The air grew heavy and rancid, a thick, putrid miasma clogging their throats as they stumbled through the twisting, ever-shifting maze. The walls were alive, writhing and pulsating like the viscera of a dying beast. Flesh stretched taut over sinewy bone, veins slithering beneath the surface, pumping blackened blood that reeked of decay.
Raelyn's breath came in shallow, panicked gasps. She knew this place. It was the nightmare that had never left her—the stench of rot, the groans of living tissue pressed into unnatural shapes. Memories clawed their way to the surface, and she found herself trembling uncontrollably.
"Raelyn, stay with me," Amara urged, her grip firm on Raelyn's shoulder. "You've been through this before. You survived."
"Not this." Raelyn's voice cracked, her eyes wide and unfocused. "I thought... I thought it was over. But it's worse now. It's so much worse."
Damien stumbled behind them, his gaze flitting around the endless, twitching corridors. His chest heaved with shallow breaths, panic clawing at his sanity. "This can't be real. This... this place... what the fuck is it?"
"It's Vexis's playground," Amara spat, her eyes narrowing. "A maze built from madness itself."
'Yes... madness itself,' the voice slithered into Damien's mind like maggots burrowing into flesh. 'And you, Damien... are my favorite little toy.'
Damien clutched his head, his fingers digging into his scalp as if trying to tear the voice out. "Shut up! Get fuck out of my head!"
Laughter. Mocking, guttural laughter that twisted Damien's nerves into a knot.
"Damien, focus," Eden's voice was steady, a quiet strength radiating from her touch as she squeezed his arm. "Ignore him. He's just trying to break you."
Damien looked at her, eyes wild and glassy. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one with fucking demon whispering sweet nothings into your goddamn skull."
But Eden's expression remained calm, her gaze searching his. And for a moment, Damien saw something in her eyes that he couldn't place. Something... knowing.
The walls trembled, a low groan echoing through the corridor like the death rattle of something incomprehensibly vast. Amara's jaw tightened, her gaze shifting warily. "We need to move. This place doesn't stay the same for long."
Raelyn stumbled forward, her legs shaking as she fought to maintain her composure. Every step felt like trudging through the muck of a rotting corpse. The floor squelched beneath their feet, releasing pockets of foul-smelling gas that made their eyes water.
Then, without warning, the walls began to change. Flesh melted and twisted, sloughing off in thick, dripping sheets that clung to the ground like mucus. Beneath the dissolving meat, something new emerged—something infinitely worse.
Eyes. Hundreds of eyes, opening from within the wet, quivering tissue. Bloodshot and twitching, rolling within their sockets as if desperate to observe the suffering of those who wandered the labyrinth. Their lids blinked with a sickening squelch, and from somewhere deeper, far beyond their reach, came the sound of something...breathing.
The whispering began, low and insidious.
"Die."
"Die."
"Die."
It was a chorus of voices, slithering from the grotesque mouths that split the walls like infected wounds. Lips torn and bleeding, tongues twitching and writhing as they spoke the single word over and over, their hatred palpable.
Relyn whimpered, tears streaking her face. Her breathing hitched, her body trembled violently. "No... No, please. Not again. Not him."
"Raelyn," Amara said, her voice strained but forceful. "What are you talking about?"
Raelyn could barely speak, her words spilling out in a desperate, gasping rush. "The Bound Horror. It was... It was two of them. Two monsters."
Amara's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"Before... when I was there..." Raelyn's words tumbled out of her in frantic bursts. "There was The Man in the Top Hat. And The Butcher. They found me. They fought each other. And then the maze... it swallowed them. It twisted them into something...something else. It... it made them into that."
As if summoned by her words, the air around them grew thick with a putrid stench. The whispering ceased, replaced by a deep, guttural growl that vibrated through their bones.
From the darkness, a figure emerged. Its body was a towering, grotesque mass of twisted flesh and bone. The left arm was a cleaver fused with jagged claws, dripping with black ichor that hissed against the ground like acid. Its right arm was a writhing, cancerous mass of tendrils tipped with serrated blades, each one twitching and shivering with an unnatural hunger.
Its face was a nightmare given form. Half of it bore the Butcher's stitched mask, its empty eye sockets weeping thick, tar-like tears. The other half was a flickering void, glitching and wrapping in jagged, unnatural spasms. The darkness twisted like something alive, its void-like maw twitching with a hungry, distorted grin.
Raelyn screamed. Not in terror, but in pure, unfiltered anguish. The kind of sound that ripped itself from the deepest pit of her soul, carrying all the horror and pain she had been drowning in since she first stepped foot into this nightmare.
Damien crumpled to his knees, his hands clawing at his head. 'Yes... suffer, Damien. Your suffering is exquisite. Watching your sanity unravel is the greatest delight I have ever known.'
Damien's breathing turned ragged, his hands digging into his scalp until blood seeped from his fingernails. "Shut up... shut up... shut up!"
Eden gripped his shoulders, her fingers cool and steady. "Damien, you need to focus. Stay with me." Her voice cracked just a little, a hint of desperation creeping through her calm exterior.
Amara dragged Raelyn to her feet, her voice sharp and cutting through the madness. "If you want to survive, you need to fight. The Bound Horror is just another obstacle. One we will overcome."
But Raelyn's gaze remained locked on the monster, her chest heaving as she tried to regain control. The creature's void-filled gaze seemed to bore into her very soul, the flickering darkness beckoning her toward madness.
And then it took a step forward.