Hallucinations pull Becky into the dark

With Kiera's body thrown about by the commands of the puppeteer and the rough jerking of her symbiote arm, and Robin slowly slipping into unconsciousness, there was no one to notice as Becky slipped away. Her mind filled with the shouts and screams, voices that only seemed more familiar with each new cry she heard. She had no idea, no care, and no way of knowing that another of the Labirynth's bizarre denizens lay in her path.

What had once been distant calls, soon felt like **** screams, seemingly just a short distance away, and as she believed herself to be drawing closer and closer, Becky felt she could finally start to tell them apart. Her aunt's voice was one, and another was the voice of a girl who had pretended to be her friend back in the village she had grown up. Her name was Maria, and Becky could still remember the dark curls of her hair... and the way she had found her body, still just beginning to sprout into onyx feathers.

'Why didn't you do something?' it was Maria's voice, soft and pleading. Becky understood why those screams had felt so familiar now. She hadn't been there to hear, them, but they must have happened, right? The sounds had played back in her mind so many times as she thought back to the village's demise, they had played over and over, a chorus of pain and guilt. 'They hurt! It hurts so much, Becky!"

Her head whirled around wildly, desperately trying to find the source of the noise. With her ego chipped away by the concoction of spells that rattled her mind, the only thing that was left was Becky's more pure instinctual response. It was the only reason she had ever bothered to continue studying alchemy after the **** of her father: the need to help.

"I'm sorry!" Becky cried out. "I... I can do it now, I think! The plague is gone, and there's nowhere to test, but... but I have theories, so many theories and if... and... just hold on!"

Becky tried to move forward, to go to them, but her limbs were heavy, and her mind was just trying to shut down and collapse into sleep. Moving felt impossible, but even still Becky struggled forward.

"I.... I can help!" Becky pleaded, urging her legs to move as she dragged herself further and further from the rest of the group. Visual hallucinations joined the auditory ones as her brain tried its best to make sense of the disjointed, illogical whispers of the mingled spells. She saw friends and family, everyone she had known from a young age ravaged by plague. Their hair sprouting into pitch black feathers, skin shriveling into that horrid, yellow, scaly texture. Their fingers contorted, as if they were trying to meld together, and their nails just seemed to stretch longer, and longer.

They were just out of reach. All of them. No matter how much Becky managed to stumble forward, they just drifted away, each second growing more and more inhuman and twisted. If only she was faster, smarter, old enough to know what she was doing! She could save them if only...

By now, she was almost entirely incapacitated by the ****. Becky's brain played back her worst nightmares, re-imagined with vivid color and sound. This old pain was her new reality once again, leaving her helpless and prone, lost and alone in the depths of the maze.

***

This chapter was co-authored by Mapron01(https://chyoa.com/user/Mapron01) Please check him out!