Chimerical Realities 🇬🇧

Lost piece of heaven

Prompt-based story for The Fabulous Spec-Fic Smack Down Contest

Qualifying entry

Wattpad word count: 600

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Sador was  convinced that the legend about the glowing cubes was true. He had dedicated all his life to this endeavour. He wouldn't rest until he found the monoliths that would lead him to that place many called "The lost piece of heaven".

On his 25th expedition, he was accompanied by seven other brave explorers who shared the same goal of finding that site that many had reported seeing over the centuries, but no one had ever been able to document. Some believed the sightings were mere delusions of people seeking fame. Others said the cubes were extraterrestrial artifacts from a much more advanced civilization. But the vast majority of people firmly believed that the glowing cubes served as delimiters of a portal between the afterlife and the physical world. 

The exploration team was near the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The monoliths weren't in any specific location but appeared from time to time in various isolated localities. It was impossible to predict where the portal would make its next appearance, but according to several people's reports, strange events began to occur in the surroundings for several days before the portal closed.

Following this clue, the team arrived to the area shortly after its inhabitants reported inexplicable things. Exhausted from the long journey from the remote locality of Ishkuduk in the middle of the desert, one of them claimed to see the reflection of a very bright light nearby. The men walked several hundred meters and then spotted several lights that seemed to come from small golden objects near the horizon. Excited, they quickened their pace toward the place. The closer they got, the faster the sky darkened, despite having left Ishkuduk in the morning. When they got close enough, the day had completely died, and before they realized it, the sky had been invaded by such severe darkness that they could see shape of the Milky Way with their own eyes. In front of them lay countless perfectly proportioned cubes emanating an impressive incandescent golden color.

After countless expeditions from Antarctica, the Amazon jungle, the Himalayas, Death Valley, and many other places around the planet, their journey finally came to an end. Everyone celebrated euphorically and soon proceeded to document the findings. However, as soon as one of the members got too close to one of the cubes, his body disintegrated instantly into what seemed like a fine golden sand. The ground began to shake, and the cubes started moving in different directions. Sador ordered everyone to get away from them as quickly as possible, and they all started running, completely horrified. However, their fate seemed inevitable. Sador watched as several rays of light shot out in all directions from the cubes, interconnecting with each other as they moved at high speed, and some rose into the sky, generating a large, rapidly spinning golden whirlwind. Desperate, he felt the air growing heavier and heavier, and before he knew it, he lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he found himself completely alone in the desert, with no trace of his companions or the cubes. He looked around and noticed several things that didn't fit. The sand had now a bright blue color, and a disproportionately large moon above him had a gloomy blood-red hue. Dazed, he felt an itch on his body, so he proceeded to remove his gloves to check if he was injured. When Sador looked at his left hand, he realized his fingers had the grotesque appearance of a tentacle, and his skin had become viscous and purple.

That night, the desert heard an agonizing scream that no one else could hear.

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