(Episode II)(.5) (Act 3)

In a sense of terror and anger, she tried moving her left submerged left arm to her trapped right, straining as she had no choice but to be absorbed into the shadow wall to make it work. All of her work, just getting to the point where she can touch her arm within the ooze with no feeling. She felt a pocket mass and tried to dig into it, right as her face was taken by the sludge, now working in pure darkness. She carved with her nails into the pocket and felt her muscly forearm and thought back to Leslie’s fingers.

She pressed down her fingers into her forearm and the whole arm extended itself into its pieces, activated. The outline of the structure work glowed briefly in the shadows, before being consumed instantly. And like a hot knife through butter, it cut through the darkness towards the other arm and she proceeded to do the same again, two arms extended out and active.

They pulled themselves out, grabbling the wall and Jackie pulled her head free, gasping for air wildly.

She steadied her gasps into breathing, and she was set. Still heavy, hammering through her body, but still set, steady, conquered.

It was terrible, the pounding of her heart made Jackie’s vision quake. Attempts of transitioning to catching her breath failed, any attempts to still himself unraveled with each, nanosecond long shake running down her body. And her mind raced and crashed within before proper thoughts were formed. She was in a complete state of fear, even with her small victory, as she felt her arms slowly click and snap back together without any audio to accompany it. She turned back to her personal hell and a ping of fear added itself into the inner flurry and was struck by it.

It started to dissipate at varying levels, the levels themselves wiggling and weaving into each other to create a sickly effect, before evening out into snake-lite tendrils that feed it’s other fellow shadows around her, the effects of the space it created for Jackie wearing off, putting her into a new, fresh hell.

Shade and shadow horrifically merge back and forth, forward and reverse, so dream-like that it doesn’t have a strong presence but was tangible enough to be on the edge of reality, like any other nightmare. The narrowness of the hallway, once was the main problem for the victims, was warped to make way for the terrible display of each and every person tormented by their personal shadows. So tormented, that their losing battles created a maze of sorts, Jackie witnessing the snapshots as the interplay of shade and shadow ghastly wipes the current scene away, replacing it with a new one. The sounds of agony were prolonged further and lowered but lingered enough. What made matters somehow worse was the fact that the ghastly wipe worked on Jackie as well, even with her unlocked sight, being plunged straight into darkness for what felt like minutes but was brief enough seconds to make her vision choppy.

She hated this. She hated how this got the best of her, that made her into a sniveling, sweating wreck. And she hated that this, whatever this is, is taking advantage of something personal, something so traumatic, and something so defining as someone’s fear. Invasive, disgusting… Needless.

She will not let this take over her, not another thing that did, especially something as sick and fucked-in-the-head as this.

The world threw a maze in front of her and she had to think. A maze of fear, that she has to navigate in a way of warped dimensional space, trying to find her people and possibly has to fight their fears as well. Her tools are locked away and she has to physical jailbreak, in a sense. Really, she deemed that there’s absolutely no way in beating this, much to her frustration. But getting the girls out of this, and most importantly Leslie, is all that she can do now. Freeing Leslie might lead to a possible phase 2 that she can devise if and when she succeeds in this.

If her eyes were useless in this problem, maybe her ears would be optimal? That was something she’s at least played with, so all she has to do is put it to work. Jackie reached up to her right ear, messing with it, and expanding it, settled in its respective pieces. She was at least grateful that she herself can’t see this and her general discomfort in being able to do this now is far outweighed by what’s happening now. She wants to sleep on it, versus never being able to if she fails. What she sought after wasn’t to increase her hearing, but to listen out for sounds that she’s already heard: the voices of any of the girls and Leslie, even twisted into screams and wailing.

She had to be smart and had to attune to senses that were alien to her, even if she used them before her enlightenment. Not focus on the pain of others, even if that notion of playing favorites—being selfish—sucked for her. She pushed the omnipresent suffering away, putting her into a mode of muffled silence as she scanned for anything.

