Darkness

	Somewhere in the Himalayas, 1901
	s we approached the entrance to the chasm, the stench of decay and death overwhelmed us. We covered our faces to shield ourselves from the nausea and traversed deep into the abyss. The cave was dark and foreboding, nothing like the usual darkness encountered at night. It was somehow more substantial; like a dense fog that enveloped the light and extinguished it malevolently. It was here that we first heard the noise. It was a sound of something large and slimy slithering against solid rock, but there was something more to it, something altogether unreal about the sound. It was as if the sound wasn't passing through our ears, but through the very fiber of our being. As we continued down the gaping chasm, the fire from our lanterns grew dim until the darkness itself squeezed the life out of the light. The journey was now a slow and precarious one as we traveled by sound and touch alone. Hours passed as we struck deeper into the earth. The dreadful sounds of slime on stone grew louder and the waves of decaying stench grew stronger. A cold fear rose in my throat as I pondered the possible origins of such evil.
	Then we saw a strange light. Not the warm, gentle radiance of a flame, but an eerie, greenish glow whose essence was cold and lifeless. This light seemed to be alive; swirling around the thick darkness while not diminishing, nor being diminished by it. The clouds of darkness and the radiant green glow seemed to coexist in a way normal light and darkness never could, dancing together in some unknown, sinister opera. The dance was almost hypnotic, and we soon forgot the vile stench and unholy sounds that had plagued us just moments before.
	As we drew closer, we discovered the light had no source. It neither originated from the walls, nor from any object within sight. The light was simply there, a living body of glowing death within itself. A loud scraping sound startled us out of our trance. There it was, the source of the hideous sounds.
	To describe exactly what we saw would be impossible, for no words in our limited minds could even approach the horror I felt when looking upon this immense beast. Its tendrils swayed to and fro, each movement crackling through the air like it was charged with electricity. It was as if this creature's very presence was an affront to nature, and with each movement of those malignant arms, the air around it ceased to exist. To say it was evil was not quite accurate. This was the physical embodiment of pure destruction; the antithesis of all life and creation. This thing was far beyond such a conventional concept as "Evil." If such a creature as the devil exists, this "Worm of Defilement" would be his god.
	As the creature's putrid limbs advanced towards us, an uncontrollable fear held overcame me. I knew that if they were to touch me, I would not only die, but my very soul would wither into nothingness.
	And with that, the Worm-beast moved closer and closer...