The crowd around town has thinned considerably since this morning, so you reach the intersection near the bridge within fifteen minutes. Traffic is also considerably – no - drastically lighter as well. In fact, there are almost no cars on the road at all. It almost seems to you as if people are deliberately trying to avoid the area...

You quickly shake that thought from your head. What reason could there be for that? From the looks of things, there's nothing strange or out of the ordinary going on around here. A lot of people must have just decided to take a different route home today, that's all.

With that resolved, you cross the intersection towards the bridge in hopes of finding Mariko somewhere along it. That's where she appeared to be heading this morning when she fell into that trance-like state. Come to think of it, she was awfully evasive when you asked her if anything was wrong. Hopefully the reason is inconsequential.

However, the minute you set foot on the bridge, you know that something isn't right. Shivers race from your head down to your toes, like you were just submerged in a tub of freezing ice water. The air itself feels…prickly, as if tiny shocks were igniting along your exposed skin as it moves. For a moment, your hearing becomes muddy, and the sounds of the city – cars, horns, the tinny voice of the walk signs at the streetlights, the voices of people – are muffled, bubbling at the very edges of your senses. But as you walk along the bridge, it begins to focus itself again, yet the only sound you can hear is the rippling of water as it moves below you. Still, there's no sign of Mariko.

Then, at the moment you lift your shoe to take the first step onto sidewalk on far side of the bridge, sharp pain suddenly engulfs your body! It spreads rapidly from your solar plexus, expanding to seemingly affect the ending of every nerve you have.

"I art thou."

The voice is deep and commanding, ringing in your mind like the peal of a massive bell. It rips through your mind with the force and intensity of a jet engine, and then, like the shockwave from an explosion, spreads to every extremity with an uncomfortable prickling sensation.

"Thou art I."

This proclamation detonates within you with even more strength than the last, to the point where it almost feels like your body and soul are being separated from one another. You clasp your hands to your head and drop to one knee, shaking yourself in a vain attempt to reclaim control.

Then, as quickly as it came, it ceases, and you're left kneeling on the ground gasping for breath. It barely lasted an instant, but it feels as though you've been writhing there for an hour. As you rise to your feet, you wonder if you're getting sick, but when you realize what's happened to the world around you, it seems like the least of your worries.

Before you is an imposing, golden wrought-iron gate that you're positive wasn't ever there before. And it's not the only thing. Beyond it, asphalt streets have given way to quaint roads paved with white brick, where there were once towering buildings and bustling shops, low, squat suburban houses have taken their place. Statues of angels line the street, tireless stone sentinels devoted to monitoring all those who wish to pass. In the distance, the Earth seems to defy its own rules as the path rises, branches, and twists into gravity-defying zig-zags that race towards islands suspended in midair. Above, the sky has turned a near-white shade of blue, and lavender clouds scud gently across its surface.

Awestruck, you stumble towards the gate and lightly press on it with one hand. It's not at all heavy, and swings open invitingly with just that one touch.

You hesitate at the entrance, staring with your mouth agape and trying desperately to make sense of what you're seeing. There's absolutely no way that you could really be experiencing what you're seeing right now. There was no sign of any of this from the other side of bridge. How could it just pop into existence? It must have something to do with that strange sensation you experienced on the bridge, but you can't seem to think of a suitable explanation that connects the two.

Another thought dawns on you while you consider the circumstances leading up to your finding yourself here: did whatever just happened to you happen to Mariko this morning? When you caught her with her eyes half-closed, stumbling about like she was half-asleep, was she experiencing the same things? Obviously, she hadn't felt the pain you did – you would have noticed if she had. But the way she looked and the way you felt are too similar to dismiss as coincidence. She must be somewhere around here…somewhere beyond this gate.

"Mariko-chan!" you call into the village beyond. No response. You'll have to go in after her.

A part of you is scared out of your wits to set foot in a strange, unfamiliar place like this, especially one that just appeared out of thin air. It can't exist, and it shouldn't exist. But it does, and no matter how many times you pinch yourself, you're not waking up from this dream. But your curiosity is overpowering your fear, and what's more, something is telling you that this is something you were meant to do.

Fate.

The word echoes through your mind, resonating and intensifying in power like a tuning fork until you can no longer hold back. You made a promise to find Mariko, one you intend to keep, regardless of how strange your circumstances are.

Taking a deep breath, you steel yourself and step over the threshold.

