Alice fell back in shock away from the sudden wall that had sprouted without warning, separating her from Jake. Before she had time to react, the whole corridor seemed to shake, dust falling in cascading heaps onto her head. She reached up, coughing as the dust invaded her lungs, and tried to swat the dust away as the corridor continued to shake. Suddenly, before she could react, the wall seemed to stretch away from her.
In desperation, she lunged forward, trying to catch the retreating wall before it left her behind, but she was too late. She fell to the dark, dusty floor of the corridor alone. Her only link to reuniting with Jake was long gone now. A sense of panic started to well up in her chest; she felt like she might start hyperventilating. Her thoughts were a jumbled, confused mess.
Her body was screaming in pain, hunger and thirst racked her body as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks, maybe months. She felt weak as if she wouldn’t be able to stand, let alone continue moving through the unending lengths of the corridor. Her headache only seemed to grow worse, distracting her thoughts as she tried to focus on her surroundings, on her isolation. With a small scream, she almost felt like slamming her head into the ground in hopes it might relieve the unending buildup of pressure.
“Oh, dear guest, I truly hope you don’t mind…” The voice returned, carried on the wind, the unending ticking sounds growing faster and more excited as it spoke, “It was just so hard trying to cater to you both! As your host, I just didn’t feel right neglecting you like that, keeping my attention split between you. I just couldn’t do it. You can understand, right?” The voice dripped with implied threat, an audible sneer clear in its tone.
Alice paid the voice no mind, barely even hearing what it had to say. Her head was splitting apart. Blood leaked from her nose and started to dribble lightly from her ears onto the floor. Her brain was bursting apart, liquidating. With a cough, she sent splatters of crimson across the corridor's floor, where it intermingled with the accrued dust to slowly form a sort of sticky sludge.
“What is this now? Never seen someone react so negatively, what could be the cause? It just won’t do, just won’t do, dear guest.” All at once, the pain in her head seemed to fade, slowly dying down and vanishing till it was nothing more than a distant throbbing at the back of her skull. Still ever-present but died down to levels of agony that were manageable.
“I can’t have one of my dear guests dying on me, not after I finally get a chance to entertain after all this time. No, no, no, dear guest, I’m sorry, but I just can’t have it…” A pause followed the voice, and suddenly, bone-chilling winds swept the corridor. “No, dear guest, that will come later.”
The voices vicious cackling rattled the stones of the corridor, the ticking behind the walls growing even louder, more excited than Alice had heard before. Alice ignored the excited glee of the voice, the ticking of the walls, the chill of the air. She simply lay on the floor breathing slow, labored breaths; thoughts allowed her to collect in her head, and now the pain had subsided.
Her body felt light again for some reason. The pain that plagued her feet, her joints, the hunger gnawing at her stomach, the thirst clawing at her throat. All seemed to fade away with the pain. Blinking slowly, Alice sat up, hoping to find the stone wall or, even better, Jake waiting for her. For all of this to have been some dark trick, further torture on her psyche. Yet she still sat alone, nothing around her in the corridor save her blood and the dim illumination escaping from the floor below.
“Now, dear guest, please, if you’d be so kind…” The voice spoke as the pain started to build back up in her head “We really must be off. So much to do.” Alice stood quickly, staggering to her feet. As she rose, the pain disappeared from her head, and the voice let out a mocking whisper that seemed right by her ear,
“There's a good little girl. Follow the pretty lights now, won’t you, dear guest?”
Swallowing deeply, Alice stepped forward from the wall where Jake had once been and followed after the dimly lit lights that covered the floor of the corridor. She’d barely taken a few steps when her walking was interrupted by the voice, sounding tired and annoyed,
“You really made a mess, didn’t you?” Alice glanced back over her shoulder towards the splatters of blood left behind as she’d rived around in agony. “Worry not, dear guest, I’ll clean this up in no time.”
A clapping sound followed the voice’s words, distorted and offbeat, and suddenly, the entirety of the corridor seemed to rotate, spinning along its center axis faster and faster till it was just a grey blur spinning end over end. Alice stood suspended in place, watching the corridor turn over end till, with a violent lurch, it stopped.
The sudden stop of the corridor sent the sticky sludge created from Alice’s blood launching into the air, where it perfectly landed atop her. She gasped and sputtered, too shocked at what she had just seen to even try and wipe the sludge away from herself.
“Much better now, wouldn’t you agree, dear guest?” The voice asked, though it sounded a bit bored, the usually biting cruelty Alice was used to was lacking, and it almost seemed to be suppressing a yawn. “Get moving, please, we haven’t got all day.”
“What are you…” Alice managed to say, the shock of what just happened begging to ebb away, yet she suddenly gripped her head tight as pain rushed back, flooring her.
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“Ah, ah, ah. What sort of guest questions their host? You should be ashamed, really. Dear guests should learn to speak when asked to… for their own good, of course.”
“What…What is this…” Alice screamed, gripping the side of her head as the pain suddenly seemed to triple in intensity.
“Another question hmm… You are daring… I do love daring guests; they are the most fun to play with. I think I’ll reward you just this once. What you’re feeling, my dear, is my welcoming gift, a little something used to make my dear, sweet, special guests feel at home. Unfortunately, you, my dear, seem disfigured and deformed. Freakish. It just doesn’t seem to work on you. How tragic, how cursed…” The figure's tone was one of mock sympathy, and Alice could practically see the sadistic smile plastered across its face. Yet its word choice, the way it spoke about her, sent alarm bells ringing in her head as the pain once more faded from her skull.
