Unsolved Deceptions Chapter 3 Back to School

I stood there in complete shock, 7 more pieces?! I had to do this 7 more times?! “ARE YOU INSANE!?” I exclaimed out of pure shock, that one nightmare was enough to last me for a lifetime, there was absolutely no way I was going to do that a single more time let alone 7 more times! Bierce just rolled her eyes as if not wanting to face literal demons was me just being overdramatic. 

“Oh yes, you can just kick back and relax while I magically teleport all of the shards here, perhaps you’d like a glass of lemonade too? This is actually less portals than the last time so quit complaining.” She responded sarcastically, my face scowled. “Oh yeah? How about you waltz into that portal and do it yourself!” I snapped back.

What room did she have to demand I keep going when she is safe in the ballroom with her barriers while I’m the one running for my life? I could see the playful sarcastic glint in her eyes start to slowly fade as her patience started to run thin. “I can’t get them myself Evans…” was all she said. “Can’t or won’t?” I questioned with a raised eyebrow.

 That must’ve been the final straw because she suddenly grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and pulled me close to her face harshly. “Listen here Evans, do you want your wish granted? Or do you want Malak to have your soul?” She asked, her voice wasn’t loud it was almost a whisper, but her ice cold tone was almost more intimidating then if she had just screamed at me.

 I did feel rather intimidated but I wasn’t going to cower. I was learning quickly that this was a game of who was the liar. So I knew that blindly going along with anyone out of fear would certainly be my doom, so as nervous as I was, I stood my ground. “No…I want my wish granted…” I responded carefully, her sharp emerald stare softened as so did her grip on my shirt collar.

To which I pulled away. “But I suppose, I can give you a small little chance of actually surviving this next nightmare, come here.” She said as she beckoned me with the wave of her hand. I hesitantly went over as she lead me to the ring altar. “With the power of the ring piece you had gave to me, I’ll be able to give you great speed for a brief period of time,” she explained. 

As a vibrant violet glow emerged from the large orb of the statue. “Place your hand on it,” she instructed. “And this won’t harm me?” I asked suspiciously as I put the tablet in my pocket and reached to place my hand on the glowing orb, “it won’t, though it may hurt a little,” she responded just as my hand made contact with the purple glow. 

“Wait, what do you mean it’s gonna hurt-“ I got cut off by a sharp almost electric feeling shoot from my hand down to my legs. It was painful, but it didn’t feel like any pain I had ever felt before, it felt unnatural and wrong. “Ow!” I yelped as I instinctively pulled my hand away and stumbled back from surprised.

 I then looked at my tablet and saw a glowing red symbol on the side of it. I touched it out of curiosity and my body suddenly began to faintly glow red, I stared at my glowing red body in shock before Bierce spoke. “Go on, give it a try,” she instructed. I swallowed before I took my first few steps, immediately I began to sprint incredibly fast with little control like I was running down a hill.

I was only able to stop when I slammed into one of the pillars. “Ow…” I groaned as I rubbed my head while Bierce just laughed. “Alright klutz, I think it’s about time you venture into the portal.” I stepped back and thought. I still didn’t want to do this, and still hardly trusted Bierce, but at least now I wouldn’t have to worry about getting tired from running. 

Which was the main thing that almost got me killed last time, and the only other person I could turn to was a literal devil so this felt like a loose loose situation regardless. I looked at the second portal, looked like a more human face but voids for eyes and a large toothy grin, but the face almost looked like a little girl. I let out a sigh of defeat.

 “Alright, see you soon, if I’m still alive, don’t miss me too much…” I said sarcastically before stepping back into that stupid portal, my tablet in one hand and my flashlight in the other. I found myself a large area that looked like the entrance way of a school, but it was very dark, nighttime and in the center stood an archway with a banner saying “welcome” hung. 

Though what caught my eye was that a glowing red webbing was strung across the archway as a makeshift barricade. “Oh it’s one of Malak’s silly little barriers, says I don’t learn my lesson but still uses his old tactics? What a joke, simply use the speed boost and run to it, the force of the speed will break it,” Bierce explained. I looked at the tablet and the symbol, here we go.

 I pressed it and took off and immediately went super fast crashing into the barrier and breaking right through it like it was nothing. The only thing that stopped me was crashing into a closed door, this speed was gonna take some getting used to, that was when I spotted a piece of paper wedged in the doorknob. I picked it up already with a pretty good guess of what it was.

