• Solo • The Mind Flayer II

[Max]

Continued from here (The Mind Flayer I)


Falling.

Maxine knew she was falling. Not that there was anything but darkness passing her to indicate her suspicion. There was no light above to suggest just how far she'd dropped from wherever she was before. There was just the uncomfortable, familiar, weightless sensation that no unwinged creature embraced. She had trusted Ana, this anomaly manifested inexplicably in this world she didn't know or understand. Now she was about to fall to her death from some unknown height. Perhaps it was best. Down here she could be forgotten, and buried with her sins like she should've been so very long ago.

Suddenly the falling sensation ended. It just...stopped. Maxine found herself laying on her back. Her hands searched the ground, finding that same smooth texture she'd been plagued with since she arrived in this reality. Above was blackness. The obsidian floor persisted. She pressed her lips together and slowly peeled herself from the ground. No devastating impact. No injuries. It was a start.

"Come on," Ana coaxed her pleasantly. Maxine glanced up at the woman beside her. Naturally, just as she was immune to all Maxine's attempts at attack earlier, it seemed her descent was far more graceful. "This way." The blonde woman's heels clicked on the hard, slick ground ahead of her. Maxine roused herself to her feet and started to follow. Instead of a confusing expanse of space, a gentle gleam to her left and right clued her into the fact she was wandering a hallway.

The Rusalka moved at the woman's heels as she was bid. Her mind recognized nothing of this place. The enigmatic, carefree stranger would simply have to be accepted as her guide. It wasn't as though Maxine had much alternative. She'd been stuck for quite some time in oblivion before her arrival, and she certainly hadn't a lick of luck in finding her own way out.

"What is this place?" Max questioned just above a whisper. The hallway was so quiet, she feared even the stones encasing their walk would be disturbed by her volume.
"An 'in-between' I suppose is the easiest explanation," Ana answered brightly. "A neither 'here' or 'there' sort of waypoint."
"Sure," Maxine accepted with a shake of her head. At this point it wasn't worth the energy trying to math out everything that didn't make sense. She just wanted to find the way out. She could brush off the rest.

"Hello, my Love..."

Maxine froze in her tracks, feeling an icy breath hiss from the an opening in the stones to her left. Her gaze snapped toward it, finding an eerie mist rolling about the floor. Strain as she might, her eyes couldn't make out so much as a silhouette inside.

"Maxine..."

Her ears didn't hear it. It was as though the lips of the speaker were inside her head, letting the velvet words they spoke rattle between her ears. She didn't recognize the voice. Not as hard as she tried. Somehow her heart knew and the pang in her chest verified that.

"Maxine?" Ana had stopped walking, evidently aware Max had been grasped by something. "That path is empty. I promise." When her ward didn't follow, Ana sighed. "You could enter through if you'd like, but you'd wander blind and lost for eternity. Whatever was there is gone now. Lost. That, I cannot help you get back."

Maxine stood frozen for a few moments. Ana bit her lip in wait. The cool breath of the room and whatever deep nostalgia laid within continued to lust for the ex-convict, bidding her inside. She let it lap at her for a time before she was able to wrench herself away. She caught up to Ana quickly, and the guide visibly breathed a quiet breath of relief.

"Come on," the blonde woman beckoned her. "Through here."

The cursed Rusalka followed Ana through a different break in the hallway though it was just as dark. The further they ventured, the more a heavy sense of familiar foreboding began to rest on Maxine's shoulders. She took a deep inhale through her nose.

Is that...a potato sack?

As soon as her nose registered the seemingly random scent, the world before them opened up with a rush of self-lighting torches.

No...

Maxine swallowed hard. Her fingers curled into fists at her side.

Anywhere but here.

[Max]

"Another unpleasant memory," Ana sighed at the rigidness that took her ward over.
"More of a nightmare," Maxine clarified darkly. The stone chamber with its eerie, towering dolmen had been the setting of many sleepless nights long after the horrors she'd experienced there. "It took arcs to stop coming here in my dreams to relive it over and over." The cursed woman took a deep, righting breath.

Blood.

She couldn't see it, but it was fitting. There had been lots of blood spilled in this place. Some of it was hers. Luckily, a greater bit belonged to the cultists who conspired the entire plot. Her feet came to a halt as did Ana's beside her. The guide folded her hands neatly in front of her, waiting and studying the Rusalka. Max caught her eyes in her peripheral vision and straightened up.

Another inhale.

Fire.

No, that wasn't fire. She had sat at camp fires, stoves, and stood a little too close to houses gone up in flames. This smell wasn't just heat and burning. The scent of incinerating fuel was coupled with the burning, not of something, but of someone.

