The Gallery OCT (Emmanuel) SE Round 3 - Part 1

Would you like to hold your baby now, miss?

Y-yes, of course!

Isn't he the most precious thing in the whole world?

He certainly is, my love...

What shall we name him?

...Emmanuel... because he will always be my little angel...

...

...

*sniff* I can't believe he's... dead...

Daddy come home soon?

I'm... so sorry... but he had to go away for something very important... he won't be able to come home for a very, very long time...

You're not going away, are you, mummy?

Of course not, my little angel... I'll always be here... and I'll always love you...

I love you too, mummy.

I know, my love... now, I need you to do something for me...

What's that?

I need you to...

Wake up!

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Emmanuel opened his eyes. Immediately, he began to wonder how and when he had fallen asleep in the first place. Time in this place did not feel as though it flowed normally to him. The voices that he was so accustomed to hearing in his head had disappeared almost as soon as he had arrived here, to be replaced with twisted, sinister whisperings. These new voices were unfamiliar to him; they almost frightened him.

Emmanuel rose to his feet, stretched, and let out a huge yawn. He took a moment to observe his surroundings. He had fallen asleep against the wall of a rather large, circular room, with four doors evenly spaced around its edges. Also, there were a number of statues placed throught the room, some at the edges, others in a cluster in the center. They had no faces, and yet Emmanuel got the impression that they were watching him... watching his every move...

"Well, this room clearly doesn't have anything to offer. Guess trying one of the doors can't kill me" he thought to himself. He approached one of the doors, and grasped the door's handle. He tried to turn it, but the handle refused to budge. Emmanuel stood back, and raised his hand. He was about to attempt to establish a mental link with the handle to make it open, when a noise behind him caught his attention. He lowered his hand and turned around.

And just in time too, it seemed, as one of the statues had seemingly come to life, and was about to swing at his head. He ducked just in time, with the statue's arm barely missing the top of his head. He felt the brief rush of air as the arm sailed over him, missing him by not even an inch. He leant down, placed his hand on the ground, and pictured the ground under the staue rising. Almost immediately, the ground in front of him shook, as a big chunk of the floorboard under the statue rose, sending the statue flying across the room, until it landed on the other side, shattering into many pieces.

Emmanuel rose again, and immediately realised the predicament he was in: the rest of the statues had come to life as well, and were advancing towards him. He stretched out his hand, and tried to connect with one of the statues, in an attempt to send it flying into the others. His gambit failed, as his attempt to manipulate the statue had absolutely no effect. It was almost as though the statues had a will of their own.

The door behind him was locked, and he was surrounded on all sides by numerous statues. There were a lot of them; too many for him to take care of all on his own...

Emmanuel braced himself...

A loud noise from across the room caught his attention, and that of the statues as well. Emmanuel glanced over to where the noise had come from, and saw that the door opposite him had been torn clean off its hinges. He then saw who was responsible for the sudden distraction. Two people... no, these were no people... they almost appeared to be lizards, yet they had the form of, and walked like people. One of them, the one who appeared to to be the one who had destroyed the door wore a black leather jacket covering a white shirt with a black ace symbol on the front, as well as black jeans and brown boots. The other one had a dress shirt and vest, loose black tie, white bowler hat, and white dress shoes and pants.

"Bloody hell Smith, you had to tear the door away, didn't you? Ever heard of this thing called knocking?" the lizard-man with the bowler hat quipped. "You know why we're here, Wesson. We're here to find the girls, and that's that" the lizard-man called Smith grunted. "I haven't got time to be messing around."

"Hey look, Smith, looks like there's someone over there" Wesson pointed across to where Emmanuel and the statues were, still frozen after their sudden arrival. "Wait, there are other people alive here?" Smith said, brow furrowing as he looked over at Emmanuel, his brow furrowing, "and it looks like he might be in some trouble too..." as he noticed the statues surrounding him.

"Well well, let's get over there and fuck some hardcore shit up, eh?" Wesson said, glee in his voice as he readied himself for a fight. "Yeah... maybe he knows where the girls are" Smith replied, cracking his knuckles as he also readied himself.

Emmanuel had been watching Smith and Wesson all this time, not noticing that the statues had shifted their attention back to him. However, before he could even move, a flying kick courtesy of Wesson sent a number of the statues flying, many of them minus their heads. Emmanuel stared in shock, amazed at how fast this new arrival had been able to cross the room.

The statues shifted their attention to Smith and Wesson, and approached them, but both of them stood there, unmoving, unflinching. "Uh... bud, it might be a good idea to do something here, otherwise we're gona be one big scaly shish kebab!" Wesson shouted at Smith. Smith raised his fist, and sent it flying into the nearest statue, which had been just about to impale the both of them with its arm. The force behind the punch was so great that the statue immediately shattered, and the shards went flying, knocking over and shattering a number of the other statues in the vicinity.

Emmanuel, silently thankful to the new arrivals for saving him, raised his fist, and the broken shards of what had once been statues rose from the ground, forming a ring around Smith and Wesson. He opened his palm, and the ring of shards was suddenly sent flying outwards, taking care of the few remaining statues.

The three combatants stared at each other for a moment, and then slowly approached each other, not saying a word for a few moments. As they got closer, Emmanuel was able to get a good look at them. Both of them appeared to be at least a full head taller than him. They did indeed seem to have the appearance of humanoid lizards; their skin was covered in scales, and both of them had tails, which were barely dragging along the ground.

"Heh, guess we owe you thanks there, bro. Not that we couldn't have mopped up their asses though; we just let you pick up the scraps" Wesson said with a smirk on his face. Smith glared at Wesson for a moment, and then turned to Emmanuel. "Don't expect any thanks from me, kid. I don't have time to play babysitter with the likes of you"

"Kid? you think I'm a kid? What kind of-" Emmanuel started, but was stopped by Wesson, who beld his hand up. "Ah, don't take Mr. Grumpyfists here seriously, he just hasn't had his morning coffee yet. Anyways, you haven't seen a couple of Saurien chicks around here, have you?"

"What the hell is a Saurien? I don't even know what one looks like" Emmanuel said, confused. Wesson sighed, and rolled his eyes "You don't know what a Saurien looks like? Well, I'll give you a clue: you're looking at two of them. The one's we're looking for look like us, but they have tits."

This earnt Wesson a punch in the shoulder from Smith, who only appeared to get even more annoyed. "Clearly he hasn't seen them, you idiot. We're not going to get anything out of him that he doesn't know, so we're wasting our time here." He turned around and went to walk away. Wesson looked conflicted, glancing at Emmanuel, then at Wesson, then at Emmanuel again.

"So... these two... Sauriens... they're stuck here in this tournament too?" Emmanuel asked Wesson. This seemed to worry Wesson to some extent, as his forehead creased. "Tournament? Christ, I hope they don't cause too much shit here, or we'll have to pay the fucking insurance."

"Hurry up, Wesson! We haven't got time to waste, we need to keep looking!" Smith yelled from across the room, ready to leave. "Alright, alright, I'm coming! Hold your goddamn dick!" Wesson replied, and ran after him.

Emmanuel was left on his own once again, surrounded by the broken shards of what had only minutes ago been an army of statues. He stood there for some time, trying to comprehend what he had just seen. "So... they're family, huh?" Emmanuel sighed to himself "Family... something I can't say I've know for a long time." Emmanuel closed his eyes, as faint memories of yellow dresses and the scent of daffodils overcame him.

He eventually opened his eyes again, and went to open one of the doors that had survived the Saurien's rampage. To his surprise, it opened without any struggle whatsoever. He opened it, and stepped through, leaving the evidence of their destruction behind him.