A faint flickering light down a dark hallway. The only sound she can hear is far down that path. A constant thumping, in rhythm with her heart. Shadows playing tricks on the walls as she starts to walk. Her legs feeling weak, her bones aching.
Further and further she walks, the flickering light never-ending, the thumping noise infinite. She blinks her eyes once, twice. The hallway seems to go on forever. The shadows taunting and dancing around her. Her mind starting to twist around on itself. She can’t remember from where she had come.
She breaks into a jog, a run. Shadows dancing, light flickering. The darkness seems to envelop her more the further she runs. Adrenaline and blood flowing through her veins, thumping in her head. She looks over her shoulder, seeing only darkness closing in, the light dying from behind. She runs as fast as her legs can bear. Her magic gone since the start.
This is a place of no magic, a place beyond time and space. She runs next to the Gods themselves. Onwards and onwards. She has no end in sight, no redemption. The darkness, the light, the shadows; her only companions. Her mind twisted from the start. Her memories erased by her own beast within.
Running and running. Laughter joining the distant thumping noise. A child’s laughter. Several children’s laughter. Echoing around her, edging closer. She can’t stop running, for the darkness would erase her. It is a trial, a hearing of the court. The court of sanity.
A sudden light blinds her eyes, breaking her stride. The darkness behind her gone, the thumping noise remaining. But the laughter is soothing. The warmth of the light covers her face.
She looks around the big room into which she has entered. The roof extends into the cosmos, disappearing into the darkness that was once behind her. Aligned among the walls there are tubes with white liquid. She can’t see what is within.
The laughter again, but without its echo. It’s close, right in front. She blinks once, twice. It is someone she knows.
“Mother.”
And then it comes. It returns, the memories of where she had come, of why she had done what she had. The girl with the golden hair, the child of the tube.
“Alicia...”
The girl walking towards her, arms stretched out and a solemn smile on her lips.
“I missed you, mother.”
The mother, Precia, standing still, frozen, mouth hanging open. Unable to see that her wish has come true. She falls to one knee and receives the child in her embrace. Closing her arms, still unable to believe it.
“Alicia... It’s really you.”
“Of course it is, mother,” the girl whispers and hugs her, “who else would it be?”
Precia holds her tight, overcome with emotions, her mind in turmoil. Something is there, edging inside. A noise. The thumping noise. It had disappeared and now it has returned. She shuts her eyes tight and open them again. The thumping noise is there.
“Alicia?” Precia asks and release her embrace. The girl comes into her view again. Grinning.
“Something wrong... mother?”
Precia kneels frozen, staring at the girl whose face starts to melt. An eye starts to wander by itself, freed from its socket. Teeth falls out, clinking on the floor. The abomination smiles with a smile, a black hole in her mouth.
“Mother,” it says, its voice from another world. Precia kicks away from it and stands up, shaking. Darkness lingers around, waiting to strike. The thumping noise, over and over. She stares at the walls as the tubes starts to open. White liquid flooding the floor. The once warm light on her face replaced by ice through her veins.
“Mother...”
“Mother!”
“Mother?”
“Mother, mother, mother, mother, mother, mother.”
The word echoing in the endless chamber. Abominations circling her and approaching. Her mouth is open in a silent scream. The faces are melting, their voices becoming demonic. Something else hides inside them. She sees her daughter transform into monsters. Their flesh in shambles, their blood being boiled.
The darkness gives chase. It swoops down from the infinite. She starts to run. Again. Away from the abominations that still shout the word that has lost its meaning to her. Away from the things she once called daughter.
Into the hallway again. The flickering light beckoning in the distance, the thumping noise left behind. The darkness continues its chase. Her mind starting to turn and twist in the corridors of chaos. Memories fly away, stolen and erased. The darkness consumes and embraces.
And she stands there again. A mind clean and empty. A faint flickering light down a dark hallway. The only sound far down that path. A constant thumping, in rhythm with her heart. Shadows playing tricks on the walls. She starts to walk. Again. For the cycle is but repeating.
Such is the true end for the insane.