Station 64: The Doll Dungeon: Frenzied Rebirth

by Matthew Peed

  “I’m sorry! I’m . . . wait! You can hear me!” I screamed and shot back toward him. I would have thrown my arms around him if I had any. Finally! Someone I could talk to.

  “Yes! TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!”

  “Starburst! You won’t believe it! I left the house for the first time on my own and something crazy happened. Some tall man did something, and I ended up as this floating consciousness. At least I got back at him. Some lady name Terleza showed up and told me basically nothing.”

  “What happened to the tall man?” Starburst shouted, or rather neighed. At that point, I noticed he was acting more like a horse as time went on. It’d only been a few minutes, but he was starting to neigh and canter.

  “Somehow I managed to touch him, and he burst into flames.”

  “Shit!” was all he said before he collapsed on his side.

  “Starburst!?” I guess dolls could pass out too.

  ~~~

  “This is so confusing. What does it mean by ‘intelligence,’ exactly? Does it make them smarter or more cunning? Or is it both?” I was mumbling to myself when I heard a noise from the side. Turning I saw Starburst rousing. “Starburst!”

  “Ugh! This has been a horrible day. I am seriously going to kill Terleza if I ever get the chance,” Starburst said as he stood up.

  I immediately pulled back, recognizing that tone. “You! What are you doing in Starburst?” I screamed at him.

  “Ah! Don’t scream, girl! I don’t have hands to cover my ears anymore.”

  “Answer my question!” I screamed even louder.

  “You put me in here! You used Summon, right? That would have done it.”

  “Why?” I asked. Maybe I’d actually get answers to some of the questions I’d had since I’d awoken.

  “Because the Summon skill uses the souls of the people you’ve absorbed to fuel it. While normally the summoned would be like a blank slate, my soul is a bit different.”

  “You mean . . . all those people from the train . . .” I said. If I’d had a body, I’d likely have been throwing up right then.

  “Yep.”

  I retreated from him while I tried to control my emotions. That was so cruel! Who did these people think they were? Getting to decide life and death like that. For the first time since this happened to me, another emotion, one I’d rarely dealt with, started to emerge. Anger. I wanted to hit something.

  “Screw you! This is all your fault! How are you going to make it up to me?” I demanded. I could see my mental image of myself poking his chest. Him being a stuffed animal now didn’t help. I could only see him as cute.

  “My old life is over. There is no going back. The gods have a saying. ‘There’s no fighting fate.’ I’ll work for you and help you.”

  “You better believe you’re going to work for me! That’s the least you can do to make up for this!” I yelled at him.

  “That being the case, continue to call me Starburst.”

  “I would have whether you wanted me to or not.”

  “Alright. Let’s get started. How many days do you have left? If I was your first summoned, then it should be most of the month, right?”

  “About that . . .” I mentally rubbed the back of my head while moving away. “I only have seventeen days left.”

  “Seventeen . . . What have you been doing all this time!?” Starburst yelled while beating his hoof on the ground. “No matter! We’ll do this hard-core!”

  Starburst had me absorb everything in the tunnel with Deconstruction. He explained that people would be entering to claim loot and treasure, as well as the life-stones that were in my monsters. I would need to prepare things that would keep them coming back.

  “If they want treasure, then surely I’ll be safe?” I asked while I took a break. It didn’t cost anything to absorb stuff, just mental strength.

