Well...

I'll tell you.

I was on a little wilderness retreat, way out in the Kasunn wilds. But I knew a place. It was always safe; the high ground and relatively weak foliage meant that I had lots of room to see any inbound predators. I had the usual precautions that any camper that deep ought to have, your usual psiolocators, motion detectors, stuff to keep the invisible things off your back. It was such a beautiful spot, too. I remember on that night, Kho was out in full! It was incredible... the red clouds had parted and everything was cold and there was that post-rain smell in the air. The little lightbugs were just having a grand time, too, it was so mesmerizing to watch. Totally worth the risk, or so I'd thought.

I was sitting in front of the fire, it was getting pretty late and I was getting ready to sleep. But... I noticed–and thank goodness I did then and there–everything had grown quiet. Oh. . . so. . . quiet.

I stood up, and brushed myself off, and stepped over to the edge of the clearing. I focused as hard as I could to see if I could hear anything, and not a fucking sound. I, honestly, thought I was going deaf for a second even though I could hear my footsteps and all that stuff. Then, I felt something. This– this just, horrible, nauseating feeling wash over me. I almost puked, God, it was awful. I stepped away and tried to steady myself. I probably just ate something that didn't agree with my stomach or something, that's what I thought, right?

It all came together when I heard the siren. It was the worst sound I'd ever heard in my fucking life; this screeching, echoing sound that bounced through the trees and replaced the silence, but like... nothing moved. It didn't startle any birds, not a god damn thing moved out there. I checked the alert that came up, and I could feel the color drain out of my face.

I start hoofing it to my vehicle, but as I do, apparently the sound I make–despite that fucking alarm drowning it out–attracts one of those horrible things. It slammed into me at full force, and– and–...

I don't, I don't know. I struggled and I tried to get my bow and before I knew it I was bleeding all over the place and my entire body hurt and I was practically vomiting up my guts for some reason and I just... blacked out.

[There's a long pause. Sable seems to stop, trying to give themselves time to recuperate. Telling the story is clearly troubling for them.]

I'm sorry– I'm just, trying to recall what happened. It's not an easy memory to access, I guess, on purpose. I woke up in this horrible place, the Swamp of Shards. I was strewn halfway out a window up on a Vigil tower. My blood was running down the metal on the outside and it felt like my insides were just on fire, but by some miracle I was still alive, and I couldn't immediately see any wounds on myself. I'd never heard of someone just... waking up like that, after a Somnolent attack, and I thought for the longest time that I was dead and this was what horrible afterlife waited for me. My communicators weren't working at all, I was completely cut off in a way that I had never experienced before.

I got up. The lights... I still don't know how, but the lights were on in this building. I could barely stand, and everything was blurry, and everything felt lighter, like I was in low-gravity or something. I looked out the window. Above me was the Citadel; this huge... black shape, just hanging in the air above everything else, and when I looked at it I was– I was really scared. I backed away from the window, and it took me a few minutes to get back up to it so I could look down.

It was a Vigil city. There were vehicles in the road, but this weird black stuff crept across the buildings like mold, wrapping around them and pushing through windows. It was dead quiet, except for a loud hum that filled the air. I could see them– Maws, all over the place, climbing on the buildings and applying corpses to them like they were decorations, and just patrolling around. I got away from the window so that they wouldn't see me, and I started going through this building. I think it was an apartment building or... something. Everything is kind of hazey, but I remember it being broken down and some of the lights weren't working and it was all-around dusty and kind of a mess.

The one thing I remember clear as day was the smell. I think it was just the... the mass of corpses in this area, but it smelled horrible. I could smell death every time I opened a door to a room with a window, because the air outside just smelled like rot. I managed to clamber down some stairs and get to the ground floor.

One of those things was there. It didn't see me. I still had my bow, but I knew I couldn't do anything to it because if I did it would wake all of them up to me being there. I laid low and waited for it to pass; it stomped up the stairs and I bolted out the door onto the street.

The air was so dense here. It was dark, and the only light was their eyes and mouths like flashlights in the dark, and light pouring out of windows. It was raining, on whatever parts of the city weren't eclipsed by the Citadel, and that only made the smell worse. I made it into an alley, but another one of those Maws forced me into a small building. I don't remember what the building was for, but it was my only option to avoid this thing seeing me.

There was–

There was something in there. I don't remember it very well. It was dark like the maws, and had white parts, but it wasn't alive. It looked like some kind of animal, more than the others did. It looked like an animal that should have fur, but it just had bare skin. It was like someone... some horrible fucking person, took pieces of an animal and tried to just stitch them together. I noticed quickly its limbs weren't all the right lengths, and its skull looked broken, and it was missing an eye. But it wasn't like someone had killed it... it was an old corpse, and it looked like it had just been left there by the Citadel.

I left that room as soon as I could. I carefully made my way down through the foot paths, trying to get towards the canals at the bottom of the city. The canal was dry, and even some brush had grown into it, so I thought maybe I could hide there and escape that way. There weren't many maws there, either.

Every now and then, a Maw would cross my path, and sometimes I swear they saw me, but they just didn't do anything. I thought I was just getting lucky, but now I think about it so much, and I think that thing was just... playing with me. I got to learn what that black mass was, too. I saw Maws just... emerging from it. It would bunch up, and then a Maw would pull itself free. I think it was manufacturing them that way. I had to keep darting between alleys to avoid being seen, and it felt like it was taking forever to get all the way down. Eventually, though, I found an access ladder at the very bottom of the city, leading into one of the canals.

I slid into the dark brush and started just walking. There were no bugs or animals or anything in this place, just unnatural, black plants. There was a lot of bramble, and it hurt to try and pull myself through it, but I had no other options. This city was a fucking labyrinth, and I didn't know where I was going, but the canal eventually had to lead out, right? A few times, I ran into the Maws. I had to just stay as quiet as I possibly could, like every animal in those forests, and hope they passed. The further away, the heavier things seemed to get; at a certain point, it normalized, but when I got to the outskirts of the city, it was like someone was piling weight onto my exhausted back.

I started to get so tired. I fell down, into the mud at the base of the canal, and I just turned around and looked... up.

It was there. Like it was taunting me. Like it knew I was there, and it wanted to watch me suffer and die fruitlessly trying to get away. I stared at it for what felt like hours... I never blinked, I never stopped looking, I just stared.

And then... I woke up. The– I was in, I was in a Vigil hospital, in Euleisat. I had, been disemboweled at some point, but I don't remember that. They said they found me prone, just outside of the swamp, while they were going in to try and cull their numbers. I don't remember that. The last thing I remember is just this image of the Citadel, and I remember laying there for hours in pain, but supposedly I'd spent a long time trying to get away. I think I just... blacked out or something. Whatever the case, they were dumbfounded that I was still alive. I couldn't speak for over a month, and I really don't remember what happened for almost that entire month, besides just trying to rest. They were worried I'd never speak again, but that resolved eventually.

I don't know what happened. I don't know how much of what I saw and what I experienced was real, and how much of it was... I don't know. I don't know how or why I'm still alive, or why they seemed to think that I was dead when the operators said they'd never heard of that happening before.

I just can't get that image out of my head, of it looming over me. I hate it. I have nightmares so often, and it's just... that picture again.