The Leviathan Stirs

[North Timistania]

Chapter 1: Transmission

2948

Kennex Aerospace Research Colony, Designation “Avalon”​

An eerie quiet filled the canopy the closer they got to the anomaly, the previous cacophony of animal calls and song had been replaced by utter silence. The three researchers stumbled over weed covered rocks and overturned trees as they made their approach, the jungle had grown too thick for their rovers to penetrate.

Dr Morrison would stop periodically to inspect the flora; it was unlike anything he had seen in the rest of the jungle, everything seemed to grow into dense rooted tendrils this far in. His assistant Hassan struggled to keep up as he hauled the heavy cases holding the survey equipment, he was sweating visibly in his environmental suit.

“Why do we have to wear these things! It's like a goddamn hotbox in here!” Hassan grumbled as he tried to catch his breath

It was true enough that the initial survey report had failed to turn up any significant evidence of contagions, but that was no reason to become complacent. Humanity were newly arrived visitors to Avalon; the ancient jungle world held many secrets and Kennex Aerospace wished to be the first to uncover and monetize them.

“We have no idea what is down there Hassan, I'd rather we didn’t return to base with our eyes melting from our heads” Morrison replied wagging a cautionary finger at Hassan

Morrison didn’t care much for Hassan, he was overweight, complained constantly and had nothing but contempt for basic safety protocols. Morrison wondered how such a fool had managed to gain an assignment with Kennex, then again great science always required at least one meathead to carry the baggage.

His other companion, Dr Chen was far less irritating, Sarah was quieter and more analytical then Morrison but no less brilliant. It had been thanks to her keen eye that the anomaly had been discovered during the last orbital scan. The anomaly in question was nothing short of baffling, a vast depression in the centre of the jungle that had formed seemingly in the absence of any natural activity. The potential for discovery had been too great to ignore.

“The plants here are more like tentacles Terrence! I don’t think we could hack through them with anything short of a beam weapon!” Sarah exclaimed as she regarded the bizarre foliage with utter amazement

Everywhere they looked there was a dense network of tendril-like roots, oddly though there did seem to be a clear path to the pit. Thee three scientists finally reached the edge of the anomaly and regarded it with dumbfounded astonishment. A great set of cracked stone stairs emerged descended down in a spiral, the pit appeared to be sentient made. Sarah pulled out a scanning tool and inspected the ancient steps.

“The radiocarbon dating indicates these structures are nearly 4000 years old!” She said in a low whisper as though she did not wish to disturb the long-dead builders

Morrison felt his heart race with excitement, he had expected to find rare plant samples at most but here was a veritable Xeno-archaeological site! Their names would adorn the annals of history! He took a deep breath and attempted to compose himself, they had to do the fieldwork before they celebrated.

“Astounding! None of the deep space probes picked up any indication of sentient life!” He said in amazement

“This damn canopy is probably too thick for the scans to penetrate!” Hassan grumbled

Morrison ignored him, he had no time to listen to fools, he was about to make history. He descended the steps without hesitation, his helmet lamp switching to illuminate automatically. Hassan gave Morrison a look of poor incredulity as he stood red-faced, the two metal cases at his feet.

“Dr what are you doing?!” Hassan exclaimed in barely concealed irritation

“I am examining the anomaly, that is the entire reason we are here” Morrison replied coldly

“What if it's dangerous!?” Hassan blurted out

“Don’t be absurd, no one has been here in a very long time, we are perfectly safe” Morrison replied curtly before descending

Sarah followed behind him without protest, Hassan hauled up the cases and stumbled after them, the prospect of being alone more terrifying then exploration. Together they descended the staircase, taking pains to ignore the long drop that awaited them if they lost their footing. The steps spiralled down into the darkness for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally, they came upon a great stone archway, perspiration dripped from the walls and pooled on the floors. Faded images had been carved into the rock, patterns similar to the vast root tendrils above covered every surface. Between these carved strands, faces could be made out, they were elongated and wide-eyed, the mouths of the alien figures were wide open as if locked in an eternal scream.

