Mae opened her eyes and saw shapes. Familiar shapes, yet unfamiliar at the same time, like she'd been here before, but had never really focused on the specific things around her. 'Pretty sure I have…'' Her words echoed. She hadn't spoken them, however. Her mind felt like it was in a fog as she began walking forward. Looking around, the shapes gradually and consistently morphed into different shapes, some melding into the environment. Even as she walked, her body seemed to be moving sluggishly.
Around her, the vague-look alike of Possum Springs morphed and passed by her as she walked. Silhouettes of town inhabitants either hovered in place at random spots in the air, or seemed stuck doing the same thing over and over again. Muffled voices would echo around her, like passing conversations. Some shapes would look more familiar than others.
As she tried to gain some semblance of meaning among the shapes around her, one thought stayed clear. 'Find Bea, Gregg, or Angus. Even Germ would help things make sense again.' For Mae, they weren't just shapes, they were her family. They were her best friends, even when things had gotten real shitty, they all came through for her. They practically saved her life, multiple times. And yet, even when they were present, she couldn't stop the thoughts of it from entering her mind. The Black Goat was like an infection on her already frayed mind, reminding her of its desire to devour everything and everyone.
And just like the flip of a switch, the shapes began changing. The town around her changed and dissolved. In its place, three figures slowly appeared several feet in front of her. Familiar shapes that resembled her best friends. However, as their faces began to form, something changed again. The faces of her friends began contorting into various awful expressions, ranging from emtpy-looking, tear-stricken and lost, and regretful. Age began to show over the faces as time passed, showing change on their body, but their faces remaining the same. Neon colors began leaking from their eyes profusely as echoes of their voices began invading Mae's mind.
Mae wanted to call out, to snap them out of whatever trance they were in, and help fix whatever the fuck was going on with their eyes. She wanted to reach out and hug every single one of them together as one. In her hands, however, without giving her anytime to process what was happening, one by one they began turning to dust. Angus went first, fading in Mae's and Gregg's arms. Gregg's tears intensified, whispers of his screams ringing in her ears as he faded next. Bea stared at the dust for few seconds before glancing back at Mae with the emptiest expression she'd ever seen on her best available friend. Finally, as the dust began to consume her from the bottom up, Bea opened her mouth to say something. The dust beat her to it though, and she was swept away into the shadows, leaving a distraught and confused Mae.
Confusion turned into complete fear as she began to realize how alone she really was now. She tried to refocus on her breathing, but the images of her friends fading away were burned into her memory now. She was outright panicking, unsure of what to do and unable to truly realize what she had just witnessed.
She was practically hyperventilating when she felt a hand gently grasp her shoulder, causing her to jump out of shock. Breathing heavily and ready to run, she looked behind her to see the Janitor with a grim, partially covered expression. Slowly, he pointed to his left where an alleyway had somehow appeared. Before she could even begin to question why she would even go in there, she saw a familiar bird run in. Looking back, the Janitor had disappeared, leaving no traces behind. Turning back to the alley, she tried to shout out his name in hopes of flagging him down. Instead, nothing came out of her mouth. 'I… Germ? Please don't go, too…' She began moving towards the alley at a steady pace, unable to pass jogging speed. Her legs just weren't… Obeying her as well as they should have been. As she neared the alley, she slowed down as she began hearing a static-like noise from the ground beside her. Looking down, she saw a worn out radio. A couple of buttons were missing, but it was working nonetheless… Sorta, anyways. She couldn't turn the static off. Feeling the need to take it with her, she pocketed the radio, muffling the static noise slightly.
Looking up, the only things in the world around her that weren't moving around constantly were certain buildings, and the alleyway she was heading to. Everywhere else, her vision was morphing and distorting, with giant creatures floating about, both known and unknown. The giant creatures… Weren't exactly discomforting, as she'd seen them before, she was sure, but they clearly weren't the most talkative.
While she was now transfixed on the morphing patterns around and above her, the static became louder. It was at the point she was hearing unsteady footsteps that she finally looked down. What she saw easily beat whatever she'd seen in the past. It was a decaying cult member, shambling towards her. She knew it, she hadn't escaped them after all! She ran as fast as her sluggish body could carry her down the street, away from that alleyway as far as possible. She was never going back there. The alley had been a dead end, and Germ wasn't anywhere to be found. As the static faded from the alley, static from another location nearby spiked up again. Seconds later, she's barely dodging an outstretched hand from another cult member that was in similar shape as the last.
'Don't you fucking touch me!' She screamed internally. She wanted to be able to speak so bad, but she just couldn't understand why. Was it a dream? She didn't know, she just knew she had to keep moving.
