Zionne let out a deep sigh. She had been sitting in her car parked beside the Pembina River for over an hour, trying to muster up the courage to drive all the way to Caulder's Hollow. It had been easy to agree to her father's request. Pass by Caulder's Hollow, go to Peter's house, pick up the painting and then go on her merry way. It sounded so simple but it was anything but. If it were, she would have done it already and would have been on her way to Michigan hours ago. She stared at her hands gripping the steering wheel, her knuckles white from the effort. Though it had already been two years since her godfather disappeared, the pain and shock that she felt was as strong as it had been when her parents first told her of his disappearance. The familiar unanswered questions surfaced in her mind. Where was he? Where did he go? Why did he go? Why so suddenly? Was he coming back?

She thought back to her godfather's last email. She had just told him that she was coming over to visit and he had been so excited about it. He asked so many questions about what she wanted to eat and what she wanted to do during her visit and for a brief moment, it felt as thought the old man was his old cheerful self again, back when Rose was still alive. She laughed bitterly. There was no excitement now, no happiness, no cheerfulness. All that was left were bitter thoughts of how the man she thought of as her second father would just up and leave without saying anything.

Did she still want to know where he went? Would she even care to find out? Would it even matter anymore? Maybe he left some clues to his whereabouts and all she needed to do was to look for it. Maybe he was waiting for her to find those clues and find him. Or maybe all of these thing were better left alone.

With a firm shake of her head, she reached for the ignition of her car, deciding that it was better for her not to go digging into something that she might end up regretting later on. With determination shining in her eyes, she told herself to just go through the chore her father gave her as fast as she possibly could and then leave without looking back. Two years without any word from her godfather was proof enough that he no longer wanted anything to do with her. Her hand barely touched the car keys when she noticed something shimmering in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and was surprised to see her car door shimmering and pulsating as though it was alive.

She narrowed her eyes, the pulsing of the door seemed like it was following the rhythm of her heart.

Lub dub. Lub dub. Lub dub.

Am I imagining this? She felt her heart quicken its pace and with it, so did the pulsing of the door. It was both disconcerting and mesmerizing. Without thinking, she reached out for the handle and carefully opened the door. As soon as she did, the pulsing stopped. She gasped when a flight of stairs met her gaze instead of the gray concrete of the highway.

"Of course it has to be something like this," she muttered, not particularly bothered by the fact that scenery before her was anything but normal. She looked up the stone steps to the door at the top. It was wide open and she could feel a strong pull towards it. "Story of my life... reach for the top and get to that door and then when I go through it, it'll just be another flight of stairs, another door to reach," she shook her head. "But what the hell," she said, throwing caution in the air and letting that strange sensation pull her. She grabbed her phone, automatically tucked the penlight into her pocket right beside the small swiss army knife that she always carried with her, slammed her car door shut and then began climbing the stairs.

Surprisingly, she got to the top in a matter of seconds. She stared into the door, trying to see what was beyond it but everything was too bright for her to make out anything. For a brief second, she hesitated and looked back down the stairs, contemplating on going back to her car. "Too late," she murmured when she saw that the vehicle was no longer there and replaced with nothing but gray mist. "I guess it's down the rabbit hole for Alice," she chuckled despite herself and wasted no time stepping into the light in the doorway.

---

Zionne blinked as she waited for her vision to adjust from the glare of stepping into the door. As soon as it did, she looked around, a mixture of horror and wonder on her face. She had no idea what to expect from walking through the strange door but the place she stood in now was far from anything she'd ever imagined. It was as if she'd walk into some sort of post apocalyptic scene from a movie. She made a quick survey of her surroundings. She stood in a huge, dilapidated, abandoned hall with light streaming from the cracks overhead and rusted wires hanging haphazardly here and there from broken machineries. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make sense of the words written on the tattered banner on the walls, quickly dismissing it when it didn't make any sense. She looked up, blinking at what appeared to be several bright moons peeking through the larger cracks in the ceiling. The last time she checked, the night sky only had one moon. Did sitting in the car for a long period of time made her start hallucinating? Exactly how much carbon monoxide did she inhale?

