It's V again... I'm backlogging this post for my own reasons. It's a "just in case" thing. If I'm still around at 7:30 on the 3rd of March, I'll take this down. If not... you can probably expect a couple more of these weird little backlogged posts. This one is a dream. It's not a nice dream. It's a horrifying nightmare that had me waking myself by falling out of bed, screaming my head off, and running to go find somewhere to lose my dessert. That said, it does marginally involve Slendy. And I really just need to rant this out. I need to get it off of my chest and out of my head so it'll leave me alone and stop making me re-live it over and over again. But, you've been warned. You probably shouldn't read this. I can't stop you if you choose to.
~V out!~
That dream again. That DAMNED dream.
It starts out with me and several others standing outside this old, dilapilated house. I always start out staring at the upper-story window. White, sheer curtains blowing in the breeze. That room is where it ends. The people change, from time to time. But the scenario and the ending never changes. Only one person gets out of that house alive. And it's barely, at that. That house destroys people.
It was different this time. Very different. The Slenderman was there. He was hovering over us. It was four of us. ... No, five. Five, counting myself. Same as always. Adrian, Kite, Cosmos, Nyx, and myself. My family. He was hovering, and urging us into the house. I tried to stop them. I tried. But no one ever listens when I tell them that the house changes people, kills them. When faced with a choice between something they KNOW kills people, and something that I'm only SAYING kills people, they will choose the latter every time.
They ran into the house. I followed them. The door slammed shut behind us, and I knew what our fate would be. Only one would leave relatively alive. I had a feeling I knew who it would be. The rest of us would never leave that house. Our bodies would never be found. We would be doomed to remain there forever, until whatever was controlling that house let us go or destroyed us.
The first one to spot the stairs was Nyx. She ran up them right away, and Cosmos followed her, yelling at her to stop and regroup first. Kite chased after them, also yelling. That left Adrian and I in the first room. I knew what was going to happen, so I grabbed him by the arm and half-dragged him to the stairs as fast as I could, screaming: "Move, move!" The floor caved below just as we hit the first step. I nearly fell backwards into the resultant abyss, but he caught me and pulled me back up. We chased everyone else up the wide staircase, catching up quickly, since they had stopped in puzzlement. I started speaking. I had to get my message out fast, before this 'game' began. "We have to keep moving, we can't stop, no matter what. Listen to me, I know this place. You have to trust me, and do EXACTLY what I say, when I say it. Anyone who doesn't.... Will die."
Tsuki immediately gave me the Look that said I'd have a lot of explaining to do once we all got out. Poor, clueless nii-san. He didn't know neither of us would make it out. Seeing that they were listening though, I launched into a fast explanation of what was about to happen, then told them to take the door directly ahead. Tsuki questioned how I knew that the middle door was the one to take. I tried to stop him. I honestly did. I ran right after him. I grabbed his wrist and pulled back with all my weight, but he just dragged me along. He said that if I knew the middle door led to more traps, I wouldn't know what the side doors led to. I tried to tell him that I knew EXACTLY what they led to from my previous dreams. He didn't listen. He opened the left-most door and walked in. The door closed on my hands, still trying with all my might to pull him the other way. I heard him scream. I heard my twin brother scream, and then I realized that I was screaming too. And I was the only one STILL screaming. Blood pooled out from under the door, and I wrenched my hands free from the door, sobbing. I had just lost my soul-twin brother —the first casualty of the house. Because he didn't listen when I told him to stop. I'd do better with the others. I'd FORCE the house to change the scenario. More than just one person would leave this place.
"I warned you." I knew my voice was cracking. I knew that there was little chance anyone heard me. Most of them were still staring in shock and horror. "I warned you all! Let that be a better warning to you all. Listen to me, and you might get to survive this place.” I stumbled to my feet and practically threw myself into Adrian’s arms, sniffling pathetically. After a few minutes, I got myself under control. My face had hardened into my mask of focus and determination, but I was still internally sobbing. “Let’s go. Middle door. No more disobeying.” ‘I’m sorry, nii-san. I failed you. I… I’ll see you soon.’
We all trooped through the middle door, into blackness. After a few seconds of glancing around, a faint light was visible at the end of what looked like a tunnel. “Don’t go towards that light. We’re going just to the right of it. Follow me, link hands, and try not to touch the walls.” I took Kite’s hand, whom took Adrian’s, whom took Nyx’s. “Okay, we’re moving.” I led them to the bare right of the light, going mostly by remembered instinct. There was a door over here somewhere…. I reached out and touched the wall with a grimace of disgust. Rotting flesh and human skeletons. But still better than what laid behind the wall of light. Finding the door handle concealed through a skeleton’s mouth, I gagged and wrenched it open, and we all tumbled into the next room, ignoring Kite’s scream of horror at the tunnel we had just left. “That’s why I said not to touch the walls.” I wiped my gore-covered and maggoty hand off on my pants, gagging faintly. I hated this place. I hated it. It would take all the people I loved. All except one. Hopefully.
