My first chapter. (Book unnamed.)

Hell. Hell was the only way the boy could describe the place he had just opened his eyes to see. At least it was the first thought that went through his mind. 

The sky, if you could call it that, was a slow moving swirling mass of a deep red and pitch empty black. 

Slowly he tried to adjust his eyes but they didn’t seem to want to yet, so instead he simply closed them again as he tried to remember anything that might hint to how he got there in the first place. 

He got nothing. Not a scrap of memory that he could dig up. 

Deciding there was really nothing productive about just sitting there with his eyes closed, he tried to open them again to look around. 

Thankfully the red and black mass above him wasn’t making much light, so it wasn’t as hard to adjust his eyes to it now. 

He kind of wished he didn’t have to open them, because the area around him was purely monstrous. It wasn’t a stretch whatsoever to call it unearthly and unnatural. 

He seemed to have woken up in a large green field surrounded by trees. Well trees were what he supposed they were, but it wasn’t any sort of tree that the boy had ever seen in his life. 

The grass itself was a deep emerald green, like a rainforest. In fact green was the whole place’s most common colour that he could see. 

The trees were...strange though. They looked to be the same as a pine tree, but they were thirty stories tall at least! The leaves were the same emerald colour as the grass, maybe a little bit lighter, but the trunk was red. Well a brownish red but the red was easily visible on it. 

Not only that but there was no shrubbery whatsoever in the entire forest. No bushes or plants other then the trees, only grass. 

The boy suddenly widened his eyes as he realised he didn’t even know if he was wearing anything! 

With a glance down he let out a sigh of relief to see that he was in fact clothed, but it only brought up more questions. What was he doing before? 

He jumped to his feet to properly examine what he was wearing. It was a long black leather trench coat that went right down to his feet with thicker leather patches on his shoulders and elbows. He also wore dark blue long pants and a matching blue shirt with black leather gloves. 

The phrase ‘who the heck was I’ was probably never so correct in history. 

Well he had the clothing out of the way, what about age?  

Well it didn’t take much of a genius to guess that. He supposed around nineteen or twenty sounded accurate enough. 

Next: a name. 

What was his name? 

He didn’t think he’d find out that at all, so perhaps he can make one up instead? 

Yeah what could be the harm in that right? How about...Mason? 

Mason. 

Mason sounded nice.  

Okay so now he figured that out, he should probably move on to see if he has anything on him, or around him.  

Quickly he looked down and spun in a circle until he noticed there was something there. It was...a sword and a scabbard? Well, the sword looked like something out of a fantasy book; he could tell just by looking at it he could see that it was an elven made sword. Finely cut and carved. It was something he knew was extremely expensive, and for important Elves such as military officials and government.  

He was not an Elf. So who was he? And how did he get this? 

Wait, first of all how does he even know all that? He didn’t know a single thing about what he used to be yet he could still tell exactly what this weapon was? That was...strange. 

He slowly bent down and picked it up; looking at it sceptically as though it was some sorts of strange object that was going to attack him.  

He then tied the scabbard on surprisingly well and rested the sword inside it. 

Keeping the sword there, he started checking all the pockets of his clothes. 

Nothing, nothing, and nothing...wait, that was something? 

He reached into his jacket and pulled out some sort of egg. 

It was about the size of a tennis ball, only egg shaped obviously and leathery. Its surface was like a crocodile’s skin only it was coloured a bright red and it had strange swirling marking that was glowing a bright blue. 

Mason had a feeling that this was important and he should take care of it, so he put it back in his jacket pocket for safekeeping. 

Looking around, he decided that he should get going before something went wrong so he looked around to see if there was anything of interest.  

Aha! There was some sort of building or town that way! He could see what looked like a church, but it was only but a blot in the distance.  

It seemed you could see everything for miles in these woods, with nothing to block the line of sight 

With a shrug, he started off to find out where he was. 

Before he even took five steps, a loud...roar sounded from behind him and he felt a weight on his back, sending him face down on the ground. His first thought was on the egg he had decided to look after, but it was quickly averted when he felt the sting of teeth starting to pierce his neck’s skin. 

He quickly rolled over and over until it loosened his grip enough for him to squeeze out from its grip. 

