The Wrong Person Was Transported to the Horrific Lost Village

A story of the past unfolds--the relevant parts all began on a dark and stormy night, down roads cutting through the stretches of wilderness between cities.

A woman was driving with haste and fear, the bloody trail she left in her wake having beckoned a stubborn pursuer.

"Come on, come on!" the woman--Beverly--shouted, sneaking glances at her rearview mirror. "Leave me alone!" she screamed.

The rain was coming down in sheets. Beverly could barely see the road ahead. Her heart was pounding in her chest--it was almost louder than the rain beating on her car.

Her car hit a bump and she, already too jumpy, overcorrected. The car started sliding. Her breaths were coming in short, panicked gasps. She swerved the car erratically, her thoughts a jumbled mess. "Leave me alone!" she screamed, her voice a hoarse whisper.

Beverly drove until she was horizontal on the road. Then, looking ahead--it was like the rain was clearing so that she could the way through. There was a clear dirt track leading off the road. 

Beverly looked back the way she had come. The lights of the pursuing car were illuminating the road. Beverly decided quickly. She drove down the dirt track, hoping to escape.

Her heart was in her mouth as she hurtled down the track, the ever-nearing branches scratching at the car like talons. The trail was becoming perilous, but still, the pursuer followed, a piercing presence looming in the rearview mirror. 

"Come on! Leave me alone!" she screamed at the mirror.

Her car hit a bumpy patched and rumbled as it crushed stone and roots. The sudden roughness called her attention to the road.

She gasped. She saw the tree coming towards her in slow motion, but there was nothing she could do. The car crashed into it with a deafening crunch, and Beverly's head slammed into the steering wheel. Pain exploded in her skull, and she felt a warm trickle of blood running down her face.

Beverly fell out of her car and into the mud face-first. She lifted her head up and gasped. The headlights of her pursuer, they were coming. It was following the trail she had made.

Beverly lifted herself up, adrenaline pumping, and ran deeper into the forest, leaving her car behind. She ran and ran, rain pelting her skin and wind roaring. She hadn't noticed the sound of a roaring engine, too preoccupied with cursing her misfortune.

She looked over her shoulder when a bright light cast her shadow in front of her. She screamed out at the car that was still coming toward her, ignoring all roots and stones.

"Why?!" she said, swinging her head forward. "Why are you--"

Her eyes went wide. A pale woman had appeared a few paces from her. The sudden appearance made Beverly's feet tangle as she tried to dodge her. She slipped and fell, landing on her side, and sliding right off a tiny ridge, colliding against a large root.

Beverly was coughing the mud out of her mouth when the pursuer's car flew overhead, completely over Beverly. She looked up, watching with great anticipation. It didn't take long--her brain was working the fastest it had ever done in her life. She understood within a microsecond that the car was going to crash into a tree. But then, right as her smile was widening, the pursuer leaped out of the car moments before the car crashed against the tree.

Beverly's mouth fell in disbelief. The pursuer, a man in a trenchcoat, hit the ground and rolled. Beverly got onto unsteady feet, hoping he died when he hit the ground somehow. But then the man got up and found her in the dark.

Beverly ran quickly.

"BEVERLY RUDDERFIELD!" the man roared.

Beverly sprinted as well as she could, her lungs burning and her feet throbbing. The man was chasing her, his footsteps pounding against the mud, getting closer with every second. She stumbled over rocks and roots, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she pushed herself to go faster. Her mind was filled with cries, cursing her pursuer.

A loud bang ran out, and Beverly was sure she felt a bullet fly past her. She glanced back over her shoulder, her heart racing in her chest, and saw him gaining on her with a pistol and flashlight out. 

"Give it up, Rudderfield!" he screamed.

She let out a shriller scream and pushed herself to go faster, her legs burning with exertion. She saw a fallen tree ahead of her. Without hesitation, she launched herself over it, landing in a heap on the other side. She scrambled to her feet and took off again, knowing that the man was only seconds behind her.

But she wasn't fast enough. The man caught up to her and tackled her to the ground. Beverly struggled and kicked, trying to break free, but the man was too strong. She felt his hands close around her throat, squeezing the life out of her.

"This is for all of them!" he screamed. "You monster!"

Luckily for her, she was on her back. She drove her shin into the man's crotch, and the moment he loosened his grip, she kicked him off and crawled away.

A bang echoed. A bullet struck the ground next to her, startling Beverly onto her back again.

She, shaking with fear, looked up into the eyes of run ragged man glaring at her. He hadn't shaven in days, his face was wasting, and his skin was pale. This was her pursuer--a true madman in her estimation.

"Hey, we can stop this," Beverly pleaded.

"Shut up, Rudderfield! Shut up!" he yelled.

She winced as she pulled herself away.

"You were their teacher!" the man screamed. "But it all ends here... You will never hurt another child, you vampire-reject--"

It was sudden. A whale of mud, with its wide-open maw, tore out from the ground and swallowed him up before Beverly's eyes. He screamed he cried--it echoed from within the whale as it landed on the ground, its body undulating in time with his cries. 

