It was amazing how newfound determination and courage could so easily wither away in the face of slow, grinding monotony.
When they had started their search, Matin promised himself to get everyone out alive and act like the leader his mother always wanted him to be. Saying that to himself while keeping a confident outward appearance was easy at first. After entering half a hundred different hallways and just as many strange rooms, however, that confidence was beginning to fade.
He had chosen a single direction to walk and had stuck to that direction for what must have been half the day. If they were outside, they'd be halfway down the mountain by now.
He opened a door facing in that same direction and almost let out a curse as he came to an abrupt stop.
"What is it now?" Rosetta asked hollowly. All hope and fear gone, replaced by quiet resignation, she followed Matin without a word.
Matin took a slow step backward. The room behind the door could hardly be called a room at all. It was a pit. One whose bottom he couldn't see in the darkness, lit only by those damned jagged red lines. Looking up showed much of the same story. There was no ceiling, only a never-ending blackness. Pieces of furniture were floating in the air or stuck to the walls.
"We can't go this way." Matin whispered.
"Why not? I'm not going all the way back…wah!" Rosetta shouted as she moved past Matin to get a better look into the room.
Rosetta stumbled forward rather than backward, and Matin had to grab onto her collar to pull her back. He tripped on a loose piece of carpet, and they both fell down in a sprawl.
Matin had to work to slow his breathing down as he got to his feet. Rosetta, on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine with lying there, gazing blankly up at the ceiling. He heard her muttering under her breath about a fool. He wondered if she was referring to herself or to him. It was probably best not to ask.
"Here, let me help you up," he said in a shaky voice, reaching out a hand.
Rosetta twisted her face and looked up at him before grunting and holding out her hand. He almost failed to pull her up as she put little effort of her own into getting to her feet, forcing him to do all the work.
"Thanks, Matin," she whispered while looking away.
"Don't mention it," he replied just as quietly.
Rosetta had done little to help his confidence as the hours went by. In fact, her attitude seemed to suck the very willpower from him. For a brief moment, he wished he could have been lost with almost anyone else. No, that was not how a leader should behave. Rosetta needed his help, and he should give it freely. No complaints.
"Let's keep going. We'll find a way out eventually," he said, plastering a fresh smile onto his face.
Fearing that Rosetta would see through it, he turned away from her and began to make his way further down the corridor.
"Wait, Matin, I-" Rosetta said, taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry you had to be stuck with me," she finished in a hurry
Matin froze, unable to turn and face her. Had his impatience with her really been that obvious? Preparing himself mentally, he turned around.
"What are you sorry for?" He asked, feigning surprise. "You haven't done anything at all."
That was the problem. She wasn't doing anything to help. He kept such thoughts to himself.
Rosetta bit her lip and cast her eyes downward.
"Anyone would be more useful in this situation. I'm making things worse for you just by being here, aren't I?"
Matin felt his heart sink a little. He should have denied it the moment those words left her mouth, but his own mind was a mess and he needed a moment to gather his thoughts. A moment too long, as Rosetta spoke up first.
"You don't need to say anything. Even if you say otherwise, I know you'd be lying. You're a kind person, Matin, and all kind people say the exact same things to me. Let's just go, forget I said anything."
Not giving him a moment to speak, she stepped past him and further down the hall. Matin bit back his words. He had nothing to say that would make her feel better. In fact, he felt a terrible urge to scream at her. To tell her she was right and that he would have been better off without her. Remaining silent was the best option.
And so they continued on through endless hallways and strange rooms. Some sights included a room with furniture stretched out like elastic, with each piece attached to the walls or ceiling, like spiderweb. Another room seemed to go on forever, with random objects such as flower pots and utensils being sucked into the distance by some invisible force. Matin felt that force pulling on him and decided to turn away from that room as well.
No room seemed directly dangerous. There were no rooms filled with spikes or other traps, and yet each one managed to be unsettling it its own way and slowly wore down both their minds.
It was another hour or two when Matin noticed something unsettling.
