Chapter 5- Mother

"What are they?" He hissed as he nodded towards the door. "Are they alive?"

"Perhaps," she replied simply. "In their state of existence, they are. But they are also creatures of their own chaos."

"Ma'am, I'm sorry but that really doesn't make any sense."

"It does make sense because these things, they don't have any physical being. They have no solid body."

"They looked awfully solid to me when they were chasing us. The head laying at my feet was definitely solid and the thing that had crawled out of that door had also been solid. They're not some insane, mutated monster thing or some government conspiracy?"

"Dude," Samuel stated, glaring at the other man. "It's my mom. Are you alive, to?"

"No," She said sadly before looking down. "Because, I entered the Room to."

"I can't," Garrick growled, ruffling his hair in irritation. "I just don't believe this. We've been drugged, or we're still drunk from last night when we were over at your place and eating cup of ramen and…"

"Garrick," Samuel replied stiffly before looking over at his mother. "You said that they were beings of chaos?"

"Mhm, they take on the forms of your worst fear. For you, it was the monster from The Dark One, Ai-es. For your friend Garrick it's…"

"My mother. Or at least how she died," Garrick replied quickly. "Oh fuck, I can't believe this."

"Garrick, shush, mom… what was it for you."

"Your father… when he was drunk and he was angry. I was the one that found him dead, after all," She replied simply. "They feed off of fear and the more fear they get, the stronger they are."

As frightening as that sounded, Samuel felt something more deeply. Something that made him forlorn. Something that tugged at his heart strings and settled a deep coldness in his soul. His mother had died in her own home, and the authorities had ruled it a suicide. The evidence had leant towards a suicide. His mother had drowned her own self in her own bathtub, and by the time the police had found her body, it had already been decomposing. The water had been blacker than ink and the smell had been horrendous. Flies had infiltred the house like the tiny vermin they were. Even after they embalmed her, she never looked 'good'. His mother, though, had died in pain. She'd died alone in a house that was alive on its own.

"Did it hurt?" Samuel found himself asking. He met his mother's ghostly eyes and the once beautiful stormy grey eyes had faded to a dull black. The wrinkles beneath her eyes had increased in the time they'd been apart.

When Samuel had moved out, he moved out to forget about his mother and the Room. Once you battled with a raging alcoholic long enough, eventually people gave up. He loved her, but he didn't love what she did.

His mother's eyes turned soft and she got up from where she sat. She put a hand on Samuel's shoulder, but the boy couldn't feel it. At least not any longer and it had been three long years since he'd last had a hug from her. He hadn't even come around during the holidays to see her, not knowing that his mother had been living in hell the whole time she'd been living in the house. College had always been so busy, especially Culinary Arts. Under Chef Marcus, he was constantly under fire and working long hours to keep everything together. He enjoyed it, at least, but it was hard and he was always on his toes. Chef Marcus had a no nonsense attitude and they got along well.

"It's ok," his mother stated finally. "I don't blame you."

She stepped into the center of the room. Where she stood, it seemed that the mirrors had finally connected. They bounced off of her and sent a bright light careening straight for the door. The monsters on the other side screeched the second it touched the little fingers that had clawed their way under the doors.

"I didn't kill myself," She started. "But that doesn't matter now, because you have opened the door as well. The Room is, as I've said, a tear in the universe where chaos has bled through. The creatures take on the forms of your greatest fears and your greatest failures. The things you wish you could have changed and it gives them the energy to feed. I opened the door and entered the Room because I believed I had found the secret to defeating them. In fact, I had not. I only handed myself over on a silver platter and they drowned me. My spirit was sucked into the Room alongside the others and the door slammed shut."

His mother explained further. There was only one way to trap them. Mirrors. The mirrors reflected the world they've come from and it would suck them back in. Once one was trapped, the mirror would have a crack inside and the monster would be trapped forever. Unable to escape unless the mirror was shattered once more. The Room, once a long time ago, had been like any other room. But the tear in the fabric of reality had fed it and created a monster. The Room was alive and it needed spiritual bodies to feed.

