The Pale: Volume One, Jacob Long [best beach reads TXT] 📗

In that moment, Adam suddenly became very aware of how naked he was. It felt funny. There was no air temperature in that space. Would the monster want to fight a naked guy? The thing was naked, too, he supposed. Maybe they were both animals.

With no reason to hesitate, Adam gritted his teeth once again and bounded forward, jumping and clearing the gap of the trench. The creature sprinted for Adam. The broad sweeping of its arms gave it great speed. It charged with the intent of pouncing on Adam, but Adam jumped high over its head, and the animal simply tumbled into the chasm, squealing all the way down.

When Adam landed back on the ground, he looked coyly over his shoulder at the hole and smiled. “Dumb monster,” he quipped.

Adam bothered to mosey over to the trench and take a gander at the damage. When he leaned over the hole, the creature was already on its way back up. It sprung up from the ground and grabbed Adam’s head. Adam only managed one sharp breath in surprise. The creature dragged Adam down, and they both fell. Adam slapped onto the ground like a fish while the creature landed steadily. Not done yet, the creature retained its grasp of Adam’s skull in its impressive mitts and swung Adam over its head like a ragdoll, slamming the man onto the floor all at once.

Adam’s whole body hurt. It felt like he’d been hit by a train, especially the surface of Adam’s skin. For some reason being body-slammed naked felt so much worse.

Adam still had the will to move and tried to, but the creature grabbed him by his big head again and flipped him over lengthwise in one clean jerk. It stressed Adam’s neck muscles, and he smacked his head upon landing.

Adam groaned and held his head. The pain was incredible all over his body. He didn’t know if fractures were actually possible in the ethereal realm, but if they were, he definitely had one.

While Adam was busy feeling sorry for himself, the creature moved closer and crawled over Adam’s prostrate body on its knuckles like an ape. It sat its heavy body on Adam’s thighs and took hold of Adam’s head again, pulling him closer to its face.

Adam tried to pull the creature’s massive mitts off his temples with his hands but to no avail. The creature was incredibly strong. As their two faces grew closer, the creature’s disgusting mouth opened, and it breathed rancid breath into Adam’s face.

Adam’s heart immediately felt like it was trying to escape his ribcage. His deep primal fear of being eaten took hold. His muscles tensed, his hair stood on end, and time seemed to slow.

The ritual the creature was actually performing was not so simple. A warm feeling crawled up Adam’s throat and erupted from his mouth in the form of a stream of green energy. Adam began to feel increasingly weak and disoriented. He tried to choke and gag to stop the flow, but he couldn’t. Finally, in a feat of primal strength, Adam bucked his hips, bouncing the creature from its steady perch. The exchange of energy ceased immediately. Adam then grabbed the creature by the waist and tossed it to the side. The creature pitched into the wall of the trench, smacking its head.

Adam scurried backward and hopped to his feet. With distance between him and his predator, he had two choices, fight or flight. He chose flight. He turned to the wall and jumped, scrabbling for the ledge, but without a running start, he didn’t reach it. The creature lay sprawled on the floor but was getting to its feet. Its awkward anatomy made the task difficult.

Not wanting to cross the creature’s path to get to the exit, Adam jumped to the opposite wall. He kicked off it with one foot and achieved the height he needed. His hands clasped the ledge, and Adam started pulling himself up, but it proved far more difficult than the first time. His body ached. It was a pain unlike any he had felt before. It didn’t seem to have source or vary in intensity from area to area, and it didn’t ebb or flow. It simply hurt. It made Adam’s every action laborious.

Adam managed to pull himself up to the lip of the trench and slough his body over the top. He lay on the smooth stone, panting. He knew he couldn’t stay there. He knew he had to move, but some part of him just felt so resigned. Then the gruesome clawed digits of the creature appeared on the ledge to snap Adam out of that fatal mind-set. They latched onto the edge with a prominent, rapid, clicking sound that made Adam twitch and snap his head over to see. His eyes nearly bugged out of his skull at the sight, and he rolled over onto one knee. He slipped his fingers under the digits of one of the creature’s paws and pushed it off. Being left hanging from the ledge with just one paw, the creature’s plans for reaching the top were foiled. Before the creature could regain his hold with the other arm, Adam sprang to his feet and stomped on the remaining paw. The creature yelped and released its hold, falling back down into the trench below.

Not wanting to be caught unprepared again, Adam edged to the lip of the chasm and peered down to ascertain the disposition of the monster. It appeared to have landed on its feet, supplementing its short legs by steadying itself with its arms. The creature recovered quickly and leaped once again. The leap was mightier than the first. It wasn’t after the ledge; it was after Adam. It held its arms above its head to embrace its prey in a grip of death, nightmarish teeth bared and ready to tear flesh.

Thinking quickly, Adam extended one foot out and stomped it into the face of the creature as hard as he could. If he could leap a dozen feet into the air, he figured he had to have one hell of a kick. Sure enough, the creature’s momentum was completely reversed, and it fell back to the ground. It landed ungracefully and sprawling. It spread its massive jowls and roared angrily. Adam could feel the intensity of its frustration in his bones.

