I don't run. I sit on the black platform as if I were petrified. Maybe of fear, or it has taken itself so far into my mind that it won't let me flee.

Clover isn't running either. He keeps his eyes stuck to the creature and the mask we've come so far for. I cannot see how we could ever get our hands on it without being ripped apart.

It drags itself slowly forward and leaves dark red handprints on the clean platform. A bloody trail is also left by the mutilated body. Clover bends down and grabs my arm, his eyes never leaves the creature. He pulls me back up on unsteady legs.

"Sorry, sorry," the creature says in an unnatural dark voice.

It extends its hand, spreads its long fingers and pushes it against the platform to pull itself closer. I don't dare to avert my gaze.

It extends its other hand and leans back its head and towards the side in a way that reminds me of a curious dog. The creature is everything else but a pet, it would – and will – tear us apart. The hunger is still deep within me, my mouth salivates as its thinking of how it can have us, how it can tear us apart and watch us bleed, how it can...

"Break your spines," it finishes for me.

It moves its bloody hand against its gape, a thin but long tongue finds its way out of its mouth and moves against the fingers.

And I understand why the platform is so clean, why a part of its body is missing and that we're never leaving this place. We're going to die here.

My eyes fill up with tears, almost bursting down my cheeks. I try to get my legs to move, but it's like I'm frozen.

I need to flee. Have to flee. Even if it's impossible, even if I know that the creature will tear me apart the moment I turn my back towards it.

It's close now, just a few more meters and it will stand eye to eye with us. Clover stiffens and it looks like he wants to flee as much as I want but cannot move. He pulls my arm forcefully, but his feet remain at the exact same spot.

We'll die. This was nothing else but a suicide mission, there was no chance we'd get out of here unharmed. They sent us here without weapon or any way to protect us when they knew the darkness twisted and distorted everything around it. We don't deserve this, to go through all this pain just to be torn apart by this nightmare.

Flee. One single word, all I could do was warn them. A hope that Nine takes Sage and Sun out of this world and give up the hope about the mask.

The creature stands eye to eye with us now, with its foul breath. Its tongue moves out of its gape slowly like a snake. It runs the tongue over my cheek, over mud and sweat mixed together. I take short, panicked breaths as tears run down my cheeks, over its disgusting tongue.

Orchid, the name echoes out in my mind, what is happening?

It's impossible, I send back. Flee. Now.

"It was a punishment," it says and Clover's grip around my arm gets tighter. "A punishment for what we did. I'm sorry.... Sorry."

A sudden dirty boot meets the creature's upper body. I'm not sure how he was able to break the petrification. It's pushed back by the force and screams so loud it hurts my ears. In the next second we're running. I'm not sure how my aching legs are able to handle it. But that we're finally running and putting distance between us and the creature is all I care about.

Clover leads me towards the narrow alleyways we came from. Just as we reach the end of the stairs a coal-black hand grabs me and throws me backwards. I end up on my stomach, sliding over the platform. I groan by the pain that is throbbing through my entire upper body. I stand up on my knees with one hand touching my ribs.

The creature ascends the stairs with a grip around Clover's throat and half of his face. It drags itself forward with its free hand. When it's back at the platform it slams Clover down with his face first. One. Two. Three times.

I cannot get up, my body aches too much. I shut out the words in my mind.

Four, five.

Blood fills his face and the platform, like he was alive.

Six, seven.

I try to get up despite the pain but fall down again.

The creature throws Clover over the platform and when he lands, he groans. He slowly turns around, with his back against the ground. I cannot make out the details in the bloody face.

It reaches its vile arms far in front of itself and moves towards Clover.

I crawl forward, over the blood trail its body has left. I don't know what I can achieve doing this, but there has to be something.

The creature turns its masked face towards me once it realizes what I'm doing. It reaches out and grabs my face.

"The war," the creature snarls as it lifts me up from the platform so I dangle in the air. Despite the fingers being thin, they're long enough that they reach each other behind my head. "They knew what they did, what they caused."

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Its fingers tighten over my head, it feels like it's going to crush me like a grape. I scream and pulls the creature's fingers with everything I got.

It lets go of me and I fall down on the platform again and hit my back against the blood trail.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The creature pushes a hand against the mask. "It was a punishment!"

Clover carefully stands on all four, blood runs down his already bloody face. The creature grabs me before I can crawl any closer to him, it throws me away from them and I glide across the platform until my back hits the tower.

The creature wraps its fingers around Clover's bloody face and pushes him down at the ground again.

I crawl forward using my arms, dragging my body against the ground. I don't know why I'm trying, there's no way out. We're going to die here.

Multiple tongues come out of its mouth, all but one looks sharp. They move down towards Clover that is pulling fiercely in the creature's hand across his face. The tongues continue down towards his throat and slowly breach the skin as they make contact, the fingers around his head becomes tighter while Clover struggle desperately.

My entire body is in a searing pain. It feels like someone has torn my arms to shred with every move I make. I slowly move my legs forward in an attempt to get my knees up so I can walk on all fours. Clover's breaths and gasps becomes more agonizing as the scalpel-like tongues move further down his throat.

