*****
Far, far behind Darius and Peyton, a small number of souls were climbing over the top of the cliff. The two that led the group turned to help the others. As they all made it over onto the flat surface, looking around in dismay at the world they now found themselves in, one pointed at something that they had noticed in the distance. They all turned to look.
A hole had appeared in the fabric of reality, a tear in space. As they watched, a man-sized creature walked through the rip. It was wearing a dark cloak and stood silently, surveying the landscape as the rip closed behind it. As the souls watched, the creature turned its eyes upon them. The souls felt horrified by the face of the creature. It looked like a man, but half of his face had been burned away, revealing the dirty white skull and teeth that should have been hidden beneath the flesh. The man stared at them for a while, considering them, but then he appeared to grin at them, a horrible grin that was not at all friendly or inviting. The man then reached up and grabbed hold of the hood of his cloak. His hands were also burned away, no flesh remained at all and the bones appearing cracked and filthy, like they too had been burned. The man pulled his hood over his head, hiding his face from view. Then he turned and started walking away towards a brilliant light in the distance.
The souls decided to wait a while before continuing on, giving the creature a big enough head start so that they didn’t cross its path again.