Fabricated Reality

Zombie Hands and Cats

Dan awoke with a start at the sound of singing. Okay, that was the weirdest dream I have ever had. No more coffee before bed for me he thought, rubbing his eyes. When they finally cleared up, his heart sank low into his stomach. The walls were still green and there was still a giant hole in the floor. He tore through the pockets of his coat—which had still been bundles up in the corner—and was further depressed when he pulled out a single red rose. It had only three petals on it. So it wasn't a dream.

He stood up, removed the table from the doorway, and off he went. Completely forgetting the warning which stood plainly before him, he hugged the walls up the corridor, and he screamed in terror when something scratched at his side. He looked down in horror to see a hand protruding from the green wall. He could feel the blood staining his shirt, and he watched as a single petal floated to the floor. "You have got to be kidding me," he said, as he realized what the plaque beneath the painting-lady meant. "What sort of Beauty and the Beast-type crap is this? You mean to tell me, if these petals all fall off, I die? Seriously?"

Sticking to the center of the corridor, he continued on his way and came to yet another door, this one green. Unsurprisingly, it was locked. A painting of an ant was hanging up next to the door, and Dan could tell that it wasn't painted on a canvas but rather on some sort of metal material. Strong enough to possibly hold a fairly small human he reasoned. Removing it from it's place, he carried it back the room he had slept in and placed it over the hole in the floor. Very carefully, he placed one foot on the painting and slowly applied more weight to it. When it didn't immediately break, he walked across quickly to the opposite side of the room.

"I can't believe that worked," he breathed. Looking back at his 'bridge', he cringed at what looked to be a now-squashed ant. His shoes were completely covered in bug guts, and he rubbed them on the floor in an attempt to clean them. Walking through the next door—what is with all of these doors jesus Christ—he could see a red statue stading against the far wall, a green key on the floor in front of it. "What are you, some sort of Power Ranger?" he asked, more to calm himself down than anything else. He grabbed the key and began to turn around when an arm grabbed his jacket. Out of the corner of his eye, Dan realized with a start that it was the Power Ranger, and it was advancing toward him. It had no face, but he could feel the malice coming from the statue. Nope nope nope nope nope nope. Dan ran back through the door and flew over the ant painting and through the next door, closing it behind him.

Rrrrrrrrrripp C R A SH sounded through the place, and Dan ripped open the door. The ant painting had been broken through, and the loud crash was apparently the sound of the red Power Ranger falling through. He breathed a sigh of relief and exited the room. Heading back through the 'hand hallway' he used the green key to unlock the new door. "If there are any more doors, I am going to murder someone," he muttered angrily.

Cats. That's what greeted Dan on the other side of the door. Or, rather, A cat. A very large cat. Cat head, to be specific. Where its mouth should have been on the wall was a fish indentation. Presumably the fish I must now find he mused. A figure on his left drew him that way, and Dan was nearly surprised to see that it was a Stick Figure. He walked up close to it, and writing started to glow on side of it. "Play Hide and Seek?" it said. The Stick Figure disappeared, and Dan was left wondering what the hell he had just witnessed. This room was full of closed curtains, and he could only assume his new Stick buddy was hiding behind one of them. Luckily enough, Dan was able to find him on his second go. Unluckily, his first go landed him at a picture of a nude woman, who then proceeded to slap Dan across the face. Hard. Hard enough that another petal fell to the floor. More writing appeared, and he read it silently as he rubbed his sore face. "Found me, you get prize." A wooden fish head fell from the Stick Figure's hands and landed at Dan's feet. He picked it up and hurried back to the cat, placing the fish head gently into its respectable place in the wall.

He walked into the other room, and immediately walked right back out. "Nope, fuck that, I am not dealing with that shit." But the other half of the fish needed to be found if he wanted to get past the freaky feline, and he knew it, so he steadied himself for a few moments and walked back into the room. Mannequins had always freaked him out, and these headless heathens were no different. White shop mannequins, blue headless Power Ranger mannequins, and a handful of ginormous head statues were placed in such a manner that they were all facing the doorway. Boxes lined the walls on the far side, so Dan took a deep breath and power-walked over to begin searching for a fish tail.

He searched for half an hour, but found nothing that even slightly resembled fish tail. Just a bunch of blank canvases and palettes. Paint supplies and more paint supplies. Nearly giving up, he turned around. In his frenzied search, he had failed to notice that one of the head statues had knocked itself over, and within the remains was the tail he had been searching for. Shaken at the sight, Dan grabbed the fish tail and hauled ass out of the room. He placed the fish tail in its place in the wall, and he heard the sound of a group of cats meowing as a new corridor opened up through the cat's face. Too shocked to say anything, he just walked through the narrow hall into yet another new area.

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