1 The Beginning of Nightmare

Kendrick was standing in a dark abyss. He could not see that which he was standing on, but the feeling that his feet transmitted to him told him he was on solid ground. His vision, on the other hand, betrayed this sensation. The darkness of this otherworldly place only served to heighten his already robust fear. In front of this pitch-black darkness, were five lights that shined down on five entities that were before Kendrick.

These... things were near demi-god demon-like existences that were currently debating who, among them, were going to take ownership of him, to his horror, like an object. Outside the place he was currently in's lack of decorum or anything that made sense in a spatial way, Kendrick was very afraid, so much so he had actually lost the ability to rationally respond to the situation, but in an interesting twist was calmly observing his situation, as if he was a third party.

As he awaited the conversation of these nightmarish abominations, he looked at each of these creatures. Each of these horrid creatures was the anathema of what would be considered normal life. The guttural speech these beings spoke in was harsh on the ears. Some responded with clicks and clacks of the mandibles and others with some twisted slurring of a drunken beggar or the sounds of the static of a TV left a little too long at night after the broadcast went off. An interesting note was that between this chaotic and maddening noise these horrors produced, Kendrick was able to make out what they were saying. Not so much as in the way a person listens to someone that speaks the same language as he or she does, but more in the intent behind the sound like a dog or cat can tell by the tone of a human when they speak.

A Large creature with a dark horned face, with long leathery wings and a body that seemed to be made out of an excessive amount of arms spoke, "You got the last piece, damn it. It's Our turn to get the next piece."

In response to what Kendrick would later learn its simple name of Many-Arms, a creature that looked like a combination of a human skeleton and an insect spoke with its skin or carapace being a light purplish-blue. This entity had an upper torso like that of a ghoul with long arms that ended with sick looking three-fingered clawed hands. It had many bony protrusions that led from each of its joints. Its head had an upper human skull, but its mouth was formed from two mandibles that clicked quickly when it issued its sounds to speak.

"I don't give a damn what you want Many-Arms, it is I, Dim-Skull, that will take this piece. My last piece produced the best results. My pieces are always trained the best."

"You always say that, but when they get to the last rounds, they fall victim to their success and fail to win, BROUHAHA, I should get this one."

Another faceless abomination spoke out, in response. This one was indeed called Faceless-Teeth. It was like a small hill of black ink that took on the form of an ever-shifting blob, with mouths filled with ragged jagged teeth forming and unforming, as its mouths opened and closed. Appendages would push out from its body to make gestures as they would fall apart and liquefy as they fell to the floor, in which they would roll back into its body to join its fettered host.

Each dark entity that Kendrick laid eyes upon would cause a stabbing ice pick headache between his brows, but he continued to try... It was like a sick fascination with these demented beings, as they cackled and played the fool with each other. Did these demon-things have fun, too?

Finally, after a mind splitting few minutes' two silent demon-things spoke breaking up the other three squabbling.

"We should... Sort the boy based on his fears. This has always been the fairest of the options."

A brightly illuminated demon-thing spoke. It hadn't spoken up until now, but its voice sounded like the dark of Halloween night when the midnight autumn breeze makes the sweeping sound that drifts across the tree leaves causing them to rustle or the swamp reeds to buzz. That sound like some unknown animal's cry in the dark, which you didn't know was there. Its appearance was contrasted with the other three, as this one and its neighbor looked mostly humanoid, but it had four arms attached to its torso, with three of its hands holding a lit lantern each, and its last hand holding a Kris dagger in a back hand hold. While its torso was exposed, its legs were covered with dark tattered pants. With its hunched back, across its shoulders were a line of five lit candles, each at various levels of burning down. Its face looked to be stitched together from different faces, with a Frankenstein's monster vibe, with dark sunken eyes and a mouth that was cut into the skin to make one. It had a head of long straight black hair that when the light from the candles and lanterns tried to reflect from the hair were absorbed, and brought darkness to its face.

"Candle-light... That's always your solution when We fight over a new piece..." Dim-skull replied with a dense sense of shame.

"That's because you miserable aberrations would continue until doomsday."

