It feels like it’s already been weeks since Mila was forced to fight to the death. I can’t tell time here anymore. I just sleep when I need to with no sense of time. At first it messed with my head for a while and I think I went a little insane for a moment, but once you realize that you don’t need it because you don’t need a schedule anymore. It can make you a lot more focused on the now. Gunter has been staying with Mila and barely stays in his own room anymore. We don’t know if she got the previous tenants room or she got hers upgraded since she won the battle against Níðhöggr, but Mila’s room is an entire mountain range. Gunter has been cultivating at the base of the mountains and taking care of Mila. He really loved her cherry blossom trees and spider lilies. I stayed with them for a few days and loved it too after a while. Mila chose a cave in the mountains that she said would work best for her recovery.
Mila’s biology works like a snake’s in a tank and can grow as big as her surroundings. Due to her limited space and food supply in her room that she was sealed in, she was small compared to her full potential. Her new demon noh mask was hard to get used to, but I kind of like it now. It looks pretty bad ass with the horns and tusks. The human skin color it chose wouldn’t be my first choice however. Her new dark red exoskeleton definitely makes up for that though. She doesn’t look anything like the Mila we first met, but we love her no matter how she looks. Pushed to her limits she could wrap an entire mountain if she wanted to or be as small as several inches.
Gunter as well has impressed me. For a small 5 foot something man he’s pretty fast and strong. On his own he can track up the 7,000 foot mountains to get to Mila and back in a little under an hour. I’ve gone with him a few times. We’d track normally and talk for a few hours and he’ll either carry me with him, which still takes him a few hours, or just do the rest alone. Jim, Jon, Siete and her many children visit too. We have meetings to discuss the plan while the kids play in Gunter’s forest that he filled with insects and fruit groves. Gunter also spent a few hours building me a cabin with one of his picks. It was actually really good and the furniture that he built is extremely comfortable.
We went over some ideas and shared what all of us can do during our meeting. I feel like an average Joe sitting among superheroes when I heard what just their species alone can do, plus Gunter, Mila and Jim have some unique talents. When they asked what I can do I decided to lighten the mood by doing the removable thumb trick. No one thought it was funny and we waisted almost an hour explaining to Gunter it wasn’t real. He still thinks I can remove my limbs at will, but choose not to. First thing we needed to do was find Baba Yaga. The Host’s hive mind knows of Klaus and has some memories of him, but we have no idea where he is or if he has a room. Baba Yaga might have some insight and Gunter thinks she should be our main priority. I still think there’s more to what he’s willing to tell us.
Gunter says she was never a tenant as far as he knows and knew her way before he lived here. She practices the arts of the witches, enchantresses, sorceresses and necromancers to name a few. She also spends most of her time in her cabin. Her and her cabin are similar to Withorp and the complex as in wherever it is, she is. If her cabin is somehow either inside or trapped in The Pandemonium Complex then maybe we can find it. Gunter knows what her door looks like if they happen to come across it, but Gunter can’t just run around the complex wildly. One he might catch unwanted attention and none of us know how big this place is if we just search everywhere. Siete said she can send her children, but it’ll take an unknown amount of time for them to come back and tell her what every door looks like and who knows if it’ll still be there by the time they get there. She does have another idea though.
Her hive mind is strong when the spiders are many, but even stronger when there’s less. With less it’ll be like she can see through every one of her children at once. She definitely hates the idea, but it may be our only one. We gave them the best days of their lives as best we could. A few days after that meeting Siete showed up at the cabin Gunter built without The Host and with her children riding on her. There looked to be about 500-600 left from her thousands. We didn’t ask or pry what she had to do, so we carried on with our plan. Siete told us she can also connect us to The Host hive if we wanted to so we can all at least instantly communicate with each other. We won’t have visuals like her, but we can hear her thoughts immediately like a walkie talkie. To be honest I think we all agreed out of respect. She killed her own children for our sake, the least we could do is be there for her.
The smallest spiders from her cluster with long thin legs crawled up each of us and as much as we hated it. We had to let them crawl into our ear canal. We all shuddered hard and tried our best to let them do their job. I can’t speak for the others, but imagine a wild tickle in your ear that sounds like wind blowing hard directly in. Suddenly an intense pain in my ear drum started making it ring loud and hard. Once the ringing started to fade I kept hearing a beautiful woman’s voice saying, hello, softly over and over again. I looked over at Siete, who was standing on the dining room table and asked if that was her. She bounced a little while I could hear that voice saying yes happily. Even Jon had to comment how beautiful she sounded. Definitely a mother’s voice if I’ve ever heard one, which made us hate what we had to make her do so much more.
