She got on top of me and forcefully started to scratch me all around. It hurt. It hurt very much. I wished that Leslie would come and knock on the door and ask if something was wrong, but nothing, the only voices that I heard were the splitting screams and laughter of Maria and my constant whimpering and begging her to stop. And she did stop. She decided that she would end it by biting off my throat. She lunged in right for it. In a quick motion I stabbed her on her right temple. The pen knife stuck on her skull as she fell to the side. My suit was wrecked and I had blood stains all over me. The scratches felt like hundreds of paper cuts on my skin.
Maria’s lifeless body started to convulse. I had a feeling that she was still alive and if I had to guess, she could never die. I pulled myself up and outside the room even if every part of my body ached.
The corridor had changed, the walls had turned into rusty wired fences and the carpeted red floor was stained with what seemed to be blood. There were no other doors except for the room I was previously in. Maria’s laughter echoed through the wall alongside a whisper of a word, “Nyarlathotep”. I started to limp away from the room and into the elevator doors at the end of the corridor. The whisper of the word started to turn into a scream and then into a chant. Maria got out of the room and started to walk towards me.
I limped faster. She was going to catch up with me. I made it to the elevator and she jumped right on.
We were grappling each other in a small and confined space. I had a better look of her face. She had no eyes and her mouth was filled with razor shark-like teeth expanding all the way to the side of her face. She was so close to me that I could feel her musky breath. Her screams were louder and it echoed around us, making me deaf. The elevator was going down and it was still a long way before we could reach our destination.
I decided that I had to finish her or she will finish me. I pushed her with all my might to the elevator wall behind her, she ricocheted back towards me. But in a split second I dodged to the side and went directly behind her. I grabbed her lower jaw and upper jaw with my hands. Her teeth dug deep into my fingers. I then proceeded to pull her mouth apart. She screamed and I groaned from the agonizing pain. I let the pain fuel me as I split her face apart completely. And then I heard a snap. That’s when her face was split into half. I stumbled into the floor. Gushing blood came from half of Maria’s face still connected to her neck and body. I had the other half of her face on my hand.
I was hurt and heaving but I survived.
The elevator dinged and opened. I started to hear the hotel music. I saw the hotel lobby and all the people coming through. I went out of the elevator. No one was noticing me. I looked back to the elevator and saw that it was clean. No blood, nothing. My suit was fine, except for my pants. The wounds were still hurting inside me.
Among all the people around me, there was one old, tall and pale man who noticed me and walked towards me.
“Are you hungry?” He asked. I hesitated. I felt more scared than I was when I saw Maria in front of my room, but something about the man made me feel safe, something about him made me think that he knew my position better than anyone else.
We both walked towards the restaurant and sat on the same table Leslie and I sat earlier. The waiter gave us our menus and the man ordered, I didn’t even touch the menu. He looked like any other old man in a suit. He was thin but he dressed appropriately for whatever event he had coming. He had his hair pushed back making a clean but efficient style.
“Who are you?” I finally asked.
“I am everything you could think of,” The man answered. “From your darkest horrors, to your insatiable lust. I could make your nightmares come true or make sate to your desires.” I looked at him and he looked like just a normal tall, pale and slender old man, but his eyes told me different. Somehow I could see the entire universe in his eyes or maybe it was something bigger. I felt madness ensuing as I continued to stare, so I averted my eyes away from his.
“I am the nameless god,” he said. “But a messenger, nonetheless.”
He paused for a while waiting for me to talk.
“Are you those two creatures that followed and tried to attack me?”
He gave me a smirk which would be menacing to anyone who would live to see it.
“Creatures? They are my disciples, and they are meant for you.” He said. "Stephenson was meant to watch over you, Maria was meant to provoke you."
“I don’t understand.” I said out of confusion. Was this man born to only increase my suffering?
“You’re never meant to understand. But I will direct you so that you may understand with such a feeble mind like yours.”
And with a snap of a finger we were directed into the moon from my nightmare. However the starfish like creature wasn’t there anymore.
“Familiar?” He asked.
“Yeah, this is from a nightmare I had.” I answered.
