Art talks to the woman and says: "can we take a seat? Would
you like to have some fun?" the woman looks at him a little bit confused since
she was going to ask him that, she wanted her approach to look as natural as
possible that's why she was waiting, it'd be weird to approach somebody when
they just arrived in a place, but sometimes also choosing the best moment could
be weird. "Kid, what do you want? And be quick since my time is precious?" Art
answers to the lady "I know that came here to come to talk with me, and I also
know what you are looking for, so why are you wasting both of us' time?". The
lady with an appearance that made her look as a reliable and experienced person
says "Oh well, in this case, we'll let the show begin." Her thought about that
moment from a lot of time, she was somebody that would look upon it prays way
before they arrive and that's why she usually had a huge advantage when
gambling at the casino, she chose carefully her victims, and she gets
everything she can get from her. But what she doesn't know it's that they are
in a memory. So, Art in the real world has already been scammed properly, but
now since it's a memory he already knows all of her dirty tricks.
Mike walking through the path he had to follow was once
again trying to reach his home, but when he gets a little closer it completely
disappears from what he can see and because of that a feeling of a knot creating down his throat
make him feel like he has to vomit everything he ate in the last decade. His
sight becomes so bad that he can no longer distinguish the creature that are
attacking him and making him feel like he's being skinned alive. He sometimes
sees an eye go in front of one of the only remaining spots in which he is able
to see anything, the monsters became as big as him, they had a lot of feature
that had no purpose, they were liquid but at the same time very wrinkled, they
stink a lot also if it doesn't matter too much because the olfactive perception
of Mike was at zero. He embodied still the fears of a child, his memory was
bounded to his emotions, like all thoughts and memories after all. The creature
didn't act like they did the first time, everything didn't end so easily, not
at all. They started devouring him while he was walking, the beginning
emanating over his body a digestive liquid to start to eat him while he had to
watch his whole body became a piece of worthless trash. The teeth of the
monsters sank into his fresh meat. He had to watch to his own chest being
opened and those creatures making a feast out of it.
The biggest monsters procured to his weak little body the
most painful feelings, while the little ones were like insects that were
'decomposing' his body while he still was alive. The flesh, the organs started
to disappear, devoured completely. Mike's end was so close that he was
wandering "did I lose?". And while pieces of pancreas and of guts were spread
all around him he was finally losing consciousness for good. Until a beast that
was as big as all of the others together jumped over his face breaking his
skull and killing it. Was it the end of it? Well Mike wakes up again, he turns
around and once again he sees a shadow of a woman, but this time 'clank' he
kicks it and then he turns around quickly and falls on the ground. After
getting up again he tries to avoid the woman's grasp. Normally anybody would
think in his position 'at least I'm not dead and I am with my mom' but the fear
that was instilled in him couldn't leave him alone in any possible way, and
that makes him think about something that his brother taught to him "It is
true, and you were right, Paul. Feelings really control our every action, but
anyway I don't want to be a stupid doll like you. I'd never want to be like
this, I'd rather risk my life that be something that isn't my own self." The
calmness hiding behind his pain was slowly reemerging. The sight of his mother
though didn't feel of any kind of help instead it brought him more trouble.
Art sat down with that girl, and she that had forgotten to
introduce herself because of the unusual situation he has brought herself
into. "Hi my name is Samantha…"
meanwhile Art was bored because he already knew her whole presentation since he
already heard it 'I'm a woman that is used to get down to business quickly and
only with the right people, especially the people that have a good sense of
fashion, in fact against what most people think beauty and inner beauty share
an intime and wonderful bond… and blah blah blah' he was reproducing in his mind her whole
speech until she finally stopped talking and he says "Behind important men
there's always a great woman that supports him" while saying it he blushed,
it's something he'd not say at the moment but it was what he said to that girl
at that time to get her to accept his challenge not knowing that her was the
one who settled everything up, even his own will to face her. "I have to repeat
it as I said it to not make the future change, because in that case I'd lose
the advantage of being inside of a memory".
Samantha instead was thinking "in this world, no, in our word of
undergrounders the people are like robots, they don't feel, they think, they
don't doubt, they act, when there's so much knowledge the art of deceiving becomes so clear that it is useless, unless
you're special, unless you are me."