“Now, dear guest, I’ve rewarded you with answers to your questions and let you live yet again. I warn you now, test me again, and my reward will most certainly not be to your liking. I suggest, implore, you follow the lights before I grow bored of you, my dear, sweet, stubborn guest.”
Alice stood straight, wiping blood away from her face as a fresh nosebleed began to fade, and she started forward down the corridor after the dimly lit lights. Her mouth stayed shut as she marched endlessly through the dimly lit darkness, no matter what questions or thoughts she had, she kept them to herself. Yet the longer she walked, the less she found herself theorizing about the voice that taunted and tortured her.
As the endless trek continued, unchanging in its layout, Alice simply felt a cold chill down her spine as the uncomfortable sensation of loneliness took hold of her. She’d been used to being lonely; she’d been alone most of her life. Yet, these past few days traveling with Jake, she’d found herself growing more and more used to being around someone else. Talking with someone else, sharing stories, or even just having someone else nearby. She never thought much of these little things. Now, alone once more, she felt their weight for the first time.
“Oh, Dear!” The voice began, mock sympathy in its voice. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear sweet Alice. I see that worried look on your face; I know exactly what has you so glum. Loneliness can be hard, can’t it? But don’t you worry now!” Mock excitement flooded from the voice, it practically dripped vile intent “I’ve found a very special guest to help with that, just up ahead waiting for you! You shouldn't keep him waiting, dear Alice!”
The voice’s prodding sent shivers down Alice’s spine. It felt wrong to hear her name escape its lips, and struggle as hard as she could she couldn’t recall herself or Jake ever giving their names to the voice. Though who knows how long the voice had been stalking them. With a gulp, she set off at a hurried pace down the corridor. Though she doubted anything pleasant awaited her toward the end of the corridor, she didn’t want to give the voice any further reason to hurt her.
Slowly, the corridor seemed to be narrowing, and the dim lights coming from the floor seemed to be growing stronger and stronger. A dull mist appeared from nowhere, carpeting the floor, and the rough walls of the corridor began to take the form of distinctive carved bricks while the ceiling lengthened, stretching up high above her head. Stopping, Alice looked around only to realize she knew exactly where she stood.
She’d stood in this exact alley many times throughout her life; it was the fastest shortcut connecting the main market to one of the side roads she liked to frequent. She recognized the distinctive way the bricks were placed, the wear and tear, the scratches, and even the uneven way the floor was beginning to deform itself as her shortcut back to the market. She gulped, seeing the corridor continue ahead, the alleyway stretching onward into forever, and spun around, prepared to run back. Ready to fight through whatever pain the voice might inflict upon her so long as it meant not having to return.
Suddenly, she was stopped by an ear-piercing whistle that rose all around her. She involuntarily froze, her body quivering and cold sweat dripping down her brow. Another whistle rang out seconds later, closing in towards her fast from all directions. She had nowhere to run, no way to fight back. She ran to the side of the corridor, pounding her fist against the cobbled stone brick of the alleyway in desperation. As if answering her call, the alley seemed to split apart and allowed her inside.
Without any other option, Alice forced herself into the wall, curling up into a ball, certain she would be caught any minute. Continuous whistling began to seep through the crack she’d crawled through, interrupted only by the ever-present ticking, which seemed to grow faster and faster, laughing at her panicked misery. Then, the whistling stopped. Silence filled the air for a moment before a new sound replaced it.
Bloodcurdling screams combined with the sounds of metal breaking flesh and bone could be heard right outside Alice’s hiding spot. Alice tried to cover her ears, close her eyes tight, and hide from the sickening crunches echoing around her. She didn’t know how long she hid away, praying for the sounds to end. Eventually, though, the screams stopped, leaving only the beating of steel against the flesh.
After what felt like an eternity, this stopped, too, and Alice listened as the sound of the guard’s whistles seemed to retreat away. She still didn’t move, afraid of what she might find outside her hiding place. She was only spurred into action by the ticking around her, which seemed to grow louder, more aggressive. Fearful, Alice pulled herself from the wall only to find herself somewhere new entirely.
A completely square room with no sign of crack or seam or entrance or exit to speak of. Turning around, the crack in the wall she’d crawled out of was already gone, leaving the wall perfectly flat. Slowly looking around the room, the only thing of note was a bloodstained tarp covering an unknown mass in the center of the room. Walking forward, Alice had a sickening suspension. She could guess what lay under the tarp and knew what sick whim the voice desired as she grabbed hold of the tarp to pull it away.
Nothing could prepare her for what she saw next. Betsy’s body lay broken and beaten, parts so badly abused it looked more like mincemeat than human flesh. She still looked so young, as young as the last time Alice had seen her, that no signs of Crumbling infected her body. Only the brutal beatings of the guards. The back of her skull lay caved in, brain and blood leaked to the floor, and her eyes lay glassy, yet signs of fear and pain were still evident on her face.
Alice dropped to her knees, a choked wail escaping her. Tears fell from her eyes, heavy and full as misery so deep took hold of her body that she found she couldn’t even express it with sound. Taking hold of the bruised girl's broken hand and holding it close to her forehead, Alice knelt and wept over her sister's broken form.