Simona leads Bernardo into the next
room. They find themselves on a small platform with small and narrow planks above
a dark abyss.
“Mm…”
“What is it? Why does it feel so
drafty in here?”
Knowing that they’re forced to do
this if they want answers and to leave, Simona positions herself to walk on the
narrow planks and touches Bernardo’s chest and shoulders to make him straighten
his body.
“Should I straighten my body again?”
“Mm.”
“Okay.”
Bernardo straightens his body
before Simona leads them onto the narrow planks. While walking on it, Bernardo
realizes what he’s doing and tries not to tense up.
“Don’t look down.”
“Mm…”
“Just concentrate on moving forward.
We can do this.”
“Mm…”
Simona watches her step while
trying to be as calm as possible. The path of planks changes directions and even go
down and up a couple of times for an added challenge. It all seems to be going
fine until the sound of the planks breaking is heard from behind them. Simona stops
and looks behind them to see nothing. That is until she sees a piece of it
being broken off.
“I hear planks behind us breaking.
We should probably move.”
“Mm.”
The planks start breaking more
rapidly as they continue.
“Whatever is doing this is probably
trying to break our concentration. Don’t let it bother you!” Bernardo says as
he tries not to be bothered by it himself.
This advice works for Simona even
when the boards are breaking in front of her. For her to tell Bernardo
to walk over them, she lifts their arm.
“Did a board break in front of us?”
“Mm!”
“Okay.”
Simona makes sure that Bernardo
makes it over the gap in the boards safely as they continue forward. They encounter
this challenge with longer distances to cross until one seems too far to cross.
This is when the plank falls from under them. They fall into the abyss and land
in it.
“Ow. At least we didn’t fall that
far.”
“Mm…”
“I know it was still scary, but at
least we’re alive. Do you see anything around us?”
“Mm-mm…”
“Nothing. Can you feel anything?”
Bernardo and Simona feel the area
around them, and it feels like the normal checkered floors. Bernardo can feel
the edges of the floor near him and the endless abyss they almost fell into.
“At least we didn’t fall a couple
feet behind us. I don’t feel anything over there.”
“Mm!” Simona muffles as she taps Bernardo’s
chest with her hand.
“Heh, I guess it’s not too
comforting of a thought, eh? Let’s keep moving then. There has to be a way out
of here.”
“Mm…”
“I know you can’t see, but we have
to-”
The sound of something moving and
unhuman grumbling coming from the dark startles them.
“That’s an even better motivator to
move. Come on, I’ll keep an ear out so we can avoid whatever is out there.”
“Mm…”
Simona and Bernardo walk into the
pitch-black darkness together. Bernardo isn’t as uneased as Simona is since he’s
used to seeing nothing. He can feel her shake and move erratically as the
noises in the darkness make her anxious. To make her feel better, he holds her
close to him with her head on his chest. She starts blushing a bit and so does
he.
“Mm!” Simona quietly muffles.
“Shh. You’ve been doing most of the
work. Now it’s my turn to take the lead. You can trust me to keep you safe,”
Bernardo whispers.
“Mm…”
Simona sticks close to Bernardo as
they make their way through the darkness. They feel confident close to one
another and feel an almost familiar sense of friendship. Bernardo moves in
the opposite direction of the noises he hears while making sure to watch where
he’s walking. This becomes especially important when he comes near one of the
sources of the noise. Simona can’t help but look at it as they near it.
One of the sources of the noise is
a monster with the form of what looks to be human. Its legs and arms are split
in two along with its head and chest. The head and chest are mouths with tongues
coming out of it as if reaching out for something. In its arm, the monster
holds a machete that is held by a long grip along the other side of its blade.
“Mm! Mm!” Simona muffles quietly
while pushing on Bernardo to move away from the monster.
Hearing her quiet muffling, the
monster opens its head mouth and makes a noise at them that almost sounds like a
call. Bernardo immediately changes direction and walks a different way, but
then he begins to hear more monsters walking to him, so he tries to compensate
by changing directions accordingly with a little help from Simona, who can see
the monsters when they get closer. Their teamwork allows them to reach a black
wall that Simona stops Bernardo from walking into. Following the wall leads
them to a red door that opens to a normal hallway. Simona and Bernardo take a
breather as they feel safe.
This doesn’t last long as part of
the ceiling suddenly juts out and slams itself on the floor to create a loud
banging noise. The monsters from the previous room hear the noise, bolt towards
the door, and start trying to break it down.
“Mm!”
“I know!”
