(SAMMY) Looking aimlessly into the roof of the bus, I let my thoughts wander.
‘I only got like one bag of chips left, and no sweets!
Damn it, when did I finish that much?
We’re not even halfway into the trip.’ Caressing my forehead, I sighed and thought over the trip so far.
‘Just got to wait another five hours before we head back home and I can eat as much as I want.
Maybe Nate will let me get… nahhh, he’s way too stingy… and Amy is equally stingy.
No, she’s more stingy, she’s downright defensive of her food, I’ll lose my life if I try to do anything concerning her food.’ As I thought of her, the ‘lady’ in question abruptly stood up from her seat, her face filled with confusion and a shadow of fear falling over it.
Concerned slightly, I looked to where Nate was… My eyes widened in fright.
‘Wha… where did he?’ Standing from my seat as well, I observed where he had been sitting only moments prior and looked at the bus aisle to see if he had maybe gone to the professor in the front.
Liam seemed to notice both of our concerns and as he got up he paused slightly.
I just glanced at him for a moment and saw that his eyes were unfocused, looking forward lifelessly.
The next moment a pair of scaleless white serpents with crimson eyes coiled around his body from nowhere.
Screaming in fright, I backed away as they encircled him.
The next moment the smaller of the serpents looked to the bigger one, it’s crimson eyes gleaming slightly.
Opening its mouth, the larger serpent waited and while it did the smaller one went into its mouth.
Gagging at the sight, I couldn’t react even a little when the larger serpent began to coil its tail toward its mouth.
In an impossible gesture the serpent devoured itself, and where Liam had been just a mere five seconds ago, an empty seat was all that was left.
Turning my head to Amy for any shred of information, I forgot to breathe as I saw her body decompose in moments, her flesh was quickly rotting and giving way for her bones to also decompose.
After her bones decomposed, her brain and other organs also decayed into sludge that disintegrated.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” The moment I spoke I realized something, the other students didn’t seem to notice what was going on.
To my left I saw that the people that could easily see Liam get devoured by serpents looked completely composed and unbothered.
‘What the actual hell!’ My thoughts swirled as I heard a commotion in the back.
When I looked I saw Martin holding the same terrified look as I did.
In the seat where Steven was sitting there was a torrent of flaoting papers and books with illusory writing.
Martin tried to go into the torrent but he couldn’t as his entire body instantly got caught in crimson flames.
Then in a quick manner his entire being was turned to glass and he shattered.
The torrent was gone as well, and Steven’s seat was empty.
Damian and I shared a look, but there was nothing I could do as his body became distorted.
His proportions grew unnatural, parts grew longer, bigger and then shorter, until his entire body collapsed in on itself and left a single black orb that grew brighter and disappeared instantly.
My thoughts were jumbled and I couldn’t react as an insatiable raving found its way into my head.
“God Almighty Creator Maker The Omnipotent and Omniscient Lord of the Astral World” As the ravings settled I felt my body disintegrate into sparks.
(LIAM) Opening my eyes wide, I looked at the sky and got up instantly.
Examining it, I saw that instead of the beautiful blue color one would normally see, it was like a moving ocean of mercury, endlessly shifting and changing it’s from endlessly in a loop.
My eyes examined every detail of what I was seeing.
Below me the ground was smooth and looked to be made of grey stone that had a lapis-blue hue to it.
In the distance, vast and looming mountains stood, each one a different size and shape, none of them connecting like they normally would.
‘I’m… I’m DREAMING!
Clearly this can’t be real.’ I tried to make myself believe that this was a dream, however the very fact that I was able to feel things so vividly made it hard to believe.
At a short walking distance there was a small cathedral, and turning above it, I saw a large white scaleless snake eating its own tail floating over the cathedral, it’s crimson eyes deeply focused and terrifyingly alien.
Around the circular roof of the cathedral a smaller but similar snake constantly circled in an attempt to eat its own tail.
‘The… no, this is way too familiar, scaleless snakes, red eyes, a strange sky made of liquid mercury.’ The more I thought about what was happening the clearer it was that this place was directly taken from Lord of the Mysteries.
Steps manifested from the smooth ground before me and led to the entrance of the cathedral.
The two snakes in response to this stopped all movement.
Up and down I looked and was in more disbelief than I ever had been.
‘Like hell I’m going into that… I don’t even know what this is!’ As if the very ground itself knew about my refusal to participate, it shook and then a brilliant silver lightning bolt struck the ground in front of me, though it was a small distance away.
Unlike regular lightning however, it didn’t just disappear, instead it remained in place.
The sound of the lightning bolt looped again, the ground shaking looped once more in unison with the lightning.
The more I waited the more violent the sounds became.
“Damn it, damn it!
Fine, but I taste horrible, you hear!” I pointed to the snakes, who didn’t react whatsoever.
‘Why am I doing this, why am I following the damn steps to that place?’ The more I questioned myself the more violent the events around me became.
Sighing, I took the first few steps and went down the staircase.
Each step was surprisingly comfortable, as if I was walking on a perfectly smooth surface that wasn’t rough in the least.
After a few minutes of walking I reached the entrance of the cathedral and looked at it with a frown.
The cathedral was made of the same stone the ground was, with a style that reminded me of that popular cathedral in Germany.
However it was much smaller of course.
When I went to knock on the steel door I backed away instantly as it began to creak open with a loud sound that looped onto itself constantly.
‘Ahhh… damn it, why do I feel a pull that’s beckoning me into it.’ With severe reluctance I took a step inside and the doors slowly closed behind me.
I didn’t focus on that, instead I focused on the pedestal before me.
