Digital Horror

✧₊⁺

I stepped into the inn room, fully expecting to be attacked or met with something horrific, but instead I saw a young woman hunched over on the floor with her back turned to Archie and I. Her stifled sobs stopped as our presence startled her a bit.

“Miss! Hey Miss, are you alright?” I whispered, crouching beside her.

“W-who are you??” She spoke. “And why are you here?”

“I’m a Hunter, I’ve come to get you out of here. But we have to hurry.” I re-holstered my weapons to show that I wasn’t a threat.

“No… you have to leave now.” She replied in a strained voice. “That monster is still here, somewhere. You don’t understand… the danger.”

She struggled to turn around, but finally did, revealing an injury unlike anything I had ever seen. Across her chest was a large gash, like she had been attacked by a wild animal. But instead of blood, her chest seemed to be emitting some technical interference and black particles which floated to the ceiling.

“What the hell…” I muttered to myself, before realizing my mistake. “I’m sorry, Miss, what I meant to say was how did this happen?”

“I like… to work the tables at the saloon sometimes to earn extra credits, I was saving up to move to a nicer town with my son.” She said, “But that… thing burrowed up from the ground last night, and snuck in through an open window. I was able to warn everyone else in time, but… it’s too late for me.”

“No, we can… We can still get you help. Just come with me, and we’ll figure something out.” I didn’t really know if that was true, but I still reached out a hand to the woman. “I promised your son I’d bring you out, nice and safe, you see.”

“That was a dumb thing to do.” She smiled bitterly. “He’ll hate you for sure when I die.”

“Maybe so.” I replied sheepishly, scratching my chin. “But I’d like to avoid that happening, if possible.”

“You’re kinda awkward, Mister. But… I can tell… you’re not a bad—!?“ Her eyes suddenly widened in horror. “LOOK OUT!”

Before I even had a chance to look behind me, something big and mean was already attached to my back, clawing furiously at my neck. The excruciating pain was a surprise considering my digital form. I sucked in oxygen sharply through my teeth. The next thing, the only thing I thought to do was to back out of the room as quickly as I could.

“Archie, what happens if I die in the Digiscape!?”

“Strictly speaking you cannot, but I would suggest—“

“That’s all I needed to know!”

I backpedaled as hard as I could, crashing through the guardrail. I tumbled quite a height, slamming back-first into one of the tables in the dining area below. Wood splintered all over, and my assailant seemed to take damage as well, quickly removing itself from my back.

“I was going to say that accruing too much damage will overheat the microchip in your physical brain, and you will be teleported a safe distance away as a defense mechanism.” Archie continued, scanning his light over the room. “In the corner of your peripheral vision, you should find a meter that reads ‘stress’. I would avoid letting it get too high, Jiro.”

For the first time, I noticed the meter Archie was referring to. It only seemed to appear when I got hurt, and then quickly disappeared as to not be a distraction. It was filled at about a quarter, and slowly went down.

“Good to know…” I coughed, peeling myself up to my feet. “Now where is that damned thing?”

“Mister, are you alright!?” The woman stood next to the ruined guardrail, gazing down at me with worry.

“I’m alright, just stay up there!”

Up… there…

I heard an awful clicking noise echoing throughout the room, and my eyes were pulled directly to the ceiling. Staring down at me—with four neon green eyes—was a spider-like creature a bit smaller than the length of my body. However, its front two appendages were much closer to that of a praying mantis’ arms, and its mandibles were lined with razor sharp spines.

“Oh, damn it all—!”

It shot downward with great speed and I had to throw myself onto the floor just to miss getting crushed by the thing. In an attempt to unholster one of my revolvers, I dropped it, and it went clattering across the floor.

Ah, this shit ain’t fun no more! But I still have one more—

The second attempt to produce my weapon was met with a similarly pathetic result, the creature swiping at me and knocking the other six shooter in the direction of the stairs.

“Supporter, a little help, please!?” Unarmed, I looked to Archie for assistance.

“Supporters are prohibited from interfering in combat instances, Jiro.”

“YOU WHAT!?”

Above the arachnid was a digital nameplate that read ‘Polymorphic Spider’, and when faced with the creature, my mind went blank as fear and the clicking sound overwhelmed my senses.

DAMN IT, what do I do!?

What do I do, what do I do!?

Though I knew it wouldn’t spell the end of my life, I thought of the people waiting outside and the one upstairs. The same would not be true for them if I failed. And yet I was the one cowering in fear with the means to fight, something they didn’t have…

The means…

“Your weapons, Jiro. Collecting them would be a wise course of action, yes?”

“Right!” I dove to the floor, attempting to reach for one of my revolvers, as the polymorph slammed its spiny arms into the wooden planks where I was previously standing.

I felt the smooth mahogany in my fingertips, and—from my back—I fired several rounds into the center of the bug until the chamber was empty. It howled in pain, stepping back slightly. However, I failed to land a killing blow, and it charged while I fumbled to reload with some extras from my bandolier.

The spider prepared to skewer me where I lay, my failure imminent, but I heard several shots ring out as the thing’s attention was pulled away. Standing at the bottom of the stairs was the young woman, holding my other revolver in her shaking hand.

“Leave him alone, you awful thing!”

Her brave demeanor betrayed her trembling body, overcoming her obvious fear of the monster. However…

“No, wait, MISS—!” I tried to call out, but the spider shot forward, violently tossing her aside.

I clenched my fist in anger as I finished reloading, and stood to my feet.

“Take this, bastard!!” I fired one round, and it turned to me, hunger in its emerald gaze. I fired another, and then another as it slowed down.

It lunged at me, and I rolled out of harm’s way, firing once more, and watched as the creature fell to the ground, screeching as it did. As it inched towards me, I pointed my revolver downward, a stern look in my eyes.

“Now… stay down, forever.” I fired between its four eyes, splattering black liquid across my face.

With one final cry, its movements ceased, and the threat was over. I had won, but I hadn’t the time for relief. Archie flew over to check on the young woman, and I quickly joined him.

“Miss, hey miss, look at me!” I scooped up the young woman in my arms, her body was cold and limp as her eyes fluttered open. There was another large gash next to the previous one on her chest.

“Archie?”

“I am afraid there is nothing we can do, Jiro.”

I gritted my teeth.

“I thought I told you to stay upstairs, so why…”

Why did you save me?

“It was… for my son’s sake, and my own.” She replied. “You know, I left him early, my little Ryo. A fever, and then I woke up here like my husband and I planned. But my son and sister joined me after only two… more years. A car accident.”

‘A car accident’, she says. Surely it couldn’t be…? No, of course not. That would be just a little too ironic for my taste.

“Bittersweet as it was, I was happy to see them again, but…”

“But?” I continued to listen to what I knew were to be the young woman's final words.

“But this place… it’s all wrong. I’m not… me… anymore. My soul is… far away.” She looked at her hands, her fingertips blackening slowly. “Mister, I have… one final request.”

“Anything.” I said without thinking.

“You should have… one more round left.” She guessed correctly. “Please use it…”

I saw her lips move with the last three words of her request, but my brain didn’t quite process it.

“Huh?”

“Please use it to end me.”