Pollution

This story has been a work in progress since 2022, it is still just a WIP and will be updated some day soon. I have received very constructive critiques from several friends that I am trying to apply here :)

The plot synopsis: two teenagers who are misfits from school, known to constantly cause havoc, decide to travel to an abandoned place that had mysterious rumours surrounding it. It turns out the place was a nuclear waste dumping ground, and they discover a creature amongst said toxic waste, awaiting.

Prologue:

I was always a thrill seeker and often got into trouble for attention. At the time it did not cross my mind to consider any possible consequences that my apathetic outlook may have caused. here was one peculiar event that impacted me so drastically and shook me to the very core. I have grown to become a nervous, compulsive wreck since then.

Small, insignificant things I see on a daily basis where it should not belong conjures up a great deal of anxiety. You must be wondering what possibly could of happen so horrible as to have turned a young man into such a disciplined wreck. Well, in these notes, I hope to explain coherently to you what happened, on that abhorrent night under the gibbous moon…

Yours, Felix Myers.

1996 of April 13th

It was on a day that I remember well because, let"s call her Ms. Galloway, was finally done with her irksome and drawn out rant about how I should ""wise up and grow out of my childish ways"" – she was of course referring to the swastikas that were plastered all over the school campus outdoors. Signs vandalized with quotes from “Mein Kampf"" and Cornelius Zelea Codreanu"s more controversial works. What a turmoil it caused when the classes had barely even begun. I was, to my dismay, not the so-called “genius"" who created this little “masterpiece project"". It was actually my best friend at the time, the one and only – Derek Sanchez himself. I had coerced myself to fall for the blame since Derek had many times stepped in for me when I most desperately was of need of help. He was seemingly also the only person to have ever tolerated my asinine antics and crazed philosophical obsessions about dated literature. This was the least I could do to repay him after all these years and imply the gratitude subtly I did.

Derek saw potential in me, and so did I to him. He did not jump to conclusions like everyone else. He was more than what met the eye once you got to know him, that is if you were able to tolerate his lowbrow and distasteful wit. To say the least, the teachers that day weren"t shocked at all. I was known as a sort of wannabee rebel, who constantly contradicted everything the teachers said. Will admit, my choice of friends was more than inadequate at the time. Hung around people that were evidently a poor influence on my behavior as well, might I add. One might argue I should of known better, but on the other hand, little is to be expected from someone who grew up with a dysfunctional family such as mine. Desperation had overcome me yet my stubborn ego refused to admit it.

Once the teacher was done sniveling at me, I went out to get a quick smoke. Derek was already looking for me as usual. “You good?"" He inquired, to which I responded there was nothing to worry about, it was my turn after all. I noticed he had been engaged with a particular book for a while. I inquired him about it and he informed me that he"d been hearing rumors lately that managed to peak his curiosity due to the oddment it bore.

Derek informed me that this battered antique book contained more information about the rumors he"s been hearing around campus. He began to elaborate the following: There were tales of a hidden lost village shrouded with an aura of mysticism of some sort. It had closed down its entrances due to some sort of unutterable horror which took place in 1864. People seemingly were forced to keep silent about most of the events, but one thing that got out was how corpses of townsfolk began appearing at random spots within a nearby forest. Their bodies covered in microscopic cuts all over. People were then forced to pack their bags and leave. The village was left to rot and decay. A melancholic former shell of what it originally once was. Within this peculiar book there came photographs of the supposed village. Sparse trees, wild weeds overgrown and poking out the outer walls of some dilapidated houses; brambles and grasses attained a gloomy state of disintegration and fade; nearby fields appeared barren behind the buildings.

Curious, I recall flipping past a couple of the worn out pages and reading further. It stated that certain thrill seekers – in 1956 – had attempted to seek out this decrepit location. They claimed that they dared not creep too near, for they began to have a sudden feeling of strange unease which increased the nearer they went. It was as if a spiritual moment. They could not put their finger on it, but something about the haunting visual scenery caused them great deal of angst. Then one of them suddenly noticed something that was unspeakable. They noticed strange creature-like beings roaming around the foggy outskirts despite the village having had been evacuated decades prior.

