Network of Keys Chapter 10; Cynthia, Windows

The last thing anyone wants to wake up to is the smell of urine. Unfortunately, that is the first thing that I process as I regain my conscious. As I open my eyes, I see Ky bristling a few feet in front of my face with, sure enough, a yellow puddle beneath him.

"Ky," I mumble grumpily, "There are better places for that."

Ky doesn't even turn to face me, yet I can still tell by his twitching ears his acknowledgement of my condition.

"Cynthia!" he says with fake cheer, "You are awake! Thank Keys."

Now I know something is definitely wrong. Not only does his voice waver just a bit, but his back is arched and his gaze is stuck on something. I try to see what he could possibly be excited about, but it is too dark for me to see. Groggily I rub my eyes and sit up. The place is oddly cool and damp. It seems a little older as well. I brush my hand along the wooden floors and can feel the splinters, nails, and jutting boards. If Ky's accident didn't pollute my nostrils with its odor, I'm sure the room would have a musty scent. 

Still rather unclear about my current whereabouts, I try to recall the past events. All I can remember is darkness and pain though. Unfathomable darkness and pain. I shiver and try not to think of it. Instead, I run my hand along Ky's soft back. Instinctively his butt rises when I get to the base of his plume tail. I pet him some more, but no matter what he still remains stiff.

"What's wrong?" I ask, and face the dark hall ahead of us.

"I-I can't t-take m-m-my eyes off it, Cynthia," he stutters fearfully, "The blood says so."

"Blood?" Now I am honestly worried. Blood is never good. Ever. 

"On the walls," Ky says, flicking a tail towards the wall to the right.

With my typical human eyesight, it isn't easy to see the nearly ruined wall, though it is not far at all. I squint a bit and can barely see the outline of it. On this wall is a couple of pictures predictably drawn in blood. The pictures clearly show a ponmik and a foreign creature. In the first the ponmik is facing the strange beast. In the next, the ponmik is facing away, and the other creature appears to be moving noticeably closer. Of course in the third the ponmik is once again staring at the creature, which is still closer but isn't moving. I understand. Ky is trying to keep whatever away by staring it down. Well whatever it is, it is making Ky scared, so that is definitely not okay. Which makes me uncomfortable, since Ky is almost never scared. We need to get out of here as soon as possible. At this time I also note that Ky is shivering. Almost as if he swallowed some sort of vibrating apparatus, but that sounds ridiculously silly. I rush to come up with a plan.

"I have an idea," I say to him. His ears turn towards me.

"Yeah?" he responds.

"I'll place you on my shoulder," I explain, "and you'll stare at whatever you are looking at while I find a way out."

"Alright," he turns and looks adoringly up at me.

For a moment the look in his eyes distracts me from whatever is out there. I almost reach out to pet him. But of course I cannot because I suddenly remember that no one is keeping a watch on whatever is out there. Chills instatnly race down my back as the situation finally manages to bleed a little trickle of fear out of me. Hesitantly, I lift my head up. Now I can see them too. Huge, round eyes blacker than the darkness surrounding them stare back at me. They have a maniacal look to them which makes my heart pound a little faster. That does not mean I look away. Instead I continue making eye contact with them as I lift Ky onto my shoulder. 

"Remember, try not to let your guard down," I remind Ky, "You have to try to keep eye contact."

Ky chirps something similar to an "alright." He settles himself before facing the unattractive eyes. As for myself, I sling my backpack back on and walk away from the beast. The hallway remains dark. It seems to completely lack color. Even though I am very tempted to use my powers to shine some light, I don't want to waste the energy which I have an awful feeling I am going to need. After a while, I see a rather large window to my right. Curious, I look outside. There is only gray, which is a bit odd, but frustrating. I begin to let out a sigh when I hear something splash nearby. 

