Luca stood before the others, unsure who to save first, then Luxie stepped onto the table and looked at Rivenhart and Sol's flowers. Luxie quickly plucked both flowers at once.
"Hey! Wait a minute!!"
Before Luca could stop them... The two of them went their separate ways, each got into a different world.
Luca found himself in the middle of a room with flickering lights, a simple bed, and pristine white walls that nonetheless felt suffocating. Besides Luca, he only saw a young man with black hair, wearing a blue and white striped psychiatric patient gown, sitting alone on the plain bed.
"You're Luca, right?"
The boy said it as if it were obvious, but that's what surprised Luca. Because, unlike Eirene's inner world… this person could see him. No more pretending or anything else.
Luca could be called weak now because he was all alone.
"Yes,"
Luca replied to the boy who looked like Rivenhart, though he wasn't sure, as he felt that such a calm person couldn't possibly be Sol.
A silence fell over the space as Rivenhart stared blankly into the distance while Luca just stood there.
"Hey, do you think I'm strange?"
Even a simple sentence made Luca tremble uncontrollably, and he couldn't understand why he felt his next response could almost determine his fate and future.
"Why do you think you're strange?"
The way to avoid answering a question you don't know is to ask a different question about the question the other person is asking you... It's a skill Luca doesn't know when he learned, but his brain just spontaneously developed it, so he just applies it.
"Luca… have you ever asked yourself if you're really Luca? Or are you me? If I'm not me, then who am I? Who are you? Are we truly who we identify with? You could be me, and I could be you, couldn't I? Or perhaps neither of us is anyone at all, just a bunch of insects in a society of false prejudices."
Luca stared intently, this time almost as if the world around him had vanished without a trace…
Why did Rivenhart know? What exactly was going on? How do I get out of here?
Thousands of questions raced through Luca's mind at Rivenhart's bewildering question, his face gaunt and frail, almost twice as bad as Luca's.
"So, do you think you can answer that?"
This time, Rivenhart looked directly at Luca calmly, as if Luca could spend his entire life solving Rivenhart's question.
"If I were to answer you, who should I answer? Should I answer you, or answer me, or answer someone else?"
Luca calmly added another question to buy himself more time to understand how this place worked and what he should do to protect himself…
Luca didn't want to know, nor did he need to know, but perhaps he had to investigate Rivenhart's past to find a way out.
"Don't try to find me; I know you're in my inner world."
"How do you know?"
"You don't need to know, it's just..."
Rivenhart was about to say something, then he clutched his head in excruciating pain as the other man entered, dressed in angelic white, carrying a file and some medicine. This man was Sol, who didn't notice Luca standing there. Luca guessed that it was normal for Sol, being an NPC in this inner world, not to see him.
"It's time to take your medicine."
"When will you realize my love…?"
Rivenhart didn't dare look directly at this version of Sol; he was terrified, a fear that spread throughout his body, like a highly potent poison capable of killing him at any moment.
"Does liking you mean I'm no longer myself?! Tell me, Sol? Does my liking you mean I'm no longer your Riven?"
This barrier amplified Rivenhart's fear and emotions to the extreme while Sol gently pushed Rivenhart away, continuously taking notes on Rivenhart's medical record.
"You're getting worse, don't worry, I'll save you, just wait for me."
Sol left the medicine and glass of water on the table as he turned to leave Rivenhart's room.
"Sol, you know how to save me, so why are you leaving... how long do you want me to wait?"
Rivenhart's only response was Sol's sympathetic gaze before the door closed, leaving Luca and Rivenhart alone in the room.
"Rivenhart, just now... You didn't seem like you were acting at all..."
"I've never acted; those are real emotions. I wanted Sol to change his perspective through my fear… even though I know he's like that because of me, but you know, when we love someone, we love every version of them, even if they treat us like animals…"
Luca's admiration for Rivenhart never faded, and at this moment, Luca began to wonder to himself…
Could I ever find someone to whom I could give everything like that? Or would anyone ever do that for me…?
Luca shook his head repeatedly, saying it was just nonsense; who would ever fall in love with someone like him?
Rivenhart returned to his bed and pointed to the space beside him, gesturing for Luca to sit nearby.
"Generally speaking, I can only help you a little to the best of my ability. After all, this room is reserved for me. You could say I'm the protagonist of this world, so I might be a bit restricted."
