Ruinous Dreams

"..." Ciemnosc turned around for the umpteenth time. At this rate, he could very well get to become a ballet dancer without a single doubt. He was a natural. This time, there weren't any surprises, only a desolate, lonely, and totally silent kitchen with a very small, low-height and only 2 small chairs around it misplaced and made of rotting wood. A fridge, a lamp that was somehow working, hanging from the ceiling, a container, and a dishwasher.

‘...Hm.’ It was pretty humble and minimalist. Ciemnosc, of course, liked it very much. Tilting his head to the left, Ciemnosc let the right side of his neck become very visible to the outside of the kitchen if ‘she’ was still there.

Crouching down over the small table to see what was under there, Ciemnosc actually saw a phantasmal ‘recording’ play out before his very eyes as the sensation of his neck being preyed upon became even stronger from behind, on the other side of the black screen.

The ‘recording’ was of actually a little girl, and only her face, blonde hair, most of her back, and part of her left body was visible. The other parts were as if invisible or nonexistent in the first place. She was giving Ciemnosc the left profile side of her crouched, fearful body as she seemed to be looking around in fear, trying to know where the scary things would come from.

Her appearance, as ‘peaceful ghost-like as it appeared to be, was very clear in the features that he could see. The more she twisted her neck and was fidgety to look around under the small table, the more he felt the kitchen room experience a transmuting change as if he was going back to the times that this little child would have to behave like this.

Iiiiiiyyiiiiaaaaaaaaahh…!! RUMBLE RUMBLE!!-.

While the little girl was looking around, she seemingly noticed where the sounds were coming from, which was also at the same time that Ciemnosc heard some footsteps on the right of the small table. Looking towards there, he saw a pair of pale-white ghostly figures moving around, their feet very close to each other but they seemed to be arguing.

The entire kitchen room was as if it had lighting of its own as if it was daytime, but the blurry windows only brought even more blurry light inside. Yet, the walls weren’t rotting nor the floor or roof seemed extremely decayed. It was all neat and even relaxing, somehow.

They weren’t indiscernible, but Ciemnosc could tell the one being pushed to the opposite side where he was crouching was a woman. While the other one was a male of unknown age. As for the woman, she was in her early 20s at most.

Their discussion was intangible, and like a grown person remembering their traumas as children, it was more like a simple, long, dragged-on, and out and annoyingly invasive, sharp trumpet sounded to make one’s head confused and emotionally painful. The rumbling came just as if he was inside the little girl’s head, falling short of the necessary willpower to endure this all.

But as it came into his senses, the scenes playing out suddenly went away, the pale-white ghostly figures disappeared, and the little girl…

“...” When Ciemnosc turned his head back to the table, he saw the little girl’s bluish face being the only part of her body remaining still there amidst the still lit up and decrepit kitchen room. The little girl looked back at himself. As if sharing the burning of one’s early life, the little girl did not stop looking at Ciemnosc as he similarly shared ‘words’ with his darkest eyes.

“...!?” The little girl suddenly yet slowly, looked up, far above his head. And the moment she did, as if she saw something she couldn’t believe, her whole face finally disappeared, leaving some trails on her way to disappearing from under the table as if she was being dragged out of it and upwards.

“Hmm-ack!” Ciemnosc’s tilted head returned to its regular position. He tried standing up, but as he did, a whole lot of hair assaulted his own hair as he stood up and even felt teeth clashing against the back and the back of the top of his head.

RRRGRUWWW.

A kind of groan was emitted behind himself. He didn’t even need to turn around this time to know it was that female from before still. He was itchy to tell her something about manners. But knowing well that talking only erupts her even more, Ciemnosc behaved and remained silent.

“Phew…” Once the growling disappeared, Ciemnosc relaxed his shoulders but not his natural instincts as he finally turned around. As for his Spirit Sense, that one was obviously useless right now, in these kinds of situations, and it was something he didn’t want to experiment at any time soon anymore.

Turning around, Ciemnosc visualized the black screen in its entirety. He no longer wished to look around in the kitchen. As his eyes were set on the black screen, his thoughts inadvertently traveled to the back of his mind, where that residual memory of what seemed to be a ghost, or even that female herself was becoming ever clearer to him.

‘You weren’t even looking at me, just at the space where you knew things would go wrong with you…and that - whoever it is - person. And you didn’t even look at ‘her’, but at the person who grabbed you, right?’ Ciemnosc ‘spoke’ in his mind, but naturally, even if he wanted to let her into his head, she still wouldn’t be able to know his thoughts. This wasn’t one silly, dog blood drama or movie after all.

“... … …” And naturally, there was no response, Ciemnosc could only mentally shrug his shoulders while totally appearing to be calm. As he then began stepping towards the black screen. Confidently, unhesitating, and with a pair of huge balls.

Step, step, step, step-...vwgiish~.

