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Tyke put his hands out in front of him to try and soften his fall. The experience he had just encountered would have killed any mortal; this made him wonder whether or the twins had survived it.
“Ugh...” he moaned as he hit the ground with a loud smack. He shook his head and stood up. ‘Where the hell..?’ he looked around.
There were floating pumpkins, ghost and ghouls, and even living skeletons walking in the very streets where he stood. His eyes widened, this reminded him too much of Hell. He looked around for any sign that would signify where he was, but to no avail.
“OH NO VAUS LOOK! IT’S MHFF—”
Tyke whirled around to see two creatures dressed in costumes, one a black cat, the other, a kind of clown, or jester. He narrowed his eyes, and turned his head slightly. ‘Those two, look awfully familiar.’ He thought to himself. He then realized what the jester had said. ‘Vaus’. It rung through his mind.
He smirked. “You two, you’re the twins, Vaus and Piper, aren’t you?” He asked stepping all but to close to them.
Vaus raised his chin in the air. “Yeah, what of it? What’ya gonna do? Take us back, when you don’t even know where we are?” The way he said it made his want to rip his face off. Tyke’s mind went numb as he imagined it.
“HEY!” Piper screamed at him. Tyke shook his head and turned to the loud girl.
“Where’s the other one?” she asked.
“Other, what?” He said cocking his head backward. “The other bad-guy, the one with silver hair, where is she?” Piper said clinging to Vaus’s arm.
Tyke lowered his head. “She’s not coming. She stayed behind to inform Ansem that I will be-“ Tyke was interrupted all of a sudden by a loud thunk and a water splash behind him.
Both Vaus and Piper stuck their fingers out in horror.
“OMG! IT’S SADAKO!” Their faces blue with horror.
Tyke turned around slowly, afraid to see what was behind him in the town fountain. He cringed when he saw what was before him. He jumped back in horror.
“It, it’s not Sadako…” He said in a whisper more of. His lip began to tremble with fear. “IT’S LITHE!”
Their screams echoed throughout the town. Not like anyone cared. There was a scream every time the clock struck the hour. Anyway…
Forgetting any kind of fear he had for the boy, Vaus ducked behind Tyke, watching half horrified and half fascinated. Slowly, a hand gripped the lip of the stone well, appearing ghastly pale and thin in the green light of the street lamps. The other hand soon appeared, pulling up with it a head of very damp long silver hair, in which a single eye was visible as the locks overshadowed the rest of the figures face.
“Do you really think it’s her?” Vaus whispered.
A second later, the girl lost either her balance or her strength, and pummeled backwards straight back into the murky depths of the well she had pursued out of. “DAMN!” it screamed.
Tyke nodded his head. “Yeah, I’m sure”
Piper winced. “Wow, what a way to make an entrance”. Making her way over to the fountain, she peered into it, chuckling slightly as she spotted a half submerged Lithe, spitting a deal of sludge colored water out of her mouth. She seemed to be glaring at the wall, like she could burn a hole in it. Blinking, Piper asked, “So…how’s the wicked witch of the west feeling?”
Lithe stared upward, sighing. It wouldn’t help at all to get angry now. “Much like someone dropped their two-story farm house on her,” she mumbled, finding it ironic that the wicked witch of the west met her end by the means of water. Finding a notch on the well’s wall, she stuck her foot in it, determined to make it out. She had managed to get herself halfway out, before she realized that she could not pull herself out. Grunting, she willed her feet up a little, but found no place to put them. So, she was hanging there dangling, at which Tyke happen to burst up laughing.
Lithe drew her lips into a seamless line, glaring at the devil with the look that clearly read “when I kill you, you’re gonna burn in purgatory”. Piper smiled slightly, surprising every one by offering her hand to the girl in the well. Lithe was the most surprised.
She looked at Piper’s hand skeptically, and then she averted her gaze to somewhere else, almost shamefully. She couldn’t look at Piper, less understand her. How could she so willing…help someone who had taken an attempt at her life. How could she save the girl who would eventually drag her back Hallow Bastion, just to spare herself the wrath? It made her feel guilty, and even jealous that she could never trust anyone like that.
“Common,” Piper sighed. “It’s not going to bite you”. Lithe raised an eyebrow at the comment, accepting the hand in front of her.
“I suppose it won’t…” she was pulled out of the well, gracefully as some might say. Well as graceful as you can be falling out of a well. Catching her breath, Lithe leaned up against the wall of the well, wringing out her limp hair. “Thanks, I guess…”
Piper crossed her arms, frowning. “Your welcome, I guess,” she responded in a tone that could have been described as cocky. “Isn’t there something you’d like to say to Vaus and me?”
Lithe blinked, tapping a finger against her bottom lip. “I want to say a lot of things,” she started, then smirked slightly. “But most of which I don’t think you’d appreciate very much, but if you’re looking for an apology, you might have to wait a while for that one…” Blinking again, Lithe’s face took upon itself the impression of puzzlement, lifting an eyebrow while one side of her mouth half-smiled. “What the Devil are you people wearing?”
“I could ask you the same thing…” Tyke murmured, tapping his foot with impatience.
“What the hell are y---huh?” she murmured. Looking down at herself, she could have sworn that she wasn’t wearing that when she left the castle. “Whoa, what happened here?”
Tyke sighed, rubbing his temples. “It seems like when you travel to a different world, you automatically take a form that is most convenient, or did you not know that?” It was obvious. With all the creepy-crawlies around, it was no surprise that they had all taken a scary disguise. Lithe stuck out her tongue, cocky as always, but then yelped.
“Ah!,” she shrieked holding her mouth. “Eeck, I bit my tongue! Not cool!” Carefully, she felt the bottom row of her teeth. All seemed well, until she found that her incisors seemed particularly long and sharp. Withdrawing her fingers from her mouth, she watched blood well up from the small pinprick on her fingertip. She grinned, showing off her new fangs. “Hey, guess what I am!” she clapped joyfully.
“A nightstalker?” Vaus guessed.
“A heartless bloodsucker?”
“A moron with fangs,” Tyke stated blatantly.
Lithe blinked. “Well, I was gonna guess vampire, but those are valid assumptions, I guess,” she said, processing that last sentence slowly. Blinking she murmured, “Except for that last one…”
A long awkward silence ensued. “Um, where are we exactly?” Vaus asked, his face contorted with some kind of nervousness. He stared intently at the little gathering of people, only half expecting the blank expressions.
Tyke shrugged, unconcerned. “How the hell am I supposed to know”
“What about you?” Piper asked, directing her question at Lithe, who had become uncomfortable under the scrutiny of her untrusting gaze. “You’re the one who brought us here, shouldn’t you know?”
Lithe grinned nervously. “Would it upset you if I told you that we were all hopelessly lost?”
Piper gulped. “Yes”
“In that case, we are so definitely not lost, in fact,” she continued, adding on as she went, “I know exactly what I am doing!”
Tyke shook his head, nudging Vaus in the side. “Basically that translates to we’re lost and stuck with the Sephiroth clone”
Vaus rolled his eyes at the incriminated elbow. “Hahaha, that would be so funny if you weren’t so blatantly forward”. Then he blinked. “And who is Sephiroth?”
“Well,” Lithe began to answer, ” an evil little bas- well, hello there”. Standing behind them was a portly little creature remotely the shape of a top with a big triangular torso and tiny little feet. It swiped its top hat off its grinning face and gave an awkward bow. Lithe gulped at the strange sight to behold. “Oh my god”.
‘Welcome!” he said warmly. “I am the mayor of Halloween Town. What are a group of fine young ghouls like yourselves doing on this fine Halloween night?”
Vaus shook his hand, slightly relieved that he had found someone at least partly insane since he had arrived. “So this is Halloween Town?” he asked. Well, it did make sense. Everything seemed…Halloween-y.
“Of course,” Mayor said, his mouth moving up and down mechanically. “You didn’t know that? Most kids who come here, absolutely love the annual Halloween festival. This year is bond to be the best yet! In fact, have you seen Jack Skellington?”
Tyke crossed his arms curtly. “Obviously not,” he murmured.
“Well, anyway, you can’t miss him,” Mayor said. “Big fun Skeletal guy, gotta meet ‘im. Seeya later!” he said as he began to wobble away.
“No wait!” Piper shouted at the stubby man. Mayor turned around, obviously having no expression for confusion. “Um, I was wondering where we might find the exit for this world, because we were kinda planning on leaving as soon as possible”.
The small little troop nearly fell back in surprise as the Mayor’s head turned a full ninety degrees. The other side of the Mayors was blue, literally and metaphorically. As the side they had witnessed before was unspeakably happy, this happed to be the equalizer as it was the big sad face, with droppy eyes and the largest frown any of them had ever seen. “Y-you’re leaving? Before Halloween? That’s unheard of…are you-.”
“We’re really sorry,” Vaus said, clapping his hands together. “But we really have to leave”
The mayor shook his swiveling head. “If you insist… well, the gummi ship platform is just beyond Guillotine Gate…oh, its such a shame! Missing Halloween – in all my years I have never…” the strange little man began walking away, trailing his happy face behind him. Vaus, who seemed to have recovered from the attack of the swiveling head first, was the first to ask, “What’s a gummi ship?”
“Well it really doesn’t matter,” Tyke hissed crossly. “Since we don’t have one”.
Vaus flinched, not exactly sure why. People usually didn’t scare him, but…there seemed to be some kind of power behind his words. It was a horrible feeling to have this ethereal being agitated with him. “Hey -.”
Piper had spoken up for her brother. “Don’t take it out on him –.”
“Just cause you’ve get this perpetual stick stuck up your ass!” Lithe decided to finish.
“Exactly…not that I would have used those words exactly, but right. I think you owe someone an apology!” Piper shouted, her pushy shovey attitude kicking in.
Tyke blinked, raising a delicate eyebrow. Not he hadn’t met girls like her before, Lithe was a perfect example of a attitude problems, but Piper had a whole lot of something. He couldn’t quiet put his finger on it, but this girl intrigued him. “You’re right,” he replied shrugging. “I apologize, I suppose”. He gave a little fake bow, smiling cockily through a row of blue colored bangs. He looked up only to find Piper staring down at him like he was some kind of ignoramus. He sighed inwardly. Plenty of opportunities for women to crush his ego as of late.
“I meant, apologize to my brother, smart one,” she said huffily.
He shot Vaus this look that most likely would have read somewhere along the lines of ‘Your messin’ with meh game plan, little man. What’s your damage?’
Vaus only grinned, but inwardly he was sending that mental image of ‘Touch my sister and I’ll plant my foot in that pretty-boy face of yours’.
“And what exactly are you doing!” Tyke said, distracted by a clicking sound Lithe was making with her tongue.
“We are so screwed,” she said, clicking her tongue once again. She reached out into the air, repeating the motions that only she and Tyke recognized that the ones she used to make her highly unstable, but effective, void portals. She repeated the action over and over, darkness flickering on and off of her finger tips. But her hands were shaking. “Totally and completely screwed”. No matter how many times she tried, the pulling darkness couldn’t make the rip between time and space happen. “It won’t work until it is gone…”
“Until what?” Tyke asked.
Lithe shook her head. “There is something around here, that is disrupting the flow of things,” she moaned, totally crushed . “It won’t let me make a portal. Seph’s gonna kill me”.
Vaus rubbed his temples. “Well, what now?”
“I think we should go Vaus,” Piper stated blankly. “This really isn’t where we should be. We need to go back home, not back to some psychopath castle. We can probably hitchhike with someone”.
“What about them?” Vaus asked. “Shouldn’t we help, or something? Its not like they are bad people or…”
Piper grabbed his hand, and whispered into his ear , “They are going to try to bring us back, we have to find a way out”.
Vaus nodded, glancing backwards at the beautiful devil and the girl who was yanking on her own silver hair in frustration. “You really think so?”. Somehow, it seemed like maybe the darkness only soiled the surface. Lithe wasn’t really heartless, they both knew, she just had a hard time being selfless. Tyke, they weren’t sure, but it seemed that somewhere beneath the flaming hair there was a heart, and one that wasn’t totally corrupted.
“Yes”. Piper began to walk away, down the cobblestones.
He stole one fleeting glance back at the two, before he started to jog after his sister.
Lithe began to stand up, but Tyke put a hand on her shoulder pushing her back down. “Let them go,” he murmured. “They won’t find a way out”.
“But, what about-?!”
Tyke sighed, smoothing back a strand of flame-like hair. “Suddenly, that doesn’t seem all that important”.
~~~~~~~
“So how exactly were you planning to get out of here Piper?” Vaus asked, his eyes skeptically half-lidded. They had been wandering around for about an hour, finding that there was no one around who owned a gummi ship of any kind, screaming their heads off every time a little Halloween Town native decided to pull one of their tricks. Vaus was starting to regret ever leaving the two nutcases, a Tyke and Lithe, behind. Tyke was a fool, but at least he was smart enough to know how things worked in these worlds.
“I’m sure that we will find a way soon,” she replied, even the will to even search was slowly wearing away. “Where there is a will, there is a way. And if I have my way,  we’re finding it”.
Vaus began to get frustrated. For all of his sister’s confidence, he certainly didn’t think that just because she wanted it to happen, it simply would. But he really couldn’t help wish he had a little more of that kind of energy. “Well, I don’t see how that’s gonna get us to a different world”.
“I think I have an answer to your problem”
Piper spun around and faced a figure in a black cloak, some kind of gothic debutant suit underneath. “How is that?”
The guy shook his head. “Well, I heard a rumor that there is a curse in the Old Oogie Boogie Manor. But of course, its probably just a rumor”
“All right, there is a curse in the house, but what is the catch?” Vaus asked. The hooded figure shrugged.
