Chapter Text
The strange smell of burning wood suddenly woke you up.
The first thing you noticed was that you were in a completely unfamiliar place. That fact sparked two questions: Where were you? And, most importantly, why couldn’t you remember anything? Your mind was hazy, each time you wanted to reach into your memories a piercing sting sprung to life and made you cower into yourself to try to lessen the pain.
Voices resonated in the distance, followed by soft laughter and the sound of crackling fire. You appeared to be in a forest of some sort, so those must be people camping, right? That sounded like a campfire if you ever heard one. Probably. Maybe.
First of all, you needed help. Getting up was a chore, your body felt strangely sore and your left hand hurt particularly bad. It was almost pitch black where you stood, so it was impossible to see if it was broken or just probably hurt from a fall. Trying not to move it too much, you started to walk to the source of the sound.
It turned out, you were right. There was a little camp hidden in the woods; there were a couple of diverse people sitting by the fireplace, three of them talking among each other and the other two were just staring at the source of light. It left you with a weird feeling, but these were people and you needed their help. A little shy, you tried to step forward but your foot caught a small branch and crushed it, the sound alerting the group who immediately sprung to action. There were two men, some kind of old guy dressed with a green military outfit and a black guy with a bulletproof vest and a police badge. The three women backed up a little, which in turn made them hide behind the men and obstruct your view of them. You barely had time to see pale skin and strawberry blonde hair before one of the guys caught your attention.
“Who’s there?!” As if it was instinctual, the policeman tried to grab the gun from his holster but failed to find it there. Instead, he stood in a more defensive position, taking a step backwards but still standing in front of the women. “Show yourself!”
Scared of the whole situation, you walked out from behind a tree with your hands raised high. The motion made your left hand hurt, but you needed to prove to them you weren’t a threat and just in a very much need of help.
The light from the fire illuminated your form and all the presents held their breaths.
“A kid? Fuck”.
In an instant two of the women and the policeman were surrounding you, checking if you had any visible injury and your general state of health. The only woman who didn’t approach you simply hit the old man on the shoulder and muttered something akin to “language” which in turn only managed to earn a grunt as a response.
“Hey, are you okay?”
You simply nodded at the question. This seemed to relieve the three of them, and in turn allowed you to have a little more room to breathe.
“What’s your name, dear?” The one with blonde hair and sweet smile asked, and her presence curiously seemed to help you ease your fear and nervousness. “How did you end up here?”
Your name… even now, some time after waking up, the fog in your mind was still as strong as before. “Sorry, I don’t know- I don’t remember-”
Sensing your panic, the girl rushed to kneel by your side and gave you a side hug. She started to rub your arm gently to try to calm you down.
“It’s okay sweetheart, some of us also struggled to remember for a while. It’ll eventually return to you.”
You turned to look at her and she gave you that kind smile again.
“My name is Kate,” she introduced herself. “And this is detective Tapp” the policeman gave you a nod, “Rebecca” the young girl gave a thumbs up, “and those two are Bill and Jane.”
The woman also gave a nod, but the old man simply took a puff of his cigar; he was clearly displeased with the whole situation.
“How old are ya’?” He asked.
“Uhm, I don’t know…” Was your answer. How you hated it, being unable to reach into your memories unless you wanted to feel like your head was being hammered. Bill frowned, but otherwise didn’t say anything else. Jane was staring at him with her arms crossed, and it apparently meant that he needed to be careful with everything he did and said.
“They can’t be older than fourteen”.
Rebecca gasped at Tapp’s words. “But that’s way too young…” She turned to look at you. “Why would The Entity bring someone so young?”
“I’m sorry, but what’s happening here? Where am I?” You finally asked, utterly lost amidst the talk. It seemed like they knew what was going on? Maybe that meant they also knew a way out of here.
Kate sighed, “Maybe we should wake Dwight or Claudette up? They’re better at explaining this than us.”
