FIRST: PLUNGE INTO DARKNESS

"This is the last time I'm takin' an art course." Julia muttered, as the huge labyrinth of hell spread in front of them in a frizzle of white-azure light. "Wasn't all of this supposed to be dead or something?" "Wasn't he?" Carl added, pointing in a way that could only be transcribed as: 'There is something behind you that you don't wanna see, but you'll have to, and it's more powerful than the rest of us put together.' Everybody turned in slow motion.

"Jeeeee-sus wept." Julia said, her voice spindling off.

"Look, the last thing we need are bad Frank impressions, so will you -" Mrs. Linkert started, turning around as well. "Nevermind."

A looming, grotesque, almost inhuman (well, sort of) figure hung over them. The pale blue flesh shimmering from underneath the monstrous tentacle, and the arms stretched out like in a perverted image of a Hindu god. Dr. Channard. Or what had become of him.

"Look who's come to play." the figure said in a stoic tone, no emotion behind it whatsoever.

"Uh, great, you go fetch the dice, and we'll....do....uh, something!" Julia replied, backing away.

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" The monster replied. "Sorry, doctor's orders. You'll have to stay in bed." Channard's voice revealed a gleam of satisfaction.

"Sorry, doc, but I already have a family medic, and you ain't him!" Julia shouted, pushing the other two ahead. "Thank goodness." she added, as they were running.

"It's not that easy." Channard's voice was only a slight whisper, but strangely so intense everyone and anyone could hear it. "Welcome to despair, enjoy your stay."

The entire floor toppled.

"Oh, SHIT!" Carl spat out, as the three were thrown downwards. Blackness engulfed them. And Channard appeared to be smiling, quite pleased.

The darkness blurred into a blueish light.

"Am I dead yet?" Julia groaned, in a tone that would actually say 'please let me be'.

"You still look ok." Carl said apologetic. She sat up. They were in a huge cavern, the walls in blueish gray, but nothing more on first sight. "Ok, great, here's the storyline: I - don't - know." she said blankly. "Channard was created and died in one movie. And this is obviously, or hopefully, not it."

"Well, that's all good, but what do we do to get out? We gotta destroy Mr.Organ-Donour." Carl said with a lot of emphasis in his voice.

"If four demons of hell died trying, what chance do we got?" Julia replied.

"Well, we - " Mrs. Linkert started. "I have no idea, but I'll give you both straight 'A's if we make it out at all." she added, looking clueless. "IF we make it out." Julia echoed, unamused. She suddenly grimaced, rubbing her back. "Y'ow! Anyone else has this feeling of a spinal transplant?" she growled, looking to see. "Oh jeez - great, just great, we landed here of all places!" she whined, picking up a shredded chain. "This must be that old geezer's idea of dramatic irony!"

"Wait, maybe this isn't where the Cenobites died." Carl said . "See, there aren't any bodies, and the chains aren't hanging from the ceiling. It can't possibly be -" he stopped as Julia raised her hand, gesturing him to do so. She flipped open a blood-stained, yellowish piece of paper , revealing a very familiar photograph of an officer. "It is." she said, her voice cracking, tears collecting in her eyes. "He killed them all."

Carl started a movement to comfort her, but she quickly jerked away from him, and he flinched away. Silence swept over the darkened cavern rapidly. "We're done for." Carl said.

"Hey, now don't be pessimistic! We'll just find the box -" Mrs. Linkert started.

"Lament Configuration." Carl and Julia corrected, both at the same time. Julia's voice was more of a sob.

" - Lament Configuration," Mrs. Linkert rephrased, slightly annoyed, "and lock him back in and ourselves out! Easy as pie!"

"Yeah, the concept is, but the way to get it isn't."

Carl was nervously staring in the distance.

"Uh....that....that's Julia." he muttered.

"I know I'm me!" Julia snapped back, obviously loaded with tension. "So -" "No! Not you!" Carl replied quickly. "The other Julia!" he pointed at the fleshy, skinless, female figure that was stepping inside.

"So how do I distinguish-" Carl begun.

"Just call me Gil for the time being." said the un-hellish version. " 'Kay." Carl shrugged.

"Admit it." the hellish Julia mocked, a hideous grin spreading over her skinless face. "You need the box to beat him. But you forgot something about this place. Ever heard 'o Psychoplasm?"

