“Well, this doesn’t look ominous at all…” Aubrey muttered as she looked at the dead trees surrounding the group. They have just walked into another room and already they are unnerved. Long, inky black hands reached towards the sky as the group began walking forward.
Once again, everything seemed to be drawn out. Creepy, unmoving creatures that looked like something you would find in a sketchbook stood tall. Aubrey could only feel chills down her spine as they continued walking.
Liar.
They all paused as they swore they heard a voice. Looking around revealed nothing except more horrifying sketches.
Liar. Liar. Liar.
The sketches were getting worse and worse, the number of hands and dead trees increased and parts of the ground were missing.
Liar. Liar. Liar.
Tree stumps replaced the dead trees as the voice grew louder and louder. Aubrey felt that unexplainable rage building up inside her. Once again they were all feeling intense emotions for no reason. Hero was shaking and Kel looked like he was fighting back tears. It was taking all of Aubrey’s might to not grit her teeth.
Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar.
The ground only lost more parts and Aubrey looked down into the hole only to see what looked to be jumbled memories. If she looked close enough she could see tiny parts of Mari’s face.
Hero suddenly paused and looked on with fear. Aubrey and Kel followed his gaze and froze as they saw what he was looking at.
The one-eyed creature was standing above a tree stump, floating in place as if it were calmly relaxing.
Aubrey felt the anger inside her bubble as she fought to keep it down. Hero looked more shaken than before and Kel looked like he wanted to cry. Omori walked to the creature calmly and stood in front of it. It stared at him, unblinking as it spoke for the first time.
“ Sunny, I love you. ”
It spoke with her voice and that was the last straw for Aubrey. She ran forward, the rage taking over as she threw a punch at the creature. It dodged and she threw another punch. It kept dodging and Aubrey kept attacking. Her arms were starting to feel numb as her punches became slower.
It dodged again as Aubrey swung, though this time Aubrey felt herself trip on her own feet. She tried to keep her balance but she was too close to a piece of the broken ground.
She fell.
She heard people screaming her name but one voice stood out the most.
“ Aubrey, I love you. ”
~~~~~~
Hero felt the fear inside get more intense as he watched Aubrey fall into the abyss. Using pure adrenaline he ran forward and looked over the edge. He couldn’t see Aubrey at all. Kel ran over by his side with tears dripping down his face as he looked absolutely devastated.
“AUBREY!? CAN YOU HEAR US?”
…
There was nothing. No response or anything. Hero felt tears build up in his eyes as he prayed to whatever god that was listening that Aubrey was alive and that she was okay.
Kel was full-on sobbing. Screaming her name as Omori grabbed both of their shoulders in a comforting manner. The one-eyed creature stood behind them, watching their every move.
Hero couldn’t think of a worse situation to be in right now.
...The universe, on the other hand, could.
The ground began to shake as more tiles began to fall into the abyss. Hero only had a few seconds to process what was happening as the ground underneath him and Kel broke and they fell into the darkness as well.
Now, there was only Omori.
He turned around to face Something as it whispered,
“ I love you...Sunny….”
Omori turned around and began walking back with Something trailing behind him. He grabbed the key that summoned a hand and used it to teleport back to Black Space. He then laid down on the black blanket, still and motionless as he silently waited. He knew the others would be back soon. They always came back after all.
“Bored Dreamer?” He heard Stranger ask him.
Omori didn’t bother acting as if he heard him.
“You know your friends care for you. I have heard them talk about you in the void. They’re worried about you.”
…
“Maybe this time, with their help, you can finally find the truth.”
Stranger’s presence left the area.
Omori stayed where he was and simply relaxed as he waited for the others to arrive.
~~~~~~~
Aubrey opened her eyes to find herself in the void. She was right before to guess that the images were memories mixed in with each other. Others looked distorted and destroyed as well, leaving behind traces of happy thoughts and turning them into terrifying visions.
She heard screaming from above and looked up in time to see Hero and Kel falling. They hit the ground with a loud thud and Aubrey ran to their side immediately.
“Are you guys okay?!” She looked over them with pure panic on her face.
“Ugh, I feel like my back is broken…” Kel muttered into the ground.
“Sorry, that’s me. I’ll get up.” Hero pushed himself off Kel, allowing him to get up as well.
They began looking around, looking for anything that could help them get out of there. Hero’s eyes landed on one of the weird sketches that seemed to have a hole in it.
“Guys, there might be an exit over there.” He pointed it out to the others.
“Good, I...I don’t like it here.” Kel sighed, his eyes were red to show that he cried once again.
As they walked over to the sketch Aubrey decided to ask a question, “Hey, Hero. Do you feel an intense emotion for no reason when one of those creatures appears? I know Kel feels upset and then I feel anger. What about you?”