We played around with our new voiceless communication and had to tune it to not hear every thought. Didn’t think that would be a problem until all of us could hear Jon’s intrusive thoughts while he was staring at Jim. Ever seen a hulking big green apeman turn bright red? It is hilarious, but now I have images in my head that I’m afraid will never go away. Since Siete is now also without The Host she needs a new spot. We decided to keep her under Gunter’s cornucopia. We enjoyed our last day of peace, but now we had to start our search. Siete sent out her children and we listened intently to her kids updates of anything out of the ordinary. Gunter and Siete focused to show Siete what door they’re looking for. So far no door, but we heard a couple of interesting sightings.
The Wisps are back at their pranks again, little light fairies that can cast visual illusions that have been tricking tenants into entering unlocked rooms. Gulp, the bottomless traveling portal, ate the zombie horde, thankfully now I won’t get cramped in the elevator again when they were up to 13 zombies. Her was seen consuming that shape shifting lizardman who loved pretending to be politicians, near my room and tried desperately holding on to a door with chains. Girin and Kuba, the giant black bear forest spirit are fighting in the hallway near Gunter’s room because neither would move so the other could pass again. Adrenepae, the wife of Apollo who ate his heart, looks like she finally can control her avatar of fire form now and is roaming the hallways.Tate the warlock is stalking Beta, the techno organic virus, who has a new female host body; weird little creep. What caught our attention the most was the new tenant that entered the lobby.
He was a darker skinned man with long dreads that had metal links. He wore a long green coat with a satchel. The big headphones and reflective sunglasses were also a nice touch. Me, Jim and Jon went to the lobby to see. We are pretty nosy and we might as well kill some time people watching. Us breaking routine and avoiding Winthorp might also cause suspicion. We have people checking in all the time, but this guy was different as the complex was seemingly treating him as a long time tenant. The lobby works like a one way mirror and with new potential tenants it hides us and the current theme of the lobby before they get approved. I’ve only seen it a few times, but when someone new enters, to us they’re surrounded by a clear cube that limits what they can see when they’re inside. While inside they can only see what the complex wants them to see and nothing as far as I know can enter or leave this pocket dimension box.
With this man however there is no box. The complex didn’t feel the need to hide us or his surroundings for some odd reason. He was ignoring it all though as if he’s been here. He even walked right past Agatha & Mrs. Donahue, seemingly two old ladies that are always playing chess in the lobby and try speaking with anyone in a gentle neighborly tone. You must never speak to them however. They are a Lich and a Fae, but not a nice one like Gunter. The longer you talk to them the more they ruin and steal your life. I was lucky enough to have Jim & Jon stop me before I could reply to their hellos, their friendly faces immediately turned to anger when their meal was not taking the bait. The man paid them no mind and walked right past when they tried waving him down. He was speaking to Winthorp who also was paying the man special attention.
He kept referring to him as they and them when speaking. Winthorp also was standing at full attention before the man walked up. I’ve never seen him so eager to greet a potential new tenant. When it came down to signing the leger he did so without saying a word, but when he finished Winthorp said all new tenants must sign. We didn’t understand at first, when suddenly the man held out his arm and pulled up his sleeve. His arm was covered in a mix of branded and ink tattoos of symbols I’ve never seen before. His closed right palm began to glow a color I’ve never seen before and probably was never meant to be seen by human eyes. He opened his palm and a flash bright enough to blind half the lobby engulfed the room. When we looked back after shielding our eyes there was now a woman with him.
She had turquoise colored skin, long black hair, a beautiful purple choli that had modern accessories and a satchel bag that matched the man’s. She also signed the ledger and was greeted with as much enthusiasm the man was getting by Winthorp. I asked Jim and Jon if they knew who or what they were, but they had no idea. I then asked my internal host Siente if she’s seeing this. A familiar ringing began in my ear and I could hear her voice once again. This had her curiosity immediately when the first words I heard are, interesting. Siente has no knowledge of the man, but the woman is theorized to be a djinn and an old one at that. Siente said that physical djinns are extremely rare and are the most powerful kind, but what caught Siente’s attention was that she wasn’t bound.
