Drip Drip Drip
*drip*
*drip*
*drip*
The sound of water falling to the floor caused Marco to wake from his slumber.
*drip*
*drip*
*drip*
Marco assumed that the wind had pushed open his window at sometime during the night because it was stupidly cold now. He looked around to try and see what had happened, but the unyielding darkness kept these things a secret from him. *What time is it?* Marco thought to himself groggily. It had to be late in the night for it to be this dark.
Marco reached to his left to try and find his bedroom lamp but instead found his hand pressed up against a cold stone wall. That was odd. Marco didn't have any bare stone walls in his bedroom. What was more, the wall was wet for some reason. Had the rain from the open window really made it this far in?
*drip*
Marco turned in his bed to get out of bed when he realized that he wasn't in his bed. For some reason he had been sleeping on the hard stone floor. Perhaps he fell out of bed in the night and didn't notice? No, that didn't really make sense, he had carpet in his room, not stone floor. Where was he then?
*drip*
Suddenly, light crept around the corner of what appeared to be a door frame but it was too weak to illuminate anything inside the room. Marco scrambled towards the light, trying to make sense of everything his brain was telling him. When he reached the doorway, he found that it was blocked by rusted iron bars that were cold to the touch. Marco tried to push the door open, but it would not budge.
*drip*
Marco span on the spot to look behind him, trying to locate the source of the dripping. There was a small scratching to Marco's left which he recognised as some sort of rat. Marco took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He needed to centre himself, to stay calm, panicking wasn't going to get him anywhere.
*drip*
One of Marco's eyes twitched in response, he was finding it hard to concentrate with the constant sound invading his thoughts.
*drip*
Marco opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the noise, a look of annoyance quickly crossing his face. Whatever that was needed to stop, or he might never make it out of here.
*thud*
Marco was again interrupted, this time not by the drip but by the sound of footsteps coming from outside of the room he was in. The footsteps were not periodic however. There was a light step followed by what sounded like someone dragging something heavy across the floor before a large thud. Almost as if whoever was coming down the hallway towards him had a limp and a leg made out of lead. The footsteps were accompanied by a scraping sound of metal on stone, as if someone was dragging a large nail along the wall as they came towards him.
*drip*
*thud*
Marco froze in absolute terror. For some reason, he assumed that whatever was coming down the hallway was coming for him.
*drip*
*thud*
It came closer.
*drip*
*thud*
Closer.
*drip*
*thud*
Marco was like a deer in headlights and he knew it. He knew that he needed to move away from whatever that sound was but his body refused, it was paralysed by fear.
*drip*
*thud*
In a last ditch effort to get his body to move, Marco bit his own hand, trying to use the pain to shock his body into motion. It worked and Marco quickly but quietly shrank away from the door and towards the back wall of the room.
*thud*
A bead of sweat formed on Marco's forehead as he stood wide eyed, facing the doorway. Marco wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and pretend none of this was happening, to shut himself off from the real world, but if he did that he would be as good as dead. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead and along the edge of his nose before falling to the ground.
*drip*
As the sweat fell away from his nose, something warm and sticky replaced it on his forehead. Then he noticed it. The stench. The overwhelming stench that was hanging right beside him. Marco didn't know how he didn't notice it immediately. It was undeniably recognisable. Marco didn't need to see to know what had been hanging beside him. To know what had been making the dripping sound and what had fallen on his forehead. Blood. It was blood from a corpse. A corpse that was rotting and filling the room with the most repugnant smell.
*thud*
Whatever was outside continued moving down the hall towards him. It was getting closer now, it couldn't have been much further than a few metres from the doorway. The scraping sound was so loud it was all Marco could think of.
*thud*
Marco held his breath in a last ditch effort to remain hidden from the thing that was slowly shuffling its way towards him.
*thud*
The scraping sound stopped as a figure stepped in front of the doorway. It was massive and vaguely humanoid. It was six feet tall, but it looked as though it had a hunch and so was presumably much taller. It looked as though a thin linen sheet had been wrapped around it, giving it a hooded appearance. The creature wheezed and turned on the spot to face Marco. It was hard to discern any facial features as the light was nearly completely blocked by the creature. All Marco could see was the silhouette of the creature. There was a buzzing sound as flies entered the room and were attracted to the corpse that was hanging from the wall. The gate separating Marco from the monster made a long drawn out creak as it opened without any input from the hulking figure
*drip*
*drip*
*drip*
This time the sound of blood dripping onto the floor did not come from the hanging corpse that was next to Marco but from the left arm of the hulking figure in front of him.
*drip*
*drip*
*drip*
*thud*
The monster shuffled towards him and Marco let out a scream.
*drip*
*drip*
*drip*