"Chapter 8"

"Chapter 8" was published on April 10th 2021.

### Description

Chapter 8 follows Bunny as he rescues Lilith from her Nightmare Realm, and then heads in to save Aspen from his Nightmare Realm.

CW/TW: Swearing, sexual abuse, cigarettes and smoking, mention of poison, murder, weapons, and mention of puking.

### Original

Here is the link to the original story, although it has been copy-and-pasted onto here for simplicity and nothing has been changed.

### The Story

*Date: Unknown*

*Time: Unknown*

*Place: The Void*

*. . .*

*Chapter 8*

*~~~*

“Who are you?” I asked, walking towards the strange person. He was quite tall and has light brown skin with curly black hair and brown eyes. He wore a dark blue beanie and an oversized dark red tee-shirt with a gray long sleeve beneath it, rolled at the elbows. He also wore gray leggings, black shorts, gray high top sneakers, and a bronze bandana tied around his neck. In his hand he held a lit cigarette.

“In this world I’m known as Jacob, but you can call me Arsenic,” he said, smiling. He took a few steps towards me as he took a drag from his cigar. “You’re in The Void right now, by the way. Congrats on getting out of the Nightmare Realm by the way, even with Sammy’s help.”

“Sammy?” I questioned.

“Oh, yeah. You know Biocide right? Well her real name is Samantha, but she goes by Sammy. Funny enough, her host is named Sammy and that’s who helped you out too.”

“Host?” I asked.

“Ah, never mind that right now. You’ll learn that later.” Arsenic smiled at me. He held out his cigar to me as an offer.

“No thanks, I don’t smoke anymore,” I said.

“I know,” Arsenic said. He turned away from me and waved his hand around before magically conjuring a whole bunch of holographic screens that floated in mid-air. On the screens displayed the Mansion and I watched everyone go about their daily lives. Annie was hanging out with Rose, Corbin was making out with Cyrin, Cyrus was still getting wasted, etc.

“What is this?” I asked, standing beside Arsenic and gazing up with wonder at the screens.

“This is just one of the many different services that the Void offers. From here, I can watch everything that everyone is doing at any point in time. I’ve seen every single thing that all of you have ever done. These past few months in the Snap have been amusing though.” He chuckled.

“Past few months? But it’s only February right now. The Snap’s only been going on for maybe a month at most,” I argued. Arsenic laughed and patted my head like I was a little child. I growled at him and he grinned.

“It may have been February when you came into the Nightmare Realm, but time passed so much differently you see. Time passed normally out there, but doesn’t pass here in the Void. However, time feels like it’s moving normally in the Nightmare Realm, but it’s not. You felt like you spend an hour, maybe two in there, right?” I nodded, because that was true. “Well, hate to break it to ‘ya but you actually spent a few months in there. It’s the end of April right now dude,” he said.

“Excuse me?!” I took a few steps back. “You’ve got to be lying right now, right? You-You’re lying to me.”

“Wish I was, but I ain’t. You can see the date right up there on the screen,” he said, pointing to the top right corner of the main holographic screen. The date was there, and it read April 27th 2021. I shook my head in disbelief. “No matter how much you don’t want to believe it, you’re gonna soon enough. And just to think, everyone out in the normal world has just been going off on their normal lives while you’ve been trapped in here for several months, crying and worrying your guts out,” Arsenic laughed. I growled at him again, but I stepped back and took a few deep breaths to calm myself. I remind myself that I had a purpose here, and that was to rescue the triplets.

“Hey- by any chance do you happen to be one of the triplets? I came here to find and rescue you guys, so I need to know if you’re my damsel in distress, y’know?” I asked, and Arsenic smiled at me again. His stupid mocking smile that I hated so much.

“I’d think that I’d be the one rescuing your small pathetic ass, but yeah, I’m one of the triplets that were locked away by the big, bad scary monster named Sammy.”

“Why were you locked away here?” I asked, suppressing my rage towards him.

“Oh, I don’t remember. Prolly pissed off Sammy in the beginning and she locked the three of us away here because why not,” he shrugged. “Anyways, you’re up for a challenge now. I may be here in the Void because I was smart and learned how to escape, but my siblings aren’t exactly . . . up to my level, if you catch my drift. They’re still in their personal Nightmare Realms, so you’ll need to find them and get them out if you’re legit going to do this,” Arsenic explained. He motioned his hand towards the other side of the room and two doors appeared out of thin air. One of them had a pentacle on it and the other had a magnifying glass. “Each door leads to the realm of one member, but you can only be in one realm at a time. Here’s the kicker though: only one person at a time can go through the door, and then the realm will turn to suit that person’s nightmares instead of the original person’s. So once you get them out, you’ll need to venture through your realm again to get out and get back here.”

“That sounds difficult, but alright.” I nodded and took a few steps towards the doors before I turned back to look at Arsenic. “Just so I know, who exactly am I looking for?” Arsenic laughed at me.