She looked to her right and her eyes fell on an unfamiliar brown haired girl standing a few feet away from her. The girl was slightly taller than her but appeared to be younger. Was she a hallucination too?

"The car wasn't even running..." she murmured to herself as she stepped forward, her attention automatically snapping towards her feet and at the strange consistency of what looked to be normal tiles. "What the--- Do you know where we are?" she asked out loud. She figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Maybe her hallucinating mind may somehow know exactly where she was.

But before she could determine if the girl was indeed a hallucination, one of the television pillars came alive. Her head snapped towards the screen. Though she paid attention to what the blue man labeled "Mr. Reid" was saying, his words barely made any sense. Tyrant's empire? Unicorns? Personal doors? Glass Wind?

Carbon monoxide toxicity may include agitation, confusion, depression, lethargy, impulsiveness, hallucinations, confabulation, distractibility, memory problems... There can also be visual disturbances, syncope and... seizures, Zionne enumerated the symptoms in her head. There really was no other explanations to where she was, what she was seeing and what she was hearing. And she seemed to fit most of what she enumerated: she was confused and agitated back in the car, then came the impulsiveness of getting out of the vehicle and into the bright doorway and then now this place, the girl, the pixelated blue man... What was next? Was she going to faint? Would she go into seizure?

And then a clearer person came into focus on the tv.

“I only have a few minutes before the cameras cut back to me. Sarah, Z, listen to me. Get the fuck out of here. Change your name if you have to.”

"W-what? Did you just... talk to m-- us?" she asked, feeling extremely foolish for talking to the television.

Orie had readied himself for a fall. A great big tumble from the plush car seat to the cold hard ground, no thanks to some over-zealous traffic enforcer.

Instead of the smoothness of gas station concrete, however, Orie found himself sprawled over a rough and rocky asphalt road, with a little scrape on his forehead to show for it. The Red Racer was gone. With it went the lights and sirens of the State Patrol cruiser, and Dakota’s sedan from which he’d just come rolling out, and Dakota herself for that matter. And, he noted, his wheelchair. Yet somehow the tablet he’d been holding was still with him, albeit with a new scratch on its screen, as was the notebook in his pocket. All other traces of the reality of one minute ago seem to have been wiped away, painted over by this foreign scenery.

The welcome sign caught his eye first. ‘Anigma Fluxx’, it read.

Neither of those sounded like English words, or any sort of word at all. Well, many place names were like that. Perhaps it was a portmanteau, ‘anima’ plus ‘enigma’. Taking ‘Fluxx’ to be a variant of ‘flux’, that would mean — ‘Mystery of the Ever-changing Soul’? Pfft. Orie wouldn’t have thought twice about a children’s detective story having that for a title. All right, maybe I’m reading too much into it. Having a little laugh distracted him from the eerie wrongness of his surroundings: the sign, the sky, the silence.

At least Orie wasn’t alone in this strange place. There were two older men as well, both looking as disoriented as he. In fact, he even recognised one of them: the father of Ha-eun, who had also gone missing two years ago — Seong Jin-soo. ‘Also’, because Orie thought he knew what was going on.

Eight moons in the night sky — eight people whisked away — clock on the dashboard had read 11:41 PM — half the missing eight had last been seen shortly before midnight — at least two people present with links to the eight — well, weren’t the implications obvious? And all this happening on the night that Mara comes back? That would be some spectacular coincidence. Now, Orie was no conspiracy theorist, but he was quite confident in his quickly-formed conclusion: the three of them, too, were now ‘missing’.

And, oh, how excited he was! He had entertained the possibility of paranormal forces being involved in the disappearances before, but to not only see, to experience such unshakable evidence — it was like a UFOlogist getting abducted by grays. Then again, no sane and rational person would ever take him seriously when he got back; Orie wouldn’t have believed himself, either. Of course he couldn’t abandon a natural explanation without exhausting all the possibilities first; maybe he was dreaming, or comatose, or hallucinating from sleep deprivation, or high on drugs that had been slipped in his drink somehow.

