The darkness began to flicker, following a tingling sensation. Then, he felt like he was suddenly falling. With a jolt, his eyes opened wide, and he uttered a suppressed gasp.
His hands clenched. But he couldn’t move the rest of his body. His legs, spine, shoulders, still tingling, though the numbness was slowly ebbing away. Deep breaths, slowing, he tried to calm down. Just a dream, he thought, just a dream.
When he opened his eyes again, he realized an oddly lavender light washed across the ceiling of his room. He squinted in confusion, panning. As he did, he discovered his head was resting against something hard and flat. No, his whole body was lying on a hard and flat surface.
Springing upright, he was no longer in his room. Instead, he found himself in some kind of a strange, open court. Smooth, flat walls towered over him on all four sides, though there were several partings keeping it from completely closing off. These gaps revealed diverging hallways behind the walls, leading to who knows where.
“… What?”
Clearly, this was not his room. He was in a maze of some sorts.
“Am I still dreaming?”
The floor was rumbling. No, the ground was. Behind him. Something was climbing up the walls behind him.
Whipping around, he heard the scrabbling of claws before a dark, spectral creature emerged from behind the wall. Two red-shot slits opened wide, then a glaring, jagged mouth, glowing the same color. It had many arms, each of which were creepily swinging over each other to clutch the wall.
“How are you?” it cried in a warped voice, both deep and childish.
He scrambled back, bewildered by this giant creature. “Woah.”
“How are you? How are you?” Its voice continued to descend, becoming unnaturally deep. “How? Are? You?”
“Okay… Okay…” he stuttered, continuing to scramble backwards on his rear. “Wake up, Jean… Wake up, wake up, wake up!”
His voice creshendoed as the creature climbed down the wall and started to charge towards the boy. Tripping on his own hands, he covered his face with his arms and shut his eyes, feeling the ground quake as it got closer.
But then, a booming voice echoed from the sky.
“I am well.”
A screech of grating claws. Then, silence.
Slowly, he opened his eyes. The creature was overshadowing him, but its head was reared up high, paying him no heed.
“I am well,” the voice repeated. “How are you?”
The creature raised its head higher. “I…” Its mouth moved. “I… am… well.”
Teetering backwards, it continued to repeat the voice’s words. “I am well… I am well…”
The boy noticed the creature’s spectral body was disintegrating, like a flame going out. Its eyes closed to a slit, finally closing as its face, too, disappeared, echoing its final words.
“Thank you…”
“…”
The last few embers flew up into the lavender sky. Finally, it was gone.
Jean stared for some time, then, remembering he was still not alone, he turned around. There was no one behind him, but, looking up the wall, he saw an astral-looking figure in a cloak as lavender as the sky. It carried a long, warped staff in one hand. There was no face underneath its hood. Only darkness. The figure levitated in the air, slowly descending down to the ground. Though it was equally as eerie as the previous encounter, Jean somehow was not spooked by this character, staying in place.
The cloaked figure lands on the ground in front of Jean, remaining silent.
“Am I… dead?” Jean eventually asks. “Are you the grim reaper?”
“No,” it reverberated. “I do not fault you for thinking such, though.”
Cock-eyed, Jean gets up. “Then… who are you? And where am I?”
“This is the Night realm. Where unanswered questions go.”
“The… Night realm?” Jean repeated, glancing around. “This doesn’t look like night.”
The hooded figure said nothing.
“Do you know why I’m here?”
“No.”
Jean spun back.
“You should not be here.”
He was taken aback by its honesty.
“Then… What now?”
“You can either stay here and hope you return, or you can wander.”
“Hope I return?” he echoed. “But… what if I don’t?”
“Then you can continue to stay here, or you can wander.”
Jean scratched his head. “Is there an exit somewhere around here?”
“No.”
“… No?” Jean croaked, a bit dismayed.
“No.”
“Then… What about an entrance? I gotta’ve got here somehow.”
“No.”
“What…?”
“You should not be here.”
“Yes, I know,” he vented. “But, then… How am I here then?”
“I do not know.”
Dropping his arms to his side, Jean finally fell silent.
“Then… you can’t help me.”
“Yes.”
Groaning, he spun around, pacing in circles. The figure simply stayed in place.
“Come on, then, what do I do, Jean?” he muttered to himself. “What do I do?”
He paced around and around, occasionally asking himself the same questions. After a while, the cloaked figure spoke up again.
“Must you further burden me?”
Halting, he looked up. “Huh?”
“Stop asking questions I cannot answer.” For once, there seemed to be a tinge of annoyance in the figure’s voice.
Jean stared back in confusion, until it dawned upon him what he was doing.
“Oh… Sorry…” He rubbed the back of his head, ashamed. “Are there… now more things out there asking my questions?”
“I do not know if questions spoken here would spawn more creatures,” it replied. “However, I do not wish to test that theory.”
Bringing his arms together, Jean tapped his mouth over and over, staring to the side, lost in thought again. After several more moments of silence, he addressed his observer once again.
“Hey, can you stay here and help me think of a way out?”
“No. I must be on my way.”
The thought of being alone frightened Jean. “But… then, can I follow along with you?”
There was a slight pause before the figure gave him his answer. “If you wish.”
Jean was overjoyed. “Great! Then… Where are we going?”
“Nowhere.”
The cloaked figure continued forward. Jean sidestepped to join it by its side. “What do you mean nowhere?”
“There is nowhere to go. I simply wander.”
“… Oh…” He was beginning to doubt whether it was productive to follow it, but did so anyway.
And so the two of them set off, entering the maze. They took several twists and turns, seemingly arbitrarily, sometimes coming across the same little courts as the one Jean initially arrived in. Some cases, he wondered if they had walked in a full circle. Though he was supposed to be brainstorming, he couldn’t help but wonder about the maze and his new companion.
“So… Do you just wander around all day?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“… Isn’t that boring?”
“It is my duty.”
He perked up. “Your duty?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. So… you guard this place?”
“I search for spirits.”
“Spirits?” Jean wondered out loud. “You mean, those things?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, right, with the unanswered questions or somethin’.”
The cloaked figure said nothing.
“What are they doing here?”
“They wander here… endlessly brew… until, unfortunately, most of them become bitter and vengeful spirits. Destroying everything in its path to find a quenchable answer.”
“Oh…”
Another right turn. Then another left. Again and again, they turned around corners, seeking nothing in particular.
“So it’s up to you to stop them from destroying this place.”
“No.”
“Huh?”
“It is my duty to relieve them.”
“Oh,” Jean seemed to understand. “From here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It is my duty.”
“Yes… but…” Jean tersed, rethinking his words. “I mean, who gave you that duty?”
“The goddess of night.”
“The goddess?”
The figure seemed to hesitate its answer. “I cannot answer the question to your desire.”
He realized it was probably some kind of servant. Thinking about it, the cloaked figure’s voice had a feminine quality to it.