Feb. 28, 2017 10:59 PM

Travis

Furnace Room

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"Mardi Gras Couple"

Annoying Vermin

S-VHS

"Travis, look!" Courtney enthused, turning Travis around on the spot and pointing towards a giant fake multi-colored clown head hovering in the Mardi Gras parade. "Isn't this amazing?" Courtney beamed, her pearly white smile stretched across her face as she took out her camera and filmed the crowds amassed on the streets of New Orleans. Laughter, cries and howls echoed through the narrow and historic streets. Travis found it difficult to distinguish between the laughter and the screams and pondered on how easy it would be to take someone's life in the crowds, how no one would be aware of the heinous act as they would just assume it was shrieks of joy. The thought disturbed Travis, and he turned his attention back to his wife whose beautiful gap-toothed smile always brought him up from depths of despair.

The vacationing couple lived and worked in Illinois, Travis as a writer and Courtney a photographer, but they traditionally attended the Mardi Gras festivities in Louisiana, Courtney's father having been born there. Travis would be lying if he said their marriage hadn't been rocky. There were certainly a mixture of ups and downs although he liked to think the ups overshadowed the crushing downs. Courtney miscarried only months after their wedding which, seemingly unlike other couples, only served to bring them closer together despite it becoming clear that Courtney wouldn't be able to naturally give birth. The IVF, unfortunately, did not bring them closer together. Two failed attempts and several years of late nights wandering how things could have gotten so bad brought the couple to breaking point, furthering the increasing divide between them, and for some time Travis was unsure they would come back from that pit of misery that surrounded them.

Ultimately, they confronted each other on what they wanted in life, Travis revealing that he'd always wanted a child of his own but that he'd sacrifice that dream in a heartbeat if it meant he'd lose Courtney. Courtney confessed that she was willing to try one more time, that she had the strength to try a final time and that she wanted nothing more than them to have a baby of their own, to give Travis the child he always wanted. So, they tried again. And now, as they stood in the beautifully lit streets of New Orleans, Courtney was three months pregnant.

"I love you Travis" she cooed, resting her auburn colored head on the dark-haired man's shoulder as they walked, holding hands, towards their car, her emerald eyes still fixated on the parade. "You too", he replied simply. He was never particularly good with emotional stuff, likely stemming from being raised in an emotionally repressed military family, but he knew from the bottom of his heart that Courtney was the only woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. And he intended to do just that.

"I was thinking Emily for a girl but I'm not sure on a boy's name. Maybe Winston like your Grandfather?" Courtney pondered, rubbing her hand over the ever-growing baby bump beneath her charcoal jumper as they sat in the car. "No, I don't think I really want to inflict years of bullying on our unborn child just yet" Travis joked, turning the keys, and starting the car up. "You have no idea how happy I am that you just said that" Courtney smiled as she began to film the parade again from the passenger seat.

"The hotel we're staying in got pretty good reviews on 'Weekend Planner'. I hope it has air conditioning" Courtney worried, wrinkling her forehead. "I'm sure it will, stop stressing. You know what the Doc said about stress" Travis reminded his wife. "Yes, yes I know. 'Dr. Pain' was very clear about her stance on stress…and alcohol, exercise, what to eat, what way to sleep, how to sit on a toilet…and the list goes on" Courtney replied sarcastically, twiddling her hair in her fingers. "'Dr Pain'? That's a new one. She seemed ok to me" Travis said, keeping his hazel eyes focused intently on the road. "Tell me that again after she sticks her hand up your vagina" Courtney joked, as the car hummed out of the city and onto the stretching country roads.

Courtney decided to take a few minutes shut eye but Travis decided not to wake her when that few minutes turned into few hours. Travis never knew anyone as hardworking as Courtney and she needed the rest after such a long day. Truth be told Travis wasn't so sure on them coming all the way to Louisiana this year and was going to cancel the festivity before Courtney revealed that she had everything planned in advance, as a surprise and because she knew Travis needed a break; from worry, paranoia, and his computer.

He had been working on a new novel for quite some time after his first breakthrough success with 'In the Woods', a horror/thriller novel based on superstitious tales he was told around the campfire during his childhood in rural Texas. After that, however, the miscarriage and multiple failed attempts at IVF meant he had to put aside his dream of a trilogy of tales, for much longer than he anticipated. Now that Courtney was pregnant he could finally get back to writing but as a sort of tragic curse, he found himself suffering with writer's block.

The trip was not only an acknowledgement of their sacrifices, that the worst was behind them, but also a passage for Travis to revitalize his creative mind. Unfortunately, that had yet to happen, but he remained confident that the trip would at least de-stress them a little bit after the last few chaotic and emotionally draining months. Travis couldn't help but take little peaks at Courtney. 'How did I ever get so lucky', he thought to himself. Sometimes he had to pinch himself just to mind him that it isn't all just one big long dream. He found himself grinning from ear to ear like an idiot, thinking of that little poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks in rural Texas and wandering how he ever made it so far when everything seemed so against him.