Once Ciemnosc was in front of the black screen, a pair of outlined, damn large eyes were visible for a fleeting moment through the black screen, and then he waited, with his body just in front of the black screen with the vulnerability of being dragged out of the ‘safe room’ that was the lit kitchen room if the female out there was still capable of barely getting in.

After some time, and not hearing anything from the outside as well as feeling the flickering light of the kitchen room. Ciemnosc looked at the black screen trying to use his eyes to see if she was still there, but not really worrying about it at all. He also didn’t dare use his ‘awareness’, doing so would mean fucking everything up right now for sure.

Then, as if actually having a pair of huge bells to match his 'hungness' wasn’t enough, Ciemnosc directly pushed his head forward and looked through the black screen. He wasn’t impeded and, most importantly of all, perhaps; he could only see the same old dark, decrepit inside of the house that suddenly became more than 1 floor tall and much wider the moment he entered it.

‘Oh.’ Ciemnosc smoothly went over the black screen after a moment of seeing the coast is more than clear. And as he did, the kitchen behind him turned totally dark after a few blinks from its lamp hanging on the ceiling - which then fell towards the floor at a high speed and was about to crash on the floor. Which was also the very same moment that Ciemnosc fully exited the kitchen.

A small, little girl without hair and the female from before standing right behind the little girl were looking at Ciemnosc’s back leaving the kitchen room; where they were always there watching him.

Step, step…step, step, step…step step- creak~, step step step…

Ciemnosc continued walking for a couple meters forward, whereas he stopped and semi-turned his upper body around, the kitchen room that was, at the very least clean and tidy before, had now become a horrendous mess with dried-up stains of something— large ones —were all on the walls and ceiling of the kitchen.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

While the kitchen also had its windows all broken, they were dark colored with some solidified small grumes on the remaining broken glass.

After observing in silence for a little bit of time, Ciemnosc turned his head back to where the stairs were, only to see the ultra pale bare back of the female with her hair covering only the back of her head, upper back, and part of her neck. And unlike before, as she moved her feet, she had no footsteps as she made her way upstairs.

When she was giving Ciemnosc a profile of her frontal features, her naked body and still ultra large head became nicely visible, it was creepy and bizarre though.

Ciemnosc gave the stairs leading down a look instead, the moment he did, the female stopped for a moment on a step of the stairs leading up, but uncaringly kept on stepping upwards right after.

After some pondering time, Ciemnosc followed up with the female upstairs.

When Ciemnosc got to the stairs, every step he took was the same as if he was stepping on slime, each step of the stairs bending to a semi ‘U’ and screeching ever so noticeably, which made him look down just to see if it would break. But when he did…he discovered hundreds of pairs of eyes of a 2-dimensional image and without sclera looking up from what seemed to be a group hiding…hiding? In the basement. Or in a basement.

Each time that Ciemnosc looked down, those hundreds of pairs of eyes would lessen in their fear and worrisomeness and only reveal a much stronger worry than fear, which grew the more he stepped upwards.

When he looked down at the last step and the pairs of hundreds of eyes and then back up, the shrill, large face of the female was all over his torso, almost touching him. No breath, odor nor sensation reached him though, only the fact that those oval eyes seemed to get ‘taller’ and her mouth opened up with a lot of teeth missing from her previous hundreds of such were left; which was all the even more terrifying and mind-breaking for more than sure.

The ultra large head suddenly zoomed away though, revealing that the female was tens of meters away deeper into a slightly wide and large ‘hallway’. It was about a few hundred meters long before the hallway allowed one to reach 2 doors within the same wall and with only a meter separating each other. The width was ‘small’ compared to its length, even if it was almost 20 meters wide.

As for the female, she had her head travel back those few tens of meters into the hallway until it went back to where a head is supposed to be on someone’s body.

After blinking several times, the quiet Ciemnosc followed right behind the female, having had to step up his pace for a few tens of meters to remain at a 4 meters distance behind her back.

Step- ssh, step- sssh, step- shh, step- shhlck.

Each step that Ciemnosc made on this second floor was filled with some sensation of disgusting blood and even body flesh parts, which he was ‘recently’ aware of and was the only reason he didn’t really feel disgusted. Especially considering the ‘facts’ concerning this place and all of its happening.

At some point, when they were close to the 2 doors in the same wall, Ciemnosc saw the female suddenly throw her head to the back and then…once more, her neck extended unnaturally away from her own body and reaching right in front of Ciemnosc as it rotated and faced him in reverse.

The huge mouth startled Ciemnosc, who then looked back at the huge face in front of him, awkwardly.

Step. Step, step.

Finally, arriving before the door on the left, Ciemnosc and the female stopped with the latter opening the door. And once inside, she stepped leftwards, disappearing from Ciemnosc’s view. When it was Ciemnosc’s turn to enter the room, which he only took a moment to decide to do just that, he couldn’t see the female anymore.

