Beyond The Chaos Gate

1 DARK OMENS-1

1 DARK OMENS

Ian is looking down a long corridor, and he sees an open doorway far down the hall. Even though the door is open, it is very dark, and Ian cannot see into the place beyond the door.

Without seeing beyond the door, Ian has a Knowing that something monstrous and evil is on the other side of that portal, and it has a great hunger to pass through the door into the corridor.

Now Ian sees that there is a multitude of strange hooded people, with misshapen bodies and faces lined up against the walls of the hallway, all the way down the corridor to the open door. Ian notices two things at the same time. All of these people have webbing between their fingers, of the sort that aquatic reptiles might sport. Also, there are now flashes of intense light from within the doorway. It is blinding to Ian, but it never illuminates anything inside that place.

Ian guesses that there must be dozens of these distorted people between him and the door. All of them have expressions on their faces, which seem equal parts terror and worship. Only those who worship very cruel gods should have that mixture of expressions on their countenance.

A tendril of some black and smoky substance now comes out of the doorway and starts down the hallway toward Ian. As it passes its followers, it touches them. What follows after is beyond Ian's comprehension. They seem to turn to dust or perhaps ashes, but they also emit a receding scream, as though they are falling into an endless shaft or hole that extended from the Earth to Hell itself.

The tendril of darkness is coming closer to Ian, as though it found it important to reach him. He watches as one after another of the hooded worshippers of the dreaded thing are consumed. At last, the last distorted man between Ian and the door is gone, and the tendril reaches for Ian, like the tentacle of a giant squid reaching for a nearby fish. Just as the tendril makes contact with Ian's arm, he wakes up from his sleep.

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