Footsteps echo throughout the dark and desolate hallway, devoid of any life and people. The hallway lacks any light, with the only source being the faint pink glow coming from the long vein embedded into the surface of the hallway. The vein seems to spiral constantly down the hallway, as it is slithered up the floor, walls, and ceiling as it leads down the path.
Following that path are the source of the only sound in the otherwise entirely silent hallway, the footsteps, alone.
Those footsteps are Rohan's, who walks down the empty wide hallway, making sure not to step on the veins while trying to follow where they lead. He wears his green jacket and blue pants, with his messy hair atop his head.
While his hair is black, as it should be, there are a few noticeable gray and white hairs, as though it's a sign of aging even though he's only in his teens. He doesn't seem to notice however, and just carries on while trying to find the end of the nightmare.
As Rohan steps over the vein once again and continues walking, he keeps his arms by his side as he wonders what is going on with his body. While he has felt a few short pains during his walk, he still seems to be alive, as it's clear that somehow he is being protected or spared.
It's hard to tell though how long he's still alive, as he still feels pains throughout his body, as even without the main stinging he feels a constant passive pain that he has learned to suppress to keep focus. Even then, he can still feel the lingering pain.
While the nightmare and all the horrors he had to face were keeping him on edge, what truly terrified him was the acknowledgement that at any moment the dream could end and he could simply cease without warning. As long as he's in the dream, his body is still somewhere in the real world without him looking through those eyes. At any moment, that body could be destroyed, if his body was assassinated, so would his mind.
While it would be technically an end to the nightmare, it wasn't one that he exactly yearned for, as he didn't want his last moments to be spent in such an abomination of a world. If he would have to pass, he'd rather do it around real people living in his real body, but then again he'd rather not pass at all.
While Rohan walks, he looks down at his left hand, which he brings up in front of him. He stares at his fingerless hand, which had seemed to stop bleeding, however his hand is still covered in his blood. He understands that while his fingers may be gone in the dream, they're likely still on his real body, and so if he does indeed escape he'd have his body whole again.
Even still, he can feel the absence of his fingers as though they were real, and he still can't help but feel that he is still indeed mutilated. Also, while only some of his fingers are cut off in the dream, there's a chance that his real body may face far worse fates while being vulnerable in the real world.
There's a chance that if he is able to get back to the real world, it'll be in a body that has nothing but a head connected to a torso, with the rest messing. He could come back to a trap, and maybe this whole nightmare is a staged distraction. There are infinite horrible possibilities to wake up to, and he has no idea what he'll find until he does, or if he does.
But if he doesn't even manage to make it before everything goes dark and his body is destroyed, he isn't sure how that would feel like. As he walks down the hallway following the vein, he finds himself contemplating what death would even mean, and what it would be like. He's never really contemplated such a morbid topic until now where it seems to be all that's on his mind.
He knows there are people who believe in a higher power, who believe that after death souls are then transported to different planes of existence where those souls will live the rest of eternity. Some souls live in a cloudy paradise where they live in peace, and others will be brought down into a fiery purgatory where they suffer without end.
However, Rohan himself never believed in such ideologies, as to him, he found them illogical. He has never seen a higher being, and every creation or component of existence seems to be explainable with science rather than being left up to the excuse that it was created by some higher power. Although the introduction of Exhumans and the Superverse have shaken the pillars of society's understanding of their existence, Rohan knows that there is a science behind it after experimenting on himself.
To him, Exhumans and the Exmatter that created them and the Superverse are nothing but an advanced science that society has yet to reach understanding of, but with innovations such as the one that the Babylonians are after, it's clear that they are trying to reach that understanding. So with that in mind, he sees no way that after death he'd wake up in some alternate plane of existence where his soul would live for eternity under some supreme ruler.
But if that weren't to happen, what would? If there is no place after death for him to go to, where would he go? If there was nowhere, then that means he would simply cease. But such a simple answer begs for more questions, for he isn't even sure what it means to cease. He isn't sure if that means that he'd live in darkness for eternity with no way to wake up, but if his brain dies, that means he wouldn't even be able to think.
He wonders if death would just be a conclusive end where he'd simply never see past the barrier. He'd just stop doing, stop thinking, everything would stop. He wouldn't even know that he's dead because he wouldn't be able to realize it, he wouldn't be able to do anything. The second he'd die, that'd be the end, a peaceful resolution, but one that terrifies him.
