"Get up," the Librarian tells you and so you try to stand up, but your legs buckle, refusing to obey your brain's order.
Annoyed that you did not obey her command immediately, her ink stained hands stretch out and her claw like fingers move to wrap around your wrists.
You try to pull away, but her grip is very strong and so she yanks you up to your feet forcefully.
Even then, your two legs tremble but you manage to keep them standing.
"You've survived so far," she hisses against your ear. "But the Library is still needs you to feed it."
She drags you across the floor and each shelf groans and whispers as you pass through them.
"Where are you taking me?" you manage to choke out but she doesn't answer.
She just yanks you forward again, and suddenly the walls in front of you----- ones you didn't notice in your blind yanking movement---- split open, revealing a portal of ink and darkness.
Without saying anything to you or wasting even a second, she shoves you in and the ink swallows you, filling your lungs and clinging to your skin.
You make a muffled involuntary sound as you pass through it, but the blackness devours the sound whole do nothing is heard at all.
When you land, it's with a dull, wet thud, and when you cough then, black droplets fall splattering to the ground.
Of course when you look up, you find that the world around you has changed yet again.
You realise that you're standing in a forest— if it can even be called that.
The trees are tall, their bark are black and slippery like oil, and their branches are all twisted together, forming horrible shapes that look like clawed hands.
Even more so is that the air around you and the trees is full with a mist that's so think that you can feel it touch your skin.
You take a step forward, and the trees groan, their branches creaking and then snapping a bit as if someone just touched it from behind.
As if to confirm that thought, the leaves rustle.
"Hello?" you call, hearing your voice tremble as you fearfully wonder what you would have to escape this time.
Nothing responds to your call and for a while there's just silence.
Then...
You hear your own voice.
"Help me," it cries, weakly, "Please."
Your heart stutters on hearing it and you turn in a slow circle, trying to pinpoint where the sound is coming from but all you can see are the trees around you which seem to lean closer with their branches curling toward you like outstretched but curved fingers.
"Where are you?" you call again.
"Here," your voice answers.
Seriously, after all you've been through, your sense should let you know that going anywhere closer to your voice is not a good idea, however that thought doesn't occur to you.
You move toward the sound, with each step you take making the sole of your feet------ which are for some strange reasons bare---- to sink into the very black soil underneath it.
Suddenly a leaf falls off from one of the tree branches above you and falls to the floor right before your right feet steps on it.
Instantly you pause and look around, wondering what you're doing there.
As you stand confused, your voice calls out for you again.
"Help me."
Hearing your voice makes you remember your many reflections from the carnival of screams.
Panic flood your veins and you see flashes of the memory of the way your reflections brutally murdered you--- just as you hear your voice yet again but in a louder, somewhat echoing and angry sounding voice.
"Help ME!!"
You scream loudly and turn around to run, sprinting for anywhere that far away from anything that sounds or looks like you;
... But the moment your right leg gets off from the fallen leaf and steps on the black soil you halt in your tracts.
... And turn around, walking zigzag and absentmindedly dodging the fallen leaf.
The branches around reach for you, brushing against your arms and your face, and you shiver but don't stop walking, not even to look back or flinch.
"Please," your voice cries again, sounding closer now.
"Please, help me."
You push forward, and the branches start to claw at your clothes, leaving black streaks on your skin but you still don't stop until you reach a small clearing that's a circle of dead leaves, broken twigs and roots snaking across the ground.
In the center of it is a tree which has a split open bark and is weeping ink.
Your voice speaks again and it sounds like it's coming from within the tree's hollow, so you move closer.
The tree groans and its branches start to tremble as it begins forming a face on the bark.
First it's the eyes that pops out, then the mouth, then something that looks like a nose, and it goes on like that till it forms your entire face.
The eyes are black, it's mouth is twisted in pain and tears of ink are running down its wooden cheeks as it pleads;
"Help me. Please."
Walking even closer, you reach out a trembling hand and immediately your very close to it, the roots whip up from the ground, wrapping around your ankles and start pulling you toward the tree, lifting your legs off from the ground in the process.
It takes about ten seconds for you to blink, come to and feel what's going on, and by then the roots have curled around your chest as well.
However nothing jerks you fully back to reality faster than when you see your face on the tree bark.
Screaming you start to wriggle and hit at the roots dragging you, again wondering how you got to this point but the thoughts don't last long in your mind as the roots begin to tighten their grip on you and press against your chest, crushing the air from your lungs.
"Please," the voice sobs. "Help me."
The roots drag you closer, pulling you into the tree's hollow and the tree's bark splits open, showing nothing but darkness within it.
"Don't," you gasp, but the roots ignore your plea.
They curl up higher to wrap around your arms and your throat and then press your against the cold, slimy bark.
Once you're settled in, the roots start to push into your skin, burrowing deep and wrapping around your bones.
Pain runs through you, burning and tearing at you with such agony that your vision starts to blur with tears and... your blood mixed with black ink as it streaks down your cheeks.
You try to fight, but the roots hold you tightly.
"Please," you whimper, "Please, no."
But the tree laughs at you.
"You belong here," it hisses.
"Forever."
The roots push deeper then, and you feel them wrapping around your heart.
... And your screams fade as the forest devours you and your body becomes just another branch in the thick forest.