Satya had closed his eyes in hopes of a miracle to perhaps save him.
.........
Soon, Satya's ragged breathing returned to normal, but even then nothing lunged on him.
A drop of sweat was still running down Satya's cheek.
The color of his robe had somehow turned completely black with white glistening patterns.
The uncanny presence of the mannequins was still lingering around him in the thousands.
Slowly,
Satya opened his eyes,
Infront of him, stood still, thousands of mannequins.
Their faces cranked in a broken angle.
[What happened....]
Satya tried to figure out what had happened, but in the end he couldn't.
So he continued walking amidst the thousands of still dolls.
Satya could hear his own breathing, yet the outer world was without a sound.
Satya couldn't hear his own footsteps, it was as if something was blocking the sounds made by him to the outside.
Almost half an hour had passed, since Satya had stepped inside the shadow.
Like waiting for the time to be up,Reality had a shift.
The thousands of mannequins moved in an eerie, almost identical way.
They were performing a graceful dance.
Though Satya's attention was on something else at the time.
The black color was slowly draining from Satya's robe.
But for Satya, it was only the start of bad news.
Currently, The mannequins weren't aware of Satya's existence, but he couldn't be too sure about it.
So he avoided touching the mannequins as much as he could.
But luck had other plans for Satya.
A broken piece of mirror stabbed into Satya's leg and he stumbled right into a mannequin.
"Argh"
Satya remarked but no sound escaped outside.
As he touched the mannequin, the black color was drained in an instant from his robe.
Satya narrowed his eyes.
All The mannequins stopped in their tracks and turned to look at Satya.
But till then, Satya had already started to run at full speed.
Suddenly, a Sonic boom of sounds resounded in the world.
All of the sounds that had suppressed were released at once.
The thousands of mannequins moved at once,
Their hurried yet symmetrical steps resounded throughout the entire garden.
The puppets closest to him, started performing a solo dance, in an attempt to make Satya dance with them.
Their dance was both brutal and graceful.
Even though Satya was faster than the mannequins, but his speed meant nothing infront of their numbers.
Satya's body was soon covered by scratch marks.
Handmarks present all over his body.
"Just how many mannequins are there"
Satya screamed while running.
Suddenly, A puppet attempted to dive at Satya's legs to bind him in place.
But Satya jumped, saving himself.
His jump was powerful enough to throw him 20 feet in the air, yet it couldn't save him from [Them].
"The End of this hell..."
But it did show him hope.
Far away in the distance, he saw the end of this nightmare.
Satya crashed down, smashing many mannequins to bits.
Filled with hope, Satya went wild.
Every where Satya went mannequins were broken.
With all of his strength, he carved a path of broken mannequins.
But like all things were in this accursed place.
They were soon reassembled, brand new.
Satya was fully covered in blood, with his magical robe torn to shreds, was finally the moment, the end was in his grasp.
He tore open the iron bars and went outside.
The mannequins stopped right before the iron wall.
They all cranked their head with some even breaking and falling.
They were angry, yet something was restricting them from leaving.
After all the mannequins left, was finally when Satya had a sigh of relief.
He fell down to his knees, a pool of blood forming beneath him.
His robe torn to shreds was slowly repairing itself, yet what was once shining white is now covered in red.
Satya stood up with great difficulty and wobbled forward.
This place was not safe.
Houses passed Satya, yet he didn't dare knock the doors of any one of them.
From a corner infront of him, a old man popped out.
Satya stumbled back, almost falling on his back.
The old man didn't have a Shadow, but Satya himself was not in the state to run away from him.
Satya braced himself and locked eyes with the old man.
"Ho ho"
The old man let out a chuckle at Satya's wariness.
"Worry not traveller, I mean no harm."
The old man had an amicable look, yet Satya's wariness never wavered.
"What are you...?"
Satya clicked his tongue.
"remnants of what used to be a person"
The old man looked at his non-existent Shadow while saying so.
"I have met one of your kind thus far and they always meant harm, how can you be any different"
The old man's eyes narrowed at the remark.
"You fare no better, traveller. You are covered in blood yet not a scratch is on your skin. So how can you be human."
Satya's mouth opened and closed without a word being uttered by him, because in the end, the old man was right.
[But then what about the pain I am feeling]
Satya tapped his entire body, yet not a scratch in sight.
[It's not your body that's hurt, but your soul....]
Hearing this Satya fell to his knees.
The old man widened his eyes at the sight before him.
{Hope broken in a fantasy,
Life is full of worries.
The dreams of human are far gone.
Now a creature dreams of returning home.}