The thought of death only makes him feel more desperate to find an escape. Even if he were to wake up dismembered, and have to be physically crippled for the rest of his life, he couldn't bear the thought of losing all consciousness.
The idea of never thinking again, of never creating new ideas when all he lived with were those ideas, was a horrifying nightmare that made him shiver. In fact, even if he were to die himself, he'd never know what death would feel like, because he'd never be able to feel it past that point. That was why regardless of how many simulations were out there or how many lectures were online, nobody could truly attain the understanding of what death's experience is like, for nobody ever does, not even those who pass.
It's odd to realize too that even though he has a few people close to him, he has his brother and his parents back home, if he were to die, he wouldn't really be remembered much. Sure, his family would mourn him, but besides that he'd be nothing.
There is no legacy to Rohan, he has yet to even build much of a legacy for Meditat. If he were to die, so be it, there wouldn't be many people who care. His death would hardly affect anything in the grand scheme of things, his life itself was rather meaningless.
But knowing that doesn't make him feel like giving up. If anything, it feels like a challenge to be taken, to give himself a meaning so that he would become something greater. When he does eventually die, as he's sure he won't live forever even with his abilities, he wants his death to truly mean something.
He doesn't exactly want the world to be in pain from his absence, he doesn't want anyone hurt from him even if it was to be his own death. But he hopes that in his death he could somehow inspire others to perhaps try being the best people they can, and so even if he were to die, his legacy wouldn't.
But while that all sounds bittersweet, none of that would ever be able to happen if he dies during this one dream.
Rohan takes a deep breath, remembering deep down that he has to keep living. This can't be where he dies, and tonight can't be the last day he lives. He has only started his life, and there was so much more to do.
He lowers his hand and begins walking faster down the hallway with a strengthened determination to pursue forward. He has to keep living so he can make a memorable legacy that'll bring about a good change to the world.
He has to keep living so his eventual death won't be meaningless, so it won't make him feel regretful, but rather he has to keep living so when he eventually passes, he'll do it knowing that all those years of living were worth it.
His train of thought comes to its station as Rohan notices a door in the distance, seeming to be near him as it becomes visible from the proximity he is to it. He walks with more haste towards it, finally finding a door to take, as he sees the vein seem to enter through a wall.
However, as he approaches the end, he notices weirdly enough that the vein seems to go through the wall from Rohan's floor, as though the door would be oriented normal to him. Although, as he turns to his side, he is reminded that technically he is walking on a wall, and so the door should be oriented on his wall rather than his floor.
Then again, this was all a dream, and so a lack of consistency isn't exactly impossible. It does make entering easier anyways, and so he walks towards the door regardless, hoping that he's close to the end.
Rohan approaches the door at the end of the hallway, and he takes a deep breath as he mentally prepares himself for whatever he is going to see on the other side.
But no amount of mental preparation could truly set him straight for what he does find through the door.
The door opens in Rohan's presence, and as anticipated, the door seems to be normal to him, as though it's a regular door and he's in a regular hallway. He slows himself down upon entering the room, becoming cautious as he slowly curls his hand to a fist to defend himself when necessary.
As he steps past the doorway, Rohan's eyes immediately shoot wide open, as he immediately recognizes the room that he is inside. To his surprise as well, the room is oriented normal to him, meaning that he is walking on what should be the floor, and what is above him should be the ceiling rather than him walking on the walls.
He surveys the room that he enters, examining it to be an expansive and luxurious bedroom, with walls that have a beautiful pattern of gold and white, with the overall room having a sparkle to it.
It almost appears to be a bedroom in some mansion from how luxurious it is, as it contains a large individual closet space which inhabits the room with stunning mirrors on top of modernly designed dressers.
As Rohan steps completely inside the room, he notices a pile of clothing on the floor in front of him. He looks down at the pile to see the clothing seeming to be of a female, with a collection of skirts and tank tops.
He has seen such piles far too many times, which leads him to raise his head up to analyze the rest of the room, since he was interrupted by the pile before getting a whole look.
Inspecting the room once again, Rohan finds that on one side of the bedroom has a large work desk with a hovering chair with luxurious leather, and on the other side is a spacious king-sized bed that sits behind the far wall.
Nearly the whole far wall is a large window, allowing view into the city beyond, which seems to still be oriented abnormally, with the surface wall likely on the far right side as skyscrapers stick out horizontally.