“These figures are countless millennia old! They predate human arrival in the sector!” Sarah said a hint of reverence in her tone

“Why are they screaming?” Hassan asked in a blunt and uneasy tone

“That's pure conjecture! We have no way of knowing what the original artists meant to convey, we must not taint our investigation with human biases!” Morrison chided

“certainly, look like their bloody screaming...” Hassan growled under his breath

Sarah took a series of image recordings with her helmet camera before they pressed on, cataloguing this great find was imperative. Morrison strode deeper into the tunnel, his mind awash with thoughts of the glories that would follow this discovery. He was certain that Kennex would pay handsomely for this discovery and more importantly the prestige would elevate him to the heights of academic peerage. As he strode into the darkness all he could think of was the lectures and academic tenure he soon enjoys.

The tunnel was narrow and stretched far into the inky blackness, it reminded Morrison of the missile bunkers he had worked in as a young man. He felt something crunch under his boot, he looked down and nearly recoiled as his light revealed the alien corpse. He had crushed the outstretched hand bone of an elongated skeleton; it was clear it had not been of human origin. The corpses skull was too long and too narrow to be anything other than alien.

He cast his light around the corridor, the tunnel was filled with skeletal remains, they lay in clusters arms seemingly clawing at the walls or crawling on the floor. Sarah soon joined him and began examining the bones. She took samples and countless image recordings as they found more and more clusters of remains.

“Look at their heads!” she said pointing to the skull next to Morrison’s boot

All the skeletons in the room appeared to have suffered the same violent trauma to their skulls, their eye sockets and facial bones all showed visible breaks and cracks, as though something had erupted from within them and smashed through their skulls.

“We should turn back!” Hassan said fearfully, he was making the Abrahmic sign with a free hand

Morrison rolled his eyes in disgust at his assistants' superstitious gesture, the Dr would not allow one fool to stand in the way of his greatness. He pressed on leaving Hassan behind, Sarah busied herself cataloguing the bones, she could catch up later. He walked further down the long chamber, his boots crunched and splashed as he moved through a floor littered with pooled water and bone fragments.

“COME” a booming voice echoed, it seemed to emanate from within his head

He stopped and scanned the corridor, he was alone, he increased the intensity on his light and pressed forward. He felt the pressure build in his skull once more as something pressed its way into his mind, the buzzing was followed by the same echoes

“COME!” it boomed, even louder this time

Morrison had no idea what was happening but he pressed on anyway, he felt as though he knew the way even though he had never set foot in this place before. It was like some bizarre instinctive feeling, he could feel himself getting closer to something, he just didn’t know what.

Two great statues of black stone were illuminated as he reached the end of the tunnel, they were the forms of the deceased aliens rendered in black obsidian. The creatures had long, conical heads and withered looking arms that hung by bent legs. Four rows of eyes graced both statues face, these were the mysterious builders, Morrison was certain of that.

He strode past the statues and found himself in a large circular room, a collection of urns as big as a man were arrayed around an orb-shaped platform. In the centre of the raised platform several prone forms knelt in the silence of millennia-long death. These aliens were better preserved, their skin had taken on a greying parchment-like appearance and roots covered all of the kneeling forms in a tight web of tendrils. None of the corpses had intact eyes, roots had burst from the sockets and twisted around their skulls.

The very centre of the platform held a large stone slab, a body lay on the ancient altar with its mouth agape. The body still had an intact skull, all four of the long-dead creatures' eyes were solid black with no pupils, they seemed to stare off into eternity. Morrison felt the pressure build in his skull again.

“COME” The voice hissed again, it was almost screaming now

Morrison felt his heart begin to pound like hammer blows, he took a deep breath and began to creep past the circle of long-dead corpses towards the body on the altar. Soon he was standing over the long-dead alien. He stared down; the creature was bound to the slab by heavy roots, something was pulsating in its open mouth.

