'Small lesson they probably don't teach you in Schools,'
'Never trust a corpse. Especially not in some endless Labyrinth.'
I froze, staring at the man standing in front of me. Sweat slid down my spine, pooling in cold beads at the base of my neck.
He tilted his head slightly, giving me a polite, almost boyish smile.
"We would be safer together right? Mind if I come with you?" he asked, voice gentle.
'The problem?'
Just ten minutes ago, I saw this man dead.
Face smashed in, eye sockets hollow and caved like cracked porcelain.
A smile carved across his cheeks, stretching impossibly wide and his body drenched in a lake of red so dark it almost looked black.
My mind kept replaying the image—his neck twisted at an angle that no living creature could survive.
Yet here he was. Upright. Breathing. Smiling.
'Can nightmares really be this vivid and gory...?'
I swallowed hard. "You're right," I replied, forcing a friendly tone. "It's safer to travel together."
My voice didn't shake. I made sure of that.
He seemed satisfied and fell into step beside me.
I didn't know whether this man was a revived casualty of my fractured subconscious, or if someone—some thing—was currently wearing his skin like a borrowed suit.
Either way, the safest option was to act like I hadn't seen the horror show earlier.
My goal was simple: survive his company until I could figure out what he was and how to escape.
---
We wandered the endless gray corridors for what felt like half an hour—though time felt slippery here, stretching and shrinking unpredictably.
The walls were smooth, concrete-like, with no seams. No marks. It had light but with no source.
Faint, high-pitched screams, ragged with raw terror, echoed somewhere far off in the distance.
I focused on ignoring them. Each one was like a fingernail scratching on glass, making me want to curl up and disappear.
The dead man didn't seem to mind them much though.
I kept my eyes forward.
'As a lucid dreamer, I've dealt with strange dreams before, even some dreams about Labyrinth's like this one, but... never with air so cold it burned my lungs, never with a metallic stench that clung to my tongue, no dream ever had gravity this… real.'
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. The black screen reflected a stranger's face back at me.
Tired, almost sickly purple eyes.
A sharper jawline than I remembered.
Blond hair falling in a messy side-part that didn't belong to me.
'I don't even look like myself. What kind of dream makes you look like a depressed gambling addict?'
"Still No connection?" the supposedly dead man asked, peering over my shoulder. His expression tightened with mock concern that almost sounded genuine.
"still nothing." I said, forcing a sigh and pocketing the device.
He inhaled deeply, almost theatrically. "There's a scent of blood everywhere. It's faint, but... concerning."
'Then why don't you look concerned in the slightest you freak?'
"Let's not dwell on that," I quickly cut in. "Thinking about blood is just going to make us panic."
He blinked slowly. "Panic," he echoed in a strange whisper, as if getting accustomed to the word. "Right. We shouldn't."
Before I could walk ahead, his arm suddenly twisted—audibly, like wet fabric wrung out.
A movement impossible for any Human to pull off
His finger pointed down a corridor. "Look."
I flinched.
Bloody footprints dotted the path, some small, some large, some overlapping. The red was fresh enough to glisten.
Every nerve in my body screamed run.
But I didn't move.
"I heard screams earlier," I said carefully. "It might be safer to go the opposite way—"
"Someone might need our help though." he interrupted softly, though the softness made it worse—like a predator imitating kindness. "We should check. The more we are the merrier!"
His tone didn't allow disagreement.
Fearing what would happen if i didn't comply, I followed.
---
The deeper we went, the stronger the stench grew—raw and coppery.
Red streaks smeared across the walls.
Thick, dark puddles soaked the floor.
The footprints became distorted. Dragged. Scraped.
Then we saw the body.
A mangled corpse, limbs bent like broken branches.
Its abdomen torn open—organs missing, ribs jutting out like jagged teeth.
Its face carved with the same unnatural smile.
I swallowed, tasting bile.
'This is just a dream. Just a dream.
Calm down, Yuwon. Deep breaths.'
That was a lie though. I'd already pinched myself. Slapped myself more often than i could count. I've even bitten my lip hard enough to bleed.
'If this was a dream i'd already be awake and curled up in my bed.'
And now something else nagged at the back of my mind.
My name.
The one I kept telling myself felt… strange. "Yuwon" doesn't sound like my actual name. Though its the only name I can remember.
'Why couldn't I remember my real one?'
The dead man crouched beside the corpse.
"Poor thing…" it murmured. "Such a waste."
'A waste of what?'
Then without warning, it plunged its hand into the corpse's face.
Crunch.
I nearly retched.
It dug around with horrifying casualness before pulling out an eyeball, strings of nerve dangling.
And then—
It ate it.
The sound was wet, slurping, obscene.
My chest tightened; my breath stuttered. I couldn't look away no matter how hard i tried.
Then it retrieved the second eye and walked toward me with an almost cheerful bounce in its step.
"Mister, you must be hungry. You've been here so long. We need strength."
'Strength?'
'Hold on How long had I been here anyway?'
I took the eye because my instincts told me refusing might mean I'd be next.
"You're right," I said quietly. "I'll… eat it later, hanks."
The eyeball was cold and heavy in my hand.
The mimic threw its head back and laughed.
"Pffahahahaha! You're weird! You'd actually eat that? Don't joke like that—it's gross!"
'Oh yeah, totally, I'm the weird one when you're the one who—'
I forced a stiff smile. "You're right. Hopefully we'll find actual food soon."
"Yes," it said brightly. "Actual food."
'I honestly don't want to find out what this dead man considers actual food.'
---
We walked again. The corridors twisted endlessly, branching into dead ends and looping back into themselves.
Hours passed.
Or maybe just minutes.
Its hard to tell when the time keeps stretching
I tried to focus on my breathing, but even that felt… wrong. Too steady. Too unfamiliar in this weird Body that didn't belong to me.
Then—
A scream tore through the silence.
"SHIT—SHIT—SHIT—NOT AGAIN—!"
A boy ran into our path. Pale. Trembling. His clothes were ripped, his eyes bloodshot and his dark hair a mess. He collapsed at our feet.
"Hey—easy," I said, kneeling beside him. His skin was burning up.
'A fever perhaps?'
"Deep breaths. You're fine now."
"fine?!" he croaked. "I haven't eaten in three damn days!"
'Three days..?'
'For some reason I didn't even consider staying in this endless maze for that long.'
The dead man next to me leaned closer, eyes wide with concern. "Poor thing. How long have you been here?"
"Do i really have to spell it out for you Gramps? Three days," he gasped. "There are some others here too. No one remembers how we got into this maze though."
'Others?'
'Hold on... Nobody remembers? Then why do i—'
A sharp pain exploded in my skull.
"They even have a camp in the middle of this maze. Or atleast what we believe to be the middle." The Pale boy continued in the background
"More people... thats good. Do you know how to get to that camp?" The dead man spoke
I staggered back, clutching my head.
My vision fractured like glass.
Memories of a world that wasn't mine flooded my brain
—the sky
—home
—past events
—faces
—memories that weren't mine
—people
—a world that wasn't home
—a body that doesn't resemble my own
—not mine
—not me
——overlapping memories of a world pretending to be the one I knew.
"Yuwon?" My dead companion turned, face laced in mock worry.
My name felt wrong. This world felt wrong. This body felt wrong.
"I—"
Blood filled my mouth.
My nose dripped crimson onto the floor.
My eyes burned like they were melting.
This place wasn't a dream.
Wasn't a nightmare.
Wasn't my world.
It was a copy of home.
Almost perfect.
Almost familiar.
A world i don't belong to.
The pain swallowed everything.
Voices blurred.
Shapes darkened.
And then—
My vision faded to black.