Dark Descent

AN: Time for the next round of this story. This update's not as big as usual, but it does have some key elements to it. First and foremost, it wraps up Alessa's trip through the Alternate Mall, which means the story can really get moving now.

Much of this chapter was already written. However, I've been very busy these past few months with a Star Wars story called "Forbidden Longing", which I'm doing with a co-author. It's very dark and disturbing, involving things like forced male/male slash, and quite different from our usual works. I've thought about posting it here, since I think it's something a lot of AFF readers would enjoy. I have no idea whether Andrea would be up for it, though, so I'll have to wait and see.

 

Interlude - The Guardian of Central Square

 

Alessa descended into the darkness. She scaled down the ladder one rung at a time, holding onto the handle bars as tightly as she could. She was never a fan of heights, and she had to be at least one hundred feet above the ground. Well, assuming there was a ground to this place.

Heading down, she saw the second floor and first floors of the nightmarish mall. Several monsters were still wandering around on each, searching blindly for any potential victims. Fortunately, the ladder was removed far enough from the floors that Alessa didn't have to worry about the creatures attacking her. She heard a horrible familiar drilling sound in the distance, but she forced herself to ignore it. She couldn't afford to let herself get distracted, even if those needle monsters scared the hell out of her. At this height, a fall would only mean a gruesome death.

Oddly enough, the ladder seemed longer than the actual mall! She shivered as she continued down into the inky blackness. She couldn't help but feel that she was heading into a deep abyss, where the greatest horrors this place had to offer awaited her. As she climbed the impossibly long ladder, she thought back to the horrid encounter she barely avoided with those needle creatures only minutes prior...

~

Darkness greeted Alessa outside the torture room. While the entire building was bathed in a lack of light, this part of the mall seemed even more ominous than usual - almost pitch black in obscurity. Were it not for her flashlight, she wouldn't be able to see a thing. The whole scene reminded her of an abyss: yawning, lifeless, and never-ending.

Immediately upon setting foot here, she hesitated. The air was calm, the area still to an unnerving degree. Something wasn't right.

Scattered over the ground were a number of holes where the floor had collapsed into ruin. She watched her step carefully, not wanting to fall headfirst into the void. The metal grating felt unbearably shaky under her feet. She hoped it wouldn't choose this opportunity to give out under her. Alessa thanked her lucky stars she didn't weigh that much.

There was a faint hum growing in her ears. At first she thought it was he ears ringing, until she realized the sound was growing in pitch. She searched for the source of the noise, but it was all around her, and getting closer by the second. It sounded like a dentist drill, or a buzz saw, gearing up to slice something in half.

Or would that be someone?

Alessa covered her ears to block out the jarring noise. The ground beneath her hummed with the vibrations of the sound waves as they echoed off the metal. Whatever it was, its presence would be known soon.

And so it was. Emerging from the shadows was a floating mass of tissue and metal, propelling itself through the air with nothing but sheer force of will. Its body spun on its axis like an inverted globe, with one long spike protruding from its stomach. It looked like a bee; one giant, malformed bee with...

With needles, Alessa thought in dismay. Huge four foot long needles serving as arms and legs. It was the creature from her dream, and it was not alone. Behind it were the forms of three other monsters heading her way. They were obviously following their leader with only one intention on their minds.

Alessa didn't bother aiming at them. She was clearly outnumbered and outmatched, as she doubted her feeble handgun would be enough to take down all four monsters quickly. And there was no way she was going to try hitting them with the pipe. Not with those blades spinning like they were.

But the creatures were not going to let her go without a fight. They quickly gave pursuit. Alessa tried to run, but the holes littering the floor were a problem. She could not run nearly as fast as she usually did, lest she risk falling to her death. And that gave her enemy an edge. It was not an issue for the monsters, as they merely glided over the jagged openings. By sheer luck, the young woman managed to stay ahead. Alessa reached the exit in time, but there was a problem: the door was locked down tight.

"Shit," the raven beauty cursed, pulling at the doorknob for all it was worth. The only other exit was halfway across this floor. She would never make it with all those creatures following.

The demons were getting closer. As the distance between them diminished, two of the predators dropped from the air and began pursuing their prey on foot. They seemed even faster on their ‘legs' than they were floating over the ground, prompting Alessa to yank more viciously at the doorknob. It was an instinctive reaction, more than any real attempt to force the lock open. But the damn thing would not turn. On the other hand, the door itself sure looked flimsy...

In fact, it looked very much out of place with the wall, now that she noticed it. The rest of the mall had sturdy looking metal doors, while this one looked like it was made from wood. Almost as if it had been replaced...

There was barely any time to wonder about that, leaving her with only one course of action.

"I really hope this works," she muttered. If it didn't, she was dead. Standing back from the door, she gave it as hard a kick as she could.

Either she was very lucky, or Fate was on her side, because the gamble worked. The door blew open. Alessa moved to escape...

