The Ruin by Charles Lankiwicz (books to read for self improvement TXT) 📕

The sky was purple with ragged clouds. She was at the shore of a sea that was red as blood. Waves lapped ashore on a beach which was the source of the sound she heard. But the beach was not sand. Where it was not stony, strange growths projected from the ground, stalks with tendrils at the ends that seemed to want to grasp her, as it they were aware of her. But strangest of all was a weird building at the end of a causeway that stretched to it from shore.

It was all weird angles and shapes. Strange projections jutted from it and it was not square or rectangular or round but some indistinct shape. From what she could see it had a leathery surfaces, cracked, almost like it had a skin. It was of large size, projecting some hundreds of feet in the air and nearly as wide at the base. There appeared to be an opening of some kind and Jim was walking towards it.

She stood stock still at stared at the strange tableau. Was she dreaming? If so it was a nightmare of some kind; what was happening here? Jim disappeared into the opening.

She hesitated. A large part of her wanted to turn back and run back to the house, away from this madness. Another part of her was concerned with Jim.

He disappeared into the opening and Joan started to follow him on the causeway. The plants reached out towards her, the tendrils on the ends of the stalks questing. The air had a foul smell that made her want to cough. The frightening thought came that maybe it was poisonous. But Jim had obviously been here before and it had not effected him.

The causeway to the entrance was about a hundred feet long and twenty or so wide. The red sea came right up to it. Looking at it she saw that it was thick, almost like heavy oil rather than water. She heard a splash behind her and quickly looked there, to see a...something...disappear into the sea. She shivered and thought I wouldn’t want to be in that for anything. Looking up all she saw was a storm wracked sky with dark purple clouds moving quickly from powerful winds. Where was this place? It was too strange to be Earth, but where else could it be? She had read in fiction and some books on Quantum Theory about alternate universes; this must be one then. Somehow the ruin had acted as a gate to this.

She now came to the entrance. It had appeared from shore to be jet black, but now that she was there a dim red glow appeared within. And a throbbing vibration surged throughout the building and made the ground tremble at her feet. Vaguely, looking ahead she saw a vast open chamber.

As she stepped forward, she noticed that the walls of the interior were ribbed similar to the ones in the tunnel, but these were much more defined and articulated. The surging red light flowed through them, again like blood going through arteries and veins. But what most struck her was what she saw in the middle of the room.

A large stone block stood there on a dias. On it was a bound figure, and beside it was Jim holding his hands up and wide.

Joan started and put her hands to her mouth. What was this? Who was the other person here? Looking closer she saw that it was a big man in his fifties, clad in overalls. He was unconscious, arms hanging limply at his sides. Was this the missing farmer she had read about that morning?

Then Jim began to yell in a loud voice strange incomprehensible phrases in a language that she had never heard before. What was he saying? What...

Then a electrical charge seemed to surge through the room.

Something formed over the altar, seeming to phase in and out with terrifying glimpses of tentacles, eyes, horns and other shapes. It was huge, about twenty feet in diameter, and began to descend onto the altar. An evil sounding hum arose from it starting from barely audible to excruciatingly loud.

Joan stood transfixed as the shape covered the altar and then suddenly it was gone and so was the farmer!

For a long second she just stared, her heart beating. Then she ran to Jim yelling, “Jim! What’s going on? What are you doing?”

She stopped as she looked at his face. His eyes were now red and his skin had a purplish mottled appearance with yellow veins running through it. He grabbed her painfully with awful strength and she screamed.

She tore away from him leaving part of her blouse in his hands and ran. Something had happened to him, something terrible. She heard his footfalls behind her as she ran out of the entrance and onto the causeway. Ahead loomed the opening and she ran towards it. Once she stumbled and almost fell but righted herself at the last minute. Now the door was nearer and she was close to it, another twenty feet or so. She felt something brush against her shoulder and she ran even harder, her breath coming in great gasps. Her legs began to feel leaden; she wanted so much to stop. But she knew that if she did it would be the end. Now that she was almost at the door she saw that it was closing, slowly but surely. It was now halfway closed.

With a burst of speed she dove to the ground and crawled forward. She felt the weight of the door on her back. Then she was through.

