Lady Lucky, Part 4

Lady Lucky, Part 4

By Matthew “Snooglebum” Wasik

[Missed the first part? Click here to read from the beginning!]

Ty awoke slowly, the roof of the medbay gradually coming into focus. Everything was still blurry, and he was faintly nauseated. He looked to his side, his head lolling awkwardly. He saw Melody, hand-washing her bloodstained medical smock in the sink, the blue-tinged synthwater expunging the blood from the garment.

“Heeeeyyyyy Melody.” he said. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and he could feel a faint pain in his chest. “Watcha doin’?”

Melody looked around and smiled. “Trying not to spread disease.” she said, holding up the smock. “How about yourself? How are you feeling?”

“Feel like my head is a balloon.” answered Ty. “What happened?”

Melody frowned. “The warp drive malfunctioned.” she said. “You had lacerations in your kidneys and stomach, and I had to go in and patch you up.”

“Oh holy shit.” said Ty, blinking several times. “Am I ok?”

Melody’s smile returned as she turned and began re-arranging a tableau of several small plush rabbits on one of the medbay shelves. “You’re going to be fine. It was a little touch-and-go, but I got the job done.”

“Cool.” said Ty. He was silent for a moment before asking: “What’s with the rabbits?”

“Oh, Terence has earned the ire of the Rabbit Club.” explained Melody, putting the rabbit on a shelf on the opposite side of the room, next to Sterling, the plush bear. “He was exiled in shame to the Outer Shelves. At least he has Sterling to keep him company.”

“That’s a bummer.” said Ty. “What did the poor guy do?”

“Oh, he set David on fire.” answered Melody, gesturing to another rabbit. The rabbit in question had scorch marks on it.

“...I can never tell when you’re kidding.” said Ty.

Melody laughed. “David had a run in with a welding torch when I dropped him in the engineering bay. I worked it into my little narrative.”

“Ohh, I see.” said Ty, nodding. “...Which doesn’t explain why you were carrying a little plush rabbit into the engineering bay.”

“I wanted to show him to Raythius.” answered Melody, as if the answer was obvious. “I had just bought him, and was proud of him.”

“That makes a surprising amount of sense.” said Ty. “Ok, I’m gonna get up now.” he said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing up. He then promptly fell over. Melody, who had rushed over as soon as Ty had said he was going to stand up, caught him neatly before he hit the ground.

“Whoa.” said Ty hazily. “Uh. Sorry. Thought I was more solid.” He laughed sheepishly.

“It’s alright.” said Melody, smiling. She helped him to his feet, making sure he was steady. Ty’s eyes met hers, their faces close.

“Hey,” he said, “could you, like, un-gay yourself so I can date you? Because you’re really cool and stuff, and I like people who are cool. Especially if they’re pretty ladies. Oh is that an offensive thing to say? I didn’t mean to be offensive. You can be gay if you want to, I just--” Ty’s ramble cut off as Melody transitioned from a raised eyebrow into a fit of laughter.

“Uh, sorry.” said Ty sheepishly. “Kinda… went on a word adventure there.”

“It’s-- it’s fine.” said Melody, trying to retain her composure. “Ty, you’re a funny guy. Especially on painkillers.”

“Uh, thanks.” replied Ty. “Kinda… said more than I meant to there.”

“Maybe a little.” said Melody, smiling. “Your interest is appreciated, but me and Whisper are a unit.”

“Yeah.” said Ty, blushing. “I, uh, I’m going to go to the cockpit and try not to die from embarrassment.”

“Hmm.” said Melody, inspecting him. “See if you can walk around on your own in the medbay first.”

Ty obliged, unsteady at first, but quickly regaining his confidence on his feet.

“I feel a lot better. Permission to leave the medbay, doc?” asked Ty.

“Granted.” answered Melody, a wry smile on her face.

“Cool.” said Ty, and left the medbay.

Melody watched him go, and when he was gone, went over to her portable chem lab. She had a feeling painkillers would be in high demand in the next few days.

***

The next day, the Lady Lucky was in orbit around Typhon Prime, the hideout of the Skavis Gang. It was an odd-looking planet. Triangular in shape, with it’s iron-nickel core visible through enormous holes in the planet. As always, the laws of planetary formation in the Void were more like loose guidelines. Everybody was gathered in the lounge of the Lady Lucky, which doubled as a briefing room. The holoscreen on the far wall had been activated, and Elizabeth was standing next to it.