"Can't you help me instead of making smart remarks all the time?"
That voice belonged to Rosetta, but she wasn't talking to him. She was looking down into her robe pocket and whispering loudly. He had heard her whispering and muttering under her breath a few times over the last hour, but this was the first time he clearly heard what she had said. Did she not think he'd notice? She was making it very hard for him to pretend that he couldn't hear.
He persevered, not saying a word and hoping Rosetta was just encouraging herself in her own way. She wasn't going mad. The situation was just a difficult one. Her behaviour was understandable. He just had to keep pretending he couldn't hear.
"We shouldn't do something like that."
"He's trying his best, at least he's trying, not like me."
"If you're so smart, then why don't you find us a way out of here…no, no, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry."
Matin bit his lip. The experience was clearly taking its toll on her mind. He just wished she could keep it to herself. Her whisperings were just adding to the unsettling atmosphere of the situation and making him feel worse. Couldn't she think of other people just for once? Matin felt like screaming.
As discreetly as he could, he peered sideways, trying to get a good look into Rosetta's pocket. There was no bulge or anything that suggested there was something hidden in there. In fact, it looked completely empty.
Once again, he swallowed down a comment. Better to just stay quiet and pretend that he didn't hear anything. Yes, that was the path of least resistance. Always better to take that path and not ruffle any feathers.
He noticed his hands were shaking and felt a little numb. Why was his chest hurting too? Another corridor, another strange room.
"I don't hear anything. Stop trying to scare me." Rosetta whispered into her pocket.
Matin took a deep breath. It did little to calm his nerves. Finally losing his control, he shot an angry glance over at Rosetta. When she saw him, she flinched and looked away. He opened his mouth to say something, but then noticed something further down the corridor behind them. A humanoid monster with grey skin and black ooze pouring from its eyes and mouth. It stood there, staring at them silently and unmoving.
"Run!" he shouted, grabbing Rosetta by the hand.
"Wha?" Rosetta cried, but he didn't give her the chance to speak further.
The sound of wet feet slapping the floor grew louder as they ran, and it didn't take long for Rosetta to see the danger. They both ran as fast as they could down the corridor. A door, if they could find a door, maybe they could escape the creature in the same way they were separated from his mother and Mitch.
At that moment he felt Rosetta's arm pulling at his, resisting. She was slowing down.
"Rosetta, come on, we're almost to the door. What are you doing? Get up!"
Rosetta had fallen to her knees, sobbing.
"Just let them catch me, I don't want to deal with this anymore!"
Matin's jaw dropped. What could he even say to that? He pulled on her arm desperately, doing whatever he could to get her to move.
"You keep going!" She cried.
"No!" Matin yelled back.
He looked over her shoulder to see that the creature had slowed to a walk. Well, to call it a walk was a stretch. It looked more like slow, lunging movements forward.
"Do you want to be eaten by that thing?" he yelled, gesturing toward the creature.
Rosetta looked up and whimpered as she looked at the creature. At that moment, as if to emphasise his warnings, more creatures appeared from around a distant corner. Amazingly, that seemed to work much better than his constant pulling. Rosetta scrambled to her feet and just as the first creature reached out to them, they slammed through the door, shutting it quickly behind them. Strangely, there was no banging sound from the other side.
Matin fell to to his knees, panting. They were in a fairly average-looking room, relatively speaking. Completely empty except for a single white flower which was growing out of the deep red carpet in the center. Well, at least the carpet felt comfortable to lie on. He had seen much stranger rooms and really couldn't complain.
"Coward, you coward, you coward."
Rosetta was on her knees as well, shouting those words as she punched the floor. Matin closed his eyes and covered his ears. He didn't want to listen to her anymore.
It took them both a long time to calm down. Rosetta sat with her back to the wall, as far away from Matin as she could possibly manage, and was staring blankly towards the opposite wall. Matin felt awful. His heart was racing and his stomach hurt. He was hyperventilating, and his fingers and toes felt numb. Neither of them felt like moving anytime soon. It felt like hours passed before Matin finally spoke.
