Chapter 5

I couldn’t tell if I’d actually woken up or woken up in a dream state, since the whole Maze Dimension seemed like a twisted dream. I could no longer tell what was real and what wasn’t; to me, everything was real here. Even my dreams could hurt me, I figured. I’d suffered nightmares for most of my little life, with only two or three good dreams mixed in. This, to me, was one of those good dreams. I ‘woke up’ laying on a fluffy purple cloud next to a million other clouds in different colors. It smelled sweet and candy-like, so I pinched off a piece. It pulled apart like cotton candy, and when I put it against my tongue it tasted and melted exactly like cotton candy. The flavor was strawberry, which happens to be my favorite. I looked into the pinkish purple sky and up at the silver moon, which formed a kind of curly crescent that reminded me of the end of a witch’s boot in old cartoons. I saw other children on some of the other clouds, but they didn’t look like me at all. They were pale and abnormally lacking any sort of color. It was like they were characters cut out of a black and white comic book. They didn’t even look like human children either, but exactly like comic book children. Their bodies were flat and thin, pretty much like paper. It was cool, but also very creepy. I hopped along the fluffy clouds until I reached a golden gate, reading ‘Home’ in glimmering letters on the arch. A few other children other than me read the same word aloud, almost in a monotone.
Home. Home. Home.
I heard that word at least a hundred times in my life, and I literally heard it a hundred times now. The more the children chanted, the wider the gate seemed to open. I began to chant with them as we all walked through the opening and into the extremely bright light that was ahead of me. I felt something tugging me back, though, and it irritated me. I wanted to see what was beyond that gate. I hadn’t come this far for nothing. Still, the more I fought, the harder the thing pulled. I felt myself falling down again, except I was screaming the entire way down. An awful suction pulled me farther down, so I wasn’t just falling. I was sinking into something, too. I saw a various amount of arms, bony and thin, reaching out for me. Above my head, I could see the children wailing and reaching for me…along with my mom and dad. I was suddenly crying with them, begging for my mom and dad to help me, to come get me. A sharp, electric pain jolted me in my chest, like I’d been shocked. I felt it again, and again. I coughed and spurted vomit from the force of the electric shock and my vision swirled. I could feel my chest sizzling from something being pressed against it. I figured that’s where I was being shocked and put my arms out in front of me to shield myself from the force. I saw nothing, but I knew there was something there. It was hurting me.
A moment later, the arms disappeared and I found myself standing on solid ground. A Tree-it, a friend I was welcoming at the moment, stood in front of me with open arms.
Did you miss us? I heard it say, and all I could do was run to my friend and hug its thin body tightly and cry. I bawled like a five year old, which was very appropriate at this point after all I’d been through. The Tree-it ran its hand in my hair and held me, like I was its own child. It’s alright, you’re safe here for now. You remember my promise? We will always be here when you need us most.
“Thank you…thank you so much for coming to find me,” I managed to choke out, drying my tears to look up into the knobby face of carved wood and branches. “I was so scared…all these creatures and all the memories…I’m finding out things I didn’t even know happened. I even found this, I think it belongs to you,” I explained, digging in my bag to hand it the piece I’d found in the chest of bloody body parts. The creature examined it carefully, then its dark, almost void eyes widened and it grinned at me.
You found it! The piece of our key that’s been missing for so long, it said to me, hugging me as gently as its strong limbs would allow. Although this isn’t the Key you’re searching for, it is still very important. When this piece broke off of our key, the Hall of The Hundred Doorways warped into chaos. Do you remember how it looked when you first entered?
I nodded, remembering the twisting walls and warped doorways. I also remembered the Van-Doll, who told me about the Hall in the first place. “Do you know what a Van-Doll is?”
I do, in fact. The creature replied, picking me up to look it in its eyes. You must stay away from them, if you can help it. They are dangerous and will do anything to make you into one of their own. There is no cure for becoming a Van-Doll, despite what the legends say, and there is no way to truly kill them. Even your most powerful weapon can only injure them.
This had me confused. So a vampire can die, but a Van-Doll can’t? I guess they really weren’t the same thing. I nodded again, pretending to understand so I could ask it more questions. “How come I have to go through all of the Realms to find my way out?”
Who in the world told you that? The creature laughed and patted my head. You need not pass through all of the doors, in fact you will only get yourself killed that way. All you need to do is get to the Final Door alive.
I decided not to tell him about my encounter with the Van-Doll, figuring I’d get a week-long lecture for it or something. The Tree-it seemed parent like to me, a trait that really put me at ease around them. “I can’t thank you enough for saving me. Is there any way I can be of more help?”
Find the Key and escape the Maze Dimension alive. That will be help enough, child. It set me down on the ground and with a stick-like finger slashed a hole into the atmosphere, revealing a black void. I will be your guide, and we will always be here. But you must get out alive. We’ve helped you cheat death twice already, and I don’t believe we can do so again. Be careful.