Kel seemed to perk up at her question. He turned to his brother, waiting for his answer.
“I feel...scared? And it isn’t just like how I get scared of spiders. It’s more like a paralyzing feeling of a million fears building up at once. It’s awful.” Hero informed.
“Ah, that must suck to feel…” Aubrey gave him a sympathetic look.
“It’s annoying, that’s for sure.” Hero admitted.
They made it over to the sketch and climbed through the hole, transferring them to a dock. Everything, including the water, was black and white still as the group began navigating through the docks. Random objects were spread around, like TVs and house phones.
They eventually found a ladder that led them into the waters. They began swimming through the water though it was almost as if it was pushing them back. Aubrey could swear she could see figures in the distance, randomly appearing and disappearing as if they were never there.
They climbed back onto the docks and immediately spotted a red and yellow swing set near what reminded the group of a door in Black Space.
“Do you think that going through that door will bring us back?” Kel asked, pointing to it.
“It’s worth a shot...let’s be cautious though. We don’t know what could be inside.” Hero began walking towards the door.
He opened it slowly, peeking inside and spotting…
He opened the door fully revealing the inside of Sunny’s house, just as they remembered it. They stepped inside and Hero looked around, seeing nothing they could use if they were in danger. The door disappeared the moment they stepped inside, so there was no turning back.
Walking into the next room, Aubrey felt her head get fuzzy as static filled the corner of her visions. Hero and Kel felt the same way as they all were stumbling for balance.
The trio managed to find their balance and looked at the stairs nervously.
“I don’t think I will be able to climb that.” Hero admitted.
“I can’t either…” Kel sighed.
They decided to walk into Mari’s piano room, only for the static to cover up more of their vision and become more lightheaded.
They could barely see or hear anything as glitched and distorted clogged up their ears, only getting louder and louder. Aubrey stumbled forward only to face plant onto the floor where her vision cleared up and static disappeared.
“Guys! Go on the ground! You can see clearer!” She informed the others.
They couldn’t hear her so she crawled over to Kel and punched his leg, causing him to fall to the ground.
“Gah! What the heck Aubrey!” Kel began to rub his leg, only then noticing how the static cleared.
“Thank me later.” She grinned as she went over to Hero and punched his leg as well.
Now that all three were on the ground they could see and hear way better than before. Looking around they could see three figures that looked like them, standing around in a circle. They only stared at each other, not uttering a single word.
Nearby was a hole in the ground with a ladder that the group immediately began crawling too. They climbed down and entered a short hallway. On the ground laid another mask, this time instead of being happy it was angry.
Aubrey picked it up and held it in front of Hero and Kel, “I found one of these in the house with Omori. Do you think we’re meant to collect them?” she asked.
“Maybe? You should hold on to it just in case.” Hero stated. Aubrey agreed with him, it would be for the best.
She put it in her pocket and continued walking until they ran into a door. Hero walked forward and put his ear to the door.
His body froze and his eyes widened as he backed away.
“What? What is it?” Kel whispered.
“Loud breathing on the other side. I don’t think it’s safe,” Hero informed, “We should head back.”
Kel and Aubrey nodded as they began to walk away from the door. The first thing they noticed is how the hallway suddenly grew longer, the static noise returning to their ears but quieter than before.
Then they heard the door unlock and it swung open.
It took every bit of Aubrey’s self-control to not turn around and try to fight whatever was behind them as the anger came back in full swing.
Instead, she grabbed Hero’s hand because he suddenly stopped moving, the fear his body felt paralyzing him.
Kel was ahead, the floor being stained with his tears as he reached the ladder, only for it to disappear in front of him.
Aubrey knew that the anger she was feeling could be useful right now. Might as well use it on her enemies.
She turned around to look at the distorted Mari chasing them and aimed to kick it. The creature latched onto her leg before the room glitched.
The next thing she knew was that they were back in Black Space where Omori was simply twirling his knife around. Once he noticed their presence he waved at them as if they didn’t just go through a traumatic experience.
“What I would have done to take your place right now…” Kel muttered, his voice laced with envy.
Aubrey took a step forward and immediately hissed in pain, looking down at her leg to see that the distorted Mari scratched it. She sighed as she ripped her jacket again and wrapped it around the wound before looking at the others.
“Can one of you guys prevent me from fighting these things? At this point, I might as well be covered in wounds.” She asked.
“I probably won’t be able to do many thanks to the weird fear I randomly feel…” Hero sighed. Aubrey expected that from him, knowing that he can’t help it either. Stupid dream world making them feel shit…
“I might be able to but my tears would probably block my vision.” Kel wiped away the leftover tears, “If this affects us in the real world I am going to need so much water…”
“I hope it’s not going to affect us in the real world.” Aubrey began to nervously sweat, just thinking about how blood covered her sheets must be.
