The S'Tlis (standard:horror, 2825 words)
Author: TheAmazingAndo	Added: Nov 04 2003	Views/Reads: 3179/2214	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
In a fictional world, a man disregards warnings about a dangerous forest. What will happen to him?

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


Surai left Endile immediately, and as the sun fell ever closer to its
bed, he approached the borders of the dark Wood of Kalbana. For the 
last remaining time of sunlight, Surai walked deeper and deeper into 
the Wood. The path was not well-traveled, but he was able to follow it 
well enough. However, as the sun reached its bed and darkness shrouded 
the Wood, Surai found it more and more difficult to make out the path. 
Surai spoke truthfully when he said that he feared nothing, but in his 
life, he had never known anything worth fearing. Now, as his steps 
slowed and his eyes darted around him, he began to wonder if he 
shouldn't have avoided the Wood after all. 

Suddenly, Surai stopped walking. He heard something moving off to his
right. His hands began to tremble as he peered into the murky darkness. 
Then the sound came again from behind him, and he jumped, turning to 
face the new sound, backing his body up against a tree. He called out 
in a shaky voice, “Who goes there? I demand you show yourself.” 
However, his voice carried no power, and conveyed his fear clearly. 

Surai turned in what he hoped was the direction he had been going before
the sun fell and walked as quickly as his feet would allow. The sounds 
of movement again came, this time seemingly from all around him, and 
Surai began to run, not caring now what direction he followed. He 
simply wished to leave the Wood. 

He suddenly broke into a clearing, and all sound stopped, even that of
harmless wildlife. As if stepping into the calm of a storm, Surai heard 
nothing now. He stopped, taking deep, ragged breaths. The moon revealed 
itself into the clearing, and Surai's breath stopped for a moment. 
There were strange forms all around him. Their shadows seemed to move 
with a life all their own, and Surai even fancied he could vaguely see 
the trees through the dark figures. 

He stood, trembling with fear and tried to speak, to challenge these
shadows, but no sound emerged from his lips. The figures drew close to 
Surai, and slowly circled him. They seemed not to walk, but to hover 
somehow above the ground. 

Then he heard voices speaking to him. “Zhi alad, mon'arte quol en'op?
Duk da'nazm. Irtu feln, bi'tah!” Surai shook his head, completely 
unable to understand the words. He was a learned man who knew most of 
the tongues of men, and had at least heard the rest. This was no 
earthly language, he realized. 

Small pinpoints of yellow light shone from where the eyes might be if
the forms were men. They spoke again, this time sounding more urgent. 
“Duk da'nazm! Duk retu'nih, feln alad, yas'stor! Mon'arte quol en'op?” 
Surai began to weep with fear and shook his head, not knowing what to 
do or say in reply. 

The dark forms ceased their movement and the yellow lights brightened.
Tendrils reached out from each form to join with neighboring tendrils, 
forming a complete circle around Surai. Then, before his very eyes, 
yellow light shone up from the ground in a strange design that he had 
never seen before. Suddenly, he felt his feet beginning to sink into 
the earth. Finally finding the will to move, he tried to run, but the 
ground was becoming soft, and he could not extract his feet. He 
screamed out loud, tears of fright streaming from his eyes, but he 
could not move from the spot. The yellow light shone brighter, and he 
fell into the ground. He knew no more. 

*   *   * 

Surai finally awoke. He found himself lying on the ground on the
outskirts of a forest. He did not remember leaving the Wood of Kalbana, 
but he knew that he must have, to find himself here. It was still dark, 
so he could not have slept long. Looking up, he saw the faint glow of 
some sort of town or village far off. He stood and ran toward the glow 
as fast as he was able. 

But as he drew near to the walls of the place, he heard not the normal
sounds of merrymaking coming from an inn or a tavern, not the sounds of 
animals in their houses or pens, not even silence. He heard nothing but 
screams and moans, uttered as if in sheer terror or utter agony. 

Cautiously entering the large, uneven gap in the roughly-made walls, he
searched for a sign, any kind of marking that could indicate what town 
he was entering. However, he saw nothing of the kind. All he saw were 
crude buildings with the signs of dim fires flickering inside them. And 
from almost every direction, he heard the awful cacophony of terrified 
screams and painful groans. 

Suddenly, a voice called out at him, “Halt! Who enters?” 

Surai cried out, startled, raising his hands in the well-known signal of
peaceful intent. “I am Surai, a weary traveler who has happened upon 
this place by pure chance. I mean no harm.” 

A man entered Surai's vision, and Surai gasped. The man's hair was pure
white, and his eyes were wide and bulging. His mouth hung slack, and a 
tangled, unkempt beard fell down to his chest. He spoke again, “Well 
met, Surai. However, though I also mean no harm to you, harm will 
befall you. You have been cursed, as have all of us here.” 

Surai stepped closer to the disheveled man. “What do you mean?” 

A shaking hand gestured all around. “Hear you not the sound? There is
none left here who is sane, save me. I alone remain, and I find myself 
beginning to fall prey to madness.” Suddenly, a gleam came into his 
wide eyes, and his mouth widened into an odd semblance of a grin. He 
came closer to Surai. “Perhaps if you and I can both find the hole in 
the sky together, we won't be driven mad!” 