I can tell now that these nightmares probably aren’t gonna be much better for me, at this rate they’re only gonna get worse. If there is actually someone reading this than I truly am sorry for you, a fate here can easily be far worse than death. There’s only one enemy here, Agatha. She’ll give your a warm welcome at first but she’s not friendly but I hope you have enough common sense to already pick that up. Unlike the Murder Monkeys she doesn’t track you by sent but rather by sound. She can hear every door you open and tracks you down like a twisted game of cat and mouse. She’s very fast so hopefully you’re a fast runner. She can also teleport as well to appear right in your path so be wary of that. So limit your noise, be careful when you turn corners and run fast. God, I don’t even think it’s Agatha’s monstrous appearance that bothers me the most, I think it’s more so that she was almost the same age. Memories betray me here. I need to keep going. I just need to survive a bit longer.

-D. H.

I felt a prickle of nervousness and uncertainty run down my spine, possibly even fear. A little girl named Agatha with enhanced hearing and teleportation? My once seemingly useful speed boost felt like a very small advantage compared to her abilities. I think what got my nerves going the most was the cat and mouse aspect.

 With the Murder Monkeys they tracked me down by scent and in such a small hotel there was basically no where I went where the monkeys didn’t know where I was, but this was a game of stealth trying to make as little sound as possible while the girl lurks in the shadows, that unpredictability and uncertainty shook me to my core.

And the person mentioning in the note that things were only gonna get worse made it really hard to see any light at the end of this tunnel. A part of the note that stuck to mind in particular though, the mention of this girl being almost the same age, and something about memories. A twinge of pity pricked my stomach at those words. 

While this person remained rather mysterious, I couldn’t help but picture an unfortunate parent dealing with the loss of their daughter and be tormented by the memory of their loss through the demon they had to face until they ultimately met their fate just trying to grant their wish like I was and I knew the pain that came from losing someone well. 

Part of me wondered if maybe their wish was to bring back their daughter, it seemed likely. I shook those thoughts, away now wasn’t the time to throw a pity party for this mystery person, I needed to focus on making it out of here alive, with the ring piece, so I slowly and as quietly as I could opened the door. I was met with a large dark auditorium, a line of little chairs on either side of me.

 A wooden floor, and in the center lit up but an ominous dim spotlight puddled onto the floor was a stage. Curtains red as blood, on top of them was a banner that said “welcome students” the front of the stage hung a poster with a doodle of a little girl, short hair, a dress and stars drawn around her, but more disturbingly so was her empty eyes that lacked any pupils or irises.

And a unnaturally wide smile. While that could’ve been written off of just amateur drawing skills, it was accompanied with arms, they were unnaturally long, hands reaching her feet. “What the…” I muttered quietly to myself. My thoughts were then interrupted by a cheery but distorted tune that played for only a few seconds.

I had little time to process it before I heard the giggle of a little girl. “Who’s there!?” I called out. I tried to keep my tone controlled but my hint of fear slipped through the cracks with a slight crack in my voice. Suddenly, a puff of smoke erupted from the center of the stage like a twisted magic trick that made me jump.

 As the smoke parted, there stood a little girl, but dear god the sight was horrifying. She bared a striking resemblance to the drawing behind her, including all of it’s unnatural details. Short messy black hair, pale skin, her eyes were pure black voids, her mouth had black gashes across her cheeks that pulled her mouth into a unnatural smile.

She wore a wrinkled white old school shirt with a black overall skirt torn up at the bottom that reached her knees. Her feet looked rotted and a bandage wrapped around her right leg to cover god knows what, but by far the most disturbing part about her was her hands. Her arms were almost stick thin, and very long reaching her knees but her hands were by far the most messed up. 

There was black rot that spread up to half of her arms, were fingers were like sticks with very long nails that were razor sharp, a horrifying sight. The girl, who was obviously Agatha laughed with giddy excitement that sounded like a normal happy little girl if it weren’t for this horrific context. “It’s so exciting to meet you, to finally have a new friend!” 

She exclaimed excitedly even bouncing up and down a little, while I stood there frozen still taking in her monstrous appearance, but she paid no mind to my reaction, she either had no self awareness or was used to that look of fear. “I’m really, really happy because after our last student I didn’t think I’d find a new friend for a while, and it’s been super boring here!”

 She explained excitedly but with a slight pout on those last few words, “you’ll stay here forever, and ever and ever! And you’ll never leave right, and you’ll be nothing like that mean man!?” I felt my blood run cold, while her tone did have the childlike innocence it was laced with something almost possessive and psychotic, I didn’t reply. “No need to be shy, it’ll be so much fun!” 

She laughed one more time before she suddenly disappeared, it was soon followed by the dim spotlight going out and the ring of a school bell. “Well that’s your cue, get to it,” Bierce ordered casually. I looked at my tablet, 283 shards, great here we go again. I approached the open door beside the stage and peered into the dark hall.

