The Nightmare Child (HB)

A purple fog muggied up the landscape. Indistinct and distant there rose mountains and yet no horizon. Instead of down the ground curved up, making the very sky nothing but more land. A mat of desiccation cracks made up the immediate terrain. Not five-hundred metres to the left there was a sheer drop, which the purple fog tumbled off. Constant and unseen was the vague rumble of thunder. Yet without airspace there were no clouds to be had. A smell of apricot and olives permeated the breeze.

For an organisation of pencil-pushers - AMO's prison was a little undomesticated.

Without having been awoken, Ali was deposited here. There was no entrance evident nor footsteps of his captors in the brittle mud floor. 'Out' was a concept specifically removed from this reality. It was where the mystical and mythical came to perish. You'd think with all that fell inside this zone it would become a thriving haven for the very thing AMO was trying to destroy. Yet strangely nothing supernatural remained.

No wily wizard. No pernicious pixies. No iron-cast dragon nor immortal godling. Everything from that ilk was absent. They had already been and gone in the time it took Ali to arrive. All except for one being. One solitary bastion of folklore. A lowly and repulsive Arabian ghoul. Currently without his human disguise he roamed the wilds of this world in his base form. A decrepit and wasting beast with pearly white dentures on perpetual display.

Why had this creature, as much AMO's prisoner as the rest, survived while the vastly superior had perished all around him? "I must drink my milk." Scampering alone across the badlands, Scapegoat came across the new body. There was the old rumbly in his tumbly, but a quick sniff told him the guy wasn't dead. Wonderful. He was as much hungry for chatter as he was for food. Someone should really print a gossip magazine around here.

"Hey! Hey sleepyhead! Raise your head and get outta bed. It's a wonderful new day. Full of prospect and possibility and, oh yeah, likely fatality." Scapegoat had seen all kinds pass through here. Beings as old as the universe itself and new-born babes. Ever since he'd been kicked in here by those agents he had been stuck in this meet-and-greet routine. At least he could smile, "Welcome to the prison. I'm your committee representative. Call me Scapegoat. You have one free phone call, if you can find a phone, and meals are served at a quarter passed never. On the dot. If you need anything scream. Scream loud. That lets me know to run the other way. What'cha in for?"

Ali groans,hearing the voice."Jack, I swear, if you're trolling me, you're grounded...."The thief sits up,rubbing his head,and looks at the voice."...." His eyes widen."Well....you're certainly unique looking,eh?" What happened comes back to him,and he groans,groaning more as his shoulder gives a twinge. Ali rubs his head,wincing, and looking around, letting out a soft woah.This was a freaky place....Listening to the ghoul's words, he blinks."Oh,the crime? I'd say being better looking then those idiots. Jealous, ya know. Terrible thing,jealousy...Heh, well,that, and I resisted 'arrest'.Me and a friend ran from..ow...them, and gave a couple a proper beating while we were doing it...Anyways, questions. 1.Where the hell am I? and 2.What nasty bogies are we up against,considering that scream comment you made,Scapey my man?"

Scapegoat would offer his hand to Ali to help pull him up. But if Ali accepted he would not help pull him to his feet, instead remaining stationary, holding the hand. The newcomer seemed like a guy with a sense of humour. He'd have called him 'fresh fish' in classic prison vernacular, but he feared to be called 'rotten fish' in response. His odour did leave a lot to be desired after all.

"It's obvious where we are. Oh yes. This is the Anti-Magic Organisation operation central. Over there is the water cooler." Scapegoat pointed to a particularly thrilling piece of empty space, "And that's the door to the mail office." Again he pointed at open air. The ghoul did not mean these things sarcastically, "I'll be with ya in a minute Tessa! Anywho as you can see they overlapped the prison with the headquarters. Cus space is warped and time is bendable. But don't take my word for it. Look inwardly. Look at the edges of your vision. When your hand in front of your face begins to blur."

If Ali did this he would suddenly see, clear as day, a sterile office environment. Agents were scurrying too and fro doing one administrative task or another. It would be as if he was looking at them from behind a thick pane of glass. They were there, but out of reach.

"Instant reality television. If the point of the show was to be unbearably dull. Y'see jailbird they built this dimension we're stood in outta magic. Their own dimension repels magic. Oil and water don't mix. So this dimension is suspended in the middle of their dimension like... when you see magnets levitate an object. And if you believe that then I've got a bridge to sell ya! But seriously it's true and we're all gonna die here." Scapegoat would hold off on the second question for the time being. It was a lot to take in. Ali would probably need some time to process. The ever pervasive purple fog continued to roll across the mud plain.

