YOU'RE DOOMED

‘WHAT IS THIS?!!’ An anguished cry screeches.

Morrigan slowly opens her weary eyes. A dark stony ceiling is the first thing she can see. Now she can see a whole line of candles finely lit around the gloomy room, making it gloomier.

And now she can behold a fleshless face, with no eyes, no nose, no lips. Through the empty sockets, tiny grey flames seemed to glare at her. Despite the lack of sinew on its face… Morrigan could read emotion screaming out of it.

‘AAAGH!’ it miserably wails.

She sits up, finally realising this place isn’t the library.

‘AAAGAAAH!’ it hollers once more, before scurrying behind a large sofa and occasionally taking small fearful glances at her. Morrigan takes the time to analyse it properly- it was dressed in a luxurious violet and burgundy velvet robe. Despite being a skeleton, they had a very plump and round body shape. Out of its head, poked two large and rounded ram horns. A small gold circlet, adorned with a black crystal, sat gracefully upon its forehead.

‘Who are they?’ she wonders. ‘And where am I?!’

Her eyes dart around the room excitedly. It’s a lab of some sort…. Not like any lab she knew on earth with the glitz and glamour with modern equipment. This lab was like one would see in a fantasy book, inside a stormy and dark castle. 
Bookshelves lined with books filled the room, celestial maps were plastered on the wall… and she saw to her right, there was a massive cauldron.

It was stormy outside. A small window, decorated with black rails, displayed the eerie and sunless weather outside. The thick grey and moody clouds did not seem to move. It was hard to tell if it was day or night.....

Where IS she?!

Her eyes dart around, and her head follows this time. ‘Am I dreaming?!’

A large white sheet grabs her attention. She spins around to observe it.

Or THEM.

Someone in an oversized hooded white cloak is uncomfortably staring intensely right at her. EVERYWHERE. Their entire face is shrouded in darkness, but their golden eyes are WIDE OPEN in admiration, intoxicated by her presence.

‘G-good day, f-fair maiden…’ he gabbles.

She gasps, and crawls back hurriedly. Her hands land on a furry, warm thing that screeches and yowls.

‘A cat?!’

She was right. A black cat, with beautiful silver eyes convulses in pain. Within her heart, Morrigan can somehow tell there is something about it…. as her eyes slowly catch Cato’s empty cloak laying lifeless on the floor, her hunch becomes RIGHT.

‘Cato—?!’ she cries, but a loud exclamation from the fat fleshless guy interrupts her.

‘SOOKAAN!!!!!’

The being clad in white jumps up in shock. Red little shadows, similar to Cato’s Kyssani, also jump out of him, clenching their teeth and eyes tightly as if they’re being electrocuted.

‘Finally awake, are you?!’ bellows the fat fleshless guy.

‘Master Maideth—’

A large book is thrown at him. It slides over to Morrigan. Before she can read the front cover, a red Kyssani picks it up. After it gives her a tiny shy smile, it returns back to the white cloaked individual named Sookaan, who rubs his head gently.

The cat, whom Morrigan assumes is Cato, sits beside her and meows loudly. He crawls up on her lap and looks TERRIFIED, as his little body shivers and shakes. She wishes she could understand him, but suddenly, Cato is grabbed by the tail, and pulled away by the fat fleshless guy, whom Sookaan called Lord Maideth.

He chucks a growling Cato at Sookaan. ‘Idiot!! Does THIS look like the Necronomicon?!’

A painful MEOOOW-!! comes out of Cato.

‘No, my Lord of Darkness… it doesn’t look like it….’ Sookaan’s golden torches squint at Cato. ‘Something is off about this cat…’ his mind trails.

'The Necronomicon?' Morrigan looks at her empty palms. She was just holding it! Hurriedly, she looks around for it, but her search is interrupted as she is dragged up by the fat fleshless guy.

‘AND THIS THING?’ Maideth’s bony hands shake her about, as if she was a puppet. ‘What in Death’s great Name is it?!’

‘I wonder what species she is…? Because… whatever it is…. I have never seen such a beautiful thing before…’ Sookaan seemed lost in his words. Possibly more lost in Morrigan.

Maideth tosses Morrigan right at Sookaan, and the poor being catches her, continuing his creepy besotted gaze at her. Morrigan crawls her entire soul away in revulsion since her body, which was frozen in fear, couldn’t.

‘Put her down, Sookaan!!' Maideth growls. 'And get over here!!’

Sookaan gently places the quivering Morrigan down on a chair. Cato frantically crawls up the chair like a squirrel, desperate and eager to reach her.

‘Meoow! MEEOW!’

‘No!’ the fleshless Maideth bellows. ‘Throw her back in that damn summoning circle! And that dumb cat… get it off my chair!’

Sookaan glares at Cato and flicks him away with a Kyssani. He yowls out in pain, as he slams against the wall.

‘YEEEEEOOOH!!!’

‘Cato!!’

