/Adrian
The loud sound of crayon scraping the floor downstairs made the young mother wake up early in the morning and go check the ruckus in the living room.
"Adrian! Not again!" – She exclaimed as she saw the new drawings of strange geometrical obscenities on the living room floor.
Boy, aged 11, was fully taken over by what he was doing. He would not stop at anything until he would finish this strange map of sorts. It looked like some outer space architecture drop-out, rather than a drawing - if you pay a bit more attention to it.
Mother rushed to Adrian. She grabbed him tight and hugged him, but he, with all might, kept on trying to escape to continue. He seemed obsessed. His mother would often say that he was "Possessed by some sort of a demon that made him do this."
Doctors would come and go - trying to figure out this strange occurrence. Yet not a single one had the answer why every third night boy would go and draw, with no memory of his actions he'd silently go back to sleep.
"No! Adrian! Stop! You're scaring me! Monster! You're a monster!" - Mother pushed the child.
He fell on the floor.
Like nothing happened, he got up, then went back to the started drawing - to continue. Crying, mother in fear backed away.
"You're possessed Adrian. You're a monster." - The cold determined voice of the mother condemned the child.
I woke up, with my head feeling heavy. I wiped my face with the palm of my hand - cold sweat. The darn memories of my past haunt me as dreams now, huh? That was quite the childhood.
The clock next to bed showed quarter past nine in the morning. Well, that sure is the latest I got up in a while.
Getting up, with my head still heavy from the dream, walking to the dresser and pulling out my clothes for today. The moment I was fiddling with the buttons on my shirt - there came a knock on the door, as it opened.
"Morning Sir. Breakfast awaits you in the dining room. May I pull the curtains, Sir?" - Francis seemed happy that I've had my long sleep. With a faint smile on my lips I gave him a nod. He went to open those curtains.
Breakfast was filling. My coffee - darkest and harshest from all a soul can find. It was just right to my taste, as I needed to really wake up.
With my breakfast finished, Francis was on his way to grab my paperwork - I checked my phone. A missed call from David. Oh, did he decide to apologise for that incident now?
I rolled my eyes, trying to have a glimpse into imagining the apology I deserve, yet I felt that knowing this man - it could be that he'll do the opposite.
For a moment it felt that I touched something rotten.
Francis arrived with a pile of documentation and handed it to me.
"Car is ready, sir." - He led me to the selected car of the day. Black jeep. Inside, on the back seat, coat and some tech to help me along the day.
"Please, if anything - I'd love to be of help." - Francis gave a smile, as he bowed.
I got into my car, poked the start button and the engine softly buzzed. The moment I set out on the road - I decided to give a call to David. See what that idol is up to.
Phone call system in the car - the lovely add on I loved. Just a few pokes on the screen and the ringing of making a phone call began.
Moments later - the phone is picked up and I hear David.
"I've got a problem with Erick. He again is in the zone and keeps writing non stop. This has been going on for around nine hours, soon the AIO might spike up higher than before."
I let out a sigh.
"On my way."- was all that I replied, changing lanes on the motorway, dialling the lab.
Upon my arrival I got interrogated by the security of the building where David resided. It took around five minutes for security to call David's apartment and for latter to come and get me. Visitation without consent of owner was quite the issue here, so all had to be checked multiple times over.
We got into the elevator and headed up. Once the door to the apartment opened and we walked in - I saw Erick on the floor, hunched over the papers, protecting them like they were of endless value.
David came to touch Erick, but latter slapped Davids hand off with force, letting out growls.
"How long is he like this?" – I asked, getting my phone from my pocket. The lab sent remedy was on the way, soon arriving.
"For the past half hour or so - can't get him to calm down. He stopped talking." – David breathed out.
"Give me five minutes." – I checked the tracking of the delivery to the apartment, then walked over to Erick for a short examination.
Quite obvious paranoia, fear. All of a sudden Erick jumped aside from the papers, began backing away to the corner of the room, covered his mouth with his hands, as his eyes watched something in the room darting around.
Ericks pupils small, he's absolutely out of it. In the shadow of the jump. The parallel dive affected him harshly. He sometimes sees things that belong to the other place. Yet he can never explain it properly.
David paced around the room, anxious. I let out a deep sigh, then walked back to the entrance of the apartment.
"The meds have arrived. I'll go pick them." - I said, leaving the two to it's moment.
Going down the elevator, grabbing the container purse, going up again.
"Guess this time she is somewhere very close." - I say to self, as I think of where Niko might have dived in the parallels.