Morrison leaned in and saw it, a throbbing growth of plant matter that seemed to increase its movements the closer he moved. He pulled out his scanner and moved even closer. It looked like a grotesque clump of pink flesh; roots pooled from otherwise bloated tissues. Morrison reached for his specimen tube.

A tendril lashed out from the corpse's mouth without warning, it smashed through the glass on Morrison's helmet with ease and tore through his left eye, Morrison twitched violently as the tendril pierced his brain. Suddenly the tendril withdrew and Morrison fell to the ground his body gripped by a wave of spasms.

“Terrence?” Sarah asked nervously, he could hear her voice growing fainter as the blackness seeped in

“TERRENCE!!!” Sarah screaming in horror was the last thing Terrence Morrison heard

 

[North Timistania]

Chapter 2: Colonization

Port Stoddard, Kennex Aerospace Research colony, Avalon
​

Orderlies hauled Morrisons’ limp body from the stretcher and laid it out on the slab, Chief Medical officer Mahamud Lai regarded the body in disbelief. Lai reached for a diagnostic tool and sent a blue bio scan light running down the stricken doctor. The results came back negative for contaminants, just like the decontamination protocols at the gate had done. He sighed and set the tool down, he reached for the doctor’s helmet and unlocked the clasps, the helmet came away without resistance.

Lai regarded the shattered glass on the helmet’s visor with a look of visible distaste. He had been hired by Kennex to prevent casualties amongst the colonists but the science corps seemed determined to put themselves in harm’s way. He wondered if they had finally succeeded in getting one of their number killed.

“Miss Chen, this colony has been operating for nearly six months, in that time we have suffered only minor injuries and a few cases of very minor illness, in the space of a few hours you might have created our first casualty,” Lai said in a scolding tone

He wasn’t a cruel man by any means, Lai had always prided himself on being utterly fair in his decisions, but he despised unnecessary risk-taking. The science team might as well have made “unnecessary risk-taking” their motto and creed, they seemed to have almost no regard for safety or caution. Lai sometimes wondered if it had been wise taking a corporate posting, here on the frontier the only thing the corporations cared for was results, disregard for safety was practically a requirement.

“It was just a routine investigation, he was out of my sight for no more than a few minutes,” Sarah said with a weary voice, the trauma still evident

Lai’s expression softened as he noted the genuine concern on her face, he sighed and checked turned to regard Morrison. The patient's left eye was open, a puncture the size of a small syringe needle was visible, the bleeding had already begun to scab over. Morrison’s other eye was closed, he was utterly still, Lai would have written him off for dead if not for the clear brainwave signals on the biomonitor.

“Well something happened during those few minutes, something capable of smashing a reinforced polymer visor,” Lai said pointing to the large egg-shaped hole in Morrisons helmet

“He was already on the ground when I found him” Sarah replied meekly

“You didn’t see anything that might have pierced his helmet?” Lai asked trying to make sense of the crack in the man’s helmet

Sarah shook her head “No, there was no sign of anything in that room that could have done this” she said her tone certain

Lai sighed, he hated filling out reports with missing details, he began jotting out details on his tablet. He was certain Kennex was going to love it when he submitted his report minus the cause for the wounding of one of their most valuable researchers. He set the tablet down when he was finished and reached for his diagnostic tool again.

“I’m going to need to run some tests, see how bad this is,” he said gently before commencing

He scanned Morrison’s skull, an infrared beam creating a detailed holo map of the inside of the man’s head. Despite the horrific puncture wound on his eye, Morrison’s brain seemed to be functioning. For all intents and purposes, Morrison was in a coma, whether he had sustained serious brain damage was unknown.

Lai tapped on Morrison’s collar bone with a gloved finger, the doctor’s eye flickered rapidly in response, Lai nodded silently with approval. Response to external stimuli was a good sign, Lai noted it in his report. Lai checked the temperature readings on his diagnostic tool, Morrison’s temperature was through the roof.