Almost instantly, a shriek rises above the rooftops and an almost oppressive force presses against your body, causing you to take a step back. Somewhere in between the rows of houses in the distance, a plume of what looks like black smoke erupts accompanied by another wretched wail. It rises high into the sky like a signal, churning and undulating for what seems like an eternity before dissipating in a light breeze. You instinctively take a step backwards, only to discover that the gate has shut itself behind you and won't budge. Another plume of smoke rockets into the sky, this time much closer.

You have no idea what it is, but one thing is immediately obvious as another shriek and tower of smoke punctuates the sky only a couple hundred feet from you: it's coming for you.

That, coupled with a fresh wave of fear-induced adrenaline, forces your body to move before it's caught and killed. Of course, you don't know for sure what is chasing you, but your intuition is screaming at you that it wants you dead for daring to set foot here.

You consider trying to hop the gates, but you can't bring yourself to stay put for even a second longer. Not only that, but leaving that thing behind would also mean leaving Mariko with it, and that's something you simply can't convince yourself to do.

Instead, you reason that it would be easiest to lose your pursuer in the maze of lanes that run in between the myriad houses. However, the second you turn down one of the streets, the shrieks start coming in quicker intervals. You don't dare look behind you to confirm it, but you bet that the plumes of smoke are coming faster and closer as well.

The tapping of your sneakers on the bricks as you sprint sounds way too loud in your ears, and you just know that it's giving away your position to the horrible thing that's chasing you through the maze. The only thing you can do is push your body to its absolute limit and pray that you'll be able to outrun it. Once you've done that, then you can worry about finding Mariko and get the hell out of here.

You blast past hundreds of houses, careening down seemingly endless, uninhabited streets that all seem to be connected to one another. Eventually, the houses on either sight become indistinguishable beige blurs as you throw yourself further and further into this insidiously deceptive neighborhood. Planting your foot firmly into the pavement, you rapidly turn a corner into one of the streets only to be stopped dead in your tracks.

Crouching (or at least, it seems to be crouching; its anatomy is too different from your own to really be sure) only a few feet away at an intersection between two paths is some monstrous, smoking, oozing blob of what looks like black tar. Nearly as tall as you and twice as wide, it's planted itself right in the middle of the path with its back to you. It hasn't noticed you, probably because it looks like it's preoccupied with some other task. Its back arches and shudders violently causing the surface of its body to quiver grotesquely. With each horrible lurch, it emits a guttural shriek similar to the ones that came from the other, but much lower, as if they were passed through one of those sound filters designed to protect peoples' identities on TV. You're reminded of a stray cat hunching over a freshly caught bird, and all at once, you understand what it's doing.

It's eating something.

Your mind immediately assumes the worst, that it must have caught Mariko. Although you're about ready to soil yourself in fear of this…thing, you summon up whatever remaining bastions of courage you have left to creep delicately to the left to allow yourself a better view. Fortunately, when the front of the creature comes into view, you can tell that it's not Mariko that it's devouring. However, you immediately wish that you hadn't been so curious.

The creature doesn't have a face so much as it has, well, you suppose a mask would be the best way to describe it. A slab of polished metal in the shape of a sunburst appears to have been affixed to the blob, pressed onto it like a decoration in some hideous black dough. Two small slits for eyes like black teardrops are cut from the sides. It could be that you just aren't looking at the right angle to see them, but from here it doesn't look as if there are any eyes peering out from the behind it.

However, it is the rows of massive, tombstone teeth protruding from the bottom of the mask in a wretched, demented grin that make you hesitate to truly call it one. It's both a mask and a face, which is honestly twice as awful as either one alone. Each time the creature bends over to rip another chunk from its prey, it pulls its gleaming "lips" back to bare those horrible teeth before taking another massive, messy bite.

From what you can tell, the thing it's eating is another creature like it, only much smaller and evidently, much weaker. The sight would make you vomit if you weren't so worried that it would hear you retching. Whatever these…abominations are, they're hungry enough to feast on each other. What would they do if they got ahold of you?

You haven't heard any shrieks from the one that was chasing you before in a while, and neither have you caught sight of any more smoke geysers above the rooftops. For now, the best choice would be to back away quietly and carefully from this creature while it's preoccupied.

Beads of sweat trickle down your face and soak the collar of your shirt as you take each silent, controlled step backwards and away from the creature. Craning your head to look behind you, you notice a narrow alleyway in between a couple of the houses that you might be able to squeeze through. It's only a few feet away, and if you can reach it, you should be able to hide there until the creature finishes and leaves.

