Chapter Text
Mesmerizing humming filled the vacuum, nothing but pitch black and a figure in the distance, only barely illuminated by the light. A lanky shadow stood hunched over as he, unknowingly, moved closer towards it, fuzzy outlines becoming far more clear the closer he got, and with it, the fear of who this was and why they were here filled his gut with dread. It twisted and pulled at his stomach, his eyes unblinking as they stared at the, now discernable, woman, standing well over six feet tall.
Raven locks, much like his, were tied into a neat bun on the top of her head, though part of it still cascaded down her back. A brown kimono covered her body that never seemed to end, no skin showing under the sea of brown, and it dragged along the floor at every slight movement. He couldn’t see her face yet - though he had a feeling he wouldn’t want to as the figure slowly turned her head to look at him. Incrementally, he saw one, then two soulless black eyes through the holes of the snow white Hol mask that she adorned on her face. The porcelain reflected the miniscule amount of light in the vacuum - light that shouldn’t have been there in the first place if this place were real. Still, the intense, pitch black eyes bore holes into him and his body shook in fear-
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Droplets of water thudded on a cyan raincoat as Varian gasped, awakening from his dream-well, more so nightmare. A discarded leather suitcase, acting as his bed, was drenched with the liquid as well, though he didn’t care. Turning his head, he looked around at his surroundings, raven locks and a small cyan streak, much like his raincoat, peeking out and obscuring it slightly. He didn’t care enough to reach up and fix it, though. A sigh left his lips as he jumped down from the colossal item, his feet making contact with the waterlogged fabric on the ground, disturbing the water with every step he took with the little splashes trailing water up his cold legs and against the towering metal walls that surrounded him. Some were decorated in little cogs and pipes, presumably to change the pressure of something or the other, though he didn’t pay much attention as he kept on his trail. He turned to the right and kept walking.
Boxes sat pressed against the walls, some as big as him, as he moved down the small corridor. They loomed and stared at him, as well as some small, strange creatures with white cones on their head, though as he approved, they scurried away and hid from Varian. A little huff left his lips as the further he descended down the hall, the darker and, fortunately, less damp it got. Fishing into the pockets of the cyan raincoat, his hands wrapped around a cool, metallic square with little ridges engraved into the cartilage brass. He exposed it to the dank air around him and flicked open the lid, a small flame illuminating the corridor and allowing him more visibility. Twisting and turning his torso, pillars of metal on either side of him rose from the ground and connected to the ceiling above him, as well as the presence of more wheels and a lantern attached to the floor.
He examined the lantern, holding the flickering lighter out to it and lighting the wick. Various control panels came into view on the wall, though one mysterious one sat straight in front of him. Varian’s eyebrow quirked up at this, stepping forward and wrapping his hands around the handle and, with all his might, he pulled it up. The hatch unjammed from its position and rose up, the handle clanging against the steel walls of the corridor before sticking into place and showing a small crawl space. Crouching, the boy headed inside the claustrophobic area, flicking open his lighter and glancing around before continuing on his way down the, what he assumed was, a ventilation shaft as he jumped up little twists in the tunnel and over small grates, water dripping down onto the fabric covering his back but thankfully avoiding his lighter. A moment later, he jumped down from the vents, his fall broken by a box before he hit the now stone floor, still wet from the water that dripped down from above. He hadn’t seen rain in years - at least he hoped it was rain.
In front of him sat a drop, his head hanging over to find no real end to the abyss at the bottom, a staircase conveniently providing him passage across. Jogging over, he climbed and ascended the metal staircase, the sight of massive chains that loomed above his head, barely covered by the ever-present fog, serving as a cruel reminder of just how small he was. Finally, he reached the top and flicked his lighter open once again, letting himself be warmed for a brief moment by the heat radiating from the flickering light. Another corridor awaited him, akin to the one from when he’d just woken up, with metal present on the walls as well as more boxes. A small room on his left revealed a tiny gaicha doll, its details becoming less obscured as Varian stepped closer to it. With its black bun, brown kimono and white mask, it looked just like the woman in his dreams, though he pushed that thought away and threw the gaicha as hard as he could against the wall, the porcelain shattering and small dust particles filled the room. Without a word, the boy turned on his heel and left, continuing his trek down the hallway.
