What is this? I was in the tower, so how did I end up here?
I'm back in my bedroom when I should be gutting Bianca. Did Vilma carry me back? No, she wouldn't know her way around a grocery store, no way she would find her way back. Why is my sword not next to me like it should be? And, my head is lying on something soft... and warm?
"Where the hell am I!?" I sit up and turn to my left to see Laura sitting cross-legged on the bed with me.
"Arthur. Why are you yelling?"
"Laura? What are you... No what am I doing here?" I run my hands between my hair while I try to make sense of everything. Was I knocked out? Teleported? Did she have some kind of Antique we didn't know about?
"What do you mean? You invited us all here to spend the night with you."
"All?"
Just as I say that the closet door slides open. Clothes and shoes have become ex-girlfriends or one-night stands dressed in various shirts and shorts I own. Flings I haven't seen in years squeeze through the small doorway, their arms stretching out to grab me.
"It's been so long Arthur!" One of them says, her arms lassoing my waist.
"Why haven't you called me anymore!" Another says, resting her head on my lap.
Another throws herself over my shoulders and plants a kiss on my cheek while Laura gracefully lies on the bed, staring at me. "Why are you scowling like that Arthur?"
Why am I scowling? Because I can tell none of you are the same women I've met before. You're missing the same quirks and life you had earlier, like ghosts wearing their faces. And you're too clingy! Like you're trying to shackle me to the bed...
"I broke off most of these relationships years ago." There's no reason they'd all be here together. Unless... I'm high. Bianca must have blown some of her dust on me and now I'm dreaming! "Get off me!"
"But we want you to stay Arthur." One of them says.
"We love you!"
"You're disgusting imitations of these women..." I grunt, stretching my hand out from their hold and reaching for my bedside drawer. "And I deserve better than fakes."
I pop the drawer open, releasing my handgun from hiding, and cap the first ghost I point it at. "What in the-?"
The woman dissolves into a gust of pink sand as the bullet cuts through her torso. The sound gives the remaining mirages pause, allowing me to explode from their stifling grip and leap off the bed.
Looking back at them, it looks like they've dropped the imitation strategy. Pure black eyes sprout on every open spot of their face, their nails sharpen into talons. The remaining nine look at me with unmoving faces hiding their demonic intent. This makes my life easier. The less these fakes resemble the women I know, the better I feel about getting rid of them.
One pounces for me, stretching its sharp claws for my throat, but becomes dust in the wind when I shoot her out of the air. The bullet flies through the dissolved creature, cracking the dangling lightbulb in my room and putting us in complete darkness.
Shit, I wasn't thinking! And the other eight don't look so charitable as to jump at me one at a time or give me a break in the dark. I need some light!
I reach for the bathroom door behind me, but just as the door handle turns a skittering along the wooden floor alerts my ears. I turn to blind fire at it, and the echo of gunpowder silences the unknown sound on the ground. Hitting a blind shot based solely on sound, I'm a better shot than I expected.
"Urg!" A sharp pain stretches down my right leg and a shaky grunt leaks out. It didn't hit!? And if this is supposed to be a dream, why does the pain feel so real? "You won't get away with that!" With the scratch on my leg notifying me of its position, I lower the gun barrel and ignite the floorboards. Dust brushing on the boards gives me a conclusive answer as to if I hit my mark.
I take the little time I have, knowing the monsters lurking in the dark could be moments away from striking me, and yank the door open. I hobble inside, slam the door shut, and turn the lock. It's a weak defense, but it'll give me time to check my wound.
I flick on my dim bathroom light and look down at a grizzly claw mark stretching across my calf. A hollow blackness lies inside of it instead of gushing blood. A bottomless pit cut into my leg. Is this a symptom of the dream or is it specific to them scratching me?
I haven't heard of anyone dying while on Bianca's Pixie Dust, so I don't know if I'd die even if they lopped off my head. But I don't know what Bianca's doing to my real, very vulnerable body. I'm in danger every second I spend here.
A hand pierces a hole through the wooden door and feels around for me, to which I blow a new hole right where its head should be. The shot turns the hand to dust, getting me one step closer to getting out.
"Come out Arthur!" A voice says from behind the door.
"You could have anything you wanted here!" Another voice says.
"Anything but my freedom right?"
"But why would you want to leave?" Whether intentional or not, they're stalling, giving Bianca time alone with my body. Hiding here is a waste of time.
These ghosts are easy targets. A little darkness or a small scratch isn't going to phase me. I've lived in this one room my entire life. My house inside my mind. This is my world and I know it inside and out. I don't need to see to kill them all!
I storm out room, ready to blast the six fakes into sand. Then, something plucks my heart out my chest. Out of the corner of my eye, a hand revealed by the bathroom's rays stabs for my forehead, trying to strike it open. It's been waiting for me to come out, ready to strike the moment I did!
