The Gaze of Fear

Prolouge

     The muffled crackling of fire finds its way into his ears, stirring his numb mind. Slowly opening his eyes, he allows the blinding, green-yellow light into his field of vision, the heat of a flaming car being felt as the popping and crackling can now be heard perfectly crisp. Rolling over and bringing his arms under his chest, he musters enough strength to push his previously limp body to a kneeling position, now able to look around.

     At eye-level, guard rails line either side of what is a broken street, cars both perserved and flaming litter the road ahead. Gently rising to a standing position, he leans on a cooled but burnt skeleton of one for support. With a mix of pain and determination, he lifts his legs to carry him to the side, finally leaning against the rail and looking down at a seemingly endless drop form the platform. The street, now clearly revealing itself as a highway, seems to go on forever in both directions, becoming lost into the haze of the fog that circles all around him.

     With a deep sigh and shaking of his head, he leans against the car as his eyes wander the unfamiliar surroundings. Right, he thinks, waking up without any memory of... anything. Just another day in the life. With another sigh, he pushes himself off the car and stands, taking in the unfamiliar world. Figuring that walking is better than doing nothing, he decides to walk along the guardrails in a random direction, keeping an eye out for any signs of life.

     Looking inside the few unlocked, pristine-like cars, he reluctantly moves skeletons and opens gloveboxes, hoping for some sort of clue about his current situation. Besides the usual registration and occasional dead phones, nothing points to an answer. If I'm going to be meeting people and asking questions, I'll need a name. As he ponders about what to call himself, a sudden clash catches his attention.

     "H-hello? Is someone there?" He asks into the fog, now closer than before. "Hey, there's no need to be frightened, I won't hurt you." A black mass that resembles a person's shadow begins to grow taller as it approaches him in the fog. He moves to step forward but accidently kicks a metal pole from what he assumes to be a car, not moving anymore as to not possibly scare them off. I want to trust they'll be good, but something in me isn't giving itself over. Why can't I shake it? "What's your name? I'm-" he stops mid-sentence, his breaths catching themselves. "W-what the hell?" The figure, now less than ten feet in front of him, is the silhouette of a person. It is made of a jet-black, endless abyss-like blackness that has a flat and two-dimensional look, making up the shape of this 'person'. Caressing the edge of this silhouette is a purple, flickering mass that surrounds the figure, this electricity-like material moving in and out of the creature in a circular motion. Besides the purple and black, the only other color was an out of place red spot on what would be a person's right thigh.

     Frozen by both sudden adrenaline and fear, he stands still, trying but failing to think of an escape. What is this thing? Where am I? I can walk up to it but for all I know I could be surrounded. I can always turn and run, but what if it can outrun me? A chance is a chance though. Still staring into the void that is the creature, he waits for it to make the first move, wanting to see just what its abilities are. But as minutes pass, the move never comes.

     Is it waiting for me to do something first? It must want to study me, just like I want to study it. After a short, few more minutes, he settles on the thought of initiating interaction himself. Alright, lets go. With a suddenly steeled expression and focus, he moves his right foot forward, pushing off and rushing towards the creature, bending down in his first few steps and grabbing the pole he kicked earlier. Ramming towards it at full speed, he impacts what feels like an invisible wall, falling hard against the ground a mere two feet or less from the creature.

     "S-so that was your ace in the hole, huh?" He asks it tauntingly, attempting to ignore the severe pain in his head from the fall. "What? Nothing?" He asks the amalgamation, still not moving an inch other than the electricity slithering around its edges. Struggling to stand he uses the short pole as support to regain balance. It's almost like this thing is treating this whole encounter like a chess match. Each player makes a move to counteract and advance their own goal. But if that's the case, why didn't it attack first? Staring down the void-filled creature, he takes the pole and throws it at the monster, the object never hitting the invisible barrier

     With a singular fluid motion, the creature parts the purple electricity where the pole was about to impact, allowing the metal to pass through the blackness and exit the body, unfazed. Shocked by the movement, he gazes at the pole far behind it, the metal that touched the blackness now just as dark as the creature, the purple electricity also now surrounding the black pole. You did that to SHOW me, not just to because you wanted or needed to. "H-how did you-agh!"

     A black arm emerges from the monster, grabbing a hold of the left side of his face and causing his vision and hearing to go numb, feeling like static. The arm was stretched well beyond that of a human's, the monster silently stepping to him. Engrossed in the bizarre pain and panic, he goes to push the arm off him with his left hand but retracts it when he begins to push through the arm. Peering through his now lessened vision, his left arm has not only become numb, but is a mirror of the creature's very outstretched ligament that is assaulting him.

     As the realization of his inability to touch it surfaces, his last chance of escaping is cut short when he falls to his knees, losing all feeling in his left leg. Scared of the same thing happening to the other half of him, he looks to see a black, purple-outlined leg on the ground still attached to him. As the hand slowly moves, caressing its way up his body, the entire left side of his slim and tall build becomes nullified and encased in the same black, purple-electricity outline as the creature he has now succumbed to. After a few moments of kneeling before the figure that's been the same height of him, just over six feet, he is forced to look up at it, crying from his right eye. W-why? Why are you doing this to me? He attempts to talk but is unable to.

     He can only think this to himself as the tears fall from his face, his body now without support on the left side, only staying upright thanks to the phantom arms of the creature holding him. Descending to one knee, its human shaped head without any features stares at him, tilting it. Pulling one hand away but not affecting his ability to stay upright, it moves its hand towards the left side of his chest. Looking down at it just hovering over his own half void of a chest, he attempts to beg but cannot, only making sounds with the un-touched portion of his mouth and numb tongue. It pushes its hand into his chest exactly like the pole rushing through its own body, causing him to stop all movements and stop his own breathing.

     A cold chill rushes through his blood, breathing now uncontrolled, feeling as if his lungs are being pulsated for him by the creature. The cold chill stops as he feels his heart softly played with inside his chest, forcing him to convulse in short spurts. A few moments that feel like days later, it removes its hand from him and pulls away both of its arms, letting him fall limp onto his side, unable to regain control of his own breathing.

     Seemingly to mock him, the creature lies on its own side and rests its head on its hands, staring back at him. Through a large amount of struggle, he finally manages to spurt out "why", spit and what can only be assumed to be blood spewing from his mouth. The creature, as still as the street they lay on, puts a hand through his chest once again, though this time rather than subjugating him to what seemed to be torture, it rests its hand on his heart, filling him with a warm feeling. A series of flashbacks and memories shoot through his mind, each one reminding him of different times where people had proved themselves self-interested, uncaring, greedy, and capable of so much more than everyday distrust and manipulation. While no memories were positive nor happy, they all made him feel a familiar sense of distrust. Distrust in humans.

     The original question not being answered, he feels his one good eye grow heavy and, despite his attempts to fight it, gives into the feeling of tiredness sweeping throughout his body, falling asleep as a soft, female voice audibly whispers, "Leider."