By a black, viscous river is a beach laid with rotted sands. Upon it lies a naked young woman. She wakes from slumber and sits up. She shivers as she watches the river tumble over itself. It's dark here. She stands slowly, uncertain of where she is and where she was before. She sees a glow across the river. It illuminates her pale feet and she panics. The sand is laced with black pebbles and strange slithering worms that mill around her feet. She hops over and around them in vain. They seem indifferent and her heart settles. She turns around views her own side of the dark river. A colder glow grows in the distance. Greeney blue it shines as it rises above some dilapidated
ruin. Pieces of an old architecture are illuminated. She breathes in and begins to move towards them, paying special mind to the worms and the sands.
	As she closes on the ruined structure, the glow rises higher and a cold light dawns upon the area. It reveals the greater beachside and the frilled monstrosity wrapped around a crooked pillar not more than twenty feet from where she stands. It wears an elongated crusten carapace which softly reflects the glow. It has many appendages which all flurry in unison as it quickly retreats down the pillar and down behind it. The girl cautiously steps around the pillar and looks over. Just behind the pillar is a gaping hole. She can see a larger catacomb far below. She sees the monster crawl down through several broken floors into a black space. She can feel herself tremble and shake. Recoiling from the sight, she turns her attention towards the glow again. It reveals the cavernous depths in which she stands. The sky is blotted out by paper-thin jagged peaks. The peaks fold over the dark river from and deny it the moon's light.
	The girl sees a mashed spiral stair and opts to ascend slowly. She rises upon a flat surface that is partially broken. It seems to be a roof. She walks across and gazes upon the vastness of a ancient city. An old place built into older valley now shrouded by the paper peaks. In the distance not all is dead and silent. She sees things shift and contort and a small flame flicker on the other side of the valley city. There is a rush of sound and a sudden clang. She steps over to the edge on the building she stands on. There is an artificial pathway which follows along the city foundation. To the right it leads to the edge of the valley where there is a dimness. The left heads to a collection of circular domiciles and uniform watch towers.
	The glow begins to fade. She gauges the drop to be at least double her height. A little to the left there is a outcropping and below from what she can glimpse is a window. She carefully lowers herself down and onto the stone pathway. As the glow finally dissipates, she sees the torch in the distance more clearly. It's begun to drift at a fast rate around the valley city to her left. She watches it dispear into the bulk of the city. To the left just around a jutting peak is a tower of sorts. It extends up to the blanket of peaks above and although it is also ruined, it's markedly different from the city.
	The girl is cold and naked but the torch, which has begun to pop in and out of distant structures, makes her feel uneasy. She approaches the tower. It is lined with nodes in some esoteric design. It's has innumerous square-cut holes at even spacings across it. A closer look reveals iron bars. It's base is half-supported by the city foundation and half teetering over the edge of an abyss. She looks up. It extends to the shroud above. There are barred windows at her level. She steps onto a node and reaches for the sill. Pulling herself up onto the node, the girl grips the iron bars and pulls. They snap like twigs to her surprise and she falls backwards. She lies motionless as she really can on the rampart. The sound of the iron snapping echoes endlessly throughout the ruined city. She waits and listens and having heard nothing. She stands up again. The torch in the distance gaining ground. She climbs back onto the nodes and into the broken window.
	Inside the tower she finds a bleak cell illuminated green by another glow from outside the cell. She leaves the cell and enters the core of the tower. In it, there is a circular hole in the center-floor. It extends both to the abyss below and up above to the moonlit sky. Around the hole is a very plain stone floor lined with cells. On one side there is an metal ladder. She holds onto the ladder and pulls. It doesn't snap. She peers upwards. It's not broken at any point she can see, but it will be a long climb.
	For a time she hears only the soft echo of her ascent. There is a tapping sound. She stops and listens. Two taps and a figure stands above her. The long and writhing form of what simply put, is just a bug. But it is a massive creature and the girl is small in spite of her age. There is a moment of apprehension as the bug wriggles across part of the ladder and positions itself above her. She begins taking shaking steps back down the ladder. She desperately tries and slowly fails to maintain some compsure as the bug crawls towards her and from it's chruning maw erects a thick, wet stinger. The girl descends faster and faster to no avail. The creature, leering from above thrusts downwards and penetrates her, shattering her left clavicle. She screams in pain and releases the ladder but the creature pulls back, lifting her up and flinging her onto the nearby landing. The girl lies in agony, both hands holding the gushing wound. She cries and gasps as the monster twists and bends in blurs of horrific excitement. She watches it reel back and strike again. The feeling of her belly being torn apart renders her world black.