"Hahh…" Catheris sighed as his mother berated him with empty insults, it was like this every week; couldn't she at least be a bit merciful to her own son?
'I don't know why I still let her get to me, even after all these years… ' He thought while facepalming himself.
"–-Catheris! I…"
The long-haired man was leaning on the doorframe leading to his bedroom. He was about to go to sleep before the incessant ringing of his phone intruded on his uneventful night. Catheris held his phone's speaker up to his ear, simply muttering "Uh huh" and "Mhm'' mindlessly whenever the woman tried to voice her point. Currently, the prospects of marriage were dreadfully looming over his head. It was a trivial thing, an annoyingly constant reminder every few months.
"-Catheris, don't you hear me?! God, all the relatives are berating me to nag you to get a girlfriend. Isn't it nice being at that age, young and energetic?"
'No.' He thought tiredly to himself. He was already exhausted after the first yell she'd thrown at him when he picked up the call.
'What will it be this time..' Catheris had asked himself wearily, but gave in anyway. It'd be best to get it over with already rather than to save this for later.
***
"–Alright, alright, I get it. Just promise me you won't set up a blind date on my end."
"–Look! I would never–it's just–you know. Catheris… you actually have the option to choose whoever you like. I'm not trying to rush you but do balance your romantic and professional life. Your father, he's just some"–She hiccuped–"–fucking stupid bastard of an alcoholic. You've been at that job for two years now. When I married your father I was-" her stuttering became an intelligible mess.
Catheris had already put the pieces together of what the situation between his mother and his father was. The time he was born, their age, and his family's standing made it obvious. He simply accepted it as 'just a part of my situation' without fighting it.
"Mnn, I'll consider it, it's currently very late where I'm at and I'm tired from work. I'll call you later." He said half-heartedly, and promptly hung up.
Oh saintess. He groaned to himself, palming the side of his face in exhausted frustration. The instant solace he felt from the ding signaling the call was over felt so good. Everyone loved to comment on his apparent single status these recent years. He wasn't bitter about it, and he wasn't intending on changing that fact anytime soon for another few years anyways.
It was such a funny thing though, wasn't it?
Who'd even care if his cousins teased him, the adults still used it to fan the flames of their mundane gossip circle—not that it bothered him much, but still, bleh. It was not a good thing to be name dropped during their talks.
Rather than being irked by that, the fact that dating wasn't even an available option until recently did. When he was younger, anything involving the opposite sex was discouraged.
"Focus on your current studies so you can afford a family in the future. Don't play too much." some relative would randomly blurt out when he was still a student.
Unlike other nations, Virosiad's norm was marrying fairly early at 22-24. They must be desperate for some nieces and nephews from him probably. But rarely anything caught his interest, maybe that was an "issue" in of itself which was the root of his lack of a spouse.
As it currently stood–he didn't even know if finding a lover was possible.
Like the first time experiencing a drug's euphoria worth chasing, Catheris only felt the mere fleeting spark of a crush. All of his life he preferred to be an outsider to whoever his crush was, shyly admiring from afar as if they were parallel lines fated to never touch. He could deal with that but—in the past, it did bring some awkward moments when a fling wanted to be more than a hookup.
Ah, enough of that, he'd be catching himself regretting his school years if he continued on.
'Alright, it's bedtime.' Catheris shook his tired-pensive expression away to interrupt any sprouting thoughts.
The comfortable navy blue silk set was a moving present from one of his rich aunts. He also got new bed sheets from some fancy brand imported from overseas, unfortunately they were unworn and stiff.
'Plain is best.' Catheris thought while looking at the pajama's design, no patterns, just a nice color and material – some things were luxuriously simple.
His body tossed and turned uncomfortably against his bedsheets. It wasn't the soft, worn feeling he was used to.
"Hah.." he sighed in frustration.
'It's been strangely peaceful recently... it's a bit suspicious.'
Catheris laid staring up at the ceiling: the naive curious spark from his eyes had faded years ago from his bland lifestyle, leaving them dull and listless, where they blinked occasionally with no tiredness pulling down on their lids.
***
Dreams vary depending on person to person. Whereas some awaken their psychic prophetic visions, others meet their dead lover. Of course, it could be some inexplicably random scenario that pieced poorly together. There were even rumors that saying you're in a dream in a dream will result in the atmosphere instantly snapping against you, and thus resulting in you getting kicked out, ending with an abrupt awakening. Some reason it's because you're expecting the worst result. Some do not dream at all.
As for him?
Ever since he was a child, he was fond of the grandiose scenery laid out for him by his dreams: a sweet paradise from real life affairs just for him.
All alone, just by himself touring without a care in the world in a domain where time seemed to have frozen solely for him. He'd seen plenty of luxurious palaces, ballrooms, large modern mansions, architecture from various cultures, hidden rooms and even basements with aquariums that filled the area with a soft, soothing blue glow.
Sometimes clues were made about the setting, hinting towards drama such as small office details.
In this occurrence his dream had dolled him up to fit the theme. He wore a high-collared white dress shirt, black suit pants, a rather fine pair of leather dress shoes, and a neat black tie with two silver clips on the lower right of it. His light makeup and orange-red lip tint he wore to work were here as well.
