Fifth Dimension [Halloween Writing Event][TW]
Oct 16, 2021 15:55:34 GMT -7
fleabittengray likes this
Post by Welder on Oct 16, 2021 15:55:34 GMT -7
All at once, the silence was deafening. Jack snapped eyes open to find himself unsure of what happened or where he was. The once soft ground under his skin was now cold, hard and rocky. Raising his crown, the stallion’s heart plummeted as he looked around, confused as his home turned from the peaceful forest he last remembered to a desolate, cold and forlorn landscape. The air was thick, misty and there was little light to guide his line of sight. Looking around himself, breathing hard, Jack coughed and shook his head trying to rid himself of the stench that lingered on his tongue and in his nose.
The smell of decay and rot, though of what exactly, he dared not imagine. As he struggled to raise himself, his head dizzy with the feeling of dread, Jack rose to his feet, his blood pressure rising with fear. He did not know this place, yet he knew this place. He turned his head to get a full view, the land before him the same all around him. Dry, dark and ominous, like the sky above him with the gray and black clouds above the mists. Jack was no stranger to fear, but this was entirely different. This was beyond fear. This was Hell.
For what seemed like an eternity, Jack stood rooted to the spot. Flicking his ears about his skull, he listened, trying to find something that made sense of where he was. There were so many sounds, screams and devilish laughter and in the back of his mind, he could have sworn he heard her. Her. As his dread began to consume him, Jack looked to see if he could find any idea where she was and run the other way.
He spun in circles, looking frantically at the mists as they began to enclose around him, her laughter coming closer, slowly, like a slow flood on his senses. He could not ascertain where she was, nor how far away, only that she seemed that much closer the longer he lingered. As his anxiety continued to climb, he noticed a shift in the mists. It was not a corporeal figure but as if the mists were coming together like a ghost. The figure was not hard to discern.
Jack did not hesitate as he turned his heels and ran.
As he galloped over the treacherous terrain, the mists omitted a harrowing laugh, the laugh she would make when he was in trouble. The laugh that meant she was getting creative in his punishment to come. A sound that meant pain and suffering were not far behind him.
Jack ran for what felt like hours, through the mist and over the rocks, though he felt like he was getting nowhere. The landscape never changed, the rocks were always in the same place, as though he was running in circles. But he never changed his direction, nor did he attempt to anything in his trajectory away from her. His body began to ache from the exertion and his coat was drenched in sweat. The wind was out of his chest, and he heaved as he slowed, the malicious laugher gaining speed on him. He turned his head just a bit to peek behind him and found that the form was gone. Shocked, Jack stopped and turned his head the other way and shrieked as her face was right there! Rearing, Jack took off in another direction, his fear fueling his hooves to pound the ground beneath him.
Yet his surroundings continued to never change.
Once again, Jack began to feel weary and spent, his pace slowing to a trot and his breathing hard. The mists shifted once again but this time, a different form began to take shape. Every hair on Jack’s sweat laden body began to stand on end and his blood ran cold. This was no ghost or spirit. This was an entirely different animal.
Jack’s feet stopped under him under no control of his own and he stumbled to the ground, the stones scratching his skin and bruising his face. He opened his eyes to see an equine shaped creature standing before him, with no discernable comfort emanating from this creature’s body. Blood red eyes shined menacingly upon Jack with horns curling around the ears, huge wings with spikes splayed and fangs bared. The stallion scrambled back onto his hooves but he could not run. He felt completely helpless as this creature approached, an unbearable heat overwhelming Jack’s senses as his eyes were filled with destruction and death.
The beast before him was huge, at least four times Jack’s size and scary was not the word for the moment. Then as quickly as it had emerged, the light and the heat vanished and there before Jack stood one of his babies, a colt named Seth. But this was not Seth, for the red eyes pierced Jack’s heart and tears welled in his eyes. His dry lips began to move but no sound came from his mouth. The colt looked at him with disgust and Jack began to feel ashamed.
“I am not your child,” the colt said quietly. “I take many forms. To some, I am a loved one. To others, a victim. To you, I appear as Seth, the colt you couldn’t save.” Jack pushed a dry lump down his throat. The creature before him continued to speak.
“Gentleman Jack, you have the following charges against you. Abandoning your family. Allowing a child of yours to die. Failing to be a father. Failing to be a mate. Failing as a son. Failing as a horse.” Jack stopped listening after the last charge. The beast spoke for several minutes, though the words were deaf on Jack. All he could see was his baby before him speaking such horrible things. Jack remembered Seth, the colt that only lived for a few hours. She never let him forget that it was his fault that Seth died. He closed his eyes.
Everything was his fault.
Suddenly, there was a shift and something else was beside Jack. Carefully opening his eyes, his eyes fell upon a smoky creature, horse shaped like the one he had seen earlier but this was different. Everything felt different. Even the eyes were ghostly spirals and created a different ominous feeling in Jack. Seth quieted and gave way to this other creature. It floated over the ground and turned to face Jack.
“Do you have nothing to say?” it whispered in Jack’s head. All he could do was shake his head. “I see.”
Time had no meaning in this place but for Jack it seemed like an eternity before it spoke again. Before his eyes, Seth evaporated and the mists fell, leaving only himself and the smokey creature.
“Everything you have seen up until this point is entirely your fear. This is what you might say is my playground. The mare, the colt, the winged beast, they are all figment of your imagination. Projections, if you will, of everything that terrifies you.” Jack still could not speak. “Because of your atrocities in life, including your suicide in the water, you will spend eternity here. Hell is what you make of it.”
With that, the creature evaporated, the holds on Jack let him go and he fell to the ground weeping. The pain, memories and guilt washed over his body as he sobbed pitifully. All he could think about was all the failures he had done and everything that he never did to stop any of it.
And to see Seth standing there, so young and evil looking, made the stallion feel helpless, lost and ashamed. There was no sense of hope, just dread and fear, that this was what he was reduced to.
That he deserved every second of this misery, lost and alone.
Notes: A z z y
Word Count: 1306