A/N: Woo, thank you all for 15k views! And of course, thank you for sticking around this far as well. Annnnd another thanks to the betas for all their efforts. Thanks, thanks, thank you, everyone gets some appreciation.
Now then... it's time to bring this world to its conclusion. Frazie VS the Horse from Hell, her experience with animals VS its nightmarish powers. Let's go!
Let the rodeo begin.
Frazie kept her stance wide, focused on her equine enemy, ready to dodge once it made its first move. She circled it like you'd circle a wild animal, keeping her footing steady on the dark padding below.
It neighed aggressively in its horrific, rasping tone, but Frazie didn't let it shake her. It wasn't the first time she'd faced an unruly pony. She might've been on good terms with all the Aquato family animals now, but it hadn't always been that way. You didn't amass a stable full of loyal critters without a few bruises and hoof-trodden toes. Forming bonds, training, all of that took time. And while she didn't particularly have weeks to spare here, she could at least use that past experience to help handle this wild stallion.
The creature finally attacked, its sturdy body lurching forward and pounding across the ground towards her. "Please hold!" it rasped... Frazie proceeded to do not-that and jumped aside, letting it breeze past harmlessly.
Was that it? That wasn't so bad. It wasn't much worse than when one of their caravan horses acted up.
Or so it seemed.
A burst of nightmarish light went off behind her. Before she could turn to see what'd happened, it exploded again right in front of her - the hellish maw she'd seen on the floor formed before her eyes, now standing upright, with her foe charging right out of it.
It bowled her over before she could even shout with surprise. The wind flew right out of her as it slammed her out of its way, throwing her to the floor.
What a dirty trick... it could teleport. While the landing was soft, the hit certainly wasn't, leaving Frazie groaning on the ground feeling like a train had crashed into her.
And speaking of crashing into... her eyes finally focused enough to spot the horse's hindlegs raised high over her head. She let out a squeal and threw herself to the side just as its powerful feet smashed the clouds where her head had been.
Alright... this beast meant business. Frazie got back up, wiping her mouth. Fine. If it was going to play dirty, so would she.
Once it realized it'd failed to crush her into paste, the beast swung, bringing its head around to try and slam it into her side. She met it halfway with her fist, the monster letting out a strange and surprised sound as she connected, psychically punching its face one way, then the other.
Some part of her felt guilty for hitting an animal — she just had to remind herself normal horses weren't made of terror and twitching limbs. This thing barely counted as one. It seemed durable anyways... her strikes barely phased it. It grunted, whinnied, and spun away from her to try and buck her with its back end.
But even its towering hindquarters were barely a hurdle for an Aquato. Frazie bent down and leapt, arcing over its kick to land on its back. She wrapped her arms around its neck to keep it from throwing her off, taunting it. "How do you like that, you owowowOWOWOWOW!"
Sharp pain tore at her chest. From the holes in its neck, its mane of twisted limbs poked out of their hiding place to slash and scratch at her. Frazie grabbed for one that'd snagged her shirt and yanked frantically at it until it pulled loose, just in time for the Night-Mare to rear up. With nothing for her to hold on to, it promptly deposited her on her butt with a mocking whinny.
Frazie clutched at her upper body, shutting out the pain blossoming in her breast. She'd never forgive herself if she let her ass get kicked by a horse. Those arms were going to be a problem if she wanted to break the beast, though. Think, Frazie, think...
But don't think TOO long! It was moving again, and moving strangely. None of its attacks had been too out of the ordinary so far, barring the whole dimensional warping thing. That's why when it reared up on its back legs again, not even aiming for her, she had no idea what to expect.
It slammed its hooves down into the clouds, missing Frazie entirely... but hitting her was never its intent. Like a catalyst, its sharp blow to the floor below made the dark puffs start acting up, a loud crack of thunder echoing around the arena, various clouds suddenly sparked with building electricity.
Thaaaat wasn't good.
The heavens themselves lashed out, spitting lightning around the room. Frazie shrieked as a stray bolt zapped the air to her side, the girl narrowly dodging another that crashed down from above. You'd think she was a lightning rod the way they followed her, chasing her around the area with electrical fury.
