“See now, isn’t this fun!” The voice chirped, echoing around Alice as she sat catatonic, clutching her sister's hand to her face. Betsy’s twisted remains lay unmoving, unbothered by the world around her, as Alice let out silent screams of agony that seemed to choke the air from her throat. She didn’t know how long she’d sat frozen, unable or unwilling to move. She simply sat there, forced to take in the visage of her sister’s shattered corpse. So long had she sat weeping that her tears ran dry now. Nothing escaped her save for the silent wails and occasional chokes as her grief forced the very air she breathed from her lungs.
“Very touching, really, I do so love reunions, dear Alice…” The voice said, horrific intent growing with its every syllable. “Unfortunately, we really must move along now, my dear guest. You wouldn’t want to keep your host waiting, would you? That would be far too rude to imagine.”
Alice sat unmoving as the voice spoke, not hearing a word it said. The cruel machinations and tricks of the voice didn’t matter to her anymore. At that moment, she was little more than a child, clutching her sister's dead frame as the world spun out of control around her. It had been so long; she’d tried so hard to forget and move forward. Keep going, keep surviving. All of it seemed pointless. At this moment, all her efforts seemed to crumble away.
“I understand, dearest guest, I do. It can be so hard to say goodbye. Let me help you move along. Our schedule is quite strict, you see, dear Alice, I’d hate to derail it with only our first surprise.” A short chuckle followed the voice's taunting words, and all at once, her sister’s form began to shift and deform. Panic, like she couldn’t remember, took hold of her as Alice reached out, desperately trying to hold tight to the rotted body of her sister, but it was too late. Like sand slipping through an hourglass, her sister melted away onto the floor, leaving nothing behind.
Alice sat, hands quivering as she watched where her sister had once laid. She began hyperventilating, sharp and quick breaths escaping her till, at last, the silent wails of agony she’d been gagging on escaped her, filling the room and reflecting her agony on her tenfold. She felt like she was going mad, almost blacking out as her throat ran ragged with screams of grief and pain. Her sister was gone. Gone again while she cowered away. Gone again without so much as a body to mourn over.
“Really, dear Alice, as much as I appreciate the effort, don’t you think this play has gone long enough?” The voice said, seeming to lazily float around her head, its biting tone digging deep into her skin,
“Why pretend to care now? It’s not like you did anything for her while she was still here. Now, if you’d be so kind as to…”
“SHUT IT!!!” Alice exploded, screaming out as she slammed her hands to the ground in frustrated agony. The voice seemed shocked for a moment at the sudden outburst as it fell silent before a low chuckle surrounded her, cutting through her like a knife as it grew more violent and disturbed. Before long, she was forced backward, gripping hold of her head as her wails of grief turned into those of pure agony.
“I know I’ve told you, dear Alice, how I hate to be interrupted. Don’t make me…”
“I SAID SHUT IT!!!” Alice screamed again, her grief intermingled with the pain she felt, pure hatred and disgust filling her every time the words of the voice forced their way into her head. She wanted nothing more than to silence the voice, to destroy it, to earn herself freedom from its cruel, incessant yapping.
And she felt it, a string. No, a bundle of strings running through her entire body. They didn’t just lead to one part of her body; it seemed every string within her pulsed with power. Fueled by her hatred and grief, her curse was responding in kindness, sending every cell in her body into overdrive. Wasting no time, as soon as she felt the power pulsing throughout her frame, she latched hold of it. Ignoring the building pain in her head that got worse and worse as the voice responded in kind to her second outburst, she gathered and gathered more and more power into her body till, at last, she could hold it no longer and released it with a scream.
The whole of the corridor seemed to shake in response, and Alice heard the voice let out a gasp of surprise with undertones of pain. Falling to her knees, she felt as if her head was clear for the first time in ages. The pain was gone from her head, and for the first time, she felt like herself again. Her body felt normal. She’d felt it briefly before when the pain in her head was forcibly subsided, but now every twisted sensation plaguing her body was gone for the first time. It felt like she’d finally managed to sever herself from something twisted, corrupted.
As she sat on her knees, gasping for breath, she could hear the corridor around her continue to shake and fluctuate. Dust fell from above, landing atop her, and in the distance, she could hear what sounded like stone bricks falling to the floor. The ever-present ticking that surrounded her seemed to slow and skip every other beat. The voice was gone, missing ever since its shocked, pain-filled gasp. Standing up, Alice took off running toward the edge of the sealed room, desperate to try and find some way out. She may never get a chance like this again.
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Yet as soon as she reached the wall and began pressing into it to try and force it apart or look for any damage she could exploit, she heard a rage-filled scream from all around her. The ticking restarted full force, more violent than ever, and the stone wall she’d been examining seemed to open up and grab hold of her.