"As a matter of fact, I did hear of Psychoplasm." 'Gil' shot back. Carl and Mrs. Linkert threw clueless looks at her. "Well, I read about it." she explained. "In 'Spawn' comics." she added lower. Carl and Mrs. Linkert groaned. "Well, it's sort of like this weird substance, and it becomes anything you desire. Or fear. Depends." she explained.

"Pffh, yeah, right."Carl did the 'get-outta-here' motion with his hands. "As a matter of fact, it is." Julia said dry, and both her and her 'human' counterpart sported the same 'I hate it when no one's listening to what I'm saying' look.

"It is?" Carl said thoughtlessly.

"Yes, and this entire cavern is filled with it. Only that it isn't this liquid ooze like you'd expect it to be. In fact, it's invisible, unless - " she motioned with her fleshy arm, and in another white-azure zap, a miniature crossbow appeared in her hand. "- you wish it to appear."

"Does it work?" Carl croaked.

As a reply, Julia aimed the crossbow at the wall, a white bolt of energy appeared instead of an arrow, and was flung into the wall, causing a blinding flash of light.

"Does that answer your question?" Julia narrowed her eyes at him.

"Not all of them. Why are you telling us all this?"

"Well, actually it was just supposed to make you feel you have chance but take away your hopes because none of this will actually do enough damage. What the hell. There is only one way you might have a chance to barely escape, but I doubt any of you three has the guts to do it. Or will have guts after it." she snickered evilly. "Well, good luck then!" she vanished into the shadows.

SECOND: TWO'S A COUPLE, FOUR IS A TEAM

"Great. That answers my question of 'Is-she-still-on-Channard's-side' perfectly." the unhellish (and now back to her normal name) Julia groaned.

"Which would leave us..." Mrs. Linkert begun.

"With only one other skinless zombie that would help us just to get back at her to go." Carl said with a dry throat.

"You've GOT to be kidding me!" Julia glared at them. "We don't have the time to find him, not to mention he's the most unlikeable and disgusting and untrustworthy character in the entire series!"

"I heard that." came the voice from the back. Julia mouthed a 'shit' while turning around.

"Well, you know, we all say things we never mean...." she muttered nervously.

"Nevermind." Frank replied. Stepping into the light, his shirt looked a lot like it was naturally red instead of white. It looked more grotesque than actually disgusting. "But why would I risk my afterlife on a wild-goose-chase after that tentacled son-of-a-bitch, ever since Julia and I -" Everybody glared at him, the unhellish Julia raising an eyebrow. "-Oh, you know!" he hissed annoyed. "are absolutely even now?"

"Uhm, that's a really good point you're making there...." Carl started. Frank was just in the process of walking back into the shadows.

"YOU'D BE FREE FROM THE BONDS OF YOUR HELL!" Julia yelled after him, almost accusingly.

He stopped in his tracks.

"Good reason." he simply said, a chuckle droning in his raspy voice.

"Does this Psychoplasm thing-ee really work?" Carl asked no one in particular, as they were walking.

"Well, it's all around, so it's got to be good for something." Frank gave back, mocking.

"I don't need your opionion, Mr. Peeled Tomato!" Carl replied, in a fit of courage. Frank glared at him for a while, but Carl seemed a bit too build up to notice that. Both settled down.

"Well, I guess I can always try..." Julia decided, held both hands as if already holding a staff or something together, and concentrated. "The last thing we need is a broomstick. Sure, this place is a mess, but--" Frank rolled his eyes.

There was another sharp electric frizzle, and a massive polearm appeared in her hands.

"You were saying?" she sneered at him.

Frank mumbled something to himself and then shut up. The polearm sported a huge pyramid-shaped tip with one jagged edge and two small hooks grafted on it. The entire handle was also out of steel (all was one piece, instead of several ones pieced together), and ran into a sharp, almost sword-edged tip, that first split into a hook (pretty much like a Halbert spear). "Kick ass!" Carl commented.

"Interesting." Mrs. Linkert added, still trying to keep Carl from swearing and rude language, but finally figured that if he didn't listen in art class, chances were even smaller in hell itself.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Carl chanted, like an impatient child begging to go on the merry-go-round. "I wanna try that!" he begged.

