Silence-
A void of sound in the subterranean abyss. Then—rupture. An unseen seam rends the fabric of reality, spilling forth an entity of pure instinct and hunger.
It pools on the cavern floor, formless and blind. No memory. No self. Only need. A ripple of oily shadow skitters over jagged rock, drawn to a faint warmth pulsing in the gloom.
It flows forward, spreading like viscous oil. Slick tendrils probe ahead—contact: damp fur and torn flesh. A broken creature lies slumped against the cavern wall, a malformed predator on the verge of death. The parasite drives itself into the dying flesh with mindless urgency. Wet fur, hot blood—intoxicating.
Inside, darkness is thicker, stifling. It floods the body's hollow channels and seeps between shattered bones. The predator's feeble heartbeat flutters against the parasite's coils. Thump… thump… It wraps around the heart and squeezes. The feeble organ convulses, then shudders back to life—now beating to a new rhythm.
Muscle and sinew knit. Broken limbs jerk as alien energy floods them. A cracked spine snaps straight with a wet pop. The predator's glazed eyes fly open.
Sight. Faint bioluminescent fungi glimmer on the cave walls, painting the blackness in hues of gray-blue. Jagged stone pillars claw up from the floor. Puddles shine with reflected glow.
It drags in a breath through the host's lungs—cold, earthy air laced with rot. Smell. Blood (the host's own), damp lichen, and… something else. A tang of fear.
A subtle scuff of claws on stone. The parasite twists the host's ears toward the sound. There—just beyond a column of rock—another heartbeat, racing. Prey. Its borrowed lips curl, drool mixing with gore. Hunger surges, volatile and demanding.
It lurches to its feet: one unsteady step, then another. The host's body is ungainly, unfamiliar. Balance is elusive; each movement comes in jolting spasms. The head tilts at an unnatural angle as it sniffs the air. The prey is close.
Ragged talons scrape the rock as it staggers forward. The cavern remains deathly silent except for the wet drag of the host's heavy tail and the crack of stiff joints. It moves slowly, drawn inexorably toward that fluttering heartbeat in the dark.
Behind a curtain of spiked stone, another creature watches. It sinks low to the ground, belly pressed to cold rock, six limbs splayed and trembling with tension.
The air changed moments ago—a sickly-sweet stench that made its fur prickle. The creature had followed the metallic smell of blood to this cavern and found the great predator's body broken on the floor. One less terror in the tunnels… or so it thought. But now that corpse moves. Wrong. Wrong.
Its ears flatten as the hulking shape jerks upright in twitching fits. No breath, no snarl—just a terrible silence. Two pale eyes gleam under the faint fungus-light, rolling blindly before fixing with vacant hunger. The watching creature's tongue flicks out to taste the air. The predator smells of death… and something foul that sets every instinct screaming.
Pebbles skitter as the predator-thing shambles nearer. The watcher inches back, deeper into shadow. Its heart drums against its ribs, urging it to run, yet it holds still. The monster's movements are erratic, halting—perhaps it has not yet seen it.
Dark-adapted eyes follow the predator's slow circuit around the chamber. A hunt—but the gait is all wrong, legs jerking in unnatural twitches. Ropes of saliva hang from the creature's slack jaws. The watcher bares its fangs in a soundless snarl of fear. This is no foe it understands. This is not right.
A single drop of water falls from the ceiling with a soft plink. The predator's head whips toward the sound, faster than any living thing should move. The watcher recoils. In that instant, it sees the abomination clearly: bones bulging against mangled skin, a gaping chest wound that writhes as if something inside is alive. The great beast it once feared is now a shambling corpse driven by an unknown horror.
A chill settles in the watcher's blood. It should be dead. And yet it moves.
The predator-thing sniffs the air and turns slowly, inexorably, until its milky eyes stare directly into the watcher's hideaway. A jolt of terror shoots through the smaller beast. It has been found.
The abomination takes a lumbering step closer, then another, limbs scraping on stone as it closes the circle. The watcher presses itself tighter to the ground, desperate to disappear into the rock. Its muscles coil, ready to burst into a sprint… but it hesitates, trapped between terror and the instinct to flee.
All is deathly quiet. The only sound is the thud of the watcher's heart in its ears. The predator-thing is mere yards away now, head tilted oddly, eyes locked on the dark corner. It does not pounce—not yet. It studies its prey with that corpse-grin, drool pattering on the stone.
The watcher's vision blurs at the edges, every nerve screaming. Run. Run. But if it runs, the thing will chase. If it stays, the thing will kill.
A claw slips on the rock as the watcher shifts ever so slightly. Scrape. The tiny sound echoes like a thunderclap in the silence. The creature's breath stalls.
The dead predator jerks at the noise, a sudden twitch forward that freezes the watcher in place. A wet, rattling hiss escapes the thing's throat—impatient, eager. In the dim glow, the watcher glimpses something pulsing at the back of the creature's gullet, a slick mass coiling behind its teeth. Its stomach lurches. Danger!
The watcher knows it cannot wait longer. Terror detonates into raw survival instinct. In a blur of motion, it sprints from behind the pillar, dirt and gravel kicking up under its claws. A piercing shriek rips from its throat as it bolts toward a narrow tunnel mouth. The silence of the cavern shatters.
Behind it, the predator-thing hurtles after the fleeing animal, gaining speed with each ungainly stride. It emits no roar, no snarl—only the frenzied scrape of clawed limbs on stone.
The tunnel walls blur past the watcher. It plunges into lightless passageways, lungs burning, heart pounding out of rhythm. It does not slow—cannot slow. The unknown darkness ahead is safer than the monstrosity at its heels.
Muscles aching, the creature pushes itself faster. Still, the sounds of pursuit reverberate off the tunnel walls, relentless and hungry.
No thoughts—only terror, the primal will to survive. The smaller creature hurtles deeper into the lightless guts of the earth, the horror