“I have heard that a great reward is bestowed upon the one that can break it,” he said.
Vaus raised his eyebrow skeptically. “If its so great, than why haven’t you tried yourself mister?”
“Heh, I have bigger fish to fry, better bounties than some silly curse. Besides, like I said, it is just a rumor. I wouldn’t go if I were you. Sounds like trouble, most likely some kind of heartless, but whatever, I’m just saying it might be up the alley for a couple of people like you.”
Piper and Vaus turned around synchronized, putting their backs toward the stranger, whispering in hushed voices.
“What do you think Vaus? You think its worth our time?”
“I really don’t know,” he replied. “Sounds questionable to me, we don’t even know who this guy is, but-.” He paused, noticing the glittery look glazing his sister’s eyes. It was her deep lust for adventure, and since hey, they had managed to get themselves into the adventure of a lifetime, why not? “I guess we should check it out, since after all, we really don’t have any options left”.
Piper grinned sheepishly, obviously pleased. Then that smile of hers turned into a perplexed expression as she stood up on her toes and looked about her in a confused manner.
“What’s wrong?” Vaus asked half-heartedly. Piper stopped her searching and pointed the place that had been occupied by the helpful stranger.
“He’s gone…”
~~~~~~
Tyke quickened his pace to match Lithe’s brisk one. She had taken this ‘Gettin’ down to business’ attitude, seeing as she was thrown a little off track when she found out that someone or something was messing with her ability to create a portal. Thus, she concluded that this interference had to be removed immediately, or so help her god. After a minute or two of pure meltdown in her part, she had managed to figure out from which direction this dark energy was being emitted. Tyke had begun to think he was doomed when he realized the only escape he had left lied within the success of an amateur portal maker, and her poor sense of direction. This scared him. But he was along for the ride, no matter what he did.
Pointing in a new direction she began walking towards the force. She climbed slowly up a strange shaped hill that curved in spiraling into itself. Tyke sighed in aggravation, his non-existent faith dwindling.
“How do I know that you aren’t leading us on some wild goose chase?” he huffed, crossing his arms. Lithe’s answer was:
“Literally or Metaphorically?”
Tyke blinked, shaking his head. “What?”
“Metaphorically, I am guessing, cause I really don’t see any geese around here, do you?” she pointed out, as if it were as obvious as anything else. “But, no, cause I’m pretty sure that the disruption is coming from this direction”.
He raised an eyebrow, wondering why Lithe had it in her mind to pay attention to grammar rules when she could barely walk two feet without throwing herself into some new embarrassing catastrophe. “I don’t think so, there is the dead end,” Tyke said pointing to a black pointed fence that stuck out right under the hill.
“Just keep walking would you?” she hissed. “Your such a baby”.
“I’ll show you ba- ow! That hurt…” Tyke had tripped over a wooden gravemarker, that stood at the base of the hill. It had bent forward, like a switch of some kind. There was a soft creaking sound, like someone opening a door that had rusted shut. Lithe spun around, looking out towards the full moon, where the hill had begun to change shape. It had stretched out, its point leading over the top of the fence that Tyke had mentioned earlier, clearly meant to be a bridge of some sort. Tyke brushed himself off, a bit embarrassed that he was having a “Lithe moment”. Lithe snickered.
“Good job, Tyke,” she said in a good-humored tone.
------
“Where do you think it is?” Vaus whispered. The wax from the candle had long since begun to melt, burning his fingertips as they walked along the dark corridor of the late Oogie Boogie’s mansion. But he didn’t feel the pain. He was to absorbed in jumping every time a bat flew by, or the door behind them creaked shut. Not to mention that his sisters fingernails dug into his arm painfully. A couple of flying heartless had passed them by, gleaming yellow eyes only pausing momentarily at the two before leaving them be. Somehow, Piper had guessed, they didn’t believe that they were a threat, and somehow they were being led deeper inside.
Piper released her grip on his arm, racing ahead to the next door at the end of the hallway. She caught hold of the door knob forcing it open, unleashing a bombardment of dust and other loose particles. Vaus caught up form behind, waving his hand in front of his face. “Hey, Piper?”
“What?” she asked, opening the door wider so she could peer inside.
“Why do you think this guy was named ‘Oogie Boogie’? What kind of name is that?” Vaus asked, voicing the question that had been plaguing his mind for a whole two minutes.
Piper stepped inside, sneezing at the contact with the dust ridden air. “Isn’t it obvious? He was the boogie man, you know, the kind that live under your bed”. She sneezed again.
“Really, I just thought the guy was into Jazz or somethin’,” he followed Piper into the room. It was dark inside, the kind where you can just barely see your hand in front of your face. Piper regained grippage on his arm, leading them further. Vaus wrinkled his nose as he go a face full of something sticky, that he suspected with a shudder, was cobweb. “Ewwe”.
“It’s really dark,” Piper whispered.
Secretly Vaus smiled sarcastically. “Well, thanks Pipe, never would have guessed that one”
“Do you hear something?” she asked under her breath, making her brother grit his teeth in pain when she dug her nails deeper into his flesh. Vaus took a deep breath, steadying himself. The first thing he thought to say was: ‘No, but considering the circumstances, if I had heard anything I’d have run away squawking like a chicken’. But instead he went with:
“No, you must be hearing things”.
Piper inhaled sharply, turning her head in the opposite direction. “There it is again,” she whispered. She let go of his arm, walking away couple of feet.
“Piper,” Vaus hissed. “Piper, don’t wander away! What if something got you?” It really was to dark, and if something decided to pop up and whisk one of them away, it might be a long time before either of them realized it.
Vaus heard her voice pierce the thick darkness. She had gotten somewhat farther ahead that he had, and so the voice had seemed a little too far away for his liking. “Don’t worry, I mean, we are looking for monster curse type thing right? No worries,” she snickered. “I promise I won’t leave you”. Vaus frowned. Yeah, sure, but that didn’t mean they had to be so reckless. Apparently it hadn’t occurred to Piper that it was extremely hard to fight something without any form of weapon. She was way to gung ho for her own good. But hey, they were still alive right? What was the worst that could happen?
“Still, Piper, you shouldn’t be so far ahead,” he sighed. After a couple of moments of silence, his brows knitted together in confusion. “Piper?” Receiving no answer, another realization dawned on him. “Piper! Common! Stop playing around, its not funny!” he shrieked. Suddenly he became all to aware of the surrounding darkness, suffocating with the lack of light. Groping blindly in the dark, he caught ahold of something metal, like a torch fixture, on the wall. Then something like a desk and curtains. ‘I can do this,’ he thought. ‘Piper probably got to far ahead, she couldn’t hear me. That’s all’.
Vaus stepped forward, his feet splashing in some kind of liquidly substance. He retreated his foot back, only to find that when he retraced his steps they had lost their texture too. The floor had become thicker and stickier. It reminded Vaus of his old childhood dream of having a pool filled with Jell-o. But that dream was no sooner crushed when he realized that he would drown and die in a pool such as that because of gelatin’s density.
This was something like that. Except more frightening. Because it was very dark and the floor was most certainly not made out of Jell-o.
He could feel the stuff tugging at his feet and wrapping around his ankles, cold and oozing. He was sinking into the floor, he realized. He wanted to yell but he was more afraid of getting whatever it was in his mouth. He took a breath and squinted his eyes, before his head was submerged in the ooze.
‘I can’t breathe…’
He felt lost in a different reality when finally he felt solid ground on his feet. He collapsed to his knees, clutching his shirt as he sucked in some much needed air gratefully. Opening one eye he was surprised to see that he had only been dropped into a different room. Luckily it was a little better lit than the previous one, he could see clearly the covered furniture stuffed into the corners of the room, and a dusty mirror hung on the wall. For all it’s normality, it seemed to be emitting a dangerous vibe. Vaus got up off the floor looking around. He spotted a door on the other side of the room. He glanced to both side of him, shaking off the feeling that something was watching his every move. It was just best to assume that he was always being watched. A little paranoid, but he assumed this is what the people of these strange and screwed-up worlds did for fun; making people so nervous that they collapse into a giant puddle of goo.
Vaus took a couple of weary steps across the floor, jumping like a jack-in-the-box when he accidentally stepped on a loose and squeaky floorboard. His heart had nearly jumped up out of his throat by the time he had reached the door. Taking the doorknob in his hand, he frowned. He jiggled it a couple of times, finding that no matter how many times he shook, pulled or pushed on the knob, it would not so much as jar. “Oh, great!” he shouted. “Getting bested by a door? I don’t think so!” Angrily he kicked the mahogany surface forcefully, cringing in pain as his toe felt the impact more certainly than the door did. He slid down, plopping on the floor pathetically. He raised his head to the ceiling, exhaling.
“Well,” he murmured. “If there is something here too see than show me already…”.
There was a blinding flash of light and everything changed.
*****
Lithe sighed in aggravation. “You know,” she said through gritted teeth. “On a normal occasion, I would be the one doing that. So I would appreciate it if you would stop digging your monster-sized kitty talons into – ow!” she shrieked loudly. Tyke had flinched, his cat-like eyes flickering back and forth across the entry way. “Be a man and let go of me!” she yelled trying to yank her arm away. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were scared!”
“No,” he replied hushedly. “I’m making sure that you don’t, just, frighten yourself and run away”. The room they had just entered was circular, lined with read velvet and yellow flax candles that lit the ceiling leaving the rest of the room in the dim. “Because, of course this place is not exactly the Maui Beachfront Hotel. This place is crawling with heartless and other little buggers”.
She snorted facetiously. “There is nothing in this world that can scare me”.
Rolling his eyes he took another step forward, muttering, “bold arrogance is a nice replacement for idiocy,” he chuckled at his own statement.
“Hey,” Lithe defended. “I grew up in Hallow Bastion. I had a heartless for a pet. A couple of little skeletons in the closet are not gonna get me. And you,” she continued, “Being the ‘king of all evil’ ‘future ruler of hades and all’…”.
Tyke glared at her sarcasm.
“…growing up in literal hell, one would think that you might have a bit more nerve”.
“Are you quite done?” Tyke asked, apparently falling back into the run of the mill annoyed feeling.
“Sure”. Lithe stopped right in the middle of the room staring at the floor. She frowned her face contorting confusedly.
Raising an eyebrow, the devil stood next to her. “What’s wrong now?”
“There,” she said pointing with her index finger at an exact place on the floor. “Whatever is screwing with the energy, should be right here. But…” obviously there was nothing there but blank floor boards and dust.
“Damn, I should have known not to trust you,” Tyke hissed.
“Hey,” she defended herself sternly. “Its here”.
Tyke sighed exasperatedly. “Lithe, as a person with eyes I am going to tell you THERE IS NOTHING THERE!” he exclaimed. “They shouldn’t even have considered letting you out of Hallow Bastion, I swear! Can’t you do anything right without daddy number one or two watching over your shoulder?”. Lithe shook her head, glancing up in his direction, but then lowered her gaze to the ground.
She sighed, her eyes flickering across to the other side of the room, and then began to walk in that direction.
“Where are you going…” Tyke asked, his patience has long since worn thin. Lithe drew one of the velvet red curtains aside.
“Getting myself out of this hellhole, whether you’re coming or not,” she said, no room for argument in her voice. Then she stepped behind the curtain into the next room.
Tyke bit his lip, ruffling his flame-ish hair. Alright, so his comment had been a tiny bit out of line, and maybe he deserved that.
“Oh common, Lithe! Don’t be so stupid,” he said in a bothered tone, and walking hurriedly across the room, and throwing back the curtain. “You know I didn’t -…” he stared in disbelief. Tyke ran his fingers over the solid brick wall, that lied behind the velvet, as if to confirm its reality. Hadn’t Lithe just…she walked into a room behind there just a few seconds ago. Whatever stunt this stupid house pulling, it wasn’t so funny. Not funny at all, as a matter of fact. Maybe Lithe wasn’t lying after all.
Letting go of the curtain, Tyke stepped backward, into the middle of the room, looking for the place that she had claimed the darkness was emitting from. “What the hell is going on here?” he muttered. He traced the piece of flooring with his fingertips, finding nothing unusual about it. Distantly, he could feel the soft embrace of cool air upon his skin, as the tepid breeze outside had become a bit more forceful.
The candles began to flicker.
~Tyke…~
Tyke shot up, upon hearing his own name whispered vaporously in his ear. He recognized the voice that had spoken to him, he doubted that he’d ever be able to forget it, the owner had left a lasting impression on him, but he did not believe his senses. But he was more alert as his cat-pupil eyes darted, leaving no place unchecked by his gaze.
~Tyke…why…?~
Instinctively, his eyes fixated on the door way, waiting the approach of whatever may have come. Nothing came from this direction save for the advance of a harsh wind blowing the curtains askew. “Who are you…?” he asked. Now all doubt had vanished. He knew something was there.
Whatever it was, he could feel, was smiling at him, like a cat that was eying a finch in a barred cage. ~Hello…Tyke…~.
The voice felt closer now, almost upon him, but still nothing came through the door. Tyke almost jumped in surprise.
A wraithlike hand touched the back of Tykes shoulder, causing a fresh torrent of dread to writhe within the devil’s body.
“Hello…Tyke…why did you betray me…?”
The candles flickered, and went out.