You begin to make your way over towards the alley, but as you do, the creature makes an ugly sighing sound, and its mask-face rolls upwards on its gelatinous body towards the sky. It then lets loose a cacophonous shriek that blasts into the sky and echoes down in between every house for miles. It attacks your eardrums with such force that it causes you to suddenly clutch your ears in midstep.

The sudden imbalance sends you tumbling right onto your rear end, clutching your ears in pain until the ringing subsides. If it were to turn around, it certainly wouldn't have a hard time capturing you, and you'd end up just like that smaller creature. Fortunately, the pain dissipates fairly quickly, allowing you to softly rise to your feet and head for the alleyway again. This time, you don't care whether or not you can see if it's coming after you, you turn yourself around so that you can reach the alley as quickly as possible. And as you do so, an enormous pillar of smoke erupts in front of you, and an ear-splitting shriek cuts through the stillness.

As you figured, the thing that was chasing you looks just like the one behind you at the intersection, and when you turn back around, you're mortified to discover that it's spotted you now as well and is lurching towards you!

Your survival instincts kick in once again, and you make a break for the alley, pumping your legs for all their worth. Just inches from the mouth of the alley, a thick, black tendril darts forward from the creature that was chasing you, and the end takes the shape of a long, bony hand. It reaches for your head, but at the last second you have the presence of mind to drop to the ground and slide under it into the shelter of the alley.

Both creatures slam into each other, grabbing, squealing, and scrabbling with elongated tendril arms into the cramped entryway, desperately trying to latch on to some part of your body in order to drag you out. You flip onto your rear end and scramble further back into the confined space. You don't dare take your eyes off of them anymore. However, your back hits a solid wall far sooner than you'd like. Looking up, the wall is too tall for you to climb, especially with those things getting closer with every second. There's nowhere to run or hide now. The only thing you can do now is wait to die.

One of the creatures then finally relinquishes a bit of space to the other, allowing it to reach further into the alley and wrap its hand around your ankle. Its grip is ridiculously strong for something so brittle-looking, and without any exertion at all, it forcefully hoists you into the air and flings you out of the alleyway and into a flowerbed on the other side of the street.

Petals explode around you as you crash down into the soil and skid through the dirt into the wall of the house behind you. The force of the impact robs the air from your lungs, and you can just barely sit up in time enough to see the tendril flying towards you at tremendous speed. With as much strength as you can muster, you roll your battered body to the left, and the tendril smashes harmlessly into the ground beside you, kicking up a spray of soil into your face. But just as soon as you've dodged that, the creature has already cocked its appendage back for another strike. You try to stand up so that you can try to maneuver around them and down the street, but your legs have turned to jelly, and as soon as you get upright, your knees buckle and the tendril slams into your side with cruel force.

The impact sends you spiraling to the ground where you land face-first in the dirt. Propping yourself up on your elbows, pain lances through your side where the creature struck you, forcing you to drop back to the ground howling. Colors pop in front of your eyes, and your head is positively swimming. As you roll yourself face up, you can see the creatures advancing you, their shining teeth gnashing in anticipation beneath those pitch black eye slits.

This is it. This is how you're going to die, in a strange place, devoured by eldritch masked monsters, and no one will know how it happened. All of a sudden, in the face of certain death, your life seems starkly, pathetically unfulfilling. There is nothing you've done that you're proud of. Not even your guitar playing has gone anywhere. You've never kissed a girl, graduated high school, made a real friend, planned for a career…and now you never will.

"No…" you breathe. Your voice sounds wavering and pleading in your ears.

"No, no…please no…I don't want to die," you gasp, pulling yourself backwards against the wall of the house. The creatures are nearly upon you, and their heavy breathing suffocates your senses.

"I don't want to die. I don't want to die."

This litany of desperation seems futile; meaningless to the monsters that continue to advance upon you and pathetic to your ears as they escape your lips.

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" you scream. "GODDAMMIT, GIMME ANOTHER CHANCE!"

And then, time itself seems to freeze. All sounds cease, the creatures halt in their tracks. The stillness is overwhelming. And then, the voice returns.

"Thou art I! And I am thou. In the sea of thine soul I sleep, Launcelot, knight of the lake! If thou wouldst conquer fear, summon me to thine side!"

