(Mark's POV.)
My conscious is completely silent, which is a first; usually someone's always talking. My ears ring a little drowning out whatever voices I have left inside my head as well, the only thing I remember was the bone chilling white light and now all of a sudden I'm surrounded by darkness once again. I should have listened to her; unless this is all a dream and I blacked out suddenly.
~ Wake up, you pathetic idiot. ~
My eyes open very slowly, trying to register just what in the Hell happened while my body barely responds to any type of movement I try to force myself to do. Was I drugged by someone? It sure feels like I was.
"What did I get myself into this time…?" I hold my head squinting in pain while I pry myself off of the cold, concrete floor in a small tiny room. There's nothing in here but a tiny desk with some helpful objects lying on top of it. The windows have bars on them but as far as I can tell the windows aren't working properly either. The room is very frigid and icy almost, and the solid, metal door that's behind me seems to be the only way out. There's a flickering light bulb above my head attached to the ceiling, by the looks of it; it'll give out at any moment and the smell; don't even get me started about the smell.
I think I had my phone in my pocket; maybe I can check the time and hopefully find a signal.
My hand reaches inside my pocket, pulling out my phone while I notice a few texts from her, 'Mark I'm serious don't play that game.', 'Please listen to me!', 'You're a damn idiot if you're going to go through with playing it. -_-' And so on. The timestamps all say 'unknown' and the clock on my lock screen just flashes red colored pixilated question marks while the screen is all 8-bit like it was drained of its high definition quality, my senses are also telling me that this may or may not be a dream after all.
I couldn't reply, I was already recording the playthrough by that time. I hope she isn't concerned, even though I should be.
Is this real, or a figment of my imagination? At this point I can't even tell; these texts seem to be all too real, and I remember that light… Maybe I should have said something, or listened to her even.
~ Say something you vile imp! Are you even paying attention to me? ~
"When do I not pay attention to you?" Without thinking I open my mouth, seriously; that's all he does is run his mouth, I never get a break from it and I can't quite escape it as well. I start pacing around the cold room before I decide it would probably be a smart idea to take the flashlight and the notebook that's on the table with me; I'm pretty sure it's important and I wouldn't want to leave those behind; I've made enough mistakes in previous horror games to know how that works out.
~ Shut up you impatient swine. You are nothing but a scared little boy trapped in a world full of horrors. ~
"Rude." I mumble, the voice stops for now; maybe I'll be able to have some quiet time with him not here to poke through every single thought and memory I own. He can be annoying sometimes, but I know he doesn't mean harm; despite how harsh he can get.
The room seems to be getting smaller and smaller in my mind as time passes by, I hover over the table, glancing at the small notebook wondering if I should even attempt to open it, would I even be prepared for what I found inside? Carefully, I reach out towards the book, feeling an intense amount of heat coming from it almost like its living. The second my fingers touch its surface they begin to tingle with a warm sensation. Being desperate for heat since it's freezing in here, I pick it up. The second it's in my hand; it burns with a searing vengeance, causing me to fling it against the desk. Watching in awe as it randomly flips to a page inside, revealing some dark, scratchy handwriting.
"Instead of burning me you could have asked nicely." I whimper a little under my breath, the notebook flails about on the table for a few seconds; I guess it heard what I said.
Welcome to my domain. There is no one here that will save you now.
The ink used looks like it could have been made from charred flesh. I've never saw anything this darkly written in general; it's like he crushed up forty packs of charcoal just to write one sentence, what a waste of time and money if you ask me.
"Well that's friendly." I mutter to myself, reaching for the notebook once again to flip through the rest of the pages to see if there's anything else that can be more useful than these silly words. Maybe I should take a break from horror games when I wake up; if I wake up.
The second my fingertips touch the page, the searing pain pierces right though to my bones again, I flinch back automatically, and dropping the notebook back onto the desk as it flips over to a new page. It's unreadable as if someone smudged the black ink all over the page, clearly its irritated.
"Great, wonderful. That's just what I need right now." I stare at the ink smudge before glancing around the room to see if I can find anything to dab it with, giving up on not being able to find anything in this empty useless room, I just stare back at the smudge; wondering if it'll clear up by itself or something. Note to self; don't rush the notebook.
