VOID

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Seeing the candle wick burn brightly, she cautiously approaches the cabin window in a zombie-like daze, staring at the dim candle flame as it flickers in an amber-lit brilliance. Beverly places her hand on the dirt ridden pane of glass, which remained moist with condensation, still eying the dimly lit candle; she acts akin to a moth as the flame is the only light in this ungodly forest, save for the moon’s blueish tinted aura. Then she realizes:

“How did I get here?” Beverly says to herself, as she hastily withdraws her hand from the window. She turns around looking to the forest, to which she is ensnared.

Beverly rubs the side of her head, giving off a slight moan against the deafening silence of the night. By the look of her unnerved expression on her pale face, clearly she recognizes these woods as it is close to where she lives. Still, having produced a brief, minor headache, she rubs the spot near her temple. Turning and looking back to the window, she pierces the glass with her eyes and locks onto the candlelight for a brief moment. Clenching her jaw, she decides to look ahead to the forest, and walks away from the abandoned cabin, letting it fade in the distance as her instincts tell her to leave with great urgency.

Beverly traverses through the dark, now at the mercy of the woods. Her feet and legs are bare, but the ground is soft with grass, pine needles and moist dirt. The question of how she arrived at the cabin raced through her mind, first recollecting her short march along the hallway in her father's two story home, with her friend, Samantha, following her to her bedroom. She absolutely cannot remember the events in the time between her sleepover and her arrival to the cabin.

The woods are pitch black. Beverly slows her pace, hoping to avoid running into trees, using her arms and hands to feel her way around. A light comes into view; it's distant, and it flickers like a flame. It is an all too familiar sight. Beverly keeps moving, her eyes locked on the flicker of light, her hands clenching into tight, sweaty fists in the crisp night. If it was the cabin, she thought, could she have wandered in circles? No, she would've reached the road by now. Per Beverly's daily routine, she would drive along the road from school, noticing the abandoned cabin from her car each time as she drove by, so the road should only be a short walk away.

Beverly steps into the clearing and then stands, staring ahead. Her arms shrink to her side, and she slowly wraps her hands around her shoulders. Before her stood the same log cabin, with the same flickering candle in the window. Shaking her head in disbelief, she turns around and sprints away from the cabin. Her feet carry her through the dark, yet again, speeding up without care for the trees that would act as obstacles.

Reaching the same clearing, with the same exact cabin with the lit candle in the window, Beverly slows to a halt and catches her breath. She wraps herself tightly with her arms, more scared than before. Beverly's legs quiver, as if they were going to give way. Beverly takes in a sharp, deep breath and strokes back her red hair. She lets out a sharp exhale, and then re-approaches the derelict cabin. She stands before the entrance and scans the knob; it's rusty, old, like the rest of the structure. The door itself is cracked in several places as the wood was rotting. Beverly's jaw shudders from both fright and chill, knowing about the horror stories that continue to plague this old, log cabin. She does not want to go inside. Her mind races, however; what if the way in to the cabin is her only way out?

The front door opens slowly, creaking loudly as Beverly peeks around the door into what is assumed to be the living space. Beverly pushes the door all the way open and enters the dilapidated cabin, seeing dust, dirt and quite possibly, mold stuck in the cracks, corners and whatever furniture was left lying around. Windows are cracked and filthy, but not shattered. The real horror could be the bathroom, she thought. There is a hallway there that would lead to the back of the cabin; apparently this place has more than one room. She walks over to the candle and examines the flame. The candle is weirdly shaped and textured, like it was made of bone covered in a web of veins but carved from obsidian. The flame is bright, but at the base of the wick seeped a sort of oily, greenish-brown fluid. Was that the candle's true color rather than the glossy black exterior? Bile, Beverly thought, was the word that perfectly describes the look and consistency.

Beverly turns around and looks to the hallway. She turns to the candle and gently picks it up as her only source of light in this ruined cabin. The candlelight illuminates the hallway as she enters, and it reveals brown colored stains on the floorboards which Beverly knew were not rust. She follows the stains as it trailed to the room on the left. Beverly breathes heavily through her mouth as she reaches for the door, and gives it a gentle push. The door swings softly revealing a decrepit bedroom where the bed frame is broken in half, and the mattress is missing. Aside from broken furniture, there is nothing out of the ordinary in the room to Beverly's eyes.