"I wish Dean, Addi or Maria were here," he said.
Rosetta slowly turned to look at him. He wondered if she could hear him, sitting so far away.
"What about Nick?" She asked.
"He'd be just like us. Just a bit angrier, maybe. But you're right, even he'd do better than us"
Rosetta laughed softly. He could barely hear it, but it was a pleasant sound. It made him relax, if only slightly.
"We really are the most useless ones in the group, huh?" Rosetta said before shaking her head. "No, that's not right. It's just me who's useless."
Matin remained silent. He didn't agree with her, but he just didn't have the energy to argue. Whenever things took a bad turn, he would always lose confidence and mess up. His friends called him reliable, always having what they needed and willing to help. But that was only when things were going well.
Rosetta, noticing the look on his face, spoke up once again.
"Maria would've just punched a hole in the wall to get out," she said.
"Those monsters would probably have run away from her," Matin said with a laugh.
Rosetta smiled for a moment, but it quickly disappeared.
"I miss them. Her and Nick"
She brought her legs up to her chest and hugged her knees. Matin felt a pang of his own sadness.
"Me too," he whispered.
There was another brief silence as they remembered their friends. Maria had always been a little scary, but when she used that fear against those who bothered him or the others, it made him feel safe. He imagined Rosetta felt the same way. He still couldn't believe she had been killed. She had seemed so untouchable to him before. He wondered if it had something to do with Nick's passing. He knew they were close, but perhaps Maria had relied on him more than Matin realised. Nick was always the type to support others from a distance, never letting others know how kind he could be.
"We still have Dean and Addi, well, maybe. No, I'm sure they're out there and looking for us right now," Matin said, trying to sound positive.
"Do you think they even want to rescue me?" Rosetta asked after a brief silence.
"Of course they do. Dean would save his worst enemy if they were in trouble." Matin replied.
Rosetta sniffed at that.
"He never takes other's feelings into consideration while doing his saving, either."
"Straight as an arrow and tunnel-visioned to boot," Matin agreed.
"Hey Matin, can you be honest with me for a second?"
Matin looked up to find Rosetta staring right at him with her bloodshot eyes. Her blond hair hung limply over her face, obscuring her expression slightly.
"Sure," he whispered.
"Do you know why all this is happening?" she asked slowly, raising her head and looking right at him.
"What?"
Her question caught him off guard, and he could only look at her in confusion. Rosetta's stare was very unusual. She rarely ever made eye contact with those she spoke to, and when she did, it was usually at Maria or Dean when they pushed her buttons a little too much. He had been so focused on finding his mother and Mitch that he hadn't even stopped to consider the insane situation they had found themselves in.
"I'm not accusing you or anything." Rosetta said in a hurry. "It's just that your mother, well. It's just that everything started to go wrong when she arrived. I was just wondering if you knew anything at all."
Rosetta had finished her sentence in a hurry, clearly knowing she was stepping on Matin's toes by indirectly accusing his mother of all this. Why did the blame almost always fall on his mother? He knew she wasn't the friendliest of people, but she'd never go as far as to murder the innocent. She was his mother, for Goddess' sake!
He felt heat rise within him as his teeth ground together.
"My mother, she-"
His mind raced with memories of the last few days. Of how she had taken over the school, had sent Dean to the catacombs, and how she seemed desperate to keep Matin in the round tower.
"She has nothing to do with this," he finished flatly. The words sounded hollow, even to him. An opinion expressed without evidence.
"Oh, you think so?" Rosetta asked, a sarcastic edge in her voice.
Matin felt a sudden stab of anger towards his friend. He wanted to shout at her, to tell her that she was just venting her frustration on the easiest target. His mother was always the easy target. For the nobility and even for her closest associates. Why couldn't people see her for what she truly was? He had hoped Rosetta, being one of his closest friends, would have seen that. He should tell Rosetta to stop being so single-minded. To open her eyes and look past the obvious!
His fists clenched tightly, and he felt his nails dig into his palms.
Rosetta should just disappear.
