Penumbra

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

All he remembered was falling, through infinite darkness stretching for an eternity in all directions. Eyes closed or open as he tumbled down; there was only an all-encompassing blackness. The dark held no temperature, warm or cold. It was simply…nothing. His arms drifted utterly weightless in front of him, no resistance existing to hold them against his sides. There was only the omnipresent void, an abyss of shadows spreading across his sight.
His arms halted abruptly, the silent symphony ending as his conducting stopped. His heart thumped in his chest as he squinted against the absolute dark. A sweeping wind tickled his cheek and his breath froze as he whirled, eyes darting, searching. A veritable hurricane detonated across his person, shattering his ageless plummet, as his hair billowed, its ivory veneer a stark contrast to the ebony backdrop.
A soundless scream erupted from his lips as the pitch-black void disseminated, a colossal burst of crimson mire engulfing him. His legs thrashed, endeavouring to gain purchase in the tepid fluid as it overwhelmed his struggling. He kicked wildly against the surging rage of the red substance, his eyes searching riotously for the direction of the surface, until finally, the urge to breathe crushed his opposition and he explosively gasped in the liquid.
A great hacking cough rocked his body as the liquid flooded his lungs. His eyes widened at the unmistakable metallic taste that filled his mouth and his stomach churned at the horrifying realisation he was submerged in blood. His fists dragged through the gripping fluid, stopping as they pounded repeatedly on his sternum, tremors shaking his body with each collision, desperate to get the blood out, out, out! The rapid vortex of the crimson sea pulled him about like a rag doll as he struck his chest, expelling the liquid with each blow until his muscles roared in protest.
He sagged limply in the gradually calming substance. However, his extremities ran cold as a bleached streak hurtled past him, whipping him sideways. Shudders shook through him, his hands whipping to his ears as a roaring screech obliterated his hearing, the peroxided mass sweeping across his peripherals directly into the collection of whipping tentacles.
Even with his decimated hearing, the resulting explosion thundered through him. His eyes shut immediately as the shockwave ripped through the blood, the extreme heat vaporising the red liquid, but dissipating before it could tear into him. He forced his eyes open, a scream tearing from him at the horrendous amalgamation of the two creatures that greeted him. Large insect-like gossamer wings spanned from the spine of the monstrosity, creating a milky-gold forest that covered its entire structure. For the briefest of moments, the membranous tentacles of the atrocity swayed before his heart thumped against his chest, shattering the lucid silence. His vision flared with light as the miscreation bellowed to the creature adjacent to him, panting and wracked with sweat.
“Congratulations, Mrs Johnson,” came the sounds erupting out of its mouth, “it’s a boy.”

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