Spiraling /OPEN\

Based on past experiences, Miller was not expecting the library to be open at the time of night that it was. He didn’t know what time it was specifically, but the moon was not on its way down yet, so it had to be late. Normally, the bladed being wouldn’t bother if there was a high likelihood of it not being open, but there was a possibility that the librarian forgot to lock the door on their way out or maybe he could break his way in. It was not a mild curiosity that brought him to that side of the school, it was more of a revelation.

The lights were still on though. He thought it odd, but perhaps his hope was a reality. It’d be the first time for him, but he still decided to approach with caution. He flicked his hand at the door handle briefly to see if there was any sort of security. No shocks, no magical barriers. Miller proceeded to open it then and began to investigate the room with his bulbous eyes. The librarian’s counter was empty. No petal or vine to see of his flowery guidance counselor. Something was off, but he only needed a brief couple of minutes to get what he wanted.

The titan began to creep around the shelves, unsure of where to begin for his inquiry. His eyes browsed the titles, though most of them meant nothing to him. In that time, he considered whether or not this might be a trap by the people who’ve been following him around the campus, but that possibility was so incredibly small that even he couldn’t believe it. Out of all places in the school, the library was quite possibly the least likely place to find him. So many bad memories in this place, he was surprised that he managed to stay there for over a minute.

As he continued through the maze of books, Miller began to hear movements. Something sliding against something else. His head twisted in the direction of the source, but found nothing. His vision lingered for a short while to ensure his suspicions. In the meantime, a book eerily and slowly floated behind him from one shelf to the next.

Something was wrong, but he didn’t know what. He gave up his search for the merest of moments to return to his last one. The sooner he could get out of the library the better.

He continued to walk aimlessly, possibly in hopes to just stumble upon the artifact of his desire. He didn’t find the book, but he found a strange door. The more he looked at it though, the sooner he realised why it seemed so familiar. It was where he and Lilly hid Margaret’s body. The ancient door that led to the basement. He knew where it was in accordance to the rest of the library, how could have possibly stumbled upon it in his approach?

As he was caught up in thought, a rather hefty looking book began to rise from the shelf. In a shift instant, the encyclopedia shot at Miller’s back with blinding speed, the force of which was more than enough to launch him into the door and shatter the creakily old latches. The creature wailed in pain as the text book managed to strike the midpoint of his back, but that was not nearly the end of his torment. Any who had been down in the basement before would know that immediately after the door was a spiral staircase, which he was unwittingly fumbling down once he cleared the doorway.

Miller might have been terrified out of his wits, but he was by no means a slow thinker, well when it came to situations like this anyway. He assumed a fetal position and his skin began to crackle and harden, his power taking little to no time in order to activate. Soon enough, he was as solid as a rock, so the steel stairs weren’t battering and popping his bones nearly as much. In addition, he began to match a marble rolling down a swirly slide.

It didn’t take too long for his body to reach the bottom, where he finally released his structured form, going a bit limp as he lied on the dirty and unkempt floor. If it wasn’t for his power, he might have died in that tumble, especially putting his bladed arm into retrospect. Another reason why he should have chopped it off long ago.

Either way, he just stepped in something. He was hoping that it had nothing to do with him, but with his luck, he knew it did.

    There was a pleasantry to the silence of the library. Unlike the noisy dorms and hallways, a library was a simple, yet effective place to soothe one's mind as they bask into the crevices of knowledge. Of course, Yokasf could always just dive deep into a dimension of his own creation for all the silence he wants, but there's only so much that silence can do. Yokasf, craves not only silence, but also knowledge. This could be just a desire to know more about the world or slight curiosity of those around him, the library provides many places for the abomination to sit in a corner and start reading.

    It mostly started when a fellow classmate made Yokasf read a book about toast. While it wasn't as engaging as some cheep teen novel or a classical work, Yokasf learned more about toast than he knew before, which was almost mind-blowing to the monster, as he thought that he already mastered the use of toast back when his old roommate taught him how to use a toaster. He never thought that applying eggs and bacon to the mixture of toast was even possible, but yet it was in the book, and when he tried it, Yokasf's view on the world was never the same again. All of a sudden, Yokasf knew that even despite his knowledge of the world, it was only a drop in the ocean compared to what is possibly out there, unlearned. This revelation made him call his old roommate about this huge discovery, where the roommate simply said, "Oh, I already knew that. I'm pretty sure everyone knows it by now." Yokasf could only sit there, standing in awe at his roommate's almighty knowledge of the world.