"Be my guest." Julia shrugged. Carl balled both hands into fists and held them out, then closed his eyes to concentrate. Yet another electric frizzle. Long, extended, three-clawed gauntlets were on Carl's hands. "Ha! Too cool!" Carl said, satisfied.

"Too much Nightmare on Elm Street if you ask me." Julia said, raising an eyebrow.

"X-Men, definitely X-Men." Mrs. Linkert corrected.

"Wolverine!" both said in unison.

"And it'll be too many shameless product plugs if you two don't get a grip on yourselves." Frank ended the discussion abruptly. "Don't you think you have better things to do?!"

"And who died and made you the wise advisor?" Julia asked with a smirk. "But you do have a point." she then agreed."My dear ol' namesake was babbling something about one way of barely escaping. Frank, I'm kinda' guessin' that you know this place better than all of us."

"What, the Labyrinth or her?" he asked clueless.

"GROSS!" Julia slapped her forehead, obviously disgusted by Frank's lack of taste. "THE LABYRINTH!" she yelled.

"Well, sorr-ee." he replied defensivley. "I was just asking a simple question."

"Just forget about it, ok? It's only gonna make everything worse."

"Ok, ok. Well I can tell you that right now." he went on, as if it was one of the most normal things in the world. "The source of the problem."

"But why would I wanna find Channard?" Julia asked puzzled.

"Ah, but!" Frank corrected. "That's not the source."

"Of course it is! He's the one trying to kill us!"

"Yes, I know that, but he wouldn't be trying to kill you if he was, say, still in the asylum looking after hopeless nutcases, right?"

"Right. So what's your point?"

"My POINT is, we're looking for the thing that gave him his powers." "Leviathan?"

"No!" this time it was Frank who seemed rather perplexed. "Well you're obviously no candidate for jeopardy, so let's put it clear and simple, it's the transformation chamber!"

THIRD: DOES HELL FREEZE OVER?

"ARE YOU NUTS?!" Came the reply almost instantly. "I'm not going in there!" she crossed her arms stubbornly and looked at Carl.

"ME?!" Carl cried out.

"Well you're the guy, so you should be heroic." Julia reasoned.

"Well, why not Mrs. Linkert? She's the teacher, she's responsible for us, she has to protect us!" Carl said, and both stared at Mrs. Linkert.

"You gotta be kidding!" Mrs. Linkert replied. "I'm too old for this sort of thing. Besides, I like Barker's books rather than the movies."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Frank interrupted.

"Nothing!" Mrs. Linkert explained in a hurry. "But still. I'm not going." "Frank, why don't YOU go? You're already dead, and you had this kinda thing done to you twice before, you're not gonna mind, are you?" Julia asked hopeful.

"Are you out of your mind?!" he replied. "(A), I'm already dead, so the chamber won't accept me. (B), There is no way I would volunteer to have this happen to me for a third time!"

"Hey, Julia, you can't stand Channard, right?" Carl asked hopeful. "Well, yeah, but not enough to do THAT!" she replied stubbornly.

" 'not enough'? You were cryin' waterfalls back in the cavern!" Carl shot back.

"She was?" Frank cut in.

"I was *not*!" Julia said quickly.

"Were, too!" Carl replied.

"Was not!"

"Were, too!"

"Well, maybe a bit." she gave in. "But not that much."

"Of course you were! You would've used up a box of Kleenex if there had been one!"

"Carl, shut up!" Julia yelled, close to a fit.

At this point, the entire room turned upside down. Just like that. The four of them were hurled upwards - or downwards, depends.

"What the --!" Carl yelped, clinging onto a flat surface, to which all of them finally got a grip on. The entire scenery turned around again, and they were lying face-down and rather ungraceful on one of the endless catwalks that lead towards the image of Leviathan in the distance.

"What the HELL was that?!" Carl finished.

"Maybe it's one of those reverse-chambers." Frank muttered, as all of them got up. "Rumor has it it's the latest trend. They turn around whenever you least expect it. It's because Leviathan wanted something to defy the law of gravity."

"But it's back in place now." interrupted a voice. Frank turned around just in time to see one of Channard's tentacles coming towards him at ravenous speed, before it whacked him with such an astounding force that he was thrown off the catwalk and back into the darkness below in a blood-curdling scream.

"No more running. I'm tired of playing fox-and-the-hound." Channard growled.

