“Marcus Kitashima! Come out and face me.” The fog recoiled away from me. It had been a long time since the Nachtmar had allowed that name spoken out loud in the presence of its host. “I kept my word. I know how to find her. I know how to find Mary. I know you can hear me. You need to push your way through the fog. Don’t let the Nachtmar stand in your way. Don’t let him stop you.”

The fog pulsed with an unnatural light. Something rose to my left, forming out of the floor in a vortex. It took on the shape of man, and for a brief moment, my hope surged…Only a hideous, shrieking ghoul surged forth, snapping ragged jaws and clawing bone fingers for my throat.

I calmly raised Abomination and blew its head off. The entire figure exploded into congealed mist globules. “Don’t let the nightmare cloud your mind, Marcus. Come toward the sound of my voice. I’m here to help you.” Other monsters formed in the fog, and I killed them, one after the other, not even thinking. Not even taking the time to assess them further than it took to see that they weren’t who I was looking for. I kept talking the whole time. Calm. Rational. Killing. “The Nachtmar is controlling you. He’s using you. He doesn’t want you to have the truth.”

Werewolf on the right. Two rounds of buckshot dissipated it back into nothing. The darkness was lying, spewing blasphemy and horror. Demons came out of the ceiling. I killed them. Whipping tentacles came out of the walls and exploded one after the other. I reloaded without thought and dropped a charging wight. It was an endless parade of beasts. It was so dark that I could only react at the last instant. It was pure instinct. Movement on both sides. I switched Abomination to my off hand and drew my pistol in the other. I drove my arms out and killed both of them before they could even fully form. “Come on!”

Moving forward, I found another real body, this time one in a wheelchair. It was Dr. Blish. Dead. Only there wasn’t a mark on him. His face was frozen in a final, rigid scream, killed by his own fear.

The fog crawled into his open mouth. The corpse turned his dead face toward me. The lips didn’t move, but he spoke with the Nachtmar’s voice. “I will not let him go. I will not go back to the silent lands.”

“You won’t have a choice. He’s stronger than you are.”

There was a scream to my side. I raised Abomination, but that had been a human scream, and despite the Nachtmar’s trickery, I knew this one was real. “Holly?”