A Penance at the Bathhouse

***A Penance at the Bathhouse*** is the second chapter in the audio-fiction series, *The Sounds of Nightmares*.

## Description

*As Noone recounts her dream of a tainted Bathhouse, the Counsellor tries to unearth details about the mysterious figure from her nightmares. The one Noone calls, "The Candleman".*

## Plot

The story begins with the Counsellor describing his findings with Noone, after their fourth session. His progress with Noone has reminded him of past failure as she talks about seeing a strange figure in her nightmares, whom she has named "The Candleman". The Counsellor recognizes the Candleman's description as he was also encountered in the nightmares of his beloved Cici, who originally referred to the figure as "The Ferryman". The Counsellor is determined to dig deeper and learn more about the figure in order to understand who he is. The Counsellor rewinds the recording of the fourth session.

The fourth session starts with the Counsellor admitting he was at first arrogant and judgmental about Noone’s case not being as important as others, and that she should now be considered someone of great importance and should be prioritized above everyone else. Noone enters the room and asks The Counsellor if he knows what happens to a stone who has overcome its greatest fear. The Counsellor realizes Noone is attempting to tell him a joke she does not know the punchline to, but wants to know if he can figure out the punchline. Noone suddenly sees a moth and describes how she has always been fascinated by them, their way of life and overall how they simply existed. She enjoyed catching them in her mothers plastic jars. Although the Counsellor suggests it be a good time for them to talk about her mother, she declines, explaining that her mother did not share her enthusiasm for "crawlies". Noone tells the Counsellor she was fascinated with how the moths were drawn to the light, as if they were under some kind of spell.

The Counsellor suggests she may see herself in the moth, on account of that she felt vulnerable when she was caught in the spotlight after receiving “the cure." Noone interrupts him and states she doesn't feel cured at all. The Counsellor is concerned and perplexed, asking her if she still feels she is in the dark. Although Noone reveals that she does, she still wants to fly to the light. The Counsellor suggests he be her guiding light so they can work together to leave her darkness behind. Noone is surprised and explains that the way he said things reminded her of something in her recent dream. While the Counsellor suggests she gets comfortable before explaining her recent dream, Noone declines as she already feels at ease.

Noone explains that in her recent dream, she found herself somewhere new. Smelling moisture in the air, she finds herself on the roof of a building, as she looks down, she sees a vast ocean stretching to the horizon. On the nearest shore, giant fish like contraptions come out of the waves. From the mouth of the contraption, she could see plump men and women coming out, their faces hidden behind wooden masks, wearing mucky brown robes. As they walked down the boardwalk, planks of wood were laid out so they could walk on them for extra support. They headed towards a lantern lit market that was below her. Noone realizes their destination was the bathhouse behind her. Suddenly, she hears someone say, “hey." As she turns around, she sees a dirty breathless boy stepping off a ladder, he was dressed with worn out short’s and a shirt covered in pin badges. The boy asks Noone if she knew a way out, but she explains she was just as lost. As the boy insists the two of them travel together he introduces himself as “Jester” because he never runs out of jokes and promises to tell her some jokes along their journey.

Jester’s first joke to Noone starts off as, “A man tells his friend to stop looking for the perfect match," but he doesn't finish. As Noone looks at him, she realizes he knew parts of himself were missing, simply being in such a place was changing him. Noone also realizes something about herself, her headache was gone. Jester suddenly yells out as he remembers the rest of his joke, stating the friends told the man to use a lighter.

The Counsellor realizes the boy was the one who told her the joke about the stone. The Counsellor additionally points out that the boy she met this time was more normal than the last boy she met in her previous dream, the goo-haired child.

Noone agrees as “Jester” did look like the kids she would often see in her school, except, “Jester was kinder." Noone reveals the kids at her school teased her, but they stopped the day she fell ill. After she became sick with “The water sickness,” all the kids who teased her started sucking up to her, trying to please her in an effort to gain her favor. Although at the time she knew she was still  herself, she finds it ironic as she feels less like herself now. Noone is surprised to learn that the Counsellor was also teased as a child.