“Alright team, here’s the deal. This is Typhon Prime, and this--” Elizabeth touched a portion of the holoscreen, which zoomed in to show a closeup of a mountain range. “Is where the Skavis are hiding.” she touched the screen again, and a cross-section of a facility of some sort become visible. “There’s an old mining colony in these mountains, been abandoned for years. The Skavis gang decided to set up shop in there, and reactivated the facility’s old generator.”

“Hey, uh, question.” said Ty. “How do we know this? I mean, it’s not like the base is visible from the surface, right?”

“Raythius?” said Elizabeth, looking at him. Raythius’s face-screen displayed a pleased smiling face.

“Well, it was quite simple. The layout was stored in a Collective database that I accessed in an, uh, actionable manner. As for whether the gang was currently dwelling in there, well, we knew they were on Typhon prime somewhere, and that the planet is uninhabited, so I bounced a ping to the facilities biometrics systems and it reported signs of life. It seems like they haven’t deactivated the monitoring systems in the facility. Probably so that they can keep an eye on things, but in this case, it let me keep an eye on them. Very useful.”

“Thank you, Raythius.” said Elizabeth. She swiped with her hand, and the holoscreen switched to a top view of the facility. “This--” said Elizabeth, pointing to a room off in the corner of the facility, “is the generator room. Going in the front door would be suicide, but thankfully we have another option. Raythius?”

“Right. Well, it’s not on the plans, but there’s mention of a blocked-off side passage into the facility. And it’s likely the Skavis don’t even know it’s there, since it’s not on the plans.”

“I have a question.” said Melody, frowning. “Why was it blocked off? Is it dangerous?”

“I was getting to that.” said Elizabeth. “And I’m afraid the answer isn’t a pleasant one. The alternate passage is filled with cyberblight.”

There were various gasps and noises of distress from the crew.

“Fucking what?” said Whisper incredulously. “You expect us to crawl through a tunnel filled with cyberblight? We could all get infected!”

“Actually, to be fair,” Raythius said, “the report I read indicated that the cyberblight had opened up the tunnel system considerably. So we’d have plenty of room.”

“That is not the issue at hand.” Dialer stated. “The issue at hand is being exposed and possibly infected.”
“Melody would be on hand to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Elizabeth said steadily. “Besides, does anybody have any better ideas of how to get in?”

“Fuck yeah I do!” said Whisper emphatically. “We’ve got some explosives in the hold, let’s just blow down the front door and go in guns blazing!”

“They most likely outnumber us three to one.” said Elizabeth flatly. “And besides, they probably have somebody watching the front door. If we can go through the generator room, we can disable it and leave them in the dark.”

“...And we have that cache of night vision goggles in the hold.” said Ty. “Ok, I see.”

“Fuck,” said Whisper, annoyed. “Both options suck.”

“Every sentence you have said this briefing has started with ‘fuck’”. Dialer stated.

“And? You got a point?” said Whisper annoyedly, turned to look at Dialer.

“I just wanted to point out your child-like vocabulary.”

“Hey, fuck you!” said Whisper angrily, leaning towards Dialer, “I’ll--”

“Honey.” said Melody steadily, putting her hand on Whisper’s shoulder. Whisper looked back at her and subsided, settling back in her seat.

“That’s enough.” said Elizabeth. “Dialer, don’t antagonize Whisper.”

“But it gives me such pleasure.” said Dialer, his voice flat and robotic as ever.
“I’ll show you ‘such pleasure’.” said Whisper, irritated.

“Whisper, don’t flirt with Dialer.” said Ty. “You’re in a committed relationship already.”

There were a few chuckles around the room, and a snort from Whisper.

“What?” said Dialer, looking around. “I do not understand the joke.”

“I’ll tell you when you’re old enough.” said Whisper, mirth in her tone.
“I am fifty-seven years old. That is old enough for any joke.” stated Dialer.

“Dialer, remind me to tell you about the birds and the bees.” said Melody, her face serious.

“How is fauna relevant to this discussion?” asked Dialer, confused.

“It’s not.” said Elizabeth. “Let’s focus, people. Tease Dialer later.”

