The elevator clunked down, down, down, deep into the confines of the U.S.G. Ishimura. I was curled uncomfortably in the corner, sobbing like a pathetic child. Mere moments ago, I had been accompanied by two surviving friends. Now, however, they were probably nothing more than heaps of bloody tissue and organs, or worse, lumbering mindless monsters. We had been attacked by no less than five of the infested demons the second we reached the elevator doors. Four of the monsters descended so quickly on my friends, I had no idea what was going on. That is, until one of the remaining creatures charged at me and rammed me into the elevator. My left shoulder caught on a sharp piece of debris protruding from a broken panel in the elevator. The pain had been excruciating, but I had mere seconds to think fast and save myself before the creature came to seal my fate. Pulling my wand out, I used the Severing charm on the creature's legs before blasting the 'Down' button. And now, here I sat, curled in the fetal position, sobbing my eyes out in the corner of an elevator, on the ship from Hell itself.
The elevator jolted to a stop and the doors opened to complete blackness. I didn't want to get up. I wanted to sit in this corner forever and wait for somebody to come and rescue me. I couldn't go on any more. And yet, I knew that there was nobody coming. The distress call had been sent out a week ago and there had been no help sent, whatsoever. The only method of survival was to push forward to the escape-pod bay and pray that there was enough power to get one blasted out into space.
I had to keep going. It was the only way to survive. They were gone, and sitting here like a child, sobbing in a corner wasn't going to help anything.
I stared up into the black hallway. As if fear hadn't already gripped my heart enough, it now squeezed painfully. Trying to compose myself and stem the flow of tears, I used the wall to stand myself up on my shaky knees. I pointed my wand forward into the blackness.
"Lumos."
The wand tip ignited, instantly throwing the narrow hallway into an eerie, shadow-filled glow. Panels and pipes were ripped from the walls and ceiling, casting more irregular and terrifying shadows. Slowly, I moved forward, beads of sweat sliding down my face. The shadows undulated down the hall with my movement and they set my already shaky nerves on edge. It made it more difficult for me to tell what was moving and what was just a shadow. My breathing was shallow and short and my head was spinning slightly. My eyes darted this way and that, staying sharp for any sign of movement. I kept my ears open, desperately hoping that if any of them were near me, they'd give themselves away audibly first. But the only sounds I could hear were my own sharp breaths, my deliberately quiet footsteps, and the steady drip drip drip of my own blood as it ran down my arm from the considerable gash in my left shoulder.
The hallway suddenly came to a sharp turn. I stopped dead in my tracks. Did something just skitter down the hall around that corner? My stomach bottomed out. Flashes of the monsters plagued my mind as I stood frozen at the corner. Horror after horror, nightmare after nightmare, they invaded my mind, each one more devilish than the last. Soulless, emotionless, horrid monsters with only one thought in their dim-witted minds; prey.
By now, I was breathing faster, and my heart was pounding a hole through my ribs. I tried to stem the flow of gory images from my mind and instead, started to muster up the courage to turn that corner. After a moment, I breathed in deep, held my wand ahead of me, and stepped out.
There was nothing. Just another disaster-ridden hallway.
I exhaled. My heart slowed for a moment.
One corner down…just another couple hundred or so to go. Why does the damn escape pod have to be so far away?
I didn't have time to answer that question however. The panel in the ceiling ahead of me crashed down as one of the monsters fell clumsily out of it. It looked like one of the common ones I'd dealt with before, but that didn't make it any less frightening. At ten feet tall, it looked like a man, but incredibly disfigured, decaying, and nightmarish. The face was horribly unhuman. The jaw was missing, the eyes were wide and lidless, and they glowed a horrible yellow color, not unlike that of pus. The arms were disfigured as well, as if they had been forcefully shoved up to the shoulders in an upright position, and instead of hands, the ends sported long, bone-like spears.
The startled scream that escaped my lips got the creature's attention, and within a fraction of a second, it had righted itself and was lumbering towards me.
"DIFFINDO!" I cried, slashing my wand in the creature's direction. The spell sliced diagonally through the monster's head, cutting it in half, but it didn't slow down one bit. Instead, it roared in defiance and charged at me even faster.
"DIFFINDO!" I screamed again, deliberately pointing at the creature's leg. This time, it worked. With a sickening sound, the leg was sliced off in a spray of blood. The monster came crashing down, face first. But it still continued to come at me, using its' spear-like hands to drag itself towards me, moaning and growling all the while.
Desperate, I sent spell after spell at the creature until finally, it lay subdued on the ground, with no limbs to move itself with at all.
I paused for one brief moment to catch my breath, the darkness starting to envelope me once more. I ignited my wand tip, but it didn't do very much good. Suddenly, an idea came to me. I directed my wand at the corpse of the monster before me.
"Incendio!"
Instantly, the cadaver burst into flames, and the entire hallway was brightly lit by the orange flames.
As were the four massive creatures at the end of the hall.
The flames caught their attention immediately, and they started to sprint in my direction. My heart now beating violently in my throat like a drummer on the front lines, I pointed my wand at them, now knowing that my efforts had been for nothing.
Soooo...I'm trying something new here. For the last three years, I've been focused (mostly) on writing Lion King stories. Now I've been wanting to try something new, but I couldn't figure out what. That is, until I discovered Dead Space. And then with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 released so soon to this discovery, the geek in me combined with the new Dead Space fanboy and created...this. Or rather, what this soon will be. I have quite a few ideas to put into play with this story, and I really hope to turn it into something not only believable, but enjoyable as well. And possibly scary, if I can manage it. At the same time, I'll be balancing writing this with writing my other story "Pride of Man Remastered". So updates will probably be slow for quite some time. But I hope you'll stick through it!