(Nightmare Room 1 – Piper)

She didn’t know how long she had had been walking now, the solitary sound of her own footsteps was the only one to greet her. She could have been walking in plain air for all she knew. But she did know it was dark. And cold. Shivering, Piper rubbed her hands together trying to restore the life in them, but to no avail. The cold was leaching.
Somewhere along the line she had lost track of where she was. The last thing she could remember was stepping into a different room, and Vaus yelling at her from behind. Surprisingly, she hadn’t heard from him after that. She did feel guilty, for loosing her brother when she promised not to. And she had tried to go back many times, but when she turned around, there was nothing but an expanse of darkness that seemed to stretch into forever. So she had no choice but to trudge forward. Her taste for adventure seemed to growing a bit old, she admitted.
It seemed that hours had passed by, when in reality it might have only been a couple of minutes. Piper could feel herself grow more and more tired with every footstep. The darkness had become thicker now, almost like trying to move through breathable pudding. So many times she wanted to stop and sit, but her legs would not listen to her. They wanted to keep going forward. The darkness was calling her. She didn’t want to listen.
But she was. The darkness seemed to be wrapping itself around her, like long black tentacles. She couldn’t hold back her disgust, and she screamed uncharacteristically, struggling against what wanted to keep her bound. She broke into a run, tearing through grasping hands and the suffocating blackness. “I will get out,” she whispered. “I’ll find a way. I will get out!” she yelled.
As if to answer her call, she saw a tiny shard of glass in suspended in the air. Although it was covered in soot and dirt, the darkness trying to extinguish it, it shone with light truer than the sun. She approached it, touching it hesitantly, then grasping it in her hand. As she wiped the grime away, she could feel herself filling with a familiar sense of warmth. She clutched it, for it was the one thing that she felt that she should never lose.
The shard let off a pulse of pure undiluted light. Piper pressed her lids closed, the brightness hurting her eyes after so long. The light slowly ebbed away.
Piper blinked, slowly opening her eyes. The darkness had dissipated and she was lying on the ground. She sat up rubbing her head looking about her. She was still in the Oogie Boogie mansion. ‘Was that a....dream?’ she sat there for a moment, then sighed heavily in relief. Just glad that it wasn’t real, but... she shook her head. She wondered how the others where faring.

( Nightmare Room 2- Tyke)

Tyke rubbed his head, there was a blinding pain seeming to come from every point in his head. The ghastly hand still clung to him, but to tell the truth, he didn’t even want to look back. This would be confirming that he believed it was happening. For the moment he almost didn’t want to believe it, as if the hand that lingered there was nothing more than his mind haunting him, a figment of him imagination. Tyke released himself from the hand and turned, for once, he had feared to see what lied beyond the dark. What was it that he was so afraid of? It happened so long ago, he often reminded himself. There was nothing he could do about it, no way to change the past. He had told himself this every time he chose to remember, but never in any way had he allowed himself to actually believe in what he was telling himself.
The specter though, as he saw it, could wait for the rest of eternity for him to come to terms with himself. There was nothing to be afraid of... but the reminder of deep pain that it had brought him.
He reluctantly craned his head around to meet the ghostly face of a woman, one of which he had wished not to meet for the rest of his damned life. At that moment’s prime, time seemed to stop as the memories flowed back to him; making him double over seemingly in pain, something he could deep down  tell wasn’t truly happening. Slowly the pain seemed to ebb away into a mere throb. His vision was fuzzy, like that of an old video tape.
He was ready, he thought, to once again confront that face that haunted his dreams. He thought now that maybe he might find his piece of mind and finally put to rest the horrible visions once and for all. But that, unfortunately, is not what he received.
The scenery seemed to slowly change colors and shapes until his surroundings no longer resembled what they had been before. It was darker, the walls curved upward into a high-arched ceiling of blackened stone, currents of red and grey weaving through it like a gruesome interpretation of blood veins. Tyke shivered unconsciously, even though this place had to be the most familiar one he’s ever known. ‘What am I doing in the Underworld?’ he thought to himself. There was no way it was a mere illusion. Off in the distance his could pick up the sharp snap of Cerebus’s jaws at the riverman, and there was a soft green glow that came from the souls that floated eternally down the river Styx. It was much too realistic for his taste, it always had been.
Behind him, he suddenly heard the soft ruffle of cloth. Tyke turned around. The woman was no longer there, he saw, but someone else had taken her place. A boy younger than him was walking down a hall, on the other side. Who was...It was then it hit him. That boy, was himself, albeit a few years younger. He walked barefoot, giving no heed to the burning sensation on the thick soles of his feet. Tyke could tell that his former self was angry, from the mere expression on his face and the waves of pure vehement that rolled off him. The boy paused, staring at his claws, flexing them so that they cracked easily. Tyke stared at himself with wide-eyed horror. This was much too familiar.
Tyke reached out as if to touch the illusion, but his fingertips fell inches short of the walker. His hand retracted, letting it fall limply at his side. ‘What’s wrong with me?’ he asked himself silently. It was going to happen again, and he wasn’t going to stop it... suddenly he felt very sick.
Tyke? Hey...what’s going on...? a woman’s voice asked. Don’t do it idiot, he thought. You’re being fooled. Just...Tyke winced, pain like a fresh wound. “Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t you dare kill her!!” Ty-.
Her voice was cut off by a shrill cry loud enough to rouse the dead from their eternal sleep.
Tyke’s head snapped up, his limbs springing into action. He ran down the passage, the one he knew so well, quicker than Mercury himself. Like it was a mere piece of paper, Tyke pushed away the heavy velvet-like draperies that served as a door to a private room. There he found himself his back to the doorway. Furious, he pushed the boy out of the way, and kneeling, embraced the body of a women lying on the floor.
The ghoulish figment of his past self stumbled back, then closing its eyes, faded away into the air like a greyish mist. “I’m sorry! So sorry,” Tyke threw himself on the ground and embraced the limp body. Knowing all too well that she would not react.  “I’m SORRY! I’m SO SORRY!” he shook her lightly. “I won’t do it again! I promise I won’t do it again, please wake up!”
Tyke pushed some strands of her hair back and let his hand glide down her cold cheeks. After a long lasting moment Tyke had about given up like he had back then, the first time, when unexpectedly her eyes shot open. Bloodshot and tired from what seemed like loss of sleep. They stared deep into Tykes very soul...or at least the small bit of one he had left. He frantically dropped her form out of fear, letting her disperse into darkness around him. He turned his head leading his body as lights began to fade away, his mind began to wander, panic attacks were on the verge from activating, and more over he was now lost in the one thing he feared most. “No, no. NO!” He began to mumble under his breath, dropping onto his knees and clenching his head tightly. “Stop it! I don’t want to see the darkness!”

Sweat collected on his brow, fingernails digging further into his head, his flame like hair, beginning to die.
“Tyke....You don’t belong here. Light only hurt’s more...”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                He rose his eyes upward, wide as the familiar voice pierced him once more. “Tyke...” The woman who had been dead only moments ago was now sitting centimeters away from him. Tyke’s lips quivered almost hesitating to say her name. “H-heather...”
She smiled sweetly and placed her hands on his chest. “Tyke...realize that the darkness....IS there..and always will be.”                                                                                                                                 Without warning Tyke was plunged into a endless turmoil of pain, as it spread throughout his body. Slowly he let his gaze drop onto the blood stained hands that were now seeping further into his chest. He gasped as she  they pried deeper.
“No! No more!” He grabbed her hands with his own and tried to pull them out of him. She began to laugh menacingly; mouth growing at an irregular rate. Almost as if possessed by Hades himself. It was then that he realized what was happening.
“You! This...this dream, this nightmare! IT WAS YOU!”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  She smiled, Hades distinct features were more than just noticeable in her now. “Well done m’boy! Not as fast, but hey! Not as faulty as I figured right?” He pressed deeper still into Tyke’s chest, his blood surrounded them as a pool.
“HADES! Stop this NOW!” He began to pant, his loss of blood was begin to take it’s toll on him. With every breath, he grew weaker.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             “Com’mon Tyke what’s the matter?” He asked, slithering further into Tyke’s mind, knowing he couldn’t turn back now. “It is time Tyke. Too much is at stake, and Im not going to let any pretty-blue-boy screw it. Drastic measures are okay at times... And this time. Im not gonna loose you.”

