Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Two Old Friends Meet

Day 27

Time: 11:56AM

Location:

"Darius...?"

He turned slowly, looking behind himself to find Ben behind him, looking concerned. Ben stepped forward, reaching for him, but just then, the door behind him opened, and Darius saw his other self.

Darius' eyes opened and he shot up, clutching at his chest as he felt it heave and shudder under his panicked breaths. The sensation of a practically solid wall of water was still there, making his skin sting and his joints ache, as if he was still being pulled around by the water like a doll. The ghostly feeling of other people's limbs pressed into his skin as they all drowned was still there, too, and Darius hugged himself, shivering.

Was he... dead? Did that mean that Ben, Hilda, Molly, Greg, Misfortune... were they all also dead?

It made Darius feel horrible, but inwardly, he hoped it was true. Wherever he was, he didn't want to do it alone.

But... just where was he?

Slowly, Darius loosened his arms from the tight hug he had wrapped himself in, slowly lifting his head to peer around the room he was in. The first thing he noticed were the walls. They weren't the smooth walls of tunnels, nor the half-finished walls of the spider's cave. These walls were scraggly and sharp, actual cave walls that held knocks and crannies and stalagmites on the ceiling, wickedly sharp as they hung above him.

There was also a chair in the room, the kind of plastic chair one might find in a classroom, one that made Darius have to do a doubletake when he saw it. It was empty, thankfully, but it was angled towards him, making Darius uneasy. Had there been someone else sitting in that chair, earlier?

Behind the chair was a desk, cluttered with all sorts of things: papers, pencils, books with no words on the cover or on the spine, rocks, for some odd reason, and even a vase which held a violently red flower, opened up towards him. Darius glanced at it, then looked away quickly. He felt stupid for it, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding when he looked at the flower, though he couldn't put his finger on why.

Darius shifted, and felt cold metal beneath him. He looked down, and found a metal slab one might find in a mortuary beneath him, cold and uninviting. Darius shivered.

"Great," he muttered, glancing around the room once more. Everything here was familiar and yet also not. The chair, the desk, the metal slab, the cave... they didn't look like they really belonged together, and it made Darius uneasy.

Suddenly, footsteps from behind him made him jump and spin wildly, making him twist to see behind him. What he saw made his jaw drop open, and then he couldn't tear his eyes away. What was that thing?

Somehow, it smiled to him. "Awake already?" it asked. It had a strange voice, deep enough for Darius to feel it in his bones, yet gentle. Darius couldn't bring himself to trust it, of course, but he did relax, just a bit. The thing, a wisp of shadow with seemingly no form, 'walked' around him, towards the desk, and around it, paper shuffled and rearranged, seemingly completely on their own. Darius followed it with his eyes, not daring to even blink.

"That's good," it continued. "Well, not for you. Or me, but that's good."

Darius frowned at the thing, blinking in confusion. "Am-?" he started to asked, but cut himself off when he doubled over, clawing at his burning throat and he hacked out a coughing fit. He felt like he was still drowning, even now as he sucked in breath after breath of actual air.