Chapter 4: Discovery
October 29 – 1:35 PM
Meryl's POV
Final tally: six loosened teeth, three fractured bones, a shin-splint, eighteen bruised back muscles, and a lacerated eyeball.
If nothing else, this gave an opportunity for Vash to prove his uber-selflessness: Despite our protests, Vash patched me and Knives up first. And as for his injury – well, let's just say watching someone pull a three-inch stone shard out of their eye socket is NOT an experience I ever want to go through again. He dismissed it, of course; said this wasn't the first time he'd been stabbed in the eye. Then we all fell into silence, mulling over what we had all just been through.
9:04 AM
Knives' POV
It should be dark in here, but it's not. The tunnel is filled with light, which seems to emanate from the end of the line. I don't know how far it is to there; the light makes it impossible to judge distances. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the tunnel are smooth, fused into a single tube of obsidian-tinted glass as though by incredible heat. If what this "Mike" said was true, and this is the result of acid, I should be thankful that my house was not completely destroyed.
Mike. That man baffles me, for I do not know what he truly is. His aura vaguely resembled that of a spid– human, dammit, human – but somehow it felt as though he is…more. The closest thing I can compare it to is Legato, but whereas his aura was in a constant state of berserker rage, Mike's is much more controlled. And more powerful. Yet it is empty power; it felt all but spent. This puzzles me deeper, for getting rid of such an amount of power would require either a massive discharge of energy, the likes of which would level entire galaxies, or a slow dissipation over a span of centuries.
Either way, Mike is clearly more than what he seems.
"Hey, Knives, ya fall asleep walkin'?" Vash's pet screeches from ahead. I growl and speed up, not wishing to hear her voice again. God, what a bitch. I honestly don't see what my imbecile brother sees in her. And the mere thought of them becoming intimate turns my stomach; it would be little more than coprophilia.
Finally, we arrive at the back of the tunnel. Once again, this light confounds me: by all laws of physics, it should be brighter; but the intensity is the same as it was when we entered. At any rate, it's a dead end.
Wait. No, it's not. The tunnel makes a sharp curve to the left, which is where the light is coming from. This corner reflects the light. Perhaps that's why it does not dim. No, the light's the same magnitude from the left, as well…
At any rate, we turn right, and the way becomes hazy. In short time the luminous mist fills the tunnel, and I cannot see more than a few feet in front of me. I reach out for Vash, and my hand lands on his head. He screams and whirls around, knocks me down, and raises the chainsaw.
"It's just me, you stupid bastard!" I shout and get up as Vash steps back, a severely embarrassed look on his face. I brush myself off, and the sound of tiny pebbles hitting the ground reverberates down the tunnel.
Wait a minute…tunnels don't echo.
"Vash?" I hear Meryl whisper and I quickly shush her. She starts to protest, but I hold up my hand. She closes her mouth, clearly annoyed. I stomp my foot and listen to the echo. Just as I thought: the tunnel opened out into a cavern. And judging by the time delay of the echo, it's…
…alright, now I'm getting pissed. The echo sounds like it's coming from multiple sources. So either this cavern is very uneven, or it's incredibly huge.
I close my eyes, channel energies to them, and open them. It's a special type of visual acuity unique to plants, wherein we can "see" energies not visible to the unaided eye. Normally I use it to seek out other plants, but occasionally I use it to be able to see during sandstorms. I call this type of special vision "night-eyes", but if anything it's like looking through blue-stained glass.
I look past the mist, through it, beyond it, and I see the sheer enormousness of this cavern. It resembles a squat three-dimensional ellipse, and every surface is covered by the same fused-glass substance I saw in the cavern. The walls are pockmarked with thousands of holes of varying size, presumably leading to other tunnels. There is a gigantic pit in the middle of the floor, and a corkscrew path leads down it. I begin to see something else, but I close my eyes and go back to normal vision just as it becomes clear; I can only do night-eyes for so long before my real ones begin aching.