Tyke gave one last attempt at pulling himself from the darkness before being consumed fully. He let out a desperate shrill of a scream, waves of sound elapsing from him body. His body went limp and he fell incapable of moving onto the floor, the pool of blood rippling as he went down.
( Nightmare Room 3- Vaus )

He loosened his grip on himself for a second, and suddenly was thrown into a bright scene. He hit the ground with an enormous smack, and laid there for a few seconds trying to figure out what had happened. “Ughh..” he let out a dry moan as he flipped back onto his stomach and lay there, still and almost unconscious.
“Where...am I?” He blinked Looking about the room silently. “Piper?” he asked pushing himself. There was no one. It was just....plain. And white. Nothing else was there. He got up and took a few steps, everything seemed to echo. He rose and eyebrow. “Hey! Is anyone out there?!” He closed his eyes and flinched as the sound bounced back at him.                                                                                                     He didn’t know where he was, what was going on...or...anything. Vaus rose his head up and stared around. It almost hurt his eyes to stare for too long, the brightness was too much to bare. “Piper?” He looked around once more. “Who was...” He looked down at his hands. It felt like he were forgetting something. He continued walking.

Vaus walked and sat around for the next 2 hours before finally deciding to try and free himself from where ever it was that he was placed. “Com’mon! Can’t you just...let me go?!” he screamed to no one in particular. When nothing happened he sighed and sat back, half expecting a tumble weed to pass through. “ I wonder how-how...” he stopped. “...” He couldn’t remember what he was going to say...or rather, who it was going to be about. He sat up quickly, and began to think about everything that had happened over the past hours, days, weeks. And barely anything came to mind.
“I know..I just-“ Vaus began to hit his head with his fists. “There was Piper and I, we were going somewhere...” He paused. “And then we dropped off a...train?”  He shook his head. What nonsense was he speaking? “Okey then we met up with...someone. And another person was there too..URGH! WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER?!” he exclaimed.
He stood up once more and scratched his head. “Well, it doesn’t really matter much anyways. All I really have to worry about, is getting out of here. So.. Im going to get out of here..right Pi-“ he stopped suddenly. “Pi-Pip, Pi...pe...” He narrowed his eyes then let them dilate. “Oh no!” He fell to the ground and began to look at the white ground as if using it to paint with his mind all that he has experienced up until this point.

“What was her name?! WHAT WAS IT?!” he slammed his head into the ground. “I know it’s there! I DO!” He felt hot tears push against his eyes. Wanting to force themselves out.  “Please...What was..he-..his?...what’s was their name?” Vaus sat there for a few moments as he felt his memories begin to fade from him, falling into a pit of nothingness, where he could never get them back.

The silence between himself and the room was enough to make him explode. He hated it. Almost as much as he hated himself at the moment. He took long breaths of air, trying to compose himself as best he could.  There are something you just can’t change..  Those words rung through his mind as if right next to a church bell. He took one long last breath before raising himself once more. “Yes I can...”                 Vaus reached his hands into the air, reached as far as he could. “I know you can hear me! I’m going to remember whether or not you want me to! I’m going to get Piper back AT-ALL-COSTS!!”                                                                                                                                                                                                         Suddenly, Vaus felt something materialize under his hands as a large key pulled him down again. “What th-“ he paused. “Her name! I remember her name! It’s Piper, and we came here together!” He rose the blade up, not quite sure what to do with it, but instead the words came naturally to him. “Gravirgra!” he yelled out, pointing the blade upward.

A huge amount of gravity came falling onto him. His face being planted hard into the ground. Suddenly everything went dark again, and he was standing where we was before he had appeared in the strange room. He looked down, on his side was a key chain. It has a mouse head. “What the...”

(Nightmare Room 4- Lithe)

Lithe sighed, making a seat for herself upon a dusty old box in the corner of the room. Why did the bastard have to bring that up? She glared at the wall, imagining all her pent up energy would burn a hole in the one; a large one, with smoldering ruins. She inhaled deeply, her angry chakaras slowly simmered down until there was nothing left. Now all she had were her, depressive non-angry feelings. Damn it. That wasn’t much fun at all.

She swung her feet over the rotting floor, chewing her lip pensively. “Insensitive jerk,” she muttered. For a moment, her mind entertained thoughts of pushing Tyke off the side of the mansion, letting him fall to his inevitable doom, while she laughed hysterically and teleported out of there. But, she would think after having some fun with that idea, that wouldn’t be very nice, now would it? Problem number two, portals were not in service at the moment. And last, there was that whole opening the door to the darkness thing that they had to do. So, she guessed that letting his bones get picked clean by ravenous heartless was out of the question as well.

Finally, Lithe decided she had gotten enough swinging of her feet, and put them to the ground. “You’re wrong,” she said to the open air. She had no idea why it bugged her that much, what he said. She shrugged, deciding that it no longer mattered what Tyke had to say…until the day she died, then he owned her mortal ass. Highly disturbing thought, but she planned not to be floating down the river Styx anytime soon. For now, it was time to apologize for absolutely nothing, and get a move on.

She walked across the floor to the side of the room she had entered from. She gripped the velvet curtain, tearing it open dejectedly. She rubbed her eyes, then blinked for good measure. There hadn’t been a brick wall there before, had there? And against it leaned an old oblong looking glass. Its intricate metal frames were red and brown with rust, looking quite like the imprisoning gates of a long abandoned castle. Its reflective surface was covered in the dust and grime of this whole filthy town. She frowned; breathing on the mirror and attempting to wipe it clean with the corner of her jacket. She was never one to let a beautiful antique become a beautiful piece of crap.

The mist faded away, leaving the glass clean. Lithe almost pouted, not pleased with her own reflection. She waved a finger, watching her double mimic her action without flaw. She sighed without enthusiasm, leaning her head on the glass, staring into her own gold eyes. “Hello, loser child, how are you feeling today…?” Her reflection smirked at her.

“Fine, and you?”

Screeching, Lithe in her panic fell flat on her backside, her eyes wide with surprise. Jabbing a finger in the direction of the looking glass, she exclaimed, “Y-you talked!”

The image of herself crossed her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes in a ‘no dur’ kind of way. “Yeah, I spoke… deal major?”

“Where I come from, mirrors don’t talk,” replied Lithe dumbfounded.

“Hallow Bastion,” the mirror said fondly, producing a pronounced smirk. “While I was there, I broke five mirrors; three in my bedroom, two of which with my only hands, one in the library, one in the dining room, and a small hand-mirror which a threw down rising falls. Ansem was pissed, but those were the only times that Seph didn’t yell at me…”

Lithe’s eyebrows scrunched together. She stared at her hands, her knuckles and palms scarred from smashing her reflection into shards of broken glass. The woman in the looking glass was reciting her life, secrets, things she cared not to think about. They were things that she didn’t want to remember, she was ashamed of them.

“Do you know why Lithy did such bad things?” the mirror continued. “Because she could no longer stand to look at herself. Because she is weak and defenseless”.

“Shut up…what do you know…?” Lithe responded, not taking her eyes off of the mirror. “Who are you to judge…”

The mirror smiled sinisterly, reaching forward to touch the edge of the looking glass. The surface shimmered, clearly mapping the boundary between her realm and Lithe’s. “Because I am your reflection…I know everything about you. How you are nothing but a counterfeit, a useless copy”.

Staring in wide-eyed horror, she swallowed a lump in her throat. Her fingers went limp. “No…I-I’m not…” she argued weakly.

“Come now,” her image sneered. “Do you really think you can escape from who you are? All you’ll ever be is Sephiroth’s shadow, Ansem’s favorite little doll…is there something else there for you?” The creature grinned, revealing elongated teeth. “There is nothing”.

Lithe averted her eyes, staring at the floor with shame. She wanted to lie, tell the mirror how wrong it was, how the thought had never crossed her mind. She sniffed, wiping her eyes before tears even dared to well up. It was not something she would allow for.

“You can’t escape your sins. Burning towns, killing innocents. And you still hope that the world will greet you with open arms? How dare you even call yourself a person.”

“I’m not Sephiroth…” Lithe answered sternly. “He did those things…”

“What’s the difference?” it asked, leaning forward. “You share his wicked heart.”

Lithe shook her head, tears of anger welling up. “No!” she cried.

“You are both monsters. Condemned to walk darkness’s halls until the blissful end of your pitiful existence.”

She pressed her eyes closed, and bit her lip. She could feel it splitting, the soft flesh easily damaged. Her body was racking with shivers, like she was silently sobbing. She didn’t want it, she didn’t want it to change her. The mirror smiled cruelly, its distorted sense of joy blazing for what it had done to this child. Lithe dug her fingernails deep into the wooden floor. She couldn’t run. Not this time. This time, the monster would follow, from the deep depths of her heart. She choked pathetically, looking up. She cried out, hiding her face in her hands. Her own reflection no longer stood in the mirror as it once had. “No! NO!” she whimpered. “I’m not…I’m not him.”

The image which had replaced it was that of the one person she had the most spite, reverence, understanding, disrespect, and disgust of. It smirked, strands of silver hair falling in front of stunning green eyes. Sephiroth laughed coldly. He reached out touching the edge of the glass. It rippled like water as his fingers pushed through it transcending both realities. Then, entwining his fingers in her hair, wretched up hard, causing a small cry of pain from the girl.

Sephiroth’s image smirked, pulling the struggling girl to his own eye level. Lithe suddenly went limp, her thrashing pausing, the will to oppose the power dying within her. Dazed, she seemed to become to numb to all that was happening around her. He laughed a hollow, echo-like laugh with no soul. “Again Lithe? Trying to run away… don’t you understand you are nothing without me? You are a wretched ghost of a being…” his laugh simmered down into a mere amused smile. Just as his hands had melded through the mirror, he pressed his face against it too, his eyes unerringly close. “Just another copy…” he said, the tip of his nose barely brushing against hers. “You’ll never be anything more than what we gave you.”

Leaning completely forward, it pressed its lips against Lithe’s roughly. Eyes growing wide in fear, Lithe was brutally brought back into reality. This couldn’t be happening. In all essentialness, this was a man who shared her genes, a father or brother in whatever occasion. Unshed tears made her eyes glazed. She stuck out her hands, pressing them hard against the mirror’s glass, attempting to push the monster away. “Stop it,” she whimpered.

The looking glass chuckled, even though it could say that it was less than amused. “Shut up” Sephiroth commanded. He consumed the air that would have been Lithes and spoke into her mouth. It was a stale and disgusting taste. “You, will never be free.”

It was at this time that a few salty tears tore away, sliding like liquid ice down her face. ‘You are so pathetic…’ she her inner voice scolded. ‘Please…I don’t need this…’. It was then that her psyche rolled its metaphorical eyes, losing its patience. It growled in a hushed tone, ‘What has happened to you. What would Tyke say?’ Lithe’s eyes became wide and angry. ‘Tyke…that jerk! What would he say-?!’

      ‘That you’re a loser for falling for something so stupid.’

‘No! Cause that lousy devil fell for the same damn trick!’ the other voice vanished…She paused, her eyes growing impossibly wide. “Same…damn…trick.” With a new burst of energy, she shoved her foot into the glass. It crackled and a bright light spilt out. For a moment, she felt like the world around her had turned upside down and distorted. She sat up, several feet away from where she had been a second before. Slowly a spiteful grin spread over Lithe’s face.

Stumbling only a bit, she brought herself to her feet. Slowly she began to walk forward, the light just as slowly returning to her eyes. Sephiroth’s image once again resided upon the other side of the mirror, and it sneered at her menacingly.

“What are you doing, you lowly shadow?” it hissed, its breathing becoming less human and more like whistles.

Lithe stopped, her eyes narrowing. “You know what,” she said. “You’re right. I may be lowly, and pathetic… I could be weak and worthless. But I don’t belong to you, or anyone else”. She stepped forward, growing bolder with every passing second. “Even if I look like you. Even if I walked or spoke like you, it wouldn’t bring me any closer to being anyone else. My heart… is my own”. She answered cautiously, wincing.

