Monochrome Nightmare

Monochrome Nightmare – The Old Farm It didn't look like much from the outside, but if she had told me what went on in there, we would have just kept walking. Monochrome Nightmare – Books The books had been stacked, the matchbox placed neatly on top. She said it was a warning, something placed by them so that others would know what happened. I didn’t quite see it that way, but I didn’t know enough yet to judge. Monochrome Nightmare – Abandoned They had left suddenly, leaving things behind. There was something terribly sad about the broom, leaning in the corner, and she began to tell me. She recited the story, as if she had memorized the tale by rote and could only tell the tale word for word as she had learned it. Monochrome Nightmare – The Home She told me about how they had lived here until the others had come, and then how they had to leave suddenly. She was sure that they hadn’t escaped, that we would find what was left of them. I would have found that reassuring, what worried me more was that there would be no trace. She said that it had happened several times, and that we couldn’t stay here. We would have to leave as quickly as possible. Monochrome Nightmare – Left Work The boots had been left if place, the leather cracking over time. There had been no reason, but they had hadn’t even taken the boots with them. I began to hear a noise, a thrumming in my ears like too much blood. It distracted me and I almost missed when she said someone was following us. Even though I couldn’t actually see or hear anyone, I felt like I also detected the presence. We should really leave, but she said they wouldn’t let us escape. Monochrome Nightmare – The Windmill It moved languidly in the breeze, although the air felt still and stale on my tongue. There must have been enough air to move the blades, but I couldn’t see how. Something rhythmically would make a chunk sound every seven seconds, but I had no interest in investigating it. She stopped and looked at it for a moment as we passed, as if trying to decide if they were in there or not. She grabbed hold of my arm and began to walk away faster than before, a shudder rippling through her. And then, I did feel wind. A great wind was working itself up, beating against us and riffling the grass. The blades of the mill still moved in their own steady time though, and the trees were still despite the force. Monochrome Nightmare – The Tower She said that we might be able to see a path if we went to the top. I was unsure of this, but there had to be a way to get out of here. The thrumming in my ears was growing louder and the wind was beginning to pick up again. I had guessed the tower would be as good a place as any to see a way out. Monochrome Nightmare – Wind The debris was picking up in the wind, and the sound was becoming louder. My sound in my head was so loud I could no longer hear anything else. When she began screaming I caught only the faintest whimper on the edge of hearing. She grabbed me and screamed that she had seen them, but when I looked I saw nothing. She said they were coming for us and we would have to run or die here. I could hardly forma thought with this pulsing sound of blood rushing in my ears and could only follow her. Monochrome Nightmare – The Disguise She said we would have to try and look like them if we were going to get away. She took one of the abandoned hoods and put it on. It made her look more terrified to do this, as if she thought I would mistake her for one of them and attack her. Monochrome Nightmare – The Train If we were going to get out of there, we would have to take the train. There were no roads, and the paths were blocked by them. The train was as abandoned as everything else, but it kept moving at the same steady and deliberate pace. We climbed on as it chugged along. Monochrome Nightmare – The Ride There was no way to tell if this ride would take us to safety or into danger. My head was hurting and the sound in my ears was keeping me from thinking too carefully. Nothing seemed to make sense, and the train just kept the exact same pace no matter what. I would simply wait until the train stopped or it looked safe enough to leave. I could feel eyes watching us though, as if some unseeable person was sitting behind us in the empty carriage. I didn’t know if those eyes meant malice, or simply wanted to observe, but just then it didn’t feel like we were surrounded by friends. Monochrome Nightmare – A Glance Back I took a look at the train as we climbed off into what I assumed was the station. Nothing seemed right about this. The train itself seemed to have changed, to have aged as we rode it. She looked slightly more comfortable, but I could tell it was a facade. Her fingers quivered as they took hold of my hand, and she was pale. I put an arm around her, reminding her that it probably wasn’t as bad as all that, but there were undeniably footfalls behind us. We didn’t look back, simply began to rush towards the station. Monochrome Nightmare – The Station She said the numbers were supposed to mean something, but I couldn’t help but think that symbolism wasn’t the idea here. It was simply a place where the train had finally ceased to move. The thrumming noise in my ears had been left behind, but there was a now a clank of metal and gears and chains working. This was as bad as it had been before, but now the sound would rise and fall when we went in one direction or another, but never with anything like a pattern. The sound shifted so that we could never follow it to any kind of source. Monochrome Nightmare – The Doorway She began to wonder if they had already been here. We saw no traces, no sign of anyone else. She was growing more frantic and worried as we went along, a state of panic was creeping up on her and that was making me nervous as well. I could hear the boots on the hard floor behind us, but they were so far away we couldn’t see them and she was in no condition to work our way back and confront the owners of the sounds. The gears had grown ever louder, and she wanted to get out as soon as possible. Monochrome Nightmare – The Hall Entirely empty. I was beginning to realize that the thing that was terrifying her was that we might not find any other people. She had been growing more hopeful as we approached this hall, but now that we were here she seemed crushed. She fell to her knees and put her hands over her face in despair. I helped her up and tried to keep her moving along, as it was the only thing I could think to do at this point. Monochrome Nightmare – Empty No one, not at all. She began trembling, and I pulled her close so she could at least know I was there. I’m not sure it helped. The footfalls had faded