Chapter-9 : Pain?
Every mortal being experiences a phenomenon known as 'pain' at least once in their lives.
Indeed pain is crucial for one in life.
To be bodily and mentally sane, every creature in existence has an inborn tendency to avoid pain.
Through pain we are born.
Through pain we return to death's embrace.
SKRISH…
SCRATCH..
CHEW…CHEW…
But there does exist a threshold.
A threshold beyond which this crucial factor called 'Pain' ceases to exist.
There exist tales of generals who sat calmly with broken bones and amputated limbs.
There exist tales of monks who meditated while aflame.
There exist tales of mothers and fathers, ones who dived headfirst into raging rivers, fought beasts and endured searing heat to save their child.
Pain.
Scholars and doctors who study the human body attribute this 'painless' state to certain bodily chemicals that block or numb the pain receptors in the brain.
People of faith and religion proclaim that pain is a mere illusion of the body and that true strength comes from one's 'Soul'.
Whatever the true answer may be.
None can deny the fact that when faced with the demise of oneself or one's offspring.
A mortal can exert unimaginable strength, far beyond the ability of mere bones and
muscles.
To surpass the concept of 'Pain'
SKRITCH…
CHEW…
SKLISHH…
In a vast labyrinth of flickering torches and dark halls, struggled two beings.
A creature of flesh and blood.
And one of metallic grey.
SHRIEEEEK!
…
'Huh?'
'Where am I?'
'Mm oh yeah…'
'I was killing this thing.'
…
The mass of slime rumbled and screeched as it thrashed against him.His fingers, now mostly bone, clawed and tore at whatever they found purchase on.
His teeth stung, as he bit and chewed slime and so did his tongue–digested agonizingly slowly from the viscous beast and yet... he did not stop, for to do so meant forfeiting his life and his will to survive.
His greatest joy, an insurmountable feeling of euphoria came from the shrieks of suffering the creature gave as it bubbled in what seemed to be pain, for it meant that this being too could feel pain.
Pain that he inflicted, pain he returned as payback for the anguish it had caused him in his very short life.
It was a vicious exchange of suffering and misery.
That is, until the equilibrium of madness was broken by the faint sound of blaring in the distance.
…
'Hmm? What is that sound?'
CHEW…CHEW.
The writhing behemoth grew still.
'Hm?'
It slowly extricated itself, ceasing all hostility even as the mortal continued to claw away at it, moving away as he dropped to the ground with a dull thud. Its nature now seemingly docile as it moved toward the source of the piercing alarms.
It inched toward the cross-section where the halls branched in multiple different directions, as it grew still a few feet away from him, the thick metallic liquid churning silently like a heartbeat.
A change occurred breaking the tense silence, a set of long snaking tendrils grew from it, moving around in various directions before honing in toward the direction of one hall as if pin-pointing the location of the auditory disturbance. These tendrils then vanished back into the mass of grey as quickly as they arrived.
...
BUBBLE…RUMBLE…
SHHHHHH…
It dissolved into a puddle of liquid on the floor.
'Oh crap… where have I seen this before.'
…
SHHHH…SHAAAAAA.
In the blink of an eye, it shot down the corridor in a flood of grey, like a living wave of destruction, leaving behind a confused and very much half-eaten man on the floor.
…
'Weird…'
CHEW
...
CHEW...CHEW...CHEW...SPOO!
Spitting out a piece of goo, he could only grimace at the terrible aftertaste it left on his nearly dissolved tongue, if you could still call it that.
GROAN…
'Ouch.'
'Yeah...I can only hope it looks better than it feels.'
He lay there surrounded by the putrid stench of blood and viscera, staring at the blank, dust-ridden ceiling as if it were the most interesting piece of art he'd ever encountered. His range of motion was limited to his eyes moving toward the steadily burning torches lining both sides and then back toward the ceiling.
'How entertaining...'
…
'Maybe I can wiggle my toes.'
Wiggle...Wiggle.
'Nice…maybe I can lift my little toe...and fold the rest.'
twitch... twitch.
'Mmm...nearly there'
twitch...twitch.
'Haha...I did it…kekeke.'
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
'Haaa...phew.'
Rusty fled down the hall closely followed by the other three, his eyes darting forward and back down the hall as the blaring alarms grew fainter in the distance.
"Is everyone alright?"
"Brrloo."
"Brr."
"Brrroop."
Rusty exhaled a breath he didn't realize he had been holding, his concern for his group evident over their apparent failure of an expedition.
'It's fine, we can explore it again later.'
Rusty thought to himself.
Glint's eyes were on the floor, gloomy and down-trodden as he blamed himself for ruining the one and only lead they had found after exploring these halls for a long time, more than the mistake itself, it was the disappointed gazes of the ones he considered his own family that caused Glint much ache.
"Don't worry, we can continue searching after we confirm it's safe once more and if not, we can always search out other rooms, these halls are vast and much of it remains unexplored by us. It's not that big of a deal, cheer up, Glint."
Rusty soothed them and reaffirmed himself of his decision to retreat, and sure enough.
shhhhhh...
shhHH...
SHHHHHHH...
SHAAAAAAAA...
They could only turn in time to catch a glimpse of that sickening metallic gleam, as it shot through the wooden gates just as they shuddered and rumbled to a close.
BOOM-KRAKK-THUD.
…
An eerie silence followed. The cohort of four stood frozen in place as they felt a core-chilling shiver running through them, for at that moment they had all come to realize just how close the reaper's scythe had come.