It started out as a normal, absurd dream. It took place in my school. I was in my first hour class, and I remember a few of my friends such as Rachel and Meredith being there. However, there was one person I couldn't believe was there; Amoo. It seems that, in the context of the dream, she had been visiting for a while and was able to see a day if school with me.
So there we all are, having fun, making arts and playing Tomodachi Collection (which had some weird what I called "personal events" that included Rachel getting drunk) when suddenly an announcement comes on.I didn't really catch what it said but it mentioned something about stories and being able to put them on the moon or something. It intrigued me, but I was eager to show Amoo the rest of my friends, so I didn't think much of it. She, however, was way more curious. As first hour ended I took her end and we ran towards my second hour class, but she noticed a door that usually wasn't there. Lots of people were going through, so we decided to follow.
It led us to a cafeteria like area that didn't resemble my school's cafeteria at all. Either way we took our seats and then the lady from the announcement comes in and starts her spheal about something about stories and mysteries and labyrinths of all things. Her speech ended when a curtain behind her drew open as she said
"enter."
Behind the curtain was what seemed like an extremely fake maze, bright green and small to the point we had to crawl through the entrance. I was initially the first one in line but I saw that Amoo hadn't made it quite as fast, so I went back to her place. We crawled through together.
Inside was a hallway wherein we can stand in, though I saw most people opting to continue crawling, even downstairs. It was yellow with many doors, some open, some closed, and some damaged. I remember wanting to go through a damaged closed door but quickly changing my mind, letting Amoo take the reins. So we kept on exploring. I don't remember much above this first section, but some transition happened to make us become Jak and Vendel instead of ourselves. I should note they were character, with Jak having his usual energy and love for Vendel, and Vendel taking in more of the surrounds, much more calmly.
At some point we reached a brown, fancy wooden hallway with a yellow door, a blue door, a green door, and two red doors- one placed near the other doors, and one placed further from the bunch. We somehow innately knew the further red door was "under development." We choose the blue door first. Inside was a blue hall with more doors. We went through the one at the end together, and entered a red hall.
I'm not sure what us to this point, but we eventually found a room in all blue, with a fancy feel to it, with pillars and columns and vines about it. There were no additional rooms leading in or out of it. At the end of the room was a kind of altar. It was adorned with a cross, and said "Fall of the Rector." I looked at Vendel nervously, and he looked back silently. With the objects on the table, we knew it was referring to him.
Fade to black, and were back in the multicolored door hallway (it seemed to serve as a nexus). We went through the yellow door. Surprisingly, it wasn't the first section of the maze, but something different. Again we explored through doors, finding signs of disrepair and some disturbing imagery. My brain blocked out most of them, but the ones I remember mostly dealt with mistreated dogs.
This time I explored on my own a tiny bit.
One of the rooms I remember seeing was red, had two large dogs in the corner, seemingly leaded up. I remember feeling a little bad for them, but I didn't think too much about it. I went out to find Vendel again.
Only, he wasn't there.
I panicked, and I panicked hard. I went speeding through the rooms at a breakneck speed trying to find him. It all kind of blurs together in this section.I do know I found myself at another altar, this time yellow. It was decorated with a spade with the words "Fall of the Demon." With the spade in place I knew it was in reference to me. It here I noticed a card on this and previous altar. They resembled tarot cards.
No fade to black this time, as I ran though the rooms back trying to get to the nexus. Suddenly, before I got there, I saw a kind of shadow person running. It seems in this dream she looked like a familiar face, so I followed. She brought me to the nexus and ran through the green door. It was clear she thought I was a threat, but I chased after anyway, hoping to change her mind.
It was difficult to follow her on this path, as this hall was darker and more complex than the other door. I remember seeing stairs and a damaged floor that lead to a floor below. Don't ask how, but I caught up with the shadow girl and convinced her I wasn't out to kill her. I asked her why she'd think such a thing but she only answered with a frustrated sigh. I remember distinctly her appearance. Imagine a stick figure with more volume and depth, with a ponytail and a white sweater and a red heart on it. That was the shadow girl. I never got her name.
Together we reached a third altar room, not so green as it was teal blue. I believe the symbol for this one was a sword, but I know it said "Fall of the Leo." This one confused me, and I thought maybe it referred to Aku (he's a Leo). Shadow girl, however, was clearly disturbed from it and picked up what looked like a red lion mane wig. Fade to black, back to nexus.
It was in the nexus where I discovered she knew of us ("us" being Jak and Vendel) and even Armos. I mentioned to her the possibility of Armos being the subject of the final altar, to which she grimly agreed. We briefly checked the "under development" door, only to be greeted by a large gate speeding our way. We quickly closed that door and entered the final red door.
To my surprise there was not a hall but rather a large ball room. It was mostly empty except for some cards spread across the floor. Shadow girl gathered two while I picked up the third. "Card" is a loose term for this third article, as it was more like a discarded list. It had four names; Leo, Rector, Demon, and King. Each name had a rating; zero, zero, four, and zero skulls out of five. Each rating had a comment or status under it; "hopeless," "hopeless," "threatening," and "hopeless."
As I trying to internalize what this implied, Shadow Girl called me over to see her cards. One of them merely said "the Fall of the King." The other had an illustration of a somewhat royal like Armos, titled "the King of Arrmerdi" or something along those lines. It was supposed to be a play on his name. I showed her the list. She interpreted it as Leo, the Rector, and the king being dead. Solemnly, we kept exploring.
We found ourselves outside, on a king of castle wall. It was actually very light and beautiful, especially compared to the other halls. However, Shadow Girl sensed danger, so we ended up running past most of the sights. She proved to be right, as we sped over faulty construction and incoming obstacles.
Then, we both heard a giggle. "Did you hear that?" Shadow girl said with some delight. She explained to me that was her friend's "secret laugh." She took it to mean her friend knew she was there, and wanted to help. I followed her as she took the lead, and we came across a bunch of purple and blue mechanical vines with a light green mechanical eye in its center.
"Did they do this to you?" Shadow Girl asked the vines.
They conversed for a while, as the vines were proving to act more and more insincere. The vines referred to this entire thing as some kind of game, and this ticked Shadow Girl off. "Is that what you really see in this!?" She shouted in anger.
"I see two people left in a murder mystery, and ONE of them isn't having fun!" The vines responding. It suddenly grabbed a previously unseen bucket of water and tossed it towards Shadow Girl. Curiously, this killed her, as though she was also mechanical. The vines turned its eye towards me, and I began to ran away. As I did I shouted back if they wanted me to 'have fun,' then that's what I'll do, and I'd find Vendel too.
I began my search where I find lost him, back into the yellow door. It was much darker than our first time around. I felt I was becoming acutely aware of my surroundings. There was a bedroom with a computer screen giving off a dim light, and I thought I imagined someone slouched over it. I also fancied a corpse hiding in the bunk bed. The next room over was red, and had no furniture. The was an empty closet, where I perceived a ghostly message that said "This is where the Rector committed suicide." I refused to believe it though, and kept pushing on. I found the two large dogs again, only they were much more distressed and had been abused. Another message appeared. "The Rector did this to us." I know at this point I was trying to convince myself that the Rector and Vendel were two different people, but deep down I knew the truth.
Time passed. I must have searched the other halls, as I looked exhausted. I still hadn't found Vendel. I was back on the castle wall, and I'd told myself there was no hope. It occurred to me that I was the last being there, and I'd had enough. So I jumped off the wall.
And then I woke up.
