///Author's note:

This chapter/scene has very disturbing content. It is violence suffered by one of the characters. It is not "graphic" but it is "mental". Something I would say is 100x times worse to be described. Such scenes will be the exception, though.

Is this scene, however, necessary for the novel? Yes.

Unless you want to understand the very character's mind, it is not necessary. It is simply "fluff".

I put this right in the first few chapters of the novel because this is what this novel is about. It has violence, explicit. Else, I wouldn't tag it with "Gore."

I did try to tone it down, and ended up somewhat unsatisfied with how the scene ended up. But I feel I have achieved somewhat of what I proposed.

///

 

Like she had set it to be, she was standing in a small circle clearing. The air had a distinct smell to it. The grass, rustling from the wind, carried on it was not only the unmistakeable scent of fresh smashed plant matter, but also of water. Water from where, she wondered. A tinge of acrid earth, dry. It was mixed with something improper for life, yet, it made these plants appear vibrant with life.

'It must be these rocks.'

Strewn all over the plain were rocks like she had never seen before. Most of the time they jutted from the ground and rose to the air, three or four times the size of an average adult human tall and always a couple adults long. Yet, they were always split in half and rested against each other.

The few times they were not, a single part would lie half-buried in taller mounds of grass. On top of these rocks, the grass would bloom in beautiful flowers. Each one different from the other, as if from which they grew from, were not even the same. The colours being the smallest of the differences, shapes, so alien, shared the same grass stalk, that screaming weird was the least to be thought.

But there was something else in the air. Something that made her feel emotions never felt before in all her life.

Her body was happy. It wanted to move. No, it had to move. It urged her. Not only that. It made her feel things she had never even cared to care about before.

Why did it matter if there was the scent of water in the air? The tangy smell? Why did it matter? What was this Euphoria?

Maybe being thrown into the wilderness was a bit too much for a domesticated human after all.

'Never mind all that, though, it was all a Test.'

The first thing she wanted to know was if there were others around. They had told her she would be close. A quick look around, however, even after having taken a while just staying there, showed no one.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Better be out there with nothing in my hands than standing here all day and be sure I'll still be here to tell it… what was it that I was told to do during these times again…?"

So she went, following the direction she thought she had to follow. A path carved in the soil of the plains, strangely bare of grass, she followed.

Why she followed, it was easy for her to understand, at least. Anywhere else you look in the plains and the rocks would stand apart, jutting out of the grass.

On this path, however, They merely guarded it like old dogs. Always in sets of two, they stood. One against each other.

Following the path was also easier on herself. Why go through tall grass when you can walk on a clear path? Less thinking to be made. More interesting as well.

Also, she could see a grey pillar rising from the end of the path. Grey pillars rising from nothing are always great attractions in her mind. More so than inspecting rocks.

Especially THESE rocks.

Yes. As she had been walking down the path, she thought she could finally figure out why she had been feeling the need to do something.

The Rocks.

The Rocks that were getting closer to her.

The Rocks, that once dogged the path, now bigger and standing over the edge of the path.

The Rocks, that were once beside her, no longer resting against each other and moving in her direction.

She knew something was going to happen.

But before something happened, she had to figure it out.

Figure out what was going to happen.

When did the Rocks stop being stones.

Were they ever stones.

Why were they getting faster the faster she moved.

'Why is it so dark?'

"!@#%"

She heard someone. A whisper in her mind. But that was enough. The light had come. It had returned.

She shook her head hard and rubbed her eyes as well. Ahead of her, there were people.

At the end of the path she finally reached, there was a gate. And walls. Next to the gate were people.

They were waving at her.

She sped up her pace. Being alone was scary.

Breathless and exhausted like never before, when was the last time she had run so fast? What greeted her wasn't exactly what she had expected, though.

At the end of the path, what greeted her was a strange rock formation. The way continued straight through these walls, blocked by a gate. How did these stones lined up in this plain was unknown to her, but from this close to the wall she wasn't sure it was simply a rock wall, though. The Smoke which had initially interested her was coming from inside. Specifically, she could see the trail rising from the other side of the Gate.

The walls from which the Gate was held from, she was sure of, were made of the same rocks found strewn around the plains which sided the path she had just come from. She wondered how did she know this. Was it because now that she no longer had that 'thing' following her, she could think clearer? No. That wasn't it. She still couldn't even decide what colour the stones and rocks around were. And maybe it was because of that that she knew. Because she still wasn't able to understand what that Wall in front of her was.