Ali accepts the hand, blinking as the guy doesn't help him up."Heheh...wiseguy,eh?Nice."He withdraws his hand, using it and the other to help push himself into a standing position,though that drew out a pained wince. That jerk...Raising a brow as the guy starts pointing things out, the thief neverless carries out the suggestion,blinking as he sees that it was true."W-woah..."Ali weaves.This...was crazy."Oh maaan.....this sucks..."He rubs his head, brows furrowing.The thief had to get out of here...Ali breathes, then sits back down, letting it go through him and fully processing it.

Nobody paid the rules of physics due diligence. They played an important part in everyday life. Yes, yes, they made the world go round and stuff like that - but they did something more. They stopped everyone from going insane! When you have constants, when you have absolutes, then you have a grounding in reality. Throw those out the window, like you had here, and there was nothing to latch onto. Scapegoat had no idea if his explanation was right or even close. It was as near as he could work out and articulate into words, is all. Thank goodness he was already a few lightbulbs short of a tea-cosy.

"Cheer up! There's plenty to look forward to. Like the worst part." The ghoul began wafting his hand through the smoke. His demeanour was light-hearted in contrast to the situation he was divulging, "We're kind of squatters in this land. And the locals have an attitude to immigration only slightly less progressive than President Trump. I'd like to say they're gonna murder the living shiitake mushrooms out of us. But I don't think that's what some of them do. If I'm totally honest, I don't even know what they are. They're like what goblins and ghouls dress up as on Halloween. Nightmare fuel for nightmares."

Scapegoat clicked his fingers, "I'm gonna call this place the Nightmare Child. Trademark, patent pending. Is it the weekend stay you'll be with us? Or all eternity?"

Ali sighs,fully accepting it.Ok...He was stuck in a place seperate from the rest of the world...He listens to Scapegoat's words...and apparently there's some really nasty bogies they'll have to deal with, stuff to make Lovecraft whizz himself. Well...that was lovely....The air beside the theif begins wavering,and soon he was able to grab a kopis machete out of the air, using it to lever himself up."I think I'll just stay the weekend.I've business to take care of."

The little ghoul watched the weapon materialise out of nowhere and made a fascinated noise. Flashy. He'd ask him pull a rabbit next but everyone knew you needed a top-hat for that trick. Crouching, he smiled up at the newcomer, "Oh, well in that case, I know a way out." Scapegoat announced, "Maybe I should have mentioned that first. I often forget. And half the folk I do tell think I'm lying. Can't imagine why." The ghoul had stuck around because... it was a low rent neighbourhood. Yeah. That's it.

"I mean you could speak to them about it. Get my character references. But there's not a lot left of the other inmates. I mean look at this-" Uthman tried to hold a puff of purple smoke in his hand. It slipped through his fingers as he continued speaking, "I think that used to belong to Kanaloa. Y'know, big Hawaiian creator god dude? Yeah. This fog is what's left of him. His magic. This place just sucks the stuff out. Like a cosmic slurpy. You've been breathing in the other chaps and chapettes ever since you arrived. Neato, huh?"

Ali grins at the noise. Heh....gets them everytime. The thief's eyes widen as he hears that Scape knew a way out. Wait...really?!?! Great!Ali thinks it over.Let's see...chance he was lying,and would spring a nasy,mean trap on him/something else...But, knowledgeable guide, and one that had at least a decent sense of humor,plus a hopefully good fighter....He nods, deciding to do it.Listening as the ghoul continues, he blinks.Woah..."Wait...A god? So I've been breathing in dead deities?........Yay."Ali sighs."Good thing I'm not magic,then...And I'm thinking we've established what immates are here aren't pleasant at all...Anything else, or shall we get stepping?"

"Well not just deities. They just have more 'innards' than most." Scapegoat added with the use of quotation fingers. They weren't talking about a 'gooey centre' after all. The ghoul rose to his full height and nodded gladly at Ali, "Yes. Let us gallop! I- wait, wha?" Uthman was wrong-footed for a moment, "No magic? No magic?! Ee-up. What are you playing at - no magic? This is a prison for magicy people who do magic things for magical purposes." There had never been a non-mystical inmate before. Those were completely useless here!

