Editing
Your eyes are shut, and the desire to open them is met with great resistance. The effort required to open your eyes, and the intensely bright light attacking your eyes conspire to keep them closed.
"Can you move?" a loud stern voice asks, the sound seems to echo in your head.
"No." you answer honestly. Your eyes slowly open, and the haze of a small hospital room comes into view.
"Good." the voice stated.
You breath slowly, concerned only with savoring the comfort of the bed you're in, wary of not wanting to remember what put you there just yet.
The rear of your bed raises slowly, bringing your perspective to a small rectangular chrome pan that's on your lap. A red pill and a blue pill rest on opposite ends of the pan.
"Choose one." the voice said.
"Why should I choose one?" you asked.
"Choose one, then ask." the voice said.
You take:
The red pill
Click for Spoiler:
You look at the red pill, and are unable to take it.
A hand picks up the red pill, and places it under your bottom lip. A small paper cup of water is placed at your lips, and you swallow the bitter tasting pill as you drink.
"Why did I need to choose a pill?" you ask.
"To protect you from yourself." the voice said in a manner that seemed to echo louder with each word.
You seem to slip through the bed that you were sleeping on, and fall but in a manner where you feel weightless but are certain that you're plummeting into a vast abyss.
Your eyes open, and you're standing in a long dimly lit hallway. The overhead fluorescent lights seem to send pulsating waves of light, and make an audible "whu-whu-whu" sound.
You attempt to step forward, and step back quickly when you realize that you've stepped on something sharp. Looking down, you see a small marble and squat down to pick it up, and also see that you're barefoot and clad in the hospital gown that you remember. You look deep into the marble, and see what appears to be yourself lying in a hospital bed. You squint at the sight, and are startled by a loud primal roar from the other end of the hall. You hold the marble tightly in your hand and rise to your feet, imagining the horror that may be waiting for you at the end of the hall.
You look back, and see that behind you is a solid wall of the same brick that makes the hallway you're in.
You have to make a choice.
Walk down the hallway toward the loud roar.
Click for Spoiler:You bravely, but cautiously, step further into the uncertainty of the hallway you're trapped in. As you step forward, a large hideous being comes into view. This being stands on two goat like legs, standing at least seven feet tall, with greasy blue skin that's covered with matted blue fur. A blue mane adorns its snarling face.
"Who are you?" you ask.
The beast appears startled by your question, and looks upon you now with a look of familiarity.
"I am Pax, the thief of destiny, the architect of nightmares, and your master." the beast snarled.
You open your mouth as if you're about to respond, and Pax interrupts you by saying "You are nothing, you are a worm beneath my might. You have no hope to defeat me."
"What do you want?" you ask in an angry tone.
"Puny Human!!!" Pax shrieks loudly, so loudly that you squat down and cover your ears. The marble that you were holding falls to the ground and rolls to the hooves of Pax, though he doesn't seem to notice.
"Will you worship me?" Pax asked in a more calm tone.
Deny Pax
Click for Spoiler:
You snatch the marble from the ground and throw it at the face of Pax. The marble explodes into a flash of blinding white light, and your eyes open once more.
You're lying in your bed, in your room. Everything is familiar to you, and you feel an overwhelming sense of relief.
You remember seeing something in the light that seemed to deliver you back to the real world. A code.
Click for Spoiler:PAX IS DEAD
Worship Pax
Click for Spoiler:
You adjust yourself to a kneeling position, and humble yourself before an almighty being.
Pax releases a sigh of relief, and leans down to pick up the small marble.
"You shouldn't lose this." Pax while appearing to want to hand it back to you.
You reach out for the marble, and suddenly wake up while sitting in a psychiatrist's waiting area.
You're wearing your usual garb, and breath heavily in a vain attempt at composing yourself.
The lights in the room seem to hiss with an irritating song.
"Doctor Davies will see you now." a female voice calls from somewhere.
You sigh, and rise to your feet. You feel in your pockets, and are startled to feel the marble from before.