  “You can’t see it personally, but you’re actually a floating gem. You’ll be worth a considerable amount of money to the people of your world. Besides, to them you’re an evil creation that is sending monsters into their world. They’ll be doing everything in their power to destroy you.”

  “Certainly we can just explain!” I said, then demonstrated by carving a message on the wall that basically said I was once a human.

  Starburst gave a neighing laugh. “Lies. Deceit. Traps. While some of the cores are made up of humans, most are from other realms. In fact, even the ones that were human no longer care about their fellows. You are very special in that my spell was interrupted before I finished. If I had, you’d be a raving killing machine already.”

  “Why? Why are you guys doing this?” I asked, curling up in ball at the hopelessness of it all.

  “Can’t tell you.”

  “Don’t try to get out of it!”

  “No. I literally can’t tell you. My memories of such things were erased until I finished my mission.”

  “Some god you are,” I mumbled in annoyance.

  He laughed again. “Brought low by a little girl. Now I’m some fake horse thing.”

  “I cleared the floor! What next?” I snapped at him. If he didn’t know the answers, then I needed him to be useful in other ways. He might be telling me it was pointless to try to reach out to the humans, but I would try somehow. That being said, I didn’t want to die.

  “What can you summon?”

  “Dolls.”

  “Okay, and what else?”

  “Just dolls,” I replied, turning away.

  “You’re . . . . you’re joking right?”

  “No. Everything else is crossed out.”

  “Son of a bitch!”

  Chapter 3: Just My Luck

  Lance Teron

  Station 62. 7 PM. Don’t be late.

  I glanced at the message and groaned. That was over an hour away! Why didn’t they ever consider where people live before assigning quests?

  “Something you’d like to share with the rest of the class?”

  I groaned for a whole new reason and glanced behind me. Professor Mord stood there with his hands folded behind his back, wearing his famous frown.

  I did my best to smile. “Nope. I was just silencing it! I would much rather learn world history.”

  “Is that so? What was I literally just talking about?”

  “Ehhh . . . Indians?”

  “Alice, what part of the world was I covering?”

  “The Soviet Union, sir,” the girl a row down from me replied.

  “I’m glad at least one person is paying attention. Thanks to Mr. Teron here, everyone is to turn in a three-page report on the Soviet Union. Hmm . . . It must relate to what I covered in class today.”

  A very loud collective groaned rang out from the fifty-three students. I only did a quick count, but I was sure over forty of them were also glaring at me. I smiled awkwardly and waved to the class. “My bad.” I made a mental note to avoid being alone for a few days.

  “On that note, class dismissed.”

  I ran out of the lecture room in less than ten seconds, preferring not to get cornered. I didn’t make it much farther than the classroom over, though, when a wave of energy flung me against the wall. Damn Aether Powered!

  “Lance. Lance. Lance. I don’t have time to waste on a stupid report. How are you going to make it up to me?”

  “Kyle, I’m sorry! I don’t have any money,” I said through gritted teeth. The energy only grew denser as it crushed me against the wall. It felt like my ribs were only moments away from breaking.

  “Ha! Like I expected anything more from a broke-ass guy like you. Don’t worry. I’ll add it to your tab.”

  The energy holding me to the wall vanished, and I collapsed to the floor, coughing. Kyle turned to walk away but not before throwing me a weird grin. I rubbed my chest and worried what this meant for my future.