"Oh, whatever... We survived the last one, We can survive another." The last silent demon-thing spoke. Its voice sounded like a mix of the rasping of locust wings and the slimy sound of mill worms eating. This demon-thing would later be known to Kendrick as Blank-head.

"That's not the point. The point is to settle this, as quickly as possible. I have a match to watch soon." Candle-light sounded rather bored. He had not acquired a new piece in the last two hundred selections, even with his suggestions of using the fear-sorting method he still did not get a new piece.

"Sure... Let's ask the piece some questions." Blank-head finally looked over to Kendrick. This last demon's appearance was like a large muscular man in a skin-tight gimp suit. Maybe the gimp suit was actually its skin, Kendrick couldn't be sure. This is where the human qualities ceased. Where arms should be on its left and right were nothing but a mass of black tentacles that varied by length and girth. These tentacles were always squirming about, touching the thing's body, or reaching out to touch its neighboring demon-things in vein. Its face was void of features, except it had one long slash across where its eyes should on its face, within that gap was an eye that would wander back and forth, as the demon-thing watched the others, and now fixed its gaze on Kendrick.

"Come closer, so that we can get a better look at you," Blank-head asked, rather politely for something that looked to have walked out of a horror movie.

Kendrick felt his feet were leaden and difficult to move.

Many-arm's retched horned face squelched, as he bellowed, "Are you unwilling to appease Us? Do you reject Us???"

Kendrick opened and closed his mouth a few times; trying to speak out, but found the words stuck in his throat. While he was calmly watching things, he could almost feel like he wasn't there so while he was terrified, he could still maintain his composure. Now that he was tasked with something, even as easy as simply walking forward, he felt a huge mountain weighing down on him.

"I think I know who my next piece is going to be, Hohoho!" Many-arms, who had just yelled out belligerently, had mellowed his soured voice as he made his comments to be heard from the others.

Faceless-teeth gave a grown of acceptance and Dim-skull nodded dully.

"Don't count your pieces, yet Armathe..." Candle-light raised his lantern to light the path to stand before them so that Kendrick could see the floor.

Many-arms shuddered; he hated to be called Armathe but dared not to piss off Candle-light. He knew, and so did the others that Candle-Light was the oldest and strongest of all of them, but he had fallen out of favor in the last few eons. This didn't mean his power diminished, and so Many-arms kept his comments to himself.

Kendrick could now see the floor. It was a smooth black tiled floor. When the light wasn't on the floor, he couldn't see it and felt as if he was floating. This feeling induced an unknown fear in him, but now he felt slightly better seeing the floor. Granted, this slight feeling he experienced, paled in comparison to the fear that enveloped him when he looked back up to see these five beings awaiting him to approach.

[If I don't walk forward... I'm going to die here...] this was the feeling he had; he couldn't explain it. He just felt it.

Kendrick could still feel the burning sensation on his right and left arms, but still couldn't be sure, so he bit the side of his tongue. The pain reminded him that he was still alive, as the sharp and piercing pain registered in his mind. With great force of will, he picked up his foot and pushed it forward, and so he took a step. Then another... and soon he were talking to these demon-things.

As Kendrick walked, and walked, and walked some more, he found that these demon-things were getting bigger. Then realization dawned on him, they were gigantic creatures, it was that they were a horrifying distance from him.

The demon-things continued to chat; while Kendrick focused his mind on his task at hand, to obey the summons of these beings, perhaps in doing so, could buy him another day of life, or a few more seconds.

After an unknown length of time, Kendrick made his way to the base of these massive grotesque mountains of hideous amalgamations. So long was the trip that his tongue started to feel better, and the swelling had gone down to an acceptable level. It still hurt in his mouth, as his tongue lay within, which bore feelings in Kendrick that he could not find a comfortable place to keep his tongue, and so he tried not to think about it. He was dreadfully tired. The walk was long, terribly long. Kendrick counted his paces to keep track, but made mistakes and forgot how many once or twice. He lost count once or twice around three thousand steps.

"Ah, Our little piece finally made it. You can make it to your match after all." Blank-head commented as it looked over to Candle-light.

"Little piece, can you talk?" Candle-light asked, in a twisted sort of soft tone, as one would speak to a child.