    Since then, Yokasf has been reading all sorts of books from the library by himself. While he was considered untrustworthy due to his bodily fluids leaking out, it was all fine and dandy when Yokasf took the time to sneak inside the library himself. It was quite simple, as he has already made a dimension in a cabinet on the far side of the place. When it was almost time to close off the place, Yokasf would simply sneak inside the cabinet and wait inside his pocket (or in this case, cabinet) dimension until he was sure that the row of books were completely void of life. He would then spend the night reading, just reading until either morning or when he starts to feel hungry.

    This was one of those nights. Like always, Yokasf sat in a corner, reading a book, this time about cheesecake. It was completely quiet besides the occasional creak from the wood and the casual turning of the pages. All was fine and dandy. However, tonight felt somewhat odd. It was a familiar sensation, but the eldritch horror thought nothing of it. He assumed that somewhere, an cult must have summoned something they shouldn't have, and are now on one wild ride. The constant silence was broken when he heard the front door of the library creaking open. Yokasf sat silence and still. He slowly closed the book and slid it back into position as quietly as he can. Someone came inside,and he didn't want to get caught.

     However, Yokasf peaked from the side and saw a person he might have seen before. From what he could tell, it was not a normal human, that was obvious in a school like this, but his physical appearance...

    Yokasf's curiosity got the better of him and started to stalk this newcomer as he slid around the shelves with his disconcerting body. This wasn't the monster's first time following a person. He learned how to be as discrete as possible during his more bloody years, and while that practice was followed up with his silence, his unnerving movement, and creepiness in general, makes up an effective sneaking Yokasf. There was a few close moments, with the human-like person almost catching Yokasf in-sight.

    Eventually, he followed into an unknown area of the library Yokasf really never explored yet. When the person stopped at an old-looking door, Yokasf felt the same odd feeling, this time even closer. He saw a book float out from a shelf, one of those door stopper books, and saw the object crash into the person in a way that reminded Yokasf the time he got hit by a van sometime before he moved to this island. The person was sent flying into the door, and smashing it into pieces. The book was still floating for a few more moments, then it dropped to the ground.

    Yokasf stood still, waiting for something else to happen. When nothing did happen, he approached the shattered entryway. Peering inside, Yokasf discovered that the way went downward in a spiral staircase. Yokasf thought this was one of those corkscrews that his roommate once told him about, though to Yokasf, it looked more like a stairway. Yokasf stood at the door for a brief moment, then he collapsed into a puddle, and slid down the stairs with a growing interest.

    The puddle reached the end of the stairs and Yokasf reformed his head, peaking out from the puddle.

Miller’s chest began to rattle with anxiety as he slowly began to rise from the ground again. A few of his joints popped as they were set back into place, but from the mere feeling of his bones he made a good estimate that none of them were broken. Luckily he managed to activate his skin hardening ability before something on him could get severely damaged.

It was not quite the time to celebrate his lack of injuries though, there was still a matter of his mysterious pursuer who clearly had violent intentions toward him. Whoever they were, they were fast and capable of keeping out of his sight. It didn’t help him deduce who the enemy was though, he had so many possible enemies ranging from his creators to anyone involved in the farm incident. The list was not limited to just them either.

No matter the threat, Miller kept his eyes peeled and continued to investigate the surroundings. His deep black eyes were the only part of his body that had any comfort in the area, the darkness it offered was much appreciated. He was capable of picking up more than the ordinary person would, though there was not a lot to see. There were a series of corridors all around the room, none seeming all that inviting. It would appear that was the only direction he could go though.

Some strange liquid substance began to trickle down the swirling staircase, though the peak of its oddity was when what looked to be a head began to rise from the liquid. The face was not a pleasant one, so it was more than enough to make Miller jump away. Once landing, his stance switched to one that would allow him to bolt in whichever direction was preferable. He didn’t recognize the creature, nor did he want to know the purpose it had for knocking him down the stairwell. His eyes darted toward the nearest hall, the rustic and creepy look of it being far more inviting than whatever it was that was pursuing him.

‘We don’t even know what’s down here. It pushed us here, so it knows that will be our first reaction. Kill it and then retreat back through the entrance!’ his mind attempted to persuade.

It was not often that Miller listened to the other voice, but it did present a good point. If the creature forced him down here, then it probably thought it had the advantage in these tunnels. In which case, Miller breathed heavily for a brief moment and then sprint headlong toward the staircase, jumping onto the railing and gripping onto the structure with his lone hand. He attempted to flip over the structure so he could continue to flee and bypass whatever it was that was safeguarding the last few steps, but the ancient structure didn’t take well to the big-eyed beast’s weight.

