(Friendly warning: I guess you can say there is a slight hint of horror. Better not be eating while reading... possibly this entire arc.)
"Catch this!" Aefia stuck her head outside the door as she threw a small bundle of money at his face. Without further explanations, she added a single instruction. "Go buy yourself anything." And then taking off behind the watchman without a clue behind why he would run away like that. Perhaps, he really is suspicious. She thought to herself while trying to catch up to the man.
Unfortunately for her, the back door didn't just end as an exit, but an entire underground tunnel that led to an abandoned driveway that happened to be connected to a subway. It was fully coated with dust as she slowly reached out her hand as soon as she was close enough. She didn't want to waste her magic energy right here and right now, in case she might need it later on, somewhere else.
Her fingers barely grazed the man's shoulders as he took a random turn and completely dissapeared. With widened eyes, she needed time to calculate what had happened, and what was going to happen next. Nothing seemed to be getting inside her brain as she tried to recall what way the man took.
At her hand was her hair pin with a sharp end that she had taken along with her in case something unusual happened. In case she couldn't use her weaponry or use her magic, she kept her blue pin with the dangling stars at her right hand as she clenched it tightly and looked up. Taking in a deep breath, she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Darn it!!!"
She had come in one way, and she couldn't recall the way back to the watchshop. "What do I keep getting myself into?!" Frustration hit her as she suddenly lost all breath and looked down at the end of the two ways that was let out in front of her. One dark path that took her towards the left and one brightened path filled with electrical circuits that led her to the right.
She looked sideways at both directions and then stepped backwards while leaning against a wall and slumping down. Her fingers wrapped around her hairstrands as she became breathless, with the anxiety from being alone and the same abandoned feeling from her dream. What the hell happened?!
Her thoughts blurred as she recalled vivid images of the maniac and the nearing footsteps, which got her more paranoid as she constantly glanced left and right to ensure there was no one else. Then, a laugh escaped her mouth as she held up her pin to the air, without an intention to do anything. "What am I scared of honestly? Its not like things like that are real! What was I thinking?!" She spoke loudly, as her voice echoed against the closed tight spaces of the subway.
Standing up, she softly dusted her clothing while pulling off her hood and holding it in the air, dropping it the second the weight lifted from the edge of her fingertips. The first thing she did was look to the left, the darkened corridor then placing slow and quiet steps towards the end of the hall with trembling hands.
"There is no lighting system or anything like that?" Since she was all alone, she knew there was a free will for her to speak out at any loudness and there was absolutely no one to answer back and think of her as a psycho. Her hands traced against the walls with paints pulling off them and falling to the floor in the form of dust. There was a possibility that a switch was hidden somewhere nearby to turn on the lights.
Even after she was almost at the end of the dark area, there was no hint of switches, not even the bump of sockets. "That is definitely abnormal... and scary!" Looking back, her eyes fell to the heavily lit opposite corridor as the distance felt overwhelming and as if someone was ready to grab her from behind.
Immediately turning around, her pin faced in front of her and facing no one. Finally, she let out her breath that she was holding and pulled down the pin to her side. With a fear of being caught up in more trouble, she took a hundred eighty and walked back towards the place she had started. The abandoned subway was long and huge, and intimidating when it was all just left like this.
Upon a few steps away from her starting point, a door knob was heard turning as her head immediately diverted towards the wooden gate beside her with widened eyes and her heels clunking loudly against the tiles. "What?!" She spoke with a confused face as her finger wrapped around the door knob and steadied it from the constant banging. Since when did a door appear?!
Pulling it open, she stabbed the air with her pin, and took a moment to realize she was doing it for nothing. And more of all... that was a ghost or what?! And I was... provoking a paranormal creature without knowing anything?! I swear by the name of mackerals... I am so cooked. More precisely, burned... toasted... then turned into ash.
She hesitantly took her steps towards the darkly lit room and took a look around. There was a lantern standing on a table that pointed directly towards her face. Using her free hand to cover it, she walked forward and turned it to light the rest of the room. "I must have thought myself brave when I said 'I will follow this guy down this passageway no matter what!'. And now I can't even stand being in this area."
The constant talking about nonsense somehow helped to keep her away from worrying about anomalies and paranormal activities, which although she now had magic, still creeped her to the end of her nerves. "I don't know why I came inside... but this looks like a puzzle here." Her eyes caught the sight of a map, which aligned exactly with the room she was currently standing. This distracted her from the paranoid thoughts in her mind momentarily as her attention fully diverted towards the puzzle.
"If I am not wrong... it practically says here to find an odd item out and find something about the room that alligns with the same physical properties as the thing to the room. Interesting... that man has brought me into an escape room." She spoke while softly smiling and holding the map near the light, but she realized something was off with the way the text were written and due to the lantern, the writing on the otherside showed towards the front, forming a word in complete, followed by another.
"I am a missing child."
This sent shivers up her spine as she set it back down and took the lantern instead, while shining it towards the other end of the room. A small mattress on the ground along with a thin torn blanket, and a tiny pillow. The word homeless was definitely aligning with the look of the room and the particular setting. Her steps collided into the table behind her, as it started to shake and which she caught in time too.
