After some time, it stopped. It had paused briefly, calmed down and started up in fits for a while, but now the massacre was well and truly over. I saw this because I saw Sarah walking through the seemingly endless wreckage, busting windows and looting whatever she found inside. I saw her pull out moools, even a gramophone, and quite a few kniacks that were modeled after famous fake people. She stomped the fake people into the ground, a thing that I was quite pleased by. No one should rely on fake people for eai, no matter how cute or hot or friendly they are. I walked out of the forest with my hands up, just in case Sarah ghtened and attacked me. She saw me, but did not say anything. As I made my way over to her, I walked through a maze of wrecks. Some of them were smoking, and I supposed it was my fault. I also supposed that all of this was my fault, but I didn’t care much about that. I guess I had separated myself from this massive se, even though it was my fault. My fault that all these people had died, my fault that everything was meshed together in the most unpleasing way imaginable, and my fault that Sarah was bleeding. I ran towards her, hopping on top of the cars again and running to help her bleeding hand. I fell through a hood and my foot twisted against the engine, and I briefly worried that I had started the car again, but that was not the case, and I just ran ahead onto the car. I saw for the first time that all of these cars were red, all in different shades. Maroon, vermillion, rose, rose-gold, crimson, burgundy. I thought back to the road, and even when I was inally utack by the cars and their drivers. I thought I remembered them being blue, green, bd gray, but now they were a sopping, terrifyihe cars behind me were melting, and they became pools of ughing red liquid on the ground. I tried to get ahead of the tide, but I was sucked in as the melti faster and faster and overtook me. I was covered in sticky red liquid that had entered my mouth and tasted like nickels. I could not stop ughing, and I started to choke on the red liquid. It pulled me under and then spit me out again all chewed up right on top of the car that Sarah was currently looting. Only now did Sarah look at me, and she ughed at me just a little bit, as if saying, “Good job, you figured it out.” I saw that this car was the only o melted, and a horrible ugh echoed through the city and the forest behind. I turo Sarah and whimpered, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ruin your fun.”
“Oh, it’s okay. I didn’t he stupid record pyer anyway. I’m just happy you’re okay.”
I smiled, and then turned my attention to the sky above me. I believe Sarah watched the red to make sure that I was okay, and that we were going to be okay. The sky ainted in colors of blue and bck, and I saw people running on the blue bands, and they seemed to be pying a game of sorts with the band itself. The band would shift and move when they willed it to happen, and it seemed to be a battle between blue and bck. It was a vicious fight, ohat spilled aquamarine, , twin bed, and ultramarine all over the sky. Bck fought valiantly, but there were simply too many shades of blue pared to shades of bck. Ebony, charcoal, bck olive, onyx, they could not hold a dle wick up to the power of blue, and they ceded the battle. However, it was not an angry battle, and the two sides went on their way happily and without pint. I looked down, now saddehat the sights were over, and I perhaps would never see them again. The red ke was gone, and now it was just Sarah and I sitting on top of a car. A red car, a quite nice red car. I didn’t particurly like the color red. Sarah turned herself towards me and said, “Would you like to go into the forest now? I think it’s time I stretch my legs.”
“Yes, I’d love that. I have to tell Will and Audrey that I found you.”
Sarah smiled, ah got off the top of the car and headed towards the forest. Ihe forest I could see shadows moving iween trees and sometimes stopping and staring at me. After they had been staring for a while, I heard them say that they were the drivers who I had killed, and they were going to get their revenge when I made it into the forest. I hugged Sarah closer to me, and she said that it was okay, that no one was going to get me. I didn’t believe her. I saw the shadows move out of the forest, and they looked up at the sky just as I had dohey turned down to me and saw that they were angrier now, probably because I had stopped their color from winning the battle in the sky. They swept towards me, oering a range of about 50 feet, and then they would move bato the trees and watd wait.
“Sarah, are they going to get me? The shadows, they hate me, don’t they?”
“No, you’re safe with me. I promise. I promise you’ll be safe with me.”
“ I have something to protect myself?”