Jumping to his feet, he looked down at his attacker and nearly screamed in shock. 

The thing was human, but it shouldn’t be alive! 

Its chest had been ripped open, exposing its ribs and organs, at least the organs that it had left in there. Most were missing, or hanging down and dragging along the ground, staining the green grass red. Not only that, it arms and legs were twisted around and its bones protruding from its skin as though they were too long to fit, turning them into the creatures horrifying weapons. The only way you could tell it was once a human is because of the face, which was still hard to recognise because its mouth was torn open with the jaw falling right down loosely, connected only by rotting muscles. Huge fangs having pushed its way out of the top of the creature’s mouth made it look even worse. 

Mason quickly shook his head and dropped to the floor as the thing jumped at him again, teeth first. He then rolled over and jumped to his feet yet again. 

This time he didn’t move, he just simply stared at the monster, his right hand gently resting on the hilt of his sword. He locked his eyes with it’s...eye as he waited, and even dared it to make its move. 

As soon as it jumped toward Mason, it felt as though time slowed down to a crawl. He actually had the time to look up at the sky, before back at the creature. 

He yelled a cry of rage as his grip around the sword tightened and he quickly unsheathed it. With the swipe of pulling it out of its place, it sliced straight though the most part of the monster’s neck. It had such precision that it hardly nicked the thing’s bone as it cut though the front of its neck. 

Time returned back to normal just as quickly as it came and he was left there, standing in the open with his arm and sword extended out at his side, and the thing in front of him, dead. 

Well technically it wasn’t alive in the first place was it? 

Completely and utterly shocked, he dropped the sword and his arm fell to his side. 

He then started to laugh. At first it was just a chuckle, but it eventually got louder and more hysterical. 

He ended up just lying on his back, laughing. It wasn’t so much because he was amused, but because if he didn’t laugh, he’d probably cry instead. 

He was on another planet or dimension where he didn’t remember his real life and he was seemingly alone with a bunch of gruesome creatures that looked like some failed experiment! 

As soon as the laughter came he stopped within seconds and shot up into a straight up sitting position, a look of worry on his face. 

Oh no, what about the egg? It was sitting in his pocket the whole time while he was rolling around! If it was broken he’d never be able to tell what it was! 

As fast as he could he reached into the jacket getting ready to feel a gooey substance and the body of an unborn creature, but that didn’t reach his fingers, just...emptiness? 

It was gone! 

He jumped to his feet and whipped around to look for it with wide, panicking eyes. 

Thankfully with the lack of undergrowth and bright green grass, it wasn’t really that hard to find the black leathery egg. Plus the blue markings were glowing much brighter than the soft glow they were making when he first found it in his pocket. 

Was it because it was damaged? Maybe, but he figured he should really stop spit balling random ideas when they came to his head. 

Tentatively he picked up the egg, which made it glow a little brighter, and he put it back where it belonged for now: his pocket. 

The markings on the egg gave him an idea. What if he had markings on his body that could help him find out who he was? It was worth a try right? 

He quickly took his jacket off and placed it on the grass next to him. He had to be quick, as he could now see there were more hunched over figures dotted around the place so they might see him. 

He slowly felt his face, as he didn’t have a mirror. There was what seemed to be some sort of burn mark on his left cheek, which was strange, but that was all he could find there. 

However as he looked over his arms, he found a mark on the underside of his wrist. They were numbers like a code, burned into his skin and glowing faintly red. There were six digits. 

314159 

Odd, that wasn’t some injury like a scar or a burn, that was...deliberate, like a prison number or serial number. 

Why? Was it this place? Again, spit balling. Ah who cares, maybe it did have something to do with this monster of a place. It might help. 

He thought to check his legs, but he didn’t have the time right now, just in case one of the creatures did in fact spot him and went after him, so he put his jacket back on and started to go toward the town ahead. 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- 

It took him about half an hour to finally get to the village, thankfully with no interference from any of the monsters on the way. 

The place, from the outside, wasn’t much. 

There seemed to be a large stone wall surrounding the village, about two stories high, so he couldn’t see anything over it while he was so close, though he could see just a few meters across the wall there was an opening where you could go through to enter, so he slowly padded over to it. 

