Labyrinth [4] - Personal Hell

Sitting cross-legged in the middle of his room, Lloyd closed his eyes as he imagined the entire room inch for inch.

'If I think about it, I can't open the door, nor can I open the windows. I've tried smashing through, but as expected, there couldn't even scratch the walls, window, and door.' Lloyd thought with a slight frown.

'The goal must be to get out of this place without breaking through anything with physical force. This is the trial of intelligence, therefore I must use my brain to get out of this situation.' Lloyd thought before a grin appeared on his face, and he unclenched his jaw.

'The safe...' Lloyd thought before disappearing from where he sat and appearing on the second floor.

Opening the door to the master bedroom, Lloyd entered the room and walked straight toward the wardrobe before opening and staring at the steel safe that had been pushed to the corner and surrounded by folded clothes.

Taking out the safe, Lloyd looked at it until he realized something.

'Eight digits split into a 2.2.4 format. It is most likely a date... Well, I doubt it would be that easy.' Lloyd scratched his temple as he thought about the latest clue.

He knew that this was most likely some sort of escape room, but since it was a test that was part of one of the most difficult activities he had ever completed, he felt like it was supposed to be a little harder.

'There was a calendar in the kitchen saying that the date was the 14th of September 2022, and from what I saw on the television, that looks like it had come from the stone age, the queen died less than a week ago, and they are taking her to her place of burial. I am almost certain that the current date is not the code to open this safe, but it won't hurt to try, right?' Lloyd asked himself while caressing his chin as if he had a long beard.

Lloyd quickly added the current date without skipping a beat, but just as anticipated, it was wrong. However, despite knowing that it was most likely inaccurate, Lloyd did not expect that the steel box would suddenly shine with a crimson light.

The unexpected flash of light began to disappear after a few seconds, but Lloyd still felt as if something was about to happen.

However, after standing on guard for more than a minute, he finally stretched his hand towards the safe and turned it around after catching a glimpse of the same crimson light.

Looking at the back of the safe, Lloyd watched as the number "5" engraved into the safe glowed brightly. He was certain it was not there before, but after watching, the number "5" was slowly replaced with the number "4".

"4 more tries left, I guess." Lloyd sighed.

***

Courage...

Courage?

What was courage?

The dictionary would tell you that courage is the ability to do something that frightens one. Courage was bravery in a different coat.

However, a soldier would tell you something both similar and different.

"The ability to stand before your enemy, look into its eyes and scream 'No More' as you charge at it with everything you've got in order to save those behind you from ending up with the same fate as you."

What a load of bullsh*t...

Well, at least that's what Fatima thought.

That monologue was one of the last things that Fatima's father told her merely a day before his death. It was one of those moments that one would not forget, no matter how many years passed.

A fixed moment in time. A moment that would have changed everything about you if there was the slightest difference in how the event occurred.

And before Fatima stood another one of those "Fixed" moments.

'If this is courage...'

'Then courage is just torture under a different name.' Fatima thought, her hand losing grip of her father's.

Her eyes were completely empty, and not a single muscle in her body dared move an inch.

The blood between her hand and her father's made the grip weaken even more before, finally, the hand fell to the ground and grew cold as the seconds passed.

The pulse had long become nonexistent, yet Fatima's fear and rage grew into an unstoppable flood threatening to destroy the dam and release something from deep within.

'Was the night always this... bright?' she asked herself.

She didn't know why, but she always remembered the night as being completely silent, the only light entering her line of sight emanating from the three moons that appeared every several fortnights.

They called such an event the lunar Bermuda triangle. She never understood the name, but she always detested the event ever since her parent's passing.

'Why am I not moving? Why am I not doing anything? Why am I just standing here like a complete idiot?!' she roared, yet her voice was nothing but an internal one, meaning that no one other than her could hear her crying pleads.

'Move! MOVE! I'm begging you! Run, attack, anything!' she roared, yet the little girl didn't move a muscle despite that.

Who could blame her, though?

'MOVE YOU USELESS BITCH!' She shrieked when the woman finally moved forward and pointed her blade at Fatima's unmoving mother.

A pity flickered on the woman's face as she looked at the little girl, but it was too faint for Fatima to even point it out.

'NOOoOoOOOOOO-'

*Spulch*

The instant the knife blade went through the heart of Fatima's mother, everything suddenly became white before she lost focus and entered what seemed like a deep, deep dream.

...

Opening her eyes, a little girl with black hair and brown eyes sat up at an amazing speed as her breathing became ragged and her heart beat faster than ever.

"What is it, honey?" A woman in her mid-thirties asked, her eyes and hair brown and her skin color also pointing in that direction. She wasn't dark per se, but she definitely wasn't of European heritage.

