Chapter Text
Adrift, Beyond
"You goddamn idiot! You absolute fucking buffoon! Just had to go check it out? Now look at yourself!"
Kurtis cursed himself out.
He'd been doing that a lot lately.
It was his own fault after all.
What kind of self-respecting horror fan decides to investigate an abandoned train tunnel all alone? Let alone one with a grisly reputation and rumored to be the last known location for no less than six missing persons?
This guy apparently.
It's not like the buddy system would have helped much. One second he's looking at some funny looking graffiti in a corner, the next his foot is caught in the angle where the walls meet and the floor is falling out under him. He wished he could at least know how long he'd been falling. It felt like days.
It didn't help that there was so little to hold his attention, just endless peach sky and occasional misty clouds.
There had been some life in the beginning. He'd fallen alongside a flock of enormous amoeba-like jellies that had him wondering if he'd actually been shrunk. That was ages ago though. Early enough that he was still flailing around, trying to guide his seemingly infinite fall somewhere instead of just limply drifting with the weak winds of this place.
There had been nothing else since. Only a constant pink gradient.
Why couldn't it have been a serial killer or predatory freak of nature? Or even better, a murderous alien! He could have had his shock and rush of knowing before dying quickly. The fear and wonder at his predicament had worn off early on. Now it was just boring.
Oh, and he certainly was dying. It just wasn't quick. He was fairly certain he was starting to succumb to dehydration. His tongue felt like a mouthful of sand and blinking was becoming physically painful. The clouds weren't even enough to help, they just slightly dampened his tracksuit when he plunged through them. He had a pounding headache too. The falling wasn't exactly conducive to a restful sleep.
So he fell.
Dizzy with thirst and fading in and out of exhausted consciousness, he fell.
...
A flash of movement caught his eye.
He wished he could say he snapped out of his stupor. What actually happened was it took many long seconds before he even registered that he was looking at something and several minutes more before he could convince himself to move towards it.
He came down among a flock of spinning pinwheel like plants that drifted and fluttered in a seemingly controlled manner. He tried to snag one but it spun out of reach with a flick of its leaves. The flock started to crowd him, seemingly studying him with small black flowers that glittered like an insect's eyes. They toyed with him, drifting into reach but always pulling away if he attempted a grab. They probably didn't have to try very hard. He wasn't exactly at his best.
They seemed to tire of the game and simply spun down alongside him, just outside of arms length.
He was grateful for the company.
...
A few of the pinwheel plants seemed to panic, a flashing of periwinkle petals appearing to signal the flock. Their leaves stretched out like parachutes and he fell away beneath them.
What had they seen that he hadn't?
He studied the pink expanse beneath him and could just make out a faint twinkle before something like cobwebs struck his face. He tried to brush it away but something pulled his arm back. It was almost like fighting against a mass of elastic bands. He thrashed against the grip but whatever held him simply flexed along with his panicked flailing. He was too exhausted to keep it up for long.
The pink sky faded to the darkness of unconsciousness.
...
He awoke to a faint stinging sensation. He felt strangely calm, floating more than falling. It was nice.
Without feeling the need to yank himself away he could study what held him. A network of thin white threads, beaded with a clear sticky fluid was spread out as far as he could see. Everywhere his exposed skin touched the strands looked red and raw, even splitting open in places. He was caught in a vast organic net.
And it was eating him.
He gave it another token struggle but if anything the thin strands bound him even tighter.
He sighed.
"It's been a long couple of days."
Kurtis closed his eyes, relaxed into the carnivorous web and let himself go.