A Yellow Dress Forgotten [ABANDONED]

Ep. 3.1 | Dragon's Fire || 10.4k

"And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you..." ~Friedrich Nietzsche

She shivered. The chill in the air sliced her cheeks like sheets of metal, and Clementine held her arms. She stepped off of the train, only to slip. With uneven breaths, Clementine caught herself with the train's rail.

Ice.

Clementine swallowed, slowly looking across the vast, frozen lake. She couldn't see past the haze of white where land should've been. And when she turned to clamber back on board, the train was gone. Clementine blinked. It had truly left her on her own.

Carefully, she walked on. Clementine winced as the ice crackled beneath her boots, and all she wanted to do was get the hell away. She wanted to find land—a sturdy structure. Clementine stepped forward, eyes over her shoulder, when she heard it: a second set of steps, low and unruly.

She spun around violently. No one. But the second set of steps, they were still there. Clementine frowned. Her heart matched the unsettling beats until she realized they weren't steps at all. Her gaze sunk to the ice in horror. "No..."

They were fists pounding against the ice. Frantic. Panicked. "L-Luke..." she whispered hoarsely. "Luke..."

Clementine feet were flighty. She followed the pounding without thought, until she felt them directly below the ice. Clementine fell to her hands and knees, scrubbing the snow from the surface. "Luke! Luke, I-I— Hold on, please!" she yelled, snatching her flask from her hip. Clementine held it within both hands above her head.

The metal screamed as she bashed it into the ice. Again, and again, and again. The beats slowed by the time her hands were torn from knuckles to wrists. Clementine was unceasing. With a surge of energy, the flask broke through the frigid ice, and Clementine followed once everything shattered beneath her. Her screams were muted below the surface. The water was dark, and once again she was alone.

Clementine swam towards the crater. The air pierced her lungs as she gasped, and Clementine snatched the edge of the ice with a sob.

Once again, she had failed. She was still that stupid kid. She still couldn't save a life. More blood on her hands.

Clementine trembled as her upper body scraped the surface. And as her legs kicked, Clementine gasped in shock. A hand had snatched her ankle. Once it yanked with an inhuman strength, Clementine was forced back under. She kicked at the sodden man with her boot blindly, only to recognize the face. Clementine went ridged as Luke—skin warped with the water's current, and eyes pale as can be—continued to scratch her, tugging her down towards the many decomposed hands that reached for her. All the hands she'd slaughtered.

And there were many.

So. So. Many.

At the bottom, a hellish fire glowed. The flames grew, slithering amongst the water and undead. Your time is now... it hissed. Your time to join us, Clementine...

Hell claims every monster born...

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Clementine wrenched herself up from the sleeping bag as a trembling mass. She held herself, and the rivers of sweat that beaded along her temple dripped to her neck. Beside her, Javier groaned, stirring in his own bag. Clementine's exhale was shaken. She clenched her jaw, reaching for her hip before remembering that it was empty.

Her lifeline. She recalled draining all of it the night prior, at the foot of the fire.

With most of her breathing managed, Clementine slowly got to her feet and strode out of the RV door. She blinked in the early sun's light and adjusted her cap. As Clementine walked out of the RV square, she kicked bottles to the side. The pounding of fists haunted her with every stride, and as she stared down the cliff, Clementine was adamant on driving them away. There would never be a night—she swore—that she'd think about that day again.