"Take my hand," he says.

"What?" I open my eyes.

"Take my hand," he repeats, stretching out his hand. I take it and everything goes dark.

We're standing on what seems like nothing, but has to be something, at least according to my feet. I can't see or smell anything, only feel the Reaper's hand in mine.

"We have to hurry. If it catches us, it won't end well for you," the Grim Reaper whispers, almost inaudibly.

"Won't end well for me?" I whisper back as he gently pulls me towards a patch of darkness that's lighter than the rest. It's almost unnoticable, only a shade lighter.

"The Abyss has swallowed up dozens of souls, ones who weren't quick enough to pass through it," the Reaper answers, still whispering. While we walk, I notice that the surrounding darkness is retreating to somwhere behind us, the surroundings lightening up first to the shade of the patch, then to an almost black grey.

"You're unlucky," the Reaper says, walking faster. I can see his outline now, black against the greying surroundings. "The Abyss has been unsuccessful the last couple thousand times and it's not satisfied with animal souls. It's getting impatient."

"Animal souls?" I ask. We're almost running now.

"Yes. I don't just guide human souls through here, you know. But animals usually don't know where we're going and it's easier for them to he overrun by fear than it is for humans."

Something behind us growls loudly, menacingly, making me jump. I risk a look back and see a giant black shapeless mass behind us. It doesn't have eyes, at least not that I could see.

"What is that?" I yell to the Reaper, barely hearing my own voice over the snarling. We're full-on running now.

"The Abyss," he answers. "It's coming for you."

"What does it even do with the souls it captures?" I ask, panting as we run towards the patch.

"Presumably eats them," the Reaper answers calmly. "No one knows for sure since no one ever came back."

We reach the patch when something grabs my other hand, or rather, wraps around it and my wrist. I shriek and the Reaper swings his scythe, cutting off a strand of darkness, which falls to the somwthing beneath our feet and slithers back to the mass like a snake. More are already wrapping around my legs and body. Some I pull off by myself, the others are sliced away by the Reaper. He's half standing in the patch now and he grabs my arm, pulling me towards it.

My left shoulder touches the patch as he pulls me towards it and the strand of darkness that's found its way there dissolves into black mist with a high pitched sound, eerily similar to a cry of pain.

That distracts me for a moment, long enough for a particularly thick strand to wrap around my other arm and torso. I start squirming as it's creeping towards my neck and the Reaper cuts it along with the ones that are gripping my legs. But instead of falling off, the others join the thicker one, tying my legs together, making me stagger, but not fall. The Reaper pulls me towards the patch by my remaining free arm.

"The Abyss can't pass through," he says, straining to pull me into the patch. "Presumably because of its apparent immortality. The mere touch of the Threshold dissolves it. It always comes back, but one time it got entirely dissolved for about a century. The souls passing through at that time experienced the blinding whiteness of this place, the complete absence of darkness. Most went blind. Mortals are not meant to see such purity."

"This is all really interesting, but why are you explaining it now?" I yell, managing to kick off a strand, inching closer to the patch. My lower arm is through now, and part of the thicker strand grazes the patch, turning to mist with another sickening cry of pain.

"Helps me concentrate. Agh!" His yell is cut of as he falls through the patch. Without me.

The patch dissolves into the surrounding greyness and I fall to the ground. I squirm against the strands and start pushing them off with my free hand, determined to not go down without a fight. But to my suprise, they coil off me and back into the mass, which has now stopped growling.

It stirrs, forming a body, four legs and a relatively long neck with a mane. A black horse is staring at me, or is at least turned in my direction. A really big, completely black draft horse. I stare back at it.

It starts shifting again, this time to a greyhound the size of a bear. Apparently it's still not satisfied, as it quickly changes into an ostrich as tall as a tree, then a whale twice its usual size floating mid-air, then a harpy bird as tall as a horse. The weird thing is I somehow know what animal it's going to change into before it does. Finally it settles on a Maine Coon cat roughly the size of a german shepherd and starts purring quietly.

I don't understand. What does it want with me. The cat continues staring at me, then stands up and slowly creeps towards me. I take a step back. There's something unsettling in a dog-sized cat that's crouching its way towards you.

The cat-shaped creature stops purring and takes its next steps towards me even slower. It's almost behaving like someone trying to approach a terrified animal. I resist the urge to run and hide, mostly because there's nothing here apart from me and the Abyss, whatever it really is. This seems to encourage it forward. When it reaches me it circles my legs, grazing them. When I don't move it hesitantly starts purring again. I reach down and it sniffs my hand and gently licks it. Its tongue is soft, but completely dry. It's like being grazed by a piece of fabric fresh out of the tumble dryer.

"You don't look like you eat souls," I say quietly. It purrs louder in response.

I shake my head to clear my thoughts. This might just be a weird hunting tactic - appearing harmless and then attacking when you let your guard down. Otherwise, where would all the souls be? Presumably, this thing feeds on them, and gaining the soul's trust may be the only way to catch them if it's not fast and this place is infinite.

I carefully take a couple of steps away from the creature, which appears hurt by that. It meows sadly, but the noise has an undertone that makes it sound warped and wrong. I sit down on the ground a couple of feet away from it. When it takes a couple of steps towards me I scramble to my feet and back away. The cat tries a couple more times but I always keep the distance. Eventually it gives up and lies down facing me and I do the same. I'm getting tired from all the experiences. Who knew souls could be tired. I don't know when I fall asleep.

-

Help I wrote something that doesn't seem cringe at the moment but will probably be in like a week
Ok what the hell is this 😭
A writing promt that actually prompted me
The decision to publish this is extremely rash
Ok I'll end this now
Word count: 1200 (without the A/N)

For my amiga

Also this thing whatever it is

Jason graces us with our presence (Hehe did you catch that? I'm not funny? Yeh ik bye)

Bai

~Em, vibing to Demons
25.8.24