Chapter 3
When I was 5 years old my great grandmother passed away. I didn't know her very well, the only memories I really have of her was when I would go to her house and get yelled at for complaining about the cigarette smoke or for touching her many different ceramic owls. I didn't have a lot of attachment to my great grandmother but I will never forget her funeral. I remember walking into the wake, many people immediately started telling me how sorry they were for our loss though I didn't feel at much of a loss, when I saw a lot of people congregated around one area and they seemed to be looking down at something. I walked over to check it out and saw the lifeless body of my great grandmother just lying there in her coffin. I remember recoiling in surprise, and ended up falling on a table behind me, it was the first time I had seen a dead body. I started to hyperventilate, my anxiety seemed like it might overflow and consume me. The thing that stuck with me the most was the true lifeless nature of her body, it wasn't like she was just still, it was like she was a doll, a lifeless husk, the woman who used to yell at me was gone. As I had gotten older I had forgotten that memory but seeing this body attached to the arch IN front of me, it brought it all back.
It was clearly a man but he had been mutilated to the point that he almost didn't look human. Arrows strung up his arms and legs and kept him hung against the sign. His body was completely covered in blood but it seemed to have dried leaving him in a disgusting scarlet cocoon. I looked away as quickly as I could, thinking that by looking away it would make it disappear, but instead I immediately got hit with a wave of nausea. Something acidic started to crawl up my throat.
HRRGGH! I ended up retching all over the pavement beneath me. It felt like the only thing I could do. I retched until my throat hurt and had to gasp for air. I took some deep breaths, taking a shallow attempt at composing myself, it didn't work very well. I have to get out of here, I thought to myself. No amount of exploration was worth this. I shakily stood up from the ground and began to walk out the way I came in. My gaze was transfixed on the floor beneath me, the only thing I let myself see was my feet taking the next step forward. A loud ringing noise suddenly rang out, it sounded like a rusty wheel or a creaky gate closing.
I looked up quickly just in time to see the large metal gates in front of me slam shut. I was stunned. My way out had suddenly become blocked by some unknown force. My heart began to beat faster and faster. This has to be a dream, I remember watching this one tv show called Psychopass and one of the characters in it said 'people can get away with doing terrible things in public, but people have a psychological belief that they would not experience what they are experiencing'. I could not comprehend what was going on around me, it was like I was looking through covered glass, trying to understand the whole but only seeing in part. I backed away from the gate slowly, and just stared at it for a minute. Why had it closed? Was I stuck? Was that really a dead body above me? My mind continued to race. I couldn't keep a coherent though…
Clunk, clunk, clunk…footsteps. Heavy ones at that. I almost didn't register them with the overstimulation in my brain. They sounded large and foreboding. I turned around to expecting to see someone standing there but there was nothing. The sound of steps stopped. Then again…clunk, clunk, clunk. This time coming from in front of me. I turned around quickly, thinking I could catch the owner of the steps off guard. But again nothing. Just everything I had seen before. Once more…clunk, clunk, clunk; this time from the other side. However this time, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head slowly, trying not to be perceived when I finally saw it, the owner of the footsteps.
A larger hulking knight walked forward to my left side. Each step it took reverberated throughout the courtyard. Each he was heavy, so heavy that each step left a small indent in the concrete beneath the knight. His silver armor was corroded and rusty, like he had been sitting under a dripping faucet for years. A sword adorned his back but it was mishapen and warped. The sight was strange to be sure but the worst part was the blood. Coming from the eyes, the shoulders, smearing onto the concrete through the greaves was blood. Blood that mixed with the rust and the corrosion to form a bronze crimson mixture that stained everything in its path.
He continued to walk across the courtyard, following a simple and direct path. His movements were disjointed yet symmetrical, almost like the were preordained. His arms swayed the same way each time, his legs moved forward unbent, his head never strayed from where it was looking. The knight was more focused on following the path in front of him than me. I tried to remain as still as possible, for some reason in the midst of my panic I had convinced myself that the rules for not letting a T-Rex see you were the same as a bloody knight. But for some reason it was working. He didn't turn towards me, didn't look at me. Nothing…he just kept moving forward, his heavy steps destroying the very path he walked on.
The knight walked all the way to the archway and stood right below the dead body. In a mechanical motion he finally moved his head just enough to look up at the body hanging from the arch. My heart still beat faster than it had before, and sweat still poured down my face, but in the midst of horror came curiosity. I watched silently trying not to draw attention but also watched for my own satisfaction. The knight took out his sword and raised it in the air, swinging it back and forth towards the corpse. The warped rusty blade did nothing but hit the hanging leg of the body causing it to twist and contort until the knight eventually cut it off completely. The knight looked down at the leg, seemingly unsatisfied. I couldn't imagine what his objective might be. The knight looked back up at the body and pulled his arm back behind him with the sword.
Is he going to throw it? I thought to myself, still trying not to make a sound. In a flash, the knight moving faster than I could keep track of, threw the sword upward towards the body. A loud BOOM rang throughout the courtyard causing me to once again fall onto the ground. The arch that held the body began to lose stability. Cracks formed across its surface until it finally came tumbling down on top of the knight, blocking the gate with rubble. I had to be seeing things right? Nothing was making sense. A dead body…a knight committing suicide…the dots didn't connect.
A rumble came from the pile, some of the rocks started to shake. Could this thing still be alive? I hesitantly moved a little closer, only letting myself go forward a few steps. The knight suddenly stood to his feet causing rocks to fall down the freshly formed pile. He was still bloody but now he was slightly dented as well. His helm was completely dented on one side. He didn't move, he just stood there staring at the gate in front of him. He remained still for a while. A couple of minutes passed and I thought he might be dead or broken or something; he didn't strike me as human. I surprised myself but I ended up moving forward towards him, somehow my judgment had been overcome. I took a few careful steps forward. I continued, putting one foot in front of the other until I was less than a meter away from him.
Suddenly, he turned completely around, "AHHHHHH!" I yelled in fright and turned around. I started running without a clear destination in mind, all I knew was I had to get away. I ran farther and faster until I began to come up on a drawbridge that led to the castle Camelot. I stopped and put my hands on my knees, panting. "That has to be far enough," I said. I could not hear the knight's footsteps anymore. I looked around through stifled breath and to my surprise, the knight was gone. The pile of rubble was there but he was not. Instead, there were now craters from his footprints, as well as a long trail of blood that smeared across the floor following behind he step.
"I have to get out of here," I said to myself. My senses finally started to work. I ran/walked back to where the gate was, being sure to look out for the knight or anything else that might be around. The gate now had a sizable divot in it which I was sure I could use to get out. A flash of light hit me in the eye and then was gone, making me blink a few times. I looked over and noticed it was caused by the reflection of something that laid next to the smeared blood trail; something that looked like a phone.
Don't do it, I thought to myself, just get out. But should I leave? I know that this is strange but I weighed my options. I could leave, head on a flight and head home, or I could be the one to actually prove what happened at this place. I didn't have much of an interest in money or fame, I just wanted to do something notable. Something that when I was 80 years old people would still have a sense of respect for me rather than thinking of me as some senile old man talking about the good ole days. This could be my legacy, was I going to let a dead body and a most likely mechanical knight stop me?
I realized this thought was stupid and that yes I should leave but I was already picking up the phone by the time I had these thoughts. It turned on, it only had 3 percent of its battery left. I swiped up and the phone was unlocked; it opened to an open note in the notes app. The heading said "the goal".
Find the object stopping the Ferris wheel from moving, Location the body of Dan Willett, Get into the lower levels through the castle, Find the source, Stop him.
Remember: don't engage with the attractions!!!!