  ~~~

  “How was class?”

  “Fine, Mom. I’m totally popular, you know. I have like three girlfriends,” I replied.

  My mother was in the
hospital. Magic sickness. A new disease that came with the Aether Shift.

  Just over a year ago, the world had changed overnight. Places of transportation became entities know as dungeons. Airports, seaports, train stations, and subways all transformed. Ninety percent of the people who were at one of those places died, or at least vanished, their bodies never found at all.

  With the dungeons came magic. People gained the ability to use powers straight out of books. Like Kyle. Telekinesis was a moderately common ability. The world fell into chaos for several months. Old grudges led to blood being spilled across the globe. Thankfully, a group of heroes rose up and led the world to a better place. Though, they are said to have unlimited power. Not sure how you’re supposed to fight that.

  Magic sickness came from living near a dungeon that had grown too large. Its energy leaked out, and if humans took in too much of it, their organs started to break down. The only ones excepted to this were those who could level up.

  “I wish you’d bring a single girlfriend,” my mom said, putting her cheek in her hand.

  I laughed. “I’ll get right on that.”

  “Ms. Teron, it’s time for your medicine,” called a nurse from the doorway.

  “I’ll head home then. I’ll visit again in a few days.”

  “Alright. Tell Sera that Mommy sends her love.”

  “I’ll bring her with me next time,” I said, hopping out of the chair.

  I left the hospital and grabbed a bus to our suburb. It was the only form of transportation besides private vehicles that still worked. They attempted to build a new subway station, but it ended up collapsing to rubble no matter how sturdy the construction. One of the new mysteries of the world.

  The bus stopped at the edge of my neighborhood. It wasn’t an exaggeration to call it the slums. Thankfully, my family had lived there for over two generations, and the people were very warm to us. Even if we did see the occasional drug deal. I waved to the old lady who lived in the house next to ours. When you couldn’t afford security cameras, then nosey neighbors were the next best thing.

  I glanced at the one-story three-bedroom house that looked fifty years old. Old sky-blue paint peeled in places, while other spots had faded to white. All but one of the windows were boarded up from damage we couldn’t afford to repair. It wasn’t much but it was home.

  “Sera! I’m back!” I called when I got inside.

  “Yo! How was Mom?” she replied from the living room.

  “Same as always. At least she’s not getting worse. She sends her love,” I replied, taking a seat in the recliner.

  “Is that so . . .” Sera said without taking her eyes off the television.

  Sera was a shut in. Getting her to leave the house was nearly as bad as pulling fingernails. Normally, this would make me incredibly worried when I went into the city, but she was one of the lucky few to have gained a gift right after the Shift. Frankly, it was quite scary. She could stop the heart of anyone within a hundred feet of her.

  “We should visit her together next time.”

  “Maybe . . .”

  I just sighed. Hopefully, Sera would improve if Mom came back. For that I needed to gather more money. Magic items were the only way to cure her, after all. “I have a job tonight, so I’ll be out late. Don’t worry about breakfast for me tomorrow.”

  “Roger.”