Surai was perplexed. “The hole in the sky?” 

The half-mad man pointed with a gnarled finger up, and Surai looked at
the sky for the first time since he awoke. He gasped, for he saw not 
the stars or moon or even clouds, but an uneven dome of clay and rocks. 
Far off, a mountain jutted up toward the top of the dome, and a yellow 
light illuminated the peak of the mountain. 

“That is how we all came to be here. You, I, the others. Well all came
through the hole in the sky. At first, we all resist, and try to 
return, but we never make it far. They speak into our minds.” 

Surai looked back down at the man. “They? Who are you talking about?”
The man's voice dropped to a whisper. “Them. The ones who encircled 
you, just as they did all of us. The ones who brought you here to their 
domain. The S'Tlis.” 

An involuntary shudder ran down Surai's spine, for even though he had
never heard the name before, it caused his blood to run icy, and he was 
filled with fear. And then, his own eyes widened, as he heard whispers 
of that strange language the dark forms spoke, the words invading his 
mind. 

The other man nodded. “It has begun for you as well, I can see it. I
know that I have very little time left before I, Nojar am defeated. 
Maybe it is even now too late for me. But if you are strong, perhaps 
you can yet escape.” 

Surai looked around again. “What about all of them?” 

Nojar shook his head and looked down sadly. “Their time expired long
ago. They are all completely mad now. Not a single one of them speaks 
anymore. All they do is scream and rant. And even though they take no 
food or drink – if there is any food or drink here anyway – they never 
die. We all wish to die, Surai. But down here, there is no death. There 
is no end to the torture.” 

Just then, Surai saw a woman stand atop a building behind Nojar. She
wore a few strips of tattered cloth that barely hid her emaciated 
figure. Her long hair was as white as Nojar's, and with a final scream, 
she threw herself off the building and fell to the ground. Seeing 
Surai's look, Nojar turned and saw her. He shook his head. “She will 
walk again in a few moments.” And even as he spoke, the woman picked 
herself up, screamed again, and ran toward another building. 

Surai shuddered. “I can't stay here. Even if I don't make it, I have to
try to get back through the hole in the sky.” 

Nojar nodded. “Come with me. I can show you the way, but I cannot
promise to follow it with you.” 

*   *   * 

They walked toward the mountain, leaving the screaming madness of the
town behind them. But the further Surai got from the screaming, the 
more he heard the awful whisperings in his mind, and he almost began to 
feel them worse than the screams. Nojar noticed Surai beginning to feel 
the effects of the voices, and turned to him. “It will only get worse. 
I can feel my mind beginning to slip. The path here leads up toward the 
mountain. If I go mad, you must continue on. Once you begin climbing 
the mountain, the light will show you the path, but the voices will 
become louder as well.” 

Surai did not know how long they walked, because time had no meaning in
this world. They might have walked for hours, days, even weeks. But 
although the voices began to fray the edges of Surai's mind, he did not 
tire. 

At long last, Surai and Nojar reached the foot of the mountain, but it
was there that Nojar collapsed on the ground, shaking and clutching his 
head. Surai knelt by him, and heard his last coherent words. “The 
S'Tlis, they have me, I am theirs. Fight them, please, find your 
freedom.” And then Nojar began to scream, and he got to his feet and 
ran back toward the town, never looking back. Surai watched and heard 
Nojar's screaming fade, even as the evil whisperings of the S'Tlis grew 
louder in his mind. 

He began to climb the trail up the mountain, and with every step, he
felt a part of his sanity leaving him. The voices grew louder in his 
mind until they consumed his every thought, and the only thing he could 
think of was he must be free of them, die, or go mad himself. But 
somehow, part of him fought that madness, and with a strength he did 
not know he had, he pushed ever onward. 

Surai did not know how long it took to scale the mountain to its summit,
but at last he set his foot on the top of the mountain. The voices were 
almost a scream in his mind now, and he endlessly gritted his teeth and 
clenched his fists with the effort to remain in control of his sanity. 
He looked up and saw the ceiling of the dome mere inches above his 
head, and right above him, there was a circular patch of yellow light. 
Knowing somehow that through the light was his salvation and freedom, 
he reached up and clawed at the light. 

The substance he felt was unlike anything he knew, but with the voices
screaming at him in that inhuman tongue, he grasped at anything solid 
enough to help him pull his body up. Surai found little purchase within 
the light, but little by little, he worked his way through it. 

He was enveloped now, and though he found no air to breathe, he still
fought to free himself. His hand suddenly was freed from the substance, 
and he doubled his efforts, struggling wildly to get away from the 
voices that were deafening now. 

*   *   * 

Surai calmly traveled through the Wood of Kalbana. With him were many
others, for he no longer was alone. And even now, they saw someone 
walking along the path. He seemed nervous, and seemed eager to get 
through the Wood. 

Surai and the others approached him, but once he heard their movements,
the man ran in fear. However, as the path led him to the Heart of the 
Wood, he froze, as all do who enter the Heart. 

Surai and the others once more approached the trembling man, who was
unable to run any farther. 

Surai looked carefully over the man, and then spoke to him, “Zhi alad,
mon'arte quol en'op?”


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