I crouch down, narrowly avoiding the loss of my right eye, but still gain a jagged slash down my forehead. Then, I bury a bullet in its eye reducing it to ash. That could've been bad. If it wasn't for the bathroom light I wouldn't have caught it in time.
The scant amount of light trickling out the bathroom creates a strip of certain safety. Standing in this haven is the easiest way to get through this, but it's not the one I'm taking. I'm not afraid of them. I won't make the same mistake; I'll expect the unexpected. I've broken these people off once, I can do it again.
I delve into my kingdom of nightmares, surrendering my reliance on sight and letting sound lead the way. "Come at me!"
Silence.
No signs of movement.
They're trying to catch me off guard. Or they could be trying to wait me out. They might've realized I'm the one under a time constraint, not th-
A wooden plank near my closet door creaks. It's a plank that's been loose for five years now. I shoot, exorcising the ghost that stepped on the board and creating a spark of light that snapshots where the ghosts are. One's posturing on the bed, two more are slinking on my right, and I didn't catch where the last one is.
But that's enough, with this information I can-! "Urk!" Something stabs me in the back. Deep. The sudden shock deflates my lungs, and I dig my hands around my weapon to quell the sharp, radiating pain. For a lesser person, the injury would drop them to their knees. But you're dealing with the King! This is nothing!
I blast the floor behind me, hitting nothing but still getting what I need. The flicker reveals one of the ghosts clinging onto the wall, its hand retreating after digging out a piece of me. Its cold blank stare reflects the brisk light and watches as I raise my hand to greet it. Before I lose it in the infinite darkness, I put one in its head and the immediate flash shows me it blowing into nothing. It got what it deserved for even thinking about killing me!
That last kill sends the remaining three ghosts into a frenzy. I hear them bouncing off walls, stomping over the floorboards, not even trying to hide anymore. A thumping sound to my right grows closer by the second, and at the same time, my bed yells for my attention.
I can't lose focus. The specter to my right is the easiest to pinpoint in the room and thus is the first to go. Its insistent thumping guides my hand and hushes it into grains of sand.
The second one won't be as easy to find. It jumped off my bed, and given I haven't heard it touch down, it must still be in the air. Realistically it could have jumped anywhere, but no matter how crafty these things think they are, I know what they want. And that gives them away. There's no doubt it's trying to land on me, maybe milliseconds from impact.
But it never will, because I grit my teeth and pivot my bad leg backward so I can have a clear shot of where it has to be. The black shines three times as I aim high between me and the bed. And just like I thought the demon was there, startled by its execution.
There! Something moves out of the corner of my eye, revealed in the faint strip of muddy bathroom light. What are the odds the last one would be imitating Laura? The gun's gaze stops her like it hit a brick wall.
"I can hear your breathing Arthur, you're in pain." Not in the slightest. "And I know you love me. You love me the most out of every one of us." I'd never love something like you.
Laura stares fearfully at me. Her dozens of eyes, now reduced to the normal two, plead with me not to shoot. "Arthur, please. We could be here together forever." It takes a half step towards me. "You won't have to worry about responsibilities or work. I can be there for you when your parents-" The gun's click pauses her unconvincing rant, announcing to the both of us that I'm out of ammo.
I didn't think I'd need to reload in a dream, and the mistake sprouts an excited grin from the ghost's face. All of its unnatural eyes look down at me injured state. I can tell they see me as weak, as easy. I hate it.
"I don't need this to beat you..." I toss the empty weapon to the ground. "Let's go!"
I charge forward, rallying my body to stay strong for at least three seconds. It's all the time I need to kill this thing and get out!
The creature throws its spear-like nails directly toward my eye, and I embrace the attack with my right palm. "Nng!" The steel daggers push deep inside and the pain quakes throughout my chest. It hurts, I'll give it to her. Everything they've done hurts.
My vision is pulsing between blurs of white and the devil in front of me. It hurts... but this is exactly where I need to be!
My fingers grip around the weapon puncturing them. It pulls back trying to distance itself, but we're locked in a hold it can't escape! With its focus diverted onto my bear trap, my left-hand takes the opportunity I've made for it.
"I don't know how little it takes to dust one of you, but I do know that a bullet can do it. So, I'll just blow your head off with a punch stronger than any gun!"
Dressed in black wounds and murky light, my left hand swings like my blade, breaks through the darkness, and rams head-on with the thing's face. My whole body twists with the punch and its head pops like a sand-filled volcano under the weight of my fist. Loose grains fill my black hand wound. This is the only way a fight with me could end. Now I need to get out and kill Bianca for thinking she could trap me.
I limp back into the darkness, grains of dust crunching under my shoes, feeling for the doorknob to the front of the bar. My left palm touches the cold steel and I shift some of my weight onto the door.
It's the only door I haven't tried, it has to be the right one.
I throw the door open, and the room becomes engulfed in a ferocious light. The hallway that typically stands behind my door has become nothing but blinding white light. Good sign. I turn my face away and step through the sun, hoping to find Bianca on the other side of this hell.