But after that was through — well, Mara showed up again, so Apollo would be soon to follow, surely? Then once that guy came back, Mana would follow suit in due time, and then poof! and everyone’s lives would return to normalcy. Right? That was the plan.

Ah, but first he ought to talk to his fellow missing-persons. It would at least be courteous.

“Hello there!” Still lying on the ground, Orie pushed and propped himself up to a sitting position. He gave them a little wave. “Were the both of you in Caulder’s Hollow too?”

He didn’t see the creature appear, or approach closer, or shoot out hooks and lines from its too-wide gaping maw. Not until his grisly fate had become inevitable.

That’s really rusty…

For a moment he simply looked on as the curved blade found purchase in his left leg, digging deeply into his thigh. A brief tranquility, during which he felt the fog of confusion clear from his mind all at once. It was a rusty hook indeed. What if I got tetanus? That would be quite bad. This fleeting enlightenment came to an end when his body began to react. Orie couldn’t stand upright, even with crutches or a wall to lean against. But he could certainly feel a pin pricking his legs, let alone a meathook tearing apart and into his flesh; he could feel it, and it was painful.

First he let out an involuntary gasp.

And then he screamed.

　　　　　cut tear　　　　　　　　　blood
　　splatter spurt　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　blood　　　splatter　　　　　　　flowing
　　　　　　　spurt　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　gushing blood flowing
　　　　　　　　　　　ooze　　　　　　　　　　　　　flow flow flow
help blood blood　　pain 　　 flow　　　it hurts　　drip　blood　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 trickle blood
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　drip

Orie choked. Now it was hard to breathe and harder to speak. The metal wire went taut and began tugging him towards the creature, like a fisher reeling in its catch. He tried to pull the hook free — it stayed, stuck fast — pulling again, in vain — he turned and reached out to the two men nearby.

“Sirs, please…! Help me get this out!”

There were eight moons in the sky and many stars beside. It was not the only thing strange about this place, the least of which being the fact that she shouldn’t be here at all, having stepped through what she was almost certain was the front door of her house only to end up somewhere else entirely, but it was the aspect that Sarah focused on the most.

The sky didn’t just change; she should know with how much time she spent looking upwards. It wasn’t immutable, objects in orbit moved, the moon’s face changed with the phases and even the planets in their solar system were not static fixtures in the firmament, but the sky you saw one night was more or less the sky you saw the next night. This was a sky she had never seen before, an entirely new sky, an unearthly sky. So it stood to reason that this wasn’t… earth.

Sarah jumped when she heard the voice. She’d thought herself alone in this strange place, but turning her head she saw that wasn’t the case. The woman was older than her, a little bit shorter, and had blue hair; they looked just as confused as she was and asked if she knew where they were. Sarah didn’t know where to begin answering that.

“I-“

She was interrupted when from among the pillars of gutted televisions a single screen came to life and began to play a strange news report. The contents sounded like something out of a pulp sci-fi series, talking about strange and cryptic things and when it was over, the blue man turned to look straight at them, at her, and said her name.

“We’re not… we’re not on earth anymore, are we?”

---

The night was going as pleasantly as possible. An old radio provided classic rock as the underscore for the scene; Ruby and her cross-country gang, about four beers in a piece, sitting at the bar having conversation with one of the nice men working the counter of the only brewery to be found in Caulder's Hollow. They had touched on a medley of topics - the ridiculousness that was Jon the Brewer having never watched The Big Lebowski, the many elaborate breweries to be found in the tri-state area alone, and finally, the disappearance of Farrah St. Pierre.

