Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
My Flaw finally deactivated.
I needed a few minutes to fully understand what I had just discovered.
Sadly, I did not have that luxury. As soon as my Flaw deactivated, I heard another sound rising through the rhythm of the heartbeat.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Gruch.
The floor beneath me began to crack. The fractures grew wider with every passing second, their sound echoing everywhere. At the same time, cracks formed just as fast across the walls and the ceiling.
These cracks were not big at first. They were just everywhere, small and numerous. Then they grew bigger and bigger, until pale, gray limbs burst through the stone.
The floor broke apart as more limbs clawed their way out. The stone of the walls shattered, and a face emerged. It was pale and gray, bleeding, with no nose, and eyes like black holes with a single white dot in the center.
It was not just the stone around me. Every single tunnel had thousands upon thousands of monsters crawling out, staring directly at me. I had counted the tunnels wrong at the start. I thought there were only thousands because most of them were hidden in the dark.
But now, under the cyan glow that lit them up, I saw countless tunnels surrounding us. Monsters poured out of every single one.
All the monsters fell down from the tunnels and crawled through the broken stone. Their destination was the same. They were all crawling toward me.
I tried to move my body, but something unknown had frozen it in place. My Flaw was not active, and I was not scared, yet my body refused to move.
The monsters silently crawled toward me with their mouths open. Some had broken legs. They rubbed against the ground as they moved, melting the stone beneath them.
They passed right through the other five people. Those five were frozen in time.
My body still could not move. Perhaps the Horror Beyond Comprehension was showing me what would happen if I chose to change what it means to be Trapped.
The monsters reached me. They grabbed me from everywhere. I felt the pain of being melted and stabbed all over my body. Their fluids covered me. They stabbed their nails into my flesh to climb up my body.
Now, my entire body was covered in them. There were thousands upon thousands of monsters suffocating me. With their fluids all over me, I should have died, but I was kept alive just to suffer more.
It was painful.
I wanted to run away, but my body refused to move.
The monsters began to cry in agony and scream in pain. Their voices filled the entire cave and burst my eardrums.
I did not know how I looked. I was barely alive. Perhaps I was just a skeleton now, without any muscle or skin. Everywhere had melted away, yet I was kept alive.
The monsters were screaming. They were crying and begging me to stop right here and die. Understanding came to me without any proof. They knew if I stepped out of this cave, I would do everything I could to change what it means to be [Trapped]. So they were begging me by showing the consequences of it.
Finally, my skeleton could move. I do not know the motive for it to move now, but I still walked ahead, effortlessly passing through them.
Each step I took, the screams worsened.
Each breath I took, the cave cried.
I know what is going to come in the future. To stop now would mean to choose humanity but lose freedom. If I keep going, it will mean I choose freedom but lose humanity.
Is it better to be human in your grave, or a monster in life?
It was the fault of the world to have expectations of me stopping to begin with. My entire life, I have only lived without a reason. Now that I have a reason, I do not think any reason to stop will be able to actually stop me.
To be human is to be selfish. To be human is to look out for yourself before others. I choose to follow this path.
I took another step, and muscles began to form back. Skin came back. I was no longer a skeleton.
The monsters behind me began to disappear, cursing my name.
If you refuse to become a human because you think what you have to do for it is demonic, then you do not understand a simple thing about being human.
Humans are whoever they want to be.
***
I will need a moment to sit right with everything.
...
I walked toward the five. A truth far more troubling than these monsters filled my mind. Why were they acting like nothing had happened?
Even if only I could see the monsters, what about the rest?
Did I not just laugh under the influence of my Flaw for thirty minutes straight?
Why were they just sitting there?
They finally looked up at me. Parrot threw a pile of clothes at my feet.
"Your clothes are wet, change them."
They were acting like nothing had happened.
Did I laugh, or did I stay silent?
I began to take off my clothes.
"Why are you taking off your dress right in front of us?"
What was I supposed to think about all of this?
