"Only you.", that was Jacob's voice echoing in the darkness. "It's only ever you."

The melody of the sound filled your ears with a strange ringing sound. It was so persistent that you feared it could make your ears bleed. The feeling of warm liquid running out of them crawled over your skin. It felt like your brain had liquified and tried to escape now.

Pressure was pushing down on you.

Breathing hurt. But that time, it wasn't because of dry air. It was because the feeling of a hole inside your chest made your limbs tremble and shiver.

"Jacob...", his name tasted bitter on your tongue.

"Get up.", he ordered, but it sounded like he was far, far away. "Run. Cull the herd."

With a painful groan, you forced you eyes open.

It hurt.

The eyelids stuck together for a moment, as if somebody had poured glue into your eyes. Dry sand fell out of them as you rubbed the tiredness away.

There it was again. This world of red and poison.

"Shit.", you jumped up and started running or rather trying to run. "Jacob! Stop your fucking mind games."

Your voice was shaking and scratched inside your dry throat like metal. The feeling of falling apart crawled upwards. Everything was so dry, even the bones inside of you felt like they were close to breaking.

A sharp pain coursed through your ankle whenever you put too much weight on it. Panting, you dragged yourself further, around a corner and down the long corridor. It all felt so familiar, you knew what this was and where it led.

But there was something else. This time it felt heavier, more dangerous. With one hand propped against the wall, you stumbled further down the hall, around another corner and straight ahead.

Suddenly, your hand bumped into something wet, sticky even. Scared, you tore it back, only to see that the fingers were covered in a deep red. The smell of iron and raw meat stuck to them.

The sight of blood wasn't something unusual. You were used to it.

You knew that this wasn't real, but it felt so sticky, the smell was there, stuck inside your nose. As you raised your gaze to throw a quick glance at the wall, a shiver crawled down your spine.

"Cull the herd.", you read. "Of course."

Moving on, you noticed how the surroundings changed.

Now, the world was twisting and turning. It felt like the ground tried to slip away underneath your feet and the walls tried to lock you in.

You picked up a quicker pace and tried to keep calm. Your heart was beating faster. Your breath burned inside your lungs.

The red fog became thicker and thicker, obscuring your vision and making it almost impossible to put one foot in front of the other. Uncertainly you wandered in this fog, the free hand outstretched, while you stayed with the other always on the wall, so as not to lose the last bit of orientation.

"Run.", Jacob's voice echoed inside your ears again. "Earn your place."

You had figured that this was just your imagination and he wasn't really talking to you. But still, the urge to scream at him and gift him all the curses that you knew was strong.

He wouldn't answer anyways, so it had no use.

"Holy shit!", you mumbled as the veil of red ripped apart and a familiar scenery appeared.

Now you were standing in the courtyard again.

A small fountain grew out of the ground in front of you. Red mist surrounded the water and hovered on the surface, as if it could attract flies, which could then be devoured by the creatures lurking underneath the surface.

The splashing of flowing water reached your ears.

Cautiously you stepped closer, thirsty and parched.

The reflection of your face appeared. You flinched, startled. What you saw on the calm surface of the water was not you, but rather a sad, decayed version of your past self. It felt as if you were looking into the sunken face of a corpse.

The fatigue that had taken hold under the rings of your eyes seemed like stones trying to force you into the depths. Your cheeks had thinned, but you didn't look emaciated yet.

However, you knew that it was only a matter of time before you reached the limit of being underweight.

You tried to moisten your mouth with your tongue, but there was no more saliva. Your lips were so dry that they were chapped and torn. As you twisted your mouth a sharp pain chased through them and the taste of blood spread through your mouth.

"Shit.", you muttered, and bent down to the fountain to rub some water on your face.

The cool touch felt so good at that moment that a sigh escaped your lips.

Hastily you began to wash your face, rubbed the back of your neck and took a few sips. It was cold and tasted like iron, but at that moment anything was better than dying of thirst.

Pleasurably, you closed your eyes and filled your stomach with water until the hunger subsided and you felt bloated.

But when the liquid, which flowed so gently down your dry throat, became firmer, you opened your eyes in confusion.

Something suddenly stuck to your fingers. It was warm and a little more solid than water, more viscous. As you raised your hands, the feeling of dripping blood crept up your arms.

A shiver crawled down your spine. Your eyes widened.

Your hands were soaked in blood. In this world, everything seemed red, but the but was so dark, so tainted, that it almost seemed black.

Trembling, you touched your mouth. Smeared with blood. The feeling stuck to your neck, face, and even inside you felt like it was dripping down the walls of your stomach.

All at once your heart was beating like crazy.

With a quick glance, you looked at your reflection in the fountain.

But it was not your eyes that were looking back at you.
They were Jacob's.

A broad grin lay on his bearded face. He looked pleased. Blood stuck to his cheek in the form of a handprint.

"Good.", his voice was filled with pride and satisfaction. "You learn. You are getting stronger. I'm glad."

He reached out, broke through the surface with his hand, and grabbed you by the neck.

Startled, you wanted to jump back, but his grip was so strong that it forced the air out of your lungs. Your eyes widened in shock.

Suddenly the world was on fire. A veil of smoke crawled into your lungs.

"Jacob...", you gasped and punched his arm. "Please... let me... go."

Like a strange creature, his torso came crawling out of the well, first his head, then his shoulders and chest. When he was up to his waist out of the well of blood, he pulled you to him.

"Don't worry.", his breath stroked your skin like an icy wind. "You earn your place day by day. You grow. You are getting stronger. You will cull the herd."