It had been over two years, but still Ruby felt a pang of sadness thinking about it. The abrupt silence in phone communication was only confirmed by the break in national news the next day, when Ruby found herself staring at a picture of Farrah on the screen with the marquee beneath reading "Strange Disappearances in Caulder's Hollow". When Matt had suggested they add this little town as one of their stopping points on the trip, Ruby had almost dismissed the idea. Whatever peace the town had found in reconciling her absence, whatever traces of her they would even be able to find - who were they to disturb this? Farrah had never been found, and it seemed very unlikely after all the time had passed that she would be. But... What better way to remember her than to walk through the streets she had grown up in, perhaps even to see if they'd be able to pay her grandmother a visit? Ruby had a multitude of silly (and mostly appropriate) photos of the two of them on her phone, and wouldn't it be sweet to give her relative a piece of the city life that Farrah once knew?

Ultimately she couldn't say no to the adventure. It was on the way, and hell, Ruby had always been a little masochistic. Now here she was, holding her IPA up to the lowly lit ceiling and gesturing with her pointer finger for the men do the same. "To Farrah, wherever you are. Wish you were here to knock this back with us, baby."



The liquid of the beer had barely passed through her lips when a sudden knot twisted itself in the pit of her stomach. A hard churn, almost a flop. Ruby swallowed and lowered the glass back down to the wooden counter as the other men basically downed the rest of their beverages. Somehow her palms were growing clammy and some inexplicable urge was pulling her gaze over to the door of the brewery bathroom, which wasn't just the door of the brewery bathroom anymore.

No way...

Her heart stopped. Breathing quickened. Like cotton being stuffed into her ears, all sound was drowned out as she blinked, feeling rather stupid and paralyzed as she stared at this door. An image that had been burned into the backs of her eyes but had been left deep in her past was just ahead of her, like some billboard of her trauma for the whole room to see. Or maybe they couldn't see it? Maybe it was a mirage?

No, definitely not - judging by the way time seemed to slow for the everyone inside of the room, she knew they could see it too. One by one, the voices grew quiet as the men found the object of her disbelief. "Rub..." She could hear Matt's voice behind her as if through water, could feel that he had almost reached out to stop her as she slid off her stool at the counter and slowly forced one foot in front of the other.

Light was shining through the cracks as if some beautiful relief from this terrible terrible way of feeling lay beyond the door. Just like in her dreams, all those years ago. With parted lips and an inexplicable determination, Ruby ignored the voices of protest behind her and grasped the familiar golden knob. It turned easily in her hand, and before she had the mind to turn back and look at her friends, Ruby had pushed open the door and stepped through.




Did the door shut itself behind her? No, it felt like it wasn't even there anymore. What in the fuck is happening? On top of feeling completely disoriented by the lack of sense everything was making, Ruby couldn't help but feel gutted by the lie, having hoped that the light from behind the impossible door would have enveloped her and given her sweet relief. Or whatever.

In order for her to not completely lose composure she decided to continue functioning as if this was a really weird acid dream, figments of her imagination testing her survival skills. Sure she had had a few beers, but even her imagination could not have taken her this far without at least a shot or two. Someone must have slipped something in her drink, and that someone would pay whenever she woke up. Ruby curled her hands into fists by her side as she strained her eyes to make out any detail of whatever was happening now. Her body was tensed in preparation for the next nonsensical event, so much that she nearly jumped out of her skin upon registering the ice cold water lapping at her ankles. There was also that sound... Deep and resonant, happening all over this place. This place? She wasn't even sure this was real. How could it be? The door, the water at her ankles, the thing yawning...

Ruby yelped at the realization that the water was rising quickly, and as she did a light bulb flickered to life above her head. As her pupils finally adjusted, they did a quick sweep of the newly lit space. If the cramped glass tunnel, the crushed skeleton under rock debris, or the heavily suspicious-looking water didn't already raise goosebumps on her skin, then the other two humans standing nearby definitely did. She took deep breath and let out a long exhale that could have easily been a growl.

"Interesting." The word fell from her mouth very dryly, almost unintentionally, as her brain started sprinting. They both looked younger than her and were faces that she had never seen before in her conscious life. Ruby opened her mouth to address them but it was then that her eyes caught sight of the golden centipede thing, which came to life and plopped into the grey waters. Curiously enough, the bony arm that it had been wrapped around instantly crumbled and the rocks followed suit, causing the water to rush in faster.

