It didn't budge, I tried the same thing three more times. Nothing. I ran at the door, kicked it, punched it, and shot at it several times, yet the door continued its peaceful existence. Seconds turned to minutes and minutes to hours yet time held no precedence. I finally sat in the middle of the room tired, exhausted and beaten. I lay down, my mind bulging with anger as I searched my vacant thoughts praying for an answer in my newfound memory. From the tales of a thousand worlds to the inner workings of a hundred machines, nothing seemed new, yet nothing seemed old. My only personal memory was still that winter day, blood on my hands as I stalked the streets. I scanned through and recalled the old man's words.

  I stared at the door, my stagnant adversary. The barrier between myself and freedom. Opening up a door with physical strength would make no sense. I must open a door in my mind to proceed. I concentrated hard on the door, my mind focusing with all of its strength. The door is open it was never closed, I am not in a dimension, I am not in a place where physics rules. I am in a trap a maze hidden deep into my own thoughts, I know how to open the door, the door does not exist.

  I walked forward, my eyes closed, yet were they my eyes? Or simply a figment of my imagination, thoughts being projected into a mirror of emptiness. I reached for the oaken handle, sweat dripping from my palm and pulled stepping forward into more endless darkness.

  I cracked one eye open scared of what might lie before me. The next room was a maze, one built of smooth grey cobble and thick vine. The grass was damp every strand sharp, nipping at my feet, the dark sky an endless overcast. I breathed one gigantic gulp of the cool crisp air before turning to the entrance. Blinking a few times as if to wake myself from a dream I noticed It had three pathways, one labelled with a chipped wooden sign for death, a human skull with a serpent protruding through its eye.

  Each time I closed my eyes, things would shift, grass growing in an instant, clouds moving and rock spouting from the ground. Casting a glance down the misty corridor I gulped before shaking my head. Stepping forward I came upon the second sign one showing plant life, a swirling tree with gnarled roots and murky grey leaves. The last sign showed nothing, just an empty piece of wood, crumbling with rot as a thin layer of dust lay beneath its surface. Backing up slowly I paused to take in my surroundings, the eerie silence, the wind howling as it shook the vines. Turning my head I noticed one last path. A wooden ladder led up to the top of the maze, a place where you could walk along the crumbling walls.

  I approached the ladder and climbed its first steel rung. The metal was cool and smooth, the fresh aroma of grass silently flowing in the air. I began to climb each step sending shivers down my spine.

  Once on top, the maze stretched out as far as I could see. The landscape rippled in an endless sea of bricks leading into the beyond. On the horizon, I could make out something, a light perhaps? but it was too faint, a mere speck in the distance. I stepped forward gliding among the top of the wall and flailing my arms in order to maintain a strong balance. I walked for some time, sometimes looking down to see the eerie floor shift and churn below. Suddenly a sharp cry was heard wailing in the distance. I looked up into the abyss to see a flock circling around me. I tried to think yet my mind hazed with a cloudy blur infecting my vision.

  The birds were angels of death, their teeth as sharp as razors and their eyes glinted scarlet. The bird’s bodies reflected no light but simply were as dark as an endless shadow.

  The flock closed in and swooped downwards clawing at my arms and legs slowly ripping me to shreds. Pain seared across my body as I felt them peck, hundred swooping down upon me. I grabbed one out of the air, strewing it onto the ground and breaking its neck. Blood pooled from the bird's body, but where the liquid spread, the cobble infected. Black ooze began to slither down the wall, disappearing into the unknown.

  The rest shrieked and began to form a cloud of darkness above. Terror struck inside my heart as I saw them swoop, eyes scarlet as their feathers cut against the wind. Looming creatures that flickered with the midnight shadow and cast a dark shroud around all. Holding my breath I jumped down into the security of the maze and the whole world transformed.

  The vegetation of the tunnel’s floor was muddy and damp. My hand curled around the leaves to have them flake away in my palm. As I raised myself from the floor, the cobblestone began to shift, rockets grinding as dust sprouted from the ground, swirling at my feet. For a moment silence was all that kept me company. Behind me, a voice lingered. Whispers cascaded against the howling wind.

  Each time I turned my head, looking back towards the depths, I saw their eyes, yellow burning fires cackling at my every move. I looked below, seeing the dirt path crumble at my feet. Eye's watched from holes in the wall. Their pupils were like daggers piercing into my skin. For what seemed like an endless journey I wandered, my feet clung to blood and dirt but I did not tire. Their murmurs began to intensify, slowly raising to screams as the dirt around me began to float, rising above the blades of grass and sailing across the air.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"John..." One hissed.

"Do you remember me?"

  I looked back and saw the same eyes perhaps a dozen more, a single creature began to emerge from the darkness, its foot stepping out of the black. I ran, sprinting as fast as I could, dust spewing behind me as the trail crumbled in front. The darkness began to spread, corroding all, the plants and flowers in front of me turned to ice. Frost built up on my hands yet I didn't feel cold.

