Streetlamps blurred into yellow smears before fading away. Was he lying down? His head felt heavy. Warm. Wet. He tried to lift it, but something dragged it down. Somewhere far away, oil hissed on a flat-top, and a burning smell hit his nose.
But that was hours ago...
His fingers twitched. At least he thought so. It was difficult to tell where his body began and ended. There was a faint noise in the dark, like steady drips of water. Kayo knew it came from the back of his head, but had no strength to lift an arm. The dripping quickened, confusion turning into panic and back to confusion again, until the sound rushed like a violent flood. The liquid slowly filled the void around him, but now, he was not alone.
There was a presence in the dark water, stirring up currents as it moved. Gargantuan, unfathomably so, as it circled him, measured him, studied him. A thousand unseen eyes burned into his skin from all directions. He thought of the ocean itself taking a notice of him, but this was unquestionably older, more vast than any void.
He reached out, hopeless and suffocating, for someone, anyone to help him. Something pushed into his thoughts. A pressure his mind twisted into but one word: THRIVE.
All of his muscles began to ache, a subtle hint that he was alive again. He could feel the coarse, damp sand beneath him slowly make way into his consciousness as the waves surrounded him before waning again.
Water… And sand?
He tried to get up, but his attempts were rewarded only with splitting headaches. Thus, he eventually gave it a rest. He lay there for what felt like several hours, the only company being the sound of the rising tide and squawking of the seabirds in the evening dim light. In its own way, it was kind of tranquil. But then came the cold. A chilling breeze found its way underneath his soaked hoodie and pants. In an effort to either warm up or get out of there, Kayo resorted to crawling, slowly and clumsily, like he'd forgotten all about how his own body worked.
After what felt like hours of exhausting toil, he could hear sounds unlike the nature around. Footsteps. Distant, but slowly approaching. Too weak to even move by now, Kayo's consciousness began to fade once again. In-between complete blackouts, he realized he was being dragged. Where or for how long, he could not tell. Likewise, he couldn't make out the figure responsible. Its… hand? was spindly but strong, to the point Kayo was shocked his leg hadn't been crushed to dust yet.
Please don't eat me…
He thought before losing consciousness again, a combination of the exhaustion and repeated head-bashing over occasional rocks in the sand.
When he came to, he found himself in a cavernous opening, strung up with tendons around his arms. Not his tendons, thankfully. As his body slowly woke up, Kayo began to squirm in disgust. The smell. Oh, the smell. It hit him like a gut punch, the combination of rot, brine, and a distinct, foul, metallic smell coating the far corner, where something slumped in a heap he could not bring himself to look at. He gagged, but choked on nothing. The cords around his wrists stretched, but did not give.
Okay. Not dead. Yet. Probably. I hope. At least.
He tried twisting himself free. Bad idea. The tendons tightened as if it were a warning shot. Searing pain jolted through his arms, visceral like razorwires digging into his flesh.
Hissing through his teeth, he hung limp for a while, letting the pain fade into a dull throb. He inspected his wrist once the tendons slacked a little.
No injuries… But holy shit! That felt like my hand was gonna be cut off!
Seems like whatever trapped me here can't afford to wound its prey too much. Fair, it's very damp.
Fortunately for him, that meant he had a chance of escape. All he had to do was endure the pain… Easier said than done.
Alright. You've been through worse, you can do it.
He lied, trying to coerce himself into finding untapped courage. He braced himself against the wall and then pulled.
Agony shot up his arms like his muscles were lined with barbed wire. His vision flashed into white, but he kept going. Millimeter by millimeter, inch by inch, until the cords began to creak. But they didn't give out. Kayo did, almost fainting again from the intense, red-hot pain. He had lost all motivation to try again. It was too much.
• • •
Kayo sagged, hopeless and unmoving, his vision still pulsing as well as his muscles. He let his head fall forward, chest heaving. The air had a taste now, too. Rust, moss, and dead things. Something shifted in the darkness beyond the visible tunnel entrance. A scrapy, dragging shuffle, the sound of something large being reeled in a direction.
Reeled…?
Kayo listened intently, then gazed upon his bindings again. He thought of his past life, of moments with his father, with whom he would often go fishing as a small child. He was never into it, but he didn't hate it either.
Well, you're gonna have to fight this fish!
Bracing himself again, he yanked at the cords as hard as he could. The pain, as searing and powerful as it was, was nothing in front of his will to survive. He bit the collar of his still-wet hoodie. When the resistance felt at its strongest, he slacked, but never let go completely. Then he pulled again, and let go again, going on and on. With each subsequent pull, the tendons felt like they were giving out slowly, when at last- POP!
A disgusting, fleshy ripping sound flew out of the dreaded tentacle as it gave in considerably further.
Yes! It's working!
Unfortunately, celebrations could not last long. The dragging sound from the tunnel ceased, and in its place, the sound of heavy, annoyed footsteps approached.
SHIT-
Kayo, panicked, yanked on the loose tendon with all his might, managing to free his right hand. Juiced up on so much adrenaline that the pain felt more like unpleasant itching, he ripped the other half off his left hand as well.
When he turned around to make his escape, it was far too late. The spindly thing, that which undoubtedly dragged him here to begin with, towered over the exit like a goalkeeper. Its four legs covered the hole, and with it any hope of slipping past. Its skin was rubbery, hairless and tight, like it was wearing the hide of something far smaller than itself. But the scariest part was its face. It looked way too human for something that looked so alien. Its eyes were sunken deep into their sockets, and the lips, or rather the lack thereof, looked like they've been ripped off a long time ago. Otherwise, it could pass for a person.
A chattering noise escaped from its maw, the kind you would hear from a parrot trying to vocalize.
Kayo did not wait around to see what would happen. Still adrenaline-poisoned, he rushed forward and, like a lasso, wrapped the non-snapped end of the agony tendon around the creature's neck and tightened it. While it was writhing in pain, screaming like a death whistle and trying to force it off, Kayo took the opportunity to run. But he didn't run for long. Soon enough, he found himself at a crossroad.
Left, right, left, right, left… God damnit!
Trusting his instinct of 'right is always right', he made a sharp turn and ran until the screaming slowly faded into the distance.