As if reacting to their presence, the moment Auguste and Henrietta stepped into the hallway, the lights on their ceiling sparked to life, lighting up the hall as if it were daytime. Seeing no more need for the torches, Auguste opted to put them out. The thought that the lights might go out and them needing to relight the torches in complete darkness did occur to him, but by then the only thing emitting from the torches were wispy trails of rising smoke.

Auguste shrugged. If it comes to that, he'll just have to deal with it. It's not as if he couldn't start a fire in the dark anyway. He had practiced doing it blindfolded before under Gladiolus' suggestion before. It'll be a pain, but he'll manage. Not to mention, it's going to be hard to hold a torch and jot down notes at the same time.

Once again, Auguste and Henrietta were faced with the same dilemma. Hallways that looked no different from one another, signs that they could not read, and Cleaners that erase any markings they would place down. Those few seemingly simple things made this ruin a nightmare to navigate.

Auguste could feel a tightening sensation in his head. He's impressed that Elaine could keep doing this all the time. Then again, she had the rest of them with her, meaning that she didn't have to do everything on her own.

"Better keep moving..."

Thinking about Elaine and the rest got him worried, not that he shouldn't be, but it wasn't helping. The reality of the situation was that both he and Henrietta had no leisure to search for them right now. They're going to have to find their way back to camp first, where most of their supplies had been left behind. They couldn't have carried all that with them as they moved and they'll cover far more ground if they didn't have to carry the extra weight while searching for the rest. Though, at the moment, it would seem that it had backfired on them. If they don't find their way back soon, starvation and dehydration would not be too far behind.

"Hey, Gusty, you don't look too good. Maybe we should rest for a bit."

"I'm fine. I can keep going. What about you?"

"I'm fine too."

"Then let's go."

They pressed onwards aimlessly. It was all they could do without a map of the place. Usually, in a place they had never been to before, they'd take their time to explore and get to know the lay of the land. However, they do not have the time for that at the moment. They had to make it back to camp and they had to search for the rest as well. There was that 'ghost' back there too and the voice that spoke to them back in the dark room was also something to be wary off as far as Auguste was concerned.

They walked around till they're tired and then some more. Henrietta never made a single complaint throughout even though she had long gone past her limits. Waddling as she went, desperately wanting some rest yet terrified of being left behind, Henrietta pressed on with unsteady steps.

"Looks like this is as far we can get today," Auguste eventually said, he himself feeling the fatigue and seeing Henrietta in the state she was, decided that it would be dangerous to keep going.

The two went back to a room they've found previously. It was a room with a singular bed. A personal room it seems. Auguste let Henrietta have the bed while he opted for the floor. Henrietta felt bad, but was too tired to summon the will to say otherwise. Taking the offer, Henrietta stripped off her armor with help and fell onto the bed, falling asleep almost immediately. Auguste, being pretty worn himself, dropped down onto the floor and leaned against the wall next to the bed. It was strange. Even though the Cleaners do not go into the rooms, the place was relatively clean. Could it be because the rooms were sealed tight before the Henrietta Company came along? Or do the Cleaners do periodically clean up the rooms? If it was the latter case, then it's all the more reason to find a way back quickly. There's nothing quite as bad as losing all your supplies in an expedition.

Auguste could feel his head thumping, probably due to the fatigue and the ever-building stress. While his worries kept him from being able to get any decent rest, at the moment, it was advantageous to him, as he needed to keep watch. It can't be said that he did not feel any frustrations towards Henrietta for just falling asleep, but it couldn't be helped. Henrietta wasn't him, and he wasn't Henrietta, she can't do what he does and he certainly could not know how it feels to walk around nonstop and trying to keep up with those short legs of hers.

This is fine, Auguste told himself, I've been like this before.

Auguste always had trouble falling asleep, Cera's 'training' contributed to it, sure, but there were also the times when his poor mother would start hysterically screaming in the middle of the night, frightening him awake. Sometimes he could still hear it in his sleep, those sharp, sorrowful screaming, the cries of a woman who had given her all and gained only betrayal in return. It was only when he started traveling around with the Henrietta Company did he began to gain some peace of mind.

***

Some time had passed. Despite having trouble sleeping, fatigued did indeed caught up to him and Auguste had nodded off before realizing it. His eyes snapping open the moment he regained consciousness, Auguste frantically checked his surroundings, worried that something had happened while he was unconscious. His eyes eventually fell upon Henrietta, the girl that had been snoring behind him, though there was a considerable lack of said snoring from her at the moment, which made sense since she was not there. Henrietta was not on the bed. She was not anywhere in the room. She was gone, without a trace, just like the rest.

Auguste rushed outside, only to find complete darkness. The halls that were lit up as bright as daytime with a clear sky were now in complete darkness. As far as he could tell, the lights on the ceiling did not appear to feel like coming back to life any time soon.

