Chapter Twelve - You Miss Me, Cry?

     "I think it'd be best to go this way."

     "I thought we just came from there?"

     "No we came from there."

     "It looks familiar though."

     "Everything looks the same! Everything looks familiar."

     "Shut up! Geeze you idiots need to get it together." Stephano's shout echoed through the halls which had just emptied of our voices. All three of us looked down upon the little golden statue in wonder. "It's that way, now shut up."

     A little thrown back we obeyed his directions. Down the hall we began to hear voices. Not the groans and roars of monsters but actual voices of humans. They were whispering things at first then slowly they got louder until they were screaming in our ears. Though we knew they were just hallucinations we sprinted through the passageways. Their words were too frightening to think straight. A lot of them were death threats or screaming as they took their last breaths. One voice… It wouldn't leave. Its words were directed at me. My mind reeled at the thought of that crazy Aeroden returning. Violently shaking my head I tried to focus on progressing in a straight line. In the short time my feet had contact with the floor; I could tell it was rumbling.

      "Enough!" The voice's pressure seemed to be what sent me flying backwards. Felix and Toby were knocked forward just as a huge chasm formed in the space between us. I was cut off again… but everything was silent. I could see the other two shouting at me from across the hall, their words eaten by the space around them. "Welcome back…"

     "No. Leave me alone, please."

      "What? You don't like hearing my voice again?"

     "Get the hell out of my head!"

      "I can't, Cry. You put me there."

     "What… are you… talking about?" I managed to sputter between the spikes of pain in my head. Suddenly it increased tenfold, making me clutch my head for any relief I could manage. Everything seemed fuzzy but I believe I was screaming. I was on my knees without remembering how it happened.

      "Do you miss me, Cry?" Then everything was gone. I gasped for air, coughing now and again with the feeling I was about to vomit. When the world ceased to spin, I stood. Wobbling as I walked I managed to balance on a window sill. This one hall seemed to have windows everywhere. Wait… The hole… It's gone now. Toby was holding my upper arms and talking in my face. Concentrate you fool!

     "What happened?! Talk to me!"

     "Uhh…" My mouth opened and shut but it was unable to form words so I shook my head as a sign.

     "Felix, I'm afraid to go any further anymore… If not for my sanity- his."

     "I don't think any of us can keep going like this." I pat Felix's arm in reassurance that I was capable of continuing. His face held a grim smile. As to ease the tension I held my hand out in a child like manner for him to take and the other for Toby. Felix chuckled before accepting it and shortly after so did Toby. I nodded to them as if to say 'we got this guys.'

     We took a step forward… nothing. Another step… still quiet. Step, step, step… still good. Step, step, st- Glass in my face? Suddenly we were in the midst of shattering windows everywhere. I stood there looking at it curiously as the shards fell in slow motion. It was like time had slowed drastically but we were still in regular time. I reached out and grasped an odd shaped piece in front of me, turning it over in my hand. Wincing as it splintered my finger I dropped it. It cracked against the cobblestone in slow motion once again. A drop of blood oozed from the cut on my finger, dripping off in slow motion as well.

     "What is going on?!" I shouted and the other two only shrugged. The glass quickly rewound back into place in the window frames. We glanced at each other for a second, all of us realizing this was probably bad. As soon as we took off running the panes shattered once again, only dangerously lethal in real time. The faster the shards came our way the slower it felt like we were running. I had my eyes locked on the door just a few yards away now. In what seemed like too long, we reached it, slammed the door shut and basked in the real time movements we and everything around us possessed.

     I had ended up on a couch with my eyes hardly staying open. Somewhere in the mix I passed out hard. Voices floated in my head but my vision was simply black. It seemed like a recap of the conversation I'd had earlier in my temporary insanity.

     "Leave me alone, please."

      "I can't, Cry." There was screaming. It sounded feminine this time though.

      "Do you miss me, Cry?"