I realize what I saw in that last split-second: the pit glowing – no, blazing – with energy. But it's not plant power, otherwise I would have been able to sense it. Clearly, this merits investigation. I begin walking towards where I saw the pit, and hear Vash call out from behind, "Knives, what are you doing?"
"I'm going in."
"But we were just going to the end of the tunnel!"
"I saw something. I'm going in."
"What do you mean? You can't see anything here!"
"Look, either go back, or come with me."
I continue walking, and eventually hear running footsteps from behind as my brother and his pet catch up.
"You better have a damn good reason for this," she growls.
"I do. Though you have no reason to do this, trust me."
"Fuck that," she snorts derisively.
I clench my fist incredibly tight; it wants to fly out and smash her in her filthy, rotten mouth. Fucking hell-hag.
The mist begins to thin, and eventually it disappears just as we reach the mouth of the pit. We look down and they let out a collective gasp.
The corkscrew path winds down farther than I can see, and the walls are lined with what appear to be thousands and thousands of enormous cocoons. It is from these cocoons that the light is emanating, causing an effect akin to backlighting. Vague outlines of the things inside the cocoons are visible, and the half-glimpsed forms suggest little more than great immensity, but here and there are what appear to be tentacles.
I'm walking down the path before I even know what I'm doing. Dimly I hear Vash and Meryl calling to me, asking me what I'm doing, if I'm crazy, what the fuck is my problem, etc. I pay no heed to them; I cannot. It feels as though some invisible hand has me by my innards and is pulling me inexorably down, down, down.
I wonder; is what's pulling me down the same thing that's responsible for everything that's been going on today – Vash's hypnotism, my house's near-destruction, Milly's disappearance? If so, there's going to be hell to pay.
One thing's for certain, though: it stinks, and it's getting worse. It's the same scent as was back at the house, hiding under the fragrance of burnt wood and metal. It's vaguely familiar, just like this light, but I can't quite identify it.
Then I stop. The force is gone. I'm at the bottom of the path.
How long have I been walking?
I look up and my confusion redoubles – from this vantage point, the top of the pit is only about a hundred yards or so above us.
I am standing in front of the entrance to another cave, only this one is roughly resembles a giant Gothic archway.
The tugging comes again, and I try to fight it this time. Deep, searing pain courses through my veins for the briefest of seconds, and any thoughts of defying this force are immediately gone from my mind. I close my eyes – after all, what I can't see, I can't fear.
The pull stops again, so I open my eyes.
I immediately wish I hadn't.
Before me is a stone wall so huge the top is obscured in darkness and the sides seem to go on forever. But that is not what terrifies me.
The wall is carved with a giant fresco depicting a gruesome orgy of blood by great, rubbery, tentacled monstrosities the likes of which only a madman could dream up. But that is not what terrifies me.
In the midst of this grisly bacchanal of carnage and carnality stands a demon that towers over the others, apparently feeding on the sex and death surrounding him. He appears to be getting bigger. But even that is not what terrifies me.
No, it's the fact that the demon's face…is my own.
Distantly behind me I hear feet slapping fast against the obsidian floor and realize that Vash and his cow have followed me. The sound of them stooping alerts me to the fact that they have seen this monstrosity.
But what does it mean?
My first thought is to believe this is an elaborate scheme concocted by someone I've hurt in the past, but that can't be.
No. No, this is evidence of something far more sinister. Something far more enigmatic. Something far more deadly.
I feel Vash's hand on my shoulder, and my mind registers that it's shaking.
"Knives, uh…I think there's something you should know."
Giant tentacled things that resemble mutated sandworms have crawled out of the darkness to either side and are rapidly advancing towards us.
So these are cthonians.
They don't attack; they just stand there, watching us. Waiting for us to make the first move.
"What now?" I ask to no one in particular.
"Run like hell," Vash replies.
So we do.