The Author of the End

Elusia and Amity cautiously walked through the hallway, looking around for any signs of impending death. The empty corridors were silent, save for the sound of their steps. The dim lighting gave a ominous vibe to the world around them. 

Strewn across their path were a variety of objects, haphazardly tossed about. They passed through rows of rusty armor, empty dining carts seemingly left behind in odd positions, and what seemed to have once been a variety of pottery, which were there for the express purpose of containing unknown vegetation, but were now just cracked empty vessels that were spilling out onto the ground with their contents, which continued to grow. Everywhere.

“I’m exhausted…we’ve been walking around forever…” Complained Elusia.

The two girls had been walking through the mansion’s endlessly familiar halls, over and over again.

“We might have to face the fact that there’s no other way out of here. We’re going to have to kill that thing.”

The pair continued on their trek.

“Maybe we could bust the wall down?” Asked Elusia.

“No, I checked outside from the windows. Nothing but a pitch black void. We would probably just be thrown into endless nothingness, in the best case scenario.” Answered Amity.

“Well we’re not getting anywhere, and my back is kinda killing me.” Complained Elusia.

“Oh stop complaining. I could do this all day. If you’re so tired just drop the dead weight on your back.” Amity snapped back.

“It’s not just some random garbage I can just toss. He’s…a new friend, sort of.”

“…You’re friends with a black brick? Do you have a serious head injury?”

“Hell no! We’ll probably, but shut it. It’s a robotic A.I. assistant, a pretty cool one actually. It’s just out of charge.”

“…That’s convenient.”

“No seriously. I’m being serious. Can’t you see how serious I am.”

“…It’s hard to tell, honestly.”

“Oh whatever…hey look! There’s something up ahead!”

Elusia pointed ahead, towards the end of their path. Ahead of them were two large glass doors with a view of a courtyard outside of the building.

“It looks like we can get out from here.” Said Amity, as she reached the end of the hallway and peeked through.

“Wait. This place is pretty chock-full of booby traps. Like escape room level shit. Let’s prod it out a bit.” Replied a slightly annoyed Elusia with hours of earlier experience.

She gestured to Amity to move to the side and then moved behind the doorway. She carefully scoped out the entrance for any traps and then slowly turned the knob and pulled the door open.

Nothing happened.

“Hmmm….”

She tried opening up both doors further. She waved her hand through the open door.

Nothing.

“Seriously? I don’t believe it…” She said, with a air of slight dissatisfaction.

“…Me neither. Get back.”

Amity got one of the rusted armor sets from behind them and they lifted it up to the doorway. Slowly they tilted it through the doors and into the courtyard.

‘B-b-ba-bang!’

A rapid flurry of sparks and noises came from the courtyard and the top half of the armor was ventilated by a large amount of new holes through the helm.

“*Whistle*,Well shit. At least it’s pretty simplistic.” Remarked Elusia as they examined what remained of their proxy.

Outside, a dozen motion activated laser-guided mechanical turrets were poised to take out anything that crossed into their path.

“We go through here and we’re going to be Swiss cheese. I guess whoever’s making this stuff is pretty tired of creating anything complicated and just decided to shoot us if we tried getting out that way.”

“Making? You think someone made this place?”

“Well, we came up with the idea that this whole place was made like some kind of death trap. There’s just too much effort put into the place to think anything else.”

“But that’s impossible. How could someone intentionally create a supernatural event like this? They would need willpower of steel, not to mention an insane amount of subliminal imaging from thousands of people.”

“Maybe they found a way around that? Doesn’t really matter anyway. Let’s just focus on getting through here together. You know in one piece.”

Amity contemplated the gravity of their situation, but as her sister said, they needed to get out of here first.

“Fine. We’ll figure it out later. So do you have any ideas on how to get past those?”

She pointed outside, at the barrage of turrets.

“I’ve got a few. Help me out.”

Elusia moved over to another suit of armor.

“I just need the top half. Can you do it?”

“Yes…just move away a minute.”

Amity got out her sword and activated the hidden feature.