The chill and thin clothing made his hair stand on end. It was probably early morning in the corridor he was positioned in. The lights weren't on and it was dimly lit. His slightly worn shoes clacked while he was wandering about in the hallway on the sterile tiles–seemingly untouched. The clacks felt so loud as they echoed in the dead silence. Catheris had long been adjusted to it though, it was a common occurrence when touring lonely places.
It didn't take long for Catheris to find a door at the end and firmly click it open. The office room was a large cubicle. To his right and in front of him the walls were completely glass, showing a lunch area outside. And notably, in the middle of the room there was a large tree on an elevated cube platform. It looked cool– it seemed like an extravagant placement, but what would he know?
The sky was a deep orange indicating it was summer–or at least warm weather unlike the real world. A familiar sight and his most treasured time of day: twilight. Early in the morning where there was a dim light, yet when the sun hadn't fully made its appearance yet. Catheris would argue it was the most peaceful time of day.
The other non glass wall had a pair of double doors as well. So of course, he took the chance to go explore. This current setting was too bland anyway.
Something felt off the moment he stepped into the hallway—which looked the same as his starting point, but with a few differences. The lighting didn't match the rest of the building. Cold fluorescent lighting illuminated the room; it seemed to be night, as if the two areas were not connected. It felt slightly colder in this section as well.
Ah, so this was the reason why.
Catheris felt his head getting significantly lighter as he walked through the hallway with seemingly no end. The hallway led to other hallways, which led to other hallways.. which led to other hallways—you get the point.
'It's not like I need to find my way out after this.' Catheris repeated over and over again as a mantra to reason with himself why he should continue exploring the confusing layout, but his thoughts sounded unconvincing to even himself.
The abrupt alteration to his senses in his dreams he'd come to learn meant that he was probably near a "secret entrance", like his weight feeling heavier, or his vision becoming blurry. Sometimes there could be a secret bookshelf door, or other things along the line of that concept—but… It was just walls and walls. There was only one conclusion based on that.
tap.
Sound and time seemed to have stopped, and now the sound of his own footsteps were the only thing that could echo in this pitch black void. However, the scene was momentary. He blinked, and after his vision adjusted to the new light it seemed to be a hallway, this time the atmosphere was eerie. An uneasy feeling attached itself to him.
Walk through walls: a classic.
It was pitch black in the spots without direct lighting, and even then the warm-colored ceiling lights flickered erratically. This was most likely a whole other area; usually "secret rooms" would merely lead to a hidden scene of the main setting. However, that did not seem to be the case, the mood did a complete 180.
The floor was sunken concrete wearing scratches all over, and the walls were an almond-white with thin brown stains which appeared to be coffee splotches. They had bashed-in holes that showed the hollow interior, and also a suspicious fine white powder dusted on the surface (which Catheris noted smelt bitter). It was… definitely odd to say the least.
Nonetheless, while Catheris could've stopped, let's be real here: that was the boring option. Humans sleep for 8 hours a day. When you tap into your consciousness whilst dreaming, with a setting like Catheris's the intrigue was definitely there.
It wasn't a feeling that made him feel on edge, but rather an adamant reminder to stay wary. Like all the other hallways that have come before this one, of course, it linked all the rooms together. Usually he'd investigate and find details littered all over which revealed a vague outline of a story, like those dollhouse death scenes[1].
But it was the operation room-like feeling of it all that bothered him. The electrical room, when Catheris walked past it, felt too intimidating with all the monitors staring blankly into nothingness, and the only working security cameras displayed fizzed-up static. Evidently his dream did not want to go the extra mile, and ignored the visual elements that he didn't need. Another seemed to room a sole desk, with a single light looming over it like an interrogation room.
Continuing into the hallway, the next room was slightly open as if it were trying to lure him in— yet it had nothing to show for its abnormality.
He found himself on a short concrete staircase. It was the water pipe room of the facility: concrete walls, concrete floor, and pipes which ran up, down, and across the walls. The room was lit by a singular lightbulb barely hanging on a string from the ceiling, exuding a dim orange incandescent brightness. Catheris opted to go down further anyways, for curiosity's sake.
"huuuuu.."
Apparently–yes, all there was to this room was the water pipes. Strangely enough, for a moment when he found himself under the lightbulb he felt a light weight pressed on him. He could have sworn he saw a humanoid shadow's movement on the wall behind him flash by, but the proportions were eerily uncanny. When he glanced towards the direction it was in, the weight became heavier in an instant.
But the weight was momentary, and Catheris was taken aback and still getting that breath he couldn't take; he was about to scream any second if it were any longer.
Oh saintesses, what a waste of time.
But what Catheris didn't even notice was that even under direct light a harsh shadow branched off from his own. The shadow seemed to have entered a liquefied state, trickling into the light's way and moving like water, forming a messed up net formation underneath him.
"Hahh.."
Well the rest of the area certainly had much more to offer.
Catheris began to take a few steps before he felt a faint change in the surroundings. The whole situation felt off.
Ghost touches played with Catheris's sensory perception, and he felt faint brushes against his skin. He thought nothing of it besides the fact they were slightly ticklish, slowly pausing before putting it off as just his imagination and ignoring his gut feeling. Until whatever was stalking him had struck,
what he ignored came back to stab him.
It was fucking painful.
The first thing he picked up from the thing following him—was that it had sharp claws.
***
C3 Author's note
[1] Vox did a great video on this, I highly recommended checking it out