I quickly turn towards the sound. I can smell it before I see it. Blood. Fresh blood. On the wall. Somehow none of it got on me, but it still gets to me. But anyways, the blood forms a sentence that says break the window. After thinking it through, I decide that may not be such a bad idea because maybe that could serve as an escape.

"You might want to stand back," I warn Ky.

"Okay," Ky obeys without question and jumps off my shoulder.

I prepare myself for the pain and ready my fist before delivering the ear shattering blow to the window. Glass scatters everywhere, cutting my somehow perfect (again) uniform and my skin. Pain explodes into my knuckles. When I dare to open my eyes, I look at my hand. It is almost completely raw. I frown because there is nothing to clean up all the blood pouring out. And even though I have been through worse, the injury is still more painful than I thought. I attempt to wipe some blood off of my face with my not as injured hand. Then I face Ky. He is staring at me, his eyes wide open. He looks more upset than usual. Luckily he only has a few scratches, but still I feel quite guilty for ruining his trade-mark happiness. 

"Cynthia," he starts, sounding like a concerned parent.

"I'm sorry about that," I say, "I thought that could lead to a way out."

His eyes narrow, and I swear he looks like he's about to break down. This makes me sad, too. He has been through too much. For a moment I wish I hadn't brought him into this mess. If it wasn't for this, he would still be safe at home. Happy. And innocent. I approach him and pull him close. It truly breaks my heart to see such innocence and happiness decay like this. I never wanted this to happen to him. I never wanted to bring him with because of this. And how could I have ever wanted this? He is very precious to me. But then, I guess I wouldn't have ever been able to get this far without him.

"What's wrong?" I ask, trying to cheer him up.

He doesn't answer at first. But then he backs away and looks at me straight in the eyes.

"Don't hurt yourself like this!" the ponmik scolds, "Look at you. We have only just entered the second floor and already you are bleeding buckets! You have to be careful out here, it's dangerous. Don't you know it is possible to die out here? Seriously Cynthia, we can't just fart around getting ourselves all scratched up. Don't you look at me like that. Take that jacket off and clean that blood off your hand. Jeesh, you got blood all over me."

He shakes his head as I stare, completely astonished. 

"Er, sorry," I mumble and take my jacket off.

I only have a tank top underneath, so the subtle breeze that skims my shoulders makes me quite cold. I haven't really noticed how much I got used to the jacket. Anyway, I wrap my bloodied fist with the jacket. The fabric makes it sting even more, and I have to clench my teeth in order not to scream. Out of curiosity, I look out the broken window. There's nothing interesting. I start to question my sanity when Ky starts making a bunch of panicked squeaking sounds. 

"Yes, Ky?" I say.

"I-i-it," he starts.

His eyes, huge with fresh terror, stare to his left. Simply his expression is making me squirm, no matter how I don't want to admit it. I have got to stay calm. If I don't, no one will. So I look where Ky's looking and have to use my good hand to cover my mouth. Way too close to us the most retched thing stands. Their stare is so terrifying that I am left with nothing but dire dismay. Not a second goes by before I pick Ky up and make a run for it. 

Freezing air claws at my face, but I can't bring myself to care. Floorboards snap, crackle, and pop under my feet as I dart by. A corner here or there almost makes me lose my balance. Ky's screams are swallowed by the wind as soon as they escape his throat. His sharp claws dig desperately deep into my shoulder. The only thing that stops me is another window.

I almost crash into it but I am stopped by a gigantic bear plush. It stares down at me with empty button eyes. How did that even get there? I think to myself right before realizing the bear is alive. I pull away from the bear. Quite a bit of it gets onto me though. A mixture of decaying creatures and humus sticks to my uniform. Obviously the bear is made out of the stuff. I'm about to thank them for the help when they open what had seemed to be a stitched shut mouth. Unpleasant fluids dribble out of it. Rude as it is, I can't help but to shiver a little. There's nothing to admit, this place is really getting to me. But seriously, who does the Tower NOT get to? Instinctively I reach my hands out and burn the mess of a bear plush. Guilt, somehow a familiar friend by now, instantly rushes in. Now why did I have to go and kill that innocent bear plush?! So they were a bit unpleasant, but still! At this rate Ky and I will walk out practically Darksiders with no conscience! And now my jacket is still on fire. Frustrated, I pound out the fire with my good hand. 