It was only a minute until she picked up on Maddie’s garbling, and then she sprinted. Supped up on fear and driven by bravery, Jackie ran into the maze’s horror walls while unlocking her arm again and took a swipe to breakthrough.

It felt tougher to cut through, as if… As if the defeated fear shadow merging with the other wasn’t just adding to the madness, or it’s power; but to lessen the weaknesses as well. Great, not only a shifting, aimless maze; but one that reinforces itself as well. Even if it was harder to rip through the oozing, quivering walls; Jackie already did it before and she was too pissed to let tiredness get the better of her.

She didn’t focus on her sense of location; she didn’t dwell on how each new space was simply a reversed “room” from the ones she’d broken through before. Her method of listening for Maddie and using her arms to tear through was bitter work. Work that paid off when she reached Maddie’s nightmare.

Maddie dangled a foot or two off the ground by webs of spear-like thorns, and yet somehow that observation didn’t portray the painful sight enough.

Every single rigid line erupted from her, mainly from her chest captivity and her mouth, causing her head to be cocked back as she darted her panicked, yet vacant eyes. She was twitching, and anything more than a jerk shot out yet another collection of thorn from out of her body, causing Maddie to groan in agony. And it seemed to get worse, as Jackie was there.

Her horrified and understandable pitying stare, made Maddie squirm helplessly, causing more and more thorn to come barreling out and the previous layers dig into her more. What was a panicked, yet vacant look turned into despondent, yet ferocious bitterness? Jackie didn’t get it, but this wasn’t the time, the place.

“MADISON!” Jackie roared. “BEAT IT! IT’S LIKE YOUR FEAR! OWN IT BEFORE IT OWNS YOU COMPLETELY!” She then pointed to her now-shifted-back-arm, “REMEMBER WHAT LESLIE DID!”

Maddie responded with a few grunts, slowly but surely moving her un-barbed arm towards her buried chest. What followed was her body shifting, getting harder into its various ejected pieces and each of the thorns snapping as easily as they sprouted and bounded her. And with a few shakes and swings, she dropped on her feet, then fell promptly on her hands and knees, panting, wide-eyed, scared—Like Jackie but still emotionally distant. Trying to be.

Jackie rushed over, picking her up, “We have to find the others.”

Maddie looked at her with her maddened eyes, glaring while stuttering for breath, “And why the hell--?”

“After all we’ve been through so far—Are you really going for the route of fucking everyone over just to save yourself?”

“Save myself and the fucking person I know and care about.”

The realization of her parents hit Jackie where the fear made her raw. Maddie’s feverent, animal like stare only hit upon her exposed wound.

She gritted herself, keeping true to herself—versus what the fear wanted to make her into.

“If we go to the source of this, all of this can stop! Not only do we owe it to the rest of the girls and their families; we might be the only fucking ones able to stop it!”

“Fuck…” Maddie sighed out, putting her hands on her face.

Jackie once again activated her arm again, before holding Maddie close walking toward the moving darkness. “You can rest, but I’m dragging you along with me.”

After being exposed to, knowing all the tricks of this isle of illusion, Jackie didn’t have a harder time navigating the maze. She spent more time checking on Maddie versus their surroundings, as she continues to mull over their situation.

The thing about siVis that she learned and was interested in was the fact that it existed on its own timetable. This trek felt like hours, it could’ve been just 20 minutes whenever this was over, but neither mattered. siVis events acted as they may, and this fact they were trapped in this time abyss—where time was paramount, would add to this horrible experience.

(Jackie and Maddie argument about the futility of this, both realize that they’re as green as the siVis user, giving them more hope)

After a long stretch of time, but somehow very little, passed; Maddie accidently slipped and fell, hitting the ground on her side. Jackie immediately disengaged, or at least tried. Her siVized arm remained activate, frustrating her as she watched Maddie writhe on the ground. She didn’t care, she rushed over to Maddie and picked her up with her free hand via her gown, where the small girl tried to stop her taller cohort. Jackie didn’t get a chance to question or counter it, Maddie ripped away from her grip by jerking forward, hands and knees on the ground.

