Clutching The Darkness

Chapter 22: The Temple

There was something a bit off the moment I stepped on the limestone floor. Coolidge university didn't have limestone in a single bit of its structure, but then again it also didn't have a lake of lava sitting by its entrance. The broken bits of the electrical panels from before had scattered about and littered themselves onto the next bit of scenery; their sharp contrasts in black and sandy white color making itself look like abstract pointillism.

The air had begun to shift into the scent of mustiness and something like...stuffy mucus? Then I recoiled as I coughed out a blob of blood dribbled in with my nasal extract. I breathed a bit heavily, then shakily tried to force a smile. I was certain that I had tried to recover for more than an hour already, but the poison still coursed through my body. Damn you, Nine. Staggering forward, my trembling hands tried to pad the cusps of my ears. Tinnitus still affected my ear drums. The lightning strike from Zay had yet to wear away its effects on me. I sighed with discontent at the lackening pace of my healing. But a certain intrigue within me had questioned why it was so.

The floor below me was beginning to swivel and churn into a combination of three different gradients. The tannish, creamy limestone latched by glossy bits of broken plastic which too was intruded by moldy carpeting. Perhaps a day ago I would have been perplexed by such a sight, but now, I was merely apathetic to the changing environment. No, not apathetic. Excited. Excited for something greater than just the perverse decor of my imagined world. Because I managed to finally confront something that had ached away at me.

How does one put into words the feeling of having a smile claw their way through their bleak face after hours— months of anguish? It's impossible. I was free! Free, free, free! I could dance around and chop the whole building down with a fire axe due to my fiery fervor! I was so jolly that I skipped around and didn't even notice the thing on the floor that I tripped on.

I picked up a small figure: a chess piece. The queen. A white queen piece. I frowned in confusion as to why such a thing would be here, but judging from the way it was dropped, it seemed that it had been positioned facing the direction I was currently going. Meaning, it was probably dropped coming from the hall, right?

"Do not fret over simpler manners. We have much to celebrate once we reach upon the tomb of sleep my dear Calidris."

His voice had seemed to soften, and his affectionate title to me was something I couldn't ignore. For once in a while, I felt understood. Acknowledged. He had been with me for a day, but if he is an extension of me, then how long had he always been with me? How long had I forsook the knowledge and insight of such a voice within me? He was practically all that I needed. All I had left really.

This journey had taught me much. To defeat the judgements of others, one must first construe them to be fact and then cement them. What is in the mind and what is in the air is something that cannot be killed. But today, through reality shifting, I have made it possible. Of course! I have broken the iron ball and chain. Demolished it. Months and months of grueling thought processes, mental gymnastics from the pit of hell, and even the endurance of solitude and isolation. All brought to me from external sources. None of it is truly my fault. None of it...truly...fault of mine. I wish I had the energy to sigh.

I was exhausted, but I knew I had to continue. I was nearing the end. An end. An end to my nightmares. I laughed for once, and this time it wasn't to just heal away my wounds. Although, the blood dripping from my mouth would beg to differ. I glanced at the avenue of my droplets and only then had I noticed my attire. Despite the constant recuperation of both my body and my clothes, the amount of blood that had soaked into my sleeves was only growing further. I zipped down to check for sure, and I saw that my entire white shirt was blazened by crimson. Everything. As if I swam in a lake of wine. But one island of white survived, the size of maybe a pocket knife, and it was certained near my heart.