Little Dreams and Hollow Nightmares

Ph1 Ch26: Viewers and Watchers

The knight stood still, confused about what Mono had said. Catching on, Mono took a deep breath, and began to explain.

"Basically, the signal tower broadcasts a transmission to the TV's, that is so addicting that everyone who lives in the city becomes dependent on the signal for them to live their daily lives," he explained. "And that's true, I've seen some people die, just to try and watch a TV."

The knight understood so far, but there was one thing it didn't understand. It pointed to the melting faces of the bugs in the room.

"Well, this is just a guess, but I think the signal tower feeds off of the viewers, consuming their flesh, to add on to this big pile of....never mind," Mono said.

The knight could tell he was feeling uncomfortable, so it stopped asking questions. It understood everything it wanted to anyway. In fact, these TV's might be beneficial, because they were drawing the attention of all the enemies. But it had a feeling the spire still wouldn't be a walk in the park.

The knight continued forward with Mono, and soon they came to their first obstacle. As they got further into the spire, they came to an open room, with an exposed TV, surrounded by viewer bugs. The two of them tried to sneak past, but suddenly, the TV shorted out. The mind dead bugs panicked, and once they saw the two of them, they immediately assumed they were behind the TV shorting out.

They charged, and attacked in ways they knight had never seen. The sentries started rapidly swinging their nails, without a pattern, and the great husk sentry in the group left its shield behind. The knight quickly defeated the husk viewers with the help of Mono, and began to realize how tempting the TV's must've been. When the husks were about to die, they would run back to the TV, in hopes to see its colors and pictures once more before they died. The great husk sentry even smashed his head into it out of desperation.

Once they were all gone, The two of them continued forward. It wasn't long before they came to another block in the road. Their path was blocked by a viewer, a human viewer, standing in the way of the door. The knight drew its nail, and was ready to attack, but Mono grabbed its arm, and pulled it back.

"No, the human viewers have life-draining powers," he whispered. "If we want to get past them, he have to find a way to get them away from the TV."

The knight agreed. The two looked around the room, in search of a possible distraction. Soon, the knight found its way to a TV, that was turned off. It pointed it out to Mono, and he held up a remote he found on the ground. Hiding behind a chair, Mono turned the second TV on, and switched the first one off. The viewer turned over to the second TV, and wobbled towards it. With their path cleared, the two of them continued through the spire, they came to an elevator guarded by an electric gate. 

They looked around for a solution, and found a switch for the gate in front of a room. The knight was about to pull the switch down, but a call from Mono stopped it. Mono pointed inside the room, and the knight saw the problem. The switch was not only wired to the elevator, but to a TV inside the room, with several viewers watching it.

"Once you pull that lever, they're gonna come after us, so run as fast as you can to the elevator," Mono whispered to the knight.

The knight nodded, and pulled the lever. The electric gate was switched off, and the knight leapt down, and started dashing over to the elevator. It heard the door fly open behind them, and a bundle of shrieks that followed. It continued to dash as it heard several footsteps behind it. Mono slipped through the gate, into the elevator, and The knight dashed through. It turned around to see the group of faceless bodies, pressing against the gate, with their hands reaching out for them. But unfortunately for them, the gate powered back on, shocking them all to death.

The knight turned back to the elevator, and hit the switch, making them go up. Once they reached the top floor, they were met by a bunch of active TV's, with viewers, and viewer husks watching them. Looking for a way around, the knight noticed Mono climbing up a ladder to a long board above the viewers. It followed him up, and the two tip-toed their way across, careful not to disturb the viewers. 

But as they walked, a stone at the end of the board inched slowly off, towards the power switch. Mono and the knight noticed this too late. The stone fell, hitting the switch, turning all the TV's off. All the viewers were enraged, and all looked up to the ceiling at the two of them.

"RUN!" Mono yelled, and the two of them sprinted as fast as they could to the other side of the board. The viewers reached up, and clawed at the board, trying to grab both of them as they ran. Once they got to the end, the knight broke open a window with its nail, and both of them scurried out into the rain. 

Careful not to fall, they made their way to a large, broken window, with an elevator at the bottom. The climbed into the room, and the knight struck the lever, sending them upwards. They were now arriving closer to Lurien. And that meant they were getting closer to the watcher knights. As Lurien's personal guards, they were brutal, and attacked as a team. The knight worried as they arrived at the top.

They got out of the elevator, and the knight was ready to face the knights, but surprisingly, they were gone! Only their empty shells remained.

"Looks like whoever was her was claimed by the tower," Mono said.

The knight realized what Mono meant, and they started walking towards the next elevator. Once inside, the knight struck the lever, and as they moved up, they felt the tower begin to bend. Gravity also started warping, keeping them on the ground. Once they arrived at the top of the spire, the knight looked around. The tip of the spire was bent towards the signal tower, and the telescope was angled at a TV in the distance. But it wasn't here to look around, it was here for Lurien.

It walked over to Lurien's bed, and struck him with the dream nail. The knight woke up in the dream realm, and saw the watcher standing before it. Lurien nodded, accepting the knights reasoning for coming, and the knight began to slash, and slash, and slash. Once Lurien was defeated, it began to focus, and absorbed the life of Lurien.

At the temple, the final mask disappeared, and a loud, radiant roar rang out, reaching all throughout the city.

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Told you it would be out this week.

Before I leave, I just want to thank Skulker. Your comment gave me the motivation I needed to continue this book. I would also like to thank everyone else who has commented on this story, because the support you all give is unreal. I will keep writing this for all of you who helped me get back into this story.

See you next chapter! ;)