Cycle of Suffering: Chapter 1 – Not Exactly the Final Girl

Chapter 1 – Not Exactly the Final Girl

“Mysteries can kill. There’s a reason why the saying curiosity killed the cat exists. There are a hundred people who will enter a near-death state every year. Nothing connects these people together. Virtue, wealth, influence, job, location, age, health, nothing. This has been happening for at least three hundred or more years with ancient documents that tell of almost the exact thing happening to them. Despite no one knowing what really causes this rare condition, there have been people that have tried to find the cause of it.

Mostly spiritual and religious people have been able to enter this sudden near-death state. My name is Rosanna and I’ve left this audio recording on my computer should I be affected by this mysterious condition that I am researching. My family has told me that it’s stupid and dangerous to continue looking into the mystery, but I just must know about it. Few are known to come out of these near-death states and the ones that do are changed completely and become devoutly Catholic or something like it. Since I’m already Catholic, I’m assuming that being in the near-death state teaches you some truth about the world that most reject and stay in the near-death state until their bodies die. Hopefully, I’ll find out soon.”

Why did was the recording I made playing on my computer? I’ve been trying to try it off, but even when it’s unplugged it kept going but now it won’t even work. What’s going on? It’s so dark outside that I can barely see anything. The moon and sky look awfully red. There’s a triangle in the moon and there are spirals in the sky. Did I enter the near-death state?

What the hell?! When the triangle in the moon opened to reveal an eye, the walls and floor around me have fallen underneath me and I’m falling into darkness into a forest. Thankfully, the trees and bushes below break my fall. The eye on the moon is closed now and I’m in some kind of dark forest. There’s not much around here. Perhaps I’m meant to find something here.

I’ve come across a kind of spiked wall. There are openings in the wall, but they’re too small for me to fit through. It looks like someone has tried to fit through it and may have gotten through with blood and pieces of clothing on the spikes. Following the wall leads me to a closed gate. There are three red lights near a switch that probably opens it. Half of the light just turned on by itself or did someone activate it? I don’t think standing around here will help me in any way, so I head back into the forest.

In the distance, I see small broken houses and buildings. The forest has taken over this small town. In some of these buildings are skeletons with weapons in their hands or appear as if some kind of massacre happened here. I have a feeling that I’m going to need a weapon, so I try to pick up a fire axe, but it seems to be glued to the ground. Even the skeleton that’s holding it, won’t let it go. That’s strange. Let’s see if I can get the other weapons. No. Not this one either. Nope.

Ah. I can pull this machete up-what the heck? It’s attached to a lever. Did that activate something possibly back to the gate? Whatever the case is, I have a machete now. Wondering if this did anything to the gate, I head to the gate only to be stopped by the sound of something coming my way. I turn around to see nothing, but I still hear the sounds. Quickly running away from it as it approaches, I run to the gate to see that two and a half of the lights are green. The noise is hastily approaching until I hear a gunshot in the distance. This seems to get the attention of whatever was following me as the noise sounds like it’s running in the opposite direction.

Whatever it is. The gunshot might’ve come from someone who is here with me. Maybe it’s best if I go in the opposite direction to activate the last light of the gate to open it. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. Going in the opposite direction of the explosion, I find a small camp. From the flag and outfits of the skeletons, it seems as if this was the camp of a military group of some kind. I wonder if it has anything to do with the inhabitants of the town. The other skeletons here have civilian clothing similar to that of the people in the town, so this connection must be real. I’d like to know more, but my survival is more important, so I try to look for a lever of some kind. Maybe one of these guns is part of it like the last one. It doesn’t look like it. All the guns are empty as well.

Huh? There’s a note on this bed. The bed looks recently laid in. Reading the note reveals that it’s from a soldier who’s talking about attacking this town that’s said to have terrorists in it. I remember this event. There was a story on the news about a massacre that happened in a remote town. One soldier went rogue because he thought everyone was a terrorist. Since he shot first, the rest of the town fought against the soldiers. There were no survivors, but the rogue soldier was never found. Is this where he ended up?

Pulling the note further away from the bed pulls a lever along with it. The note disappears into ash as I hear a loud noise in the distance. That must be the gate opening. While running to it, I hear someone chasing after me again. I keep running as fast as I can until I hear footsteps directly behind me. Since I can hear where it is, I spin around and hit whoever is hitting me. The man I hit behind me looks like a soldier, but I hesitate to think of him as one because of how monstrous he looks. He has the flag of his country painted on his face with blood in his mouth and hands that are holding combat knives. The man looks starved and bloodthirsty but injured at the same time with cuts and bullet holes in his body. Despite his injuries, he’s been running faster than I have. What made him like this?

