Whispers in the Dark

All things exist as an entity unto itself within the universe, from the atomic level through to the advanced organisms commonly known as humans and everything else in-between. Both the animate and inanimate have their place with the universe, a purpose, a plan, somewhere to which they fit into the grand scheme that is the cosmos. The ruins are no different, twisted and malicious, preying on the weak and unwary with little care for compassion or mercy, the darkness consumes all that enter its lair, gorging itself fat on the lost and the slain like a beast of gluttony, its heart beat growing ever stronger with every act of violence and blood shed as it slowly stirs awake, one eye cracking open to its hideous bloated form. A slit like mouth filled with teeth, some rotten and snapped, some missing, some gleaning wisps of meat hanging loose from them still. This creature stirs with each passing day, its one eye slowly focusing on the specs of light that flit before it, like fireflies in the evening dusk in some ancient long forgotten forest. “Living things” it hisses, “Flesh” it breaths, one slime covered limb slamming down as if testing its reach, Not quite yet able to raise itself from its pit. The eye rolls around to look at the growing collections of Light, 7 different hives of light, each glimmering across the ruins in their neat little hides, equal specs of black leaving trails of death gathering around the light at the shadows edge and across the dark spaces in the ruin. The entity looks at each bright spark before moving to the next, the first flitting to and through in their tunnels and holes, the next building and running through their glimmering metal machines, the third huddled round their fires  and murmuring the same words. “More Flesh” the creatures mouth hisses through its teeth, to the east it looks to yet more sparks; One violent and loud, the next moving always to another spec of light before returning to one place. Yet two more specs it studies, one in the metal pillars that speak no more, squabbling amongst itself but at the same time squabbling with the darkness, and the final one, covered in a  shimmering haze around fragments of claws and teeth. The creature shifts its weight in its pit of flesh and bones, ooze sliding out from beneath it and being gathered up by parasite wisps of darkness at its feet. It looks up to the top of the cavernous pit, its eye straining to see beyond its nest, an unending abyss of the unknown above where more sparks once flitted back and forth. Empty for the most part, its eye catches a glimpse of something, a stabbing light punches into the abyss for but a moment before stuttering and dying, the abyss seeming to ripple and break apart before falling beyond the eye’s sight. The creature lets is bulk settle once more, its limb pulsing and flexing as it grew used to the sensation once more, its eye flickering around to watch the sparks as they moved, specs of light gathering and swarming through the darkness to form new hives and nests, “Prey” the entity breaths as the darkness ripples across before it, a new feeling of dread bringing a smile to the entity’s slit like mouth, “Fresh Prey”….

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