"Okay!" I yelled back as loudly as I could. My legs began to shake uncontrollably, even though I knew the ground no longer quaked. I felt the walls start to close in on me in the darkness. I had no light, and I was alone. If there was anything else in the dark with me, I might as well have surrendered to it since I couldn't see or even begin to fight back if I got attacked. Slowly, I reached an arm and leg out in the shadows and inched forward. Eventually, I bumped into another wall and decided that it would probably be easiest to just follow the wall. I kept an arm and leg out in front of me, though, in case there were any traps on the ground or objects in front of me I might crash into. My heart was pounding furiously, but I managed to keep it under enough control to avoid hyperventilating. I thought Hector having his phone was lucky, even if only for a little while. It would help him get through the dark faster, and I thought he might be able to find a way around to get to me.
Then I got an idea. I set my bag on the ground and pulled Eevee out.
"I hope this works. Eevee, use Swift!" I shouted. Holding Eevee out in front of me like a giant flashlight, I was hoping it would spit a ray of stars to light the way, even if only for a few seconds at a time. Eevee let out a weak mewl, and I imagined it looking back at me in confusion. For whatever reason, it didn't know how to use that attack. "It was worth a shot…," I sighed and put Eevee back in my bag before slinging it onto my back again. Maybe one of my other Pokémon would be useful. I summoned Mr. Mime, and the brief flash of light from its Poké Ball illuminated a winding path. The walls were all mirrors. I gasped when I thought I saw something shift in the dark ahead of me when the light had faded and instinctively latched onto Mr. Mime's bone-thin arm. It croaked quietly to acknowledge my presence. Somehow, it was comforting not to be completely alone, even if it was with the creature that started it all.
I cleared my throat and let go of Mr. Mime, mostly so that it could use its moves unencumbered.
"Okay, let me think… Use Flash!" Nothing happened. "Fuck… What other attacks would generate light? Well, it is a Fairy type, so maybe use Dazzling Gleam!" I couldn't help but smile when sparks of light formed around Mr. Mime's fingertips, and a flurry of flashing sparkles scattered in front of us. Some bounced off the mirrors while others quickly extinguished against the ground. It was enough to know where to walk so I took Mr. Mime's arm again and shuffled forward until there was a turn in the path. I put my free hand on the mirror to my left to make sure we didn't turn too far. I had Mr. Mime use Dazzling Gleam again, but my hope faded when I discovered there were multiple branching paths. It was also difficult to tell where we could even walk because all the mirrors were reflecting images of us off each other. I really hoped Mr. Mime didn't have a limit on its attacks.
We proceeded very slowly using that process until Mr. Mime eventually became too tired to use Dazzling Gleam any longer. I tried having it use Psychic and Confusion, remembering they generated some light, but Mr. Mime didn't respond. I returned it to its Poké Ball, and the light from the capsule helped me take my next step. Then I was in the dark again, and the fear crept back into my shoulders. I was about to send out Dragonair to have it use Thunder Wave, but I was afraid of exhausting its energy in case I would need to fight. There was no way of knowing if enough rest would allow them to use their moves again, so I rationalized that I'd have to get through that area on my own. A part of me was still holding out for Hector to find me, though. I called out for him again to see if maybe he could hear, but only silence responded.
"Okay, I can do this," I murmured to myself. Hearing my own voice helped me maintain some sanity. I edged forward until I hit a wall and then made the decision to go right whenever I could. That worked for a few times until I reached a complete dead end, so I had to turn back. I'd lost track of which turns I'd already made, so for a while, I was literally randomly wandering around. I crashed into random objects a few times—a broken chair, a rusty pipe, and even half of a dirt-encrusted Poké Ball. I wondered why there were no bodies in the maze, but then I figured it was best to only concentrate on finding a way out.
After a while of being disoriented, I developed the keen sense that something was following me in the dark. With each step I took, I swore I could hear a very light sloshing sound, like someone was walking around in wet shoes. When I stopped to listen, though, there was nothing but silence. It was so quiet, I thought I could hear the dust stirring in the dark. My eyes had also not adapted very well to the blackness, even after all that time, like a film had formed over them. Fear started to seep back into my muscles, and I was afraid I'd freeze up or fall apart after each step. I imagined something cold and wet reaching out for me in the dark, waiting for a moment when I least expected to be pounced upon.
Then, it hit me like a bus. A smell so rancid, I thought something might have been rotting right inside my nostrils. It came and went suddenly, but I remembered the smell from somewhere.
Muk.
