Inferno

The strange knights lead Marnie out of the tiny village, Chez following along curiously. The farther away they walked, the more the village became completely obscured by the Other Side’s fog, as if it never even existed there in the first place.

Marnie was being marched along what appeared to be a mountain pass, however when exactly the vast forest had its whimsical trees replaced with sloping hills and a rocky path was hard for him to recall. The scenery in his peripheral vision kept shifting and going out of focus. It was a disorienting phenomenon, one which forced him to focus on what was right in front of him instead of what was around him.

Marnie couldn't help but think this feeling was oddly familiar, but he couldn't really place why.

“We're truly lucky to have found you, Sir Marnie,” the knight in front of him suddenly spoke. “If we don't stop it now, this monster will surely kill many people. Our weapons have no effect on it.”

“Well, if your swords are as sharp as your wit, then that's not surprising,” Chez chided with a chuckle.

“Shay!” Marnie scolded him the way one would scold a misbehaving cat. “What’s wrong with you? You can't just say things like that!”

“Can't I?” Chez pointed ahead, where the entire troop of knights had turned to stare at Marnie as they walked. It was unsettling, being judged by faceless forces in uncanny synchrony, enough to send a chill down his spine.

“Sir?” One of them questioned, though it was uncertain which one. Their voices didn't stand out much from one to the other. “Are you feeling well?”

“Ah… Uhm…” Marnie stumbled over his words, but it didn't seem to matter. Before he could answer, the knights apparently decided it was unimportant, turning their faces forward as they matched once more.

“That was… odd…”

He tried to shake off his confusion and turned back to Chez.

“Well, even if they don't seem to care, that's still not right to say. You were rude!”

Chez chortled.

“Seriously, what does any of that matter here? Don't tell me you've never wanted to be rude to people,” he pulled his rabbit mask fully aside once more to look at Marnie, his visage more breathtaking than the daydreamer remembered. “You should give it a try. It's wonderfully freeing.”

Wanting to be rude… What a strange concept. Marnie's first instinct was to deny it, however something tugged the words back into his throat. Surely he'd wanted to be rude to others before — it's a natural human instinct. Maybe… when his father called him a name… Or when his classmates spoke thinly veiled insults to his face… Or whenever June Berry plastered a motherly smile across her face as she pretended to understand him.

The thoughts ignited something within Marnie. A primal desire he'd never even noticed before that moment, one which bore its ugly fangs and struck out.

“Right…” Marnie started tentatively. “I guess you'd know better than a bunch of… freaks like these. I'd hate to see whoever this lot was cloned from, though; he's probably the epitome of useless.”

The strike was a bit off key, but it was a start. Chez chuckled at the awkward insult, and for a moment Marnie even got nervous as the knights stopped and looked at each other. However, instead of retorting like the strawberry-blonde had expected, they merely laughed in unison. It was a hearty, almost ignorantly amused laugh — nothing like Chez's mocking one — which only served to bewilder him more.

“Sir Marnie, now is no time for jests,” one of them said as their laughter died down. He ushered Marnie to follow them once again as the others began to continue their march. “We're nearly to the dragon's lair. Stay sharp!”

As if on cue, the passage ahead opened into a clearing. The fog seemed to drift out of their view like a curtain, revealing a large cave carved into the mountainside within the clearing.

Chez whistled.

“Predictable,” he commented with boredom. “Who dreamed this up, a five-year-old?”

“Maybe that means this dragon won't be too tough,” Marnie hoped, squirming a little. Unfortunately for him, what emerged from the cave was not as cartoonish as the knights who led him there. Instead it was fantastical, large, and intimidating.

First into view was its great maul of sharp fangs, like rows of scythes twisted into an ugly snarl beneath flared nostrils. What followed was a mane of pristine, yet jagged, jet-black scales, and a blue gaze that struck stone-cold fear into Marnie's very soul.

Marnie froze in place, suffixed in a familiar horror as he watched the beast crawl from its den. Nothing felt capable of swaying him from the sensation, not even the cheers of encouragement from the quirky knights. Not even the curious crimson gaze of Chez boring into him.

“N-no…” Marnie muttered in a voice as small as a mouse. It felt hard for him to breathe, as if his lungs were trying to shrink. As if he was trying to shrink into insignificance.

“It can't be… D… Dad..?”

“Sir Marnie, get a hold of yourself!” One of the knights shouted. “The Beast of Worick is about to attack!”

Thoughts rose and dissipated endlessly in Marnie's mind, but none of them existed for long enough to command his body. All he could do was watch as the dragon reared back and opened its jowls. The knights gave up on him and ran for cover, and even Chez evaded as a ferocious inferno sprung forth from the dragon’s depths, rocketing towards them.

Trapped in his horrific permanence, Marnie was engulfed in flame. It enveloped every inch of his body, consuming him entirely.

The shock of it all finally kickstarted Marnie's brain back to life, but it was already too late. He cowered and screamed a terrible scream, consumed with the thought of his flesh cooking and his muscles contorting until they crushed his bones.

Yet, somehow, none of that happened.

Slowly, Marnie realized that his body wasn't burning. His clothes were intact, his skin was pristine. Every freckle, manicured nail, and strawberry-blonde curl was left exactly as it had been. Instead of burning him, the flames merely clung to his body like a sheath.

As he struggled to catch his breath and calm his nerves, Marnie held his hand up and watched the harmless flames lap at his fingers. They flirted with his skin, like flirting with death, mesmerizingly contrary. Suddenly, rising from the depths of his mind, a voice said now's your chance.

The dragon roared at Marnie, commanding his attention. It was a behavior he despised, something that pressured all manner of rage to pool at his core. This time, when their blue eyes locked, instinct took over instead of fear. When the dragon reared back for a second attack, Marnie released the culmination of his rage and screamed something he'd always dreamed of screaming.

“FUCK YOU!!!”

The fire which enveloped Marnie burst towards the dragon with far more intensity than when it had previously left the beast's mouth. Amazingly, where it was completely harmless to Marnie, to the dragon the blaze was a searing kryptonite. Completely consumed by the flames, it shrieked and thrashed and roared. In a matter of moments, the dragon was reduced to nothing but cinders and ash.

“It's… it's dead!”

“Huzzah! Sir Marnie, our savior!”

At first, Marnie could barely believe what had happened. But as the praise of the knights reached his ears, the realization of his victory crept into his bones. It filled every fiber of his being with exhilaration — more than he'd felt in his entire life.

“Impressive,” Chez sauntered up to Marnie with a smirk. It wasn't his usual sly smirk, however. Instead, it almost seemed…proud. “You're quite the little hero. Congrats on standing up for yourself.”

Basking in Chez’s warm gaze, like the embers of a hearth, Marnie beamed back at him. The daydreamer suddenly felt truly alive for the first time in as long as he could remember.

Then the fog of the Other Side crept into his view. Before he knew it, the fog had completely obscured Marnie's vision before fading into oblivion…