OC's POV

There I found myself staring at the dilapidated shrine wide-eyed, with my mouth hung agape. I was sitting root to the ground, trembling as ice continued to chill my spine nastily. Horribly. The feeble materials from my jacket and underclothes aren't helping from the suspended cold either. The building was sinister looking with its eerie environment- piles of dust and cobwebs filled the room, half-broken windows fanning in and out from the stormy winds outside. Series of blaring red lights continued to shine and glow on the tattered ceilings of the "so called shrine". I whizzed my head around the room, searching for presence of other villagers who came to the shrine with us. It was dead quiet. Nobody's there. Alone. I was alone.

I could hear foreign sounds buzzing about the dark corners of the building, those that would make one grit their teeth in chagrin. The sound got louder by the minute, my mind doing its best to convince me that it will go away if I made an endeavour. Completely dissuaded from my plan, I shut my ears with my hands as firm as I could, my eyes locked within their eyelids, all of these in attempt to focus and forget every part of negative experience that was shoving through me right now.

It could be a total fluke or wish came true, as the smattering of nightmarish noises abruptly came to a standstill. I finally opened my eyes and freed my ears from my hands, head poking around to make sure that my confused senses weren't playing tricks on me. Relieved that the room began to quiet again, I heaved a short sigh of relief before gradually turning into a troubled and glum face as I began to recollect the things that happened so far…

The village where l had lived in was poor and impoverished of modern infrastructure, but the fact that we were able to survive on our own was based on primary farming alone, was something that we should be proud of. In the early spring and summer of every year, we were able to reap and enjoy the abundance of food we have grown, and then scrimping and saving just enough for the winter.

However, luck was short lived. We were plunged by a sudden series of droughts and floods, causing a huge shortage of rations that should have last for a winter. Famine and strange diseases began to mercilessly surge our poor tiny village, driving us mad one time after another. Filled with frustration and despair, many of us travelled far in search for help, many failed, many never returned. Then one odd day, the son of the local chief ecstatically had reported that there was a small shrine unexplored at the back of the mountain. A strangely erected but elegant looking statue was seen in the middle of the the shrine, the golden coloured stone was carved in a form of an enchanting spider fairy. It was aesthetically pleasing to our eyes, not that it was our main concern of course.

Initially the majority of us ignored the statue and carried on living our miserable lives, but villagers one after another piled up to the local chief and have claimed that the statue actually answered their prayers. Their sons and daughters recuperated from illness in an insane speed, which the local doctors have no idea how it was done. And subsequently the few days after that, the droughts and floods have become lesser issues to us. We now experienced lesser calamities than before, and the soil began to become more fertile. To show our gratitude towards the merciful heaven, we all rushed our way to the mountain shrine and revered the statue as god. It was only the moment when we have stepped into the shrine, unknowingly surprised to us, a mysterious note naturally placed on a side bench.

"I am pleased and relieved that your village is now spared from natural disasters and strange diseases. If you want to seek further blessing and enlightenment from us, feel free to visit anytime on the coast of Shadow Isles, located at the southeast part of Bilgewater. It is auspicious to travel there by boat, under the inky skies and moonless nights."

-Priestess Elise, Protector of the Spider Deity

Obviously, the note was considered to be deceptive and suspicious in the eyes of average sounded minds. But unfortunately for us, the tremendous pressure and suffering we have endured for several months was lifted off right after we got to say our prayers to the shrine on the mountain. Coincidence? The villagers disagreed. Most of us were already hot on the topic, discussing on when was the best occasion for a visit into the coast of Shadow Isles. And in the end, we have all agreed that we would dispatch our most physically fit as bodyguards and protectors, along with those who had the strongest will and needs to seek enlightenment from the spider deity.

That uncertain evening came. I volunteered myself to explore the coast of Shadow Isles, alongside with the group of fellow villagers boarding the boat. Most of them were parents, young and old. All of them had a common goal: to seek blessing and wished for eternal healthiness in their children. Many may asked why I would go on a dangerous trip like that, especially to a place we have never seen before. Well, I only knew I have no parents when I attained the age to learn walking and running. I have neither relatives nor any close friends. Raised by a kind farmer whom had sadly died years ago, I had begun to earn my keep as a dishwasher, before progressing to a delivery girl, conveying post letters and basic food necessities across the village.

"Hey Abby, are you sure on tagging along with us? The trip might be uncertain and dangerous?"

I snapped my mind back to reality, looking at the chief villager's son was who talking to me.

