Harker stopped for a moment to think about what he can do to escape this darkness he was trapped in. He had tried in all directions, and yet he couldn't find any opening. Or make one for himself, for that matter.
He can feel the walls of this darkness closing in on him. And he knew that the moment it had swallowed him, he wouldn't be crushed.
He won't be digested either. He will simply be swallowed, and turned into something else.
What he feared the most was what that 'something else' might be, for he had no idea.
He almost felt weightless in this space. He couldn't even tell if he was still on Earth, in the place he once knew. This presence around him felt so foreign. The only thing he was familiar with….
Was the presence of himself.
A crazy thought came to him. It was definitely crazy and made no sense, but so did this place.
If he thought of ways to survive as he would in the plane he came from, the plane he was familiar with, he knew it wouldn't work. It's like trying to catch fish on a tree, or trying to look for bird eggs deep into the ocean's trenches. He needed to adapt to the strangeness.
And so he ate himself.
He gnawed on his own hands, trying to digest himself before this darkness took away his existence as who he was at this moment. He kept on eating himself, just like that ancient symbol of a snake eating itself.
An ouroboros. That's what it was called. He remembered Roland teaching him about that once as they read books in mythology in his library.
Roland was waiting for him in that Fun Room. His siblings were waiting for him at home. And as he had almost finished eating himself, which should have been impossible….
He remembered the face of his most beloved women.
Mina must be at school, or in her apartment studying and doing school work. He can imagine her sitting on that desk with her brows furrowed and listening to random music. She had always loved music, no matter the genre. She was interested in the new sounds and melodies that humanity had formed today.
Whenever she had a new favorite, she would be excited to make Harker listen to it the next day.
And Joan must be in her office, checking lab reports or the works of her students. Or perhaps she was drinking alone in her home, watching those favorite late-night shows she had mentioned. She might eventually fall asleep, but it was not the same depressive slumber that wasn't looking forward to a new tomorrow.
She was simply taking a rest, and she would smile with her cup of coffee thinking about ways to tease Harker again.
They're waiting for him. And he had to see them again.
When he opened his eyes, he was back in that empty arena again. Only this time, it wasn't so empty.
He can see them. He can see their twisted, hollow bodies. Their hard plastic skin shone from the lights of this circus tent, and their faces were blank and flat. Yet he can still feel the malice in them, this obsessive joy in the torment of others for their speculation.
Besides the spectators, Harker was standing beside a large bulk of mannequins.
It was nothing but that. Just a bunch of limbs, torsos, and heads. They didn't form anything recognizable. But it seemed to be bipedal, and had 'arms' as well, though the body itself was just a completely messed-up blob.
Harker realized he was sweating from the heat of this unventilated tent full of lights. It was almost blinding, and his sweat dripped into the sand forming mud.
He wiped them out, eyes still focused on that giant mass made of mannequins.
"How strange. You managed to escape the Big Bear, my friend. Nobody had ever done that before once they entered its mouth."
Harker turned around, and there he was. The bastard Ivan Ivanovich.
"I would not consider it as a win, however. You still have not killed it."
Harker growled. "Watch me, then. I'll tear that huge pile of plastic into bits!"
He turned into several wendigos, and started pulling at the mannequins that made up this 'Big Bear'. The Big Bear didn't fight back, but Harker knew it wasn't because of the Succubus of Snake Ability.
They're mannequins. They don't have a nose or even a brain. Therefore, they can't be affected by these abilities, they were simply toying with them.
Just like their ringmaster.
Ivan Ivanovich kept on clapping and clapping as he broke the Big Bear and disassembled it into nothing but a pile of useless plastic. He enjoyed the show no matter what, whether he was on the winning or losing team.
"Well done, you have killed Big Bear's current body. For now. Impressive feat, my friend!" He clapped until his palms were turning red.
"I know that." Harker said as he turned to him after hacking and slashing the stupid pile of garbage enough.
This time, he gave Ivan that cold, malicious smile.
"I know that these things were unkillable. I've figured that out ever since I was inside that other dimension of a stomach." Harker said. "You just want to make fun of me because I didn't know that at the start, right? So I played the fool for you."
He then made his wendigo clones surround the only human in this arena.
At this, the clapping stopped.
The mannequin watchers booed and shouted nonsensical complaints. They threw their popcorns at Ivan, who chuckled nervously.
"Whoa there, my friend! I am not your enemy!I am here to help, I just want to have some fun with you!" He raised his hands up. "You want my help, yes? Let us compromise. I consider this half-win and give you half-clue—"
Harker snatched him by the neck faster than the eyes could see.
"No. I make the rules this time. You tell me everything you know. No riddles, no games."
He tightened his grip and raised the Russian/Not Russian man up in the air with just one arm. The wendigos went by its feet, hunched as if waiting to pounce on him as hungry children would pounce on their dinner. Harker would be happy to feed them, and he might do so after he gained every information he needed on this man.
He felt no sympathy over some pompous bastard that likes to play the grand host to the forces of evil.
What he experienced inside the Big Bear's unknown 'belly' was one of the most terrible. That sickening feeling of not knowing anything besides your doom….. This man deserved to have that feeling too.
"I know you're not like your fake 'friends', and that you also bleed. And I will bleed you nice and slow if you don't start talking. Very, very slow."
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