The mirror recoiled in fear, as lithe grabbed it by the frames and carried it to the middle of the room, the floor and her hand the only things keeping it

Description
Tyke put his hands out in front of him to try and soften his fall. The experience he had just encountered would have killed any mortal; this made him wonder whether or the twins had survived it.
“Ugh...” he moaned as he hit the ground with a loud smack. He shook his head and stood up. ‘Where the hell..?’ he looked around.
There were floating pumpkins, ghost and ghouls, and even living skeletons walking in the very streets where he stood. His eyes widened, this reminded him too much of Hell. He looked around for any sign that would signify where he was, but to no avail.
“OH NO VAUS LOOK! IT’S MHFF—”
Tyke whirled around to see two creatures dressed in costumes, one a black cat, the other, a kind of clown, or jester. He narrowed his eyes, and turned his head slightly. ‘Those two, look awfully familiar.’ He thought to himself. He then realized what the jester had said. ‘Vaus’. It rung through his mind.
He smirked. “You two, you’re the twins, Vaus and Piper, aren’t you?” He asked stepping all but to close to them.
Vaus raised his chin in the air. “Yeah, what of it? What’ya gonna do? Take us back, when you don’t even know where we are?” The way he said it made his want to rip his face off. Tyke’s mind went numb as he imagined it.
“HEY!” Piper screamed at him. Tyke shook his head and turned to the loud girl.
“Where’s the other one?” she asked.
“Other, what?” He said cocking his head backward. “The other bad-guy, the one with silver hair, where is she?” Piper said clinging to Vaus’s arm.
Tyke lowered his head. “She’s not coming. She stayed behind to inform Ansem that I will be-“ Tyke was interrupted all of a sudden by a loud thunk and a water splash behind him.
Both Vaus and Piper stuck their fingers out in horror.
“OMG! IT’S SADAKO!” Their faces blue with horror.
Tyke turned around slowly, afraid to see what was behind him in the town fountain. He cringed when he saw what was before him. He jumped back in horror.
“It, it’s not Sadako…” He said in a whisper more of. His lip began to tremble with fear. “IT’S LITHE!”
Their screams echoed throughout the town. Not like anyone cared. There was a scream every time the clock struck the hour. Anyway…
Forgetting any kind of fear he had for the boy, Vaus ducked behind Tyke, watching half horrified and half fascinated. Slowly, a hand gripped the lip of the stone well, appearing ghastly pale and thin in the green light of the street lamps. The other hand soon appeared, pulling up with it a head of very damp long silver hair, in which a single eye was visible as the locks overshadowed the rest of the figures face.
“Do you really think it’s her?” Vaus whispered.
A second later, the girl lost either her balance or her strength, and pummeled backwards straight back into the murky depths of the well she had pursued out of. “DAMN!” it screamed.
Tyke nodded his head. “Yeah, I’m sure”
Piper winced. “Wow, what a way to make an entrance”. Making her way over to the fountain, she peered into it, chuckling slightly as she spotted a half submerged Lithe, spitting a deal of sludge colored water out of her mouth. She seemed to be glaring at the wall, like she could burn a hole in it. Blinking, Piper asked, “So…how’s the wicked witch of the west feeling?”
Lithe stared upward, sighing. It wouldn’t help at all to get angry now. “Much like someone dropped their two-story farm house on her,” she mumbled, finding it ironic that the wicked witch of the west met her end by the means of water. Finding a notch on the well’s wall, she stuck her foot in it, determined to make it out. She had managed to get herself halfway out, before she realized that she could not pull herself out. Grunting, she willed her feet up a little, but found no place to put them. So, she was hanging there dangling, at which Tyke happen to burst up laughing.
Lithe drew her lips into a seamless line, glaring at the devil with the look that clearly read “when I kill you, you’re gonna burn in purgatory”. Piper smiled slightly, surprising every one by offering her hand to the girl in the well. Lithe was the most surprised.
She looked at Piper’s hand skeptically, and then she averted her gaze to somewhere else, almost shamefully. She couldn’t look at Piper, less understand her. How could she so willing…help someone who had taken an attempt at her life. How could she save the girl who would eventually drag her back Hallow Bastion, just to spare herself the wrath? It made her feel guilty, and even jealous that she could never trust anyone like that.
“Common,” Piper sighed. “It’s not going to bite you”. Lithe raised an eyebrow at the comment, accepting the hand in front of her.
“I suppose it won’t…” she was pulled out of the well, gracefully as some might say. Well as graceful as you can be falling out of a well. Catching her breath, Lithe leaned up against the wall of the well, wringing out her limp hair. “Thanks, I guess…”
Piper crossed her arms, frowning. “Your welcome, I guess,” she responded in a tone that could have been described as cocky. “Isn’t there something you’d like to say to Vaus and me?”
Lithe blinked, tapping a finger against her bottom lip. “I want to say a lot of things,” she started, then smirked slightly. “But most of which I don’t think you’d appreciate very much, but if you’re looking for an apology, you might have to wait a while for that one…” Blinking again, Lithe’s face took upon itself the impression of puzzlement, lifting an eyebrow while one side of her mouth half-smiled. “What the Devil are you people wearing?”
“I could ask you the same thing…” Tyke murmured, tapping his foot with impatience.
“What the hell are y---huh?” she murmured. Looking down at herself, she could have sworn that she wasn’t wearing that when she left the castle. “Whoa, what happened here?”
Tyke sighed, rubbing his temples. “It seems like when you travel to a different world, you automatically take a form that is most convenient, or did you not know that?” It was obvious. With all the creepy-crawlies around, it was no surprise that they had all taken a scary disguise. Lithe stuck out her tongue, cocky as always, but then yelped.
“Ah!,” she shrieked holding her mouth. “Eeck, I bit my tongue! Not cool!” Carefully, she felt the bottom row of her teeth. All seemed well, until she found that her incisors seemed particularly long and sharp. Withdrawing her fingers from her mouth, she watched blood well up from the small pinprick on her fingertip. She grinned, showing off her new fangs. “Hey, guess what I am!” she clapped joyfully.
“A nightstalker?” Vaus guessed.
“A heartless bloodsucker?”
“A moron with fangs,” Tyke stated blatantly.
Lithe blinked. “Well, I was gonna guess vampire, but those are valid assumptions, I guess,” she said, processing that last sentence slowly. Blinking she murmured, “Except for that last one…”
A long awkward silence ensued. “Um, where are we exactly?” Vaus asked, his face contorted with some kind of nervousness. He stared intently at the little gathering of people, only half expecting the blank expressions.
Tyke shrugged, unconcerned. “How the hell am I supposed to know”
“What about you?” Piper asked, directing her question at Lithe, who had become uncomfortable under the scrutiny of her untrusting gaze. “You’re the one who brought us here, shouldn’t you know?”
Lithe grinned nervously. “Would it upset you if I told you that we were all hopelessly lost?”
Piper gulped. “Yes”
“In that case, we are so definitely not lost, in fact,” she continued, adding on as she went, “I know exactly what I am doing!”
Tyke shook his head, nudging Vaus in the side. “Basically that translates to we’re lost and stuck with the Sephiroth clone”
Vaus rolled his eyes at the incriminated elbow. “Hahaha, that would be so funny if you weren’t so blatantly forward”. Then he blinked. “And who is Sephiroth?”
“Well,” Lithe began to answer, ” an evil little bas- well, hello there”. Standing behind them was a portly little creature remotely the shape of a top with a big triangular torso and tiny little feet. It swiped its top hat off its grinning face and gave an awkward bow. Lithe gulped at the strange sight to behold. “Oh my god”.
‘Welcome!” he said warmly. “I am the mayor of Halloween Town. What are a group of fine young ghouls like yourselves doing on this fine Halloween night?”
Vaus shook his hand, slightly relieved that he had found someone at least partly insane since he had arrived. “So this is Halloween Town?” he asked. Well, it did make sense. Everything seemed…Halloween-y.
“Of course,” Mayor said, his mouth moving up and down mechanically. “You didn’t know that? Most kids who come here, absolutely love the annual Halloween festival. This year is bond to be the best yet! In fact, have you seen Jack Skellington?”
Tyke crossed his arms curtly. “Obviously not,” he murmured.
“Well, anyway, you can’t miss him,” Mayor said. “Big fun Skeletal guy, gotta meet ‘im. Seeya later!” he said as he began to wobble away.
“No wait!” Piper shouted at the stubby man. Mayor turned around, obviously having no expression for confusion. “Um, I was wondering where we might find the exit for this world, because we were kinda planning on leaving as soon as possible”.
The small little troop nearly fell back in surprise as the Mayor’s head turned a full ninety degrees. The other side of the Mayors was blue, literally and metaphorically. As the side they had witnessed before was unspeakably happy, this happed to be the equalizer as it was the big sad face, with droppy eyes and the largest frown any of them had ever seen. “Y-you’re leaving? Before Halloween? That’s unheard of…are you-.”
“We’re really sorry,” Vaus said, clapping his hands together. “But we really have to leave”
The mayor shook his swiveling head. “If you insist… well, the gummi ship platform is just beyond Guillotine Gate…oh, its such a shame! Missing Halloween – in all my years I have never…” the strange little man began walking away, trailing his happy face behind him. Vaus, who seemed to have recovered from the attack of the swiveling head first, was the first to ask, “What’s a gummi ship?”
“Well it really doesn’t matter,” Tyke hissed crossly. “Since we don’t have one”.
Vaus flinched, not exactly sure why. People usually didn’t scare him, but…there seemed to be some kind of power behind his words. It was a horrible feeling to have this ethereal being agitated with him. “Hey -.”
Piper had spoken up for her brother. “Don’t take it out on him –.”
“Just cause you’ve get this perpetual stick stuck up your ass!” Lithe decided to finish.
“Exactly…not that I would have used those words exactly, but right. I think you owe someone an apology!” Piper shouted, her pushy shovey attitude kicking in.
Tyke blinked, raising a delicate eyebrow. Not he hadn’t met girls like her before, Lithe was a perfect example of a attitude problems, but Piper had a whole lot of something. He couldn’t quiet put his finger on it, but this girl intrigued him. “You’re right,” he replied shrugging. “I apologize, I suppose”. He gave a little fake bow, smiling cockily through a row of blue colored bangs. He looked up only to find Piper staring down at him like he was some kind of ignoramus. He sighed inwardly. Plenty of opportunities for women to crush his ego as of late.
“I meant, apologize to my brother, smart one,” she said huffily.
He shot Vaus this look that most likely would have read somewhere along the lines of ‘Your messin’ with meh game plan, little man. What’s your damage?’
Vaus only grinned, but inwardly he was sending that mental image of ‘Touch my sister and I’ll plant my foot in that pretty-boy face of yours’.
“And what exactly are you doing!” Tyke said, distracted by a clicking sound Lithe was making with her tongue.
“We are so screwed,” she said, clicking her tongue once again. She reached out into the air, repeating the motions that only she and Tyke recognized that the ones she used to make her highly unstable, but effective, void portals. She repeated the action over and over, darkness flickering on and off of her finger tips. But her hands were shaking. “Totally and completely screwed”. No matter how many times she tried, the pulling darkness couldn’t make the rip between time and space happen. “It won’t work until it is gone…”
“Until what?” Tyke asked.
Lithe shook her head. “There is something around here, that is disrupting the flow of things,” she moaned, totally crushed . “It won’t let me make a portal. Seph’s gonna kill me”.
Vaus rubbed his temples. “Well, what now?”
“I think we should go Vaus,” Piper stated blankly. “This really isn’t where we should be. We need to go back home, not back to some psychopath castle. We can probably hitchhike with someone”.
“What about them?” Vaus asked. “Shouldn’t we help, or something? Its not like they are bad people or…”
Piper grabbed his hand, and whispered into his ear , “They are going to try to bring us back, we have to find a way out”.
Vaus nodded, glancing backwards at the beautiful devil and the girl who was yanking on her own silver hair in frustration. “You really think so?”. Somehow, it seemed like maybe the darkness only soiled the surface. Lithe wasn’t really heartless, they both knew, she just had a hard time being selfless. Tyke, they weren’t sure, but it seemed that somewhere beneath the flaming hair there was a heart, and one that wasn’t totally corrupted.
“Yes”. Piper began to walk away, down the cobblestones.
He stole one fleeting glance back at the two, before he started to jog after his sister.
Lithe began to stand up, but Tyke put a hand on her shoulder pushing her back down. “Let them go,” he murmured. “They won’t find a way out”.
“But, what about-?!”
Tyke sighed, smoothing back a strand of flame-like hair. “Suddenly, that doesn’t seem all that important”.
~~~~~~~
“So how exactly were you planning to get out of here Piper?” Vaus asked, his eyes skeptically half-lidded. They had been wandering around for about an hour, finding that there was no one around who owned a gummi ship of any kind, screaming their heads off every time a little Halloween Town native decided to pull one of their tricks. Vaus was starting to regret ever leaving the two nutcases, a Tyke and Lithe, behind. Tyke was a fool, but at least he was smart enough to know how things worked in these worlds.
“I’m sure that we will find a way soon,” she replied, even the will to even search was slowly wearing away. “Where there is a will, there is a way. And if I have my way,  we’re finding it”.
Vaus began to get frustrated. For all of his sister’s confidence, he certainly didn’t think that just because she wanted it to happen, it simply would. But he really couldn’t help wish he had a little more of that kind of energy. “Well, I don’t see how that’s gonna get us to a different world”.
“I think I have an answer to your problem”
Piper spun around and faced a figure in a black cloak, some kind of gothic debutant suit underneath. “How is that?”
The guy shook his head. “Well, I heard a rumor that there is a curse in the Old Oogie Boogie Manor. But of course, its probably just a rumor”
“All right, there is a curse in the house, but what is the catch?” Vaus asked. The hooded figure shrugged.