"Er… Yes. I am coming along. I am keen on joining everybody to seek blessings from the deity, and hopefully through our most sincere prayers, our whole village will be bestowed with bountiful supplies and prosperity."

"Well I am sure the deity will grant us our wishes, upon seeing your adorable face." The ruff looking man cackled, oblivious to the reddening blushes forming on my cheeks. "Well let's not waste any more time, we shall move on now."

Nodding my head in agreement, I treaded on the muddy floor properly and climbed onto the small boat. The dozen of us began to waive our hands endlessly to the majority of the inhabitants, rowing our boat away from the mainland till the villagers became nothing but tiny dots through our naked eyes. Brushing my unkempt hair from the chilling wind, I tugged them under my ears with a smile on my face. The trip will be fruitful and beneficial to our whole village! Totally looking forward for it!

How silly I had made that thought. How wrong I was…

And here we were, the exchange of our horrified glances as we found ourselves swallowed up in the hands of the terrorizing shrine. It was a total churn to our stomachs when we got there, darkness completely devoured our pathetic torches. The only thing we did there was bundled ourselves tightly, and then slowly treaded our way back to the exit.

With my vision blurred to zero, I fumbled my hands on the door that we have entered through earlier, only to find my fingers sliding on a rather smooth wall. There was no door knob. That's impossible, we have just came through that opening minutes ago. Why wasn't there gaps nor keyholes at the seemingly door I was planting my head too? Stupefied, I craned my neck and glimpsed around all four corners of the room, looking for even a thin source of light that could be sufficed enough to get my bearings straight. However, in the vast emptiness and profound tenebrosity, not even a ray of moonlight managed to shine its way into the wall cracks.

By then, the atmosphere within our group completely hit rock bottom, the room so dead quiet that even I could hear someone biting their nails in aghast. It was only few seconds later where the son of the village head finally made a statement.

"You know what, guys?" He exclaimed as he slammed his left hand with his right fist. "I think we should carry on walking ahead. Maybe the gods above are testing our sincerity, or testing whether our souls are pure the moment we stepped into this holy place."

A round of commotions and heightened breathing indicated that the rest of us completely agreed with his words and off a sudden, the mood within our group lightened up and we began to progress our way deeper into the dark abyss.

A sudden beam of light blinded our eyes as we stepped into what we concluded was a musical theatre of sort. I was about to shield my eyes with my hands from the intense brightness when a sudden euphoric sensation surged my brain, causing me to instantly fell onto the cold hard floor. By the time I knew what was happening around me, darkness soon eluded into my vision as I was rendered unconscious…

I sat up straight, letting the obscured memories quickly flipped through my brain like a photo album, flashing in and out till I started to get weary. Banishing the thoughts away from my mind, I staggered my feet as I struggled to stand up, only to find myself grimacing from the scrapped knees I have mysteriously received, probably the sudden fall I had before I whisked my way into oblivion.

Brushing away the dirt from my shirt and track pants, I mustered my courage in an attempt to stand up again and looked for the missing villagers. Just as I was about to pack and go, subtle footsteps and the faint sounds of screams echoed into my eardrums, and once again, I found myself clumsily fell into the exact spot, this time it was my butt that took the most damage. There was no time to wince at my pain as I croaked my head left and right, frantically looking for the sounds that was creeping along with the horrific ambiance of this abandoned room.

A silhouette soon stepped into my vision, standing elegantly as he or she was studying the action I was doing seconds ago. A bemuse thought almost swept across my face when the figure started to strut towards me, the legs were long and slender. The arms were swinging in an orderly fashion, in conjunction with the swaying of the hips. All the new information started to piece together in my brain, and I concluded that the identity of that mysterious figure walking towards me was a slim lady.

I opened my mouth, struggled to let words out of my mouth as I was relieved to see a fellow villager or perhaps, a strange passer-by in the same place as me. I managed to ecstatically shout and signalled the lady for help, but the figure continued to stride like nothing had happened in the past few hours.

A puzzled thought continued to flag in my mind until she decreased our distances to a mere ten steps apart, it was then my eyes widen in trepidation and mouth hung agape as I witnessed something horrific: six sticks no, six mutant legs emerging from the back of her body, springing to life. She outstretched her hands towards me and for once, I could see the slick and sharpened claws sprouting out of her demonic hands.

No proper words could describe how I felt as my mind became haywire and stomach jammed. The only thing I knew was that I summoned all the energy within me and screamed at the top of my lungs. I screamed till the figure went into a sudden and surprised halt. I screamed till my throat went hoarse, my body chilled to the bone. I screamed till the feminine figure exposed herself and lurched towards me…