The road ahead was infinite; pockmarked with holes in some areas and completely buckled in others where the damp of winter had seeped beneath its surface to freeze and expand. There’s snow on the ground, and a stale taste in the air that hung stagnant amongst the regal pine trees that bordered either side of the two-lane stretch of asphalt. In stark contrast to the chilling dormancy of my immediate surroundings, something is shimmering in the distance. It glimmers like light shadowed by the fluttering of moth wings on a warm summer’s night. No, not shimmering, but dancing like fire; like flames. Subconsciously, and not unlike a moth, I am drawn to its light, its warmth. The allure of this distant inferno mobilizes me, and I begin to approach it, walking the double-solid yellow line that bisected the street like a tightrope. I’m conscious of the pavement behind me giving way. It crumbles silently, and falls into the ebony nothingness below, leaving me no choice but to proceed onward as the shadows press in and siphon me towards the burning illumination. The silence is overwhelming as I close in on the blazing flames. Shapes begin to form amongst the hellfire, revealing its source to be a vehicle, charred to an obsidian crisp. Squinting through the heat, I notice two bodies sat in the passenger and driver’s seats, equally charcoaled and burnt. Not far off from the wreckage lies a young girl, her skin untouched by fire, but lifeless all the same. As I stare in horror, I’m overcome by an unyielding sense of dread. I know these people, love them, even. There’s a sharp and sudden pressure atop my shoulder; the weight of a hand. Yet when I glance down at it, all I see is shadow. It is embodied and multi-dimensional, but shadow, nonetheless. I swivel around in a hurried panic, breaking free of my visitor’s unwarranted grip. Now, the shadow stands before me in full, like a mirrored silhouette of stark raven sable in place of a reflection.
“Come home, Royce,” It whispers.
I take a step back towards the vehicle, but immediately feel the singe from the tendrils of fire behind me. Before I can assume my previous position, the blackened hand of the passenger darts out and grabs my wrist. She’s screaming violently, and it’s these animalistic sounds emanating from her throat that are the only indication this corpse once was in fact, a woman at all. I struggle to free myself as her hold sears my skin and refocus my attention on the shadow.
“Who… what are you?!”
Slowly, the entity raises its arm, reaches for me beckoningly.
The world is crashing down on me now, its resonance a cacophonous and continual echo. The fire grows louder, crackles and hisses amongst the screams of the corpses.
“Come home, Royce. You belong here, you belong with us,” The shadows insistence is palpable.
All at once and without warning, the entity engulfs me, wraps itself around me like a second skin. I’m swallowed up within its cold embrace and begin to fight with all my strength against it.
“Wait! What do you mean? Belong where? With who? Wait!”
My toes begin to go numb, then my ankles, knees, thighs, abdomen. The loss of sensation travels all the way up my body until it reaches the whites of my eyes, startled and shaking with anxiety, and then I’m entombed by the darkness altogether, hurtling into an infinite and obscured abyss.