“Is he okay?” Sarah asked anxiously

“He’s burning up” Lai muttered reaching for his equipment trolley

Lai pulled out an injector and loaded a shot of temperature-regulating nanomachines, he pressed the device to Morrison’s neck and administered them with an audible click. Morrison’s temperature dropped slightly in response.

Lai regarded Sarah with a sympathetic look, he pulled his gloves off and sterilised his hands before resting one gently on her shoulder. She began to sob quietly, the debilitating mixture of trauma, fatigue and uncertainty doing its work to perfection.

“Go and rest, there’s nothing more you can do right now,” He said in a comforting voice

She and rose to leave “If he wakes up…”

“You'll be the first person I inform,” Lai replied sincerely

Sarah nodded and stepped out of the medbay doors leaving Lai and Morrison alone in the sterile white hall. Lai sighed more audibly now he was alone, he was tired and the sudden arrival of the wounded Morrison had just made a long shift even more protracted.

“Asclepius, commence running obs program on the patient, wake me in four hours for follow up checks, immediately if patient condition worsens from current,” he said wearily railing off the commands

“Confirmed Doctor Lai” the medical AI replied in an unconvincingly cheerful voice

Lai moved on tired legs towards his rest space and hauled himself onto the couch with a loud groan, he snatched the bottle of rye from the nearby dresser and took a long swig from the bottle before setting it back down. The synthetically grown alcohol burned as it flowed down his gullet, Lai savoured the feeling before closing his eyes.

“Should have stayed on Tellus” he mumbled as he began to drift off.

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

It stirred in the darkness, a seedling of something greater, its form growing and spreading like metastatic tumours. The Biomass the seedling now concealed itself in had referred to itself as Terrence Morrison, the seedling cared nothing for the titles its prey gave themselves. To the seedling, all biomass was simply raw material it would use to propagate.

Thousands of tendrils spread throughout the host’s brain, memories and knowledge being consumed as it hijacked the controls. Anything host knew that might have been of use was absorbed by the burrowing tendrils, the process rendered the host braindead. Soon the terrible intelligence would know everything its host had known and it would use this newly acquired knowledge to spread itself to more host forms.

As new understanding was fed back to it the Seedling became aware of how frail its new form was. The biomass had been known as a “Human” a short-lived species that had only just arrived in this part of the greater whole. This host would be far less effective then the previous biomass had been, but it would merely be the springboard from which the seedling would grow before seizing more impressive forms.

The seedling was but an extension of a far greater mass, the current biomass did not have the proper speech organs to recite the name the previous hosts had given the entity. The closest term the seedling could find in the brain of its host was a single word “leviathan”

 

[North Timistania]

Chapter 3: Spread Part I

Port Stoddard, Kennex Aerospace Research colony, Avalon ​

Sleep brought no relief, Lai’s dreams...if they could be called that were troubled. A dark corridor filled with screaming faces and flailing hands filled his unconscious vision, the screams were agonizing. He tried to call out but found he had no voice; the faces grew more numerous as the hands began to creep towards Lai. They surrounded him, A horde of screaming faces, he realized they had no eyes. He felt his heart begin to pound like artillery shelling as he scrambled backwards.

He tripped over something and felt his ankle scream in pain as it twisted, one of the screaming horrors drew close, Lai tried to crawl back only to feel the cold steel of a dead end. The creature stumbled forward and its face drew close, its mouth opened revealing a root-like protrusion where a tongue should have been. Lai screaming silently as the creature's tongue slithered from its mouth bound moorings and began to creep towards his eyes.

He woke up screaming, his body drenched in sweat and his heart pounding. He sat on the edge of the couch for what seemed like an eternity in confused horror. Eventually, he felt composed enough to light a cigarette with shaking hands. He stared over at the examination bay and nearly dropped the lit cigarette.

“Madhar Chod!” he whispered, hissing the profanity from between gritted teeth

Morrison was standing upright next to the slab he had been laid out on, he was watching Lai with a dead-eyed expression, like a body without intelligence. Lai dragged himself to his feet and stumbled towards Morrison. All shock from his nightmare was replaced by sheer disbelief over his previously critical patient suddenly standing upright.