...And the creatures finally caught up with her. Alessa grabbed the steel pipe. She hadn't wanted to fight these things, but there was no choice. Putting all her strength behind the blow, she swung the heavy pipe at the pack leader's skull. There was loud crack as the pipe connected and the demon went flying back. Another of the beasts attempted a slash at its victim's leg, only to be met with a thunderous blow that snapped its neck in half. Distracted by their writhing comrades, the remaining monsters offered no assault, giving Alessa the opening to escape their malevolent wrath.

~

She shivered as the images of those beasts lingered in her mind. She shouldn't have escaped that. By all accounts, that crazy momentary plan of kicking the door down shouldn't have worked. She had considered shooting the lock, until she realized it would never work in real life, and she would just end up blowing herself away.

It was as close to being finished as she had come on this journey so far. The thought of being so close to death left her feeling horribly cold inside. So many things left to do, so many things left unsaid...one moment's hesitation and that all would have vanished. It was unsettling beyond words to think about what would have happened, had she reacted only a second slower. She would never have seen her mother and father again, or any of the handful of friends she had accumulated over the years. She would never have gotten to do any of the things she had planned, and she would have died trapped in some foreign dimension with no way for anyone to know what happened to her. It was likely nobody would ever have retrieved her body.

How horrible would it be for her parents to go the rest of their lives wondering what happened to her? With no knowledge of the cult's involvement, they would never be able to find a way into this place. And regardless of what they did, the authorities would have ceased their investigations eventually. She would become nothing more than a memory, one that faded over time. To be forgotten like that was the worst fate Alessa could imagine. At least there was closure in death, when those close to you knew the circumstances of your demise.

And that gave her all the determination she needed to keep going. She had to get out of this place, not just for her sake, but for that of those she loved. They had been given a second chance all those years ago, when her father saved her from the brink of death. She wasn't about to waste it on some psychopathic deity and his little maze of horrors.

Alessa finally reached the bottom rung of the ladder and hopped off. There wasn't much to speak of. She was in some sort of underground pit. The ground was covered in lumps of coal, and they were warm. She could feel the heat pouring off them through her boots. It wasn't enough to burn through the soles, but it was very noticeable. There was a large amount of open space, something which she found curious considering the lack of anything useful.

To either side of her lay a wall with three immense holes. Alessa peered into the openings, but it was too dark to see what lay inside. What the heck was this place?

A burgeoning noise suddenly caught her attention. She couldn't discern where it was coming from, but it grew louder and louder as the ground rumbled beneath her. Something was approaching, and by the looks of it, it was something huge. Alessa struggled to balance herself against the tremors, careful not to touch the hot coals on the ground. Meanwhile, the ladder she had used collapsed partially under the chaos, leaving her trapped in the derelict pit. She gave a frenzied mental curse, knowing that she had to deal with whatever was down here now. Suddenly, the fence covering the middle crevice was violently tossed aside, ripped off its hinges by the source of the commotion. Alessa's jaw dropped, horror mingling with astonishment on her face as she at last beheld the source of the earthquake.

To say that it was a giant worm would be a severe understatement. The thing was absolutely enormous, covered completely in freakishly scaled ash-colored skin. It was grotesquely burned in several places, the charred flesh barely clinging to its form. Large veins crisscrossed visibly underneath it skin, forming a network of ghastly pathways over its body. Its ribs were exposed, allowing her to look inside past the bones into the inner workings of the creature. She felt her stomach churn in revulsion upon seeing the hints of its internal organs.

The flesh over what she assumed to be its head opened as the creature unleashed a frightening roar, revealing a massive set of teeth. Bound together by a hideous web of gums, they exposed a grotesque mouth that reminded her of a set of chattering teeth, only on a much larger scale. Alessa instinctively took a few steps back.

It dwarfed everything she had seen before in this nightmare made flesh. This could only be the Guardian of the alternate mall, the one mentioned in that foreboding doorway. And it was not alone.

By sheer chance she caught a glimpse of something moving at the top of the wall. She stared upwards at the concrete...

And there it was, the creature she had seen before in the elevator strangling that unidentified flesh. It crawled across the wall like a spider, head twitching sporadically in spasm. It was him.

It was the Red god.

A roar of the worm reminded her that she couldn't afford to get distracted. The hulking beast moved in. With surprising speed it charged at its prey, forcing Alessa to leap out of the way. She narrowly avoided getting snapped by the mammoth jaws, which bit at the air her body had occupied seconds earlier. She fired several gunshots at the worm's scaly carapace, but they didn't appear to faze it. Rather than turning around, it slithered into one of the holes opposite her position.

The young woman waited anxiously for its return. Trying to ignore the deity looming overhead, she focused on the darkened tunnels, attempting to determine which hole the monster would emerge from. The one to the far right proved to be the target. The worm crawled out and Alessa fired three more shots, but her enemy still didn't react. Once more she moved out its path, lest she end up its latest meal. It vanished into another tunnel.

