Melody of the Holoverse

Episode 2: Black

It scurried into my ear like insects—the commotion of outside, muffled by the walls but still discernible.

What's going on?

Tired, I sat up to rub my aching eyes. I'd only barely fallen asleep before the village's apparent nightlife up and roared.

Beside me lay an empty futon.

He's still not back?

My chest throbbed.

But the wistfulness would have to wait. For now, I lifted myself off the floor to saunter towards the closed back window.

Just as I started to open it, however, another cloud of sounds broke loose, this one much closer.

My heart bounced into my throat, and with flimsy bravery did I bring myself to the bedroom door to open it.

Towards the end of the hall, I heard the rolling and clattering of objects, as if someone was raking through our belongings.

"Grandpa?" I called out. "Is that you?"

The noises stopped.

"Grandpa?"

Then came the footsteps—light, yet with heft.

It peered around the corner only a moment later: a creature whose existence made quiver every vein in my body. Grotesque was the only fitting descriptor, the abomination mimicking a human only in slimness and stature. Everything else—the way it crawled on all fours, the horns curving outward from its temples, the bloodstained, savage-like teeth—shook me to my core, folding my stomach every which way. Through its flesh ran a hue akin to a crow's, with the whole appearing as a three-dimensional shadow, the attributes all fusing into a single layer.

H-Huh . . . ?

Finding me, the creature's gaze lit up with hunger, its jaws widening as the scarlet spilling down splashed to its sharpened claws.

W-What is—?

It approached, snarling sickeningly.

My terror flooded me like a poison, and it took every ounce of willpower to budge. Quickly, I retreated back into the bedroom, urging the beast to dash with haste. But I slammed the door just in time, locking it.

I then slowly backed away to the other end of the room, my breaths caught in my throat.

Wham! Wham! Wham!

Like a psychopath, the creature started to claw away at the wood, ripping apart chunks like they were meager sheets of paper.

I-I have to get out of here!

Without a second thought, I tore open the window to climb through, just to be assaulted with the horrid stench of rot and blood. Even so, I hurled myself onto the compacted dirt.

That was when I heard the screams.

So many screams

piercing from every direction.

Bodies, everywhere I looked. Most fleeing in terror, their loved ones clutched in their arms, while some had already perished from this world, their pupils ashen and their limbs lifeless.

But they still had to play their apparent role, for the swarms of those insidious creatures scurrying around partook. Their low growls slithered across the metallic air as they gnawed upon the corpses, ripping the flesh from the bone.

I covered my mouth in horror.

W-What . . . What is this . . . ?

My bile bubbled.