Kari put the new painting on the wall next to her bed and after straightening it, she remembered that Aluf and Laveda had told her to bring a few things.
"In order for you to open the box without the cenobites taking you on sight," Aluf told her while they waited for Joey and Tiffany to make their decision, "a few things need to come from you. If you can bring some rose petals, some pins and needles, and a knife, we'll be able to provide the rest of the things needed."
She took the roses Joey and Tiffany bought her that morning and carefully removed the petals so that they wouldn't tear, then put them in a small plastic sandwich bag and put that in the bag Laveda gave her. Next she went to her sewing kit, took the tomato-shaped pincushion that held most of her needles and pins, and put that in her bag, too.
That only left the knife, but how could she take one from the kitchen without getting odd looks from her aunts? Joey seemed reluctant to let her go to their house at all; if she knew that they told her to bring a knife for some sort of ritual, she would convince Tiffany that this was a bad idea and that they should not go, ending any chance of finding out where her parents were.
Inese got out of her basket, meowed, and rubbed against Kari's leg. "Did you sleep well, girl?" she asked as she knelt down, running her hand down the cat's back, to which she purred softly. She then carefully leapt onto the dresser beside the vanity, which drew Kari's attention to several things she had forgotten.
On the dresser, half-hidden by old homework assignments and knick-knacks, lay a compass, a whistle, and a knife with a brass handle, all steadily gathering dust, all gifts from her father.
The compass and whistle had been sent on her eleventh and twelfth birthdays, along with some clothes and a note telling her to use these if she ever found herself lost or in danger. The knife, meanwhile, found its way into her possession three years ago. As she sat on a hospital bed, one of the...strangers handed the knife to her and told her that her father wanted her to have a way to protect herself should she ever find herself in immediate danger again.
Whether it was because she had no use of them when they were given or because she resented her father's absence, she had put them on the dresser and ignored them. Yet here they were again, insisting that they be noticed and picked up. The knife seemed like the answer to her problem since she could just put it in the bag and Joey would never know, but what use would a compass and a whistle be to her?
You can never know for sure, a voice in her mind told her, one that sounded eerily similar to the stranger's voice. What if the car breaks down again and more thugs try to corner you? And what if they caught you, took you to an isolated area like a forest, and you got lost with no sense of direction if you somehow managed to escape? Your new friends' home is not far from where it happened last time, you know. You want to be able to get help and find your way out of the situation, right?
At once, she placed all three items in the bag.
"Better safe than sorry," she told herself.
She checked the time. They'd leave for the house in thirty minutes. She decided to rest her eyes for a little bit, since she woke up earlier than she normally would on a Saturday. She lay on the bed and closed her eyes, quickly falling asleep.
"Stop right there, you fucking imposter!" She found herself looking over "Sean's" shoulder again. She saw the two men from before, along with a few others, looking confused and horrified at what they saw coming down another street. She turned her head to see for herself, and had to catch her breath.
Stepping out of the shadows was a five and a half foot mass of blood and muscles. It's eyes glared at the man holding Kari.
"Sean? What's going on?" one of the others asked fearfully.
"I was trying to come up with a plan to trap the girl when that thing knocked me to the ground and stole my skin. Now it's trying to take her away."
Kari looked up at her current captor as he put her on the ground, still blocking her from view in case the other men tried to grab her. She could now see that the skin didn't seem to fit him, his eyes could not be seen in the sockets, and in some places, she saw traces of blood that he hadn't bothered to wipe away in his rush to capture her. While she looked, she could hear angry growls and clicks that she realized came from him.
"Don't look," she heard a soft voice, a male voice, hiss at her. The man moved both hands to the top of his head and, to her horror, began to pull the skin away, the ill-fitting clothes soon following.
Beneath Sean's skin was a blood-stained, leather-bound creature with flesh stretched over his eyes and exposed teeth that clicked angrily. He turned away from Kari and took a curved knife from its belt.
"Don't look," the voice repeated. She turned around and closed her eyes. Then she heard the loud screams of the men and the squelching and splattering of things falling to the ground.
Warm, wet liquid flew at her and hit the back of her head. She touched it with her hand and opened her eyes. She was horrified to see that it was blood and it got worse when she went against the creature's wishes and looked around. Blood covered most of the street and she could see body parts and organs strewn all over the ground. If she had anything in her stomach, it would have ended up on the ground due to the terror and disgust the girl felt.
The chattering creature was chasing one of the men from earlier with the blood stained knife in his hand. Getting tired of chasing him, he stopped and raised his free hand. At once, hooked chains sprung from the wall closest to the man and dug into his skin, trapping him there. The creature was about to slit his throat, but a deep male voice that seemed to come from behind Kari called, "Enough," and he obeyed it.