Travis found himself feeling drowsy and more than a little tired as he yawned to himself, partly to break the silence that enveloped the car. Besides Courtney's mild and occasional snores the car was completely silent. Travis had tried to listen to the radio but only found religious fundamentalist channels or local 'news' channels which consisted of information about cow fairs and UFO sightings. They really were in the middle of nowhere, or in the middle of a bayou to be exact. Eventually the radio went completely, changing to static which unnerved Travis more than the silence. As he found himself closing his eyes more often he was about to pull over when something caught his eye. There, in the middle of the road, he could vaguely perceive a figure, standing still in the rain.

"What the fuck?" he said aloud, alerting Courtney who awoke suddenly. "Umm what's wrong?" she moaned, wiping her eyes. "Nothing honey. Just stay inside the car, alright?" Travis said cautiously as he took his phone and stepped outside into the dark and raining night. "Travis?..." Courtney called out, her voice muffled by the heavy rain. Travis used his phone to light the way towards the figure, who remained on the spot like they were frozen. He quickly discovered the person was female, and wearing nothing more than a small white nightdress which was stuck to her body with the rain and offered no protection against the heavy Louisiana rainfall.

"Miss?...D-do you need help? Miss?" Travis approached the woman, whose long dark hair hung down her back. Her head was twitching, moving almost uncontrollably. "Miss?" Travis repeated as the figure slowly turned, a strange rattle reverberating from her. "Jesus…" Travis whispered as a lightning flash illuminated her horrifyingly pale and grotesque face, her smile forever etched in his memory as she cackled before him, throwing her head back into the air as a loud and monstrous laugh bellowed from within her. Travis stumbled backwards in the rain, falling into some deep mud but managing to climb out of it and race back to the car. He jumped into the vehicle, ignoring Courtney's multitude of questions as he focused his eyes on the road and the figure, who was now joined by a little girl, holding her hand, both snarling at the couple.

"Oh, my God…Travis! Travis, drive!" Courtney screamed as Travis put his foot down on the pedal, the tires revving hard in the muck. The car was propelled forward, headed straight for the disturbing duo who failed to move out of the way of the car. "No Travis, the little girl!" Courtney shouted, but Travis was sure they'd move out of the way. As the car raced towards them the little girl let go of the older woman's hand and stepped forward, her expression changing to one of fury and intense anger. She screamed, her entire body shaking like she'd explode into flames. A huge shockwave erupted from her body, sending the couple's car feet into the air and straight into the Louisiana bayou, knocking them both unconscious on impact.

Travis found himself awaking to a horrible pain rushing through his body, his eyes becoming accustomed to a worryingly unfamiliar environment. He tried to move, adrenaline filling his body, but found himself trapped, a shocking pain being expelled from his hands and feet. He looked down to find a sight he would never have expected. His feet had been nailed to a wooden cross and as he looked over at each of his hands he quickly realized he been crucified. "W-what's happening…" he cried out, pain aching its way through his lean body. He tried and tried again to free his feet and hands from the cross but the nails were deep and barely budged an inch. He could hear noises coming from outside the room he found himself in along with a bright light which seemed to come from a lantern of sorts. "Lucas...her gift...punishment…the woman…family…supper" were the only words he could hear clearly. He continued to try and free his hands and found himself feeling exhausted when, to his surprise, his right hand became free, the nail still embedded in the hand but no longer attached to the wooden cross.

Travis used his right hand to free his left and, more awkwardly, freed his feet as well but not without making a lot of noise in the process. "Shit" he said to himself, bringing himself up to his feet, pain shooting through his entire body. "I need to find Courtney". Travis pushed himself on, out through a door with a dead crow pinned to it. He could still hear noises from below, beyond the wooden steps. Travis hesitated, but the survival instinct and nightmarish thoughts about what could be happening to Courtney pushed him on. As he made his way down the steps his entire body shook and his legs went numb, causing him to stumble downwards and hit his head off the bottom step. "Shit, shit, shit" he panicked, his head throbbing, as a figure appeared near him, an older woman carrying a lantern as she crossed a bridge. "Where do you think you're going!?" she screeched, stomping her feet into the ground and rushing towards him.

"Oh shit!" Travis cried as he pulled himself up onto his feet and limped towards an opening in a nearby wall. He squeezed into the opening, just barely able to fit, as the older woman stopped and watched him. "There's no way out of there! Get back here you filthy cocksucker!" she screamed after him, howling like a demon as Travis forced his pain riddled body through the passage, centipedes and spiders falling down upon his head. He eventually made it to the other side and another room. Seeing an open door and the night sky, he sprinted out of the exit and, to his shock, quickly discovered he was right in the middle of a bayou with nowhere to run. "Wha…How?", he slumped against the door. Just then he heard a creaking behind him and turned around to be greeted by the same older woman's smiling face, her lifeless eyes staring into his very being, as she used the palm of her hand to knock him unconscious.

