Traversing the depths of the underground complex became a lot easier with Di’at’s help, which left Mallory with a lot of time on her hands.

“I have a question I want to ask.” She began asking as Di’at calmly let himself be a pincushion for several dozen darts coming out of the walls before shaking them off.

“You may ask, though I may not answer.” Di’at replied as he took off one last dart off his arm. “And no, I’m not a demon. Let’s just put that to rest for good.”

“What exactly are you?” Mallory asked, trying her best to keep her voice even.

“I’m your old friend, obviously.” Di’at spoke as he secretly hoped she would accept this answer and move on. “And all the things I can do that you have seen is as how you find yourself breathing even when you don’t think about it. It comes naturally to me.” Mallory frowned as she processed the not-an-answer answer from Di’at while waiting for the man to shut off a series of vents releasing poisonous gas from yet another trap.

I remember meeting a boy that talked really weird and wanted me to follow him back home. I said no because I didn’t want mom to get mad, but I never really thought anything was weird until he walked back into a portal and disappeared. I should have freaked out, but I didn’t. I just forgot and now he’s here, ready to do the same thing all over again. It’s like nothing changed for him. Mallory’s mind spun as she tried to remember anything at all about spirits and monsters, but nothing came to mind except demons. Capricious, cruel, and lying demons out to trick mankind from their eternal salvation at God’s side in Heaven.

But he isn’t a demon … is he? It’s not like I’ve ever seen a demon in-person before! Oh Lord Jesus Christ, please help this poor soul find her way out of here. Mallory walked forward without seeing where she was going, stumbling onto something with her face. She inadvertently cursed and rubbed the part that got hurt before taking a proper look at what she had bumped into. It seemed like a patch of white rock, which does appear every now and then, though they were more like slivers than the outcropping staring back at the woman. Di’at looked on with some amusement as he waited for Mallory to sort herself out.

“Some warning would be nice next time.” Mallory grumbled as she checked if she had gotten herself hurt. Once she confirmed nothing was out of place, Mallory moved to start walking again, but stopped once she saw a curious sight before her. The tunnel she was in was widening into a large hall-like cavern, where spires of white rock jutted out here and there from the floor, the walls, and even the ceilings. Just as she noticed all this, Mallory noticed that at some point, things had gotten bright enough that she could see vaguely see herself at last.

Was my hand always this big? She thought as she held her right hand in front of her, opening and closing the fingers as she felt the muscles contract and the bones grind against one another smoothly. Without pain. She was well and whole, and it was because of a man that thought himself her friend. Not a man. A being, a creature, a monster even. Nothing about all this makes sense. Nothing about this is normal. Don’t get caught up in his pace; you need to survive and escape. Get back to reality.

… and then what? Die?

It was my time anyway, no use thinking-wait a minute, who said that?! Is that you, Di’at?! Get out of my head, you creep! Mallory turned to glare at Di’at for his supposed transgression, but the man simply smiled at her and nodded at her to keep moving. It was frustrating how little Mallory knew about Di’at, save for what she could scarcely remember and what she had seen firsthand. One question that made itself to the front row seat of Mallory’s mind was a simple one. Why didn’t he just make a portal to wherever he wants me to go like back then? He led me to a barren wasteland wracked by storms, diving headfirst into a hole in the wall of a buried crypt of sorts. There’s traps everywhere and now I’m walking into bone-white rocks. The complaints in Mallory’s mind grew and grew as she envisioned an effigy of Di’at for her to punish however she saw fit. Her eyes became manic as she released the pent-up stress within her to a climax with the mental effigy of Di’at exploding into a million pieces, Mallory’s bad mood subsiding for now. It allowed her to come back to her senses and observe once more the white rocks dotting the room.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Given their recent novelty, Mallory couldn’t help but feel that something about them was off. The way that light bounced off them, their texture on her hands, and … the smell. Mallory started as she realized she had her sense of smell back as well. The smell was stale air mixed with something cloy, thick enough to cling but thin not to gag. The smell was strongest around the white rocks, which Mallory took as a sign to stay away from them, which earned her a couple stares from Di’at, but nothing more. It perhaps spoke to the man’s inhuman nature that sometimes it looked like he had a nose and sometimes he didn’t. Whatever the case, Di’at was wholly unbothered by anything, not death traps, death stares, or a weird smell coming off of rocks in an underground tunnel.

“Do you have something to drink?” Mallory asked as she felt her lips was a bit dry. “I’m thirsty.”

“… Why would you think I have a drink on me? I’m not carrying a bag.” Di’at said as he looked at Mallory strangely.

“You can’t just grab a drink from somewhere? Portals? You know, you just-“ Mallory mimed putting one’s hand through a portal and yanking out a drink from the other side. “-like that. Or is it because of some kind of lame rule, like, ‘you can’t use portals to commit crime, bla bla bla.’” Di’at laughed at seeing Mallory make a funny face. “Oh so that’s funny. Good to know. Can you get me a drink now?”

“You don’t even need to drink. You just want to drink.” Di’at said as though what he said surprised anyone.

“Give me a drink or I’ll make sure you walk funny.” Mallory said with sudden venom which was gone as soon as it appeared. “What was that? Lord Jesus, what came over me? Why did I say that?” She brought a hand to her forehead and stopped to calm down her rising heart rate. “Something-something in here is making me sick. I have to get out of here. Can you portal us to the end of this room?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been here before.” Di’at said as he shrugged. “That storm made a mess of my travel plans, so now I’m really just going along while hoping to see something that can lead us to where we need to go.”

“Just bring us up outside, then go in the normal way.” Mallory said, “Or let me guess, the storm wrecked everything?”

“Indeed it has. You can take a look for yourself.” Di’at stopped and conjured a portal in front of Mallory, who, after a bit of hesitation, stepped through and found herself breathing fresh air. The brightness outside blinded Mallory, causing her to fall to her knees and scrabbling for some shadow to shade her. She found it not soon after, as well as the smooth face of something that could only be the underground complex’ uppermost parts. Or rather, what was left of it, as the part that Mallory was leaning against was now one of the biggest parts left of that impressive monument. A depression of broken earth lay at where the entrance must have been, anything inside crushed beyond recognition. Mallory looked upon it as she thought about just going off into the distance.

“Mallory? Are you done yet? We still need to keep going, you know. Unless you’re changing your-“ Di’at at some point had followed through, dragging the portal with him like a dog on a leash.

“It’s nothing. Nothing at all.” Mallory’s eyes searched Di’at’s own for a second as though what she was looking for was inside, but there was nothing there. She sighed and turned to walk through the portal once more, followed suit by Di’at who looked slightly bored for a change.

"I still want a drink, by the way. Get to it." Mallory said, not looking back to see whether Di'at said yes to her request or not.