Beverly takes a couple of steps forward, standing in the middle of the room while holding the candle with both hands. The floorboards are creaking and groaning as she slowly turns in place, looking at all corners of the dusty, slightly moldy room. She looks to the floor, finding that the rust colored stains stop at the door. Something happened here, she thought, and she doesn't want to know; she wants to leave and sleep in her bed, comfortably. Beverly looks to the dirty, cracked window, finding nothing but black beyond that glass pane.

Crash! The floorboards beneath Beverly's feet splinter and give way, forming a jagged, circular hole as she falls through, receiving scratches and minor cuts to her arms, and legs. Beverly is screaming as gravity pulls her down into this abyss, with the still lit candle lighting the way below her. A sudden, blunt pain hits Beverly and all goes black.

Beverly lets out a sharp gasp, awakening on the ground where she fell. She's lying flat, face down on the ground, her arms are tucked in but her legs are sprawled. Her eyes scan the chamber she's in; it is cavernous, but it felt and looked unnatural in the dim light. There's light? Beverly pushes against the moist floor, but struggles as her strength is barely there in her time of need. She stands with a slight quiver and pans her head, scanning the rest of the chamber.

The chamber is a warped egg shape with a smaller, more narrow tunnel leading away from it. The walls are 'skeletal', as to where the tunnel resembles a massive throat with curved bones and other organic shapes lining along the enclosure, like a hybridization between the mechanical, and flesh. Beverly leans toward the nearest wall, and touches the ribbed structure, noticing the heavy condensation and how solid everything feels to her. She looks up to the hole above her, finding it pitch black save for what little could be illuminated. Beverly gasps in realization.

"The candle!" Beverly exclaims as she looks around on the floor. "Where is it?!"

Beverly wanders throughout the egg shaped, skeletal chamber, scanning the floor for the weirdly shaped candle, but it was nowhere in sight, as if it crawled away or perhaps the flame melted it into nonexistence despite feeling solidly built to last. Frustrated, Beverly exhales. Despite not seeing any visible light source, the corridors and the chamber are dimly lit in a sort of yellowish-green tint with a mist that hung in this alien enclosure. To Beverly, however, that candle gave her some sense of safety and relief. Apart from the mist and ugly dim lighting, there is also this smell, an acrid smell that filled the air, like a mixture of acid, oxygen and whatever tiny caustic particles that could float into her nose and mouth, giving a stingingly unpleasant, bitter sensation.

There's a sudden pitter-patter of footsteps racing somewhere down the tunnel. Startled, Beverly turns around, gazing into the throaty corridor. The mist thickened the further she looked, but her mind is made up. She starts with a walk, entering the organically framed passage. She walks and marches at a constant, swift pace along the seemingly never-ending aisle. She pulls in her arms, and clasps her hands together against her breast, now feeling secure in her own personal space.

The sound of wet, running footsteps amplifies as she moves along the corridor. Her own feet are wet from sweating and the moisture from the floor. She speeds up without going into a jog or run. Another tunnel appears from the mist, on the left of the corridor. Decided, Beverly marches toward that left passage, but then a young woman races out of that pathway and into the main passage, away from Beverly.

"Hey!" shouts Beverly as she gives chase.

Beverly strives to match the young woman's momentum, but her speed is slower and her legs tire from all of this night's effort. Why would she run, she thought. The woman starts to fade in the mist, distancing herself from Beverly. However, a wall suddenly emerges from this yellowing cloud in front of Beverly. She skids to a complete stop, nearly ramming herself into this curved panel. She steps back, looking to her left and to her right, finding that this corridor has been split into a Y shaped intersection. She doesn't know where to go as the young woman disappeared in the mist seemingly running through this wall in between in an eerie ghost-like manner.

"Where are you?!" shouts Beverly, desperate for human contact.