"That's alright... thank you? But if so, what should we do to escape?"
"Calm down. I can't leave here right now because Sol is guarding me, but you can."
....
Luca was in the dimly lit hallway, surrounded by the stench of disinfectant mixed with the smell of decaying paper and dampness. A crackling loudspeaker announced the break time, but the sound was distorted.
"As far as I remember, there are some rules here: patients must be patients, guests must be guests, humans must be humans, and demons must be demons."
That's what Rivenhart instructed, along with information about the doctors' schedules, meal times, medication times, and check-up times...
Rivenhart said that the only person he'd met was Sol, and frankly, since entering the room, Rivenhart hadn't been able to leave even once, so Luca was his only hope, although Rivenhart himself didn't have much hope either. Who would believe a ghost-fearing kid would go alone in a horror game?
Luca was about to go look for clues when, whether due to innate bad luck or something pre-arranged, he stood frozen, seeing Sol wearing a pristine white blouse, stained with blood at the corner. His face was gentle, polite, and handsome as usual, but his eyes directed at Luca were colder than usual, even colder than they were at Rivenhart.
Damn lovers!!
"Oh? A new patient? Are you sick too? Don't worry, I'll help you because you're a friend of my friend."
Luca looked at the doctor, who was staring intently at him, his sweat pouring down so much that it looked like it could form a puddle.
"You... so you're just like Riven, aren't you? The same kind of gender identity disorder, loving the wrong person, and stubbornly refusing treatment."
Luca was about to retort when Sol appeared before him with lightning speed, so fast Luca couldn't even run away. Sol touched Luca's face, and suddenly Luca found himself in a room with four stark white walls, a bed, rusty instruments, and finally… Rivenhart's medical record.
"Is this… Riven's fear? No… maybe he's afraid Sol will become like the doctor he meets, the one who discriminates against him? That sounds more logical, doesn't it?"
Luca sighed as he saw the words at the bottom of Rivenhart's medical record… what era was Riven living in that she was still subjected to such gender discrimination… but actually, it made sense, didn't it?
As soon as Luca opened the door… Luca found himself in some kind of basement. Luca just stood there, probably because the information he received wouldn't be everything, just a few things based on what the current master of this world, Rivenhart, wanted to show him, or, to put it bluntly, milestones in his life.
The air was so cold it was like breathing white vapor, the lights flickered, and the operating room door was wide open, as if inviting him in.
Luca stepped inside, and the doctor stood right behind him as the door slammed shut. Luca just stood there, trembling uncontrollably, cursing inwardly, thinking how lucky he was to have covered his mouth in time, otherwise he would have been dead. It was truly a miserable situation without Luxie or Eirene…
"Are you scared? Fear of treatment is also a symptom in patients."
Sol stretched out his fingers, each one as long as a rubber, the fingertips turning into metal instruments.
Luca began to run as if his life depended on it. He ran through the dark corridors, breathless, drenched in sweat, his heart pounding. Shadows crumbled one by one, extinguishing the lights with each step.
The sound of the doctor's footsteps echoed close behind him.
"Stop running... The more you run, the worse your illness will get..."
Luca ran so fast that he slipped and fell. Sol bent down, intending to reach out, when the door of room 9089 burst open violently. It was Rivenhart, gasping for breath while his body was bleeding profusely. He quickly pulled Luca out of Sol's sight and ran for his life.
And as soon as he saw Riven carrying Luca away, Sol stopped abruptly. He turned his head 180 degrees to look at Rivenhart.
"Ah… Riven… You want… treatment again?"
Riven, however, didn't care too much about the present moment. Although he wanted to save this version of Sol, Rivenhart also needed to live for his own Sol, so Rivenhart continued running, dragging Luca's stiff, stone-like body.
Rivenhart ran a few steps, but the blood flowed even more, so Rivenhart simply tossed Luca away and tilted his head.
"Now, make sure you find a way out!"
Rivenhart simply ran in a different direction, back to his own room. After all, if Rivenhart died, the world would collapse; to put it bluntly, everyone would die. That's a really bad ending.
...
The space vibrated as if someone were distorting the hospital from the outside. The light bulbs above Luca exploded a few more times, as if expressing Sol's rage. Shards of glass clattered, some cutting across his cheek.
