Archive Stories/Tales from the Horror

**Tales from the Horror** is a story from The Archives, revealed piece-by-piece across several Tomes.

This page intends to collect all parts of this story in a single place.

## Summary

Mahan and his team ventured into The Void, a terrifying dimension filled with haunting memories and grotesque sights of mutilated bodies amidst a blue, shimmering energy. The team navigated through the unsettling landscapes, aiming to find refuge in an ancient World War One Fortress Tank that Mahan had read about. Upon reaching the tank, they discovered remnants of past crew members and grappled with the eerie feelings and ghostly apparitions Haley, a psychic member, experienced. Despite the discomfort, they attempted to utilise the tank's unique generators, which powered the fortress using a strange black substance. Just as they managed to activate the power, the ground shook, and Jaden, Mahan's companion, witnessed an indescribable horror through a window. The nature of this mysterious threat remains unknown, leaving the team in a state of alarmed suspense.

## Story

### Through the Void. Darkly.

This part of **Tales from the Horror** revealed in Tome 16 - Existence and Tome 17 - Commitment.

#### Part 1

*Mahan pushed through the rupture and entered the endless vastness that was The Void. He stood frozen, unable to think or move as the rest of the rag-tag squad pushed through the fog. Dwayne released a startled gasp as he came up beside Derek and Mel, and he pointed, mouth agape, toward a rolling desert of putrefied bodies soaking in an endless stew of scintillating, blue energy. Forgotten memories dragged up from the blue sea like feverish ghosts and ghouls and then disappeared in a swirl of fog. Screams, shrieks, sobs, and maniacal laughter overwhelmed them. Heads, limbs and bodies fell from the dark sky, crashing over piles of bones and rubble, shaking the world as though The Horror itself took everything dark and vile in existence and shook it in a mixing-bag.*

*Jaden steadied himself for a moment, then stepped up to Mahan. “You think it’s here?”*

*Mahan scanned the endless ruins. “I don’t know,” he answered flatly. The rank odour of rotting bodies and mould invaded his nostrils. “What I do know is we can’t stand in one place for too long or—”*

'“Dark memories will drag us down in a pit of madness,” Haley interrupted. “Memories so vivid you’d think they were your own.”

*“Memories of horrors past!” Mahan confirmed, staring at the residual memory of an executioner raising his axe over his head and suddenly lobbing off the head of a panicking prisoner. The head rolled over a ground strewn with bodies in various forms of dismemberment, and then the entire memory—the executioner and the dead prisoner—dissipated into the swelling blue like a midnight sea. This was The Void, and it was far worse than anything Mahan had read about in the scroll he had scavenged off the dead samurai. “If the memories don’t get you… the creatures will.”*

*“What creatures?” Max asked, shoving his way past Sam and Eric who stared in shock at the countless memories materializing and dematerialising before them. “What are we talking about here?”*

*“Whatever horror you can imagine,” Haley answered. “This place… it’s a cosmic dump of all things horrific and terrible… and… from what we’ve been able to gather… our only hope.”*

*Surin approached Mahan, crunching brittle bones with every step. He stopped at the top of a small mound of rubble and looked back at Haley. “Can you do your thing here?”*

*“I don’t think she’d want to,” Grace said in a low, breathy voice, pushing out of the rupture through a curtain of fog.*

*Haley nodded. “Mrs. Sherwood’s right. I could lose myself in these—these endless memories.”*

*A bone suddenly crunched behind her.*

*Haley turned to watch Claudine kneel by a cluster of glowing purple and pink flowers pushing out of a mound of death and decay. Taking caution, Claudine pulled out her scissors and quickly clipped a sample, adding the strange flowers to her backpack where she kept a collection of flora samples plucked from various realms in The Horror.*

*The squad stood in silence for a long while as they absorbed this new part of The Horror.*

*“We should move,” Mahan said at last, and he took a small, cautious step forward as he watched the residual memory of a soldier form and rush toward a strange object.*

*Mahan narrowed his gaze. It took him a moment to work out what he was seeing as the soldier stepped on a mine and exploded into a shower of gore and blood. There in the distance he thought he saw an old World War One fortress tank. One of the many ridiculous tanks he had seen in a history book. He remembered reading about the Fortress Tank and laughing at the absurdity of it. He remembered reading that the tank had been designed but never actually built.*

*Not in his world, anyway.*

*What Mahan knew and what he had learned in his world didn’t really matter much… not anymore.*

*The tank could provide shelter and protection if its huge caterpillar tracks somehow—by some cosmic miracle—worked. Maybe the tank could provide refuge just like the ruined tower had long ago. Maybe, like the tower, he would find other survivors there eking out some kind of existence.*

*In the end, Mahan didn’t know what he would find. All he knew is he needed to get his squad out of this sea of dark memories and into that fortress. And so, Mahan signalled for attention with his rifle, said a few encouraging words, and led the squad toward the most absurd tank he had ever seen in his life.*