“The fuck is the point?” Maddie spat.

“Maddie, we just got fucking through this already--!” Jackie barked back.

Maddie craned her head and yelled back, “Fuck you! This siVis guy’s shit is way too strong, even if we fucking find him!”

“We still have to solve this!” Jackie yelled, her voice conveying determination, fighting against the venom that Maddie stewed.

“What can five neutered chicks and some doctor can fucking do?! Think!”

“I AM THINKING,” Jackie roared, lunching forward and grabbing Maddie by her shoulder. “YOU CAN WIN THE DAY WITHOUT STRENGTH!”

Maddie, to her correct, just stared back at a pushed Jackie.

“You always make fun of River, but you’re just like her!”

Maddie then scoffed, again staring directly up at Jackie, “There’s a different between giving up and being a sad sack—and cutting your loses and surviving. She’ll fucking die laying in the landfill that I’m here that is her room, and I’m out here knowing how the world works, following the goddamn curve. Give me one good ass reason why I should be willing to die than doing what I know we’ll save my life?”

Jackie didn’t know what she was angry at more, the sheer, disgusting callousness or the fact even in this crisis—this human does the thing that everyone hates, and so proud of it. Was that brief moment back then, the time they can’t recall, all show?

The angry girl, who’s been so angry for far, far too long bit her lip, slowly shook her head side to side, before grabbing Maddie’s other shoulder. Face to face.

“If you wanna betray everyone, go ahead. I want you to. But the fact of the matter is this; I’m using all reason that I possess to not to throw you away and leave your ass. Why? Because giving in to any of these useless, worthless, meaningless emotions isn’t going to solve the fact that I’m in Hell now. I’m going to spend my energy crawling myself out.”

Maddie can only turn her head.

Jackie felt herself smile, which was weird. She knows that the rest of her face is still twisted up in rage. Damn siVis, making her aware…

She softened, “What you want—we want, and the greater good that needs to be done here are mutually exclusive. So, for our own damn sakes, let’s keep working together.”

Maddie pushed Jackie away, as her grip softened along with her demeanor, Jackie trading back another angry, shocked look. Maddie got up with her own power and shrugged.

“Still doesn’t change the fact that we’re literally junior siVis people.”

Then it hit Jackie.

“…So is our victim, here.”

Maddie arched her eyebrow.

“If there’s a siVis user here, it has to be on the floor above ours—like the guy they wheeled in! Think about it, with an ability like this, the person would’ve—I mean—The ability would keep us in those horrible places! And the fact that we, ‘junior siVis’ users can cut through so easily…!”

Jackie pounded her fist into her head with a confident smirk, “It makes so much sense!”

“…Or the dude could suck,” Maddie pointed out. Jackie instantly sighed, looking at Maddie with tired eyes. Only for Maddie to steal her smirk, “Either way, it’s good for us.”

Jackie then laughed, “Jerk.”

“Bitch,” Maddie corrected, walking up to her side. “But I’m always right~”

Jackie patted her shoulder, “Sure. But c’mon.”

The duo continued, slashing through the maze, and search through the shadows, prepared and renewed for whatever’s coming next.

But nothing could prepare them for the sight before them.

A multi-legged, towering shadow creature is limbering forward, struggling with all of its perceived might to drag a limp and bounded River. It’s spiderleg-talons were digging into the floor in the many failed attempts to gain traction. Then Jackie realized the struggle is comical, while River really is crushed by the weight of the tetherhooks dug into her bare back that she has to bear, her arms moving as the rest of her body can’t.

“RIVER!” Jackie shouted, “YOU CAN GET OUT USING SIVIS!”

The fear creature’s legs are practically halfway into the ground, writhing and getting tired doing it. River hasn’t moved one inch, even if she could.