“Leave them be, they need to rest after that trial they had today. We can take care of this.”
Rebecca took hold of your shoulders and offered you a weak smile.
“Okay kid, this is going to be hard so I need you to listen closely. Can you walk?”
At your nod, she gently moved your small form to sit close to the fire. Kate and Rebecca sat at each side of you while Tapp, Bill and Jane occupied the log in front of you.
“You’re now, like the rest of us, trapped in this place we call ‘The Entity’s realm’... or, just call it ‘camp’ for short. At least the place where we’re in right now.” The young rescuer sighed, “Is there anything you recall just before waking up here?”
You thought about it for a second. For some reason, there was a single memory that didn’t make your head hurt.
“I think there was a black fog… It was everywhere, like swallowing me up. And- and-”
Amidst the fog, as if beckoning you to get closer, a black tendril danced with elegance. The sight entranced you, it was like it put your whole body and mind in some sort of spell. You slowly approached it, and it suddenly lunged at you-
Maybe it was better if you didn’t talk about that. At least not right now.
“Sorry, that’s all I can remember.”
Kate and Jane nodded in understanding. Rebecca spoke up, “That’s okay, dear. You’ll start to remember after a while.”
“The black fog is something we all share in common,” Tapp added. “It’s the last thing we all remember before showing up here. I’m sorry kid, it looks like you’re stuck here too.”
The apologetic smile he offered did nothing to help ease your worry.
“There isn’t any… way out? At all?”
Bill scoffed, and Jane elbowed him in the ribs. She softly spoke to you, “If there’s one we haven’t found it yet. I’m sorry.”
You remained in silence for a couple of seconds processing all this new information. So, apparently, you and all these people were trapped in this place. They called it ‘The Entity’s realm’, but what exactly did that mean?
“But… What is this place? I don’t understand. Why are we trapped?”
Your dejected tone seemed to bring the mood down. The old man murmured something akin to a curse but this time no one tried to reprimand him. It was clear that they were trying to give you some sort of hope, even if they didn’t seem to feel it anymore.
“It’s another world of sorts. There’s this… ‘Entity’’, some type of interdimensional spider monster that apparently brought all of us here. Why? Hell if I know, all I care about is that it just loves to feed on our emotions, the good and the bad ones.”
“There’s these ‘trials’ that we have to go through,” Rebecca added, trying to ease Bill’s explanation. “But I think it’s better if we leave that explanation for after you sleep. Maybe Dwight will be up then and help us explain everything in a way that doesn’t… uh, you know…”
Tapp nodded. He looked at the pitch black sky before speaking, “This is as dark as it can get. Let’s use this to take some rest.”
Wait, they couldn’t possibly leave! You were still very confused about all this! They did some explaining, yes, but how did they expect you to believe everything just like that? Stories about spider-like monsters, people being trapped in another world… Those types of tales only existed in fiction. Yet if they were trying to ease this information to you, then that must’ve meant that there was some truth to it, a part of you thought.
Seeing your stillness, Kate got up and extended her hand for you to take it. “Would you like to share a tent with me?”
You blinked at her. “A tent?”
“We can’t afford much luxury here, sadly. We don’t have a spare tent yet, so until we find one you can stay with me meanwhile.”
“They can use mine for today.” Jane said, watching the fire with an indescriptible expression on her face. “I was planning to spend the whole night on watch anyways.”
You almost wanted to ask her what she was watching out for, but with a turn of her head she decided she no longer wanted to take part in the conversation. You slowly followed her gaze back to the fire. It was only then that you noticed how the flames failed to warm the place. It brought light, yes, but you didn’t feel warmer compared to the moment you woke up in this forest. You moved your right hand closer to the bonfire. Nothing. Even though it looked realistic enough, it wasn’t even consuming the logs at the base.
It was all so eerie it made your skin crawl.
“Let’s go, then. Let’s try to get some sleep. You look like you need it.”