A lot of suicides had happened inside that house. An abnormal amount, but no one had turned their heads. Well, until his mother found out. The Room fed on those that had been forced to kill themselves by the creatures it housed. His mother had stayed one step ahead for as long as she could. She'd faded into the rupture and hid in the realm of chaos for as long as she possibly could. But when Samuel asked about the realm of chaos, her face darkened. Her fists clenched at her sides.

"You don't want to get sucked inside," his mother reiterated with certainty. "I won't allow you to get sucked inside. But they won't let you leave once the Room is open. It's like the house has gained its own conscience to stop everything that pours out. You won't be able to leave until the Room is shut. It's defending itself."

"You weren't able to leave?" Samuel asked with sunken shoulders. He didn't need to ask, he already knew the answer to that.

She gave him a small smile. "It was ok. I almost had them stopped. The Room gets inside your head, it conditions you to open the door because it's hungry. The only way you'll be able to leave is to trap the monsters that are escaping in the mirrors and lock them back inside so the Room can only fester. If you don't let it eat you, the next time it's opened, it may have already starved."

"I don't want to die," Garrick commented before rubbing his brow. "Ok… it shouldn't be that hard to close the door right?"

"Wait, mom… why are they out in the sunlight. You never answered me."

"They're creatures of chaos. In their world, it doesn't matter if the sun is up or not. They're awake all the time," She answered simply. "But that doesn't mean they're as strong as they should be. At night time, the realms of our world and their world bleed together. They get stronger… but you… you have a chance right now to escape and survive. You have to close the door no matter what I say, do you understand me?"

"Wait, wait… no matter what you say?" Samuel asked, his eyes widening. His mother was changing now. She wasn't the same soft light bluish color anymore. Her form was starting to turn black and the mist that kept her body together was starting to evaporate. Her eyes seemed to be turning red ever so slowly.

"I escaped into the realm of Chaos Sammie. It got inside me to, quickly. Trap me into the mirror before I harm you. It'll be good practice," His mother ordered and it was almost like he was compelled to do so.

With one mirror torn off the wall, he pointed it straight at her. "I love you mom."

She smiled before her mouth dropped open in a silent scream. She held her hands up in panic as she was drug in towards the mirror's surface. Her form disappeared and the mirror cracked in his hands.

Samuel pulled it away from himself to stare down in it, and if he looked hard enough, she was there. She was sitting on her bed in a mess of beer bottles and picture frames. Her hair was puffed up as if she'd pulled it out in frustration. Her knees were up to her chest and she rocked ever so slowly on the surface of the bed. The room was a mess and the walls were stained with black goo. Water dripped from the ceiling slowly and across from his mother sat a barricade. The same dresser sat in front of the door along with her nightstand and her small bean bag chair. Water had already flooded into the room up to her ankles, if she was standing.

On the bottom half of the mirror was the door, and how wide open it was. It hung off its hinges as things crawled out with horrifying faces and shapes. Garrick took the mirror out of his hands and looked down at Samuel's mother with a soft sigh. He set it on the bed.

"We could save her," Garrick replied. "If we shut the Room with her on this side, it might be enough to pull her all the way across. I didn't believe in the afterlife until my mom died… but I think… if we leave her behind, she���ll move on. Maybe she can finally open her door and go home."

"Do you think it's possible. We never got along, but if that's the life she's been living. Even after death, I can't leave her to suffer," Samuel asked, looking up at Garrick.

"What's the worst that could happen? Even if she dissipates the second the door slams shut, at least it'll be better than leaving her locked up inside the Room with the other monsters. An eternity of living with the very things we've only seen for an hour. It's not right."

"Thanks man," Samuel stated before looking up at the hundreds of mirrors that his mother had tucked on the walls. Even more lay in boxes inside her closet. "How many mirrors did you break?"