Sarah paused for a moment and then pulled a pistol out of her jacket pocket, loaded it, and ha to me with the barrel fag down. I knew how to operate this type of on, as I had lived in this jagged pce for a long time, and I knew what happeo unarmed people. I kept the safety on, because I had also been taught gun safety along with the y of using a on. Sarah and I ehe treeline and the world became slightly darker. The Sun was blocked out by certaihat stretched into the sky seemingly forever. I stared into the sky as Sarah kept moving me forwards, and I was still staring because I wao avoid seeing the shadows again. Naturally, they flitted into my vision, blog out the Suhey passed between me and it. None of them stared at me this time around, but I did not know how long that would st. Sarah, mercifully, pointed my head downwards and towards the ere walking. I saw then that there was a massive stone wall, seemingly twenty feet tall or more, that stretched in both direaking it so we could not cross without climbing over the wall. I had the simple idea of catg our feet oone and climbing our , but it was not as easy as that. The wall had a sheen of something incredibly slippery, most likely a kind of ice quartz. I rested my hand upon it and when I pulled it away, my skin was slid wet, like I had just held a jar of water that had a high amount of densation on its outside surface. I turo Sarah, and without speaking a word, which I assumed to be because of the shadows, told me to fire the pistol at a spot in the wall that she assumed would break the id cause us to climb over in this specific part of the wall. I saw where she wanted me to shoot from, moved back about twenty feet, and raised my on to level with the oint. After making sure that Sarah was far away from me, very far away, I turhe safety off. Now, I was a loose on with a loaded on, and it was fun to feel the rush of power afforded to me by wielding a deadly piece of equipment, something that could kill evero of strongmen. I looked up at the shadows, and some were cirg over ahead, but not too many. I then turned around and tried to see the road, but I could not. We were too deep into the forest. I breathed, and then turned back, aimed, and shot. The first shot cracked the id sent pieces flying in every dire, some missing Sarah and me. I shot again, and the ice shattered, sending the smooth alloy crashing to the ground. I looked at Sarah, and she had an expression of pride on her face which I did not uand. I looked upwards once again, and I saw the shadows heading right towards Sarah and I. I shot at one, sending it tumbling to the ground, dead. I shot at the ohat was attag Sarah, and I missed, but she mao jump around the attack, and the shadow went into the ground and did not e back. I shot wildly two more times, both missing, but the shadows looked at their dead on and in the ground and decided to flee. I waited for a moment. They did not e back, and when I looked at Sarah, she had no face, but I didn’t mind that so much. On the ground was a dead bird, probably ht from all the shooting and unnatural entities in their area. Sarah still had no face, but I still wasn’t bothered. I grabbed the bird and tore off its head, swallowing it in two bites. I had to get a few feathers out of my mouth, but it tasted so heavenly that I went in for another, and then another until it was just bones and eyes. I e the eyes, as they were too chewy for my taste. I wiped my mouth of the blood and started towards the wall. Funnily enough, it was trivial to actually climb over the wall and onto the other side. Sarah had a face again, and it was her own face, which was lucky for her. We both climbed over the wall aered a s, and as I dropped down I slopped further into the ground than I thought would be possible. The muck went up to just below my knee, and Sarah hopped down as well, much mracefully and easily than I had done. I marveled at her, and her ability to nd perfectly on a pilr of stohat was barely a foot wide. She teetered on one foot for a moment, and then pushed her feet out from under herself and sat down on the pilr. I assumed she was waiting for me to move, and so I did, I slogged forwards through the mire for about te, and I waited for Sarah to follow me, but she did not. Instead, she signed for me to stay incredibly still. Try not to breathe, she signed. I looked to where she ointing, and I saw a single light bobbing above the surface of the water. It was slowly moving towards us, and I imagi had bee off by my nding in the s. She motio the pistol, saying in very silent terms to shoot at where I assumed the body to be. It was an easy shot, but it was my sed to st, so I had to make it t. I leveled the on, breathed, and took the shot. Immediately, a streak of fire hit me in the face as the bullet flew. Thankfully, it was not that strong and it was blocked by the actual gun, so I was not scorched or blinded. I stumbled backwards and saw the bullet traveling towards the uer creature with a trail of fire growing increasingly rger behind it. As the bullet impacted the murky water, a sudden explosio off that sent me flying backwards against the wall. I slid down into the s, and I was lucky to have my eyes and mouth closed when I went under. As I s to the surface, I saw things uhe water, strahings. Fish that had three eyes, jellyfish without strings, and a hellish amount of meat that was ing my way. I grabbed at the wall, trying to get upwards, aually I fumbled my way over to a pilr, which I grabbed onto and pushed myself against until I reached the surface. I felt the grime and dirt all over my face, and I pulled out the gun again, which had somehow not escaped my grasp in the chaos. Sarah was looking down at me with sho her eyes, and I tried to expin what had happened, but she still wanted me to be silent. She poi the pce where I had shot, and I saw a massive fish with jaw length teeth floating belly up ier, not that there was much belly left. I had created a cavern within the creature, and it was suspehere, ih just as it had been in life. Hungry and unhappy. I sigo Sarah to e down, that it was safe, but she did not think so, a pointing at the water again and again. I tried to perceive what she was so scared of, but I saw no more movement in the s. I tinued forwards through the mire, and I looked back at Sarah and tried to unicate that everything would be okay, that there wasn’t any more danger in this area. She was in a silent fit, swaying from side to side looking up at the sky with closed eyes, and I walked onwards without trying to get her down. She would follow soon enough.
