Frantic footfalls, echoing quickly toward you.
Heavy breathing, almost wheezing, as it
(...she?)
gasps for oxygen.
The tension of the moment is palpable; a cold sweat breaks on your forehead.
You brace yourself for... what?
...a rush of wind on your face as she rushes past you. Your body is tense and rigid and your teeth are clenched.
And yet, all you see is darkness. You realize suddenly that your equilibrium is swimming, and you get that strange feeling of vertigo, like closing your eyes tightly and leaning backwards just enough to feel like you'll fall, if you don't open your eyes. And indeed, your eyes snap open, and your arms spread sharply to steady yourself. But, ready for the shock of brightness, your eyes are confused by the lack of light. You blink in uncertainty a few times before you realize it's not that you're blind, but that the world is just as dark with your eyes open as it was when they were shut.
You look around, trying in vain to find the person who just passed you in such a hurry. But silence has resumed its reign, and the only light you see now that your eyes are acclimatizing to the darkness is an ornately carved lantern burning cautiously nearby, preserving its fuel diligently, waiting for the next time someone will come along and refill it. *Wait, that's strange,* you think. *Why am I ascribing motive and intention to inanimate objects...?*
Shrugging the thought aside, you decide to look around some more, and you pick up the lantern. It's handle feels frigid and uninviting, but you forgive its cold hospitality, because it doesn't know any better.
*Where am I?* you think, raising the lantern in all directions. Nothing. You feel the lantern's sense of hopelessness and self-pity at its own powerlessness. The sky looms over you, black as coal—that is, if there even -is- a sky to speak of. So you start walking forward, unsure what to do in a situation like this. *Any direction will do,* you seem to think... but you can't tell why you think that. You feel an urge to find a landmark of some kind, or anything really, that will define where you are at this very moment as being "somewhere" as opposed to "nowhere".
But the only concrete "thing" you can reasonably assume the presence and existence of is your lantern—wait, it's not yours, it belongs to someone else... at least, you think that's what it wants you to think. Well, the lantern and the ground beneath you. And the ground's about as bare as -- *Wait, what's that?*
You look down, your gaze following the edges of the light cast by the lantern. Red spots. You stoop closer, and take a mental snapshot of what looks like blood: multiple drops of it, trailing off into the darkness. Perhaps it's from the person you heard sprinting past you? Or is it from someone else? No, it has to be from them, because no one else is around. And besides, even though you have no way of knowing for sure, the lantern seems to think that the spots lead away from the general direction of where you just came from. *That's a funny thing to think,* you think, but out of pure force of habit, you look around cautiously, checking to see if anyone or anything is behind you... Nope. Just jumpy. *But why am I jumpy?* you think worriedly.
And so you try to follow the drips of blood away from where you began. You are still quite disoriented, and can't see more than your hand in front of you, lantern or not. As you follow the trail of blood, you begin to hear a noise, faintly at first, but then with increasing volume, like the echo of the sea in a seashell, almost like you're walking toward the ocean. You look at the lantern, wondering if it has any idea what the noise could mean, but all it gives you in response is a mental shrug. And so you continue on until the sound gets louder and louder... you even begin to see some light
(...could it be the sun?),
cresting over what appears to be the horizon. You begin to speed up, loping along at an elevated speed, eager to be rid of this darkness. You can almost hear the sound of waves, but not quite; it's still just a throaty roar in the distance.
As you continue on, the light keeps getting brighter, but as you get closer, you realize that it feels hollow. How light could be -hollow-, you can't fathom, and you can't quite put your finger on why the light feels cold, either. Isn't sunlight supposed to feel warm? You then begin to doubt: is this even real light at all... but... no, that's crazy... what -could- it be, if not light? Some sort of cheap impostor? This makes absolutely no sense. All you know is, there's plenty of "light" where you are, but you can still see nothing beyond the range of your lantern's feeble glow. Your steps slow, as you wonder: *What -is- light, if not illumination which reflects off things, and brings the illusion of vision to optic receptors...?*
And then you realize a terrible thing. This is not light. And those are not waves. You've always thought that darkness was simply the absence of light, and that light chases darkness away; that darkness, for all practical purposes, doesn't exist. But you know now that this sound, this sight, is not light, are not waves. It's a trap laid for you, and you've walked right into it.
You don't know why you know this, but you do. And it is terrifying.
The sound of choking erupts right next to you. You turn to your left, and take in the sight of a figure on the ground next to you, a young woman's body, ripped and torn like your eyes wouldn't believe possible unless they were seeing it themselves. Blood is everywhere, and you realize that she is likely the source of the blood trail behind you. *But she would have lost much more blood than this before, if she was this badly wounded. Unless...* Your thoughts are interrupted as the corpse moves; she is miraculously still alive! Her gaze catches yours, and with her last wheezing breath, she gazes into your eyes as she rasps the words: "Nobody... gets... away..." Her body shudders one last time, and she falls still and silent.
Suddenly, a dark shadow falls across your soul, and you can't move. You sense a presence near you... you can feel its eyes upon you. Your heart feels like it's in a vice, and simultaneously as though it is about to burst into flames. Your brain tries to start your body pumping endorphins into your blood stream, but nothing is working. Your body is frozen in fear and... something else. You fall to the ground, realizing your blood has gone cold in your veins. You slowly turn your head to find the source of this torment, and then you see it. You see.... HIM. Your eyes lock, and your mind begins racing a thousand miles a minute, replaying memories from times long past. You don't know why, but even as you feel a thousand knives of terror stab your heart, you feel a strange sense of peace.
And then you feel nothing, your final breath cut short by the downward swing of a scythe.
Day 1 has begun.
.