Panting, Frazie ran for her life, keeping ahead of the barrage until it finally petered out. "Joke!" her foe called mockingly, an unnerving laugh wheezing from its maw.
Alright, that was it. She'd let it make a fool of her long enough... it was time to get serious.
Time to fight energy with energy. Frazie spun and fired Psi-blasts back at it, the blunt blows rocking its misshapen body and making it cry out in pain. Shrugging it off, the monster tore open another hole in reality with a flick of its head, once more disappearing into the nether.
Frazie was on alert this time, knowing it could come from any direction now. Her eyes swiveled, her body tensed... and eventually the Night-Mare reemerged, rampaging towards her from the side. A quick backflip got her out of harms way, but it just went out of one portal and into another.
Frazie kept on her toes, rolling and weaving around each of its charges as it kept popping in and out from random angles in one long, continuous stampede. The clomp of its hooves rang out, providing an accompanying rhythm to their deadly dance. It had the element of surprise, but she had the element of agility.
Once she got into the flow of it, it became a game of whack-a-horse. It'd pop out, she'd dodge it and send it on its way back into a portal with a couple smacks and kicks. Now it was the Night-Mare looking like a doofus, struck again and again until she'd clobbered it silly.
It caught on at last and screeched to a stop. Neighing angrily at her, it stumbled as it slowed, looking as worn down as she felt. She'd given it a beating, and it looked like one final clash would decide who was the victor. It turned to face her once more, hunkering down for its final charge. "RUINED!"
Frazie returned its fierce glare, steeling herself too. When it started stampeding across the clouds, she fearlessly ran straight for it as well until they met in the middle.
Rather than evade, Frazie pounced right at it, praying she could pull this off without becoming roadkill. Right as it met her, she threw her arms around its neck and swung, using her momentum to throw herself up on the creature's back again.
No time to celebrate that risky success. Immediately, its mane started bristling, in the 'horrific mishmash of arms trying to maul you' kind of way. This time, Frazie was ready, summoning a Psi-knife and swinging wildly at the angry appendages. "Back! Get back!"
The phantom limbs pawed at the air, still trying to grab her, only to be deterred by each slash of her blade. Finally, they retreated back into the Night-Mare's neck, slowly slithering away into the holes in its body until it was safe to cling on at last.
That was precisely what she did, hugging the horrifying horse tightly, knowing it was going to start acting up at any moment. A wild steed never liked to be ridden, and imaginary monster ones were no different. If she had any hope of subduing this thing, she'd have to hold on until it gave in and accepted her — if that was even possible.
No easy task, obviously. Below her, the beast began to snort and undulate, displeased that she'd subdued its natural defenses and had the gall to try and ride it. It jerked and jumped, bucking wildly, far harsher than any normal steed was capable of. Each stomp of its hooves made the arena flash and roar wildly, the clouds crackling and spitting lightning indignantly.
She was in for a rough ride, but she held strong. Frazie squeezed its neck for dear life, dug her thighs into its sides, yet still bounced and flopped regardless. It was getting painful for her with how violently it fought back, but this was a fight she refused to lose. All she had to do was hang on.
The Night-Mare had one last trick in store, though.
It finally stopped fighting, to Frazie's surprise — it'd given up way too quickly. But that was because it wasn't surrendering at all. With a sharp toss of its head, it tore open another hole in reality. Frazie could see straight into the glowing void from where she sat, a chill running down her spine. Flames danced within, crackling across cracked and barren earth.
The Nightmare Realm.
"Hold on a second..." Frazie protested. Ignoring her wishes, her mount whinnied loudly and charged forward, running right through the portal.
Unbearable heat immediately washed over her. It was even worse on the inside... screams of despair and anger wailed all around, tormenting her eardrums as fire tickled her sides. All around her, the walls shifted and roiled, plastered with groaning faces constantly howling at her for intruding where she didn't belong. This lone corridor was somehow the worst thing she'd encountered in her mental adventures so far — just being in it was tearing at her spirit, her sanity. If hell was real, it must've been something like this.
