A Serenade for the Innocent - 128 The Pale Glass

The growling noises continued outside of the door, but the centipede-like monster did not try to open the closed door of the hall. Is it locked, perhaps? Oh, I don’t give a crap about it anyway. It’s not like he’s going to kill me. What I saw then is a vast black room. And I mean it, the damn room is HUGE! I could see that thousands of people could fit inside of this damn place. The walls are pitch black, but the room is well-lit enough for us to see out faces clearly but not as bright as the second area.

“Hey, are you okay?” The salesman uttered, which took me back to reality. I then moved my head towards the direction of his voice and saw that he’s currently kicking the still convulsing body of the policeman. It was only a few seconds since we’ve entered the fourth area of the dungeon, but the policeman is already on the floor going all stupid. I think the salesman actually dropped him once we got inside. “Do we still have some bandages?” The salesman continued as he looked around us.

“We don’t have any…” The silver man said as he wiped the blood on the nurse’s forehead.

“How is she?” The salesman asked with a sigh, not even thinking about the policeman anymore. Well, if my knowledge about the ‘seed’ that has been planted to him is accurate, then they wouldn’t be able to ignore this man for far too long.

“Not good. She’s still breathing, but she lost consciousness earlier, and she still hasn’t woken up.” The silver man continued as he took his necktie off with a sigh. He then wrapped his tie around the nurse’s forehead. “This is the least we can do for her.” He then looked up at me while he continued to kneel beside the nurse. “I’m sure you’re the one who agrees the most about this, father.”

Ah… Indeed, she’s the one who ‘saved’ me while I was dying away in the first area. In fact, I really might actually if it weren’t for her swiftness. I might actually have to be thankful for her. However, at the end of the day, she’s still just another entertainment segment in this bitch of a reality segment we call Antonova Family’s Dungeon. I knelt down as I mumbled a few genuine prayers for her while touching the wound on her forehead. This is how I usually pray; not the blown-out SOS message I shouted earlier.

“I don’t know if any of you believes in prayers, but…” I sighed while looking at the pale face of the nurse. “I’m a priest, not a doctor or a nurse like her. This is the best I can do for her that I actually know best.” I then continued to kneel beside her as I solemnly clasped my arms tightly while mumbling a few prayers for her beneath my breath. My sincerest prayers that the Lord would save her from the demons plaguing her head right now is the compensation I can swiftly give for the care she had given me earlier.

“Hey, priest,” The salesman said gently with her usual rude tone, but I can at least see a bit of genuineness in her mood at the moment. “do you know what the hell that damn monster was earlier?”

I then opened my eyes gently with a sigh before doing the sign of the cross. “Yeah,” I said with a weak sigh while patting the nurse’s head gently. “I already told you all what they are actually. They’re the Crawlers.”

“Fucking hell…” The salesman said with a sigh as he walked around the hall slowly while swiftly brushing his head back. “What the fuck is this place, man? Can you seriously tell me that that shit is real? Hey! HEY! LISTEN TO ME, YOU TWO! Can you both honestly tell me that we had just seen something real back there in that stupid wooden room?”

“You saw it yourself, Mr. Salesman.” I sighed with a defeated look on my face, trying my hardest to end this talk soon with something cute and fun-sounding. The part where I have to explain about the Crawlers when the dungeon participants finally saw them is the part of the ride that I hate the most. “You saw him, you heard him, you smelt him, you could have even tasted him if you tried, and I’m sure the policeman knew very much what it felt like to be touched by him. He’s real, the realest you could have ever found. Heck, he’s even realer than God himself now that we’ve actually seen him.” I then scoffed as I looked up at the ceiling above us. What I saw are four white light bulbs placed at each corner of this enormous square room. “Is this conversation even necessary? Whether he’s real or not is the least of our problems. We have to keep moving forward, we have to take these two with us, and we have moved on. Look around you. This place is empty. That means some messed up hell will happen again sooner if not later. If you want to know about him so much, why don’t you open that damn door and see for yourself.” I said while eyeing the white door of this empty room.

The salesman then scoffed, unable to refute what I had just said as his eyes landed on the sleeping man on the other side of the room. “Why can’t we just leave this piece of shit behind?” The salesman said as he gently kicked on the now unconscious policeman’s head.

“We can’t do that.” The silver man said gently as he looked at the nurse who’s sleeping beside him. “We agreed with the nurse that we will leave no one alive.”

“YEAH, BUT WE JUST LEFT THAT MAN’S CORPSE ON THAT OTHER ROOM!” The salesman said as he pointed his hand towards the door that we used to enter this new area. “You know, the one with the pendulum or whatever that shit is! And don’t you fucking dare say that it’s okay because he’s dead! This policeman is already dead!”

“He’s still alive.” The silver man said as he tried to move the nurse’s body gently to make her sleep comfortably.

“He’s already going to die; shit, what do I know? HE’S PROBABLY DEAD ALREADY! What else is there to think about here? He had done nothing to us other than to talk, talk, talk, there’s nothing but bullshit leaving this son of a bitch’s mouth! There is absolutely no reason for us to take him with us.” The salesman said in rapid-fire motion without even stopping to breathe. He answered all of those words while continuously kicking the policeman with varying intensity.

“With that logic, then we’ll leave you too.” The silver man uttered with eyes filled with determination as he looked at the salesman.

“What the fuck did you just said to me, you little shit?” The salesman said as he swiftly approached the silver man with knitted eyebrows while pointing his forefinger towards the silver man’s forehead.

“I said what I had to say.” The silver man said as he pushed his forehead forward to make his skin touch the salesman’s finger. “You did nothing but complain, complain, complain throughout this whole shit. If we leave the policeman behind with that same logic in mind, then both of us should stay here while the priest and the nurse should move on till they reach the exit. Don’t you think so?”

The salesman then gritted his teeth while looking at the silver man with eyes filled with anger. He then moved forward and was about to strike the silver man’s face with his fist. The silver man didn’t budge and just allowed the salesman to do whatever he wanted. Meanwhile, I just looked at the two of them while trying my hardest to conceal my laughter.

“IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE SOMEONE IN THIS DUNGEON SO BAD, THEN BOY, DO WE HAVE THE BEST OFFER FOR Y’ALL!” The distant voice of someone yelling outside of the room boomed all over our surroundings. It sounded like the voice of a young man talking to a microphone.

Suddenly, from a few meters away from us, we saw four walls outside of this room move up to reveal what lies on the other side of it. Only then did we realize that we’re actually inside a hall wherein the walls are made out of nothing but glass. I thought for so long that–actually no, I already know about it, but I bet the rest of them don’t. At first, everyone would think that we’re inside of some sort of enormous square room. In actuality, the place is just small enough to fit eight people at best, and the wall we’re actually seeing all this time is located far, far away from us.

“Wh-what the fuck is it this time?” The salesman said with a weary voice as sweat started to fall out of his face again.

“NO NEED TO FIGHT FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEAVE! WE WILL GIVE IT TO YA!~” The booming and deep voice of the man who’s loudly reverberating from outside of our glass room continued to speak with his proud tone. It was filled with so much power that one could definitely tell that the speaker has been doing this game-show-like gig for so long. “This is it. This is your big decision-maker! Play a game with us and win stunning prizes! The walls around us outside of our room continued to lift up until we could faintly see the harsh lighting coming from the other side. The man then chuckled on the mic as we heard the murmuring voices of countless people from the other side of the metal curtain. “La question c’est voulez-vous!”