"You have already seen me naked without an issue. What else is there to hide?"
I didn't meant to say that... I was just not in my right mind after figuring out what [Trapped] meant and how I was just melted alive.
Were they acting like they did not hear me laugh?
Hawk pulled me away. He led me behind some large rocks.
"If that is the case, why do people not just kill themselves? They are going to die in the end anyway."
After saying that, Hawk went away. I began to change my clothes.
If they did not see me laugh, where exactly did I laugh?
I went back to them after dressing. I asked for the bracelet from Parrot. She gave it to me, but I did not use it yet. Before doing anything with it, I handed [Divine Ledger] to Parrot. I asked her to show me what happened during the last thirty minutes.
Confused, Parrot did exactly that. Then she gave [Divine Ledger] back to me.
According to the record, I had been sitting in my place silently for the entire time. There were no monsters for them. There was no laughter.
Was I taken somewhere else by the Horror?
I finally put on the bracelet. I began to tell them how to escape.
"I have found the way to go to the surface."
Hawk was wearing his red mask and Parrot was in her armor. I could not see their faces, but their bodies flinched just a little bit. That was a good reaction.
The other three were not wearing masks. I could see the light come back into their faces. But a question remained. Why did they act like this? They were older than me. They should at least be talking to each other. Instead, they got scared easily and stayed silent. I had to find out if they were dangerous to me.
These five did not say anything after I told them I knew the way out. That showed they knew it was better to stay silent while something was being explained rather than acting on emotion.
"But the way to the surface is down into the void."
The bracelet lit up green before any of them could reply. Watching the green light, they remained silent. There must have been a lot on their minds. Two people close to them had just died. I did not expect them to act any different. They were barely holding themselves together.
"Let us go now."
After being played by the Horror, Parrot's voice had become heavier. Perhaps there was a realization of how powerless we really were.
Hawk did not seem like the type to take the lead when his superiors were present. That was disappointing because Hawk was the smartest one among them.
Then Parrot spoke again, trying to use a lighter tone.
"The bracelet turned green. That means you have some good proof. I would like to watch it once we go up."
From the cornor of my eyes I saw other three stretching their bodies.
Suddenly, Parrot began to move her armored feet. Her next words caught me completely off guard.
"There is a tradition we follow. Owl always said to love your inner child instead of giving up to old age. We always ran and jumped through the exit whenever someone had to die for us to live. It was our way to show them that we are glad to be alive, that we are happy to be alive. Let us do it for Owl."
...
I had no reason to refuse. I stood right beside them and began to stretch my muscles too. Perhaps this was just a way to escape our own minds. But deep down, I wanted something similar. I did not want to walk into the void normally. I did not want to walk like someone who had simply survived something terrible. I wanted to enter the dark like a human being.
I looked toward the three people. They were trying to hold back their tears.
I really did not feel anything looking at them, and I was sure no one else would in my place either, but they were humans who had their own stories.
They deserved a moment to not be judged.
We began to run toward the void. I was the last one in line. These awakened people were too fast for me, but I did not stop running.
Our steps began to match the heavy heartbeat of the Horror.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
The others jumped into the void. I was the last one.
I jumped into the void.
They deserve to be happy.
No, if I wish to become like them.
...
We deserve to be happy.
***
The void was devoid of any sound and time.
Everyone was frozen inside the void. They were suspended in the middle of nowhere, completely motionless. They did not even glide.
Their brains had stopped, and so had their hearts.
If a Horror Beyond Comprehension was vengeful, it would have just left them frozen forever. But it was not. If you could comprehend these beings, they would not be called beyond comprehension after all.
The humans slowly began to glide down the void, carried by an unknown force. Everyone except Kiyotaka went down through a passage that went backward and curved downward, forming a C shape. This passage was surrounded by the void too, but inside the loop of the C, there were rocks.
They drifted down into another labyrinth, still frozen in time.
Suddenly, Kiyotaka could move. He looked everywhere in the void to see where he was. Then, he looked straight ahead, and that was when everything changed.