Kari turned around and felt sure her heart stopped beating for a moment as two men and three women stepped out of the doorway she forgot was there. They were all bald, all had black leather that appeared to be sewn into their skin, all smelt faintly of vanilla which failed to completely hide the stench of blood, and all seemed to have scars and other body mutilations. The one that stood out the most in Kari's mind was a man with pale skin, dark eyes, and a grid pattern carved into his face and head that had a silver pin driven into each intersection. He seemed to be the leader of the group as the others looked to him for instructions.
He looked down at her and she swore saw something briefly flash in his dark eyes-pity, regret, or something else all together?-before he turned away and moved toward the chattering creature, who seemed to click out some sort of message that he understood and the frown on his face deepened. He turned his attention to the still bound and bleeding man and when he spoke, the same voice that gave the order not to kill escaped his lips. Definitely the leader.
"So you tried to forcefully take the box by threatening to kill one of our Guardians and her only child." It wasn't a question, and the fact that he sounded so calm when anger was evident on his face made the hairs on the back of Kari's neck stand up. "Not only that, but my page has told me that you promised one of your men-" he indicated Sean's skinless corpse "-that he could rape and kill both of them once you got what you wanted. These planned crimes will earn all of you an eternity of suffering, but your punishment will be postponed for the moment as I need you to give one of your leaders a message."
With that, the leader of these creatures seized the man by the throat, causing him to scream in agony. When he pulled his hand away, Kari could see strange markings burned into the man's neck.
Somewhere in the distance, a police siren sounded off. "I suggest you find her now," he said coldly, and with that the chains disappeared. The man took this demon's advice and ran as fast as he could.
Without a warning, Kari felt herself being picked up again, and the clicking told her it was the same captor as before. She cried out again and struggled to get away, causing the leader to turn around.
"Release her, Mictanleculti."
The creature holding her started a little at the use of that name and the sharp tone he used, then clicked out another message and she could faintly hear the same voice from before say, "But master, Leviathan ordered me to take her. He'll be furious if I fail to bring her to him. Besides, considering who she is, I thought you would want her much more than he does."
The leader shook his head. "I'll talk to him later and if he is displeased with this, I'll take any and all punishments given out. The girl cannot come with us; it's not her time."
Mictanleculti sighed and put Kari down. She looked at all the other people-the demons-around her, all seeming to stare into her soul, judging her. This, their appearance, and the things they likely planned to do with people like the man the leader just branded, made her feel unsafe and she started to run.
She slipped on some of the blood on the ground and fell. A combination of the bloodied concrete scraping her knees and the eyes that continued to watch her caused tears to well up in her eyes. She needed her mother, she needed to know that everything would be okay, but she didn't know where she was and she was surrounded by strangers. She heard footsteps behind her and a cool hand touched her shoulder.
From behind her, she heard the leader quietly speak two words: "Pure heart."
"Kari? Kari!" She opened her eyes to find Joey shaking her awake, a concerned look on her face. "Are you okay? I heard you screaming."
"I just had a bad dream. I'm sorry I scared you." She raised a hand to her eyes and felt wetness at the corners of them. She knew she really should talk to someone about these memories and how they affected her, but she knew she wouldn't find anyone who would listen without keeping her in a mental ward.
Joey hugged Kari, rubbing her back a little. "Do you still want to go to their house? If you're not feeling good, I'm sure they'll understand if you don't show up."
Kari shook her head. "I promised I'd come and I make sure I keep my promises. I want to figure out this puzzle as much as they do and no nightmare is going to hold me back."
Joey smiled, a little sadly it seemed. "Spoken like your mother's daughter." She kissed her on the forehead and helped her up. "Come on, it's time to go. Oh, and look out for broken glass. I think you knocked your lamp over in your sleep."
Kari looked down and sure enough she could see the jade colored lamp that usually sat on her bedside table in pieces on the floor. She was a little confused. Usually during her night terrors, all of her body parts stayed on her bed. She may twist the covers around a bit, but she never hit any of the furniture close to the bed.
No matter, she told herself. Just make sure you clean it up before you go to sleep tonight.
After dinner, Aluf and Laveda led Kari up the stairs while Joey and Tiffany sat in the living room, Tiffany looking at the various sculptures and paintings the Amaniahs kept there while Joey paced the floor, both waiting for something-or someone.
Kari found herself in an attic, where dark fabric was nailed over the windows to block out any light from outside. On the floor was a large circle drawn in chalk and candles placed around it. Near the back of the room sat some kind of alter where Kari could see a plate of small animal bones, a small bowl that had pins and needles filling it halfway, a box of bon-bons, another bowl, this one with nothing inside, and several live doves in a cage that flew against the bars, trying to escape.