Rohan's eyes dart back to the large bed standing by the wall, as he finds that while most of the bed is clean, there is someone sitting on the far side of the bed, their back turned to Rohan as they seem to face the window.
The person seems to be only about maybe a foot shorter than Rohan, give or take, and is likely to be female given the long and soft brown hair that runs down her back.
The girl wears a light green blazer over her body, with her sleeves seeming to be in front of her body, as though her hands are on her lap. She stares silently out the window, with only the back of her upper body visible to Rohan.
However, even just the hair alone is enough to help Rohan identify the person. He doesn't expect to see the green blazer either, as he only saw it earlier in the year, as it seemed that the wearer of it had changed styles over the first year.
He didn't expect to see her before graduation again, even though he knows that it's not truly her.
The girl he stares at on the other side of the room was another part of the dream, just like everything he has seen, and he knows fairly well that it isn't really her.
It's a sick and twisted joke to have her appear in the dream, especially since he knows it's being engineered by the twins, who had witnessed the turmoil he had with this girl.
Rohan's whole body shivers, and he takes a step forward into the girl's roommate's room. He gulps, unsure of how to act, as this didn't even feel terrifying rather if anything it felt deeply painful to experience.
Rohan's eyes contract to a hateful glare, and he looks up at the ceiling, as though trying to stare at someone far above him. He then shouts angrily, "I know none of this isn't real! I know she isn't either, this isn't funny! This is sick and demented, do none of you have any boundaries?! Is everything on the table?? You'll do anything to hurt me, even making me go through this? Well I know it's not real, so don't think I'll fall for your joke!"
While he was yelling particularly towards the twins, hoping that they'd hear him, he doesn't get any response from them, as they're either not there or simply not intervening.
However, he does indeed get a response, yet it's not in either of the twin's voices. Instead, it's spoken in the soft and gentle yet pained and damaged voice of the girl Rohan loved, Erica, who sits on the other side of the room.
She softly asks, "Was 'us' not real either?"
Rohan freezes, his eyes shooting wide open again. He slowly lowers his head and turns to face the girl on the other side who asked the question, feeling another shiver.
He stares at her back for a few moments, and even though he knows it isn't truly her speaking, he can't help but feel tears begin to well in his blue eyes.
His eyes contract to another aggressive glare, and he turns his attention back to the ceiling before yelling, "THAT'S NOT FUNNY, AND NONE OF THIS IS! YOU CAN TORTURE ME WITH MORE JUMPSCARES AND GORE AND WHATNOT BUT THERE HAS TO BE A LINE! YOU CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS TO ME!"
Once again, he doesn't hear a reply from either twin, but once again, he hears a response from Erica, who mentions, "But you never stopped what you were doing to me. Not even when I finally had the courage to talk to you about it did you stop."
Rohan goes silent again, and he gulps while staring at the ceiling, realizing full well that he'd get no response from the twins, as the only person who'd talk to him was the girl in the room.
He lowers his head and turns to her, looking back at her as she stares at the window in her green blazer. He takes a deep breath, and wipes his eyes with both of his hands, collecting all the tears before they could roll down his face.
After two rubs, he moves his hand off his face, and back down to his side. He stares at Erica for a few moments, and sniffles, knowing that even if it wasn't her speaking, it was still speaking the truth.
Anything that Rohan would say to her wouldn't be heard by the real her, in fact the more time he spent talking to her, the more time he spent stalling while in the dream, which he knows is exactly what the twins want. He knows that there's a good chance that there'll be some horrifying reveal from the girl, and she'll surprisingly be some terrifying monster who tries to kill Rohan just like the older him in the office.
Talking to her would be pointless. If he ignored her, it wouldn't be the real her getting hurt.
Rohan notices the vein run down the bedroom and under the bed, leading to the window. He tilts his head to see that it seems that the vein sticks out past the window, and it seems to move outside in the larger branch he remembered seeing when he first fell on the building.
The branch was there, he had gotten to it, he was finally at the place to begin crawling to the brain. He was so close, all he had to do was break open the window and take the branch up to the spinal cord, and from there he'd climb up to the brian.
He could just ignore Erica entirely, it wasn't really her anyways, just an avatar, a part of the dream. He could just break the room, if she tried attacking him he could push her to the side, and he'd be able to end the dream in no time.
