Chapter 25: Safety is an Illusion

I had made it to the bottom of the stairs and there was a sudden drop in my stomach when I saw what was on the outside of the stairwell. I was cautious at first, thinking maybe it was similar to floor nine, but it seemed real. There was no reason I should think it wasn't real.

Once I exited the stairwell, I saw a familiar city, and everyone on the street looked at me. It was the city I lived in before I fell into this place. I was in a wildly different location from where I had entered, but it was a short travel home from here. This was near the city center, I would only have to walk for an hour or two to get home from here.

I was finally out though. I had killed my captor on the previous floor and now I was free. It was almost hard to believe it was so simple, and that place would just let me roam free so easily. The people on the streets kept staring at me, and I understood why. I had a massive bag on my back with a weapon out in the open.

I wasn't going to just throw it away though, but so it didn't draw as much attention, I pulled out a clean shirt and carefully wrapped the ax so that the dangerous blade couldn't be seen anymore. People still looked at me concerned from their cars and some looked at me with scorn.

Most of these people probably thought I was homeless based on my looks, and if my parents had moved out of their home after I disappeared, I actually would be. It had been nearly an entire year at this point. That was enough time for the police to give up on a missing persons report, and for someone to move on without you.

I walked home riddled with feelings of worry. Would they even recognize me? My hair had grown out, I hadn't shaved since I went down to those floors, and I was dirty, right down to the bone. They would probably wash me off with the hose before I was even allowed to go inside the house.

I laughed a little when I thought about my parents. I missed them after so long on those floors. We had a half decent relationship when for them I suddenly disappeared. I wonder what those friends I went to go see even saw when I fell through the ground from my perspective. I remember a few of them screamed.

Why did they scream though? I'm sure it was shocking to see someone suddenly fall through the floor, but there's no reason to scream unless something truly horrific had happened at the same time, but I was overthinking it as usual.

I needed to go home and let my parents know I was okay. If they had moved away, I would go to a police station and see if they actually had a missing persons report out for me. They should, my parents definitely knew something was wrong by the day after I didn't return home, I had even told them where I was going.

Anxiety kept building as I approached my home. The trees lining the busy streets had barely changed since I disappeared. The roads still looked slightly out of repair, as per the norm for a suburb located outside of the main population areas. The colorful cars put a smile on my face.

I knew I looked insane as I walked down the street smiling at everything, and I'm amazed that no one had called the cops on me yet. I was walking around a residential neighborhood with a large bag and a weapon. Either the police were slacking, or the people were too trusting of the homeless in the modern era.

It was only once I had made it to the street I lived on when my anxiety had finally quieted down. I was still nervous, but I saw a familiar red car sitting in the driveway. My parents still lived here, so I wondered if they would be happy to see me. Would they have missed me as much as I missed them?

I rang the doorbell and heard a familiar sigh from my father. He always hated answering the door during the day. I swallowed nervously as he opened the door. It felt like it took a year for the door to open. I recognized the man immediately, he had a lot more gray hairs than I remembered, but he wasn't young by any means.

"Honey!" My dad shouted into the house while still keeping his eyes on me. I could hear some shaking in his voice, as if he was ready to tear up.

"What is it? Who's there?" I hear my mother call back from what I assumed was probably the kitchen.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." His voice was cracking as I could see tears welling up in his eyes. He wasn't a crier, he never had in front of me at least.

"If it's just a salesman, I swear to g-" Her voice cut short as my eyes met hers. She put her hand over her mouth and almost instantly burst into tears as she ran towards me, giving me a hug that almost knocked me over.

"I'm back." I say with a shaky voice as I hold back my tears. We didn't need everyone crying, it didn't even feel like I had been gone all that long. Just under a year, but it felt like less than a month.

They brought me inside the house quickly. I took off my bag and left it at the door. My dad eyed it carefully, and noticed the weapon on it. He was about to ask me about it when my mother pulled me over to the kitchen table and sat me down.

"Where have you been!? We were so worried!" She yelled at me with tears in her eyes.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I laughed, the memories of every torturous floor flooding back to me. "It was a horrible, hellish place. Look at how dirty I am. I haven't had a proper shower since I disappeared."

"Were you kidnapped?" My father asked, and I nodded. It was something like that. I was kidnapped, but not by anything remotely close to human, or even of this world. Explaining it to them was more likely to get me put in a mental hospital.