"Just things that someone said would make the cenobites happy," Aluf answered her unasked question. "They like a combination of pleasant things and not-so-pleasant things. Makes sense since their home is said to be Heaven and Hell combined, or at least to those who can keep an open mind. Did you bring the things we told you to bring?"
Kari nodded and took out the sandwich bag full of rose petals, the pincushion, and the knife her father gave her.
"Good work, and that's a cool knife." He began to take the pins and needles out of the pincushion and placed them in the bowl on the alter. "I now need you to scatter the petals on the floor." She and Laveda did so, both with the eagerness of flower girls at a wedding.
"Okay. Now comes the not-so-pleasant part before we get started." He beckoned Kari to the alter and she complied. "I need you to hold your non-dominant hand out over the empty bowl and stay very still. This may hurt a bit, but it's necessary since we don't want to risk losing you to the cenobites."
He took the knife and very quickly made a cut on the palm her left hand. Kari gasped in pain, but made no attempt to pull away as Aluf let the blood from the cut drip into the bowl. Once it was full, Laveda came to her with a bandage and wrapped it tightly around the wound to stop the bleeding as Aluf cleaned the knife.
"Once again, I'm sorry I had to do that." He handed her the knife handle-first and she put it back in the bag. He then directed her to sit in the circle on the floor and when she sat down in the middle of it, he and Laveda lit all of the candles before he turned off the overhead light. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him take the Lament Configuration from a low shelf. He came over to her, handed it to her, then went to rejoin his sister.
Kari ran her fingers over the box, feeling each intricate design as she pulled and prodded it. A few clicks were heard when she touched certain areas and a song began to play, a beautiful and mysterious melody that urged her to continue and each correct touch earned a new part to the song.
After a few minutes, she gasped when part of the box moved upward. She touched it and what looked like little blue lightning bolts shocked her, causing her to drop the box as the segment went down on its own. Then another part of the box rose and twisted before coming down to form a star and one of the circles on the box opened up, emitting light.
A bell, not unlike a church bell, started to ring as the wall in front of Kari opened. She looked at this new doorway and felt her heart stop for the second time in her life as, much to her dismay, she saw some the same strangers from three years ago make their way down the corridor toward her. Looking at the box again, she realized that the designs on the box looked similar to the pattern burned into one of the thugs' neck. This was the box they wanted?
She turned to Aluf and Laveda for some explanation and was somewhat horrified when she saw that another demon-no, cenobite-stood where Laveda did moments ago. She wore the same leather jeans she did as a human along with what looked like a smock that was spattered with what someone may mistake as red paint but was actually blood. Around her waist was a tool belt that held sculpting tools that were bigger and sharper than necessary and also had some blood on them. The most remarkable feature, however, was her hands; the three middle fingers on each hand had silver pen tips on the end and each one was attached to a little container on each wrist that held three different colored liquids. Kari realized this was blood, too, each one belonging to a different species.
"Don't worry Kari," she told her, still sounding as she did as human, though a little raspy, as she and her brother stood a little behind her. "We're not going to hurt you. Just stay where you are." Despite the strong urge to run, Kari listened to her and turned back to the wall to watch the cenobites enter.
The first to come out was the chattering creature, thankfully without any blood on him this time. He recognized her somehow-she had no idea how he could see when his eyes had flesh over them-and seemed to click out some sort of greeting she didn't understand before standing immediately to her right. She decided to start calling him "Chatterer" in her head.
A female with both halves of her scalp peeled back and clamped to her shoulders came next. She may have been pretty despite her exposed cranium since she had full red lips, two beauty marks on her left cheek, and an hourglass figure many women would die for, but the haughty expression on her face that reminded Kari of several girls from her school that gossiped loudly during class and occasionally tried to make her feel uncomfortable about how she looked made her unattractive in her eyes. She positioned herself to Kari's left and turned away from her, sticking her nose in the air.
Another female, this one with her throat cut and pulled back with wire, and an obese male with dark glasses hiding his eyes came in and took their place beside Chatterer and the haughty faced cenobite respectively. The one with the cut throat looked at her with some skepticism while the obese one seemed politely interested in her for some reason.
Yet another female came out. She too had a cut throat, with a lit cigarette held in the middle and exposed muscle from her elbows to her fingertips that almost looked like opera gloves. Unlike the others, though, this one smiled briefly at Kari and even gave a little wave before standing beside the obese cenobite.
A hooded figure came next, so far the only cenobite not present the last time they met. Kari couldn't see its face, but its breathing and slender figure told her another female stood under the hood. She felt this newcomer's gaze for a moment before she took her place beside the female with wires holding her throat open.
All the cenobites turned their attention to the wall as their leader-the one Kari anticipated and dreaded-came out and stood directly in front of her. He looked exactly as he did last time: pale skin, leather cassock with several chest wounds that continually bled, dark eyes that seemed to stare into her soul, and the pins embedded in his skull, all terrifying, but fascinating, to the young girl.
