[b]DAY 6: NOW THE CORPSES ARE BLEEDING ON FIRE, SCREAMING IN HIGHER, FOREVERMORE[/b]

She wandered in an endless void, in a realm devoid of ideas. But she was the creator, she could fill the nothingness with anything she had in mind. So she walked around, raising her hands and began to shape the empty abyss and slowly the place were getting filled with various things as she forged a world from nothing. Soon there was a starry sky like a dome above the land that was yet to be formed, dim but still better than blackness that it had replaced. Then there was earth with woods and rivers and plains, stretching far beyond. As a crown jewel of the fresh land, she created a castle, mighty and majestic, fitting for any king or queen. It rose from the ground like a sprout, ready to be used as a home for royalty. She stood at the courtyard that she had just crafted and looked around her, admiring her own work. She was very much satisfied with what she had just done and she was sure that the world she had just built would carry on its purpose perfectly.

There was one specific person she had had in mind while creating all this. Now she just had to wait for him to arrive. But time doesn't quite work in this patch of universe like it would in a mortal realm. Forever may be as quick as a blink of an eye and just a moment may last for centuries. This was not a problem for her for she was older than the universe.

It felt like she had been waiting for just an hour when the man arrived to this dimension. He had just appeared with a sprinkle of star dust, laying on the ground for a moment. The travel to this place must have felt disorientating and the woman knew that he had to take a second to let the confused state dissipate. However, he shortly recovered from the travel and raised his head, his body soon following. He looked around for a bit, realizing that this was not a familiar place to him. Then his gaze landed on the woman.

“Where am I?” he asked.

She had expected this question. “This is your home, a dwelling for your spirit.”

“Home, eh?” The man let his gaze wander around the courtyard once again. “I like this place.”

“I am pleased to know that.” The woman smiled a little. “I know that you were a mighty king in your previous life.”

“Oh, you are knowledgeable about that?” the man looked at the woman, grinning. “I was great, until I was killed by my own people.”

“You are worthy”, the woman said. “This is why I have forged you a new kingdom. You can rule it however you please.”

“Really?” the man seemed delighted by this response.

The woman nodded. “Now, do you want to lead peacefully or do you want to fulfill your dark desires?”

“I think you know me well enough to tell what my choice is”, the man replied.

Oh, she knew. She raised her hands to the air and with that motion, numerous pillars erupted from the ground, surrounding the courtyard. She made different movements with her hands and called forth people from other worlds. Purple mist appeared before the pillars and as it faded away, scrawny figures were now hanging from shackles in each pillar. They were tortured souls from other dimensions, beings that were famished but would never have food again. They were practically just skin and bones, wailing from their misfortune.

They could still bleed. With a snap of her fingers, the woman lit a fire around the doomed souls and the flames began to lick them as if they were on stake. They had done nothing to deserve a fate like this, but that just was how the things are, some may suffer while others are allowed to flourish. The poor souls were screaming in agony as the fire burned them relentlessly, scorching their skin, infiltrating into their bones. But there was no such thing as sweet relief of death, so they were sentenced to suffer for as long as the cruel king wanted. 

The woman offered the man a spear, black as night. The king took it happily, and immediately brought it into use. He would stab his victims, making them bleed on the fire, causing excruciating pain. The flames of torture didn't have any effect on him, so he could torment the poor souls without hurting himself in the process. He had always enjoyed to hurt others and had done really bad deeds during his life. It was what ultimately had caused his downfall. But in here, he had his little playground where he could do whatever he wanted.

With a smile on her face, the woman began to walk away. She had done it again, made another soul happy. Now, who would be next, who would deserve their darkest desires to come true?



[b]DAY 7: FUCKIN' KILL YOU AGAIN WHEN I SEE YOU IN HELL[/b]

Even at the end of the world, I still hold immense hate and vengeance in my heart. It is what keeps me going even though the land is breaking around me. I can see your figure in the distance, desperately trying to get away from the destruction. You think that the best bet is the mountain as it has stood there since the beginning of time. But I will get you, even if the world crashing around us won't.