“You’re a funny bunny, y’know? So behind the pentacle door is my bro Kaden, known as Aspen. He’s short, ‘round your height, and he has curly brown hair and wears overalls. Strange boy, but you might get along. Behind the magnifying glass door is my sis Amanda, known as Lilith. She’s ‘bout my height and has those strange hair bun things, and she wears a crop top thing. You might like her, but be careful about what you say around her, got it?”

“Alright, thanks,” I said, nodding towards him and stepping up to the doors. I looked between the two doors for a moment before opening up the one with the magnifying glass- Lilith’s door- and stepping inside. I looked around before the world went black and I lost consciousness.

~

I woke and promptly freaked out because I was floating in a sea of white nothingness, except for the house in front of me. It looked nice, with flowerbeds and a swinging chair on the deck. I guided my floating body forwards by trying to swim and I finally got close enough to the house to grab onto it, and suddenly my body remembered what gravity was and I fell down hard onto the deck. I stood up, rubbing my aching butt, and peaked in the window of the house. It was nice inside, with fancy chairs and pictures of a happy family hanging on the walls, but I saw no one. I walked up to the front door and twisted the handle, expecting it to be locked, but instead the door swung open and I stepped inside the house.

The walls were painted beige and the couches and chairs that sat to my left were light pink with a floral print on them. A television hung on the wall beside the window and it was turned on, but all there was was static, so I turned the television off. I peeked into the kitchen beside the living room and it was empty, but there were cookies in the oven. They were still warm, so I took one and bit into it, but immediately spit it out because something definitely tasted off about them, like there was something very bad inside them that shouldn’t be there. I calmly dumped the entire tray of cookies into the trash and continued exploring the house. A half empty glass of water sat on the dining room table with a small pill beside it, but I couldn’t identify what the pill was.

There was a staircase that led upstairs, and I quietly crept up there. As I got to the second floor, I immediately heard the muted sounds of yelling and screaming. I looked around and learned that it was coming from behind a closed door. I put my ear up against the door and listened.

“No! Please! Stop! No!!!” A woman was screaming.

“Darling, just comply with us and it’ll be over soon enough,” a man said, hushing the girl. A chorus of men laughed and the woman continued screaming. Grunts and groans came from in the room, and I knew exactly what was going on. I frantically checked my pockets for a weapon, but realized that I didn’t have any on me and I darted downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a couple knives. I raced back upstairs and kicked open the door to catch about three middle aged men and two teenage boys literally with their pants down, and a poor teenage girl- who I assumed was Lilith- tied up and crying. I began stabbing and slicing at them men, attacking them without concern for whether they lived or died. At one point, two of the men managed to pin me down, but with a quick kick to their groins and a slice to their windpipes, they were no longer any problem to me. With little difficulty, I managed to take down and kill the rest of the men in the room and turned my gaze to the woman.

“Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do anything, just don’t kill me,” she begged, her makeup running down her face.

“Hey, hey, don’t worry. I’m not here to hurt you, I’m here to save you,” I said gently, reassuring her as I walked towards her. I grabbed the ropes that bound her wrists and ankles and sliced them so that she could go free. She tumbled off the bed and before she could even stand up properly, she was clinging onto me in thanks.

“Thank you thank you thank you,” she cried. “You’re my saviour,” she said.

“Yeah yeah, it’s great I saved you, but please get dressed,” I said, looking anywhere else but her as she remembered that she was naked. I turned my back as she threw on some clothes and then ran up beside me. She clung onto my arm and I led her downstairs and she sat down on the couch. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs as she looked like she was about to cry again. Her black hair was put up into two hair buns, but it was a mess and her bangs covered her left eye. She wore a jade green crop top and a black turtleneck top beneath it, along with blue cuffed jeans and dark purple slip ons. “So . . .” I said, trying to start a conversation.

“Thank you for saving me,” she said through her sniffles. “I don’t know what would have happened if you weren’t there to stop them.”

“I think I know what might’ve happened,” I said under my breath. “Yeah, no problem. Say, is your name Lilith?” I asked her as I sat down on the couch opposite from her.

“Yeah, it is. Nickname wise though, it’s not my real name. Who are you?”

“I’m Bunny,” I said, reaching out my hand for a handshake. I retracted my hand when she didn’t shake it and I suddenly felt very weird. “Look, I’ll get straight to the point. This place is called the Nightmare Realm and you’re trapped in an eternal nightmare until you get out, and I’m here to break you out of here, okay?” I explained and she sat up, wiping away her tears. Her makeup left stains as it ran down her face, but she was still really pretty, but I figured I wouldn’t mention that right now.

“You’re here to save me? Take me out of this nightmare?” She said with hope in her eyes. I nodded and she stood up. “Well then let’s leave right now. I don’t want to be in this horrible place any longer than I’ve already been,” she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me up. “So, Bunny, how do we leave here?” She looked so excited and happy that she could leave, but I bit my lip and looked away from her.

“Well, you see, that’s the problem. There’s this door somewhere that you can leave through, but I’m not sure where this door is exactly,” I explained, and her smile faded and she dropped my hands.