"Phew... it would have been a complete dream come to life if it fell like that." This time, she spoke with a very soft tone. Leaning against it, her eyes widened as it blurred with the passing seconds. "So... there is someone... here... besides... me...!" The flow of paranoia rushed into her mind as she suffocated and felt as if to turn around. Too much for 'lets see what happens'... right? Now I need to leave!
She abruptly turned around while clasping the pin at her hand tightly as she fell into a deep circle of thoughts. Where did the man go?! Or was he just a ghost?! What do I do now?! I don't even know the way back! My system isn't working... I am all down to nothing but being stuck here!
Stuck inside an abandoned subway with absolutely no clue of what happens next or what I will do next or how I might even die?! Is that what the dream was trying to tell me?! Why didn't I choose to go to school today?! Why did I want to stay back and try to get a mystery solved?! What is up with me?! I fell for the trap that sent me to this dimension and I don't know how to go back and there are more then three entities and people trying to kill me!
Her teeth gritted as she looked up from the ground and breathed out heavily. Either ways... I will get out of here. I will return back to the palace and drop this matter. And vow to never leave again. Her hand reached out to the door as she pushed it open outwards, until then, she only saw the opening tiles to the cemented ground, but slowly, a torn and ragged fabric came into her view.
"Are you a lost child too?" A kid asked while holding out a dented bowl in front of her. This caused her to immediately hold her hair clip in front while pushing the door open a little bit more. The sudden interaction with a little human in an abandoned subway which wasn't the watchman... it was a complete play of psychology for her. However, she seemed to have wrongly judged the child with the idea and breathed out heavily. But goosebumps held their shape against her skin.
"No... no I am not..." She answered at first while looking down at the 'what seemed to be a' five year old kid. Then, thinking the child might know a way out, her fingers immediately clasped her mouth as she crouched down and patted her head. "Yes... actually I am lost. I didn't think I would come across such an abandoned place and I don't know the way back out too." She spoke with a smile.
"Then... I know the way out. But in order for that to happen, you will need to do a thing in return." The kid spoke while pulling back the dented bowl and flashing a somewhat sinister smile, which Aefia disregarded as a common gesture. Until then, she had no clue or what-so-ever. "Yes, and what is it that you want to be done?" She asked with a straight and curious face, with a little calm and patience.
"Will you be able to provide me food right now and this second? Without thinking of anything else?" The kid spoke while tapping the metal bowl with her fingertips. The question was odd, and concise, but the answer was definitely a negative. "I am sorry... but I don't have anything on me this second. I came here all sudden... so I don't know where I can find you some food."
"Oh don't worry... it's not the kind of food you think it is..." The kid trialed off with a shadowed pair of eyes and a widened smile as her hand crushed the side of the bowl with bare force. "I prefer mine... raw... and anything similar to... flesh." She added while passing by her side and clicking something around Aefia's neck without allowing her to blink even a second.
Shocked and terrified, she stayed crouching and held her finger near her neck, where an electrical collar shocked current to her fingers. Retracting them immediately, she turned around to look at the kid... but she wasn't there anymore. Only a voice echoed at her as the lantern turned itself to point at a now bloodied and tall figure with a smile that reached the back of her cheeks and two hollows replacing the eyes.
The nails grew tall into a claws and the hair was slick with dried, thick, sticky, rotting smell as a few drops of blood fell from the roots. Darn... Even her voice inside her mind shoke heavily as the monster breathed slowly through thin skin and a beating organ definitely visible from the side of their chest. What is that thing! What is this thing she had tied to my neck?
"Let's play hide and seek in this abandoned subway so there is still a chance for you to escape before I catch you." The voice turned warped and as if a no-signal radio was inserted instead of a real vocal cord. The ghost leaned forward and pointed a claw at her electric collar. "That thing will alert me when you are nearby... and you can never escape it's grip... otherwise it will shock you. Try ripping it off... and your head will dissect itself from your body." The head craned at an absurd ankle that made her gag as she listened.
"The game... starts... now! I would love to let my food run first." It ran towards her as she immediately stepped out and slammed shut the door which locked itself. The banging continued so hard it echoed across the entire subway as she ran towards the opposite route this time. Within a small consequetive time, the banging stopped as the steps came from the opposite direction of the room.
Her heels clunked heavily as she ran for her life while heaving heavy breaths. "I have found a way out! Better guard your collar well!" The monster shouted as it walked towards the otherside with weighted, wet footsteps. It's long tongue stretched outwards as it looked left and right every turn it took, trying to follow her loud footsteps and the animalistic smell coming from her.
Covering her mouth with a hand, she ran with the most she could as a drop of tear fell from the side of her eyes. Darn... darn... darn... it! Her mind kept smacking against the inner walls of her skull as she continued taking faster steps. At this point, she was sprinting, trying to find a place to hide. Finally, she reached the 'electrical management' room and hid behind a table that was attached to the wall at the far corner of the room which was lit in darkness.
Finally, she found herself heaving heavy breathes, trying to catch them as her mind shoke and sweat build up against her forehead. But just when she thought she was free, her collar buzzed to life against her throat, a red that flashed brightly against the dark room. Those footsteps... They returned... What the heck do I do now?!