Nightmare Factory: Nightmare Fuel
The clock tower struck the hour, and the chime echoed through the corridors of the church, once, twice, three times...
As it beat out its song of seven o'clock, the sunset filtered in through stained glass, casting a myriad of colors about the room in scattered patches of light, pouring over her world, and Emai stood poised, the corpse of a man at her feet, blood oozing from the wound in his chest. She clutched the knife, its blade dripping with crimson streams of that life-giving juice, and her other hand, flung up over her mouth to keep her from screaming in her conflicted emotions as they bottled briefly up inside of her. Tears flowed over her fingers, her knuckles against the handle of the instrument of murder turned white from all these feelings.
Kreyul placed a heavy hand on her shoulder, internally glad it had been her, not him, whom had taken the man's life, though he still wiped the corner of his mouth clean of the blood it had leaked from his earlier endeavor to keep himself safe.
"It was him or us," he said simply, and the knife clattered to the floor beside it's victim, Emai's head tilting back as her eyes trailed the ceiling and her hands fell to her sides.
"THIS IS BULLSHARK!" she finally shouted, fists clenching in her rage.
"Just come out already, you stupid coward! I'm so sick of this, and sick of you!" An audible chuckle filtered through their heads as the Game Master laughed at their plight, uncaring about what they'd had to do in order to obtain Emai's wish. Fourty-eight whole years were riding on this, and he very well knew that could possibly put Emai's life at an end, if she were fated for it... Sure, maybe he didn't know when exactly her life would be ending, but he was sure with such a... reckless personality, it couldn't be too long, and fourty-eight years was a long time for a girl whom was no longer a child.
"Emai, calm down, freaking out isn't going to help a thing. He's dead, gone..." Kreyul's head suddenly snapped to the side as she wheeled around and slapped him across the face.
"It's not YOUR father who's dead on the floor, Kreyul!" she said, and clamped her hand over her mouth again, holding back her flood of tears as best she could. His head slowly righted itself, eyes casting over her, watching her anguish, wary.
"We don't know that he wasn't fake," Kreyul tried, as she started to walk down the aisles, in between the pews. He followed her, caught up to her, and stopped her by placing his hand back on her shoulder. She froze, and he drew her back into a hug, her emotions so roiled now that she didn't even notice the touch for a few seconds. When the problem started up, she wriggled free of him, and sighed heavily, sniffing. She was cute when she cried, Kreyul noted, and ran a hand through his hair.
"I don't care if he was fake or not... That was just..." He got it, surely being attacked by a masked man that only later, after you'd murdered him, turned out to be your own father... It was a brilliant ploy by the Game Master. But still, they didn't know it wasn't a ruse. He'd brought a dog into the game, but could he really do something so cruel? He supposed half of the fun for Phirre was to watch them squirm trying to figure it out. After all, it wouldn't be a game if it weren't so challenging, would it?
Before she'd had much longer to grieve or suck it up, they felt a shift, as though the world were suddenly different.
"Oh, no..." Kreyul uttered, and shut his eyes tight.
"Next challenge!" the Game Master cried, and again they were taken somewhere else, they would be given an entirely different task to complete, and the horror of the last stage they'd come through would wash away in the problems they now faced.
When Kreyul opened his eyes, they were in a bathroom. Emai had taken to clutching his arm out of fear, but now she let go, and they both blinked at their surroundings. What could they possibly be told to do here? Kreyul grabbed Emai's hand and dragged her out of the bathroom. They stepped into darkness, the darkness of a tunnel, what looked to be a subway station, its musty scent flooding their nostrils as they exited the equally pungent bathroom. One light hung, gently swaying back and forth as it sputtered for life, gracing the middle of the platform with on-and-off flashes of vibrant light and solid blackness periodically. Emai felt a chill run up her spine.
She had a legitimate fear of places like this. Bad things always happened in places like this.
"Board..." sounded the voice of the Game Master, booming into their heads, "the subway! And when you do... Ride it all the way to it's destination."
The command sounded easy, but in that instant, the subway flew by, it's long cars rattling on the rails as it shot past at full speed. It hadn't even stopped at the platform.
"How the fu...?" Emai wondered, and about a minute later, as they shuffled together toward the edge of the platform, Kreyul's nose was nearly taken off as the thing flew by again, prompting him to wheel back onto his heels, his arms rotating to keep himself from falling over.