"This one wasn't about the killing for you." Ana's voice echoed about the eerily empty chamber. A small, nearly missed puff of wind breezed through, subtly disturbing the crackling torchlight. "After all, you didn't know the faces behind the masks."
"There was no reason they should've been my enemy." Maxine's eyes glazed over, watching the shadows of cloaked ghosts stare down at her from their seats like they were watching bloodshed unfold in an arena for their entertainment. "We were just enjoying a party. I still don't understand."
"Why you?"
"Why me?"

What happened here already happened.

The cursed woman nodded encouragement to herself before stepping into the gargantuan shadow of the stone dolmen. Her shoulders hung beneath the crushing weight of this place. Blood pounded through her veins, pumped vigorously to feed anxious muscles by her heart. By her measurements, at least the ones she willed herself to live by, this event was far too old to elicit this reaction from her. It was as if no time had passed at all.

"Trauma can be crippling," Ana lectured from behind, giving the shell shocked woman her space to take in the memory. "I've also found, however, that trauma can also be binding."
"Binding..."
"Sure," the blonde woman clarified simply. "It can bring people together. Even if they have nothing else in common but the event."
"No kidding," Maxine scoffed. "We were all so painfully different we had no business being bound."

The Rusalka turned at the sound of dripping water. A gentle stream was running down the length of a section of stone wall, trickling down to the floor. There wasn't a cultist left alive to stare her down from behind a cowardly mask. Somehow she still felt the weight of their eyes and the knowledge of their deadly magic upon her.

"How do you feel about authority, Maxine?"
"Authority," Max repeated grimly. "That's just someone with enough power or support to impose their will upon the unwilling. I feel no type of way about it. It just is."
"You accept it?"
"No one ever has to accept it. Only the fact that if you don't, accept what you must do to prevent it from breaking you in kind."
"You speak with negative connotation. You disagree authority can be necessary or good?"
"Look at the context in which you're asking me that question," Maxine pointed out, gesturing to their surroundings. "Every one of those cultist fucks was an Element. Every. Single. One. They picked strangers out of a crowd to torture and toy with for some shitty agenda I'll never understand. I'm glad they're all dead, and every Element top-side that continued to wear the same pins deserve the same fate."
"Not every Element down here was a cultist."
"No," Maxine growled in tense agreement. "You're right. One was different."

Emboldened by anger or restlessness, Maxine ventured beneath the stone dolmen itself. In the center she found an arc of masks. Each one resembled an element and an Element Cultist to match: Wind, Water, Fire...and Earth. Ice ran through her veins at the sight of the Earth Mask. Her lip curled. Even in death she couldn't let go of her eternal grudge against them. They would never be forgiven.

"Why did you stay?"
"I didn't have a choice there was no way out," Maxine's answer was paired with a furrowing of her brow. "We were trapped. They were killing us." The Rusalka raised her foot over the Wind Mask and smashed her heel into it. The simple disguise shattered beneath her foot. A raven cawed but it did so without a body.
"That's not true," Ana corrected. "You had a choice: join and fight or avoid this chamber altogether. You chose to stay again when the men broke through the chamber. Instead of running straight for the exit you stopped to help Vega."
"She was screaming," Maxine explained emptily. "When I saw she didn't die, we had a brief window to make it out. She needed help." Her heel smashed through Water Mask's disguise next.
"You risked everything for people you didn't even know."
"I felt...stronger...fighting with them." When she stomped Fire Mask's veil to pieces, she added an extra twist of her heel. "It felt right."
"Doing the right thing felt good."
"Not just that." Maxine stared down at the soulless face of her tormentor: the final mask. "I didn't want them to die. I didn't know them but I just...I didn't want that. It felt good to fight for someone other than myself. Fighting with them. For them. For nothing in return. It felt right."
"Despite the consequences?"
"Especially because of the consequences."

Lip curled, Maxine raised her foot high and brought it down upon the Earth Mask with as much force as she could muster. Like all the rest, the mask easily shattered at her will.

And then, at nearly the same moment satisfaction in what she'd done soothed her mind...

...An earthen spike roared up through the soil like a predatory root to spear up through the offending foot.

[Max]

Maxine's mouth opened but the agonizing scream that pinched her features never came out. She sunk to the floor, gasping with curled hands hovering over the speared foot. As soon as her body changed levels the cursed Rusalka found herself surrounded. Bodies bumped into her. Coat tails smacked into her face with every rousing cheer of agreement. Between sips of labored breath, she glanced up to see faceless, ordinary men and women fixated on some event beyond her. A speaker maybe? She wasn't sure. Over their zealousness she couldn't hear the voice or the words.

