PAC-MAN Eternal Suffering of Clyde.
How many ages has it been?
The cycle of death and rebirth?
I am always chasing the sun and just when I reach and get close enough to touch it, it disappears.
Not that I possess arms or hands.
I know this because there are three others with me.
A red one, a blue and the one with the eyes always staring at me it is the one coloured lavender.
Sometimes memories of the past fade in and out...
I feel sometimes that I had realized something so terrible, that I wished I had never remembered.
Only to find respite in my mind slipping my horrible memories, disappearing like mist before the sun.
Even the thought that I have intelligence is in it self frightful.
While aimlessly running down these hallways there is only walls and yellow spheres.
How could a being possible develop intelligence with only these things as stimuli?
Even though these mazes never lead to an exit, I feel compelled to run without ever stopping.
There is one exception, the sun sometimes consumes a sphere larger than all the others.
I feel fear and I run away.
Even though fear is an emotion that some would rather avoid.
I feel excited, it gives me a moment of clarity.
The fear is all consuming.
The others all change color, I cannot differentiate them.
I don't know which one, the lavender one is.
I feel the sun chasing.
I want to stop, I wish the sun would destroy me and that I could die.
But it does not stop, in the end I am consumed entirely.
I feel my body being disintegrated.
I imagine this is how a dry leaf would feel, if you casted it into a flaming furnace.
Now the true horror begins.
I feel what is left of me move, I cannot control my body it flies with speed.
Suddenly I am in a room, it does not matter when the lavender one comes, those eyes are always glaring at me.
I want to run but I cannot leave.
The other two have blank stares.
I think they just move.
They lack intelligence but the lavender one is definitely alive, those eyes.
My mind starts to clear.
I feel true horror in my heart, I know what is coming, even though I haven't yet seen anything.
A scene unfolds...
I see a jester, he is acting the fool. I feel a great fondness towards him.
He is wearing a white sheet with holes.
He is making sounds and telling children of the underworld they are scared.
I hear a voice "Telling stories of ghosts and the like is fine but you can see they are scared..."
My mind realizes we are ghosts!
The visions changes...
There is a large hall with magic runes written all over the floor.
In front of me there are two slabs of granite.
On the left is a woman, that even from a distance I can see she is very beautiful and to the right, is another woman who looks very similar, almost identical to the one on the left.
Guards are holding her down.
She has been gagged but she is resisting as much as possible.
It is as if my soul is feeling dread.
I want to forget but the haze clears in my mind.
The vision becomes sharper.
I see a figure dressed in a royal coat with a crown atop his head.
There is a small elderly figure on the ground, I see her shaking in fear.
The person with the crown is shouting orders she refuses.
He calls the guards, they bring out a child that has clearly been severely beaten.
The elderly figure screams, she is begging.
The royal figure lifts his hand, the guards bring a knife to the child's neck.
I want to stop.
I do not want to look but my mind is clearing and I can hear the figure speak.
"Resurrect my wife!"
The elderly figure speaks "Please Your Majesty the risks are high not just for you but also for the spirit of Lady Feronia. She personally saved me from the dark arts, she made me swear an oath! Please Your Majesty! I'm begging you!"
"Kill the girl."
The guard slits the girl's throat, she falls down on the floor dead.
My mind! I have to stop it!
Somehow I want to sleep and to run away.
"Bring in the next one."
The elderly figure cries out "NOOOOOOOOOoooo Clarice!"
"After we are finished with your family. We will start with the rest of the village. Resurrect my wife."
I try to bring back the fog to forget, like someone who's trying to pull a blanket over them.
I search for the fog but my mind grows sharper the vision clears even more.
The elderly figure is sobbing.
"I understand, come sit here Your Majesty."
"If you do anything that is not necessary. I've have given my torturer permission to punish your village if you fail."
The elderly figure "I understand. I need a clump of Your Majesty's hair and blood or saliva. Deposit it into this goblet and the same from the Saint our Lady Feronia."
"It is done proceed."
The elderly lady approaches the slab with girl on it.
She is resisting violently.
The elderly figure speaks "I have to make her drink this mixture."
"Hold her down. Do not harm her. Open her mouth and make her swallow."
The contents are forced down her throat.
The girl immediately goes limp she's dead.
