Chapter 9: A City Tormented By Darkness

My motivation was at an all time low as I made it to the bottom of the stairs. I felt mentally devastated from the previous floor. I had gone through so many emotions that I honestly just felt sick. I wanted to sleep, and lay down, and unwind.

I opened the door that unusually blocked the bottom of the stairs, beyond it was a familiar city, the city I had grown up in. I checked to see what kind of door I had come out of, only to see that there wasn't a door behind me, only a flat wall.

So going back immediately was out of the question… not that I wanted to travel through the previous floor ever again. The busy street was an odd sight to me, something I hadn't seen since I was put onto the floors. I almost missed the sight, so I tried walking up to a person and getting their attention.

They walked right past me.

They almost acknowledged my existence by walking around me when I moved in front of them, but they wouldn't look at me or respond to me in any way. They kept walking along the unremarkable gray sidewalk, uncaring for my existence.

I was a little frustrated. No, more than a little. I had finally encountered people after well over a month in this place, and they taunted me, by not even noticing my presence in any meaningful way. I decided to try just walking into one of the people that tried to avoid me when I was near them.

If they didn't see me, then in theory, I could just walk straight into them. I walked into one of the people, and they fell over. They looked confused, when others nearby came to see if they were okay. I grabbed the man's head with both of my hands and stared him dead in the eyes.

My face was calm and neutral, but the man began to look terrified as I held his head in place. He was looking around, and tried to grab me, but his arms went through mine as if I were a ghost. He couldn't touch me, but I could touch him, an odd experience to say the least.

I let go of him, knowing deep down that I was causing more issues than I was solving. I was frustrated, but harassing a man who can't even see me is just wrong. I felt conflicted, more so than I normally do on new floors. This looked nearly identical to the city I had grown up in, but I had no idea what direction to go.

Every floor I had been on to this point has had some kind of 'forwards' to go. This floor was open in every way possible, there were stores to go into, malls, houses. I'm not sure what to do, it is sensory overload.

The sun, if it was the same as the real sun, had just risen above the horizon. The people that were walking on the streets are either leaving offices from graveyard shift, or just starting the morning shift. I sat down on a stone bench surrounding a decorative flower garden.

Where should I go? I could travel through places I knew, get a feel for the city that I haven't been to in a while. I could always try and go to the house I used to live in. I didn't remember exactly where it was, but I'm sure I would recognize it if I saw it again, even after all this time.

I needed to calm down first. I could feel my thoughts becoming erratic, just like they used to in the past. I wasn't going to get anywhere by letting my thoughts wander needlessly, this place is tormenting me. I was beginning to realize just how little this place wanted me to continue.

Just how much I wanted to not go on.

No matter how much I want to leave and get back to the outside world again, was there anything there that really needed me? My parents would move on, I didn't have people I frequently contacted, even online. Before I actually reached death challenges, I could go back to the river, make something I could call home.

I held my head in my hands and sighed, I knew it was dumb, I was thinking negatively. I don't know what I did to be sent here, but I will get through it all. No matter how long it takes or if I die trying, I will leave.

Once I have found somewhere I know is safe, I'm going to go over a few clues I had, but I needed to get moving or I wouldn't. I stood up and picked my old home as a destination. A bungalow far in the suburbs.

There were cars, trains, and all the wonderful things you can expect in the city center of a massive city. Before I left the city core, I wanted to go around and loot what I needed from some stores. No one could see or interact with me, so taking what I needed wouldn't be an issue.

I wandered into a random clothing outlet I found, and went to the clothing rack that was my size. I tried to pick up a shirt, but it wouldn't budge. Maybe it was a display shirt, so I tried another, but even just grabbing the cloth, it wouldn't budge.

What?

I went around to various pieces of clothing, and I couldn't move any of it. It felt like it was the heaviest thing I've ever touched. No matter how much strength I put into moving the clothing, it wouldn't budge a tiny bit.