Her ears pick up a round of footsteps as they pitter-patter in one of the passageways. Beverly gasps and runs into the right corridor. The ugly green-yellow lighting fades to much darker blues the further she runs. Nervous, she slacks off to more of a jog. She can still see, but the mist makes it harder. Her breathing labors as she continues to jog, but a distant white light materializes through the mist, prompting Beverly to slow to a stop. She turns her head, looking back to find that the passage is clear of life. She looks to the light up ahead; it's too bright to be the candle but too dim to be sunlight and the temperature is much colder. Her ears pick up not just her own breathing and the enclosure's ambience, but a human whimpering.

Beverly consciously moves slowly toward the light. The corridor tapers to a narrow entrance that leads into another chamber, one that is globe-shaped with the same skeletal texture as the passages that led to here. Corrugated pipes line along the walls starting from the domed ceiling, across the floor centering to a pedestal in the heart of the chamber. The column of light shines down from what appears to be the ceiling's centered mosaic. A moat of cold darkness surrounds that cold pillar of light.

She ambles across the textured, corrugated floor to the pedestal. However, the more she closes the gap between her and this pedestal, the more her head starts to hurt. She fights the pain, wanting to look at what sits atop the pedestal. She leans over the plinth examining the flat slanted surface with a flat ruby embedded in the surface. In awe, Beverly's eyes widen as she gazes into the bright, red gem. She adjusts, looks across the chamber to a wall and her shock turns to horror; a large statue, a relief of a humanoid crucified to wall. The relief was skeletal, sharing some characteristics with the walls as if this whole enclosure was a womb to this carved being. How did she miss this, she thought. Beverly probes the head from where she stands, noticing the complete lack of facial features save for a polished carapace that's been collecting decades of dust.

"What..," she says. "..is this?"

She hears a whimper and spins around, finding the young woman curled up into a ball, leaning against the wall by the entrance. Her face is tucked into her arms and she rocks back and forth.

"Hey," Beverly calls out, now approaching the individual.

She has blonde hair, and her skin is fair. She's wearing a white tank top with shorts, which apparently seem to be her pajamas like Beverly's own gray shirt-dress.

"It's okay," whispers Beverly. "It'll be okay. We'll get out of here."

As Beverly moves in closer to the young woman, she finds that she's filthy, like she's been here, running around for days. Her feet are dark with grime and she's drenched in sweat. Beverly stretches out her arm, reaching for the young woman, gently placing her hand on the shoulder.

"Please look at me," Beverly says to her.

The young woman lifts and turns her head, revealing her deep blue eyes under all of that grime. She locks eyes with a shocked Beverly, who widens her own set of optics.

"Samantha?" she asks the victim.

"Beverly," says Samantha softly, shaking.

Beverly helps Samantha stand and they face each other. Beverly notices the friendship bracelet around Samantha's wrist, with a golden heart dangling from the black band.

"Why are you here?" Beverly asks. "How long have you been here?"

Samantha, still shaking, looks to the red gem on the pedestal. Beverly, noticing, also looks to the gem. It shimmers, brightly. Beverly approaches it again.

"Do you know what this is?" Beverly asks.

"I don't know," Samantha responds. "I touched it but nothing happened. "

Beverly continues to stare into this red, crystalline item. It continues to shimmer and lets off a dim glow. Slowly, Beverly takes her hand, and lets it hover over the flat, hexagonal shape. Her jaw clenches and she taps it with her finger. The gem halts its shimmer, it stops glowing, and becomes a blank, boring panel.

Samantha's breathing amplifies lightly. Her jaw shudders as her body quivers. Her eyes move back and forth, up and down, in all directions; it's like she's waiting. Beverly takes a couple of steps back, looking at the blank red panel, the skeletal relief, and finally, the ceiling.

"We should go," suggests Samantha.

Beverly looks back to Samantha, suspicious of her behavior and says to her, "Are you okay? Something gonna happen here?"

Her quivering becomes uncontrollable, violent. Samantha takes one last look at Beverly, spins and sprints away into the corridor.