"Mommy! I had a bad dream." The little girl sulked.

"It's okay; it's just a dream, sweetheart." The woman hugged the little girl while giving her a motherly smile that made the little girl immediately forget everything she just saw in her dream.

The little girl quickly smiled while shaking her head, but when she saw another figure enter the room, she did not waste a second before letting go of her mother, charging at her father, and hugging him with everything she had.

Hours passed in the blink of an eye as the little girl had as much fun as she could with her parents. She wanted to ask why her father hadn't gone to work that day, but since she was having too much fun, she chose to forget the question and simply have a good time with her parents.

They went everywhere, from a planet filled with the most beautiful scenes in the observable universe to the largest funfairs in the human colony.

"Let's go." Her father smiled while stretching his hand towards her, yet right before she held his hands, her vision flickered, and she saw something that made her heart instantly drop.

Her father's hand was covered in blood and felt as cold as ice to the touch, and despite feeling like she had seen this scene before, she forced herself to blink again, an action that made the vision go away and made her forget about it the moment she couldn't see it anymore.

"Are you alright, darling?" Fatima's mother leaned down and asked her daughter, yet when Fatima looked into her mother's eyes, she did not see the same happy and energetic glint. No... She saw something different.

Her mother's eyes were emotionless and without signs of life. They didn't move, and she could barely see her mother's pupil as if a dark shadow was covering it, yet that was far from the worst part about it.

When she looked into her mother's reassuring smile, she only felt dread, hopelessness, and sorrow.

Sorrow filled her from the pits of her stomach and made her feel like puking.

And puke, she did.

As Fatima puked for a few more minutes, her mother advised them to go home for now, but her mother's unhopeful expression and one that showed worry, but acceptance at the same time, filled her with even more dread.

"N-No. I think I'm fine." Fatima was reassured, and despite her parents not fully believing her, they didn't push too much.

Possibly because they knew what would happen, and who better to spend time with than your own family?

Hours passed, and as the family left the mall, they walked into a nearby alleyway they thought would be a faster route, but it was clear that their enjoyable time together had made the parents forget...

"Mr. and Mrs. Ahmed. I've come to collect your dept." A feminine voice spoke from behind them, and the instant Fatima heard her voice, she froze.

Now that she heard the woman's melodious yet dreadful voice, Fatima knew that she was in nothing but a dream. A recount of what had happened.

Yet she couldn't move a muscle.

She was scared stiff.

Yet her neck seemed to work.

Slowly, Fatima turned around the absorb the dreadful scene of her mother kneeling before the woman and asking her to give them a little more time with their daughter.

Yet...

*Sching*

The woman's blade mercilessly slit across her mother's throat, and all Fatima could do was sit.

Sit and watch as the blade cleaved through the throat, spraying blood everywhere as her mother dropped to the ground face first, but luckily towards her daughter.

It gave her a chance to give her daughter a final, reassuring smile before she succumbed to the darkness that enveloped her vision.

Her father suffered the same fate, telling her a few parting words before being stabbed through the heart as he held his daughter's hands while bleeding out.

And despite all that... Through all that, Fatima didn't move a single muscle. She pleaded, yet nothing happened.

She begged, yet her body stood still, her eyes as lifeless as her parents that lay before her.

"What a cruel world this one can be." The woman's voice finally entered Fatima's ears, and despite being delirious, she heard what the woman said.

And she only became more enraged.

She couldn't remember how many times she had done this.

Over and over again, she had to watch those she loved most die before her, and even after she gained control of her body once again, her body didn't allow her to move.

She had the body of a coward, or that's at least what she thought.

She didn't know how often she would be doing this same thing repeatedly, but it was beginning to affect her soul.

'God... Please, if there is a god out there...'

'Please just end my misery.' She begged as her vision became white again, and she was stripped back 12 hours to when she first woke up.

***

In a room painted with mostly white, a shirtless boy wearing all black sat on a table and swung his legs off it. He looked closer to an adult than a child, yet most people could tell he was no older than 20.

It was a skill that came with the culture over the years, and despite people over 100 years old looking at the same age as a 30-year-old man, people could tell how old someone was just by looking at them.

Lloyd wore a long coat that reached his knees that was underlined with a glowing purple fabric.

He wore sunglasses despite it being quite dark in the kitchen, but due to his night vision, he could see right through the glasses as they weren't even there. He simply put them on to hide the color of his eyes.

And at that moment, Lloyd was staring into another person's eyes. Someone with eyes that shouldn't have been prevalent in ancient times, such as the one he was in.

"I think I finally understand." Lloyd spoke, his eyes not leaving the pair of glowing red eyes that seemed to peer back into his soul.

'I think I finally solved it!'