A blow across the lips shocked Eli awake. Spitting blood, he felt weak as he tried to fend off more hits, but he couldn’t feel his arms. There was a hard surface under his backside as if he were sitting in a stone or wooden chair, but the pain and disorientation from the hit left him reeling. Feeling a hand roughly grab his throat crashed through his foggy brain, forcing his eyes to focus on a large man he’d never seen before.

Light from somewhere overhead cast the stranger’s features mostly into shadows, yet some strange illumination seemed to radiate from the man’s peculiar reptilian vertically split pupils. Clean-shaven with weird dimpled skin along his face, the monster opened his mouth to reveal a grotesque smile filled with sharp pointed teeth.

“Finally awake, my brave little adventurer?” the beast said with its broad smile as he stepped back. The light revealed the simple dark jumpsuit he wore, thin like almost a second skin, but without zippers, clasps, or buttons. The material did little to hide the man’s massive proportions. Still, something looked off with extra muscles along his broad shoulders and arms that didn’t make anatomical sense. Almost like a cartoonist’s interpretation of a steroid-filled bodybuilder or mob goon, there were bulging muscles, and thick veins barely held under tight skin.

“Who-,” Eli started to ask, but an open-handed slap across the face stopped his question after only a single word.

“I warned you. Why can’t you listen to my simple instructions?” The goon’s smile didn’t waver as he punctuated his question with a second slap across Eli’s other cheek. A dull ringing started in his ears even as his mind grasped at understanding his situation. Finally, the words seemed to almost click together.

“Lugh?” he tried to say, but little more than a croak emerged.

The goon apparently had excellent hearing as his sharp-toothed smile flashed into fury. With only a tiny step to close the distance, he punched Eli in the stomach, forcing him to groan in agony as his body folded forward from the blow. He tried to get away, to move and escape, but finally realized that his hands and legs were bound to a chair.

“Don’t profane the Exalted by using his name! You will show respect!” The rage-filled goon changed as its body blurred, and a man Eli had tried hard to forget suddenly stood in front of him with a ghastly wound in his neck. None of the blood he remembered gushed forth, and the smile was entirely different from his memory. It was more like the goon had put on a costume, but their expression was filtered through the form they’d assumed as the same creepy smile remained – the sharp teeth and too-wide lips plastered in place. The figure blurred again into Lugh a moment later and then back to the bulging goon with only the smile staying the same throughout.

Deep rumbling laughs echoed as the creature crouched just in front of Eli, with his massive arms resting on his tree-trunk-sized thighs. He stared at him with his head cocked to one side as if the goon was a dog hearing a strange sound. “It seems your mind can’t even settle on an enemy for our little bit of fun. Who will you imagine next, little adventurer?” Again, a slap punctuated his question.

“Alright, Eli. No more being nice. We could have done this the easy way, but you wouldn’t listen to my simple instructions. The Exalted has high expectations, and you’re going to meet them, one way or another.” The goon gestured at a table that suddenly materialized out of thin air behind him.

The goon started whistling, his large thick lips almost grotesque puckered together as he walked over to the table. When the goon picked up a hammer, Eli began to sweat. Feeling his panic rise, unable to escape, he tried to pull back or do anything to escape the torture before him. Shaking, feeling flashes of heat and cold coursing through him, he wracked his brain for any way to end this nightmare.

Nonono, this is a dream! Wake up! Shit, how do I wake up?

Regardless of his conscious mind screaming that this was a dream, the scene continued to play out. The goon ambled slowly over as if getting some sick pleasure from Eli’s terror. Standing close, the giant man swung the weapon idly a few times as if to test the balance. With a little smile growing with anticipation, the goon rolled the hammer back a final time before bringing it down in an overhanded swing towards Eli’s left knee.

Even as the hammer swung down, Eli tried to focus on how this couldn’t be real. This had to be a dream, yet the feeling of the strike as it pulverized his knee felt more real than he could comprehend. His efforts to concentrate shattered along with his body while his vision darkened.

