The Ruins

Part One

A piece of a moss-covered building crumbled to the ground, letting out a small echo as it crashed. Crimson skies stretched as far as the naked eye could see, the ground nearly connected with the sky beyond the horizon. Perched on top of the highest worn down column sat a crow with feathers black as the night. It let out a loud 'CAW' as the gravel fell, jumping off its perch and spread flying toward the ground. Right before the crow hit the ground, it's wings came together as it transformed into a dark cloud; emerging from the cloud of black was a figure, a woman. As it dissipated, a few feathers fell to the ground behind her as she marched across the tattered land. Her gown matched the blackness of the crows feathers, as did her shoes that clinked against the gravel with each step. Black horns and antlers perturbed from her skull as her hair, white as the light and black as the night, laid intricately across each antler. Her gray eyes narrowed as she halted herself, listening to the noises around her. 

The land before her was vast, it stretched for miles all around her and she knew every square inch and every sound, so why did this sound different? A devilish smile appeared across her face as she disappeared into a thick cloud of smoke, only to appear nearby another person, as a crow. It was a human, a man- he was fearful and in hiding. She saw the opportunity and pounced. 

"My child, why do you hold so much fear?" Her voice rang out in a soothing, almost hypnotic manner, it sounding like a whisper in his mind. 

"Wh-who the hell are you?!" He yelled, his voice breaking into a higher octave with each word he spoke, but she continued speaking through her crow form. The man jerked his head around until his eyes settled on the crow behind him and he tilted his head to the side. "You..you can talk? Am I dreaming?" 

She let out a light chuckle and flew down, landing on the ground before him still as a crow. 

"Indeed I can, but I am afraid this is more than real, child." Then man had felt like he had been in a trance-like state as she spoke with just a slight Irish accent. He stuttered and took a few steps back, nearly stumbling over his feet. The crow took a small stride toward him, making him fall backwards in a slight panic. She chuckled once more, a bit more darkly as he looked around the empty land, only the run-down coliseum in sight. 

"Am I dead? Is this Hell?!" He let out a small cry and put his head in his hands. The familiar black smoke shrouded the crow as she grew into her other form, leaving him speechless before her. 

"You are a restless spirit... you are neither dead nor living. You have died, but your spirit lives on here...with us." He looked at her questioningly as she transformed into a beautiful woman before him, dark yet enticing.

 "I'm..I'm in Purgatory? I don't have..any unfinished business?! What the fuck is this place!?" This caused a roar of laughter from her, almost demonic as the dark smoke began to surround him, almost like silk. With a flick of her wrist, they were inside of a run down coliseum.

"You poor... unfortunate soul..stumbling into our domain." The man jerked back away from her, stumbling to the hard ground beneath him. 

"Who the hell are you?" A louder, more demonic laugh erupted throughout the coliseum. 

"Who I am is of no importance. It is you who matters; you, a human. Falling deep...deep within The Ruins. And it has been a very long time since a human fell into our hands." She chuckled and looked at her hands, black talons where her nails are suppose to be; they glistened underneath the blood red sky surrounding them. With her last words, she raised her hands to chest level with her palms out as she smiled wickedly at the man succumbing to fear. He started screaming, only to be silenced a second later as she raised her palm slightly. "Sh, sh, sh... my child. I wouldn't let you worry, I wouldn't let you fear us. But...fear tastes so much better. And my darling... " Her features as she turned toward the man transformed before his eyes, her cheeks sunk in as her talons grew unsettling longer. Her eyes flicked from gray to black, looking like gaping holes. Smiling from ear to ear, she spoke in a gentle whisper. 

"We are very hungry." She raised him up in the air as he struggled to free himself of her grip, his fear rising within him with every inch he's away from the ground. Grinning from ear to ear, she took another step closer to him, levitating up to his eye level as her eyes grew a demonic shade of red. He stared back at her with nothing but fear in his eyes as his mouth was forced open. A light blue light began to leave his mouth and enter into the mouth of the demonic woman in front of him. He could feel his body grow weaker, but he was still alive as her feet touched the ground once more. With a wave of her hand, she let him drop to the ground as she began to slowly walk away. "Don't worry, with the level of their hunger, you'll be dead in seconds." She waved her wrist again as he began to shroud in black mist again, looking back only to see the black, shadowy figures with glowing eyes surround his soulless body. With a final wicked smile, she disappeared into the sky as a crow, only to settle once more on her perch again, waiting.