Book.1 - Part4. - Black Death

"As if my eyes have been ripped from their sockets and I have been left with only hollow holes in my skull, I am blind. This feeling is sickening and lifeless, putrid in its execution. . ."

Like puzzle pieces the boulders rested atop each other in perfect alignment, revealing only a completed picture of pitch black. The blackness gave free to no loose silhouettes and no breaks in shape. There was only a sunless, colorless black that overpowered my now blatantly feeble existence.

I was unaware of time, all of my systems were down, they were created to run on the most mi-nute of resources but without an energy source they were powerless.

There was very apparent evil that resonated thickly within the confounds of those dark walls. It was alive and I felt its grip squeeze upon my essence with an unfathomable grasp.

The evil energy worked quickly, first seducing my soul, then manipulating my spirit forcing my mind onto itself. Dark energies ascended through my skull and into my brain, rearranging the gray matter, forcing my mind into a weakened state while bringing to surface the long supressed memories of a destroyed past.

The horrors of days far removed coursed into my mind deeply, plunging me into a deep spiraling state of depression.

Endless amounts of memories poured from me and projected themselves onto the uninterrupted blank canvas of theblackness. They were images of the worst missions I'd ever executed. The cries of the helpless throbbed loudly against my ear drums as visions of the endless fields of skeletal remains displayed upon the deadened blackness of the cave.

For what felt like days I stumbled over myself aimlessly; frantically I searched for a way out, digging for a glimpse of light. I felt trails of blood dripping down my arms as my cut hands pulled and pushed at massive immovable boulders.

I prayed for light, for a chance to free myself from the rank dark beneath. I begged to God, calling his name over and over again, for hours I pleaded with him to remind me of the familiarity of the sun. But there was no reply. In that place the only sounds were of the large stone slabs tightening against one another, and the voices, the many voices in my head that told me me there was no way out. There was no sign of hope, for again and again the only familiarity I came to cross was the giant carcass of the quickly decaying serpent creature I'd destroyed days before.

The serpent's decrepit carcass welded a rancid smell. On more than one occasion the stench forced me into purging what felt like all of my insides, only adding to the intensity of the nauseating smells. The sickness was overwhelming and seemed to only get worse. There was something wrong happening to me down there, something inside my body that I could not possibly begin to explain. All I knew was that as time passed I continued to feel an energy hard at work to take me over, one that was vile and evil in every way and its potency was intoxicating.

In a stupor of dizzying delirium I rememembered what the serpent creature did to me, that feeling of its soothing saliva seeping into my pores pulsated in my memory banks and the realization became apparent. The creature'ssaliva was giving me power, a dark mischievous power. Despite the absence of food and water, it seemed to be keeping me from starving, but it also enriched the images of the carnage in my mind. I was losing all hope for life beyond this gruesome tomb and the few memories of my family I had left were becoming vague recollections of a life far gone.

Sapped of my senses and pushed to the brink of destruction, I lost my will to live. Desperately I needed to find an end... but none would come, there was only torture here, there was only Darkness.

I paced until I could not walk anymore, until I finally lost my footing and fell to my knees. It was all so clearly hopeless, and it was within that hopelessness that my integrity was completely replaced with madness. The darkness enshrouded the essence of my soul and it called me to destroy myself.

Thoughtlessly, I leaned against my plasma rifle, pointing the barrel at my chest.  I only wanted the absolute blindness to end. I only wanted rest. I only wanted to be free. My fingers rubbed against the trigger, I was powerless over my actions. Absent mindedly I toyed with life and death, pressing harder and harder against the end ...

To be continued.