The hallways were as empty as they were before. This time, though, Dirin wasn't looking for a way out.
Walking through the halls in the endless maze, looking for a single person. With a long door trim that he had to pry off, it sat awkwardly in his hands. It was the only thing he could find that could safely hit the puppeteer without getting within arm's length.
He tried to keep his steps as silent as possible. Alerting the puppeteer would've given his small advantage of surprise away, if he even had that anymore after he messed up last time.
Well, if he is still looking out for me, then his control over his puppets should be worse. It would've been nice if I had gotten rid of him to begin with, though.
The maze started to get straighter again. The doors became fewer along with the turns and twists. The feeling of being watched slowly started to emerge within him. He didn't know if this was just an aspect of the maze where the deeper you went, the straighter it became, or if it was a conscious effort.
Either way, it didn't make him feel very good.
As the halls got straighter, eventually only one door was along the side from time to time. Stopping after seeing it for a couple of times, he figured that was the door the puppeteer was behind.
As he walked to it, he made sure to keep his steps careful and silent. Multiple scenarios started to play in his head. Should he just burst in and try to whack him on the head, or should he try to be more careful about it and stay silent?
He stood there contemplating for a couple of moments. He wasn't even entirely sure about the puppeteer being on the other side. He shook his head. At this point, he was simply wasting time.
He pressed close to the door to see if he could hear anything. He waited to see if he heard any sound at all. When he heard nothing, he slowly opened the door.
Other than the subtle squeaks from the hinges, he was completely silent. He looked over and saw the room empty. He was about to shut the door when he saw a familiar shadow on the other side of the door.
Before he knew it, the puppeteer moved to the other side of the door where Dirin was and stretched his hand out. Apparently, the hinges did alert him.
Almost late to react, Dirin moved the piece of trim in his hand and hit the puppeteer's wrist. A loud smacking sound played in the room as his other hand shot forward as well towards Dirin. He was wincing from the pain in his wrist, but he kept moving anyway.
Jumping back, Dirin barely evaded the hand. He brought the trim back down onto the puppeteer's head, causing it to snap apart on his head. This caused the puppeteer to stumble to the ground, while Dirin's hands started to hurt from the vibrations.
The part of the trim that Dirin did have in his hand was raised. He saw the puppeteer's hand almost touching his shin and brought the trim down hard on the head again. It didn't break this time, but the thud that followed the hit was much denser than before.
A yelp left the puppeteer's mouth as he brought his hands to his head immediately to defend himself, but Dirin didn't stop and kept on swinging his piece of trim down onto his hands until they started to get scratched from the snapped edge.
Sobbing started to sound through the halls, and Dirin almost realized that it was coming from the puppeteer. The carpet started to have small wet spots on it. By the Flame... He can't even take this much! He starts to take over Falem and causes real damage but can't take a couple of scratches from wood trim!
Dirin felt slight pity and slowly stopped hitting him. The puppeteer's knuckles were scratched a bleeding heavily. His hands were red, and even the spots on his neck were red and starting to bruise.
There wasn't much blood except for a couple of drops that were appearing on the scratches.
"Please... stop..." A small voice came through the sobs, and Dirin started to feel a bit uncomfortable.
Then a light flared, and a small flame erupted, causing Dirin to jump back while the puppeteer started to sob even more out of fear and desperation. The fire surged towards the puppeteer and started to burn him.
Dirin had to look away and close his ears to not see the howls of pain that followed. He saw the shadows dance wildly as the fire flared and danced. Eventually, he heard the muffled screams come to a stop and slowly unplugged his ears.
There was a burnt smell in the air that made Dirin plug his nose. He looked back and saw ashes that were in a very familiar shape.
It didn't take Dirin long to figure out what happened. Someone found out where the puppeteer was and decided to get rid of them. Thankfully, he wasn't caught up in the fire. They probably knew that I was a normal student...
As Dirin turned away from the ashes, his mind suddenly zoned out. He felt a quick, cold feeling invade his body and collect towards the center of his chest. It filled him till he felt like he was going to burst and kept going, but a small, hotter feeling left from his back and left more room that was soon filled.
He quickly got to his knees and clutched his chest as the cold sensation kept filling him. He didn't even realize that the halls were normal again, and he was in a destroyed hallway with a cold evening breeze coming in through the destroyed walls.
He only gained his bearings again when he heard footsteps and saw Vale approaching him with sweat all over her face as her own breath was ragged. She didn't have much expression on her face as she looked at him.
In her hand was a phone that was currently calling a number that he couldn't make out. His vision past that point was too unfocused and blurry. He didn't feel like standing up. Even he knew that he was going to probably get down on his knees again if he tried.
"Hey... the puppet guy is dead..." Dirin said with a breathy voice as he pointed to where he thought the ashes were, but they weren't there anymore.
Probably still in that maze... I don't care enough to explain...