She had no choice. Frazie shut her eyes and held on even tighter, trying to tune out the cries of the damned and the oppressive temperature. All she had to do was hold out. Her mind kept screaming at her to use her smelling salts and retreat from this torturous experience, but she endured, gritting her teeth and praying it'd be over soon.
The Night-Mare raced onward recklessly, sometimes jumping, sometimes lurching, but never losing speed. It was right at home here, unaffected, thriving even. It was a battle of wills now - could her spirit last longer than its resistance?
She wasn't sure how much time passed. It must've only been a minute, but it felt like hours, each second more agonizing than the last. She started to consider just giving up, conceding that the monster couldn't be tamed and needed to be destroyed... but that was when it started to slow.
A moment later, a revitalizing wave of cool air washed over her as another portal opened ahead and deposited them back out into the cloudy dome. The creature bucked a few more times, snorting and whining, but finally fell still with a few annoyed stomps of its hooves. Frazie finally dared to peek... everything was still. No more hellfire or tortured souls. Just a ticked-off but reluctantly accepting steed pawing the ground underneath her.
She'd won.
Frazie couldn't help but laugh with relief, collapsing against the Night-Mare's neck. Ever the good sport, she stroked the monster's neck, careful not to slip her hand into any of its holes. "See? Aren't things a lot nicer when we're friends, and not beating the crap out of each other?"
The Night-Mare snorted and brayed, likely uttering something utterly vile that was thankfully censored by horse language. Yet it didn't fight anymore - tolerating her was a lot less annoying than facing her.
Despite herself, Frazie couldn't help but pat its head much like she would Sugarcube. Good little demon. "Now come on, big fella." She reached up to grasp its curled horns, using them as a makeshift way to guide its movements. "There's someone you've been tormenting for far too long, and I think it's time you two settled things."
Reluctantly, the Night-Mare followed her instruction, trotting steadily towards the exit. "You're a monster," it hissed.
"Oh, you're one to talk. Shush." Taking this thing to Jakob would do more harm than good if it was going to keep stoking his guilty conscience with its harsh whispers. But that was easily fixed.
As they rode back out, Frazie summoned another Psi-knife and swung it at the puffy wall, shearing off a small black puff of storm cloud. Snatching it with Telekinesis, she moved it to the beast's front and promptly stuffed it into its gasmask-like mouth, earning a muffled whine. It wasn't quite a bridle, but it'd do.
Now humiliated on top of defeated, the Night-Mare led them out under the night sky once more. Frazie directed her steed to the cloud's edge looking out over Jakob's mind; far, far in the distance, she could spot the top of his giant bedframe poking out down below.
"Now how are we gonna get back?" she wondered aloud. They could retrace her path... but that meant escorting the Night-Mare past all the Permanences and the maze of dreams again. Neither sounded pleasant.
To her surprise, though, her steed took a few steps back... and then rushed forward, leaping over the edge towards the abyss.
"You little—!" The creature would rather take them both down than be her mount... it was more insulting and self-destructive than scary, since she could easily whiff her salts and escape to leave it falling on its own, but she couldn't help but feel a little hurt.
Except it wasn't throwing its life away. Rather than tumble into emptiness, the horse found footfall, riding on air. Its legs kicked like it was swimming, ferrying them across the great dreamy expanse back towards Jakob's bed.
Surprised, Frazie peered to both sides, watching it soar of its own will. "Hey... how come you can fly out here and I had to be in a dream to do the same thing? That's not fair." Her mount did not reply, because mind horses don't give a damn about your laws of physics.
Whatever. Now wasn't the time to look a gift horse in the mouth. Shutting up, Frazie focused ahead and gripped its horns tighter, maneuvering it across the sky.
Jakob's head throbbed. For some reason, the dark storm in the distance had been in an absolute tizzy just moments ago, even worse than it normally was. He hadn't dared try to sleep during it — and he was wary to try again now that it'd finally died down.
Hoping to soothe his frazzled nerves, Jakob gulped down some warm milk, tilting the glass high. To the side, his sleepy sheep played some poker, enjoying their break. He was mid-sip when a voice shouted out from above.