Okay, just shooting it doesn't work, she thought. There had to be some sort of weak point; a specific area she could target. But where? One thing was certain: unless she did something soon, she was going to end up as this creature's latest meal. She couldn't stay here dodging that hideous mouth forever.

The mouth...

Alessa thought back years ago to her hometown. There had been a giant monster there too - a huge lizard born from her subconscious memories of a fairy tale she once read. Like the beast she was facing, the lizard was also invulnerable to bullets. At least on the outside.

That's it! Alessa realized. A smile spread across her face. She knew what to do now.

The trembling of the ground prefigured her adversary's emergence from one of the tunnels. But this time she was ready for it. As soon as the worm opened its jaws, Alessa opened fire. Round after round struck the creature's mouth with deadly precision. The monster grunted in pain. Its massive jaws slammed shut as it charged at the prey that had wounded it.

She easily avoided its wrath. Sensing it was coming from the farthest opening, she waited to for the chance to fire again. She didn't notice the creature up above watching her carefully, it's head curiously still. Noting her intent, the creature gave a wave of its hand...

...And Alessa suddenly found herself glued to the spot. Chains had risen from the ground, encircling her feet with their bindings. The courage she had displayed ebbed away as she realized she was trapped.

No! Alessa screamed in mental protest and outrage. This couldn't be happening; not now. The monster was taking its sweet time in reappearing, but she knew that respite wouldn't last forever. She had to get out of these things, now! She pulled desperately at the chains, but they were too tightly wound around her legs. "Let go!" she pleaded, trying with all her strength to release herself.

But the Red god was not feeling merciful today. The chains continued to hold their grip, and just as Alessa was getting frantic, the monster she'd been fighting chose to make its entrance.

"Oh God," she whispered, feeling the stirrings of terror in her heart.

The monster glided towards her, leaving a trail of slime and dead flesh in its wake. It was almost arrogant in its deportment, if that could be said about such an unthinking creature; confident that its prey was within its grasp.

"No..." Alessa reached for her handgun with trembling hands. She couldn't move and she couldn't shoot the thing while it wasn't open. She would just waste her bullets and what good would the handgun do her then? The monster parted its ‘lips' and shifted into an upright stance, towering over her like a giant about to crush an irrelevant insect. With the certainty of victory on its palate, it moved in for the kill.

"NO!" Alessa screamed, shooting madly at the hideous mouth seconds before it devoured her whole. The bullets struck the creature's throat, driving it back with a growl of rage. The creature was incensed at having its meal thwarted, and tried to move in on the human once more. Alessa fired three more shots, striking the beast in its teeth and gums. Wounded at close range, the creature closed its mouth and withdrew into one of the tunnels.

Alessa knew she had bought herself some time. She just didn't know how much. She quickly evaluated her options. The Red god's intent was obvious: to keep her immobile in one place while her adversary gobbled her up in one bite. The steel pipe lay several feet away, and it was a blunt object to boot; it wouldn't do her any good. She couldn't fire at the chains either, lest she risk hitting one of her feet or shins. That left only one thing to attack.

Aiming upwards, Alessa fired her remaining bullets at the humanoid being. The distance to cross was formidable, but the fates were on her side. Gunshot after gunshot struck the Red god's body, piercing the creature's unnaturally hued flesh. The creature wasn't hurt, but it was annoyed enough to release its hold on the chains. The onyx shackles relinquished their grip on their captive, just in time for her to dive out of the way of the incoming menace.

She screamed in shock as the hot coals seared her skin. The coals were getting warmer than they were before; already they felt hot enough to leave a mark on her. It wouldn't be long before the temperatures reached a dangerous level of heat. She had to end this fight now.

At least the master pulling the strings was gone. The deity had melted away into the shadows, far as she could tell; finally she was free to fight this giant on her own terms.

Reloading her gun, she waited for the monster to come back. When it reappeared from behind, Alessa was ready. She fired three more shots into its mouth, striking the back of the throat. Her aim had improved dramatically over the past few hours, and it showed in the creature's roar of pain. Again it retreated. But for all its size, the monster was not very bright. It was slow and predictable, and that gave its adversary an edge. It continued to fall headfirst into her trap, while she didn't suffer so much as a scratch. Nine bullets later it was over.

With a final massive roar, the creature fell dead to the ground, blood leaking copiously from its disfigured mouth. Suddenly, a white burst of light immersed the entire chamber. Alessa tried to block out the blinding light, but it penetrated through her eyelids, burning into her brain. It was like reality itself was dissolving all around her. The intensity was too much, and she felt her consciousness fading from the assault on her senses. Collapsing to the ground, she blacked out from the strain on her psyche. The last thing she felt was the heat of the coals beneath her, blazing at her bare skin.

Up in the shadows, the Crimson One reveled in grim satisfaction. Mission accomplished.

~

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