Still operating under the guise of a bad trip, Ruby clapped her hands together and finally addressed the other two as she quickly but carefully made her way back toward the stone wall with the plaque. Her Doc Martens were heavy with the weight of the water as she sloshed away from the duo and the only way out like a mad woman. The golden creature was now swimming somewhere around their feet and she was not thrilled about it, having no idea whether the alien was responsible for their skeletal companion and not wanting to personally find out just yet. "Alright, I have no idea who the fuck either of you are, but let's get out of here first and then we can exchange names, okay? I'm gonna try and read this sign in case it's got any helpful information on it if you two want to start seeing if there's a way we can move those rocks." Her voice was loud and assertive, as if she were ringing last call at her bar. Blame it on watching too much sci-fi adventure, but somehow Ruby thought there might be instructions that were important to read on this thing.

---

---

A pitch black darkness enveloped the woods as clouds, thick and heavy with rain, drifted across the face of the moon. The creatures of the forest stirred, chattering amongst themselves while a cool wind gently rustled through the trees. Flashes of thunder and lightning could be seen in the distance and yet, despite the ominous warning signs, a calmness swept the area, perhaps eerily so given what was to come.

A way aways, two specks of light could be seen barreling down a thin dirt road. Although faint at first, the roar of an engine began to slice through the serene moment like a pair of sharpened scissors gliding through paper. The jangle of loose tools reverberated, dancing their way across a metal cargo bed as a voice cried out from the cabin. Unmuffled by glass and sounding as if the vocal cords were made of sandpaper, it made an attempt to hold a tune but broke with every second sentence.

The vehicle, a pick-up, continued along, veering from side to side as the cul de sac at the end of the road suddenly approached. Slamming on the brakes the body of the truck lurched forward as the tires struggled to grip the loose gravel beneath. Luckily the space in front of the lonely wooden cabin was wide and featureless, no real risk of instant death. Dust filled the air as the cab door popped open and a large figure slumped out, wailing as he hit the floor.

“Jin-Soo,” he wept into the dirt, “what have you done… why… why didn’t you just listen to her?!” His fist pounded the earth before it flattened out and pushed him up. Propping himself up against the panel of the truck between door and tray, Jin trailed on. Vomiting out a mumble of words, he slammed the back of his head into pick-up over and over.

Behind him the sounds of the engine petered away oddly mimicking the dulling cries of the animals hidden around. The breeze whipped the dust in the air, latching it to the tear stained face of the man causing Jin to violently cough. Mucus and drool erupted from his nose and mouth as he gagged for air. It took him a full minute to calm down, ending with him scrunching up the bottom of his t-shirt and lifting it to wipe his face. By the time he dropped it back down, the world had stopped in its tracks.

A stillness seized everything around him. Branches refused to sway in the wind, power to the engine cut with a small click, the woods fell ill with silence and goosebumps lined the man's skin as the temperature dropped degrees at a time. Static from the speakers began to creep forth like the silhouette of a predator stalking their prey, raising the hairs on the back of Jin’s neck. The full faced moon forced a gap in the clouds, slowly painting the area in a faint white glow.

Unable to move, Jin’s eyes followed the line of light as it slowly made its way towards the rickety old cabin. Originally bought by his brother with the intent of using it for fishing trips, the place hadn’t been seen by a visitor in years. There it sat, slowly falling apart piece by piece, the passage of time it's only decorator. Here and now, the cabin appeared in the light as one would expect, crooked, beaten and ravaged. All except for its door.

Life returned to Jin’s body once more with him standing and taking a few cautious steps forward. Cocking his head to the side and squinting his eyes, the man could only make out the outline of the door. It loomed large and solid, directly contrasting the dilapidated shack around it. Wearily he continued on, the sight in front of him slowly growing more and more familiar, until…

“No.”

Jin stopped dead in his tracks.

“No...” his head shook, “no-no.”