  I shrugged and got up to head to my room to get ready. I was going to have to leave at nearly five to make it on time. It would be Saturday tomorrow, so the dungeons would be packed tonight. That meant the bus system would be crowded.

  ~~~

  “Finally,” I said with a quick glance at my phone. I made it with five minutes to spare. The buses were more crowded than I even expected. I opened the party app, something that was made when the dungeon-diving business took off, and followed the GPS marker to the party I’d been assigned.

  “Well well well.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard that voice. Looking up from my phone, I saw Kyle and his group waiting where the marker was indicating. “This is going to be very fun.”

  “Evening, Kyle. Is there another party behind yours?” I asked, trying to look past them.

  “Nope. And if you cancel, I will demand the entire fee.” He spun the short sword in his hand.

  “I would never cancel!” I said with a forced smile.

  “Very good. It’s seven. Let’s go!”

  I let them go ahead, then started following behind them. “Fuck!” I whispered to myself.

  Once the entrance guard scanned my phone, I followed them into the subway station. As the darkness washed over us, I prayed that I would make it out alive. Surely even these guys wouldn’t murder someone just over a three-page essay.

  Station 62 was a lizardman dungeon. They possessed a large amount of strength but weren’t too bright. They could be fooled by rather simple tactics. That being said, Kyle and his goons appeared to want to brute-force their way through. To be fair, they had no problem doing so. Kyle would use his telekinesis to choke a lizardman while his buddies would either stab it to death or shoot arrows into it.

  “Make sure you get everything worth money!” Kyle shouted at me.

  “Yes, sir,” I replied with a straight face. I moved forward and started cutting the body apart with my knife. My job was a Harvester. I knew all the parts of the monsters that were worth money and would collect them while the others did the actually fighting. I had no other choice but to do this since I had no offensive abilities.

  “I like that. You should respond to me like that all the time.” Kyle had his weird smile again.

  I kept quiet. I really didn’t want to talk to him at all.

  The next few hours passed quickly. Kyle was getting stranger by the minute. His goons didn’t appear too bothered by him, so I did my best to ignore him. We eventually made it to the boss floor. I could just barely make out the teleportation matrix on the other side of the room.

  A massive ground lizard that was at least fifteen feet long blocked the path. Kyle and his gang quickly went to work. Personality aside, they knew their way around the battlefield. In less than two minutes, the lizard was downed. I moved over to the corpse and went to work. This boss was dangerous to work with since its blood was poisonous even after death.

  “Hey, Lance. Come service me. If you catch my drift,” Kyle called with a heavy laugh, surprising me. The entire group had been rather quiet since we’d begun the dungeon dive.

  “No. That will not be happening,” I replied without turning. Was he crazy?

  “I would recommend you don’t argue with me,” Kyle said, his tone taking another twist. “I know your secret.”

  My body turned against my will, and I saw Kyle was breathing deeply, his hand outstretched as he used his power on me. I couldn’t even react to his last statement.

  “Stop! I’ll report you!” I shouted. The thought of going anywhere near him was causing my stomach to want to empty its contents.

  “Oh. Don’t worry. After we have our way with you, you won’t be leaving the dungeon,” Kyle said with a chuckle. I felt like this wasn’t the first time he’d done something like this. Just my fucking luck. I quickly glanced around to try to find a way out of this situation. My eyes landed on the teleport matrix.

  The only problem was Kyle already had ahold of my body with his ability. I remembered the vials of blood in my hand. It was going to be my only shot. I just hoped it worked. I was only a foot away from him. Just the sight made me want to throw up. I narrowed my eyes but waited.

  When I felt my head start to be pushed down, I reacted. Jerking my wrist, I sent the still uncorked vials flying at Kyle’s crotch. Most of the liquid missed, but a good glob landed squarely on his family jewels. With a scream, his hold on my body vanished. Without a second thought, I bolted for the matrix.

  I was about five feet away when an arrow slammed into my shoulder. I grunted from the pain, but the adrenaline in my system allowed me to push it off fo
r the most part. I stumbled onto the matrix, and with a gut-wrenching upward motion, I was suddenly back on the first floor right next to the entrance.

  I ran. When I reached the surface, I saw no one was around. The guard who was supposed to watch the entrance was missing. I clicked my tongue. They must have bribed him so they could scan my phone and wouldn’t have to explain my vanishing. Fucking sick bastards.

  I couldn’t go home. They would look for me there. My sister would be safe. She was listed under a watch program by the government. If anything happened to her, they would know instantly. My mother was in the hospital. I wanted to believe she would be safe for a while there.

  If I remembered correctly, there was a subway station a bit farther from here that never became a dungeon. I should be safe there for a few hours. At least it would give me time to stop the bleeding in my shoulder. I gritted my teeth and took off at a run. I made sure to cut through several alleys and streets, moving as quickly as possible.

  When I finally made it to the entrance, I felt like I was about to collapse. Thankfully, the blood had clotted enough to stop leaving a trail several blocks ago. I would hopefully be in the clear from here. I stumbled down the subway entrance while taking deep breaths.

  When I reached the bottom, I pulled myself over to the rusted old train car that sat in the middle of the old tracks. Seeing it like that reminded me of the days before the Shift. Crawling onto the dust-covered and moldy seat, I passed out.

  Chapter 4: Summoning

  Azaria

  “Starburst! Starburst! Star! Burst!” I said while making circles around the grumpy unicorn. He’d been ignoring me for the last hour. I moved in close and whispered directly into his ear, “Starburst.”

  He reared back and stomped his hooves. “Damn it, girl! I’m trying to think!”

  I folded my arms, mental as they might be, and pouted. “You could have just said that.”

  “Dolls are difficult. They are never meant to be the main race in a dungeon!”

  “Then why won’t it let me summon anything else?” I shouted, throwing my hands in the air. Again, mental as they might be.