Ahh, I remember this place...

I found myself lying on a pile of rubble from above, and I seemed to be a on a lower floor. I was in great pain but, for some reason, it seemed to be gradually disappearing...

I managed to get up on my own without any assistance somehow. I looked at my wounds and they seemed to be going away one by one.

I couldn't stop asking myself: how the hell was I still alive? Surely that huge fall would have broken my skull or something. What gives?

Once I finally managed to stand, at first I had trouble maintaining balance due to the shock I felt from that horrifying experience, but eventually I managed to stand on my own two feet.  

"How...how am I alive?" I asked myself.

"Trust me, I wonder the same thing sometimes," Alyssa suddenly intervened.

"I guess you'll be joining me then?" I asked, already knowing what her answer will be.

"Oh please. I'm just the observer. Do you really think I know how the plot will go? Anything could happen~"

"Seriously, stop breaking the fourth wall for a moment. Can you tell me where we are?"

"Underneath the mansion."

"Is there anyway I can take us to the surface?"

Alyssa just shrugged.

"I don't know."

"But you're like...the ruler of this place. How can you not know?"

"Well...my powers don't work down here. All I can do is appear and dissappear."

I couldn't help but smirk as I thought that maybe I could use this place as a safe haven...sadly I wouldn't be able to access it without people knowing. Not to mention that my mother would definitely be suspicious if I kept asking to go to that secret place where we hit the corpse.

And even if Alyssa couldn't use her powers, she could still appear and dissappear here. Dammit.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Shut up."

"Great answer."

Speaking of the corpse...where was it? Alyssa couldn't have done anything with it if she had no powers here...

Alyssa, as if she could read my mind, answered my question.

"I think the corpse left."

"Wait, how could a corpse...leave?"

Alyssa just facepalmed at my question.

"Zombies, Owen."

"Ah, right."

The fragments of the past, cannot be repaired...

The mysterious voice resonated across the cave, which I then realised wasn't even a cave. It was the inside some kind of castle with walls that had the same mysterious markings as those books in the library...

"W-who's there?" I asked rather stupidly.

But a new future can be made...

It was then that a part of the wall began to turn to dust. When I saw what the cause was, I was definitely shocked.

It was a corpse. A walking corpse.
He was probably the one who made the wall dissappear...

Oh well, I've been through worse than this, this shouldn't be hard at all. All I needed was some kind of magical weapon and I could win easily.

I held out my hand, trying to summon my trusty sword.

I waited...

And waited...

Nothing happened.

W-what...why wasn't it showing up?

"What, are you trying to summon your sword or are you trying to get the corpse to dance with you?" Alyssa teased.

"My sword isn't appearing..."

"I'm starting to think that's the least of our problems at the moment. But that's just me."

The corpse started to screech loudly, letting out a disturbing cry that made the earth shake a little. It then proceeded to run towards us, probably ready to turn me into dust like it did to that wall...

"Any bright ideas, genius?" Alyssa asked sarcastically.

Ignoring her annoying (as usual) comments, I tried throwing at a rock at it, hoping that it would be enough to destroy it. Surprisingly, it was!

As soon as the rock made contact with the corpse, it broke into several pieces. It could possibly come back to life later, but it was comfortable knowing that they could be taken down so easily.

Then again...I didn't have my weapon to deal with. And if their mere touch could make me turn to dust...

Alyssa then clapped her hands slowly, surely as an act of mocking me and not actually congratulating me.

"A rock, huh. A rock is all it takes."

Alyssa frowned.

"These things really are pathetic."

"Hey, I didn't have a weapon! If I didn't have that rock there I would have been finished."

"You're making yourself look more pathetic than the corpse."

"Well..."

Dammit I couldn't think of a good comeback. I had too much to think about right now to be focusing on this petty nonsense.

"...You're mean."

...

As I kept exploring the vast hallways of this mysterious place (with Alyssa levitating behind me as per usual), I couldn't help but wonder what this place was actually for or why it was here...

There were no windows since it was underground, bugs were nesting everywhere in this place due to it being both underground and completely abandoned, no one else was here.
...Except for the corpses.

Not only that but everything around was broken...the furniture, walls, pictures...everything made this place incredibly creepy. I guess Lumina Mansion really was hiding things.

Maybe Alyssa would know something about this place.

I turned to Alyssa and she seemed a little...sad somehow. I didn't even think someone that vile could feel sadness so this deemed like a first.

"I should probably ask if you're okay or not," I said to Alyssa.

Alyssa then looked confused, like I just gave her a math problem that she had no clue how to answer.

"...Pardon?" Alyssa asked.

"I said that I should probably ask if you're okay or not," I repeated.
"Huh..."

"Well, are you gonna answer?" I asked, starting to get impatient.

"I guess...I am...okay...?" Alyssa responded, sounding even more confused.

I turned back to Alyssa who was trying to decipher the meaning of what I just said, without much luck.

"Um...I'm glad, I guess."

My comment only succeeded in making things more awkward. How could I remedy the situation?

"I mean, it's not like I care or anything," I commented under my breath.

"Well...I don't care that you don't care! You're just a lowly mortal after all, while I am all-powerful!"

That was better.

...

As I entered one of the bedrooms, I found something as I looked in one of the cupboards. It was a gun! I could use these to get rid of the corpses in my way!

"Hopefully there's some bullets left in here."

"I don't. You running out of bullets would be hilarious! Slightly predictable as well though."

I just stared blankly at Alyssa with the gun in my hand.

"You know, sometimes I wish I could just shoot myself in the head and end it all."

"Really?" Alyssa asked excitedly.

"...That was a joke."

"...Oh."

"Besides, I thought you were on my side now."

"We are currently in anarchy and chaos, there are no- LOOK OUT!"

