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The large, dark room illuminated only by a small, shy shine of torch stood before two humans. Black, seemingly closed door at the very end was their destination. Behind them lied everything. Their salvation. Their haven, the place of their safety, but also the place of their biggest curse, place of shame and despair.
"I don't think we should do this... There must be another way. There always is."
"If you're afraid, go back. It's not too late yet."
"And you?"
"For me, it is already.
Smaller of the humans sighed.
"Your humanity traded away... And for what? You want to fight with the monster by becoming a monster yourself?"
"We all have to make our choices. I trusted in you before. Now it's your turn."
The collosal door slowly opened, revealing nothing but pitch black, empty void. Even stanting next to it, the couple had a feeling like darkness was being poured into their very souls. All they saw was darkness.
None of them noticed strange tendrils slowly merging with their bodies. Or maybe they did, but it was already too late.
"Forgive me for what I did."
The only answer was screaming.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Man, I really gotta stop with that whisky...
When I woke up, I noticed two things. First, and most important : I was still alive, or at least my body was telling me so. No fractures, no lacerations, brain still inside skull, no blood. Second, I was propably no longer in Phoenix.
I was in forest. Frickin dark, creepy forest, a forest that looked like it was cut out directly from some damn horror movie. Dark, far away from any civilization, and somehow unnatural. If you ever been in forest, you propably noticed that there is always some noice. Either it's animals running on leaves, wind blowing through the trees or some bugs buzzing. Here, there was nothing. Complete silence.
I began to walk forward, just for sake of doing something. Staying in one place is almost never a good thing, especially in dark, creepy forests like this. See, playing MMO's gives you a life experiences. You can rely on this in situations of -
I stopped. Before me lied a dead body, facing the ground. I took a deep breath, and felt ashamed for first thought that came to my head : turn back and run away. This girl might be alive, might need my help. Not like I could do much to a dying person – I'm not a damn doctor – but leaving her to a certain death wasn't my kind of thing. When I approached her however, she groaned and got up.
I came closer and kneeled by her.
"Hey. You okay?"I asked.
She looked at me, and I could finally see her face in more detail.
She was propably around 12 years old, somewhere in later classes of elemetary school.
Her hair, purple and pink in color were reaching to her shoulders and were quite fluffy. Her big, dark green eyes were now full of confusion and fear. Her figure looked fragile, as she was slender and rather short, yet for some reason I felt like it's not a first time she's in trouble.
"What are you doing here? It ain't a place for a kids..." I tried again.
"I... don't really know. All I remember was that I was going back home and... Some guy hit me in the head I guess. And what are you doing here? Are you lost? I can't remember you from Ponyville..." her voice now had a hint of curiosity.
Ponyville. Terrible pun. But if that's a town, then we're good. As long as it's inhabitants aren't some sort of wicked, horse/human hybrids I can live with that.
"Name's Jeffrey, but you can call me Jeff" I said to the girl. " And now back to your question... All I remember was a thunderstorm back home, then some bright flash... I guess I touched my mirror or something."
"Sweetie Belle, but Belle will do." The kid was looking at me uncertainly. "So... you're from another world?"
"As impossible as it sounds... I think that's the logical explaination. So, what's this place anyway?" I asked.
"This is Everfree Forest, and we shouldn't be there now. No, like, we should never be there" You don't say...? "I live in a town called Ponyville, next to the forest but I'm ... kinda lost."
"Lost." I repeated. "Well, then we should try to find a way back, shouldn't we?"
Belle nodded. We started to walk, and after a while, she asked me "Is this your cutie mark?"
I frowned "This?" I said, pointing to my dragon tatoo, and she nodded, "No, it's my tatoo. At least that's how we called them back home."
Belle tilted her head in a most adorable way possible to imagine "Is this the same thing as a cutie mark?"
"I could answer, if you explained what this whole mark thing is."
"Well," she started, "A cutie mark is a thing that appears on a person's arm when he or she discovers something that makes her special, a talent, you know. Your's is a dragon... Are you a dragon slayer or something?" she squeaked excitedly "That would be so cool!"
I chuckled and shook my head "No, I wish I was a dragon slayer." Then I froze. Do they have the dragons here?
"What do you do then?"
"I'm a detective. I used to be, at least. So... what's your talent? Or a... cutie mark, was it?"
Belle huffed and frowned "I don't have one yet! We're trying to find something that would make us special, but simply nothing works. And we're the last ones in our class to not to have one!"
"We?" I asked, confused by the plural.
"Yea, me and my friends. We're Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Beele annoucned happily.
I nodded. In a while I was getting overwhelmed by Belle's whines about what she didn't try to earn her mark but everything failed. Could you believe that one day she and her friends made some strange potion that caused their teacher and some guy to fell in love in each other? This later lead to destruction of half of the town and almost got the two married.
She seemed like a smart, resolute girl. I always enjoyed spending time with kids, and it pained me I had none.
"Jeff?"
"What's up?" I answered pulled out of my thoughts.
"What do you think? Will I ever find my destiny?"
"You certainly will. Maybe you're just doing a wrong thing... Do not try to force anything. Maybe you do have a talent that you don't know, or do not thing much about?"
"Well, a lot of people says I have a nice voice and I should be singing... But I'm not sure if that's what I want to do in future. And I'm afraid of singing in front of a crowd, I can barely sing in front of my friends!".
I chuckled "Belle, just cause you're good in doing something, doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your life doing it. Having a certain talent doesn't force you to go a one way. You decide how your life will look like." I finished, smiling.
Belle didn't seem like I convicted her, but she simply shrugged. "I just have to wait for it to happen..."
Then she fell silent for a longer time, and I finally had some time to look around more carefully.
The forest here was brighter, but by any means less creepy. The trees here, leaveless and dead, had their branches pulled out into the sky in a speechless cry for help. Sun was barely making its way through the thick veil of branches, vines and other things I would hate to recognize. It was some damn luck nothing came to eat us yet...
"Jeff? What are those dogs?" Belle suddenly asked, standing much closer to me.
"What dogs?" I turned back, and was greeted by a sight of a creature that could freely roam around one's nightmares.
It was a dog, but none of those you can see on the streets. It was totally black, its skin looked like it was severely burned, torn out and then patched back. Some bones were stitching out of his body, and his eyes and mouth were nothing but a strange, red mist.
It was standing in front of us, staring at us with those blood-red eyes, and I understood, that the only reason we were still alive, was the confusion caused by our sudden arrival out of nowhere. But this confusion, according to the furious, low growls, was slowly giving way for rage.
"Belle... do exactly what I will tell you. It's VERY important." I started, slowly backing off, taking Belle by hand "When I will tell you, you will start to run. Forward, as fast as you can. Just run, do not look behind. Do you understand?"
The monster was slowly coming closer, now I could see it's teeth. Two lines of yellow needle-like teeth. Nothing you would like to feel.
Belle was close to panic "These dogs are evil, aren't they"?
"Run!" As soon as I said it, the monstrosity jumped at us.
I turned around and saw Sweetie Belle already in the run, so I quickly followed her.
What a nice way to find yourself in another world. All was fine, I've made a first friend, and now this.
I really wished that fate would at least once invite me to a dinner before it fucks me.