You pull the marble from your pocket and look deep into it, seeing a code.
Click for Spoiler:PAX IS GOD
Look for another way
Click for Spoiler:You hit the walls with your body, shoulder first, desperately trying to find some way to escape your circumstances.
A drop of cold water falls on your head from above, and you look up to see an open hatch with a ladder hanging down.
You jump in an attempt at grabbing the ladder, but it seems too high.
The ground begins to vibrate as you hear what are the loud running steps of something gargantuan running toward you through the hallway.
You desperately jump, landing hard on your bare feet each time. You panic, and leap toward the brick wall. You push off the wall with your foot, and manage to leap higher and snatch the ladder. You drop the marble in the process.
You frantically climb up the ladder into complete darkness, through a hatch that is surely too tight for such a massive beast.
You climb higher, unable to become fatigued as a wave of relief invigorates you. You've escaped certain doom, and eventually feel yourself reaching an opening. Though you're in complete darkness, you manage to step onto a surface that feels different from the concrete floor of the hallway.
A small pale red light allows an unfamiliar face to emerge as the only thing that's visible.
"Welcome child, you are safe now." the face said.
"Who are you?" you ask.
"Who I am is unimportant. I am a protector of the iron eye." the face said.
"What is the iron eye?" you ask.
"The one who sees all for what it truly is, you've met it I'm sure." the face said.
"I want to go home." you said.
The face appears to shake its head as if to decline your desire.
"There's more to be done. You're not ready to leave." the face said.
"What must be done?" you ask.
"That depends on you." the face said before asking "Will you do what must be done, or will you go home?"
I will do what must be done
Click for Spoiler:You wake up, sitting on a small wooden chair. Looking around, you see that you're in a cellar of some kind. The concrete floor is damp with dark moisture.
You stand, and see that there's a man sitting on another chair not far in front of where you were, he's tied to a chair and is wearing a blindfold.
He wails "Please, let me go".
Your fist clenches, and a voice echoes through your mind "It must be done."
You step toward the strange man, and remove his blindfold. Looking down at him, you feel as though you've met this man before.
"I'm sorry." the man said.
You attempt to respond, and are overwhelmed with deafening voices in your head that constantly echo "It must be done."
You strike the man with your fist, making a loud and sickening "biff" sound. Everytime you attempt to restrain yourself, you're mentally bombarded with the statement "It must be done."
You strike the man with the fist of your weaker hand, and are startled at how harshly you were able to strike the subdued man.
"Please! I'm sorry!" the man shrieks as blood pours down his weeping face.
The voice of the subdued man echoes through the voices that haunt your mind. This man was the doctor who administered the pills from before.
"I had no choice." the man shouts while weeping.
Your moment of peace is quickly shattered by the compulsion to strike this man over and over again.
Your vision clouds, and blotches of crimson red are the only thing that seems to appear among the clouds.
When you catch your breath, and return to your own mind, you see that you're standing above what appears to be the remains of a man. The remains looks as though a beast had torn them apart in its fury.
You look at your hands, and see that your palms are red with blood. This alone startles you, but you also see something more startling. On each palm, are tattooed an image of a large eye. The eyes appear to stare back at you.
A faint voice is heard in your head.
Click for Spoiler:Iron Eyes
I will go home
Click for Spoiler:The face shows a snarling and angry expression.
"Then you do it alone." the face said before vanishing into darkness.
You stumble through the darkness, and feel along the wall to help guide your path. Eventually your hand finds what feels like a door handle. You open it, and a wave of blinding light erupts from the opening and illuminates the hall.
You step into the light, and see that you're in what appears to be a large shopping mall. Shops line the walls of the large, beautiful corridor that you find yourself in. You look at the door to see "Maintenance" on the door.
You stumble through the mall, and at the kiosk shops that are dotted throughout the center of the corridor, shop keepers nod politely in your direction in hopes that they'll make a sale on your behalf.
