This one shot is part of The Darklands Discord Halloween, with the prompt "The Unknown." I was also inspired by images I've made using Wombo and the prompt "Woman with blood tentacles made of blood coming from her back," which I will be including in this piece. Also, some of the images aren't 100% character accurate. 

Spoilers: This one shot, or similar scene, may be in the sequel, and explores themes in the sequel. 

Trigger Warning: Sci-fi horror imagery, blood, gore, dissociation, (nonsexual) female nudity. I apologize if I've missed any. If you are sensitive to horror themes, existential dread and intense introspection, please feel free to skip this one.  

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The night was still. Crickets sang in the distance. She pulled the blankets up to her chin to protect against the draft. The fog seeped in through the windows from off the nearby Bay of Fundy. The crispness of the autumn air kept the dampness away but cracked the moisture in her lips. Exhaustion pushed Clay's consciousness back until she slipped seamlessly into sleep.

Darkness surrounded her at every turn. Each step echoed and bounced across the slick floor, rippling like shallow water under her bare feet. The sound of dripping followed her as she moved.

Here. Again.

Her thoughts reverberated through the expanse as though she had spoken aloud.

It's different than before, but somehow the same.

Warmth flooded her body, flowing under her skin. Heat, like molten lava, slid through her veins, every vessel and cell ringing.

That feeling. It's my blood moving, isn't it? Is that what it's been this whole time?

She regarded her hands in wonder. Though she recognized her scars, she felt like she was looking at a stranger. Clay pressed forward, moving aimlessly through the void. In the distance, she saw a figure walk towards her, matching the cadence and speed of her steps. Clay approached with curiosity, as did the stranger.

The figure grew closer, shifting into a familiar female shape until the features became clear. She stood toe to toe with herself. Her reflection surrounded her on all sides in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of herself.

Complete darkness expanding into infinity.

Nausea swirled her stomach into a whirlpool of disgust. She felt her heart pulse in every artery, picking up speed until it pittered like a snare drum under her skin. The walls pressed in on her. There was nowhere she could turn where she wouldn't meet her own brown eyes.

Gradually, her breathing slowed and she looked at herself.

I don't know who this girl is.

Intellectually, the markers of this is me were all there, the scars on her abdomen, back, hands and arms were all the same. Her blonde hair hung straight to her waist as she knew it would but her mind would not stop screaming; This is not me. I don't know you.

To be inside herself was to be an unannounced guest in a stranger's home. There was nowhere to make herself comfortable. So she stood there, staring. Eventually, she raised her hand, and so did her reflection. She pressed her hand to the mirror image, surprised to see the same ripples that occurred earlier under her feet.

Clay withdrew her hand as if bitten.

The floor shifted under her and began to rise. Her feet, then her legs disappeared under the reflective fluid.

Panic lit up her spinal cord like a sparkler travelling from one end to the other. No matter where she moved, the walls of her reflection bared down until the liquid pulled up over her mouth and nose. Despite herself, she screamed. Nothing but bubbles escaped her lips.

She was pulled into the black water, drifting down into nothing. Cold air suddenly stung her face. Opening her eyes to find herself emerging into a lagoon. A thick fog obscured her vision, but a clear night sky revealed an incomprehensible amount of stars.

She tread water, content to paddle forever if she had to. Her toes eventually found purchase on some gravel under the water. As she progressed, the water grew shallow and she stepped up onto the shore. The mist made way for her as she moved. The strange light from the moonless sky cast a purple glow across the stones. Indigo cliffs sprawled across the horizon.

Her mind skipped beats. One moment the cliffs appeared to be kilometres away, then immediately in front of her the next. The rocks loomed, sides slick with lingering water.

The ball of tension in her chest pulsed with warmth while she walked along the perimeter, examining the rock wall for a way out. She found nothing but an endless stretch of stone. The incessant dripping accompanying her since she emerged in this world, only grew louder until it was a constant, loud tap on the back of her skull. A migraine crawled up the edges of her temples.

Let me out of here! Hey! Is anyone listening to me? Get me the fuck outta here! I want to wake up! Hello!

Her thoughts reverbarated back to her.

Well isn't this just great? I miss my old nightmares. At least then I knew what to expect.

She picked up a stone from the rocky shore, wound up and pitched it at the cliff face.

Fuck you!

She sat down on the rocks and tucked her knees up under her chin.

I have to wake up sometime.

A rumble from behind caught her attention and she turned to see the large rocks scrape together in a hellish cacophony. The open mouth of a cave appeared where nothing but smooth rock had been before. Darkness leered at her.

She got to her feet and stood at the open maw.

The only way out is through.

The dripping grew louder the deeper into the cave she progressed. Darkness swallowed her. At first, she froze, uncertain where to step if she couldn't see her way. Her heart beat in time with the drips.

I have to move forward.

With each step she took, she was relieved to find her way unimpeded. A faint light glowed in the distance and the walls on either side of her gradually materialized into the concrete walls of the laboratory basement. The pipes snaking along the edge of the ceiling leaked trails of water into puddles on the floor. The small rocks under her feet gave way to a flat, filthy concrete floor.

Her body trembled, jaw clenched and fingers flexed.

I can't. I can't. I can't.

She reflexively stepped backwards and bumped into stone. Startled, she turned to see the way she had come was sealed with a solid concrete wall. She slammed her hands against it. Desperation zinged through her body, as her fingernails curled and clawed fruitlessly, regenerating torn and shredded skin as she went until she left streaks of blood.

You can't make me do this. Please don't make me do this.

The wall offered no reply. Only insistence. A silent command.

