“What was I looking for?” I found myself wondering, the footsteps that I took becoming more and more unsure. As I was beginning to think that maybe I should try to make my way back, I spotted something. The path ahead seemed to be getting easier to see, a faint glow illuminating its edges.

The hallway that we were in split out, a chamber filled with light, a gentle, peaceful light, we had found our way to the chamber in my dreams. Bodies no longer littered the floor, the blood that once had bathed everything here in its grimy black crud was gone. It was like the scene had never happened, who had cleaned this place and when? Signs of a struggle still shown though. Large slices, in the wall, on the floor and even on the ceiling seemed to have survived the erasure of evidence. Rosary slipped out of my hood, inspecting the solemn moonlit room.

I could still feel a sense of despair, like the feeling of something holy becoming filthy, corrupted, no longer ever able to take back it’s former holiness. My chest which had been burning earlier now seared, as if something were pressing a seething hot brand, an act that whoever did so did it with gleeful intent, not a hint of compassion for the one suffering it’s magma hot embrace.

“Fuck, god damn it, please stop whoever, or whatever is doing this." I whimpered as I pressed both hands to my chest, tightly grabbing, hoping, wishing, begging for some kind of release. I lost my balance, my legs buckling at the sheer pain, left knee first slamming into the cold hard stone, my right knee following, the pain of my descent hardly registered, all I could do was close my eyes and try to block it out.

“Daniel, my child, my lovely child.” A cool parental voice whispered into my ears, or my head or whatever, it was everywhere and nowhere for me. “Give me your pain,” Her voice was as sweet as a kiss, as tempting as a drug and felt like an icy salve on my chest, the burning in it fleeing, retreating like a beaten puppy who had made its owner angry. The voice was both familiar and not. "Become one with me my love, the pain will go away." It whispered

Opening my eyes, I found myself back to that time. Bodies were everywhere, the sun which shed its intense light from above burned against my skin, it’s light painful, like the feeling in my chest moments ago. I retreated from it, those words still ringing in my ears. “Give me your pain.” From afar I inspected the bodies, feeling detached, no that's not right, the scene in front of me excited me, it felt so right.

I could hear shouting ahead, I moved; my head fuzzy, my body feeling, exotic, powerful, I felt like I could crush bare stone. These ruins no longer felt eerie nor ancient, but instead like home. How could I have thought otherwise? I traveled easily, making my way to the sound of fighting.

Two older teen boys were the first ones I spotted. One with eyes that spoke of more knowledge than what should be possible, an elder maturity that the other seemed to lack, the other though had an air about him, an otherworld atmosphere, blood dripped from his hand the drops of blood solidifying together becoming a long razor-thin blade pulsating like the blood vessel that its blood form had come from. These boys faced off against a creature; it’s size and visage partially a part of the ruins only a piece of it showing, spiked razor like spines running all across it. Strangely enough even knowing that this creature was the same that had stricken terror in my heart before I felt none, perhaps I even felt a kinship?

Behind those boys were two girls, one had animal-like parts to her, large fluffy ears, a tail that whipped about, and claw-like nails, eyes feral like a cat, plump thighs and a large chest accentuating the human parts of her. The other girl had a pale, gaunt complexion, a lean body and cold wisps surrounding her body, clothing in tatters and cuts oozing still.

Something seemed familiar about this group. The pain in my chest started to sting again at those thoughts though. The creature attacked, tentacles springing out from the visible parts of it. It's attack so fast that the group seemed to barely register its movement, the only one appearing to have enough wits being the pale girl,she thrust herself forward yelling something archaic that made no sense to my ears, a wall of ice rose up stopping the thrusts mere inches from the soft flesh of the teens. It was quite clear that the they were severely outmatched. The wall shattered, sprinkles of ice exploding out-wards, misting the air for a moment before dissipating into the air as if having never existed in the first place.