 Red lockers and papers scattered onto the floor, and the floating purple soul shards trailing down into the darkness of the hall, time to get this nightmare show on the road. I took a deep breath, turned on my flashlight, and immediately began running. No more nervous hesitant walking like how I started the first time, there was no room for hesitation anymore. 

As I sprinted and collected the shards I soon heard the little girls voice in the distance. “Ready or not, here I come…” she giggled ominously, those words gave me a chill, this was all a twisted game of hide and seek to her. Part of me had the urge to put the speed boost to use right now but the speed boost was limited so I knew I would have to use it sparingly.

 For a while I would keep hearing her twisted little giggles and taunts but for a while I didn’t see her, but the moment I opened a door, all hell broke loose. “I heard that!” She exclaimed as I soon heard the sound of her fast bare feet on the tiled floor fast approaching. A fresh rush of fear and adrenaline hit me as I finally activated my speed boost and took off.

The unnatural accelerated speed still took some getting used to but in the heat of the moment I was getting the hang of it. Just then, I spotted a shard that wasn’t like the others, it was larger and more noticeably it was red rather than violet, thinking quick I touched it and it absorbed into my soul like all the others, a feeling I could barely even notice now.

But instead of reducing the number on my tablet a red dot appeared in the distance but it wasn’t still, it was moving fast, it was Agatha, the red shard was acting as a tracker, and hell was it useful too. “Agatha is fast approaching, keep running!” Bierce said. “Yeah no shit!” I responded as I quickened my pace despite the speed boost wearing off.

 “Now isn’t it rude to use such fowl language in front of a little girl?” Bierce teased. “Just shut it, nows not the time.” I hissed in annoyance, her attitude could wait for the ballroom. I then passed a classroom with a flickering old school projector, I was quick to run passed it but I heard Bierce speak up again. “Ah, her unmarked grave….” Bierce commented coldly.

 Just before I could run out of the classroom completely I turned to look at what was on the projector. Old school black and white footage of a hill where a single tree sat, and the ground had a pile of dirt like a dug up hole, but no grave and no name stood, the unmarked grave she was talking about. Agatha’s unmarked grave. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t shocked.

 I didn’t think Agatha was a dead girl, what happened to her? How did she end up stuck in this nightmare school like this so messed up in the head? Then another thought struck me, were all these monsters dead people? I honestly thought these were just mindless entities Malak had created out of nothing, part of me didn’t even think they were real beings.

But just conquered up weapons of nightmares but were they all once mortal themselves? And was this the real them or had Malak done something to them? The questions continued to swim in circles in my head as my legs started to tire, with my speed boost running short. I hid myself in a classroom where Agatha couldn’t see me. 

I needed even the briefest break not just because of Agatha, but from the memories this place brought back. As creepy as this school was part of it brought me back to my old school many years ago…I remember back in elementary school I was always trying to be the best, the one who scored the best during tests, the kid who could run the fastest at recess.

The kid who made it to class first, I was very much a perfectionist trying to be the best at everything, but this didn’t make me very well liked as most the other kids saw me as annoying and uptight. That was until I met Thomson. He was pretty much the opposite of me, the class clown, silly and laidback, but very cheerful and kind.

And instead of brushing me off as that boring sore winner kid like all the other students, Thomson always asked me to play ball with him during recess, sit next to me at lunch and ramble to me on and on about his day, and soon he became my best friend in the entire world. As we grew up our friendship never faltered. 

We graduated high school together, he was a guitar player and I would always find time in my schedule to attend every single concert, and when I was stressed with a case I couldn’t solve, he was always there to comfort and lift my spirits, I was even the best man at his wedding. I thought this friendship would last forever, but that was…until.

Thomson and his wife ended up in a car accident, in which neither of them survived. I remember the darkness of despair that filled my soul the moment I had gotten the news. I had never lost someone so close to me, I was already dealing with stressful cases and the guilt of the cases I could never solve and Tom being gone was what broke the camels back. 

That’s how I ended up dead, with a goal to create this ring and make everything right again. I finally managed to gather myself, left the classroom and began running again but I struggled to find anymore shards, but my tablet showed that there were still 156 of them left. “The rest of the shards are in another part of the school, find the next zone and be quick about it!” 

Bierce instructed. “Alright.” I responded as I activated my speed boost and quickly made my way around the school looking for the next zone, I eventually found myself in a large open area what looked similar to a gymnasium. As I walked through the large area to the door across from me I could have sworn I saw someone walking from a balcony above me that didn’t look like Agatha. 

