The Plague

The beginning of a story inspired by a recent dream.

Glass shattering. No, not shattering...crunching, that's what it sounded like. Like it was already shattered and lying on the floor, and now someone was walking over the fragments, really crunching them up with their weight.

I very slowly opened my eyes, the lids were so heavy I thought they would never open at all. Ever so slowly, the blurriness in front of me started taking on shapes and splitting apart into separate things. There wasn't a lot of light. Where was I ? I also suddenly realised what was off - I was standing. How can you not realise you're standing ? I didn't remember getting up before opening my eyes, so did I just sleep while standing ? Did I sleepwalk ? The more of my environment and situation I took in, the less sense I was making of it.

It was fairly hard to breathe, like my body was too small for my lungs and they couldn't fully expand to fill up properly, and I was hellishly stiff.

My environment wasn't getting any brighter or clearer, so I guess I actually was in a fairly dark place, it wasn't just my groggy post-waking-up state. I was taking it all in one step at a time, any more than that would probably go right over my head. I was standing on stone, I could see this much. Grey, sleek, and hard. I had pretty big feet for my size, didn't I ? I was wearing black boots, and black trousers, and more black on top - some sort of sweatshirt and a coat over it. At least I think that was black, but it could've easily been dark brown or green. Alright, immediate environment checked, now time to take in the rest of the room.

That was a huge goddamn room. I realised I was standing in some sort of inner yard, of circular shape, and in regular intermissions I could see arches on the sleek stone walls. They probably lead down hallways and into different rooms. Slowly turning around, I counted. Five of them. And right behind me was a majestic staircase, also made of rock, that lead up to (I'm assuming) the upper floor. Slowly turning my stiff neck I saw a crescent-shaped balcony along the walls of the upper floor. Maybe there were more rooms up there.

I think my brain must've woken up considerably after my body, because finally, several minutes after opening my eyes, a slight panic started creeping into my thoughts. I had no clue what this place was, or where. How did I get here ?

I looked around more, my blood slowly starting to pound in my ears, and my breath getting shallow. I was frantically trying to make myself remember, or to at least make myself notice something in this vast hall that would make me go "Of course, NOW I remember!". Nothing was coming, though, not even that pre-memory that kind of comes and sits just below the threshold of your conscious remembrance, teasing you like a f****r. I didn't feel like I had it almost at the tip of my tongue, it felt like I could literally be anywhere and whenever right now. Not a great feeling.

Slow down, slow down and take deep breaths, buddy. One thing at a time. What was the last thing I could remember ? Well, that sound of glass crunching or shattering, or whatever, but before that ? My head just went blank. I also hadn't noticed immediately because of my panic-induced adrenaline rush, but my body was still fairly stiff and awkward to maneuver around. Was I hurt ? Maybe that's why my body felt too small for my lungs, maybe my ribcage was dented in or compressed in some way - it certainly felt like it. I was definitely not walking gracefully, I would probably have looked like an octogenarian drunk to anyone who might have been watching. Except there was no one there. The more I took my surroundings in and processed them in my mind (was that ivy on some patches on the walls?), the more I got the impression that this was probably for the better. Bumping into anyone in this odd place that seemed older by the minute, and where I apparently randomly woke up without any recollection of getting there, would probably not be a good thing. I couldn't be sure, but that's what my gut was telling me, and since my head had excused itself for now, that was all I had to go on.

Right, at some point I need to stop procrastinating and actually start exploring my surroundings, I thought. I'm not doing myself any favors by sitting around here being a sitting duck. "But what if what I find is more dangerous than this ?" a little voice in the back of my head said. "And what if it's not?" I answered back, and got nothing in reply. I took another deep breath and decided to go to the room to my immediate right. Very cautiously, making sure to make as little noise as humanly possible, I tiptoed in that direction. As I got closer to the arch that served as a doorway, I realised a faint bluish light was leaking out of the space beyond, and it appeared like moonlight at first but the closer I got to it the surer I became that it wasn't.

