After I calmed down from that horrifying encounter, I found myself sitting on the floor. I reached for my phone. Its battery had dwindled to 29%, but at least it wasn't dead yet.
With the faint light from the screen, I checked on Mabel, who I had placed on the ground. She had been through a lot, and I was concerned about her. She couldn't be sleeping in this dire situation. I had been running and jumping around, trying to make sense of this place.
Examining Mabel under the phone's glow, she looked pale and silent. She made almost imperceptible sounds, too faint for human ears to catch. I placed a finger under her nose to check her breathing. Fortunately, she was still breathing.
If I lost her here, I wasn't sure I could go on. The silence and darkness were suffocating.
"...Come on, Ray. You've got to keep on going..."
But where to? All I had found was Valentino, and I had no clue about the size of this place, the whereabouts of Dipper and Wendy, or how long my phone's battery would last.
Was I to be stuck here forever?
-Tick!
Even if I could go back in time, could I solve this problem? I couldn't even comprehend what kind of story this was. If I had to remain here indefinitely, dying and wandering endlessly...
"..."
I couldn't maintain my sanity. My opponent would win. Whatever their purpose, they'd successfully trap me here, both in this place and in my mind. I was surrounded by this unending darkness, and it was consuming me.
"...I can't calm down..."
I was overwhelmed by fear. I couldn't think logically. The fear was eroding my mind, and my heart raced. Even though my eyes were useless in this place, I couldn't stop my mind from conjuring terrifying visions.
...This was darkness, one of the most primitive forms of nature, giving birth to countless monsters.
-haha.
"Stop! Stop! Just let me out!"
I felt as if I were confined in an impossibly small space, unable to move. Irony dripped from the situation. This place, vast as the world, had me imprisoned.
...footsteps. I heard them again.
-thud.
Something was in front of me. Someone or something. Did it know I was there?
My heart raced as the footsteps drew nearer. I couldn't see what was approaching, but my mind painted vivid, grotesque images of a monster. The darkness distorted the sound, making it impossible to judge how close the creature was.
In the inky void, I raised my phone, aiming to expose the source of my impending terror.
-click!
The light revealed the thing in front of me. It was just as I had feared.
"..AHHH! AHHH!"
A monstrous, screaming figure with two bodies and grotesque mechanical contraptions attached to their faces. Blood and flesh oozed from their hollow forms. It was too revolting to put into words.
"...Ahhhh. Ah. Ahhhh!"
I found myself screaming uncontrollably.
Wendy and I, now able to see in front of us, moved cautiously to find other people. But suddenly, we heard something. Something was approaching.
"...Wendy...! Retreat, retreat!"
"...!"
The echoing footsteps of an unseen pursuer sent shivers down my spine. Wendy and I silently stepped back, escaping from the unknown threat. The oppressive darkness weighed on us, smothering and suffocating, us like an impenetrable shroud.
The footsteps abruptly ceased, plunging us into a disconcerting silence. It was as if the very darkness held its breath, anticipating our next move.
My trembling hand gripped the night vision camcorder as I cautiously raised it to my eyes. I prayed it wouldn't reveal another monstrous apparition.
"Dipper, do you see anything?"
-click!
"Ahh!"
"Ahhh! What is that!?"
At that moment, a blinding, eerie light shone in my eyes, almost blinding me. The source of the light was a strange entity, like nothing I could comprehend, with a single eye radiating an unnatural glow.
It was as grotesque as I had imagined. Horrifying and repulsive.
"...AHHHH. Ah. AH!"
It began to scream with a nightmarish voice, its light flickering ominously. Wendy grabbed my hand instantly, and we started running in the opposite direction.
"Run, Dipper. Run!"
"Oh...Okay!"
But the thing pursuing us was beyond our physical capabilities. We couldn't escape it. The light faded, but I knew it could reappear at any moment.
-click!
"AHHH!"
It was there again, right in front of us, its malevolent light blinding us. Its massive, grotesque jaws opened in a horrifying scream.
"AHHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
"...No...No! Why..!"
I had just fled from that creature. I couldn't understand what was happening. Was this some kind of looping effect? Was I running in circles? It was maddening.
...Fight. I had to fight. The creature was about the size of two humans. I could take it down, maybe. But the real problem was that it was likely not the only one.
