The Labyrinth

How was it?

Cold.  To start.

I wandered the streets of a city I couldn't recognize, shrouded deep in fog.  The layout...made no sense.  Streets seemed to change direction when I doubled back, and the entire place felt tense, eerie.  Of course, I only got to wander for a bit before the pain started.

I saw them.  Hylo, Elaine, Spencer, August, Nessa, Nick, Fiona...dead.  I saw it over and over...the methods of murder changed, they were irrelevant.  The message was clear: "You can't save anyone no matter how hard you try."

It hurt.  I'd never experienced pain like that before in my life.  I saw my parents dead...begging me to save them.  And I saw him.  There was always a shadow of him beyond everything I saw.  Watching, waiting.

I had no sense of time.  I kept fading in and out, really.  There were moments where I would get some relief, and then the pain would begin again.

And I could hear...no, I could FEEL something else.  A compulsion digging into the back of my mind.  To give in.  To accept inevitability.  To walk into his arms.  Those moments were the worst of all.  We aren't...equipped to deal with a mind like his.  He doesn't work with our reality, that much I'm sure of now.

I don't know why I never broke.  But...At the back of my mind, I still held onto one last shard of defiance.  It was nothing more than the knowledge that if I gave in, much as I wanted to, that it would be his victory.  That there were people waiting for me to get out of this.  And that I had sworn to fight him until the end.

I stood.  We were back in the city...me and him.  And once again my head felt like it was breaking apart, and that feeling returned.  Almost like he was speaking.  A bunch of stuff about how small I was.  I was in a prison of my own mind.  Sheer willpower alone would not save me. That no matter how hard I fought, I would never be a hero.

For the first time, I replied, starting with a laugh.

"You're right.  I'm no hero.  I don't follow any plan.  Nick's fancy schemes, Elaine's research, Spencer's...weirdness.  I just don't do well following their lead, or any kind of authority or rules.  So I'll give you a tip.  Don't make the mistake of thinking I follow the rules, ever again."

I stepped towards an alley.  He loomed forward, but I could feel confusion from him.  There was a pause.  "You wanna know what I do instead?"

"I cheat." And with that, I opened the Path of Black Leaves and dove through it.  A few seconds later, or so it seemed, I was awake in the bright world of ours.

It was a gamble.  I had no idea whether being on the Path would let me open it, but maybe being a proxy's kid helped.  Whatever the reason, I can use it.  Not that I intend to.  It's got an unfortunate side effect of making me dead.

Crisis averted, I guess...I feel absolutely exhausted.  But I can't lay low for now.  I gotta find Nessa.  Never a dull moment, sheesh.

I'm alive, everyone.  I will NOT say sorry to worry you because fuck you I just got my mind raped for a week.  You should be apologizing to ME.  That's right, on your knees.  Except not like THAT, cause, uh, that'd be a little gross.

Yeah, I got nothing.  Later.