Face flat on the floor, Gabe placed a hand on his head to check for the presence of any crowns and found to his disappointment nothing at all there.

“Hey, voice, you lied. I didn’t receive nothing.” he said. He wasn’t sure who exactly he was replying to. He got up, found himself a couple of steps away from his chair sat back on it. He tried to remember what the voice sounded like but found he couldn’t quite remember if it sounded feminine or masculine. And what did the voice say he got again? Some sort of crown? He couldn’t believe he wasted an hour checking out items in that place only to… what? And come to think of it, what again happened in that dream? The details were quickly slipping away.

Huh. This was new. He was sure he was still dreaming but apparently he could also dream within this dream.

Gabe remembered the book he was reading. The Wastrel. Where was it? It must’ve fallen when he collapsed earlier. He looked around but couldn’t see it. Whatever glowing effect it was doing earlier must’ve just been temporary. Also, it was a lot darker now. He got up and walked to the doorway to turn on the room’s light. He had to feel around for the light switch before he found it. Once he flicked it though, the fluorescent lamp didn’t turn on. Was it a power outage? He tried to imagine the light on for a couple of seconds before pronouncing it useless and giving up. Could he just go back to the chair and wait in the dark for the power outage to end? He could lie in bed—his father’s bed—his dead father’s bed too, but that seemed a bit too morbid for him.

More importantly, when was he going to wake up for real this time?

He tried to will himself awake by imagining himself not here but inside his bedroom, in bed, and slowly opening his eyes. I’m waking up. I’m waking up. I’m in bed but I’m just about to wake up. He kept on repeating the thought and… nothing.

This was getting worrisome. Not quite into nightmare territory yet but being in a near-dark room of his deceased parent wasn’t exactly the most calming setup.

First things first, he had to get some light. He recalled how they used to have a halogen flashlight around. It wouldn’t be inside this room but it should be in one of the cupboard drawers in the kitchen.

He swung open the door, stepped out of the room and made sharply inhale before quickly whispering, “oh fuck this.”

It was still the kitchen. For the most part. There was still the dining table in the middle of the room, the cupboards on the far side, the countertop, the sink and a door that led to the toilet. To his right was the narrow hallway which led to the living room.

But gone now were the celing and much of the roof. If it were just a matter of the full moon illuminating the scene in front of him, there was already a lot more light here than in the bedroom. A portion of one of the walls seems to have collapsed leaving broken bricks in the interior and exterior of the house. Past the collapsed wall he could already see part of the garden. Or maybe this was now technically also part of the garden? The tiled floor was heavily cracked and thick patches of grass pierced through from underneath. The ground was wet, more loamy soil now than cement. On all sides, several layers of vines covered the vertical surfaces.

And then there was also the pressing matter of the candles.

From outside the bedroom’s doorway, two rows of erected, lit candles suggested a path that made its way towards the hallway. This felt wrong to Gabe. Creepy was a given but it was more than that now. The flickering lights hurt his eyes. Each flame possessed more brightness than what would be natural for such tiny flames.

Gabe didn’t realize it but he had already taken several steps following the path. Sure, he was curious about where it led to but he knew he should probably do something first. He had to first make sure it was safe. Maybe he could grab something he could use as a weapon. While he was thinking this, he was still walking forward.

He tried to get his legs to stop but all his attempts to arrest his movement failed. He was in the middle of the hallway already. In a moment he would turn a corner and reach the living room. And still, he kept on walking. There were a lot more candles in the living room, he guessed basing on the greater amount of flickering lights creating shadows on a faraway wall. Those shadows upon the side of the wall visible to him were darker than they had any right to be. They created sharp, jittering shapes. Dangerous not-quite-human figures that strobed as they moved.

His arm shot out as he grabbed at a doorknob to a small walk-in closet by the hallway. The aim wasn’t quite accurate enough and his fist ended up slamming painfully on the metal. He walked an additional step forward and he missed his chance at a second attempt.

He reached the living room. The path of candles turned to the right and the two rows separated from each other as they circled the inner perimeter of the rectangular living room. They candles eventually converged at the far side of the living room. Just like the kitchen, just like the hallway, the living room was in completely dilapidated state.

