by Jeremy Simms

Created on: August 07, 2010

I awoke in the night’s bounty of thorny fescue and heather. Wispy, ethereal clouds leered down at the world, and as I struggled to peel my burning eyelids back, all life in the land around me appeared to deflate. A dark belfry stood in the languid distance, caught in a web of spindly branches.

The advance toward the center of Wiltshire evoked a curious trickery in my mind. The overbearing placidity of the air wreaked havoc on my composure, and I flinched at the smallest rustle of the willow fronds. My vision began shifting in response to every peripheral movement, and each time, I would discover the movement to be unfounded or nonexistent. Grim shadows encroached upon the fine matrix of cobblestones, luring my wonder astray. Most terrifying, however, was the sound of my own shoes thumping against the smooth, rocky path. While the dull echoes did well to repel the dreadfully mute environment, they also caused me to suffer a horrid bout of introspection. I felt as if my footsteps were soliciting an onslaught of the darkest measure, calling to the shrouded beasts and wilderness. Images of shredded flesh, its rawness shocking and repugnant, flashed across my sight. Fog had settled upon the town, filtering the red amber glow of the tall streetlamps and splashing a bright scarlet hue upon the stony facades of the hovels. Thoughts of horrible injury haunted my consciousness to the extent that I wished for a second gale to overcome me. Yet, my prayers went unanswered, and I was left to wander through the red haze, craning my neck occasionally, watching the orderly shingles and ornate moldings being swallowed by the thick, scarlet cloud.

Suddenly, and on the brink of succumbing to the abyssal desolation, a slow, rhythmic thudding could be heard. Under such anxiety and nervousness, I had first believed it to be a strange reverberation from my own footsteps, but upon halting my advance and sifting through the silence, I found that the low beating noise persisted. Excited, I thrust my arms up to my chest once more, hoping desperately to find an inkling of humanity within. Yet, my jubilation immediately froze, and a series of icy shivers oscillated in my throat; with my hand placed firmly against my ribs, I could still hear the dull beating, but the pulsing vibration that should have accompanied the rhythm did not exist!

The red fog had thickened all around. Panicking, I sprung forth into the sanguinary cloud, my footsteps now muffled under the oppressive humidity.

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