You find that you still have your personal phone in your pocket, and it's vibrating. You pull your phone from your pocket, and see that the caller is unknown.
Curiously, you answer the call.
An angry voice shouts "YOU CAN'T RUN FROM US! YOU ARE US! WE WILL FIND YOU!" before you instinctively disconnect the call. A code flashes on your phone.
Click for Spoiler:Blind Eyes
The blue pill
Click for Spoiler:
You easily take the blue pill in your fingertips, and place it on your tongue. A sweet flavor is felt in your mouth, and you take a small cup of water and down the pill.
"Why did I need to choose a pill?" you ask.
"To make you better." the voice said calmly.
You turn your head, and only see the door to your room slam as all individuals had apparently left the room.
You pull yourself from the comfortable bed, and stand beside it looking around the room.
You see a wallet on a table, and walk toward it to pick it up. Opening the various pockets of the wallet, you thankfully see that all your personal effects are still safely inside. You look around the room, and find the clothes you had on before being admitted.
You dress yourself, feeling absolutely well, and calmly walk through the exit door from your room. You enter into a large open hallway, which feels typical of a hospital.
The hospital seems oddly empty, you've always imagined that they're constantly dealing with a rush of doctors and nurses running back and forth. Undeterred, you walk toward a door with a large "exit" sign above it.
The door opens before you arrive, and a man wearing a dark suit and sunglasses enters the hallway. The man stands before you, and seems to glare at you with his dark shades in a suspicious manner.
"Who the fuck are you?" you ask in an annoyed tone.
"I am an agent." the man said in a stern tone.
"An agent of what?" you ask, still very annoyed that he's blocking your path.
The agent appears to regard you with suspicion.
Back off
Click for Spoiler:
You put your hands up as if to show that you're not a threat, and slowly back away. The agent doesn't move, and you stroll through the hospital in search of another exit.
Every path shows another agent like the one before, all standing stoicly and staring at you from near or afar.
You find a stairway up, and race up the stairs in search of anything resembling normal surroundings.
Eventually you emerge at the roof of the building, and are startled to see that around ten agents come through the door to the roof.
You slowly step back, and are startled to have stepped on a small marble. You pick up the marble, and pocket it hastily as the agents step toward you.
You back away more, before bumping into the barrier that would block someone from accidentally falling off the roof. You look over the edge, and are nauseated at the hazy image of the smaller buildings that dot the commercial district that surrounds the hospital.
You look back and the agents are all standing in a half circle around where you are.
One of them takes off his sunglasses, and hands them to you.
Take the sunglasses and put them on.
Click for Spoiler:
You put on the sunglasses, and as everything fades to black everything also goes silent. You no longer hear the loud hum of the city, you also no longer sense your own weight. You attempt to take off the sunglasses, but cannot feel anything with your hands.
You attempt to look in all directions, and eventually manage to feel something. You feel the marble that you had found on the roof-top, and bring it to your eyes. You see yourself, in a dark suit, chasing a young man through the streets of a city.
You feel your weight return to you, and you find yourself standing in a dead-end alleyway. You've cornered a young man, and you stare at him through dark sunglasses conveying suspicion. The young man cowers and shrieks, screaming something inaudible but sounding like a plea for mercy. The young man drops a knife, and a small pool of blood forms on the pavement where it settles.
You instinctively offer a pair of sunglasses to the young man, and he rises to slap them from your hands causing them to crash to the pavement.
The young man throws a wild punch at your face, and you easily snatch his fist from the air and crush his fist in your grip.
The young man cowers before you, as you continue to grip his fist. He says "I know what you are."
You say nothing.
The young man speaks once more.
Click for Spoiler:The Almighty Ruler
Jump
Click for Spoiler:
Terror overcomes you, and you step over the wall of the roof's ledge. An agent snatches your arm in an attempt to retrieve you, and you are able to fight him off.
You fall.
The wind whips by your face, and you see the world slowly coming toward you.
You hit the ground, and see a shower of stars amid the sudden darkness.
