December
16, 1889, over the deserts of Arizona. Using Dr. Jeter’s airship, Elizabeth
Wells and Dorian Gardner had escaped the Archangel and the massacre of Los
Valle. They set out for the wilderness, chasing rumors of cracks within the
universe itself. Perhaps, Elizabeth had hoped, she could escape the past the
same way she had been thrown into it, falling once more into the void. Neither
Dorian or Doc were told of her intention to try to travel through the crack,
only knowing that it somehow represented a means to escape the impossible
monsters pursuing them. The skeleton crew manning the airship didn’t even know
that much. None were prepared for what was to come.
Elizabeth
and Dorian spent much of the trip in each other’s company. Seeing the
destruction of the town that had been like a home had affected both deeply.
Elizabeth made herself hide her grief, displaying only a front of confidence.
She thought that no one saw through the mask, but….
“Elizabeth?”
Dorian said as they waited in the yet unfurnished passenger room.
“Yeah?”
She said.
“Everything’s
going to be fine, right?”
“Of
course it is.”
Did
his stare linger a moment too long? Did he see the lie for what it was? That
doubt didn’t have time to settle in Elizabeth’s mind before she felt a familiar
chill swell over her body. She leaped into motion, running through the airship
as Dorian followed. Into the engine room, where waiting for them was the
Slender Man.
The
monster looked out of place amongst the chaotic machinery of the room. Its face
pure white and featureless, its black suit without wrinkle. Lying at its feet
were the eviscerated bodies of the crew who had been manning the room.
“How
did it get in here?” Dorian asked, but Elizabeth offered no answer. “It can
appear anywhere it wishes” is not the most confidence inspiring response one
can say, after all.
Rashly,
Dorian pulled out his revolver and fired at the faceless creature. His aim was
true, but the bullets had no effect, vanishing into the Slender Man without
creating so much as a ripple in the suit.
In
response, it lifted its unnaturally long arms to either side. Its hands morphed
into tentacles as dozens other tentacles grew out of its back. Those tentacles
began to destroy the room, each swing cutting clean through the metal machinery.
Elizabeth
knew the monster’s intent in an instant. “Oh the fucking humanity,” she
muttered as she grabbed Dorian’s arm and ran out of the room. She knew enough
of her history (or of the future, given the time period she was in) to
understand that running wouldn’t save them from the explosion. But she had
never been the type to stand passively by as death came.
The
helium gas flying the airship erupted, creating an inferno which utterly
destroyed it. Anyone still onboard died in moments. That’s where it could have
ended, with Elizabeth and Dorian burnt alive. And in an infinite universes, it
did end there. But in this universe, there were forces apart from the Slender
Man at work. As the explosion was spreading, black creatures flew to the
airship. Black, leathery skin, with horned faceless heads, and bat like wings
which made no noise: Night Gaunts. Before the blast could reach Elizabeth and
Dorian, the night gaunts flew through the airship’s frame and grabbed the two
humans. Both had been rendered unconscious by the explosion.
The
night gaunts had only begun to fly away with their passengers when another
explosion tore the airship in two. The Slender Man stood atop the falling
wreckage, surrounded by the flames. It pointed an arm towards Elizabeth, and a
tentacle speared out from it. She would have been impaled, had a night gaunt
not flown in the way and taken the attack instead.
The
two night gaunts carrying Elizabeth and Dorian continued flying on, but the
remaining dozens turned and flew back to confront the Slender Man. As they
neared, it tilted its head to the side, and black hands rose out of the flames
around it. The hands ripped apart the night gaunts as they flew close. Not one
made it near the Slender Man alive.
But
the two night gaunts with human passengers had used the time to fly away from
the burning wreckage and the Slender Man. They flew across the desert, taking
paths no mortal creature had traveled in millennia. Beyond the world of
mankind, and into the twisted realms beyond.
Their
destination was a mountain, larger than any seen by man. At the side of the
mountain was an ebon door, which opened as the night gaunts approached. They
dropped the two humans inside the cavern beyond, and then flew away. As the
night gaunts left, the door closed, trapping the humans inside.
Elizabeth
was the first to regain consciousness, followed shortly by Dorian. “Where are
we?” He asked. “How did we get here?”
It
didn’t take long for Elizabeth to survey the surroundings. They were in a cave
stretching into the mountain. A light could be seen ahead, coming from beyond a
twist in the passage. “No idea.” She replied. “Let’s go find out.”
Down
this corridor they walked, until they reached the end. It was another door,
carved out of the mountain’s stone, and sealed shut with massive chains. On the
door was a glowing sigil, which had been the source of light they’d followed.
Looking at the sigil strained the eyes of the human observers, for it seemed to
somehow be both a five pointed star with an eye in the center and a branch at
the same time. Dorian moved to touch the door, but was stopped by Elizabeth.
“Don’t.”
She said. “See that symbol there? It’s a kind of ward. Whatever’s behind that
door, it’s best that it stays behind it.”
But
it was not the door which drew Elizabeth’s attention. On a wall of the cave,
seeming at first no different than any other wall, a tiny crack had appeared on
the stone. The crack was small, smaller than her hand, but behind it was
nothingness. This was the crack in reality which she had been seeking.