Emai sniffed and wiped her eyes again, her mind no longer on the image of her father slain before her, instead, she was now trying to wrap her head around the idea of either stopping a train, or boarding one going sixty miles an hour.
"Is that the same train?" Kreyul asked the Game Master, who confirmed his suspicions.
"It will pass by on the minute, every minute, until you board it... Tick tock, time's a-wastin'..." If there was a time in which Emai wanted to take a flamethrower to that beautiful voice, it was now.
"What are we going to do?" she asked Kreyul, and he turned to her, smirking.
"Let's just say you're lucky you picked me of all people to be here."
She thought about it for a second, and then nodded. Of course. They could use Kreyul's summoning ability to teleport themselves into the train! But that begged the question; how would they get something on the train with a drawing of themselves? They both started looking around for anything they could use. Emai pointed out a cluster of cement that had broken free from one of the pillars by some unknown impact, and fetched two of them for their use. It didn't take long for Kreyul to scribble some doodles onto the chunks of stone, but in that time, Emai was searching for something else.
"What, you don't think this will do it?" Kreyul asked, and she shook her head at him.
"That's not going to break the glass. They'll just bounce off. That stuff's really strong, you know?" He figured she had a good point. The train cars whizzed by again, Emai was standing on the end of the platform, and she poked her head down the tunnel, having to stare long enough that her eyes adjusted to the light, using a hand to block out the rapid flashing of the one light they had to go by.
In the tunnel, she could see some piping on the wall. It looked rusted.
"Got it!" she exclaimed, but she knew how dangerous this would be.
"You're going to have to go out there," she said, pointing down the tunnel to Kreyul, whose face immediately wound up in reluctance, to him the whole proposal sounded like suicide.
"There's a pipe you should be able to yank off that wall. Unless you're telling me you got little girl arms?" She cocked her eyebrow at him, and he frowned back.
"I do not have little girl arms," came his response, and he handed her the stones, one with a doodle of her face, and one with his. He'd at least be smart about it, if he really had to do this, and he stood right at the corner, the furthest point to the pipe, and waited until the subway passed again, the movement of air requiring he hold down his hat to keep it from blowing from his head. The split second the caboose passed his face, and he rushed down the tunnel, but his eyes hadn't quite adjusted quickly, and for a few seconds, he glanced around.
When he finally spotted the pipe, he sprinted up to it and frantically began to attempt yanking it out of place, placing his foot on the wall for extra leverage. It was a stubborn piece of plumbing, however, and it wasn't long before he could see the headlights of the train coming down the tunnel once more. He gritted his teeth, and pulled as hard as he could, the rust allowing it to yield slightly quicker as it bent toward him.
"Hurry!" Emai shouted to him, and when the pipe finally gave way, there was a loud crack, and he dashed for the platform.
As the train rushed toward him, his body strained, and he jumped for Emai's extended hand, his toe flinging into the wall as the train barely caught the edge of his shoe, pain filling his foot as it slammed into the concrete.
"Ah, fu..." he swore, cutting his curse short as he brought his foot closer to him, nursing it gingerly. He let the pipe sit next to him. By now, it had been a fair amount of time and they need not waste more of it, Emai knew there had to be something on that train if they were to ride it to their destination to complete the challenge.
While Kreyul continued rubbing at his foot, she took the pipe to the tracks, and the next time it flew by, she swung at it, the sound of shattering glass cascaded about the platform, and she looked after the train, trying to guess which window she'd managed to break.
The next time the train passed, she tossed her stone at it, but missed due to the speed, and it bounced off. Kreyul sighed and got up from where he was, limping over.
"You have to lead the target," he stated, ever clever, and stood poised, waiting for his chance.
"Which window?" he asked, but before he'd had a chance to get an answer out of Emai, she was throwing her rock, doing as he'd said as the train suddenly sped by again, and this time, she nailed it.
"Well done, I guess," he stated, and she stuck her tongue out at him.
"I don't have girly little arms like you do, pipe boy," she shot, and he just smirked, hand in a pocket as he handed her his stone.
"At least you made it easy for the second one to get in there." She took the stone from him, the small, cute little drawing of Kreyul giving her a bit of a smile for a moment as she looked at it.