“Morrison! How are you up!?” He yelled in amazement

Morrison gave him a strange look, seemingly understanding that Lai was talking but choosing not to respond.

“Never mind! We need to run a diagnostic!” Lai muttered grabbing his scanning tools

An arm grabbed his wrist before he could begin his observations, Morrison’s grip was cast iron. He was glaring with an intensity Lai had never seen before. Lai pulled his arm free and stepped back slightly.

“I'm fine,” Morrison said his tone somehow firm and vacant all at once, it was like he wanted to sound angry but didn’t really understand how to make it sound convincing.

“Well at least let me put a covering on your wound! That puncture damn near destroyed your eye!” Lai protested pulling out a film gun and motioning to Morrisons wound

Morrison shrugged and seem to acquiesce; a quick click of the trigger sent a surgical film spraying over the stricken eye. When he was done Lai passed an eye patch to Morrison who put it on awkwardly.

“I'm hungry,” Morrison said suddenly sounding very much present, his tone was disturbing, like a beast seeking sustenance

Lai felt unease in the pit of his stomach, something instinctive. He couldn’t put his finger on it but like a primitive ape fleeing from fire he could feel it. He sighed and tried to suppress his unease; He forced a smile.

“I'll bet, I'll run some quick tests and then we’ll get you something,” he said trying to sound calm, he didn’t want Morrison to grab him again

Morrison smiled back, it was a ghoulish expression, it was the sort of smile that early automatons used to make, devoid of emotion but perfectly mimicking the human gesture. Lai suppressed a shudder.

 

[North Timistania]

Chapter 4: Spread Part II​

Port Stoddard, the office of Administrator Cerys

Madeline Cerys’s office was wholly lacking in individuality, instead, the pristine white walls and glass furniture were lined with all the ubiquitous touches and markers synonymous with corporate life. There were the framed degrees from expensive business schools on Tellus, the images of family and colleagues meant to remind underlings that the boss was human too and a tall potted plant that was likely as fake as everything else in the room.

The office's occupant may as well have been as manufactured as her workspace; Cerys was shaped from the same corporate mould as every executive in Kennex aerospace. She’d gone to all the best schools, been taught corporate-speak from the moment she could walk and like all management types she had been indoctrinated to believe that performance and a healthy bottom line were the ultimate virtues.

It was that ambition that had brought her to Avalon, the research colony was the companies golden goose, a remote world overflowing with potential. Since her arrival over one hundred unique animal and plant-based byproducts had been catalogued and slated for pharmaceutical uses, Avalon had already proven it was a cash cow even before the research team discovered ruins. Pharmaceuticals would bring the company a steady profit, but an archaeological find would put it in the history books, the future was looking bright for Madeline Cerys, she just needed to deal with the loose ends.

“I'm telling you something is not right with Morrison! He’s been acting strange ever since his injury” Lai said in a sincere tone, attempting to leave no doubt that something was very wrong

“He was a human kebab when they dumped him on the slab! I'd be very surprised if he wasn’t acting a little strange” Madeline replied irritably

“I've seen plenty of cases of trauma before, this is different” Lai retorted

“How so?” Madeline asked

“The way he is at the moment, it's not out of character so much as though he's devoid of it entirely, it's like someone else is wearing Morrison's skin!” Lai answered trying to mask the fear in his voice

“What do you want me to do Lai? Vent him out an airlock?!” Madeline asked her tone deeply sarcastic

“I want us to exercise caution, there's no way of knowing what happened to him in that ruin” Lai replied in a weary but emphatic voice

“So be cautious, he’s still got 13 days of quarantine left, monitor his condition and more to the point I've arranged for his evac on the resupply freighter next month,” Madeline said in a disinterested tone

“You're shipping him home?” Lai asked surprised

“On the next available transport, Morrison will be recovering on Tellus by the end of next month and his replacements will be arriving to study the ruins” Madeline replied matter-factly