Right after coming to the realization that the Sludge Pokémon was stalking me in a pitch-black funhouse mirror maze, the slopping sound started on its own. After each wet plop was a scraping sound, like something being dragged along the ground. Muk was going in for the kill. Panicking, I tried to escape from the sound, crashing into mirror after mirror, probably signaling my location as my face smacked against the glass. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a red glow. My first instinct was to run from that, as well, but then I realized it was that Duskull again! Somehow it knew I was in danger once more.
It glowed a few times before disappearing. When I caught up, it appeared ahead of me. This happened a few times before it stopped reappearing, but at that point, I ran into a wall that felt like a door. Muk had somehow kept pace with me, and its poisonous odor was only getting stronger. Of course, the door was locked, so I resorted to ramming my shoulder against it, causing it to rattle but not budge. I tried feeling around for other details on the door and discovered a large metal ring fastened in the middle of the upper half of the door. I pulled it toward me, pushed it away, but then found that the door needed to be pulled down. It would spring back up if I let go of the ring, though. With both hands, I pulled down as hard as I could, and the faintest bit of light bled through from the top. While the door was still heavy and hard to move, I was eventually able to lower it enough that I could put one foot on top of the door.
As Muk seemed to scrape closer and closer to me, I lost my concentration for a moment, and the door started ascending again, almost crunching my foot before I pulled it out and fell to the ground. The smell had become unbearable, so I had to hold my breath, but my momentary loss of balance forced me to inhale through my mouth. It tasted like someone had vomited directly into my lungs, almost causing me to throw up. I managed to resist the nausea and quickly got up again to pull the door down but couldn't seem to figure out how to get over it while keeping the door from springing up again. Then the smell intensified even further, which seemed impossible. In a last attempt, I pulled down as hard as I could while crouching and then jumped over the door. Miraculously, I landed on the other side as the door popped back into its closed position. I plopped on my stomach right before hitting the wall in a long empty hallway that stretched to the left and right. The walls were gray, uncovered stone, but the ground was carpeted like the rest of the mansion. Orb-like lights dangled from the ceiling on black wires and cast a muted yellow glow everywhere. Muk slammed against the door a couple times and startled me as I looked about before the door stopped rattling.
On the ground, I took my backpack off and slid my back up against the wall and buried my face in my hands as I wondered why the nightmare wasn't over yet. Eevee crawled out of the bag and sat patiently next to me as I cried. No tears came out, though.
"Why the fuck didn't you help me sooner!" I screamed into the silence, wondering if Duskull was still around. "But thanks for the help," I muttered soon afterward and wiped at my nose with the back of my hand. I felt filthy and sweaty, I was sure there were stray flecks of blood all over my skin and clothes, and I could still smell Muk's stench in my nose. If it had been possible, I would've stripped naked right there to switch into something different just so I could burn the clothes I was wearing.
Eventually, I reached out to pet Eevee and found that it helped to calm me down. Next to me, I noticed a small rock and wondered if Eevee would fetch it if I threw it. When I tossed the rock, Eevee looked at where it landed, looked back at me, then went to examine the rock. It returned without the rock. I continued to pat Eevee until it went to curl up in my bag and fall asleep. I wished I could've done the same.
"Hector's gotta be almost out. Maybe I should look around for other possible exits." I quietly stood up and looked down both ends of the hall. On my right, there was another door about twenty steps away. At the end of the hallway was a set of stairs leading up to another level. On the left end, there was a turn in the hall, and peaking around the corner, there was some kind of contraption. It was all the way at the end, and I didn't feel comfortable going to investigate by myself. I went back to sit against the wall in between the two doors and waited for Hector to emerge.
I waited what felt like a long time before I thought to see if Mr. Mime was capable of fighting again. For some reason, I felt it was happy to see me, even though its expression didn't—probably couldn't—change. I also had to admit to myself that I wasn't as afraid of it anymore, which was maybe a larger representation of how I was feeling about being in that situation. Thankfully, when I commanded Mr. Mime to use Dazzling Gleam, the brilliant flashes of light sprayed from its fingertips and marked the stone walls where the sparks collided. I called Mr. Mime back into its ball and waited a little longer.
I felt myself fading away into a dream when one of the doors clattered open. Immediately, I scooped up my bag with Eevee inside and strapped it on, but I was surprised to see Noanne tumble out of the darkness. I ran over and kneeled to give her a proper hug when she noticed me and held on tightly until she pushed me away.
