There was no logic to the place anymore.
Sam ran until her lungs screamed, but the paths kept folding in on themselves, twisting, looping back. The once narrow corridors had opened into vast, tangled fields of flowers that stretched into horizons she couldn't recognize.
The plants breathed.
That was the only way she could describe the way the leaves shuddered in unison, the petals twitching like muscle fibers under skin.
"Sam... I... I think we're in a dream," Wang gasped beside her.
His face was pale, dripping with sweat, his eyes wide like he was seeing ghosts behind every flower.
Sam stopped, gripping his shoulders hard.
"No. No, Wang. Dreams have exits. This... this is something else."
She turned, scanning the never-ending jungle of impossible flora.
Above them, the sky was no longer sky.
It was an enormous flower.A monstrous bloom stretching across the heavens, its center a black hole of writhing vines.
She felt it watching.
No, not watching.
Breathing them in.
Suddenly, the ground beneath her feet rippled like a pond, and she stumbled, falling to her knees.
"Sam, the ground's... alive!" Wang screamed.
The soil pulsed under her hands, warm and fleshy. She yanked her hands back, gagging.
"Sam... look at them..."
Wang's voice broke.
Sam looked.
Their classmates.
Scattered across the field.
But they weren't... normal.
They were covered in vines. Their faces blank, mouths open as if mid-scream, yet no sound escaped them. Their eyes were glassy, lifeless, flowers sprouting from their sockets, their mouths.
Sam's stomach turned violently.
This wasn't a hallucination.
This was consumption.
They stumbled upon a cracked fountain in the middle of the maze. It was dry, but its stone walls were etched with carvings Sam recognized from earlier—the eyes, the flowers, the endless loops.
And then she saw Sakda.
Standing by the fountain.
Waiting.
This time, his mouth did move, and Sam could hear his voice.
"You shouldn't have come," he whispered, almost tenderly."This place... it remembers."
Sam gritted her teeth.
"What is this place? Why are we seeing things? Why are you just... standing there?!"
Sakda smiled, but it wasn't warm.
It was hollow.Like someone who had lost their mind a long time ago.
"It's not hallucination, girl. It's not dream either. This place feeds off minds. Off your fears. It shows you what you can't fight."
"What are you talking about?!" Wang yelled.
Sakda stepped forward, his face illuminated by the sickly glow of the monstrous sky-flower.
"Have you ever heard of Hypnoth flora?It's an ancient species. Thought extinct. But they... survive in shadows. They produce spores. Invisible. You've been breathing them since you entered the path."
Sam froze.
The narrow path.The rubber trees.The wall.
They were already inside us the moment we walked in...
"Your friends..." Sakda gestured to the bodies."They're not dead. Not yet. They're trapped. In their minds. In endless loops."
Sam shook her head violently.
"No. No... we can get out. We just need to wake up."
Sakda chuckled darkly.
"Wake up? From a mind trap? You think it's that easy?They feed until there's nothing left but hollow shells."
Sam fell to her knees, tears streaming.
"No... there has to be a way..."
"There is one way," Sakda whispered.
He pulled something from his coat.A knife.Its blade shimmering with an oil-like sheen.
"Cut the flower's roots."
Sam stared at him, bewildered.
"What... what flower?"
Sakda pointed to the sky.
"That one. The Blooming Mirage. It has no physical form in your world anymore. It exists only inside your head now. You have to cut it from inside."
Sam's mind reeled.
How could they fight something that wasn't even physically there?
"You want me to... kill a hallucination?" she spat.
Sakda only smiled wider.
"No. Kill your fear."
Before Sam could ask more, Sakda began to fade.
Like smoke.
"Wait! Don't go—!" she screamed.
But he was gone.
Leaving only the fountain.And the knife.Pulsing softly.Calling to her.