A tremor began to take hold of his right hand, the shake coiling its way up his arm like a serpent climbing a tree.

“NO!” he screamed.

There in front of him stood a fortified steel door. A door with a little window and a small slot that sat at about waist height. A prison door.

Without warning the speakers from his truck blared to life. White noise crackled as the sound of a microphone being held too closely to a sound system screeched.

“We have a code red in Cell Block B! I need all available guards to Cell Block B immediately.”

Jin whipped around. “Shut up!” He marched towards the truck, feet pounding the earth. “Shut the fuck up!”

The announcer rebelled, defiantly growing louder.

“I repeat, Code Red! Jimmy Waiken has been stabbed repeatedly.”

“Stop!” Jin cried, his voice now breaking at the mention of his former best friend, causing him to stop in his tracks. “Stop, please stop.” He pleaded, the anger giving way to a pathetic beg.

“Code red! Jin-Soo has murdered Jimmy Waiken! All guards to Cell Block C!” the PA continued tauntingly. The headlights of the pick-up turned on, flashing blue and red while the speakers began to mimic a police siren.

“It’s not true!” He yelled as his legs gave way. So numbed by it all, Jin could scarcely feel the rocks break his skin as his knee’s dove into the gravel below. Burying his head in his hands, the man exhausted whatever emotion he had left. “Please… it’s not true.”

“Appa.”

A voice, miniscule, hushed and familiar, cuts through the hurricane of noise. Coming from the direction of the cabin, Jin’s head instantly shoots up.

“Appa.” It repeats innocently, a light faintly appearing through the window of the prison door.

“Ha-Eun?” Jin croaked, straining his ears in hope.

“Jebal.” It replied.

Adrenaline flooded the man’s body causing him to leap to his feet. The deafening chorus around him melted away as Jin steeled himself, his knuckles cracking as his fists balled. The tremors stopped and the hammer dropped; without another moment of hesitation he charged up the steps to the cabin, bursting through the door and into the light.

---

At first, the world around him was a blur. Skeletons of buildings, distant lights, moons upon moons and a bizarre neon sign. A cacophony of questions flood the man’s mind, each one failing to sweep away the one standing like stone at the centre of it all.

“Where is Ha-Eun?”

Whipping around, the door had vanished and asphalt sat beneath his feet. His breathing was heavy and his goosebumps had been replaced by beads of sweat. It didn’t take long for Jin to notice he was flanked by two others; a young looking man with piercings and bright orange hair and an even younger looking boy, small faced and innocent in appearance.

Completely willing to ignore the inexplicable world around him, the middle aged man stepped forward. Ready to launch into a tirade, Jin took a deep breath in and… paused, noticing one of the young men was pale and wide eyed. Flushed with dread the boy stared off into the distance, far beyond the group.

Turning, Jin only saw the glimmer of steel flying at him. Ducking just in time, he heard the clinking of a chained rope fly by his head. Pivoting on the balls of his tippy-toes, he managed to narrowly avoid another as it tore a jagged slit though the sleeve of his tee.

With barely a moment to catch his breath a voice cried out, wailing in pain. Jin wheeled around to see that one of the boys had not been so lucky. Several rustic hooks had sunk deep into his legs as he scrambled to try and pull himself free.

Following the chains, Jin looked towards the neon sign, momentarily noting the familiarity of some of the flashing characters, before noticing the hideous creature. Leatherface 2.0 stood with it’s jaw ajar over the remains of some poor bastard, rope flowing like tentacles from its mouth. The metal began to retract as the boy cried out in pain, begging for the two around him for help.

Jin, unable to set aside the look of innocence in the kid's face, rushed over.

“It’s going to be ok.” Jin said as he gripped one of the hooks. “I’m going to get you out of this.”