It was hard to care anyways with the crippling sensation in her foot taking center stage in her mind.

Fuckin' Immortals I could've done without this vivid reminder!

This time there was no Vega to do the saintly work of tearing her off her earthen snare. As a matter of fact, Maxine wasn't even sure where Ana had gone. Her shaking hands gradually closed in toward the spear head sticking up through her foot. One of the anonymous Scalvoris citizens in the crowd shifted far too close for the downed woman's comfort.

"Watch it!" Maxine recoiled like a snake, barely keeping what little composure she possessed even without a painful ensnarement. The faceless citizen stopped. So did every other strangers' body around her. In shuddersome unison they turned their heads down toward her. Their faceless features flickered before each stared down at her wearing the Earth Mask.

"No, no, no!" the Rusalka's hands jumped from the spear as though to shield her head. As quickly as their attention moved to her it was over. Every stranger's face returned to mediocrity and their full attention back on whatever event they were attending. Breathing hard, Maxine hung her head.

Could she not hear what they were all so angry about because of her heartbeat pounding in her ears?

With two deliberate hands and a hard brace, she managed to snap the portion of the spear above her foot. Black spots filled her vision. More bodies seemed to add themselves to the growing crowd around her, their gestures becoming more animated and invigorated.

Time to go.

Gasping, she gripped the outside of her mangled foot at its base on either side of the snare. Another brace and she yanked her foot straight up off the spear. Her vision swam and the wind left her lungs. Whatever strangled noise came out of her seemed to have been smothered by the events unfolding around her. Her blurry, wandering eyes locked onto a pair of eyes staring straight back at her. Her skin turned to gooseflesh and her writhing body froze.

You.

Earth Mask tore his gaze from hers, nonchalantly turning on his heels and moving without hurry further from where she sat. The pain, debilitating at first, was beginning to dull with every passing second. The ghost of a storm of emotions roared back to life. Her entire focus zeroed to the back of the man vanishing in the crowd. Max rocked forward to place weight on the injured foot, finding no push-back from her nerves at all. As soon as she was on her feet she was after him.

Her gathering thoughts were immediately scattered by the deafening shriek of an Enormowl. Maxine winced hard, bracing her palms against the sides of her head over her ears. She lifted her chin with wide eyes to find Earth Mask had vanished again. Before she had a chance to register the chaos unfolding, all the civilian bodies around her collapsed in a bloody instant as though cleaved one-by-one with a sword. When they fell they seemed to fall through the ground. Bodies gone, their blood remained in thick, vast pools all around her.

"What are you doing?" Ana's voice finally arose over the calamity. The Rusalka froze. Miraculously unmaimed, she hardly realized that she had continued to move in the direction she last saw the ghost of her nemesis.
"I have to find him," Maxine explained, dejected. "He's one of them. He's out here somewhere. I have to." Her brow pinched and her eyes searched her peripherals in thought. The words had spilled out of her mouth in a way that felt unnatural. It wasn't that they weren't true or didn't belong to her. It was more like deja vu. Like she'd said those same words before.

Languishly, Maxine turned on her heels to face the blonde woman. Her head was slightly tilted but her oceanic gaze was soft. Towering shadows lumbered behind the woman, slowly coming into the foreground. The cursed woman took a step back. A small army of Element cavalry came to a firm halt at Ana's heels. Each had a weapon in their armored hands, and they sat as silent as they were sullen in their place.

"Why?" Ana sighed with a shake of her head. "Why was all of this worth it for you? For one man?"
"He stole something from me," Max murmured tightly, expression strained. "In here." She jabbed her index finger into her temple. "If I could kill him and every one of those assholes that got away, I thought maybe I could get it back. Do you know what it was like? Every single day, living in here after that?" She smashed the side of her head with the heel of a palm and wide eyes. "Knowing they were out there? Not knowing if I was passing them in the street or if they wanted to finish the job they started?"
"I truly can't imagine."
"Of course you couldn't."

A flicker in the corner of her eye caught her attention. The Rusalka's head snapped to find Earth Mask watching her, slipping expertly by the Element line from behind. Her jaw tightened.

Do they not see him?!

"They're protecting him!" an older, fast-tongued self voice debated her.

Maybe they could've caught him if I hadn't caused a distraction...

"Don't be stupid. They think they can hide but you saw their faces. Everyone is one of them!"

When Earth Mask parted from the line, wandering closer to her along the sidelines, she turned on her heels and rushed toward him. Another ear-piercing noise arose in the form of a literal earth-shattering boom. Accompanied by a bright, scarlet flash of light, the space between Maxine and Ana collapsed as though a giant sabre had slashed through it. The Rusalka crouched and extended her arms, battling for balance as the ground shook. Behind her a gaping maw of a bottomless pit had opened. Ana frowned deeply from the other side of it.