I nodded, hugging the Tree-it one last time before I walked through the rip that turned into blackness, surrounding me like a cloak.
I bolted upward from my sleeping position with a gasp, cold sweat dampening my forehead and back. I was back in the Hall, sort of safe and definitely sound. I stood up, making sure my doll and bags were still in their proper place. I did feel calmer though, which was odd for me. I remembered what the Tree-it told me and looked around, finding a door that looked easy to pass through. I saw a door named ‘Confusion’, which made me giggle. I was already confused, so it must be where I’m headed next! I took wide, goofy steps toward the door with my chest puffed out like some sort of clown, wrapping my fingers around the door handle for a quick turn-and-enter. I had been feeling pretty confident, and I was almost certain I would make it through the Confusion Realm in no time. As I walked through the doorway, I noticed that in front of me was a wooden pole with at least a hundred different arrows on it, each reading ‘This Way’ or ‘That Way’ and such other things. I didn’t mind, simply because I knew this was the Confusion Realm. Nothing would make sense, and this world would try as hard as it could to confuse me completely until I was lost inside it forever.
I wasn’t about to let that happen today, or any other day.
I started off past the sign, walking strictly forward, until I reached an abandoned-looking shack about the size of a Port-A-Potty. When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I noticed there was a grey, hazy sky and a black lake behind the little abode. It looked cool enough until I noticed the red moon, full and hanging fatly in the sky like a red bouncy ball.
Whoa. Way cool. I always had a thing for red moons. They made me feel good.
I stepped inside the door-less shack and looked around to the best of my ability to actually see. There was a little bit of light from a candle that had been lit, something I didn’t notice until I’d walked in a little further from the entrance. It was a single-room shack filled with various odds-and-ends, things like bookends and metal pitchers. There were a few scattered, old books on the floor with tattered pages that looked fifty years old, and a very old cracked mirror to the far left of the small room. A straw mat and blanket served as a bed for the once-inhabitant, and the pile of wood I’d seen outside now appeared to be a campfire for means of cooking. That would explain the metal dishes, pots and pans that littered the ground wherever I seemed to walk on my way up here. I fished through my bag, praying for a little bit of food, and was rewarded with my favorites: M&Ms.
I…freaking love…M&Ms. I picked up a red one and popped it in my mouth, letting my tongue roll it around so it could melt into the sweet chocolaty goodness. I relished in M&M induced Nirvana until the bag was empty, then I was forced to remember that I was in fact still in the Confusion Realm and had to find my way out. I remembered seeing a boat behind the shack, so I got up and went around to have a look and inspect the amount of damage that age had done to it. When I got there, I noticed it wasn’t so bad, really. Just a few cracks in the oars, but no holes that I could see even with the inspection I gave with my flashlight in hand. I clambered into the boat and pushed off shore with the left oar, sailing in the shallow waters.
I felt the creeping sense of paranoia itching at my every fiber, and I made good measure to turn around. In the silence, I heard the screams of terror, of a man who‘d just realized his prey was getting away. I knew who had followed me and I had to run.
I have to get out of here.
The faster I paddled, the slower I seemed to be moving. With the ugly white coated maniac close behind, I was practically begging whatever everyone else thought was in Heaven for a way out of this mess. I couldn’t let him corner me again. A sudden gust of wind stirred the once-calm waters and I was off, speeding like a motor boat across the gleaming ebony lake that seemed to go on for an eternity. I stood up in the boat and pointed at him, a twisted grin on my face. “Ha!” I ridiculed, doing a little happy dance on the very wobbly boat. “Can’t catch me, can’t catch me! What’s the matter, you ca-” my taunting was cut short when I felt the wind grow stronger in a burst, throwing me from the boat and deep into the angry waters. I guess it was just bad karma on my end.
I started to swim, thanking my swim class teacher for showing me how to hold my breath underwater. I could only hold it for a minute and a half, but that could get me far. The lake was dark on the inside and I couldn’t see land at all; I couldn’t even see the bottom of the very much endless trench that I was swimming above. I could feel the pain in my lungs from holding my breath too long, making me panic. I had to keep holding my breath because I was not exactly swimming anymore, but I was sinking instead. The gravity from the depth I’d wandered in was pulling on my entire body, crushing my lungs on the inside and burning a fire in my legs and arms. I tried to scream, but was rewarded with only bubbles and a mumble. No one could hear me, and I was going to drown. This is pretty much where I’m at right now.
Between the suction from gravity and the fire in my lungs, I’m starting to think back on a lot of things I passed up in my life. From first dates to dessert, I’m regretting every bit of it. I had missed out on a lot, and I’m paying for it.
Talk about bad karma.
As I’m losing the battle for air, I decide that no one will miss me. I finally let go and relax, letting the suction take me down deep into the trench.