Luna paced around the courtyard, trying her best to make sense of the situation, figuring out what to do next and also keeping her sanity intact. It didn't go well. Thoughts swirling around her head on repeat made absolutely nothing easy, and she fiddled with her bracelet in an almost furious fashion.
"Do we go after them?" she asked, trying to get the thoughts out of her head through words. "We have to, right? We can't leave Shyen and Noah alone. Alexei should be fine and I'm sure Livia would be as well but what about Noah and Shyen? They're not cut out for this, and—"
"Luna, you know Shyen's not that defenseless," Derek objected as he lifted his arm in her direction, likely to offer comfort, and Lucius glared at him.
"Well it's been a while since he actually used weapons," Luna shot back. "He might be rusty."
"Luna's right," Lucius reasoned. "We're going after them. We weren't supposed to split up, and we're gonna keep it that way."
Derek nodded. His arguments were likely more for Luna's comfort's sake rather than voting for them to head in another direction.
"I suppose I'll go fi—" Derek halted, or at least it seemed like he did. Luna stopped to wait for him to continue, but he wouldn't move from the spot, and she soon looked down at his feet.
"Derek," she whispered, trying to keep her heart calm as she noticed Derek's feet sunken into the ground, or rather what had used to be ground. It currently seemed as though the area around him consisted of grass and watery mud, and Luna gritted her teeth as she remembered Derek's past.
Derek narrowed his eyes as he tried lifting one of his feet to no avail.
"Back away," he ordered the other two, and Lucius grabbed Luna's shoulder to pull her back.
"Is that—"
"A marsh," Derek interrupted Luna, mouth twisting into a bitter smile. "It is."
Luna looked around as more and more of the courtyard turned into a foggy wetland, and soon enough Lucius had pulled her through the window again to where the ground was safe, but Luna couldn't just leave.
"What do we do?" She looked around. "Should I—Should I get something to stand on so we can pull you up from there?"
"Doubt it's gonna be that easy," Derek replied, wriggling his leg in an attempt to get loose. "I... I don't think I'll be able to get out of here."
The change in his voice made Luna grow cold. Derek wasn't scared. Never. Of all people he never feared for his life, because he never had to.
"It's a marsh, Derek," Lucius said, clearly annoyed at the situation. "Countless horrible things in the world and you're scared of wetlands?"
"Well maybe if you'd actually seen countless people drowning in them you would be as well." Derek gritted his teeth, seemingly not able to look away from the treacherous ground. "Also... Completely devoured by a marsh isn't that great, especially for someone like me."
Even Lucius shut up at that. The idea of being swallowed by the ground was arguably worse for someone immortal.
"I... Hate to say it, but I think the best bet right now is finding the Arical and snapping whoever's causing the mara to be here out of it." Derek brought a rope out from his bag before grabbing his bow. "Don't think I have a choice but to stay here until then."
Luna suppressed a whimper. She hated to consider it as well, but if they stayed there for too long the chance of them keeping the mara around even without the help of the original source would increase, but she was also willing to bet things wouldn't be quite so easy to get through without Derek.
Even Lucius seemed to think so, looking around for what Luna guessed were other options as well but coming up short.
"Come on, both of you being worried is just overdoing it," Derek said, attempting a smug grin as he fired an arrow with rope tied to it into one of the trees nearby. "I would've thought you'd be the last person on earth to be concerned about me, Cromwell."
"Oh I'm concerned about you," Lucius admitted. "Just not your safety. More like concerned about your existence in general."
Luna rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"Father..."
"What I'm actually frowning about is that despite everything, you were our best bet at getting through this unharmed, yet you're the first to go."
"Well..." Derek fought to maintain his grin. "... Sorry to disappoint you."
"We'll come back for you as soon as we find the source," Luna promised him before sucking in a breath and turning to gaze down the corridor. "But first we need to find the others."
She said it, but she still hesitated as Lucius began walking and she threw a last glance at Derek who gave her a nonchalant wave.
She didn't buy it.
"Don't worry," Lucius whispered without turning around to look at her. "We'll get him out of there."
Luna swallowed, trying her best to smile.
"Right."
They cautiously peered out through the door into the entrance hall, trying to spot any sign of life whether it was an undead boar or the rest of their group, but no one was in there.