Gasping she rested unable to move further. She became aware of a red light in the tunnel and looking up she saw that the shapes on the wall had come loose and were now hanging down and questing for her with feelers on their ends. It was like entering a snake pit. She felt horror and despair. How was she going to get past this.

Being on the floor of the tunnel she could see that there was a space of about two feet beneath the tentacles. If she could crawl forward she could get past them. But if they touched her...

Then she remembered the mark on Jim’s neck. Had this been how he had gotten it. Had these things been active when he had entered the tunnel alone?

She had no choice and slowly carefully went forward under them. The floor of the tunnel brushed against her and she could hear a murmuring sound above her, as if the tentacles were calling reaching out to her.

Then she came to a high spot in the tunnel. There was less clearance here. Then could touch her if she went under there. But there was no way around.

She came to it and grabbed it with her hands. It was loose and soft and she began to move it aside. The spot went down and she was just about ready to move forward when she heard another sound behind her, a whoosh.

She jerked forward and then suddenly the tentacles were behind her. Ahead loomed the opening to the tunnel and she could see the trunks of some trees. She got up and raced forward and out of the tunnel.

Then she was outside gasping and sobbing, holding her head in her hands. What was she to do? What had happened to Jim? She walked slowly towards the house, arms hanging at her side and her head bowed. Who would believe her if she tried to explain? She could call the county police and they would search the tunnel but what would they find. The plants or whatever they were would be dormant again and the door closed. All they would see is an empty tunnel and a strange carving on the wall were the door was.

Another thing was that she would have to implicate Jim as at least an accessory to murder. Somehow he must have been involved with the kidnaping of that farmer. It must have happened that night when he was out. But why would he do such a thing? His face when he looked at her was terrible and it was not him.``````

Thoughts raced through her mind tumbling one after the other in a frenzied order. She realized that the only thing that was saving her sanity was that what was happening was so unbelievable that a good part of her mind just refused to accept it. She would need time to think things over. Maybe something would resolve itself. She shook her head and walked on through the woods until the house loomed up ahead. Fortunately the moon had come out since they had entered the tunnel and she had at least a little light to move and see by.

She froze as she saw something on the porch. It was a tall figure with a long coat and a floppy hat that hid its face. Oh no, she thought, just what I need! Who would come calling at this time of night out here. Was this a home invasion? She felt herself start shaking all over having almost lost control of her limbs. The figure stepped off the porch and walked towards her.

She was helpless to move, simply paralyzed with terror. It was too much.

Then the figure was in front of her, towering over her. She still could not make out its face.

“Ms Latti, I presume?” said the figure in a low but strong voice.

Joan fainted falling to the ground.

She woke up in her living room sitting in an armchair. Thoughts crowded through her mind of what had happened, Jim, the other world, the stranger... She saw him sitting across from her on the couch staring intently at her.

She could now see what he looked like. A man in his thirties, with a strong face and extremely light blue eyes that seemed to penetrate into her. He was well and heavily built, clad in a black coat and wearing a hat with a wide brim.

Joan felt an impulse to run, but realized that if he was going to do anything he had plenty of time before to have done it. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“My name is Adam Arcane,” he answered in a strong voice. “As to your other question, it will not be as easy to answer. “I am a crusader of sorts. It is my business to hunt down and destroy evil where I find it. As to how this happened to be, that is a long story for another time. I also have means of detecting the presence of evil and I have detected it here. By your condition, I know that you have encountered it. Please explain to me what has recently happened to you?”

“Why should I trust you? You come out of the blue and ask me all these questions.”

“You don’t have a choice. No one else will believe what you say. They will think you insane. I will not and I can help you. Please trust me.”

Joan sat in a daze of indecision. So much so strange had happened. Was this all a bad dream? But he was right. No one would believe her to be other than unbalanced. If she called the law they would probably have her committed for observation, and that could not help Jim in any way. She decided to trust the man and told him about the recent events.

“As I feared, a gate has been opened into a netherworld. I could read the signs. Evidently your husband inadvertently activated it when he entered the tunnel. Unfortunately he is now in control of an evil entity. The beings of the netherworld thrive on the essence, souls if you will, of people in this dimension. But they need assistants on this side to feed this craving, someone to