As Noone continues explaining her dream, she says Jester grabbed her arm and took her to a spot on the rooftop where she could see other rooftops. He points out long planks of wood laid out like bridges between the rooftops. Noone realizes there have been other children that followed the same path. The Counsellor is surprised, wondering what led her to believe there have been other children. Noone explains the walkways were too narrow for the swollen adults to walk on. Although Noone had no other way to explain how she knew other children left the planks, she was still certain it was other children. Noone focuses more on Jester and tells the Counsellor she could feel Jester’s presence, just as she could feel his presence in the room. Noone wonders if feeling Jester’s presence  meant she was sharing a dream with someone like him, a mutual dream like the Counsellor told her back in their first session. Not wanting to jump to conclusions about anything, The Counsellor suggests she simply continue.

She and Jester walked on each plank, going from building to building. As the plump adults walked in a line towards the bathhouse, every now and then one of them would step out of line to take goods from the many merchants that sold different kinds of soaps and perfumes. The flowery smell of the soup and perfumes, mixed with the fishy scent that came out of the bath house chimneys. As they reach the final building, they are left with no other choice but to climb down the long ladder that goes down the side of the building, into an alleyway. Before they climbed down, she could sense Jester was feeling nervous so she tried to maintain his courage by asking him if he had another joke to tell her. Jester's next joke starts of as, “What happens to a stone that has overcome its greatest fear”, but doesn't finish. Noone notices Jester had the same lost look as when he told her his first joke. Noone tells the Counsellor her grandmother had a similar lost look as Jester's.

As Noone asks if Jester has forgotten the punchline, Jester tells her he will likely remember it by the time they reach the alleyway below. Jester is the first to climb down the ladder, but before she could follow him, she notices something crawling out from across the rooftop she was on. Suddenly, she hears a quiet voice. As she looks over, she sees the same man she saw in the room of jars in her previous dream, the dream she explained to the Counsellor during their first session.

Noone stops as she is unable to focus on the man to properly describe her appearance. She considers the man as someone who is impossible for her to remember, comparing him to a broken mirror or a torn up picture, she cannot piece him back together. The Counsellor is becomes determined to know more about the man in her dreams, but realizing Noone is unable to dig deep enough, he presents to her a piece of equipment he calls “a magic glue for her mind.” Alarmed and frightened by the equipment, Noone is unwilling to wear it, but the Counsellor is determined to make her wear it as he explains that he cannot help her if she cannot remember key details. He must know more about the man in her dreams.

Surprised and confused by the desperation in the Counsellors words, she agrees to wear the equipment. The Counsellor takes out a pendant with a spiral. Noone questions the pendant, to which he simply states it belonged to someone important. The Counsellor tells her he would always feel a sense of relief whenever he would gaze at the pendant's spiral and realized he could provide his patients a similar sense of relief by using it for hypnosis therapy. The Counsellor tells her hypnosis will help her remember “The Candleman”.

As Noone stares at the pendant's spiral, Noone's mind eventually drifts off into a dream like state. She finds herself in the same rooftop she saw the Candleman, only this time, she is able to see him clearly. Noone describes him as someone wearing a long filthy jacket, his presence reminded her of when the tide goes out, his face moved beneath his hat like soup, with bits and pieces rising and sinking. Noone quickly realizes that she is able to see even clearer, noticing even finer details of the man, his eyes are long slits, his skin is rough and sagging like melted wax.

Although the Candleman did not speak, she knew what he was telling her. Noone says the Candleman wanted her to open herself up to the place she was in, and not for the first time, he has wanted her to open up for a while now, throughout every dream she has had. Noon quickly realizes that the Candleman has been with her the entire time, watching, observing and waiting. The Counsellor asks Noone what the Candleman wants, but she does not know.