Luna bit her lip. They couldn't have been chased even further, could they? There would be signs of it, but they couldn't see any new damage to the surroundings, and no door had been opened.
"They..." She stepped out of the corridor to get a better look. "They must've gone through here, right? There were no other exits."
"As far as we know," Lucius agreed and Luna hated the choice of words. "I think it's best not to call out for them though. Let's try a door instead."
Doing her absolute best to not expect something gruesome behind the door on the other side of the room, Luna shifted her weight from one foot to the other as Lucius opened it just a little.
"It's a bedroom," he said. "But there's another door in there. Think we should have a look or do you want to try another one of these?" He gestured around the hall.
Luna wished she didn't have to choose.
"Let's... Let's check that door in there," she suggested. "It might not be where the others are but it's probably a closed off room so maybe the source could be hiding there."
Lucius nodded slowly and unhooked a candle from the wall, lighting it before heading inside.
"Hello?" Luna couldn't help but whisper as she closed the door behind them. There was a chance someone could be hiding under the large, dust covered bed or in one of the white painted cupboards after all, but she certainly didn't want to check either of them. "We're... We're not nightmares."
Lucius' face scrunched up as he laughed through his nose.
"Convincing."
"Shut up."
No time was wasted on preparing for eventual horrors behind the other door, and Lucius pressed down the handle without hesitation.
Then he frowned.
"Locked," he muttered and turned around, closing his eyes as soon as he did. "Well, fuck."
Luna turned towards where he was looking and noticed the door they'd entered through was gone. Instead, it'd been replaced by some weird looking fire poker leaning against the wall.
She took a painful grip on her bracelet. Doors disappearing had happened before in the mara's nightmares, and she figured it meant something was coming.
"Father, you're... You're not scared, are you?" she whispered, and Lucius spared her a glance.
"No," he replied, but seemed to change his mind. "Worried about Noah, but not scared."
"But—"
"That doesn't mean we're in danger. We just need to calm down and think of a way to get out. I'm pretty sure I could pick the lock to the existing door at least and we'll see what we can find."
"You, uh... You think you can pick the lock even in, you know..." Luna waved her hands around. "... This place?"
"Not all of it is conjured by..."
Lucius' voice trailed off as he looked to the side at a shadow forming on the wall above the bed, and he sighed.
"Already?" was all he whispered, and he took a single step back as a large, somewhat humanoid creature emerged from the wall, its head covered in a disturbing amount of wrinkles and a wide grin as the sole indication of a face that Luna could see. Its long, spindly limbs stretched out to support its pale body with one weird, lumpy hand on the floor and one on the bed.
Lucius, much to Luna's great shock, scoffed. She wasn't sure if she'd heard right.
"Wha—Wha—" Her eyes darted between the two of them as the creature moved one of its hands to grab Lucius' face.
"I suppose it's as official of an introduction as you'll get, hopefully." Lucius looked over at her. "Luna, meet what I guess would be the closest thing to a biological parent for you and Noah."
Luna stared.
"That's...?"
"The Scourge of corruption," Lucius confirmed. "I usually call it Wrinkleface though."
Luna blinked. Rude nicknames seemed like a bad idea given the creature's assumed power, but what did she know?
"And this isn't scary?" she had to ask. How was it not? One of the very Scourges was grabbing her father's face and he was making casual introductions?
"It's... Uncomfortable, and while it doesn't actually have a physical form it looks much bigger than I usually get to see it but..." He grimaced as the creature pulled him closer to its face, possibly staring him down but it was impossible to know when Luna couldn't see any eyes. "... But of all things I've had to endure in my dreams, this one's always been present, you know?"
"I do not," Luna assured him. "I do not know how this is not scary, and I'm... I'm really gonna need a moment to calm down so I'm not the one to attract the mara because of this."
Lucius gave her a concerned frown.
"It's... Is it disturbing because of your... Heritage?"
"Honestly? Both Noah and I have been trying to forget. We just—We just want to live as humans and be rid of our oddities and—And forget about that thing."
"Luna, you being spawned from this doesn't automatically mean you're—" Lucius' words choked in his throat as his gaze flickered over to the side, and his face scrunched up as if in pain before he continued. "Luna, don't look—"
Luna had already turned around, screaming as she spotted the two girls standing in front of the locked door. They looked to be in their early teens, with bulging eyes and swollen necks snapped to the side. Hanging victims, Luna concluded as she looked away, nausea suddenly returning.
