The night was cold.
Not the gentle kind of cold that brushed against the skin and passed quietly. This cold had teeth. It bit through clothes, through skin, and settled deep inside the bones.
A pale moon hung in the sky, half hidden behind drifting clouds. Its weak light barely touched the empty street below.
In the far corner of that street, a boy sat curled against a brick wall.
Elias Crow pulled the thin blanket tighter around his shoulders, though it barely helped. The fabric was worn and full of holes, hardly enough to fight the winter air.
His fingers trembled.
For a long time he simply stared at the sky.
Once upon a time, people had laughed when they saw him.
Children would gather around the stage, their eyes bright with excitement. Adults would clap and cheer as lights and colors danced across the carnival tents.
He used to stand in the middle of that stage.
A trickster.
A clown.
A boy who could make people forget their worries for a few minutes.
Elias let out a quiet breath that turned to mist in the cold air.
"Damn…" he muttered.
His voice sounded strange in the empty street.
"I hate this life."
The clouds slowly drifted across the moon above him.
"I never did anything wrong," he said softly.
His voice cracked slightly.
"Then why the hell did I end up here?"
The wind pushed through the narrow street, carrying bits of paper and dust along the pavement.
Elias leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.
The cold bricks pressed against his skull.
A faint, bitter smile touched his lips.
"The life of a clown is hard…"
His voice faded into the quiet night.
Hours passed.
The city grew quieter.
Eventually even the distant sounds of traffic disappeared.
Elias slept.
Or at least, he tried to.
A strange noise woke him.
At first he thought it was just another dream.
A deep grinding sound echoed somewhere nearby.
Stone scraping against stone.
Elias slowly opened his eyes.
The street was gone.
He blinked.
For a moment he thought he was still dreaming.
But the cold beneath him felt real.
Very real.
Elias pushed himself up slowly.
The brick wall behind him had vanished.
Instead, towering walls of dark stone stretched upward into shadow.
A long corridor extended in front of him, disappearing into darkness.
"…What?"
His voice echoed faintly.
The air here felt different.
Heavier.
Older.
The stone walls were carved with strange symbols that glowed faintly with green light.
Elias stood up completely now, looking around in confusion.
"This isn't the street…"
His heart began to beat faster.
"Where the hell am I?"
The corridor stretched endlessly in both directions.
No windows.
No doors.
Just darkness and those strange glowing symbols.
Then he heard it.
Laughter.
Loud.
Mocking.
And far too close.
"HAHAHA!"
Elias froze.
The sound echoed around him, bouncing off the stone walls.
"LOOK AT HIM!"
The laughter grew louder.
"HE IS A FOOL!"
A cold shiver crawled down Elias's spine.
Sweat slid slowly down his temple despite the freezing air.
He spun around quickly.
"Who's there?!"
The corridor stood empty.
Only darkness answered him.
Elias swallowed.
"Show yourself!"
Silence.
For a moment he thought maybe he imagined it.
Then the laughter returned.
Even louder.
"HAHAHAHA!"
"LOOK AT HIM TREMBLING!"
The voice was everywhere.
Above him.
Behind him.
Beside him.
Elias's breathing grew shallow.
"…Where are you?" he whispered.
The voice answered immediately.
"RIGHT HERE."
The walls.
The voice was coming from the walls.
The glowing symbols pulsed faintly as the laughter echoed through the corridor.
Elias's legs suddenly felt weak.
He stumbled back and fell onto the cold stone floor.
Another wave of laughter exploded around him.
"HAHAHA!"
"SUCH A PATHETIC BOY!"
The voice twisted with cruel amusement.
"THE LITTLE CLOWN WHO LOST EVERYTHING IN FIRE!"
Elias's heart stopped.
His eyes widened.
"How…?"
His voice came out hoarse.
"How the hell do you know that?"
The walls answered instantly.
"HAHAHAHA!"
"LOOK AT HIM!"
"RUNNING FROM THE TRUTH JUST LIKE HE RAN FROM THE FIRE!"