Fuck you! She smacked her palms into the stone a final time before turning back to the open hallway. She slid to the floor, her back to the wall. I'm going to wait here for me to wake up. Do you hear me? Wake up!

The pipes dripped in response.

Why won't you just wake up? Please.

She tucked her head into her folded arms.

Drip. Drip.

I'll never be rid of this vile place.

Not if I don't move.

She groaned, got to her feet and walked. The drip followed her, thrumming away at the inside of her skull, louder and more persistent with every step. She noticed the rivulets running off the pipes had deepened in colour and she touched her finger to a stream. It glistened red in the light.

The pipes gradually became smoother, and more organic, as they trailed along the edge of the ceiling. As she moved further along the hallway, she noticed how they coiled and twisted. What seemed like vines twirled around the metal, small and slender at first, then thick and sturdy, slick with the fluid trickling from the pipes. If she looked long enough, they started to slither and slide against one another until the copper merged with them, and now nothing but layers of vessels lined the walls, glistening in the soft light emanating from the end of the tunnel.

The off-blue light pulsed, mirroring the push and pull of the tension within her chest. It had faded to the back of her mind. Now, it pulsated in a steady rhythm in time with the drip still hammering at the back of her head. The heat was so intense she could no longer ignore it. It pulled her towards the light.

So close, she was nearly blinded, the light enveloped her. When her eyes adjusted again she saw she was standing at the entrance to a chamber. All of the vines converged in this space, crisscrossing and weaving in and out of each other like a hibernaculum of snakes. They surged forward, and upwards, to the center in a pilar, climbing up towards the unfathomable ceiling. Lost in the blinding glare, she could not see where it ended, but she saw the mangled mass of crimson roots where it began.

When she tried to step forward, resistance caught her off guard and she was tugged backwards half a step. Eight tentacles made of her own blood had emerged from along the sides of her spine, extended and attached themselves seamlessly into the structures she had formally considered vines. It had been so painless this time, she hadn't felt them come out at all. They trailed behind her, sliding along the walls as she walked.

The pillar both terrified and thrilled her. Breath fled her lungs, suffocated by awe, she could only gaze upwards towards the light as the structure of writhing vessels ascended into the brilliance.

It shifted, swirled and solidified into a single mass. Tentacles splayed out at the bottom intertwining with the network of writhing roots. Several more branched out from all sides, rippling through the air like serpents. 

One of the tentacles at the top stopped moving and broadened, until the end morphed into a face with the smooth, still features of a death mask. The eyelids closed. The tentacle lowered and swivelled around, hovering just in front of her.

Heart thundering, blood pounding in her ears to the time of the endless drips in the back of her mind, she set her jaw, fists curled at her sides and met its eyeless gaze. Heat seared and surged throughout her body in thick waves, starting from her core and whoosing out to all extremities. The light was pulsating, undulating through her, flashing electric through her limbs. It rippled out through the tentacles in her back to the larger mass lining the walls and floor. The bright synapses coursed in short bursts through the mass of tentacles, to the pillar than ultimately into the face, so that the light within them both throbbed as one.

What are you?

The question bounced through the chamber in an echo like a stone skipped across the water of silence.

The face rose above her, the tentacle hauled back towards the pillar to be absorbed within, then materialize again on its surface.

The eyes blinked open.

The face shifted, pushing itself out of the flesh of the thick pillar into a three-dimensional shape. Smaller tentacles emerged from the head in some semblance of writhing hair, wrapping down and around back into the pilar. Sunken brown eyes peered out of the deep sockets, imploring sightlessly. The mouth hung agape, revealing rows of ragged teeth.

The eyes found hers and locked on them, seeming to finally settle and focus. She resisted the urge to pull back. The dizzying sensation of standing on a precipice overwhelmed her.

I have to tread lightly.

"What are you?" she asked again, but this time spoke the words aloud.

Wrong question, the head croaked without moving its mouth.

"Who are you?"

Better.

The head suddenly jutted outwards, then gradually formed neck and shoulders behind it. The wad of slender tentacles making the hair remained connected to the parent structure as the remainder of a body formed, crafted of what looked to be blood and bone. The face was cast in a white shell to create a mask. Red eyes and mouth framed in raw muscle peered out through circular holes. The newly formed body consisted of a horde of long, swirling worms. The limbs were tentacles extending down to join the rest feeding back into the pillar.

Clay could only watch as the thing approached her, the slick ropey arms and legs sliding back as it moved, propelling it forward in a halting glide.

She would sell her soul to just wake up.

The entity stopped short of colliding with her.

Ask again, it rasped.

Fear gripped her into a vice. Her heart pounded in tune with the light still propagating through her body, the tentacles, and the thing alike in a throbbing electric hum. Every instinct in her body demanded she attack it.

Kill it.

Get it away.

Her fingernails dug into her palms, tender and familiar even in her dreams.

"Who are you?" she repeated.

Project E1.

She pulled back, utterly repulsed. How quickly rage consumed the fear like a lit match on tinder.

"Don't call me that!"

Who are you?

She paused, blinking back in confusion. "I - I don't know!"

The cold fist of terror clenched her heart so tightly she couldn't breathe. Her own lungs choked her. No matter how much, or how quickly she inhaled, she couldn't even get a full breath. Her skin ignited with pins and needles like a million ants attempting to gnaw their way out from the inside.

She sprung awake, sitting straight up in bed with her hand clutched to her chest in desperation. It took her a moment to realize where she was and feel the cold night air on her face, chilling the sweat on her skin. Relief the dream was over swept through her, but her stomach still churned and her mind mulled over the fading, yet still vivid images. The question imposed by the entity burned inside of her.

.......................

Thank you for reading! Happy Halloween!