Chapter 2 – Awakening in Chains

🌑 Chains of Eternity

Kael’s eyes fluttered open to a sky that wasn’t a sky.

Above him stretched a vast, blood-red dome, swirling with slow, lazy currents of crimson mist. It wasn’t clouds, not really—more like a living sea suspended in the heavens, its depths glimmering faintly with shadows that might have been wings, or teeth, or both. The weight of it pressed down on him, suffocating in its vastness, yet no wind stirred the air.

His body felt wrong.

Kael tried to move, but every muscle protested. A leaden ache coursed through his limbs, as though he had run for days without rest. His throat was dry, his lips cracked, and a dull ringing in his skull pulsed in time with his heartbeat.

When he pushed himself up, grit and dust clung to his palms. The ground was barren—black soil scattered with jagged stones, stretching endlessly into the fog. No plants, no sign of water, nothing to suggest life had ever existed here.

And yet…

Something did exist. Something he could feel.

His gaze dropped, and his blood ran cold.

Chains.

Black chains coiled around his body, slick and alive, as though they were a part of his very shadow. They weren’t solid—not quite. At moments they seemed tangible, iron links etched with faint runes, and at others, they flickered like smoke, half-illusory, melting into the darkness at his feet.

Kael scrambled back, hands clawing at his torso, but the chains moved with him. They weren’t wrapped around his skin—they sprang from him. From the hollow pit of his own shadow.

“What… what is this?” His voice cracked.

The chains rattled faintly, as though answering.

Kael staggered upright, fear warring with confusion, and for the first time, he noticed the silence. No birds. No rustling wind. Not even the faint buzz of insects. Only the sound of his own ragged breathing… and the low, hungry pulse that thrummed inside his chest, echoing with the faint clink of unseen links.

Then the hunger sharpened.

It wasn’t the ache of an empty stomach. It was something deeper, gnawing at his marrow, clawing at his mind. A thirst, a craving for something he couldn’t name. It was as though a hole had been torn into his soul, and the chains wanted it filled.

“Where… am I?” Kael muttered, his voice barely more than a whisper. He turned in a slow circle, but the fog swallowed everything beyond a few dozen paces. The endless void of ash and crimson was the only answer.

A noise broke the silence.

Low, guttural, like stone grating against stone. Kael froze, every muscle tensing. From the mist ahead, something shifted. A silhouette, lumbering forward with jerky movements. At first, he thought it was a man—broad-shouldered, tall. But as it came closer, the wrongness was undeniable. Its arms were too long, its legs bent backward, its head misshapen and crowned with jagged spines. Its skin was stretched tight, gray and cracked like dry earth, and where its face should have been, there was only a lipless maw filled with glistening teeth.

Kael stumbled back, heart hammering in his chest. The thing turned toward him, nostrils flaring, its gaze—or lack thereof—locking onto him with predatory focus.

The hunger inside him howled.

The chains stirred violently, writhing against the ground like serpents. Kael felt them drag at his will, pulling him forward, whispering without words: Feed.

“No…” He shook his head, clutching the rusted length of pipe half-buried in the dirt beside him. His hands closed around it instinctively. It was crude, jagged at one end, barely a weapon—but it was something. His only defense.

The creature roared, a sound that rattled Kael’s bones, and charged.

Time fractured.

Kael’s body moved before his thoughts could catch up. He ducked to the side, the monster’s claw swiping through empty air, close enough to rip a line across his tattered shirt. He swung the pipe wildly, striking its side. The impact jarred his arms, and the beast barely staggered.

Too strong.

Kael gritted his teeth, adrenaline and terror surging. The hunger screamed louder, the chains twitching in his periphery. They wanted this. They wanted blood.

The monster lunged again. Kael rolled beneath it, the ground tearing at his palms, and rammed the jagged pipe upward into its exposed flank. The beast shrieked, ichor spraying in thick, black droplets that hissed as they touched the soil.

Then it happened.

The chains erupted.

They burst from Kael’s shadow, whipping across the ground and lashing around the creature’s limbs. The monster convulsed, its roar turning to a garbled screech as the chains tightened, pulling it toward Kael.

“No—stop!” Kael cried out, but the chains didn’t listen.

They never listened.

The links sank into the beast’s body, piercing its flesh, and a torrent of… something flowed into Kael. Not blood, not flesh. It was essence. Energy. Life itself.

Kael collapsed to his knees, pipe slipping from his hands as the power surged through him. His muscles screamed, his bones felt aflame, and his vision fractured into shards of crimson and shadow. His breath came in ragged gasps as the hunger inside him quieted, purring in satisfaction.

The creature went still, its body collapsing into ash, leaving nothing behind but the echo of its dying shriek.

Kael trembled violently, clutching at his chest, his skin clammy with sweat. The chains receded, coiling lazily back into his shadow, silent once more.

“What… what are you doing to me?” Kael whispered. His voice shook, the words barely audible.

There was no answer. Only silence.

But deep inside, Kael knew one thing with bone-deep certainty: the hunger would return. And when it did, the chains would rise again.

And he would have no choice but to feed them.

☠️ End of Chapter 2