My friend commented how it sounded ridiculous that a man would have so much time as to write that type of nonsense. But alas, he was insistent we should go find it. He was planning to snap some photographs at this barren location. He noted how it would be a seemingly untouched time capsule. I, being much of a thrill seeker myself back then and fear of social pressure, agreed. Yet myself after looking at those leery images secretly felt a state of unease. Pushing past to ignore my feelings as superstitious paranoia, agreed with Derek. What a foolish choice that was.

Derek had made it clear on our way there how he was excited to have a break from his usual mundane daily life. It had been at least an hour since we left. During our venture there, we came across certain unexpected oddities. The first thing was a desolate sitting area for people who await the bus. This particular bus-stop however was one made up from concrete blocks that due to age have been stained a grim dull yellow with splotches of brown red, I could recognize this was an archaic soviet era bus stop in particular. It had one solitary wooden seat that had been chipped awfully due to age.

Once realization hit me, I must"ve grew ash pale and uneasy. This thing was in the middle of nowhere. There was not a single road for thousands of miles away. Questions began racing as to the purpose of this. It simply did not add up. My friend was seemingly oblivious to these odds, however. Feeling a state of unease, I quickly hid behind the concrete walls to have a brief smoke break. Derek began looking up with his emerald green eyes as he spotted something out of place. He pointed to some amateur crude graffiti on the walls; in German, one read “The worms are inside my fingers now” another read “There were 4 people here but I burned them alive” and a final one “Curiosity killed the cat”. Derek walked up closer after noticing something pearly white poking out in a small damp hole just at the very mere edge of it. It was the skull of some type of raccoon or perhaps even a feline, I wasn"t quite sure. Bits and pieces of its dried flaky skin still hung onto it with crystal clear burgundy blood stains still visible. It was as if a ferocious wild beast had used brute force to claw away at this defenseless animal into shreds. Clearly, didn"t stood a chance at all. It had an occultist-like symbol carved onto the forehead.

Horrified by such an aghast sight, I yelled “what the hell kind of sick freak would do this? This has to be some kind of a twisted bloody joke.” However Derek - despite being visibly a bit pale - tried to act calm and pretend this was all normal. I could see through it, I heard a mild quiver in his voice as he spoke. Adrenaline was obviously rushing inside of him. I do not recall what he said, but he proceeded to rip the jaw and teeth off. I told him immediately to stop. This startled him so the head dropped. I began interrogating Derek what felt like a thousand questions. Apologizing, he explained there was not a slightest clue of what had come over him, explaining he simply felt “as if someone had possessed him”, it was the best my friend could say. Despite us not being much saints, let alone having the mature nature of spoiled brats, this was too low even for him. He kept the fangs though, I noticed them quickly get slid down the pockets of his jacket.

Derek and I had began having a debate afterwards about school, our goals in life. We joked about the harlots in our class. The kind of typical vapid conversation teen boys have at that age. Derek eventually got more personal with me. He opened up about how his dad had passed away due to a car accident. This had a great impact on his life, especially school. His father always used to stand up for him when his mother would nag and harass. Derek had plans to get a job and move into student housing soon to hopefully get away from the memories. To my surprise, he secretly had been attending church and met a nice girl too. She of course had no clue about the double life my friend lead, like how he is practically known as the “edgy fascist kid in school” earning him the social reject role. I could hear his voice quiver slightly as he looked away from me when he went into detail about his father. Derek being Derek, he felt silly discussing all this out of nowhere to me. It was so sudden, seemingly coming out of nowhere. I could tell he slowly began to regret speaking up, so I helped out by shifting the conversation to lighten the mood. I brought up a prank where our friend Edd had ran up to a kid in the school"s cafeteria, pulling his pants down when the wimp wasn"t paying attention. The girls turned red with laughter when they saw it.

We had a nice laugh, that is until all of a sudden our gossip was broken by an abrupt strange noise. My friend snapped and began running towards it. I was confused why he had erupted into a sprint, but to make sure that he doesn"t run off somewhere and fall into one of those makeshift bear traps, I hurried after him. Furious that Derek had acted so irrationally, as soon as I had caught up to him, I yelled, calling him a “bloody moron” and began rambling that if he kept up this behavior, then he won"t have anyone else follow him around. I then punched him into the shoulder, to which he responded by hitting me back. Reassuring me I was just over reacting.

