Day Two and Three Fifths

Erik struggled to move, only to find his arms and legs tied to a chair with armrests. However, the chair was extremely comfortable with its leather cushioning. He blinked to regain his sight and was surprised to find himself surrounded by hundreds of spines carved into long, grotesque spikes with blood and flesh dangling from them.

He looked to his left to find the king in a similar predicament. Though, Herold was still asleep. When Erik looked forward, there he found the necromancer sitting in a similar chair across from him. Between them was a table made of ram horns piled and puzzled together with a slab of glass atop it. A dainty diamond of white floral fabric was spread out in the center of the table, three beige, glass coasters sprawled away from it. Atop those coasters were gorgeous wine glasses with what seemed to be hot chocolate in them.

Within these warm, steaming glasses of hot chocolate, four marshmallows bobbed. However, the fourth marshmallow was cut, or so it seemed, into three fifths of a whole.

"Wake up." The necromancer snapped his fingers, one of the spikes poking the king's neck, waking him up with a startle. The spikes undulated back so to not pierce Harold's head, as if they had minds of their own.

The king took a moment to comprehend where he was, and that was when Erik noticed the room itself. There was nothing but these spikes protruding from the walls. The walls and floors themselves were completely invisible to them. Completely convoluted by bone.

The spikes slowly slid back from their heads, allowing them to move.

"Care to drink?" The necromancer waved his hand to the cups.

"You didn't drug us already?" The king said in a surprisingly non-aggressive manner. Or at least, not aggressive for the situation.

Ah Pwash simply stared as the king, and slowly pointed to the glass. "Drink?"

The merchant and king looked at each other, sweating with fear as the binds on their hands evaporated into steam.

Thankfully, they weren't so tight that a red mark was left.

Erik looked back to Ah Pwash as the necromancer leaned back in his chair and began clinking his talons together.

The merchant slowly leaned forward and took the glass within his finger and began to drink.

Instantly, it felt as though claws grabbed at the edges of his throat and widened it, forcing the drink through at an extremely fast rate. He could feel his mouth burning but could not stop as his glass handle was too sticky to drop, nor could he close his mouth.

His sight began to go fuzzy with heat, the pain in his mouth unbearable as it masked the amazing flavor.

Finally, when he thought he was about to pass out, the glass was completely empty. Except for that marshmallow with part of it missing. Apparently, the king and him had been in sync, as Harold was doing the same when the merchant glanced over.

"Splendid. Now," the necromancer took hold of his drink, and stood up, walking behind his chair and took a few steps towards what seemed to be a door made of ram skulls. "Don't scream."

He and the entire room suddenly exploded into thousands of cockroaches, the bones melting like lava into pools of roaches. Roaches fell from the ceiling and landed on top of Erik, crawling all over his body as he and the king shouted in terror as the bugs slid down their bodies, leaving no spot untouched as they slid to the floor and scurried away.

The two men shook uncontrollably, and then looked up at the scene they were now in.

Five golden doors with strange pads on the side of them. On each pad were two arrows keys, one pointing up, and another pointing down. A fine, mahogany beam spanned the middle of the walls, separating two different paint jobs. On the bottom of the wooden beam was a bright red paint, and on the opposite side was a bright purple.

"Good grief, this is hideous," Erik muttered.

"That's your first thought?" Harold snapped.

The merchant looked towards him, "Just pointing out the obvious."

"Hmm, well, we need to find a way out."

"You want to leave?"

"Don't you!?"

"Well, I'm pretty much accepting punishment for my stupidity. So, whatever comes at me at this point, I am fair game."

"…" The king stared at him with a twisted expression, and then looked to the elevators.

He slowly stood from his chair, groaning in pain as he stood. "Where did all those damn beetles go?" He then looked down at the pure golden floor, and then at the pure golden ceiling. Both had an identical stripe pattern of marble.

"Who the hell created this horrible place?" Erik said with wide, disgusted eyes.

"That demon, of course."

"Hmm, probably. Though, to call this art, is a sham."

"Ah, shut up." Harold then walked over to the elevator with a large marble "one" over it and pressed the button that went up.

A soft ding echoed throughout the small room, and then the door opened.

Inside was an outrageously beautiful woman, his breasts covered with a thin ribbon that went up from her pelvis and tied around her neck. Her hair was long and silky smooth, the shade a dusty blonde. Her face was absolutely divine, along with the rest of her body.