"Is there something I must know?" - David asked me, as I walked back with the container, then closed the door behind. I walk over to Erick and pull out the lab syringe.
"I assume that is mainly none of your concern. Just fulfil your role." - I let out.
Erick was crying, yet holding hands to cover his mouth. Like he viewed something highly deadly, looking to eat him alive. Though right now in front of him was me.
Was I that much of a monster to you now?
I pushed the syringe in his side. He whined, yet kept holding his hands over his mouth. Crying more and more. Eventually falling to sleep.
"There have been changes in the perspective. Data was needed. I need new people. You know by yourself how it gets out there…" - I said, as I got up facing David.
"It gets ugly," - David spoke as he eyed Erick laying on the floor, - "It takes a toll on body and soul. Did you forget what happened to us?"
"Yeah, I still feel like crap at times due to that, but the thing is - I need to know. I have to make it work out. Sometimes achieving success takes a lot of sacrifice. Some cases prove that sacrifice is essential." - I speak, as I watch David pick Erick and take him to the bed.
Once David returns I hand him the pills - specifically crafted for Ericks case.
"During that experiment you wasted away around what? Hundred? Three hundred students?" - David looked at me, as he took the pills. - "Want to tell me that you continue with it after all those lives ended?"
"I'd lie, if I told you that I didn't." - I turned around, on my way out and to the lab.
"Are there more dead?" - David said, I felt anger in his tone.
"What if there are? How are you to change it?" - I asked, as I turned again to face David.
He approached me, his face expressing anger and concern, disgust even.
"You said you'd stop. Why are you killing more? For what goal? To dive better? To explore more? How many have returned safely?" - He spoke through teeth, his anger burning hard and bright. Oh, I do recall him getting all defensive like that, but oh well, the advancement I seek needs the sacrifice that is made for it.
"I did tell you that. So I told many. Glad you believed it. And my goal is for me to see through. I'm thankful that you and Erick were first to dive in. You provided quite the amount of very valuable information." - I spoke calmly.
"You almost killed us all." - David spat out.
"Almost. See, you're still alive and well." - I say, as I finally turned to walk away. Too much of a silly conversation going on in here.
"Does it satisfy you to see us suffer and die for something you so eagerly crave for? And what's the point for all that?" - David raised his voice.
I left without turning back. Got in the elevator, once the doors closed and I was going down I replied.
"To finally see her real self." - I said, feeling a smile on my face.
An hour later I am in my office at work.
I can hear people chat outside my door, as they do their secretarial issues and manage the endless requests from the high standing personas that require the oddest sort of medication or remedy crafted for them - the board of directors of AIO. Pompous arrogant assholes. Good thing they pay me, invest in me and keep their patronage like a very delicate flower.
A glass of alcohol is on the table.
My fingers tap the corner of the document submitted to me by Kriss in the lab below. It is sometimes bother - to read through these piles at times, though all is worth the time and effort. E.C.H.O. in advanced manner and stages - that's what's important.
My office somehow feels like it became even more closed, making me feel claustrophobic. I walk to the only window in the room and check the outside - the single small park made fro the local office infrastructure, so that creatures have a place to have lunch in, or simply relax.
The feeling that was frustrating me through the whole of the time - the dream I had.
I was not a monster. I won't be that monster. She was just dumb to understand and not so ready for it.
If I'd scream - nobody would hear - I assume. Grotesque death by strangulation or hanging.
I shake my head - the hell am I thinking about.
I walked back to the table, grabbed my drink and finished it in one go.
Seeing Erick the way he was - poor sod. But there is nothing I can really help with. I too, sometimes see things from there. But now - I can connect to that place differently - like an oracle - sending sort of messages. But, I do try to advance that dive effect and appear inside it.
"You're a monster! You're devil possessed! Get away from me! You're not my son!!!" - My mind recalled the last thing my mother said to me, before I was taken away.
The situation back then was a massive burden, then troubles and issues rolled like a snowball - ending with blood.
All what I did back then - was to follow the labyrinth, get through the strange land of wonders and in the end - kill monsters to return home. All promised by the Creature that said he'd be forever released from this place and returned back to "normal". To his loving parents.
But when I returned…
When I returned to senses - my hands were covered in blood, I was out of breath, the floor was covered in blood and there were two bodies below. Blue, cold, horror frozen on their faces.
I was shook. I was mortified. I screamed and cried and wept, but none of that helped me to return my parents back to life.
Then the damn Creature that overlooked my going through labyrinth spoke in the same reality - "You're absolutely free now. Unburdened from the shackles of the mortals. No more concern for anyone. No need to fear the chants and scriptures from Otherland. You're free."