~ Are you fucking stupid? ~
"Maybe I am." I sarcastically reply, the voice sighs deeply while mumbling some words under his breath. I return my focus to the notebook with a slight confused gaze, wondering how in the Hell can something like this even be possible; unless I'm dreaming which I'm beginning to think I am, despite my senses telling me otherwise.
~ Patience you damn fool. ~
"Shut up, me."
The ink smudge slowly begins to crawl away on the crisp, yellow stained page, as if it was something straight out of Hogwarts. It retreats inside the book crease and leaving some legible handwriting behind.
Do not rush me. I will reveal the answers you seek as you progress into your own, pending damnation.
"Ooookay…? Mr. Spooky Book Thingy." This 'dream' or whatever gets a little weirder every time I question its logic; maybe I should stop and just let the book finish talking from now on; as strange as that sounds to me.
Without any warning, the metal door behind me begins to pound violently; shaking against the entire room and rattling the ceiling, along with a horrible grinding noise that sounds like metal on metal. The notebook instantly closes without flipping to any pages at all, leaving me alone in the dark as the light begins to flicker even more.
My eyes widen in fear, my head is silent, no voices or words can be heard in this concrete room over the grinding noise. There's clearly nowhere to hide; no corners, or lockers, there's a desk but come on; everybody always checks under the desk first!
"You said you would help me!?" I whine, grabbing the stubborn notebook anyways, this time it doesn't burn my hands. It'll probably be useful in other situations; other than this dilemma. I have no clue where to hide, or if I can hide, the only thing buzzing through my head is that I need to hide.
~ Get under the table, moron. ~
I don't question it; the voice has never lied to me before so why would he start now? I crawl under the wooden table that has a wooden wall two inches from the cold ground facing the doorway. Squeezing myself under as tightly as I can, the metal door breaks loose from its hinges and collapses to the cold, concrete floor with a loud ear splitting noise, causing me to cringe immensely.
~ Don't speak, don't blink, and don't move a muscle. ~
My heart panics, I can't even think straight, I couldn't really before but now; oh boy, now I just can't even function. I can feel my skin crawl like spiders underneath my flesh as the footsteps grow closer and closer towards the desk, frantic whispering voices can be heard scurrying around the room, 'Where is he?' , 'He has to be here.', 'That damn girl.', 'Where is he?' The whispers grow angrier each time they repeat themselves, slamming what sounds to be fiberglass against the concrete walls in frustration.
What the Hell are they, and why do they want me? I can't resist the temptation to take a peek... It wouldn't hurt, would it?
Once again, the warnings go off inside my head, but once my curiosity settles in; sorry, not sorry. Carefully, I shift my weight around underneath the desk without making any noise at all, the whispering doesn't stop and probably never will; it only gets angrier with each passing second out of frustration.
I glance over the side of the wooden desk looking around the back of the room; noticing a few pure white store-like mannequins with metal joints connecting their limbs together, flailing about the room in confusion with none of them facing towards me.
I can just feel my entire body shutting down; it takes every ounce of self control I have to not scream like a little girl and draw attention to myself, Holy shit; why are you alive and walking by yourself? I knew it; I knew there was something weird going on with those faceless freaks in the store!
Mannequins!? Of all the other things that could have possibly broken down that door, why does it have to be mannequins!?
~ Idiot. Don't blink. ~
A lump forms in the back of my throat, why's he saying that now? I can't see any of them focusing on me; all of their backs are turned towards me while they search the empty corners. I can feel the pressure from my heart pounding so fast ready to explode at any given minute; I just know I fucked up this time.
Carefully I move back to where I was, pulling away from the edge and sitting in the middle underneath the desk curled up with wide eyes and a fear of dropping dead from a heart attack while my heart rapidly pounds inside my chest. Surely they can't hear it, they have no ears. Why can't I calm down? Oh yeah, that's right; THERE'S FUCKING MANNEQUINS RIGHT THERE LOOKING FOR ME!
Okay Mark, think. How exactly can you escape this? Can you even escape this….
Without thinking, I close my eyes and place my hand on my forehead to wipe away the sweat that's building up on my face. The second I remove my hand and open my eyes; I'm greeted with a mannequin body kneeling down beside the desk with his blank white face inches from mine while the rest of them stand huddled around him staring at me with their clean white faces. The whispers then begin to start up again, 'Finally.' They all chant together in whispers.
~ You blinked. ~