More static up ahead. Looking around however, she could see nothing in sight as the buildings beside her had begun to distort along with the rest of the air and the giant creatures. Just as she thought she'd already passed the next one, something grabbed her ankle. Even at her jogging speed, she immediately fell face forward. Sharp pain rose from her nose, feeling a warm liquid begin to leak past her lips. She whimpered as she tried to push herself up. A groan behind her reminded her what had just tripped her. Heart beating faster than before, she pushed herself to the side to roll over, allowing her full view of what had hold of her.
The miner helmet was semi-melted onto the rotten one's face, the light having long since gone out. Its clothes were tattered and burned, some melted to its skin like the helmet. Decayed teeth gnashed out at her as she held it back by kicking it with her leg repeatedly. Black ooze began leaking out of its mouth, producing a sizzling noise on the concrete before her. Some of it flaked onto her pant leg, and she saw it begin to melt through.
Screaming internally, she renewed her kicking with new vigor, desperate to get that thing away from her. Finally, she'd landed a solid kick on the exposed side of the head where the helmet had melted off. Her boot caved in the thing's head, silencing its grunts once and for all. Unfortunately, it wasn't before more of the black ooze could land on her pant leg. Already, it was eating through the jeans. Her breathing hitched as she felt the heat right above her leg. She started trying to slip off the pants as quickly as possible. Just as she was halfway through ripping them off, a burning feeling shot through leg. It was then and only then, could she finally scream outwardly, as if something that was holding a box together broke apart entirely. She could feel it eating past her fur and into her flesh, and it was agonizing beyond belief. Never had she felt a pain as even remotely close to being this bad.
Ripping them off completely, she cried as she held her leg in an iron grip. The ooze had eaten through parts of her flesh, and down to the bone. It wasn't enough to eat through the bone itself, but the moment it had touched the bone, the only thing that she could think about was just getting through it. She hissed as the pain persisted, but hadn't gotten any worse. Her eyes hurt from squeezing them closed for so long, but she didn't want to see what her leg was like now. The pain itself made her feel dizzy. Everything just hurt so much now. Where the hell was she? What the fuck happened to her friends? Why are the cultists back? Was this her Hell? Had the Black Goat finally caught up with her?!
A moment later, just when she thought she had time to just focus on breathing, static kicked up again from behind her. Begrudgingly opening her eyes, she could see something else walking towards her. Another one of those miners again… And she could barely move. The pain in her leg spiked up tenfold if she even tried putting weight or moving it. She was effectively stationary unless someone carried her. And this time, there was no one to help her. No one to hear her screams, her crying, her expletives, her worries, her dreams, or her fear.
"G-Get… Get the fuck away from me! Please! Fuck…" Her desperate shouts died down quickly, already feeling like she'd expended too much energy just from dealing with both the pain and the first cultist.
Ignoring the pain in her leg to the best of her ability, she started pulling herself backwards. Slowly, but surely, she was making progress. The shambling miner had only made miniscule progress, despite her grounding. She would've preferred crawling forward instead of heaving herself backwards, but she couldn't afford to scrape her exposed skin and bone on the concrete. It'd just bring back the worst pain she'd ever felt ten fold.
Breathing heavily as she kept pulling herself backwards, thoughts of getting eaten or dissolved alive were already swarming her mind. If that thing got too close, that was it. Finito. Dead Nightmare Eyes. Some legend she would turn out to be, killed while crawling away like a coward. Tears had long since dried themselves as her leg throbbed horribly. She was losing arm strength, and the miner was actually getting really close now. If she didn't stop now and didn't try to take him out herself, she was done for. She had to try. If she had to die like this, then so be it. Her life may have been shit, but… It was worth it. It was worth it coming back home to make up for all the shit she pulled before college and during. She made up with Beabea, got even closer with Gregg, got a better understanding of Angus and of how much of a good person he really was, and even gotten to know Germ and his weird (but cool) family. She'd come far. She did her best… Right? They'd remember her, right? She didn't think she could bare being forgotten.
Her claws unsheathed as she did one last pull. Panting heavily, she hissed, baring her paws for as many swipes and jabs she could get in under the vain hope that she somehow takes him down before he can drool all over her to death. "If… If I have to die now…" She could feel the giant creatures looking down on her. She swore she could hear some of them laughing to her chagrin, while others were clearly unhappy with the state of events. Others seemed indifferent as they watched with mild curiosity. Yet, the one constant between all of the giants was that they were all moving on without helping her, like she wasn't worth their time. The universe was forgetting her, and her life, and there was nothing she could do… Except fight. "Then you best make it hurt more…" Seeing as she had a little bit more time left, she took the time to unsteadily force herself upright as she did her best to keep all weight off her bad leg. "Because my friends have fought tooth and nail for me… So you'd best be damn sure I'm going to do the same! For them, and for myself!"