No, there’s no time to think about this. I keep hitting him with my machete, but he doesn’t fall or even stagger. He laughs at my weak attacks until I throw the machete into his head which finally causes him to stagger back. I run with everything I have to the gate and into the dark fog beyond it to find myself…back in my room. The moon and sky look as red it was before so I’m still in the same dimension as I was before. My door is locked along with my windows. How am I supposed to leave? The eye in the moon opens as words are scrawled onto the walls of my room with fire. The writing says, “Escape every killer or your fate will be bitter. The answer to your salvation is found will every victory.” My room then burns into ash before making me fall to the ground yet again. Am I back in the forest? No, this is a farm.

So, I just have to keep winning to find out how to get out? Whatever is controlling seems to want to draw this out. I guess I don’t have a choice. How am I going to escape this farm? I go through a small corn maze and into the farmhouse to see if I can find something that I need. Someone appears to be living in this house with the lights being on and the door was opened when I came in. What is that smell? I look around the corner to see stitched up people in the living room. All of them have stitches in their necks as if their heads were torn off or their necks were slit. They’re posed as if they were having a fun party. If the previous killer was related in a major way to their surroundings, I wonder why this killer would do human taxidermy. The people here might be the key to escaping so I try finding something on them only to have one their heads fall off in the process. This isn’t good. Come on, go back on already. Ah! Now the head has fallen apart. There’s no way to put it back together now, so I continue searching the house only to find more people stuck in place.

None of them have anything on them or seem to be holding something useful when I touch them. The last place left to check is the basement. This place is full of naked cut up people with different kinds of clothes around them. There are a bunch of props down here as well such as video games, comics, medical tools, business papers, schoolbooks, and other things related to different roles. What are these labels for? David, Lily, Hilbert, Mark, Klein, grandma? There are scripts here too that play out different events that a family would go through like graduations, parties, fights, reconciliations, and vacations. This is beyond strange.

I wonder what these keys on the wall are for. Pulling them reveals that they were a lever. Since there’s nothing else here, I go the front porch of the house to see people running past it towards what looks like a gate in the distance. Ah! Someone’s grabbed me from behind! What did they just stick in my neck…?

…ah…uck. What’s happening? Where are my clothes? I’m hung up in the basement of the house with chains suspending me above the ground. There’s a guy with an Italian artisan mask in a suit looking through the sets of clothes. He takes two pairs out and holds them out one by one in front of me as if picturing me in them. These chains are too tight to slip out of. There doesn’t seem to be a way out for me.

“There’s no use in struggling, my dear,” he says, “No one has been able to escape me once I’ve caught them. It’s not like you can anyway since the gate has closed and won’t open at least for another day. I know you may want to say some choice words to me, but I’ve already taken the liberty of cutting out your tongue and sewing your mouth shut if you aren’t aware of it yet. Since I’m a gentleman unlike the other men and women out there, I’ll tell you a little of myself as I pick out the best outfit and role for you.”

I can’t die like this…I can’t…

“I never grew up with many people that I cared for. Life was so unfair to me and never gave me the people that I wanted to be with, so I took the people who I thought I would like to be with and gave them the personalities I wanted them to have. I would’ve made real friends and had a real family if I didn’t find so many unlikable people out there, but now with the help of whatever controls this dimension, I can have the simple life I wanted without having to worry about the authorities catching me. I can make the family and friends that I want with events I want to play out in the house I’ve always wanted. You are more beautiful than any of the women I’ve seen so far. Maybe I’ll make you my daughter, my mother, my wife, or how about my guardian angel? Mine has left me long ago.”

I don’t see a way out…This can’t be the end…The man holds me and put his mouth to my neck.

“I’ll make this a quick death for you, my dear.”

Helplessly I watch as the man’s mouth expands to a monstrous degree. There are so many teeth in his mouth and the face under his mask is barely human. Before I know it, he bites into my neck and everything turns black. When I open my eyes again, I’m floating up to the red moon with its eye wide open. Various spikes come from its eye and pierce through my body. If that isn’t painful enough, I can feel my inner being become weaker. When I blink again, I’m in my room again.

Was that a dream? No. I’m still in this damn dimension, but I really do feel weaker. As if something was taken from my soul that makes me feel less hopeful of finding a way out, but this could just be a trick. I will find a way out. If other people could do it, then I will too.