You opened your eyes and the first thing you see is a ceiling you never have seen before. It has a different colour, it's white but not quite, it has a little shade of yellow in it.
It's hard to describe for you, you just know it looks old. Looking down with your head you notice your blanket that has many geometric shapes on it. Cubes that look 3D but aren't, yet somehow it feels they are going beyond the third dimension. You start to feel dizzy because the more you look at it, it moves and changes shapes. You look around thinking to yourself, what am I doing in this place? It's an old hospital room, with lights that are buzzing like hundreds of flies. All the beds are empty only you are lying on one of them. There is a light that is coming from behind the curtains, it must be the morning you think to yourself. Standing up from the bed you notice your clothes, white skirt that is whiter than the ceiling, sky blue t-shirt and on your head a nurse cap. You look for some little mirror in the bedside table, and you find it, it's not bigger than your palm, in it you see a beautiful girl. Straight black hair reaching your cheeks, eyes in which a forest is hiding, and thin lips.
Why was a nurse lying on a hospital bed? Were you perhaps sleepy and took a nap or something unfortunate happened to you?
You can't seem to remember, you can't remember when you were born, what's your name and what is your favourite colour. Maybe there is someone who can help you recollect your memories outside the room, so you walk out to the hallway. There is no one, it's as empty as the room you woke up in but this one has more buzzing lights. The hallway is full of hospital benches and the floor reflects the lights. Looking around you can only go to the right or the left, on both ends of the hallway are the same looking double doors. Now which way to go? Right is an obvious choice so you decide to go the left. As you walk you can hear your steps echoing through the hallway, it makes you feel paranoid as if somebody is following you. No matter how many times you turn around there is no one, what would you do if there was someone? You know you are not much of a runner.
You reach the double door and open them, there is another long hallway similar to the one you were before but there is one difference. There are windows on the right side, from them you can see a white vastness of nothing. It goes to what seems like an infinity maybe even beyond.
Where is this place?
What is happening?
Who are you?
You ask yourself many questions yet you can't answer them. You put your right hand on the window and try to sort out everything in your head. But something keeps you interrupting, it's that light on the end of the hallway. It keeps flickering and the sounds it makes is irritating but suddenly it exploded and orange sparks of electricity slowly fell on the floor. Then you heard something coming from downstairs, a loud voice saying something. You can't quite make up what it is so you decide to go and see for yourself. You reach the same looking double door again but next to them is a sign that shows stairs. Opening the doors reveals stairs leading down, they are hidden in darkness that seems to whisper something into your ear. You turn on the lights and walk downstairs, unsurprisingly there is another hallway on the end. You look around but can't see anyone who could make that noise. There was another flickering light above opened double doors at the end of the hallway, it flickered and a man in his 30s appeared under it. His black hair divided to the left and the right on his nose a pair of round glasses. Around his neck, a long scarf with two colours, dark red and light red, a trench coat in the colour of the mud buttoned up to down reaching his stomach and the last a black pants with white stripes.
-You are Sally I presume.-
Do you know him? Maybe you did. Your brain is toying with you and won't let you see your past. He starts walking towards you in a fast manner. You ask him if he is a doctor in this hospital.
-Who? No, I am too unqualified for a job like that.-
Who is he? You keep asking yourself. You ask him if he knows you.
-No, not really. I am just a traveller.-
You start asking him a lot of questions. How does he know your name? Where are you?
-Slow down, lady. Try to breathe deeply.-
You do as he says. One deep breath then a second and a couple more. Suddenly a scream of pain comes from the opposite side of the hallway where you two are standing. It sounds like a male and female at the same time.
-We got no time for this! We have to hide!-
He grabs you by the hand and leads you to one of the rooms in the hallway. This room is similar to the one you woke up in every sense but you don't care about it. What you care about is what was that thing in the hallway.
-Okay, okay. I know, you want answers so let me start then. Who am I? My name is Thomas M. nice to meet you!-
You shook hands with him uncertain if this is the good time for formalities like this.
-How did I know your name? Well, that is easy to answer. You have a name tag right here.-
He points at the right side of your chest. You start to feel dumb because you didn't notice it before.
-Where are we? I know about this place as much as you do. I know this is a hospital and we are somewhere, I presume.-
You start thinking if all of this isn't just a dream and that Thomas M. is just a part of it.