“Whoah!”

Elusia felt a extremely sharp premonition of her immediate future and quickly took a dive.

There was a quick flash of metal as the sword slid through the armor like a hot knife in butter.

‘Clang’

The top half slid right off and fell to the ground.

“Hey! What the heck man?! Wait until I’m out of range first! That was extreme overkill!”

“Don’t worry. I would’ve stopped before it hit you. Besides, I used the full edge.”

“What dull edge?! That thing slid through it like nothing was there! Since when were you a master swordsman!? Stop posing!”

“…Ok fine. Maybe I misjudged the range of this thing a little…” said Amity with a bit of remorse and red cheeks.

“A little?! …Ok…ok, you know what? I’m just going to let it go.”

Elusia grudgingly got back up and patted herself down. She walked down the hallway and grabbed a dining cart.

“Here, help me move that onto this thing.”

Amity nodded and the two of them lifted the top half of the armor onto the cart.

“Ok, I think I understand what we’re doing now. So how do we get it to move through there?”

“We’re just going to have to crawl and push, I guess. No matter how many guns are out there, they’ll only be able to target one thing at a time. Hopefully they pick the higher target.”

Elusia puffed up her chest with pride. Amity thought that it was cute and grinned a bit, but that soon turned into a grim frown.

“…But this doesn’t solve any of our problems. We probably still won’t be able to get out, even if we get through here. It looks like this path just loops back around into the mansion. If this is a trap, like you said, then they would have probably blocked every conceivable way out. Except for the one that they couldn’t get rid of. We’re going to have to kill that thing.”

“Damn, your right…you think that some bullets could solve the problem?”

“Doubt it. That thing survived a stab directly into its chest.”

“Hmm…maybe we should just try aiming for it’s head. I doubt that even it would survive decapitation.”

“But that’s easier said than done…”

“…I might have an idea about that.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll tell you when we get there.”

“…huh?”

“First, we need to lure it.” Elusia said as she put up a finger and grinned.

=======

Detective Lance and the guide who will not be named, were under siege inside the dilapidated mansion. The detective pulled out a large chunk of wood from ancient debris nearby and was ready to put his plan in action. He tossed it over to the guide.

“Take a piss.”

“…Wait. Seriously? Now? Right here?”

“Just shut up and do it.”

The detective pulled his pants down.

“Yeah, I’m not really into this…”

“Stop fucking around. You know why we’re doing this. It’s not like you have anything stopping you. Way too late to worry about your personal dignity.”

“Ok, fine…”

And so after a few very awkward moments, the two of them moved into position by the doorway.

“You ready? Know what you need to do?” Asked the Detective as he was poised to move away the stuff blocking the door.

“Yeah, I know. Just get your part done.” Replied the guide anxiously, awaiting the upcoming fight ahead behind the blockade.

The detective nodded and kicked off the charge, literally. The debris and various other parts of the haphazardly built blockade were flung out across the room.

“‘Snarl’”

The door burst open as the creature leapt through the wreckage. The detective quickly bashed it as hard as he could with the object in his hand sending it skidding across from him. The guide took the opportunity to dash towards the remains of his streaming set up.

“Hey, freak! Come get me!”

The detective screamed out at the creature banging on the doors and wall to attract its attention.

“‘Shriek’HheLlpME”

The detective ran out of the room as fast as he could, the creature tailing right behind him.

“Shit,shit,shit!”

The detective ran down the dilapidated mansion hallways to dodge the pursuing monster. He leapt over large holes in the rotting wooden floor hoping to get some distance. Suddenly the floor beneath him fell through.

“Gah!”

The detective looked behind him to see the creature right behind him, leaping over the potholes with relative ease. He quickly scrambled to pull himself up to the floor with his remaining arm but fell back into the hole with a large thwack.

“Guh! Dammit!”

The detective quickly got up and looked around. He was in a basement area of some kind with large concrete pillars holding up the house above him. He could hear it coming from above him. Quickly he ran behind the nearest pillar and lobbed the scented stick as far as he could from his position. Soon after the creature came crashing through the hole. He peeked around and saw it sniffing the ground, tracking him.