"Hey! I'm back!"
His bleary eyes drifted up to see that the strange girl from earlier had returned... and then shot wide open when he realized what she was riding.
"Pbbbbbbt!" He spat out his drink in surprise, staining his quilt with white. "W-what in blazes is that?!" he stammered, pulling the sheets up past his nose. For once, he hoped he was hallucinating as Frazie swooped in on the most horrifying thing he'd ever seen. The instant his fluffy friends laid eyes on it, they screamed and fled, leaving cards fluttering all over the place. If she'd been planning on helping him out, scaring him half to death was having the opposite effect.
They came in for a landing, the monster's hooves clacking on the ground as it slowed to a stop. "Don't worry, it won't hurt you," Frazie insisted. She leaned around its head to look it in the eye, her voice taking on a slightly threatening lilt. "At least, not anymore. Right?"
The horse tried to say something, only for its stuffed mouth to muffle the message. Giving up, it slowly nodded its head up and down.
"Good." Its visage alone was still making Jakob shiver under his blanket, so Frazie directed its face away to give him a break while they talked. "Listen... I know what happened at the dealership."
"The dealership...?" For a moment, Jakob didn't seem to recall, his memory robbed from him by time and poor sleep. But it wasn't gone, just blurry. At last, recognition filled his face. Jakob drooped - but not with his usual fatigue. With sadness. "The dealership."
Frazie swung her legs towards him and crossed them, using the Night-Mare as her chair while she talked. "It must've been eating you up all this time. Right?"
"Mhm..."
He'd already looked exhausted, but he somehow looked even more so now that the past had caught up with him again. Frazie was no therapist, but she wasn't going to let Jakob beat himself up any longer if she could help it. So she started with a simple question: "Why?"
Was it not obvious? "Because... all those people..." Jakob reached for his face and pulled at his cheeks, groaning. "Everything they said rang in my ears for years and years. So much despair... all my fault..."
"Did you know they were junk when you sold them?"
"No... but I should've inspected them before selling them. I still sold them..."
"And you couldn't have known better. You were just as fooled as the customers were. You trusted your boss, and he betrayed you all. You're a victim of him, too. And even if you weren't, don't you think you've been punished more than enough by now?"
Jakob was silent — for a moment, Frazie thought he'd passed out again, until he took a deep and shuddery breath. "I don't know..." He still felt responsible, but he couldn't deny the past years had been hell. Years and years, stuck in this tower... he was tired. So very tired... of everything.
Frazie finally got off her steed, resting a hand on its back. "I know you feel like everything would've been fine if you'd just known more, but how could you?" She reached for the beast's horn and turned its head to face him again, gesturing to the puffy muzzle in its maw. "Try answering without this guy filling your head with nonsense."
The sight of it made Jakob cringe again, but it was a lot less scary now that he knew it was harmless. He finally met his trauma eye to eye, both staring at each other, as if in silent conversation. The self-doubt and the guilt finally had nothing to say.
So he tried to think up an answer. "I could've... I... maybe... well..." He went quiet. He couldn't.
That was a plus in Frazie's book. She offered the man a sympathetic smile. "I can't make you forgive yourself, but I've at least got this rascal under control. So hey, how about you relax and sleep on it?"
Sleep on it. That sounded... that sounded heavenly. Yes. He could worry about things later... after a well-deserved rest. Before he'd realized it, he was already laying down again, his body filled with a comfort he hadn't felt in a long while. "Good... good idea." Slowly, his eyes shut, the clouds in the distance staying silent this time. "Good... night..."
He was out in an instant, and there was nothing to disturb him this time. Frazie planned to keep it that way, giving the Night-Mare's horn another sharp tug. "Now behave, you. You don't want me to come back with a saddle and muzzle. Might even see if I can find a way to braid your mane..."
The thought of her contorting the arms on its neck into a new hairdo made the creature whinny softly in fear. It'd comply, for its own sake.
