Chapter Text
Isa is the first to wake up. Followed by Bonnie and Mira, and lastly Odile. You try acting normal, like you didn’t just have the worst experience in your life. Surprisingly you make it well into the day before Isa confronts you about your behavior.
While walking towards the party's final destination you see Isabeau talking to Odile who then starts walking faster leaving just you and him in the back.
He slows down to match your admittedly very slow pace. “Sooo, bud. What happened?”
You sigh. “Was I that obvious?”
“Yeah. Everyone noticed, but they wanted to give you some space. I just wanted to ask in case it was something I could help with.”
“I don’t know… I had this weird dream. It was…… I was… it happened I don't want to talk about it.”
“Okay but know that we are here for you if you need us, no need to hold back.”
“I just–.....can you make sure I don’t fall asleep. I’m scared.”
“Make sure you don’t fall asleep huh?...Okay, I'll try”
“Thank you Isa, I- thank you.”
“No thanks necessary……... So… How’s the uh, how’s the eye treating you?”
The eye? Oh, right he made your new eye, almost forgot about that. “It's nice, I don't know how I’d get around if I only had one of them, so thanks!”
“I’m still embarrassed that I messed up with the colors though.”
“I think it’s okay, a nice reminder of you.”
You watch him grow a few shades darker as he starts walking a little bit faster. You wonder what you said for him to get embarrassed and run away. Oh well, you can see Dormont in the distance so you speed up with him and catch up to the group.
Once you all get to the entrance you see people going about their day as normal. One is running around a giant statue. Another’s getting all of their equipment to fish and kids are running around without a care in the world. You like this place, everywhere else already resigned themselves to being frozen forever thinking that you’d all fail but not here, or at least it appears that way. Mira tells you that “we’ll be staying in the clocktower to the east.” before heading off somewhere.
Since this is the party's final stop none of you have to do the usual stuff to keep yourselves occupied so your day is becoming longer than you're used to. Which is weird to think because before all of this, you’d typically do nothing for hours, days at a time before finally deciding to do something with yourself. For now, you climb up a really tall tree before realizing that it gives you a perfect view of the House where the King resides. You don’t want to think about that right now so you walk in the opposite direction over to a very nice field. The grass is soft and there's enough space around that no critters will jump on top of you accidentally.
You lie in the middle of the field and bask in the sun. It's delightfully warm, coupled with the soft grass beneath you and the occasional cool breeze. Makes this the perfect spot to lay.
You stare at the sky and watch the clouds go by.
Eventually you hear Mirabelle’s voice calling you from a distance. You get up and she tells you “I was thinking about hosting a slumber party. We can all eat good food together, sleep in the same room, maybe tell stories! What do you think?”
“That sounds wonderful.”
“Oh? I’m glad you think so, I was thinking it was a little dumb but if you think it good then it must be! I was hoping you could go around and ask the others about it too.”
“Sure, I’m not really doing anything.”
“Great! Here it’s a letter of where everyone is” she starts walking away, waving you goodbye “if you need a reminder come talk to me, thank you again!”
Well, you’ve got a job to do.
You go around the town talking to Bonnie, then Odile and finally Isa telling them all about the incoming slumber party. You’ve all had to sleep in the same room a couple of times already so it’s nothing you all haven’t experienced before. Once the party does kick up though it’s laughter and fun times all around. Bonnie made some incredible Samosas though some were a little burnt that didn’t stop you from devouring them.
Mira does a cute speech thinking that we’d leave her alone on the final day and for that we punish her by giving her a nice big “group hug” as Isa puts it. Even Odile pats her on the head and calls her “foolish for thinking we’d abandon you.”
Once the party winds down everyone starts heading to bed. You walk outside to the cool chill of night; you even left your cloak behind so you can take in more of the cold. At some point, probably noticing that you aren't in your shared bed Isabeau joins you outside.
“Hey Isa.”
“Hey Sif… I brought you a cup of coffee, it’s supposed to give you some energy and seeing as how you can get drunk, I thought it would be good to get you some. See if that helps." He hands you a piping hot cup of coffee and sets beside you a kettle full of it. ‘What’s got you so scared of sleeping? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Should you tell him? …you breathe in. . . . and out. . . . “I’m scared of what’s inside of me.”
He looks visibly confused! “Wh- wha– WHAT”
“The skeleton, um it… it grew organs”
“WHAT?”
“Mirabelle and I wanted to see if I had any kind of, I don't know, we wanted to see how I got drunk. And since you kind of need organs to do that she cut me open and we looked inside.”
“What.”
“And we found organs alright. Except that not the only thing we found. Apparently, it’s the skeleton that's doing the growing though, not me. And it seems to be… reverting? Back to being alive? We weren’t sure but after that we left that town and when we camped again, I felt so warm and nice near the fire and fell asleep. But I didn't dream of stars like I did before. I was in this infinite void and the only thing around was a mirror. I stupidly touched it and my reflection grabbed me. Some other stuff happened but I think you get the picture. I just really don’t want to sleep in case I go back there and don’t come back out.” you wait to get his response, but you can see that you clearly overloaded him because he does nothing but stare at you for minutes.
You sip your coffee and wait. It's nice. You think you’d like some sugar in it but you don’t want to go back inside right now.
After taking some time to process he finally starts talking again. “Okay. I think I can understand now. It sounds like you had your first nightmare. I don’t know what it means, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I think it may have to do with how much you’ve changed over the past few months. You went from not feeling anything to suddenly having dreams and taste and all sorts of things. Stuff like that can do a lot to people and I don't know if you need me to say this, but you are people. You’re human, and nothing can take that away from you. Now. I'm going inside, I thought I could stay up with you and still be ready for tomorrow, but my body is disagreeing. I’ll see you in the morning.” he hangs by the door.
you wave him off with a. “See you.” human huh. That makes you happy. You feel like you needed someone to say that to you at least once, before you could start believing it.
You still don’t want to fall asleep but with coffee in hand and the cold breeze hitting your side you manage to stay up long enough to see the sun rise.
You go back inside and start preparing for the day.
Bonnie’s the first to wake up, eager but surprisingly quiet, so you help them with breakfast. You drink some more coffee and while everyone eats and before you know it, you're in front of the house. Orb already in hand.
The gates open and you all enter. Navigating this place is fairly easy, all of the normal traps that would have been in place aren't activated since people actually used the space freely before the curse.
Mirabelle does however warn you about this “death corridor”. Probably being active so you look around. No secret switches, no hidden trap doors, not even a presser plate to speak of in this hall. You’re almost certain it’s safe and to show how safe it is you walk to the middle of the hall and–
Experience how it feels to be crushed by a giant rock.
You lay in an endless void.
Oh… how did you get here? Did. Wait, didn’t you die? Can you die? You guess a giant rock crushing your entire body would be one of the few things that can truly kill you.
You stand up and check your surroundings. It’s not here or at least anywhere close enough where you can see it. You breathe a little bit easier for that honestly.
The mirror is still here but you don’t have a reflection. You don’t want to touch it, especially after what happened last time, but you feel oddly compelled to…… against your better judgment you touch the mirror and see…
Mira? But your- how you're supposed to be dead? How are you…
Your body suddenly stands up and starts looking around!? It talks to Mira again, this time in the town.
How can she not see that that isn’t you!? It-
It’s acting like you…
That thing, last time you were in this space it said that it would let itself out- it wanted to go home, right? But since it knows it can’t it changed its target to your friends. But how does it know how to act like you? Was it watching you through this mirror like you are now? Are you trapped in here like it was? Will you……
You’re trapped in here… and it's out there…… with your friends who don’t suspect a thing……
you want to scream.