"I can't breathe! Geez!" she shouted and laughed. That was when I noticed something by her feet. It looked like a lumpy collection of potatoes inside a yellow sack decorated to look like Pikachu, floppy ears and a scraggly black tail and all, except that a dozen or so human fingers protruded from the bottom of the sack like spider legs. Mimikyu's disguise was sloppily colored on with crayon and runny red paint. Or maybe blood. Noanne returned it to its Poké Ball and tucked the ball into her coat. "I know you're not supposed to, but I checked under the cloth. It's some guy's severed head with fingers sewn—"
"I get the picture, thanks," I spat quickly, not wanting to imagine the construction of the Disguise Pokémon. "Okay, first of all? Why did you leave without telling us, and where did you go? Where did you find Mimikyu? And how did you get through the maze this time? And—"
"Oh my gosh—calm down! I was going to tell you what happened anyway," she said, crossing her arms. I nodded and waited patiently for her to continue. She looked down, kicking her foot at the ground, maybe nervously, and then cleared her throat. "So, when I realized we were close to the starting point, I…I got the idea to see if my sisters were really dead. It looked like some people had gone back into the dining room and 'sacked all the food. But it also looked like there was another fight in there. The big table was broken up even more and tossed all over the room, and there was more blood all over the place than I remember from what Mr. Mime did. Anyway, I didn't find my sisters in there." I sighed loudly and put my hands on Noanne's shoulders.
"Oh, god, Noanne, that must've been such a relief. They must've gotten out."
"Maybe. I don't know what it means except that they didn't die in that room after all." I wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Anyway, I went into the back, where Mr. Mime had originally appeared from. It was just a boring room that led to a boring kitchen, but in one of the connecting hallways, I found a secret door that led me to some kind of workshop. There were a bunch of broken Poké Ball parts, but I ended up finding two that worked. One, I used to catch Mimikyu when I found it, and the other," Noanne said as she pulled a ball from her pocket, "you can have." I smiled and took the ball, carefully dropping it into my bag. Eevee licked my hand before I withdrew it. "When I was walking back, I found the path that led into the forest area, I think, but I heard some voices and decided not to check it out. And to answer another of your million questions, I found Mimikyu when I got back to this area and passed through the piano room—"
"Wait, a piano room? What're you talking about? Hector and I didn't see a piano when we walked through."
"How could you not see it? It was in, like, the first room after where you fought those douchebag trainers. There were tall windows, which were obviously fake, a bar, some leather chairs, and some rubber plants, lamps, and a giant piano." I considered what Noanne was describing. There was obviously no reason for her to make up what she'd seen, but it was clearly not the upstairs balcony Hector and I had passed through. "There were some dead people in there but nothing ridiculous."
"Okay, whatever," I said impatiently, not sure what those details could really entail about the area. "So Mimikyu helped you in the dark room then?"
"Yeah, probably a ghost thing. Trevenant probably could've done the same for me, but it's not like it was that hard to navigate. I just hung onto the tail and followed it as it led me around. After I passed through the piano room, there was this weird, bouncy hallway that led down into the dark room. It was basically one straight path with a couple random walls in the way when I dropped in."
"Dropped in?"
"Yeah, I don't know how else to describe it. At the end of the bouncy hall, there was a giant hole in the ground. I called out Mimikyu to see how deep the hole was, but the light from the ball showed it wasn't that far down, so I jumped."
"Okay…and which side were you—oh, er," I said, stumbling with how I wanted to ask the question. "When you got into the dark room, do you know if there were mirrors on your right or left side?" Noanne understandably gave me a puzzled look.
"I couldn't really see anything…, but I think the wall I was touching at the start felt like glass. A-a-and I think I touched it with my right hand, so it was on my right. I think." The pit of my stomach seemed to grow larger. She was definitely in the same dark room we had been, and if she was remembering correctly, she went through on Hector's side. And if it was a straight shot, why didn't she run into Hector? "…lo? Hello? Have you finally cracked?" Noanne said, waving a hand in my face to pull me out of my thoughts.
"Sorry, it's just that Hector ended up on that side, too. When we first got to the dark room, there wasn't a glass wall at the start, but we triggered a trap or something, and a mirror ended up separating us. I had to go through a maze to get out. You're sure it was just one path to get through?" Noanne nodded, a look of concern spreading on her face.
"So then you're telling me you don't know where Hector is?" I didn't want to acknowledge her question but eventually ended up nodding. I thought she could tell I was worried and patted me on the shoulder.
"Let's see if we can get back in and look for him. I can let you borrow Trevenant to help look." We returned to the door Noanne had come through and examined it. There didn't seem to be any handles or knobs on that side, though. We tried pushing it, shaking it, and hitting it, but nothing worked. I also thought to try pulling it down, but my hands slid uselessly against the slick metal door as there was nothing to grab onto.
"Stand back—I'll have Dragonair freeze it, and then we'll break it down," I said, and grabbed Dragonair's Poké Ball from my bag. Noanne took a few steps back, but then the door startled to rattle from the other side.