Chapter 35 - Trap

Sphere? Insight Sphere? Is he saying he knows some secret about Insight Spheres? Was that even possible? Weren't these people blind to the Fundamentals?

Nonetheless, anything new regarding Fundamentals had to be explored. This wasn't what he had come for, but the gloomy sun was setting in the west, losing some of that vigor by the second. Standing here and listening to all these noises wasn't doing him any favors.

What should I do? Go in and try to converse with the nutcase, or just come back tomorrow in the Morning? But there's no guarantee that it would be any different tomorrow. He stood there, unsure of what course of action to pursue. But when all those turbulent clouds up in the sky began taking a purple hue, he finally made up his mind.

He first moved back out of the mansion and looked at the door's lock closely. It was a traditional key lock mechanism which was at least a few decades old—though its bolt was quite hefty. If it came down to it, his revolver might not be able to break through it in a hurry.

Yes, he was planning his escape before going in. Call this paranoia, but he wouldn't put it past these jerks to try and entrap a Fundamentalist. He had thought it was just another organization that loathed his kind. But the more he looked at the interior design, the more he realized that things weren’t as simple.

On top of that, he had no idea just how many of these people were in there. He believed as long as he had a clear path back outside, he should be fine.

Done with his basic analysis, he hoisted over one of the statues from the corridor and propped open the door with it. Then with a deep breath, he gripped Ironsong properly and walked in.

With slow steps, he passed pillar after pillar and his heartbeat rose proportionally as the noises became clearer than ever. Some of them were cries, some were growls, but barring that, the man in the first door spoke with a higher and faster pitch, "Yes! Yes! Give me, I give back. Secret of sphere."

Moving in this heavy darkness, barely avoiding all the obstacles, he tread lightly towards the right hall. But then his heart lurched to a halt—

Shuffle Shuffle

Something moved behind him! With a swift jerk, he glanced back, only to notice a shadow flitting past on the second floor.

Fuck. I really shouldn't be doing this. I am really not moving an inch next time without a light. This is unnecessarily tense. Glancing at the wide open main door, he felt some semblance of control and inhaled deeply, taking measured strides towards the right hall.

"Yes! Faster. Take my secret."

When he walked past the staircase, a dark corridor stared back at him, eerie noises playing out from some of the rooms within. The thought of where these sounds originated from sent a shiver down his spine.

Suppressing the dread boiling up within him, he stood a few paces away from that door, Ironsong aimed at the silver patterns around the glassy insets on the gate. Ready to be unloaded if something tried to come for him abruptly. Fuck the empire's laws—this was necessary for survival.

Then with a low voice, Vern asked, "I am here. Tell me the secret."

"Yes, yes. Give it to me, I tell the secret," replied the voice from within, no doubt addressing Vern. The high pitch of that shrill voice made his hairs stand on end, but he still negotiated.

"First, tell me the secret. I will give it to you after," Vern had no clue what the man wanted, but it was obviously going to be no good. Since he planned on escaping anyway, what did it matter? What was a fair exchange when one party was not right in the head?

He could ask about this secret and make a run for it. He didn't like the idea of wasting his evening and fifteen crowns. Something should come out of his long awaited excursion to Ascendant Council. If not a copy of Observation Record of Subjectivity, it'd do to learn about some secrets about Insight Sphere and Fundamentals.

"You will give it to me, right?" asked the voice when suddenly, light radiated out of the dull glass insets on the door. A silhouette could barely be made out from all those disjoint glassy embedments.

Vern replied back, "Yes," as he got a little closer. But before Vern could get a better look, the sound uttered, "Okay! Then give it to me after. I tell secret."

"The sphere can preserve your thoughts. Haha. I can't see, but I can preserve."

However, the voice had nothing else to add except some heavy breathing. So Vern inquired further, "That's it? Can you explain a little more? That's not enough for me to give it to you."

"EEHAHHH! I give secret already. EHAHHH! EAHHAHH!!!"

"Okay, just tell me how you found out about it? You can't even peer into an Insight Sphere, right?" he asked, hoping to get something more legible out of this conversation.

"The whispers told me. They told me I can gather my thoughts and unleash them later. To look at them. The fundamentals. Yes, I will be able to see them. Now give it to me."

"What whispers?"

But he shrieked and banged on the door, "GIVE IT TO ME!!!"

"I will give it to you. But how do I believe that you're telling the truth? What if you lied to me? Prove to me that you're speaking the truth." Vern just rambled whatever came to his mind, trying to pry more out of the lunatic.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The voice suddenly quietened down, and out came the sounds of rummaging as metals clanked falling on the floor, followed by the creak of the door. "Here. My thoughts in there. See…" said the guttural voice as a pale hand stretched out of the door, an Insight Sphere resting atop its palm.

That's the real deal!

He wasn't a miser or anything, but the sight of another Insight sphere fueled his greed. Forget everything else, just this sphere would be worth it. So, with slow steps, he steadily crept towards the hand—his revolver aimed right where the chest connected to this arm should. He didn't aim for the head because it would be harder to predict even with those glassy insets and their distorted glimpse to inside. There was no chance of missing on the chest.

"GIVE IT!! I SHOW! I ALREADY SHOW! GIVE IT!"

The pale hand seemed to shiver in the murky darkness, but the Insight Sphere atop it breathed some light into the environment. "Okay, let me check what's in there, I will give it to you." said Vern as he extended his hand towards the top of the sphere, ready to wrench it from the grasp of the pale hand.

But the moment his palm touched the smooth glassy surface, something gripped his wrist.

FUCK! Vern's heart seemed to jump out of his chest as he let go of all his inhibitions and pulled the trigger.