-And the last question. What was that thing outside? Well, I meet these creatures before. They take on a form of whatever it is you fear. So I simply called them the walking fear.-
Now you start thinking about it hard. This must be a dream you say to yourself many times. Maybe you left your TV on and you are still hearing the voices from the TV. Thomas comes close towards you and pinches you on the right hand. Ouch! You say out loud and ask him why did he do that.
-Just to prove that this isn't a dream. This is something more complicated...-
You both start to think hard but you are interrupted by a loud bang at the door.
-Oh no, it's trying to get in!-
Hiding under the bed is the only place you both thought of. As you lie under the bed you notice little drops falling from above you. Looking up you see a massacred dead body without skin and it's eyes open wide. You start to scream from fear and Thomas shuts your mouth with his hand. The walking fear destroyed the door thankfully after you stopped screaming. If you were to scream now you would be dead in a matter of seconds. The walking fear is looking around the room, you can see its legs, there are many of them. They are humanoid legs in hellish anatomies and monstrous look. Its sound is even worse, male and female screams of pain that seem to never end. You start to sweat and breath uncontrollably, Thomas feels similar, his hands are getting sweaty on your mouth. The walking fear is walking around the room sniffing every corner, it stops near the bed you both are hiding under. It's going around, sniffing and slowly walking. Suddenly a loud noise comes from the hallway and the walking fear rushes out of the room. You can feel your tears coming down your cheeks, they are tears of mixed emotions. You both come out from under the bed and Thomas gives you a handkerchief.
-Here, wipe your tears with this.-
You are irritated and anxious so you punch him to his stomach with all your guts. You look at him with an angry and serious face while he is trying to catch his breath.
-What was that for?!-
You turn around and raise the mattress. Showing Thomas what's underneath it. He just stares at you confused, uncertain you look too and there is nothing. The dead body is gone and now you're trying to explain it to him.
-You saw what?! I didn't notice anything.-
Thomas was now finally able to breathe, he was standing still and thinking.
-As I said, this might be more than just a mere dream...-
You started to apologize for punching him.
-Now, be quiet. I am trying to think... Did you hear a sound before you meet me?-
You explained to him what happened before you meet him.
-Interesting, something similar happened to me. I, too heard a sound coming from the hallway, I came to check it and I meet you. The same happened just now, there was a sound and the walking fear chase after it... I think there might be something bigger at play here.-
You start to think about this possibility too.
-Well, cmon Sally! We have to see for ourselves what it is chasing.-
Thomas rushes out of the room leaving you behind. You yell at him to wait but he doesn't seem to slow down.
You lost him, Thomas is nowhere to be seen so you just wander around. Well, it's not wandering more like sneaking around. Slowly walking as if you were a mouse, your steps don't echo anymore but you are looking around yourself more then before. What would happen if the walking fear found you? Only God knows and also Thomas. Talking about Thomas where did he go? You were running right behind him in one moment and the second he disappeared into the thin air. Is he some kind of magician or was he just hallucination? No, he couldn't be you convince yourself. After all, he pinched you and it hurt you, can a hallucination hurt you? You solved this problem in your head but it doesn't change anything. You are still trapped inside these long hallways that seem to have no end, in this hospital that seems to have infinite floors and the last thing, all of this is quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Where is this nowhere exactly? No, you asked yourself an even better question that made your head go dizzy. What is nothing?
After all, if this place is just full of white colour than that is something. Nothing can't be black or white because that's giving it a characteristic, nothing can't be characterised. After some minutes you conclude that nothing doesn't exist and that this place is indeed somewhere. Your head hurts from this conclusion, maybe you shouldn't push your brain to these places yet. As you walk through the hallway you stop by an unusual looking double door at the end. It's rusty, without colour, it's hard to tell if there even was a colour before. Now, it's just orange rust, at bottom of the door there is so much rust that it looks like blood. Wait for a second, you stop yourself and kneel. You touch it gently with your index finger and feel this liquid form. It's as red as it can get, this must be blood. But for some reason, you don't believe your own eyes, after all, they deceived you so many times by now. You decide to lick it, I am surprised by this stupid decision of yours but I want to see what happens. Slowly your index finger is reaching your tongue, it's just a couple of millimetres away now.
-Sally if I were you I wouldn't lick that.-
Thomas appeared out of the thin air and ruined our fun. He is talking to you while showing you his back. You feel a sense of relief because you are not alone anymore. You're asking him where did he disappear to and that you were looking for him all this time.