My heart beating hard and fast I stood right underneath the arch, peering into the room. It was quite large, though nothing like the central "inner yard" one, and it was made out of the same stone bricks. But screw the bricks, there was someone in the middle of the room! At least, I think it's a someone. It looked like a human body was lying flat its back on the floor, like a corpse in a coffin (I prayed it wasn't an actual corpse), and covered with a fluffy white sheet. I couldn't tell where the faint blue shimmer was coming from, it seemed ambient but I had a gut feeling it was there because of the body. I got closer and closer, wondering at the back of my mind if I should worry that suddenly I felt more curious and antsy than scared, and finally got a good look at what was on the floor. It was utterly bizarre : a young man was lying on this back, stiff as a board, and his body was naked but covered in fluffy, snow white feathers, head to toe. It looked like he had been infected by some kind of alien chicken-virus, was my first thought - the feathers were not on top of him, they were actually growing out of his skin, they were part of his body. He had a few random patches where his skin was just skin, including a good chunk of his face, enough for me to see one eye and part of his cheek and nose. He was probably handsome before he became...whatever this is, I decided. He had big grey eyes (or at least, one big grey eye) and high cheekbones, and a dusting of freckles on his cheek and nose. His visible eye locked into my eye, and I could suddenly see he was terrified. I realised that he would be screaming now if he could, and the only reason he won't is because of those damned feathers that have covered (sealed, was my thought) most of him. He looked at me, almost pleadingly, and I instinctively almost reached out to touch him, when the feathers ruffled on their own, like they were trying to snap at me. I finally noticed it - all the feathers, thousands of them if not millions, had a tiny, beady, dark blue eye in their center. And all those eyes were frantically rolling around and darting mainly my way, like they were warning me. "He is ours now, don't touch" is what I interpreted all that darting and winking as. I got the uncomfortable suspicion that touching his body at all would infect me as well - because that has to be an infection, I thought. Those things are some sort of parasite, and it's slowly taking him over, isn't it ? I looked at his face again. His eye was still wide open, pleading, probably silently screaming for help.

"...A loud explosion. Part of the ceiling was collapsing, and shards of glass were flying everywhere. We jumped back several steps to dodge, and looked up at the night sky, as a massive shadow loomed against the starry night, peering in through the hole it had created. I couldn't make out any features, just it's size and likely, enormous weight as well. It was vaguely humanoid, but not really, and it had wings or perhaps appendages growing from its back and shoulders. I looked to my right, and Marlon was regaining his footing, his black coat still billowing from the blast, strands of smoke slithering past him. To my left, Isabella had already found her footing and was charging ahead like the fearless idiot she was, flaming red hair whipping behind her like a comet's tail. S**t, we need to attack him at the exact same time, I thought, individual attacks won't do much and we're running out of time. We need to deal some serious damage NOW. I look to my right and Marlon looks back, smirks as if to say "I'm good to go", and then we charge right after Isabella."

I was back in the room again, with Marlon. I realised that was his name. Marlon. Marlon who obsessively shaved clean every morning, and who was so gullible it ended up being endearing. Marlon of the googly puppy eyes. Marlon of the plague now, I guess. A flood of heat sprang from my belly into my chest and limbs - I could suddenly remember. We were friends, weren't we ? Once upon a time...No, not just friends, more than that. We were comrades. A team. Isabella as well. We were a team and we had been in adventures that right now I couldn't remember, but I knew in my heart were mind-boggling. And then that final fight came. We stood against...f**k it, I'm only getting blank, the memories are too fragmented, but we stood against something, we made a stand right here, didn't we ? That's why this place is a mess.