"Aww he's as cute as you, wimpy-man," she teased, and he pinched the brow of his nose.
"/Export:Princess_Kashew:Location:Train_car3/," he said, and she was gone. Inside the train, she dropped his stone.
"/Export:Kreyola_Arroyal:Location:Train_car3/."
When he arrived in the train, Emai was waiting for him, sitting on one of the seats. He sat down beside her, and looked out the window. Boring concrete.
"I wonder how long we'll have to ride this thing?" Emai thought to herself, and he shrugged.
"Until it arrives at it's destination," he quoted, and they both sighed simultaneously, and both were equally surprised when the lights shut off with a sudden noise.
Then came a second sound, of metal being wrought to the desire of some being, forcing it out of place. Looking up, they could see three equally long, straight holes carved into the top of the train car.
"Let's... Getthehelloutofhere?" Emai spat, and Kreyul agreed, their way being lit only by the flashing of lights as they passed them in the tunnel. They made a dash for the door to the next car, and passed through. They could hear rather than see something moving about the outside of the train, the clacking beneath from the wheels on the metal rails accompanied only by the clacking of claws of whatever creature was after them next.
But when they got into the next car, the sounds stopped, and they both looked around.
"Do you see it?" Kreyul asked, and Emai responded negatively, prompting him to raise his marker, in case he'd need to use it. Emai brandished the pipe.
When opposite them began to open, they both stepped back, on the threshold between their original entry point and the one now being violated by... Whatever it was.
But to their surprise, the lights went back on, and in stepped a little girl.
Her large, round eyes held the joy of being young, her golden pigtails dangled as she skipped slowly toward them, humming. She clutched in her arms a small teddy bear, missing an eye, and as she moved, she released it, dragging it behind her across the floor of the train.
"Hi! I'm Lucy," she called to them, stopping a few feet in front of them, Emai's jaw had already dropped as she stared, completely disgusted.
"I don't trust it, it's blue," she said, clutching at Kreyul's shirt, referring to the fact that the dress the little girl wore was certainly cerulean, but Kreyul's flat face as he glanced back at her told her he wasn't buying that.
"I'm blue," he reminded her, and unlatched her claw from his wardrobe, stepping toward the girl and taking a knee.
"Hey Lucy. What are you doing here? There's a scary monster out there, you know." He pointed upward for emphasis.
"My mommy once told me there's a monster inside all of us," she replied, and his eye twitched. Jeez, that was dark. She swayed back and forth on her feet, Emai's unamused gaze following her every move as she resisted the urge to punch a child just for wearing a dress.
"Where is your mommy?" he asked, and she giggled at him, too adorable, really, as she batted those long eyelashes.
"In my tummy," she said, and if Emai's jaw had dropped hard before, it practically hit the floor now. She gestured with both hands like she were signalling a plane down a runway, pointing with them over and over at this girl that she couldn't even believe was allowed to stand this close to them at this point.
"Yeaaaahhhh," Kreyul said, "I'm gunna take that as a bad sign."
Just as he finished, the girl's eyes changed, slowly turning white to red, her pupils became slits, and they both dropped back a few paces as her skin began to bulge in some places. Her flesh and dress tore at her waist, her eyes rolled back into her skull, and her jaw opened impossibly wide, splitting skin, tearing tendon. They heard the creak of bone and the snapping of joints, a loud crack as suddenly the little girl's knees reversed, her limbs elongated, her hands formed vicious claws. A long, snake-like tongue slithered between rapidly sharpening teeth...
"RUN!" Kreyul shouted, and grabbed Emai's hand, tugging the freaking out woman passed the monster and toward the next train car. She trusted his judgement, knowing he could think quickly on his feet, and they entered the next room, he slammed the door shut and locked it with the massive latch.
"He only said we have to get to our destination. So if that holds it, we're in the clear." There was only one problem, and Emai remembered it quite well. Its claws could pierce through the solid steel of the external shell of the car. They heard a loud screech coming from the beast, and the sound of four limbs climbing across the train cars in rapid pounding beats, slamming out a rhythm most sour as Emai held up the pipe.
"I've got a pretty stupid idea, but it might just work," Kreyul explained, and Emai nodded.