In the middle of the living room were three small children who had their backs turned to him. They were in white. Two were boys, wearing white shirts and pants, and the last one, the girl, was wearing a white dress. It looked like their heads were covered by white lacy veils that extended down to their necks. The three were side-by-side to each other with the girl in the middle; each one kneeling. They were praying, he realized.

Something made him look at their feet. Of the three kids, the boys had just one leg each—the outermost legs in contact with the ground. The girl in the was kneeling but she was not at all in contact with the floor. And the parts of their body in contact with each other didn’t suggest any separation. The figure of an arm continued—unsegmented-- from the arm of another. All three were joined at the hips. Their thighs were fused chunks of flesh which their clothes only barely hid in the candlelight.

Not three kids in front of him. One creature.

What the hell was happening here? When did the house even become this haunted creepshow with creepy praying kids? And what was that whole thing with the hypnotized walking just a moment ago?

Gabe quickly turned his neck back towards the hallway. He could go back. The involuntary walking seemed to have stopped now that he’d reached this area.

The candles, if it was the candles, weren’t compelling him now. He’d sneak away now while there was still time back into his father’s bedroom.

It was a different dream there. Inside the bedroom, it was still part of his dream. He didn’t know why but he felt that was true. There were rules here he had to somehow figure out.

But first he had to escape. Now. He willed his legs to move. They did. Forwards. A step closer to the thing that pretended to be children.

He quietly swore at this, not wanting to attract the attention of the thing—who, in all likelihood was aware of his presence already. It was just biding its time in order to creep him out some more. Playing with its prey. Getting him to panic. Panic was definitely happening now.

He was sure he was still dreaming. This was still not real. But this felt very different from the relaxed, lucid conscious dreaam he was having. This was… foreign. He had to wake up. Something about the entire sight, the goosebumps on his neck, the way his guts were reacting made him feel that this was real in a much more visceral way. Animal instincts he’d never felt before occupied his entire consciousness.

Wake the hell up, Gabe. Wake up. Before they turn around. Before it turns around. He quietly pinched his arms. Bit his tongue. Tried to rouse his nerves so as to wake up in the real world.

He did not wake up. He realized he couldn’t. This was some real Freddy Krueger shit he’d found himself in.

But the thing was not turning around. So far. Some measure of calm fluttered back into his consciousness and with this, he deliberately tried to slow his breathing and heartrate. I’m not going to panic, he told himself.

The candles were somehow responsible for bringing him here. He gazed at the flames and he started walking. The living room being surrounded by the candles probably meant that this was where he was corralled to. So what if…

Slowly, he placed himself on a squatting position and reached to his right side towards one of the candles all the while looking at the kids for any sign of movement. He worried that it’d turn around and suddenly pounce on him the moment his finger made contact with a candle but he was able to pick one up and the creature did nothing. Good.

The candle had a wide enough base and didn’t topple when he set it back down a few inches from where he picked it up. He picked up another towards his right then set it back down. Where he was sitting, he could just stretch his body and arms far enough to reach a few of the nearby candles without moving his feet forwards or backwards. One more to his right and three more to his left: picked up and re-set on the ground.

With the new candle positions, the enclosure did not anymore continue towards the rest of the room. Instead, it looped back on itself much earlier: a few inches from his feet.

He hoped that it would work. He stood up slowly, still keeping his gaze on the creature. Now it’s time for me to turn around and walk quietly back to the room.

Again, he took a step forward instead of backwards.

At that moment, the thing with three bodies turned to look at him. The two boys on either side hopped: from a kneeling position they squatted, and the entire thing turned clockwise like a crab reorienting itself

On the boys’ heads were mostly nothing but thick, wrinkled skin: there were no mouths, no noses on each of them. Each possessed just one eye each—perfectly normal and situated where one would expect an eye to be. The one on the left had a left eye, while the right boy had the other. The girl in the middle smiled a smile too big for any human face with teeth too big for any human mouth. Gabe doubted he would simply wake up if this thing ended up eating him in the dream.

A moment prior, Gabe had been under a compulsion to stay inside the area between the candles. When he had tried to turn back and instead walked forward, his left big toe touched the edge of the area circumscribed by the candles. Effectively, he had reached the end of the path—even transfixed by the sight of the composite creature, this was something a part of his mind couldn’t help but register. It was a mental load being cleared.

Freed from the spell, Gabe turned and ran for his life.