She suddenly felt a hand on her back and she turned to face Omori.
“Ah. I think you’re the only one who doesn’t get a weird intense feeling in this place, huh?” She grinned at the monotone boy.
Omori nodded and Aubrey let out a sigh, “Lucky…”
Everyone sat in silence before Omori got up and walked to another door.
“Yeah, yeah. We know.” Kel got up and walked to him. Aubrey and Hero walked forward to the door and Omori opened it.
They walked into a small room and were greeted to a sight of a black cat laying on the table with its eyes closed, almost as if it was sleeping. Nearby was a humanoid cat wearing a butler suit with a white cloth over its arm.
It looked over to them and grinned, its tail wagging slightly, “Mewo has been very bad.”
Aubrey felt her heart drop in her chest as the butler’s grin grew wider.
Omori walked over to the table as Mewo opened up her eyes, tail slightly waving.
The others walked over as well, wondering what they were meant to do.
“I...I do not like what this is implying.” Hero’s eyes widened when he saw the tools on the table.
A knife, a needle, and a pair of scissors.
“Do we...do we need to perform a surgery or something?” Kel nervously asked as Mewo looked at the tools with the same amount of confusion as them.
Aubrey was too busy thinking about the fact that Mewo was laying in front of her. She only remembered hearing rumors about what happened to her but the biggest one was the one where she got out past Sunny’s mother and ran into the road. A car that wasn’t following the speed limit sped by and…
She remembered being so angry after hearing what happened. How could they let that happen to Mewo?! One of the most precious things to Mari was cut open by some drunk driver. If it wasn’t for Kim then she probably would have gone to Sunny’s house and yell at his mother for hours.
Now Mewo was in front of them again, laying on a table and staring at them with big wide eyes.
She moved her hand and gently began petting the cat as the others thought about what to do. If Hero is right and they are meant to do surgery on her, she wants to make sure Mewo is comfortable.
“...” Hero turned to the butler, staring him right in the eyes, “What are we meant to do?”
“Mewo has been very bad. The bad must be punished somehow.”
Punished? Aubrey’s eyes landed on the tools and her face scrunched up in confusion. How were they supposed to-
…
Oh.
OH.
“I...I don’t like this.” She backed away from the table.
Kel and Hero seemed to understand what they had to do as well because they backed away from the table as well.
“Okay, no. Absolutely not doing that. What the fuck.” Kel turned to the butler who seemed amused by their reactions.
“You must.” He grinned.
“No! Who in their right mind would fucking-”
SLASH
Omori was the only one who was standing near the table. His hand was in the air, his knife covered in blood.
Aubrey felt tears pricked in her eyes as she ran towards Omori who tried to prevent her from seeing Mewo.
“WHAT THE FUCK!?” She screamed at him.
“He did what had to be done. For that, you receive what you need.” The butler reached into his pocket and tossed the key at them. Omori grabbed it and they all waited for the hands to appear.
“Where are they?” Aubrey whispered as nothing happened.
“Hey, where are the hands?” Hero asked the butler.
The butler laughed, “Oh, they won’t appear. Only one of you knows what you must do.”
“Huh?!” Kel shot the butler a confused look.
Omori noticed how everyone was paying attention to the butler and not him. He knew what he had to do.
He wiped the blood off his knife with his shirt before pointing his blade at himself.
“What do we have to do!?” Hero shouted at the butler, “Wasn’t killing Mewo enough for you!?”
A smirk crossed the cat's face, “Don’t worry, the Dreamer is about to do something to free you.”
“What the hell do you-” Kel turned around just in time to see Omori positioning the knife directly to his heart.
“OMORI!”
Aubrey and Hero turned around to see Omori plunging the knife into his chest and the world glitched again.
They were back in Black Space again.
“What...What did you just do.” Aubrey immediately turned to Omori.
Omori turned away from her quickly and she grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him around forcibly.
“What. The absolute fuck. Did you just do?!” She yelled at him.
“Aubrey! Let him go!” Kel shouted, pulling her off him.
Omori’s expression barely changed as the two began shoving each other.
“Enough!” Hero shouted immediately, stopping Kel and Aubrey.
“I know what he just did is...really, really concerning but it isn’t like he could tell us why he did it. He doesn’t speak, remember?” Hero pointed out.
“He doesn’t….” Aubrey just realized throughout their whole journey Omori never uttered a word that wasn’t a grunt.
“Oh...I never noticed that…” she muttered.
“Yeah...Once again, we’re going to get the answers we need in the morning. We’re also going to have serious conversation…” Hero turned to Omori who slowly nodded.
They have a whole ton of doors left to go.