“Oh, I will.” said Whisper, grinning. “Right, so. Uh, lemme get this straight-- the plan is to go through a cyberblight-infested tunnel, go to the generator room, disable it, and get into their complex while they’re blind? Actually, here’s a fucking good question: how lethal are we going here? Are we loading our guns with stunners, or are we rolling through and killing everybody?”

“The Skavis gang are thieves, rapists, and murderers.” stated Dialer. “I doubt anybody would miss them.”

“Still, I hate killing.” said Melody, frowning.

“In this case, I think the lethal option is our best move.” said Elizabeth. “The Skavis gang are hardened criminals, we’d be doing the Void a service by killing them.”

“This whole discussion sucks.” said Ty unhappily.

“Melody, Ty,” said Elizabeth, looking at each of them in turn. “Am I going to have you at my back when we go in there?”

“Well, yeah, of course you will, captain.” said Ty. “I probably won’t sleep super-well for a while, but I’ve got your back.”

“I’m willing to do what I need to do.” said Melody grimly. “I’m sorry for my hesitation, captain, I’m a doctor, taking a life is the antithesis of what I stand for.”

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “You don’t need to apologize for not wanting to kill people, Melody. It’s not exactly a normal thing to ask somebody to do.”

Melody chucked darkly. “No, I suppose not.”

“So. Are we all clear on the plan?” asked Elizabeth, looking around the room

Everybody nodded or made noises of affirmation.

“Good.” said Elizabeth. “Ty, bring us in for a landing, outside of their sensor range. Let’s do this, people.”

***

“Alright,” said Elizabeth, “weapons check, everybody.”

The crew of the Lady Lucky all examined their various armaments. Whisper double-checked her automatic shotgun, loading shells into its drum magazine. Melody and Ty opted for light and maneuverable submachine guns, and Elizabeth field-stripped and checked over her magnum pistol. Dialer had removed his sword and machine gun and was checking them over. Raythius tested the weight and balance of his sword, and with quick swing, transformed it into its whip mode, its segments separating out with a clack. He then checked the rest of his installed weapons-- two submachine guns, one for each arm, and two sharp blades that extended from under his hand. He nodded to himself, satisfied, and proceeded to put several grenades of various types into the messenger bag at his side.

“Alright, people.” said Elizabeth, reassembling her pistol and loading a clip of explosive rounds into it. “We’re dealing with cyberblight, so if you get cut, get to Melody immediately. She’ll pull out the infection. Dialer, Raythius, you’ve got yourselves covered if you get infected?”

“Yes.” said Dialer simply.

“I do, although I’m not looking forward to possibly having to cut my own arm off or something.” said Raythius.

“Good.” said Elizabeth, loading a magazine into her gun with a clack. “Alright people, let’s move.”

***

As the crew moved through the corridor leading to the cyberblight-infested area, there was a palpable sense of slowly building dread. The corridor was light by dim red lights that cast menacing shadows. As they approached the cyberblight, the tunnel began to fill with cloying humidity, working up a thin sheet of sweat on those who were human, and beads of condensation on those that were not. The smell of copper and sulphur began to grow stronger, a pungent, ever present odor. Finally, the crew reached the door leading to the maintenance tunnel, and came face to face with cyberblight.

The cyberblight had grown all around the door, infesting it and winding in and out of the cracks in the doorframe. It was an unnatural sight-- it was a organic-looking mass of wires, cables, and electrical components, scattered throughout at random to create a barnacle-like texture. Eyes were visible throughout the mass, artificial and unrealistic, like the eyes of a doll. They turned to look at the crew as they approached. On the edge of hearing was a faint, sickly breathing sound that the cyberblight pulsed in time to. The entire mass emitted a viscous, tar-like black liquid that slowly dripped to the floor, and covered the cyberblight in a wet sheen.

“I’ll never get used to this stuff.” said Ty, his voice hushed.

“Be careful everybody, we don’t know if this colony is hostile or not.” said Elizabeth, examining the door. “Dialer, you take point. Open the door”

“Affirmative.” said Dialer, walking up to the door. It opened via a handle, which was partially covered in cyberblight. He pulled down on the handle and opened the door slowly. As he did so, various strands of cyberblight broke with wet snapping sounds, making the entire crew wince. The rest of the cyberblight shuddered in sympathy, and an almost subsonic rumbling became audible.
“Nobody move.” said Elizabeth, her voice tight.

The crew froze, and waited.

Eventually the rumbling ceased, and the cyberblight stopped shuddering.