Morrigan’s right hand is carefully taken by Sookaan, and he tries to lead her back to the circle. But she resists, trying to escape him. Maideth becomes irritated at the spectacle.

‘Moron, try and control it!’

‘No!!’ she cries. But Sookaan is stronger. His red Kyssani softly restrain her arms and legs quickly, subduing her.

‘Sorry, I don’t want to hurt you, but I have to follow Lord Maideth's orders. Otherwise… he’ll put out my Flame!’

Maideth approaches and takes a closer look at Morrigan— intrigued but disgusted.

‘What are you? Tell me now!’

Morrigan heaves back. She can’t say anything.

‘Be gentle with her… remember she is a maiden—’ Sookaan tries to explain, but a bony hand from Maideth shuts him up.

‘Tell me… or risk having your HEAD chopped off!’

Morrigan gulps. ‘I am… I am….!'

‘SPEAK!’

‘I am… Morrigan Harriet.’

‘A Morrigan Harriet?! What is that?’

Sookaan clicks his fingers, and a large, thick brown volume pops out of thin air and lands on his hands. He flicks through the book speedily, without even touching the pages.

‘Hurry!’ Maideth tetchily snaps. But Sookaan is already done.

‘Nothing about a Morrigan Harriet…’ he clicks his fingers; the large book disappears in red flames. ‘She looks like a… umm…. A creature from the Upperworlds. After all, we tried to summon the Necronomicon from there. The poor thing must’ve come by mistake…’

‘By mistake?! BY MISTAKE?!’ Maideth growls. ‘How could you make something come by mistake?!’ He grabs Sookaan and starts shaking him like a snow globe. Many Kyssani float out him, dizzy. ‘We DON’T make mistakes in the Deathworlds!’

‘This can’t be a mistake,’ Sookaan garbles. ‘I locked onto the heat signature of the Necronomicon! It MUST be here.’

‘I see nothing here but a screaming cat and some stupid Upperworlds creature you seem FASCINATED WITH!’ Maideth yells. ‘Knowing what you foul creatures are like; did you summon it on your own agenda!?’

‘No, Milord….’

‘So you think this thing IS the Necronomicon??'

‘She certainly is not… but the spell was hooked onto the heat signature….. It appears that Miss Harriet is… emitting the same heat signature as the Necronomicon...?’

Maideth spins towards her. ‘Did you SEE the Necronomicon? Answer before your head is chopped off!’

‘If I tell them that I had it, they’ll kill me!’ Morrigan fearfully shakes her head.

‘You SURE?!’ Maideth crawls closer to her face.

She hastily nods.

‘AAAGH…!’ He expels a heavy groan of disappointment. After a short time pondering, he screams.

‘GUARDS! Collect this specimen and take her to the cells!’

‘You can’t release her,’ Sookaan begs. ‘Her Kayrean Energy—’

‘Shut it!! Then you take her to the cells!!’ Maideth picks up Morrigan by the sleeve, and once again, tosses her blindly at Sookaan.

‘M-me?’

‘Hurry up and get back here!!!’ Maideth turns away and studies a large tome placed on a pedestal.

With no choice but to follow his master, Sookaan turns and gives Morrigan a shy smile. ‘Sorry, this isn’t how we treat our guests…’

‘P-please take me home!!!’ Morrigan sobs. ‘Cato and I don’t belong here!!’

Maideth chucks the large tome he was studying at Sookaan. A cluster of tiny squeals, just like the ones she heard from Cato when he was injured, fly out of his mouth.

‘GET HER OUT OF HERE, BEFORE SOMETHING HAPPENS!’ he screams. He darts his attention over to a large golden candlestand in the room that is NOT lit.

‘End that screaming of hers! Gag her with some Kyssani, you idiot!’

‘I couldn’t do that—’

More books are thrown at Sookaan. He is forced to drag himself AND Morrigan out of the room. As the door slams, Morrigan beholds the decrepit, old stony hell she has just found herself in.

Old tapestries covered in strange drawings were hung over the walls, covered in moth holes. There were no windows. Water dripped from the ceilings, leaving behind massive puddles of green slop. And it was pitch black. She wondered how Sookaan could see anything… but alas…. he wasn't human.

He was a Kyssani just like Cato, but red, not black. He seemed MUCH nicer, not standoffish and stoic like Cato. He was a gentleman, carefully leading her through the dark passages of doom. He even gave her a happy fanged smile every time she fearfully looked at his face. Knowing that she was scared to death of him, he tries to ask her some questions.

‘.... I heard there are many countries in the Upperworlds. Which one do you originate from?’

‘Where am I?!’

Sookaan loses his fanged smile. ‘You’re in the Deathworlds. Dark Lord Maideth of Peridot-Wesan’s castle.’

'Are you going to take me back home!?’

‘Lord Maideth and I will think of something!’ Morrigan can sense him blushing underneath his hood. ‘In the meantime, trust me!’