You wake up in what looks like a large cavern. The walls of the cavern are dotted with sparkling white stones.
"I see you finally woke up." a voice echoes from far away.
"Thank goodness." you say outloud.
A large polar bear walks on all fours toward you and sits on the stone floor in front of where you're laying down.
You sit up, and look with confusion at your new friend.
"You must have had a pretty bad fall." the polar bear said.
"It couldn't have been that bad. I feel safe here." you said.
The polar bear nods in agreement and says "You should. Nothing can harm you here."
"Am I able to leave?" You ask.
The polar bear seems to chuckle, and says in a sarcastic tone "Oh no, you're my prisoner here."
You smirk and say "Seriously friend, how would I leave if I wanted to."
"You wouldn't ever want to, especially if you knew the path out of here." the polar bear said.
"Humor me." you said.
The bear sighs, and stands on all fours. It walks down the cavern and motions with its head that it wants you to follow.
You follow the polar bear to a small steel door, embedded in the rock wall of the cavern.
"Open it." the polar bear said.
You open the door, and see that it leads to a hallway where the walls, floors, and ceiling are all polished mirrors.
"That looks like it could be confusing." you said.
The polar bear shrugs its shoulders and walks back into the cavern.
Click for Spoiler:Maze of Mirrors
Kill the agent
Click for Spoiler:
You become overwhelmed with blind rage, and grab the face of the agent with both hands. You bury your thumbs deep into the eye sockets of the agent, who breaks his disciplined demeanor to scream with terror.
Still holding his head, you slam it into the hard wall of the hallway over and over again. Eventually, the agent's skull audibly cracks, and you can feel his head becoming softer as you continue to crush it against the wall of the hallway.
You pause for a moment, and release the now pulverized head of the agent allowing his body to slump to the floor. You look at your hands, and see that each palm bears the face of a dragon staring back at you.
You hurry out the exit door, only to find yourself in the cavernous lair of a sleeping but terrified dragon.
You carefully step around the dragon, wishing to allow it to rest as you wish to escape this cavern.
Though you respect this terrifying beast, you feel yourself becoming enraged once more. Your fear of this dragon compels you to want to kill it where it sleeps.
You pick up a nearby spear, and tip-toe to the dragons head. It sleeps peacefully, breathing slow but heavy breaths. You ready the spear, and it's grabbed by a large metallic man.
You look, to see a robot of about six feet tall, his joints are fitted with glorious emeralds.
The robot peers down at you, and speaks saying "Leave this place. I say this as both a guardian of this dragon, and as a being who cares for you."
Release the spear, and leave
Click for Spoiler:
You become calm, and let the spear go.
You being to turn to leave, and the emerald robot puts its hand on your shoulder.
"Thank you." the robot said.
The robot's hand turns, and reveals that it has a small marble attached.
"Take it." the robot said.
You take the small marble and pocket it. You approach the exit to the cavern, and are greeted with a vast wilderness of beautiful trees and mountains.
The robot follows you and asks "What is your name?"
You respond.
Click for Spoiler:Alice
Fight the Emerald Robot
Click for Spoiler:
Your rage cannot be contained.
You pull the spear from the grip of the emerald robot, and force its iron head through the lower jaw of the robot and into the circuits of its head.
You pull the spear from the robots head, and it stumbles back bumping into the dragon.
The dragons eyes open, and they find you.
You attempt to stab the spear into the eye of the dragon, but are unable to as it stands before you. The dragon is massive, showing how large this cavern is.
"What is it little human?" the dragon asks.
"I hate you." you whisper angrily.
"You don't know what I am." the dragon stated.
"What are you then?" you ask in an angry tone.
"I am your doom!" the dragon shouts back with such fury that it blows you off the ground and into a gust of wind that carries you out of the cavern and into a vast wasteland.
You look to see that the mountain that housed the dragon is a rumbling volcano.
A thought crosses your mind as you look at the horrific environment that surrounds you.
Click for Spoiler:Doom