Neither Ana or the Element brigade were going to stop her now.

No one is.

[Max]

"You will never have another chance like this!"

I know.

Sights zeroed on the escaping Earth Mask, Maxine pushed forward into a full sprint. Her heart pounded in violent anticipation, scrambling feet somehow gaining speed the more she closed the distance between herself and her target. Like a match to a flame, she let the pursuit in this hunt absolutely consume her. Any thought of Ana or the odd journey she'd undertaken had fallen far from her mind. There only existed two things in her entire universe: Him and Her. As it should be.

Savvy to the chase, Earth Mask caught her over his shoulder and picked up speed. His keen eyes spotted an escape from the chaos and the crumbling ground. His change in direction was swift and decisive, and by the time the next flash of bright scarlet filled the sky, he'd started expertly breaking away. Faster and fitter legs carried him across the chosen foot bridge, nimble even as it swayed under his weight. Another boom rattled their chests as he hit the halfway point. Earth Mask's eyes widened as he noticed far too late that the opposite side of his bridge had crumbled, cascading down into a cavernous abyss.

The bridge loosened, freed on one of its ends. Maxine felt the weightlessness of the impending fall coming. Both turned back on their heels, hustling desperately to go back the way they came before gravity had its way with them. The Rusalka launched herself toward safety, catching the rope railing of the bridge as it began its descent. She came to a hang on the rope with a robust snap that jerked her body into the unnaturally created cliffside she now dangled from. Lucky to have fallen behind when she did, she could practically reach up and grab the lip of the rocky face. A gentle hiss regained her attention before she had the chance to comprehend the change in events.

The rope.

An ancient-looking, wooden post was giving up its role as anchor as the rope uncoiled from it like a snake. Maxine reached up and wrapped her fingers around the post as best as she could. She reoriented her body, planted her feet on the rocks, and managed to haul her body up over the cliff as the rope sprung free. Barely on solid ground, she felt another's weight tugging on the end of the railing she still clung to. Maxine dug her heels in, teeth gritting as another earth-shattering boom thundered. The ground beside her caved. There was little more than a sliver of earth left for her to balance on.

The cursed woman looked over the edge, muscles tensing. Looking back up at her was the hated mask of her bane. His body twisted where it dangled, and he stared right back at her over the looming darkness with an iron grasp. The rope started to slip willingly from her grasp. Then she saw it.

The rope was braided in three faint colors, frayed and waning but there all the same. Scarlet threads embraced icy blue ones, tight and strong in their woven design. The third color, green, was present but more damaged than the other two. It was inconsistent, broken away in some areas, and frayed in others to bad it was a wonder the rope didn't snap further down its length.

Her hands wound tight back on the rope, body precariously lurching forward as she regained authority over the weight. Maxine strained, stature turning rigid and leaning back as she tried to keep from losing her grip. All the while the Earth Mask silent stared up at her. Maxine glared down at him but even her toes curled to hold her place on the thinning ground.

"What are you doing?!"

I don't know!

"It's him! A sword or a fall, death is death! Give him what he deserves!"

The rope--

"Let the rope go! Drop him! Drop him for what he's done! For what he's stolen!"

But--

"You can't hold it! You have no choice!"


Maxine pulled her elbows in closer to her body and tightened her core. She shook her head. One hand pulled back on the rope while the other ambitiously reached further to adjust her leverage. The Earth Mask continued to linger silently on the literal end of his rope, neither hindering or helping her. She shifted a foot back to widen her stance, finding that even doing that put her heel over the other edge.

"It doesn't have to happen this way," she echoed words as though actually hearing them for the first time. "I had a choice." Arms shaking, she dared to peer over the cliffside to stare down at her tormentor one final time. "They were right. I see now this is exactly what you wanted. I will not give it to you." Maxine took a sip of air and leaned back again.

Her strength was waning. She could feel it in every fiber of her being, the fatigue deep in her bones that warned she couldn't keep this up much longer. Max peered over her shoulder and a shiver ran down her spine. Her gaze dropped to her shaking hands and then to the colored threads they were wrapped around. Her mind was made up.

One last heave. One last backward step with everything she had. She felt the point of no return, and gravity was quick to take over. Maxine fell backward off the small platform with the rope firmly in her grasp. Serving as the counter weight, she felt what must've been Earth Mask rising back toward solid ground. There was a single moment of suspension. And then the rope slipped through her fingers.

One final act, and Maxine has surrendered herself to the dark, all-consuming pit below.



Continued here (The Mind Flayer III.)