As he began to regain consciousness he once again found himself bound, this time to a chair as the clattering of plates and the screeching of knives and forks alerted him to the fact he wasn't out of this yet, the nightmare wasn't just a dream. "Look he's finally awake!" a younger man with a heavy Southern drawl jumped into his field of view before taking a seat alongside the older woman from before and an older man, presumably the father. "P-please…I just need…" Travis began but was cut off by the older woman: "It's time for supper! Ohhh can't you just taste it already" she withdrew from the dinner table to collect the 'supper' from the kitchen while the younger hooded figure laughed and pointed at Travis' vain attempts at breaking free from his binds. "Oink oink piggy! Say cheeeese!" Lucas shouted, taking a photo of Travis with Courtney's camera.

"Where is she!? What have you done with her you pig fucking bastards?!", the father figure immediately rose from the chair and charged at Travis, grabbing the back of his neck and pulling his head back. "What did you just say, boy!? Because I'm a little hard of hearing but I could swear you just insulted my family at our very own dinner table" the older man took a knife from the table and held it threateningly close to Travis' left eye. "Come now, supper's ready!" the older woman appeared at the table and started handing out a plate of 'food' to each person, including the older man who she addressed as 'Jack'. Jack grunted and returned to his seat at the head of the table. The older woman stopped the son, 'Lucas', from eating, telling him they needed to say 'Thanks' first. The three bowed their heads, holding their hands together while the son continued to laugh at Travis. "Hush, Lucas!" the father said, and the son went quiet.

The older woman spoke: "For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me drink, I was a stranger and ye welcomed me, I was in prison and you visited me. We thank you for blessing us with your heavenly gift and may we all continue to prosper for many, many years to come. Amen" the older woman raised her head, followed by "Amen's" from the two males. "You're all crazy! Get me out of this fucking nightmare!" Travis pulled and pushed and ripped but the binds wouldn't break. "That is it! I've had enough of your bullshit, son! Give me that!" the father said, grabbing a bowl from the table and lunging at Travis, kicking his chair back onto the ground and lumbering above a still bound Travis. "You won't eat?! We'll make you eat!" the father smirked, taking a handful of 'food' from the bowl and shoving it into Travis' mouth, down his throat. Travis coughed and spluttered, vomiting a small amount of blood as the older man shoved another mouthful down his throat, followed by another, and another. He vomited more blood, the blood smearing his face and eyes, temporarily blinding him.

"There there!" the man mocked, patting him on his shoulder and pulling his chair back up from the ground. "Now you'll be one of us. Welcome to the family, son" the father said cryptically, before the phone rang from outside the room and he huffed loudly. "That goddamn phone!" he screeched, charging out of the dining room and into a hallway, muttering incomprehensibly along the way. The mother shoved her hands up into her hair and ripped a piece of hair from her scalp before pausing momentarily to stare at Travis. She stood up from the table and walked over to behind Travis' left before appearing again, this time wheeling an elderly woman in a wheelchair out of the room and into the hallway. Travis hadn't even noticed her before, and wandered whether she was there at all. The younger hooded man smirked at Travis with a 'knowing' grin, as if he was one step ahead. He got up from the table and followed the others, mockingly telling Travis "Don't go anywhere now, y'here".

He couldn't believe what was happening. What had just happened. His entire body felt…strange. He could still taste the 'food', the weirdly metallic tasting black substance that was forced down his throat. God knows what else was in there, and he didn't even want to think about it. When he was sure they weren't returning, he began to rip and pull at his binds once again, using all of the strength within him he freed one of his arms and used a knife on the table to free his other arm. "Need to…need to find…Courtney" he said to himself, limping into the kitchen and sneaking into the hallway, constantly looking over his shoulder and stopping every few feet so he could hear what was ahead of him. A phone ringing in the room under the wrecked stairs broke him from his paranoia, and he cautiously entered the room for fear that it could be a trap.

The laundry room, it seemed, was empty. Travis fell against the table with the phone and answered it, his breath wheezing. "Hello…I need he-" a woman's voice cut him off. "If you want to live, listen to me. To escape you need to get to the main hall down the hallway directly in front of this room. There you'll find a locked door leading to a yard. Now you'll need three dog shaped reliefs to get outta there. They won't be easy to find and my fami…they'll be looking for you. When you get to the yard, assuming you get to the yard, I'll contact you again. Good luck, you'll need it" she said, hanging up on him. "Hello?...Hello!?" Travis called out, but she was already gone. Travis took a handgun from the same table. "Five bullets…Ok, five bullets. You can do this, for Courtney. You can do this" he spoke with fear in his voice, but he knew he had to stay strong.

