"Aaahhh!" screams Aliyah, as we fall deeper and deeper below the surface. I swear I hit every tree root on the way down. When I land, my body aches, covered in various bruises and scrapes.
"What....where are we?" I ask in wonder.
We're inside a huge cavern, the walls made of black rock, and grey vines hanging from the ceiling. Something about them makes me think if someone touched them, they would crumble to ash. The floor is covered in a liquid gloop, and my shoes are covered in it. "Ugh..."
"Well, hello!..." exclaims a voice. It sounds like a man's voice, except it's too deep to be human. The voice also sounds distorted, as if over a radio. Aliyah turns around and screams.
There is a huge spider.
Well, almost. It has the body of a spider, but sprouting from the spider's torso is a human torso with arms and a head. The spider-human's skin is sickly grey, and flaky. It's wearing a black suit, with a top hat that seems too tall to balance on one's head. It's fingers are long, and bony, and has claws that could easily draw blood.
"...What the heck are you?" I ask, trembling. It scuttles towards me and leans down, it's face inches away from my own. "I could ask the same about you, girl," it says, in a singsong voice.
"They call me S̶̨̜̞͊̚͝͠A̵̮̟͝ȟ̵͍̅̌s̴͉̓̕h̷̞̣̐͐r̸̗̲̜͌̀̽ͅg̵̩̣̯̥̾f̵͈̑͒ó̷̠w̵̨͇̻͓̓̔̄̓f̵̧̬̦̱̀̿͘ų̷̮̜̃͑̓r̶̩̎̂͛̚p̸͎̀͐͘ẹ̴̲̥̙̍̅̂͋d̶̹́̊m̴͓͕̍͑͠a̴̦͑̏̒͜ḳ̴̡͕̳͆." it continued. It's name sounded impossible for a person to even be capable of pronouncing. "I am not your enemy, per se, but I am not your friend either. And you think you could ever hope to leave the Pit? I don't think so!" it chuckles, an unnerving and scratchy sound that makes my skin crawl.
"What makes you think you can stop us?" Aliyah asks, defiantly. Weird-Spider-Thing (it's what I'll call it), smirks, and reaches for Aliyah with two of it's spider legs. "You fool. Let me show you." It's about to drag her away, but I grab her hand and yank her free. We make a run for it, heading deeper into the cavern. We keep running until we reach the edge of a cliffside. Below, I can see the only colour in this place:
Blue, molten rock.
It oozes out of a hole in the cliff and fills the floor below. "We have to get out of-- ALIYAH!" I scream, as she is now dangling over the edge, her hands clutching onto the cliff edge. The Weird-Spider-Thing is scaling the cliffside, a silky web wrapped around Aliyah's ankle, as it tries to drag her off the edge. I grab her hand.
"You have to let go." it's all she says to me. "No, I can't!" I reply, my eyes filling with tears. Her grip falters, and she's just about to fall...
Her lips touch mine.
My face turns red, my entire body filled with a warmth I had never experienced before. And then she lets go. I turn away, and when I look back, the cavern is quiet. There is no one else here but me.
~~~ TO BE CONTINUED ~~~
STAI LEGGENDO
TAPESTRY
FantasyDonlon, July 12 3048. Rosie Matchstick has had a rough start in life. Abandoned by her family and pushed around by the system, she eventually lands herself in the worst sort of place: a workhouse. But when she finds a mysterious tapestry in the scul...
