We had been walking through the hallway for what felt like half an hour. Door after door, we opened them one by one. Each time, it was the same room. Same purple walls. Same painting. Same annoying smell of perfume in the air. It was like we were going in circles, except we never moved.
We tried opening two doors at once. If one door was open, the other refused to budge. They took turns, like they had some sort of understanding between them.
After our fifth attempt to break the loop, I sat down on the floor. My back was against the beige wall, and my legs felt heavy. Daisy leaned against one of the doors with a tired expression. She sighed.
"This place is stupid."
I gave a weak nod. There was no way to escape. No windows. No stairs. No end to the hallway. Just endless copies of one cursed room.
Daisy looked at the wall beneath the painting and pointed at it.
"Break that wall."
I stared at her, confused. She did not even bother explaining.
"You do it yourself," I said without moving.
She walked to the bed, flopped down, and turned her face away.
"I give up."
I was tempted to lie down and give up too, but the idea of spending more time in this loop with her made me move.
I walked up to the wall she pointed at and made a deal.
"I… offer my left thumb."
I waited. Nothing happened. No response. No warmth. No change. The air remained still.
I looked at Daisy. She turned her eyes to me without lifting her head.
"Utterly useless," she said with no emotion.
I wanted to argue but I had no words. I didn't understand why my nightmare wasn't responding. I had felt a connection before. Why was it silent now?
She got up slowly and took out the nail file from her pocket. She held it in her right hand and walked to the wall.
She jabbed the file at it, but it only bent a little. No marks were left on the paint. No cracks. It was like stabbing a wall made of rubber.
She let out a deep sigh and tossed the file towards the painting in frustration. Something strange happened.
The woman in the painting moved. Just slightly. She lowered her head and dodged the file. I blinked in shock.
The painting started to change. Her skin darkened. Her face melted into something disgusting. Her figure turned black and inhuman. The colors twisted until the beautiful woman became a nightmare.
It had been there the whole time.
Before I could react, I forced some of the leftover energy in my body to form a small toothpick-like weapon. I threw it at the painting.
It flew weakly and vanished before touching the wall.
I had failed again. The weapon was too weak. Not fully formed.
Daisy did not wait. She made her deal out loud.
"I offer my nails."
Energy burst from her body. A semi-transparent rod appeared in her hands. It was shorter and fainter than the rods I had seen before.
She did not waste time. She rushed to the bed and stabbed the rod deep into the mattress.
At first, nothing happened. Then the mattress started to bleed.
A dark red liquid soaked through the white sheets. It spread fast. The bed began to rise and fall like it had a heartbeat. Slow at first, then faster.
The more it beat, the more it bled.
I stepped back. My stomach turned.
The nightmare sprang out from under the mattress and ran to the door. It vanished before we could catch it.
We both chased after it without speaking.
The moment we stepped into the hallway again, the door behind us slammed shut on its own. We were back in the endless hallway.
Daisy tried opening the same door again. The room was gone.
I reached for another door and opened it.
It was different. Finally, something had changed.
Inside was a small room, more like a storage space. It had metal shelves with towels and cleaning supplies. A bucket sat in the corner filled with dirty water. The smell was bad.
We stepped inside carefully. The nightmare was nowhere in sight.
I looked at the shelves and picked up a bottle. It was half full. I could not read the label.
Daisy poked at the wall, but this one felt real. Not soft like the other one.
She sat down on a small stool and looked at me.
"So we changed something."
I nodded.
"We forced it to run."
She smiled a little.
"It was scared of us. That means we're close."
I didn't feel proud. I was still confused. I had no idea why my deal failed. No idea why my powers didn't work.
She seemed to notice the look on my face.
"You're overthinking again."
I shrugged.
"What if I'm broken?"
She said with a half smile. "You were always broken."
I rolled my eyes and turned away.
We left the room and walked further down the hallway. It looked the same as before, but now some of the doors had changed.
One door had a crack in the frame. Another had a faint sound coming from behind it.
We opened the one with sound.
The room inside was filled with mirrors. Tall ones, small ones, hand mirrors. They were all pointed in different directions. I saw my reflection from a dozen angles.
Daisy whispered, "Be careful."
The air inside was heavy.
I took a step forward, and all the mirrors started shaking. Then they stopped. My reflection in one of them didn't. It smiled. I didn't.
I turned to Daisy. She had already made a deal. A thin rod appeared in her hand.
The reflection in the mirror reached out as if trying to escape. This time, I didn't wait.
Even if my weapon was weak, I forced the energy again. A thin needle formed in my hand. I threw it before it could vanish. I was close enough for it to hit before completely disappearing.
The reflection shattered, and the hunt officially began.