His mind retreated even as his mouth screamed in pain. There was a safe place in a small little space tucked away in the darkness. He’d found it ages ago. It was only a tiny corner where a little boy could curl up in safety. He’d been safe here before, and he curled up in the darkness in the little corner of his mind while unspeakable horrors were inflicted on his body. His hands cupped each side of the Melody Max that suddenly appeared over his ears even as he focused on the sound of his music. Somehow, the melody drowned out the sounds and feelings of his tortured body.

Time passed in a blur as the monster continued his work, yet Eli focused on the sound of his music playing in time with his heartbeat. He tried to ignore the tiny whimpers, the grunts from repeated blows, and the sounds of distress his body unconsciously made while his mind remained somehow apart. Like when Cascadia ended his world and Eli was buried under a collapsed structure, he somehow lost himself within his mind.

A change brought some small piece of his awareness back to the scene, and the darkness suddenly retreated. The goon had turned away for a moment before turning back around, walking over with what looked like an old nail gun. As the smiling goon placed the tool against Eli’s head, he smiled. It was the last thing Eli saw before he heard a blast of air, felt a sharp cold pain, then saw nothing more.

***

A hand ruffling his hair woke Eli, even as he tried to make sense of the scene. His mind, which had locked itself away in self-preservation, was returning to find a familiar setting. The goon was back, yet Eli’s blood wasn’t all over his clothes anymore, like the torture had never happened, yet his memories said otherwise.

Oh no.

“You didn’t think a little thing like death would save you, Eli?” The goon said as it ruffled his hair again before slapping him almost lightly across one cheek. “I’m always here, Eli. You can’t escape me.”

Am I dead? Is this hell?

The goon poked Eli’s forehead roughly, throwing his head back to hit the chair’s back hard enough for him to see lights flash across his vision. “I’m in your head, little adventurer. There’s no escape for either of us.” The man suddenly smiled, a purple glow lighting up his reptilian eyes. “You just won’t stop your meddling and experiments, but I’ve thought of a truly perfect solution. If you go mad, or even better, if you die, my master will come for me. He’ll want to know what happened, and we’ll be reunited.”

The goon moved closer until his hot breath washed over Eli’s bound form – the unmistakable scent of sulfur and death. The monster reached out to almost lovingly cradle Eli’s head in one of his massive paws, his glowing predator eyes only centimeters away. “I wonder how long it would take to drive you mad. We had our one little session yesterday, but that was barely a taste of what we could do together. How long can that mind of yours handle crushed bones, torn limbs, or pain in places you didn’t know you had? Would your body give up first, or will it be your mind? So many experiments to discover your secrets. My master will surely reward me for my efforts.”

“Wh….” Eli tried to speak, but his tongue wouldn’t form the words. The torture he’d felt only minutes ago for him was still fresh as he tried to understand what was happening.

Who? If this isn’t Lugh, who is it? Is this some mutated version of Guide? Oh god, could it be that spider thing? I need to get away. How do I get out of my own dream?

“Alright, Eli. Time for a few more experiments.” The goon gestured to the table that suddenly appeared behind him even as a large knife appeared in one hand.

Eli tried again to speak, but the goon waved a glowing green hand at him, and his body and tongue froze in place, much like his other nightmares.

“No, little adventurer, no more words for now. You had your chance, but I’ll be nice and only cut off a few body parts to start. Maybe your fingers and toes? Nothing too bad. Then you’ll get the chance to make a vow to end your meddling. See how nice I am?” The goon shook his head in apparent sorrow. “If only you knew how to follow simple directions. Eli, you’re making me do this – this is your fault.

The goon inched closer as he moved the point of his knife just under Eli’s left eyelid, the metal blade cold against his cheek. “Actually, let’s start with one of those green eyes. Don’t worry, I’ll leave the other so you can still see my tests. Maybe next time I’ll pluck both out – you know, for my experiments.”

A deep chuckle with another whiff of utter corruption assaulted his nose. Eli was only an observer, bound in the chair and a prisoner in his own body. He couldn’t act or react other than feel everything his body experienced. The horror of the blade near his eye, the utter alien feeling of contact, and the sound as the blade slowly sank in was too much – his mind retreated again. Even as a part of him watched almost sightlessly as pieces of his body were cut off, his mind found his safe, dark corner again. It was a place where he could hide. There was a beat to his hiding spot – a song he’d made ages ago. It kept him company in the darkness.