It made a mistake bringing her here.
It got lazy. It was so confident in its power, in its eternal and cosmic strength.
It was, after all, the master of this realm and of countless others sprawled across the never-ending void.
Its power was immeasurable, incomprehensible to the human mind. It had lived as long as existence itself, and was older still.
Nothing could stand before it, or so it thought.
Kate gasped, bringing in harsh, smoky air. She was on her side, her skin covered in dirt and soot. In front of her was a campfire, its tendrils reaching upwards, dancing against the dark sky. The fire gave off no warmth, the air around her was disturbingly calm, the only movement from the smoke billowing from the fire. The forest surrounding the campfire was still and silent. A primal, ancient instinct told her that was no longer in a place that was connected to the reality that she had once known.
She was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she wasn't alone. On a log on the other side of the fire, another girl was sitting, watching silently as Kate tried to get her bearings. The fire obscured the girl slightly but Kate could make out that her hair was covered by a black beanie, she was slender yet she exuded strength. For a moment, there was a silent tension as the two girls regarded each other, friend or foe.
"Welcome to hell."
Kate did not move. The girl's words hung in the air.
"What?" It was all Kate could muster.
The girl stood and moved around the fire, closer to Kate. She stood over her, offering a hand. Kate hesitated for a second. There was blood, a lot of blood covering the other girl's hands and her clothing, some fresh, some old.
At that moment, Kate Denson recognized the severity of her situation.
Where was she? What had happened? The realm she was in now seemed to prey on her memories of where she had been before. Cold, hungry hands reaching deep within her subconscious, feeling for something, yearning to find weakness.
The memories flashed through her. It had been in a forest like this one but there had been life. Sunshine, the soft calls of birds, the crunch of leaves beneath her feet and her guitar. Where was her guitar? She supposed it didn't matter now. Kate had been alone in the woods, in her hide out in the glade. It was her favorite spot, the way that the trees surrounded her in that place made her feel comforted, how wrong she had been. It had all happened so fast. Something had come for her that day, something not of this world. It had come from the void. She remembered the cold, spiderlike limbs rising from the ground, reaching for her, coiling around her body. Kate had fought back, she lashed out, beating it with whatever she could get her hands on. It would have to fight to take her. The fight had been brief but violent. In the end, her struggle had been futile. She last remembered it dragging her from the forest, deep down into a place that should not have existed, should not have possibly existed.
"It took you too, didn't it?" The girl was still standing above her, hand still reaching. "I hope you kicked the shit out of it at least, because we belong to it now."
Kate still did not answer, her world reeling as she laid in the dirt.
Hopeless. Hopeless. Hopeless.
The word seemed to be burned into her mind. Almost as if it had been planted. A malicious seed of doubt.
There was something else there, living next to that word, something smaller, something softly whispering.
Hope.
Kate Denson had never given up. Even as she lay on the ground in some unknown world, her mind was already racing, already trying to contain the foreign feeling of defeat. Kate would not forget. What had taken her would pay.
A memory of her childhood flooded back to her now. It had been a cold winter, the frost had suffocated the trees, the flowers, seemingly all of the life in her country town. It was this time that Kate had first started to sing. It seemed like the only thing she could do. Frost collected on the window of her home, melting only when the heat of the living room fire finally reached and settled. She had started out so softly humming, before she began to sing a bit louder, her voice rising from a hidden place within her.
A passion given by the cold which had, until then, only taken.
"The others should be here soon." The girl sighed and stepped back. "It usually doesn't take this many at once. It's been getting greedy or some shit."
Kate pushed herself up to sitting position. The other girl stretched her arms into the air.
"You get used to the silence after a while, I promise."
"Where…am I?" Kate choked out, her voice was ragged, as if she had not spoken in months.
"I said it before," She made her way back to the log near the fire and sat down. "Hell."
"Hell?"
"Yup, you'll find out soon enough." She gestured towards something in the distance. "That there is the entrance."
In the distance, slightly obscured by the hanging branches of the trees was a massive, metal gate. The gate stood almost as high as the trees. It was crudely constructed, a mish mash of metal scrap and wood, rusting in places.
"It's hard to explain, but just know that it fucking sucks."
What had she done to deserve this?
"You're probably upset, about to start crying about how you never did anything bad or how you want a second chance. Some of the others did that when they first came." She said. "Claudette cried so much when she first got here, kind of got on my fucking nerves." The fire crackled. "But that stopped after the first trial, no more tears. Her first run kind of changed her…" She looked off into the distance. There was what looked a vague sense of concern in her eyes, lasting only briefly before returning to the harsher default that she seemed to operate at.
"No…I won't." She felt strangely numb, the shock and fatigue slowly overcoming her.
"Good, that kind of shit annoys me. I didn't throw a fit when I got here, straight to business, straight to surviving." She laughed slightly.
The gate began to groan, it's heaving body began to shake and stutter.
The girl tensed and stood up.
"It's funny, sometimes I think they might not actually come back." Her voice lowered. "Sometimes, I think they might actually escape without me." The gate began to slide open, revealing nothing but dark, thick blackness. From within, the form of a slender man began to become visible. A dirty tie swung loosely around his neck, glasses tilted haphazardly on his face.
"But they always come back, one way or another." The girl rushed forward towards the boy.
"Dwight!" She was running now, the cold girl who had offered no compassion was now shouldering him back.
"Nea…" He grunted, he bared no visible wounds but he was clearly exhausted, both mentally and physically.
"Damn dude, where are the others?" Nea looked back frantically at the open gate. "What fucker was it this time?"
Kate stood up, feeling slightly woozy but otherwise rather numb.
"I don't know…I got them as far as I could…we powered the gate but I couldn't find them after." He slumped down in her arms.
"Quickly, tell me everything, before it takes them away from you." Nea shouldered Dwight back to the campfire. Dwight was fighting to keep his eyes open. "Please…remember what we talked about…remembering is the only way we can win." The power from her voice drained as she realized Dwight was now fully collapsed. "Mother fucker…" Nea turned to Kate, "You, help me out."
"It's Kate." She replied quietly before helping Nea move Dwight down to the ground next to the fire. "Kate Denson."