And Deeper

"W-what the hell's going on?" He said aloud.

He then saw a sudden movement in the distance and saw a small girl in a purple dress, dashing towards the back of a house. "Hey, wait!" Morphie called out urgently.

He ran after her with his feet pounding on the gravel like crushed leaves with how quiet the area was.

He turned in the corner he saw the girl scampered off to but instead of white-washed walls and pathway to the backyard like he'd expected, the scenery changed right before his eyes.

The house itself seemed to converge completely into something else, melting like candle wax and seemed to lengthen. He continued to run, noticing the distance going almost endless and awfully trippy with how everything seemed to change shape around him.

Then the strangest thing happened. The image of the suburban houses completely transfigured into a long hall of bookshelves of varying colors. They were huge and towering.

He blinked confusedly in realization that he was no longer in the suburban road filled with symmetrical houses but was now in some type of old library filled with oak bookshelves lined one after the other; he could see in between the gaps of the shelves that there were even more around the room. The place felt like an entire maze of it.

This is a dream. He thought, feeling both relief and dread over the realization that he was just having difficulty waking up. He began walking hurriedly in the long hall, mind set up that his panic might be hindering him from waking up properly.

"Wake up you idiot! Wake up!" He muttered to himself, biting at the knuckle of his finger in anxiousness before he heard a small voice beyond the towering bookshelves.

"I know what happened, Daddy."

Morphie came to an abrupt stop at the sound of a girl's voice. He turned his head to the side and hesitantly peeked in between shelves to see the same girl in the purple dress from earlier, looking up at a dark shadowy figure of a man standing a meter away.

"Why won't you say anything?" The girl said desperately.

The shadowy figure sighed. "Robin, listen. You don't understand. Your Mom and I need some time off. She just needs to stay with her relatives for now."

"No she isn't! You're trying to keep her away!"

"Robin--"

The little girl put her hands on both of her ears, scrunched up her face as if she was holding back tears. "I know your secret! I know your secret!" She chanted stubbornly.

"Robin, for God's sake--Anne, get in here."

Morphie saw another figure--this time of a woman with her hair pulled up in a neat bun. "Sir?"

The man pressed his fingers to his temple, seemingly in a great ordeal of distress.

"Get her out of my sight." He gestured towards the girl 'Robin' flippantly.

"No! Daddy!" Robin cried out, running to close the gap between her and her father when Anne had raised a hand as if to usher her out.

There was a sound of loud slap and a thud as Robin's small back hit the shelves.

The silence that followed seemed to ring in the empty space. Morphie could see Anne's figure purposefully looking away in the other direction, as if casting her eyes away from the scene might completely remove her involvement in the entire situation.

Morphie stepped away from the gap he was peeking in, feeling entirely both sad and confused. He kept his eyes downcast as he tried thinking the situation over.

What was he seeing? He had no clue who this girl was and what this dream meant. This had never happened before.

He heard another sound of a slap and raised his head quickly; dream or not he couldn't bring himself to ignore the situation. But as he did so, the scene before his eyes was now different.

There was no longer a man and a woman before him but little Robin still stood there, staring blankly ahead at a familiar dark shadowy figure with glowing eyes slowly approaching. It was the same creature he saw in his dreams and at the cubicle; albeit smaller in its form.

"Hey! Get away from her!" Morphie abruptly called out in a panic, trying to push at the gaps between the bookshelves. Robin's big startled eyes remained on the monstrous figure that seemed to carry shadows on his back; its tendrils expanding in the vast space of the room and swallowing it in inky, dark gloom.

"Little girl! Um, Robin!" Morphie called out, banging on the shelves and causing books to fall out. Robin turned, startled as if she had just noticed her now.

"Robin! Run!" He shouted as the dark figure approached her at an alarming space.

Morphie grabbed a hold of the bookshelves' pillars, causing more books to fall and that seemed to startle Robin out of her trance. She quickly ducked away from the shadow's large fingers and bolted towards the hall behind her.

There was still an irrational and long line of bookshelves in the hall dividing the space between Morphie and Robin but he kept at pace with her as she ran.

Her erratic, terrified breathing seemed to echo as they ran at the same pace. Still horrified over the malignant presence following closely behind, it was strangely still and slow in its eerie approach.

"Help me!" Robin shouted to him upon seeing there wasn't any end to the long hallway nor a gap in between the bookshelves she could slip through to get to him.

"It's okay! Calm down. That thing is a bit too far to get to us." Morphie said quickly, slowing his pace a bit and stopping to take a breath while Robin did the same.

Robin's eyes were glassy with unshed tears, no doubt not believing a thing he said as the dark shadow in the distance was still gradually approaching.

"Um." Morphie's mind reeled. "Robin, listen. This is just a dream--" He began saying slowly.

"No it isn't!" Robin turned her big black eyes towards him, full of doubt and now flowing with tears. "Don't lie to me! You lie just like Daddy!" She began to bawl now and Morphie could almost kick himself with how he was handling the situation.

"Okay, I'm sorry. But I'm not lying, Robin." He said earnestly, trying to peek at her eyes through the books and conveying his sincerity. "You have to listen to me. That hallway isn't gonna end. I know so because--because I sometimes get so caught up in my thoughts that it gets into my dreams."

Robin was still sniffling but seemed to be listening to him attentively. "S-so I need to calm down a bit and take a deep breath"

Robin seemed to do exactly that but for a completely different reason. She started to argue back. "But!--"

"You're gonna have to trust me, okay?" Morphie said quickly, eyes flicking to the side at the still steadily approaching figure. He felt the fine hairs on his arms stand up at the sight of it.

Robin pursed her lips and nodded quickly in agreement. Morphie let out a breath before he started to instruct her. "Okay so, take a deep breath with me."

Morphie demonstrated for her and she did the same though her breath hitched a bit in alarm when the creature suddenly made a shrieking sound in the distance though its walking pace stayed the same.

"Just--just think good thoughts, Robin. You're doing good." Morphie said aloud, feeling bad at the sight of her crying her face and doing her best to try and listen to him despite the terror she must be feeling.

"Now, think about the library you're in right now. Is it supposed to be this big?" Morphie asked urgently. Robin spent almost a few seconds trying to understand the question, seemingly troubled in figuring out what was wrong with the question. "N-no?" She said with hesitance.

"Okay now touch the books in front of you." Morphie said and Robin quickly did what was asked.

"Can you feel the books with your fingers? J-just focus on that. That's real. As well as your feet and the floor you're standing on."

"O-okay I can feel it." Robin's fingers seemed to tremble from where Morphie could see it in between the top of the books.

"Now think about the hall again. Is it supposed to be that long?" He asked, keeping his voice as steady as he could.

"No." Robin said, with a bit more assurance this time.

"Good. Because it isn't real." Morphie said insistently. "A-and because it isn't real, it means you can get away from there."

"Really?" Robin asked and her eyes still remained scrunched up shut.

The shadow was closer now and Morphie's heart started to pound in fear. "Yes. So keep thinking that again and again, Robin."

"I-I can get away from here." Robin started to chant aloud as the approaching shadow started to get nearer and was almost within its reach. "I can get away from here. I can get away!"

Abruptly, the towering bookshelf dividing them began melting away like candle wax and Robin stepped through right as the creature's hands stretched out to the spot she stood before. It only took a second for the bookshelf to solidify again and Robin and Morphie were left staring back at the shadowy figure just looking straight at them with lifeless eyes between the shelves.