I quickly pointed my light up there but didn’t see anyone, but I heard a dark chuckle and I recognized it immediately, Malak. “Come out! I know you’re here, demon!” I demanded as I moved my flashlight in every direction trying to find that bastard, but I didn’t see or hear him anymore. “Coward,” I hissed under my breath as I opened the door. 

I was greeted with a similar hallway from before but in much worse condition, the walls and floor were much more dirty, the lights were flickering and there were even small flames in the corners. I didn’t have time to take this all in though as I immediately took off running again, but before I could make it far another puff of smoke appeared in front of me and Agatha appeared.

 “Aww, you made it so much farther than I thought you would! But I don’t understand why you keep taking all my friends, I thought you were nicer…I know! Maybe you need something more fun!…” her voice trailed off into almost sadistic laugher as she then disappeared again, great things were only going to get harder from here, awesome…

This was when all hell really broke loose, as I ran I saw shadows of her victims grasping at the windows, the souls of the people who died hear begging for help for mercy, but there was nothing I could do for them…I continued to run while Agatha gave chase. “You’ll never get the ring I won’t let you!” She pouted, I could tell she was starting to get angry. 

She was starting to put that teleportation to use, constantly appearing right in front of me making me have to quickly turn the other way to avoid her, but then she appeared in my path and this time managed to get pretty close and raised her sharp black nails attempting to scratch me right in the face. I barely manage to raise my arms over my face just in time.

But she did manage to give me a pretty deep cut on my arm. I let out a yelp in pain but somehow manage to get away before she could do worse. My entire arm was red but I kept on running. “That’s the last of the shards, now get out of here while you still can!” Bierce ordered urgently. I made my way to the outside of the front entrance of the school to the ring alter.

I grabbed the newly formed piece quickly shoving it in my pocket, now I just needed to get the hell out of here. Just as I was ready to find the exit Agatha suddenly appeared, but her eyes and shirt were now red. “I was so excited to see you, I thought you’d be better but you’re HORRIBLE! You don’t care about me at all, you’re all THIEVES!”

 She fumed and pouted tears even starting to go down her cheeks as I clutched my bloody arm, which was starting to hurt like hell now that the adrenaline was wearing off. “DADDY WILL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS WHEN HE GETS HERE! YOU BULLY!…” she practically screamed which made me stumble back. “Daddy?” I muttered confused. Suddenly I heard Malak’s voice. 

“Your time is up mortal, surrender now and I’ll promise your death won’t be too painful…” he said so casually as if he were talking about the weather and not murder. I had heard Malak’s voice before but this was the first time seeing him in person, and he was certainly a demon. Red skin, bald with two sharp black horns. Pure black eyes and pointed ears, and a wide jagged black mouth.

 He wore a black suit and red tie that made him look like some sort of demonic business man. His hands black with sharp nails and only three fingers. “In your dreams,” I spat, but Malak just laughed. “Alright then, hard way it is,” he said before his form shifted to a floating being with a black cloak and glowing yellow eyes. 

I immediately turned and took off running with both Malak and Agatha giving chase. I scurried throughout the maze of this school desperately trying to find that portal out of here, but eventually manage to find it, the last things I heard were Agatha’s screams of rage before I passed through the portal. I collapsed onto the ballroom floor out of breath clutching my arm. 

“Ah, you made it, a bit scuffed up but still alive and with the ring piece. It seems I have maybe underestimated you. Now come over here before you bleed all over my floor,” Bierce ordered. I managed to stand up and approached her and she suddenly grabbed my wounded arm which made me winch in pain before she waved her hand in front of it.

And the wound suddenly closed up in seconds leaving not even a scar. “Woah, didn’t know you could do that.” I said as I looked at my now perfectly fine arm. She then placed the piece in the alter and I watched as it became one with the statue just like last time, could I really have a chance of winning this after all? “Don’t get your hopes up too quickly mortal.

All the people before you had met their end sooner or later, what makes you think you’re gonna to be any different?” Malak taunted through that eye again. “I didn’t recall Evans asking for your insight.” Bierce responded as she rolled her eyes. “Awww, did I hurt your feelings because you know it’s true? That you’re little friend will die just like all the rest of them? 

Besides even if he somehow manages to make it as far as your little puppet did, I have upgraded since then and I have a big plan just for him…” he taunted darkly. A slight shiver appeared in my hands but I quickly clutched them. “Oh I’m shaking in my boots,” I responded dryly and sarcastically, part of me wondered on what that “big plan” could possibly be.

 And if I would even live to face it. “Do not get cocky foolish mortal, your death roams those portals and your time will be up sooner or later,” Malak taunted but Bierce just rolled her eyes as if this was just a normal Tuesday to her, which it probably was. I had enough of their bickering though, there were still 6 pieces left, the show must go on.