Pandemonium

Stage Ten Part I

"Pandemonium?" I look towards Faust. "What is that?" Faust doesn't give me any explanation. They just place their hands into their newly cleaned pockets and start walking down the long hallway. The game master's voice speaks again. 

"In the center of the hallway is where you'll find me. I look forward to meeting all of you." 

Our feet make light taps against the marble floor as we walk down the hallway in silence. Pandora is still gushing over the fact that he is clean. Hector is looking around at the pillars, trying to figure out their purpose, and I stare at Faust, trying to gage their reaction to everything. This isn't their first time here, the game master said so, but Faust is so disinterested. They aren't the least bit happy to have survived. 

I don't know how far we've walked but when I turned my head to see the distance, the missing wall looked much further than I expected. I turned my head again to see what was in front of me and in both directions, it looked endless. Would we ever make it to the center? Maybe this was another test? Another stage puzzle? Or, maybe it's just an illusion. 

"These are filing cabinets," Hector pointed to the pillar. I walked over to him, to see what he meant, and sure enough. Each of these pillars had small drawers. I tried to pull one out, just to see what it was like, and a triangle drawer opened. There were small cards in it. I took one out of the top portion, closer to the tip of the triangle, and a full sized card showed up in my hand. This didn't look like it was supposed to fit in there. Another illusion? 

I stare at the card in my hand, unable to read the language, and Faust lets out a long sigh. "They're letters to loved ones."

"All of them are?" 

Faust nods. "The survivors of each game are allowed to write a note to their loved ones upon completion." I stare at them, not understanding, as I look at the numerous pillars in this hallway. The game master said we were a large group of people to survive. So, didn't that mean survivors were rare? How many games have been played? How many thousands, millions, billions of games have been played to have gathered this many survivors notes? Wouldn't that make the game master incredibly old? Just what was going on here? 

"That can't be possible..." Hector's eyes widen and he takes a step back from the pillar, looking at the next one, and the next one after that. 

I place the card back into the drawer and close it. We all continue walking. I don't know how long we've walked or the distance we have to walk still. I see nothing around and yet when I closed my eyes a desk appeared in the center of the hallway. The game master was in the center of one continuous table surrounding him in a circle. There were monitors connected to monitors on top of those monitors and numerous keyboards laid out on the table. He spun around in his desk chair, trying to see them all and typed away at a few of them. His eyes flashing back and forth from screen to screen. Sometimes he would type with one hand on one keyboard and another hand on an entirely different keyboard. Images flashed too quickly for me to be able to tell what was happening. But I saw people. I saw traps. That was enough to give me a vague idea. He was monitoring games. Multiple games. 

The game master froze in a way that reminded me of a loading screen. I could almost see the circle spinning around his head. He just sat there, frozen, and then the screens stopped moving too. I blinked and he stood in front of us, smiling, and then placed his hand over his chest, bowing slightly. "Welcome to Pandemonium," he repeated the phrase and stood up straight again. "It's been so long since I've seen people, let alone four of them. I am amazed you all made it this far, and you," he pointed to Faust. "I'm quite thrilled to see you again." 

The game master is different from how he appeared on those screens. His hair isn't completely black. He has flickers of red here and there. They shift back and forth from red to orange, and they seem to move places. Each time I think I've figured out where one speck of color is, it moves to another spot and I can't figure it out. I could probably stare at his hair for hours. It's distracting. 

"I'm sure you have questions," the game master folds his hands and leans back to stare at the endless white ceiling, as if to stretch. "The main one being what happens from here on out, I presume. That or, perhaps you'd like to know more about this morbid game. Those are usually the top two concerns people have once reaching this point. 

Pandora stares at the game master, entranced by his hair like I was, but then jumps, realizing that he was staring too long. He lifts his leg, trying to balance on the other, and takes off his shoe. He carefully grabs his shoe and motions like a baseball pitcher would, moving his leg and arm back to throw it right at the game master's face. 

"That's for Fonso y-you-" Pandora pauses, trying to think of something rude to say, "you jerk!" he shouts, not fully committed to it, and rests his shoe-less foot on top of his other one, to keep it from touching the ground. 

The game master's glasses broke and fell to the floor. A red mark on his face in the design of the bottom of the shoe. On the top of his head, in the center, the red sparks converge, getting bigger and more numerous. Orange and red flecks group together, swirling around, and travel down the sides of his black hair strands. His pupils flicker, changing shape, in the motion of small flames, and the entire hallway is shrouded in darkness. Each pillar is engulfed by faint blue flames with purple undertones, the only real light being emitted from the game master's hair and eyes. 

"Know your place," his voice is neither filled with the anger clear on his face, nor entirely apathetic, it's somewhere in the middle of both drastic sides of the spectrum which makes it all the more terrifying. 

"You should know yours," Faust appeared behind him, grabbing his neck in their hand and kicking the back of his knee to make him fall forward onto the ground. 

"If you play dirty then I will too," the flame in the game master's eyes grew and enshrouded his eyes completely. He snapped his fingers and the pain I felt in my head before consumed me. I fell to my knees, grabbing my head on both sides, and started screaming. It hurt. It hurt so much. Make it stop. Please, make it stop. My vision started failing me. The last thing I heard before losing consciousness completely was the sound of Hector's voice calling out my name.