The Banana Saga, Part 5: A Taste of Madness

The vault's door slammed behind Sergeant Sally, and after a few second silently listening for any attempt to open it again from the outside Sally exhaled. "Phew. I'm glad to leave that madness behind. Now, let's get some light in here."

She switched on the police lights nesting on her shoulders. Their alternating flashes were great on the streets of Gadgetzan, where street lamps maintained a steady illumination, but with no other light sources present they made things disorienting to say the least. Her head's shadow, jumping left-right-left-right-left-etc. was especially sickening. Nevertheless she was able to make out what she had assumed: the vault was filled with bananas.

More surprising was their arrangement: rather than all being piled up in the middle, they lined the vault's edge, circling a pedestal on which rested a Deviate Banana. Surrounded by a purple haze it almost beckoned Sally closer. Not that she needed its encouragement - she was there to investigate after all - so she obliged and approached, first prodding it lightly with her baton then touching it with her finger. It was a little squidgy but nothing too abnormal. 

Even so, she knew better than to taste it. She would just grab it and take it back to Gadgeztan for a careful investigation. "But then... it didn't feel too bad." She thought to herself. "Just a lick of the finger couldn't hurt... Hmm, tastes normal too. What was I worried about?"

.luos ruoy fo ecnesse eht etsat I

"Huh? Who's there?" Sally asked with her usual authority, but the voice echoing all around her did not seem to care.

.elihw a yalp su teL .teews os si tI

Suddenly the flashing red of the world around her was filled not with bananas but with Shadowy Figures, some of them seeming to be Dead Ringers of herself, others formless Shadowfiends. Each side of her illuminated in turn, showing the figures jump forwards closer and closer each time they were in her head's shadow.

"Stay... stay back." she screamed, but to no avail. She could not halt their approach and her death.

.tey gniyalp enod ton era eW

In an instant Sally was back, almost as though she was experiencing deja vu. She had just tasted the banana and... The shadows began moving again. "No no no. It's just some Vivid Nightmare" she told herself as they lumbered back towards her. But the dread, fear and pain were all real as they claimed her a second time.

.niagA

Back again. This time with twice the memories. "Deja vu doesn't happen three times does it? No. I have to escape." This time she ran for the vault's doors. No luck. They wouldn't budge. No escape.

Again and again the cycle repeated. Always the Shadow Visions feeling more terrible than before. Almost like it was learning how to inflict the most fear. She had lost count of the number of times she had died before she heard a faint voice, equally distant as the echoing laughter that had taunted her this whole time, but cleaner and somehow uplifting. It was unable to stop her death this time, but upon her return she felt courage flood back into her.

She was no priest, but their knack for silencing others had proven a useful skill to learn in the hubbub of Gadgetzan, and now with a clear head she cast Mass Dispel, switched off her lights and listened for any sign that the monsters were real. Nothing.

You are safe now.

The distant, clear voice sounded in her mind, and the vault's doors creaked open. In came the Questing Adventurers, eager to tell of how they had turned things around outside.