“I have heard that a great reward is bestowed upon the one that can break it,” he said.
Vaus raised his eyebrow skeptically. “If its so great, than why haven’t you tried yourself mister?”
“Heh, I have bigger fish to fry, better bounties than some silly curse. Besides, like I said, it is just a rumor. I wouldn’t go if I were you. Sounds like trouble, most likely some kind of heartless, but whatever, I’m just saying it might be up the alley for a couple of people like you.”
Piper and Vaus turned around synchronized, putting their backs toward the stranger, whispering in hushed voices.
“What do you think Vaus? You think its worth our time?”
“I really don’t know,” he replied. “Sounds questionable to me, we don’t even know who this guy is, but-.” He paused, noticing the glittery look glazing his sister’s eyes. It was her deep lust for adventure, and since hey, they had managed to get themselves into the adventure of a lifetime, why not? “I guess we should check it out, since after all, we really don’t have any options left”.
Piper grinned sheepishly, obviously pleased. Then that smile of hers turned into a perplexed expression as she stood up on her toes and looked about her in a confused manner.
“What’s wrong?” Vaus asked half-heartedly. Piper stopped her searching and pointed the place that had been occupied by the helpful stranger.
“He’s gone…”
~~~~~~
Tyke quickened his pace to match Lithe’s brisk one. She had taken this ‘Gettin’ down to business’ attitude, seeing as she was thrown a little off track when she found out that someone or something was messing with her ability to create a portal. Thus, she concluded that this interference had to be removed immediately, or so help her god. After a minute or two of pure meltdown in her part, she had managed to figure out from which direction this dark energy was being emitted. Tyke had begun to think he was doomed when he realized the only escape he had left lied within the success of an amateur portal maker, and her poor sense of direction. This scared him. But he was along for the ride, no matter what he did.
Pointing in a new direction she began walking towards the force. She climbed slowly up a strange shaped hill that curved in spiraling into itself. Tyke sighed in aggravation, his non-existent faith dwindling.
“How do I know that you aren’t leading us on some wild goose chase?” he huffed, crossing his arms. Lithe’s answer was:
“Literally or Metaphorically?”
Tyke blinked, shaking his head. “What?”
“Metaphorically, I am guessing, cause I really don’t see any geese around here, do you?” she pointed out, as if it were as obvious as anything else. “But, no, cause I’m pretty sure that the disruption is coming from this direction”.
He raised an eyebrow, wondering why Lithe had it in her mind to pay attention to grammar rules when she could barely walk two feet without throwing herself into some new embarrassing catastrophe. “I don’t think so, there is the dead end,” Tyke said pointing to a black pointed fence that stuck out right under the hill.
“Just keep walking would you?” she hissed. “Your such a baby”.
“I’ll show you ba- ow! That hurt…” Tyke had tripped over a wooden gravemarker, that stood at the base of the hill. It had bent forward, like a switch of some kind. There was a soft creaking sound, like someone opening a door that had rusted shut. Lithe spun around, looking out towards the full moon, where the hill had begun to change shape. It had stretched out, its point leading over the top of the fence that Tyke had mentioned earlier, clearly meant to be a bridge of some sort. Tyke brushed himself off, a bit embarrassed that he was having a “Lithe moment”. Lithe snickered.
“Good job, Tyke,” she said in a good-humored tone.
------
“Where do you think it is?” Vaus whispered. The wax from the candle had long since begun to melt, burning his fingertips as they walked along the dark corridor of the late Oogie Boogie’s mansion. But he didn’t feel the pain. He was to absorbed in jumping every time a bat flew by, or the door behind them creaked shut. Not to mention that his sisters fingernails dug into his arm painfully. A couple of flying heartless had passed them by, gleaming yellow eyes only pausing momentarily at the two before leaving them be. Somehow, Piper had guessed, they didn’t believe that they were a threat, and somehow they were being led deeper inside.
Piper released her grip on his arm, racing ahead to the next door at the end of the hallway. She caught hold of the door knob forcing it open, unleashing a bombardment of dust and other loose particles. Vaus caught up form behind, waving his hand in front of his face. “Hey, Piper?”
“What?” she asked, opening the door wider so she could peer inside.
“Why do you think this guy was named ‘Oogie Boogie’? What kind of name is that?” Vaus asked, voicing the question that had been plaguing his mind for a whole two minutes.
Piper stepped inside, sneezing at the contact with the dust ridden air. “Isn’t it obvious? He was the boogie man, you know, the kind that live under your bed”. She sneezed again.
“Really, I just thought the guy was into Jazz or somethin’,” he followed Piper into the room. It was dark inside, the kind where you can just barely see your hand in front of your face. Piper regained grippage on his arm, leading them further. Vaus wrinkled his nose as he go a face full of something sticky, that he suspected with a shudder, was cobweb. “Ewwe”.
“It’s really dark,” Piper whispered.
Secretly Vaus smiled sarcastically. “Well, thanks Pipe, never would have guessed that one”
“Do you hear something?” she asked under her breath, making her brother grit his teeth in pain when she dug her nails deeper into his flesh. Vaus took a deep breath, steadying himself. The first thing he thought to say was: ‘No, but considering the circumstances, if I had heard anything I’d have run away squawking like a chicken’. But instead he went with:
“No, you must be hearing things”.
Piper inhaled sharply, turning her head in the opposite direction. “There it is again,” she whispered. She let go of his arm, walking away couple of feet.
“Piper,” Vaus hissed. “Piper, don’t wander away! What if something got you?” It really was to dark, and if something decided to pop up and whisk one of them away, it might be a long time before either of them realized it.
Vaus heard her voice pierce the thick darkness. She had gotten somewhat farther ahead that he had, and so the voice had seemed a little too far away for his liking. “Don’t worry, I mean, we are looking for monster curse type thing right? No worries,” she snickered. “I promise I won’t leave you”. Vaus frowned. Yeah, sure, but that didn’t mean they had to be so reckless. Apparently it hadn’t occurred to Piper that it was extremely hard to fight something without any form of weapon. She was way to gung ho for her own good. But hey, they were still alive right? What was the worst that could happen?
“Still, Piper, you shouldn’t be so far ahead,” he sighed. After a couple of moments of silence, his brows knitted together in confusion. “Piper?” Receiving no answer, another realization dawned on him. “Piper! Common! Stop playing around, its not funny!” he shrieked. Suddenly he became all to aware of the surrounding darkness, suffocating with the lack of light. Groping blindly in the dark, he caught ahold of something metal, like a torch fixture, on the wall. Then something like a desk and curtains. ‘I can do this,’ he thought. ‘Piper probably got to far ahead, she couldn’t hear me. That’s all’.
Vaus stepped forward, his feet splashing in some kind of liquidly substance. He retreated his foot back, only to find that when he retraced his steps they had lost their texture too. The floor had become thicker and stickier. It reminded Vaus of his old childhood dream of having a pool filled with Jell-o. But that dream was no sooner crushed when he realized that he would drown and die in a pool such as that because of gelatin’s density.
This was something like that. Except more frightening. Because it was very dark and the floor was most certainly not made out of Jell-o.
He could feel the stuff tugging at his feet and wrapping around his ankles, cold and oozing. He was sinking into the floor, he realized. He wanted to yell but he was more afraid of getting whatever it was in his mouth. He took a breath and squinted his eyes, before his head was submerged in the ooze.
‘I can’t breathe…’
He felt lost in a different reality when finally he felt solid ground on his feet. He collapsed to his knees, clutching his shirt as he sucked in some much needed air gratefully. Opening one eye he was surprised to see that he had only been dropped into a different room. Luckily it was a little better lit than the previous one, he could see clearly the covered furniture stuffed into the corners of the room, and a dusty mirror hung on the wall. For all it’s normality, it seemed to be emitting a dangerous vibe. Vaus got up off the floor looking around. He spotted a door on the other side of the room. He glanced to both side of him, shaking off the feeling that something was watching his every move. It was just best to assume that he was always being watched. A little paranoid, but he assumed this is what the people of these strange and screwed-up worlds did for fun; making people so nervous that they collapse into a giant puddle of goo.
Vaus took a couple of weary steps across the floor, jumping like a jack-in-the-box when he accidentally stepped on a loose and squeaky floorboard. His heart had nearly jumped up out of his throat by the time he had reached the door. Taking the doorknob in his hand, he frowned. He jiggled it a couple of times, finding that no matter how many times he shook, pulled or pushed on the knob, it would not so much as jar. “Oh, great!” he shouted. “Getting bested by a door? I don’t think so!” Angrily he kicked the mahogany surface forcefully, cringing in pain as his toe felt the impact more certainly than the door did. He slid down, plopping on the floor pathetically. He raised his head to the ceiling, exhaling.
“Well,” he murmured. “If there is something here too see than show me already…”.
There was a blinding flash of light and everything changed.
*****
Lithe sighed in aggravation. “You know,” she said through gritted teeth. “On a normal occasion, I would be the one doing that. So I would appreciate it if you would stop digging your monster-sized kitty talons into – ow!” she shrieked loudly. Tyke had flinched, his cat-like eyes flickering back and forth across the entry way. “Be a man and let go of me!” she yelled trying to yank her arm away. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were scared!”
“No,” he replied hushedly. “I’m making sure that you don’t, just, frighten yourself and run away”. The room they had just entered was circular, lined with read velvet and yellow flax candles that lit the ceiling leaving the rest of the room in the dim. “Because, of course this place is not exactly the Maui Beachfront Hotel. This place is crawling with heartless and other little buggers”.
She snorted facetiously. “There is nothing in this world that can scare me”.
Rolling his eyes he took another step forward, muttering, “bold arrogance is a nice replacement for idiocy,” he chuckled at his own statement.
“Hey,” Lithe defended. “I grew up in Hallow Bastion. I had a heartless for a pet. A couple of little skeletons in the closet are not gonna get me. And you,” she continued, “Being the ‘king of all evil’ ‘future ruler of hades and all’…”.
Tyke glared at her sarcasm.
“…growing up in literal hell, one would think that you might have a bit more nerve”.
“Are you quite done?” Tyke asked, apparently falling back into the run of the mill annoyed feeling.
“Sure”. Lithe stopped right in the middle of the room staring at the floor. She frowned her face contorting confusedly.
Raising an eyebrow, the devil stood next to her. “What’s wrong now?”
“There,” she said pointing with her index finger at an exact place on the floor. “Whatever is screwing with the energy, should be right here. But…” obviously there was nothing there but blank floor boards and dust.
“Damn, I should have known not to trust you,” Tyke hissed.
“Hey,” she defended herself sternly. “Its here”.
Tyke sighed exasperatedly. “Lithe, as a person with eyes I am going to tell you THERE IS NOTHING THERE!” he exclaimed. “They shouldn’t even have considered letting you out of Hallow Bastion, I swear! Can’t you do anything right without daddy number one or two watching over your shoulder?”. Lithe shook her head, glancing up in his direction, but then lowered her gaze to the ground.
She sighed, her eyes flickering across to the other side of the room, and then began to walk in that direction.
“Where are you going…” Tyke asked, his patience has long since worn thin. Lithe drew one of the velvet red curtains aside.
“Getting myself out of this hellhole, whether you’re coming or not,” she said, no room for argument in her voice. Then she stepped behind the curtain into the next room.
Tyke bit his lip, ruffling his flame-ish hair. Alright, so his comment had been a tiny bit out of line, and maybe he deserved that.
“Oh common, Lithe! Don’t be so stupid,” he said in a bothered tone, and walking hurriedly across the room, and throwing back the curtain. “You know I didn’t -…” he stared in disbelief. Tyke ran his fingers over the solid brick wall, that lied behind the velvet, as if to confirm its reality. Hadn’t Lithe just…she walked into a room behind there just a few seconds ago. Whatever stunt this stupid house pulling, it wasn’t so funny. Not funny at all, as a matter of fact. Maybe Lithe wasn’t lying after all.
Letting go of the curtain, Tyke stepped backward, into the middle of the room, looking for the place that she had claimed the darkness was emitting from. “What the hell is going on here?” he muttered. He traced the piece of flooring with his fingertips, finding nothing unusual about it. Distantly, he could feel the soft embrace of cool air upon his skin, as the tepid breeze outside had become a bit more forceful.
The candles began to flicker.
~Tyke…~
Tyke shot up, upon hearing his own name whispered vaporously in his ear. He recognized the voice that had spoken to him, he doubted that he’d ever be able to forget it, the owner had left a lasting impression on him, but he did not believe his senses. But he was more alert as his cat-pupil eyes darted, leaving no place unchecked by his gaze.
~Tyke…why…?~
Instinctively, his eyes fixated on the door way, waiting the approach of whatever may have come. Nothing came from this direction save for the advance of a harsh wind blowing the curtains askew. “Who are you…?” he asked. Now all doubt had vanished. He knew something was there.
Whatever it was, he could feel, was smiling at him, like a cat that was eying a finch in a barred cage. ~Hello…Tyke…~.
The voice felt closer now, almost upon him, but still nothing came through the door. Tyke almost jumped in surprise.
A wraithlike hand touched the back of Tykes shoulder, causing a fresh torrent of dread to writhe within the devil’s body.
“Hello…Tyke…why did you betray me…?”
The candles flickered, and went out.