But even then, regardless of knowing that she isn't the real her, Rohan can't find the will to go with such a cold plan. While he stares at the body knowing it's not containing the true Erica, he can't just ignore her and continue finding the twins.
Even if he was voluntarily playing the game that he knew he could easily ignore and pass, he still felt like he had to, because it was wrong doing anything else.
Even if it wasn't really Erica, he couldn't run away from her again.
Rohan takes a deep breath, and he slowly lets it out, knowing that what he was doing was likely a stupid waste of time spent illogically, but that wouldn't change his choice.
He lets out the breath, and softly responds back to Erica in the dream, "I'm...I know...I know what I did. And we were real Erica, we...the love I had for you...it was real...the time we spent together was real it wasn't fake."
Erica lets out a soft sigh, and she quietly comments, "But you left me. You went off to chase your fantasies in the colorful city while you left me here in this dark dorm. When did it change? When did I no longer matter to you?"
Despite Rohan's best efforts to hold back his tears, his eyes become watery again just as fast as he wiped them off. He then exclaims as tears begin running down his cheeks, "You never stopped mattering to me Erica, and you still do! I know I don't seem to love you anymore and I can't say that it didn't look that way because I know it did, but I still love you! When we were talking on the bed that one day and you asked me why I seemed to be off on my world, I was off on my own world because I was trying to chase the thing that hurt you. I was trying to learn about what had happened to understand what had taken Maria away, what had left you here alone. And when I put on the suit and tried to hunt those people down, I was trying to hunt down the people who hurt you! I...I...you always mattered to me Erica...I don't know how to explain it and maybe what I'm saying sounds like an excuse but you always mattered to me…."
Erica lets out two sniffles, as though she too was holding back tears. She stays silent for a few moments, sitting on one side of the room while Rohan stands on the other side.
Her back is turned on Rohan while he stares at her with wide and reflective eyes, with tears streaming down his face.
She gulps, and she softly asks with a hurt tone, "Was...it wrong for me to kiss you that night? Did I force you into something you didn't want? I know it was selfish...I told you before I even did that, I told you that I didn't want you to feel forced to help me, but as selfish as it sounds, I didn't want to lose you either. But was it wrong of me to keep you like that? If you so clearly wanted something else...was it wrong for me to make you my lover…? I knew that you weren't making any romantic advances on me, sure you were willing to go along with my requests of wanting more time with you, but you probably just saw it as charity. All I was to you was charity...and I made you mine. Maybe I shouldn't have done that...maybe this is my fault...it was always my fault…."
Rohan sharply inhales upon hearing Erica's question, as it only causes him to tear more. Was that what she thought? No, it wasn't the real her, it was just doubts being played by the twins trying to stir him up. It wasn't really what she was saying.
But did she think that? Did she regret ever having been with him? Did she feel like it was a mistake for her to show her love for him? In the end, it was her who took the initiative, if she didn't, Rohan was unsure if they would've ever been together.
But that wasn't a good thing, that would've been horrible if he never was with her.
Rohan argues back, his voice shouting, not aggressively but with a deep painful passion as he tries to explain himself to the girl he knows isn't there: "No, it wasn't wrong of you to do anything! That is not even slightly true! Besides, sure you kissed me first, but I wasn't forced or obligated to follow at all, I could've rejected you or left earlier if I didn't care. But I stayed, because the truth is, even if I didn't seem to have any romantic interest in you the first time I saw you on that first day in the dorm lobby I already fell in love with you! Look, before you I didn't really understand love, the most I saw were couples walking down hallways in grade school and kissing in front of classrooms."
Rohan sniffles again, and he continues speaking, his voice seeming to break as he doesn't shout loudly but rather speaks boldly, conveying a deep passion in his voice, "I didn't understand it, I never felt any real connection with anyone and I wasn't sure what the point was or what you'd get out of it. But even though I had no idea what the point of it was, part of me deep down still wished I would've at least been able to experience it. Because even though I had no idea what those people were feeling when they were with someone they loved, I wanted to know what that feeling was. But I always told myself it wouldn't happen so I shouldn't think about it, so even when I saw you on that first day I told myself to forget about it and move on like I've always done. But when you took it upon yourself to get closer to me, and then you gave me that kiss, you offered me that love I never thought I'd get."
