It didn't budge, I tried again and again and again. I ran at the door, kicked it, punched it, and shot at it several times, yet nothing happened. Seconds turned to minutes and minutes to hours yet time held no precedence. I finally sat in the middle of the room tired, exhausted and beaten. I lay down, my mind bulging with anger as I searched my vacant thoughts praying for an answer in my newfound memory. Nothing seemed new, yet nothing seemed old. I scanned through and recalled the old man's words.

I stared at the door, my stagnant adversary. The barrier between myself and freedom. Opening up a door with physical strength would make no sense. I must open a door in my mind to proceed. I concentrated hard on the door, my mind focusing with all of its strength. The door is open it was never closed, I am not in a dimension, I am not in a place where physics rules. I am in a trap a maze hidden deep into my own thoughts, I know how to open the door, the door does not exist.

I walked forward, my eyes closed, yet were they my eyes? Or simply a figment of my imagination, thoughts being projected into a mirror of emptiness. I reached for the oaken handle, sweat dripping from my palm and pulled stepping forward into more endless darkness.

I cracked one eye open scared of what might lie before me. The next room was a maze, one built of smooth grey cobble and thick vine. The grass was damp every strand sharp, nipping at my feet, the dark sky an endless overcast. I breathed one gigantic gulp of the cool crisp air before turning to the entrance. Blinking a few times as if to wake myself from a dream I noticed It had three pathways, one labelled with a chipped wooden sign for death, a human skull with a serpent protruding through its eye. Casting a glance down the misty corridor I gulped before shaking my head. Stepping forward I came upon the second sign one showing plant life, a swirling tree with gnarled roots and murky grey leaves. The last sign showed nothing, just an empty piece of wood, crumbling with rot as a thin layer of dust lay beneath its surface. Backing up slowly I paused to take in my surroundings, the eerie silence, wind howling as it shook the vines. Turning my head I noticed one last path. A wooden ladder led up to the top of the maze, a place where you could walk along the crumbling walls.

I approached the ladder and climbed its first steel rung. The metal was cool and smooth, the fresh aroma of grass silently flowing in the air. Gulping I began to climb each step sending shivers down my spine.

Once on top, the maze stretched out as far as I could see. The landscape rippled in an endless sea of bricks leading into the beyond. On the horizon, I could make out something, a light perhaps? but it was too faint, a mere speck in the distance. I stepped forward gliding among the top of the wall and flailing my arms in order to maintain a strong balance. I walked for some time, sometimes looking down to see the eerie floor shift and churn below. Suddenly a sharp cry was heard wailing in the distance. I looked up into the abyss to see a flock circling around me.

The birds were angels of death, their teeth as sharp as razors and their eyes glinted scarlet. The bird’s bodies reflected no light but simply were as dark as an endless shadow.

The flock closed in and swooped downwards clawing at my arms and legs slowly ripping me to shreds. I jumped down into the security of the maze and the whole world transformed. The flurry of the tunnel’s floor was muddy and damp, the entire place reeked with slime and very little sunlight penetrated the invisible cloud-ridden ceiling. For what seemed like an endless journey I wandered, my feet clung to blood and dirt but I did not tire. I simply continued determined to reach an endless destination.

I pulled out my wallet, I slowly ran my finger over the frayed I.D picture of a man I never knew. My memory of that night came to my dilapidated brain and the walls around me crumbled, falling into a void of darkness and fine dust to slowly build up again, this time in the shape of the street in my past.

The London fog rolled overhead and the night sky was far more crepuscular, it was not more simply a cloud that visited the creatures which it valiantly looks down upon every day, but an animal. A creature is thirsty for blood wishing to surround me, ensnare me in a prison of smoke one which could hold my thoughts until the end of time. Scrambling for cover I ran as fast as possible disappearing into a nearby house, the only one in which the door was open.

Standing in the doorway I locked and bolted the red gate but I soon discovered that this horror was not the one to be afraid of for the wood was not painted red, but stained, stained with the colour of blood. I hastily spun around to see my surroundings change, gone in an instant. Where the cozy fireplace and lavish stairs. Around me now was a castle of cobwebs, a place where even light dared not to venture.

Pulling out a box of matches from my coat pocket I lit a single strand. The room was made of decaying wood and in the gloomy corner stood a single wooden mannequin, its eyes draining a stream of blood and mouth revealing a crooked smile of glee. I pulled out my pistol and fired. Inertia and fear took better of my senses. However, instead of a sharp pop penetrating the air, there was no sound. I opened up the magazine and found nothing. The gun corroded in my hand leaving a pile of rust and grains of sand to slither cowardly through my closed palm. The creature in front moved forward creating my worst nightmares every step sent a shiver down my spine. Its wooden body was scratched and lacerated; a shot at a limb had been chopped to reveal a long grey blade.

Scurrying forward I easily outran the creature, yet my mental sanity still felt the effects. Thinking of my odds with the mist I ran upstairs nearly falling to my death as the rotten planks snapped beneath my feet. At last, I reached the top level and I ran to a nearby room closing and locking the door behind me. The creature continued to walk forward making a blood-curdling screech as it converged until it finally stopped speaking gibberish and started to rant in a voice that was neither human nor animal one of comfort, reassurance and deathly persuasion.

The voice of someone from my past, a memory so distant and undisturbed it lay deep, buried yet present, a ghost hovering over a loved one who had forgotten.

“John? John come here, I won't hurt you, just come to me, I know your past, I can help you don’t you remember me? Don't you remember me?” It reached the door handle and shook it screaming.

“Open up, open up and leave this place, survive life to tell the tale, you don’t belong here you know that I won’t hurt you, no one will, open the door, open the door.”

I knew my only chance was to escape, escape or grab the Deathstroke hand of the creature who beckoned to me so fiercely.

I searched my mind, but I didn't want to play anymore. I wanted freedom, or death whichever came first. I reached for the back of my head I grasped air twisted and pulled, pulled and pulled my fingers latched onto nothing, the creature outside was almost in front its metal blade had ripped through the wood and was slicing its way inside, splinters of material sailing through the air. Then I closed my eyes and pulled with all my might, pain searing through my veins, the world stood still and I woke up.

The water around me was close to gelatin and my body was stripped down to underwear, there I floated for some time, the liquid was cold and icy, the tube attached to my brain was now floating away it's the connection of pads ripped-off of my head and a long tube ran into my mouth. I looked around the container, above me, a single hatch marked my fate.

Red lights and alarms blared as the water jutted out for a split second. The floor opened up and my container was tossed into nothing, space, a peaceful view of emptiness for a few seconds. The stars gazed at my body, tranquillity flowing through their beauty. I lay motionless, floating in the air, below a green and brown planet, above millions of stars and the unexplored.

Then the rockets kicked in. The craft I travelled in was tossed at an enormous speed into the stratosphere of the planet. Around the heat of re-entry flaked away at the almost impenetrable glass. I screamed underwater as I plummeted falling deep, through the clouds above and embedding myself into the ground.