AuthorLeftright

Chapter 17: The Void

The loneliness roused Dan to consciousness. He flailed around, finding lack of direction and gravity. He was floating among a silent sea of black, one that befell his life and replaced it with nothing. There was nothing, he was nothing.

There was only the Void.

Fear and anxiety were gone, in their places was only darkness. He tried to crawl, his hands slipping along the bends of ink. He tried to walk, his toes slipping against the tar. He tried to breathe, finding his lungs compre...

Chapter 16: Parallel

“Ah! Damn it!” Dan jumped from his warm sheets, rushing into the bathroom all  while trying not to drip blood on his carpet while ignoring his phone.

It took a few minutes and a plenty of toilet paper, but his nose eventually stopped bleeding. As he slung back a few antihistamines, he idly thought about the change of season and allergies. If the sinus headache he had currently was any omen for what kind of winter he was going to have, it was going to be a long holiday.

Da...

Chapter 15: Prophet

Two months after Dan and Sully discussed killing the head priest, the opportunity arose.

A commotion in the centralized camp roused every slave except those too far gone. The cultists were out in droves, sporting full unified apparel and each channeling magic through their identical staves. They chanted in rough scratchy voices that pushed beyond reality, ushering in power from their religion.

The ground shook with excitement, the blood grass chittered ready for a free meal. Their...

Chapter 14: Aisha

The stone walls slowly transformed, morphing into that of flesh and blood. They undulated gently, like the chest of a sleeping toddler after a night of excessive crying. Slightly green mucus licked off the walls’ many glands, falling in heaps and pooling around on the floor. When combined into a greater volume, the mucus glowed slightly allowing Dan to see deeper into the prison.

He had only just woken up, perplexed with the sudden gunk that dripped off his mucus-logged body. He shudd...

Chapter 13: More

Rich threads of magical harmony orbited around Dan’s core. Slowly he pulled them together, brandishing his internal being with the power that created the two aspects of his life.

The first was pain and suffering, the madness’s residual resentment for his illegal entry into the caves. His mind was full of intrusive thoughts, his body full of cowardice and shame. Through these aspects, however, Dan found the path to unbridled focus. Light: War was not something he practiced e...

Chapter 12: Dome

Walking back to his cell, Dan was accosted. He missed what they called him, but the smirks and posture from the group caused his hackles to raise. The group of five was an odd bunch, consisting of two guards and three camp-slaves. Normally communication between the masters and filth were on a strict basis, but a few broke the conventions.

Whether it be because they were from the same original home world, they were constricted by a similar ailment, or simply because they were like minded...

Chapter 11: Golden Path

“Dan’s magic limited amount. Magic grow. Better magic,” Sully said gesturing and over enunciating each word.

Squinting, Dan tried to follow the old man’s diagram he drew in the dirt. A small depiction of a stick figure Dan practiced magic by way of a single small circle. The next drawing was the same stick figure, but with two small circles. Then three, then they were larger, then there were too many to count.

“But how…” Dan pointed at one ...

Chapter 10: Sullethan

Dan and Sullethan walked through the camp uninhibited. Frankly, with the previous day of torture, Dan thought the cultists would be keeping a better eye on him. Being told that he was going to be used as a sacrifice made him think he was important somehow. But, after a tour around the camp, no one moved to intercept, talk to, or follow him.

It was just him and Sullethan, alone.

It took an hour or so, but Dan’s heart rate slowly leveled out around the man. He was able to make eye...

Chapter 9: Trial

The dorm party was one of Dan’s best memories from college. It was hosted by Alpha Gamma Rho and was the weekend directly after the first week of class. It was the perfect time, before class got difficult but far enough after move-in week. Students were situated and not stressed yet, a prime combination.

It was hosted in the second largest dorm, Seeth, because the resident adviser was “chill.” There was drinking and music, multiple floors to spread out, and plenty of newl...

Chapter 8: Brilliance

A drop of mucus rising from the floor and hitting Dan in the chin was the first sign something was wrong. He watched as mucus from all over the cavern started being pulled up. It was as beautiful as it was horrible. The drops were almost slow to move, creating the illusion of frozen glowing rain. It reminded him of the holidays on Earth, specifically the winter lights draped across houses and roofs.

The glimmering anomaly was magnificent. As the mucus bounded against its low-gravity cha...

Chapter 7: The Red Doors

Dan’s eyes had to adjust to the sudden overhead light. He was front and center on a stage, a wave of giggles beyond his view. The laughter pounded at his head, resounding and reminding him he was somewhere dangerous. If the door was a last barricade for something unimaginable, the laughter was only the preshow.

He swallowed the intense pain, covering his ears. It wasn’t real, it was in his head, he told himself. Something cracked, the roaring light dimmed. He fell into his core, hol...

Chapter 6: The Mine

Wooden support pillars lined the cave’s interior, appearing at rough intervals as the floor slowly angled down. A few minutes of walking brought Dan to a steep drop. Darkness filled a desolate hole, bringing a rush of vertigo to the electrician. He was never one for heights, but always found himself able to stomach flying or climbing to the top of the rig.

Would he skydive or cliff jump? No, not at all. Looking down a vertical mine shaft was thrilling enough, aggressively so....

Chapter 5: Pieces

Dan felt the slow bumps before his mind caught up. He was dreaming of a pogo stick, bouncing down the street and past his house. Only, something was wrong. Each jump pulsed pain through his skull and chest, each second brought him to the brink of insanity. The sky turned dark just before he woke up, blood leaked through purple cracks and hundreds of eyes peered through-

He jolted, stumbling to sit up.

His breath swayed, his lungs finding it hard to inhale. He groaned, grabbing his...

Chapter 4: Blood Rains

Creeping to the forest’s edge allowed the men to grasp what little they could of the situation. The dark clouds above the thick trees created a darkness Dan had never experienced before. He had grown up in Louisiana’s suburbs and was never more than a dozen steps away from a light source at any given time. He was starting to rethink what “dark” meant.

Bob held up a hand as they reached where the sand ended, stopping Dan. They stood along a few sporadic patches of grass in awe. T...

Chapter 3: Lifeboat

Dan wasn’t one for stargazing, at least, not before being stranded on the open ocean. Truthfully, watching the stars was the only pass time he marveled in as of late. There was something so wrong with the sky, something that pulled his attention nearly every waking moment. There were only three stars, and the sun never seemed to rise.

At first Dan thought he and the others had slept through the day, having been exhausted from their horrible experience. But as the lifeboat’s...

Chapter 2: The Rig

Two years earlier

The buzz of Dan’s phone woke him. Internally he cursed, knowing that a phone call at this hour could only mean one thing. Work. With the speed and urgency of a snail, he reached over to his nightstand and snatched his phone.

“Hello?” he asked, his voice coming out like sandpaper against porcelain.

The shift manager on the other end barked his words quick and in a harsher than needed tone. It was just as Dan expected, he was b...

Chapter 1: Agonizing

The flames of the funeral pyre graced Dan’s cheeks in a forgotten way. Fires weren’t common in the mines nor the outside camp. Ignoring the fact that the fumes would clog the small passages, poisoning the stale breathable air, the heat and light would only attract the monsters that roamed the Blood Rains.

In their stead, mana lights were used.

The lights glowed in a certain hue of ultraviolet that Dan just couldn’t fully see. Others in the camp, as well as a few slaves in th...