Chapter 22: Halo of Flesh

Rueben grabbed a door handle and tore it open but found that the door could not be opened.

He looked at the door, it looked old but he had spent 2 minutes thinking about how to open this damned door.

"Rueben!"

Sara was beyond this door.

He could hear her voice, louder and louder as he continued to bang the door, trying to break it apart.

His mind, as if hypnotized, continued to make him break the door.

Gritting his teeth, his eyes turned red, even redder than before, "Damned door…"

He clenched his fist, he thought of using his Caneswordwhipumbrella but using that would only break his weapon, he could fight against a beast using his fists but it would only result in a dog fight and he didn't want that to happen.

He looked around, though it was dark, from emotions of worry, anger and madness, he could see clearly. He growled and grabbed a steel pipe from the wall and tore it off. He then faced the door and started banging it like crazy, even kicking it and punching it.

The red eyes could only be seen in the darkness but the loud thuds and grunts could be heard.

A being opened its eyes from the darkness and looked at him, a somewhat deformed yet seemed like a smile appeared on the being's face as it held Sara by her hair, gently caressing her like a mother yet Sara looked as if she was dead.

Her face was pale, no, her entire skin was pale as if blood was sucked away from her veins. A small black tear formed in her eyes as it softly slid down. She wanted to speak yet she could not, as if something was holding her mouth from doing so.

She was just there, unmoving in the darkness as she looked at Rueben rampaging at a door, behind the doors were nightmares that would make him go mad.

She closed her eyes, feeling her strength draining away, she remembered her memories that she had made with Rueben as black tears started to slightly gush out of her eyes.

She didn't want to end up like this.

She didn't want to leave him like this.

Bang!!

Bang!!!

She…. Still wanted to be with him, to follow him.

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[It's okay.]

Sara's body turned cold.

The suddenness of their separation seemed forced and it was. It was predestined to be.

Everything was predestined to be. You would never know when life will hit you with its most malicious fists, beating you down like some kind of ant infront of a god.

[You can rest now from being 'IT']

The being spoke, as he cradled Sara in its arms, looking at Rueben who finally tore the door apart and looked inside.

His eyes shaking as he did so.

His body unmoving as he opened his mouth in shock.

He found Sara lying on the floor, her body split in half, her intestines and internal organs spilling out and stretched to the darkness. And that was not the only one.

He found another Sara on the wall, her head was hammered with a nail as she dangled on the wall, both of her arms cut clean, her stomach was cut open for her insides to be seen. Another was Sara holding what seemed to be a skull in her arm, her body decayed or rotted and smelled like acid, one had her own head in her arms, the other having her eating her own organs….

Those were just a few examples, there were so much more. The heavy scent of blood and decay, you can feel the rot and corruption inside this room.

It was a gruesome sight.

Yet it was also tragic.

Rueben's legs gave out and he kneeled on the floor with a loud thud.

His mind couldn't understand what was going on, he could not comprehend nor even hope to understand what was happening, everything was so sudden. Her disappearance was short yet because he lost Sara in the darkness, this was the consequence.

He looked at the scene in shock, not knowing what to do anymore, his body refused to move as his mind shut down. He was like a living corpse.

Dead inside yet alive. Existing just to exist.

There were no tears, no gasps of pain, no mumbles…

Just pure silence, pure chilling silence.

Inside his head, all he heard was whispers. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice. Injustice.

His eyes truly became red as he felt the thousands of corpses inside this room look at him in the eyes simultaneously, their gazes he could feel, gazing at him with eyes filled with sadness, anger, hate, hope, forgiveness, agony, despair, guilt, happiness, joy, disgust.

All kinds of feeling mixed together, both good and bad ones, mixing together to create one disgusting feeling that others cannot convene into words, that anyone cannot convene into words.

Broken.

He looked up, seeing the gazes of Sara on the ceiling, he smiled and started cackling like crazy, tears of blood falling down from his eyes as he did so.

He had so much emotions running inside of him right now, overwhelming him into submission, the chains had grown.

Oh, how it had grown, the chains of guilt and regret had grown. These gazes had planted a seed within this heart and this seed had used his emotions as nutrients to grow.

The little string that held him back from going crazy was torn apart with sheer brutality and the madness came up, climbing up to his brain and control his movements.

In his eyes, the madness he had been hiding has been released.

Rueben grabbed his face and started laughing hard, even screaming, howling like a beast, he kneeled and kowtowed, he laughed, cried, sobbed, giggled.

He broke down.

He just continued, not knowing the being was behind him.

Looking at him with its warped smile, in its arms holding the impossibly pale Sara. It was just looming behind him, no, it had loomed behind him since the beginning of his journey here in the labyrinth if a cellar.

Rueben looked behind him as the being walked towards him with Sara in its arms, he had finally known what was happening within this place. Its secrets.

It was a place of never-ending torture.

The being was done with Sara, with the other dolls, constantly playing hide and seek with them since eternity.

Maybe the beasts and monsters within

It was bored with them so it roped in a new target.

The being pointed at him and said, [You are It]

Now it was his turn.

A halo formed on top of his head, floating in display. Unlike the white and golden halo that the mythical creatures, angels have, it was a halo of flesh, organs and goo.

Thus, the halo signified the start of the game.

Rueben looked at it, then formed a deformed and broken smile.

'Kill'

"Hide away then."