"You must be starving, let me get you something to eat." My mother started to head to the kitchen, but I stopped her.

I was hungry and should eat, but I didn't think now was a good time. I had gone much longer without food before. I wanted to spend time with my parents now that I had gotten back, I would probably feel sick if I tried to eat a real meal right now anyways.

"What happened after I disappeared? It doesn't feel like anything has changed around here." I looked around the house, and while my memory of everything was fuzzy, it didn't seem like anything noticeable had changed in the time I was gone.

"It was hard for a month or two. Police had no leads, and even your friends who you went to hang out with that day said they hadn't even seen you. You never made it to that coffee shop." My father calmly explained as he sat beside me at the table.

It didn't make sense to me. I saw them and made eye contact, I guess I was remembering wrong after so long on the floors. It was bound to happen I guess, with so much time passing, things blurred together when my life was in constant danger. But I was finally safe here.

It seemed things were finally going to get better for me. For the first time in a long time, I relaxed my posture, and I stopped looking around at everything looking for danger. My mind was more tired than it ever had been. The stress was catching up with me, and I was finally able to release it.

I saw something red move in the corner of my eye where I was sure there was nothing, when I looked I didn't see anything wrong. It must have been my imagination. I was going insane after being cautious and wary for so long.

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"Logan. Are you okay?" My mother asks as she sits on my other side and puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, just a little paranoid after spending so long where I was." I laughed a little as she took her hand off my shoulder. My shoulder felt a little wet once her hand left it, but I assumed it was because of my long walk to get home. I was quite sweaty after all that walking in the sun, I wasn't really used to real sunlight anymore.

"We're just glad you made it home. We missed you, Logan." My father gave me a hug, not caring how dirty I was, or wet with sweat.

"I missed you guys too, I was worried I was never going to see you again. I was worried you moved away and forgot about me." I almost started crying, but I managed to stop myself. My mother was still in tears and if I started crying she would start bawling, just like old times.

I was almost starting to choke up, when I stopped myself again. It was only going to cause me more and more pain if I kept bottling it up, but I could always do it in my own time. This time was for my parents. I needed to stay here with them for the rest of my life.

I really should move out sooner than later now though. It would be uncomfortable for me to stay at home, they had gotten used to a life without me. That's when I stood up and started walking towards where my room used to be.

"We couldn't bring ourselves to get rid of anything. It was a painful reminder every time we cleaned in here, but because there was no body found, we held onto every last hope." My father patted my shoulder.

"Thank you, this means so much to me." I thanked him with tears in my eyes. I went to the front door to grab my bag. I brought it back to my room. I had unfortunately left my phone on the floors, but that was fine.

My parents went back to the kitchen and seemed to be making phone calls. Probably getting things setup for my return to society. I was happy, genuinely that they were so kind to me, but I needed to clean myself, and throw out these old clothes. There was no saving any of these, the stink was set too deep to be cleaned out.

I grabbed some clean clothes from my closet and went to the shower. I was happy, it was finally time to be clean. I turned on the shower and noticed the water was a slight shade of red. It didn't seem natural, but it was probably fine.

I washed myself, only to notice a familiar smell of rot and decay, mixed with the metallic smell of blood. I couldn't see anything in particular that was off about it in general though. The grime that had been on my body for nearly weeks was now gone. The smell was weird, but I tried to ignore it, maybe it was coming from outside somewhere.

I left the bathroom wearing clean clothes. I still felt a little wet, but I didn't think it mattered all that much if I wasn't perfectly dry. I was happy just to be finally clean. The smell of rot got stronger as I neared my parents again, but I ignored it.

"Logan, just in time, we have police coming to ask you a few questions and fill out some paperwork to say that you are no longer a missing person." My dad explained to me as he hung up the phone.

"That's awesome. How long until they get here?" I asked, sitting down at the soft wooden table with my parents. Soft? Since when was wood soft? I looked around, but didn't see anything wrong, and putting my hand on the table again, it felt hard.

Things seemed weird here and there, but I didn't pay them much mind. I was probably mentally unstable from all my time alone in the hell I had just escaped. Thankfully, I could probably get the mental help I desperately needed now that I am out.

Things from here were a blur for me. The police came, I signed papers saying I was alive and no longer missing. I slept for the day and night, all the way until the next morning. Stress was leaving my body, but I had a headache, and I was feeling slightly sick. Everything seemed normal.