The flame that came from the heavens has scorched the land black as coal. It touched everything with its destructive power, burning the trees, land, fields, our homes. Even the sun has been extinguished. Now the world is just a black wasteland. We who survived have been engulfed by despair, for we can't possibly live in this region. We can only wait for the inevitable death. It has been a couple of days since the flame destroyed the world, but today some other calamity started to take its place. The earth has started to shatter and getting torn apart, creating chasms everywhere, it's like they are rupturing the veins of the land. Golden lights are coming forth from these chasms and no one knows what they are. But they are destroying everything else that is still standing.

You are climbing the mountain slope as fast as you can, but I'm not far behind. You can't get away from what you have done. You killed my wife and children, it's a crime which I can't forgive. You took me everything I loved and now, the only thing I have left is revenge. Even if I die in process, I will make sure that you will pay. The crumbling of the world will not stop me. I have only one emotion left and that is wrath. They say it's a sin, but I don't care.

You glance back to see where I'm at. I can see the fear in your eyes as you notice my relentless efforts to catch up with you. You turn your gaze back to in front of you and you're anxiously trying to climb faster. A sudden earth's rupture next to you makes you falter a little bit, but you recover soon and keep going. You think there's some sort of safe place waiting for you, but from your movements I see that you're starting to lose your hope. I'm fine with that.

Then you make your final mistake. You try to grasp a piece of a rock in order to heave your body up, but it crumbles in your hand and you slide down slightly. That's exactly where I was waiting for you. You turn around just to face me and your eyes are full of terror. You lift your hands in front of your face as if that could protect you from my wrath. I raise my hammer, the keepsake of my father, and I bring it down, smacking your forehead with all my might. But I won't stop there and I keep pounding you with my weapon. I can hear your skull cracking, spurts of blood staining my hammer red. Soon you stop your futile fight against me as I keep damaging your skull. I let my rage guide me and I continue to make your face unrecognizable. In the end what's left of your head is just a bloody mess.

If it was in my power, I would still be out there beating your body. But ground disappeared beneath me and I fell to my death. I barely even felt anything as I was cast into the golden fires. Perhaps the world wanted to tell me that enough is enough. But it isn't when you have lost everything.

I woke up in a strange place. It was like a gorge of some sort. A rugged landscape was surrounding me. Was this heaven or hell? Doesn't really look like a nice place, though. Perhaps I bear too much hatred in my heart that I could be allowed to go to heaven. You probably are here as well. That means that I will kill you again when I see you in here.



[b]DAY 8: TIME NEVER WASHED MY BRAIN, IT JUST MADE IT MORE INFESTED[/b]

I have spent years in this place. I think I can call it my home. It has been my sanctuary ever since I left behind my previous life and got away from nasty people. I left it all in the past. One could say that I rose from the ashes like a phoenix. I'm not so sure about it, though. What I experienced left scars and sometimes, when your mind is in a dark place, bloody memories will infiltrate your head. They are not invited and they are hard to banish. We all have our weak moments and I thought that I had learned how to shut off bad memories.

I lived pretty happily for a while. My apartment was a warm and bright place and I didn't have be afraid anymore. I got few friends as well. It was kind of like my life had just started and I welcomed it wholeheartedly. I got a job, my head was stable, everything seemed to be fine. Maybe life made amends for me since I had such a rough start.

What I didn't realize was that in the deepest corner of my mind, there was a slumbering egg of malice, waiting to hatch. And it did that so insidiously, so the effects were easily missed. The good things happening in my life kept my eyes veiled so I couldn't see what was occurring. Cracks began to form, spilling bits of wickedness so gradually, all the while I was busy living my new and better life.

But I did start to notice things changing after months. I just shrugged and thought that I was just having bit of a rough phase, everyone has those. Everything was still going rather fine, so I didn't dwell in the bad feelings too much. What I failed to realize was that this was merely a prelude to an upcoming horror show. You see, when your mind has got touched by madness, it's impossible to weed it out. I just didn't understand that madness had ever managed to sneak into my head.