A blood-curdling, enraged, roar echoed through the hallways, the source of which came from a cat-faced man behind the group. The monster stopped what it was doing if it had eyes I’m sure it would be staring at the panther-like a man, assessing him. The group of teens, bolstered by the presence of the older man tried to go on the offense, and I realized that I knew these teens, hell it scared me knowing that I had almost forgotten myself.

My younger self, his blood blade held in front of him forward took the front he rushed ahead. Bell, the cat-like girl, followed behind. Sebastian and Clair both seem to be mumbling words, Clair glowing an icy white, Sebastian shining. The creature struck out as if suddenly becoming aware of the advancing group, two, three, no four tentacles with razor spines blasting forward with inhuman speed. Ice walls blocked two of the limbs, and as they touched the walls, they seemed to get sucked into them, freezing in place, ice growing from where it had started. One was blasted into a cauterized pulpy mess, and the last was sliced in half by the blood blade, my younger self splitting through it like a rock dunking into a lake. The blade cut with ease, but the tentacle tried to pull itself together just like how water will fill itself back up after that rock passes by. Bell who was right behind my younger self snarled and started tearing at the meat stitching back together, a feral wild look in her eyes.

The cat-man seemed shocked for a moment; he yelled to the group, “Stop,” and started rushing forward, speed far faster than that of a normal human, faster by far even then an Olympic sprinter. More tentacles blasted out of the things body, my younger self narrowly missing a blow to the head as he dropped to one knee and turned his sword in a twirling motion, gore sprinkling all over, gore that in turn became alive upon hitting the ground and piercing into the skin as they seemed to get lives of their own. Bell grabbed Daniel hoisting him away, preventing him from getting skewered as a tentacle destroyed the ground where he had been. Pan flashed out a sword, a flash of light ramming into the tentacle destroying it. His paw-like hand pulling out cylindrical objects from his pockets. "Sebastian, he yowled and threw the objects towards the creature.

I watched, I craved, and I lamented, wanting both to relish in their blood and cringing at the sight of it. Wait, who’s blood did I want to relish in? A chill, the thought of me changing into something cruel, something bloodthirsty made my back sting in icy pain, the thought horrifies me.

The sound of many explosions made the room rumble. Gore flew towards me. The fighting had nearly ended. The creature, at least the physical part that stuck out of place had been decimated, slices of its body hanging off blasted by fire and frozen in ice. Seeing that I turned and ran. Something about seeing that creature killed made me run, why?

“Daniel stop please!” The faint dainty voice brought my sense back into reality, my hands were bleeding, and from them, something seemed to wriggle dangerously, a spine covered in razor-sharp ends. As I awoke, it dropped to the floor. Rosary stared at it, eyes wide open in fear.

“What? What happened?” I asked, blinking, the pain in my chest rising, throbbing in time to my heart.

“You curled into a ball, I tried to talk to you, but you wouldn’t respond. I was afraid that you’d gotten hurt. And then your hands just opened up and that thing or whatever came out of you and attacked me.” Rosary explained as she stared at my open bleeding hands. “We should get that covered.” She said her eyes looking to and fro, probably searching for something to cover them with.

All I had brought with me was my clothes and the lantern. “I’ll be fine,” I stated, my hands didn’t even hurt, hell the only thing that hurt was my chest.

“Don’t bore me Daniel,”

A voice said in my head, the same one from when I first experienced this world and the one that had shown up the most. What an asshole, “I’m not something to amuse you with.” Laughter filled my head, scornful laughter, the kind of laugh one makes when you find something so pathetic that it’s funny, it filled me with anger; I found myself hating the voice.

“What? What do you mean?” Rosary asked, eyes staring at me in confusion. Shit, I said that out loud.

“Oh sorry, um nothing,” I mumbled. An awkward silence came upon us for a moment, I looked down embarrassed, my eyes searched for the spine-like thing that had come out of me hoping to get a better look. It was gone, and with it the awkward silence, the sound of footfalls and yelling breaking it.