Darkwood: Circus Inferno

Sister, Sister

***

The main hall of the mortuary was in chaos as the group burst in from all directions, each of them pale, wide-eyed, and shaken by the terrors they had just witnessed. The flickering lights overhead cast long, eerie shadows across the room as their voices overlapped, creating a cacophony of frantic explanations, fears, and confusion.

Tixo stumbled in alongside Wei, his face still pale from the near-death experience he’d just had. His sai were still clenched in his hands, and the look in his eyes was one of disbelief and terror. Wei hovered just behind him, his wings still trembling from the fear of what he had just witnessed.

Thorne was already in the room, clutching his arm where the rose had attacked him, blood still seeping from the wound. His eyes were wide with disbelief, his breaths shallow. He looked at the others as they entered, desperately trying to make sense of it all.

“I was in the garden,” Thorne began, his voice shaky. “A white rose—Viola’s garden, I saw it bloom, and then—then it attacked me! It—it had a tongue! It was alive, and it—” He trailed off, looking down at the blood on his arm.

Viola, standing by the side of the room, frowned deeply, shaking her head. “There are no white roses in my garden, Thorne. You must have imagined it.”

“I didn’t!” Thorne exclaimed, holding up his bloodied arm as proof. “It wasn’t a hallucination. It was real! It tried to kill me!”

Tixo, still breathless, added to the confusion. “I was just training… and then Cyndryllian soldiers—my family—dragged me to be executed. I—" He paused, trembling. "I nearly killed myself with my own sai.”

The group fell silent for a brief moment, absorbing the gravity of what Tixo had said.

Ren, standing near the doorway with Rex and Ryuji, nodded grimly. “We saw our father. His spirit—it was different. Vengeful. Things were flying at us—objects, furniture. It was like the entire room was turning on us.”

“And then he was gone,” Ryuji added, his hand resting on the hilt of his katana, as if seeking reassurance from the weapon. “Vanished, like he was never there.”

Greyson entered last, his usually stoic face showing the faintest signs of wear. His gaze swept the room, taking in the disarray, the panic in everyone’s eyes. “I saw all of you—dead,” he said quietly. “Decaying corpses. It was like… the entire mortuary had shifted, become something dark. I couldn’t tell what was real.”

Riggs, who had been silent up until now, stood by the far wall, rubbing at his neck. His voice came out barely above a whisper. “I thought Xul was—" He paused, glancing at Xul with a mixture of fear and disbelief. "He was strangling me, and I—I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was going to die. It felt so real, and when I woke up—” He gestured to the marks on his neck, faint but visible, as though the hallucination had left physical evidence.

Xul looked stricken, his usual stoic demeanor shaken. “I would never—Riggs, I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t me.”

The room grew tense as the group tried to piece together what was happening. There was no denying it now—something was terribly wrong. Every one of them had seen something, felt something that blurred the lines between reality and nightmare. And none of them were prepared for it.