No, Rosetta was struggling in her own way. It was only natural for people to start flinging blame around whenever things went bad. Rosetta wasn't being cruel for the sake of it. She was scared and confused. Looking for a reason for everything that had happened. On top of that, his mother had let stress get to her and had tormented Rosetta multiple times by now. With that in mind, he repressed his anger and frustration towards her and smiled.
"I might not know who's responsible for all this, if it's even a person, but I'll do my best to get you out of here."
Rosetta looked at him strangely for a moment before nodding her head in thanks.
"Honestly, I don't think anywhere is safe right now," she said. "But thanks, Matin. I-I know it might not look like it, but I'm glad you're here with me."
In an instant, all his frustrations towards her seemed to float away. He was so shocked by her words that he forgot to speak.
"You almost sounded like Dean back there," she continued with a small laugh.
"R-really?" Matin asked dumbly.
Rosetta smiled.
"It was a little forced and obvious, but I know you're just trying to cheer me up. I know I can be a pain to deal with, so thanks for putting up with me."
Matin felt a little guilty for being seen through. He was in no mood to smile, and Rosetta's words against his mother still made him feel a little bitter. Even so, he had to protect her and help her get out of this alive. She was the only one of his friends who was here with him, after all. If he couldn't even keep her safe, then what good was he at all? He didn't want all those years of education and training his mother gave him to be proven a waste.
They decided to spend some time resting in that room. They were exhausted, both mentally and physically, and the room seemed safe, relatively speaking. Matin volunteered to keep watch first and allow Rosetta to sleep. The plan was to share the watch in three-hour shifts, but when the time came, Rosetta was still sound asleep. Matin let her be for the time being. She needed her sleep more than he did, but more than that, he wasn't even sure he could sleep.
His mind would not stop racing. What about Dean and the others? Were they still alive? How were he and Rosetta going to get out of this place? He didn't want to die, and he didn't want to see Rosetta die either. His mind would also remember times with Maria, Nicolas, and Sophia. When those memories came to him unbidden, he would shake his head in an effort to disperse them.
The hours passed, and with each moment, his muscles tensed, and his mind raced. He needed fresh air. He needed to get out of here before he suffocated. Was it just his imagination, or was the room getting darker? Wait. Were those the red lines slowly beginning to reappear? What was wrong with his mind? Couldn't it just stay quiet and stop playing tricks on him?
"Matin?"
"Wuah!"
Matin yelled out in shock, the sudden noise startling him. The voice belonged to Rosetta, who had seemingly just woken up.
"Rose?"
"How long was I sleeping?" she asked.
Matin hesitated for a moment.
"About two hours, you still have…"
"You're lying."
Rosetta's tone was sharp and disapproving.
"W-what do you mean?" he asked with a small smile.
There was no way to tell the time in this place. The lighting, coming from those strange opaque windows, was a consistent dull white.
"Don't lie to me! I feel rested. Like I've slept for half a day. There's no way I'd feel like this after two hours. Trust me, I've had many a night where I've gotten that much sleep. I know the difference! Honestly, I knew you'd try to pull something like this!"
Matin didn't have any response to that and simply cast his gaze downward. He was so tired, and yet he still wasn't confident he could sleep.
"Lie down, Matin," Rosetta said. "Just looking at you is making me feel uncomfortable."
A little harsh, but he wasn't about to complain. When Rosetta put her foot down, there was very little he could do to convince her otherwise. He just wished she could be more diplomatic about it.
Without another word, he lay down on the ground and closed his eyes. It didn't take long for his heart to start palpitating and sweat to form on his skin. He took a deep breath to calm himself, but it had little effect. Memories of his time trapped in this place flashed in his mind, and it was all he could do not to scream in frustration.
He wanted to get up and move along, but he could feel Rosetta looking at him from time to time. It seemed she wasn't going to take her eyes off him until he fell asleep. How troublesome.
"You're always putting others before yourself. Don't you know that can make us feel uncomfortable sometimes?" Rosetta said.