“I think we hurt it.” said Melody quietly, staring into the tunnel.

The tunnel ahead had been hollowed out into a tube, covered in cyberblight. Various tumorous growths were visible, covered in eyes and spouting disturbingly human-like mouths held agape and slowly dripping black sludge. Without rhyme or reason, boxy computer servers spouted up from the cyberblight, lights blinking sluggishly, as cyberblight wrapped around them. Their forms looked slightly melted, as if somebody had attempted to create a mould of a server and failed. The breathing noise was louder now, and everything in the tunnel pulsed in time to it.

“Fuck me.” said Whisper.
“That about sums it up, yes.” said Raythius, looking around.

“Alright, let’s move, people.” Elizabeth commanded.

The crew proceeded into the tunnel, stepping onto the cyberblight, which yielded slightly to the pressure. It was uneven going, as the tunnel was misshapen, and the wet cyberblight was difficult to stand on without slipping.

“Where does this stuff come from, anyway?” asked Ty quietly, looking around. “Like, have scientists figured out how it works yet?”

“Nobody knows for sure.” answered Raythius. “We know it spreads via near-invisible spores, but we don’t know how it works, or how it seems to be at once alive and at the same time… not. How it replicates so fast is a mystery as well.”

“That sucks. This place sucks.” said Ty, wiping sweat off his brow.

The crew eventually reached an antechamber, seemingly a dead end.

“Look around,” said Elizabeth, “the door is supposed to be around here.”

The crew searched the room, and after a minute or so, Raythius piped up:

“I found it, but, um, it’s almost completely covered in cyberblight. We’d have to tear it off. I’m no expert, but if this colony is active, opening this is going to make it rather angry.”

“Shit.” said Whisper. “That’s not good.”

Elizabeth took a deep breath, looking around the room.

“Alright everybody”, she said, her gun held at the ready. “Dialer, force the door open. Everybody else, get ready to fight.”

“Oh man.” said Ty nervously. “Oh man, this is gonna suck.”

“Good luck, everybody.” said Melody.

Dialer walked up to the door, and with visible effort, began to tear it open. The previous rumbling and shuddering from before started up again, growing in intensity as the rumble turned into an angry, inhuman roar. With disgusting squelching noises, vaguely humanoid figures began to crawl out of the cyberblight. They were twisted parodies of humanity, constructed out of cyberblight, with seemingly random amounts of limbs and eyes, none of which were placed in the correct locations. Their hands ended in wicked-looking claws, perfect for cleaving flesh. They walked, scuttled and crawled towards the crew, making gurgling noises, black tar dribbling from their fanged mouths.

The crew opened fire on the monstrosities, the tunnel suddenly filled with the sound of gunfire. The creatures were torn to pieces, screaming in inhuman pain and vomiting black tar as they died. The first wave was was mostly cut down before they reached the crew, but a few of the creatures managed to make their way into melee range as guns clicked on empty chambers.

“Bring it on, motherfucker!” shouted Whisper, as her Brand flared to life, enhancing her strength. She swung her shotgun like a club, crushing the head of one of the monstrosities with a downward swing. Another of the creatures lept at her, only to be cut in half by Raythius’ whip-sword. As this was going on, more of the creatures began to emerge from the cyberblight, gurgling and moaning.

“Dialer!” shouted Elizabeth, reloading her pistol. “Hurry up!”

“I am endeavouring to do so.” said Dialer calmly, as he slowly pulled the door open, the cyberblight that covered it providing resistance.

Once again, the second wave of creatures was mostly cut down by the crew’s assault, their bodies torn apart by gunfire. However, one of them managed to reach Ty.

“Holy shit!” shouted Ty, backing up and raising his arm instinctively to protect himself. The creature howled and clawed at him, raking its claws across his arm, cutting to the bone and drawing blood. Ty screamed in pain, clutching his arm. As the creature reared back for another blow, Whisper smashed it in the chest with her shotgun with a crunch, howling a battle cry. The wounded creature began to get back up, but Raythius decapitated it before it had a chance to do so.

“I have opened the door!” called Dialer, raising his machine gun and killing a creature that was about to leap onto Melody.

“Lovely!” shouted Elizabeth. “Everybody out!”

The crew frantically scrambled through the door, howling noises following them. As the last of the crew members made it through, Dialer slammed the door shut and locked it, smashing the face of a creature that had attempted to leap at him. Howling and scratching noises came from beyond the door, but none of the creatures managed to make it through.