  Finally, when the murmurs stopped I felt something, a hand, a finger slowly rising up my coat sleeve, the fabric stretched and rose as it glided. A tear streaked down my face as a smile danced upon my lip.

"I'm going to die aren't I?" I asked.

   I pulled out my wallet and slowly ran my finger over the frayed I.D picture of a man I never knew. My memory of that night came to my dilapidated brain and the walls around me crumbled, the hand disappeared falling into a void of darkness as a cloud of fine dust slowly build up again, this time in the shape of the street in my past.

  The London fog rolled overhead and the night sky was far more crepuscular, it was an animal. I could sense its presence, its desire, its hunger. My hair stood on end as goosebumps cascaded across my skin. Scrambling for cover I ran as fast as possible disappearing into a nearby house it was the only one in which the door was open.

   Standing in the doorway I locked and bolted the red gate but I soon discovered that this horror was not the one to be afraid of for the wood was not painted red, but stained, stained with the colour of blood. I hastily spun around to see my surroundings change, gone in an instant. Where the cozy fireplace and lavish stairs. Around me now was a castle of cobwebs, a place where even light dared not to venture.

  Pulling out a box of matches from my coat pocket I lit a single strand. It required three tries because the wooden sticks were damp from the murky surroundings. The room was made of decaying wood and in the gloomy corner stood a single wooden mannequin it's eyes draining a stream of blood and mouth revealing a crooked smile of glee. I pulled out my pistol and fired. Inertia and fear took better of my senses. However, instead of a sharp pop penetrating the air, there was no sound. I opened up the magazine and found nothing.

  The gun corroded in my hand leaving a pile of rust and grains of sand to slither cowardly through my closed palm. The creature in front moved forward creating my worst nightmare. Every step sent a shiver down my spine, every twisted movement causing my blood to boil. Its wooden body was scratched and lacerated; a shot at a limb had been chopped to reveal a long grey blade. I scurried backwards tripping over a wooden box, to come crashing into the floor. The creature was slow, barely twisting its head to face my own. It screeched as it walked, a metallic sound.

   Thinking of my odds with the mist I ran upstairs nearly falling to my death as the rotten planks snapped beneath my feet. Cobwebs enveloped my hands as I flailed through the corridor. At last, I reached the top level and ran to a nearby room closing and locking the door behind me. The creature continued to walk forward making a blood-curdling screech as it converged. Silence pierced the darkness for a moment before the creature stopped speaking gibberish and started to rant in a voice that was neither human nor animal one of comfort, reassurance and deathly persuasion.

  The voice of someone from my past, a memory so distant and undisturbed it lay deep, buried yet present, a ghost hovering over a loved one who had forgotten.

“John? John come here, I won't hurt you, just come to me, I know your past, I can help you don’t you remember me? Don't you remember me?” It reached the door handle and shook it screaming.

"Don't you remember me John?" it teased.

“Open up, open up and leave this place, survive life to tell the tale, you don’t belong here you know that I won’t hurt you, no one will, open the door, open the door.”

  I knew my only chance was to escape, escape or grab the Deathstroke hand of the creature who beckoned to me so fiercely.

   I searched my mind, but I didn't want to play anymore. I wanted freedom, or death whichever came first. I reached for the back of my head I grasped air twisted and pulled, pulled and pulled my fingers latched onto nothing, the creature outside was almost in. Its front metal blade had ripped through the wood and was slicing its way inside causing splinters of material to sail through the air. The world around me started to blur and flash, dust crumbling and reforming in an instant. The floor spasmed as it twisted and turned, wood creaking with terror. Then I closed my eyes and pulled with all my might causing pain to sear through my veins, I woke up.

Silence consumed all.

  The water around me was close to gelatin and my body was stripped down to underwear. There I floated for some time, the liquid was cold and icy. The tube attached to my brain was now floating, drifting across the small cylinder. I looked around the container and above me, a single hatch marked my fate. I punched the top, hoping to bend the metal, but only seemed to hurt my hand.

  Red lights and alarms blared as the water jutted out for a split second. The liquid slowly drained from the compartment, gushing into a grate below. I struggled to stand my hands and feet weak. Frost began to build up on the glass as the entire pod shifted. Metal and gears churned as I wobbled, trying to keep myself upright. Soon the floor opened up revealing the vast expanse of space. The stars gazed at my body, tranquillity flowing through their beauty. A spark began to fly from the pod's thrusters, then another and another.

I lay motionless floating in the air below a murky green and brown planet, above millions of stars.

  Then the rockets kicked in. The craft I travelled in was tossed at an enormous speed into the stratosphere of the planet. Around the heat of re-entry flaked away at the almost impenetrable glass. I screamed as I plummeted falling deep through the clouds above and embedding myself into the ground.