The world Matthew roamed in the recesses of his mind was as he said. Walls of concrete and floors of tile. Like some horrible hospital. What made this place strange was the glass he saw as he walked down the halls. None of it lead to outside, but to other rooms. Like they were to observe the patients, but that word, for some reason, sounded wrong to him. But if not patients then what?
"What do you make of this place, Brian?" Matthew asked and looked down, but his shadow was that beneath his feet, "Brian?" he knelt down, in case he couldn't here him. He didn't hear a thing though, but what he did see was what he didn't notice from the beginning. The floor was dirty, like it was never cleaned. He looked around him and the walls were musty too, stained with drips of something from time to time. "Does anyone hear me in here?"
Then he heard Jake again, like he was next to him, "We do, we're right next to you."
"I can't hear the others." Matthew said, "It's like they don't exist."
"They're not there?" Jake said, "Someone take note of that..." There was no answer for a while. For a while Matthew was just walking down stairs looking for the main floor. The dead silence while roaming was new to Matthew, for once, he was alone. Walking down the halls, his shadow not pointing to things around him, no one trying to talk to him ever second. Even when he stopped to look at his reflection in a window, it wasn't just a vixen that looked like him in there. Then he saw something on the opposite of glass. Matthew tried to get a look at it, but then it came to him. It smashed through the window, The First lunged at Matthew.
"Oh Crap!" Matthew shouted and ran as The first clawed his shoulder. "The First is here!"
"What? How?" Jake shouted, "If you're in you subconscious, and none of your other personalities came with."
Matthew panicked as he ran "What do I do then?" As he ran glass windows exploded on him "I can't even see if he's following me!"
"Matthew, Calm down." Jake told him "This is the equivalent of a dream. You'll wake up before you die."
"So I can't really die in here?" Matthew asked, and, just then The First jumped from behind a corner to try and grab him. Matthew dodged in time and kept running with it on his tail "Then what do I do about this?"
"Fight it." Jake said, "If you Fight and beat it, then you can kick it out of your head. This is your world and your mind, Matthew. You rule this world."
Matthew tried to think, of what that could mean, and then it occurred to him when he saw a window up head. He ran faster toward it and dived through like The First did when he saw him in this dream. He dove into it and landed in the shards rolling, but he didn't feel a thing. He smiled knowing he couldn't even get hurt here, and he picked up a shard waiting for The First to come after him. But when he sprang up to cut him, The First wasn't even there. He saw It when he turned around. It pushed him through the broken window, and Matthew actually felt the glass still in the frame cutting and piercing into his lower back. His head hit the tile floor as he yelped in pain. As he slid down a bit, The First jumped out with a shard of his own and slashed his face.
"Aaaahh!" Matthew cried in pain, as his head was knocked to the side
"Matthew, It's just a dream!" Sera called to him, "You're okay."
"Do you see anything Matthew?" Jake asked
Matthew mainly saw the his blood splatter on the wall. It started to drip more as it should and swerve a bit as it ran down the wall. It made words "Heyt All iwll reffus."
"What was that?" Jake asked but Matthew didn't answer, "Matthew."
Matthew was in horror as The First forced him to look at it. It raised a knife and plunged it into his eye.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Part 23

Title: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/23622128/

Part 22: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/26104420/

Part 24: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/26236871/

Kari ©  fuzzieredpanda

other characters, story, and art © ME