I'm the only one

Ever since the voices had called to him from the pool of the Shrine, Takeshi had been avoiding the area like the plague. At first, the distance had quieted the voices nagging at him in the back of his head, but as the days grew shorter, turning into what felt like an eternal night, and the moon grew larger, the voices grew louder. They drove him wild, waking him from his sleep and telling him terrible, awful things that he knew weren’t true, but had to ponder on anyways. He’d gotten little sleep the past week, the voices bringing with them nightmares that left him balking in cold sweats. If he’d been human, his lack of sleep would have been apparent with dark bags hanging beneath his glowing red gaze, but as it stood, one look into his eyes would show the exhaustion that remained there.

Those past days, it only grew worse. It felt like the voices were screaming now, following after him and never leaving his side. And so he ran. It was like he was in a panicked stupor, the world hazy around him as he’d crossed the bifrost into Auster and simply went for it. His legs weren’t his own, nor his breaths. They were being stolen by some otherworldly entity that was trying to tell him something, but he didn’t want to listen. Maybe if he had, they wouldn’t have been so cross, but he was far too scared for logic, especially when the situation seemed to be devoid of any logical explanation at all besides the boys seemingly pending insanity.

He’d traveled for days almost unending, except for when he’d become too exhausted or thirsty and simply collapsed to the ground for a fitful sleep. Eventually, he found himself at the entrance to a massive bamboo maze. It reminded him of the bamboo island back in the Archipelago and he felt a pang in his chest, remembering the days he’d spent alone trying to tend to them to please his father. He probably didn’t even notice, didn’t even care. In the darkness, a form began to come into view. It was massive and coated in a pelt of almost shimmery red, its head mounted with dual, melanistic horns and...distinctly his father. The boy stopped, confusion pulling his brows together above his exhausted gaze. Surely this was an apparition, the voices finally putting a face to themselves, and that, perhaps, scared him even more than his faceless spooks.

Takeshi, without a thought, bolted into the maze.