The entire void began to change color. It turned into pages upon pages of words rushing past him. The only sound left now was the rapid turning of paper.
Through the chaos, Kiyotaka saw a dark shape in front of him. It was the Horror. His eyes urgently snapped toward it, but his focus shattered, and he immediately forgot what it looked like.
The shape was right there. He tried once again, desperately this time, to see it. Each time he looked at the Horror, he forgot what he saw.
Every single time.
Another page appeared directly in front of the Horror. This was the only page Kiyotaka could actually read, so he began to read it.
It had a list of headings. Forty-one to be exact. The first headings read...
Chapter 1 Nightmare Begins.
Chapter 2 First Kill.
The list continued all the way to forty-one. Kiyotaka could not understand what it meant, so he tried to move closer to it.
Then, he froze back into the state of the mind, and forgot everything he had just seen.
He could not remember what had happened. He simply drifted down the same path the other humans had gone.
The Horror laughed.
THUD.
***
We finally made it back down. Up in the void, we had just frozen in time, and an unknown force moved us down a curve. Now, we have reached the next labyrinth.
It is not dark at all. In front of us is still a passage with one hole in the center. We are surrounded by countless rocks, but this time, there is a sphere-like shape, and it is not dark at all.
"Kiyotaka, explain."
Parrot questioned me without using many words. She was trying to save as much time as possible. I knew what she meant. I had said that if we go down the void, we would reach the surface, and I am not wrong.
"We are still within the void. I know the way to escape it."
After saying that, I did not really give them any time to ask more questions and went down the hole. If I let them question me, I might just say something I am not supposed to and become part of that torture again.
After going down, there was another large sphere of rocks. If the first one was clean and calm, this one was exactly the opposite. It was covered in human blood, with screams coming from every corner.
We stopped moving as we saw humans being eaten alive by monsters. All sorts of sounds came from it. We did not stop.
We were not heroes, We were just another group of victims.
There were countless tunnels on the walls. I took the left one, and that went left to right, leading us into another sphere.
Again, this one was covered in blood everywhere, yet there was something else I saw. Some humans were cornered as monsters slowly closed in on them.
The humans of the last level were already dead, but these ones still had the chance to survive. I decided to save them, not because I felt pity, but because I wanted to see the patterns of this Horror.
What would happen if I save them? Would it be angered?
I looked toward them, and they nodded. I took the flesh of the human from Parrot and gave her the [Divine Ledger].
"Record this."
I began to run after that passage where it was happening.
...
The passage began to gain distance, running away from me with the humans and monsters inside. I did not wait for it and kept following it.
Following it, I went past multiple humans being eaten by the monsters, but none of them attacked us. The passage ran away to the left, then left again, then it took another left, and I followed, just chasing it.
...
But it disappeared, and I ended up behind Parrot again...
There has not been a loop. We only went left, never once right.
I walked toward Parrot, asked her for the [Divine Ledger], and began to watch what actually happened.
...
Oh.
In Parrot's point of view, I never ran away from them, and there had never been a passage in front of us... I was just standing still. I did not even ask for the human flesh from her.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Gruch.
Again, everything around me began to crack, and limbs that were pale gray came out. Then it cracked more, and their heads came out until they crawled themselves out completely.
All the tunnels surrounding us also had thousands of monsters coming out. They did not approach, they just stood where they were.
And then...
HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. HA.
HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. HA.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
All of them pointed their limbs toward me and laughed. They laughed at me for even trying to comprehend the Horror.
I was being played with.
The Horror was still beating his heart while its monsters laughed at me. He was so bored, he was making me look like a fool. It played with me just because it could.
The monsters just pointed at me and kept laughing at me.
I gave the [Divine Ledger] back to Parrot and saw that she could not see any of them.
I took them to another tunnel which looped, and we are a level below now.
The monsters were following behind me, just laughing and pointing at me.