Its voice rebounds inside your head millions of times in that one instant, and you know exactly what to do. The word leaps into your head, and repeats itself constantly as if begging for release from your tongue. And without thinking, it then escapes your lips, three syllables whispered as if in prayer:

"Per-"

"So-"

"Na."

A harsh light pours forth from the skies above, causing the creatures to recoil and writhe in pain. The sound of whistling wind causes you to look towards the sky behind you just in time to witness an enormous object plummet through the air and into the house, crushing almost half of it.

You stare up at it in awe, wondering if it was really you that did this. It's a gigantic card, emblazoned with the picture of a man with a bag slung over his shoulder.

"The Fool." The voice surfaces from somewhere deep in your memory.

Then, as if damaged by the sudden impact with the ground, shining cracks race across the surface of the card, and it shatters into countless pieces. The debris begins to swirl in the air behind you, a cascade of glimmering, ethereal material. Little chunks of it begin to stick together, and bit by bit, something begins to form from the pieces. A leg, an armored torso, a shield, a helmet with a plume of flowing horsehair; the silhouette of a knight is beginning to take shape, floating there in front of your very eyes! The last pieces then come together like a puzzle, and the summoning is complete.

Before you now floats an armored knight equipped with a massive lance and shield. Its entire face, save for a thin pair of lips, is obscured by a pointed visor. Long, straight black hair falls over a ragged red cape that flutters in some invisible breeze. It rapidly flexes its limbs outwards like a star with a booming shout, and a wave of energy ripples through the air, raising goosebumps on your arms and causing the creatures to cower and hiss.

Launcelot. It feels like it's been with you – inside of you – for a very long time. You can sense the same sort of presence in it as the monsters in front of you – both possess a foreign, powerful aura about them. But where the creature is threatening and malevolent, you instantly feel confident and rejuvenated with Launcelot. Even your side doesn't hurt anymore.

Rising to your feet, you turn around to face the creatures and look over your shoulder to Launcelot.

"You…are you here to help me?"

Launcelot nods. It's much less talkative outside of your mind, apparently.

"Then…with you, I can take these things, right?"

Launcelot smiles.

You can't help but grin as well. It's all you needed to know.

You reach behind your head and pull your guitar out of its soft case. You don't have a real weapon, so unfortunately, your baby will have to do in a pinch. But a guitar can be replaced, your life can't. Besides, if nothing else, Pete Townshend would approve.

You advance on the creatures, which shrink from you with each step. As their fear grows, your confidence rises. You've been chosen – by whom or why you have no clue – to have this power, and with it you can save yourself and Mariko from this place.

"All right," you yell, "who's first?!"

As if sensing your intention to rumble, one of the creatures makes a desperate lunge you, perhaps hoping to take you unawares. Steadying your breath, you adopt a lower stance and swing your guitar at it like a golf club with all of your might. It connects with a satisfying thwack, taking an entire chunk off of its gelatinous body and sending it soaring through the air where it dissipates into black smoke before hitting the ground. Surprisingly, your guitar isn't even harmed by the impact. You had no idea you had this much strength.

The thing itself tumbles to the ground, a quivering heap of black ooze. Its mask slithers across the surface of its body until it faces you again, and it howls with anger. Evidently, it doesn't take too kindly to being challenged by its food.

The creature sprouts a number of thin appendages this time and thrusts at you with all of them at once. As they soar through the air towards you, they quiver and reform themselves into the shape of gleaming, onyx-black broadswords. On pure instinct, you shut your eyes and raise your arm to shield yourself, even though there's no way that your clothing will protect you from the blades. However, not a single one touches you. When you open your eyes, Launcelot has moved in front of you with his shield raised, and the creature is frantically (but fruitlessly) hacking against it with all its might, the gooey blades glancing off in showers of sparks and harsh clangs. Finally, the creature pulls back all its tendrils and catapults them towards Launcelot all at once. Launcelot braces itself and pushes its shield into the strike. The blades slam point first into the metal and shake violently as the creature pours all its strength into piercing Launcelot's defensive magic. However, with one movement, Launcelot easily turns all the blades aside with its shield, leaving the creature completely vulnerable.

Launcelot hefts its lance in front of it and darts towards the creature's exposed visage. The point of the lance buries itself in between its teeth and sinks in even further when Launcelot applies more pressure. With one more push, Launcelot pierces through the creature entirely, splitting it into two pieces. The halves of the creature momentarily fall still before it emits one more ear-splitting shriek and disintegrating into a cloud of black smoke. The halves of its mask clang harmlessly to the ground in its wake.