Noone suddenly hears shouting and turns around. Despite Otto’s attempts to keep her focused on the Candleman, Noone explains the man had disappeared the moment she looked back.

Noone rushes to climb down the ladder and immediately sees a wart covered brute with filthy arms, in the alleyway below her. Noone quickly realizes something was in the brutes hand, flapping around like a fish. As she watched the brute head into the bathhouse, Noone felt like something told her to follow it. As she climbed down the ladder, she passes by the open window of a shop. Noone pokes her head into the window to see what was inside and sees a merchant speaking in a raspy voice to the customer, asking what his pleasure is. The customer tells the merchant he wants suds to cleanse his profound skin. The Merchant grabs a bottle of pink liquid and hands it to the customer, saying it will ease his pain.

As Noone reaches the bottom of the ladder, she is unable to find Jester in the alleyway. Noone continues to make her way through an overgrowth of plants covering the land around the bathhouse. She climbs up some vines leading to a fogged window and makes her way inside. She finds herself in a storage closet. The closet was lined with shelves of cleaning chemicals, brushes and buckets. The stink of bleach so strong it stung her eyes. Noone rushes to the door and peeks into the other side, she sees a room of shallow pools with a polluted taste in the air, a stench similar to the stream by her family's apartment.

As the Counsellor continues to write, he quietly says “water parasite preoccupation”, believing Noone is fixating on her past water sickness even after she has been cured. Realizing the Counsellor believes there is nothing wrong with her, Noone stops for a moment and tells him something lives on inside her even after she was given the cure to treat her water sickness, she feels it pinching her skin, pulling her organs, her head feels like cracked pavement and her scalp feels itchy.

As the Counsellor realizes Noone is in distress, vigorously scratching her head, he stops her and takes the equipment off from her head. The Counsellor takes a moment to ease Noone, telling her there is nothing on her or inside her, it’s just the two of them and nothing else. Otto snaps his fingers to end Noone’s hypnosis. Noone asks if the hypnosis worked and if he was able to tell what was glued back together in terms of the parts of her dream she couldn't properly remember, specifically in terms of the Candleman. The Counsellor tells her they pieced back a few things but there are still many pieces missing.

The Counsellor tells Noone her continued mention of headaches concerns him, but he will look into what could be causing them as well as anything that could help treat them. He asks her to continue explaining her dream in the bathhouse. Noone continues. As she stood inside the bathhouse, trying to take a glimpse at what was beyond the door, she noticed heavy steam all around the room, making it difficult to see. As her eyes focus, she sees bathers unrobed and unmasked, some lathered their bodies, others sat in the water, and others breathed in the steam. Noone realizes the biggest bather was scrubbing himself with something that looked alive.

In an effort to take a closer look, she creeps through the steam and hides behind a bucket. Noone gets a better look at the bather and sees that he barely looked human. It's body was raw and brown, chanting, “divide the grime from the divine” as it scrubbed itself. To Noone’s horror, she realizes the bather was scrubbing himself with Jester. The boy sobbed and thrashed for his life as the bather continued to use him as a scrub. As Noone looks on in Horror, she accidentally slips on a slimy tile. The sound of her falling catches the attention of the bathers and they all simultaneously start chanting, “cleanse her,” over and over as they step out of the water. As they approach her with their arms reached out, Noone sees the bathers had all scrubbed their skin raw. Not knowing what she could do to save Jester, Noone tries to run back into the storage closet but is unable to open the door. However, a crevice in the wall allows her to slip back inside. Now back in the storage room, Noone looks to the same window she came in, her only chance to escape. As the bathers try to break through the door, she climbs up the shelf, knocking over various jars and containers of chemicals that stink the air.