Seasons were changing but my life remained pretty much same. Though I had started to become more sad and apathetic, although I still had friends. My apartment began to look dull and cold; it was like I wasn't welcome anymore to my own home. Bad thoughts were spinning in my head, and I hated it, hoping that they would stop. But of course, they didn't. They have only grown stronger.

And I would only sink deeper and deeper into my personal hell. My apartment is decaying and withered, the wallpapers are torn, there's a colony of flies and cockroaches living in here. The windows are so dirty it's hard to look through them. But I don't want to see the outside world anyway. I'm sitting on my couch, my eyes fixated on TV that only shows static. My friends have abandoned me, I'm all alone in this world. Sometimes I look at my phone in hopes that somebody would remember my existence, but of course, something like that won't happen. After all, everyone is doing better without me.

I can hear a piercing sound in my head. It's irritating, it's like someone has struck an icepick at my skull. I'm starting to get a headache, and I squeeze my head between my hands. I can feel something skittering inside my mind, like I got bugs in my head. I start to scratch the sides of my head, I want it to stop. It's all so painful, I hate it, I hate it! I scratch even harder, the sides of my head are bleeding. I let out a scream and I fall down to the couch. I curl up in a fetal position and whimper.

I'm just another victim to madness, it has infested my rotten brain. I see no exit, no escape. I don't know what to do.

Somebody please help me.



[b]DAY 9: IT'S OKAY TO GET STARTLED AND BE AFRAID OF THE DARK[/b]

They woke up in a strange world. Looking around, severely confused, their little group was in a patch of woodlands. None of them knew where they were, how had they ended up there in the first place or who they were. All they had were scattered memories, glimpses of their life stories. It was more distressing some than to others, but one thing they all knew for sure was that they should get going. Maybe they could find someone who could help them or some kind of clue about their whereabouts. They began their walk among the trees, seeking out anything that could prove to be useful.

Their first find was disturbing. It was a partly decomposed corpse of a man. But although they could not do anything to help him, he could possibly help them. He had a backpack with him and it contained some valuable survival tools, such as a knife, rope, medical equipment, tinderbox and a little bit of food. The group didn't know the story of this lone man, but they sincerely hoped that their owns wouldn't turn out to be same.

Nighttime came sooner than what they had wanted. They gathered a little bit of firewood and made a campfire with the tinderbox. The flame was welcoming and warm in this otherwise so dark world. The group shared a little portion of the food they had, chattered with each other a bit and tried to make plans for the next day. But in the end, there wasn't much they could do, they had to just keep going.

The new day dawned. Early in the morning the group began to continue their wanderings in this unfamiliar land. The woods seemed endless. They couldn't really find anything that could help them to survive longer, only a little bit of berries and mushrooms and they weren't even sure were they edible. They could only hope for the best.

The evening came around again. But somehow, they could all sense that there was an eerie presence close by. The group gathered as a tight pack around their campfire as if their lives depended on it. Which, in fact, was true. While some of them could keep their cool, some were incredibly anxious. But soon they all were feeling dread. It was because one of the men decided to go to take a leak in the bushes, just outside the range of the campfire's light. Shortly, the rest could hear him scream and all got startled. But the screams faded away before anyone could really react and they all just stared into the darkness with their eyes wide open. They waited for their friend to appear, but he never did.

When the morning came, they finally dared to go check what had happened last night. What they found was a disgusting mess. The man had got all torn up, all of his limbs had got ripped off as well as his head, guts were spilled and the skull was crushed. He had died a gruesome death, which only deepened the worries of the rest of the group. They didn't know where they were or where to go, but now they knew that out here was something that wanted to kill them all.

The level of distress of the whole group kept increasing. At night they could hear someone howling, they could hear someone rustling around. They could see shadows that were waiting for their fire to extinguish. That little flame, it was the only thing that was keeping the death away.

In the coming days they wandered from place to place, not really finding anything that would help them. They moved from woods to plains, from swamps to woods again. While they were doing fine with food – especially after crafting spears to catch some small animals – mentally they weren't doing great. Their nerves were torn, their minds tormented. The constant presence of something malicious was making them go insane.