Her words caught him off guard. Did she think he was sleeping? Not being able to think of anything to say, he pretended to be asleep.
"I wish you guys would give me a chance to be kind for once."
After that, she went silent. Her words, few as they were, sent his mind reeling. He tried to interpret their meaning, but strangely enough, they had calmed his mind somewhat. He found himself unable to hold his thoughts together, and before he knew it, he was asleep.
*
"Those wishing to enroll in Mount Moore Academy will take their test here, one week from now"
Matin was standing in a hallway, listening to the headmaster give his regular morning speech. Dean was standing next to him and gave him a knowing smile after the announcement.
This was it. A pivotal moment in his life. If he could secure a position in the academy, then he would be one step closer to achieving his mother's dream; his dream. He had to work hard so as not to disappoint her. He recalled how much she had suffered in the last few years and used that to fill himself with determination.
Flash.
"Your late husband had a seat at this table. While you have been granted the same position in his absence, do not think for a moment that you are our equal, Miss Evelyn."
A young Matin watched from a distance as his mother confronted a group of old men standing around a huge ornate table. He was young and didn't really understand what was going on. What was clear was the fury and hurt on his mother's face. It made him want to burst into tears just looking at it.
"I am now the acting ruler of the Evelyn estate. It is my right to sit here!" She shouted.
"Only until your son comes of age, my lady." One man said in a mocking tone. "You are here to keep the seat warm, nothing more."
"Speaking of, what were you thinking bringing the child to this place? Surely you could have hired a maid to care for him?"
Marianne's mouth opened, but no words came out. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she placed her arms on the table.
"I…that is not the issue here," she said.
"It's an issue if we say it is. We will consider your proposals, but please leave here immediately and take the child with you. This is no place for him, or for you."
The next thing he remembered was his mother holding his hand as she gently led him out of the imperial palace. He could sense his mother's sadness and looked up at her with concern.
"Mother? Are you alright?"
Marianne looked down at him and smiled.
"I'm fine, my dear. Someday you'll crush all those men underfoot and together we'll make our house the most powerful in the land, just like your father dreamed of."
Matin, an older version of himself, watched as his mother, who promised to get him his favorite meat pie on the way home, led the child away. Nobles would usually not trouble themselves with food bought on the street, but their family had been struggling financially. Despite that, he thought the meat pies his mother bought him were the best in the world.
"Who would have thought that young woman would turn into such a tyrant? Life certainly is fascinating, is it not?"
Matin turned sharply, surprised by the sudden sound. In front of him was a figure, cloaked and hooded. A woman with long dark hair spilling over her shoulders and eyes covered by a hood stood beside him.
"Who are you?" he asked in shock, taking a step back from her.
"Worry not, I'm just an observer. Why, you might even call me a friend," she said with a quiet laugh.
"I see."
It made little sense, but then when did dreams ever make sense? Matin's mind accepted her as readily as the existence of his past self walking away into the distance.
"Do you miss her? The woman your mother used to be?"
"She is still my mother, deep down," Matin said with confidence. "That will never change, no matter what anyone else thinks."
"Such devotion," she said, clapping her hands together. "Care to show me where it all comes from?"
Suddenly, the world shifted, and they were standing in a richly decorated living room. The expensive furniture and art pieces were cloaked in shadows, the curtains drawn preventing sunlight from finding its way into the room.
Sitting on the sofa was a slightly older Matin than the child he'd seen a moment before. He was around the age he was when he had taken the exams to enter Mount Moore Academy. He sat, leaning forward, his hands covering his face. Even covered, it was clear that his face was contorted in an expression of anguish.
Matin rounded on the visitor.
"Why are we looking at this?" he asked desperately.
"Hmm?" the woman said, tilting her head in curiosity. "Why, you ask? It's so that I can tear an opening into your story and examine its entrails, of course!" she said with glee.
Matin desperately looked around. This was one particular memory he did not want to be reminded of.
"Please stop this," he begged.
"What? But we're just getting to the good part, look!"
