Chapter 14: Let me rest

She jolted out of bed, her heart beating frantically against her ribs. Cold sweat running down her forehead. Confusion enveloped her thoughts. It wasn't a dream, nor Tiffany's inability to sleep proper that woke her up. A slight rumbling vibrated the room, pulling her attention to the dark clouds that covered the night sky. A thunderstorm? She wondered. It was clear before I slept, wasn't it? Her question went without answer as an uneasy feeling grew in her stomach and dried out her throat.

She rolled herself off the bed, trying her best not to wake Tiffany from her peaceful slumber. I need some water. She figured, stepping out of her bed only for her knees to buckle under her weight. Her entire body tingled as if a light static travelled through her. I-I must still be half asleep… Or maybe… maybe I'm still dreaming? The little girl wondered, bringing her finger near her mouth. Only one way to find out. Before she could even think a step further, she bit down on her index and instantly regretted it. This was no dream, but everything felt too surreal for her to be awake. M-Maybe I am just half asleep.

With a sigh of defeat, she dragged herself to the door and just before she could palm the handle the door opened itself. And with it a voice called to her.

"Come." It whispered with a voice that sounded distant and yet right next to her ear. She blinked multiple times to catch her bearings, only to find herself standing right in front of her brother's room. The gumgum wood letting off its unmistakable minty scent and dawning on it an otherworldly pattern. The door looked different, but she knew it was his. Only question was, how she ended up there without taking a step out of her room. She turned to be sure of her whereabouts, questioning her own sanity. It was just as she thought, behind her was the dimly lit corridor that led to her brother's room, the corridor she couldn't remember traversing to get to where she was.

"Come." The voice echoed, sounding as if it came from behind the morphed gumgum wood door. Strangely, the voice didn't scare the little Maze. It's ghastly and echoing voice being more alluring than it was scary. She knew what lay behind that door wouldn't be anything good. But it's voice, repeating and enticing her to step forward, despite her instincts saying otherwise.

She hesitantly raised her palm to open the door, holding on the handle with a loose grip before committing to the twist. The door creaked open, and one by one, the lamps that illuminated the path behind her began to shut off until there was nothing but an oppressive darkness behind her and the inviting call before her. "Come."

Once she had entered the door slammed shut. Echoing with a reverberating thud. She felt around for the light switch, flicking it up and down, but the lights seemed unresponsive.

The voice went completely silent, leaving her with the disturbing quiet in the room. Why am I here? What's going on? She wondered. What is this thing that has been calling me here? Her mental questions came with a chilling calm to them, ignoring the horror of her situation. Maze could tell that her unnatural calm was not by her design.

She didn't know if it was the chillingly quiet darkness around her, or her imagination playing tricks on her. But she began to see a pair of red eyes staring down at her, with the static from earlier intensifying. In that moment of freedom she stepped back as her instinct to run began to return to her. Bringing with it her rapidly increasing heartrate.

"I see." That whisper came back sending a frosty shock down her spine, before giving her that inhuman calm she was ushered in with. Why aren't I panicking… Is this thing… Is this thing controlling my emotions!? She wondered, tying in her unnatural calm with the otherworldly specter shrouded in shadow before her.

Its red eyes began to intensify in vibrancy as the floor beneath her glowed an ethereal crimson, lightly illuminating the room. She wanted to run. Close her eyes and scream bloody murder as she'd alert her parent's, but no such compulsion came to her. She was calm. Too calm.

"So thou hast chosen thus to defy me?"

Defy? Is it talking about Marcus? Her thoughts ran rampant despite her forced calm until it hit her. The entity that appeared in the party, the one her brother warned her about. "Collector." She whispered out, "You… You're a collector." Its circular eyes shrunk into half circles as it stared at her. Its expression hidden in darkness.

"What shame is this, to come so near, yet lack the resolve to add the most needful part to see it done?"

See what done? What was big brother trying to complete? Maze tried to get her body to move, but she just stood there like a snail waiting to be eaten. Through all her mental resistance she was only able to manage to move 1 step back. Her foot knocking against a heavy but soft object. She couldn't see what it was, but now that her attention was away from the entity, she was able to feel her socks soak up a liquid. Still warm.

