Axia blinked, and as her eyes adjusted to the strange light the room came into focus. It was about as big as the living room, but it was split into six different sections. One was lively, with flora and fauna growing in wild bursts, animals creeping around the inside. One was a blank space, void of anything except for a single dot. Another was like the night sky, illuminated by an unseen light. The fourth was a sheet of Ice, glassy and transparent hinting at infinite snow beyond.One shone with a pink radiance, shimmering with small hearts passing through the doorway. The final door was blocked by a wall of flame, the entire span of the rainbow flickering through its colors. Everyone looked at each other, nodded and each went to their respective doors. It wasn’t like the hinting could be any more obvious. At Least that's what I thought until I saw our names was above each door. I sighed, then slowly walked into the night.
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The dot expanded as I walked into the oblivion surrounding it. I could sense the pressing darkness close the door behind me, leaving me in a strange space. I had feeling, yet I had no body. I could see, although I had no eyes. I could feel walls, yet none existed. It was like I was in an entirely invisible world, and I had just walked into it. I sighed, and while no sound came out I could still hear it.
I began to walk, or at least tried but it seemed like I was locked where I stood, giving me pause. Movement wasn’t a thing in this strange place, so how was I supposed to escape it? Doesn’t escaping imply moving? As the thought of movement flashed through my head though I felt myself drift, not in any direction but just randomly. “Ahh, so that's how it is,” I whispered to myself, then thought of moving towards the dot. I slowly felt myself drift in its general direction, but even so it seemed I wasn’t getting closer. I had figured out how to move, but not how to get closer.
I noticed there was a single visible thing in the corner, a ticking clock. Its hand rapidly switched color, and I recognized them as my eye colors. Red, blue, yellow, then that strange purple I had seen myself use in the future. I didn’t have eyes, I couldn’t change empty space’s color. The clock was ticking down, and I realized it was a timer. I had only three minutes to get to the dot, or I failed the escape room. I thought of running and I felt myself move faster, but not fast enough since the dot never got closer.
The space around me seemed to shift and ooze around my senses,then I realized I was starting to… feel, myself. In my mind’s eye I had imagined myself running down a corridor, like I would normally. It seemed this world was governed from my thoughts, because as I looked down I saw my body, and around me greasy black stones that resembled a medieval sewer’s, like I had imagined.
Then my mind finally realized the implications of these factors, and a smirk, mostly mental so I could actually feel my mouth stretch to make the expression, then imagine my eyes, pale and grey. As I continued to run I felt them manifest, and after a second turn yellow. The yellow on the clock faded out, now at 1 minute, and I felt myself suddenly move 10 times the speed I had before. It was a mental hassle, imagining the running, walls and eyes plus the yellow pigment all at the same time. But it was working, and as the seconds ticked down the dot got closer and closer.
When there was only 10 seconds left I reached the object, and stopped looking at it. It was like a star, but curved like a teardrop. The sound of the clock was audible now, and I stopped staring to quickly snatch the object. As soon as my hand touched the object I felt myself get thrown through the passage I had ran and into the starting room. A small pedestal had risen up from the ground, and after a second I fit the teardrop into the open space of the pedestal. It gave a ding noise, then began to glow white. I wonder how the others were doing…
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The flames tickled a bit as I passed through, and i stopped in the doorway to pass my fingers through a patch of flame. It flickered around my fingers, then I was through. The light behind me diminished, and I turned to see it had vanished, replaced by something looking like a black hole. That was most of the world actually, but a few seconds later I noticed the dark gravel round underfoot, and I began to walk. The area was quiet and devoid of life, and left me feeling… uncomfortable.
It reminded me of how I had felt till I met Morrow. Empty, void of friends or families and left to deal with my strange abilities alone. I had felt so, so alone in a world where I couldn’t talk to anyone. A world where I was passed through like a ghost. Only now, I couldn’t see anyone else and I truly, was alone. The darkness was oppressive, and I felt my arms wrap around myself on their own as a shiver passed down my spine. Then, distantly I heard crying.
It was soft and faint, but slowly I walked towards the sound, still clutching myself as a freezing wind slowly picked up. The cries slowly got louder and louder, and before long I saw a boy, young and frail hunched over a ditch. I started to run, and the wind picked up seeming to cut straight through me, chilling down to the bones. He had brown hair, was so skinny I could see his spine through his skin with torn up baggy pants on. He laid crying over a slumped figure, his small frail arms wrapped around the form. I felt dread building in my stomach like a lead weight as I got closer. “Are you alright little boy?” I asked softly, coming up behind him.
He turned his head so swiftly I was afraid it would snap, fearful wild blue eyes snapping onto me. He shrieked and curled even more on the form, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. “Why did you do it!?” He screamed, and the lead grew double in size. “Why did you kill grandpa!?”