The rusty railing creaked under the weight and instantly tore from the structure, plummeting both it and Miller down back to the floor. It was not a long distance. Either way, it made the entirety of the stairs shift and creak from the pressure, the sounds alone suggesting that the next person to use them might cause the whole flimsy structure to collapse.

That left Miller in more or less the same position as before, except a whole hunk of guard railing was collapsed on top of him.

    Like as many others have done once they have peered at Yokasf's face for the first time, the human-like person was horrifically surprised from the abomination's perspective. Not that he didn't have problem with that, as he has experienced meetings such as these that it might as well be like breathing. Still, Yokasf was somewhat confused on the condition of the being in front of him. Normally, humans that fall from such heights, and especially falling down a staircase, are often aren't readily physically able to move as efficiently. Either by broken bones or busted minds, humans don't just stand right up and are prepared go to as such with the person in front of Yokasf. The person was also quick to react too, and just like that, he has already leaped back away from Yokasf's peeking head from the puddle.

    Yokasf slowly rose from out of the puddle as his body reformed back into definable matter. His two actual arms held on to solid ground as he pulled himself out with the rest of his body coming along with him. Meanwhile, the human-like ran pass him with like a gust of wind, which almost surprised him, almost. Yokasf thought that if the stranger was in the shape to be running as fast as just now, then that person was in perfect condition, the little horror was a little relieved that someone has not passed away while he was in the vicinity, not because the person was fine, but more of because of accusations that might come his way once again, and possibly be chased away from the academy.

    Once he was done converting himself back into a solid form, he heard a loud, smashing noise from where the stairs and the human-like ran off to. Yokasf was quick enough to get a glance of the humanoid and the staircase having a miniature wrestling match as they both pilled drive'd each other into the solid ground, or that's how he saw how the event unfolded. The dust from the staircase and the surrounding area was lifted off their resting surfaces and clouded up the room, which Yokasf let bits float around him. Yokasf assumed the person wanted to take down the stairs for some odd reason, which didn't make much sense unless he didn't want to go back up there. Yokasf understood, the library can be unnerving for the first few days.

   As the dust cleared away, a part of the metal railing of the staircase was collapsed on top of the stranger, holding him down. Still, Yokasf assumed that the person was now finally injured, so he thought. Without and awareness of his surroundings, he carefully stepped towards the person and knelt down. Without any hesitation, Yokasf quickly reached out to his medical knowledge that his old roommate taught him. One of his cosmic limbs from... somewhere on his body pulled out a box of regular bandages and took one out. With a little fidgeting, he was able to put a small bandage on the forehead of the person, believing that he did a good job and helped the person recover from his injury.

    Now all he needed to do is to lift the railing off of the poor humanoid. As his old roommate would say, "Help a bro out." Yokasf got up and went over to the side of the person to life the railing off.

When Miller fell from the guard railing and onto the floor, it knocked the wind out of him for a good little while. The distance he had fallen was not too great, but the fact that he had landed flat on his back didn’t help too much. On top of that, the railing itself was decently heavy, not enough that Miller wouldn’t be able to lift it off of his person on his own, but just enough to make an echo of pain throughout his chest once it came toppling upon him.

As the unidentifiable creature began to approach him, Miller began to squirm and attempt to escape once more, but his blade was caught in between the bars of the railing, which made any attempts at movement slightly awkward. He was pinned down and the monster’s movements didn’t cease. He supposed that this was the end of his adventures at Foresta and merely closed his eyes so that he didn’t have to watch whatever torture the fiendish monster had in store for him. He was frozen solid in fear, choosing not to revert his skin into its solid state since it would do little but delay the inevitable. He felt some sort of sticky adhesive bond with the skin on his forehead, no doubt it was one of the creature’s tentacles attaching to his head. The amount of pain it was inflicting must have been so severe that he couldn’t even feel it.

The science experiment felt the iron bars lift off of his person, giving him one last hope to escape. As the railing was rising, the arm bladed man slipped his sword out from the bars and immediately scrambled away from the area and over to a secluded corner near one of the corridors. He briefly opened his eyes once more, hunched over and hiding behind the blunt end of his massive blade. He hectically hyperventilated and then reached for his skull, his palm lightly patting the band aid that was applied to his forehead. Once he realised the purpose of the object pasted onto his head, the big eyed beast spied back upon the tentacle monster. He noticed that the creature had merely lifted the railing off of his body and didn’t seem to make any motions to chase after him. Something was off.

‘It’s clearly just saving face. It thought that the fall would kill us and now it wants to make itself look innocent. It will just wait for the next convenient moment to make our death look like an accident’ the voice in Miller’s head deduced. Miller himself was not entirely sure about that theory. Someone pushed him down the stairs, perhaps it wasn’t the creature in front of him. If anything, he should give the scary looking creature the benefit of the doubt, if only because he wished people would do the same for him.