As for the human figures which she had seen, they were four. Two of them were even now approaching her. There were still another two who were further behind, closer to the gate. One of them seemed to be trying to make themselves understood to the other by any means available to them, including some very clumsy arms and hand movements.

"Hello there, missy. Can you understand me?"

Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to look any further. The two approaching had arrived, and they seemed to be able to make sense to her at least.

"Hi! How are you? Are you also part of the test?"

The one who had talked to her was a sleazy looking man. Was he one and a half her size? Scruffy hair partially hid his eyes. Didn't it itch? He was also wearing some very baggy clothes and held a dagger in one of his hands.

His smile was the opposite of everything of that, however. It was dazzling, bearing a complete set of teeth, and each tooth lay perfectly set on top of each other. How did that "winner smile" worked its way into a person who boasted a "John Doe A" kind of person.

His companion was his total opposite. There stood the very symbol of abnormal. A pretty boy, through and through, standing her same height. He clothed the same as his partner. But their mouths seemed to have been swapped, for instead of being a pretty boy's one, it was an unremarkable one, somewhat too normal, perhaps even distorted in the face of a complete "fall-for-me-baby" kind of atmosphere that the man seemed to translate with otherwise such a perfectly symmetrical face.

"Test...? Yes! Of Course we are! Ain't dat right, pinpin!?"

"Bloody certain, mrakin. Testin aint done till we get inside that!"

Even the voice of the pretty boy sounded angelic to her ears. What was wrong with that mouth, though? She'd never seen such a badly done animation in her life. It would blur, tear apart, jump out of his face and suddenly go back to normal, as if it was just a badly drawn sequence of frames put together by someone without any sense of art. How come his assistant did not correct that? It looked so weird.

"And what's wrong? Why aren't you in there? I thought the Test was all about going wherever we wanted to go to… or did I misunderstand something?"

"Magnificently sad, girly! NevA' have I herd someone describe it better than yo!"

A third man's voice sounded so loud near her now that she doubted it was possible for someone to sound so loud in her life. She double-checked the volume levels quickly to make sure the next time something like that happened, she wouldn't feel her whole body shiver and tremble.

This third man had been just moments ago trying to communicate verbally with a figure that now stood far away from her, right in front of the gate. It seems; ultimately, he had been unable to communicate with that one.

"Ifa'ly everyone in this world understud how important it is t' go whereve you want to go!

Ahh! The beautiful sights dey miss! Da things they don do!

But your differen from then! Ya!

I can sense it in – eed!"

And this man… Did he forget to adjust his voice module, or was it his language module? How could a man so tall, twice as tall as her, have such a sharp voice? It wasn't feminine in the least; however, it was just so strange. So shrill. So full of power yet it lacked something essential. What was it?

"Gurl! You listing ta me!? We cannot stay here!"

"Huh? Why?"

"Soon dei will arrive!"

"They?"

"Da rocks!"

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

She quickly looked around but could see none of the rocks which had ‘followed’ her up on the path. In fact, they were there, by the path now that she looked at it carefully. As if they had never moved. Lumps of enigmatic shadows, which she was certain were rocks.

“Look. The rocks are still by the path.”

“Woman, they just seem to be. You should never trust the rocks.”

The second man insisted.

“Look. Don’t you three want to get inside there? Why don’t you get in?”

“No time t’ talk! Da rocks!”

She turned once more, and they were still by the path, unmoving and indescribable, shadow lumps in her eyes.

“I’m going to talk to that one. If you’re so afraid of the Rocks, then go ahead and hide yourselves!”

She was about to leave the three men behind when the first one got in front of her. His smile was dazzling like before, but this time, it even managed to reach his eyes. For a moment she faltered.

“Missy, we are just worried about you. Why don’t you come with us for now and later we return here? Those blokes in there are not going anywhere. But if they get angry, the Rocks move.”

“Wait… do you mean to say…?”

“That’s right. They’re the ones who control the rocks. You must have noticed it by now, right? How there are no rocks nearby, right?”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Just look at their walls.”

He tapped her shoulder and pointed at the walls, making a grand gesture of following his finger slowly from one end to the other before returning to the gate just in front of her. Where the lone figure stood, unmoved.

