Memory Lane

15. One hour a pion

15. One hour a pion

When he next opened his eyes, Fred fell face down on a polished wooden floor. Rubbing his eyes and sitting up, Fred saw Anima and silhouette beside him looking up a long dark corridor leading to a lighter area ahead.

"what is this place?" Fred thought.

"the next layer of the mindscape perhaps" Silhouette replied to Fred's thought.

"you heard that?" Fred turned to the shadow.

"sure. All thoughts are free flowing in the mindscape. You can hear my thoughts and vice versa" Silhouette chirped.

"cool!" Fred processed the new information as the group approached the main square hall of the unknown building. There were two wooden staircases rising to multiple doors on the second floor. Fred took the initiative and rushed into one of the rooms upstairs, soon followed by Anima and Silhouette who heard him shout from inside.

"guys, help!!!" Fred called from the open door. Anima and Silhouette saw him floating in mid-air in a vast empty room big enough to be a studio.

"fine for me" Silhouette drifted along the floor and up a wall, not experiencing Fred's predicament.

"that's because you're a shadow. You have no mass" Anima stayed in the doorway to avoid being sucked in further. Fred reached out a hand and was pulled out of the room, while Silhouette closed the door behind them.

"Anima. Look at these arrows" Fred pointed to the doors of each room on the second floor, each carrying a metal label with either an up, down or equals sign.

"each room must have a different gravity" Anima concluded from the recent fiasco. Suddenly, glass broke in the meeting area down the corridor. The three travellers rushed down to the ground floor and saw the figures walk in.

"what a discovery. Welcome to the House of Balance" the white mask of Persona spoke at the fore.

"you!" Anima recognized Ego, who gladly returned the favor with an eyeroll and a middle finger.

"we meet again" Ego talked to the group.

"you two must be with Superego" Fred took a step closer to the center of the room.

"the master has issued his orders, with which we must comply. What fun!" Persona mentioned sadistically, taking the mask off his head and summoning beams of black energy that enveloped the travellers in a black dome. Inside the dome, Fred and the others were subjected to terrifying noises and imagery that seeped into their minds and brought them to the edge of insanity.

"get out of my head!!!" Fred held his hands over his ears and shut his eyes to keep out the dark forces.

"sweet little nightmares. Everybody has them" Persona tormented from outside the dome.

"NO!!!" Fred grew energy in his fists and punched his way out of the dome, causing to crumble to the floor and saving his friends. Free from the spell, Silhouette and Anima charged at Person to get even while Ego ran to the second floor. Fred pursued the smaller being upstairs.

"catch me if you can!!" Ego opened a door to one of the rooms before being bundled by Fred. The gravity of the room was high enough to force them to fight each other by sliding on the floor and throwing misguided volleys at each other, then racing to another room where the fight could continue in a more suitable gravity. Downstairs, Persona was hacking and slashing at Anima and Silhouette, eventually having enough. 

Persona opened up his mask to the empty void beneath. Two plumes of black smoke transformed into two smaller clones of Persona who took the fight to the travellers. Anima blew through her opponent with a wave of mental energy, while Silhouette used a combination of broken furniture from the bottom floor and dark energy to overpower his clone.

"you win this round. See you soon" Persona realized the power of his opposition and feigned defeat to rush past them and escape through the window from which he had come. Upstairs, Ego and Fred were still duking it out through the various rooms of the House of Balance. Fighting on the walls, in mid-air, or along the floor exhausted both beings to the point where Ego dropped to his knees outside the last room. Fred struggled to keep on his feet but managed to corner Ego.

"you got me" Ego held up his hands faintly.

"who is this Superego you work for?" Fred edged in closer.

"you're going deeper down the rabbit hole. Come quietly, and there's a chance that you'll still be alive after all is said and done" Ego continued.

"no chance" Fred responded.

"so be it" Ego tripped up Fred and vaulted over the bannister to the ground floor, dodging the attacks of Anima and Silhouette and escaping through the reception area.

"dammit!!" Fred got up and saw his chance for answers run away.

"did you find a way out?" Fred walked downstairs, avoiding broken glass and wood around him.

"no. Actually more than we bargained for" Anima replied.

"shame, because I did find a way we can escape" Fred proposed.

"how?" Silhouette wondered as Fred walked up to one of the long windows on the second floor with a lump of wood.

"breaking and exiting" Fred broke the window, providing an escape from the House of Balance.