Elizabeth
reached to touch the crack. The ground violently shook, throwing her and Dorian
off their feet. The shaking grew in intensity, until the top of the cavern was
torn away, letting in the sky’s light. The Slender Man stood in the air, its
tentacles cleaving the top of the mountain off.
The
destruction of the mountain, however, had damaged the seal on the door. A roar
echoed from behind it, followed by the ground once more shaking. The door was
torn open by a clawed yellow paw, alone twice the size of Elizabeth. The walls
cracked as the rest of the creature forced its way through, smashing its way
into the light. The monster was a grotesque creature, its multiple heads
covered in eyes and convulsing appendages along its back. Dorian screamed in
instinctual terror at the sight, and even Elizabeth stumbled away from the
unnaturally shrieking roar it had.
That
roar was silenced when hundreds of the Slender Man’s tentacles shot downwards
and pierced the monster. It cried in inhuman pain, but couldn’t struggle free
from the Slender Man’s grip. The tentacles lifted it into the air on level with
the Slender Man. Its blank face looked over the struggling creature for a time,
then in a sudden motion, the tentacles tore the monster apart.
Dorian
was enraptured by the sight of the incredible monster’s death, but Elizabeth’s
eyes had been drawn back to the crack. She realized it was growing; slowly
expanding to the size of her arm, then two arms widths wide, the cracks
spreading from beyond the wall onto the ground.
Her
attention was so focused on the growing crack that she didn’t turn from it even
when the Slender Man vanished from the sky and appeared on the ground with
them. Her concentration was only broken when she felt a tentacle impale her
through her chest.
At
first the pain was dulled by surprise. But when the Slender Man flung her off
the tentacle into the air, it hit full force. Before she landed, more tentacles
grabbed her. Those wrapped around her legs began to pull, straining muscle and
bone until they tore. Both her legs were ripped off, and the rest of her body
thrown back to the ground. She was allowed to crawl a few inches before the
tentacles struck again, ripping off her right arm. Her attempts to scream came
only as choked gasps. Blood was flowing freely from her wounds, and her eyes
started to close as numbness spread through her body.
The
Slender Man seemed content to let her bleed to death, and in the calm, Dorian
ran to Elizabeth’s side. He held onto her, calling her name, but she was beyond
the point of replying; even breathing had become a challenge for her. In a rage
Dorian grabbed a stone for a weapon and charged at the Slender Man. He never
made it close: a tentacle slashed across his stomach, spilling his organs out
onto the floor. Dorian stood dumbfounded at the wound, unresponsive as a
tentacle wrapped around his neck. The Slender Man lifted him into the air and
then slammed him to the ground with such a force it broke his spine. Yet even
this was not enough for the Slender Man, and it tightened its grip around
Dorian’s neck, trying to crush out what little life was left in him.
That
delay proved a mistake for the Slender Man, for while it focused on killing
Dorian, the crack was growing faster. It was spreading across the floor, with
lines of nothingness appearing beneath Elizabeth. The Slender Man only noticed
when the cracks had reached its feet, and by then it was too late: the shard of
reality had begun to fall away into the void.
Elizabeth
dimly felt herself falling, falling from reality into emptiness. She was too
far gone to care about her surroundings; there was no more pain, only weakness
and cold.
But
then the emptiness was broken by a voice, a voice so familiar it broke
Elizabeth from her sleep.
“Lisa!”
Elizabeth
opened her eyes, searching the emptiness for the one who called her.
“Lisa!”
There,
falling toward her, was another woman. Long black hair, an eye patch over her
right eye, long brown coat….
“330!”
Elizabeth shouted, trying to draw back her strength.
Their
hands reached for each other, and for a brief second they touched. Then black
tentacles wrapped around I-330, and pulled her away. Elizabeth shouted, “330!”
again in desperation, but she was gone.
Still
Elizabeth reached out, desperately trying to think of a way she could help
I-330. She was in trouble, and Elizabeth had to do something….
“I’m
too weak….
I
can’t save her….
I
can’t even save myself….
If
I was just stronger….”
Deeper
into the void she fell. It began to consume her body, breaking it down into
nothing. The further she fell, the more she was consumed, until her entire body
was destroyed.
Yet
her soul was never taken by the Quiet. Something was waiting in the very depths
of the void, something which at the last moment saved her soul before its
destruction. For untold aeons it had waited for a soul such as this, one
perfect for its plans to remake the world. A new vessel would need be built for
this soul, not a fragile human body, but a perfect form, a weapon, designed to
take revenge on the gods.
The
thing waiting in the Quiet carefully crafted its new weapon, combining its own
essence with the very fabric of time and space. Human in appearance, but in
reality far, far more.
The
weapon was never to be completed. Before the finishing touches could be placed
upon it, a gate between the void and reality was torn open. The weapon was
pulled from the Quiet, back into the universe from which its soul had
originated.
And
on June 3, AD 2012 of the human calendar, the being known as I-330 opened its
eyes for the first time.