Rohan lets out a deep sigh, and he continues in a softer and gentler voice, "And please don't think that I saw the time with you as a waste, because the time I had with you, even as short as it might've been, was one of the most important times in my life. You didn't make a mistake, in fact I never really thanked you enough for what you gave me. I didn't deserve your love, and to be honest I don't think I have the inclination to pursue it in the future, at least not now. There are better people out there for you, people who can dedicate the time you really deserve, and the fact that you chose me made me feel special, more special than I should've. I know that I didn't make the sacrifices I needed to for love, I know that I'm not good at juggling that life, because even if I were to tell you I'm that blue comet in the sky it wouldn't excuse anything. I know that...and I know that I hurt you so much by agreeing to be with you...but if it means anything...I loved the time we had together. And I would never give it up for anything. Never...so it wasn't a mistake. You-, we were never a mistake. Even if it didn't pan out the way we would've hoped, because I don't know if you trust my word but I really wish that it wouldn't have come to this, I still love the time that we had together, and I will still cherish it even after I have to leave you."
Rohan closes his eyes, and he takes a deep breath in before letting it slowly out after having gotten everything off his chest. The tears running down his face stop as he seems to cry everything he had, and he stares with calmer, more dreary eyes, knowing what would come next.
He lowers his head, and quietly states in a sentimental voice, "I know that eventually you're going to get up and show me that you're some demonic and horrifying version of the girl I loved, so just save the dramatic buildup and get on with it already. I'm waiting right here, guys. Just let me get it over with."
Erica lets out a deep sigh after hearing Rohan's speech. She then lowers her head, as there was truly nowhere else to go but the end.
She slowly stands up to her feet, and as she does, the green blazer she has on her begins falling off her body, as though she doesn't have it properly worn on.
Rohan raises his head and stares at Erica, and his eyes start to widen more as even knowing that there'd be some sort of horrific scene isn't enough to prepare him for the sights that he'd have to bear witness to.
In front of Rohan and on the other side of the bed by the window stands Erica, who stares right back at him. As the green blazer slides down her body, it reveals her clothing underneath, as she dawns the basic white top and green shorts that she has always worn as pajamas when cuddling with Rohan in bed.
While that much is normal, what isn't is that both of her arms are completely missing, leaving exposed sockets on her shoulders, which is what let her blazer easily fall off her body.
Even more, her face is truly horrifying, as it seems as though her own face has been ripped off, leaving her face to be red with bright blood running down the remainder of her face.
Similar to the older Rohan in the office, she also seems to be missing eyes, with exposed bleeding sockets instead.
Different from the older Rohan however is that rather than having no teeth, her mouth seems exceptionally large, with rows of razor sharp teeth lined down it, even on her tongue. She appears like a monster, her face stretched out as she opens her mouth more, which causes her mouth to seem to stretch horizontally as well, as it seems she has a split in the center of her mouth which makes it almost appear as though she has two mouths connected, almost like a snake.
Rohan stumbles backwards in sudden shock as Erica suddenly begins screaming in a painfully high pitched voice, and her armless body pounces onto the bed. She then pounces off of the bed and towards Rohan, seeming to be chasing him while blood drips down her face.
Before Rohan could escape the room, Erica catches him, and her foot stomps down on his own with an unexpected weight that seems to crack his foot's bones.
Rohan grits his teeth in pain as he falls backwards from the pressure, and he collapses on the pile of Maria's clothing, as though falling on her dead ashes.
Rohan lays on the ground as Erica stands over, and she starts chomping at him, as if trying to bite him. Rohan stares with wide eyes as he tries moving his body, which is harder due to the obstruction caused by the clothing.
Erica's whole body bends down before trying to bite again, almost like a crow trying to eat its meal.
Rohan moves his head to the right side, and Erica bites the pile of clothing where his head once was. She brings her head back, and Rohan moves his head to the left side before she also bites onto the clothing in a failed attempt to bite him.
However, as he stares at her, he realizes that he wouldn't be able to keep dodging forever. He looks up as she bends herself back, far more than what the human body should take, giving her an inhuman flexibility.
Rohan instinctively tries to protect his neck, lifting his left arm out in front with his forearm in front of his body.
Erica then bends back down to Rohan and opens her mouth once again, to which she finally chomps on him. However, due to the shielding, her mouth only manages to bite on Rohan's arm.
Rohan's eyes widen as he realizes that his arm got caught, and he watches as Erica's amber eyes stare right into his, and she slowly bites harder down on his arm. Rohan screams in agony as he feels her sharp teeth sinking into his flesh.