We hear the mysterious sound again. Looking up, we noticed trespassing signs everywhere. Hundreds of them, it felt. Must have been at least 30, 50, maybe 60 or so. Some littered on the ground, some on trees, some were broken in half. My jaw dropped by this point. There was that familiar feeling again. Utter fear froze me for a moment, I was spellbound. I felt a chill crawling through my skin. Why were there so many of these same signs everywhere? Was this a joke? At the time, I dared not assume if it could have been paranormal.

I snapped out of my daze when the sounds of tree branches began to make a cracking sound. Startled for a second, I jerked my body into the direction. Felt as if someone had caught me red-handed stealing something of value. Faint fog of smoke began to emerge into my sight. As if drawn by outer forces of the unknown, losing control over my body, I moved towards the sounds and smoke, my friend behind my back. Panic was racing in my mind, I could feel a lurking danger the nearer I drew. As if being watched by a sinister force, I couldn"t quite explain it.

We then finally saw it – a narrow, curved walking path, clausterphobic one could say. Gnarled trees surrounding us, but we continued to walk past. There were weeds and vines outgrown like wild. At the end of the path, we witnessed the village that Derek had found in the book. There was no question about it, it looked nearly identical to the photographs, except that this was all in color. And yet Derek still did not seem affected nor found this strange, or perhaps, he was even hiding it. Sometimes I felt as though the only sane person in this entire world, to be blunt.

Upon further inspection, it was noted that there had been an abundance of bio-hazardous materials strewn about carelessly. The trees in this area seemed to be strangely lopsided, eerie overgrown vines could be seen outgrown wildly; barren houses far and near, some gambrel homes were brier-bordered, many were shrouded in moss and the wooden walls were at a horrible state of advanced decay. You could witness well preserved and dried out cow carcasses. Or whatever little was left of them. Stained in deep dark colors due to age. We stood still to allow us time to mentally process all the visuals. Mild fog shrouded the entire ghastly environment. A melancholic sight. An ominous feeling was conjured up within but I tried to ignore past it. It was too late to fear anymore, it would no longer change anything. Derek, too, seemed awe-struck, if not for just a moment as a glimpsed at him.

We began to explore, inspecting every insignificant detail until I picked up a peculiar can that caught the corner of my eye. I heard a rattling sound, and began to shake it vigorously until something dropped. It was keys marked as “Library"" crudely. Derek had a chuckle and said “What an UNCANNY coincidence” and it was a much needed comedic relief at the time since I had been on edge all day.

Upon creaking open the large archaic doors, I was met with stale air accompanied with the sight of an architecture possessing antediluvian fashion. Spellbound by such unexpected splendor I stood still, despite it being cloaked in dust and has not been cared for centuries, abandoned for years – a time capsule untouched by the faintest of soul; I still appreciated the forgotten traditional manner of beauty civilization used to build their architecture. Lucky to witness this old forgotten craft. I began to scavenge for books, skimming through various manuscripts of old for hours, as I knew this was but a rare opportunity to discover forgotten teachings. I walked to and back these tenebrous hallways only dimly lit by the shining reflection of a gibbous moon. The veracity of these books intrigued me, as they spoke of a long lost village of faded memories. Some spoke of plagues and people"s struggle with this ague as they went about their daily lives. There were summaries of what lead to the birth of this town so long ago, detailing life of the average citizen. There was mention of peculiar carvings on stones some people had found that depicted a long forgotten language. No one was able to decipher its meanings, other than a few phrases – “it observes you from afar; lurks in shadow; it grows nearer; barely breathing”. It got me nervous a little, I will admit. In small numbers, it mentions some people even began hallucinating unutterable horrors who studied the stones. That"s when seemingly random people began disappearing, only to appear abandoned dead in the woods. Paper thin cuts had covered their entire bodies, some had their arms burned off. The village slowly deteriorated. By this point I was growing weary and anxious. Deciding it was enough for today, I abandoned the dusty old library, and left.