Stubbornly, the monster pushed itself back to its feet, pounding a fist on the ground. It gazed fearsomely up at the soldier above it and then jumped again. Adam simply reached his foot out and kicked it back down. The monster certainly didn’t appear to be too bright. At least Adam was winning. He wondered how long he would have to deny the thing before it gave up.

The creature landed back in the trench, seemingly more outraged than ever. It recovered and jumped right back up. It didn’t even bother extending its arms to grab its quarry. It simply launched itself into the air with its mighty stubby legs, face-first like a penguin diving into the ocean. Adam extended his leg to kick it back down, but instead, the monster opened its freakish jaws and caught the foot with its flesh-rending teeth! The monster allowed itself to fall back into the trench, pulling Adam’s foot with it. Adam was yanked off his remaining foot, and the weight of the creature dragged him off the edge of the chasm. Adam screamed in pain and fear. Panicking, Adam twisted his body and caught the ledge with his hands. Miraculously, he supported both his weight and the weight of the creature, but the creature still had its maw clamped onto Adam’s foot. It dangled there like a fish on a hook. The teeth shredded the flesh on Adam’s foot, and blood bubbled out of the gaping wounds, trickling onto the ravenous creature’s face and into its gruesome mouth.

The pain! Again, the pain! It flooded Adam’s body, not just from his mangled foot but from the roots of his hair to the tips of his fingers. The unyielding alien torment felt like electricity crawling through his nerves.

Adam kicked at the face of his determined nemesis with his free foot. He had to get it off. He had to do anything to stop the pain. Adam stomped again and again, each time more powerful than the last. He grunted louder and louder from the exertion until they became furious shouts. The creature’s skin broke, and dark-red blood oozed from the ruptures, but the stubborn, hungry monster held its grip. Finally, with one last mighty strike, Adam drove his heel into the slits where the creature’s nose should have been, and the monster fell, shrieking back into the pit.

Hastily, Adam clambered out of the trench and crawled away from the brink on all fours. His left foot smeared a trail of blood on the floor behind him. Panting, trembling from the pain, Adam collected himself. It wouldn’t be long before the monster recovered and renewed its pursuit. Adam knew that. The “thing” was too strong and entirely too committed. He had to escape it. To hell with learning about his new existence. To hell with being the champion of the Wheel of Fate. He wanted to live, and fighting that thing would get him killed, again!

Adam raised his head and peered at the area ahead of him. The peculiar golden gate stood a few dozen yards ahead, sturdy and gleaming with the towering walls on either side. It was perfect. Even if the creature could open the gate or scale the walls, Adam could lose the creature in the mist. He could even maneuver around and perhaps catch the creature by surprise.

Adam sprinted forward. At first, he favored his left foot, limping as fast he could, but it was pointless. The pain wasn’t localized. It didn’t feel like the foot was the source of the pain, and putting weight on it didn’t exacerbate the injury the way it should have. Adam quickly abandoned the posture and ran ahead properly. He reached the gate and turned back to see if he was being pursued. The creature didn’t even appear to have recovered from its last fall by then. It hadn’t climbed out of the trench.

Smirking, Adam turned away and made to cross the threshold, but something gave him pause. The moment he gazed upon the mist, he froze. He couldn’t have explained it if he tried, but the mist possessed an eerie quality Adam was having trouble accepting. Standing just before the threshold, it felt as if a deep cold were radiating from the vapor, like the chill that can be felt from a solid block of ice even when the hand is held just short of touching. Adam considered his nudity and weighed the possibility of him being able to tolerate what the chill portended. Even the coloring of the mist was odd. The droplets that hung in the air were tinged a sickly color just short of natural. A person not paying close attention could have easily missed it, but still, to Adam it felt like it was screaming in his face. He felt like he wasn’t supposed to go in there. He wondered if it was supposed to be like a marker for the bounds of that space, the same way a video game would place an impassable obstacle to limit a player’s advance.

Adam turned his head to check on the creature’s progress once more. Luckily, it still hadn’t emerged from the pit. He couldn’t risk it. Adam slipped through the opening of the gate and pulled it shut behind him, dropping the latch into place. The gate wasn’t well secured. The latch was available on both sides and had no method of locking, but it was possible the creature wasn’t smart enough to understand that concept. Adam pivoted from the gate and stepped into the mist.

Despite living in California his entire life, Adam had known cold. When he was shipped to Fort Benning just as fall was coming to a close, he got a crash course in what the drill sergeants called “cold weather training.” Then the years he spent at Fort Lewis and two deployments to Afghanistan furthered his education. The cold he felt in that pale mist was different. It felt tangible, like languid fingertips made of ice and ill will traced seductive lines on whatever skin it could access. Adam wrapped his arms around himself and walked with choppy steps while his eyes scanned the mist for threats. There appeared to be none. No malignant specter emerged to steal his exposed soul. No shapes darted about in the mist.

Adam’s teeth started chattering. He quickly realized that he didn’t have to worry about the creature chasing him. No one in their right mind would willingly reenter that place. He was foolish to have tried. He turned and went to head back the way he came but stopped short. The gate was nowhere to be seen. There was only a wall of the obscuring mist and darkness beyond. It was impossible. Adam didn’t think he’d gone that far, and the mist didn’t even appear