"Hey!" Beverly shouts, about to chase her; she stops upon hearing the sound dirt crumbling behind her.

Beverly gyrates, seeing that the skeletal, alien relief that was bonded to the wall has gone, leaving only a deep indent in the wall. This revelation leaves Beverly horrified as she steps back, scans the chamber and lastly sprints into the corridor. Her life depends on the speed and strength of her legs, no matter how tired she is. The combination of her continuous running and the caustic air causes her lungs to burn. She looks back, finding a tall human shadow standing within the light through the thickening mist. It only stands there, watching her run away. Beverly faces forward, following Samantha.

"Wait up!" screams Beverly in a raspy, harsh voice; the effects of the acidic atmosphere.

The lighting reverts to its sickly yellow tint. The Y shaped intersection is coming up, with Samantha making a sharp turn to her right. Beverly makes the same turn, but she slips and falls onto her side, smacking her head against the floor. Moaning, Beverly rolls and swivels in a daze, where everything is in whirl. She flips over onto her stomach and looks to one of the passages, where a distant shadow perches on the ceiling. Beverly fights to stand on her feet, stumbling toward the nearest passageway. She grapples the wall, holding on as she walks along the corridor while being off balance.

She crosses the passage to the other wall. She's exhausted, in pain, and her breathing is a chore, worsening with each breath. She briefly looks back, seeing the shadow perched on the ceiling like before, like gravity means nothing to it. Beverly looks forward, regaining enough of her balance to run faster. She revolves her head, watching the shadow crouch down and crawl. Her speed quickens in a panic, ignoring the burning in her lungs and legs. Samantha has disappeared in the mist, no longer visible in Beverly's eyes.

"Samantha!" Beverly cries out, damning her respiratory.

Samantha emerges from the mist, waiting for Beverly to meet with her. Beverly's hand meets with Samantha's and they lock together, with Beverly dragging Samantha down the corridor. Another passage appears, and Beverly, pulling Samantha along, heads for that passage.

This corridor is a much more narrow hallway, inducing claustrophobia to Beverly. Both women move slowly in this vestibule as it curves toward the left, tightening as they try to run. Soon, the hall starts to squeeze the two friends, forcing them to tuck in their arms.

"Just keep moving, Bev!" orders Samantha.

The thin corridor becomes near suffocating as Beverly and Samantha resort to sucking in their midriff and sidestepping as they uncomfortably squeeze between the ridged walls. Then all motions lastly turn into an intolerable sliding motion as they squash their breasts in this pressure.

Escape was a few feet away as the thin vestibule was nearing its end. Beverly becomes stuck with her head forced to face the same forward direction, trapping Samantha behind her. Beverly stretches out her arm to grab the wall just outside this stifling corridor. Her fingers tightly grip the textured surface. Beverly offers her hand to Samantha and, without hesitating, she takes her hand, gripping it tightly. Beverly starts pulling herself forward to the next room. Samantha looks back, seeing two monstrous hands creeping toward her, seemingly disembodied, but the arms were still attached, stretching like taffy.

Beverly's head pops out of a narrow opening in the wall. Her whole arm wraps around the wall and grabs a bone textured ridge, using it as leverage. Her leg becomes free followed by her waist. Samantha continues watching as those alien hands continue to creep toward her with menacing intrigue. Suddenly, Samantha is yanked out of the crevice and both she and Beverly fall to the floor. They both watch as one shadowy hand tries to squeeze through the opening. Beverly and Samantha embrace each other, holding their breaths and waiting as the clawy hand retreats back into the tapered crevice. There's a faint gurgle echoing deep from within the crevice.

Beverly slowly stands up and carefully approaches the opening in the wall. To her, it's a miracle that both she and Samantha were able to squeeze through. She turns around, discovering that she and Samantha are in another chamber, similar to the one with the skeletal relief and the pedestal. This chamber is different in that there is a large mushroom shaped tunnel leading to a solid wall. What was the point, Beverly thought as she examined that corridor.