Miller rose from his perching position, though kept his head below his shoulders cautiously. There was still a chance that the being could just as easily be an unknown enemy of his. “Th-thanks” Miller stuttered as he rubbed his forehead. “You, uh, didn’t happen to see who pushed me down here, did you?” he quizzed rather blandly.

    As the humanoid hurried away, Yokasf sat on his knees. He gazed quietly at the scurrying person, which made him nostalgic of previous friendship attempts long ago. Still, Yokasf didn't understand why the humanoid was rushing away from him. He helped out, so that should remove any hesitations in interacting with the eldritch abomination? Besides terrifying the person even more, Yokasf sat where he was, as the humanoid was getting adjusted.

    When it appeared that the being was able to calm down just a little, Yokasf simply waved with his regular arm instead of his other appendages. From the person's still tense, but healthy-like posture, Yokasf assumed that his band aid was effective in helping the humanoid in recovering his injuries, he felt a sense of self-appreciation in his good deed of tonight. But when questioned about how the humanoid was sent spiraling down the staircase, Yokasf just sat in silence, trying to ponder up how to describe what he saw.

    After a full minute of thinking, stood up and walked over to the person. He stepped only bit by bit, as he didn't want to get the wrong idea that he's trying for an attack. Once he got close enough, Yokasf turned to his side and slapped he back of his head with his arm. He repeated this gesture several times, trying to get the point across.

Miller continued to cautiously concentrate on the creature as it began to step closer to him. His legs were jittering to move, and his heart rattled anxiously, but the slow movements of the creature suggested that he meant no harm or that he was being cautious to display that he was not a threat to Miller. “Its putting you into a false sense of security, its repositioning itself so that it can attack us from a better angle” the other voice attempted to alert Miller. The mere suggestions were enough to put him on edge, but the bladed being wanted to give the other boy the benefit of the doubt.

Once the creature was within a close enough range, he repositioned himself and began to smack the back of his head. Miller’s head tilted as he tried to piece together what the monster was trying to say. By the looks of it, it wasn’t capable of speaking so the best Miller could do is try to understand through his use of charades. The best that he could deduce (under the context of the circumstance anyways) was that the creature was telling him that something had hit him to push him down the stairs. The motions that he was making didn’t suggest that it was a physical push or anything like that, so maybe someone threw a giant book at him or something. That was the best he could guess given the setting, but that didn’t really explain who did it and the creature probably wouldn’t be able to give out any descriptions.

Miller’s head returned upright and he managed to dial his caution back a bit. It was enough that Miller began to take a few steps forward to express his slight ease. “Is it safe to go-“ the big eyed beast attempted to question, though he was quickly cut off of the sound of movement upstairs. The creaking of the rickety staircase began to alter as though something was moving, but not enough to suggest that there was something with significant weight stepping upon it. It was almost like wind was battering against it.

The deep black eyes of Miller began to search the area above them, though they saw nothing. Instead, the dislodged railing picked itself back up and began to contort its shape. Each of the poles designed to support the structure snapped off and once they dislodged themselves they began to float around in the air separately from one another. The jagged edges of the metal pikes pointed toward Miller, though by extension they were also aimed at the other monstrous looking boy. In a mere few seconds after they were positioned, each of the spears were launched.

     While it was difficult to read the humanoid's face, Yokasf had a... what did he call it? Ah, hunch, that the person had became more of ease with Yokasf's presence, yet not completely. Despite the current situation of being in a deep, dark underground surrounding, Yokasf was silently excited that he was finally making progress with another human being, or at least he thinks it's a human. The humanoid isn't what Yokasf usually identifies as an atomically correct human being, either that or Yokasf figures that there are more types of humans than he previously thought. Nevertheless, he was glad that someone hasn't ran away from him yet, though the humanoid kind of did earlier, but the abomination has already forgotten that it happened.

    Suddenly the humanoid's gaze turned toward the staircase, where Yokasf's followed suit. An invisible force was shifting the steps slightly downward, as if someone or something was stepping down from above. Of course, Yokasf, being the kind of guy who have done this sort of thing a long time ago, recognized kind of interaction from one of his previous attempts with interacting with others. Though he wasn't invisible back then, Yokasf would walk down a set of stairs similar to this one in one of this previous dimensions, where he was trying out a "greeting of the host walking down the stairs," type of deal, where he would walk down some stairs slowly while facing the guests of this dimension. Obviously that didn't work out as for one, Yokasf wasn't a fancy mansion owner or in a state of appearance that wouldn't appear as a hulking monster.