Why had I forgotten ? And why were the memories only coming back so fragmented ? I shuddered at the thought that this is probably the aftermath of that battle; my memory loss, Marlon's...disease ? I wasn't even sure what to call it. This building's condition. After that memory was triggered, the place suddenly felt sad, not creepy. Could it have been home for us ? There was a sense of loss in the air, a certain melancholy. Then again, I was shaken up and amnesiac, so I could've just imagined that for all I know. Feeling great guilt, I left Marlon where he lay and started slowly walking out of the room, cursing myself for my inability to help him. I knew that as I was right now there was literally nothing I could do - if I touched him I would likely get taken over by that...thing as well. I had a better chance of saving him if I went and found help. Getting back into the inner yard, I held my breath and listened for anything signalling danger. I couldn't hear anything, so I decided to go for the opposite door this time, to my far left. I hadn't even crossed half of the distance when I immediately felt that something bad was in that room. I didn't know how I knew, but I knew damn well, alright. A sense of dread, like when you're about to watch an accident and everything slows down, and by the time you actually get to articulate in your head what you think is going to happen, it already does, interrupting that semi-conscious stream of thought and scaring you even more ? Because if you were caught completely off guard you would've just had a delayed reflex and not reacted, but by seeing it in your mind's eye just a fraction of a second earlier you're already primed to jump and have a bucket of ice thrown into your stomach ? Yeah, that's what I was feeling. I also knew that I had to go in there, because quite likely one of my friends (former friends ?) was in there as well. I picked up the pace, determined to get to the bottom of this, memories, schmemories be damned. I was angry that I had almost no recollection of my life, and that a good person was likely either dying or cocooning into something else next door. The dread intensified rapidly as I approached, and I realised red light was leaking out of the room -  quite intense actually, not the faint shimmer of Marlon's room but more like a bright lamp's. How did I not notice this much light right from the start ? I thought as I was pacing that maybe it was reacting to my presence. Great, maybe it'll explode in my face or something when I walk in. Stepping foot onto the doorway, I immediately saw her. I couldn't see her face, but I knew just from the mane of red hair cascading down to the floor that it was Isabella. She had her head hanging, and her torso was bent slightly forward at the waist, her long hair hanging down and over her face, almost to the floor. She was up against the wall opposite the entrance, and roots and branches were growing out of her torso, expanding and taking up most of the room. They bore into the walls and the floor, crisscrossing, coming up again from different points of the floor and walls that they had apparently grown through...it was chilling. She was also kept upright by all of this plant-like support grid, like she was a tree herself that just grew out of that wall. I knew the second I laid eyes on her that she was no longer THE Isabella, that this thing had ta-

Her head jerked up, and she let out a bestial grunt. Her once beautiful face was distorted with a huge, monstrous grin that was completely crooked and went almost diagonal across her face. She had sharp teeth, and her eyes were wide open, unnaturally big, and blazing with insanity. They also were pupil-less, in fact they looked more like Jack O'Lantern eye holes through which fire shone. There was an eerie yellow light seeping from her eyes, and she was struggling to stand fully upright, panting as she tried. I had no doubt that if she were free to walk she would have jumped at me and probably devoured me without as much as blinking. My guts churning, I observed her. Even though I just remembered her a few minutes ago it still pained me to see her like this. She was trying to come towards me, but seemed weak and sleepy after her initial dramatic wake-up. She snorted and her eyes started closing, and she kept trying to open them - sometimes she would get one open and the other one would only blink, but she gradually went back to hanging down and sleeping. Hibernating, I thought. Her transformation is not complete yet, but give her a little time, probably not more than a couple of hours, and she'd be up and running, literally.

"...A loud explosion. Part of the ceiling was collapsing, and shards of glass were flying everywhere. We jumped back several steps to dodge, and looked up at the night sky, as a massive shadow loomed against the starry night, peering in through the hole it had created. I couldn't make out any features, just it's size and likely, enormous weight as well. It was vaguely humanoid, but not really, and it had wings or perhaps appendages growing from its back and shoulders. I looked to my right, and Marlon was regaining his footing, his black coat still billowing from the blast, strands of smoke slithering past him. Next to him Lana, ever indifferent-looking, was standing tall and regal, with her sword drawn, sizing up her opponent. I liked how nothing seemed to faze her, and how she combined haughty attitude and great strength. To my left, Isabella had already found her footing and was charging ahead like the fearless idiot she was, flaming red hair whipping behind her like a comet's tail. S**t, we need to attack him at the exact same time, I thought, individual attacks won't do much and we're running out of time. We need to deal some serious damage NOW. I look to my right and Marlon looks back, smirks as if to say "I'm good to go", and Lana is already in a sprinter's staring position. To my left Colt is yelling obscenities in his husky, perceptually drunk-sounding voice. He gets off the floor as fast as he can, ready to join in on the group attack. We charge almost simultaneously, all after Isabella".

Another memory. Or rather, fragments of a memory - I'm remembering more now. There were at least two more people with us, weren't there ? Lana, the towhead Amazon with the pixie cut,  and Colt, who looked like a religious figure with his shaggy mop of curly dark hair and his perpetual tan. Yes, I could remember bits and pieces about them as well. I thought I realised how it worked - meet someone or something from my previous (that is to say, pre-battle and therefore pre-battered-memory) life, and it might trigger shards of memories. I needed to find out more, to piece back the whole thing and get myself back, for now I was mostly a stranger to myself. I didn't even know what I looked like. Patting myself down I could make out I was relatively athletic, and I had curly hair that defied gravity for the most part. But that was about it, and let's not even start with WHO I was, as that was completely blank.