“I-I didn’t!” I stammered, taking a step back. His hands clutched at the figures form, and I noticed the white hair and pudgy belly of the man. His eyes were closed with one hand clutched to his heart with a pained expression on his face.
The boy grabbed his grandfathers shirt and began to slowly shake him back and forth. “Grandpa… Grandpa please wake up…. Please I need you Grandpa…”
His eyes leaked tears that caught the darkness and glinted back at me evilly. I hadn’t even noticed I had fallen to my knees next to the boy, my emotions seeming to tear me from the inside out. The boy began to beat one frail hand at the mans chest, then one eye opened looking at me as he screamed, “You killed Grandpa! How could you he didn’t need to die! You monster!”
I couldn’t even respond, my lips felt stitched together as tears streamed down my own face. The child began to let out horrible, messy broken sobs as he rested his face on the old man’s shirt. I felt words circle around in my head, ones I had heard a while ago spoken by the one I had loved. “Is it alright to decide when someone dies and when someone lives? What gives that right to decide?” and as the words passed I slowly stopped crying. I came close, wrapped my arms around the child and held him. He seemed reluctant at first, then pressed to me still sobbing as I held him.
The weight in my chest slowly got lighter and lighter, and as the child’s sobs slowly died and he was left sniffling and staring blankly at the corpse of his grandfather I gently touched the old man’s chest. Then, with a gentle hand raised it. The boy’s eyes locked onto my hand as a ghostly vision of the old man rose out of his body following my hand, and after he was fully out gave a loud yawn. He slowly rolled in mid air, eyes closed before opening to focus on the child.
“Why boy why do you cry? There is no reason to cry for I am free, now I get to talk to your grandmother and finally give her that slow dance in heaven I had always promised,” he soothed, cupping the boy’s cheek with one hand. The boy stared at him wide eyed face alight with surprise. Then slowly he smiled, and nodded. Then there was a bright flash and the world was gone, and in my hand a black teardrop shaped gem shone with a wet glow. I sighed, breath still a bit shaky and slowly stood up. I managed to pass the test, I came over my guilt for the grieving.
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I frowned as the pink light blinded me momentarily before fading away, leaving me in what appeared to be a bedroom. On the bed sat a couple, one on each side facing away from one another. One stared dreamily forward, a dazed smile on her face while the man looked on worried, head resting in palm as he stared at his feet. They weren’t connected by a red thread, and I noticed the woman’s lead in the way she was looking while the man’s was off some other way, leading to a place far away. One happy, one sad both together.
After a hesitant moment I walked over and rested a hand on the woman’s head, then the man’s. The woman was fantasizing about her newest passion, someone who made her feel like she was the most amazing woman in the world and who she felt like she could love forever. Not a single one of her thoughts were on her boyfriend sitting only a few feet away, except for how he made the bed more uncomfortable to sit on with his weight. The man was worried about his girlfriend, wondering why things had been so different recently and why she never seemed to return the love he gave her. He felt like his hands made her wilt, and his lips made her shrink away as he spoke.
It was obvious neither were exactly enjoying their current relationship, but for entirely different reasons. One had lost interest, and the other had noticed and worried it was their fault. The man slowly laid down, looking at his girlfriend’s back and I could feel a pang of sorrow shoot through his heart as he called out softly, “Want to relax for a bit?”
“Mmm? Oh uh, yeah sure,” she replied, and I felt a pang of guilt from her as she slowly laid down next to him, followed by a feeling of awkwardness. The two laid there, still looking away from each other and I frowned. As the personification of love I could either split these two and push them too find their true loves, or I could knit back what was broken and fix the two. Doing that though would be delicate work, and I might have to erase certain memories to do so which felt completely wrong.
So I sat and watched, playing with my hands out of habit while watching the two, trying to figure out what to do. After a bit I sighed loudly, and got up starting to pace hoping the movement would help. My brain didn’t know what to do, I felt sympathetic for the guy who still loved her, but I could see why she would want to go to this guy who makes her feel so good and happy which her current boyfriend can’t quite reach. A sudden breakup would leave sore relations between the two, and could interfere with both their lives later. Yet staying together could lead to the girl loosing the man she truly loved, and then she would grow more and more bitter until they broke up anyway. That thought passed through my head, but close behind it was an idea.
I headed over to the girl, then slowly laid down like she was phasing through her and after a second into her, seeing her thoughts and gaining some measure of control over her, putting the actual her into a state similar to hypnosis. Then pushing a suggestion into her head she said after a pause,” Hun, there is something we need to talk about…” with a soft, gentle tone. He looked over to her, eyes understanding and he nodded, slowly sitting up. I prompted her to do the same, then slowly take his hand in hers. Then after a second I left her body, and she took a deep breath before starting to talk.
