Standing in the open, the monsters moaned and wailed but not one turned towards them. Among hundreds of them, Lily and Chrys were invisible. Chrys squeezed Lily’s hand as they both gripped the umbrella handle. They began walking through the maze of smoke and shadow.

....mo....ommmy...... a low wail came from a shadow figure hunched on the ground. Through the smoke half of a child’s face poked out, unaware that two children were passing by them. The child’s face was gray and purple with pulsing black veins that oozed black ink where the veins burst through the skin. Its eyes were glazed over white and vacant. Lily held her mouth, swallowing a sob as they went by. As the creatures wandered about, no longer sensing children, they began to reveal what looked like corpses underneath, repeating cries of agony.

It’s dark....

Don’t.......lea-aaave....

....help....me....

Chrys felt disgusting all over as he ignored the children he previously saw squealing and laughing. He knew he couldn’t do a thing the way things were now, and he cursed himself. Lily peeked at the pained expression on his face and weakly put her hand on his. They kept walking. The other side where the vendors and the darkness that would hide them beckoned. They flinched when a monster whizzed by in front of them, almost grazing their bodies. The close calls made their hearts tighten and they quickened their pace, they were almost there.

“No!” a voice shrieked. Immediately the smoke covered the exposed children and they were monsters once more, turning towards the sudden sound. They all stood up, some on twos and others on fours like beasts.

“We have to run.” Chrys whispered, looking at the crowd of monsters that were preparing to leap right towards them. They wouldn’t be able to dodge.

“Get away from me!” a girl cried and a blast of light shook the ground. The monsters let out deafening squeals and lurched, bounding forwards with ferocious speed towards a girl trying to fight back. Unknowing that Lily and Chrys were standing in between them.

“Shit!” Chrys yelled. The hammer in his hand grew instantly into a large mallet sizzling with white light. With a grunt, he heaved it up and swung, making contact with monsters barreling towards them. Smoke erupted from where the hammer hit, and the shadowy figures seemed to melt into the others. Chrys wound back for swing after swing, beating back wave after wave of ash and grime. Lily gripped his arm while holding the umbrella, frozen from shock at the monsters running past. The girl they heard kept screaming and screaming.

Then she stopped.

The monsters seemed to stop and regain their vacant stares and roaming. There were no longer distant explosions or any screams for that matter. There was heavy dread within Lily and Chrys. They were the last two remaining within Festive Square not turned into monsters.

The two made their way to the other side and looked back from the cover of the vendors. The square looked dark, turned off. The life of Moon they had loved so much was now a nightmare they couldn’t wake up from.

“Are we going to die?” Lily asked. She hadn’t realized she’d said it aloud.

“No,” Chrys said, his voice trembling with anger, “We’re getting out of here.”

They turned toward the wall and began feeling for something, anything. As they shuffled sideways, Lily felt exhaustion creeping up on her. She wanted to find the secret exit and be done with the terror tensing her every muscle. Just as she was about to give in to frustration, slamming her hand onto what seemed like endless wall, it was suddenly cool around her fingertips. She blinked, observing her hand going right through the thick concrete. With a gasp she snatched her hand out. Still intact.

“I found it!” she managed to wheeze, controlling her excitement.

“Woah.” Chrys watched Lily put her hand through the wall, further and further. “Where does it go?”

“I don’t know but,” Lily wiggled her fingers as if trying to reach for something, “we don’t have a choice, right?”

“No, we don’t.”

They both exchanged looks, pausing to search each other’s eyes, then turned back to what looked like just a regular wall. Lily took a shuddering breath and pressed her whole body into the wall. Like slipping through the surface of a lake, her whole body felt like it was slowing down, suspended in air as that cool feeling overcame her. All around Lily was vast blue. She wouldn’t have been able to tell if she was moving if not for the wisps of hair sticking to her face.

Chrys? she meant to say but her words were met with cozy silence as if she was speaking into a pillow.

Then within the blue, a white light began to sprout ahead of Lily, blinding her. The light was hot and she let out a silent cry, putting her hands up to guard her face as the light overtook her. Her head was pounding as a great force seemed to tug her through the grips of the blue. She felt like she was being whisked into a different time and it was splitting her head open.

Just as the pain was about to become unbearable, her hands felt dirt beneath them and she was surrounded by foliage. Lily looked up to a bluish-gray painted sky and trees towering over her. The air smelled strongly of apples and cinnamon. Lily’s broken mind couldn’t handle it, her vision was going fuzzy. She drowsily looked around her and with relief saw Chrys, hunched over, his back jolting.

“Don’t...cry...” she croaked.

Chrys’ mouth was moving but Lily couldn’t hear what he said as her ringing ears and wave of nausea drowned him out. She promptly heaved, a disturbing amount of spit plopping onto the ground, and blacked out.