Chapter 15: Head Games

“Why is it so c-c-cold?” Riley pondered, her internal thoughts shivering in concert with her body.

“Where even are we?” Tobias stuttered as he scanned around; a small pool of light existed around them in a seemingly infinite sea of darkness.

Screams of rage and despair echoed all around like hell’s own choir as even the pool of light began to fade.

“Stay calm; we can’t go back; the door is gone!” Tobias’ breath came out ragged as the pool of light contracted further in.

“It's a trap. We’re trapped! I knew it was a trap!” Riley felt the panic rising like a geyser within her soul as the screams pitched savagely downwards, resolving to a sinister growl as the last of their light went out.

“So we meet again,” The twin voices of Chadrick and Venosicipher echoed in the eternal night with a bemused chuckle.

“Show yourself!” Tobias shouted, planting his feet.

“You dare to command me?” Chadrick's voice sneered from all directions.

“He’s even a prick in stereo,” Riley quipped, only for an invisible something to smack into her, sending her flying off into the dark.

“Riley!” Tobias cried.

But she was gone...

“Alone now, all alone, without your companion... Without help...” The voice whispered seductively.

“You cannot hide from me, boy,” Chadrick whispered, seemingly behind his right ear.

“No, I’m not alone...” Tobias looked within, reaching out through his very soul.

“Alone. A failure... Nothing but a failure...” The voice taunted, seemingly tsking with pity.

With the words came the feeling of something trying to crawl inside him. Discordant screams echoed through his ears as memories arose unbidden. The scene seemed to shift as Tobias felt like he was falling into a deep abyss.

“What?” His head snapped up, only to find himself in black robes, standing before his instructors at the Valenheim academy.

“Last chance! Hold fire in your palm,” Master Teranaga glared, looking disappointed.

Wait.... This isn’t right. Tobias scanned around for Riley, but she was… gone.

A distant light flickered on the horizon of his soul, but every time he reached for it, something….

“Is there a problem?” Terranga snapped, her hand held a quill pen, hovering above a paper like the sword of Damocles itself.

Tobias shook his head. Something was wrong, but he couldn’t quite place it. Fear began to claw at his heart; he had to pass his trial, failure would mean losing everything.

But that’s all you are. Just a failure.

Tobias held out his hand, reaching deep, but the magic resisted him. Try as he might, it felt like casting through frozen jello.

A sickly orange flame flickered weakly in his palm as sweat broke out upon his forehead.

Distantly, a familiar voice rang out in his mind, ‘Tobias!’

“Riley?” He scanned around as fatigue and exhaustion slammed into him. Making it hard to think.

Master Terranga set down her quill long enough to turn over an hourglass.

The flame suddenly failed, sputtering out.

Master Terranga sighed, took up her quill, and marked his paper.

Tobias felt his heart sink.

“Report to the copper barracks. You disappoint me,” she sighed, holding out his sheet.

So this was the end.

“No... I failed?” Something felt wrong about all of this, but every time he reached for it, it seemed to slip away like holding onto sand.

“Yes Ma’am. I’m sorry,” he said, hanging his head.

“So am I, son,” Suddenly his grandfather, Darius, was standing beside his instructor, but his face was pale, ashen, and dead.

“You were never good enough, boy. Maybe if you were, I’d still be alive,” he looked down, crestfallen, “and to think I spent my last silver.”

“You spent your silver on Riley... Riley, where are you!?!” Tobias cried out as his soul twitched.

He held out his hand as if feeling for a wall, off in the distance, to his right, there was something...

“I said, report to the barracks, Copper!” Chadricks voice now echoed loudly in his ears.

“This can’t be right. This isn’t... what... I remember...” his words came slowly, seemingly spaced by his doubts.

This isn’t real... This isn’t real.’

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A still, small voice within chanted over and over again.

“You’re nothing,” taunted Chadrick.

A distant memory sparked, “We’re blackblades, through and through.”

“You’re a copper!” Reality was trying to warp and distort around him.

Tobias shut his eyes tight and reached deep within. He could feel her, feel her struggle.

The distant light on the horizon pulsed. There was a sense of direction, like a beacon…

Riley, you aren’t alone. I’m coming!

Laughter echoed around, but Tobias stubbornly moved forward, taking one careful step at a time. Far off in the distance, to his right, there was a drumbeat, a beacon in the night, pounding out a rapid tune like a heartbeat.

Riley’s heartbeat!

On instinct, he moved for it as the illusion howled around him.

“Why couldn’t you have saved us?” The smell of a corpse decaying came with Justinian’s voice.

Tobias ignored it, moving for the beacon that glowed like a lighthouse for his soul.

“Tobias, fight it, that’s not how it happened!” Her voice drifted ephemerally on the winds as the voice of Chadrick again echoed around, and with it, the strange feeling of imposed reality pushing against his sanity.

“Fight it,” keeping his eyes shut tight, he took one defiant step after another, all as discordant screams echoed around him.

“I’m here!” she cried.

“But who are you? The hare? The Human girl?” Cacophonous laughter echoed around. “You don’t know because you’re nothing!”

The light drew up enough to frame two silhouettes.

Something clicked deep inside.

“Momma? Papa?” Riley shook her head, “I'm not falling for this again, you two-bit mimic! The holodeck episodes on Star Trek were always the fucking worst.”

“But that’s all you remember, shows, movies, but can you remember my face, baby girl? Can you even remember your name?”

“My name was...” Cold terror gripped her as it slipped just out of her grasp... “My name is Riley!”

Defiance rocketed out from around her like a thunderclap, all as a cacophonous laughter flashed back.

“Who even is Riley? The hare? The human girl or the monster?”

Glowing red eyes hovered over the desiccated corpse of Tobias.