"Thank Keys," Ky mumbles at me.

"Hmm?" I respond, "Did we lose the demon?"

Ky sighs, "No. But you got rid of that thing," he turns to weakly "smile" at me for a second.

"The bear? But-"

"I don't like the way they smelled," he jokes halfheartedly.

I let out a long sigh. This place is not just starting to get to me, but to Ky as well. Well gods and goddesses, who does the Tower NOT get to? Defeat starts to overwhelm me, and I have to sit down. Ky, just as broken, plops onto my lap. We sit there like that for a while, absentmindedly cuddling until Ky suddenly lifts his head up. He starts to shiver and hyperventilate. I look up too. On the wall is the blood written message of "behind you." Slowly, full of trepidation, I turn my head around, and almost pee myself. Right there is the demon, smiling so hard at us their mouth is starting to split what seems to be a head in half. "Game over" flashes red in their huge dark eyes. As we watch, paralyzed by terror, the thing opens their mouth, which is completely void of teeth, splitting their head in almost two. Their mouth approaches us, a vortex waiting to suck us in. I can't help but scream like a little kid and backing up frantically. Ky, on the other hand, jumps out of my arms. His silhouette standing tall in front of the beast's jaws is the last thing I see before everything turns bright.

The flash goes away almost as quick as it occurs. Still frightened, I dare to look. Ky's alright. He is perfectly okay from what I can see, and the thing is gone. Relieved, I rush to him.

"Ky!" I shout as I scoop him up.

"You're welcome," he says and looks up at me with eyes full of love, "Glad I could help."

He then collapses. I gasp. He's not hurt (thank gods and goddesses) but he is still unconscience. It doesn't take me long to figure that he used all his energy into zapping that creature. 

"Thank you," I whisper into his body, moved by how he faced that creature to save us. To save me.

I gently place him in my backpack, letting him slump ever so slightly out of it so he can breathe. Inspired, I tell myself that I'll repay his favor. After all, if a ponmik can be so brave, so can I. The window strikes my attention, and I get the odd urge to break it again. I shake my head to get the thoughts out, but then another message gets written on the wall. "Do it." before I can even think, I hear something racing towards me. It's only natural I look. It's only natural the creature is a huge spider that is moving super fast. I'm truly not afraid of spiders. They deserve to live just like everything else. However, over the time spent here, though it isn't much, I have developed a slight disdain for anything big and speeding towards me. I jump to the side to let them through, but they automatically head towards me again. Sighing, I simply leap onto the arachnid which in turn splatters under my weight. Their guts soak my pants, and for a moment I am tempted to retch. Pull it together Cynthia, you got this. I step off the body before doing an even more gruesome action. As calm as possible I tear off a whole leg, thankful that Ky cannot see.

I ready the spider's leg over my shoulder like a baseball bat as I approach the window. No longer do I resist. I make sure to stay to the side as glass rains and the leg digs deep into the window. Oddly enough, the sound of glass breaking is like music to my ears. I swear breaking this almost feels good. Like, cathartic, even. Curiosity doesn't need to prod me too hard before I look inside the remains of what was a window. Just as I thought, a blank- 

"Woah!" I blurt as a deceased human springs from the broken frame. 

My foot knocks off the head and my weapon right in the heart before there is even a "wait, are you even alive?" I mentally kick myself for beating an already dead person. I'm losing my sanity for sure, but it seems sanity can only hold one back in a place like this. I rip off another leg from the poor spider before trudging on through this forsaken floor. Doors start to line the hallways, a lot of them off their hinges, some wide open, some completely fallen to the floor. I sneak a peak into every room, but I can only fein interest in the ones with windows. Nothing that can even hint at being a window is left unbroken. Even mirrors I sacrifice to the reckless desire. Sometimes an object will roll out of a room and catch my eye. One just happens to be a hand mirror. A good omen, I suppose as I crush the mirror with my foot. 

