Sinking Into Chaos

The dungeon is an unforgiving place, it chews through your memories, your wants, your needs, your dreams, and nightmares. It takes whatever it can and uses it to eat you alive. The monsters of the dungeon take many forms, but the most ruthless monster of all is the dungeon itself. It calls forth chaos and propagates evil; it is chaos incarnate.

The sun shined impudently against the mile high grey city ‘scrapers. This was a monotone city much like the place he came from, sunlight was rarely able to push past the cold barriers in it’s path, and so much of the city was in a constant shadow. People kept their shoulders hunched and their heads down. It was cold here, and though one might say the same of the people, this was the culture; eye contact and smiles, anything more than a nod would be too familiar and off-putting to the people here.

A shimmer at the edges of a storefront caught Val’s eye. He pushed his metal chair in and left the exact change for his coffee. The hunt begins.

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The shimmer. The test. The door. Step through.

Val stood in a town composed of slick vomit toned brickwork and mossy vines. He was in shallow end still, the people were still human and the technology level was just past indoor plumbing. He briskly walked up an incline. Shit. He got to the top and cursed inwardly. The city continued vertically on a curve. This again. Being an outsider to this world he had not adapted to the gravity or geography which meant he had trouble with walking upside down. Why does this have to be so difficult, he shook his head. On top of all that this place was likely to be a bust.

A bush vibrated in front of him. He sent a command to his red monocle scope to zoom in and his blue to detect heat signatures. It appeared two children were spying on him. He clicked his tongue and pulled out the shimmer detector. He wasn’t particularly fond of children, or people. The place he came from was a dull cement chasm where friendliness was uncommon. People would just go about their day and go home. Everyone had a job to do to keep society functioning, anything outside of that was needless. Children had a hard time understanding that and children from foreign lands doubly so.

He checked the shimmer detector, nothing.

“Can you show me to an inn, child?”

Mevick tripped and fell backward, panicked that the monster in the overcoat with the blue and red eyes had spotted them. His voice was deep and distorted, and stood at well over six foot. Pestil looked to Mevick equal parts scared and concerned. In that moment a black leather glove shot through their shrubby cover and clamped around Pestil’s arm. It raised him up. Mevick was frozen in place.

“Show me to an inn child, or this one will be dispatched.”

Fear for his friend’s safety pulled Mevick to his feet. “Yes, right away, j-just put him down.”

“No.”

“Wha-what are you going to do to him. I’ll do as you say, just – please!”

“I will not. This child is my hostage. Show me to a nice inn, preferably on this level and I will release him, not a moment prior.” His blue eyes glowed with chilly menace. His voice stern and final. This monster would kill them both in the span of a heartbeat if they fought back. It was best to do as he said. Luckily an inn came to mind and the man who ran it might be able to do something about this monster.

“O-okay, I’ll take you there.”

“Good.” There was no sense of relief or praise in his response, just a command being obeyed and a master letting him know that his expectations have been met.

“This way.” Mevick led them down a side street, he wanted to avoid coming into contact with any of his friends. This monster had to be contained and kept away from anyone he cared about. Pestil walked in front of the monster in black. A strap had been placed around Pestil’s wrist, the man explained that the device would inject a poison into him if he got too far away, if someone attempted to remove it, or if the monster were to be killed.

A left. They were almost there. They were now out of the residential side of town and into the marketplace.

“Mev! Hey Mev!” Lyra came running up to him, his heart smacked against his ribcage.

“Careful.” The monster warned.

He couldn’t let her get caught up in this. “Lyra, I’m sorry, I can’t hang out right now. Me and Pestil are busy. We’re being good Samaritans and helping a stranger to the inn.”

“Well, that’s different, and awfully nice of you. Hmm. Hey, mister, I’m Lyra. Is this guy really helping ya?”

“In fact, he is.”

“I am and he says he’s really tired and would really like to get there quick, so if you don’t mind.”

“Nope, I don’t mind. I’ll tag along.”

“No! We can take care of this on our own.”

“Jeez, you’re testy today. What about you, Pestil?”

“Uh, uh-”

“It’s fine, she can tag along.” The monster was clearly irritated and wanted to move on. He was so intimidating and yet Lyra was oblivious to it, to a girl this monster should have been even more fearsome, in fact, everyone in the market seemed to have picked up on his heavy presence except for her. Eyes darted covertly to the monster in black from the sellers behind their tables. He seemed out of place, almost otherworldly.

