The Confluence

The Confluence Part XIV

XIV

Adrian dreamed while Suzie drove the car. He fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes, and with sleep came an all too familiar scene. He was standing next to the bleeding corpse of Gregory Lyell with a large hole in his neck. The red light that had been infecting the air seemed to retract itself, draining in towards the hole in the crumbling wall. Adrian's eyes followed the impossible movement, mouth slack. He turned back toward the hole, and began to walk towards it again. The bound woman might be down there, and Adrian felt he had to see this nightmare through. The already cold air seemed to drop another ten degrees as he passed into the cave beneath the cabin. It was a tight fit, and the ground was incredibly uneven. The redness was more intense the further Adrian went in, so much so that even his thoughts seemed suffused with its bloody light. There were snarled roots hanging down from the rocky earth above him and water was dripping from them. Adrian got colder and colder as he shoved his way through the cave, and then suddenly he stopped, his mouth barely clamping down on a scream. The roots had spread down to the cave sides, and they intertwined with skeletons. They lined the sides of the cave like soldiers, grimy bones glistening wetly in the red. Each toothy set of jaws were wide in eternal screams. Gagging and holding a hand up to cover his mouth and nose, Adrian plowed forward, not thinking about the scraping sound of dead fingers rubbing against his clothes. He tried to count the skeletons as he went, but everything was lost in the red, and he lost count quickly. He began to walk faster, and before he knew it, he had come to the end of the cave. He stopped in utter horror by what he saw. The cave tunnel opened up a little bit, enough so to fit a strange and wiry altar made of intertwined roots. The woman who was still bound lay on the root made altar. Her face was untouched, but from the neck to navel she had been gutted open. Her organs were impaled onto roots, giving Adrian a much too invasive look at her anatomy. The roots from the trees above had somehow worked their way into her body, and they were dug in greedily into her split torso. The glowing red light seemed to emanate from the roots that had impaled her organs, and they pulsed with light. The organs were being drawn up the roots, towards a small gnarled orb of roots, where the red light flashed almost to the beat of Adrian's heartbeat. Adrian began tearing into the root orb with his hands, as the sounds of a car began to permeate through his mind. As his now dirt covered fingers were stripping away the roots from the red light, Adrian saw something encased in the red glow. Within that red glow was a dark shape. As Adrian stared open mouthed at the floating red orb, the dark thing within twitched. And then wriggled. And then with an awful inhuman squealing sound, the tiny squid-like shadow pressed itself against the walls of the red orb and gazed into Adrian's eyes with its eight glowing orange eyes. Adrian screamed. And screamed. And screamed.

Suzie lurched the car to a stop, headlights soaking into the mass of huge tree trunks ahead. She killed the car, taking the keys out and putting them deep into the right side pocket of the trench coat. She turned to Adrian, whose head was leaning back into the space between the headrest and the car window, his mouth hanging open, and a small silvery line of drool dripping down the side of his mouth, his glasses sliding down his nose. Any other time Suzie would've laughed at him, but he looked oddly dead, stripping away any humor from Suzie's mind. "Hey. We're here, pally. Let's go." No response. Fuck it. She thought, immediately proceeding to shove his left shoulder. With a short grunt, Adrian's eyes flew open and his jaw unhinged itself as he screamed. Suzie immediately recoiled, hands jumping to cover her ears. Adrian's all too wide eyes were darting in every direction, his mouth still screaming, but after a few seconds that felt like eternity to Suzie, his voice wound down as he realized he wasn't in danger. "Fuck, I'm...I'm so sorry." Adrian slowly regained his composure, straightening his glasses, running a hand through his hair. "It's fine. I...I get it." Suzie said quietly, her ears almost ringing in the sudden silence. "We're here... so you know, get your shit together man." His eyes still wide, Adrian looked around, peering into the dark of the woods around him. Sighing, he grabbed the crowbar and opened the passenger door.