 A rather large needle embeds itself into my gut as soon as I open the door to what is blatantly a bathroom. Shock glues me to my place. Pain waits a bit before overwhelming me. A small shriek escapes my throat. To my horror, the candy red blood is already weeping from the injury, staining my bleach white shirt. I have to use the spider leg as a cane as I stumble to the toilet. The wound causes me to puke up blood, which in short is not comfortable. I hug the bowl for support, needing its cool feel against my burning skin. Behind me, Ky makes some noise in his sleep. As soon as I feel the slightest bit better, I slowly remove the thorn from my gut. I clench my teeth real hard to prevent screaming from the agony, but still tiny whimpers slip right through. My breathing gets heavy. Eventually it pops right out, but so does buckets of blood. 

"Keys!" I swear. 

I have to barf again, which remains discomforting. I try to block the blood with my hand for a bit before giving in and replacing the needle back, painful as it is. Weakly, I drag myself up and face the mirror. I'm too weak to attempt to fracture it. I lean against it and stare at my reflection. Miserable blood colored eyes stare back at me. Dark lines have began to form under those eyes. Messy amber hair rests in clumps along the reflection's frail frame. Blood soaks the girl in the mirror. She appears to be more than simply tired, her assortment of scars and bruises prove so. She is exhausted, more than anyone knows. She's torn. Been through too much. So much more than normal life could ever dare to imagine. Her hands tremble against the glass, but before my self pity can continue she changes into someone else. A small boy stands there instead. His dark, unkempt hair almost covers his pale face. 

"The pon won't like to see you like this," the boy grins, "I have a bedroom not far from here. You should sleep."

I return his smile, "You're right, he wouldn't."

"You are both very correct! I don't like what I see," Ky chimes in. 

The boy giggles,"You should visit me in my bedroom. I have a pon too! His name is Sebby. He is the cutest thing," and with that he points to a door I haven't noticed before and fades away. 

"Let's go," I say to Ky and smile at him.

He jumps down and glares at me for a minute.

"Are you sure you are alright with that?" his eyes focus fiercely on my wound.

"I'm fine," I half-lie. I'll make it, but that doesn't mean I won't be sore. 

He sighs, "Fine."

Ignoring the blood attempting to cascade out of my stomach, along with the intense pain with it, and the my hand which still remains quite sore and a little bloody, we head out of the washroom and into a hallway. This hallway isn't as worn as the others. It has a faded carpet that could have once been considered somewhat fancy. Floorboards cease to creak as Ky and I roam across the hall. We don't talk to each other, though. I don't want to risk getting Ky even more upset. Pictures of people line the faded walls, their eyes oddly cut out except for one. The one member who still holds their eyes seem to have bulging eyes that almost appear to follow us. I shift my gaze away from that painting. I almost swear it smells like something died in here, and the scent keeps getting stronger as we go along in silence. A quick glance at my partner tells me I'm definitely not the only one who can smell it. 

Ky starts to scream and immediately I stop. Streams of crimson red trickle towards us, it's source a lump of black fur. The blood morphs into a whole paragraph of words.

"Welcome. Not many visitors come here often, and most of them I tend not to like. I do like you two. Don't mind Sebby, he always sleeps here. He is such a wonderful pet and a wonderful donor. He is my best friend. I can't wait to play with you guys, you seem like so much fun! Hopefully Sebby is nice to you two, I know many visitors don't like him for some odd reason. But yeah, my bedroom is just up ahead, so I hope to see you soon," the blood dictates.