The king's open widened, "Oh, boy, this is definitely a fine art gallery!" He then made a smug expression and took a step towards the woman with a seductive advance, only to come face to face with a glass barrier. The woman walked forward, confused and her face was worried as she pressed her hands up to his.

"Is this what love at first sight is like?" The king whispered.

Then, a drop of red, smoking liquid dripped from the ceiling behind the woman and melted through the floor of the contraption.

"Oh no…" Erik muttered. "That's just mean."

Next, a huge blob of lava slammed down behind the woman and melted a gigantic hole through to a black abyss below, the soft light of the elevator only revealing a network of black ropes and gears.

The woman started to scream and jump in fear, her breasts threatening to slip out of her 'dress' as more lava came down from the ceiling and opened more of the floor.

"NO!" Harold started to bash on the glass, some of it cracking as the lava began falling on her face, her screams growing louder, but still inaudible to the two men. "GIVE ME A HAND, MAN!"

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HER!" Erik was wide eyed with absolute confusion at why he should care if this girl dies or not.

"DAMNIT MAN! HELP YOUR FELLOW MAN!"

"Fine." Erik snapped as he stood up and stumbled with pain as he limped towards the door, and began to smack his body against the glass, knowing his arms weren't going to work with him too well.

Finally, the two could hear the faintest whisper of the girl's screams.

Though, Erik got a brief glimpse of her face.

It was almost completely melted off. In fact, he could see straight to the bone as her flesh melted away whilst more lava fell atop her head and burned her hair.

Then, the glass shattered completely, and the girl fell forward. She crawled across the floor, screaming in pain as the door to the death machine slammed shut, their metal doors simply intimidating.

When the two men turned to look at her, almost getting on the ground to aid her, they saw she was completely healed and had a new dress on.

"What kind of magic is this!?" The king snarled as he got on his knees beside the girl, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, wanting to comfort her.

Erik leaned against the wall, still needing her to prove whether he should like her or not.

She looked towards the king, and whispered, "I-I was tossed into that machine so long ago…I haven't seen another person in so long…" She suddenly began kissing him, her hands writhing through his hair as she forced herself on top of him.

"Can you not?" Erik said in a grouchy tone.

"None of your business," Harold said in between the breathy kissing.

The merchant rolled his eyes and then walked over to the opposite side of the room, pressing the down button for contraption number five.

The second the door opened, tentacles exploded out of the doorway, thrashing through the room like a storm as it tried to grab anything in sight. One of those objects being Erik. The tentacle wrapped around his body like a boa constrictor suffocating its prey.

The two on the floor suddenly looked up, and the girl raised her hand towards the creature. As a tentacle was about to grab her, a blast of fire exploded from her fingertips and turned the tentacles and its source into ashes, hundreds of eyeballs turning to dust which slowly landed to the ground.

She took deep breaths, and then looked down at the king, his pants almost completely unbuttoned. "Name's Selena, what about you?"

He coughed some ashes out of his mouth, and looked back at her, "Harold. That one's Erik." She looked up towards the merchant. "Hmm…you seem like the shower, and he's the grower." She grinned as she licked her lips.

"Uh, no thank you." Erik blinked, what the hell is wrong with this chick? Is she a succubus like the old stories speak of? Female demons with the powers of seduction and attraction? Maybe, if that fire is any proof.

"Hmm…so be it." Selena then stood up, stepping over Harold and walked over to the third doorway. "Judging by your clothing, you probably don't know what these things are. Unless if you just came back from the renaissance fair."

The two looked at each other.

"Huh, I guess that freak can time travel." She shrugged, and then pressed the up button. "Anyways, these are elevators."

"How nice." Harold said in a dazed voice while a ding went off and the doors opened to show a completely empty, innocent room.

"He told me that if I was freed by his next visitors, that the combination for their escape would be three, two, seventeen, five, and six. Guess it wasn't a trick. Or, at least, if it is, it'll be a damn depressing end for you two."

"And not for you?" Erik asked.

"He's too lazy to try and find another one of me, he's spent at least three centuries trying to train my mind for what lies ahead."

Definitely a demon of some sort. Or at least an immortal soul.

"Now, come on, I've never gotten this far. I want to see what two means."

Selena was the first to step inside, crossing her arms as she leaned against the wall. Erik followed and turned around to see what she was looking at. It was a metal board with a bunch of buttons all over it. As Harold stepped inside, she pressed the button that had a big number "2".

The metal doors closed shut, the lights in the room they just left going completely black.