Charlie turned to find a giant face staring back at him, as wide and tall as his vision, a blank ghastly ghostface with shapeless features, no identity, no soul.
He’d seen the mask before, but now amplified, grotesque in its size and scale.
The eyes were black holes, empty and yawning.
The mouth was a straight line, neither smiling nor scowling, yet it managed to judge him with its lack of interest. The face saw through him, if it saw anything at all.
The effect set him back on his heels and he nearly stumbled into the lockers behind him.
“What is this?” His voice echoed up and down the hallway.
A black hole opened in the face in front of him. It was like a tear in space-time, a portal into a new dimension, the mask opening to invite him in.
It was black and filled with stars. The Game told him:
You’re a Watcher now, Charlie. You earned it.
The words echoed in his Aziteks.
“Where’s Vanhi?” he shouted back. “What did you do to her?”
Come inside me.
“Where is she?”
Come inside me, Charlie, and All Will Be Revealed.
“If I’m a Watcher, can I see anyone?”
Yessssssssssssss!
“Can I see Vanhi?”
I See ALLLLLLLLLLLL
He didn’t want to go inside. It was another victory for the Game. Going higher, clearing more levels, didn’t feel like winning.
Yet if Vanhi was inside, he would step through glass into a house of pain.