As Noone takes a glance back at the door, she sees it has been broken by the biggest bather, who is holding Jester's now limo body under his arm. The Bather reaches out with his wart covered hand and manages to grab her leg. As the bather pulls her, she desperately tries to continue climbing and grabs hold of a jar containing a white liquid. The bather pulls her down, the jar falls along with her, shattering on top of the bather, covering him head to toe with the white liquid. Suddenly, a cloud of gas is unleashed from the bathers melting body, the gas spreads out into the air and around the room, covering Noone in darkness.

As things settle, Noone feels a sense of satisfaction from melting the bather. Noone recalls what the Counsellor said about how she may see herself in the moths she loved so much, but has concluded she was not at all like the moths who were searching for the light, she felt happy surrounded by the darkness. Noone wakes up soon after.

The Counsellor is perplexed by Noone’s dream, believing her dream was now a more intense personally rooted dream. Believing the desire to be clean she described is meant to represent her desire to wash away memories of invasive experiences her anxiety has fixated on. The Counsellor tells Noone he is puzzled by her claiming she can sense a real presence from the people she dreams about, as well as her environment. Noone is confused as she assumed sensing such a presence in her dreams was expected of mutual dreaming, given he told her long ago that she could be sharing her dream with another person.

Although The Counsellor does remember telling her about mutual dreaming, he explains mutual dreaming is a different phenomenon and is not related to her sensing real presences in her dreams. In an effort to dig deeper, The Counsellor decides he must prescribe further research by conducting nightly tests and observations in order to better reach a diagnosis. Noone’s surprised to hear that she will be undergoing experiments and asks if they are truly necessary. He tries to convince her to comply by telling her the aim is to help her feel better, just like she wanted. Noone agrees as she knows that the sooner she feels better, the sooner she can return to her all the things in her life she misses, specifically her family, stating that she misses her mother telling her good night before bed.

As The Counsellor continues to write, he suddenly remembers the punchline to Jester's joke, telling Noone the stone becomes a little bolder after overcoming its greatest fear. Otto remembers it being an old joke. After finally hearing the full joke, Noone quietly laughs, finding the joke funny. The Counsellor offers Noone another piece of candy for being good, before she goes to bed. The Counsellor ends the recording by saying, “Sweets for my sweets” as Noone takes the candy.

## Characters

* Noone
* The Counsellor
* The Bathers
* Jester
* The Candleman
* Cici (mentioned)
* The Merchants
* The Kids from Noone's School (mentioned)

## Trivia

* This episode was co-written by Youtube content creator SuperHorrorBro, Mike Bambridge, who played the Little Nightmares series and made theory and deep dive videos into the monsters and characters from the world itself.
* When The Counsellor says, "Ferryman", the name of the figure his beloved Cici saw, the audio glitches.
* According to the Counsellor, Noone's description of the Candleman is identical to the Ferryman his beloved Cici knew.
	+ Noone describes the Candleman as someone wearing a long filthy jacket, his presence reminding her of when the tide goes out, his face moved beneath his hat like soup, with bits and pieces rising and sinking. His eyes are long slits, his skin is rough and sagging like melted wax. Although she would only see him directly momentarily, the Candleman has always been with her, watching, observing and waiting.
* Noone specifies a polluted stream near her former apartment, implying The Counties has a polluted water system. What is currently polluting the stream remains unknown.
* Noone suffers from a "water sickness" which continues to torment her. Although she was administered a "cure", Noone admits it did not work as she does not feel cured.
	+ Although not much is known about the "water sickness", the Counsellor specifies a lot of publicity surrounded the "cure", as well as Noone given she was the one to receive it, revealing that the "water sickness" is no ordinary sickness and is a major issue in The Counties, where they currently reside.
* Noone claims she is able to sense a real presences from those in her dream as well as the environment.
* Noone has been suffering from headaches, these headaches only disappear when she is dreaming.

## Videos

The Sounds of Nightmares – Chapter 2- A Penance at the Bathhouse
## References

1. ↑ https://youtu.be/zNndfIi2l\_Q?feature=shared