    And if that wasn't enough, the collapsed railing that Yokasf moved out of the way earlier decided to join in on the fun, as it lifted itself off the ground and was breaking off pieces, which were then aimed at the humanoid, and a few directed at Yokasf himself. Before he got anytime to react, the poles from the railing shot straight at the both of them. Oh, Yokasf knew what kind of game this was. He thought it was one of those kind of games where you aren't supposed to get hit, Yokasf used to play this kind of game with many people, either with thrown objects or those metal balls that come out of those firearms the he have seen in action. Though he was still haven't mastered that game, the situation was very similar.

    Though, he didn't know if the humanoid has played this kind of game before, as his roommate once told him that average people aren't really used to that kind of game and would get hurt, he quickly shot out his limbs and wrapped them around the humanoid. The polls only got pieces of Yokasf's clothes as he dashed out of the way with the humanoid along for the ride. The pieces were stuck in the ground as they wobbled for a few short moments before becoming still. Yokasf, standing farther away from the staircase, released his grasp on the humanoid. While his face didn't show it, Yokasf was mildly pleased.

Miller’s immediate reaction to seeing the metal spikes being formed was to take a deep breath and curl his body inward. Before the projectiles could be put into motion, the big eyed boy’s skin began to crackle and revert into the solidified form that saved him from death after tumbling down the stairs. While he could have tried to evade the incoming weapons, his natural armour was superior to his speed and he could get very unlucky and wind up with a pike through any number of body parts. Unless they were made with top-quality metal, it wasn’t going to pierce his hide.

There was very little worry for the other being involved, though Miller had a feeling that he could handle himself decently well considering that he shown the ability to turn into goop, thus making the piercing weapons useless. What he didn’t expect was the Lovecraftian beast to pick him up and shift him away from the action. It was an unnecessary gesture due to the precautions that Miller had already put in place, but once he was set down by the creature’s tentacles again he had an odd feeling of safety. His skin began to revert back to normal and once he was allowed movement yet again he shot a rather confused expression to the creature. He was grateful for his continued vigilance, but it felt so odd to him that someone he’d never seen before would go out of his way to protect him. Usually when that happened it was because they had an alternative motive that relied on him being alive.

Miller’s mind could ask those questions for hours on end, but there were more pressing matters to attend to. The railing had been torn to pieces and chucked at the two already, so where the next attack would be coming from was anyone’s guess. They wouldn’t be given much time to think on it though as another loud creak from the entirety of the metal staircase indicated where the invisible menace was headed next. The metal frame began to warp and shift from its resting place in an unnatural fashion. It didn’t look like it was ready to collapse, rather it seemed like it was being animated to life.

It didn’t take long for Miller to decide that making a run for it was probably the best option. He didn’t have the foggiest of ideas as to what was going on and who was doing it. The entrance in the library couldn’t be the only escape route from the basement. Worst comes to worst, he could make his own.

As the giant mass of ancient metal began to shift and create a makeshift claw out of its pieces, Miller’s bulbous optics pointed toward the nearest corridor. It looked rather cramped and decrepit, but that would ensure that the metal contraption couldn’t follow them. His panic filled eyes snapped back to the tentacle monster and he simply uttered “hurry” as he pointed to the tiny tunnel. In less than a second, Miller bolted toward the escape route and twisted his torso so that his massive shoulder line could fit through. It was dark, but he could still see most of what was in the cramped hallway, mostly because there was nothing much to see. His night-inclined eyes could see an opening not too far in the distance, so they wouldn’t merely be targets waiting to be impaled like earlier.

In the meanwhile, the metal claw that was being fashioned out of the spiral staircase swooped down to try and catch the duo before escape was possible, but Miller slipped out of the way long before that could be a possibility. As for the other student…

    Yokasf was eagerly waiting for some sort of praise or a pat on the head, since he did a good deed, more than he usually would do. He patted his chest with his fist, just like what his old roommate used to do when the monster would perform a positive deed. Instead, the humanoid turned his head in the direction of the staircase and quickly ran the other direction. The speed the humanoid was displaying was quite impressive, but Yokasf was confused on why he was running away in such a hurry. Isn’t he supposed to head up the stairs and back into the library above? He glanced over to where the humanoid was looking at and instantly understood. The rest of the staircase was bending and shifting from its original shape into a sort of a terrible hand, very like an appendage of sharp claws on some primal beast. It wasn’t just the staircase either, as the metal polls were lifting off the ground and attaching themselves on to the metal claw, as it appeared to grow despite the actual composition of the now-ruined staircase.