The next room was a dining room and ballroom in one. It was clearly very old, and there were spiderwebs covering everything. I knew we’d lose someone else in this room. I reached behind me and hugged Kite tightly, trying to soothe her shakes. “Relax, serunœ. Breaking down and getting slow is how the house gets people. You need to relax. Breathe. Focus. You hear me, right? Come on. Look at me. I know my face is ugly, but I need you to look at it.” That surprised a half-hysterical laugh out of her. But it got the point across. She snapped out of it and focused. Then I moved on to Nyx, hugging her quickly, but she didn’t really need soothing. Turning to Adrian, I stopped in front of him, feeling tears starting to build up behind my eyes again. I cuddled against him, more for my own benefit than his. “I love you, babe. Just in case.” He said he loved me too, using my name. He leaned down, and we kissed until Kite cleared her throat at us and I moved away. “Alright. This room is dangerous again. Be on your guard, and whatever you hear, see, or smell, DO. NOT. STOP.”
We started moving across the ballroom floor, and the spiderwebs on one of the tables moved and suddenly flew into the air. Tsuki got up from it, laughing at me. “I had you guys going, didn’t I? Told you there was a better way through there!” I steadfastly ignored him, continuing to walk across the ballroom floor. Every so often, he’d try and grab my hand and dance with him, but I’d twirl out of his way. Another table shifted and someone got up, this time Kite’s boyfriend. He tried to dance with her, and she was about to follow, until I snapped at her and pulled her back into line.
He got her away from the group, dancing her towards the tables. I thought she was still behind me. I should have looked. I should have checked. Oh GOD, I should have checked. The floor was just starting to creak open beneath them when… Adrian grabbed her and dragged her back. The floor changed speeds and slammed open. He fell. I remember putting my fist through the false-Darby when he came past again, even blinded by sobs. I remember screaming every curse I knew at the house, and at the false-Darby, and at God and the Slenderman and the world as a whole.
I was done playing nice. I grabbed Kite by the wrist, then grabbed Nyx, and dragged them the f*ck out of there. The next room was the kitchen. I knew this one too. There was only a harmless staircase and the roof after this. “You two. Move more than a step away from me, and you will regret it.” I kept my eyes on the machinery to the side of the room while keeping far enough away from it to avoid anyone touching it. But somehow, Kite’s clothing got caught anyway. She tried to get away from it, she even tried just cutting or ripping it free, even taking it off. The conveyor had already started and twisted her so she wouldn’t have been able to worm free. “Nyx! Keep going straight and leave out those doors! Don’t. Touch. ANYTHING!”
I didn’t even look to see if she was listening. I reached over Kite and grabbed where her shirt was caught, trying to rip the cloth where it was caught so that she could get free. Sheer adrenaline must have helped me, because it ripped off where it was caught fairly quickly. But she stumbled back, and she landed half on her back on the table. I lunged to grab her, but a cleaver went flying too fast. It ripped through my shoulder and never even slowed, not until it hit the tabletop with a dull thunk and a vibrating noise as it stuck there. I knew what my answer would be, but I half-ran, half-dragged myself over to Kite, crying and shaking her, telling her to get up, move, do something.
I moved into the hallway after a while. Nyx never even asked why I was covered in blood, or why my shoulder was hanging by a few pieces of muscle and skin. I think she’d figured it out on her own. We trooped up the stairs silently, each thinking about something different. Before we opened the doors to the roof-top bedroom, I put my good hand on her arm and stopped her. “You’re about to meet the house. Don’t … …. You’ll be fine. Just go. Don’t look back.” That said, I narrowed my eyes and kicked the doors open, already knowing it would be stuck. The sight that greeted us was not a surprise to me, but it obviously was one to her.
There were four walls. An empty room. And four hooks. Three were filled. One was empty. On the wall directly to our right, high above our heads, there was a window with white, sheer curtains blowing in the breeze. I pointed to it. “That’s the exit. Go.” I walked right up to it, kicking several spots in the wall until a few crates toppled from a shelf. I shoved at them, getting them into position for her as she helped. Once the last one was almost in position, I stopped her again. “Wait. Just for a second. We’re safe until we finish pushing that.” I walked over to the other side of the room, stopping in front of the hooks. On each was a different organ. The first was a brain. The second, guts. The third, two eyes. Intelligence. Courage. Trust. I knew what the last would be. Which is why I only sighed and turned to walk back to Nyx and face my fate. Together, we shoved the last box into position, and she started climbing. I was only a few seconds behind her when the walls creaked and groaned ominously. Spiked portions popped out of holes, and then the walls shot forward, catching me between them. I walked out of them to watch Nyx stare in silent, morbid fascination as blood squirted between them before the walls retracted. The last hook filled with a still-bleeding heart.
“Congratulations, Nyx. You have won.”
She scrambled out of that window like all the demons in hell were after her. I don’t blame her.
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