“Come on, come on.”

He crossed his fingers as the creature passed through the room. He carefully slid across to another pillar to avoid its detection. The creature slowly walked towards his decoy and snarled as it sniffed around.

‘Ok, I just need to make it to the exit before it gets wide and starts coming at me again.’ He thought. ‘What can I do?’

He rummaged through his pockets for anything. He pulled out his wallet and some useless things that had been collected inside.

‘Let’s see. Lint, change, credit cards, a receipt, half-eaten fortune cookie…why do I have this?’

The creature was circling around the area, closing in on him.

‘Anyway, maybe I can use this?’

The detective pulled out some change and the cookie.

He tossed the cookie nearby. The creature slowly reacted to the new object crawling over to it. He quickly moved to another pillar closer to his goal. He tossed some coins in the opposite direction. The creature turned to locate the other objects.

‘Now!’

Quickly the detective dashed over to the door and kicked it off its hinges. The creature quickly locked its head onto him and shrieked. The detective clambered over the debris and climbed up the stairs to the next floors.

========

Elusia and Amity prepared for action.

“Ok, now carefully…Owowow!”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

The sisters sat down on the ground as Elusia held her arm up and Amity was disassembling her makeshift splint.

“Are you really sure this is ok? Do we really need the bat?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing around here that we could use for this to work. I’ll be fine, seriously.”

“…Ok.”

Amity finished undoing the bindings holding the arm together.

“Ugh…ok that’s over. Did you get the hook and wire from the kitchen?”

“Yes, but how are we supposed to put this together?”

“Just gimme a sec.”

Elusia groaned as she got off the ground and caressed her throbbing arm. She rummaged through her pocket for what she needed.

“Here we go.”

She pulled out a fire card.

“Ok tie the end to the bat.”

Amity picked up the metal wire from the hook and tied it to the bat.

“Fire.”

Elusia used the fire card to create a small concentrated flame and welded the wire into the bat.

“Okay, that’ll do it. Hold on to it.”

Amity nodded and wrapped the hook onto the bat and held on to it.

“I think we have everything ready to go. Let’s do this.”

“Got it. Time to lure it in.”

Amity took a deep breath and walked away into the mansion. After a few minutes, she stopped.

“Well, here goes nothing. Hey ugly! I’m right here! Come on! You deaf or something!? Then again, if your hearing is as bad as your face is, you probably are!”

It didn’t take long for a response.

“*shriek*YOUYoUyOU!DIIIIIEEE!”

The mansion shook with considerable force as the scissor creature burst through the wall with it’s gigantic shears. Amity wasted no time breaking into a sprint.

“STOop RUNnING!”

“Not happening.”

Amity soon arrived back to Elusia.

“Go! Go! Go! Get into the cart!”

Elusia quickly crawled inside the cart and gave Amity the thumbs up. She took out a life card she prepared earlier.

“Get down!”

Amity dove into a crawl as Elusia activated the life card. The plant life growing around them started to grow, and large vines burst from the ground and propelled the cart forward into the courtyard. The machine turrets immediately reacted to the incoming object and fired…into the armor that was on top.

“It’s working!”

Elusia gleefully slid across the courtyard with a hail of bullets flying overhead and Amity quickly crawled forward, right behind her. Of course the scissor creature was not far behind.

“GRAaAAHHh!”

The turrets locked onto the creature and fired on it. Causing it to flail indiscriminately as the rapid impacts cause splurge of black blood to rain over the ground. Amity crawled faster to avoid the spray.

“Hah! Time to get off!”

Elusia rolled out of the cart, leaving it to sail across the courtyard while taking gunfire, while she and Amity crawled into the doorway that led back into the mansion.

“Damn! That was awesome!”

“…I can’t believe that actually worked. How are we not dead?”

“Well you know, pluck and luck.”

“…Yeaaah right. Ok let’s go. Time for part 2.”

“Oh right.”

“…Did you seriously just forget?”