away, and there was only she and I now. Even the sounds of the machine working had gone. We began to go the only way available to us, we began to descend. Monochrome Nightmare – The Pit If we were going to get away, we would have to go down further to find the way out. She was reluctant, but I had to keep her moving and as such yanked her along. As we went down, we began to hear the sounds of boots on the stairs above us. They walked deliberately, neither rushing nor halting, but moving at the same steady rate no matter what we did. Monochrome Nightmare – Depth I could still hear the boots behind us. I began to concentrate on the noise and found a metallic element in the sound. Hobnails. Someone out there had hobnail boots and was slowly, but inexorably, pursuing us. She was short of breath, and was unable to speak. She looked pale and her lip kept quivering no matter what I would do. There was nothing else to do but to descend, and so we did. Monochrome Nightmare – Netting There was something behind the nets, but I couldn’t quite see what. She was crying by now, and her skin had grown cold and waxen. She seemed to understand something terrible would happen when I looked on the object behind the nets. Monochrome Nightmare – PLAY! The voice demanded we play the organ, but she began to run instead. I watched as the sudden cast of colors burst in my eyes. I felt a hand on my shoulder, pressing me forward to play. She hadn’t let go though, and was tugging me back towards the stairs. When I broke eye contact, the spell was also broken and I followed here away. The foot falls behind us had grown closer, we had to keep moving. Monochrome Nightmare – Door The door in the wall seemed to be the only escape available. Monochrome Nightmare – Workshop We had come out into a workshop of some kind. All the machinery had ceased working long ago though, and none of it looked as though it could have been the source of the sounds we had heard before. It didn’t look like there was much of anything really. We moved through the workshop and found ourselves before another stairwell. Monochrome Nightmare – The Only Way Out Is Up She said we could get up there, we could probably find the way out. It looked like we were simply running a maze to me and I was dubious about the expectation of cheese at the end. The sound of the boots were growing louder behind us though and I had no intention of waiting around for them to catch up with us again. Monochrome Nightmare – Climb And so we began up the stairs, long, strait and then coiling spirals of stairwells. Our feet were loud on the steel and we had to stop every few hundred steps to see if we heard the feet of our follower on the stairs behind us. They were still there, still following and still moving at the same pace. If we just kept going faster than that, we could outrun them. But to what end? We didn’t even know if there would be anything at the top. Monochrome Nightmare – Light After what felt like hours, I could see the end of the stairs, and thought we were almost out. The footfalls echoed behind us, the hoobnail boots making a distinct sound on the metal steps of the stairs. She didn’t look back at me, simply began to run up the spiral. After what felt like an eternity on the stairs, we finally came out into the open. Monochrome Nightmare – Wires I cannot say that these were the most reassuring things I had ever seen, but the power lines at the very least gave some kind of path we could follow. If I went in that direction, surely I would find someone, or something. The sounds of the feet were still behind us though, and she was already starting to run in their direction. Monochrome Nightmare – Are Those People? They looked like normal people. If we followed them, we could find the way home. We might get lost in the crowd, our follower would latch on to some other poor soul. We could be part of this movement and escape. Monochrome Nightmare – Shadows Something was wrong, these were shadows and memories. Smears of nothing. No more than the punchline of a joke we had been told all this time. She said we hadn’t escaped, we had worked ourselves in deeper. I wasn’t sure, something felt like this was actually the right path, we were about to find our way. Monochrome Nightmare – The Hands They were a signal, and one that I could read on my own by now. She was growing calmer as I grew more confident, but the feet were closer, and there were a great deal more of them now. We had walked through the shadows, but they had somehow become solid and joined with our pursuers. Monochrome Nightmare – Bird That tiny bird, it had been the first thing I had actually seen alive besides her, since I could remember. It sat hunched and ready for the next phase, which I was sure was about to begin. I clutched her hand, and told her to think about what might come next. It was entirely possible that things were going to be all right. Monochrome Nightmare – I Can No Longer See My eyes glazed over, I could no longer see clearly. She began to cry again, just soft sobs of desperation. I could hear the bird though, and that was a realer sound that I had heard this whole time. There was nothing manufactured about that noise, it was simply an animal calling out that something was about to begin. The feet were coming though, and there was no where left to hide. They were running now, they were almost upon us. Monochrome Nightmare – Flakes Falling I couldn’t tell if it was snow or ash, but it was everywhere and it both froze and burned at the same time. Something had happened though, some sort of threshold had been crossed, we had done something. The feet were rushing towards us and she crouched down, ready to defend herself from the blows she thought coming, but I hoped they wouldn’t get to us in time. Either way, it was almost over. Monochrome Nightmare – Escape! They were on us, as the first fist was about to hit me, there was a great whooshing sound. We both stood and looked up as the sky exploded in fire. I saw something like a wave ripple across the stars, the sound began to fade and we heard them retreating away from us. I reached for her, but her hand seemed to wither in mine. She began to be unmade as I touched her. Her skin became transparent as glass, showing he veins and muscles beneath, until these also lost their opacity. She became completely invisible a few moments later and was entirely gone a second after that. Monochrome Nightmare – Last Door I stood alone, not even the bird was around anymore. I looked at my empty hand, wondering if she had ever been there in the first place. One last doorway, and I would be on my way home. Monochrome Nightmare – Home And so I came back here, to write the whole thing out.