 Open wide," I nodded nervously, though I was a little doozy from the Novocaine if that's what it's called. I realized as I was starting to lose consciousness how odd that request was. Open wide, I already had the obstructive steel mechanism holding my jaw open, and it was now in total control of my ability to open or close it. I suppose all dentists are taught to say that, but where am I going? Refused, I looked around awkwardly as Dr. Willie began to push me down a long tunnel that seemed to go… down? Another trick of the mind. We were on the 10th floor of the building. There were no tunnels. Still, it seemed I was being pushed down into the earth. Perhaps you can imagine how my fears escalated as well, when Dr. Willie began to whistle as he strapped my arms around the cold frame of the wheelchair. Was this normal? Was I dreaming? Nope. The wheelchair suddenly stopped. The tall man stared down at me, a grin spreading wide across his face. But don't worry, you know what they always say. Quick and painless. He paused for a moment, crouching down to my eye level. Well, mostly. He winked again before walking behind to push me farther down the black hallway and resuming his whistling. He turned the hand crank that attached to the metal tool controlling my jaw and I would have screamed in pain if I could have. Though I couldn't yet feel my face due to the drugs, I knew that some damage had already been done. My heart began to beat faster as the dark corridor came more clearly into view. I doubt anyone reading this will believe what I'm going to tell you next, but I remember it clear as day. The walls around us weren't made from wood or concrete, nothing like that. The walls were made of teeth. Small teeth. I know what you're thinking and the answer to your question is yes. His voice echoed off the walls around us, seeming to come from everywhere. And then we stopped. We stopped in a small room at the very end of the tunnel. Dr. Willie put the brakes on the chair and walked over to a shiny steel table that was pushed back against the far corner of the room. The small amount of light illuminating the room flickered off and I'm not sure how much time passed. When it came back on, Dr. Willie was standing and holding what looked like some type of saw, yet that wasn't the worst part. He had transformed into something inhuman, a tall, thin creature in a perfectly tailored pink dress. He had no eyes anymore and that's when I finally put the whole picture together. He was the Tooth Fairy. Or should I say, a Tooth Fairy? There are many of us, he had said as he spun closer, still holding the saw and taking great joy in watching the tears begin to stream down my face. I couldn't tell you if it were from the drugs, terror, or both, but I passed out. When I awoke, my mother was standing over me. I'm so sorry. How are you feeling? The Novocaine must have still been in effect because opening my jaw to try and speak was incredibly painful. Only a mumbled nonsense came forth. Don't try and speak, she said. And that's when I noticed that we weren't alone in the room. There was a doctor standing beside her. But it wasn't Dr. Willie, it was someone else. He rested his hand on my mom's shoulder and whispered just loudly enough into her ear that I could still hear him. We'll have to tell him. I began to cry again, desperately trying to ask what it was that they were hiding from me. Tell me. It was my mother's turn to cry then as she buried her head into my chest. Her teeth, they're all gone. Those words hit me harder than anything ever had. That disgusting creature, perhaps even the Tooth Fairy, had taken every last one while I sat past out from the drugs. What the hell was I supposed to do now? Dentures, the doctor said, as if reading my mind. Dentures are going to be the best option for... No. I didn't say the word as I was unable to, but a shake of my head and the look in my eyes told them all they needed to know. I wasn't wearing any dentures. I was going to get my own teeth back. I gestured for a pad of paper, my mother taking a moment or two to understand. After she did, I was handed the paper as well as a black inked pen. I wrote quickly. I wrote furiously. I want my teeth back. Honey, I'm afraid that's just not possible. The building has no record of any Dr. Willie and even if someone were to find him, I slammed the pad of paper down and stared off through the rainy window. Watching the cars speed by on the street below, tears began to come easily. Just 14 years old and something precious had already been taken away. They offered me a mirror. I couldn't bear to look. That night when we arrived home, I was given a warm bowl of soup. The worst soup of my life, I might add. I wasn't able to chew even the smallest vegetable and survive that night on warm chicken broth and Gatorade. My mom kept insisting I settle on dentures, but I had something else planned. Before I go on, you have to understand something. I was terrified of seeing that creature again, but after I awoke from the trauma, there was another feeling as well. Atred. I hated the thing that had done this to me. I hated that he had taken something so precious. And most of