I moved over to another store and it was the same thing, no clothing moved. Nothing that would benefit me moved, so I worriedly moved to a grocery store. I was nervous as I reached towards some of the fresh produce, something I've been lacking in my recent diet.

The shiny red apple I grabbed was easily picked up in the palm of my hand. It was a sight so beautiful that I nearly cried. In fact, I think I was going to cry as I bit into the fresh apple. It was probably the best tasting apple I've ever had.

I wanted to grab as many as I could and take them with me, but I knew it was foolish. The fruit would spoil in a few days, if not sooner. I was going to have to be smart about what food I took with me. I could take anything I wanted from the shelves, as long as it was food.

I neared the medications in the store, and I got nervous again. Now would be the perfect time to stock up on medicine, even medical supplies if I was lucky. I knew a few things I would want to grab if I was able to take any medicine I wanted. When I was reaching for the medicine, I was shaking.

My hand touched the medicine, and when I tried to move it, it didn't move, just like the clothes. I was angry, it was right here in front of me, but I couldn't use it. It was unfair, this horrible place is just taunting me at this point. Good food was going to help me, but making the medications untouchable was going to make me lose my mind.

I walked over to some first aid supplies and found the same thing. They wouldn't move no matter how I tried to pull or push. If someone could see me, I would look absolutely insane. I noticed a young man reaching for an antibacterial cream, and he picked it up just fine. He was about to put it in his basket when I reached out for it.

I hit his arm abruptly, causing him to panic and drop the cream. I went for the falling cream, only for it to phase through my hand and hit the floor. So even this method doesn't work. I get angry, so angry that my head begins to hurt.

I felt like a child about to have a tantrum. I started to lash out, I was kicking at shelves, peoples carts and baskets. I wanted to just break it all, I was so frustrated and mad that I hoped a bit of wanton destruction would make me feel better.

Once I had finished terrorizing the medical aisle, I was out of breath. I made sure not to hurt any of the people, as they hadn't done anything wrong, even though they are just a part of the floors. There is no way this place is actually the city I grew up in. There were inconsistencies that I would notice.

The lights in the entire grocery store turn off all at once. I heard crashing, and screaming all around me, the people around me were reacting, and so was I. I instinctively ran for the door, even though it was hard to see. Not as hard as the dimly lit floor seven. That was hard to see properly.

In the corner of my eye, I see a wet pool slowly forming. I turned my head and locked eyes with the creature as it slowly moved towards me. My instincts told me to run, but a morbid curiosity made me continue to watch the creature as it slid forwards unnaturally along the ground.

The creature was making a beeline straight towards me. The horrifying thing was when a person collided with it, or was in its way. It slid through them, leaving a gruesome mess of a human pooling on the ground. Blood and guts spilled behind it in a path of clear destruction.

I turned and ran, it was going to kill me, and I'm certain my death would not be quick like the people that were in the way of the creature. The creature followed slowly behind me, and I no longer looked back, I had to weave through people who were crowding a locked door at the exit.

It was a glass door. I had an ax. The sound of glass shattering spooks all the people around the door as they start to flood out of the building. They didn't see me or the creature, but they saw the mess it left behind. A normal person's reaction to such a large amount of gore would normally be panic or complete mental shut down.

After the torture from the previous floor, it was a momentary curiosity at best, the puddles of blood appearing in my mind again, but not really bothering me. The real issue was the creature. No matter how much I looked at it, and tried to remember it, I couldn't remember what it looked like. I don't think I would be able to describe it even if I looked directly at it.

It was… there, but it also wasn't. I could see it, but I could also see behind it. What a disgustingly complex creature. Anytime it touched a part of a person, it almost liquified, turning to blood and mush. Anything left behind was left intact, meaning if half a person disappeared suddenly, some bits were bound to fall out as well.

I shuddered at the thought of that happening to me. I kept looking at the store from a distance, but the creature never followed me out. Why? What was it still doing inside there? Was I not its target? No, I clearly was, it was walking straight for me, even when I was moving away from it, it turned towards me to make the shortest path.

