The Devouring Dream Casts its Shadow

Pain rippled through Elias’ back. His eyes winced open. There was no hole that led back up to the top of the floor. He got to his feet and stretched his body. Nothing felt broken, at least. With that most minor of blessings, he looked around. Stone walls towered over him in every direction, with a gap between them to his right. A small pile had broken his fall, a pile made from…a glance down at the pile made Elias shiver. He tried to put it out of mind. He descended the slope of the pile. Even if he kept his gaze straight ahead, the sticky squelch of fur, skin, and wet flesh beneath his feet followed him to the base of it. His footsteps left wet prints in his wake until he reached the gap between the walls. This led to a hallway, and he continued down it.

Merloine had mentioned that he would be good dessert, and he shuddered to imagine the creature that the mage had planned to feed Elias to. He tried to muffle his steps and glanced around. He just needed to find Serena and get out of here. Everything else was secondary. Despite his efforts, his feet lightly echoed against the stone floor. His breath hitched and his eyes darted around with every step. The stone hall gave way to another turn, and another hallway and turn, and another. A chill slithered up Elias’ back as he realized that this was some sort of labyrinth. And every labyrinth had a ‘minotaur’.

Eventually he caught sight of a shard of white and light brown set against one of the gray stone walls. He treaded close and brought it close to his face for inspection. It was a painted figure of a cowboy. Something a child might play with. Elias prayed that someone that young hadn’t gotten trapped down here.

Then he gauged the texture, and his heart dropped into his stomach. It wasn’t made of metal or even wood, but instead a human fingerbone. Someone had carved it into that shape. The handiwork was masterful, as though the craftsman had practiced it countless times.

A shudder ran through Elias and he dropped the cowboy figure. His ears perked up. He looked around, but there was no sign of whatever had crafted the figurine, or who the finger had belonged to. Elias tried to soften his steps even further and held his breath.

He took three left turns, and this breath tumbled from his lips. A lock of red hair was nailed to the wall up ahead. All thoughts of stealth vanished from Elias’ mind. He ran past a black rectangular shape that had been affixed to the wall to his right, and paid it no mind for the moment.

The lock of hair was red and wavy just like Serena’s. His heart leapt into his throat as he held the hair in his palm. Further inspection returned his heart back to normal. The nail affixing the hair to the wall was far too rusted. It looked as though the nail had been there for many years. Relief gave way to an unsettling pit in his stomach as the implications loomed.

A faint, familiar hum sounded behind Elias. His ears flicked, and he spun around. The rectangular shape he’d run past was a television. His vantage point did not let him see much, but then a pair of hands closed around the edges. As though something was emerging from within the screen, just like when Kuchisake had emerged from the television back in the infirmary. Every instinct screamed at Elias to flee, and he wasn’t about to argue. He scurried down the hall and turned left. Nothing made sense, but Elias wasn’t here to figure things out. He was here to rescue Serena and go home.

He couldn’t hear any footsteps thudding after him, but the echoes of a girl’s giggling followed his footsteps. It would’ve been an innocent sound if not for the warble that made the hairs on the back of Elias’ neck stand up. They sounded inches from his ear, but a look over his shoulder found nobody following him. His nostrils flared as he inhaled the musty air. He couldn’t let nerves get the better of him.

His panicked pace eventually took him to a wider room with a hallway in each cardinal direction. Stone gave way to brown carpet, and the change in lighting stilled his movement. The room contained toys made of bones like that cowboy figurine he’d found in the hallway. Larger figurines existed as well, like that of a horse made from what looked to have been a leg. A row of six red hair locks adorned each of the walls on either side of Elias. Another television was nestled into the rear corner of the room, angled such that the screen faced the interior. His eyes widened at the innocent black screen.

And then with a faint hum, a black and white image spread across the screen.

“Not happening!” He grasped the nearby horse figurine by the neck, and flung it into the television screen. A deafening crack filled the room as the screen shattered. The horse figurine looked relatively undamaged even after that, so Elias walked over and hefted it up again. He shuddered, trying not to imagine who or what it must’ve come from. A weapon was a weapon, and he wasn’t about to wander through this place unarmed.

Just as he made to leave, he spotted some impressions of feet in the carpet. They were bare, but somewhat recent. If that creature could move through televisions like Kuchisake could, then it could’ve somehow gotten ahead of Elias. But maybe it could be Serena. His grip on the bone horse tightened.

As he departed from the room through one of the hallways at random and rounded a corner, a shriek pierced the air behind him. A loud bang burst out, much like the sound when Bill had shot his gun. Elias tucked his head down and scurried down the hall. His teeth rattled as a small object punched deep into the stone wall. No smell of gunpowder accompanied this impact, however, and Elias slunk away. So whatever this thing was had a ranged attack, and it didn’t seem to like it when he smashed the televisions. Something he could use to provoke it into making a mistake, maybe.

He smashed television after television whenever he came across them. But after so many identical looking stone walls, Elias wondered just how far he’d walked. His feet ached beneath the unforgiving stone floor, and his arm burned after many swings of that improvised weapon. The bone horse’s ‘legs’ had broken away, turning it into just a head, neck, and torso. More of a club than an animal. How long would it take him to find the exit? Where had the ‘minotaur’ taken Serena?