(Nightmare Room 1 – Piper)

She didn’t know how long she had had been walking now, the solitary sound of her own footsteps was the only one to greet her. She could have been walking in plain air for all she knew. But she did know it was dark. And cold. Shivering, Piper rubbed her hands together trying to restore the life in them, but to no avail. The cold was leaching.
Somewhere along the line she had lost track of where she was. The last thing she could remember was stepping into a different room, and Vaus yelling at her from behind. Surprisingly, she hadn’t heard from him after that. She did feel guilty, for loosing her brother when she promised not to. And she had tried to go back many times, but when she turned around, there was nothing but an expanse of darkness that seemed to stretch into forever. So she had no choice but to trudge forward. Her taste for adventure seemed to growing a bit old, she admitted.
It seemed that hours had passed by, when in reality it might have only been a couple of minutes. Piper could feel herself grow more and more tired with every footstep. The darkness had become thicker now, almost like trying to move through breathable pudding. So many times she wanted to stop and sit, but her legs would not listen to her. They wanted to keep going forward. The darkness was calling her. She didn’t want to listen.
But she was. The darkness seemed to be wrapping itself around her, like long black tentacles. She couldn’t hold back her disgust, and she screamed uncharacteristically, struggling against what wanted to keep her bound. She broke into a run, tearing through grasping hands and the suffocating blackness. “I will get out,” she whispered. “I’ll find a way. I will get out!” she yelled.
As if to answer her call, she saw a tiny shard of glass in suspended in the air. Although it was covered in soot and dirt, the darkness trying to extinguish it, it shone with light truer than the sun. She approached it, touching it hesitantly, then grasping it in her hand. As she wiped the grime away, she could feel herself filling with a familiar sense of warmth. She clutched it, for it was the one thing that she felt that she should never lose.
The shard let off a pulse of pure undiluted light. Piper pressed her lids closed, the brightness hurting her eyes after so long. The light slowly ebbed away.
Piper blinked, slowly opening her eyes. The darkness had dissipated and she was lying on the ground. She sat up rubbing her head looking about her. She was still in the Oogie Boogie mansion. ‘Was that a....dream?’ she sat there for a moment, then sighed heavily in relief. Just glad that it wasn’t real, but... she shook her head. She wondered how the others where faring.

( Nightmare Room 2- Tyke)

Tyke rubbed his head, there was a blinding pain seeming to come from every point in his head. The ghastly hand still clung to him, but to tell the truth, he didn’t even want to look back. This would be confirming that he believed it was happening. For the moment he almost didn’t want to believe it, as if the hand that lingered there was nothing more than his mind haunting him, a figment of him imagination. Tyke released himself from the hand and turned, for once, he had feared to see what lied beyond the dark. What was it that he was so afraid of? It happened so long ago, he often reminded himself. There was nothing he could do about it, no way to change the past. He had told himself this every time he chose to remember, but never in any way had he allowed himself to actually believe in what he was telling himself.
The specter though, as he saw it, could wait for the rest of eternity for him to come to terms with himself. There was nothing to be afraid of... but the reminder of deep pain that it had brought him.
He reluctantly craned his head around to meet the ghostly face of a woman, one of which he had wished not to meet for the rest of his damned life. At that moment’s prime, time seemed to stop as the memories flowed back to him; making him double over seemingly in pain, something he could deep down  tell wasn’t truly happening. Slowly the pain seemed to ebb away into a mere throb. His vision was fuzzy, like that of an old video tape.
He was ready, he thought, to once again confront that face that haunted his dreams. He thought now that maybe he might find his piece of mind and finally put to rest the horrible visions once and for all. But that, unfortunately, is not what he received.
The scenery seemed to slowly change colors and shapes until his surroundings no longer resembled what they had been before. It was darker, the walls curved upward into a high-arched ceiling of blackened stone, currents of red and grey weaving through it like a gruesome interpretation of blood veins. Tyke shivered unconsciously, even though this place had to be the most familiar one he’s ever known. ‘What am I doing in the Underworld?’ he thought to himself. There was no way it was a mere illusion. Off in the distance his could pick up the sharp snap of Cerebus’s jaws at the riverman, and there was a soft green glow that came from the souls that floated eternally down the river Styx. It was much too realistic for his taste, it always had been.
Behind him, he suddenly heard the soft ruffle of cloth. Tyke turned around. The woman was no longer there, he saw, but someone else had taken her place. A boy younger than him was walking down a hall, on the other side. Who was...It was then it hit him. That boy, was himself, albeit a few years younger. He walked barefoot, giving no heed to the burning sensation on the thick soles of his feet. Tyke could tell that his former self was angry, from the mere expression on his face and the waves of pure vehement that rolled off him. The boy paused, staring at his claws, flexing them so that they cracked easily. Tyke stared at himself with wide-eyed horror. This was much too familiar.
Tyke reached out as if to touch the illusion, but his fingertips fell inches short of the walker. His hand retracted, letting it fall limply at his side. ‘What’s wrong with me?’ he asked himself silently. It was going to happen again, and he wasn’t going to stop it... suddenly he felt very sick.
Tyke? Hey...what’s going on...? a woman’s voice asked. Don’t do it idiot, he thought. You’re being fooled. Just...Tyke winced, pain like a fresh wound. “Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t you dare kill her!!” Ty-.
Her voice was cut off by a shrill cry loud enough to rouse the dead from their eternal sleep.
Tyke’s head snapped up, his limbs springing into action. He ran down the passage, the one he knew so well, quicker than Mercury himself. Like it was a mere piece of paper, Tyke pushed away the heavy velvet-like draperies that served as a door to a private room. There he found himself his back to the doorway. Furious, he pushed the boy out of the way, and kneeling, embraced the body of a women lying on the floor.
The ghoulish figment of his past self stumbled back, then closing its eyes, faded away into the air like a greyish mist. “I’m sorry! So sorry,” Tyke threw himself on the ground and embraced the limp body. Knowing all too well that she would not react.  “I’m SORRY! I’m SO SORRY!” he shook her lightly. “I won’t do it again! I promise I won’t do it again, please wake up!”
Tyke pushed some strands of her hair back and let his hand glide down her cold cheeks. After a long lasting moment Tyke had about given up like he had back then, the first time, when unexpectedly her eyes shot open. Bloodshot and tired from what seemed like loss of sleep. They stared deep into Tykes very soul...or at least the small bit of one he had left. He frantically dropped her form out of fear, letting her disperse into darkness around him. He turned his head leading his body as lights began to fade away, his mind began to wander, panic attacks were on the verge from activating, and more over he was now lost in the one thing he feared most. “No, no. NO!” He began to mumble under his breath, dropping onto his knees and clenching his head tightly. “Stop it! I don’t want to see the darkness!”

Sweat collected on his brow, fingernails digging further into his head, his flame like hair, beginning to die.
“Tyke....You don’t belong here. Light only hurt’s more...”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                He rose his eyes upward, wide as the familiar voice pierced him once more. “Tyke...” The woman who had been dead only moments ago was now sitting centimeters away from him. Tyke’s lips quivered almost hesitating to say her name. “H-heather...”
She smiled sweetly and placed her hands on his chest. “Tyke...realize that the darkness....IS there..and always will be.”                                                                                                                                 Without warning Tyke was plunged into a endless turmoil of pain, as it spread throughout his body. Slowly he let his gaze drop onto the blood stained hands that were now seeping further into his chest. He gasped as she  they pried deeper.
“No! No more!” He grabbed her hands with his own and tried to pull them out of him. She began to laugh menacingly; mouth growing at an irregular rate. Almost as if possessed by Hades himself. It was then that he realized what was happening.
“You! This...this dream, this nightmare! IT WAS YOU!”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  She smiled, Hades distinct features were more than just noticeable in her now. “Well done m’boy! Not as fast, but hey! Not as faulty as I figured right?” He pressed deeper still into Tyke’s chest, his blood surrounded them as a pool.
“HADES! Stop this NOW!” He began to pant, his loss of blood was begin to take it’s toll on him. With every breath, he grew weaker.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             “Com’mon Tyke what’s the matter?” He asked, slithering further into Tyke’s mind, knowing he couldn’t turn back now. “It is time Tyke. Too much is at stake, and Im not going to let any pretty-blue-boy screw it. Drastic measures are okay at times... And this time. Im not gonna loose you.”