For a moment, no words came out, but finally, something snapped Kendrick. He hated this... He hated this the most. All his life he was afraid. His issues, phobias, and hang-ups that didn't allow him to live in peace. A small burst of courage welled up and gushed forth...

"My name is Kendrick!" he shouted!

"Well... I didn't ask for your name, but that's not a bad name. This confirms you can talk." Candle-light spoke softly.

"Hey, piece... What scares you?" Blank-head was the next to ask, his tone neither soft nor hard... It was still hard on the ears, like the others.

[What scares me...? Everything!] Kendrick retorted in his mind.

"What a blunt way to ask... If We could just ask a piece, oh hey... 'What scares you,' how easy would selection be...?" Faceless-teeth remarked

"You've known me long enough to know how I am... Why are you commenting now?" Blank-head looked over to Faceless-teeth.

Blob like arms and head was created out of the ink, which soon shrugged, before falling back into the mass, "Just that We have done this so much, this is the first time you asked in this way. I just wanted to know why you asked him directly."

"I don't know..." responded Blank-head.

[Huh?] Kendrick thought this was odd-even in this situation that was out of this world, he felt that it was odd that one of these things didn't know something when they spoke like they were old... Very old.

"What do you mean you don't know...?" This time it was Dim-skull that spoke up.

"What I think Blank-head is trying to say is that he can't get a good read on this piece," Candle-light spoke in Blank-head's defense

"That's about right," Blank-head confirmed.

"He fears everything... That's what this usually means... I've only seen a true case of this once before in a piece, but I doubt that it really is everything." continued Candle-light

"Everything? Well everyone fears everything, but how does he have equal fears of everything. That doesn't make sense." Many-arms chipped back in.

Ignoring Many-arms, Candle-light asked another question, "Is there anything you want?"

[Want? I want everything I can't have!] Kendrick was a simple person. In what he would call the real world, he wanted to have cars, clothes, jewelry, respect, women, and power... He always dreamed he could do it/have it one day, what really happened was that he worked as a backroom unloading manager for a large retail store outlet.

After a few minutes of pause, "Come now, I know you want something... Everyone wants something... Even Us."

"I want..." [What is the one thing I want most?] Kendrick paused again, what was the one thing he wanted most? The one thing that could get him everything else he wanted... Power!

"I want power... Power enough to get everything I want!" A simple sentence, in a not so simple setting. It took everything that Kendrick had to say this sentence, he started to hyperventilate now that he finished. He was unable to catch his breath.

A few of these demon-things began to laugh, they found it amusing. Candle-light and Blank-head, however, did not.

"You fear everything, but your first fear is the unknown... That's what your fear is and everything begins with... Am I right?"

[The unknown?] Trying to calm his nerves, as taught to him by his therapist, he thought on it and agreed. If he didn't know for a fact that something would work out, he would never take that step. He needed absolute confirmation that something was, before stepping out. Kendrick never applied for a job without being told he would be hired, he never asked a girl out on a date, because he couldn't be sure it was guaranteed, not because of embarrassment, but because he didn't know how these things or people would react!

"That's right. The unknown scares me!"

Finally, Candle-light laughed... An eerily laugh that echoed across the abyssal space he resided. A laugh that hushed the conversations and whispers of the other demon-things. This laugh was like the bump in the night, that disturbed your sleep, it was like the cawing of a murder of crows at the scene of an unknown murder, it was like the crying of a little girl stuck in a well, which you could not find...

Kendrick had thought himself numb to his current feelings of fear, with his burst of courage to converse with these creatures, but now... The hair on his body stood straight up.

With his laughing fit subsiding, Candle-light made his declaration!

"This one! This piece is mine... You others can not deny me! HAHAHA, I haven't gotten a new piece in the last three Eternity cycles!"

It was true that he had been, in terms of humans, an infinite amount of time since Candle-light had received a piece. Whole multiverses had risen and fallen since his last piece. This wasn't because people didn't fear the unknown, but because people would fear other concepts or things beyond the unknown, and thus fall into the domain of the other four.

The other demon-things gave consent and even congratulated Candle-light.