I escaped one nightmare to wake up in another - one that lasts a lifetime. I had to find ways to cover up the death of my parents. To start my survival here in another way possible, so that I'm never caught.
I was barely fifteen at the time. The officer that found me got me to the mental facility - as the "mental struggle" of a child that had his parents leave him was, in his opinion, quite the blow. Little did he know.
Figuring out how to control my "moments" when I was in the otherworld and scribing in my room, or chanting some things - was a pestering issue, but an accomplished one.
Have to thank some being for allowing me to be in the family of really wealthy parents. So I never had problems with finances.
The reason why I began E.C.H.O. and other research - all to uncover how I dived in there the first time around, how I was pulled there back and forth for some time and the way it all stopped when I was sixteen.
By the luck bestowed to me - I stumbled across David and Erick. They exhibited the patterns of the accidental parallel diving subjects. I went to pursue that with great luck.
The eventual ongoing tests lead to other discoveries. Though that appearance of Niko was quite the show. The survivor who managed to recuperate in record time, to dive over twenty times in a row and not feel side effects.
That's when it struck me - it only happens if you are already in a dive. So I pursued the theory. It was a success. I managed to find a lead. Then the curiosity grew exponentially and I had a craving to figure out where she is. That is the main objective - to figure out where she is.
I sigh, drinking a fourth glass of scotch. I do have a nightmare of my own that keeps showing up ever so often - the last battle between me and the Creature, before I woke up to dead parents.
It was a magical, beautiful place - garden. Finest roses of red and yellow, the carpet of other flowers stretching on the ground, the place was a wonderland.
Raindrops stuck to the petals and leaves, the sun shining through thick layers of clouds. The blood that was flowing ever so gently from the body of a Creature that was directing my moves all this time. The scales of that creature were falling off, the ooze of body spreading across the garden ground. Once all that was down - I saw myself inside the creature.
That was my other self.
I murdered my other self. I was stuck there, watching my other self dead, with a smile on his lips and just there. Colour fading from the body, the lifeless carcass of a person, or a creature… of me.
I was in such a state that all I heard was white noise for a few days. No sounds reached me.
"Everyone has their own Labyrinth to conquer. Their own Monster to kill." - I spoke to self out loud. - "What did you know, m? What were you meaning to teach me then? How the hell do I find myself missing you and that Labyrinth? That determination in your voice… And that convincing look, daunting..." - I turn around, exhaling heavily and with a thud landing on my chair. I'm tired.
Guess I'm drunk. At work. Oh what a shit director I can be. More like an idiot one.
/Niko
The time spent in that room had come to an end soon after. Cat held hands with Doppel, as they were going towards the exit. I slowly followed behind.
My mind was genuinely trying to remember as much as possible, still. And the feeling of being unable to - made me feel pathetic. One of the best parallel divers and what? Unable to recall the memories? Pathetic.
A hall on the eleventh floor. The exit is the rooftop, as Cat had explained in his small briefing, before we departed the room.
I could faintly hear the crazy chainsaw screech against the walls downstairs - Reds shouts and pleads for me to come out. That goddamn maniac.
BTOOM! Whole building shook. Monsters shouted in pain, growling and panicking.
"The hell was that?!" – Doppel said, looking at the Cat who shrugged in answer.
This specific floor was known for the closed facility rooms - all had the keypad lock on them, so unless you know the code to the room - it's impossible to get in. Doors and walls are protected so much - that even TNT blasts are unable to break through them.
Cat and Doppel rushed to open the doors of any room possible. I heard the hoard of the mongrels swamp upwards to the floors up. Guess all the action is downstairs.
"Come on! Hurry!" - Doppel pressured both self and Cat.
"Let me help." – The calm voice of another - takes us all by surprise.
Door opened in front of me. Doppel pulled me by my hand as we all rushed in - door closing behind us.
"Not even a 'thank you'?"– The voice let out.
I stand still, watching the picture unfold.
Cat shields Doppel with himself. She clings to the Cats back.
I silently admire the bold ruthless person standing in front of us.
"What do you want, you sick bastard?" - Cats voice cold, determined.
"Don't be so uptight. I am not going to harm you... For now that is." – White hair, jade eyes, rabbit ears. His pleasant, calm, fake smile. This man was the definition of trouble.
He was the shadow behind the wall, the warmth that I have my mind wandering off to.
He is the keeper of Labyrinth - White Hare.
Somehow I felt happy by seeing this murderer, torturer and maniac. My eyes locked on him.