“You can't be serious Madeline! We have no way of knowing if that place is safe!” Lai protested shaking a finger at Madeline

“The board is deadly serious Lai, this discovery is a game-changer, and the company intends to take full advantage, people are going to be talking about Avalon for generations to come!” She replied, there was a manic glee in her tone

Lai grimaced inwardly, he was witnessing the corporate engine doing what it did best, none of what he heard was particularly shocking it was just more of the same dehumanized business rhetoric he had learned to take in his stride. People were little more than commodities in the corporate world, to be utilized and replaced as and when needed. They would ship Morrison back to Tellus and he would be quietly forgotten, if he was lucky, they might provide a pension and a name on a plaque. And while the ailing professor was quietly retired his employers would grow fat off the profits of his discovery.

The Med Bay

The Seedling listens as far-off intentions and thoughts are revealed, these “humans” are careless, and their mental emanations ring out loudly in the darkness. The seedling knows that the biomass intends to confine it for a time, a precaution they think will save them. The memories of the host flesh are of little significance to the seedling, it cares nothing for the delusion of sentience that its prey linger under, save for the knowledge that it can use to ensnare more biomass. It strips the host of its consciousness, devouring and discarding as it sees fit until only it and the husk it occupies remain.

The one that referred to itself as “Morrison” contained much useful knowledge on the seedlings prey, their habits, fears and perhaps most importantly the strange rituals and protocols that the biomass cling to for safety. The humans hope that confinement and observation will be enough to identify any sickness before it can spread, but the seedling is no pestilence it is the sum of all things and it knows well how to deceive those its stalks.

The Seedling strains against the imperfection of its host flesh, it is growing at an exponential rate and soon will require more biomass if it is to expand. It longs for its roots to bloom into new growths as they burst forth from the eyes of its host, to spread its glory to other bodies and to reshape their flesh like so much organic clay.

However, the seedling knows it must be patient, it knows it must bide its time and wait for the biomass to become complacent. So, it waits in the cold darkness and with alien whispers it begins to search for new prey. Soon the biomass will open the gates to the prison that bars the seedling and then it will flow forth as it has done so many times before, the Leviathan will pollinate the stars once more.

Living Quarters

William Hassan was not a man who scared easy, growing up in the lower habitations on Moebius sandwiched between the gangs and trigger-happy cops had a way of removing such inhabitations. Avalon was different though, the endless dark of the jungle radiated an unease that Hassan had never been able to shake. Even before he’d seen that hellish pit and the screaming alien faces on the walls Hassan had struggled to sleep, there was something about this world that screamed “wrong”

He’d come to Avalon hoping to make a steady paycheck and to get away from servicing rust bucket freighters on the periphery. He’d figured that grunt work for the corporates would at very least carry less risk of being blown out an airlock, the prospectus had even promised state of the art facilities and a pension to boot. Like a grinning fool, Hassan had bought the line about a “New Start” and signed up with Kennex Aerospace first chance he got.

Any allusions he had held of making a fresh start were quickly torpedoed when he’d touched down on Port Stoddard. For all the blurb about Kennex being an “interstellar family”, the truth was it was a primarily Tellusian outfit with the same old-world prejudices that you found across Inaius. The management was mostly Corpo nobility from the elite families of the homeworld who disdained even breathing the same air as a periphery man. The rank and file meanwhile might have made just as little money as Hassan, but they made themselves feel superior with the constant reminders that he was “periphery scum” and not a “trueborn human”

Despite all this, Hassan kept his mouth shut and his head down, he neglected to remind the stuck up old-worlders that their vaunted republic was a decayed shadow, and he kept his opinion that Moebius could outshine Tellus any day firmly to himself. Hassan was here to make money, not to get himself killed defending the mother world. It was exactly that ability to keep his opinions to himself that had landed him the job of carrying Professor Morrison's equipment.