BANGG

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! He fucking shot a person! The thought rampaged in his mind as he barely managed to keep the revolver from jumping out due to the recoil.

But the moment the grip on his arm loosened, he yanked the Sphere free from the clutches of that thing. Not wasting even a moment, he turned around…and it all went dark.

THUMP

Then with a loud clack, the door clicked shut. The fucking door, which had a heavier-than-rock statue, keeping it propped open, was closed shut! What in the name of seven steams is this bullshit? Someone just moved that thing from behind me, and I didn't even hear a thing?

This is bad! There was that madman behind him inside the room, and now there was someone in front of him by the door as well. He was pinched between two unknown enemies. This was exactly what he had hoped to avoid with his vigilance. Vigilance, that ended up being inadequate.

Where to? Running up wasn't even an option. Going from two to twenty enemies would be foolish beyond comprehension. The windows were too narrow and high up. A single shot would only break a small section, and even after that, he'd need to be able to jump high enough to reach them.

He had also analyzed the lock on the door, but he wasn't sure if he could use Instability Inducement on it. It was worth a shot, though. So in his short burst of motion, he didn't even look back to assess the damage of the bullet, but instead began shading the lock on the door within his perception.

But this was such a weird problem. The lock wasn't complex at all. It was quite a simple thing. It had a crevasse for the key to go in, which when turned, would push a long heavy latch out that would bolt it with the other door. There wasn't much in the name of gears or anything.

Ughhh!

This boggled his mind, but he still shaded the key's aperture to be a slate gray and the bolt a cloudy white. But that notion which usually guided his thoughts didn't emerge.

AHJHHJHHGGHH

A shrieked resounded behind him, like the squeal of a dying pig, quickly followed by a shrill shout, "GIVE IT TO MEEEE!!!!! GIVE ME YOUR EYES!!!! AAAAAAJJGHH!"

Vern's breath caught in his throat, but he shoved the insight sphere into his coat and jumped over the couch, sidestepping the pillars in a frenzied run. Luckily his memory was clear enough to remember exactly where all these obstacles were lying on the ground. His eyes could barely see anything.

It was hard to focus on shading something right in front of his eyes, much less the door. But he had to do it.

As he concentrated on shading with more details and looked for that flaw, he could barely focused on his surroundings. But then his pupils constricted as a sheen appeared in his eyes, high up in the air. A sheen that was rising higher and stretching further back as if getting set to cleave back down with overwhelming might.

This has to be the person that closed the door!

Not double-guessing himself, he grabbed one of the pillars and transferred his momentum to the side in a short spin when the glint came smashing down like a meteor.

CRRACKK

Wood splinters flew all around Vern as an axe impaled the ground right next to him, and a huge shadow seemed to loom right behind the handle of that huge axe. He wanted to scream, but damn, if that pulled more of these suckers down, he would only have himself to blame.

Now a little off course, he bolted towards the door as fast as he could while he tried to think of a fucking flaw in that lock. Just what was a complexity-related flaw in that lock? Maybe the aperture? The movement of the latch? He flitted through many ideas, and slowly a notion began forming in his mind.

YES!

It was very faint, but he let it guide his thoughts and a crack appeared in his perception. A very small crack, which grew wider and wider by the second, but even when he was almost upon the door, the crack didn't even cover half his vision. Then suddenly, the notion concluded its guidance, and all the shades disappeared as he braced for the impact and rushed at the door with all his might.

THUDDD

His shoulder hurt like a bitch, and he found himself recoiling from the large door, which didn't budge at all.

Fuck me! This…

He tried turning the knob, but nothing worked. The heck was he supposed to do now? It was really dumb of him. Obviously, someone can just move the statue away—just like I put it there. Why did that make me feel safe? But who the hell would expect axe-cleaving psychos in a public club? He was already feeling too paranoid for having done what he did.

But now really wasn't the time to cry about all this. If it wasn't working, he would just have to try something else. So he turned around and shot another bullet at the looming shadow right behind him.

BANGG

It seemed like it should've hit the thing, but Vern didn't wait around to find out and ran towards the left hall as another piece of furniture was hacked to pieces right behind him.

"EYES!!! GIVE ME YOUR EYESS! I WILL SEE THE FUNDAMENTALS!!"

But immediately, a humanoid shape lunged for him, raving madly. Vern didn't get an opportunity to retaliate as he was swept up in the momentum, falling down sideways with a thud—that thing still on top of him. He didn't even get a chance to aim his revolver before the hollow above and beneath his eye socket was met with an unbearable pressure as the bony fingers squeezed at it in a bid to pull his eye out.

AGHHHHH!!

Vern screamed as the thing above him clenched his eye with intense fervor. Still, he just shoved his pistol wherever he felt some skin, and shot it point blank.

BANGG

And as anticipated, the grip on his eye loosened. Not missing the chance, he kicked the thing hard in its stomach and backed away, haphazardly getting back on his feet. His vision was hazy, so he closed his right eye and continued to take long strides toward the left hall.

"EYES!! I GIVE SECRET GIVE ME EYES!!!"

In this nerve-wracking chase, he noticed that one of the doors was actually ajar. It didn't look like someone was inside it. Skipping any further contemplation, he entered the room and slammed the door behind him, turning the lock as it clicked shut.

At least there was no one in the room. Another crazy might have really been the end of the line for him. Also, the room actually had a window, but it was fucking encased within iron bars!

CRACK

AGHHH

An intense pain shot through his shoulders as blood spurted out of it. Vern muffled his scream and moved away from the door. That axe had just came smashing right through the door. But luckily, it had lost most of its momentum before it hit his shoulder, or he would have already lost his arm. If that axe was even a little to the side, he wouldn't even be thinking right now.

His mistakes were quickly piling up.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Why are they not dying?