#### Part 2

*The Fortress Tank was littered with burnt cadavers. Twisted limbs reached out like black gnarled trees against the blue light seeping through a hole in the metal ceiling. Scorch marks scarred the floor and on the wall, Haley read, ‘No Exit’ written in blood. She stared at the words for a long, pensive moment. Then the squad assembled around her, asking if she could pick up anything with her abilities. She shrugged and inched closer to the bodies, feeling a strange heaviness in the air. She could sense there was something unnatural and unknown still lingering about the corridor.*

*Cautiously, Haley inched toward a crushed head on the metal grate and froze mid-step when she felt her arms prickle. She let her foot fall slowly and fixed her gaze on the charred eye sockets, searching for something, anything—anything that could help understand what had happened to the previous crew.*

*When nothing appeared, she raised her gaze and started when a ghostly soldier suddenly flashed before her eyes. Composing herself, she watched the soldier scramble down the dark corridor with entrails wiggling out of his lacerated stomach like giant worms. \n\nSam sensed Haley was distraught and asked her what she was seeing. She turned to face him but tumbled backward and gasped at the sudden vision of gas-soaked soldiers going up in flames. The flames erupted and melted fat and flesh like butter until everything dissipated into plumes of swirling, blue smoke.*

*Clambering to her feet and steadying herself, Haley breathed deeply and turned to the squad with a bleak expression. She said nothing for a long moment. She debated whether she should share her visions with the rest of the squad. But she wasn’t sure if what she had seen could be trusted. It could have been a memory, or it could have been a hallucination triggered by The Void.*

*Finally, she admitted she wasn’t sure about what she had seen and told the squad she needed more time to investigate. So saying, she made her way to a pile of mangled bodies, grabbed a charred hand and closed her eyes. Silencing her mind, she focused all her senses on the moment, but nothing came to her.*

*“The whispers,” Jaden said, approaching his stepsister. “They’ve stopped… it’s like the tank is somehow shielding us from the outside.”*

*Haley opened her eyes and regarded him. Then she released the lifeless hand. “If that’s true,” she said flatly. “What happened to them?” She gestured toward the scattered bodies with an uneasy sigh.*

*“Good question,” Natasha commented as she scanned the massive tank for signs of life. “Looks like we’ll be staying here for a bit. Doesn’t bother me. I’ve been in worse places back home.”*

*“Speak for yourself, Nat,” Jen shook her head. “This is a death trap. We should look for another place.”*

*“What other place?” Derek asked. “There is no other place. Let’s clear the rooms and make this can-of-hell pleasant.”*

*“Pleasant?” Mel questioned. “Am I the only one smelling that?”*

*“Smelling what?” Dwayne smirked.*

*Mel turned to Dwayne. She wanted to smack the glasses off his face for downplaying the stench. “What do you mean ‘smelling what?’ Barbequed humanity. That’s what.”*

*Dwayne shrugged. “Just breathe through your mouth.”*

*Mel shook her head. “I don’t want to breathe through my mouth!”*

*“I’m sure Claudine will think of something with her flowers.”*

*“Very funny, Ash!” Claudine’s face hardened. “I’m not collecting air fresheners here, or are you that clueless?” And she shoved Ash, who was laughing, into the hard, metal wall with a resonating clang.*

*“Knock it off!” Mahan snapped. “Let’s split up… Check the rooms for survivors. See if we can find something useful like medical supplies.”*

*The squad agreed with nods and whispers and soon dispersed throughout the tank.*

*At this point Mahan motioned for Haley and Jaden to follow him as he picked his way through the dark corridor with his flashlight. After what seemed like a lifetime, they found a control room lined with generators that had somehow been grafted to the wall. Nearby there was a container filled with a strange, bubbling, black substance. From the container a thick red hose extended to the generators.*

*Mahan scrutinized the container, the generators, and the dashboard. It seemed like the black fluid somehow fuelled the generators, and the generators somehow powered the fortress. He wasn’t exactly sure how this makeshift energy system worked, but he had seen the technology before in other realms. For a moment, he had the faint hope that the generators and the tank had been designed to help them survive The Void.*

*“They’re similar to the other generators.” Jaden observed as he passed his finger along the controls until he found a small window covered in grime and other substances he didn’t want to think about.*

*Mahan approached a generator and tried to activate it, but nothing happened. He removed a panel and tinkered with wires like he had done countless times before. Within moments, the generator sparked, belched, and grumbled to life as a light bulb flickered on and off casting a soft orange glow in the room.*

*“We’ve got a power!” Haley smiled.*

*“Thanks to…”*

*Jaden’s words trailed away as the ground shook beneath his feet and a deep sonorous roar came from outside. With a great sense of urgency, he used his sleeve to clear the grime from the window. As he stared out into The Void a shudder ran through him and the blood drained from his face.*

*“What is it?” Haley asked.*

*When Jaden didn’t answer, Mahan turned toward Haley, then Jaden and asked, “What is it? What’s out there?”*

*Still, he didn’t answer.*

*Haley and Mahan exchanged a worried look as the world shook, again.*

*“Come see this…” Jaden finally stammered. His voice came out in a thin croak, and he felt his nerves growing taut as he fought down a surge of panic. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was unlike anything he had ever seen in the other realms.*

*Staggering and helping one another, Haley and Mahan stepped behind Jaden.*

*All three looked through the small window in open-mouthed disbelief.*