And the weaker they got, the stronger the shadows became.

It was the worst night yet. And also, their last one. They were shivering from cold and were desperately trying to warm themselves by sitting in a circle around the campfire. But tonight, the flame was weak, it was like it was losing its battle in this world with the group. They could hear mocking whispers around them, and the shadows were slithering and they were getting bolder, minute by minute. Sometimes they dared to even dash through their circle, making the flame flicker. This was just a play to them. But soon the playtime was over and the shadows swallowed the fire. Everything got engulfed in darkness.

The anguished and anxious faces of their comrades were the last thing they saw. When the campfire died out, the thing that had followed them this whole time attacked. They couldn't see what it was and they had no hope against it. Just like the man they had lost first, the rest got completely mauled. Screams of agony filled the cold night air as the thing clawed them and was tearing them apart. Limbs got severed, guts were torn out and blood was smearing the scene completely.

When the creature was done, everything that was left behind were pieces of men and women, brutally killed and left to rot. They never learned who they were or where they had ended up to. The only thing they had learned in this land was fear and that the shadows like to play with minds of people.



[b]DAY 10: I WENT DOWN TO THE RIVER AND WHAT DID I SEE, THE WATERS THEY RAN BLOODY RED[/b]

The old hunter was on his way to sell some excellent fox pelts he had got. He had been really lucky with his lately hunting trips and had gathered a fine collection of various parts of different animals, but today was the turn of fox pelts as there had been a great demand on those. It wasn't a secret that the ladies of the town were fond of those specific hides at the moment, so he could really make some good money with what he had got. The old hunter was in a good mood, traveling was going smoothly as he was riding on his trusty horse. It had started as an ordinary day for him.

He came out of the woodlands where he lived and crossed a small bridge that allowed travelers to safely cross over a river. Then he just had to ride along the path that writhed in between fields where grain was growing and he would eventually get to the town. The weather was pleasantly warm and sunny and a slight breeze was blowing through the fields. The old hunter was humming a little to himself.

Until something strange happened.

Suddenly the skies turned dark grey and storm clouds gathered out of nowhere. It wasn't raining, at least not yet, but he could hear rumble of thunder. Confused by this, the old hunter shifted his gaze up, looking at the horizon. But then his horse got startled by something and he looked back down, patting the neck of his mount. Then he realized why his horse was scared.

The river that was streaming to the same direction as where the path was leading him, it wasn't bright anymore. Instead, it was now running bloody red, which horrified even the old man. As far as he could see, the river was red and it started boiling. That wasn't even the worst part. Countless bloody bodies came to the surface and the stream was taking them to the town. They were all naked and mangled up, even severed limbs and heads could be spotted here and there. And the stench, oh the stench… It was horrible and made the hunter cough. This river of death was a bad omen. A really bad one. The old man realized this and pondered a bit should he turn around and go back home. His life was worth more than the money he could get from the fox pelts. He had a really bad feeling about this and he decided to return where he had come from. He turned his horse and made it gallop away back to the woodlands.

That was the wise thing to do. Soon after this, a disaster struck the town.

The oddly changed weather was one of the first signs the townsfolk saw. Then those who were fetching water from the river noticed the bloody stream. It was enough to make people nervous, but the worst one was yet to come. The wind was howling eerily and it felt like it was cutting the skin of people – which it actually was as it started to blow harder. And with the vile breeze came the demons that were out for blood. With their sharp sickles they began to hunt down people who were running around in panic. They laughed as they cut and stabbed the townsfolk who had no way to defend themselves. They attacked everyone at sight and the streets were filled with blood and flesh. The demons would invade the homes, so no one was safe. 

It was a massacre, a pure and horrifying massacre. And when the demons were done with their cruel deeds, they would roll the bodies to the river of blood where they would join with the corpses of previous calamity. And wherever this stream of death would flow next, the chosen town would also become the stage of a gory play. It was like a cycle, a vicious cycle. The curse would spread and there was no way to stop it.