"Harbinger."

Something spoke to me, a firm but soft voice.

Like lightning itself descended and touched my body, the voice brought me out of my dreams with a jolt.

Although I wasn't sure I was dreaming.

I might have been but you know what dreams are like. They fade from your memories when you wake up.

Ah....

No use thinking about that now.

Anyways....

Where the hell am I?

My surroundings is a total pitch black. A complete darkness.

As I came to, I found myself sitting in a posture with my legs spread opened. I'm sitting on some kind of stone tiles with my back leaning against a bricked wall.

In a distance, I saw a little amount of light pouring in from the gaps. My heart tingle in excitement for a little. Was it because I saw the light as my salvation? Did I have a fear for darkness? Damn. It's frustrating to not even remember what kind of person I am.

When I tried to move, every inch of my body aches but most pain seemed to converged on the back on my neck. I clasped my right hand as that part.

Why does my body hurts so much and especially the back of my neck?

I asked myself but no answer came.

No answer came because I couldn't remember anything. Yes, anything as in anything prior to my awakening in this dark room.

It hurts too much to move and I found myself staring into the darkness while waiting for the pain to subside, if they ever will that is.

Out of boredom and curiosity for my identity, I went down a list of questions that could jolt my memory. The only question I could answer was my name. Hyx.

Just Hyx. I couldn't remember a family name or a surname.

I mused at my own name in my mind. An odd name. Didn't seem to belong to the Tom, Dick, and Harry names. I somehow even knew that my name is spelled, H-Y-X, instead of H-I-C-K-S.

I raised an eyebrow at the odd memory of mine.

Any attempts at recalling any prior memories have only led me to a wall.

Current US president?

Donald Trump.

Year? 2018.

Month?

........

I couldn't remember.

Nationality?

American? No. I wasn't. So which one am I?

No clue. Only pain answers whenever I tried to remember. Those pains weren't just any small prick.

"Hello?" I spoke, in English. "Testing? One. Two. Three?" I spoke more. I understand English. I retained my memory of speech, I guess.

One surprising thing was that English wasn't the only language I know.

I spoke again. This time in Chinese. It seems like I know Chinese language. My eyebrows rose at the realization.

Even more baffling, I knew of another language but I couldn't remember what is it called. The pronunciations of this particular language was something I have never heard of. I searched deep into the remnants of my memories. Nothing came but pain like always.

There is another language in my memory. A language that I have no prior knowledge of but somehow, I am able to comprehend it. Helix. That is the name of this peculiar language.

After a few more fruitless results in digging through what's left of my memories, I gave up and shelved the remaining question I have into a corner of my mind. I get the feeling that I might be a very forgetful person.

Maybe that's just me being unsettling and high-strung in my current situation.

Yep, it must be. I hope.

I tried moving my body again. The pain has lessened but the back of my neck still stings. From what I could feel, there were no injuries. Perhaps it was an internal injury then?

I shook my head. Banishing that thought that I deemed insignificant at the moment. I pushed myself off the floor, pouring energy into my trembling legs. They were numb, of course. I must have been in this posture for a quite a long time. It only make sense that I feel numb on my legs. Nevertheless, I managed to get myself on to my feet.

Standing with my back against a wall, my eyes have adjusted to some of the darkness and I could see my surroundings to a certain degree. The room is quite small but not too small. Maybe a give or take on four hundred square feet? Stone brick walls on all four sides of the room.

The floor was still a bit of a blur to me in the darkness. Which was why as I took a step forward, my feet seemed to collide with something. Something solid but not excessively. If I have to guess what is it, I would say a person.

Since darkness still envelopes the ground in my vision, I gave the object obstructing my path a few nudge with my feet. I even kicked it slightly. I waited........ No response.

I sighed and squatted down. My hands blindly reached for the object. From just my touch, I could tell it is indeed a person but somehow, something felt wrong. It felt wet.

At that moment, a smell drifted into my nose.

A smell of iron. Wet iron?

Ah....

Not.

That's not it.

Anyone with a little bit of experience with hardship could tell what smell is this. It was blood. A smell of blood.

I stood straight up at once. My body froze on the spot. My lips and hands trembled. Other than these two, my whole body frozen in fear while my brain tried to rationalized my abrupt discovery.

What the fuck? Was all my brain was thinking.

Blood? Dead? Killed? Danger?

Fucking hell, brain. Think more than just the obvious stuffs!

I shouted at myself, in my own mind, apparently.

A corpse in a dark room. What else could go wrong?

As my mind slowly snaps back to reality, more smell of iron trickled my nose.

I skipped over the corpse and two steps later, my feet collided with another object.

I shuddered at the all too familiar sensation.

Without even touching it, I could tell it was another body.

Finally, my eyes adjusted more to the darkness and it allowed me to see that on the floor of this tiny but vast room, it was littered with around four corpses.

One of the corpses looked different than the others but I was in no condition to pay attention to that kind of details. As far as I know, they were all just corpses.

In addition to my probable fear of darkness, I think I might even not be good with gores.

I began hyperventilating.

My mouth was agape and a soundless scream came out. My body is in too much shock to function properly.

The details on the corpses weren't visible yet but I dreaded just thinking of the current scene becoming a clear picture.

Before anything else happened, I ran straight for the double doors in front of me. It stood over a little bit of eight feet. It was made of thick wooden planks bounded together by iron straps and hinges. A wooden log was acting as the lock for the double doors. I tried lifting it. Good, it wasn't too heavy. So, I lifted it off.

Maybe I shouldn't have.

I have failed to notice a single thing.

A small detail but with a huge potential to alter the outcome.

But my mind was in such a turmoil and it was even barely capable of the basic functions.

The doubles weren't lock to keep things in but to keep things from coming in.

Further evidence of this fact was that the wooden double doors had some of its planks busted inwards. An obvious indication of something trying to get in with force. Something strong and huge but I didn't noticed these factors.

My sub-conscious might have picked it up but it did not officially registered it in my mind.

That in itself, was a huge mistake. But can I really be blamed? This wasn't something commonplace to me. I have nothing on my mind but wanting to get the hell out of this room as fast as possible.

Not to mention, I'm barely a full adult. I'm just an eighteen years old kid. At least I would see myself as a kid in this sort of a situation.

Ah. I remember my age at least but not that it really matters right now.

And so, my unintended ignorance led to me experiencing a very ill fate. The moment the log if lifted from its place, before I could pulled open the doors, something else did the opening for me.

Lights bathed the room, although dim. In burst a strange creature.

Its dramatic entrance launched me away from the doorway.

I hit the ground hard with my posterior. I groaned at the pain of my rough and uncalled landing. Despite the pulsing pain, my attention was all on the sudden brute.

My eyes could only widened at the terrifying creature's appearance.

It was tall, a little over the door's height. Its thin figure outlined its skeleton. No eyes. Large mouth with rows of razor sharp teeth. A big and hooked nose like a pig's. Its ears seemed to grew inward and stretched out long. It's body was of a palish gray. Filthy with blood more than dirt.

My hyperventilation stopped. Fear has robbed me of my voice.

What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck is that thing?

Those were the only things in my mind when my eyes laid upon the monster in front of me.

The creature seemed to have heard my groans, moans, and my landing. It might have even heard the screams in mind.

I could tell it was staring at me despite having no eyes.

While facing me, its nose twitched.

Its ears seemed to convulse.

And it smiled. A devilish grin.

At me.

Shivers enshrouded me then.