Not at all. She was afraid for her life as soon as they approached the cells. The entire place was darker than the rooms above. She could barely see her quivering hands. The only light that dwelt within was a large lantern in the middle of the room, silently bleeding a miserable flame.

A fleshless guard, dressed in black and purple armour with two LARGE ram horns protruding from his head stands. His green bulbs poke out from within his empty eye sockets to glare at Morrigan. He finds her fascinating too.

‘This another failed experiment of yours?’ he gruffly asks Sookaan.

‘No…. I hope she isn’t...’

‘Then…. Pass, I guess.’

The guard opens the doors to the prison, and leads them in. Morrigan freezes and presses her bare heels to the ground, unwilling to move. But it is futile. She is slowly pushed in.

She catches a glance of the nasty cesspit she is to be trapped in- it’s dark and too unforgiving in there.

'I can’t go in there, I CAN’T!'

She turns towards Sookaan, and sobs on his cloak.

‘M-Maiden?’ Sookaan gently pushes her away from his cloak. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t have enough time to comfort you. Please get in your cell— I promise I will be back here as soon as Master Maideth and I have arranged something!’

‘No…!’ she gasps. ‘Take me home now! You must know how to take me home!’

‘SOOOKAAAAN!’ a voice rumbles the walls of the prisons. The prison guard covers his ears. Other prisoners cover their ears. Well… those that have ears.

‘What? What’s going on?’ a earless prisoner calls. ‘Why’s there another earthquake?!’

Sookaan softly nudges Morrigan in her cell and restrains her with a Kyssani as he shuts it. It smiles at her gleefully, dark blush on its cheeks. Sookaan also gifts Morrigan with another elated fanged smile.

‘Master Maideth calls me. See you soon!’

He disappears in a big cloud of red flames. His Kyssani shortly follows in a small cloud of flames. Realising she’s free, Morrigan rushes up to the door to escape, but the guard comes over and locks her cell door. 

‘Welcome to eternity,’ he shrugs again.

He whistles, and some chains on the floor get up and attach themselves to Morrigan's arms and legs. A small yelp crawls out of her mouth as the cold metal clips onto her bare wrists.

The guard gives out a short, dry chuckle. ‘If you need to piss, piss in that hole,’ he points out a small crevice on the ground behind her.

It stunk and had large skeleton flies dancing around it.

‘If you don't piss, then…. Don’t. We also don’t serve any food or clean water here. So, if you’re something that needs to eat..... Sorry.’

He walks away, unbothered.

‘Wait!’ Morrigan cries. Delirious, she gets up and shakes the cell bars. They’re so thick and heavy, they don’t even rattle. ‘HELP ME!!’ she wails, hitting her chains on the bars. ‘I DON’T BELONG HERE!!’

‘Neither do I!’ screams out another prisoner. She looks to her right. A purple monster just right ahead of her rattles her bars, using her many tentacles.

‘And me, too!!’ spits a headless body, spitting out blood from within its gaping hole. 'I need to find my head!'

‘I BELONG HERE!’ announces a manic voice elsewhere. ‘Lord Maideth better keep me in here or else!’

A clamour of voices cry out that they don’t belong here. The prison guard, who sat elsewhere, reading a magazine, begins to sing over the noise.

‘# OOOOH, what a BEAAAUTIFUL MORNING….! #’

It becomes too loud for Morrigan to comprehend their screams. She sits on the soaked ground and begins to sob.

‘Am I ever going to get out of here…?’

‘Nope!’

Morrigan looks out of her cell. Her eyes lock immediately onto the purple tentacle beast. She smiles back at her, revealing a HEFTY and IMMENSE pair of gleaming white sharklike teeth.

Morrigan blinks back at her. ‘Ummm…’

‘You ain’t getting out of here if you’re here.’

‘Why… not?’

‘You must be an experiment of Lord Maideth’s. House Peridot pride themselves on their scientific abilities. If you were made here, you’re going to die here.’

‘Experiment? I’m not an experiment!’

‘If you’re in here, you’re an experiment.’

‘But... I’m not—’

‘Uh- YES YOU ARE! I’m an experiment!! He’s an experiment! That’s an experiment! YOU’RE AN EXPERIMENT!’

Morrigan doesn’t have the heart to argue back. ‘Please just… tell me what happens to us in here?’

‘Nothing.’

‘No-Nothing?!’

‘Why are you so shocked? Sometimes Sookaan comes down here and takes somebody away, and they never come back! Maybe because Lord Maideth uses them for another experiment that kills them. I’m sure that’s going to happen to you soon since you look like you’re not a complete failure. You still got eyes. Your legs work.’

Morrigan steps back. Her foot lands in the small crevice that the prison guard pointed out earlier.

SPLOOSH!

‘AAAAGH!’ she retches, as she pulls out her bare foot. It is swathed in green and black mulch.

‘Oops. Looks like you found the toilet,’ the tentacle beast giggles. ‘Seriously, it looks like you’re going to meet your end.’