Eden had been having a bad day. Not that those were in any way unusual for her, nor that anything especially bad had happened to her that day. In fact, she couldn’t think of a single reason why that day should have been worse than any other, beyond the fact that for one inexplicable reason or another she was feeling down. She’d gone to the library that morning to study and had ended up loitering around long after it had closed, unable to quite work up the motivation to head back. It had gotten dark quite a while ago, and finally bothering to check her phone, Eden realised she’d need to force herself into action if she wanted to catch the last bus for a while. With a sigh, she got up and did just that, the bus stop in sight just as her bus drove past her.

The internal debate as to whether or not the bus was worth running for was cut short almost immediately as she was instead forced to do a double-take at the bus. Specifically at the bus’s rearmost door. While the rest of the vehicle looked perfectly normal, something was very wrong with that door. The thing was changing, blindingly fast and in an almost organic-looking fashion. From her angle, she couldn’t quite make out the specifics of how it was changing, only that the changes seemed to be dramatic and seemingly incoherent, but that wasn’t what she was thinking about anyway. She’d seen a door do strange shit once before, even if she’d kept it to herself, and while the bus door was obviously different in some ways to the one back then it certainly bore some similarities in its strangeness.

Eden hardly even registered as she broke into a flat out sprint to catch up to the bus, nor did she notice that had the driver not slowed for her she never would have made it. She did register an appropriate sense of horror as the door before her was very briefly something fleshy with countless teeth, then something like a singular elevator and then an incredibly fancy looking one, but somehow, in a moment of uncharacteristic bravery and utter stupidity, that horror failed to prevent her from stepping up and into the thing…

Whatever compulsion had briefly possessed her promptly wore off the moment she’d stepped through and found herself in a pitch-black space that probably wasn't the bus, and almost immediately it was replaced by a rapidly escalating sense of dread. Eden somehow managed enough presence of mind to idly note that while she was terrified at least her fear was totally rational for once and that now she had a reason for her day being bad. Not that the thought helped her much, this terror was also far worse than what she normally felt and as good as she’d gotten at hiding her fears over the years there wasn’t much she could do about her present trembling.

She almost screamed when the light flickered on above her. Internally berating herself when she realised that she'd hardly even registered that she was standing almost knee-deep in, now that she was paying attention, shockingly cold and seemingly rising water, let alone notice that there were other people in the room with her. The fact that she hadn’t even able to maintain basic awareness of her surroundings at a time like this yet another thing to add to her list of personal failings.

Still even as she became aware of the details she should have already been aware of, it became clear to her that those weren’t the ones she should be concerning herself with at that point. A skeleton seemed to be holding up a large chunk of stone, a remnant of the collapsed ceiling that had otherwise crushed the skeleton some time ago. What made the sight strange, was that somehow the arm holding up the stone had escaped destruction and managed to stay upright even as the rest of the body had decomposed, stranger still that the arm appeared to bear some kind of centipede shaped jewellery. It seemed almost ludicrous to think that the centipede might have been what was allowing the skeleton to perform the seemingly impossible feat, yet at the same time too much of a coincidence to dismiss the possibility outright.

As if the universe had somehow heard Eden’s inner monologue mention impossibility and decided that she wasn’t already freaking out enough, the golden centipede began to move, crawling off the arm and into the water, and prompting what was left of the skeleton to crumble under the weight of the stone. She could except that apparently the creature hadn't actually been jewellery, but that just made the other parts of the scene even more confusing.

Eden wasn’t snapped out of her stupor until she heard one of the others clap and address the room. It took her mind a moment to piece back together the woman had said, but the gist of it seemed to be that they were going to look at the plaque for clues, another thing she’d failed to notice, and wanted someone to check to see if they could shift the fallen rocks for a way out. Not seeing any reason not to, or at least not any reasons that were too major, and wanting to get out of the room before things got any worse Eden complied, moving to try and shift the rock with what little strength she had.

Strangely enough the explanation Mr Reid gave them didn’t really, well, explain anything. Anima Fluxx? Reality chips? The pulp sci-fi feeling wasn’t getting any less intense the more she heard about this place, though she was at least starting to get the impression that this place was inter-dimensional rather than interstellar. It would go some way towards explaining why everything looked so uncanny; the televisions and the news show didn’t exactly scream aliens to her, they were human. Just… inhumanly so.