Djinns are normally adorned with bright jewelry to symbolize that they are bound to the human world and must obey the law of the bound djinns when on the mortal plain. This djinn was somehow free and in full control which can normally only be done if wished to be free by the master. They also usually leave once freed to return to the realm of the untamed elements, like a fish running back to water. Once checked in we saw Winthorp provide them with what looked like a metal jewelry box that the man put in his satchel. They started walking towards the elevator when I decided to introduce myself. The man stopped first and raised his brow behind those shades, but the djinn stood between us and signaled me to halt with her outstretched arm. Or at least that’s what I thought.
I was thrown backwards by an unseen force, but was luckily caught by Jim. Jon stood in front and began to growl hard in anger. Jon’s size began to increase steadily with his rage and the air around us began getting hotter. I saw his gray fur begin to tense with his flex of dominance and I yelled for him to calm down. Jim put me down and rested his hand on Jon’s shoulder. Jon began to almost instantly relax. Jim stepped in front and apologized, but the woman held her hand back up as a warning to not approach. The man this time relaxed her by resting his hand on the top of her forearm. She looked surprised and shocked by this. The man walked up to Jim, took off his glasses and moved his headphones to around his neck. He looked Jim up and down like he was inspecting him. The man’s eyes were a bright mix of blue and green.
The man asked what tribe he is from and Jim answered. The 13th Wukong of the Nán Providence, but has been Omega ranked in the Tauá-Miri clan for a few decades now. He then looked over to Jon and asked him. Jon only replied with, nikto, and both Jon and the man averted their gaze when the man apologized. The man then looked towards me and apologized for his girlfriend’s defensive behavior. We shook hands and greeted each other properly. The man’s name was Oddo and his girlfriend was Desiree. She still watched me with hard suspicious looks while we talked. The man asked me what I was. I told him I’m just human, he stared for a while. He then looked me up and down like he did with Jim and asked how long I’ve lived here. I was honest and told him it felt like years now, but I have no idea. He then berated me with questions I didn’t really understand like, what’s my faction, who’s my totem, who do I embody and when/where is my birth place. I answered as best I could and was only given looks of suspicion in return.
At the end of my interrogation he simply stated, So you’re…a basic mortal human? I could only reply with an embarrassing, yea. Oddo seemed surprised and turned toward Desiree who gave him an equal amount of confusion. He then bluntly asked how am I even alive or even sane in this place. I just shrugged and replied honestly, no fucking idea. I’ve never heard so much laughter since I’ve been here. Oddo, Desiree, Jim and Jon all teared up from laughter. Oddo dabbed me and pulled me in for a hug while still chuckling. It was so weird to have a normal person interaction in such a long time. I then asked about him. He was Oddo and then proceeded to give me such a long list of either titles, ranks and/or alignments to the point where we stood there for about 10 minutes before he finished. At heart though he was human, for the most part.
He introduced Desiree and told us that they met when she was sealed away in a decanter on a sunken ship that Oddo was excavating years ago and have been together ever since. He confirmed that she was a djinn like Siete said and that she was the last of the Jinn of Origin. One of the most powerful djinns. I only know their kind from the story of Aladdin and asked if that’s the kind they meant. I was given looks of confusion and had to explain the story more. There were some similarities and also that she had to grant him 3 desires into creation for her freedom originally, but only did one. Her freedom. Oddo and Desiree were together for 5 years without him ever making a wish. Instead he got to know her and enjoyed her company. They fell in love 2 years in and when they decided to be together forever he made a choice to make it her choice. He desired for her to be free.
Their lives weren’t easy however. They were hunted by men who knew of Desiree and her power. They’ve been on the run for years and wanted to be with others like themselves. Oddo hates humans and Desiree matched that hatred. I asked, then why are you even giving me the time of day now. He just replied with, you’re…different. I didn’t know if that was an insult or compliment. I told them I didn’t want to hold them up any longer and it was a pleasure to meet them. They began walking away towards the elevator while Jim and Jon collaborated their feelings on the couple. I was just happy to finally meet another human here, even if we’re clearly not cut from the same cloth. Siente began speaking again in my head and told me we need to leave the lobby now. She said not to look, but Winthorp has not taken his eyes off of us and he doesn’t look happy.
I told Jim and Jon that we should go check on Mila so as to not cause suspicion on our leave. They agreed and gave a slight nod to confirm. We began walking away when Winthorp called out to me and asked me to come over. I told him maybe later and that we’re going to check on our friend. I turned to leave only to turn to see Winthorp in front of me. We were somehow sitting in a small room I’ve never seen before. It looked like the old school integration rooms you see in black and white detective movies. This wasn’t good. Winthorp had a serious look and looked directly into my soul with those impossibly bright blue eyes. He then lightened up and asked how I’m liking my stay here so far. I told him it was good and then was asked why I’m keeping secrets then. My blood ran cold and I told him everyone has secrets.