Tyke gave one last attempt at pulling himself from the darkness before being consumed fully. He let out a desperate shrill of a scream, waves of sound elapsing from him body. His body went limp and he fell incapable of moving onto the floor, the pool of blood rippling as he went down.
( Nightmare Room 3- Vaus )

He loosened his grip on himself for a second, and suddenly was thrown into a bright scene. He hit the ground with an enormous smack, and laid there for a few seconds trying to figure out what had happened. “Ughh..” he let out a dry moan as he flipped back onto his stomach and lay there, still and almost unconscious.
“Where...am I?” He blinked Looking about the room silently. “Piper?” he asked pushing himself. There was no one. It was just....plain. And white. Nothing else was there. He got up and took a few steps, everything seemed to echo. He rose and eyebrow. “Hey! Is anyone out there?!” He closed his eyes and flinched as the sound bounced back at him.                                                                                                     He didn’t know where he was, what was going on...or...anything. Vaus rose his head up and stared around. It almost hurt his eyes to stare for too long, the brightness was too much to bare. “Piper?” He looked around once more. “Who was...” He looked down at his hands. It felt like he were forgetting something. He continued walking.

Vaus walked and sat around for the next 2 hours before finally deciding to try and free himself from where ever it was that he was placed. “Com’mon! Can’t you just...let me go?!” he screamed to no one in particular. When nothing happened he sighed and sat back, half expecting a tumble weed to pass through. “ I wonder how-how...” he stopped. “...” He couldn’t remember what he was going to say...or rather, who it was going to be about. He sat up quickly, and began to think about everything that had happened over the past hours, days, weeks. And barely anything came to mind.
“I know..I just-“ Vaus began to hit his head with his fists. “There was Piper and I, we were going somewhere...” He paused. “And then we dropped off a...train?”  He shook his head. What nonsense was he speaking? “Okey then we met up with...someone. And another person was there too..URGH! WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER?!” he exclaimed.
He stood up once more and scratched his head. “Well, it doesn’t really matter much anyways. All I really have to worry about, is getting out of here. So.. Im going to get out of here..right Pi-“ he stopped suddenly. “Pi-Pip, Pi...pe...” He narrowed his eyes then let them dilate. “Oh no!” He fell to the ground and began to look at the white ground as if using it to paint with his mind all that he has experienced up until this point.

“What was her name?! WHAT WAS IT?!” he slammed his head into the ground. “I know it’s there! I DO!” He felt hot tears push against his eyes. Wanting to force themselves out.  “Please...What was..he-..his?...what’s was their name?” Vaus sat there for a few moments as he felt his memories begin to fade from him, falling into a pit of nothingness, where he could never get them back.

The silence between himself and the room was enough to make him explode. He hated it. Almost as much as he hated himself at the moment. He took long breaths of air, trying to compose himself as best he could.  There are something you just can’t change..  Those words rung through his mind as if right next to a church bell. He took one long last breath before raising himself once more. “Yes I can...”                 Vaus reached his hands into the air, reached as far as he could. “I know you can hear me! I’m going to remember whether or not you want me to! I’m going to get Piper back AT-ALL-COSTS!!”                                                                                                                                                                                                         Suddenly, Vaus felt something materialize under his hands as a large key pulled him down again. “What th-“ he paused. “Her name! I remember her name! It’s Piper, and we came here together!” He rose the blade up, not quite sure what to do with it, but instead the words came naturally to him. “Gravirgra!” he yelled out, pointing the blade upward.

A huge amount of gravity came falling onto him. His face being planted hard into the ground. Suddenly everything went dark again, and he was standing where we was before he had appeared in the strange room. He looked down, on his side was a key chain. It has a mouse head. “What the...”

(Nightmare Room 4- Lithe)

Lithe sighed, making a seat for herself upon a dusty old box in the corner of the room. Why did the bastard have to bring that up? She glared at the wall, imagining all her pent up energy would burn a hole in the one; a large one, with smoldering ruins. She inhaled deeply, her angry chakaras slowly simmered down until there was nothing left. Now all she had were her, depressive non-angry feelings. Damn it. That wasn’t much fun at all.

She swung her feet over the rotting floor, chewing her lip pensively. “Insensitive jerk,” she muttered. For a moment, her mind entertained thoughts of pushing Tyke off the side of the mansion, letting him fall to his inevitable doom, while she laughed hysterically and teleported out of there. But, she would think after having some fun with that idea, that wouldn’t be very nice, now would it? Problem number two, portals were not in service at the moment. And last, there was that whole opening the door to the darkness thing that they had to do. So, she guessed that letting his bones get picked clean by ravenous heartless was out of the question as well.

Finally, Lithe decided she had gotten enough swinging of her feet, and put them to the ground. “You’re wrong,” she said to the open air. She had no idea why it bugged her that much, what he said. She shrugged, deciding that it no longer mattered what Tyke had to say…until the day she died, then he owned her mortal ass. Highly disturbing thought, but she planned not to be floating down the river Styx anytime soon. For now, it was time to apologize for absolutely nothing, and get a move on.

She walked across the floor to the side of the room she had entered from. She gripped the velvet curtain, tearing it open dejectedly. She rubbed her eyes, then blinked for good measure. There hadn’t been a brick wall there before, had there? And against it leaned an old oblong looking glass. Its intricate metal frames were red and brown with rust, looking quite like the imprisoning gates of a long abandoned castle. Its reflective surface was covered in the dust and grime of this whole filthy town. She frowned; breathing on the mirror and attempting to wipe it clean with the corner of her jacket. She was never one to let a beautiful antique become a beautiful piece of crap.

The mist faded away, leaving the glass clean. Lithe almost pouted, not pleased with her own reflection. She waved a finger, watching her double mimic her action without flaw. She sighed without enthusiasm, leaning her head on the glass, staring into her own gold eyes. “Hello, loser child, how are you feeling today…?” Her reflection smirked at her.

“Fine, and you?”

Screeching, Lithe in her panic fell flat on her backside, her eyes wide with surprise. Jabbing a finger in the direction of the looking glass, she exclaimed, “Y-you talked!”

The image of herself crossed her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes in a ‘no dur’ kind of way. “Yeah, I spoke… deal major?”

“Where I come from, mirrors don’t talk,” replied Lithe dumbfounded.

“Hallow Bastion,” the mirror said fondly, producing a pronounced smirk. “While I was there, I broke five mirrors; three in my bedroom, two of which with my only hands, one in the library, one in the dining room, and a small hand-mirror which a threw down rising falls. Ansem was pissed, but those were the only times that Seph didn’t yell at me…”

Lithe’s eyebrows scrunched together. She stared at her hands, her knuckles and palms scarred from smashing her reflection into shards of broken glass. The woman in the looking glass was reciting her life, secrets, things she cared not to think about. They were things that she didn’t want to remember, she was ashamed of them.

“Do you know why Lithy did such bad things?” the mirror continued. “Because she could no longer stand to look at herself. Because she is weak and defenseless”.

“Shut up…what do you know…?” Lithe responded, not taking her eyes off of the mirror. “Who are you to judge…”

The mirror smiled sinisterly, reaching forward to touch the edge of the looking glass. The surface shimmered, clearly mapping the boundary between her realm and Lithe’s. “Because I am your reflection…I know everything about you. How you are nothing but a counterfeit, a useless copy”.

Staring in wide-eyed horror, she swallowed a lump in her throat. Her fingers went limp. “No…I-I’m not…” she argued weakly.

“Come now,” her image sneered. “Do you really think you can escape from who you are? All you’ll ever be is Sephiroth’s shadow, Ansem’s favorite little doll…is there something else there for you?” The creature grinned, revealing elongated teeth. “There is nothing”.

Lithe averted her eyes, staring at the floor with shame. She wanted to lie, tell the mirror how wrong it was, how the thought had never crossed her mind. She sniffed, wiping her eyes before tears even dared to well up. It was not something she would allow for.

“You can’t escape your sins. Burning towns, killing innocents. And you still hope that the world will greet you with open arms? How dare you even call yourself a person.”

“I’m not Sephiroth…” Lithe answered sternly. “He did those things…”

“What’s the difference?” it asked, leaning forward. “You share his wicked heart.”

Lithe shook her head, tears of anger welling up. “No!” she cried.

“You are both monsters. Condemned to walk darkness’s halls until the blissful end of your pitiful existence.”

She pressed her eyes closed, and bit her lip. She could feel it splitting, the soft flesh easily damaged. Her body was racking with shivers, like she was silently sobbing. She didn’t want it, she didn’t want it to change her. The mirror smiled cruelly, its distorted sense of joy blazing for what it had done to this child. Lithe dug her fingernails deep into the wooden floor. She couldn’t run. Not this time. This time, the monster would follow, from the deep depths of her heart. She choked pathetically, looking up. She cried out, hiding her face in her hands. Her own reflection no longer stood in the mirror as it once had. “No! NO!” she whimpered. “I’m not…I’m not him.”

The image which had replaced it was that of the one person she had the most spite, reverence, understanding, disrespect, and disgust of. It smirked, strands of silver hair falling in front of stunning green eyes. Sephiroth laughed coldly. He reached out touching the edge of the glass. It rippled like water as his fingers pushed through it transcending both realities. Then, entwining his fingers in her hair, wretched up hard, causing a small cry of pain from the girl.

Sephiroth’s image smirked, pulling the struggling girl to his own eye level. Lithe suddenly went limp, her thrashing pausing, the will to oppose the power dying within her. Dazed, she seemed to become to numb to all that was happening around her. He laughed a hollow, echo-like laugh with no soul. “Again Lithe? Trying to run away… don’t you understand you are nothing without me? You are a wretched ghost of a being…” his laugh simmered down into a mere amused smile. Just as his hands had melded through the mirror, he pressed his face against it too, his eyes unerringly close. “Just another copy…” he said, the tip of his nose barely brushing against hers. “You’ll never be anything more than what we gave you.”

Leaning completely forward, it pressed its lips against Lithe’s roughly. Eyes growing wide in fear, Lithe was brutally brought back into reality. This couldn’t be happening. In all essentialness, this was a man who shared her genes, a father or brother in whatever occasion. Unshed tears made her eyes glazed. She stuck out her hands, pressing them hard against the mirror’s glass, attempting to push the monster away. “Stop it,” she whimpered.

The looking glass chuckled, even though it could say that it was less than amused. “Shut up” Sephiroth commanded. He consumed the air that would have been Lithes and spoke into her mouth. It was a stale and disgusting taste. “You, will never be free.”

It was at this time that a few salty tears tore away, sliding like liquid ice down her face. ‘You are so pathetic…’ she her inner voice scolded. ‘Please…I don’t need this…’. It was then that her psyche rolled its metaphorical eyes, losing its patience. It growled in a hushed tone, ‘What has happened to you. What would Tyke say?’ Lithe’s eyes became wide and angry. ‘Tyke…that jerk! What would he say-?!’

      ‘That you’re a loser for falling for something so stupid.’

‘No! Cause that lousy devil fell for the same damn trick!’ the other voice vanished…She paused, her eyes growing impossibly wide. “Same…damn…trick.” With a new burst of energy, she shoved her foot into the glass. It crackled and a bright light spilt out. For a moment, she felt like the world around her had turned upside down and distorted. She sat up, several feet away from where she had been a second before. Slowly a spiteful grin spread over Lithe’s face.

Stumbling only a bit, she brought herself to her feet. Slowly she began to walk forward, the light just as slowly returning to her eyes. Sephiroth’s image once again resided upon the other side of the mirror, and it sneered at her menacingly.

“What are you doing, you lowly shadow?” it hissed, its breathing becoming less human and more like whistles.

Lithe stopped, her eyes narrowing. “You know what,” she said. “You’re right. I may be lowly, and pathetic… I could be weak and worthless. But I don’t belong to you, or anyone else”. She stepped forward, growing bolder with every passing second. “Even if I look like you. Even if I walked or spoke like you, it wouldn’t bring me any closer to being anyone else. My heart… is my own”. She answered cautiously, wincing.

The mirror recoiled in fear, as lithe grabbed it by the frames and carried it to the middle of the room, the floor and her hand the only things keeping it