"Damn it…"
Footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor, but each time the light flickered, Sol moved a few meters closer, without needing to walk.
"Patient… Luca… You're making your illness worse…"
The voice was a mixture of human and strained vocal cords, like a voice snapping in two from a broken throat, giving Luca a bad feeling, so he immediately ran.
Luca grabbed the doorknob but couldn't open it. He moved to the next door and kicked it hard with his foot; this time it swung open. Perhaps he wasn't that unlucky... but the room was empty, as large as a stadium, and pitch black.
THAT'S NOT A PLACE TO HIDE!!
Luca immediately realized the truth and slammed the door shut. A pale hand reached out, stuck between the door crack, its long, needle-like fingernails poking the air.
Luca panicked and used more force. Luca knew this was a dream; this was a dream, the important thing was to repeat it many times. This was probably why he was still calm and running; he should have given up… but his hand didn't withdraw.
"Don't..."
"Don't climb out again!!!"
Sol appeared right behind him, without footsteps or a breath, just a chilling sensation, as if someone had pressed a block of ice against the back of his neck.
Luca turned around, and Sol, or rather, now it would be more accurate to call him a monster - at least recognized Sol, which made him feel much less scared… and this doctor-like version of Sol leaned his face close to Luca's.
The distance was less than a hand's width, and his eyes… weren't human, but two swirling black vortices that sucked in all light.
"Treatment… You need treatment… I'll make you normal… If you're normal, you'll be free!!"
Luca, seething with anger, shouted, his voice trembling but trying to appear defiant. The monster, or Sol, tilted its head 90 degrees, its bones cracking.
"The patient needs… to stop resisting."
He stretched out his hand, his long fingernails digging into Luca's temple. Luca, panicking, used his wild instincts in that moment of terror, a chaotic jumble of images…
But it didn't hurt; instead, it mocked Luca as if it were a pointless act. It sounded like tearing paper, the screeching of metal joints, or the snapping of a guitar string.
"The patient… is showing signs of agitation. Increase the dose."
Its body was contorted, its spine elongated, its arms reaching out like rubber. Luca quickly recoiled a few steps, his heart pounding.
"Rivenhart!! Is anyone here?!!! Damn it!!"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
All the doors slammed shut as if someone inside wanted to escape… The corridor echoed with the sound of wind blowing through the cracks in the doors, each one pounding violently as if dozens of desperate people were screaming inside.
"LET US GO!!!"
A door burst open with immense force, followed by a bloodcurdling scream. Luca instinctively paused for a moment, his body trembling, but… This is a dream, yes, this is a dream.
Luca reassured himself and kicked open the door in front of him, running inside, and that was a mistake, a terrible idea…
The room Luca is currently hiding in seems to be a… self-cloning labyrinth.
Inside is an empty room… But when Luca steps in and stands there for less than two seconds, a copy of Luca emerges from the opposite wall, and it continues to clone itself no matter what Luca does. The door closes, preventing anyone from escaping, as if once inside, there's no escaping the fangs of a devil.
"FUCK OFF!!"
Luca angrily shouted, then calmed down. This time, he tried indirectly punching the clone in the face or attempting to kill it, but each clone dissolved into black smoke and reappeared behind him, and so on after each death or serious injury.
The lights flickered continuously, each flash creating another Luca with pale white eyes like a ghost.
"Luca… don't run, come here…"
Sol's voice echoed throughout the room like a predator searching for its prey. Luca looked up and around to find Sol… Sol was standing in front of him as he turned around, his head upside down, his eyes wide, his skin cracked, revealing veins and tendons on his face, and that almost made Luca faint.
Luca continued biting his tongue to try and stay conscious, and luckily for him, Sol wasn't too scary yet… hopefully…
This is just a dream, this is just a dream, it's important to say it more than three times.
Luca immediately tried to break down the door, or rather, find the real door to this room. The room's walls warped and slid like raw meat, as if Luca were being digested in the stomach of some monster.
If this was just a nightmare… surely the exit door wasn't the one he actually saw…
Luca's eyes lit up; hope had returned. With his remaining sanity, he bit his hand, creating a large gash to distract himself from his fear, then ran straight towards Rivenhart's room, the key to the room he had entered earlier.