“...” Within the room, which looked like a small attic compared to all that he had seen just now, only a simple and poor bed remained with actual clean iron bars at the top and bottom of the bed and a semi-clean mattress. Other than that, there were a few drawers of a large enough size for a little girl, but kinda small for the huge headed female.

Taking the hint as the door was untouched after he stepped in, contrary to ordinary belief, Ciemnosc turned around and closed the door himself. The moment he turned around yet again, for the umpteenth time, the female was with her front body on the other side of the room and of the bed, accommodating a blanket that was slightly misplaced on the bed and accommodating it under the pillow on her side.

She then gave her back to Ciemnosc, her fully naked body waiting for him.

Blinking a few times, Ciemnosc protruded his lips outwards for a second before blinking yet again, and stepped forth. Fully clothed!

When he advanced to meet the bed with his knees, the female remained motionless with her back towards him. After contemplating for a few more seconds, and as some blurry light seemed to come from the large window her bare body was facing, Ciemnosc then began to lay on the bed with his right knee taking the lead on such a motion.

As soon as he began lying his body on the bed, the female followed up on his movements, placing her bum on her side and then, very slowly, lying on her right arm and shoulder, the huge headed female placed her full body on the bed at the same time as Ciemnosc did. No sound is being made from the seemingly potent and solid enough bed.

With her back facing him, Ciemnosc was just a few inches away from her head as he faced her way. Just as sleepiness made him really really drowsy. So drowsy she began turning around to face him back.

Her face was now ever more clearly visible to him. The blurry lights from the window became much more intense and powerful. Her face was really very, very, very, very, very large and big in all volumes. And it wasn’t as if it had suddenly turned into a beauty. It was the very same huge, large mouth which she had smiling lightly towards him as she opened her eyes remained open.

The long trail of her lips was heartstopping, not the ‘nice-fluttering-butterflies’ kind of way, it even had a reverse triangle shape, as if to add to the ugliness of her bizarre and decrepit extremely pale whole body.

“...Mh…” Feeling his eyelids so heavy, Ciemnosc slowly fell asleep. Slowly but surely, something he hadn’t been able to do since…more than a decade ago.

. . .

In his sleep, Ciemnosc saw so many things. So clear but with a blurry light always accompanying and outshining anything that he shouldn’t, needed not, and didn’t matter enough - to see.

First and foremost, the realization that this was an - used to be, an orphanage.

However, the little blonde girl he saw wasn’t an orphan but the kid of the owner of the orphanage. She was a cute and good little girl who became the good friend and pal of any kid in this place. Her smile charmed even animals, insects, and even the air itself.

Whenever she walked through the house and was feeling content, her little lips would make the wind around her manifest, showing signs of codependency, as if she was the whole world’s treasure.

Her mother, the owner of the orphanage, was recently visited by a bunch of old, uncle fellows. One day, one of them returned, and…he then came to live together in the orphanage.

Changes then began occurring, and Ciemnosc could understand and see all of what transpired; the little girl got to see less and less of her mother. Not only did she come to notice her daughter less, she was even less at ease and peaceful than before. The little blonde girl could see what was going on.

But before long, the children became just like her mother; depressed.

In the end, it only took a bit more time before she had to constantly hide from him, something that only she could do in time from everyone else. Every night, along with her mother, he and her mother would go to the kids’ new dorms, the basement; a basement, indeed.

Every morning, one of them would go missing. Not because they would be lost and nowhere to be found, but because the little blonde girl would no longer see them, at all. And she wasn’t…stupid enough to trap herself down there, not her.

Yet, she wasn’t planning to run away. Hence, how far until she was naturally ‘grabbed’.

The moment she was caught by that man, the moment she saw her mother move to intercept him at the door, and the moment she heard them talk about her and how there wasn’t anyone else but them both and the remaining child in the orphanage; that child of hers.

It was also the moment that it all would take the climaxing point in her life; because only she believed that only she could get out of this…remaining ‘untouched’ and alive.

But as she hid under the table, as her mother fought with more and more words when he inevitably got into the kitchen. An ever so loud slapping sound was followed by the sounds of bones wholly breaking and liquid splashing out…

All that remained for her - was to look to her left where a shadow appeared, where a hand then extended over as that man, with albino beautiful features crouched down and grabbed her by the hair…before moving her upstairs and molesting her roughly, senselessly.

. . .

“...” Ciemnosc woke up, his eyelids lifting themselves with a devilish charm.

In front of him, a skeleton of only a dark shade of rotting green with black spots of varying sizes all around received his waking-up self. Its-...her neck was thinned out and many parts of her cervical vertebra were broken, tugged at with such force overly human that they even became tiny particles that dissipated even long before she even fully died.

It was a very little skeleton, only the skull seemed bloated as it seemed to have reached an unprecedented burst of unbound power.

‘I see.’

…