It didn’t help that hunger had begun to rear its head. His stomach clamored for food with an insistent growl. Elias pressed a hand to his abdomen, a futile effort to stifle the pangs. As if this place could perceive his hunger and tempt him, the faint smell of cooking, sweetened fruit wafted to his nose from further up the hallway. Something about the smell struck a familiar chord, but this wasn’t the time to stroll down memory lane.

He allowed the smell to guide him, his eyes darting around and his ears perked up, until he’d reached another wider room. This one appeared to be a dining room, and an adjacent kitchen. He smashed the television in the dining room before examining the room. Maybe if he could find a place to hide, he could lure the creature inside and catch it by surprise. The table had been set for three people, and the source of the smell became apparent. The sweet aroma wafted up from bowls of lime green stew. The lime green as well struck a chord with Elias. He closed his eyes in an attempt to call upon the memory, and faintly recalled Bill shooting at something. A woman had been yelling, but he couldn’t remember the exact details. The memory of the woman’s voice made a pang of something painful shoot through him. Someone important.

But the aroma emanating from the bowls chased these thoughts from his mind, and he picked up one of the bowls. Elias licked his lips, but at the last moment, shook his head and set the bowl back down on the table. If he wanted to take the opportunity to make this a trap, he had to leave things as he found them. The creature couldn’t expect that he’d come here until the last possible moment.

Hiding beneath the table wouldn’t work, as the creature would spot him if it bothered to look down when it entered the dining room. Those boyish giggles began to slither into his ears, and Elias’ heart galloped in his chest. He looked around for a spot. He walked out of the dining room and into the adjacent kitchen. A small book lay open on one the countertop. Elias’ eyes combed the open pages in the hopes of finding out a clue about how to escape this place, but was left with a looming dread.

Cooking Sirentree Seed Puppets, the top of the page read, and a series of numbered steps followed it. The handwriting carried a rustic flourish that did not match the unnerving penmanship from Kuchisake’s letter.

He stared at it with a morbid fascination for longer than he ought to have. A gasp snapped him out of the trance, and he whirled to face the direction of the sound. As he made sense of it, he recognized it as a woman’s gasp. Nothing nearly as eerie as the giggles of the ‘minotaur’ that had been pursuing him.

“Elias!” It was Serena’s voice, and he stared at the kitchen from where it’d come. “Why’re you here?” she hissed. Her voice carried a tremble.

“To save you!” he said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. That earned a long silence. “Are you okay?” Elias pressed.

“You should go,” Serena said. “Just leave and head back to the shacks where Lin and Marcel are.”

“I’m not leaving you behind.” Elias stepped in the direction her voice came from, and caught wind a faint smell. It was similar to that of the aroma that wafted from the bowls of lime green stew, but raw.

“Stop. Please. You can’t look, Elias.” A desperate plea filled Serena’s voice. “Please don’t look.” But Elias ignored her and kept walking. His jaw set into a grimace. Toward the back of the kitchen, passed a sink and cupboard of dishes and silverware, lay a tall cellar. His breath emerged as quick pants, even as Serena’s pleas devolved into unintelligible weeping. The lighting from the kitchen filtered into the otherwise dimly lit cellar, and he saw limbs and torsos. His stomach turned, but he managed to keep himself focused. Elias caught a shift of movement, as though Serena had retreated away from him and deeper into the cellar.

“That thing will be back soon,” Serena said. “If you leave now, you’ll be able to put some more distance.”

He threw all caution to the winds and stepped inside the cellar. There was no smell of preserved meats, but instead that same plant smell. For a moment, he didn’t see Serena. But then he caught another smidge of movement behind one of the torsos. He ran to her, around the torso, and wrapped her in a hug. He squeezed her tight.

“You’re safe,” he breathed. “You’re safe. You’re safe.”

Serena gasped, seemingly not having expected the hug. For a moment, she returned Elias’ embrace. Then she pushed him away. He gave her a bewildered look.

“What’s wrong?” he said. “We can leave together.”

Serena smiled, but her lips trembled at the corners. “That’d be nice.” Her voice sounded distant. “I’d like that.”

“Then let’s go,” urged Elias. He tugged on her hand. “If we…” The tug on her hand exposed the fair skin of her forearm. She sported a small scrape, perhaps from a fall. Her ‘blood’ was green, the same lime green as the stew in the bowls outside.

Serena tugged her forearm from Elias’ stun-weakened grasp.

“I’m not like you,” she said. She turned away from him as though to hide her face.

“That doesn’t matter,” he said. “I’m getting you out here, no matter…”

Serena bit her lip.

“I’m not real,” she said, interrupting him. “I was never real.”

“What’re you saying?” said Elias. “Of course you’re real. You’re standing right in front of me. Now stop talking nonsense and let’s get out of here.” He grasped her hand again and began bodily tugging her from the room. A part of his mind could make sense of her words, especially after seeing Leon’s reaction to ‘his Serena’. But the larger part refused to acknowledge it. If he dwelled on it for even three seconds, the implications would root him to the spot.