Only a few more steps lead him towards a wall sealed up with planks of rotting oak wood, though a gap in the bottom of the, admittedly useless, barricade allowed him to crouch and walk right into the room that awaited him. A leather couch, covered in tears and stains of...whatever that was, sat to his right on the oak planked floor, various buckets scattered around the room and, strangely enough, a few chairs attached to the ceiling, suspended by a few lengths of rope that hung down and caused them to sway slightly. Despite his paranoia, they looked secure enough, so he continued exploring the room, passing a bed with an iron frame, showing only a mattress and no pillows with another tiny doorway embedded into the wall and a small wooden dresser hosting a teacup. Varian wasted no time, climbing first onto a briefcase, then the bed, the springs of the mattress digging uncomfortably into his bare feet before finally climbing up into the crawl space.
He dropped himself onto the mattress on the other side to see some legs, hanging down from the ceiling, a chair placed under them along with an envelope. Varian swallowed his bile, his eyes glancing away from the horrific sight as he walked past. His hands gripped onto the chair, pushing it towards the oak door at the other side of the room as he jumped, grabbing the handle and swinging it open. Letting himself drop, he ventured into the newest room, this one having wooden planks decorating the floor, though more rotten and decayed than the other as he flicked his lighter on and walked through, the shadows revealing turning cogs in the background, hidden by the darkness as Varian kept heading towards the other end of the room. At last, his feet hit stone and the lighter in his hand shone onto a refrigerator at his side, bloody handprints stretching across the door and over the handle. The boy reached up to swing the door open and stared at the desolate shelves, grey and a sufficient lack of well, anything, staring back at him much to his dismay.. Sucking in a breath, he ascended up the shelves, the lights blinking on and off as he rose to the top and strolled across a slanted wooden board and climbed up to a platform.
As his feet thudded across the floor, an inhumane scream sounded from above as a leech fell to the floor. It squirmed, though Varian picked up the pace, now in a jog as he jumped over a small gap between the platforms and safely onto another plank. He assumed it wouldn’t follow him, the creature lacking legs and therefore being unable to build any momentum to run and jump. It served as a relief then, as he heard a slimy thud behind him in the gap, flicking his lighter open and slowing his pace to walk once again across the wooden floor. More leeches fell from the ceiling, letting out their disgusting sounds as he ran towards the small light at the end of the tunnel, climbing onto a box and jumping. He hung on to the level before it succumbed to his weight, switching on and opening the shutter doors beside him. Exiting the room, he cleared the platform in front of it, jumping and landing successfully on the other side, the abyss from earlier providing some unknown stamina and strength he’d never had before. Sliding under the still opening doors on the other side, he entered yet another small room, the exit boarded up by planks. Gripping onto the planks at the bottom, he pulled and pulled, them eventually giving way and breaking from their place, Varian tumbling to the floor along with them. He dusted himself off and crouched, flicking his lighter on and sprinting through the room in front of him.
Somewhere in the darkness, another little squeal came from one of the pyramid headed children from before (he wasn’t quite sure what to call them at this point in time, so he settled on the pyramid heads). Sprinting through the room, the wood creaked and moaned under his weight as he tried to search for the child. That should’ve been his warning, however, as the floor gave way and broke underneath him. He didn’t scream though as he fell, his cyan raincoat now blackened by the pool of ink he’d fallen into. Rising to his feet, he flicked on his lighter to illuminate the room….
...A room full of leeches.
He suppressed a scream as he sprinted through the room, weaving in between the wriggling monsters as he maneuvered his way out of the room. He couldn’t let any of those things touch him. If they did then surely they’d kill him. Sprinting and sliding across the floor, his legs caught on the metal as it scratched and caused crimson to drip down them. A sharp inhale of pain fell out before he could stop it, the boy rising to his feet and rushing towards the left side of the room. He panted for breath, his hands and torso connecting with a large, wooden plank as it fell to the floor on the other side along with him. Letting himself breathe for a second, he rose to his feet and checked the lighter in his palm. Still works, he thought as the tiny flame appeared once more and he made his way, albeit slightly slower this time on account of the throbbing pain in his legs, over a bridge and jumped the gap in between two platforms.
He seemed to be on a rooftop or at the minimum elevated walkway, the wood looking down on a few of the rooms he’d been in before. His hands shook as he climbed the ladder further, the fog making it almost impossible to see in front of him but alas he reached the top and steadied himself. For a moment, he allowed himself to take a seat on the platform, ripping a few pieces of fabric off from a curtain discarded on the floor and using them as a makeshift tourniquet. Settling against a metallic box, Varian let down the hood of his little cyan raincoat as the water droplets fell onto his hair and ran down his face, the sensation cooling and familiar as he drifted off into a sleep, dreaming of a family he had long since forgotten.