If she was built any similarly to the older him, he knows that she is likely fragile and thus easily to defeat. However, knowing that almost feels worse, as he doesn't want to have to kill her, as even though she's a monster she still is Erica.
Erica bends backwards, trying to stand up straight while her teeth stay in Rohan's arm.
She then jerks her head to the side, and with surprisingly strong force, she rips out Rohan's entire left arm right out of his shoulder, pulling it off while keeping it in her mouth.
Rohan's eyes widen as he stares at the blood splatter in front of him, as his whole arm is disconnected from his body, similar to the way he disconnected Jullian's arm in his first mission back in the city.
The large drops of blood fly over Rohan's face as blood spits out of his arm socket in large quantities at first, with more dripping out of the arm that lifts up in Erica's mouth.
Erica stands up straight and she then jerks her head again, spitting out the arm and throwing it off to the side.
The detached arm flies straight into the mirror above the dressers, causing the glass in the mirror to shatter from the impact. The shards of glass become wet with the red blood, leaving only a few fragments still on the mirror, still hanging on.
Erica turns back to Rohan instantly, and she bends down towards him as he stares back at her with wide yet wincing eyes, feeling the intense pain of the dismemberment.
She lowers herself to have her bleeding face above his, and she opens her mouth again, showing her teeth which are now red from the blood she sunk them into from Rohan's arm.
She then screams again in her high pitched voice, straight into Rohan's ears. He winces as saliva shoots at his face from her mouth, knowing that next she'd try biting his head off.
Rohan stares back at Erica with wide eyes, and a tear escapes his right eye as he curls his right remaining fist.
He quietly apologizes, "I wish I didn't have to do this, I'm sorry," and he throws his right fist straight at Erica's forehead.
Rohan's fist penetrates Erica's forehead, as his fist punches through her brain and out the other end. Guts of her brain fly out, and immediately Erica stops moving, her scream being cut short.
More tears run down his face as he stares up at the demonic Erica, and he slowly pulls his fist back through the hole.
He stares helplessly as Erica has a gaping hole in her brain with exposed guts, which reminds him of the nightmare he had of the school, where Cratus caused the exact same death to a helpless Erica while Rohan could only watch under Indra's hold in the dark hallway full of other student's bodies.
Now, he has done the exact same move to the demonic Erica, and he watches as she slowly begins to collapse after having been defeated.
Rohan immediately gets off of the ground while Erica falls, and he catches her with his last remaining hand, holding her back as sits over her body.
He watches as tears fall down his eye and onto the white shirt, causing it to wet, as he had to kill the person he just confessed everything to. Even if she was never real in the first place, it hurt just the same.
Rohan gently lowers Erica's body to the floor, letting her rest on the pile of clothing, as if using it to blanket her fall. He places her down and takes his arm out from underneath, bringing it to his side.
Rohan stands up to his feet, staring at Erica's defeated body, her face bloodied with her forehead punctured. It was a terrible fate for such an innocent girl who just wanted to help people, even putting others before her.
He lets out a deep sigh, knowing that it is now over, and he has gone through the final room. He takes one more look at the body, and then turns away, turning his head to the window she was staring at, the window to freedom.
Rohan walks around the bed and towards the window, his whole left arm now gone after having it ripped off him. He stands in front of the window, and lowers his head, seeing the vein run past him and out the window before seeming to transform into a larger branch that sticks out of the building and moves up in the air.
He stands in front of where the branch is, and takes a deep breath, knowing that without one of his arms, he's at a major disadvantage. If he were to try climbing now, he'd need to rely more on the friction of his body to hold himself rather than his arms like he planned before.
Rohan, deciding that it's the best course of action to take given that he needs a more rubbery material to grip better on the branch, puts his right hand over the zipper of his jacket, and grabs it. He then unzips his green and white jacket before throwing it off and on the bed behind him.
Now without his jacket, Rohan stands shirtless, as he never indeed put a shirt on before chasing after the Babylonians in the elevator, which felt like ages ago. Now without a shirt, he'd be able to use his own skin to grip the branches better, even though he'd rather not make such contact.
Without having much choice, Rohan steps straight up to the window. He then brings his arm back, and with all the strength he can muster, he slams his elbow straight into the window.