They were laughing because I thought the Horror cared that I deciphered what [Trapped] meant.
This time, we went to the right tunnel and repeated the snake-like pattern over and over.
The monsters never left, accompanying us and taunting me for even trying to think that the Horror cared enough for me to show me the consequences of the future.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. HA.
HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. HA.
The Horror had just found a fool that was stupid enough to try and comprehend it.
We reached another sphere, and the monsters stopped following. They went back while still laughing at me.
Now, I led them to a path that went straight up and straight down multiple times.
I kept looking behind. There was now one monster following us, which the others also saw, but I had no idea if it was real or yet another illusion.
I checked the [Divine Ledger] again from Parrot and saw that she was seeing the same thing. I could even feel her anger looking at it.
The monster was laughing at us, too.
She tried to move toward it, but I grabbed her to stop her from moving toward it. She looked back at me and stopped, ignoring the monster completely.
We went ahead, and it straightened out into a short, flat road moving left-to-right, plugging straight into the lower right corner.
"We are here. Just going through that lower right corner will get us to the exit."
They still did not say anything, and we finally reached the ending and jumped down it. We reached something salmon pink.
I looked up at the sky where we jumped down from... There was nothing there. Wherever we had come from had vanished away.
The sky... no, there was no sky. It was just a salmon pink ceiling in a circular form fifty kilometers over us, and so was the ground. It was salmon pink, too.
Cow, Crow, and Deer finally fell down to the ground, and Hawk took off his mask, showing an anxious face... Why?
Why would he show something like that now, when he did not for so long?
They did not say anything, and they had anxious faces, looking everywhere.
I felt a hand on my shoulder that gripped it tightly, and I heard Parrot's voice. She was serious, too.
"Thank you for getting us out of that labyrinth, but... why have you been not replying to us all this time?"
...
What?
I had not been replying to them? I did not hear them talk for even a second. In fact, even the Divine Ledger...
Wait... She does not have the [Divine Ledger] in her hands... I had never activated the [Divine Ledger] to begin with... I just felt like I did and gave it to her, when in reality, I did not.
Wait... So what is reality? Was what I saw real, or what I was shown through... a fake [Divine Ledger]?
I... have no idea.
She said something else.
"Well... leave it. You must be tense, you are just a sleeper after all. Still, good job. Now tell me."
She began to point behind us.
"Can I kill that monster that followed us out?"
That one monster was real... or were all the monsters real and I was the only one who experienced it all?
I do not know... I do not know anything.
I nodded.
That monster seemed powerless out of the labyrinth. Parrot just walked toward it and struck it, cutting it in half... I could see anger in her strike.
The monster fell down...
But then, slowly, the blood went away from it, and it stood back up on its two feet. It pointed its limbs toward Parrot and began to laugh at her.
It laughed until it disappeared.
There was no victory for us.
There was no survival for us.
We were just toys that were shown mercy after being played with.
I was utterly played with.
Horror Beyond Comprehension... I will come back to learn your pattern.
I will understand your pattern.
This is my promise to you.
The message that was left behind by Owl was:
[TRAPPED] Scream You Can't. Horror Deal, Surface Answer.
Owl also knew what [Trapped] meant.
*******
Well, how was this chapter and this first arc?
You know, every time I write a chapter, I compare them to each other and think that this arc was far weaker compared to the first five chapters of First Nightmare and Dramatic Irony. It is just a thing with me, I am my own biggest hater.
So tell me, how are these chapters against the first five chapters of First NM and Dramatic Irony?
And that Chapter 1 and 2 scene in the void, let me tell you, it is not going to be anything like them figuring out they are in a novel and shit. I do not like it at all. It is going to be something else.
Do, do, do tell me, how was this arc and chapter? I kind of find it underwhelming. Fuck, I have confidence problems with my work.
If some of you didn't understand this.
"[TRAPPED] Scream You Can't. Horror Deal, Surface Answer." Just read the first five chapter title of this volume.
Guess this is it...
Peace.