We are only a few steps away from the polished door at the end of the hall, which is obviously the bedroom. But I can't help but stare at poor Sebby first. He lays on his side, his clumped jet-black fur looks as if it was once glossy. His head is tilted unnaturally. Empty wide eyes stare at nothing, and Sebby's mouth is wide open like he was screaming. Tears start to choke me. Poor little boy, he doesn't know his ponmik is dead. I don't know what I would ever do if that were Ky. I can feel my heart shatter into a million pieces like the window glass. His blood freely flows from him, making a little pool of scarlet. Next to me, Ky has his head down as if mourning as well. 

"That's my own fate, isn't it?" Ky says darkly, much to my surprise and despair. I truly hate seeing Ky like this.

Ky's eyes rest upon Sebby's chest, which has a knife stuck in it. The blade also juts out of Sebby's back, as if he was murdered on purpose. I wipe away a stray tear with my pathetically bandaged hand. 

"We should see that kid," I say, trying desperately to change the subject.

Ky nods solemnly, and I open the shockingly beautiful brass door. I walk in after Ky into the kid's room and I freeze at once. I have never seen so much luxury shoved into one space. A diamond chandelier hangs from the ceiling, reflecting pastel rays from an unseen light. Gold borders the room. A velvet chair lounges in a corner near an oak bookshelf that is over flowing with books. Expensive paintings displaying a dark haired boy in fancy clothing with a ebony colored ponmik fill up the walls. Ky, also surprised, paws at the faux fur carpet. 

"What even is this?!" Ky squeals, looking a bit disgusted.

I, too, do not quite like it. Such wealth is against my beliefs, and it troubles me how one would so fancily decorate a bedroom while letting the rest of the house decay. Nonetheless, I try not to judge because honestly I dislike negative judgement more. Something catches my eye. Despite how uncomfortable I feel in such a rich environment and the intense pain in my gut, I can't resist walking towards it. On one of the walls is a a very large, glossy window. This one is black as well, despite the silver border. Each corner of the border holds a few rubies. No matter how beautiful this window is, though, I can't help but feel extremely compelled to destroy it. I suddenly realize I don't have the spider's leg that I've been using. Weirdly, that's okay. This window is just not any window, it calls for special treatment. My fist clenches. It doesn't even matter that I already have one bloodied hand already. 

"Are you okay?" Ky calls as he follows.

"Yeah," I answer, looking back. 

"You know, you two should really learn to look behind you," a third voice giggles.

I spin around to see something sit up on the mahogany bed. The velour blankets drop to reveal a skeleton in a tuxedo. The skull turns towards us and giggles, but yet it has no bottom jaw. I almost faint when I realize the skeleton is one that not only belongs to a little kid, but the exact kid we came to visit. 

"What do you mean?" Ky growls. 

"You really should look behind you sometimes," the boy says innocently.

I, being more well mannered, decide to follow the kid's advice. My heart freezes. Oh. My. Cookies. At the bedroom door a pair of soulless black eyes leer at us hungrily. Ky blurts something I'd rather not repeat. Knives of fear penetrate my heart, which starts to pound harder. The demon we thought we were rid of moves even with us staring at them. A smile full of desire creeps upon their face, and soon it opens, splitting the monster's head again. My knees threaten to cave in. I start to shiver a bit. So overwhelmed, I want to scream. But this time I am not cowering. I owe Ky, who appears right now to be paralyzed with fear. I snatch up Ky as our antagonist starts to rush towards us. This better work, I hope as I dart towards the gorgeous window. Seconds later, I spring from the ground and aim my foot at the window. Not only do I think it will work, I know it will. The light in this bedroom has plainly been coming from this window. 

As my foot kisses the window, the sweet melody of breaking glass flows through my ears. Glass launches from the window, carving deep crimson scars on my body. I have to hold my poor little ponmik close so he doesn't get as hurt. Unbearable pain explodes where the glass hits, but for every bit of pain there is the same amount of pleasure. Only for a second, I see the most beautiful thing: a bright rainbow light shines from the broken window, reflecting from the souring glass. I knew it was worth a try.