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So you came? Even after all the warnings, you dared to approach?

Did you come to quell your fears, or satiate your curiosity? Do you know it’s all the same. either way? I’m here, I’m always here, and if you make it through, you never make it back.

And if you don’t make it through, you never make it back either.

Rites of passage are cruel, and painful, and fraught with danger. Didn’t you know that? Didn’t you think before you responded to my siren call? I almost pity you – each and every one of you that come to try. Trying is something, after all. Unlike your lily-livered comrades, you ventured forth. I could almost respect that. Almost.

But what I think doesn’t matter. I am here to stop you, to rend and tear, to break you down. In blood and bone and suffering you either die in this tunnel, or you are reborn. It’s al the same to me.

It’s always all the same to me. I am but a humble functionary.

So choose your weapons, if there are any to choose, and prepare. This world is far more savage than you realise, and you will finally get to see the truth. All that remains to be seen, beyond that, is whether this is truly the first, or last, thing you ever really see.

So you came? My ugliness and threat did not dissuade you? I will tally you all, like tokens or a way I may one day be free. I will drink your blood my friend and perhaps, perhaps, you will drink mine. And we shall be friends, for a very little time.

Let us begin.

(c) Helen M Valentina 2016