-Sally don't lick it. It will bring you the same pain that creature had.-
Confused by his answer you stand up and slowly walk towards him.
-Sally don't lick it. It will bring you the same pain that creature had.-
You tell him that he already said that. Your walking speed slows down and you start to feel anxious.
-Sally don't lick it. It will bring you the same pain that creature had.-
Standing behind his back you grab him by his right shoulder and turn him around. You start to scream and fall on the floor, he has no face. Eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, all gone. You scream forgetting about the walking fear, Thomas is making mice steps towards you.
From all this fear you feel as if someone is stabbing you with a knife into the stomach.
-Hey, calm down. It was just a joke.-
Thomas puts his mask off and smiles at you. He helps you to get up, you still tremble and your stomach still hurts. Irritated and furious you punch him to the face and he falls on the floor. Both of you have now seen the floor from up close.
-Ouch!-
Thomas lies on the ground holding his scarf on his right cheek. You start screaming at him how stupid and unfunny he is.
-I am sorry. It was just a joke, I thought you would realize it.-
How could you? The mask looked so realistic. You hope it won't burn into your memory and that you will forget about it in a matter of seconds. After some time you cooled down and you helped him to get up. You ask him where did he disappear.
-I said that we are going to see for ourselves what was making that sound. After some time running around I noticed you're no longer with me.-
You sarcastically say to him how mindful he is of others and that you are glad that he remembered there even was someone with him.
-I am sorry, my curiosity got ahold of me. Now back to what I was talking about, I didn't found what it was chasing rather I found something more interesting.-
What do you mean? You ask him. Thomas starts walking towards the rusty door, still holding his hand on his right cheek. He opens the door and behind them a lake of blood covering the entire hallway, in the middle of it all there is a dead walking fear.
All the monstrous anatomy seemed even worse in the bigger picture, eyes, ears and other parts on places where they shouldn't be. You just look at it, you haven't moved from the place where you stood. You couldn't move because your legs trembled and the pain in your stomach was far greater than before, falling on your knees you try to not look at it. But Thomas continues, with tears coming out of his eyes. With a stuttering voice, you ask him what killed it.
-It seems there is an even bigger monster than a mere walking fear now. Something far monstrous...-
The pain in your stomach makes you feel like vomiting, you are too frightened to even move. Your muscles tense up and in your mind you imagine both of you getting killed. You can't get those images out of your head. Thomas comes towards you and sits down right next to you.
-Sally, I know you are scared. Even I am, not gonna lie. But try to look at it differently, until now nothing killed you and nothing will. Do you know why? Because if it were to show up you can just punch it the same way you punched me! Hell, I fall on the floor from it if you punched that thing it would have the same effect. That monster should fear you!-
You started laughing under your nose.
-Now, who is laughing there under his nose?-
Suddenly the entire building started shaking, you could hear something smashing its way through the double doors in the hallway. The double door at the opposite side smashed open and there was a large snake that was filling out every inch of the hallway.
-Well, maybe you can't punch this thing.-
The snake is coming closer and closer. I don't know if it can be called a snake anymore. Its large size makes it look more frightening than just a mere snake. Either way, you are just sitting there on the floor.
-Sally, don't just sit there run!-
You turn around and see Thomas, he is already on the other side of the hallway, again he left you here. But now is no time to get furious at him, after all, there is a large ''snake'' trying to catch you. You get up and start running through the lake of blood, your feet wet from it reminds you of the ocean. Why did you get a glimpse of your memories at moment such as this? Are you an idiot?! Don't think about it now! In a matter of seconds, you were on the ground and your clothes soaked in blood. The large snake has his big eyes set on you, they are more like bowling balls. This is not the place where you gonna die! You tell to yourself in a self-motivational manner. You're back on your feet and you rush into one of the doors in the hallway. You are in a room full of towels, some smell fresh like somebody bought them a couple of minutes ago and some smell so terrible you just need to look at them and you want to puke. You lean on the wall and try to catch your breath, slowly you start to slide down the wall until you are sitting on the cold floor. All the blood is dripping drop by drop from your clothes, your tears mix with the blood on your face. You grab some towel from the shelf and clean your face and body. While cleaning all the blood and tears from your skin you hear steps on the hallway. They echo more than your steps did and they are getting closer. They stop in front of the door, the handle is slowly being pushed down. You throw yourself into the corner and hide between fresh towels, the door opens and you see Thomas. He sits down on the cold floor and tries to catch his breath, you're looking at him still hiding between the towels.