When Luca realized the truth, he ran through the door; in fact, it could have been opened at any time without much effort. Sol gritted his teeth, his eyes wide, and chased after Luca.
Sol only needed a few minutes to grab Luca's left leg.
"Don't leave the therapy room…"
His sharp knuckles dug into Luca's ankle, tearing at the flesh and causing blood to gush out.
"AAA!!"
Luca was in so much pain that tears welled up in his eyes. In a self-defense reflex, he clutched the floor, dragging himself toward Rivenhart's room door.
This time, Luca mustered all his remaining courage and cursed Sol under his breath.
"I… will… not… let… you… catch… me!!!"
Luca ignored the violent tearing of his leg while the monster screamed, the entire hallway distorting as if stretched taut by a piece of cloth. Sol held onto Luca's ankle for just a moment longer, and Luca could go home…
The door silently opened, and Rivenhart stepped out. No, it wasn't Luca who opened it, nor was it the monster disguised as Sol. Rivenhart, dressed as a psychiatric patient, opened it from the inside.
He looked at the monster disguised as his lover, this time without fear or resistance, as if giving up…
"Enough."
Just two words, but enough to shake the entire hospital.
"NO!!! YOU STILL NEED TREATMENT! YOU…"
"I'm not afraid anymore, Sol… I love you, that's all I need to know. Even if you hate me, I'll still love every version of you, so rest in peace… My Sol is waiting for me."
Rivenhart spoke softly; perhaps he had thought about this for a long time… How to make Sol love him? How to win Sol over? But were all those questions the ones he needed to answer right now? Rivenhart didn't know, but he knew one thing: Sol needed him right now.
The space-shattering atmosphere was slowly fading away, and Rivenhart approached Sol, who was gradually transforming and disappearing.
"And Sol…"
Rivenhart stepped forward, gently kneeling before Sol and touching the monster's forehead with his own forehead.
"I forgive you, or rather, I thank you for what you wanted to do to help me… so let's end this before the rest of me no longer recognizes you, thank you for everything…"
Luca didn't want to disturb them, so she just stood there and watched.
The monster slowly disintegrated while beginning to cry like a child, repeating Rivenhart's words continuously until it vanished completely into the space.
Rivenhart stood upright, looked at Luca, and quickly walked towards him, pulling him behind the door.
"Let's go."
Rivenhart extended his hand, and Luca took it. The door slammed shut, and the hospital exploded into ashes behind them.
Luca found himself in an undefined space surrounded by fragments of Rivenhart's memories, most of which featured Sol.
"That's not all. To completely escape this nightmare, we must go to the original memory region. There lies the rose that my ego has hidden."
"You mean… It's even more complicated than that cursed hospital?"
Rivenhart didn't answer, but gently pulled Luca's hand, leading him into the pitch-black darkness behind the swirling pink fragments of memories surrounding them.
A cold wind swept through the corridor as if there had never been any warmth here.
Luca stood beside Rivenhart; they had both stepped through the door leading to the deepest recesses of memory, the core where all hauntings were compressed into images more vivid than any nightmare.
All that remained was darkness, as if the world had been extinguished, leaving only thin strips of light hovering like cracks in memory. Rivenhart looked around, his breathing growing heavier.
"This is…"
His voice trembled slightly, not from fear, but from pain.
"You lead the way. This is your memory, isn't it?"
Lead quickly! I want to get out of here so badly…
Rivenhart didn't seem too concerned, simply nodding slightly before stepping forward to lead the way. He knew this place well; even though he tried to bury the memories, they hadn't faded at all, they were just waiting to be revealed.
Thin streaks of light curved and stretched into the shape of a room. Gray walls, covered windows, and in the center of the room, a single bed with a pale blue blanket. A place so familiar that Rivenhart clenched his fists.
"That room back then…"
Rivenhart only sighed, then slowly walked closer to the bed and reached out to touch the edge of the mattress. At that moment, the scenery changed color, becoming clearer, the smell of disinfectant, the sound of dripping water in the hallway, and a soft but sad voice.
"Rivenhart, eat something! You can't keep skipping meals."
The voice sounded like a memory, but the tone was strangely sharp and slightly distorted, like ice being pulled too far.
"That's his voice."
"Sol?"