"Little piece..." The soft tone before had softened many more degrees. Candle-light's tone was now a sickly sweet sound. The feeling it produced was the same feeling that smelling a bag of molded bread produced, sweet, nauseating and disgusting.

"Y-yes."

"Kendrick... That was your name, right?"

"That's also right... What do I call you?" Kendrick finally asked.

"Oh, how bold! I'll grant you this boon... No one has asked for my name in person for a very long time... You can call me simply Candle-light, no other honors is necessary, even when talking to others. I will be your owner, and you will be my piece... and soon to be my greatest vessel."

[I don't really have a choice...]

"Yes!" It only took a second to respond, and this made Candle-light very pleased.

"You wish to be powerful, I will grant this. Even if you didn't want to be powerful, you have no choice!" Candle-light boasted!

The other demon-things groaned... They now remembered why they hated it when Candle-light gained a new piece... His boasting knew no bounds... Until this piece expires... This will be all they will hear about. Unless... This piece turns out to be a dud! One of the demon-things started to plan accordingly, as he had been showing off his pieces for a while.

[Power...] Kendrick was still hyperventilating... Not from fear, but excitement! He felt light-headed! He was sure it was too good to be true, but power!

"Furthermore, whatever you want! Anything you want is yours! We will get someone to be your trainer, hmmmmm.... I don't have any good ones left... AH! Blank-head, do you still have your champion piece from five games ago?" Candle-light asked tentatively.

"Yeah, he's still kicking... He's not been real happy as of recent, so I'm not sure if he's willing to lend any help."

"I will grant him a wish if he helps my piece get a good foothold!"

A started gasp came from the many mouths of Faceless-teeth...

"What... It's not the first time We granted wishes outside of gameplay." Candle-light responded to the various noises made by the other demon-things.

"Yeah, but isn't this too much favor?" Faceless-teeth asked.

With fury, the deafening echoes of the enraged voice of Candle-light boomed, the candles flickered, the light dulled, the ground quaked, and the ear-drums of Kendrick threatened to collapse. This enraged response sounded like the scraping of nails on a chalkboard when making up school tests after hours, the sound of many bats as they fight in the dark of the early morning for the last few scraps of food before retiring for sleep, the sound of a fire alarm in the dead of night that feeling of knowing there is fire, but not where... "WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I GOT A PIECE IF I WANT TO SPOIL MY PIECE THAT IS MY BUSINESS!? I HAVE HAD TO WATCH YOUR SILLY PIECES PLAY FOR THE LAST THREE! COUNT THEM THREE ETERNITY CYCLES! DO YOU OBJECT NOW!?"

No one responded until the rumbling finally stopped, Kendrick, removed his hands from his ears, and rubbed his nose. He found that the back of his hand now had a smear of blood; his nose had bled...

"It was my fault," Faceless-teeth spoke first, and apologized.

"Ah, no harm, no harm." Candle-light's dagger hand waved in the air back and forth, as to say no foul. He then turned his gaze back to Kendrick. His dark eyes narrowed...

"Little piece... You're hurt?"

"Yeah, that was kind of loud!" Kendrick shouted as he couldn't really hear himself. He felt like he had just left a school auditorium after a school rally! Too loud!

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt my piece. Listen to my voice the best you can."

"Ok!"

"I will send you off first to be prepared for your guide. Then you will meet your guide. He will help you understand how to play the games."

"Ok!"

"Remember my little piece, anything you want! I know how you mortals are... Power, sex, and food... It will all be yours. If... you work hard enough for it, if you can use your fears. I... will be watching you. Do. Not. Fail. Me."

These last four words did not contain the softness that Candle-light spoke with first. It was with a tone like the howl of a polar bear on cold desolate night of the arctic tundra, that woe some sound of disembodied agony, and maddening whine of thousands of mosquitos.

"I understand..."

"Go then..."

As soon as the last words landed, the ground beneath Kendrick started to undulate, and warp. Kendrick was unable to stand firmly, as he began to drop to a knee. The light that illuminated the floor vanished and the darkness rolled back in. Kendrick could feel a cold sensation as it crawled up his body. Soon, he could not feel anything, as his vision of the demon-things turned black.

Nothing.