Page 18 of Haunted Mediation
James glanced up at him and then quickly away, shaking his head. “No, I…I want to keep going. But…I would very much like to get out of this room.”
Well, yeah, that was pretty fucking obvious. It seemed like the lights had stopped dimming, and they were going to be left with enough light to see their way around. That gave credence to James’ theory that maybe the key was somewhere in the room.
He heard the person moving around behind him, and James stepped forward and pressed his face into Leon’s chest.
Alright, fuck it.
He wrapped his free arm around James’ back and pulled him against his chest, turning to scan the room quickly. The person was slowly walking away from where they’d been sitting, revealing a nest of dark fabric similar to their robes, as well as something written on the wall behind them.
“Have you ever felt like giving up?” the person asked, their voice now practically filling the room.
Clearly, they were turning the volume up on some type of speaker system; Leon just hadn’t spotted it in his first assessment of the space.
James whimpered, and Leon hugged him tighter. “If you need to safe word?—”
“No, just…how do we find the key?” James asked, his hand tightening in Leon’s shirt, unfortunately brushing against his exposed skin through one of the holes in it.
Well, that certainly wasn’t helping the matter.
“Do you want to come with me while I search that pile over there?” Leon asked, nodding to the corner.
James lifted his head, but right as he did, the voice said, “Or maybe, you already have. Maybe you think there’s no one out there who cares. Do you think anyone would notice if you weren’t around?”
“No,” James whispered, and Leon tilted his head down to hear him better.
“No?”
“No…I don’t really want to move. Could you look?”
“I notice,” the voice boomed. “I notice every time you bow your head, every time you look away. I am that moment’s breath where you could ask for help but choose to say nothing.”
James tightened his grip on both Leon’s hand and shirt for just a breath before releasing him.
Leon didn’t hesitate. He turned and practically dove for the pile.
“Yes…dig. Dig through your memories and try to recall a time when you didn’t feel this way. A time when everything didn’t feel like quite…so…much.”
Leon’s fingernails scraped the floor as he reached the bottom of the pile, and he turned in a circle, squinting in the dim light to see if he somehow missed the key.
“You can search and search… Try and remember a time where things were easier… But you’ll come up empty,” the voice said.
Leon turned to glare at them, surprised to find they had made their way back over and were practically hovering over him now. Again, they didn’t attempt to touch him.
They were just going to talk him to death.
He turned to look at James and saw him squatting down with his head buried in his arms. That familiar tingling came back into his fingers, and he turned to face the dark being. If he didn’t find the key in the next sixty seconds, he would safe word himself. Whether it was the darkness, the idea of being locked in, or the actual words the specter was saying, James was clearly not doing well.
“What am I supposed to do then, huh?” Leon said, and he was surprised at the ferocity that the words came out with. “Isearched through the ‘memories’ or whatever and couldn’t find a way out.”
He looked around and spotted the writing on the wall. Figuring it was worth a shot, he stumbled over to it, tripping on some of the fabric on the way. He pressed his face close to the wall to be able to see it.
It looked like it had been carved into the wall, with fake blood and even a few fake fingernails stuck in the cement.
What are you willing to do to save yourself?
Himself? He had saved himself. He’d survived his shittastic childhood, gotten himself through school, and come out the other side. He worked on himself, over and over, to try and be a better man than every example he had growing up, despite the many assholes he’d dated, befriended, and worked with throughout the years.
He spun around to look at the towering figure. “What would you do?” it said. “When the darkness comes closing in?”