"Yes… he was the only one who stayed by my side at that time. I loved him, but I never once said it, leaving him by my side like a madman…"
A cracking sound echoed, like a wall of memory breaking. Luca immediately became alert, preparing to run if anything happened.
"Something's coming."
From the shadows behind the door of the room, a tall shadow suddenly emerged, not in the gait of a human, but like that of a wild animal, yet its form was… exactly like Sol's.
Except its face was blurred, its eyes hollow, and its mouth stretched to its ears. It spoke in Rivenhart's voice, but it was distorted, warped, and like a broken radio.
"Rivenhart… let me treat you… I know you like me… but you're sick… let me cure you…"
Rivenhart instinctively recoiled, his heart pounding as if it would explode.
"Perhaps it hasn't given up yet…"
"Because it is my fear."
Rivenhart whispered; his fear, though he wanted to deny it, was hard to resist. The monster took slow, heavy steps, its unusually long legs making an extremely unpleasant sound on the floor. Its hand, curved like a hook, pointed directly at Rivenhart.
"Don't run, Riven… let me heal you…"
"You love me? Disgusting… wrong… let me fix you…"
Rivenhart took a deep breath and stepped forward gently, as if utterly exhausted. The monster nodded in relief.
"Yes. I am the one you love. I am always by your side. I…"
"The one I love never tells me I'm sick, but I still love you, so I'll give you a chance."
The entire realm of memories vibrated violently. The monster twisted and shattered like cracked glass while Rivenhart held Sol as Sol attacked, clawing at Riven's back. Rivenhart raised his hand to his chest; his heart pounded as if it wanted to escape.
"I won't let it control me anymore. Perhaps my love will be for you no matter what..."
CRACK!
The monster exploded into thousands of black, ash-like fragments and vanished. The infirmary darkened again; no one else was there, but from the floor something began to sprout like a flower watered by memories. A black rose, and it gently swayed with Rivenhart's breath.
"That's your rose."
Luca spoke from Eirene's inner world, drawing on her experiences. Rivenhart knelt, raising the black rose that symbolized himself. The space began to crumble as the acknowledged memories of the nightmare could no longer hold them back.
"Luca... We have to go."
Rivenhart said calmly, the final escape door appearing as a distant glimmer of light in the darkness. But behind it, the ash fragments of the monster began to coalesce into a multitude of small, dark shadows—fragments of lingering fear. Rivenhart grabbed Luca's hand and ran. Their breaths were ragged, the ground tilted, the walls warped, and a screeching sound echoed through the space.
"TEN METERS LEFT!"
Luca screamed in terror while Rivenhart remained relatively calm, but a larger shadow than the others emerged, blocking the exit. It was identical to the monster before… only its face was no longer distorted, but blank, like an unhealed memory. Rivenhart stopped; he didn't run anymore.
"Rivenhart?!"
"It's alright."
Rivenhart smiled slightly, his eyes brightening, perhaps quite amused by 'Sol's' efforts.
"This… I have to do it myself."
He stepped forward, one step at a time. The shadow hissed, its chill biting, roaring as if about to devour him. Rivenhart placed his hand gently on its head, more as if placing his hand on the forehead of a frightened child than that of a lover.
"I'm no longer afraid. Thank you for protecting me. But… go to sleep. Your efforts have been recognized. Don't try to be Sol anymore… just be yourself… escape my control."
The shadow slowly faded. It vanished as if accepting defeat. The door swung open, no more footsteps, no more metal clanging against the wall, no more nightmares.
Only light poured out, enveloping them both, and then the world suddenly returned to its true colors.
Luca opened his eyes and found himself and Rivenhart sitting in the dining room. The black rose in Rivenhart's hand shone like morning dew, and the black rose had officially disappeared. Rivenhart, however, was wide awake, unlike Eirene, who was still asleep.
"We're free."
Luca breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against the wall.
"Yeah… Are you okay now?"
Rivenhart asked Luca with a hint of concern.
"It's better than I thought, which is good because from now on, if you ever have another nightmare…then…"
Just as Luca had predicted, he wasn't alone anymore; someone else was doing the work for him, and everything Luxie did was within his calculations… Rivenhart also had a bad feeling; Sol's silver-gray rose shone brighter than usual, and both were sucked into a new nightmare, this time Sol's.