The first of your assailants dead, you turn your attention to the other, which appears to be deciding whether or not to try its luck or escape. The way you see it, it doesn't have an option.

"You're not getting away! Launcelot!" you shout.

Launcelot swiftly pivots about to face the creature. Its body begins to shimmer with a supernatural greenish aura, and with a swipe of its lance into the air, massive blades of wind rip through the air towards the creature. Upon contact, they shear its body into four pieces, all of which collapse into puddles of murk before bursting into puffs of smoke like the other one.

Its job complete, Launcelot returns to the ground and strides up to you. Looking into its eyes, you can see nothing but yourself reflected in them. Launcelot places one mailed hand on your shoulder, and then dissipates in a flash of blue light. As it fades, a bright blue butterfly, the only recognizable living thing you've seen since you entered, flaps gently around your head before alighting on your hand. It rests there for a few seconds, its fragile wings lightly rising and falling. You've never seen one quite like it before. Well, you've seen pictures of blue butterflies, but none quite like this one. Its blue is practically luminescent. It's somehow reassuring to look at, as if it were a sign telling you that you're going to make it out of here alive. It remains on your hand just long enough for you to consider why it's even here before taking off into the sky and out of sight.

All of a sudden, you feel exhausted. In the heat of the fight, you hadn't paid it any mind, but just being in here is beginning to make you feel sleepy. You give your head a shake and your face a couple of slaps to ward off the feeling. Even though you might have gotten out of a tussle with those creatures in once piece, you bet that Mariko wouldn't be so lucky without the kind of power you have.

Your power…where on Earth did all of that come from?

There's not much doubt that it was you that summoned Launcelot to protect you. In a way, you think it was also you that directed it to protect you and attack those monsters. And while you were fighting with Launcelot, you yourself were much stronger. You doubt you could have done what you did to that monster with only your guitar otherwise. Flashes of your conversation on that boat – the Velvet Room – and shades of another conversation half-remembered bubble to the surface of your thoughts. Is this what they meant about potential? This power, the mysterious appearance of this village beyond the bridge, those monsters…none of it makes a lick of sense to you, yet somehow, you feel tied into it all. If you ever make it out of here, you'll need to make a point to make another visit and get those two to tell you what all this mess is all about…somehow. You haven't worked out the specifics. At any rate, the task at hand comes first.

You'd like to know how large this place is, but it's impossible to tell from down here on the street. None of the houses around here are particularly tall, but if you could make it onto the roof of one of them, it'd be a nice start.

On the inside, the houses are almost entirely empty. Well, devoid of life, at least. The furnishings are bland and a little shabby – tatami mat flooring, a small kitchen sans dishwasher, one TV set, a tattered couch, and three plainly-furnished bedrooms upstairs. It reminds you of your relatives' house, the ones who live in the country. Just enough to support a modest-sized family. However, instead of being full of life; the smell of cooking food, chatter between parents and children, and the low hum of the TV, it's empty as school on Sunday and silent as a crypt. The effect unsettles you, so you don't hang around for long and instead venture up to one of the bedrooms in search of a window.

The one closest to the stairs has a couple that slide open rather easily. Gingerly placing your guitar on the couch below the sill, you hoist yourself through the window backwards and grab hold of the edge of the roof. Surprisingly, you're able to heave yourself up to the roof with relative ease. You don't remember being this strong before. You seem to remember having a hard time even doing one pull up in Gym. You wonder if this is because of Launcelot as well.

Atop the roof, a quick survey of the area reveals something that you were afraid of: the maze of houses is extensive. However, off in the distance and to your right a little ways, one structure rises up out of the sea of squat country homes. It's easily ten times the size of anything in the area or on any of the low-hanging islands in the sky, and scanning the area around it, you notice that all of the larger, main roads run right towards it, including the one leading down from the gate where you entered. While you're up here, you try to see if you can spy anything familiar beyond it, but all there is is more of the blue abyss. It's like you're trapped in a little girl's snow globe.

A sigh escapes your lips. One problem after another. You glance at your watch, but the hands are spinning wildly, making it effectively useless. Not that it matters at this point. By now this has got to be the latest you've been out after school anyways. Mom probably won't care; if you do manage to escape, you'll probably make it home before her anyways. Dad'll chew you out, though.

But before you can consider escape, you'll have to find Mariko first. You decide that the large building would be a decent place to start, as anything that breaks up the monotony of this place deserves investigation.