The crew breathed a collective sigh of relief, several of its members leaning against the walls of the tunnel for support. The reprieve didn’t last long, however.

“Oh, fuck.” said Ty, staring at his wounded arm. Cyberblight had started to grow from the wound, and had began to wrap itself around his arm. Melody rushed over to him, her cybernetics unfolding like flowers in bloom. After a second or two of inspecting, she hissed through her teeth and said:

“It’s growing too fast-- I’m going to have to amputate it.”

“Wait, what?” said Ty. “Oh my god, are you serious?”

“I’m serious. And I need to do it now, before it spreads to your torso. If it gets to your organs, you’re fucked.”

Ty winced; Melody almost never swore, and hearing her do so just showed how dire the situation was. He gritted his teeth and looked away.

“Do it.” he said.

Melody deployed a buzzaw from her cybernetics, which whirred to life with a whine. She grabbed a hold of Ty’s arm and spoke up, her voice kind but urgent.

“Ok honey, I’m going to make this as fast as possible, but I need you to hold still. I can’t give you any anesthetic, it’d make the blight grow faster.”
Ty nodded, looking sick. Two mechanical limbs snaked out and quickly applied a tourniquet to the top of Ty’s arm. Melody bit her lip, and applied the buzzsaw. The whining of the buzzsaw was overlaid with a sickening squelching sound. Blood began spraying from the wound, spattering Melody and Ty. Ty initially managed to remain silent, his face twisted in pain, but began to scream involuntarily when the blade hit bone. Melody finished her cut, and the cyberblight-infested arm hit the ground with a splat. Ty’s had begun to make frantic whimpering noises as blood dripped from the stump of his arm. His face was an ashen white, and he looked unsteady on his feet.

“Hold on honey, just hold on.” said Melody, applying medi-gel to his arm. The medi-gel began to do its work quickly, sanitizing and closing up the wound, and hardening into an impromptu bandage. Meanwhile, the severed arm had become covered with cyberblight, and had attached itself to the floor.

“Fuck me.” said Ty, breathing heavily, his face pale. “That hurts. That hurts so much. Oh my god.”

“Here, let me give you something to dull the edge.” replied Melody, extending a syringe from her bouquet of cybernetics and injecting it into Ty’s veins. “Ok, lie down, sweetheart, I have to make sure you don’t go into shock.”

“Well, this is no good at all.” said Raythius, watching Melody work. “What do we do now?”

“Melody, how is he doing?” asked Elizabeth.

Melody frowned, scanning Ty’s vitals with a variety of instruments. His breathing was shallow, but it was clear the painkillers were starting to do their job.

“As well as can be expected.” replied Melody. “I’d say we shouldn’t move him, but that’s not going to be possible, is it?”
“I’m afraid not.” answered Elizabeth. “But let’s take five minutes and let him recover.”

Whisper sighed and leaned against the wall. “Fucking cyberblight, man. Shit sucks.”

“This is why the cold, unfeeling metal of cybernetics are superior to human flesh.” stated Dialer, looking at Ty. “Pain is unnecessary.”

“Yeah, well not everybody can afford the good stuff.” said Whisper. “Either that, or they’re a Brand, like me.”

“Yes.” said Dialer, looking at Whisper. “I pity you, Whisper, for being unable to augment yourself like I have.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” said Whisper, leaning back and closing her eyes.

“You know, if you ignore it’s more, uh, horrific effects, cyberblight really is fascinating.” said Raythius, looking at the cyberblight-covered severed arm. “A self-replicating organism, able to duplicate its structure from seemingly nothing. Not only that, but it’s a distributed consciousness as well. Most fascinating.”

Whisper snorted. “I’ve learned to separate stuff in the Void into two categories: Normal Shit, and Weird Shit. Normal Shit is normal, and Weird Shit is stuff like Outsiders, cyberblight, anomalies, that shit. If scientists can’t figure this shit out, I’m not even gonna try.” she paused for thought. “Man, I swear a lot.”

“You really do, sweetheart.” said Melody, smiling fondly. She was sitting next to the prone Ty, whose breathing had become more normal.

“Hey,” said Ty, his voice weak, “maybe… maybe we can make my cybernetic arm all cool and stuff. Like, we could paint flames on it, or something.”