"It's all right," she heard her father say and she looked over at him, noticing the Scourge had let him go. His expression was cold, but a wrinkle had formed between his eyebrows and even he seemed to stare somewhere above the girls instead of directly at them. He wasn't as untouched as he claimed to be. "They're harmless. They were never bad people."
"But—" Luna stopped herself from suggesting the mara's versions could be hostile still, but it didn't seem wise.
"They're friends from my childhood," Lucius continued, frown deepening. "Dead long before their time."
Luna arched her eyebrows. It truly didn't seem as though her father was particularly afraid. Disturbed, sure, but not afraid.
"Why—Why would the mara conjure things that don't scare you?"
"Maybe it's out of options," Lucius suggested. "I suppose it would make sense for me to be scared of my past but... I don't see why I'd be scared to such an extent."
Was there a chance he was faking it even for himself? Perhaps he was so determined to not feel fear he'd decided to fool even himself in order to escape the mara?
Luna knew she would have tried it, had she had such a tragic past as executed friends and a full blown Scourge would suggest.
"Lucius?" a voice asked from the other side of the room, and Lucius' expression suddenly wavered. It was only slightly but still noticeable, and he turned around.
A young woman with long, sand coloured hair was watching them, wearing a rather pleasant smile on her face. For some strange reason Luna found her familiar.
Lucius uttered a scoff again, but this time it seemed less confident.
"The mara's really grasping now, isn't it?" he asked, turning fully to face the woman. "Why would I be scared of you?"
"Aren't you though, Lu?" The woman walked closer to him, and Luna grimaced as her father backed away. Not a great sign.
"Don't come closer," he said under his breath. "I know the mara's intentions. Don't make me have to hurt you."
Luna winced as Lucius brought forth a knife. It bothered her that he wouldn't explain the woman's presence like he had with the others.
"You really are scared, aren't you?" the apparition continued, taking yet another step forward and Lucius raised his knife. "Just not—"
"I already told you I'm not." Lucius' voice managed to regain its calm.
"Father?" Luna finally had to ask. "Who—Who is that?"
It was as though a chill went through the room, and Luna couldn't tear her worried gaze away from her father as his face was filled with horror. His hand holding the knife dropped to the side, and his eyes flickered in Luna's direction only to continue staring at the woman again.
"Fa—"
"Oh, right..." The woman's smile broadened. "You never told them, did you? And they don't remember enough."
"I—" Lucius' voice was barely audible.
"I told you. You're scared. You're scared of them finding out about you. About everything—"
"Shut up!" Lucius finally managed to raise his voice, but Luna wagered that only made things worse.
The woman suddenly turned to look in her direction, and Luna flinched.
"Luna, isn't it?" It didn't take long for the woman to have strolled up to her. "You're all grown up, it's hard to recognize you."
"I'm...? Do I—Do I know you?" Luna whispered, trying to figure the familiar traits out.
"... Marilyn." Lucius' voice was low, as if he'd wished not to say it, and Luna's eyes widened.
That was Marilyn?
"It's such a pity I didn't get to see you grow up." Marilyn stroked Luna's cheek, smile fading into bitterness. "We could have been a proper family."
"But you—"
"Yes." Marilyn placed a finger against her mouth. "They said I ran away, didn't they?" She turned her head in Lucius' direction. "But there was more to it than that, wasn't it, Lucius?"
"Marilyn, stop." Lucius' hands trembled as he clenched them.
"Your hypocrisy really is something else." Marilyn gave him a look of contempt, with her earlier, soothing personality being completely gone. "You keep reprimanding everyone around you for their blood thirst and their mistakes in the past, but you... You're without fault? Even after everything—"
"Shut up!" Lucius' breath was heavy, and more shadows crept closer on the walls.
"Uh... Father?" Luna whispered, but he didn't seem to notice.
"You know I was right," Marilyn wouldn't stop. "You know what you did was wrong, and heartless."
Luna's hands shot up to her mouth as Lucius suddenly dashed forward, raising his knife in an instant and slicing Marilyn across the throat.
"Father!"
"She's just a nightmare!" Lucius' voice was desperate as he wiped blood from his face. "She's not real!"