She explained how she had met a new friend recently, and how he made her feel and how she couldn’t stop thinking about him. The boyfriend, while seeming a bit sad nodded and listened in silence, keeping his eyes on hers. When she was finished speaking and out of breath he began to talk, saying how he had noticed she was being different, not seeming to care as much about the relationship and how it had made him feel. I felt pangs of guilt and sadness come from her as he spoke, tears slowly rolling down from her eyes. He paused to gently wipe her tears away, giving her a smile before continuing.
Some time later the two were embracing, and after a second she slowly pulled her head back and kissed him, and he kissed back, tension in his shoulders fading away. Slowly after a second the red threads that had been leading elsewhere from the two dimmed, the boyfriend’s going away completely while the girl’s turned more green and dimmer. Then a red thread, vibrant and strong formed between the two as they drew even closer. Some people are meant to be together from the start. That doesn’t ever mean a relationship can’t become stronger, even if they have problems. Nothing, not even love, is ever final.
A spot over the thread glowed a vibrant red, and I took the small crystal heart looking at its surface. Then the room began to fade away, leaving me to head back to the lobby.
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Vines slid over my back as the forest seemed to greet me into its fold, wrapping around me and pulling me in deeper as the gateway back slowly closed back up. It felt like I was in the jungle, thick vines hanging from absolutely giant trees, with a green canopy stretching above light shining through turning green on the way down. In the shadows under bushes and clinging to the side of trees beetles and other bugs scuttled and crawled around, while smaller animals chirped, squeaked and made all other kinds of sounds.
I wandered around for a bit, brushing my hand over plants and the backs of curious animals only to watch them scurry away after the first touch, leaving me smiling. I had never been in the jungle, but I had to say I liked it. The only part I didn’t like was how many shadows seemed to crawl under bushes and trees along with the bugs, especially when it seemed to shift and wriggle in supernatural forms. After a bit I noticed it wasn’t just my imagination, and every shadow was reaching for me, some even seeming to peel off the ground or trees to reach for me with black tendrils.
My power flared without my realizing, and an entire cloud of fireflies suddenly spurted from a nearby clump of plants, and began to swarm my body not hurting me but illuminating my body keeping the shadows from touching me. The shadows touched life, and as they did that life died, vines shriveling and animals crying out in pain as the shadows touched them. Before I realized it I found my body running, my mind seeming left behind as I struggled to keep up with my instincts as it ran from the darkness, leaving the cloud of fireflies behind me. Red eyes seemed to gleam from the darkness as the shadows consumed the light that the fireflies had let off.
My body started jumping, spinning and cartwheeling around, jumping from tree to tree as my mind tried to think of a way out of this mess. No matter how far I went or how much faster I traversed the jungle the shadows were right behind me, pricking my soles with tendrils of black. My power started jumping into plant to plant, making vines push me forward boosting me as I continued to run from the blackness that awaited me. Then it touched my foot, and I felt… nothing. The shadow didn’t burn, it didn’t freeze my foot or feel like anything. Infact it felt completely normal as it washed over my foot and up my leg.
My mind finally caught up, and that's when my body slowed and came to a stop, letting the shadows catch me. They consumed me, then a second later I realized it hadn’t been some evil presence, just the sun setting at a rapid pace. I laughed, relieved and opened my palm, the fireflies from earlier gathering to my hand forming a sort of globe. Then to my surprise they dispersed, leaving me with a golden key. Then the jungle night slowly faded away, leaving me in darkness.
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The night let me enter like a soft curtain of stars, and a second later the light from the lobby faded leaving me in the starry night. It didn’t feel too different from when I was stretching my senses, and closing my eyes I smiled letting my senses flow on the stars. Each star became like a glowing eye letting me see the entire night sky, but beyond layed nothing but blackness. I thought about my options, then focused on a single star, looking at its details.
It was different from a normal star, more like a fragment then anything else like a chunk of the galaxy left floating around. It felt like I had a giant invisible hand as I inspected the piece, then tried bringing it to a nearby piece grabbing it as well and pushing the two together. They seemed to almost melt together like lava, molding and forming a small sphere with bumps and indents all over. With a little bit of molding it became round, and that's when the idea of the escape room clicked. I smiled to myself, and began to stretch out with multiple hands, a hundred no one thousand no one hundred thousand, grabbing all the little bits of star matter strewn around. The sky became darker and darker in general, but the center became brighter and brighter until it began to illuminate the corners that even the individual pieces hadn’t been able to reach.
Before long one giant sun was before me, and I marveled at my work feeling the hands that had covered the night like an invisible army fade away. After a bit of time the center of the star seemed to crack open and inside was a single piece of the original bits of star, and it floated to me forming a ring in the palm of my hand. Then the world began to fade, and slowly I headed back towards the door that had opened up.