On the pedestal an ordinary six-sided white die with red pips on each of its faces floated in the air.
‘This is the Uniqueness of the Wheel of Fortune pathway!
But what is this place?
It isn’t the Sefirot, instead it seems like some random place that was just conjured quickly.’ It was clear to me now that this entire thing that was happening to me, and likely to others, was definitely from Lord of the Mysteries.
‘The Sefirot was more focused on Buddha and had vibrant clouds that illuminated the sky, hell if I’m not mistaken flowers fell like rain as well, in the story it was… more vibrant I guess.’ But this place was much more gloomy, as if it wasn’t a Sefirot but a different space altogether, or if it was the Sefirot but maybe damaged in some way.
While I observed the die, it pulsed ever so slightly.
Not liking what this could entail, I was helpless as the die vibrated twice, and in an instant it rushed toward me at a speed I could perceive but couldn’t react to, which made no sense whatsoever.
Patting my body frantically in an admittedly pathetic attempt to somehow get rid of the die, I was unfortunately unable to do so.
Stopping the foolish act, I observed the cathedral and waited.
After two minutes of tense silence, I scratched my neck and spoke.
“So… can I go home?” When I spoke, the echo of my voice sounded through the cathedral and looped into the distance.
Then, from the circular dome above the pedestal, an ocean of liquid mercury began to descend.
As I tried to run, a voice sounded.
“No…” The voice was somewhat childish, but held an unnatural depth to it that made me forget that I was trying to run away from the deadly mercury.
Reaching the door, I knocked frantically and tried to pry it open, and while I did, the words of the childish voice constantly looped through my mind like a reminder of my soon-to-come doom.
Looking back to the mercury that was a second away from swallowing me, I tried to curse, but the mercury crashed against my body violently and I felt my consciousness slip.
(AMY) A throbbing pain shot through my body and I was unable to do anything to fight against it.
My flesh felt strange, almost as if it was moving of its own accord and reshaping itself.
Slowly, I began to feel parts of my body.
First I was capable of feeling my toes, and in further and growing agony I felt things slowly take shape across my body.
‘Ugghhh… it hurts… so much.’ Pain continued to spread through every part of my being and it grew worse as it went further upward.
My chest burned as I felt my heart suddenly reform, beginning to beat with a rhythmic pulse.
‘Aghhhh!’ After minutes of growing agony and pain I finally managed to feel my eyes return and I was forced to look forward as I felt and watched my eyebrows grow slowly.
The strange process of healing stopped and it took me a few minutes to actually sit up from the laying position i was forced into.
Looking around the room that I was in, it looked like there was no source of light available.
Strangely though, I could still somehow see in the darkness.
Closing my eyes slightly, I put a hand over my head and felt a surge of memories rush through it.
I was in a park with a tall woman with blonde hair.
Her eyes looked at me with pity and she produced a flower from behind her.
Another showed a street lined with beggars and people that were either sleeping or dead, while in my hand I held a strange phone-like object that was much thicker than it should have been.
A flood of other memories that weren’t mine continued to spread through my mind, and within the vast tapestry of these fragmented and foreign memories one solidified itself into my mind like an immovable object.
Sitting atop me was a long-haired man with black hair and red eyes.
In his hand was a hammer, my vision was clouded by tears as the hammer struck down on my chest violently.
The man’s voice sounded like a madman’s as he continuously hit my chest and shoulder.
“You’re like me!
I know it!
You’re real, you’re the only real person in this place!
Please, please, please!!!” He struck the hammer down again and again, then as if he came to a realization, his eyes wandered to the side and around the entire room.
“No… NOOOOO!
You aren’t REAL!
Just like everyone else!
Why is everyone so hateful toward me!
Why must you reject me!” I pleaded for my life—well, the person whose memories I was observing was at least.
But the man only grew more mad and insane as his eyes darted across the room and back to me.
Then his eyes were overcome with blood, as if he were crying.
“You hate me… just like she does!
Why does she hide from me!
We are one!
We are REAL!” With a snarl that made the shadows around us deeper, he took the hammer and bludgeoned my skull repeatedly until the memory faded.
Sitting on the poorly made bed I was on, I held my head, the agony of the memories continuously assaulting it.
Tears welled up and I soon felt a burning anger rise within me, one that I suppressed as it felt like it didn’t belong to me.
‘What is happening… why did I get stuck in this place?’ Faint memories of rushing water sounded in my ears and then I recalled the last words I had heard.
My mouth moved on its own as I began to slowly mutter to myself, “Eternal Darkness… Singularity of All… Space… Space-Time-in-One…” ‘A… a honorific name…’ Once the realization dawned on me, I surveyed the room once more.
It was insultingly small for a single person.
There was only the bed I was on, which was just a dirty mattress.
My body was covered in rags which revealed my pale skin.
I looked and saw that there was only a small piece of wood that was once the girl’s only chair and a large piece of alloy that was propped up on small rods of iron.
It was like a table, and then there was a withered copper door that looked like it belonged in a factory.
Getting up from the bed and standing up, I slowly walked toward the door.
With a press on the doorknob I left the room and froze when I saw the land in front of me.
There were large and melancholic skyscraper-like buildings that towered over the small area I was in.
When I inhaled the air I was barely able to keep standing.
I coughed and felt my eyes burn slightly, and once I looked around a bit more I saw a massive wall, a massive wall that was meant to keep the strong winds from destroying everything… everything in the outskirts.
“This… is Shadow Slave… Fu…” Before I could finish, I fell to the ground in a fit of coughs.
_____________________________ Author’s Note: Next chapter is on Monday.