Finally, it came within swiping range, and she came down with her first attack. Swiping across the miner's face, she took off part of its visor along with bits of flesh. It stumbled slightly to the right, before slowly craning back to her with a pain-filled moan. She hesitated for a second at the moan before coming down with the other slash. This one loosened the mining helmet, causing it to fall of its decaying head. Finally, a third claw shot forward, slashing the throat.
It stumbled slightly before falling over, the head hanging loosely. Breathing heavily, was about to sit back down to rest when a second wave of immense pain came from her front paws. Bringing her paws within eyesight, she saw black ooze eating away at her claws, and bits of her flesh around them.
"NO!" She screamed out as the pain heightened as the ooze began to eat away at some of the nerves in the claws. Gritting her teeth tightly as she looked around frantically through tear-filled eyes, she found a nearby house with a deteriorating water hose. Ignoring the pain in her leg as much as she could, she hobbled over to the front yard. As she reached the nozzle, she stumbled sideways with a grunt, grabbing at the hose shakily. Turning on the water, it spewed out from multiple holes in the cord. Thankfully, enough was coming out the end for her to wash off her paws immediately, removing the excess blood and ooze.
A few minutes later, she brought her hands up in front of her, shaking horribly. Her claws were all but gone, and the pain was still nearly unbearable. Bits of her flesh were also missing near the claw beginnings. She was naturally defenseless now. She would need to find a weapon to use from here on out. Before she could even begin to get her bearings though, something else made itself known, very loudly. Looking down the street from where the noise came from, she could begin to hear things being thrown around and destroyed. Seconds later, she's seeing debris and shrapnel shoot off in random directions out of the fog, nearly dismembering her a couple times with close calls.
She looked down at her leg, debating whether she'd actually be able to limp anymore in her current state. Deciding she'd try anyway, she looked back up. She saw something approach. Something huge. 'One of the giant ones…'. Just as it was about to entering the clearing, it shot up into the sky, leaving an extremely long tail behind it. 'B-Big Snake…'. To say she was shocked would have been an understatement. While the body of the snake seemed to keep extending from beyond the fog behind it, she couldn't help but keep staring as she slowly huddled up against the decaying house behind her. Her heartbeat skyrocketed as she began to hyperventilate. 'How is t-this even happening?!' Any hopes of escaping were quickly diminishing as the sky above had already nearly become darkened from the hulking form of Big Snake. She wanted to move her legs and book it out of there. She knew she wanted to, but her legs wouldn't respond. She could barely move any part of body unless it meant curling further into herself. In the midst of this as she stared downward at herself, she could've sworn she'd started hearing the familiar groans of the cult miner shamblers.
"N-no… Don't look up… It's not real, don't let this be real… Please!" She muttered to herself, trying in vain to find some semblance of security in such an impossible scenario.
"They're coming…"
She stopped, hearing a soft, yet firm voice whisper to her just loud enough for her to hear. "W… What?"
"Unforgotten one, the Devourer persists. It still beckons. It is not alone. You are, and yet you aren't. We pity you …"
Silence reigns for a few maddening seconds. "Wait… Wait! He's still here?!" She finally opened her eyes to see the crowd of cultists shambling at her with ravenous, bloody teeth. She screamed bloody murder as she shoved back away from the closest ones using her feet. Through her screams, however, a different, but familiar voice broke through.
"MAE!"
Mae felt cold hands placed on her shoulders firmly, causing her to resist only further before she heard it again, louder this time.
"MAE!" She felt something smack across her cheek pretty roughly, causing her to jump as she reawakened to reality to see an extremely worried Beatrice with a rather nasty looking bruised eye beside an extremely worried mother. Mae sat there, blinking away her sleep and tears rapidly in front of them for a few seemingly agonizing seconds before wrapping them both in the tightest hug she could muster.
Bea, taken aback from this for only a second, wrapped her arms around her best friend comfortingly and firmly. She wasn't unused to this behavior exactly, but it was somewhat rare. Though, from what Mae had been doing and saying in her sleep, it sounded like the worst one the cat had ever seen. These worries and thoughts only made her more concerned for Mae as she tried not showing how badly her right eye hurt. 'That was one hell of a kick, Mae… Shit.'