I made it to the carcass at some point afterwards. I climbed up into it via the fins and saw blood pooling in the ter of the body. I ughed aloud, vinced I had done a great thing very well, and jumped off of the fish and into the s again. I crouched uhe fin a onwards, eventually seeing a pce where the s water went downwards right into a cavern. I watched the water fall, disappearing into a dark cavern that had never been and should never be accessed by human beings. I cmbered onto dry nd, where I y in the grass for a moment just listening to the water. It was funny to me that from this vantage point, the disgusting mire sounded just like the est waterfall in the world. If I was to turn and look at the s again, I would think it horrifying, but it sounded so calm and wonderful now.
I got up and looked to see if Sarah had e this way. I saw her in the distance, making her way slowly down the pilr and into the grossness, which I did now think was rather disgusting because I was looking at it again. I had a bright idea, which was to pick up some of the water and look at it in my hands, to actually see what was different about it pared to the pictures of wondrous waterfalls that I had seen over and ain. I grabbed a palmful of the liquid, and I ran my other hand through it, pig up the grains and dirt and happy little creatures that swam about ier. Although, they probably weren’t so happy when they were hoisted from their home into the air by some unknowable force. I made a point to put as many of them back as I could, and I supposed that there was no real difference. When I pared this water to the pictures I’d seen of eople called good water, it was surprising to me that I actually preferred this kind of water pared to it. There was something more iing to this, instead of being photographically iing to the majority of average people.
Sarah had joined me at the waterside, and she was huggio alleviate her stress. I said to her very softly, “It’s not so bad, is it?”
“No. Not nearly as bad.”
Even though she could not see it, as she was lying on top of me and I had my face pointed downwards, I smiled for her, and for me.
“We learned something, I think.”
“Probably. It’s going to take me a lifetime to figure out exactly what.”
Sarah ran her hand through my hair and kissed me on the back of the neck, and then got up and told me to follow her.
“I think I know where Will and Audrey are, if you want to find them.”
I turned back to look at the water, and then got up and followed Sarah further into the woods. The trees were clether at this point, and we had to stick very close together in order to not be lost amongst the darkness. I held Sarah’s hand and still had the revolver iher, and I kept boung off of trees and shrubs, and we eventually came to a stop after some time spent in the darkness. I looked all around for the shadows, but they did not appear for me. I held Sarah close, trying to sole her and myself that everything would eventually be okay, that we would leave the darkness soon enough and find our way to our two missing friends. I tried to help her uand that no one could get us here, even as I was not vinced of it myself. I heard strahings, twitters aations in the darkness, and I eventually told Sarah that we had to leave, that we couldn’t stay here for long or else they would get us. Sarah told me that there was no ohere, that if we just stayed here for a moment she would be okay, but I could not do anything except run. I pulled Sarah to her feet and started running from the beasts that were just around the er. I felt them breathing on my neck, I saw their eyes in the distance, I could tell that they were going to hurt us. I k, so why didn’t they?
I pushed Sarah away from me and shot towards the eyes which were slowly ing towards me, causing Sarah to shout. I screamed because I hadn’t hit the gigantic beast that was shambling towards us, and I fell to the ground in a dazzled state of terror. I saw the eyes crowding around me, fighting for their d their share of the meat, so I threw my arms towards them, tried to kick them and shove them across the Earth and far away from me, but still they stood and watched. There was no ughing, and indeed nothing actually ing from them. They blinked, and their triangur eyes reminded me of the stories I’d been told as a child about hate and devils, and I finally sat up and grabbed at the eyes, tearing them apart and trying to eat them whole, because that would make them go away, it always had. Eyes could not be killed by any other means than swallowing in their ey, and then you would grow extra eyes on your body for a time. I could not touch them, though. My hands went right through their bodies and brains, aually I came away with dust and bark all over me. I fell to the ground, the beasts disappearing. I looked back to Sarah and I saw her lying on the ground c her ears and fag into the dirt. I rao her and tried to apologize, saying how sorry I was and that I should never have been tricked, but they felt so real in the moment. She turned over and said quietly, “It’s okay, I promise. I uand, I just have a hard time with loud noises. It’s not your fault.”
I stood up with tears in my eyes and tried to believe her, but I couldn’t. I turned back to Sarah and hugged her on the ground, trying not to weep onto her clothes. We id there for some time, waiting for our emotions to pass over us so we could ighem, as we had done every time something like this had happened. I tried to look up at the sky, but it was blocked off aually I just rested there.
