People moved slowly up and down the streets. Pausing to chat, looking in store windows, parents chasing down their children. Several couples smiled as they watched a young boy and a girl run up and down the streets laughing as they chased one another, on their way to the park. As they ran, dark clouds loomed overhead signaling an approaching rainstorm. "Perhaps we should go home" the boy said to his younger sister, looking on apprehensively as, one by one, families and couples resigned themselves to the coming rain and headed for shelter. "But brother we never spend time together anymore, a little rain isn't that bad." The young girl said. He sighed, even after 12 years of living with his sister and watching her grow up the 17 year old boy still couldn't say no to her. "Alright I suppose mother won't mind if we stay out a little longer." He said smiling as the girl's face lit up and she began trotting up the road.
When they reached the park there were very few people remaining. The teen smiled as he watched his sister chasing a white butterfly on the bridge over the river. As he walked over to a bench to sit down he felt the first droplets of cold rain collide with his skin. He loved these lazy autumn weekends when he could just relax, even if the weather was bad. He looked over toward the bridge and saw the vague shape of his sister still playing around, most likely with the same butterfly. After he had been sitting for a few minutes the rain began to pick up and he decided it was time to leave before the two of them were totally soaked through. As he reached the bridge he called over the pouring rain to the girl "Hey c'mon sis it's time t-" He stopped dead as a scream ripped through the air. His sister wasn't on the bridge anymore. He ran to the side and saw large ripples moving out in all directions over the rivers surface from a spot right below him. "no" he croaked "NO!" He threw himself off the edge of the stone bridge and into the river. The river rushed up to meet him as he fell some 20 feet and slammed into the water. It was so cold that he nearly passed out on impact. His clothes were immediately soaked through and it felt like he had just been submerged into an ice bath. The storm was making the river rougher then usual and his wet clothes slowed him down as he whipped his head around desperately searching for a splash. An arm. Anything that could be his sister struggling in the current.
He could barely see anything through the sheets of rain. Maybe she was already-. No she couldn't be. She had only just fallen, She had to be alive. He had to find her. He dived underwater and opened his eyes. He could see a little ways but not much. He came up took a deeper breath and went back down. He kept going down and down. Deeper and deeper. Searching. Hoping. A dark form loomed beneath him and he sped up. He reached out for his sister, but suddenly realized his lungs were empty and screaming for oxygen that wasn't there. He lost control of himself. His body, unaware of the water as his mind was, forced him to inhale deeply. Once he started it couldn't be stopped. Water flooded down his windpipe and filled his lungs. He suddenly felt completely hopeless. Nothing mattered anymore. So this was how dying felt? He thought, as the silhouette of his beloved sister faded with his vision. His faded as he felt a powerful sensation of being dragged from his body and downwards into the unending abyss.
His eyes fluttered open. Trees towered over him and the buzz off insects could be heard near by. Was he dead? Had someone rescued him and brought him to this place? No. As he stood up and took in his surroundings he knew deep in his gut that this was no place inhabited by man. Not even a place fit for man. Tall trees stretched above him to a grey sky. All color seemed void from this land and an eerie cold wind danced across his face. There was something ominous and terrifying about this calm forest. A thought then occurred to him. Maybe his sister was here somewhere as well. After a brief hesitation he decided on a course of action and walked off into the gloom.
Unbeknownst to the boy a set of 8 milky eyes watched him go. With an excited click of shiny pincers a monstrous hairy eight legged form descended from the tree tops and crept along, silent as the boys approaching grave, after him into the vast expanse of LIMBO.