“That seems unnecessary.” said Dialer disapprovingly.

“It’s totally necessary.” said Whisper. “Duh. That’d be awesome. Ooh, maybe a flaming skull on the fist or some shit.”

Ty laughed weakly. “Oh Whisper,” he said. “Never change.”

“The generator room is up ahead,” said Elizabeth, looking down the tunnel. “Raythius, do you have the night vision goggles?”

“I do indeed!” said Raythius, pulling out a pair from his messenger bag. “One for each of us. Well, not for me and Dialer, we don’t need them, obviously.”

“Great. Ty, are you ready to move?” asked Elizabeth, looking at him.

Ty took a deep breath. The color had come back into his face and his breathing had returned to normal. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Ok, Melody, I want you in the back, watching his back.” said Elizabeth. “He’s just gonna be able to use a pistol one-handed, so I don’t trust him to be able to eliminate anything nasty behind us.”

“Alright, I’ll do that.” said Melody seriously, helping Ty to his feet.

“Good. Alright, let’s move, people.”

***

After a minute or so of walking, the crew made their way into the generator room, which was empty save for the large cylindrical generator in the center. A beeping control console was place in the center of the cylinder, it’s screen a stark black-and-white.

“Quiet, everybody.” said Elizabeth softly. “We’re officially in the complex. Raythius, can you hack that computer?”

“I can indeed.” replied Raythius, walking over to the console and starting to type at breakneck speed. He reached into his messenger back and pulled out a data disc, inserting into the console.

“Alright, so here’s the deal.” said Raythius, as he typed. “This doohicky’s hash-checking subroutines are rather strong, so I can only give us a couple minutes of darkness before it its processing stack and realizes there’s something wrong.”

“Then we’ll have to live with that.” said Elizabeth. “Goggles on, everybody. We don’t know which room they’re using as a holding cell, so we’re gonna have to go on a scavenger hunt.”

As the crew put on their night-vision goggles, Raythius went to work, muttering to himself. As he worked, suppressed memories came flooding back-- excited conversations with Iris about what he was going to do when he was free of slavery. Impassioned prayers to the Holy Machinery, prayers that were answered. Creeping past a guard checkpoint, sword in hand. Blood splattering across his face screen. Discovering the truth behind his god. The Rampage.

He sighed inwardly. He had been such an idiot. A violent, gullible, idealistic idiot.

And then, with no warning at all, the lights went out with a whumm noise. Startled cries could be heard from deeper into the complex.

“Alright!” said Elizabeth, raising her pistol. “Let’s do this, people!”

***

Mirth awoke lying in an uncomfortable splayed position, on jagged rock. He shook his head to clear it, and looked around. It looked like he was in some sort of rocky pit, perhaps twenty feet deep.. His clothes were in burned tatters, but he himself was unharmed.

“Oh man, I’m still alive! Cool!” he said cheerfully. He looked around the pit, and found a dessicated corpse on the floor of the pit, still wearing a utilitarian miners outfit.

“Oh hey, guy!” said Mirth, walking over to the corpse. “Mind if I take your clothes? Mine are all burned up and it doesn’t look like you’re using yours.” In the process of searching the body, he found exactly what he was hoping to find: a knife.

“Yesssss.” he said, testing its edge. “Sharp things. Stabby stab.”

He looked at the walls of the pit. They were steep and obviously unclimbable. He looked up, and saw a small bit of the room above, lit dimly by portable lamps. It looked like there was only one way out. He was a long way from home, and he had been avoiding using it, but what choice did he have?

Then he put his thumb in his sharp-toothed mouth and bit off a chunk. His thumb immediately started dripping blood. He knelt down and drew a circle around himself using his own blood, completely encapsulating himself. Around the circle he drew strange, twisting signs, meaningless to all but himself.

“Eesh. Sorry mom, gotta use the thingy.” he said. And then he began to chant a whispered series of syllables that lingered in the air long after he had finished saying them. He repeated the mantra over and over again, as the lights in the room began to flicker. There was a loud hissing noise, and waves of darkness consumed his kneeling form. A few seconds later he appeared outside of the pit, kneeling on the floor of the room with a burst of shadow and smoke.

“Hehe, tickles every time.” he said.

Then the lights went out.

He blinked in surprised, and then grinned an inhumanly wide grin, tightening his grip on his newly-acquired knife.

This was perfect.

[Click here to go to the next part!]