Even the Night-Mare seemed tired of this whole debacle - or maybe it just wanted to recover from their fight. Slowly, it left Frazie's side and trudged over to Jakob's. She tensed up, expecting it to pull something, maybe try to wake him up. Yet, it simply laid down by the side of his bed and shut its glowing eyes for a nap of its own. She'd still keep it muzzled for good measure, but for the foreseeable future, Jakob would live alongside his trauma instead of letting it overwhelm him... and without its constant nagging, he might finally realize on his own he wasn't as responsible for his crimes as he thought.
Frazie looked up in the distance. The cloudy cluster was as dark as ever, but there wasn't a single flash or boom to be heard. His thoughts were still troubled, and it might still be hard to get to sleep... but when he finally reached slumberland, nothing would interrupt him anymore.
Peace had finally returned to the dreamland. Giving the unusual pair one last glance, Frazie cracked open her smelling salts and inhaled deeply.
Frazie gave her head a good jiggle back in reality. She shook off any lingering sleepies until she was fully awake again. Even with all the action, that place made her want a little shut eye.
But how was Jakob faring?
The portal on his forehead had shut, but the man laid still. Was he already out? Cautiously, Frazie reached for the little doorway.
Jakob jerked up with a start. "Gah!"
"Gah!"
The portal tumbled into his lap whilst they were yelping at each other. Frazie looked at it, then back to him, her brow furrowing. "Are you, uh... are you okay?"
He wasn't okay... but he would be. The broken trance had startled him, but now that it'd passed, his fatigue hit him like a truck. And there wasn't a single thing keeping him from giving into it.
"At... last..." One second he was upright, the next, he'd completely collapsed, not even bothering to get into a comfortable position before passing out. He had just enough energy to murmur one last little thing. "Thank... you..."
Frazie watched, half-expecting him to jolt upright again... but nope, he was out for real this time. He likely would be for a couple days, too. He had a LOT of sleep to catch up on, and he'd earned every second of it.
Even though she couldn't have waked him if she tried, Frazie still didn't make any sudden movements as she retrieved her portal. Now she just needed to clear the bed. She was tough, but he was still a full-grown man - at best, she'd risk dropping him if she tried to lift him in her arms. Thankfully, she had other ways.
Her mind effortlessly hoisted him up, the man's arms and legs dangling as she transported him over to a different cot. She laid him out, making sure he actually had decent posture this time.
There. She turned to go, her way forward finally open... but she stopped, glancing back. With another flick of Telekinesis, she grabbed a blanket from the floor and spread it out over him. All nice and tucked in. "Sweet dreams," she whispered, turning to go.
"SNNNNNRRRRRRRRK." He responded with the most ear-splitting snore she'd ever heard.
She grimaced, giving him another look. "Eugh." Pretending she hadn't heard that, she took a few steps back before racing for the newly opened cot.
Like the gymnast she was, she leapt and bounced off it, springboarding high into the air. Just like she'd hoped, the little extra oomph was all she'd needed to make it through the hole in the ceiling.
Landing with her front half over the edge, she caught herself. She pulled herself up the rest of the way with a grunt. Dusting her outfit off, she carried on her way to the next floor. Now that she'd put that problem to bed, it was finally time to resume her ascent.
But little did Frazie know, the real nightmare was just ahead.
We're halfway there, now. Two patients to go... and I provided a couple hints for what they'll involve throughout Jakob's chapters! One subtle, one not-so-subtle. Before that, though, I miiiiight do a mini-chapter or two after this one, focus on what some of the other characters are doing, break up the constant mental adventure with something a bit more grounded. But only if I can come up with a way to do it that adds to the story instead of distracting from it! So we probably won't see Lili and Dogen's humorous brain hunting escapades, but you might just see something else. I have a couple ideas, but I make no guarantees they'll pan out. Whether the next chapter is more inmate escapades or a peek elsewhere, though, see you soon!
Also, another reminder that if you want to see an analysis of the world, its host, and various other interesting tidbits, check the story out on Archiveofourown! As I said before, I do a little write-up after each explored mind to go over my thoughts while writing, any scrapped bits, and other fun facts.