Elusia shrugged and ran off into the mansion. Amity sighed as she followed.

=====

The guide was back in the entrance room, hurrying to dig out the debris.

“Not here…Not here…oh come on!”

He kept sifting through until he finally found what he was looking for.

“Ah finally! Good thing these were built to last.”

He pulled out a terminal, it’s screen heavily cracked, but still functional.

“Ok now I just do this…”

The guide opened up the search functions of the terminal.

‘I need something that will corrupt that thing. But where the heck am I going to get something like that! I can’t just type in ‘deadly digital viruses’ …wait can I?’

The guide tried typing exactly that, into the search engine.

“This content has been blocked by order of the City Council.”

“Of course it has….”

‘Ok that’s not happening. Urg! What do I do now! Oh wait…maybe I can get some indirectly?’

The guide types in a variety of new searches.

‘Ok let’s see…porn sites, shady ads, free wallpapers, game roms….what else? Oh, ‘free music downloads’.’

The guide nodded in satisfaction as the the screen started flashing randomly and freezing.

“Ok!”

He walked to the hallway and yelled as hard as he could.

“Hey! I’m done! Just get it out back! I’ll meet you at the detonation device!”

He ran out the doors and circled around the building. He arrived at a large construction zone behind the mansion and waited for the detective.

“Wait…can’t I just leave?”

=======

Elusia and Amity raced down the hallways at breakbeat speed with the scissor monster right behind them.

“Are we almost there?”

“Ya, I’m pretty sure it was that way!”

They were headed towards the center of the mansion, where Elusia first arrived.

“Here it is!”

The elevator was still free falling causing a major draft to flow throughout the area.

The two girls stopped in front of the open shaft.

“Hand me the bat.”

Amity untied the hook and handed her the bat.

“Ready?”

“…Ready.”

Amity readied her sword and Elusia stepped to the side.

The monster rushed towards them.

===========

The detective was not doing well. The creature was coming for him and not stopping anytime soon. He was running out of steam and in some pretty serious pain. He ran and dodged all the way through the mansion until he made it to the back of the building.

“Huff…huff….”

“Hey! Over here!”

The detective looked outside the windows to see the guide standing on a platform outside.

“The thing is ready!”

“Got it!”

The detective took off his outer coat and wrapped it around his arm.

“Graaaahhhh!”

‘Crack’

He dashed straight into the window and rolled onto the lawn.

“Son of a…!”

He quickly got back up using his adrenaline rush to fight off the pain and rushed towards the guide.

“Here.”

The guide handed him the terminal.

“I thought you were probably just going to make a break for it. Why didn’t you run?”

“Well I thought about it…but I’m probably not going anywhere anytime soon.”

The guide moved his shirt to reveal his wounds, gushing out from his torso and his internal organs visibly damaged and out in the open.

“Shit.”

“Yeah. Unless you have a nano-med kit on you, I’m not going to last more than a few minutes. Well unless you carry me out. Some cybernetic implants and I’ll be A-okay.

“Damn, well that’s convenient for me at least.”

“Your bedside manner needs work.”

“I’m not a doctor.”

Suddenly there was a large crash as the creature burst out of the mansion and landed in the courtyard.

“*Shriek*”

“Time to finish this. When I give the signal start the detonation.

“Got it.”

The detective rushed out to the creature and tossed the terminal.

“Eat this.”

The creature shrieked as the terminal hit it, but soon came rushing towards him, the terminal now embedded into itself.

“Come on…”

Suddenly the creature stopped and fell over. It squirmed and shrieked as the terminal was pulled into itself by the fleshy tendrils that made up its anatomy.

“Doesn’t feel so good does it.”

The detective grabbed a rock and slammed it into the creature. He kept slamming it in as hard as he could, breaking flesh and bone, splattering pieces everywhere.

“Whew.”

Finally he gave the corpse a large kick, sending it flying into the mansion.

“Now!”

The detective yelled out to the guide, who immediately opened up the construction terminal and slid the activation slider on the screen.