“Yay! So, where ya from?”

“He’s not the chatty sort.” Mevick was trying hard to keep from irritating the monster, there’s no telling what he’d do if we got on his bad side. They started moving again.

“I asked the man in the coat, not the rude little pipsqueak.”

“A small faraway place.”

“““Faraway?””” The three voices asked in unison. Perhaps this thing was some sort of alien.

“What do you mean by Faraway?” we arrived at the inn. He took off the wrist band.

“Here is your friend back, as agreed.” This was an annoying detour. Val sighed. The inn was about as he expected, a small square building with a wooden door. It was a little taller than the others he’d seen, but altogether it was expectedly unimpressive. He’d humored the children long enough.

“Faraway is faraway. Not here. Another land, or state, or country. It doesn’t really matter.” He was bored. He’d have to wait a couple of days for another shimmer, hell it could be years. Luckily, those from outside the dungeon didn’t age while inside, though there were unpleasant side effects that balanced that out, it was best to leave as quickly as possible. “Thank you for guiding me, I’ll be checking in. Please do your best to ignore me, I’ll be gone soon.” He expected the two boys would be petrified at the mere sight of him from here on in, and he was all the better for it. He started inside.

“There isn’t anywhere else.” Val stopped half way through the threshold. This was unexpected. He turned around.

“Clarify, please.”

The girl child took the lead, “Well, mister, what you see is what you get. You must be from another world or something cause this is everything. The edge of the city is the edge of the world. There’s nothin’ but nothin’ past there.”

A smile almost made it’s way to Val’s mouth. He was deeper in than he previously thought, and the probability of a heart being here just went up.

Val entered the inn and marched up to the reception desk.

“How much for the week?” The receptionist was a beefy man with a beard down to his stomach.

“500 Kao.” That was more than the room was probably worth, yet Val didn’t care, he forked over the money.

“You’re going to be here a week?” Mevick was losing his mind over the thought of such a dangerous person taking up residence here for a week. What was his goal?

“Why?” Mevick let the question slip.

“I don’t have to answer that.” Val’s patience was slipping.

“You can’t stay here.”

Lyra hit him on the back of the head, “You’re being so rude today.”

“You don’t understand, that man is dangerous. He’s a monster.”

“You’re right, I’m a monster!” He just wanted to get to his room, but the child had now moved in front of his path. “You want to know why I’ve come here? Fear. The paralyzing fear of death. One you will know well in short order. So, get out of my path. Or would you rather not wait?”

Mevick nearly peed his pants as the man pushed him aside and climbed the stairs to his room.

Riordan the receptionist stayed were he was, watching and listening. He grimaced.

“Why didn’t you stop him?” Mevick ran to the counter.

“It’s not my job to discipline kids.”

“Why would I need discipline when he’s the one threatening me and everyone else in this town. You heard him right? Call a city meeting or something, Riordan. You’ve got the pull, you’ve been here for forever.”

“Not forever.” He shook his head, “There’s nothing to be done, let him be and he’ll let you be. I’m sure he’ll realize soon enough how impossible his mission is.”

“Do you know him?” Lyra joined in on the conversation.

“No, but I’ve met a few like him in my time. It’s always the foolhardy types who get sent here.” The last part was said to himself. “You just run along. Do as he says and stay away from him.”

“He did seem kind of scary, in a gloomy kind of way. I’m thinking you’re right.”

“I don’t want to go near him ever again.” Pestil spoke up for the first time in a while.

“Fine! If you don’t want to do something about him then I will.” Mevick would push past his fear, no, he would conquer it. He’d defeat or, at the very least, drive this evil away if it was the last thing he’d do.

Mevick stomped away and his friends hurried behind him, trying to talk him out of whatever kind of stupid was going through his brain.

Riordan reclined in his rickety wooden chair. He’d seen a lot of hunters just like the man in the coat, and he’d seen just as many lose their lives or their minds while going after this particular heart. The Dungeon loved to torment humans, it loved to see them break, it reveled in it. He could feel it’s malevolent smile like the breeze at his back. This new one would be the same. Kids never learn, they charge into the unknown with little thought about their own safety, only their moment to moment desires.

Riordan smirked. Tomorrow the sun would rise again and the world would continue sinking further and further into Chaos.