All of a sudden I felt this incredibly intense pressure, like I'd been thrown into very deep water - my chest felt incredibly heavy and I swore my eardrums would pop soon. It was hard to actually stand up properly, my body wanted to collapse under this unseen pressure, and I was trying to understand what was happening. I realised that I could feel...well, what was it ? The pressure contained a...voice, perhaps ? No, not quite the right word. A thought ? An intent ? Yes, an intent, that was the million-dollar word. It was an intent, like when someone is looking at you from behind and you feel a chill, but amplified times a million. It was like someone was thinking about me, thinking about hurting me specifically, and the intent was so strong it became tangible. My bits of memories of the battle flashed before my eyes, and I thought I could almost put together what was going on, it was at the tip of my tongue, just give me five more seconds and I'll be able to articulate it. The pressure got stronger and by now I could sense where it was coming from : it was from the top of the staircase behind me. Someone was coming closer, I didn't even need to hear them to know that, and in a few more seconds I'd be able to see them - and they, me. The light-bulb finally lit up in my head - I was meeting my former comrades in order of infection! Marlon was still alive but about to fall into hibernation, Isabella had already woken up and was at Stage Two, so to speak (turned but not yet capable of much), and this awful intent that was coming closer rapidly was either Colt or Lana. And my gut told me they're probably at the next stage - turned and fully lucid, ready to kill. I needed to get out of there NOW, because I had no chance in hell against a supernaturally-empowered killer who was so rabid I could actually feel their bloodlust like a physical thing. I darted towards the doorway directly opposite the staircase, praying it was the right one. Right now all I had to go on was the pressure that approached, and my best bet was to go in the opposite direction as far and fast as I could.

I kept running, my blood thumping in my ears so loudly I couldn't tell if anyone was behind me - they could be screaming now for all I knew and I might still not hear it. Just get away from the pressure, away from the pressure, that's all for now, I kept chanting to myself internally like a mantra. At some point it felt like I was gaining distance, and a crazy thought crossed my mind - was it possible that I could sense them better than they could sense me ? Like I had a bigger radius, for lack of better word, of detection ? Maybe unless I allowed them to get closer they wouldn't actually know where I was ? The corridor I was running down was dark and seemed never ending. I kept seeing myself tripping over something in the near-absolute darkness, but so far so good, it wasn't happening. And then there was a shriek - so resonant and piercing that I screamed at the same time. Crap, my nerves were getting the better of me. That shriek came from far behind me, that much I could tell, but there was no time to lose. Catching my breath, I sped up, since now I might have just given my position away.

The pressure suddenly rose and started rapidly approaching - I chuckled because sometimes you need to laugh in order not to cry. And I definitely couldn't afford to cry now, I needed my paltry vision. S**t s**t s**t s**t f**k fuckitty shitfuck. As my breath was running out and I thought my legs were about to give up and collapse, I finally came to the end of the corridor. A very large, heavy-looking door was there, which was, of course, closed shut. I stopped, almost slamming into it, turning to face back behind me. Nothing to see yet, but something was coming alright. I realised I was no longer freaking out - it felt like I was about to throw up or s**t myself or both but no, no fear anymore. Maybe I'd just up all of my adrenaline. Eerily calm despite being drenched in sweat, I turned back towards the door and started pushing. And then I suddenly was flat on my face on the ground.

I spit out dust and looked up. I was outside. The sun was burning brightly - too brightly for my eyes in fact, that were just getting used to the night. I was lying in dirt, and in front of me I could see a forest beginning just a few steps away. Snapping back to my senses I jumped up and continued running, looking behind me. The mansion was there, and it looked from the outside just as it did from the inside - old, partially falling apart, overgrown with ivy and bushes. How did I get out ? Did I just slip through the door or something ? I didn't even feel a thing, I was just...suddenly face down in the dirt. Eh, either way I had no time to wonder, I kept up a steady jog, heading into the forest, relieved that I couldn't sense the killing intent of whoever or whatever was hunting me down in the mansion. It seemed to be high noon, so the forest didn't look too scary, I probably had half a day of light left. Hopefully I'd be out of there at that point, of course...