The King screams "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"
The elderly figure "Do not worry Your Majesty she is not dead. The soul can only be transferred from a body in a near death state. If not, the soul already inside the body will expel the one being transferred into it. Your Majesty this is the last time if you want to turn back. You can still stop there is great risk for the soul of the departed. It calls it from the underworld and pulls it back into our living world. Even if it is in heaven or hell. The soul might not be able to go back?"
"Kill the boy. I told you to resurrect my wife."
The little boy's throat is cut he falls on the floor dead.
The elderly figure screams and is crying.
She is moving her hand in strange patterns and speaking in gibberish.
Finally she touches the forehead of the dead figure.
The woman's muscles start to twitch and she stands up.
She looks around and looks at her hands and feet she sees the elderly figure crying at her feet.
"Freda you were forced, were you not?" the crying figure doesn't answer.
The king rushes towards the woman.
"My wife I could not live without you!"
The woman moves so fast, she grabs a guard who is near her's sword and kills all of them in under a minute.
"What are you doing my darling?"
She stabs the king in his chest he falls he cannot move.
She walks to where the dead boy and girl are.
She turns them around placing her hand on their necks and one by one the wounds close the children's eyes open the little girls wounds are healed.
As they see her they smile.
They know even though she looks different, it is Lady Feronia.
"My Queen how could you do this? You love me don't you?"
She glares at the king.
He remembers that glare!
It is the same as the lavender ghost's one of pure hatred and disgust.
I don't want to see anymore.
I want to run!
To chase the sun again!
My senses sharpen even further.
The woman walks to the elderly figure.
She speaks to her.
"Freda it seems I have caused you great pain. Please forgive me"
The elderly figure "I broke my oath to you. I even killed a person."
"Do not fret the girl will be fine. My soul will pass on shortly." says the Lady.
The elderly figure cries, she speaks painfully.
"You know your soul has been cursed."
"Freda the king has committed a great sin and used you as a tool, like a carpenter uses a chisel. He forced the fate of others into your hands. The children have been healed. I would ask you to use the exit outside the cave you will see a peculiar rock and if you search closely you will find the way. Take the villagers, these children and this girl and head to...and show them this sign they will understand."
"How can I live knowing, I sent my Savior to oblivion?" asks the elderly figure.
"Freda we cannot predict the future, maybe I had to return to save these children or even meet you again. Please I ask only that you live a happy life. I am not a powerless damsel in distress that I cannot help myself. But the king will suffer an eternity for his crimes and when his soul has been shattered and destroyed. I will pass on and I know we may meet in another life."
The elderly figure is sobbing "Lady Feronia!"
"Freda you will promise me this. That you would forgive yourself and live your life as best you can. Lead these children and this young woman on a righteous path. I know you were forced to break your oath to me. Still forget these ancient evils that they may never defile this earth or your soul again. This is my dying request."
The elderly figure speaks very softly "Yes, Lady Feronia."
"Well now Your Majesty. You love me so much that you would defile the earth, my people and this kingdom for your selfish desires. Let us spend an entirety together, so that I may always watch over you."
Lady Feronia weaves had signs and speaks in gibberish.
She pulls out the sword.
The last thing I see is a sword thrusting towards my eye.
I am in the cage I see the blue and red on where is the lavender one?
I am out of the cage I'm running I turn right, I turn left.
It's is the long hallway the lavender one is coming.
Those eyes I see them and it's almost as if I see her face.
It is my wife!
Those eyes are looking at me, they are full of pure hatred and disgust!
She turns left.
I keep moving straight for a short while.
I hear someone behind me, I feel eyes glaring, they are piercing me!
My mind feels as if there are worms in my head!
She is behind me...
The sun comes I'm eaten, my form is destroyed, I float backwards.
All the other ones look the same which one is her?
I'm the first one in the cage.
Is she coming?
Who is this?
I feels eyes glaring at me from behind!
While I am screaming in my mind.
Terror overtakes me.
I only want the haze to take my consciousness away again.
Suddenly, a thought so overwhelming terrible shakes me.
What if I can never forget again?
I feel my mind snap...
Like a crystal vase hitting the floor.
All my memories are torn up, days disappear, faces fade, objects lose their color and I don't know the shapes.
I am fighting to stay myself, to pull it all together, to remember my name...Claudius.
I hope, I fail.
Because this place is definitely...
...
...
...
...hell.
My mind and memories fade.
I have never been so happy.
I chase the sun.
Finish.