The Terrarian Crimson

Chapter One: New Surroundings

Pain. Samuel looked up into the sea of red. There was a single, blazing ball far above, glaring into my eyes. Raising his arm to block the light, there came a torrent of a million needles, piercing it with every passing moment.

Slowly, his vague gaze focused on the raw and red hand. It did not respond, with hardly any coordination, numb and limp. Fortunately, the other hand was fine, with hardly a scratch. As Samuel sighed in mild relief, his eyes unfogged, clearing see my surroundings and awareness.

The red sea I had seen was the sky, choked with deep red, obscuring clouds. The ground below where I lay was almost hard, and seemed to pulse to the deep, rhythmic beats of a human heart, nowhere to be seen, but presence made clear.

Slowly, my feet started responding and I staggered upwards, looking around at a strange scene with great curiosity. The trees, the ferns, the ground, all stained with the heinous, gaping, crimson red. From the damp leaves of trees and deep cerise bushes, eyeballs lay, with a few focused on me, observing every move with great intention. Cradling my raw arm while trembling, unsure of what to do, I stumbled onward into the thicketry.

The atmosphere echoed with a madness of sorts, almost tangible but just beyond the senses, only perceivable in the form of a nagging dread, creeping within the back of the mind.

I wandered through the foreign flora that seemed to be alive in a wrong way, a connected way. The unnatural stench of death was strong here, with echoes of forgotten knowledge. I lurched against a tree, feeling the hard, gray wood, and realizing that something deep within the trunk was creating an echo within. Slowly and cautiously, I gently set my ear close to the wood. From the interior there could be heard a faint, repetitive throbbing. I jerked my head back, repulsed, abruptly pulling my hands away. The tree had a pulse- a human pulse! Slowly, I backed away, almost tripping head-long over on an exposed root. Turning, I discovered a large, busy stream with blood red water.

Everything was red here. Everything was red or gray. Terror gripped my heart, rendering me speechless. Join us... voices whispered. Grabbing my head with both arms, I looked around desperately to find the source of the voices, yet there was none. Alone, I was truly alone in this bloody mess. I knelt down, lowering my hands and dipped my fingers into the red water- only to feel a metallic, semi-liquid matter: Blood. It was truly blood, and in great mass. I felt my face turn green and pulled my arm to my mouth, and was met with a sharp sting of agonizing pain, a cruel reminder of my exposed arm.

Slowly my other arm went to my mouth, but never made it as I stopped, hearing a voice. Join us... Once again, I looked around at my dimly lit surroundings, the canopy taking its portion of light. All at once, a torrent of voices came out of nowhere, repeating that same phrase: Join us. I felt my arm raw arm throb with agonizing pain as the voices came like daggers, and looking around, I felt as if I was either descending into madness or had already done so with nothing around to say what I heard.

The sound of hisses and clicking approached from above the red treetops, startling me from my unknowing, oblivious gaze into the stream. I dove for a bush, wincing as the jagged leaves dragged against my injured arm. As I heard distant gurgled chatterings, creatures swooped down from above, all identical in shape but varying in size. I stared in horror at vividly red exoskeletons, while in the place of typical mandibles, blood-tipped demonic horns jutted from their faces, and little pads on the creatures' sides swayed and swung, allowing them to hover. Circular maws gaped between the horns with each and every one of their jagged dagger teeth, able to tear through any unfortunate creature that ran into its path.

I turned my head away from the creatures, and tried to regulate my breathing, looking at the flora I had just jumped into.

Little eyes upon the leaves and branches, rooted upon by stretchy, fleshy tendrils, peered at me emotionlessly, one or two even making eye contact. They did so unblinkingly, unsurprisingly as there were no eyelids. When finished, they sluggishly turned, having something else to look at.

The surreal flora crowded around tightly, with the clotted plants uncomfortably close, sticking to my skin. They felt like disembodied flesh, not having clotted or hardened, remaining fresh throughout time. I peered through the bush at the abominations, hovering through the air with nothing but malice emanating from them. The creatures moved as one in a hivemind fashion, communicating with clicks and hisses of their forked tongues. Slowly, after a while, they seemed to descend, taking sips from the glimmering stream.

I kept silent, sitting in a ball, with an arm that would not stop aching with a burning pain. What am I going to do? I thought to myself, trying to think with my heavy heartbeats coursing through my veins. I would creep away through the flora, but my feet would not respond, frozen with terror. There was no telling if I would actually make it out alive, thus I stayed.

 The sun, high up in the sky and burning for eternity, slowly crept towards the horizon, causing waves of deeper and deeper mahogany to swath through the sky. Now it was nearly dark, half of the previous full sun visible, the rest obscured behind the hilltops and trees. As the beacon of safety lowered into the abyss, the sense of security that had enveloped the world started fading, the creatures typically not found out and about creeping out of their nooks and crannies under the shining moon, and that was a rule everyone knew: Do not go out at night, and yet, that is what I had done as there was both no protection nor comfort to be found, especially in the home of blood and flesh.

As the sun set, the creatures finished drinking by the stream, flying away in a matter of minutes. I looked up as they left, and cautiously crept out of the bushes. The shadows, painted an extremely dark maroon, crept up and grew as light faded, and I knew I only had moments to spare. Now what? I thought to myself, slowly coming to my feet. Looking around, there was nothing but red against the bloodstained sky. I silently crept forward, along the large stream, eyes looking around for anything that could lurk within the shadows.

A ribcage. Large, white, picked clean of an ancient beast. I walked over, and swept my fingers across the solid bone, smooth as initially expected. High above where I stood, looking up, the moon was shining its ethereal light across the world, amplifying the shadows. I hastily continued on, wanting not to be attacked by whatever lurked within the growing shelter of night.

Walking past the bones, the environment slowly got more unnerving, the terrain becoming less even with sudden drops and rises, and the flora became denser, significantly more eyes watching than before, blossoming under the silence of the night.

A tell-tale breeze howled through the environment, whispering and muttering incomprehensible words. The forest was quiet beyond the whispers, uncomfortably so. Yet, I continued on, looking for salvation.

Hisss! I nearly jumped, looking deep into the crimson tinted gloom. One- two- not even three but four, red eyes peered out with the intent of hunger. I took a slow step back, looking at the eyes and then the structure, knowing now all too well what had happened to the colossal creature.

The more steps taken into the descending darkness, the more eyes lit up, until all went still; no more steps were taken, and no more eyes lit up. The entire encroaching void, growing continuously as the moon rose, was filled with hundreds of gleaming, ruby eyes, all in groups of arachnid eight. My eyes were wide with my heart pumping furiously, as my mind frantically tried to make the choice of what to do in this new territory. Only two choices came from the pit of my stomach: Fight or flight. I chose flight, and ran.

A stampede of millions of spindly legs erupted from behind as my two legs ran onward. Through the patches of dusk and moonlight, I saw more spiders join the stampede, warped and crooked. Their legs looked as if made from needles and flesh; their bodies lean with a strange backbone running through. My raw arm ached and burned, with my other tiring, not knowing how long I would be able to keep my pace. The eyes glinted and glowed with malevolence. Their movement, even the sound of the skittering, seemed unified, no sign of tiring even with the sound of a few being crunched under the chase, seemingly running out of energy, a sign of what would happen to me if I stopped.

I tripped. Over a rock, I tripped head long down a long decline, with most spiders halting, only a few falling to their death, with their delicate, needle-like bodies crumpling under the force of gravity and earth.

The sound of the trampling feet receded as the hunt had ended, the prey having gotten away. The few stars high up twinkled, excreting a pale blue glow.