Marx screamed as the air whipped past him. He was falling! Purple light filled his vision until he could see nothing else and the air rushing into him took the breath from his lungs and his scream was cut off.

The crevasse went down for hundreds of feet then opened wider suddenly, changing from a tiny crack in the Earth to a massive cavern of unimaginable size. The purple light faded and Marx could see again. The walls close enough to see were a deep reddish brown stone and looked like melted wax. They had tiny flecks of shimmering reds and golds in them but Marx was too worried about the ground to notice. It was the same material as the walls, just in smooth puddle-like formations with cracks full of glowing magma crisscrossing them, and it was coming alarmingly close. Not only that, but there was a large crowd of creatures huddled below.

He stilled his flailing arms and flipped onto his back, gasping. He overshot his turn and began spinning uncontrollably in the air. His spinning was interrupted by something threadlike and sticky ramming full-force into his front, catching him for a split second before breaking and sending him tumbling down once more. He was caught again, this time on his back, and the material held out for a second longer.

He went through a series of these webs, each one getting thicker and stronger, until he finally came to a stop on the fifth web. Marx held still and just breathed for a few minutes, his mind in too much of a turmoil to do anything else anyways. He finally sat up shakily, feeling the strange web beneath him. He gasped in realisation: it was a colossal spiderweb, each strand of thread as thick as his thumb, spanning hundreds of feet into the distance. He let out a choked gasp and looked around wildly for the spider responsible for making the web. All he could see were glistening, faintly glowing threads.

Marx took a deep breath and looked down.

There was another spiderweb below him, then the ground a few hundred feet after that. Huge creatures, corpses in various states of decay, ghosts, and all manner of monsters that lurk under beds and hide in closets stared up at him. They were screaming and caterwauling and wailing, stomping their clawed feet and some flapping bat wings.

Suddenly, Marx realised they were cheering. A horrible feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.

Marx's eyes went wide and he stood shakily. He had to get out of there right now. He realised he could hardly move his feet-they were tangled in the extremely sticky webs. He lost his balance and fell again, a burst of pain running through his skull. His headache, which he had forgotten about for a few minutes, roared back into life and made him want to scream in pain. He held the noise in and opened his eyes after a few seconds, hoping this was just some sort of horrible nightmare. The cheering, jeering faces below were just as real as before.

Suddenly, the cheering fell silent and the creatures below moved back to leave a huge space open in the center of the crowd. The lava cracks glowed more brightly and hissed with steam as a shadow materialized. It changed shapes as if it it were made of murky black fog; the only thing that stayed consistent were the thirteen glowing eyes, each in a different color that glowed and burned like fire. It was of inconsistent size, one minute it was like a mountain; the next it was only about the size of a horse.

The Creature turned its head upwards.

"The Rift is open!" Came a voice. It was echoing in the cave and in Marx's skull. Marx winced in pain but was transfixed by the thirteen glowing eyes and couldn't look away.

"Come closer, boy."

Marx felt a strange tugging sensation in his chest as he managed to scrunch his eyes shut. The pulling feeling faded and Marx realised he was on solid ground. He opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn't.

The monsters were much closer now and he could finally see how grotesque they really were. Most were rotting corpses that resembled zombies, although some were newer corpses and some were even skeletons with only small bits of flesh left. Most had maggots wriggling in them. Marx gagged.The monsters were like nothing he had ever imagined before.

"You are awake," The voice said again, and Marx turned around to see that the shadow creature had stopped changing shape and now slightly resembled a ten-foot tall man with thirteen eyes and four arms. It took a step towards him and shrunk until it was only a few inches taller than him.

"Wh-" Marx stammered. "What?"

"Welcome home, child."

Marx felt sickening dread seep through him and settle into his stomach. It was just like his mother had said. He shook his head. This is just a nightmare; a freaky, freaky nightmare I'm having because I'm worried about mom.

"Are you so sure about that? Last time I checked, this is reality, boy. Any 'nightmares' you have from now on are most likely just reality that has been twisted beyond belief." The voice laughed, sending waves of pain through Marx's skull. He bent double and rubbed his temples with a grimace.

"You read my thoughts," Marx gasped when he finally recovered. "What are you?"

A satisfied feeling emanated from the creature. "You are learning fast, boy. Your questions will have to wait, however, until you have settled in."

"What do you mean, 'settled in?' I'm not going to stay here. This place shouldn't exist! It-It's wrong..." Marx said, gathering his courage. No matter how much my life up there sucks at the moment, it's better than being in this place, he thought.

"I meant exactly what I said." The Creature said more harshly. It reared up and opened its eyes, changing shapes dizzyingly and sending Marx howling in pain to his knees. The crowd of monsters screeched in excitement as Marx collapsed, unconscious, onto the warm stone floor.

"Take him to the outfitters. We can't have our prince looking like one of the fools living above, can we?" The Creature said coldly. The crowd began stomping their feet in a rhythm as the Creature disappeared. Marx was lifted by a skeleton and carried away into the nightmarish world holding him hostage.