Beverly, pale as a ghost, looked on like an idiot.

The whale had glowing eyes. While its body gyrated like an accordion in motion, its eyes shifted toward Beverly. She, squealing, desperately dragged herself away. She cried and begged to be saved from this nightmare, and then, as if answering her prayers, her fingers clawed on something that wasn't the muddy ground.

Her eyes locked onto her salvation--a wooden hatch in the ground. She opened the hatch and fell in. She landed face first, her body crumpling to the side and the hatch closing above her. The moment the hatch closed, she was in total darkness--an unnatural darkness. 

Miraculously, she was still alive. She lifted her body up and looked around. She searched her pocket for a small emergency flashlight, and once she fished it out, she turned it on and illuminated the space. 

"W-What is this place?" she asked, as her head turned.

It looked like she was in an old cellar. There were wooden shelves, cobwebs, and broken pottery thrown around.

"How? And what was that thing--"

"SHHHHH."

Her heart almost jumped out of her chest. Something was behind her. Fighting against everything in her body telling her to not look, she turned her head.

She screamed, covering her mouth.

"SHHHHH."

Behind her was the bulbous head of a skinny man with his spindly finger against his lip. His eyes were a deep black, a bushy unibrow above them. His hairs lined his chin, and decorated his head, the blue veins beneath his skin perfectly clear to Beverly.

The terrified woman watched him for many minutes, noting more and more things 'wrong' about this person. But nothing else happened. He simply faded into the shadows behind Beverly after a few minutes. Beverly stared into the darkness for a few more minutes until she finally found the courage to illuminate it.

There was nothing but two feet of empty space and a wall of wooden planks.

"What in god's name?" she asked herself, tears streaming from her eyes.

She looked up when she heard a strange sound--light seemed to be leaking in from above, ever so slightly. She noticed that she couldn't hear anything for the first time.

Drawing up her courage, and half-thinking she was having a nightmare, she climbed up the rickety ladder and opened the hatch. The first thing she did was only peek outside.

The rain had stopped, and there was enough light out that she believed it was close to dawn. Her mind--the thought, "How can that be?" flickered for all of a second before she committed to climbing out.

Maybe it was the wound in her head, or what she had just experienced, but the silence had lulled her into thinking it was safe.

She climbed out and looked around. It was a normal forest that was in front of her. It wasn't until she looked out the way she came that a sinister grin possessed her. She walked over to a particular tree and stood in front of it for a few seconds.

"Hmm... That's what you get for chasing an innocent woman into the woods."

A cough came from the tree, or rather, from Beverly's pursuer.

"Beverly..."

The pursuer looked like a wad of reddish-brown chewed-up gum. All that was intact was his rotting head... The rest of him, if you could call it that, was just webby gum plastered to a wide tree. It was like he had been chewed, swallowed, and regurgitated.

The sight was grisly, and the smell was horrible, but Beverly was smiling--beaming almost. She spotted his pistol and picked it up.

"Beverly," the man repeated, his right eyeball falling out of its socket and dangling on a licorice-like strand of flesh.

"You deserve this," Beverly said, pointing the gun at his head. "I'm a good person."

"Bullshit... Beverly."

"I'm doing the world a favor by getting rid of you, you stalker," she said, smiling.

"Heh... Beverly... Do it," he said, reflecting her grin. 

She cocked her head and raised a brow.

"You're never going to hurt anyone again. You're going to die, old, decrypt, and crazy--"

The bang of the gun cut him off, the bullet penetrating his skull.

Even so, he smiled.

"You're in hell, Beverly," he said before his head finally fell, squishing against the webby mess below his neck. "I win... God wins."

Beverly's smile turned into a twisted frown, boundless irritation having been stoked inside her.

***

Beverly's Room, real-time--

"Ahh, wow, Bev... And this is just the beginning of your story," I whispered, sitting by her bedside. 

The woman was sleeping peacefully, enjoying the pleasant companionship of the breeze coming in through the window, opened just enough for butterflies to slip in after chewing through the screen. I had taken my time after coming inside, having investigated the home proper, and having collected the necessary supplies.

Honestly, I had taken the extra time because I wanted to think through the persona I would adopt for this performance. Having finally decided, I stood up and bent over her defenseless body. 

There was a standing mirror in this humble bedroom. I was doing all I could to resist looking over my shoulder at it and the pale ghost in a suit, tie, and bolo hat standing in it. Thankfully, this wasn't one of the ghosts that hid away when a butterfly was looking at it... I was starting to think that these ghosts were the surveillance apparatus, but who knows--I could be wrong.

"You're so beautiful," I whispered over Beverly's head. I came down closer and kissed her forehead.

Her eyelids fluttered as I pulled away. She opened them gently, grunting as she did. I just smiled at her. She looked at me for three seconds before realizing the deep shit she was in.

"You--"

I covered her mouth immediately and sneered.

"Shh, Beverly; don't speak, my eternal love."