"Are you sure you're not mistaken? Are you sure some charlatan scientist didn't bamboozle you into thinking the world worked a different way?" As Scapegoat said this he caught a shape out the corner of his eye. He turned away and then looked back. The shape was suddenly closer. Thinking nothing of it he continued his rebuttal, "Have you ever had a professional sceptic sit in on you while you use your powers? See if they couldn't disprove the rationale behind them for you?" The shape was now a lot closer:

Spoiler:

"Oh crap!" While they looked at it, SCP-173 could not move. It was as solid as a statue. And a nigh invulnerable one at that. But if they both looked away, even for an instant, it would move very quickly. It would move so fast that one blink could be all that stood between their lives and a broken neck.

Ali wrinkles his nose. "innards" or not, it was still gross, no matter how one tried to slice the Spam.Eyebrow's raising at the reaction, he laughs, breifly wondering what his escape partner was glancing at."Nope! No magic, no skeptics. I'm a reality warper, though, and I don't like admitting this, a tad limited." He finally looks at the object, and pales, dropping into a wary stance and raising his machete infront him. Breifly considering the blade,the thief drops the weapon,and works on summoning a sledge as his previous tool disappears."That...thing...wasn't there before,was it?........%#!@. So, my friend...uhm...Any advice other then running and screaming for mercy?"

Scapegoat had taken a brisk step behind Ali. He squinted at the unholy monstrosity and its malformed features. It looked like something out of a modern art gallery. How terrifying! "I dunno. I've never seen this one before." In lieu of the initial alarm the ghoul now approached SCP-173. It was completely stationary and stationary meant harmless. Right? Reaching out a finger Scapegoat poked it in what he assumed was its eye. Nothing happened. He then slowly pushed the statue backwards until it overbalanced and fell onto the ground.

He turned around to Ali and shrugged, "It must be a dud." If Ali blinked the next moment they would find SCP-173 had returned to its feet and put both awkward arms around Uthman's neck, "It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!" Lacking fingers, Scapegoat was able to get out of its grasp easily enough. He backed off away from the being.

"Kill it! Kill it with death!"

Ali gulps."Right, never seen it. Gotcha. How...lovely." Dang it...he'd only faced,frankly, idiotic thugs and the occassional cop before...The thief wasn't sure how to deal with large, sentient rocks uglier then the backside of a gorgon.As Scapegoat pushes over it over and says it must be a dud, Ali blinks,then laughs."Hahaha, gue-" He freezes in place as he notices Scape's neck was endangered."Ah..uhm...Not sure I can kill it..At least with anything in my arsenal..Maybe we should back away from it till it's outta eyesight...and,you know, make sure to keep our eyes on it till we are."

"But you didn't even try!" Scapegoat whined. Stood there with a sledge and he wasn't even going to hit anything with it. As with everything in life, you didn't know what made stuff tick until you swung a bludgeoning instrument at it. Still the statue was stationary again. Maybe what Ali surmised about its mode of locomotion was right. It couldn't move while they looked at it.

Scapegoat suddenly clicked his fingers and clapped loud, "Ooo! I know!" He ran to the edge of the cliff, where the purple smoke cascaded down, and jumped off into the abyss. Just before he went over the lip he swapped places with SCP-173. The last thing they saw of it, was its stupid face as it went over the edge, "I can magic. Pull the ol' switcheroo on living things." Welp. That was one unwholesome fiend down. A dimension more of them to go.

Ali snorts."Well,sorry bud,but I'm built for speed and agility,not hammering through solid concrete....or whatever the hell it's made of...I'd rather not take the chance on it deciding it didn't like my attempts unless I have to,eh?" The thief tilts his head as Scapegoat exclaims, running over and jumping off the cliff......WHAT THE HELL?!!His eyes widen and bug out in shock, only to blink as the ghoul reappears before him."......HAHAHAHA!! Nice!! My man!" Ali grins wide, resting his sledge on his shoulder as he claps Scapegoat on the shoulder."That's a pretty sweet trick Scapegoat.Let's get going before we have to mess around with any freinds it may have,eh?"

"Right you are. The way out is..." Scapegoat started walking purposefully to his right. And then made an abrupt about face to his left, "This way."

---

As they walked the desiccation cracks shattered beneath their feet. It was obvious no one had walked across this dried mud before. The land in front of them curved up into the sky and it may have struck Ali by now that there were perfect levels of sunlight - despite there being no sky for a Sun.

Their destination appeared to be a range of mountains that were as distant as they were elusive. The plain was flat and you could see for miles. But nothing moved in the dead land. Nothing, that is, until...