At that moment, the door slammed open, and Marianne rushed into the room. When she saw her son sitting there, she sighed with relief and ran to his side, embracing him.
"Don't worry, dear. It's alright now. Mother will make all those problems disappear. Nothing will happen to you. You will get into Mount Moore, no matter the cost. Just leave everything to Mother, she knows best."
She sat there rocking him back and forward, back and forward in the gloomy room. The only sound that could be heard was his heavy breathing.
"Hush, you did nothing wrong, dear. It was all just a terrible dream. Hush now, hush."
The scene slowly faded to black as the shadows surrounded him and his mother.
"My, you are so lucky to have such a powerful and ambitious tyrant for a mother. No one else would have been able to make it into the academy after that fiasco," the woman said. "How many people had to die to keep the secret, I wonder?"
Matin could barely hear her. He was too busy covering his ears and shutting his eyes as tightly as he could. This had all happened three years ago. It was behind him, so why were his dreams showing this to him all over again?
"Mother will take care of everything," the woman said in a mocking tone. "Mother knows best."
FLASH
Matin found himself in what appeared to be a lecture hall. He looked around, sighing in relief to be finally away from that scene. However, it didn't take him long to discover his new location was even more terrible than the one before.
Lying sprawled on the floor, and over their desks were students and teachers. Some he remembered, some he didn't. Maria and Nicolas were among them, as was Sophia. Something had torn into their bodies, leaving behind an awful mess. Matin looked away in horror as he fell to his knees.
"Mother knows best."
*
With a cry, Matin bolted upright.
For a moment, he was confused. This wasn't his bedroom, and the bed was too hard. As his mind cleared and breathing slowed, he remembered where he was. That's right, they'd been lost in the guest house all day and had decided to take a break. To his surprise, the room was almost completely dark. Had he slept for that long? Wait, as far as he could remember, the light here hadn't changed before. It was then that he heard the sound. A guttural, wet sound that caused his blood to run cold.
He bolted upright and nervously looked around. The sound stopped for a moment as he moved, and he noticed there was something else in the room. Was it Rosetta?
"Matin?"
It was difficult to see in the dark, but he could have sworn that whatever it was, it was staring right at him. He froze, not daring to move a muscle. There was a moment when everything stood still, then the thing in front of him moved. More specifically, it crawled forward, accompanied by a horrid wet cracking sound and a low growl. That was all it took for Matin to jump to his feet and rush towards the door.
His sudden movement was answered in kind as the creature, still obscured by the dark, leapt at him. He reached the door just in time and ran through. He heard the creature hit the wall he had been lying against less than two seconds before, its massive form struggling to fit through the frame.
He ran. He was in yet another corridor, and it was just as dark here as it had been in the room. Jagged red lines could be seen all over the walls, floor and ceiling. They pulsed in the rhythm of a heartbeat, reminding him of blood vessels.
He hadn't had time to shut the door behind him, allowing the creature to pursue him. It was getting closer, closer. There, a door at the end of the hallway. If he could reach it and close it behind him, he could escape. He reached out and twisted the doorknob.
The door opened, but instead of a new room or hallway, there was nothing but solid wall behind it. It had the same whitish-peach color as the wallpaper in the rest of the room. He felt the strength leave his muscles and tears well up in his eyes.
"No," came a high-pitched whine that was not his voice. "No, no, no."
He turned on the spot and continued down the hallway. The creature was so close now he could almost feel its breath on the back of his neck.
Then he tripped
Shocked, he looked down and felt a sharp burning pain in his lower leg. His eyes widened as he saw what had become of it. The creature with its massive claws had rent his calf asunder. Blood flowed freely from the mangled appendage.
He didn't have time to scream in pain because the creature was upon him, it's cold, slimy skin pinning him to the floor. He got his first good look at the thing. A human shape, but with rotted gray skin and large, empty black eyes. Its head was large and rounded, reminding him of a large pumpkin. It had a mouth so massive that it split the head in two horizontally. The mouth was filled with sharp teeth and seemed trapped in an expression of anguish. It looked even more horrid than the creatures that had chased them before.