Before Sarah could dwell on what any of that might mean for them however, the TV with Mr Reid cut out and another TV suddenly turned out. There was a whirring sound, high pitched and eerie, before the machine spat out something rectangular onto the floor. Sarah barely had time to glance at it though before the whole pillar lit up all at once, every television except for the two that had been on before screaming out and vying for her attention, all of them displaying shows with that same inhumanly human feeling.

When the electricity began to arc and the two televisions lurched forward Sarah was ready to turn and run away from this place. The whole thing looked like it was about to explode, the purple lightning and the vibrations the final death throes of the pillar, but she forced herself to stand her ground and, after a moment’s hesitation, even to rush forward and grab one of the exposed televisions. There was so little she understood about this place, so little information to go on, that she couldn’t just leave behind the one thing or person or whatever this was that had tried to explain things so far.

Sarah quickly disconnected the television from its housing, removing the wires from the back before she stumbled back from the pillar with the device held in her arms. She ran from the electricity, ran towards the only thing that wasn’t completely unknown to her in this place, which just so happened to be Zionne.

“I think we should leave.”

"...less competent..."

Had Zionne been in a normal situation, she would have bristled at being called less competent. However, the situation they were in was anything but normal and even though she thought of herself as being a fairly smart individual, perhaps she wasn't. She pushed the thoughts away and focused on the rest of what the pixelated man was saying. Logic dictated that it was in her best interest to keep the information they were being given in mind and heed his instructions. If Mister Reid was to be trusted was another thing entirely though there was really no time to argue his merits and demerits. There was no choice but to trust him.

Nothing was making any sense yet Zionne's brain began processing what small information was made available, her mind straining to grasp at what was presented as facts. Here was Anigma Fluxx according to the man in the TV. It wasn't earth. Though the things around them wasn't entirely alien looking, the place definitely didn't look like anywhere she'd been to. Were they in a different dimension? A different world? An alternate reality? It felt like she was somehow transported into that strange TV series her godfather was so fond of... The Twilight Zone.

Planned and by accident. What did that mean? How can something be planned and at the same time be an accident? Her mind immediately translated it into something that was easy for her to understand. It was like saying that a woman planned on getting pregnant and at the same time accidentally conceived. Huh. When she put it that way...It was still confusing yet somehow, it strangely made some sort of sense.

The sizzle and spark that rippled through the television towers was enough to push everything that was running through Zionne's mind aside and pump adrenalin into her system. Her eyes immediately fell on the brightly colored VHS tape as it clattered on the floor, recognizing the casette thanks to her godfather's hobby of keeping what she liked to call "outdated, ancient things." From her vantage point, she could make out the words "Eat Me" printed on the artifact, the smaller words beneath it unreadable. She had no idea what it contained but her first instinct was to grab it. Playing it might give them more clues on where they were and why there were in this place. With that intent, she took a step forward, her foot suddenly slipping. Catching herself before she fell, she looked down and noted that the floor had somehow started leaking water. It was almost at that exact time when the electricity snapped back on, filling the auditorium with noise from strange, chaotic tv shows. She immediately looked around them, worry etched on her face. Electrical cords and wires strewn about and dangling above water was bad news. Very, very bad news. It would only take one spark to--

As if taking a cue from her mind, purple electricity sparked across the room. Zionne cursed under her breath. Electrocution was definitely not the way she wanted to go and she doubted that her companion would want the same fate. She quickly looked around, her eyes falling on the stage, on the ladder, at the scaffolding and at the door. Her survival instincts immediately chose the door. It was the closest and the most logical choice. The best way not to be fried alive was to get as far away as they could from the fatal water-electricity pair.

As Sarah rushed forward, so did Zionne. She sidestepped a live wire and scooped up the VHS, hugging it to her chest as she avoided an arc of electricity that almost shocked her had she not ducked. She looked at Sarah who was running towards her. "Come on, this way! The door's not that far!" she yelled over the cacophony.