With haste, Auguste built himself a fire and lit up a torch. With a light in hand, once more, he prepared to brave the darkness. Yet, the darkness was too deep, so much so that even the light from the torch could not brighten it in the slightest. No matter what he did, all he could see before him was total blackness.

Left with no choice, Auguste retreated back into the room, his mind frantically thinking of his next step, knowing in the back of his head that there was nothing he could do, none at all. And just when he thought that it couldn't get any worse, he saw the darkness seeping into the room, devouring the floor, the ceiling, and the walls, slowly, but ever so steadily, reaching towards him. In an attempt to ward it off, Auguste threw his torch to the darkness, only for it to be swallowed whole, doing nothing to halt its advance in the slightest.

Eventually, the darkness reached Auguste, who could do nothing but watch from the ever-dwindling corner that he had back up into. The darkness first took his legs, then his torso, followed by his arms. Then, finally, as he watched it all happened in horror, it came for his head.

***

Auguste woke up screaming, his voice filled to the brim with terror. His screams lasted for a few seconds before finally realizing that it was all but a dream, a terrible, terrible dream. With heavy breathing and his body drenched in sweat, Auguste turned towards Henrietta, hoping to find her on the bed. There, with a head of messy hair and eyes wide in shock, Henrietta stared at him, her hand hovering in midair, as if hesitant to reach out.

"Ah, um... Are you alright, Gusty?"

"Yeah," Auguste let out a sigh of relief, "I'm fine. I'm all good."

"You don't look too good."

"I just had a dream, that's all."

"Was it a scary dream?"

"What gave it away?"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, not really."

"Okay..."

Once more the room fell silent, that being said, no one had the peace of mind to go back to sleep.

"I dreamed that you were gone too," Auguste suddenly said, half expecting Henrietta to be already asleep.

"Yer talkin' about yer nightmare?"

"Yeah."

"That's all? Me being gone?"

"Well, it also got very dark all around. No matter what I tried, I couldn't light it up. In the end, I was in the dark all alone. That's when I woke up."

"Not sayin' that's not scary, but do ya got to scream like that?"

"Now that I think about it, not really, but dreams are strange like that. You know?"

"Kinda? I'm not sure. I don't really remember my dreams all that much."

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"What do yer mean by that!?"

"Who knows?"

Henrietta growled in irritation. She was probably trying to sound intimidating, but she sounded more like a puppy than anything else.

"My mother would do it pretty often too, screaming in the middle of the night I mean."

Auguste wasn't sure why, but he was feeling rather chatty. Most likely, the dread and isolation felt within his nightmare was having an effect on him.

"Must have been hard to sleep."

"It was. Made me afraid to sleep in my own home for some time. She'd do it in the middle of the day too sometimes. I didn't like that, I didn't like to stay in the house in general. I used to blame her for it, but I eventually realized that it wasn't her fault. Still, even then, I can't stand being in that house, so I'd stay outside till it was sundown, when I have no choice but to go back."

Back then, of the village kids, the one he got along the best with was Helena. She was older than the others and had a motherly nature to her. With her, Auguste felt safe and at peace. it was true that he wanted to be with her, that was why he came all the way out here in the first place, but perhaps even without her, he would have left. Perhaps somewhere deep down, he had wanted an excuse to leave. He felt bad for it, for leaving his mother, ailing in mind, all to Marcus, the eldest of his brothers. That guilt kept him from wanting to talk about himself and kept him from taking an interest in the backgrounds of others. However, at the moment, alone with just Henrietta, something within him made him wanted to spill it all out.

"She wasn't always like that, you know, according to my older siblings. It happened after my father ran off, supposedly with another woman, and left us with his gambling debts. Mother became like that because she was betrayed and left behind. Since then, she was always afraid that she would be left alone, all by herself. Yet, I went ahead and left. I walked out without looking back."

"Are you thinking of going back home?"

"No."

There was no hesitation, Auguste didn't even think about it. It was a straight rejection of the idea. No matter how bad he felt, he didn't want to go back, and so he won't.

"I feel bad for her, but I like it here. Running around here and there with you guys, it's not something I want to lose. Well, wanted to lose."

Suddenly feeling very tired, Auguste rested his head on his knee and let out a lengthy sigh, one so heavy that it sounded as if part of his soul slipped out as well.

"That's why..." Auguste continued, "I'm not going to leave you behind, Henri, because if I do, I won't have anywhere else to go anymore. Don't know about you though."

As he said so, Auguste felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier. He soon gave in to the temptation and let them fall over his eyes for a just moment. Yes, just a moment. His eyes remained closed for the rest of the night, leaving the then sleepless Henrietta to watch the night.

***

End of Chapter 75