The first thing that I noticed on my return trip to Nowhere was that we all seemed to be wearing our clothes, thank god… I snuck a peek back over at Emma, who was currently trying to wipe the dirt off her clothing from her fall. I did feel a tiny bit of regret just then about the clothes, and she saw me naked, it would only be fair, wouldn’t it?

Rosary, of course, wore no clothing but then again, she wasn’t wearing apparel, to begin with… Those perky little… God damn Daniel get your mind out of the gutter. Dusty streets with hundreds of tiny alleys, the ground dirty not like a dirt road but like the streets weren’t well maintained. I could hear hushed conversation all around; carts pulled along the streets where goods seemed to be getting haggled. It was busy, the sun was high in the sky meaning that must have been near noon here.

Rosary flitted to my shoulder and perched there, the sweet smell of the forest that hung around her momentarily overpowered the faint smell of decay and shit.

“Let's leave here Daniel, please…” I craned over my shoulder, her face a mask but the intonations of her voice made it quite clear that she didn’t like this place. What was bothering her?

“This place stinks…” Emma complained from behind, her plain beige sweater covered in grey scuffs of dirt, which Emma insistently would try to brush off, a fruitless act that made her equally dirty blue mini skirt tease my eyes enticingly. She was right, of course, I’d noticed earlier.

The sound of men and women menacingly chanting could be heard in the distance, something about it seemed dark, almost sick though I couldn’t quite gauge what was said. “Yeah it does stink Emma, this isn’t where I wanted to go.” But something DID seem right about this place. Why was that?

I started walking forward, unsure of what to do; I was so intent on just getting here that I hadn’t thought of what would come next. I had thought that it would happen to me, that I would get an idea of what I had lost or never had. Instead, I was filled with a sense of foreboding. Emma seemed to have become significantly less confident, in fact now she was walking behind me her hand holding my shirt loosely.

“I don’t want to get lost in any crowds,” She said when she noticed me looking. Rosary was fidgeting even more now. “I think this is a bad place for us…” She said. The chanting grew ever louder.

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“Why?” I asked the place seemed decrepit and depressing, but it didn’t seem dangerous. “The Mad King Sabbath controls this land,” She shivered, her eyes seeming to remember something dark.

“Mad King?” I found myself curious how he managed to get that title, and was about to ask when all of a sudden, I turned the corner to come across a huge crowd of people. Hundreds upon hundreds of people seemed to be here at what looked like a large square. Emma sharply drew in a breath, “Oh my god.” She said horrified.

Looking to where she was, I felt a wave of nausea hit me. A massive stage loomed in the square, chained to it, men and women who were usually hooded. But that wasn’t what made my stomach curdle. Not all of those men and women were alive.

Bodies hung in gallows, their heads twisted in some ungainly manner. Others seemed to have been whipped to death or near death; a few had had their bodies lopped off, it was so surreal like a painting from Van Gogh. For a moment it almost seemed beautiful in some sick twisted way.

The scent of death and blood attempted to pervert my sense of smell. The chant could now be heard. Some called for a hanging, others to be whipped. But the strongest chant.

“DEATH!”

In the center of all that was a stately man in uniform guarded by cold-eyed guards in full armor. The air around him crackled as if it waited for him to command. Pointing to what looked like a Demi-human his voice boomed.

“This Demi-Human defied his human masters, as you all know Demi-humans are beings that lost their rights due to their treachery. I’m sure you all know that no crime outside of defiance needs by declared. The masters of this Demi-human wish to make an example of him.”

The Demi-human looked to be almost my age, brown fur, and he seemed practically bear-like. His face was down as he had been forced to his knees by two guards. “What shall his punishment be oh lovely citizens of Rizengar?”

“It’s even worse then what they said…” Rosary said, fearfully to herself.

The crowd chanted, many stomped their feet like this was a festival. It was sick,

“DEATH!”

“Is this what you wanted Daniel?”

That voice pissed me off, of course, I didn’t want this… Who would?

You let this happen.”

It seemed to be laughing, this voice seemed slightly different but no that must have been my imagination. 

The square grew silent all of a sudden, not the natural kind of silence. No this was the kind of silence that felt like an omen of bad things to come. The air seemed to tingle with anticipation.

The man at the stage flourished his hands as if in a performance.

I'm still letting it happen, but why should I even care? I don't know him, something about this just felt wrong, all of it. My surroundings seemed to be going out of focus. 

"Daniel."

I could hear my name, but it didn't seem real. Hell, none of this seemed real could you blame me?

I could feel someone shaking me. 

"Huh?" 

That's when I realized that I was in the middle of a panic attack.