The strike causes the entire window to shatter at once, as though it was just that weak. Shards of glass fall beside Rohan, with some falling off of the building, letting him feel the cold winds of the nightly breeze outside.
Rohan shivers at first, but he takes a deep breath and controls himself. He then walks towards the branch protruding out of the building, and he looks down to see that while it seemed larger earlier, it's surprisingly slim.
In fact, while the branch is no doubt thicker than the veins, it seems like more of a rope, which would make it more dangerous to walk on.
Rohan looks farther down as his eyes follow the rope, and he sees that it runs straight down for a short distance before then curling upwards and seeming to move up in twists and turns as it moves towards the titanic spinal cord.
He takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out, trying to get any jitter out of his system, as this move would require complete isolated concentration.
Rohan puts his right hand in front, realizing that holding it out would make him unbalanced due to him not having any counterweight on the left side. So instead, he holds it in front of his body, and places his right foot on the slim branch.
He then moves his left foot off of the flat safe ground of Maria's bedroom, and he brings it in front of his right foot, stepping completely on the branch.
As Rohan places the last foot out of Maria's room and onto the branch, he's met by a horrifying surprise, as his body begins to fall forward, as though leaving the room suddenly throws him off the seemingly regular gravity he was able to enjoy in the dorm room. He falls straight forward, holding his right arm out in fear as he lets out a terrified scream, once again falling straight down the city, which he was trying so hard to avoid.
To his seemingly nonexistent luck, he does manage to fall straight into the part of the branch that curves upwards, as since it's straight ahead it gives him a place to fall to before he could fall too far.
He groans in pain as his right arm immediately grabs around the branch, gripping tightly as he uses his body to hold on. He breathes heavily as he stares straight down at the infinite void of the city, knowing that he was so close to falling down it.
Rohan gulps before breathing heavily more, knowing how lucky he was to have caught something. He slows his breath down to a calming pace, still clinging onto the branch as he tries to figure a way to start crawling up.
He slowly holds his right arm farther out, and grabs onto the branch farther ahead of him. Holding tightly, he drags his whole body, sliding it across the branch, which only seems more painful now seeing how he'd need to climb.
He grits his teeth from the burning sensation, but carries on anyway, knowing he couldn't retrieve his jacket anymore. He brings himself as far up as he can, and while clinging onto the branch with his legs, he continues the same move, pulling himself up with his right arm.
Rohan crawls up the long branch as he makes his way towards the spinal cord, climbing over the endless hole, with buildings placed down below him. He doesn't dare look down, just trying to focus ahead of him, concentrating on every pull while he drags himself forward on the tightrope.
He eventually manages to reach the point of the rope where it starts to curve and twist, to which he has to start reorienting his body around the branch to continue.
He starts to circle around the rope slowly with every pull as it twists in a creepily organic fashion, as it feels as though the whole spinal cord and branches are like an overgrown vegetation inside an abandoned building, which in this case is the city.
He gradually circles around until his whole body is upside down, warranting more careful and stronger pulls as he now utilizes the lack of upper body clothing to grip himself better onto the tightrope above him, hugging as closely to it as possible.
While Rohan crawls up the branch upside down, he suddenly hears a crack above him, which immediately makes him stop. His eyes shoot wide open and he sharply intakes, confused by the sudden and nerve racking sound.
He stops moving, making sure to grip more tightly to the branch, fearing that it may not be integral enough to hold him. He grits his teeth and slowly breathes, hoping for the best as he stares at the building ahead, seeing the broken window and the bedroom behind it.
His fears become worse as he hears more cracks above him, but before he can react, he hears a snap.
The part of the branch he grips onto snaps off of the system, and it begins descending down, no longer held up with the rest of the branch leading to the spinal cord.
That smaller part then seems to crack even more before shattering in Rohan's arm, almost as though it's made of glass.
The many pink fragments slowly descend down in the large quantity, with each so small that it's nearly microscopic. Different shapes of shards plummet in the black air of the cold long night, the body of the only tool capable enough to save Rohan from death, destroyed.
The many fragments fall past Rohan's body, with the crimson drops of blood on his shoulder not much smaller than the fragments themselves. The shards all pass through Rohan as they fall into the endless void while small tears of Rohan's fly up from his eyes, with the other shards just falling past them.
The pink shards fall far past Rohan, with eventually nothing below his body but complete utter darkness.
The darkness of uncertainty turned to hopelessness.