That store was probably no good anymore though. There would probably be police and other authorities here, and while I was completely safe, it just meant that it would probably be closed for longer than I would stay on this floor.

The creature worries me though. I have so many questions and no way to answer them… or did I? The guide book on this floor might be somewhere easy to find. A bookstore or even a library. Keeping it with other books would always be a good idea, and keep it easy to find for people exploring down here.

I walked towards a library I had never actually been to when I lived here. I passed by it from time to time, but I never went in, so I wasn't expecting much. The library itself was three stories tall with tens of thousands of books. I think I was in for more of a search than I thought.

I started to look through everything I could while looking for a familiar leather cover. I didn't find it, but I spent way, way too much time searching here for it. The sun was already beginning to set, and I had a creature that could appear at a moment's notice chasing me.

The lights turn off in the library just as I finish on the top floor. I look over the railing that was above the front door, and I see the librarian leaving the glass door, locking it behind her. I'm glad it was glass so I could leave, but did I really have to break every door on my way out of places?

Then I noticed the creature on my right, blocking the elevator down to the bottom. It was here almost immediately after the lights went out. But it was slower this time, it was going at barely a walking speed, just directly at me.

I was less worried this time, so I leisurely lured it away from the elevator and circled around. I pressed the call elevator button that worked for me earlier, and nothing happened. Well, that can't be good. I looked around for emergency stairs, and found a pair.

The large metal door didn't budge, also completely locked shut. I didn't think I would be able to open a heavy metal door with an ax that was starting to wear out after repeated misuse. Getting another weapon once this one breaks is going to be a massive pain.

I currently have a more pressing matter to deal with at the moment. I was trapped on the top floor of a library with a creature that is probably trying to kill me. It was calm and sliding around slowly, but it was still coming for me, and I couldn't leave.

I wanted to avoid breaking anything if I could, as last time I broke things on this floor, the lights randomly turned off and this creature appeared. This time the creature appeared once the lights turned off, but it was my own negligence. A foolish hope that I could find a hidden guide book on this floor.

I looked out the window, but immediately dismissed it. I was on the third floor, did I want to die that badly? I shook the idea out of my mind, it was dangerous to think of solutions like that, only as an absolute last resort would I do that. I checked the railing, seeing if that was a viable option.

I peeked over the edge as fast as I could, knowing the creature would be close behind me, and taking my eyes off things on these floors was a statistically poor choice. I saw that the floor below stuck out a bit further, giving the place a more tiered stair look than an empty void.

Without a second thought, I hopped over the ledge, knowing I had as much distance from the creature as I was going to get anyways. I climb down the outside of the railing, grabbing onto the floor level and carefully drop down, cushioning the blow the best I could without rolling.

My legs stung slightly, but that was it. I was now down a floor, and well on my way to the entrance. The creature reappeared just outside my vision on the same floor as me again, but still quite far away. I lured it around the maze like bookshelves, noticing that it would walk through anything between me and it, but the books and shelves seemed unharmed, unlike the people it moved through earlier.

After I got a good distance from the monster, I hopped over the railing again. Down to the ground floor I went. This railing was slightly different in that the drop was larger, and I knew the landing on the tiled floor below was going to hurt pretty bad if I messed it up.

So I hung from the lowest possible point, and let go. There was no fear in my mind, only a calm collected train of thought that I've not had in a very long time. The world seemed to slow as my toes touched the ground. My legs bent perfectly smoothly, my butt hit my ankles, and there was a heavy burning in the soles of my feet, but nothing broke, and nothing hurt.

I was up and walking to the front door of the library in less than a second. It was almost surreal to me. The drop was something I would never think of doing when I was back in the real world, but in this place, it was something I just did without hesitating, as if that level of danger was nothing to me.

I walked towards the door while I looked to see if there was a better way to open it without me getting out my ax. Last resort, as breaking things definitely enraged the monster that I knew was behind me. It was half the room away while I was at the door, so I had a few seconds to think of a way to open it.

