Empty Canyon, Empty Canteen

Everything’s ruined. Everything’s fallen apart.

I’m in a desert, alone. The heat is completely unbearable.

I want to collapse, but I can’t, not yet. I have to save Arienette.

It was all over in an instant. She was taken away from me, again. This time, instead of The Lonely Hearts…one of my monsters took her away.

One of my Fears.

This monster is a giant puppet, basically. She wore some type of mask, and her body was in a stage of decomposition. There were two strings that accompanied her, as if she herself was some type of marionette. Physical, wire-like strings, that moved on their own accord. Strings, that I could see, but normal people can’t see, leaked out of her also, wrapping around everything in the immediate area. They seemed weaker than the physical ones. 

She appeared all of a sudden in our living room. I yelled out, while Arienette was just silent; I guess she was shocked. The Wooden Girl first jumped towards Arienette, and her strings tied around her body. I ran at The Wooden Girl, attempting to stop her from taking the love of my life away, but I was pushed back, and cut a bit, by the rampaging strings around her. Desperate, I grabbed a lamp, and threw it at The Monster. It actually contacted with her head, but it had absolutely had no effect; it just shattered against her, and then fell to the ground, while The Monster didn’t even bat an eye. Didn’t even blink. 

The Wooden Girl grabbed Arienette, who seemed to be unconscious, and then erupted into an explosion of light. Nothing remained in the spot when the light dissipated, other than the remains of the shattered lamp. I fell to the ground, completely broken.

I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t moan. I couldn’t think. 

My entire life was just rendered meaningless. 

I don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t remember that I was a Key; a special one at that. I could follow them! It’d take a lot of energy, it would probably notify The Lonely Hearts of my location, it would probably attract other Fears, but that didn’t matter to me.

My love was gone. I was going to get her back, no matter what. 

So I approached the spot where the Wooden Girl had disappeared at. I felt the air around it, and using the Key, I somehow knew instinctually what to do next; I said some phrase that I can’t recall, and dragged my open palm against the fabric of the universe, gently pushing it aside. 

A golden light washed over me, and I was pulled into another dimension. My body shook violently, almost felt like I was being torn apart. A pain pushed itself throughout my body, and I almost passed out from it.

It all came to an end as I was pushed into a new place. I fell to the ground, ripped my jeans and cut my legs. I was on the street of a city.

An Empty City…the Empty City. I was back in this Hell. 

“I’m back in Hell.” I had said aloud. 

“This? Hell? Oh, human, you just wait.”

She was behind me, The Wooden Girl. I turned around, and there she was, at the end of the street. Arienette was not with her. 

“Where’s Arienette?” I asked calmly. 

“Not here, human!” she chuckles. “Don’t worry though; she’s fine. Trust me, I know. Anyways, you shouldn’t have come here….”

I ignore her and scream, “Where is she!?"

It only takes a second for one of her strings to pierce my skin and stab though my entire body. She luckily aimed for one of my shoulders, not piercing any vital organs; she did this on purpose. 

“Stall your mouth and listen, fool. I have not the time for your foolishness. I want you to know just how positively FUCKED you are. F. U. C. K’d. Fucked. 

You just don’t see what’s happened here, do you?”

I don’t listen and yell again.

She sighs, and shakes her head.

“You’re far too dumb for my taste. Anger problems, too. No, I think I’m done with you. I’m going to let…him have his way with you….”

Before I know it, she’s in front of me. I scream as her strings wrap around my body, and as the golden light flashes around me again.

This time, I can barely get up after the travel between dimensions is finished. I lay on the ground of a desert, and a shadow falls over me.

The Wooden Girl looks down on me, and drops a canteen. She walks away, stops, and then somehow grabs my journal out of thin air, and then throws it at me.

“Write. Don’t waste the water. Good luck.” She tells me.

She leaves me alone, and from there, I try to use my Key again to follow her. It does not work; in fact, in this dimension, I can’t use my powers at all. The canteen is running out of water. I feel something is following me. Something is hunting me down. I’m surrounded by darkness.

The Sun blazes high above me. I look up at it, and it seems to get bigger, or at least closer, with every passing minute. 

It is getting closer.

It’s so close now, so blinding.

That’s weird, it’s “calmed” down, or something. Or actually, well,…I don’t know what happened; I just know that I can look at it directly now. What

It’s…it’s shrinking. It’s getting closer and shrinking at the same time.

It’s turning into a star-like shape…

It isn’t made out of regular flames. They’re almost like “liquidy” flames. They have some type of wavy motion to them. They’re light yellow in color. 

The waves shrink and I can see a figure entangled by them. The waves keep shrinking, until the figure appears to be “wearing” them….no, he IS wearing them. The flames are like clothes for this…thing.

The figure approaches, and he looks almost like a normal human. He wears what I like to call “Lennon Shades”, and his hair is really spiky. He is also quite tall. The flames almost seem to form some type of poncho or something for the man. 

He’s speaking, …and his voice is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. It soothes me, and I can almost compare it to how I feel about Arienette’s voice. 

“You enter my realm, seeking for a maiden in distress. You have found God instead. What say you now?”

 What do I say, journal? He isn’t bothered by me writing in you,  it se

“Of course I’m not bothered by it. In fact, keep writing. Write an entire book on me, in fact, if you feel like it; it’s been done before, but why not again? 

I don’t see a problem with it.”

I say: “Are you another Monster, like that Wooden Girl?”

He says: “Affirmative. However, I am one that is a bit different than her; I exist, and also don’t. I am Everything and Nothing. I watch you humans, and also my brothers and sisters, from afar, within this dimension. I’m trapped, you see…I can’t leave this place.

Not yet."

I think he wants to use me to unlock the door out of this place. My Key can probably do that…

“No. I do not want to do that.”

“Why not?”

“I am the Alpha, and the Omega, and the Everything, blah blah blah. I do not need a human’s assistance. I will be released from this place soon, do not worry. I have a way out. Also, I am a God of Honor; I do not need to violate the Rules to get what I want.”

“Okay. Well, what do you want from me?” I say….

He’s looking at me with this hungry look in his eyes. He’s scaring me a bit.

…and I notice now that he still has his sunglasses on. How do I know

“I’m hungry. I have not been fed for a while, my son. 

I want something, I need something, I’m hungry, I’m hungry, I'm hungry-

Oh god what’s going on

The darkness has been eradicated, but in its place

He’s there he’s there he’s there

Please don’t take me away please don’t swallow me whole please please I still need to see Arienette again

I’ll give you anything

I’m out of the desert. I don’t remember what happened in there at all.
All I have left is what’s written down.

I’m back in The Empty City. I feel like I’m going to collapse at any minute.
I can barely write. 
I want to die.

I’m so hot right now….too hot. I feel like I’m burning up.

The canteen's empty.