all, I hated that he had done this to so many children before. Somehow I knew what to do. After my mom and dad went to sleep, I was going to sneak out of the house and head back to the scene of the crime. Something told me that the creature that had tormented me would be there. Waiting. But I had a surprise for him this time. Or so I thought. Checking my parents room, I quietly headed back down to my own bedroom and climbed down the gutter drain. I jumped the last few feet down onto the driveway and began to jog down the center of the empty street towards the tall building. Though my parents had been under the impression that I had taken the large dose of pain medication prescribed to me by my newest doctor, I had opted to bury it under my mattress instead. The pain I felt while running down the dark street was intense and sharp, but I wanted to be sharp myself. The acute throbbing of my jaw was like gasoline on the fire of hatred that was pushing down through my entire body. When I reached the corner of Elm Street, the first wave of fear finally took hold. Staring up at the office building, I saw that there was a single light switched on. I counted the floors. Six. Seven. Eight. Of course it was the eighth floor. Still that was why I came here, wasn't it? Taking a deep breath, I walked towards the entrance of the building. I hadn't planned far enough ahead to think about just how I would get into the building at night. As it turned out, that was a problem I needed not solve. The door was wide open. I slowly stepped inside and it closed and locked behind me. There was no turning back now. There were two different sets of elevators, though one looked to be out of commission. There were two orange cones sitting in front, tied together easily with an overzealous amount of yellow caution tape. Pressing the up button to the other, I listened in the darkness to the faint hum of the machine as it glided down towards me. The door opened and I let out an audible sigh of relief as I noted the elevator was indeed empty. Jesus, how was I going to fight this thing when I was so afraid? The door closed in front of me and I hesitated for a moment. Before I could even gather the courage to press the button, the number eight lit up like a Christmas tree and the elevator began to rise. As it rose, I got as ready as I could be. I summoned whatever courage I had left, telling myself that if I didn't stand up to this creature and try to kill it, who would? The door opened to the floor, but instead of being greeted to the usual lobby or waiting room, I stepped out instead into a hallway, the hallway in fact, where I had been pushed against my will, the hallway of teeth. This time, instead of being strapped down and wheeled along the cold floor, I went willingly farther into the tunnel that yet again seemed to go down deep into the earth. Each step brought more fear than the next, and then I heard the voice. Welcome back, it said, seeming to hold back a soft laughter. Never had been lighting the path before me ceased immediately, but I was prepared. I quickly pulled out a flashlight and pointed it in the direction of Dr. Willie's voice. You came prepared, he added, this time not holding back a coarse laughter. I came to kill you, I finally replied. The words jumbled and blurred together in my current condition. I tried my best not to stammer in fear. There was silence for a moment, it did nothing to ease my terror. Before I could think of my plan of attack, a tall figure in a pink dress came twirling forward out of the darkness. I fell back in fear and the flashlight slid across the smooth floor towards the creature. It danced towards me, faster and faster. I ran. And though the increased distance from the flashlight made it harder and harder to see the dancing creature that approached me, I could hear the soft patter of its feet as it drew closer. Without thinking, I stopped in place, closing my eyes and putting my full trust into a different sense. I listened. I listened as the creature drew closer and I pulled out the gun I had taken from my father's closet. Please, God, don't let me miss. Right before the creature reached me, I pulled the trigger and then I pulled it again and again. I pulled it until the clip was empty and then I collapsed onto the floor and waited for any sign of movement or even wharves. But there was nothing and a short time later, I walked back down towards the flashlight I left behind. Scanning the hall carefully, I saw no sign of the creature that had pursued me. I hadn't killed it after all. I reloaded the gun quickly. Though my cell phone still works, I can't seem to find my way out of the tunnels of teeth. They seemed to go only in one direction, down, farther and farther into the earth, and I only have three bullets left. I hadn't managed to kill the creature but I was still alive and I still had a shot. But how the hell was I going to escape the tunnels? Perhaps I wasn't. Perhaps I was meant to die down here as the creature had said. Maybe. Just maybe. I could take that evil dentist son of a bitch with me. Three bullets. That would have to be enough. But there was something else too. How long were the batteries in my flashlight last? I guess three or four hours max, and if I wasn't able to kill the creature and escape by then, I suppose I'd be as good as dead. If I could find him while the light still shone brightly. If I could find him while the meandering passages of children's teeth could be seen. Maybe I could aim truer this time. Maybe I could kill it. Walking slowly around each corner, I turned the flashlight ever so cautiously, hoping I was ready for the creature to appear. Hours passed by quickly, until my watch finally froze at you guessed it. Midnight. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed that just as my watch hit that time, the angle of the tunnel seemed to slant even more downwards. No, not my imagination at all, I realized. It was as if the whole world I was in rotated on an axis right at that time, the path I was on now becoming almost vertical. I threw the flashlight into my bag, and grabbed onto the teeth around me as strongly as I could. Though I couldn't see without the aid of a flashlight, I could feel a bottomless space below. Please God, let it keep turning. Though I had tried rock climbing a few times and had done fairly well, I could feel my hands start to tighten up and weaken. I wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, and I would soon fall. A million thoughts rushed through my mind then, everything from my parents' reaction to losing their only son, to the curious question of would my body ever even be found down here. The muscles in my arms finally gave out completely, and I fell. I fell downwards into endless darkness. I hit the icy water hard, and for a few seconds I was sure that I was dead, but I was alive it seemed, the liquid breaking my fall though still painful. From the acute pain on my left side it was clear I had broken a rib or two, and from how difficult breathing had become it wasn't altogether impossible that the fractured bone hadn't pierced my lung. Coughing as I tried desperately to stay afloat, I wondered if the warm sensation around my mouth was from the pool I swam in, or produced from my own damaged lungs. I felt the sand below my feet then, and a feeling of relief as I collapsed onto the murky shore around the body of water. Lying there until I could breathe steadily again, I began to rise to my feet and survey the new environment. The damp air pushed down into my lungs, and though I wanted to breathe in deeply, I knew I needed to work hard to slow my breathing. Closing my eyes, I tried to picture being anywhere but where I was. Only one picture kept flashing again and again in my mind, the pink-dressed creature I had met only a day earlier. I dug my hand deep into my skin to try and dull the pain, and then I headed towards the faint light emanating from a few yards away. When I reached it, I began to understand what this place was, a tomb of sorts, or a gallery, the burning fireplace directly ahead of me illuminating the vast walls and ceilings around. There were teeth as there had been in the hallways where I had fallen from, but there were bones here as well, the bones of children. Teeth and teeth were woven together in murals, each one a more disturbing and terrifying scene than the next. You made it easy on me, the voice called out from behind. I quickly turned, but it was too late, the familiar prick of a needle piercing the flesh of my neck. Before I could grab my father's gun, I felt my legs and arms turn into jelly, and I collapsed onto the damp sand below. I was losing consciousness quickly, but the voice still continued. Normally, I have to carry them down here. There was a faint laughter as the creature began to dance in joy. My eyes were seeing double, but I remember the creature's arm gesturing out slowly towards a blank space on the wall. This will be your exhibit. It's beautiful, isn't it? I'm thinking of putting your left arm where your head is now, and then stitching your teeth beautifully around your ears. The pattern will be lovely, don't you think? You? You did all those? I asked weakly. The creature stopped twirling then and cocked its head towards me as if it were a dog. I did some of this. Remember what I told you? There are many of us. It paused for a moment. Time to die, but don't worry, you'll live forever in a way. For the first time since it had stolen my teeth, I did something I hadn't. I smiled. I smiled wide, and with my smile came a rising laughter. I pulled out the gun, aiming it at the creature which I now saw three of. As whatever medication it had injected me with found its way deeper into my system. Three bullets. Three of you, I whispered, before pulling the trigger. The creature's look was more surprised than anger as the third bullet finally struck true. It fell through its knees and did something unexpected. It pulled out the teeth it had taken from me and extended its arm out in my direction. Here, you've earned them. Getting up weakly, I reached out and took hold of what was mine. I gave one last look at the creature before beginning my journey out of the strange labyrinth. My vision was still failing and my steps wobbly, but I remember its last words clearly. Remember to floss.