Slowly, it resolved into a hare with sharpened, fang-like incisors. Its eyes pulsed with hate and hunger, its fur black as night.

“Hungry...” The words echoed like hell’s own choir as Riley ducked low and pulled her paws down over her eyes.

“Not gonna look, that’s not me! That’s not me!” She chanted, all as fear wormed its way through her heart.

“I’m sorry... I was just... so... hungry...” The feeling of a rough and familiar hand stroked down her back.

“I’m here, Riley. I’m here.” Tobias soothed.

“Stay away, I don’t want to hurt you!” She tried to back away.

“You wouldn’t hurt me. It’s not real,” Opening her eyes, she saw milky white orbs, desiccated and dead, as Tobias devolved into ash.

The black clung to her fur as the smell of death roiled over her.

Riley screamed and recoiled in horror.

“Evil holodeck. Evil holodeck. Not real... Not real!”

“Simple, one-dimensional creature, you’re a monster. You’re worse than I am, ” Venosicipher taunted in Riley’s own voice.

“No!” Then it hit her like a small voice in a hurricane.

Riley, ever sacrificing yourself for the benefit of others.

“I’m... not a monster. I can choose! Tobias! Tobias!” She screamed through terror gripped her heart.

What if she hurt him? What if she drained him down? She was just so... hungry...

“Get out of my head!” She wailed, drawing her paws down over her ears again, beating against her head. “Get out! Get out!”

“It’s not real...” She whined pathetically, curling into a tight ball.

“What is real? What was real? Are you real?” The echo in her voice danced around her like a taunt.

“Tobias...” All she wanted in that moment was to feel safe again, safe from herself, safe and away from this awful place.

Something flashed in front of her eyes...

You are undergoing a severe psychic assault.

“No shit?” Riley bit down on her sarcasm.

“Something is doing this to me,” she said, in agreement with the words now flashing in front of her vision.

“It’s not real, is it? “Doesn’t it feel real?” Her voice rang around her, leaving her brain reeling like she was on a funhouse ride from hell.

Off in the distance, there was something solid, something more real than everything she felt around her.

It beat out in rhythmic cadence. Riley stretched out her paw only to find Tobias' hand.

“Stay away! I don’t want to hurt you! I don’t want to be a monster. I’m not a monster...” She cried, her voice hitching within her mind.

Fear oozed from each syllable, only for the hand to wrap around as Tobias scooped her into his arms and held her tightly to his chest.

“You’d never hurt me. It’s ok. It’s ok... Fight it,” Tobias pet her ears back as Riley opened her eyes.

Tobias was there in the dark. She could feel him, smell him, but she couldn’t see. Blackness was everywhere, an oppressive night that felt thick and cold. An oily mist clung to her fur, leaving her feeling wet and chilled.

Pushing through sluggish thoughts, she channeled what power she had, funneling it towards her bracelet.

Slowly, it began to brighten, illuminating Tobias in a ghostly white light.

His hair was slick with oily mist. It dribbled down his face like ashen tears. His eyes were shut tight as he clung to Riley, pressing her tightly against his mail shirt.

“It’s not real. None of this is real. Riley, I’m here, please be here, Riley,” he chanted, like a mantra, as if in defiance of all he felt.

“I’m here, nerd boy. I love you,” Riley pressed against him, wet fur and all, “and I really need a bath. We both do.”

His eyes fluttered open in the ghostly light as he looked down on her, a smile breaking across his face.

“We’re not going to let him beat us,” he replied.

He set Riley down, only to summon his sword in his hand.

“Wha-wha-what now?” Riley was so cold even her mental words came out chattering.

“We try again...” Venosiciper’s twinned voice overlaid over Chadrick’s, rumbled like a thunderstorm around them. “And again, and again, until you break. There is no escaping me here. The ashen fools actually handed you over to me! It will not save them; nothing can save them...” Laughter echoed, malevolent and deep, through a seemingly endless night.

Tobias went flying, reality warped and distorted around him.

Suddenly, he was back with Master Terranga again.

“Call fire to your hand,” she demanded.

Just a failure. The cursed words wiggled like worms through his mind.

Tobias firmed, pushing back, screaming in defiance. “My fear is not my truth. I know what’s real!”

“I said, call fire to your hand, or I’m failing you now,” Master Terranga threatened.

Tobias took a deep breath, turned, and walked out of the room, shutting his eyes.

Meanwhile, Riley found herself alone again in the dark.

“All alone...” The voice echoed as if in confirmation of her thoughts.

“Alone, a monster... hungry...”

“I know who I am,” Riley challenged, though her voice shook.

“You don’t remember....”

Riley reached for Tobias, “I don’t have to!”

She flattened her ears and drove forward as the desiccated form of Tobias appeared before her.

Riley slowed, her paws quivering in hesitation, as she shut her eyes.

“That’s not my nerd boy... He’s.....” She reached out and could feel his heartbeat, like a rising sun on the horizon of her soul.

Pushing everything away, she ran towards the feeling, chasing it like a beacon.

“Riley!” His projected voice echoed across their bond.

Tentatively, she opened her eyes as fear sealed her heart in ice.

The dull glow of her shield bracelet again illumined his face.

Laughter echoed around.

“We’ll just have to try harder,” taunted Venosicipher.

The strange shockwave roared out of the misty, ephemeral night and washed over them, leaving them side by side.

In its wake, a door appeared. It flashed into existence and then vanished.

“Quickly!” A new voice called out as the strange wave of force echoed again.

The door appeared again, only to flicker as Riley and Tobias looked at each other.

“It’s better than here,” Riley said with a mental shrug.

Tobias hesitated as the door flickered in and out.

“We hope,” Tobias lunged for the handle, only for them both to fall through it, tumbling into an inky abyss.