Chapter 2: After Dark

A desolate world ruled by a tyrant, or is it ruled by the dark populace?

 

            Deep in the dark reaches of the human psyche, far beyond anyone’s reach, lays a dark and desolate desert.  Marred by the searing winds that eternally ravage the landscape, the only break from the sand is an occasional forest of spires, twisting into giant tangles of spears striking towards the heavens.

            Above the spires, eternally gazing down upon the world rests Iris.  A giant red omnipresent eye, watching over everything that takes place in the realm and reporting to his master, the Laughing Moon.  Coming fourth from his giant retina, pouring down out of the heavens comes forth the new souls joining this everlasting hell. Surrounding Iris is a constant dark flame, burning through the sky for eternity, giving the horizon a clouded black look.

            This is the Realm of the Laughing Moon, a dark and desolate hell set aside for those whose hearts has been judged to be weak and unjust.  Below in the desert dart dark beings, shadows of the men they once were.  Constantly at war these are a people who know nothing but violence and blood lust.  Deformed and decrepit, these monstrosities are the Karakura.  These creatures are the Laughing Moon’s soldiers, put into his world to keep the souls in constant fear.  Fear, a totalitarian’s mightiest weapons, used to keep even the bravest of rebels in their iron grasp.

            Lying in a heap next to a lake of bile is a new member to this world, unconscious, oblivious to his new surroundings.  Gathering in the dunes surrounding the lake, a group of Karakura gathers to find their new prey.

            A sweet, slow womanly voice echoes in the distance, singing a melody meant only for the ears of the angels of heaven.  It is an Aloja, rising up from the lake of sick, in a maelstrom of bile and vomit.  Singing it’s song the Karakura are pushed back, frightened by the haunting noise of the Aloja’s melody.

            Frightened, but not scared away from the Aloja, the Karakura draw their blades, wicked saw-like cleavers.  Smeared and coated with blood their swords are an awful sight.

            One Karakura steps forward to face this demon.  Standing out in the crowd, this particular creature is twice as big as the rest.  A crazed grin spreading across the beasts face, it prepares itself for battle.  The cleaver it carries on it’s back sounds like a one ton weight as he Karakura drops the top against the ground, a clear sign it is challenging the Aloja.

            A loud cackle of glee shrilly blasts through the air and the battle begins.  Wrenching forward with her dagger – like claws the Aloja takes first strike, only to find the Karakura is much faster than his larger body leads on to be.  An expert swing of his cleaver aims for the Aloja’s torso, hoping to cleave the demon in half before the fight goes on too long.

            A loud scream echoes across the windy desert terrain as the Aloja goes in two different directions.  Her top flops to the ground, fidgeting with death as he bottom sloshes back into the bile, slithering away in the opposite direction.

            “See what the might of the Laughing Moon brings us my fellow Karakura!  GLORY AND VICTORY IS OUR REWARD FOR ETERNAL SERVITUDE!”  Hysterical laughter fills the air as the giant Karakura gloats over his kill by picking up the wriggling half corpse of the Aloja.  “This is my prize.”  Opening his chest, the Karakura produces long tentacles from within himself which he uses to intertwine the Aloja and pull it into his chest.

            The heap lying on the shore of the lake stirs.  Opening his eyes, Miso can barely make out his surroundings.  The first thing that hits him was the insane smell of death littering the air, and the arid feel the environment imposed upon his body.  Coughing loudly Miso full awakens, pushing from the ground he wildly runs in no certain direction.

            Feet splattering in a pool of sick, Miso finds his world flipping upside down as he topples into the lake of bile.  Lying still for a second, Miso slowly comes to a frightening realization.

            “Where am I…?”  Miso has come to find, he is lost.  The past night’s events crash down upon him.  “What the hell happened…?”  The locket, the incredible pain radiating from his soul, it all felt so distant and detached from him now.  It felt like the night had been a story he had read, not to he himself, Miso, poor ordinary Miso.  This world feels of decay, and of the macabre.  It is not a place that Miso would never have thought to look upon with his own eyes.  Eyes, he suddenly feels, they are dry, dry as the heat-blasted sand he sees around himself.

            Then, out of the dark of this terrible realm, an evil, sickening roar sounds.  Looking to where he had been before awaking, Miso spies the source of this fearsome noise.  A large group of shadowed creatures, eyes bright and yellow as the stars that fill the night sky, charge toward him.  Blinded by the sudden rush of fear, Miso lies helpless, cringing up into a fetal position, hoping that this will all just shatter away like all the nightmares of the past.

            “JUST ANOTHER DREAM!  THIS WILL ALL END!  IT WILL END!” Miso yells out in desperation.

            The creatures are upon him now, the monstrosity leading the pack screams out in a demonic cackle.  Bursting from it’s chest comes a giant tangle of ink black tentacles, slithering outward toward him at an alarming rate.

            Crying in fear and feeling his legs tremor in terror, Miso whimpers on the brink of madness, “Leave just leave, please leave me alone…”

            Enclosing around his body, Miso can feel himself being pulled into a black void within the beast’s chest.  A putrid scent of blood and decaying bodies spills across Miso’s face as the tentacles pull him ever closer.

            “No…please God no…don’t do this to me…”  Falling into an insane rant of whimpers to God, the beast’s chest encloses around Miso.  Muffled howls hit Miso’s ears from inside the beast’s body, and slowly, he finds himself drifting into another black dream.  For the second time in this bizarre story, Miso finds himself again at Death’s door.

Chapter 2:  End