ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter Two: At Night Crept

"Gus," Liv cried out as she threw her arms around me. "How the hell have you been man?" She pushed away from me while leaving both hands on my shoulders, looking up at me. "We haven't seen you in ages."

"I'm good..." I stammered out. "Just, doing stuff. Busy."

My eloquent speech is what really endears me to people. Liv never really cared, though. With a squeeze she dropped her hands from my shoulders, hesitating only for a moment. I made eye contact, unable to ask the question I really wanted to and hoping that she would. She looked down and then brushed an auburn strand of hair away from her eye, revealing a long scar above her eyebrow. "You should come in," she said.

I shuffled in awkwardly, unable to make eye contact for too long. I dreaded what I was here to say, and I couldn't stand the thought of letting them down again. Not after everything they had done, especially what Liv had done. And lost.

The house was spotless, except for the cardboard boxes littered haphazardly around the small apartment. The walls were bare, excepting the wallpaper, stained yellow with age, and still bearing a child's faded crayon drawings along the border. Small squares of slightly less yellow wallpaper showed where photos, now relegated to one of the many boxes littering the room, had once hung. I could smell the scent of lemons, bleach, and freshly baked cookies – common smells in any area inhabited by the cleaning obsessed baking master that was Liv Swanson.

The sound of college football was coming from a TV in the other room, a sound mixed in with an unusual amount of profanity. Smiling I asked, "Is Troy around?"

Smirking, Liv just pointed towards the room with the TV as she walked away. "Do you want some tea, Gus? We're out of coffee," she called out as she entered the kitchen.

"None for me, thanks," I yelled back. "I'm only stopping by."

I walked in to the other room to see Troy decked out in full black and garnet regalia screaming at the TV, still oblivious to anything else around him.

"Go Tigers," I shouted, knowing it would get his attention.

"Fuck you, asshole," Troy mumbled without any real anger. "We're getting our asses handed to us and you come in here with that fucking mojo." Troy looked up at me, and despite his words still put his arms out to give me a quick side-hug. "You're doing okay? You look terrible. Like Chewbacca fucked the Slender Man. Then abandoned the devil-spawn for being too fucking mopey."

Before I could manage what would have undoubtedly been a witty retort, I heard Liv's voice from behind me. She was holding something, a piece of paper. Clasping it to hear chest I gently reached out and took it from her.

"Is this what I think it is?" I asked.

***

Gasping I woke up, the vague memory of a dream I desperately wanted to be real dissipating into nothingness. Around me was darkness, a constant motif in this god forsaken place. I could smell smoke, and a bitter whiff of body odor and something else, something worse.

Congratulations! Venom coursed through your veins paralyzing your muscles and setting nerves afire, your body was racked in pain but unable to scream as your lungs were slowly paralyzed and your flesh dissolved. You have survived, not even this can overcome your Reactive Adaptability Ⓛ!! Your body has adapted, and you have gained a new skill! Poison resistance © 2/10!

Poison Resistance © -...

C...

I was able to push away the following pop-ups with shear force of will, a power brought on by copious amounts of annoyance and the total lack of shits I had to give about anything that wasn't immediately relevant to my survival. A quick inventory of my limbs showed that they were all attached, but that I was bound by something wound tightly around every part of my body save my face. My bindings were sticky and smelled like a new silk shirt, pleasant and earthy. I remembered the eyes and limbs of the creature that attacked me, and I guessed that this was silk webbing of some kind. A cocoon meant that I was probably kept alive on purpose, likely to be eaten later. Though it was equally likely that the monster meant for me to be liquefied so that it could drink me up like a Soylent Green milkshake.