Project M Excerpt 2

A Story by SeismicTurtle

Another side, another story.

Jasper Rush's eyelids slowly creaked open. As he regained consciousness he began to shiver violently. His body was damp and it stung from the cold. His mind commanded his right arm to move but to his dismay it didn't respond. He tried moving his left and it slowly left the cold earth until it rested on his face. He dragged his numb fingers across his forehead and realized that all that was left was some dried blood crusted to his skull. The sudden awareness of his injuries brought a flood of pain that surged through his body.

He turned his head to the side until he felt dirt on his cheek. About thirty feet away a small sliver of light pierced through the darkness. He rolled his head back upright, the dried blood on his face taking part of the ground with it. The only thing he could conjure to do was get into the light. He bent his left knee and pushed his foot into the ground, slowly moving his body. Every movement felt like he was being stabbed by a thousand needles as his gaping back ripped across the jagged pebbles on the ground.

As he repeated the painful process he tried to remember anything that might help him make some sense out of his situation. He remembered spending the evening with his fiancé. The thought of her big brown eyes was a soothing thought amidst the hellish nightmare he was in. He could hear her screaming in his head. It was interrupted when he reached the light.

He squinted as the light stabbed his eyes. A feeling of hopelessness started to bubble up from somewhere below his organs. He was freezing, severely injured, and trapped in a dark rocky prison but for some reason he couldn't explain, he knew that all of that was the least of his worries. He could feel himself starting to doze off. Despite his eyes being caught in a blinding light his vision started to blacken. He wanted nothing more than to give in to the darkness, to escape into a pleasant dream. Just as he was about to lose his conscious mind he heard it.

It jolted his body painfully but that soon dissipated as adrenaline primed his muscles for actions that his injuries would make sure never would happen. The sound started out as a low gargling then elevated to a shrill so bone chillingly loud that his right ear started to bleed. The echo made it difficult to pinpoint the direction it came from. He heard a scurry of movement.

Despite having the use of only one arm and leg he moved his bloody mess of a body backwards all the while having his eyes trained on the darkness in front of him. Even though he was moving much faster then would have been possible for someone in his condition, the unknown creature was closing in on him fast. When the sliver of light was about thirty yards in front of him his hand struck something sharp and he collapsed.

He raised his head back up to peer in the direction of the light. He half expected to see a monster come flying through, but there was no sign of movement. He gazed into the void for minutes that seemed longer then hours. Finally his heartbeat slowed back to normal and he took a deep breath and exhaled. That’s when he felt it breathing on his neck.

His eyes went so wide a train could have fit in them. Every time the creature inhaled he could feel cold air all the way down his back, like whatever was behind him was leaking air out of its rib cage. He felt as though his life was only seconds away from ending but then he saw a picture of a revolver flash through his mind. He realized that his hand was now resting on the sharp object that pierced him moments earlier. He could feel the unmistakable shape of his most prized possession, his colt .38 revolver. He clutched it in his hand and could feel the hammer already pulled back. He hoped to God he had a shot left in it.

He lurched forward, his sudden momentum startling the creature behind him. It shrieked like before and the sound was so deafening he almost dropped his weapon. The creature was on top of him an instant later. Jasper struggled to get the revolver into firing position. The creature had him pinned down. He turned over quickly and clipped it in the face with his elbow. It stumbled backwards and lunged forward. Jasper rolled to the side and pulled the trigger. He heard a pop and felt a splatter of blood cover his body.

Moments later the creature collapsed with a thud and once again the cavern became silent. It seemed that for the moment, Jasper was safe...

© 2013 SeismicTurtle

Author's Note

Did you feel any suspense with this? I don't know why this is cut off.

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Felicity's Eve

Very suspenseful and the intensity was astounding! The metaphors you used and the way you word things compliments the story very well and I felt caught up in the amazing imagery. Very, very nice wrote and I do look forward to more works like this one. :)