-Come out of there will you?-
How did he find you? Your hiding spot is excellent. A big pile of towels taken from the shelves lying in the corner of the room.
-If you want to hide from me you have to do better than that.-
You throw a towel at him, it hits his face.
-What are you doing?-
He says confused looking at you. It's because he ran away from you again and also because his skin is full of sweat. After he wipes his sweat from his body you tell him that he is a coward.
-Coward? Now, listen there is a big difference between cowardness and stupidity. When you see a large monster that is trying to hunt you down you don't just sit on the floor. You run because that is what you should do! See? I am the smart one here while you are the stupid one.-
You throw another towel at him. This one is not for the sweat. Is there a way out of here? You ask him quietly.
-Yes, there is. There is always a way out, this trench coat I wear can teleport us back to my ship...-
Thomas turns around and sees you looking at him with tiger eyes. All this time he had a way out of here and didn't use it, you ran from the snake as if you were in an episode of scooby-doo, you have seen monstrous beings and a dead body. You didn't have to see any of that.
-I think...I should go, there is something I have to do.-
Get us out of here you scream at him and start chasing him. Poor Thomas has to run away from another monster, you chase him like a hungry leopard would chase a gazelle.
-Sally! You don't understand, this is a misunderstanding!-
Then stop and explain it to me! You scream at him.
-I think I am going to reject your offer.-
The entire hospital starts to shake again as it did before. The snake is back again and this time he will eat both of you. You start to scream at Thomas with all your lungs.
-I can't use it yet!-
Is he dumb?! You are being chased by a large snake that is going to kill both of you in a matter of seconds and still, he doesn't want to you use it?!
-It can be used once every 24 hours. We still have 1 minute to go!-
You can't run for that long, you are a nurse, not a Usain Bolt but being chased by a large snake sure makes you feel like him.
-I have a stupid idea Sally but it should work on 90%-
What about the other 10% you ask him.
-We will die!-
Thomas stops running he grabs you by the shoulder and stops you too. The snake opens his mouth and swallows you both, you venture down the throat. Its walls are slimy and soft.
-Now we don't have to run anymore.-
You tell him how much you hate him.
-Calm down, we don't have to run anymore. We just have to wait for now.-
Your clothes are full of blood and now even full of some disgusting slime. Thomas starts counting from 10 to zero, he grabs you by the shoulder. You just blink and you are somewhere else, it feels comfortable the chair you are sitting on.
Looking around you can tell you are in a library, all the bookshelves are in a circular formation and in the middle of it machine or a computer made out of wood and in front of it a dark red chair with a big seatback. Your clothes are also different, you seem to have some kind of spacesuit. It's orange and on your right shoulder is the text that reads NASA. The chair turns around and in it, Thomas is sitting.
-Welcome aboard my ship.-
Ship? This doesn't look like a ship, it's just a weird library you say to him.
-Look up Sally.-
You do as he says. There is a window and from it, millions and billions of little dots can be seen, a big nebula that looks like an eye full of colours like a rainbow.
-You people call this nebula Helix but I used to call it home.-
You start to ask Thomas where are we and how we got here.
-As I said this is my ship. We got here thanks to my coat, it's a really useful piece of equipment. It travels between dimensions, space and time but this time I only used it to travel from a nano-size to my normal one.-
You don't understand what he means by that. Did he shrink down and got inside your brain?
-Exactly, that's what I did. After I found you, I couldn't wait any longer to find out how you got here but unfortunately, I didn't find anything. You seem to have amnesia.-
So everything that happened was just a dream? You can't believe this, you felt the pinch he gave you the smell and feel of blood, tears and slime.
-If I told you it was a dream what would you do? You would wake up and I didn't want that. I was curious about your dream I wanted to know what will happen.-
But what about the walking fear? You have seen all of it so clearly.
-That one is true. The walking fear is a nightmare as I said I couldn't see what you did.-
And what about that time when he saw it dead and cried? And what about the snake?
-Now, enough questions. You should get some rest, it was too much for your brain. Want some tea?-
You can hear a teapot squeaking from the place where the big machine is.
-Ah, it's ready.-
Thomas walks to the behind of the machine and brings tea on a tray. He sits opposite to you and he pours a little sugar into your tea. Who are you? You ask him.
-I am Thomas M.-
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