Welcome to a very dark story of mine, suitably thought up in the late hours of the day. Honestly, I don't know what prompted this idea but I like it. I really like it :P I guess the inspiration for this came from the Doodle Devil app soundtrack and two songs called "Doomsday" and "Save Me", both by a band called Globus. I recommend listening to those three before reading this.

I also need conformation that this fits in with the T rating. I'm not completely sure so some advice would be helpful :)

Edit 31.08.13: Added and removed a few sentences in the last section, hopefully it's more coherent.

2.09.13: Corrected a few tense issues.

Enjoy.

VanguardShores

Chapter 1 - The Damned

I only saw darkness before, now a small glimmer of reddish light sparked from the depths. It's growing bigger and bigger, the crimson light is blinding me but I'm starting to hear low whispers. I can't tell what they are saying but a sense of dread and despair is filling my chest; they're tormenting me, I can feel it. I'm sucked into this bright light and all I see is anguish and torture; great burning chasms filled with horrendous creatures trying to claw their way out. I sense no danger from them, only desperation, an unimaginable need to escape this flaming purgatory. Great cries and wails of lost hope, paranoia, desperation, pain and anguish reverberated through the sweltering sulphur filled air.

Everywhere I look there are soulless creatures trying their hardest to escape their own personal dooms. The landscape stretches on into the horizon, eternal tortures of every shape and form, decorated with strange foreboding symbols and human bones. Even the menacing markings seemed to radiant their own evil, as if they are alive. A great fireball lit up the orange sky, but it's far from the sun I'm used to. It never seems to rise or set, only pounding down the scorched earth and crumbling it beneath my feet. Ash and black smoke floats almost elegantly into the dry air. Almost. They are swirling around with glowing embers, clogging and choking anyone, or anything that breaths it in. I swear the smoke and cinders momentarily formed a skull-shape in the air. Demented shrieking laughter sounded throughout the wretched land, piercing every veil of consciousness. I shrink back in ever growing panic, a dire need to find an exit. A conflict of Fight or Flight rages in my mind, and Flight won.

Suddenly I'm being transported to a dark inky nether. The deep purple and silver clouds swirling and dancing overhead, like paint in water. I want to call it beautiful, if not for the river of red that flowed through it. Beneath the undulating surface I see skulls bob in the blood, eyeless sockets staring out blankly into nothingness. But even so I sense a type of plead and helplessness in their expressions, subtle and utterly disturbing. Impossibly tall spires of amethyst razor rock are standing imposingly on the either side of the sanguine river. Old tarnished pictures in frames, shattered time pieces, broken rings, tattered & torn wedding dresses and other precious things are slowly twirling all around the spires. I know they must be what's left of crippled dreams, cut short by cruel circumstances. As soon as I arrive at the towers I'm forced to leave, back to the planes of suffering & martyrdom. It hit me all of a sudden: these hopeless beasts in their pits of damnation were once human, a person like me.

I have to escape, I need to get out of this place I can only describe as hell. Something grabs and pulls my ankle, I look down and see a clawed bony hand, gripping my flesh. Panic fills every part of my being until I saw the face of the thing that grabbed me, she seems awfully & gut wrenchingly familiar. No hair, no eyes, no lips, but I can tell it was female. Her decimated blackened chest heaves with torment, trying to breathe in the death-bearing air as though it is oxygen.

"Help me...help me...hel-"

The sound of horrifying wheezing whispers can be heard through the crashes of tumbling stone and crushed spirits. My eyes widen. I know her! I know her voice! But before I can respond, I'm pulled through the hellish red light, and back into the unsighted void.

"Sniper! Sniper calm down! You're safe, you're safe now! Come back, please!" Scout held on for dear life to Sniper's torso whilst restraining his flailing arms, scared of the marksman's actions. He's never seen anyone like this in his life, this completely terrified him.

He was begging Sniper to come back to him, to calm down. Sniper himself was screaming bloody murder, desperately trying to get away from...something. Despite the knife wound to his back, he was still had strength. His wiry frame and put up an incredible fight. He wasn't calming down. He needed medical care and Medic was far away, helping the team on the other side of Colfront.

"Get away! I've seen it! No no no there's nothin' there!" Sniper shrieked, threatening to tear his vocal cords. Seeing no other option, Scout frantically clasped the nearest blunt object near him, his trusty bat, and briefly conked Sniper on the head. Instantly Sniper became limp, appendages falling as though a puppeteer had cut their strings. Stunned by the new found silence Scout wrapped his arms around the unconscious sharpshooter to preserve heat, tears flowing down his cold-blushed cheeks. Kneeling in the huge pool of Sniper's blood were of little concern to Scout, as it began to solidify in the frigid weather. A morbid picture of a fallen angel and his saviour in a halo of blood.

"Sweet Jesus, what happened to you Snipes? How come didn't you die 'n' come back like the rest of us? What did'ya see?"

Drop a review if you'd like; I'd love to hear what you have to say :3