    Yokasf looked back at the humanoid, who might have said something, but the sound of the metal bending and scratching made what he said inaudible. He ran towards a tiny entrance at one end of the room, and following suit, so did Yokasf. While he wasn’t as fast as the humanoid, who was already inside the corridor, he could keep up just barely before the metal claw suddenly swung down right at Yokasf, as he took a straight dive into the corridor and slid down the floor. Disoriented, the little tentacle freak lifted his head up to watch the humanoid head down the hall. A suggestion popped inside Yokasf’s untranslatable mind and raised his finger on the wall. If he was fast enough, he could have made an entrance to a blank dimension right now if he wanted and would made a getaway with the both out of harm’s way. But due to the situation at hand and his ability to properly communicate, Yokasf decided to simply keep sprinting with the humanoid.


    Picking up speed, Yokasf moved slightly closer and closer, closing the distance between them. Occasionally, the monster would glance back to see if the claw is still after them. Due to the size of the corridor and the height of the claw, it wouldn’t be able to enter without condensing itself first. However, Yokasf thought about how such the size of such claw, if it could get bigger with more parts, doesn’t that mean it can disassemble itself and slide its smaller parts in? One cue, a metal poll struck Yokasf, impaling itself into his left shoulder. The impact was strong enough to temporarily stop the monster, but only for a moment. He heard metal clanking against the walls as they grew closer towards them. Ignoring the pain, Yokasf continued to move down the hall, hopefully expecting some sort of praise at the end of this.

Miller frantically stumbled forward, not giving much heed for where his feet were landing so long as it was somewhere forward. His athletic build and relatively large body was making his escape hard enough due to the hall’s narrow nature and it only seemed to get worse as he moved along. It was too late to back out and choose a different corridor, especially with his would-be saviour tagging not too far behind. Either way, the amalgamation of scrap metal seemed to have adjusted to their new tactics incredibly quickly and launched a spear at them in rebellion. Miller wasn’t aware of this until the creature behind him got pierced in the shoulder.

The bulbous eyed beast peered back momentarily to catch a glimpse of the injury, his neck muscles tensing as he realized that it could have easily been him who could’ve taken the blow. More than that, the monstrous being was taking more of a beating in this effort than Miller was, which only made him feel the more guilty that he accidentally dragged someone else into his problems. Then again, whatever it was that was chasing them could just as easily be after his companion and Miller was the one caught in the crossfire…

Due to the momentary distraction, the bladed being hadn’t noticed that he ran straight through a trip wire. To along with the sound of scrapping metal from behind, the corridor began to make a mechanical squealing as though gears of some sort within the walls began turning. Miller’s pupils grew two sizes larger at the noise and his chest began to rattle despite his continued attempts at fleeing. The walls began to move, slowly the entirety of the hallway they were in began to compress, threatening to flatten the two in a matter of seconds. Before it could get too cozy within the shrinking corridor though, the shifting halted yet again. “Get moving!” some disembodied voice commanded.

Miller felt like he recognized the voice for a brief moment, but didn’t quite remember who it was. He briefly looked back at the demon, thinking that it might have been his voice, but he wasn’t sure. Either way, he heeded the call to action and raced his way through the rest of the corridor and leapt into the clearing to the next room, which managed to be even darker than the previous. On the brief examination that Miller made as he dove into the tiny bubble of a room, he immediately made note that there wasn’t any other doorways or exits or at least none that were visible to him.

The metal beast continued to launch more rusty pikes into the small opening that was left for it, but the creaking of the gears seemed to make it realize that its efforts might be unnecessary. As such, the metallic titan seemed a lot less animated with only a few moving parts remaining to intimidate the duo as they attempt to escape. In the meantime, the grinding of the gears only became worse as it sounded like the mechanism was being overclocked to try and counter whatever it was that was clogging it up.

    As Yokasf slid down the corridor, the walls gave a massive jolt and not long after, the walls were starting to feel a bit too cramped for Yokasf’s liking. Another pole from behind shot straight into his upper thigh, covering the object with a dirty, alien liquid. Despite the pain, he was feeling, he doubled his efforts forward, now on a race against time. The steel bits and bolts coming down from behind was not slowing down, as the smaller pieces were bounding at his back with tiny impacts. Using his other appendages for cover, Yokasf picked up the pace, inching closer to the humanoid. The poles impaled into his body were leaking the ill fluid, which was creating tiny drops that landed on the floors and walls, yet it all squirmed with touching the air.


