The Wraith

At great heights, the impact caused great pain, she had a momentary concussion which made her vision all fuzzy.

“ngh….”

when all is clear, she saw that the wolf carcass had spat out all its innards, she cringed, and jumped back, leaning back opposite to it.

She tried to regulate her chaotic heavy breathing, the events that just unfolded was a little too much for her undeveloped body, she looked around her, it’s dark, the ash clouds that blocked the sun didn’t help either.

“I’m… alive? Where is this… I’m…”

It goes without saying.

She was trapped inside the abyss.

“I have to get back… I have to…”

Now what was left was to find a way up there.

She stood up from the bushes, her coat grazed the leaves as she does, she spotted a flash of light, reflection. When she took a closer look, it was her rifle, lying not far away from her

She walked closer and grabbed it, she inspected her trusty rifle, the old assault rifle, living up to its reputation as a rugged, efficient weapon, surprisingly only suffered minor damage, which is the ammunition magazine that had been deformed, it probably bear the brunt of the force when it falls. No matter, she had spares ammo both on the satchel bag, which is nowhere to be found, and her coat pocket.

She took out one of the magazine from her pocket, and reloaded the weapon in a sluggish way, the rifle was still to heavy for her after all.

“all right then… now to find a way back up…”

She had nothing but her weapon at the moment, the only plausible way of getting up is to find a path that would take her up, and that’s exactly what she did, under the near total darkness of the abyss

“can’t see… ah! Right”

The only source of light available to her is the sun, which she could not rely upon as it had been blocked by black clouds for as long as she could remember, and…

She raised her Assault rifle, readied it on a firing position, and pulled the trigger once.

*Bang!

A bullet clanked down as the rifle produced a thunderous sound, far louder down here in the abyss than what it sounded like up there, it also produce a flash of light, but it was too fast, she could not memorize the layout of the abyss.

So she fired again this time, wasting half of the current magazine.

*Ratatatatatata!

Even though her vision is disturbed by the recoil of the rifle, the sustained fire produced sufficient illumination, but she still do not see a way above, only a deep gorges with high, tall walls of stone between her.

Nevertheless, she went on her way anyway, and walked forward.

She walked, and walked, and walked.

Yet, there was no end in sight.

How long has it been since she fall down, two, three hour?

Probably more, the already overcast skies gradually turned darker. She still have her rifle though, with one fully loaded magazine, it’s her last.

At this point, the only thing that kept her going is the sheer willpower she possessed, every time she felt like collapsing, she thought of her little siblings back home, it give her some sort of a drive, a motivation, she cannot afford to collapse here, to die here, it was unthinkable.

But of course, her body had been pushed far beyond its limit, she’s running on overdrive, it is only a matter of time before even sheer will power would not be able to avert the total collapse of her bodily functions.

And that time, seemed to draw near.

Her feet hurts, her shoulder ached, the rifle that had protected her so many times before had turned into a burden, her throat is dry, her stomach is empty, she felt lightheaded.

Each steps felt heavy, as if she’s bearing a great weight, each breath she took stabbed her chest.

And next, things went from bad to worse.

“hah... hah... uh.. huh?”

Besides the howling wind of the abyss, she could hear faint sound coming from the other side, it didn’t sound natural, something is making that sound.

It sounded like a scream.

A ghastly scream, as if someone is in pain.

A lot of it.

She’s not alone down here.

There’s something else in this abyss, with all her might, she raised her rifle up, her arms shaking violently as the ghastly voices drew closer and closer

She gulped hard, cold sweat pours down her chin, and then, the scream stopped.

She kept a wide eye, hands on the trigger, the silence of the atmosphere is choking her, she could hear her rapid beating heart pulsating, and the pulses almost stopped when she caught a glimpse of what made those noises.

It was almost pitch black here down in the abyss, but occasionally, the clouds would give way for sunlight to pass, weeping down to the abyss, and in that moment, what she saw utterly horrified her to her being

Pale bare skinned skeletal beings, floating aground, they seemingly wore a ghastly clothing, the arms are deformed into a proportion that is beyond what a human arms should be, it’s skeletal hands are enlarged, turning it into some sort of a claw

She had encountered wraiths

“h.. h. .. eeeeek!”

She panicked, and pulled hard on the trigger

All the bullets went through the wraiths, they kept coming closer to her, Terror written all over her face, so much so that she did not realize she urinated herself.

She stopped before wasting her entire ammunition.

“why… why… why? Why? Why!?”

The floating horror kept coming closer to her.

“ha.. haha.. hahahah”

She let out a despaired laughter, her eyes still wide and flooding with tears.

The living corpses still making their way towards her, fortunately, they’re pretty slow. She ran back to where she came from, still somewhat holding to her rifle.

She ran.

And ran.

And ran away.

It has been another hour since her encounter with the living corpses.

The wraiths, souls of the damned, cursed to roam the land for eternity. The unnerving thing about them is that they’re all used to be human.

She sat down under a tree, a dying tree, how does this tree end up here? She wondered.

It doesn’t matter.

She had expended all remaining life in her, the abyss was a dead end for her.

Her breathing gradually slowed down, she could not feel her legs, she could not feel her arms, she couldn’t even feel any physical pain.

The only pain she is feeling, is in her chest.

her soul is tormented.

There’s the thought of her little siblings back home.

Alex is probably making a mess on his bedroom again, and Thomas would have to clean up after him in her absence.

The chubby Boris would probably complain nonstop as to the lack of food present, and Maya would discipline him.

Riri would probably be worried about her, and would always spent the entire day waiting for her on the front door.

On the other side, she could hear the ghastly scream from before, only one this time.

Slowly, she let out a stream of tear

“Ah… everyone…”

One of the wraiths had managed to catch up to her.

She tried to raise her rifle, but all strength had left her body, the best she’d done was just to shake the thing.

The wraith had arrived in breathing distance to her, its empty skeletal eyes seemingly pierced her soul, it slowly raised its skinny, long hands and embraced her cheek.

“I’m… sorry, everyone”

It is as if the wraith are absorbing her life force as her voice grew weaker

“I…”

She gradually lost all her senses, while the sense on her skin had long died out, her vision slowly became dark, but she could still hear things. In the next few seconds, the wraith had screamed… in pain? She couldn’t be sure, they have always screamed like that, and she couldn’t confirm it anymore, as everything slowly descent into utter silence.