He laughed and said that was a good answer, but then suddenly switched to bad cop. He slammed his hand in front of me and asked why we have been spying then. Sweat began dripping down my face. I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about. He switched to good cop and rubbed my cheek. He asked in a light tone if I think he’s stupid. I told him no and then he grabbed my face to look into his. He told me he doesn’t read minds, but he has ways of getting information. He then cupped his hand over my ear and I felt an intense pain with a loud white noise. He held the hair on my head so I couldn’t move with his opposite hand and opened his other palm before me. The spider Siete put in my ear was standing in his palm. He asked again if I think he’s stupid. I told him no and the spider began floating. Her legs stretched out and one popped off. He made it so I could hear her scream.
I told him to stop and he asked again if I think he’s stupid. I yelled no again and he pulled out another from the spider. She was a child and I could hear her cry and scream in pain. He asked a third time and I switched my answer to hopefully get a better result. I said yes and then he set her on fire. A flame that burned, but didn’t cause fatal harm. A flame of pure pain and torture. Her screams were loud and filled with sadness and confusion. I begged him to stop, but he kept asking that same question over and over until she had no legs left. He then threw the burning legless spider in the corner. Her screams stopped when she had two legs left. I knew she was alive, but just broken in mind now. I told him I just wanted to leave and he grinned.
Honesty, is that so hard? Those words sent shivers down my spine. I told myself I can’t break. He asked what we were doing and I told him that I’m just trying to find a way out. The grin went back to a scowl. He touched his finger tip to mine and my right middle finger he touched began to burn. At first it dried up slowly and turned black. Then white and then began turning to dust from the tip down to the knuckle. He told me he doesn’t like torturing his tenants. He just wants us to live happily and comfortably. Winthorp then asked why I would want to leave. I have nothing out there and he knows that. I replied with a simple, fuck you.
He sighed in annoyance. I suddenly was completely frozen in place and was unmovable. He grabbed my left arm and began twisting. First my wrist snapped, then slowly up my forearm began breaking. After that he pushed my elbow opposite to where it’s supposed to bend and caused a compound fracture. I was then unfrozen and immediately cried out in pain. Winthorp grabbed the back of my neck so I could sit straight up and squeezed lightly. He told me he knows I’m up to something and to just tell him. If I tell him all this will be over, but I’d be putting my friends in danger worse than this. I answered with, you’re insane. He threw my head forward and it bounced off the table in front of me. I held my face with both hands and realized my arms are normal again.
Winthorp then grabbed the back of my head with his open palm gripping the back of my skull. He told me to spill my guts. Before I could say anything I started projectile vomiting hard. At first it was what I ate, then bile, blood and after my organs began coming out of my mouth as if I was still throwing them up. Every organ was ejected out of my mouth and he made sure I could feel it all. Every time I would start passing out from the pain he’d jerk my head and bring me back. My tongue was next to be forced out and then my teeth one by one uprooted themselves to join the rest on the table and floor. My skin began to melt off my flesh with my nose and ears. My skeleton from my neck down also decided to leave. It moved on its own and forced its way out and through my muscle tissue like it was trapped. Lastly he made my eyes pop out to view it all. This was nothing compared to when he made it all do it again in reverse and even slower.
Ever felt your skeleton crawl back into your flesh? I do. He made sure the nerves felt it all and that I wouldn’t lose consciousness for even a moment while my body slowly and painfully repaired itself. Once I was fully repaired he asked again what me and my friends were doing. I told him it was only me. He sat back in front of me and stared long and hard. I was shaking with fear as to what he was planning to do next. He reached out his index finger, placed it in the center of my forehead and pushed hard. When I turned back up I was no longer in the interrogation room. I was in my room. My childhood room. I looked down and saw my pajamas I haven’t worn since I was 6 years old. I felt wet and warm in my bed and began crying loudly. My parents entered my room to console me and told me I must’ve had a nightmare. I tried telling them about The Pandemonium Complex and Winthorp, but was too broken to explain and just babbled on like the crying child I was now.