Jackie feared that she would be the one most accepting of her fate, and quickly let her mind race as Maddie already made up hers. The small girl walked forward and cupped her hands around her mouth.

“I know it’s your thing to be a sad, depressed sack; but can you not do this right now?!” Maddie said and Jackie couldn’t believe what was being said. “If you live through this, you can continue to be like this all you want; so let’s use that brain of yours for once and not whine about using it, huh?!”

While Maddie’s sharp tongue can’t slash through these reins, nor spurred River to cut said reins immediately, it was a deep cut, nonetheless.

River squirmed, but it was purposeful. Using the binding, she rubbed her arms up against them to create enough pressure to force the activation, their usually shape and state allowing River to get them out. She then started crawling herself, slowly but surely getting ahead of the fear creature that’s still milling about. Trudging forward, she gets ahead of it as the chains pop and cast off, with the creature slowly succumbing to its exhaustion, dissipating and adding itself back to the collective. Jackie and Maddie rush over to help her up.

When Jackie turned to Maddie, she wanted to question her about what she said. It could’ve gone horribly wrong and then they possibly could’ve had them face off against the creature and they’re barely in the state to even think straight. But she had to admit, it was something she couldn’t do…

“See? We need you here to hurt all of our feelings…” Jackie smirked at Maddie, as the latter folded her arms. Besides, she wasn’t even looking at Jackie.

Maddie patted River’s shoulder as it became normal again, “Seriously, lady. I know I don’t know you and you don’t know me but… It ain’t healthy walking around without a damn soul. Research nerd stuff, write a book—do something that isn’t doing nothing but hating yourself. It’s disgusting and no, you can’t make it fucking work.”

River’s face was framed within the shade, creating a shadow over it. Then she moved her head away from it, looking towards the others. “Anything to compare notes with?”

“These things seem to react and mimic our fears…” Jackie reported.

“And it’s fucking with space,” Maddie added.

“Right,” River responded. “A lot more shapeless, though. More like living shadow puppets versus spawning in Freddy Krueger.”

“Oh god, I hope not,” Jackie stressed out.

Maddie snorted, mostly in quiet disbelief, “What are you, 12-?”

“And well space is warped, maybe our general location hasn’t changed,” Rive continued. “Kinda has to be, since you guys just found me and each other relatively close. Versus being scattered around… It’s more like multiple rooms were just added around us. We didn’t move, just that the room did.”

Jackie nodded; Jackie loved this. “Let’s just find Tracy, Aiko and then Leslie next.”

“Woah, woah, woah…” Maddie waved her hands. “Why Nurse Wetblanket?”

“Because I have a hunch…” Jackie answered.

River caught on, “The one they wheeled in; before we were cleared. You think that’s the siVis user?”

“It’s my first guess,” Jackie said. “And if it’s wrong, he has the potential access to the other ones we could make.”

“Well let’s get a move on,” Maddie pressing down on her forearm, activating the rest. River followed soon after, with a proud and reassured Jackie looked on and followed their lead.

Despite the haze and darkness, they scaled through and found Tracy in no time. But they were another set of eyes directly on her.

There she was, face down on the floor, nearly lifeless. What was above her were a cluster of shadowy, leering eyes twitching and throbbing to look at one thing: her. As soon as Tracy looked up to her fellow women, a series of black pillars bashed her down into the already crater-scarred floor as the eyes rapidly look at her with contempt, rage and bitterness, accusatorily.

Without thinking or the others’ input; River charged in while panting. She slid over, getting on top of Tracy, tanking the pelting from above as the eyeballs go berserk—as if in dismay to why someone, anyone, would ever defend her.

Tracy somehow found the strength to flip over to look distressingly at River, even if it was motivated by fear and jerking to see what was happening. Once again, her doughy, glassy green eyes are widen opened, paralyzed with shock.

“How—the—why—how—where did--?!” Tracy started.

