Archie stood in shocked silence, wondering what he had just read. 'In...my house?' Archie asked himself, looking around. His house suddenly lost power, shadows appearing from the corners of his vision. Archie ran through the rooms in his house, trying to find a portable light source. He kept hearing whispers in his ears as he did so. "I'm behind you, Archie." He listened, turning around, seeing nothing. He kept going through the drawers and rooms for anything, but there was nothing. Not even his phone's flashlight would turn on. Wherever he looked, there were creatures made of shadows, untouchable horrors beyond his grasp.
He heard the sounds of laughter echoing down the hallway where his bedroom was. He looked down the hall, and a small child encased in shadows was standing there, holding a book. He stared at them as they opened their book. They read from it in a childlike manner with a voice that he couldn't decipher to be a boy or girl. "In the darkness within, there holds a secret. In the hollow void below, the damned never quit. As the clock strikes twelve, all life will be forfeit. As the final bell tolls, your teeth, you shall grit." The child read, the sounds of church bells ringing in his ears. Every time that bell rang, a shocking pain wracked Archie's body, causing him to collapse. The sounds of bones cracking followed suit as he tried to push forward, but as a sixth bell rang, his body fell flat halfway through the corridor.
It only got worse as the bells continued to ring. Archie's body arched upwards, a shockwave hitting his chest with unrivalled force. It was worse than the punches he suffered by the first Night Terror. The ninth bell rang, and his arms snapped in two at the elbow, destroying the bones there. Archie wanted to scream, but he couldn't. His voice wouldn't come out. However, his mind was overloaded with the sheer amount of pain. Archie kept trying to move forward, but on the tenth bell, his legs snapped too.
Archie kept moving forwards, his eyes tearing up from the pain, his body trying to stop itself from shutting down. He was using his chest to move forwards, arching and straightening his body to move scant inches forwards. The eleventh bell tolled, his ribs snapping with the shockwave. Archie could only wait for the twelfth bell, his eyes shaking as he awaited his supposed death. The twelfth bell rang, and Archie gasped, feeling his body freeze. His heart had stopped. Archie's body fell flat, lifeless.
The small child that had read from their book walked over to him, their footsteps echoing through the house. "Your body freezes, giving up the fight. Goodbye for now, say goodnight. Give me your trust, and I'll keep it safe. I'll make sure that your body doesn't chafe." The child told him, grabbing Archie's body and dragging it into his room. They closed the door behind them as they pulled his body, red irises flashing as they did so.
...
[...]
[Wake up, Wordless Warrior.]
Archie woke up in his bed, sweat dripping down from his head. He felt his face, noticing open wounds beneath his eyes and dried blood surrounding the cuts. Archie realised that his arms, legs and chest were healed, and no broken bones were to be felt. Archie tried to sit up, but for some reason, he couldn't. He looked underneath his shirt, noticing a large wound that went from the top of his chest to near the bottom of his stomach, with small, curving lines off-shooting from it at seemingly random points.
"You are finally awake, able to speak. Your future is dim, almost fully bleak. You cannot comprehend the pain your body is in. It's almost as if your body has taken its own ibuprofen." The child stated, walking out from the corner of his room with an almost evil smile on their face. Archie could only stare in shock as the child held a bloody scalpel over their book, fresh blood dripping down it. He didn't know where that blood had come from, but it couldn't have been his blood since the only blood that came from him had dried up. "You're trapped in my game, no escape to be seen. No hiding, no running, only torture, with sights so obscene. You are trapped in my game, with no help to be found. No hiding, no running, so I'll bury you in the ground." The child told him in a poetic voice, a smile growing on their shadow-encased body. Their teeth were sharp with slight yellow stains upon their white enamel.
Archie could only try to pull away from the child as it approached him, scalpel ready to cut him open. The blade passed through his chest, underneath his right pectoral muscle, a long line being drawn by the child. It glid through his skin like butter, and the most shocking part was that Archie couldn't feel anything. It was like he had been given anaesthesia before this. He watched as blood trickled through the cut, a surprisingly small amount of blood leaking from the wound. The scalpel was coated in his blood, with small amounts of skin attached. Archie watched as the child carved strange symbols into his flesh beside the cuts. He couldn't understand what was happening again.
'Why are you doing this to me?!' Archie tried to ask the child, trying to connect to their M-Port. However, he couldn't find them in his mental arena, no matter how many questions he asked. However, that changed when he asked them one question in particular. 'Who are you?!'
The child then looked at him, almost as if they were confused. "Did..you just talk to me?" The child asked him, only their eyes and mouth visible. 'Yes, I did. Who are you, and why are you doing this to me?!' Archie asked, surprised that he got a response. "Well, I don't know. Why do we do anything? I've been presented with a canvas for my works, so I draw upon them." The child responded, placing a shadowy finger upon their cheek. 'Yeah, but not when that canvas is a human that knows what's going on!' Archie yelled back, trying to understand what they were doing this for.
"Why should I care about what you say, huh? You can't move. You can only snarkily respond to whatever I do." The child responded as Archie looked down at his chest. 'Yeah, I think I'm right here since you're literally putting a sharp object into my chest and carving designs into me!' Archie mentally shouted, shocking the child. "Yes, I suppose you could see it like that..." The child admitted, their eyes aimed to the floor.
'You said that I was a canvas. If I make a deal with you, that involves letting you use a canvas, will you free me?' Archie proposed, piquing the child's interest. "Hmm. I want to hear more about this proposal. I'll heal you, and then we can talk."