stomach Aiden suddenly felt his world tilting and before he knew it his upper body was severed from his lower body.

"Thud!"

Aiden's upper body fell to the ground with a thud and his lower body followed soon after, the sight was a gory one as blood and organs could be seen gushing out from the wound.

Aiden's eyes widened in horror, the worst part of it all was up till the moment he died he didn't even feel anything; it was as if his brain didn't even notice he was injured.

*************

Meanwhile, back at BB Hotels, Bruce had just finished cleaning his first set of rooms for the day, after four weeks of looking for Aiden he finally gave up, although saddened by the loss of a friend he still had to work.

As he walked down the hallway he spotted the silhouette of a female figure, it took a while but immediately he noticed who it was he turned back with his trolley.

"Hey Bruce what's up," Katharine asked as she ran up to Bruce.

"Nothing much," Bruce replied as he continued pushing his trolley.

Katharine was a troublesome girl with a nose for gossip, she also had a bad reputation for her feisty attitude, and all in all, she was someone to stay away from.

"I heard what happened, did you guys find the body?" Katharine asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Bruce said as he sped up.

he made his intentions clear through his actions, and upon seeing that she couldn't get anything out of Bruce Katharine frowned as she walked away, she seemed to have finally gotten the message.

Because of Katharine Bruce had to take a longer route but eventually he reached the room he was supposed to clean "Beep," the sound of a mechanical beep filled the hall as Bruce swiped the card.

Opening the door he pushed his cleaning materials inside.

The room was dark but he didn't mind, turning on the lights Bruce was given a heavy shock as he saw something he was very familiar with.

In the middle of this luxurious room was a rift, judging by the fact that it didn't make any sound it seemed to be a silent rift, it was fully open and something was coming out of it.