I noticed a red button on a yellow panel with the text 'Emergency' written above it. I pressed the button, seeing if it would do anything, but there wasn't a noticeable change. There was no alarm, and the door was still locked.

The lock on the large glass door was keyed on both sides, so unlocking it would be easier said than done. Why would a place like this need to have both sides need a key, was it to prevent dumb kids from locking the door on their way in as a funny prank.

I guess it didn't change the fact that I was still locked in here with this creature. It was still quite far from me, but not far enough, so I led it to the other side of the room, and then went back to the door. I had to figure this out, one way or another, I needed to leave and find a place to sleep.

I went over to the nearby desk to search for a key. I looted through the unlocked drawers to see if there was a key left behind, perhaps some sort of way to open the door. That's when I realized there was a purse still on the desk. The lady who had left here had forgotten her purse, was she going to come back for it, or was she just leaving it here for the night.

If I waited here for her to come back, I was at risk of getting distracted by something and the creature catching up with me, or she might not even come back at all. That's when I saw a car pull up to the front of the building and stop. I had hope that it was the lady.

I lured the creature away from the door. She might not be able to see me or the creature, but if the creature somehow touched her when I was using her to save myself, I would feel awful. Plus, I wasn't a huge fan of the mess of gore it created when this creature just walked through people.

A dark figure gets out of the car, it looked more like a man than a woman. I was confused as he walked up to the door without any keys in his hand, but instead something that looked like a small wallet. The man opened the wallet and pulled out what I recognized as lockpicks. Dude.

This man was going to break into the library of all places. These dumb places were full of cameras, he was going to be caught by the time the sun rises if he breaks in here. The alarm will go off, and he isn't even covering his face at all.

Well, a win is a win for me. I would just have to move the creature around a lot while he fiddled with the lock. Do I kill him with the creature? A very morbid thought comes to mind as I watched the man struggle with the lock that didn't seem very complex to me.

He probably didn't deserve death, but this technically wasn't even a real city… but these people don't know that. They probably think this place is as real as it gets. They're in their own perfect world, fully autonomous within the confines of the floor. Was this floor just this city, or was it the entire planet?

I had no way to know, and I don't think I really cared, I needed to keep going, I couldn't live on this floor with a creature that could appear at any time. I would have to see if it really can appear at any time, or just when it was dark enough. Dark kind of being a weird thing to say when the glow from the streetlights made it so I could see clearly, the bright sun earlier was almost too bright for me these days.

The thief eventually opens the front door, and I use the chance to sneak through. The creature was far enough away from me at this point, and the man shouldn't run into it unless he was truly just wandering in there like an idiot. It wasn't my fault at that point.

I walked over to the nearest streetlight and stood under it. As soon as I turned back, I realized that the creature was no longer looking at me, nor coming towards me, it was going for the guy who had broken into the library. Slowly it inched towards him, and I could only watch in horror as it made it to him when his arms were outstretched to grab the purse that was on the desk.

His hands basically melted, turning into a pool of gore that covered the purse. The thief screams loudly, backing away immediately. The creature kept advancing, but the thief kept running. He was bleeding profusely from the new wounds on his arm. His goal was the exit of the building.

The thief struggled with the door, now lacking hands, and making the existing handle slippery by covering it with blood. It was an unfortunate sight, but I wouldn't help him. I had a feeling that as soon as I stepped out of the light, I would be the target again, and I did value my life much higher than a fake person created by the floor I currently wandered.

I left the area. I kept under the streetlights and I didn't even see the creature again. I found a well lit public park and decided to pick a random bench to sleep on. POV: you're being chased by a creature that appears in darkness but you're homeless and gotta sleep.

I got out an extra sweater and laid down on a bench that didn't have the anti homeless features. I was surprised that there even were any based on the fact that this was the city center after all, but I guess they just didn't care in the end.

