Star Born | Featured

TWO || Stagecoaches & Soirees

Soundtrack: Cannon in D Minor from Two Steps from Hell

18:04

Carmen's hands strangled the steering wheel as the skeletal shadows of the jungle ensnared her rust-red rover. Blood roared through her ears as the garage vanished behind her, consumed by the carnivorous forest.

Her watch read 18:08 when a rumble shook the ground, jolting the ancient vehicle into the air.

Nauseating weightlessness plunged through her stomach as a shriek tore from her throat; the engines roared and pounded as the rover hit the earth again.

And then, with a hailstorm of glass, the hatch exploded.

Carmen screamed, hands shielding her face as the shrapnel ricocheted off her helmet. The rover spun into the air, colors blurring before her—

And then shock exploded through her body, dark dirt splattering her helmet as her skin burned against the hard ground.

Something brown loomed into the air at the corner of her eye, something long and thick and—

The Ictus tree's root slammed against the earth, and the ground roared, hurling her into the air. Gravity seized her, jolting her downwards, and the root reared upwards again, a bark-coated brown snake coiling around the wreckage of the rover. Carmen spluttered as she collapsed onto her hands and knees, groping the base of her helmet to turn it on.

Clean, fresh air graced her lips as her fingers closed around a bump in the metal. She gasped for breath, staggering to her feet as she stumbled away from the seething roots of the tree.

Carmen sprinted down the path, away from the Ictus tree as it hurled the rover to the ground. She tumbled onto her side, brown and black blurring before her vision, as the earth erupted upwards once more.

And then a rumble ruptured the air, deep and thick and gnarly and wet. A shadow suffocated the sky, the shadow of a beast as monstrous as the sound it emitted.

A mass of blackened skin drowned out the skies, glistening with mucus. No, not skin. A colossal cavern of lopsided, chipped gray teeth, thick saliva swinging in clumps from a bulbous, tongue.

The Atroxis frog screeched, a million knives scraping across bone, and a storm of hot air slammed into Carmen, sending her sprawling onto the soil.

With a screech of steel, the Ictus tree hurled the rover to the ground. Carmen's hands flew over her head as the machine exploded, spitting vengeful sparks into the air.

And then, with an impossibly fast blur of green and black, the Atroxis frog lunged forwards.

Fear roared through Carmen, and she hit the ground, rolling twice over her shoulder as the frog thundered overhead. Dirt blinded her as she staggered to her feet, adrenaline pounding through her body.

Get away. Get away.

She plunged off the path, diving straight into the tangle of forest. The frog screeched in rage as the trees closed behind her, obscuring its bulky frame from pursuing her. Carmen tore through the undergrowth, legs pumping as she trampled over the dark, bristly undergrowth.

Run. Run. Run.

With a muffled whump-whump, the frog's seven-foot wings unfurled, propelling it into the air. Heaving in breaths of helmet-generated air, she gasped as its shadow swept over her, blackening the ground.

With a terrible screech and an explosion of foliage, the frog burst through the leaves of the Ictus trees.

A scream tore from Carmen's throat as the frog's mouth parted, directly above her head.