The professor was, to put it lightly, an enormous gorrhole who delighted in reminding everyone of his intelligence. For little over a year Hassan had gritted his teeth as Morrison had made it his daily mission to remind the Moebian how lacking in status and intelligence he was, Hassan had taken great pleasure in imagining the various ways he might shank Morrison far from the base. However, when the Tellusian scientist had managed to impale himself on the business end of something sharp it had been Hassan who took charge and hauled his limp body back to Port Stoddard.

That had been three days ago, and Hassan had barely slept since, even compared with the usual unease he felt here Hassan was certain something was very wrong. The news that Morrison had woken up seemingly unscathed had been little comfort, it was like a shadow had fallen over the base. The dreams had started almost as soon as he had returned, Hassan had tried everything from alcohol to sedatives without luck. His sleep was stalked by fearful sights, things whispered in the darkness.

Hassan's cramped quarters had begun to reflect the clutter of his sleep-deprived mind. Alcohol bottles lined his desk, and his ashtray was an overflowing mound of ash. The room had a stale reek about it, a combination of sweat and food waste that seemed to permanently cling to the recycled air. Hassan needed to sleep, needed to get a few hours of unbroken shut-eye that didn’t end in him waking up screaming.

He stared at the ornate looking headset that rested on his bedside table, Oneiric dampeners were technically illegal outside of Moebius but here on the frontier, the corps tended to look the other way. Hassan had not decided to use the dampener lightly, psychic tech often brought on some nasty side effects, the confusion you could wake with after using a dampener could leave you a zombie for days.

Despite this risk Hassan put the headset on and clamped down the visor, temporary confusion was a risk he was willing to take, anything to get a few hours of dreamless sleep. The visor flooded his vision with hypnotic colour as the potent mixture of sedatives and the headsets generator quickly lulled him into unconsciousness.

For a moment he saw nothing and assumed the device was working, but then came the gut-wrenching realization that he was still conscious, and that the darkness was a swirling mass that his eyes were quickly adapting to. Something skittered across the floor in the inky shadows in front of Hassan, it was impossible to make out the form, but it was big and moving quickly.

Cold sweat flowed down Hassan’s back as his eyes darted fearfully from side to side, the darkness was impenetrable but still, he saw the flashes of movement that betrayed the reality that he was not alone. He tried to move but his legs were frozen in place, it was as though he was standing in tar pool. He began to realize that the darkness was not silent, a chorus of hissing voices filled the air.

At first, he could not make out what the voices said, discordant collections of hissing and moaning filled the gloom. Slowly he began to differentiate the voices, they spoke in countless languages which Hassan could not understand. Then the discordant choir was pierced by a sound Hassan very much did understand.

“COME” a booming voice roared, it seemed to emanate from Hassans own mind

Hassan found himself making the ancient Abhramic sign of warding with one shaking hand, the prayer for protection against evil fell from his lips in frantic and breathless utterances.

“COME! YOU SHALL BE MADE WHOLE!” The voice roared once more

Hassan struggled to step backwards, his limbs moving as though made of stone, the moaning grew louder. He gazed up and realized he was being watched, in galleries of dark stone thousands of unmoving figures gazed down at him. The forms were so myriad that Hassan wondered if every species in Inaius was present in this dark place. Hassan felt a chill run through his body as he realized that every head was following his movement and that every single being that watched was missing eyes.

“YOU SHALL BE MADE WHOLE! IT IS DEMANDED!” The voice hissed from the darkness

The eyeless forms began to scream and claw at the walls, their demoniac poses like something from a religious hellscape. Hassan let out a horrified whimper as he realized they were crawling down the stone toward him. Thousands of claws like appendages reached out toward Hassan, he began to scream uncontrollably as they drew close. As one of the creatures inched toward Hassan, he saw what appeared to be roots slithering from the beast's head.

“IT IS DEMANDED!!!” came one final screech

Hassan awoke, his heart pounded like hammer blows and his fear was so immense that he couldn’t even muster the will to scream.