Something inside Elias snapped.
"SHUT UP!"
He jumped to his feet and began running down the corridor.
His footsteps echoed loudly against the stone floor.
The laughter followed him.
"RUN, LITTLE MOUSE!"
"RUN JUST LIKE YOU DID BEFORE!"
Elias clenched his teeth.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!" he shouted while running.
"WHO ARE YOU?!"
The walls laughed harder.
"YOU ASK QUESTIONS…"
"BUT YOU ARE TOO AFRAID TO HEAR THE ANSWERS!"
The corridor stretched endlessly before him.
His lungs began to burn.
Still he kept running.
Behind him, the laughter never stopped.
"YOU COULDN'T SAVE THEM!"
"YOU RAN!"
"YOU LEFT THEM TO BURN!"
Elias stumbled.
Memories crashed into his mind.
Fire.
Smoke.
Screaming voices.
The carnival tent collapsing in flames.
His parents shouting for him to run.
And him…
running.
"No…" he whispered.
He fell to his knees.
"I didn't…"
The walls laughed again.
"YOU DID!"
"YOU RAN AWAY!"
"COWARD!"
Elias pressed his hands against his head.
"Stop…"
"STOP!"
But the corridor did not listen.
The laughter only grew louder.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE IT!"
"YOU LEFT THEM TO DIE!"
Tears blurred Elias's vision.
He thought he buried those memories.
He thought he moved on.
But the walls dragged them back into the light.
He couldn't undo that day.
He couldn't undo what he did.
And deep down…
he knew it.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
The corridor changed constantly.
Walls shifted.
Paths appeared and vanished.
The endless hallway twisted into a giant maze.
Every time Elias tried to move forward, the paths changed again.
And the walls kept laughing.
Mocking him.
Reminding him of the fire.
Of his guilt.
Of his cowardice.
Elias stopped running.
He stopped shouting.
Instead he walked slowly through the maze.
His body grew weaker with each passing day.
But strangely…
he never felt hungry.
He never felt thirsty.
Only tired.
Exhausted.
Like something inside him was slowly draining away.
One day…
Elias stopped in the middle of the maze.
He looked up at the towering stone walls.
The laughter echoed faintly around him.
But this time…
he didn't run.
He took a deep breath.
Then he shouted.
"FINE!"
The laughter stopped.
For the first time since he arrived…
the corridor fell silent.
The walls spoke again.
This time their voice sounded curious.
"WHAT DO YOU ACCEPT?"
Elias clenched his fists.
His voice trembled.
"I accept it!"
The words echoed through the maze.
"I accept that I ran!"
Tears rolled down his face.
"I KNOW I'M A COWARD!"
The silence grew deeper.
Elias fell to his knees.
His shoulders shook as he cried.
"I lost everything that day…"
His voice broke.
"My family… my home… everything…"
The maze trembled.
Stone groaned as the walls began to move.
Corridors shifted rapidly.
Paths collapsed.
Until finally—
A single passage remained.
At the end of that passage stood something enormous.
A door.
Elias slowly stood.
The door towered over him like a giant mountain.
He looked tiny in comparison.
Strange symbols covered the black stone surface.
Crescent moons.
Feathers.
Beautiful patterns carved with impossible precision.
Elias stared at it in awe.
"…What a magnificent work of art."
He stepped forward.
His hand touched the cold surface.
The moment his fingers made contact—
The temple shook.
A deep thunder echoed through the corridor.
Stone ground against stone as the massive door slowly began to open.
Dust fell from its edges like gray snow.
Cold air poured from the darkness beyond.
Elias swallowed.
Something inside that room was waiting.
And somehow…
it had been waiting for him.
The door opened completely.
Beyond it lay a massive chamber lit by ghostly green flames.
At the center stood a broken throne.
And behind it…
A painting so large it covered half the wall.
Elias stepped inside.
He didn't yet realize that the moment he crossed that doorway…
his life had already changed forever.
And the thing waiting in that room…
had finally found him.