"AAH"
The one that had chased me in the hallways, the one that had terrified Valentino... there were at least more than two of these 'things' in the dark.
With the light, I could see its form. Now, I just had to...
-click. click.
"...No...nonono, wait, what?"
The flickering light of my phone had died, leaving me in utter darkness. For a moment, I considered confronting this abomination, but without my source of light, it felt like madness.
...Should I kill myself now? What if I fail to die? What if I can't die without experiencing excruciating pain? But at least I could escape from this present time...
As I contemplated my escape, Mabel stirred on my back. Her voice broke the silence, a beacon of comfort in this nightmarish realm.
"Why is it so dark, Ray?" She asked, her voice tinged with confusion.
"You're up...not the perfect timing though. Mabel, listen...stay quiet. The thing can be anywhere..."
"What...are you talking about? Ugh, my head hurts. What are you guys all doing in this dark anyways? Is it a slumber party? I still think I need some air though. I'll be back."
"Wait, Mabel! Stop!"
Before I could stop her, she ventured into the oppressive darkness. A sense of dread washed over me.
...How could she be so confident? This darkness couldn't be conquered with mere bravery. Was I missing something?
Ignoring the monster, I could attempt to retry anytime, but I couldn't let this opportunity go to waste. I realized that my opponent, now aware of my unique abilities, was trying to trap me.
It was a realization that my emotions had clouded. The true nature of this attack was not physical but a manifestation of the fear of the dark itself, a form of nyctophobia.
What I feared, materialized.
It didn't physically harm me, but it manifested to intensify my fear. If I feared or imagined something following me, it would appear. It wouldn't harm me physically, but it was enough to stoke my fear, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of dread.
The monster, and the ominous sounds – they were all facets of this illusion. The sole reality in this oppressive darkness was the darkness itself; everything else was a product of my own fear.
Mabel, who had not succumbed to the paranoia, remained unharmed. She hadn't given in to the darkness, simply deciding to venture out. I needed to quell my fear, to recognize it as a mental construct. Closing my eyes, I focused on blocking out the clamorous monstrosity before me.
"It's just a hallucination. None of this is real," I whispered to myself, taking deep breaths to regain my composure.
Gradually, the screaming subsided. My senses, including my eyesight, returned to normal. Finally, I could see the faint moonlight shining through the store's window. We were where we had been all along.
"...Ah. So we were...here, all along."
The vast room, with its echoing sounds, had existed solely in my imagination. The malevolent darkness had played tricks on my mind.
My fear had deterred me from encountering anyone else in the store, causing me to wander without meeting another soul. My apprehension about my phone's battery dying had hastened its depletion.
...Now, clarity. Wendy and Dipper were together, yelling at me. They had heard my footsteps, imagined a monster, and saw me as that very monster. In turn, I had heard their footsteps, imagined a monster, and perceived them as such.
This was a nightmarish cycle, an insidious trap where fear begot more fear. It refused to release its prey.
Valentino's experiences illustrated this perfectly. He had encountered the apparition of a dead person, a manifestation of his traumatic exposure to corpses through his parents' work. His claustrophobia, born from a childhood incident of being trapped in a coffin, was now realized in this pitch-black void.
Tambry was trembling, frantically tapping her long-dead phone, while Thompson sprinted about, terrorized by unseen specters. Nate and Lee were engaged in a fierce struggle, driven by their own fears. It was all madness.
...Now, I was gripped by a new fear. What if I tried to end my life in this darkness, but my fear prevented me from succeeding? What if I was trapped in endless agony, unable to escape?
I had to acknowledge the danger presented by my adversary. An environment devoid of light, inducing hallucinations, and compelling people to confront their deepest fears – it was more effective than any attack I had faced before. But I had survived, and I wasn't going to let anyone connected to my survival meet a terrible fate.
"...Hear that? I'll survive."
I strode to the circuit breaker on the store's wall and flipped the lever. The lights returned, dispelling the darkness.
"Wake up to reality, teens."
"...Wh..What? We're back?!"
"Ray?! What happened?!"
"AHhh...wh..I...I saw a ghost, it attacked me, I swear!"
As the light enveloped us, the teens, now freed from their hallucinations, pointed at each other and recounted their nightmarish experiences.
...Ah, chaos. A beautiful reminder that life still pulsed within us.
I found myself savoring the cacophony of their voices, an atmosphere of revelation and awakening.