But did they really? I looked out my window after waking up and noticed streaks of red in the sky. It must have been the morning sun, but the streaks were too red, almost a blood color. Then I noticed the mental controlling effect.

It was a deeper control than what I had experienced on floor eleven. It was deeper and only pushed me in the right direction, using my own thoughts. Suddenly, with a loud popping in my ears, my vision shifted dramatically. Nothing was right, it was all flesh, bleeding and rotting. I was inside something.

I was wearing rotting and decaying flesh and I was covered head to toe in blood and pus. I was disgusted, no wonder I felt sick. This had to be a nightmare… I was out in reality, I was just asleep. No matter what I tried, I didn't wake up.

This was the true reality. This was floor twenty-five. I had never escaped.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA." I let out probably the most frustrated and anger filled scream a human ever could. I tore off the rotting flesh I thought was clothing and put on something from my bag that was still in my room. The only thing here that wasn't transformed into bloody gore. Even the window had changed into a fleshy surface.

"Logan, what's wrong." I heard the voice of my mother from outside my 'room' . The door of rotting flesh slid open as a creature straight out of my nightmares looked at me with roughly around five eyes.

"Fuck you. I believed you! I thought I was free!" unleashing all of my anger, I grab my ax and start chopping into the horrific creature of rot and pus. There was no blood inside the creature, only pus and rot.

"Logan! What are you doing!?" The creature mimicking my father yelled at me as I tore into what he thought was his wife. I didn't stand for it and did the same to him while screaming out in rage. I swung my ax wildly and it dug into the fleshy walls no matter where I struck them. Everything was soft beneath my feet, and probably always had been.

"I should be free!" I stabbed the creature pretending to be my father again. "I thought I was safe! You! Fucking! Demons!" Rage was making my vision fill with red, my breathing was heavy as I tore my way out of the 'house'.

I screamed as I made it onto the street that was only flesh and rot. Everything was bloody and full of pus. Not a single thing was as I thought it was. I wasn't home, I was trapped more than I had ever been.

I collapsed to my knees as I hit the ground. The whole city was a giant pile of flesh. The people, the cars, the trees, everything. Looking back towards the city center, all I saw was towers of rot and decay bleeding and spitting out pus. I felt sick to my stomach.

Above all of that though, I felt defeated.

I had fallen for an illusion. It was painful. I had such good heartfelt moments with what I thought were my parents, but they weren't real. It was a scam, it was unfair. I was so angry that I didn't even know what I wanted to do. I wanted to run to the exit, and keep descending and try to actually kill the demon that held me here.

I knew I couldn't though. I was trapped and I would do whatever it told me to do. I couldn't resist anything it did when push came to shove, I was powerless. I had nothing to gain. Every day I spent down in this hell only made me weaker, sicker, and less human.

Fine.

I'll do what this demon wants. I'll give it what it wants and continue descending. Whatever its goals were, I didn't care. I will play along for now, but as soon as I get the chance, I will strike back. No matter how absurd it might be, even if it is a god or not. I promise to kill it.

I stood up and dusted the flesh that had clung to me. My resolution has now solidified. I stared with pure hatred at the environment around me. No more Mr. Nice Logan. It was time to get back. I dragged my ax through the flesh behind me as I walked, causing blood and pus to flow out from the wound.

I could tell that whatever this place was, it could feel pain. While I searched for the exit, I caused it as much pain as possible, as if to try and vent my rage. I couldn't, my rage wouldn't be sated with violence against a creature like this. This wasn't enough for me anymore.

I craved more.

I walked back to the city center, dragging my ax the entire way down. The ax never got dull or dented. This ax was good. It hadn't even damaged slightly since I had gotten it on floor sixteen. The weapons there were better than I could have thought. I was also going to grab my armor from the hub and equip it again.

I don't care anymore if it was uncomfortable. This demon wanted a fight, and I was going to start bringing it back to him. Violence hadn't been the solution before, but I sure was going to make it one now.

Once I had arrived back where I started, everything was there. The entrance to the floor, an elevator back to The Hub, and the exit. I tried to calm my rage, but I couldn't. For the first time in a while, I didn't want to calm down.

I thought clearly, but guided by my hatred for everything these floors offered me. There were always more downsides than up. I had to be smarter, and I was going to do that through pure rage. I would surely calm down after cleaning up and resting, but for now, I let it stew.

I got into the elevator, not even wanting to think about the next floor until I was restocked and ready. I went back to The Hub.