Luna wanted to warn him. She wanted to tell him to calm down, but it was too late. Shadows were taking form from the corners of the room and the young girls along with Marilyn twitched as more people appeared beside them. The sheer amount of them was terrifying. Most of them had clearly suffered a painful death. A young man's back was completely covered in blood, a larger man looked as though he'd been mauled by some kind of animal, some had limbs twisted in unnatural positions, and then there were the copious amounts of throat cuts.
Lucius backed away as Marilyn started crawling up from the floor, eventually having to stop as he hit the bed.
"Father, you need to calm down," Luna pleaded. The room was swarming with dead people at this point.
"She's right," a black haired man said, appearing next to Lucius. Luna was fairly sure she recognized him as well, and she squinted at him as he continued. "You need to stay calm, all right?"
Lucius let out a trembling sob as the man grabbed his face, and Luna suddenly realized why she recognized him.
"U—Uncle Seth?" she asked, not entirely sure. This man was much younger and in a much better condition than the man she'd met in Wyrmdon years back.
"Let go of me," Lucius whispered, trying to back away but once again being stopped by the bed.
"Why are you being so rude?" Seth pushed him backwards, sending dust flying as Lucius landed on the bed. "You wouldn't want to disappoint me. You're a good brother, aren't you?"
"I—"
Luna wasn't sure what to do. Her father did his best to fight off his brother, but his efforts were in vain. Why would the mara have conjured something like this anyway? Why was Seth part of her father's nightmares?
"Oh, you definitely don't want her to know about us, do you?" Seth smirked, and Lucius gritted his teeth.
"I didn't do anything! You're the one who—"
Seth suddenly slapped him across the face, and Luna gasped.
"Don't talk back to me," he said, grabbing Lucius' shirt with enough force to tear it. "You're gonna do exactly what I tell you, just like when you were a dumb little kid."
Lucius tried pushing him back again but before he could move, his arms were grabbed by two other people, having appeared from the wall above the bed underneath the looming frame of the Scourge.
"It'll be over before you know it," a woman with a large gash across her throat said and the man next to her pushed him down even further. "It's for your own sake."
Luna's eyes darted between the four of people, noting some similar traits in all of them.
Those people were probably Lucius' parents.
"Stop it!" Lucius tried pulling away from them but the couple's grip was too firm, and Seth pushed a knee down on his abdomen. It was too much. Luna couldn't just watch as it was going on and she tried shoving Seth away as well but he pushed back without effort, causing her to land on the floor.
She was completely helpless as her father struggled against the trio. What would she do? She didn't stand a chance against all the nightmarish people in there, and it wasn't even her nightmare.
Then she looked up, eyes locking on her panicking father again and she drew a deep breath. While it certainly felt risky she wasn't sure she had much of a choice at the moment, and she turned to grab the fire poker from the wall.
"Father?" She climbed up onto the bed with an apologetic expression. "I'm real sorry about this, please don't be mad."
And then she hit the iron tool across her father's head, gently enough to hopefully not kill him but enough to knock him out. Or at least that's what she was aiming for.
She let out a breath of relief as the shadows suddenly faded away, leaving her and her unconscious father alone again.
Sitting down on the bed to catch her breath she couldn't help but frown at the poker in her hand. Looking at it properly it wasn't a poker at all, and she turned it around to have closer look.
"It's a branding iron," she whispered, tracing the all too familiar BBT emblem with her finger. She knew why it was in this room. She'd seen what it had done to her father's back, and she sighed as she also knew very well who'd done it to him. The idea of Derek's past being tied to her father's and more specifically her father's nightmares made her heart sting. Perhaps that was why it hadn't disappeared like the rest of the nightmares. It was part of her fears as well.
"That beating you gave him really was appropriate, huh?" she tried joking as she turned towards her father, only to realize he wasn't there, and she sprung up from the bed.
"Father!?" She looked around, finding absolutely no trace of him. Turning around once again she realized the bed had disappeared as well, and her breathing sped up as every single piece of furniture or decoration disappeared as soon as she wasn't looking. Worst of all, the remaining door had disappeared as well, and Luna soon found herself in an empty room.
She didn't have time to stop it. As soon as she realized the most vital part of what she needed at the moment, she turned around to look at the candle, but she'd been too slow.
Instead she found herself in pitch black darkness, all alone.