It opened its mouth wide, and Matin reached his arms out in a feeble effort to defend himself. His arms were thin and frail. However, so the creature had no problem sweeping them aside, snapping the bones within as it did so. Strange, why did his arms look like that? He was never what one would call muscular, but these arms looked so small as to be feminine.
The creature sunk its teeth into his throat, and it became hard to breathe. He gasped as he quickly grew lightheaded. He couldn't breathe!
"Such a violent death. Worry not, the calmness of the void is mere moments away. Tell me, do you still reject it? Do you still have hope in Dean and your other friends?"
He let out a cry as he shook his head. He didn't want this. He didn't want to die!
Whoever had been speaking to him let out a loud laugh.
"Never understood why some of you humans seek death as an escape to your problems. You almost always end up backing out when the time comes. It hurts, doesn't it? It hurts, it hurts, it hurts-"
The voice continued to taunt him as he struggled to breathe. His only thought was wondering why it was taking so long to lose consciousness. Why wasn't he dead yet? Why did it still hurt so much?
The creature attacking him had released its jaws from his ruined neck and was now opening his stomach with its claws.
"It's slow, isn't it? So soooooo slow. Slower than you'd think!"
Please, let it end!
"So slow, so painful."
Finally, after what seemed like an age, his vision began to dim. He couldn't hear the creature anymore, but that same voice rang clear in his head.
"Do you understand now? Life and death are so very painful. That's why you should accept the nothingness. It is gentle and kind."
Where was that voice coming from?
"This story no longer has any need for you. Rest for now, and I'll see you in the next one. Don't forget, my offer stands."
Then, after so long, the sweet, sweet nothingness of death finally embraced him. He was so happy he would have laughed if he could.
*
Matin bolted upright, breathing heavily as sweat dripped down his face. He looked around, finding himself in that very same room once again. It was brighter this time, and he could see his surroundings clearly. The white flower remained upright and in full bloom.
"A dream within a dream, what a mess," he panted.
He took a moment to stabilise his breath before getting to his feet. Despite the horrid nightmare, he felt rather… light. As if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
He looked around once more and noticed something.
"Rose?" he asked quietly.
He was alone in the room. Immediately, the calm, well-rested sensation had disappeared and was replaced with panic
"Rose, where are you?" he shouted as panic welled up within him.
He noticed that the door to the room had been left open. Strange claw marks marked the frame and surrounding walls. Having an odd feeling that such a scene made sense, hestepped outside, careful not to close the door behind him. He found himself in an empty corridor.
"Rose?" he called out, looking left and right.
He noticed another open door at the end of the hallway and approached it. Strangely, there was nothing on the other side of this door, just wallpaper. Then his breath froze, and he took a step back in shock. It was the same door from that nightmare. The damage to the door was the same damage the creature inflicted as it tried to chase him.
"No…" he moaned, clutching the back of his head.
He could smell something foul. It was so bad that he could almost taste it. He didn't want to look to the left, but ever so slowly, his neck moved as if of its own accord.
He screamed instantly, looking away, but too late.
He had seen it.
A mangled corpse was lying further down the hallway. It had taken him but a split second to identify it. Her face was completely untouched, blond hair splayed out on the floor, mixing with the pool of blood beneath her.
"Rose-" he whimpered, falling to his knees and releasing the contents of his stomach, meager as they were.
Only her face had been left untouched. The rest of her was-
He continued to cough, cry, and vomit for some time before desperately crawling away. The desire to flee, to be anywhere else but here, filled him. He ran. He continued to run even as his legs began to ache, slamming through doors in mindless fear.
He didn't know how long he was running for, but somehow, he eventually ran into someone.
"M-Matin, dear?" Came a shocked voice. "Thank the Goddess, I found you! Mitch? Mitch! Come quickly, I found him!"
That voice sounded so familiar. It was caring and comforting. So much so that he felt the pain drain from his mind, replaced by soothing nothingness.
Finally, given the chance to rest, his eyes closed and his consciousness drifted off.