I get up on both my knees and push my upper body up with my arms. I'm not going to make it. It would be easier to flee, whether I could walk or not didn't matter. I could crawl out of the way and hide until the creature was done. They're ugly and selfish thoughts. But it would mean I'd have a chance of surviving. I swallow and push myself forward, unsure what action to make.

The ground shakes violently – it has begun moving. Silently. The creature's tongue's stops and it slowly raises its head towards the darkness. Clover takes a steady grip around the tongues, and blood runs down his wrists as he yanks them out of his throat. The creature quickly turns its face back to Clover as he kicks its chest as hard as he possibly can. It falls back with a scream, letting go of Clover's face in the process.

Clover quickly gets up on unsteady legs. He limps towards me instead of fleeing and I feel shame for my earlier thoughts. It screams, Clover doesn't even look back as he helps me up from the platform. The open and bloody wounds on his hands stains my sweater in muddy bloodstains.

The ground moves beneath us and makes another rumbling sound, while the darkness moves silently. He limps as fast as he can with a hand around my waist. But not towards the narrow streets that lead us out of this hell hole. He leads us straight towards the darkness.

The creature has begun its hunt again. I don't dare to ask what he's doing and trust that whatever plan he has will work.

We jump down the platform and fall down at the ground. Pain throbs as he quickly pulls me up. The ground shakes another time as we limp towards the darkness and another piercing sound fills the air – one that is different from the rumbling. I quickly twist my head around and Clover stops in his tracks to do the same. The large tower is falling, it feels like the entire world is shaking as it hits the platform. The painful scream that comes soon after makes him loose his grip around me. We remain for a few seconds before Clover leads me back to the platform. He carefully climbs up and helps me up afterwards.

There are narrow cracks in the entirety of the platform. The large tower is laying in the middle of it, where pieces of the black floor has turned into upright shards of glass around it. The platform gives off a rumbling sound as Clover walks over the surface. The creature's lower body is laying underneath the tower and its arms are pierced by shards of glass.

It's alive. The head slowly moves up and looks at us through the gape, then it shrieks like a wounded animal.

Clover carefully leads us through the shards of glass, closer to the creature.

"We need to get out of here, Clover... The darkness."

"I know. But not without this," he says.

He takes a few steps over the sharp glass shards.

"I'm sorry, sorry," the creature says when Clover reaches it.

Clover lets go of me. He grabs the mask and tears it off the creature's face. It looks at us with white shining eyes, with a few black spots that covers the whites. Crevices grows upon its skin; it slowly wanders up the jet-black body and it stares at us with deep eyes until it bursts like it was made of porcelain. When the parts touch the platform they explode into thousands of pieces, like finely ground gravel, until they fully fade away.

I take a deep breath. The way the crevices moved up its body reminded me of the dream I had about the dagger and the strange creature with the steel-like skin.

The sharp tongues the creature had now hangs from the red-golden mask like dead plants. At the other side the darkness is moving forward, the ground is shaking when the city slowly disappears into the black emptiness.

We have the mask; I send over to Nine and turn back to Clover. Hands are holding tightly around the mask, hard enough that they're shaking. The tongues are no longer hanging. They've wrapped themselves around his wrists and breached his skin, continuing deep into his arms. I try to tear them out, neither Clover nor the tongues are moving. They cut open my palms and stains them in my own blood.

"Clover!" I yell and let go of the tongues to shake him, I bloody his dirty and torn jacket.

The brown eyes are widened and his nostrils flares by his heavy breathing. He's not looking at me nor the tongues that seem to only go further into his arms, he focuses entirely on the coming darkness.

I see the figure – one that Clover had seen long before me – behind the darkness. The platform is cracks beneath us; I don't dare to move.

The man is dressed in a black coat, it's pale compared to the hands of smoke-like oil that clings to him as he steps out of the darkness. They slowly pull back when they can no longer reach him. He's hooded, but the mask of an enlarged raven skull is still hard to miss.

I'm too busy to stare at the now running man that I don't pay any attention to Clover, until it's too late. One tongue after another lets go of its place in his skin and gently makes its way up – towards the mask that is now hiding half of Clover's face. I cannot do anything else but staring and letting it happen. A heavy lump sits in my throat when the tongues move in under the mask and into Clover's nostrils – two for each opening.

I'm tired. The platform gives out another sound. So damned tired.

The man – that couldn't be anyone else but the Raven – quickens his speed as he realizes what is happening. The mask. The sound of the platform's rumbling.

I cannot see Clover's eyes behind the mask. But by the Clover's quiet groans I can tell that whatever it is doing it's painful.

I throw a quick glance at the Raven when the platform vibrates with the cracking sound. I remember what Mort and Moria had spoken of him, how Clover had looked up to him. That's enough for me to trust him in this moment. To make sure he'll be okay in his hands. I push Clover with the last strength I have, hard enough to make him stumble a few steps away from me. The Raven has made his way up and is moving towards us with quicken steps.

It rumbles again, louder this time and when the entire platform falls, The raven takes a firm hold of Clover and drags him towards the darkness.