As he approached he bent down into a crouch and softened his footsteps in case there was someone else in there. Not a human mind you, more in case there was one of those freaks in there. 

Slowly he poked his head around the corner and immediately pulled it back. There was in fact another freak in there. 

Slowly he poked his head around the corner again to see it was going away. He waited until it was around the corner before he took a good look around the place. It looked like a normal village from where he was from. It seemed to be something from the medieval times with the two story houses with stone walls for the bottom floor, while the top had white walls with wooden beams crossing along the outside of the building. The roads were also cobblestone. 

Something was wrong here though, and it only took a moment for him to realise. The whole place was old and decrepit! It was as though it has been left for decades to rot. 

He rounded the corner as quietly as he could and nearly run to the nearest house, though as he entered he nearly recoiled in disgust at the scent that hit his nose. It smelt like...death.  

It smelt like it was coming from upstairs so, blocking his nose and breathing through his mouth, he slowly made his way up to the second level, making sure his weapon was in his hand and ready for a fight.  

When he rounded a corner his sword nearly fell out of his hand and his stomach lurched. The scene that played out in front of him was horrendous. 

There were two bodies. What he could only guess was human, and a wolf, with a small hatchet and backpack sitting nearby. At least it looked like one. It was all guess work because both bodies were mangled and broken. And by the pact there seemed to be no purification, it was a fairly new corpse, which could be trouble for him. 

As quickly and carefully as he could, he went over to the body and snatched up the hatchet and bag in the corner, before retreating back toward the stairs. He would have searched the house and body more, but the stench was way too much for him, plus there were other houses around the place he could rummage through to find something good, like food. 

With a heavy heart, he poked his head out of the building to see if the coast was clear. Thankfully it was, so he crossed the road to the other house. 

No, it wasn’t a house; it was a sort of tavern. That should be helpful, because there might be some food or something to take with him. 

As he went in, he stalked over to the far corner and sat on a small stool so he could check to see if there was anything inside. He was sure to scout the area as he sat down 

As quickly as he could he started to go though the contents of the bag, hoping to find anything that could be of use to him, seeing as he had absolutely nothing on him now except the egg, and he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be a good idea to eat that. 

From what he could find, he now had a couple tins of...something; it didn’t have anything showing what was inside. That was about it, apart from some sort of small knife that seemed to flip out from the handle. 

Giving a slight groan of disappointment, he stood up again and looked around.  

The walls of the tavern were obviously old and falling apart, while the floor above had holes in parts so you could see into the rooms above him. At parts you could even see right through the floor and the roof at the sky, which still freaked him out. It made it look like it was always late in the afternoon and he hated it. It had enough light to see around you, but not enough that you could see anything clearly. 

With a sigh, he strapped his new bag on his back and slowly started up the stairs, his sword loosely sitting in his hand, instead of its actual sheath. He had to make sure it was ready in case this place had any more ‘surprises’ it wanted to throw at him. 

Suddenly a realisation struck him like giant wave. 

He was stuck there forever. All this hell he’d gone through already and he hadn’t even been through the first day there! If...if this was what he’d have to be surviving against for the rest of his life, what’s even the point of being here? 

Walking over to one of the holes in the wall, he looked down on the cobblestone path below and shook his head. There were another one of those monsters down there. It looked different to the first one. Just as deformed, but deformed in a different way. This one’s neck was disproportionally longer then it should be, and you could see every bone in it. It was missing half of its back leg and hobbled on all fours. The way it moved, it was sudden and janky. It moved its limbs suddenly and inhumanely fast, and then stopped for a second or so like it building up its muscles to move again.  

It seemed as though they all mutated in their own way. 

Seeing it again made him quickly shake his head again and stand back. 

No way, killing himself was gutless. He was lucky enough to be who he was and fully alive, and not living some sort of half life as one of those devilish creatures. He was given that privilege, he wasn’t going to waste it that easily. 

Taking a really deep breath, he looked out of the hole in the wall to see the other creature was gone again as quickly as it came. 

Slowly he turned around, but he suddenly heard footsteps that sounded like they were coming from the stairs. 

He quietly made his way over, readying his sword, but as he sounded the corner, all he saw was a flash of black and silver before he was knocked out cold onto the floor.