Testing it a few times, it seemed that the creature would only appear when I was in near darkness. It would turn away and go after something else when I was in light, it would never step into the light near me. So I abused that and fell asleep under a bench that had a lot of lights illuminating it.

…

I woke up to the sound of people walking by and chatting beside me. It seems their avoidance of me kept me from getting sat on. I kept laying down for a while, and noticed that people would walk over like they saw an empty spot and wanted to sit, but would suddenly change their minds.

I did some morning stretches to limber up after a rough night of sleeping on a hard bench, not that it was my worst sleep, far from it if I was being honest. Today I would leave the city center and look for some kind of exit to this floor. I would try going to where I lived in the past after I stocked up on some food items.

I found a grocery store nearby and took a reasonable amount of high calorie non-perishables like candy bars and as a treat, I took one bottle of soda, it was a flavor I had never seen in reality, but I just went with it. Not like the brand or flavor mattered, I craved something with carbonation.

The water in the store was all a single brand, the 'Clear Water'. Now hold on a second, there's not a single other brand, just think of the profit they're making. They have a monopoly on water throughout all of the floors, not a single bottle of the stuff has been another brand, and there's water on just about every floor.

They even sell it on this floor for money. There had to be ways that 'Clear Water' made money, unless it was all made up and I was actually beginning to go insane from spending too long in hellish circumstances, but that couldn't be it.

I grabbed what I needed from the store and left. I'd have loved to grab tools or supplies of any kind, but I was completely out of luck on this floor. I would have to wait and see what the next will bring me. Hopefully a new weapon, I was worried about the durability of my ax. I wasn't kind to the poor thing, and it was starting to show.

I weaved my way through the busy foot traffic of early morning and eventually found myself a public bus that, based on the route map, would take me close to where I wanted to go. I was hopeful that taking a city bus wouldn't classify as disrupting to the creature that stalked me.

I kept watch out the entire time I was on the bus, ready to force open the doors and run if needed, but I didn't need to and I made it to my stop. I saw the familiar neighborhood, but something in the distance looked… wrong.

What used to connect to the suburb on the edge of the city was a dirt road that led into a forest, and while that was the same from the immediate perspective. After the line of trees, I saw more houses that looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put a finger on it.

I didn't remember a cookie cutter neighborhood anywhere near my own, maybe it was added after I left the city. I would check my old house for an exit, just to see if my hypothesis was correct… but I might go explore before I go down to the next floor.

I walked to my house from the bus stop, a route that was still in my memories, but rather vague as it had been many years since I've had to walk this route. The house entered my vision and some distant memories flooded my mind, and while I wanted to reminisce, I had things to take care of.

The front door was replaced by a glass door that you would normally see on an office tower, and I could see the concrete staircase. The glowing exit sign was rather hilarious looking to me at the entrance of a house. An irony that resonated with me slightly.

Now that I knew the exit was on my house, and didn't disappear even after looking away, I wanted to see what was on the other side of this small section of trees. A chill went down my spine as a recent memory came back to me. Floor Three.

The time that I tried to break the windows of the houses, they looked identical to the glimpses I could see through the treeline. Morbid curiosity pushed me through the trees, only to confirm it was exactly as I had remembered. The line of houses stretched on as far as I could see, and every single window was broken. All of them, and inside each of them… was me.

I was staring at the copies of myself once more as they smiled at me through the empty window frames. I was already on edge and ready to turn around when I noticed one of them in the closest house had started to climb through the window.

It started a cascade. They all jumped out of their windows and sprinted for me. I turned on my heel and sprinted for the exit. The exit was so close, I knew I could've run at full power the whole way there. So I did, and it's probably the fastest I had ever run that distance. I would be more impressed if I wasn't terrified by the fact I was being chased by myself that was slightly slower than me.

I whipped the door open and slammed it shut behind me. I started going down the stairs, looking back to the top, only to see that the top was getting darker. Sunlight wasn't getting through the massive pile of bodies that was starting to form behind the glass door. They couldn't get through.

I sat down and caught my breath.

What was going on?