“Why don’t you understand?” grumbled Serena. “The girl named Serena never survived. I…she died along with the rest of her world. I’m just some copy. I’ve only ever been a copy.” She tried again to tear herself free from Elias’ grasp, but this time he refused to relinquish her.

“I don’t care,” said Elias. “You’re real. I don’t care what anyone else says, you’re real. Or is everything you said to me, everything we did together all a lie?” She did not answer, but he nevertheless pulled her from the cellar and out into the kitchen. She averted her gaze from the cookbook.

“I thought I recognized Bill’s handwriting,” she murmured. Her voice pitched high. “You don’t think he’s been…” Serena’s words trailed away.

“Don’t know.” Elias’ jaw clenched. That the man complicit in this nightmarish place was also the man that had been kind enough to throw the volleyball match for Elias, his mind couldn’t make sense of that disparity. Rather than answer Serena, he instead rummaged through the kitchenware until he came upon a knife meant to hack apart meat on a cutting board. He pressed the hilt into Serena’s hands. “If that thing manages to find us, it’s better than nothing.”

There was a moment of hesitation before she accepted the knife. “Yeah.”

Just as they left the room, Elias caught a shadow stretching along the far wall of the hallway. It was a humanoid shape, with a strange shaped head. It took Elias a moment to realize that it might’ve worn a wide brimmed hat over its head like Bill’s hat.

“There are two playmates today. And one is…different. Handsome too.” Instead of a mere giggle, its voice finally slithered along the corridor toward them. Its voice bore a twang like Bill’s, but a strange warble like Kuchisake’s accompanied it, as though two people spoke together where there should’ve been only one. “If you’re good enough, I’ll even forgive you for breaking mommy’s gifts.” A wet smack of lips punctuated its words, as though eager to savor its next meal.

Elias led Serena down a corner, and again out of the creature’s sight. Despite the hunger in its voice, it seemed in no rush to chase them down. As he put distance between himself and the looming threat, Elias thought back to that sound that resembled a gunshot. It’d struck the wall rather than Elias himself. But as Elias thought about it, the shot had been fast enough to hit Elias himself. It seemed more likely that the creature had deliberately missed.

His blood froze in his veins as the realization struck him. His grip on Serena’s arm tightened enough that she winced in pain.

“It’s toying with us,” he whispered. “It’s waiting till we’re panicked or about to drop dead from exhaustion or…something. And then it’ll pounce.” For some reason, he thought of a cat playing with a mouse before devouring it. Only he was the mouse this time.

“That explains why I survived this long,” Serena murmured. Hopelessness permeated her tone, and her pace slowed. She gave him a look that seemed both resigned and resolute. “I’m not about to give this thing what it wants, Elias. And you’re the real one out of the two of us.” She raised her knife with a deep breath, as though steeling herself. “So if I stay here and buy time for you to escape, at least you can…”

“Enough of that!” said Elias, pulling her along. “We’re getting out of here together, understand me? I’m not going anywhere without you ever again.” He glowered at her, hoping the intensity of his gaze would be enough for her to realize that he would never back down.

Serena stared at him for a moment before chuckling.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say that that was a marriage proposal.” She didn’t wait for him to answer, but redoubled her pace. She even stepped ahead of him, and looked over her shoulder at him. “If I die here, another girl is going to snatch you right up. And I’m not about to have that.” Her tone was light and joking, a miracle considering everything they’d encountered down in this labyrinth. That show of levity in the face of horror surged through Elias. He nodded, and reaffirmed his grip on the leg bone horse figurine.

As if the world itself sought to reward that reinvigorated hope, they heard a faint breeze up ahead. The air whistled against the stone walls. This new air brought with it an aroma of grass and trees. After what felt like hours of musty labyrinthine air, the new smell may as well have been that of heaven. That giggling from before also did not slither into Elias’ ears. Hope blossomed into a fiery determination.

Energy filled his legs, chasing away the fatigue and ache that had begun to gnaw at his muscles. A reward for this newfound determination came in the form of a gentle breeze up ahead. It whistled against the stone walls and filled their nose with a new smell that wasn’t musty air. After what felt like a full day of such air, something new smelled like paradise. Elias’ eyes snapped open at the whistle of wind against the walls, and his nose imbibed copious amounts of the fresh air. From the way a smile spread across Serena’s tired face, a similar relief had spread through her as well.

Eventually, they arrived at the room from which the breeze came through. Yet another wide room, but with only one door leading out, just up ahead. Despite this, the hopeful flush drained from Elias’ face. More than a dozen televisions lay in the room, some on the ground and some elevated on stands, or suspended from the ceiling with wires and chains.

The angle of the many televisions created a sphere. In the center of this sphere stood a sirentree, and a wooden chair on either side of the tree. The gaping hole in the center of the sirentree did not have anything inside it. Whereas the one behind Merloine’s desk had a single red tendril connected to one helmet, the sirentree in the center of the room had two such tendrils and helmets. Each helmet lay on the seat of the chairs beside the sirentree.