She looks over to Samantha, who was quivering at the sight of the strangely formed corridor, opposite the crevice on the wall. Beverly looks to the chamber's center, spotting another pedestal. With care, she approaches the pedestal, wondering why there's two in both chambers that she was in. The substructure aligns perfectly with the mushroom corridor. She looks to the panel atop the pedestal. It's very similar to the one in the previous chamber except that it has a hand shaped indention in the center of the panel, with an outline eerily similar to Beverly's hand. She looks to Samantha, again, as she carefully stands, sweating profusely, nervous and frightened. Beverly lifts up her hand and lets it hover above the hand print.

"Beverly," Samantha says softly.

Beverly turns her attention to Samantha, who now looks sad, and worried.

"I'm sorry," Samantha says, her eyes turned away in a sort of shame.

Beverly studies her from where she stands, and gives her a gentle smile. She looks back to the panel and gently places her hand in the console, fitting perfectly in the hand-shaped outline.

Nothing happens...

"Well that was..." Beverly looks to Samantha as she spoke, only to find that she isn't there.

"Samantha?" Beverly says softly.

She scans the area where Samantha stood and finds a pile of bones. Confused and worried, Beverly walks to the pile and squats down. She picks up a femur and examines it, noticing that one end has broken off and finding scratches that resemble teeth marks spotted throughout the bone's surface. Beverly clenches her jaw, her skin begins to perspire and her body starts to quiver. She looks to the pile, and finds what she was most afraid of underneath the scattered bundle: a black friendship bracelet with a gold heart attached to the band. Shocked, Beverly drops the femur and it comes crashing down into the heap, tossing some bony bits inches into the air. Speechless, she slowly stands up, staring at Samantha's remains.

A light breeze comes in, lightly blowing against Beverly's hair, startling her. She looks to the mushroom shaped tunnel, seeing a new development. Quivering from the sight of her dead friend, Beverly carefully proceeds to the tunnel, looking into it with optimistic eyes. What she sees, however, is a black pane, or at the very least, something that resembled a black pane. She inches closer, entering the tunnel toward this black pane. Her breathing is loud, erratic. She keeps her hands and arms spread, with her fingers touching the horizontal surfaces of the weirdly formed corridor. The breeze is stronger here, to the point that it's more like a soft, constant wind. Finally, she reaches the end.

The end of this tunnel is sudden and flat, like it was cut cleanly with a knife. There was truly nothing at this end save for the seemingly never ending cliff wall where the mushroom tunnel is based in. Beverly leaned over, looking down, finding nothing but an abyss. She looked up, and it was the same. Then she looked straight ahead into nothing but a vast blackness dotted with what resembled stars, shimmering light-years away. The sight of this gives her vertigo, and her realization of what this truly is only made it worse: it was a void. This endless, black horizon makes her tremble, and weak in the knees. She can hear nothing but the sound of the wind blowing against her. Suddenly, inhuman, monstrous roars echo throughout this void as if massive, alien denizens float in waiting.

Beverly turns around, running, until she is caught by this alien shadow, with a clawed hand wrapped around her face. Her screams are muffled as she is lifted into the air, above the floor. She grabs the alien's wrist, trying to break free, but all she can do is stare into the faceless carapace as it menacingly stares back at her. It walks, with Beverly in its grip, toward the void. Beverly, knowing its intentions, tries to hammer the alien's arm with her own to no avail, as if it is indifferent to pain as it is to her. Reaching the end, it holds Beverly over the abyss in the void. Desperate, Beverly tries to kick, flail and hit at the tall alien. It only growls in slight amusement and releases its hold on her.

Beverly begins to float away from the tunnel toward the dim, starry void. She tries to swim back to solid ground, but there's no inertia, no thrust. There's nothing she can do but watch as she floats in a form of free fall away from the mushroom shaped corridor. The alien watches her. To her, everything starts to fade in the distance the more she hovers away. Now knowing that she is doomed, she screams with all of the remaining air in her lungs and she screams again, all the while swinging her arms in a futile effort to grab a hold of anything to keep her from falling into whatever monstrous forms that lie in wait in darkness.

Her screams fade, as does she...