There was no answer. The three looked like deers caught in the headlights of an incoming truck. In three seconds the entire situation had turned from 'bad' to 'hopeless'. And the transformation chamber, no matter who would volunteer now, was miles away.

"Any last words?" Channard asked, chuckling.

"Funny. I was going to ask you the same question." Julia gave back, and at the same second, threw the polearm at the giant tentacle, grazing of a good piece of flesh in the blow. The tentacle recoiled, slightly out of control.

Another frizzle of Psychoplasm. It collected into a creature looking vaguely like one of the Cenobite-dogs, only bigger, with an elaborate saddle. Surprisingly graceful, Julia swung on it's back. The dog (or whatever) slightly trembled for a second before straightening up and dashing towards the transformation center. Meanwhile, Julia was praying Channard was smart enough to follow her and not kill the other two first. An inhuman... purr of sorts that was distinctivley related to the Cenobite told her he had been smart enough. The Cenobite-Dog let out an exhausted grunt, breathing through it's nose. There was a fleshy slicker, followed by the monstrous dog yelping in pain, and exploding into fleshy chunks due to some weird tentacle or another. The explosion hurled her forwards, causing her to land on the catwalk with a resounding thump. The explosion had drenched her white shirt into a crimson red, that was also sprayed over the rest of her body like a weird version of airbrush.

The strain of good luck seemed to have ripped into pieces. However, and most surprising to all parties, the tentacle once again recoiled in pain. On closer look, someone was clinging to the edge of the catwalk with awkwardly.

"FRANK?!" she couldn't believe her eyes. "How did you -"

"I don't know, but I'm sure I twisted something." he groaned.

"Jesus Christ, are you allright?"

"I'm dead! How do you think I am?" he shot back. "But do I actually hear concern for ME somewhere in that question?"

"Was not!" she pouted.

"Now move it or lose it!"

He didn't have to say it twice. The transformation chamber rose faster than usual, perhaps sensing the tension in the air. Suddenly the question of who was going in was self-explanatory. Narrowly dodging another tentacle jamming into the ground, and barely having time to take a breather and prepare for what was bound to come, the darkness of the chamber engulfed her. She took heart as the doors closed. There was no going back now. All that was left was still ahead. And all that was left was suffering.

EPILOGUE: FINISHING TOUCHES.

How had this begun? Fifth period, art. How could they have taken them without the box? How could Channard have been alive? How could the others possibly escape now? What had become of Frank? Did she actually care what happened to him after he fell? Did Psychoplasm exist in the transformation chamber? Was the entire chamber made out of Psychoplasm, shaping into the things the mind fears? The things the mind desires? What were the measures of the suffering that were caused in this surreal chamber? Was this even close to what the original Cenobites went through? The questions were overwhelming. But as soon as the transformation was complete, they would have no more meaning. There would be no more questions. There would be nothing left. But amongst the darkness, only one question, perhaps the last she would ever speak herself, seemed important. Why, she couldn't tell.

When does it stop? she thought, her mind wavering weakly. The dark, warm liquid slid over several parts of her body with the ripping of skin. Never. replied a voice. Gentle, like a spring breeze in the awakening meadows. And familiar.

When is it complete? she continued.

Soon. that voice again. Take this and open the doorway, so your friends can escape. Then close it after them. A figure dropped the Lament Configuration into her blood-stained hands, revealing itself as a faint after image of Elliott Spenser before vanishing the next moment. You've proven your courage, but from now on it won't matter anymore. There will be no more courage. There will be no more friends who need to escape. There will be no more doorways that you can open.

So it was a mistake?

To come here? Not at all. It was a necessary mistake, maybe. A mistake nevertheless?

So many questions. So many confusions. Maybe the only thing I can offer you is that you'll never remember any of them.

But you....remembered. she felt how even the strength to think clearly was drained of her body. Most of the pain had gone unnoticed during the conversation. The Lament Configuration opened with a clack. A lovely sound. A sound she would grow to listen for, when the dark times would come.

Yes, I did. In a way. I made him remember. Just like you might make her remember. That somewhere in time...you once were, but no more.

The darkness became black, heightening with intensity as the transformation neared it's end. The final pain of the skin lifting off shoulders, belly and throat were no longer felt. The running blood silenced their screams, and the darkness engulfed the completed form of a new Cenobite. The box dropped to the ground of the chamber with a hopeless clatter.