Doughtiness

Hey,

Not long after the Old Man had disappeared I started getting this... weird feeling. Like a buzzing in the back of my eyeballs. It didn't hurt per se, but every once in a while I'd see an afterimage of something I should remember but couldn't. Kind of like those "eye floaters" I guess?

The more I tried to remember, the more the "memory" floated away.

The feeling eventually went away and I was left with more questions than answers.

I decided to try another door. It seemed like the Old Man showed up whenever I completed a trial, so maybe—I reasoned—I could "summon" him again and try and get more information. Chiefly over something that had been bothering me since our last conversation.

Something I'm too afraid to say out loud, much less write it out.

I opened the Doughtiness door and was confronted with a long, stone corridor, not much different than the ones in the castle. As soon as I stepped inside, the door closed and refused to open.

The corridor was quiet. So quiet I could hear my own heartbeat and my footsteps were incredibly loud. There wasn’t anywhere to go but forward so I kept moving.

Along the way I saw a banner on the wall that depicted a knight running away from a rabbit. It kind of reminded me of a certain parody film about King Arthur. Not sure what it was hanging there for. Just beyond the painting was a door illuminated by torch light.

Above the frame was the words “Maze”.

A maze. Great. I hate these things.

Through the door the corridor took a sharp left and then revealed three paths. I wasn’t in the mood to go wandering about aimlessly so I put my left hand on the wall next to me and started walking. This method for solving a maze could take a while but eventually you would find the exit. But after a while and a couple of turns and dead ends later, I heard something…

…something huge.

…something angry.

Charging from behind me.

I looked back and didn’t see anything but whatever was coming was coming fast and I didn’t want to be around to find out what it was.

There were two paths in front of me, I took the one on the left in a mad sprint. The thing chasing me was hot on my trail, its heavy steps thundering the ground.

I can’t remember how far or how long I ran but I was getting winded. My heart sank when I rounded a corner and was met with a dead end.

The steps were still there and they were closing in fast. I turned and levelled my shotgun at whatever might round the corner. The noise got louder and louder.

Closer and closer.

It was torture. It felt like it was going to come around and be on me in a few seconds but it never appeared. The anxiety was suffocating, I was almost tempted to turn the gun on myself just to get it over with.

I’m not really proud of that.

Eventually, I said: screw it. I hollered at the top of my lungs and rounded the corner. Ready to face my tormentor.

But instead of some unimaginable horror. I saw a door. A door with a rabbit emblazoned on the face of it in gold.

I nearly collapsed. My heart was hammering against my chest so hard I thought it was going to pop out.

I closed my eyes and remembered my training.

Breathe in…two, three, four…breathe out…two, three, four. Repeat.

My heart rate slowed down. The fire in my lungs was gone. I was in control again.

I opened the door and marched through, finding myself back in the hallway. The door closed behind me. I gave it a tug.

It was sealed. I passed.

I turned, expecting the Old Man but instead someone else was there.

A man. Hair and beard as white as snow but with eyes like fire.

He didn’t say anything. Only smiled and then disappeared, fading into nothingness. Not long after that the Old Man floated down through the ceiling.

He asked if the rabbit got me. I replied that it almost did. He laughed.

“That one can be a little rough.”

I told him about the guy who was here before him. The Old Man clapped his hands and seemed overjoyed.

I asked the Old Man who the guy was.

The Old Man replied “you’ve known Him a long time.”

He refused to elaborate further.

I asked him about the thing that had been bothering me. Point blank, am I in another dimension, another realm of existence? Or was this earth and some sort of apocalypse happened?

He blinked, “That’s not the question you need to ask.”

Before I could say anything else, he took my hand and said I needed to come with him. He told me to close my eyes.

“The way I move, you’ll get sick.”

I closed my eyes and it felt like a mere moment had passed before I was told to open them again.

We were back in the Old Man’s shanty shack. Back in the parking garage.

“You got some unfinished business here,” the Old Man said. “But this place is going to be very different from what you remember. You see things as they really are now.”

Unfinished business? Maricel?

“Get some rest,” he told me. “I’ll wake you up when it’s time to go.”

My eyes are starting to buzz again as I write this. I’m seeing images of the depot I worked at. That stupid shelf I bumped my head on before I came home.

My house.

There’s a face in the wall. Why does it smile?

The Old Man is right. I need to rest.