Nothing tried to eat her while she slept, so Eva decided to go for a short swim around the island. It was an awkward affair. Fingers, despite being so small, made enough of a difference that it was almost like relearning how to swim with just her square meat pads of hands.
She tried her hardest not to think about that.
The further out she went, the odder the water got. There was more pressure than normal water even at the surface. When she went down the sandbank to a neck-deep level, the water felt like it was hugging her.
Eva lifted a hand out of the water, expecting the liquid to cling to her skin. It didn’t. The water ran off into the pool creating tiny ripples that quickly dispersed. It was also completely opaque, something she failed to notice when she cleaned herself off.
She doubted she would see anything, but it couldn’t hurt to try. Anywhere would be better than her little island. Taking a deep breath, Eva dunked her head underwater.
The water pressed into her empty sockets. It met no resistance from her flaps of eyelids as it squeezed past.
Then it was gone. Not just the water in her eyes; all the water vanished.
A brief feeling of weightlessness took hold of Eva’s stomach.
She fell.
A hard, flat surface rushed up to greet her. It greeted her hard.
She crumpled and landed on her stomach, face hitting the floor a moment later.
Everything was black.
She couldn’t see.
Eva’s breath raced.
A light spell did nothing. No illumination, no little dot against whatever background was around her.
A heavy thunk hit the ground behind her. And then another. Then another and another and another.
Five thunks, each slightly different in sound as they hit. One higher, then another lower.
There was a short pause before five more thunks hit the ground in the same sound order. High, low, high, mid, mid. Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk.
They were closer than before.
Something was coming her way.
Eva scrambled along the ground on all fours. Away from the noise.
It kept coming. Five thunks. Each sounding closer than the last.
Eva hit a wall. She felt around. It was smooth metal. No door handles, no openings.
She scurried along the wall, desperate to move away from the noise.
It was louder, almost deafening.
Her hand slipped in something. Eva’s arms fell out in front of her. Her face hit whatever she slipped on.
She could see it.
Blood.
Another thunk.
The thing was right on top of her. Eva cowered into a ball.
Another thunk.
A huge, metal sounding pole impacted the ground mere inches from her.
She could feel it hit the ground. The blood splattered up onto the pole.
Another thunk.
This one past her. Opposite of where the pole right next to her was. It sounded muffled.
Another thunk.
Another thunk.
Her bare backside almost was skewered. If she had clothes on, they would certainly be torn.
Another thunk.
The pole right next to her lifted up. It passed over what she decided was a wall and settled down on the other side with a muffled thunk.
Another lifted up, one she couldn’t see. She could feel the air as it passed over her.
The pole against her backside scraped against her as it lifted.
The contraption froze.
Eva froze.
She held her breath, not daring to even breathe. If she had the tools, she might have speared her heart to keep it from hammering so loudly.
Her backside cut open as the contraption moved once more. Eva could sense blood trickling down her butt. Her cut healed more on instinct than any conscious act on Eva’s part.
Eva watched the pole, with mere droplets of her blood on it, as it lifted up and over the wall.
Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk.
Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk.
Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk.
Eva gasped in air. Her lungs were on fire. Her heart felt like it might explode.
She lay in the pool of someone else’s blood, thankful to be able to see anything at all, and waited for her shaking to stop.
Eva rolled in the blood, smearing it on herself. It meant she could see at least herself. Wiping on her face and soaking it in her hair created the odd sensation of seeing herself from outside her body.
Or like she had mirrors all around her.
She wished she had a container. She could splatter it around while she moved and at least get some simulacrum of the environment in her head.
That was not to be the case. There was nothing she could use.
Calmed down enough to think, though her heart still racing, Eva concentrated on the blood that was there.
She followed it up, her vision expanding as she concentrated and calmed. A person hung from chains attached somewhere out of her blood sight. He had a large hook through his chest. Blood dripped down from his toes.
He writhed and moaned, obviously still alive.
She ignored him. He wasn’t in any state to help her.
Eva splashed through his blood, splattering it around as much as she could. She crawled through it as far as she could stretch it.