He seemed unsurprised to see her here. On the contrary, he smiled as though he was meeting an old friend.
"You summoned us, Kari. What do you want?"
It took a moment for her to find her voice and when she did, she was glad that it sounded less afraid than she felt. "I want to find my parents. Aluf and Laveda told me that you may know where they are. Is this true, and, if it is, will you let me find them?"
He nodded once. "They both reside with us. Whether or not we will let you look for them, however, depends on a few factors. Your guardians' approval, for a start." He looked past Kari and when she turned around, she was shocked to see that Joey and Tiffany had slipped into the room without drawing attention to themselves. Tiffany seemed apprehensive while Joey glared at the cenobite. He seemed unfazed by this when he spoke. "Good evening, Tiffany and Joanne. It has been a while since we have spoken."
"Spare me the pleasantries, Pinhead. What do you want with Kari?"
"Joey-" Tiffany began, sounding like she was trying to warn her, but Joey ignored her.
"Why did you come back after all this time? Why, instead of talking to us, do you send puzzle guardians to trick her into opening the box when you could have taken her yourself three years ago? "
The cenobite laughed a little at this. "'Trick her?' Aside from pretending not to know how to open the box and one of them posing as a human, they have been honest with her. And, judging by how her shoulders tensed when she saw you, you have no room to talk."
"You know him? You two knew what happened and you never told me?" While Kari wasn't angry, hurt was evident in her voice. Joey suddenly looked guilty and couldn't look her in the eye as Tiffany spoke.
"Yes. His name is Xipe Totec and he was... is a close friend of your mother's, and he is our friend as well, to some extent. We never told you about him and pretended not to see him in the hospital room with us because we wanted you to forget what you saw one of his comrades do to those terrible men. We see now that hiding this information from you was a mistake and we're sorry."
Kari nodded, still hurt by this small betrayal of trust, but understanding why they did it.
"To answer your questions, Joey," Xipe continued, "I feel I left a bad first impression on Kari when we met and wanted to start over. I feel the best way to do so is to give her a chance to find her parents. Since you two care deeply about her and want to protect her, I need you to give your consent before I continue. Will you let me explain to her what needs to be done?"
Tiffany nodded at once. After a moment, Joey sighed before muttering, "You better not pull the rug from under her feet again."
"Good. Now, Kari," she turned back to him, "your mother and father are in the Labyrinth where we live. I want to reunite you with them, but our god Leviathan and the other cenobites feel you need to prove you're worthy enough to go anywhere you want and leave whenever you want. So seven trials have been put in place to test your skills and virtues.
"If you succeed, I will let you find your parents and you will be free to enter and leave the Labyrinth as you please. If you fail, though I doubt you will, you will have to leave and cannot open the box to try again for another five years. Before you decide if you want to go through with this, I must warn you that the Labyrinth holds many dangers. Rooms that force you to experience your worst nightmares, cenobites from other Gashes that will assume you are a prisoner, people that committed horrible sins who will try to hurt you if you wander into their cells, and the Harrowers-the organization that employed the men who tried to kill you-who try to invade the Labyrinth and will kill everyone who stands in their way.
"For your own safety, you are to stay in the chambers beside mine when not taking a test-these tests will take hours to complete and may cause stress so you need a place to rest-and cannot go anywhere beyond the hallway without me or another member of my Gash until you know the way. The dark corridors are forbidden; the worst members of the human race lay in darkness and often times either try to escape or attack someone who gets too close. You also cannot approach Leviathan until he sends for you; otherwise, he will cause psychological and sometimes physical harm to you.
"Since you now know the rules and the risks, are you willing and ready to begin?"
Kari stared into Xipe's eyes. Words from the past came back to her. "Would you go through Hell to find your mother?" Then, she answered no; she had feared and hated him, had simply wanted him to return her mother and leave her alone. Now, the Labyrinth still scared her, but she needed to find her parents, to find closure about whether or not they lived and cared about her, dark corridors of Hell be damned and forgotten. She will pass these tests, she will find the rest of her family, and she will take them home no matter what happens!
"Yes, I'm ready to begin." The moment she spoke, the candles went out and everything-Joey and Tiffany, the alter, and the cenobites-disappeared and she felt herself falling through darkness.
Author's Note: Thank God! I'm done with the exposition! =D Next time, the plot can actually begin. However, I need a little help. You see, I have ideas for five of the tests Kari has to go through, but I do not have ones that Butterball and Nikoletta would set. So if anyone has any suggestions for tests they would set, please either send a private message or mention it in a review. As for my personal life, I have begun college (GO MOCS!) and while I only have sixteen hours a week, my school work comes first so updates may be slow. But I will continue this story, other stories, and write a few oneshots when I have the time. See ya!
