Dark looked up at the black sky. White spots danced downwards. He wasn't sure of they were snowflakes or ash. His tongue sticked to the dry roof of his mouth.
He called out to her again. The air around him fizzled and cracked with energy. After a few seconds, the sparks sputtered and dispersed. He chuckled. A metallic taste spread in his mouth.
He let his hand fall down to his chest. The body of Rachel still leaned to the wall next to him. However, he had already used up the energy that had been left in her a while ago.
One more time. He wouldn't have the power for many more tries anyway. This time, the connection opened up. Her face appeared in front of Dark, and he was couldn't help but to be taken aback in the initial moment.
She looked bad. It almost made him a little sad.
This being had nothing in common with the woman that was able to go toe to toe with him on a daily basis.
He reached upwards. The sparks scorced the edge of his sleeve as he put his hand through the portal. It disappeared.
He felt a familiar pull, one that he hadn't felt in quite a while. Dark closed his eyes, and flung himself forward with all of his remaining power.
She barely resisted when he entered her mindscape. A shiver ran through his body. An old proverb crossed his mind. From the frying pan straight to the fire. If felt quite fitting.
Her mindscape wasn't much different than the dead world he just escaped from. Cold, dark, and bleak. Kind of reminded him of his home.
He walked forward, keeping his guard up. This was a trap. He knew her too well. Every moment she'd jump out from the darkness like a feral animal, ready to tear him to shreds.
But everything stayed quiet. Eerily quiet. The whole place was white, as if covered in snow, and he could barely see a few steps ahead because of the dense fog.
There weren't any landmarks. No trees, no buildings, nothing that you could normally find inside the mind of a person.
He only noticed the thing he was looking for when it almost bit his nose. He stopped in his tracks, looking upwards.
A large, cocoon like structure loomed ahead. It had grown into the ground with thick, white, veiny roots. It got narrower at the top, reaching far into the sky.
The Center. The place from which the inner self would control the body. But this one was different. He had been in the minds of lunatics. Of completely sane people. Of war veterans, priests and comatose people. Not once did it look like this.
»My dear, what have they done to you?« He asked the structure.
It was empty. A memory floated up in his mind. Once, a long time ago, he wanted to take over her body himself. But a better opportunity had presented itself to him back in the manor.
With a satisfied hum, he connected two puzzle pieces of his memory. The Celine he knew had merely been her Inner Self all the time. She must have held onto him somehow when he took over the body of her brother's friend.
He never found out what happened to her body, though. It seemed like another being had taken hold of it, dispatching of it when it had fulfilled it's purpose. Somehow, it must have ended up inside The Machine as well.
He stepped forward. The white exterior of her center was soft and bendable, like warm wax. So different to the impenetrable defense she used to have.
As he stepped through the was like mass, a light flickered in the eyes of her body.
Deep in the catacombs, the female creature straightened her back. She wiped the dirt from her face and looked down on her, letting out a disparaging huff at the sight of her torn dress.
Her eyes first cleared up, and then moved on to become fully white.
Dark took a second to get adjusted to his new vessel. Waves of energy pulsed through the reactivated body.
With a confident stride, he began to look for an exit. He was back, and it was time to break a few necks.