They told me it was okay and that I could sleep in their room tonight. A few years went by and The Pandemonium Complex was nothing more than just a memory of a bad dream. When I was 9 I came back home from school to see my front door was open. I entered slowly and saw that my house was a wreck. Like a tornado or wild beast came through. I called out to my parents and siblings, but no one answered. I went to the hallway and saw a blood trail leading into each room. I passed my siblings rooms first and only saw blood leading to their closed closets. I was too afraid to open them. I went to my parents room and saw they were torn apart. Looks of horror were frozen on their faces. I heard something behind me coming from my siblings’ rooms.
I ran to my parents window. I unlocked it and jumped out leaving my backpack behind. This isn’t right. I ran to the neighbors house and they called the police. I lived with my aunt and uncle after that. Then my grandparents. All met the same fate as my household. I was placed in foster care at 13. I began questioning my memories and what’s happening. None of this seemed right. At 14 I was adopted into an abusive household. My adopted mother only beat and yelled at me. My adopted father was worse and did unspeakable things. I ran away at the age of 16 and was homeless for a year. I then met the love of my life. Tanisha, she was perfect. Kind, loving, empathetic and an all around good person. We were together for 2 years before I met my best friend, Tate.
They helped me get back on track and made my past seem like a bad memory. I was 26 now and was married with 3 loving children. My best friend Tate had a family of his own and we were raising our kids together. Life was perfect. Then one day I came home from work. My front door was open and I knew it was over. I entered my home. My children were torn apart and thrown around my living room like ragdolls. I went into our room and saw that it was torn apart, but Tanisha wasn’t there. I ran out when I heard a familiar noise coming from the living room. I jumped out my window and started running towards Tate’s house. I kept trying to call my wife’s phone nonstop. No answer. When I got to Tate’s house I saw that his door was also open. I ran inside to see the same scene happen to his children.
I ran into Tate’s room and found him and…my wife. She must’ve tried running here when she found our kids, I thought. A small red light caught my attention in the debris. A camera that was recording. I played the tape back to see what happened. My wife was cheating on me with Tate. The camera was filled with different videos from long before today. I started the video from today to my dismay. They were in the middle of it when screams could be heard from the living room. I was so focused on what was going to happen that I didn’t notice the presence behind me. A scream broke the silence before I could see what entered the room and I turned to see Sarah, Tate’s wife screaming with horror at me. I tried calming her down and explain, but she had the police behind her already. I was arrested and was found guilty for murder.
They thought I killed them all because I found out they were cheating and also pinned the past murders on me since whatever kept happening is following me. I was thrown into a dark cold prison to live out my days in a hole. My days consisted of starving, being beaten and cold. I wanted to die. The death sentence was banned since I was a child, so all I could do was wait for death. One day, when I had given up, a few guards entered my room. I won’t say what happened, but it ended with them beating me nonstop until I couldn’t fight back. They didn’t stop beating me and when I was finally getting my wish of death I was sitting in a chair. I was in a small room with a man sitting across from me. A small bellhop wearing a straw boat hat. Winthorp. All my memories came flooding back. Memories of the past and now mixed and formed back into my hellish life.
Winthorp asked me again what we were planning. I looked him dead in the eye and just answered, I will kill you. A grin formed on his face again and he leaned in. How? He asked plain and simply. I knew I said too much again and just went silent. I don’t know how long I was there for. He made me live other hellish lives and tortured me over and over again in ways that would make the devil himself want to die. I never said another word. I could tell he was getting frustrated and was losing his cool. His methods started becoming sloppy and desperate. One of the benefits of being a basic mortal human is that we die very easily, so you could do whatever to us, but in the end they start getting very similar and I learned to get used to it. Once he realized he wasn’t getting anything out of me he threw me back into my room in the complex. I was thrown hard through the air and saw my furniture fly past me before I hit my wall hard. That’s when I just broke and just cried for hours.
I just needed to release. What I didn’t notice was Gunter was on the couch the whole time. He sat silently and just let me break. I think he knew I just needed to let it all out. I don’t know if he knew what I just went through, but he just started getting some fruit ready for me to eat when I’m ready. The small spider crawled out of my sleeve and ran to Siete under Gunter’s cornucopia. I slept for an unknown amount of time, but my body definitely needed it. When I woke up, I ate and Gunter asked me if I wanted to talk. I just asked how long I had been gone. He said Jim, Jon and I left just a few minutes before I was suddenly flying through my room from out of nowhere. He asked more directly as to what happened. I didn’t give him all the details, but now my mind is set. Winthorp and The Pandemonium Complex need to die.