//------------------------------// // Darkness // Story: Adrift // by Jazzaman //------------------------------// Star Blazer had only walked a few dozen feet when the darkness had enveloped him completely. A glance behind him showed that the door he came through was still open and was still allowing the light to come into where he was it just didn’t reach him. Like the light at the end of a tunnel; visible but not useful. Suddenly Star felt his hoof get caught and stumbled before he pulled it out. Carefully he put his hoof back down where it had gotten caught, there was a shallow groove running horizontally across the floor. Navigating by touch, he followed the groove to the wall where it met a serrated edge running up the wall. Star knew exactly what it was. Most larger ships had heavy half-ton watertight doors that descended from the ceiling. in the event that the ship started to take on water. The water would trip a switch, which released a friction-clutch and the doors, would travel down toothed tracked on the walls before dropping the last half meter into a groove in the deck to insure a watertight seal. Star had just found one. He made a mental note to be cautious of these as there was bound to be more. After walking for a good minute or two more, The seafaring unicorn simply couldn’t take not being able to see any longer. ‘It was stupid of me to come down here without a flashlight. I’m going to have to go back and get one.’ Star wanted to kick himself for being so unprepared, but the notion of losing another of his crew forced him to act hastily. With a sigh he turned back to retreat to the bridge it was only then he noticed it. The light coming through the open door wasn’t there. There was no light in the distance and he hadn’t rounded any corners or closed any doors. His first thought was that the door had swung shut but he couldn’t work out how. There wasn’t any breeze inside the ship and the big iron bulkhead was rather weighty, it could have been the rolling of the ship, but he was sure he would have heard the door slam shut, there weren’t exactly a lot of noises in there that would have drowned it out. With the ‘disappearance’ of his only known exit, Star could feel the panic start to rise. Now that he was Virtually blind, he began to hear things that he hadn’t noticed before. He could make out the rhythmic thumping of the ships engines through the wall to his right, and the familiar moan of a piece of the ship settling met his ears. He also managed to pick up a sound that was different, one that he couldn’t quite describe. It was so faint at first that Star simply disregarded it. But as he stood there in the total blackness, it began to make itself more apparent. A quiet clicking, scratching noise as if a dozen cats were running on a tiled floor with their claws out. As he stood there trying to pinpoint its source the odd sound began to grow louder, as it echoed around in the narrow corridor. Stars skinned crawled when he realized the sound wasn’t getting louder. It was getting closer. Star turned and ran, Heading deeper into the bowels of the ship, away from the noise, and away from the exit. He still couldn't see anything but running blind seemed a better option than whatever was making that noise. He ran as fast as he could faster than was probably sane to go when you can’t see your own hooves, but the scratching clattering noise continued to gain. Wham! In his haste Star blazer had failed to notice the corridor turn to the left and had collided hard into the wall. The big unicorn fell to the ground in a heap, As what little vision he had quickly faded and fell into unconsciousness. When Star blazer awoke he wasn't quite sure where he was. He couldn't see anything and a gentle mechanical thumping could be heard somewhere through the wall. When his memories returned in a sudden rush he snapped back into full alert. He was still in the pitch black darkness but the sound that had chased him was no longer around. groggily he stood back up but immediately had to sit back down as a splitting pain manifested in his head. He resisted the urge to vomit but it was a losing battle. After regurgitating most of his previous meal onto the floor below he realized that he was concussed and that assuming his nose was broken wasn't too much of a stretch either. His eyes were still useless yet his ears had regained their above average hearing. This being the case he was able to pick out another sound, not too far from where he was. He recognized it almost straight away, after living with two less-than-emotionally stable sisters for most of his young life the sound was very familiar. Sobbing. “N-nova?” he said in a creaky weak voice. Star cleared his throat and tried again “Nova?!” He called this time with a normal voice laced with concern. No answer, yet the sobbing continued. He picked himself up off of the cold steel grates and steadied himself on shaky legs. His body protested and tried to bring him back down but he paid it no mind. Slowly he trudged along the corridor, the sobbing growing louder as he approached until it turned into a shrieking wail. The narrow hallway began to lighten up as he rounded another bend. at the end of the corridor it opened out into a large hexagonal room, there was no piping or grates on the walls, floor or ceiling they were completely bare apart from the rust stains the covered the lower half of the walls in a pattern resembling a raging fire.The whole room gave off a feeling that it shouldn't even be on the ship, as if it was negative space. But it was what was in the center of the room that caught Star blazers attention. A pony. A small extremely skinny mare sat hunched over with her back to star in the center of the room. A light source illuminating her from the beneath as if she sat atop it. There were tuffs of pure white fur scattered over the floor. leaving very little on the small mare exposing her skin and in turn her bones. burn marks charred her flesh where the fur had fallen away as she cried the movement of her body made a soft rustling noise, like one that burnt paper would make. She paid no attention to star as he approached the room. He stopped before entering instead standing on the threshold where the hallway ended. “Hello?” Star said in a quite hesitant voice, not sure if speaking to the distraught mare was a great idea. As soon as he spoke the pony stopped sobbing, however she made no attempt to turn around, and remained in her hunched over posture. The only other indication she made that she had heard was that the movement of her chest had stopped and the sound of her breathing ceased. “Ar-Are you alri-” He was cut short when the sound of the skittering returned this time much louder and much closer. Star looked around frantically to find its source but the terrifying sound seemed to be coming from inside the walls. He tried to move away but he couldn't. His muscles were frozen refusing to move whether it was out of fear or some other force he couldn't tell. His gaze became locked onto the burnt mare. A shriek of metal echoed out above him followed by a rhythmic clicking sound. The massive door above him had unlatched and was now beginning its slow descent down, at it was right above him. The clacking of the gears within the door meshing with the teeth on the wall was drowned out as the horrible clawing noise escalated in volume. The door began to push down on his back, He could feel the full weight of the door starting to transfer into his spine and legs.. His eyes still looking straight at the mare in the center of the room unable to look away. She still hadn't moved despite the noises. As the weight of the door began to become too much he thought he saw something. The mares’ head had moved ever so slightly to the left allowing Star to see just the side of her face. Just enough for him to see that her eyes were as dead as a corpses and as black as night. But what made Star blazer shriek in terror was that her mouth that was bent into a giant, terrifying, evil smile. The gears in the bulkhead squealed as they left their toothed guides and the heavy half-ton door dropped the last fifty centimeters into its groove. Crushing Star blazers ribcage. killing him swiftly in a painfully brutal display.