    The walls creaked to a halt as the mechanism to the contraption they were in paused in both motion and sound, with the sound replaced with a grinding echo. Yokasf thought he heard a voice from an unknown direction, but the sound of colliding metal made it hard to tell, as the volume continued to rise from the tighter space. The humanoid made a dash to the end of the hall, with Yokasf trying to keep up with the sudden increase of pace.


    A third pole slid right into one of Yokasf’s wiggling limbs, which almost made the monster peep a little. Holding in the stings of discomfort, he leaped forward with the humanoid and entered a new room of darkness. As he landed on the floor, a splat of his blood went all over the ground, leaking from the position of the poles. Yokasf took a moment to focus himself before he got back up. The corridor the two of them exited out of sounded out breaking gears as the walls closed inwards, shutting off the tide of metal.


    Breathing excitingly joyful, Yokasf was back, standing up. Without flinching, he grabbed the pole from his shoulder and slowly forced it out.

With the only light source available being a dinky and broken, though still sparking, light bulb jutting out from the ceiling, the small box of a room was not incredibly inviting. Not that they fled to the location by choice, but either way the lack of light did not bother Miller, in fact he could see more of the lack of features it had to offer. There was barely anything more than the vacant walls and floor.

The bladed being was quick to scramble to his feet, still not quite feeling safe from whatever it was that was pursuing them. Worst of all, there appeared to be no clear mode of escape, essentially leaving them trapped and easily pursued by whatever was chasing them, provided that they could find their own way in. It wasn’t too cramped, in fact it gave Miller plenty of room to speedily pace around the place to further analyze their predicament. He didn’t get too far before he began to notice the strange liquid leaking out of his partner in crime in this endeavour.

Miller’s teeth began to subtly chatter as he had no idea what this meant for the creature. He had taken the brunt of the metal monster’s attacks, which very quickly washed Miller over with guilt for whatever pain he was going through. Worse yet, there really wasn’t much he could do to help. He peeled the bandage from his forehead and very gingerly attempted to place it over the wounds that the other student had, while also making sure to avoid whatever he was doing to the pole that was lodged into his shoulder. During it all, Miller had a very wide-eyed and apologetic expression, which probably went unnoticed unless the other student had low-light inclined eyes as well. It would seem that Miller owed many things to this student, most of which being a plethora of apologies due to everything he had to put up with in addition to his initial distrust.

He slowly backed away once the bandage was applied to the gushing wound, getting slightly nervous by the amount of ‘blood’ that soaked the room. “I’m really sorry. I have no idea what’s going on…” he rasped under his breath, unsure if his tone would attract whatever was chasing them to return. “Will you-” he paused momentarily as he stared at the demon’s lack of reaction to his pain. “-be okay?” he added in a confused manner. Considering that his last companion was capable of having his head lobbed off and continued to survive like it was a minor flesh wound, Miller was beginning to wonder if he had to worry about anyone’s physical injuries at Foresta anymore.

Either way, he couldn’t dwell on his partner’s injuries for too long, they still had to find a way out. “We need to find a wa-“

“What the hell did you do!?” the voice returned, though sounding a bit more peeved than the previous command it uttered. The sound clearly came from somewhere within the room, but Miller had no idea where it came from. He couldn’t see anyone else. It couldn’t have been the other guy. The bladed being was a bit on edge from all the unknowns and locked his body into a readied stance. Whether he needed to run or defend himself, he was ready for it.

His rigid stance did not prepare him for the ghostly image emerging from the wall though, with the likeness of a bald headed young female. The rage in her eyes was all too familiar, as was the gaping hole in her chest that suspiciously looked like the blade on Miller’s arm could fit perfectly like the missing piece of a puzzle. The most that Miller could do was leave his eyes buggy as he frankly had no clue what to do and only hoped that her powers of controlling his mind did not get passed along into the afterlife. “We need to leave" he muttered under his breath as his eyes very briefly looked upon the other person in the room.

    The sounds coming from Yokasf’s wounds weren’t exactly pleasant, obviously. Despite that, the monster didn’t flinch as the metal stakes were nastily pulled out one-by-one, landing in a small puddle of horrifically icky goop. With a clang, the last bit of metal fell to the floor. Despite the lack of reaction, the pain from his freshly inflicted wounds stung quite enough to making him fall over. It wasn’t too bad for him, as he could simply recover from those wounds quite easily. Yokasf had other things in mind, such as the condition of his new friend. The walking horror’s worry was lessened when he felt something trying attach a bandage to his wounds. Clasping an actual hand on the bandage, he looked over to his new friend, who, despite being almost covered in darkness, had a slightly somber face visible from the tiniest bit of light available.