You didn’t know if that comment was due to your physical appearance or your distraught mind, but nonetheless you were grateful to have some time alone to think about all this. It was clear that you wouldn’t get any more explanations for the night anyways. Tapp and Rebecca got up and walked away, not before whispering something in Kate’s ear. She nodded to them, and they bid their goodbyes with a head pat and a smile. Bill and Jane remained seated, with their eyes fixated on the raging fire in front of them. You took Kate’s hand and let her guide you to the sleeping area.
There were a lot of tents in this part, did that mean all these people were trapped here too? A couple of snores could be heard, but they were far and in-between; they wouldn’t be a problem at all. There were three empty tents, two relatively closer to each other and one a few steps away.
“This one is mine,” Kate gestured to the one on the left, “and that one is Jane’s.” She then motioned to the other one.
So that meant that the only one left, the one further away, must’ve been Bill’s. Probably lumped together with the other men.
“Just so you know…” she said, capturing your attention once more. “If you need anything during the night don’t hesitate to come to me for assistance. If you can’t sleep or need someone to talk to, I’ll be here. Or, you know, just scream if you need help, I’ll come quickly.”
You nodded and offered her a small smile. You liked her already. She was really kind and thoughtful; she barely knew you and here she was, almost offering to watch over you all night. It brought a warm feeling to your chest to know that even in this unknown and probably dangerous situation there was someone out there that cared about you.
Ugh, suddenly your left hand started to really hurt.
Kate was watching you. Did she perhaps want to say something else? She briefly glanced at the tent that was yours for the night. Ah, so she was waiting for you to enter before excusing herself. How sweet.
“Right. Th-thank you, goodnight Kate.”
You quickly scrambled away and hid inside the tent. It wasn’t notoriously big, you had to crouch and sit to avoid touching the top with your head. It was obviously designed for just sleeping. There were a couple of belongings here and there: a spare change of clothes, a hairbrush, even some journals and diaries that you avoided to respect Jane’s privacy. A sleeping bag laid right in the middle, messy and unkempt, a blanket by its side in case the night got too cold. The only source of light was an old oil lamp right by the entrance, illuminating the inside dimly to avoid bothering the other people nearby.
You sat on the sleeping bag, eyes fixated on a random spot on the tent’s wall.
What is happening…?
You brought your knees close to your chest and hid your face between them. Now that you were alone with your thoughts, a feeling of dread slowly started to consume you. Waking up in this weird place, with strange people speaking about a mysterious and looming threat in the form of a spider… This screamed insane.
How did you end up here? Why? You couldn’t even remember anything before the fog. You must’ve had family, friends, people back home waiting for your return, right? Could they be worried, looking for you? Trying to find a way to return you home?
A sharp pain erupted from your left hand. You carefully raised it above your knees and let the lamp illuminate it. The skin wasn’t hurt, at least there wasn’t any bruise or laceration on it. All you could see was a strange tattoo on the back, some sort of black tendrils spiraling into a slit. The drawing seemed strange on its own, but there was a sensation of pulsation coming from it. You carefully touched it with your other hand and had to immediately retract it to avoid being burned.
It’s burning!
Maybe that was the reason for the stinging? But it didn’t feel warm, at least not until you touched it…
Having been left alone, the tattoo stopped acting strange. It no longer hurt, and the feeling of pulsation was no more. Still, you didn’t dare to touch it again.
A sigh escaped your lips. Your eyes were starting to feel heavy, you mind exhausted due to all the strangeness and overthinking from your part. You laid your head on the thin pillow with your knees still close to your chest. It brought little comfort, but it was still better than nothing.
Back outside you could faintly hear the voice of Kate talking with someone else. You didn’t recognize them, so they weren’t one of the people that had welcomed you earlier.
And there, with the sporadic flicker of light and the soft talking outside the tent, your eyes closed and sleep finally took over you.
Just maybe, once you woke up, all this would just be a bad dream.