It took River around seconds to notice that she wasn’t feeling exactly pain; but more so disturbance. She glanced down quickly at herself, seeing the hammering pillars are struggling to go through her, again, to no pain. Something that she figured, but of course wasn’t sure on in the hazy maze of uncertainty.

“That could’ve ended badly at best or made things terrible at worse, River!” Jackie exclaimed. “Why do this?! What the hell?!”

Tracy looked up to River, expecting an answer herself.

“I—I, know you’re scared,” River began, wincing as the pillars amp up trying to break through. “I—I know how overwhelming things can be—But, but you have to get out of these anxiety-inducing things by facing them—Aaah! S-so please, you have to face them, whatever they mean and you don’t have to be so brave—Fear and anxiety can help you out just as much!”

Even though her face was beginning to twist against the pressure, and the very anxiety that’s gripping her from the inside; she never failed to look Tracy sincerely in the eyes. “Please… I know you can be… So much better than you think…”

Tracy’s own eyes softened again, but the fear was clearly still there. And like the manic eyes about them; she studies River for her intent, and unlike them, is grateful for it.

“Also use your siVis shit!” Maddie added from afar, showing how to activate her arm, waving it. River closed her eyes sharply, as if she forgot to mention that at the end of her speech and most likely did.

Nevertheless, a spurred-on Tracy moves River out of the way, to face the onslaught. With her activated hands, she shields her face from the pillars, looking away with her cheek smushed against the floor. She yelped, deciding to push the ones targeting her face back, clearly stunning the creature. Seeing this from her transformed fingers, she then got up and slid over to the mid-paused pillars and pushed them up the same fashion; the eyes taking one too many before becoming a blob on the ceiling, being reabsorbed into the collective.

Tracy trembled, looking at her hands before they settled again, heaving. But once River gotten up, Tracy found herself leaping towards her for a hug, wrapping her shaking arms around the other girl. A symptom of her mania? Another spur-of-the-moment thing? A high of being alive? All these thoughts raced in River’s mind, before herself returning the hug, if not meekly.

Jackie rushed over with Maddie in tow, “Good job, Tracy,” the tall girl said. She then patted River’s brown hair with a proud smile on her face. “And excellent job, River.”

A face that’s so often burdened with negative emotions looked so lost in this advent of positive ones. River could only nod, confusingly.

“Alright,” Maddie breaking the early celebrations up, “We only have the daredevil next, and I can fucking bet you that her shit’s gonna rival those Saw movies…”

The rest looked at each other in shared worry.

Maddie brushed back her hair, fiddling with her ear, “How’d you do that ear thing—Jackie, was it?”

“Yeah and like the stuff with the arm… Feel it out, I guess,” Jackie replied activating her ear. “But good idea, if we all can tune to her sounds, we’ll find her quick than usual.”

And with Tracy and River doing the same, the lot continue the search. Like they assumed, their numbers made cluing into any traces of Aiko more noticeable and detectable. But what they were getting back wasn’t making any sense.

They heard mumblings, which made them believe that she was far away as they thought. But the mumbling got closer. River elected to go further as the rest stayed at the spot, only to come back to report that the mumble gotten further as she moved away, confounding them greatly. Scoping out the area that was nothing but the same as usual, Maddie was in a huff.

“What the fuck is this?” she asked, “Can we take the time to take in how fucking batshit this whole thing is? And my god, this floor is the rankish stuff that I’ve stepped on!”

Jackie looked down towards her bare feet… Only for it all to click together; as it was all blacker, textured, and slimier than usual. She instantly got on her knees and pressed her an ear to the “ground”.

“Ohnonononono,” she said to herself, on bated breath to see if her horrors were proved right.

And to her horror, the mumbling turned into muffled screaming.

Jackie looked to the others, with it all written on her face.

Tracy covered her mouth, but the words were still clear, “Of all the fears to have… We have to dig her out!”