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Man, this area was cold! Even having control over the ice and snow of the area it still chilled me down to the bone, although that could have been do to my lack of clothing. The equivalent of a snow phoenix didn’t need clothes I had thought, and now i was stuck out here and dammit I could feel my legs chafing against each other. Okay I needed to finish this fast, it was way too cold in here.
As I walked through the frozen wasteland, I noticed the pieces and remnants of my farm scattered about, pieces of the old barn stuck in drafts of snow the red paint already scratched bare by the wind. I looked the south and noticed that where the city I had always known now laid in ruins, the city frozen and in pieces. Lights still flicked in shattered windows, and from here I could see frozen forms stuck mid stride laying on their sides. My heart felt heavy as I continued to walk, a feeling of apprehension spreading through my body.
The snow that had been blowing into my face slowly began to diminish, which at that point I wish it had gotten even harder to see rather than easier. My house, now a pile of rubble covered in snow, was all that was left. My feet started to run without my brain telling them too, but at the time I didn’t care. My thoughts were only on two things: Momma and pop. I ran as fast as I could to the house, crunching on the snow but not falling in and within seconds I was at the rubble, panting and rapidly pushing away the snow.
Each piece felt as heavy as three of me, but my body felt stronger, more powerful than it ever had and I continued to push and push until my eyes were greeted with the sight I had feared. Under all the rubble laid my parents, eyes closed. Their hands were grasped together, and as I gently opened their hands I noticed both of their wedding rings had cracked and frozen, laying in their grasp. To me, instead of metal I saw the last line of defense, the last thing that could keep my parents together even in death: broken.
Oh, hi ground my knees seemed to say as I fell to them, unable to support my own weight as I stared at the open palms of my parents. My heartbeat was like a drum in my ears, each beat harder and sooner than the last till it felt like it was trying to run straight out of my chest. My hands reached up and clutched at my face, but I couldn’t blink as I continued to stare. “Nonononono no no no… please god no don’t do this please,” I prayed as hard as I could, tearing my eyes from their corpses to stare into the sky. “Please help them oh please god please, help them they did nothing wrong they didn’t deserve this!” I shouted at the sky. But nobody answered.
Big, wet tears began to fall down my face as the last hope of my families survival fell from the heavens to the ground and shattered. And just like that I felt myself shatter, and I opened my mouth to let out a scream that seemed to split the world in half. The world itself seemed to shake as my scream resonated with the very earth’s core, and as I screamed not caring who heard or what happened the very earth tore in two, a chasm forming under me, the house and the city dropping us. Air rushed into my face, and then my cry was suddenly cut off, leaving me silent as a mouse as the world snapped down on everything I had held dear.
All i knew was a light, one that shone from me and the crack that had been left when the world had swallowed us whole. It was a bright green, like an emerald shining in the light as my eyes glowed with heat that felt like they would burn themselves out of my sockets. Then slowly the world cracked back open, and everything began to slowly float out including myself. My scream had cut off long ago, lost in the depths of the earth as the snow that had sunk my life into the drain cleared.
The world became clear and sunny, and the rubble I had come back to seemed to raise itself and knit back together into its original shape. The barn’s pieces floated up and put themselves back together before setting itself on the ground next to the restored house. I was left gasping as I looked around the see the city had been fixed, and the frozen people were getting up, dazed but alive. They looked around, then slowly got up seeming to head back for their homes rubbing their heads. I had stopped paying attention to them a while ago though, already inside the rebuilt house and in my parents arms.
They smiled down at me with gentle, loving care and I felt tears, this time ones of pure joy begin to slide down my face. For the first time in so, so long, even if it was a mirage I finally got to hug my parents again. I finally got to have a family again. They both slowly leaned down, kissed the top of my head, then straightened giving me their wedding rings. They had stayed broken, and now instead of a single copper band and silver band the two had fused together. One half was silver metal and the other copper, and I smiled gently taking the ring. Then the world faded out, and I found myself dropping back into the lobby.
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I placed my golden ring in the small pedestal that had risen up before joining the rest of the group, having been the last to come out do to the time it had taken to fuse the sun together. Nobody really talked, all seeming deep in thought about their own experiences. All except Pomella who had a smile plastered to her face as she watched the pedestals. I smiled, then hearing the sound of movement turned to watch the pedestals descend into the ground, before one large one arose out of the ground, a single key of flicking oblivion present in its holder.
I considered it for a second, then slowly grabbed the key and tried turning it in the air. The air split and shattered away, leaving the same gate that had brought us here in its place. As I watched Morrow went through, then Inum than everyone else leaving me looking around the place. I had to wonder, would we ever see this place again? This room? After a second to ponder I shrugged, and jumped through the portal to follow everyone else.