The sound of a large explosion echoed throughout the cityscape, along with a large bright flash that lit up part of the streets for a minute. Passerby stopped to spectate at the large column of smoke that drifted off into the air.

=============

“DIEDIEDIE!”

“You first!”

Amity swung her broadsword into her opponent. It swiftly parried it away with a swipe of its shears. Amity rolled across the ground, avoiding the edge of death. She repositioned herself and took another swing. The monster shrieked as she cut through it’s torso.

“HhOWDDaREYOU!”

The monster swung it’s shears straight into Amity. She quickly blocked it with her broadsword.

“Come on!”

She ducked under the shears and slid her sword into it’s side.

“GRAHHH!”

The monster flinched for a moment giving Amity the opening she was looking for. She quickly grabbed on to her knife, which was still stuck into it’s back and attached the hook up to it.

“Now!”

“Gotcha!”

Elusia activated a stasis card and tossed it into the shaft. The breeze that was blowing up was suddenly halted. Elusia tossed her bat into the gap.

“Wait for it.”

Suddenly there was a large rush as the monster was pulled backwards into the shaft. It dropped it’s shears and clung onto the sides of the entrance to the shaft, it’s claws digging into the sides.”

“*Scream*NoNoNoNo!”

“Yes.”

The scissor monster screamed as it was slowly pulled to it’s doom. The walls cracked due to the pressure.

‘Snap’

“Oh shit!“

The wire holding it back snapped with considerable force causing the elevator to continue falling, and freeing the monster. Elusia acted quickly. She rushed towards the shears it had dropped.

“Amity!”

“Yeah!”

The two picked up the gigantic shears with each of them holding onto a side. They rushed toward the monster with all the force they could muster.

“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”

They rammed the edge of the weapon into the monster’s neck and pushed it back into the automatic meat grinder.

“Gryytrdguhhrrr”

Disgusting gurgling sounds rang out from the pieces creature as it struggled to cling onto the walls.

“Pull!”

“Arhggggg!”

The two sister pulled on the shears, each in different directions. The sounds of ripping flesh rang out as the rusted blades cut through it’s neck.

‘*Tear*’ ‘*Crack*’

There was a disturbing crackling sound as the head of the monster tore apart from it’s body and was splattered into pieces by the elevator.

“…huff…huff…We did ittttt!!!”

“…yeah.”

The two girls collapsed onto the ground exhausted. The world around them started to grow distant and distorted.

“Looks like we’re finally getting out of here.”

“Yeah. So what do we do now?”

“Well I’m not going back to the Temple.”

“Obviously that was never an option.”

“In any case, anywhere you go, I’ll come along too.” Grinned Elusia.

“Thanks. That means a lot.” Smiled Amity.

The world shifted.

=====

When Elusia woke up, she was in a place she had never seen before.

“Huh?”

She was in a large dome with no signs of life, and no exit.

The area was large and empty.

The walls and floor of her new location were made of some kind of metal she had never seen before.

“Where…am I? Amity!”

Amity was no where to be seen.

“Elusia was confused. This was not where she had entered. There was no sign of her friends and sister, and no way out. Everything was foreign to her.”

“Huh?! Who’s there?! Show yourself?!”

“Elusia, disoriented and confused, got up onto her feet and looked around the room.”

“Wait…I know you…”

“Elusia saw a young man who was familiar to her standing before her, though he hadn’t been before. The young man was thin and wearing the uniform that she hated. He had black hair and red eyes, an oddity. She carefully approached the mysterious intruder.”

“Number…2?”

“Yes, that young man was the last disciple of the bunch who had been biding his time, hiding behind the curtains of reality. In his hand he held the ancient text that she had oh so carelessly left behind. With it the rules of reality and fiction were his to control.”

“Ok that’s enough with the pompous narration. Just talk normal and get to the point.”

“The point is, my dear Elusia, that I’ve got big plans and unlimited power. The only thing is, I’m still missing a piece of the puzzle. A piece I need to rewrite this world. And you’re in my way. So, what I’m saying is, give me the damn brush.”