    The abnormality wanted to communicate with his friend, telling him that he was fine from his injuries, but despite having a notebook and pen on him, he doubted that won’t have much effect in the dark. Instead, he decided to focus on the both of them getting out of the room. The darkness made it hard to tell if there were any more ways to escape from their pursuer, as the entryway they came out from was completely shut. However, Yokasf noticed something very odd with their current situation.

    First of all, what was the point of a closing hallway? It seemed rather strange to have such a contraption to simply exist for no apparent reason. It was more akin to a trap in a fantasy dungeon, like what his old roommate played with his friends. Why take the effort to build something like that when it leads to an empty room? While he only got a small understanding of human culture, it seemed very pointless to Yokasf. Yet, coming to that conclusion, he believed that if someone put the effort to place a trap, then something must be hidden inside the very room the two are in, and possibly an exit as well. By that logic, wouldn’t the metal beast on the other side a guardian?

Yokasf’s line of thinking was halted when an unknown voice shouted from the darkness. It didn’t sound like it belonged to his companion, it had more of an echo and different in tone. A ghostly figure phased through a wall, and despite the room being in darkness, the phantom was clearly visible in sight. It was a woman, a person Yokasf hasn’t met before. Oddly enough, she seemed to be angry at his humanoid friend, who lost his gloomy look and replaced it with a panicked recognition.

    Could they be friends? Yokasf thought if they knew each other, then they could possibly be friends. But from how his friend was reacting, it might not be the case. The fact he wanted to leave was evident enough, the only problem about that there’s nowhere to escape to unless they somehow how reopen the hallway or search the walls. Feeling protective, Yokasf positioned himself between his friend and the ghosts, even though he doesn’t have any idea why they would be hostile to each other.

The mere seconds that Margaret had spent leering at Miller and waiting for an answer felt like hours. It was unfortunate that it didn’t also grant him with that much time worth of planning out his next move. His thoughts remained completely unorganized, his initial thoughts speculating whether or not Margaret retained her mind dominating powers in the form that she was in. Considering that he couldn’t feel her mind breaching into his, it didn’t seem likely.

He had no idea what Margaret wanted out of him, but given the current situation and the fact that he didn’t know whether or not she was working with the giant metal monster on the other side of the door, it was not the time to get answers. It was the time to run and never look back.

With that stunning revelation, Miller began to stumble backwards, as though he was preparing himself to turn and run. Where he was going to run to was another question, but he felt he might be able to make that decision once he hit his max speed. Perhaps running laps around the room would tire out the ghost before Miller would. Miller was not exactly an expert on how the paranormal functioned. Then again, Miller was not exactly an expert on anything. Before he could enact his flawless plan though, the eldritch monster stepped forth and acted as a wall between Miller and the ghostly being.

The pale image of Margaret continued to look rather unimpressed by the display in front of her. Her brows furrowed and her head seemed to bob to the side in annoyance. In addition, once she got a good look at Miller’s defender she was somewhat revolted by its appearance, not only because of his monstrous complexion, but also the gruesome crevasses all over his body. Margaret was getting tired of these people that were willing to risk life and limb for Miller, which was denoted by her audible groan of frustration and swift peer back at the way that the two originally came from.

“Look, I just saved your asses!” she shouted as she pointed back to the closed off hallway. “And there’s more than just me back there that has a hole like this!” she continued as she then pointed toward the gaping wound in her chest. “So what the hell did you do!?” she asserted again, her attention being more so focused on Miller, but considering his usual inability to answer, she then turned her attention over to the creature that was trying to protect Miller. “How many people has he killed while I’ve been gone!?” she interrogated.

Miller lurched forward, wanting to pull his protector out of the way considering that he had already taken so much abuse for him. His cowardice refuted him the chance to move the other boy due to Margaret’s voice rising up yet again. The information she was providing was not incredibly helpful considering that her words were not processing through Miller’s mind while it was in such a panic, so instead of trying to answer the banshee’s questions, he stumbled backwards yet again, but this time he wasn’t too mindful of where the lightbulb dangling from the ceiling was. The back of his head crashed into the lightbulb, however, instead of shattering like the frail piece of glass should have, it clicked backwards as though he flicked a switch.

The floor behind Miller began to part and the stone bricks underneath began to scatter away like a swarm of cockroaches being exposed to light. Speaking of, the bottom of the staircase seemed to have a light source of some kind, not a strong one, but comparatively it might have been the sun itself being stored down there. Given the circumstances though, the trap door opening also meant that yet again Miller would find himself tumbling down another flight of stairs. It was a fast and effective way to escape the situation, so he wasn’t about to complain about it.