Mike after kicking his mom with all the strength that he had
left inside of his body, he didn't see anything, in reality he's perception
remained the same, the only thing that changed into his body was its body
itself. "The monster where are they? My body… it feels light, it is not
shattered in pieces…" a little bit of peace reached his body because he
understood that those creatures were all part of his own mind and didn't
actually exist out of it, but how he felt himself and the world around didn't
change "Do I have some kind of illness? What is this situation? Whaa…" he
couldn't finish his though that tears came out of his eyes that were literally
drenched in a feeling of unescapable and overwhelming pain. His futile
resistance made him feel even worse, then for a moment he was staring upwards,
it can't be said that he was actually looking at the sky since he sees almost
nothing, but the intention was probably very similar. But while searching for
the sky an abrupt pain over his face made him feel despair once again. It was
his mom, she punched him, very hard.
"Stupid brat when do you intend to wake up, or to stop to
fool me with your stupid childish behaviors". The words of his mother even if
they were a little bit cruel, they weren't far off the actual truth since his
body was totally ok, and she being born in that environment and knowing any
kind of biological fact that was ever discovered knew, that 'almost' surely he
was totally ok, and she felt lucky enough to make her own presuppositions. Ray looks around unconsciously "egh…uhh". Mike's snorts were becoming
louder because he lost any reference point
that he was able to see and perceive as part of his house, and this
disorientation made him try to understand where he was with his touch. "UGH…
ugh". Bringing his hand towards the ground Mike can't reach it instead he feels
his mother's arm that was literally pulsing because of her anger. "ntz…" She leaves him with a face full of
rage and also embarrassment for being related to that being. He fells onto the
ground, and he feels a solid, and cold surface. "I'm him… agh… I just need to
get to my bedroom without my parent noticing what I look like at the moment,
that would be the best out come if I want to survive.
The monsters reappeared when his mother left, showing their increasing
aggressiveness towards him "this tarot game really, it's something, that Art.
He is complotting something behind my shoulder but at the same time right in
front of me. But I won't be fooled
again… wait, why did I say again?"
saying this he brought his hands over his head like it could help to restrain
the amount of pain coming from his soul. The monsters kept following him, so
Mike touching the hallway's wall ran to his room, and he also fells twice
before reaching the door that felt so distant and even impossible to reach until
instants ago. He then gets into his little corner, and he once again hears his
parents' words "He, he is crazy, that kid, has some serious problem, we… we
should ger read of him. You… ohh… you can't understand what he did just right
in front of me. He was running without any reason towards here, when he started
to torture a squirrel. He single-handedly chopped that animal's head, then a
little girl passed by, he knocked her off and he started punching her so hard
until he wasn't covered with her blood, he pinched her, sank his teeth in her
flesh. Then… then he opened her chest and ate her organs" Mike couldn't believe
what was he hearing from his mom, every word was very familiar to him, it felt
like the things that the monster did to him. "The monster… The monster is not
mom. The monster, I think that the monster is me, and maybe it was me even that
time?".
His body was losing breath, making it impossible for him to
even talk to himself. "You can't believe the voracity, all of the pieces were
spread out into the ground and his body fool of blood made him almost
indistinguishable from the girl, NO, the corpse that was laying just before
him." Mike feels very hot, and at the same time he feels a little bit wet "Why
now? Why do I feel this only now? It can't be… It can't be blood, right?" He
felt that liquid over his whole body, he wanted to see what it was, so he
poured a bit of it straight into his eyes, and all the little zones in which he
was still able to see something turned completely red. "That's blood" no other
word came out of his mouth, but his mother continued. "At the end, I throwed to
him a knife to stop… to stop that monster, but when it reached his shoulders,
he already jumped over that little girl's skull and completely destroyed it
turning it into a lake of blood" Mike knew that it wasn't him, it was all a
game, or at least he wished it was all a game. "All of this, it's all a lie,
this game, is the least fun game I ever played, but I will win anyway". Those
were the words coming out of his mouth to reassure himself since this abstract
concept had no basis to feel so confident in achieving it.
"The knife… the knife, is it in my shoulders? Why can't I
feel it?" He reaches his shoulders with both of this hand and he feels the
handle of the knife that pierced his back deeply. "How am I still alive, this
is really just a game, I wish". Then he
snaps back into reality thinking "they, want to get rid of me, I have to run,
somewhere, somehow". He takes the knife by the handle, and he removes if from
his back, then he uses his bedsheets to stop the blood from flooding out of
that large injury. He began to run for his life one more time, but this time it
was from his parents, but before reaching the door he's conscious
disappeared "I have to… I have to
escape… I have to… get… out… of here" And then he fainted.