"You better hope you do, I don't think this shiet is going to stop any time soon..." There was a gut-wrenching tearing sound as the thing clawed at the roof, making those same marks as before, and she smacked it's talons with the pipe, trying to dislodge it. She couldn't tell if she had any effect.
"Remind me when this is over, I'm giving Phirre a helvete of a swirly," Emai said angrily, even using his term for her swear word. Kreyul grinned, he was rubbing off on her.
"Oh, that's rich, considering," came Phirre's voice, and Emai shouted noises of frustration at him.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"I mean to say," the crafty Siren mentioned, "that your outfit makes you look like you belong in a toilet." Her rage was imminent as she slammed her pipe repeatedly against the side of the train car. Despite all the chaos, this garnered a stifled chuckle from Kreyul, and she waved the pipe his way menacingly.
"Don't you start with me, girly boy!" That ended his laugh as he went back to drawing on the wall as he had been. It was a picture of the little girl they'd just seen, the one that was now attempting to tear the roof off as Emai fervently fought it off with swats of a tiny metal pipe.
When there was finally a hole rendered in the roof big enough for it to get it's arm inside, they were both forced to hide behind the seats of the car, as it swiped about, trying to cut into their miserable flesh, draw their blood.
"Wait until it's in, and then get ready!" He finished his drawing, and ran toward her, narrowly dodging a swipe of that massive talon as it crashed into the wall. He felt something wet on his cheek, and then a sting; evidently, it had barely missed his head, cut his cheek. He ducked in the booth with Emai, who was looking around as they heard the skittering over the top again, it was moving.
Suddenly, a window burst, and with a swipe of a claw it took out the guard between another window, smashing that one in the process as well. The whole car shook as it swung it's grotesque body inside, pulsating flesh bending unnaturally as the monster entered.
It was nowhere near a little girl anymore.
Aside from the massive claws, it looked more like a spider, crawling on backward knees and it's arms, the face of the little girl upside-down in a perpetual scream against it's own flesh, snaking tongue lapping against her nose and face as it dribbled saliva down it's own forehead, which was serving more like a chin now. Emai made a face of disgust, and choked down a gag.
Now was the cue.
"/Export:Princess_Kashew:Location:Train_car3/!" he shouted, and Emai vanished. He rolled out of the way of the next attack, the monster, Lucy, smashed the entire seat they'd been behind. It rampaged in a circle as he dipped between it's legs to the other side of the train car.
"/Export:Kreyola_Arroyal:Location:Train_car3/!"
And he was gone.
Back in their entry point, the stones sat in their original landing spots, and for a moment they both breathed, just breathed, leaning into their seats. Still, the train rattled on.
"How long is this goddamned train ride?!" Emai shouted in frustration.
"Almost there," came a response, unamused, from Phirre, and they both pressed their palms into their faces.
"Yeah, super helpful, shiet-for-brains." Emai tensed as they heard Lucy moving about the train again, trying to figure out where they'd gone. They heard the sound of shattering glass, and the lights flickered with a massive lurch of the train.
For a moment, things went silent, and they heard a voice trail over the quiet...
"I just want to play," came Lucy's little voice, and Kreyul shivered. Damnit, kids always got to him, that bastard Game Master probably knew that, though...
"I hope your wish was worth it, Princess."
There came a crash, and door to the car exploded inward, flying into the back of itself and causing their ears to ring slightly with the resonance of metal on metal. The abomination flung itself inside, and immediately began to tear the place up as they hid, slashing into every single one of the seats, one by one. Luckily, they had a bit of time, and Kreyul exhaled slowly, focusing his abilities. Just as it found them, and Kreyul coughed up a thick load of blood, tasting its tangy metallic flavor, he leapt up.
"/Import:Lucy:Location:Train_car1/!" he shouted, and the monster vanished slowly, as he strained visibly, sweat running down his brow. The massive thing disappeared, and he fell to his knee. Light suddenly burst from all around them as the train breached the tunnels.
Just as that happened, the train's breaks began to screech loudly, and Emai covered her ears, while Kreyul simply wiped at his mouth. As the train pulled to a stop, they both breathed a sigh of relief, and the doors on the side opened. Out they walked, and they stepped into a field of flowers, the roses and daisies and sunflowers flowing in an endless sea in all directions. They'd made it.
"Congratulations," the Game Master said to them, and they heard a gentle slow clap as he did so, "on to the next challenge..."