"Wha-"

I then realised that a corpse was trying to touch me with its decaying hand, and I immediately backed away before it could do anything.

I shot it before it could get any closer. The bullets seemed to be magic somehow, because as I shot them the corpse was enveloped in some kind of electric shock, and it screamed in pain as it fell to the ground.

I sighed in relief, yet at the same time I was really confused.

I then looked at the gun again. It didn't look like it was magical. Maybe it was me who was given powers?

I then heard that familiar voice once again.

It doesn't matter now...it was forgotten to all but a few. Or maybe no one ever knew?

I was getting really tired of all these riddles by now. It was bad enough when Alyssa was doing it constantly, now this?

Speaking of Alyssa, I hadn't heard from her at all, which surprised me given how often she enjoyed belittling me.

I turned around to see if she was there...and she wasn't.

"Alyssa...?"

Yep, she wasn't there...

Maybe she was just hiding from me to try and scare me. Or she could be searching the area for something...she couldn't have just left me alone, could she?

...Yeah, she definitely did.

Oh well, I had no choice but to go on without her, in this dark and desolate underground place with no hope or chance of escape. I didn't know whether that was better or worse, to be honest.

Not only that, but what could be happening above ground? What happened to Claudia? This was all rather concerning...I had to get back and try to help her. And my mother too, even if I really don't want to. At all.

Oh well. I had no choice but to keep advancing onwards.

...

As I kept exploring all the different rooms I found, I kept getting more weirded out. It was like exploring a killers house in a horror movie.

In one room I found a beehive hanging on the ceiling, and the room itself was incredibly messy.
In another room, the walls were covered with disturbing surreal artwork that decipted human parts, and it looked like they were suffering in hell, screaming for release.

In the room after that...it was entirely empty. That was disappointing. Until I looked up I realised that a corpse was clinging to the ceiling, and I shot it before it dropped down on me.

In fact...there was a corpse in every one of these rooms that jumped at me as soon as I entered. It was like I was disturbing their territory or something, and they were attacking me purely out of self defense. Strangely enough I almost felt bad killing them...

I had a theory that all of these corpses were once people who lived down here, who all knew each other. If I knew exactly what they were doing down here and what this place was, then maybe I could figure out all I needed to know, and why I was being haunted...

As I walked down the seemingly endless hallway, I found a room with the words "KEEP OUT. ROOM OF SLUMBER" written on the door.

Room of slumber...? Was this a bedroom?

I probably should have taken its advice and kept out, but I decided to let my confidence get the better of me and go in away. I was already in a horror story anyway so why not just follow it's clichés? I had nothing to lose.

I flung the door open with my gun at the ready in case of any corpses, prepared to shoot the living crap out of them.

...But there was no one there. Or rather, nothing that was alive or undead.

Instead I was in a large room full of that had little in it. It didn't look out of the ordinary...it looked just like a normal bedroom, similar to that of the mansion up above. It had two beds, a night stand, a cupboard (which I refused to open), and the ceilings were covered in that familiar archaic language...

Other than the strange language, the only thing creepy about it was a blood stain on the floor. I didn't want to think about why it was there...

I then realised that something was lying on the ground next to the bed, like someone carelessly threw it there. I think I saw a spider crawl on it, but I tried to ignore it because my curiosity was peaked.

As I decided to lay there on the bed (it was surprisingly comfortable), I picked up the book below and decided to read it.

And when I saw the first page I couldn't believe my eyes. This was what I read...

...

eNdLeSs

-Diary of Alyssa Hartmann-

I'm not sure what entirely to put here...Sain suggested I write down my thoughts here. But I have a lot of those...far too many. They're almost endless...I think I might need to get more books to write them down in.

Oh well, sometimes it's fun! And fun is infinite, fun is forever. After all, even when you're dead, you can still have fun in heaven for eternity.

Books fascinate me...they're like little universes inside paper. Going through the chapters of their lives...what if this is all just one big story that God has written? What if we're all just characters meant to fulfill a role?

It's all rather deep. And I want to learn more someday. Sain has told me stuff that he's learnt but they haven't properly taught me yet...I'm not ready to know yet, it seems.

They all think I'm immature, I know they do. Just because of that one time I pretended to be possessed, and I wrote cryptic messages on the walls, like "fun is endless" to scare people. It was just a harmless prank!

But I was in serious trouble for it. I see even less of Sain than usual now.

I'm worried that he may be intentionally avoiding me these days...it gets lonely. I don't want to be lonely. I don't want to be alone.

I don't want him to leave me...

But I have hope. Apparently, all things will be well soon.

Maybe then I'll be able to see him more...

...Ah well! Let's not dwell on that now.

This is just the end of one chapter, and the beginning of another.

...

I stopped reading there because I needed to process what the contents that I just read were.

This...this is gold.

This must have been written by Alyssa when she was a human, before she became what she is now.

Not only that, but it was actually an insight into her mind and her past.

I don't think I've ever been this curious about anything before.

I wanted to read more, but I wouldn't have felt comfortable doing it in what seemed to be Alyssa's bedroom, underneath the mansion. Which is inhabited by walking corpses.

I honestly just wanted to lie on this very comfortable bed. It was so nice and comfy, not as good as my real bed but at this point I would take what I could get.

I kept my gun in my hand, and my book in the other, just in case. I would definitely be taking her diary back to the surface so I could examine it further. I had hoped that maybe this would have her weakness or something...

Damn...this bed really is comfy...

I felt my eyes begin to close as I realised that I was falling asleep...I kept my hand firmly on these two items, but as I felt myself go into a slumber, my grip started to get more loose.

But then, as I opened my eyes, I immediately became wide awake.

Because above me, I saw one of the corpses stand by the bed, looking down at me.