Chapter 19: Chapter 19 – The Second Swim
The next moment, Nick was bathed in light.
From black, everything transformed into white.
Nick's eyes burned due to the sudden influx of light, but they quickly adapted.
The next moment, the light became less bright, and Nick could finally look around.
'How did I end up here?' Nick thought with surprise.
Right now, Nick was between the two toilets when he had not even reached the first one.
'The Nightmare must have created more illusions that made me change my trajectory.'
Nick took a deep breath.
'As long as I enter a sizable area of darkness, the Nightmare can actually keep me perpetually trapped in it.'
'No wonder no one wanted to search for the Dreamer down here.'
'The danger is not the Dreamer.'
'The danger is the Nightmare.'
Nick noticed that the light was getting dimmer, and he was preparing to move forward again.
'I need to find a way to get to the toilet.'
A bit later, the light was nearly gone, and Nick shot forward again.
The pillars were transforming into the forest of rusty spires again.
However, Nick just kept swimming forward with all of his power.
The next moment, Nick saw something dark slowly rise out of the pool in front of him.
It was like a whale had just put its breathing hole a bit above the surface before submerging again.
Something was in the water, and it was big!
A second later, it rose again, but this time, it was angled towards Nick!
It was swimming towards him!
Nick gritted his teeth, ignoring the liquid that poured through his lips.
And then, he tightly shut his eyes.
But he continued swimming!
Everything became silent.
It was deathly silent.
The only thing moving was Nick.
He almost felt like he was in an endless void of nothingness.
Ding.
Nick's right knee hit something solid, but the object was pushed away.
However, Nick knew exactly what he had just hit.
It felt a bit soft but with a hard core.
It was a head!
A human head!
The next moment, Nick hit something again.
This time, it was an arm.
However, Nick just kept moving forward.
More and more body parts appeared in Nick's way, but he just batted them to the side.
"I'm sorry," the crying voice of a kid said quietly.
The next moment, a small arm grabbed Nick's ankle.
"I'm so sorry!" the kid shouted.
"Please, forgive me!"
The next moment, several other arms grabbed Nick.
They wanted to pull him into the depths!
"I'm sorry!"
"I'm sorry!"
"I'm sorry!"
A chorus of different but desperate voices shouted from all around Nick as the grips of the arms tightened.
Nick couldn't move anymore.
He had been completely immobilized!
Nick's terror reached new heights, but he only kept trying to swim forward.
That was the only thing that could save him!
Splash!
Nick was suddenly pulled under!
The arms tightened around him and continued pulling.
And then, Nick suddenly felt it.
Teeth!
Huge teeth!
Nick's legs hit a couple of teeth, and the teeth were almost a meter long!
Even more, Nick's body wasn't nearly strong enough to resist these teeth, and his legs started to bleed.
In his panic, Nick desperately tried to swim away, but the arms kept pulling him back.
Even more, the arms seemed to come out of this thing's mouth!
The arms were pulling him into the maw!
Nick felt the maw advance.
A deep shadow appeared around Nick as he was engulfed.
There was another Specter in here!
And this was not a level one Specter!
He would die!
He would die!
Nick felt himself get pulled further and further down into the maw.
And then…
Everything stopped.
Nick didn't move for several seconds.
But nothing happened.
Slowly, Nick opened his eyes.
And he saw light!
He was below one of the toilets!
'I did it!' Nick thought in shock.
'I actually did it!'
For several seconds, Nick just looked at the light above him.
He was safe!
There was no second Specter!
Splash!
Suddenly, something splashed in the liquid in front of Nick, and all his anxiety returned!
Nick looked down.
And then, he saw it.
A floater.
A turd.
The person in the house above him had just taken a shit.
Nick grimaced in disgust.
'Really? Now?'
And with that, all of Nick's elation was gone and replaced by annoyance.
'Anyway, I can look for the Dreamer now.'
Due to the extreme darkness, Nick couldn't see all parts of the ceiling from any one spot.
Because of that, he went to the little safe spots to search the ceiling.
The next moment, Nick poked his head into the darkness, but his body remained in the light.
The Nightmare's influence returned, but it was far weaker than before.
By moving his head out of the light like this, Nick could look at the 100 square meters above him with quite a lot of confidence.
However, since 100 square meters were only ten by ten meters, Nick needed to do this from several locations to check everything.
After he looked at the ceiling above him, Nick readied himself to swim towards the next toilet.
Obviously, the Dreamer wasn't here.
Nick took a deep breath and readied himself.
'I've done this before. Now, I just need to do it again!'
Then, Nick shot forward.
The terrors returned.
Nick closed his eyes.
CRKSH!
Nick stopped breathing as he felt some teeth tear a part out of his arm!
The pain was brutal and sharp.
Nick opened his eyes and looked at his right elbow.
His flesh had been torn off!
Only the bloody bone of his elbow was left!
'Is… is this real?' Nick thought.
'I've never heard that the Nightmare could do something like this before!'
'Right! The teeth of the maw also tore my legs open, but when I reached the light, there was nothing!'
'I have to keep swimming!'
Even though a huge part of Nick's arm had just vanished, he still continued swimming as he closed his eyes.
He had to reach the toilet!
The next moment, something tore Nick's leg off, and Nick was nearly pulled under by the force.
Nick wanted to scream due to the pain, but he just kept swimming forward.
He had to reach the light!
He had to reach it!
More and more of Nick's body was torn apart, and Nick wasn't even sure what he was anymore.
His being was so overwhelmed with pain that his mind even blacked out for some seconds.
He was dying.
He wanted to die.
But he wanted to live.
It was so bad.
It was so horrible.
Just move forward.
Just a bit.
Please.
Just a bit!
And then, everything stopped again.
Nick opened his eyes.
He had reached the second toilet.
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