“DON’T YOU EVER, EVER FORGET YOUR PLACE AGAIN!” The voice roared as Alice was pulled violently into the wall. Black nothingness surrounded her, yet still, the rage of the voice reached her,
“I ALLOW YOU TO LIVE AS PLEASES MY FANCY! YOU ARE NOTHING, NOTHING IN THE FACE OF ME!” Alice stopped suddenly, suspended in the dark, unable to see anything around her.
“NEVER FORGET, IN THIS MOMENT, I ALLOWED YOU TO LIVE! I WARN YOU KNOW TRY AND BITE THE HAND THAT HOLDS YOU AGAIN…” The voice trailed off as suddenly compressive force surrounded her, pressing in on her from all sides of the darkness. Soon, the air was forced from her chest as she stood suspended in the dark, trapped and unable to breathe. Gasping like a fish as she slowly suffocated, the voice returned, quieter now, yet its rage still showing through.
“I’ll squeeze shut.” Alice felt the force around her tighten suddenly before all at once pulling away. Relief filled her as she was allowed to take deep breaths of oxygen once more, but suddenly, she found herself dropped. No longer suspended in the dark, she instead fell into it, gathering speed at an alarming rate.
“I no longer feel up to playing with you, ‘dear guest,’ so I’ll leave you to reflect.” The voice faded away, leaving Alice to fall silently in the dark. Soon, the all-encompassing pain returned to Alice's head, causing her to writhe around in the air as she fell.
Except now, the pain felt lessened, almost dull. It was as if the extremity of the pain couldn’t quite reach her, as if she’d managed to partly disconnect herself from its source. Breathing deeply and gritting her teeth as the pain once more rolled through her system, Alice looked around at the complete darkness around her. Who knows how long the voice intended to leave her here, alone in the dark with nothing but the pain for company. Yet, if she was honest, she much preferred this to entertaining the voice's sick whims.
Laying back in the air, Alice closed her eyes and focused her attention inward. Toward the strings bundled in knots crisscrossing in complex patterns and webs throughout her body. Hoping to force the power to pulse through her once more. Yet she found nothing. The pulsing power was gone, and with it, the bundled set of strings running throughout her entire frame.
Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes and focused harder. Desperate to cling to the one hope she saw of escaping the voice's torture and even more so desperate to avoid thinking of her sister’s body slowly fading into nothing.
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Jake struggled forward, his stomach churning and his feet protesting with each step. He felt he had to gag, yet every time he did, all that would escape him was blood, and the effort would only leave his throat more parched and torn than it had been before. Jake felt it must have been days since he started following the dim lights lining the floor. His feet felt so brittle and sore that he worried they might snap off, and his hands were looking more and more withered by the day. Jake took one last step forward till he collapsed to the ground, his legs buckling out from under him.
“What ails you, dear guest?” The voice asked in mock sympathy, “If you find yourself needing a place to rest, I assure you, a beautiful resting ground lies just a few steps farther. We should keep moving; it’ll be far more comfortable than the floor is, your gracious host personally saw to it!”
Jake suppressed an annoyed groan and forced his head upward. The voice had been saying that every time Jake stopped to take a break. Whether he stopped walking to catch his breath, sit down and rest a moment, or now collapse from exhaustion, the voice would come in to goad him onward with promises of a peaceful rest just a few steps ahead. Jake knew these promises were a lie. Yet he had no choice but to obey the voice’s commands, every time he tried to ignore the voice and simply stay still, pain and punishment awaited him.
With a sigh, Jake began to pull himself upright, first drawing himself up to his knees. He made the process of standing up as drawn out and slow as possible, trying to milk as much of a rest as possible from this stop as he could.
“No, no, dear guest, you really should AHH!” A sudden cry escaped the voice before it fell silent. Along with this, the corridor seemed to shake and throb. Blinking his eyes a few times, Jake suddenly felt as if the exhaustion that had plagued his body was fading slightly, not gone completely but reduced. Sitting upright, he looked around, confused, and noticed something had rolled out of his pocket. Picking it up and turning it over in his hand, he found it was a small clay flute.
He suddenly recalled picking it out, buried amongst the offerings given by the elves. It felt like a lifetime ago now. Standing up slowly and shakily, Jake looked around for any sign of the voices returning before an idea occurred to him.
“ALICE!!”
He hadn’t expected a response but still found it disappointing when nothing came. Looking around a few more times, he raised the flute to his lips and blew hard, hoping to send a signal that could reach her before the voice returned.
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Falling through the void, less expanse of nothing, Alice suddenly blinked, confused. Drawn from her concentration, a sudden sharp sound reached her ears, causing her to look around, confused. Yet there was no sign the voice had returned or anything else that could potentially be the sound's origin. Confused, Alice heard the sound one more time, her head snapping toward where it was coming from.