The sensation was quickly followed by a coarse metallic scent both strange and familiar.

"Thou hast but stay'd the inevitable." A flash of lightning illuminated the room, and for a split second she noticed the red liquid flooding the floor she stood on.

When the second strike of lightning flashed, she noticed the headless body resting against the bed. A female's body.

By the third flash, her breath caught. The eyes she saw stare back at her on the floor were the same caramel brown eyes that belonged to her aunt. The same curly brown hair that she would usually wear in a bun.

Auntie...  She thought, but in a cruel twist of fate the lights flickered on as the figure began to dissipate. Confirming her worst fears.

"How noble a will, to yield thine own flesh to shield the soul of thy kin; to go so far as to offer the woman thou didst love in barter. Truly, thy kind doth never cease to astonish."

Maze dropped to her knees, an overwhelmingly sick feeling enveloping her, but she was unable to scream, vomit or even faint. The demon's presence forcing her to be present and endure the horror before her.

A knife skipped its way over to her, its sheen reflecting on her face with the flickering light above them.

"Take thy life. Restore what is master's. Die.

The voice repeated, growing weaker with each iteration.

Take thy life. Restore what is master's. Die."

Its voice began to lessen and lessen as its presence weakened. Repeating the same three phrases over and over again, until it went silent.

Maze's hand clasped around the hilt of the knife, bringing it up with a chilling composure. She stared at where the monster stood, seeing the blood that painted her brother's chest. And it's origin. A gaping slit on his throat.

 She turned back to the blade, her Onyx eyes reflected against it as the light stopped flickering. She could barely recognize herself. The dark sheen of Onyx turned into a void that swallowed all the light around it. It became empty.

She pressed her eyes shut hoping that the void would go away, but when she opened them she was in a wooden room. Illuminated by a green rock with a blue core, the room only had the wooden chair she sat on and a bunch of drawings on the floor, lined with unlit candles. The metallic scent of blood still present, but less potent, mixed in with a subtle scent of rotten eggs.

Everything was different, from the room to the clothes she wore. Even how she looked, as she was no longer that little girl in pink pajamas, but a broken 17-year-old who looked exhausted beyond her years. Her mind had returned to the present. Her hell.

Wait. She thought as she gathered her thoughts for what felt like the first time. I remember now. It all became clear to her once she began to process everything.

"That… That was a memory… My memory." The realization grew a guilty pit in her stomach. How could I have forgotten? When did I forget? Marcus, Auntie, how could I forget? She strained her eyes searching, rummaging through her mind to see if she could unearth more memories from that night.

I remember, after that moment I vomited. I was relieved that I could feel again, but then I realized that I could feel again, and let out the loudest scream I could muster. She stared at the blade, the void in her eyes serving as a portal back to those memories she once lost.

Tiffany was the first to find me. Her reaction the same, minus the vomiting. When my parents came, they found me and her crying together in that bloody mess. The guards had to pry me away from Tiffany. They had to break my pinky to get this knife out of my hands.

Like a cold drop of water, the pain in her right pinky burned violently as if it was freshly inflicted. The scar she thought had disappeared long ago revealing itself once more

Mom… Mom stayed with me the whole day after than night. What were her words? She searched deep into this memory, her mother's face a blur. She could feel it. The entire reason why she couldn't remember that night, happened during that conversation but try as she might, the memory just couldn't come back to her.

"I see." The knife went limp on her hands as she gave up on her pursuit for the memory. It didn't matter. None of it did. Her dreams, aspirations. Her friends, family. None of them mattered, because all of it had been stripped from her. Her very being had been stripped from her.

I think I'm done. There's nowhere left for me. Her loose grip brought the knife up, pressing the blade on her neck.

In retrospect, my whole life has been me chasing other people's goals. I became Head Girl, one of the most recognizable people in Newark. I placed Rosemary at number 2. I united the school into one supportive front. I… I did it auntie. I beat him. I beat my big brother. So, if it's not too much to ask. Can you let me rest. Tears slowly fell down her cheeks as her grip tightened on the hilt. Her hand shaking violently.

A chuckle escaped her, followed by a deep inhale as a thought crossed her mind.

"I should have done this… a long time ago."