“So . . . I’m trapped here . . . forever?” She said, shaking. She wrapped her arms around her and took a few shaky breaths.

“No no no no no, you’re not trapped here forever, we just have to find the door, that’s all,” I assured her and she looked at me.

“Promise?” She asked, about to cry again. I nodded and held out my pinky. She wrapped her pinky around mine and I smiled at her.

“I promise.” We dropped our hands and I clapped mine together. I looked around the room for a second before staring at the front door. “Okay, I may have an idea. I need you to step outside,” I said, opening the front door to the inky white abyss. She gave me a strange look, but nonetheless obliged. The moment she stepped outside, her body began crumbling and disappearing into tiny little bits and pieces. Once she was all gone, the world around me began transforming as it turned into the city that I’d come to loathe so much.

I stood inside my bedroom, staring at myself in the mirror. I looked exactly the same as I did before, so I knew that this was going the way it was supposed to be. I exited my bedroom and walked out to the living room where Anastasia- who I’d realised was this world’s equivalent of Annie- laid on the couch, scrolling social media on her phone. Without talking to her, I grabbed an umbrella from the coat hanger beside the door and left the apartment. The sky was sunny and blue, but I knew that wouldn’t last for very long. I began walking in a direction that was unfamiliar, but somehow I found where the doctor’s office with Dr. Saito- who was Cyrin- worked. I continued on the way that I’d been going and soon came across the cat cafe with the loud angry man- Caelan- and the poor barista- Rose- and peered through the window to see the two of them already inside, frozen as if they were in a paused video game. I looked up at one of the billboards to see the face of the celebrity- Corbin- as he advertised a list of things. Times were displayed between each row, but I quickly realized that it was a list of when exactly I was going to do everything.

One of the lines read: [Robert- Cafe; 9:39 am]. The true time read in the corner of the screen and I saw that it was only 8:17 am right now, so I pieced together that these events only happened when they were supposed to, and they weren’t yet so that’s why everyone was frozen. According to that list, I was supposed to be visiting Dr. Saito right now. I shook it off and continued on my way down the street and soon enough bumped into the smoking man with the afro- S.P.- as he sat on the street staring up into the sky with a blank gaze. I passed the office building with the hyper assistant- Cyrus- and I continued down the street until I found the alleyway that I encountered Biocide, or the true Sammy, as Arsenic had explained. Walking down the alley, I picked up the small black key necklace that lay there and looked up into the sky as I opened my umbrella. Right on cue, it began to rain, but this time I was prepared. Following Biocide’s advice from last time, I followed the alleyways until I found the door that I needed. I arranged the puzzle pieces once again and inserted the key, unlocking the door and stepping through it to enter the Void once more. I was greeted by Arsenic and Lilith’s smiles as I shook the water off of the umbrella and tossed it on the floor. I quickly looked at the symbol on the back of the door I’d stepped through before it disappeared to see a mask symbol, then the door disappeared and I sighed.

“Congrats. One down, one more to go,” Arsenic laughed as he lit another cigar and Lilith slapped him.

“You know you shouldn’t smoke. It’s bad for your health,” she said.

“But it helps me cope,” Arsenic said in his usual tone.

“Cope with what? I doubt that you have anything that’s serious at all, other than your lack or brain cells in your head,” she shot back at him. He gasped and put his hand on his chest while he was faking being surprised or hurt or something.

“Sorry I don’t have PTSD like you do Princess, but at least you can eat normally and retain food in your body without purging it all up twenty minutes later,” he said, blowing a puff of smoke in her face as she waved it away. I coughed and reminded the two of them that I was here, and they stopped bickering.

“Oh, right, you’re here. You’re going to get Aspen now, right?” Lilith asked me, then turned to Arsenic. “Do you know what his thing is?” Arsenic shrugged and Lilith turned back to me. “Have fun!” She said with a smile, but I felt like that was sarcastic. I waved and stepped up to the door with the pentacle and opened it up and stepped inside. I took a deep breath and the world went white.

~

I woke up in a classroom. Yep, a grade school classroom. I was surrounded by other children, probably around the ages of 11 or 12, all sitting in their desks and working on some paperwork. Every single seat in the room was taken, except for the one in front of me. I stood up and the teacher barked at me.

“Robert! What do you think you’re doing? You’re supposed to stay at your desk during work time!”

“I need to use the washroom, Miss . . .” I said, trailing off because I didn’t know her name.

“How do you ask?”

“Can I go use the washroom?” I said.

“That’s not the proper way to ask and you know it,” she complained. I held back my impulsive anger as I thought for a second.

“*May* I go use the washroom *please*,” I asked, and she nodded. I sighed and left the classroom, shaking my head at how I could be confused for a grade school child. I walked through the halls, looking for someone who fit the description of Aspen that I got from Arsenic. After searching for a while, I gave up and headed to the closest bathroom to use. While I was inside doing my business, I heard someone in a panic come into the bathroom and it sounded like he was crying. He ran the water and I heard splashing. He was definitely crying, that’s for sure.

“Go away, or else I’m going to kill you!” He screamed, and I stiffened up.