Bernardo and Simona run down the hallway
as the monsters break down the doors while some monsters start
breaking into the room through the walls. The floors underneath them start breaking apart as
well with the planks they crossed being under them. Parts of the wall and ceiling
start to jut out to push them into the holes in the floor or slow them down. They
manage to avoid everything while keeping ahead of the monsters until one
manages to come down from the ceiling ahead of them. It runs at them with its
cleaver ready to cut and slash.
Simona tries to avoid it and pull
Bernardo along with her while he focuses on where it is in relation to him and
readies himself to push through it if he needs to. The monster closes the
distance between them and yells as it raises its cleaver. Bernardo rushes
forward to try to protect Simona while she is ready to dodge it. What ends up
happening is the monster strikes at Simona who is unable to dodge its attack,
is closest to it, but isn’t hurt by the blade nor is she knocked back by it.
Bernardo takes the hit instead and is cut by the blade as if it cut him and he
staggers back. Meanwhile, the monster forces its blade on Simona as the cutting
feeling deepens on Bernardo’s chest. He winces in pain and throws his right arm
out as if the blade is on him but is confused to feel nothing there.
“What the?”
“Mm!”
Simona tries to push away the
blade but notices that it’s affecting the place where Bernardo’s left hand was,
so she tries to push the blade as fast as she could. Knowing that she’s struggling
against the monster, Bernardo puts his feet down, figures out where the blade
actually is and helps Simona push away the blade in time for the horde behind them
to catch up. Bernardo pushes Simona forward along with himself with whatever
strength he can muster.
“Go!”
“Mm!”
“I’ll be fine! Just run as fast as
you can!”
The monsters slash at the space
between them and Bernardo in a desperate attempt to get him. He can really begin
to feel the pressure and struggles not to stumble and let his injuries slow him
down. Both he and Simona run not only for themselves but for each other. With
their combined strength they make it to the door at the end of the hallway and
immediately collapse on the floor. The door shuts behind them and the monsters
try to break it down. They whimper as something scares them off. Before Bernardo
and Simona can wonder what scared off the monsters, Ms. Mara pops out of a hole
in the ceiling with her always smiling face.
“I’m so pleased that you two
managed to survive that. Bravo!” Ms. Mara says while clapping her hands.
The bodies of Simona and Bernardo
are healed of all injuries. Bernardo gets up as soon as he can for answers.
“What were those things?”
“Those were the people who failed
my challenges for them. I call them the Wanting. They’re all heartless, empty,
and starving for something to fill their empty bodies so they can live. That’s
why they’re after you. It’s can only have another chance at the challenges if
they gain another human heart for them and their partner. They’re not entirely
conscious of what they’re doing, so don’t hate them.”
“How does this all work? I don’t
understand how you’re controlling it and how you’re behind all of it.”
“It’s from a force of love beyond
your understanding. I made a good deal with him that cost me my body but gained
me this wondrous underground facility to see true love flourish.”
“I got cut but nothing was cutting
me. What’s with that?”
“If your loved one is hurt, you get
hurt instead where they are hurt. If your hand gets cut, her hand gets cut. If she
stubs her toe, your toe feels the pain. If you walk into a wall, she takes the pain
for you such is the way of true love. If you truly love someone, you’ll suffer
with them and even suffer for them, which is one of the main lessons I’m trying
to convey.”
“Why are you so open about giving
us answers?”
“Because I don’t want all of these
big questions to bother you because you’re supposed to be thinking only about
your loved one. I just want to see a love story play out before me and not a tragedy.
I’m itching to see if you’ll beat the next challenges, and there’s only so much
I can tell you that’s left, so please ask away!”
“How do Simona and I know each other?”
“You two have been through a lot together.
Your bond is something so precious that the most valuable diamond in the world
can’t compare to it. That’s all I’ll tell you for now, but before I go, here is
something to help you out.”
Two appendages come out and stab
themselves through Bernardo’s and Simona’s head then quickly retreat.
“You should now be able physically
stronger now so you each have the strength of at least one of those Wanting now.
Goodbye and good luck!”
Ms. Mara disappears and let’s
Bernardo and Simona rest in the room. Simona reflects on her recent experiences
and is unsure if they’ll make it through if it keeps getting harder. Sensing
her worry, Bernardo takes her hand and holds it.
“We’re going to make it, Simona.”
“Mm…”
“I know it’s difficult, but you
heard what Mara said. We’ve been through a lot together in life. I believe that
as long as we trust each other and do what we did before then we can make it.”
“Mm…”
“Think about it. Ms. Mara wants us
to succeed. She isn’t going to make the challenges impossible to complete. Besides,
we’re a good team. With our combined strength, there’s nothing we can’t beat.
Okay?”
“Mm.”
“That’s what I want to hear.”
No comments:
Post a Comment