His movements were so grand and eloquent, but why be so dramatic?

“Do you think it's a coincidence that those gates were built right in front of this path with these walls? Of course not! They built it here on purpose, so that we cannot approach them!”

“We? But the test – ”

“So we cannot go where we want to go!

Come with us, girly, it has been a while since we last heard of the Test.”

While? But it had just begun?

“There are other people waiting if you come with us. I’m sure you’re going to have fun there. Everyone is so free there. Just like you.”

She looked at the figure who stood in front of the gate. She was sure it heard everything they were saying, yet, it was unmoved.

It was a female. She wasn’t sure how tall it was, it was a bit too far for her to discern with certainty, but it couldn’t have been that much taller from herself. Her chest, however … was something she was very proud of herself and was sure that female one would not affect. Never!

But why would it stand still in front of a gate? Wasn’t this supposed to be a place for people to be free? How does one find freedom if they’re standing still in front of a rock gate? She was itching to go there and talk to her but was also afraid.

Yeah, she could always return later here. ‘Let’s just do that.’

“Ok, where do we go?”

“Great!”

“Marvelus! Equelent!”

“Yosh!”

Once she looked back at the man, his grand smile was gone, now limited to his mouth. For some reason or another, he had shrunk as well. It is strange how words impact people.

“Come, follow, gurly, we cannot waste time. The rocks will soon!”

The pretty boy snatched her hand and in a hurry started dashing toward the field of grass and flowers.

He had such strength that it took her by surprise. His speed also! She was doing her best to keep up with his lithe figure, but he was surprisingly fast for someone wearing such baggy clothes. How come he never tripped? Actually…!

“Fu–!”

She should have known better than to run full speed in a field without looking ahead. All she could see was a part of it. One of those rocks that were strewn on the field. The flowers had been covering a good part of it and when the boy went around it, she rushed deep into it.

*Thud*

‘My feet! Why does it hurt this much?’ She had never felt so much pain in her life. She had stopped atop the flowers and her skin was a ragged thorn.

There was an open laceration through her left leg where she had toppled with the rock’s edge at full speed, and it did not look good. But the pain was the problem. Why did she feel so much pain, pain enough to numb her back?

“Are you alright, mate?”

The smiling man asked just as he arrived close to her.

“The pain… It’s strange. I don’t remember them saying anything about it… why does it hurt so much?”

“What are you talking about? You’ve just fell! Of course it hurts!”

“But it wasn’t supposed to hurt this much!”

Something was not right. The man was still smiling. Actually, when did he ever stop to smile? Why did it hurt this much? This was not fun any more. Pain was something different… Physical Pain was something entirely different…

“It wasn’t?”

The other two men had now arrived and were around her. Yet, none of them were doing anything to help her.

This was strange. Why was it they were running in the plains in the first place?

“Hey… you guys never asked for my name, nor you told me yours…”

“Names…”

For some reason, the pain was making her think better. Think of things she should have thought about before.

But again, there it was.

That nagging feeling.

That something was going to happen.

But this time something told her that she was too late in realizing what had been wrong.

“We have no name for you, Missy.”

These people were never helping her.

“Can we shat er alredi, mrakin?”

Who were they? And what was this place?

“Me first!”

She had time to see the pretty boy, Pinpin?, take out a dagger from underneath his clothes and aim it toward her open wound in the leg. It was all the time she needed.

‘LOG OUT!’

What came next, however, wasn’t what she expected. It was a sharp pain in her already wounded leg, along with an even more numbing sensation along her back.

“!!!”

///

my leg my leg why are they doing this to me why and why is it that i cant log out of here log out logout already stop this i told you dont do any more of this to me hey are you listening to me stop already dont bloody mother fucker stop already let me out of here i want to go home i din stoop not my arm too hey stop pleasee i dont like pain i seriously dont so please just stop it anyone i beg you get out of here already why doesnt it stop shit shit shit shit why are you still here why am i still here this is all a dream right yes it is right stop mom please make them already i beg you i beg you that ill listen to you so please just not my chest too please look i did nothing wrong right it was just the rocks the rocks please stop that im telling you to stop the rocks yes the rocks see not that rock noooo please why is this damn thing not working get me out of here someone i hate you already didnt i tell you please stop why why

‘why am I… still here…?’

 

(23-12-16-Edited to make it more to the point. Removed Valley references.)