Once catching up with Derek, I had noted he had been littering throughout the place during my absence. I briefly tried to explain to him what I had read prior and that there were suspicions to me that had occurred that perhaps it"d be wise for us to leave immediately because something just didn"t seem right. He simply dismissed me my jokingly adding “what, am I going to die too? Ghosts are gonna get me?” to my dismay.

We compromised to leave after a certain “game”, he told me. To which I was then surprised by suddenly getting hit in the face with seaweed that had recently washed upon the shore. Furious, I threw a brief tantrum, before grabbing a knot of seaweeds myself and lunging at him. I was about to cast off another clump at him before I noticed something at the corner of my eye – there clung a some type of lump. I couldn"t help but peek further. To my horror, I stood still for just a moment, petrified once realizing there seemed to be something pallid clinging onto the very roots. Gasping, I violently threw it as far as possible to get it away from me. Derek grew wide eyed too, as he noticed what looked vaguely like skin or a large chunk of a rotten scalp was stuck to it. I connected the dots quickly. back and sides, there were plastic string wrapped around tightly around its leg, making it purple and blue. I could witness pallid skin on its belly and feet. The appalling creature"s eyes looked like a melancholic abyss. The grotesque beast suddenly began to jerk and my eyes became blood shot with unimaginable terror as I began to question my own sanity. I shrieked for Derek to get away, but he instead stopped in confusion instead. The eldritch monstrosity awoke and leaped onto my friend, immediately clenching its powerful jaws around his foot like a malnourished Tasmanian devil on a frenzy. I began shaking violently as “it” began breaking Derek"s leg in half, I could hear the bones crunch horribly as this demoniacal creature afflicted indescribable horrors onto this young man. There was absolutely nothing I could do by that point, my only choice left was to flee. I ran through the village and then the trees and vines, slashing and wounding parts of myself in the process but I didn"t care, the adrenaline was rushing full force inside of me so I could not even notice the pain. In my delirium, I even began to hear things that sounded like distant chanting and metal clanking somewhere. Whether real or not, I cared not to inspect for I was going through a pandemonium of emotions and fear I couldn"t process properly. My ears began to ring loudly as the stygian demon chased me. Images of the creature"s face began to flash in my mind again, of the rusty yellow sharp teeth it bore, the callous cataract eyes, the rotten gums. Images that only further drove in the fear. I begged it to just simply be an apparition of my mind going mad. I wanted it to end. As I escaped the desolate forest, I quickly jumped inside Derek"s car, thankfully I had his keys the entire time since we were such close friends, and in my panicked stated kept trying to start the engine was quick as possible. I could hear feel myself shake, quiver, sweat, and I let out grunts of agonizing dread until the car finally began to start up. Looking up, I saw the creature I loathed so much again. He was staring at me, grinning, like a tiger stalking its pray. It was mocking me as it stood still menicingly. I drove off in a hasty hurry. After a while of driving, I began to ponder “what the hell kind of experiments were they making, why was the mire a dumping ground for bio-hazardous materials? What conspiracies are they hiding from us? Are there more of those...THINGS out there?!” I was so close to breaking down by this point. Saving Derek could have been futile. There was nothing that I could do, I told myself, as tears went down my cheeks.

Surcease to this horror had finally come but the incident had left me a sullen person. My life could never go back to normal after that. When the police questioned me a week later, I was close to breaking down. I let them know he had wondered off somewhere in the forest and hadn"t heard a word from Derek since.

After a month had past, the guilt was murdering me from the inside. I considered to return all alone to hopelessly find my friend again. I saw an army of creatures crawling in that village. These ones however, unlike the first sulky monster, were of un-describleable horror. They were walking aimlessly about the village, no rhyme or reason. It looked like they were writhing in agony. The mere sight of them made me nearly faint. After turning around, I saw Derek, or perhaps what seemed like an apparition of him. Just standing nearby, watching me. Was it real, was it the creatures playing mind games with me? Perhaps I was still trapped in a hallucination caused by my delirium. My consciousness lurks behind my mind questioning everything to this day. I can only pray that my dear friend forgives me and has found peace in the afterlife.

Pollution

This story has been a work in progress since 2022, it is still just a WIP and will be updated some day soon. I have received very constructive critiques from several friends that I am trying to apply here :)

Improvements to this story coming soon!