Travis exited the room and walked fast down the narrow hallway opposite the room, lightning illuminating the dimly lit hall. "C'mon, c'mon you bastards" he grunted, turning a corner and entering the main hall, and even darker and expansive area. He didn't like it. For all he knew someone could be watching him at any moment. Racing for the door leading to the yard he discovered the woman was telling the truth, the door was locked with indentations that resembled dog heads. 'Fuck', he thought before hearing a muffled scream coming from the floor above him. "Courtney!", Travis edged his way through the dark room, careful not to trip over any furniture or anything else that could be laying around. He heard the muffled scream again and found the room that the scream seemed to emit from, the door slightly ajar.

Travis didn't have time to question this as he raced into the room, finding Courtney tied to a large master bed, a cloth in her mouth, in what seemed to be an old-fashioned room. "I'm coming Courtney" he limped over to the bed and pulled the cloth from her mouth, tears rolling down her pale and slightly freckled face. "Travis it's a trap!" she screamed as he heard a creak in the floor behind him and turned, handgun in hand, to find 'Jack', wielding a large axe as he lumbered towards him. Travis immediately raised the handgun and fired at the man, emptying bullet after bullet into his torso and legs. "Now you gone and done it" the older man roared, storming at Travis who shot his final bullet right into Jack's head, causing the older man to have a sort of fit on the spot, spluttering from his mouth, his eyes rolled back in his head as he fell to his knees and onto the ground, seemingly dead. Travis took a moment to catch his breath before untying Courtney.

"Travis…Oh Travis! Thank God! Are you Ok? Did they hurt you…your face…you look so pale" Courtney worried, embracing her husband and holding his face in her slender hands. "I'm fine. But we need to get out of here. There's a door to the yard but it needs-" Courtney's face turned to one of horror as she looked over Travis' shoulder and jumped back onto the bed in horror, wailing like a banshee. "Travis!" she pointed to the previously incapacitated patriarch of the family who was now standing, very much alive, and snarling at the pair, patting the axe in his hand. "Oh you two ain't going nowhere" he bellowed, charging at Travis and grabbing him by the throat, tossing his body like a plaything over the bed and to the other side of the room. Jack turned his attention to Courtney as she tried to escape the room, grabbing her by the arm and throwing her back onto the bed. "Get away from her you sick fuck" Travis shouted, charging at Jack, and attacking him, landing punch after punch into the older man's face.

To his horror, the older figure just laughed at him. "Have to do better than that, son" he laughed, punching Travis in the face twice and kicking him to the ground, onto his back. Travis held his arm up to Courtney as she tearfully looked at her fallen husband. "Run", he mouthed, and his wife paused before making a break for the door, only to run straight into the younger man who spun her around on the spot and held a chloroformed rag to her mouth. "Sleepy sleepy goes the birdy" he muttered with a telling tone in his voice as he caressed her waist. Travis tried to crawl towards his wife, her outstretched hand seeming so far away. However, within moments, everything went black as Jack brought his boot down upon Travis' head.

Travis didn't know what happened next, but he awoke with a pounding head and an even sicker feeling in the pit of his stomach. He felt wrong and the damp and dark environment reminded him of how grave his situation was. "Where…" he groaned, as he quickly discovered he was hanging upside down, wrapped in a blood stained white plastic bag. Travis struggled and eventually pulled himself free, falling head first onto the cold hard concrete ground beneath him. The multiple body bags handing above signalled that he must have been kept where the family stored the rest of the corpses, left to die…or worse. A dog shaped relief hung from one, but he didn't have the time for that right now. Travis struggled to a staircase, finding an increasing amount of blood and gore as he continued. "Have to…urgh..." he felt like his body was rejecting him, falling apart and rotting from the inside out. His skin had turned a deathly pale with his veins black, moving beneath his skin as if they were trying to claw their way out. The pain was agonising and unbearable and he might have just crawled up and died if it wasn't for Courtney. "I'm going to find you baby…I promise" he limped up another stair and into a new part of what could only be the basement. Inhuman growls alerted him to the danger he was in. Luckily a knife embedded in a lump of what he hoped wasn't human meat gave him the smallest amount of hope that all wasn't lost.

Pushing his way through the depths of the basement he recognised a familiar black substance seeping and growing out of the wall. He didn't consider the consequences, he had to keep his mind focused on Courtney and only Courtney. As he turned a corner a part of the back substance fell apart, revealing a monstrosity with more teeth than could be counted. The creature stumbled towards him and Travis knew he couldn't fight it with a knife so he turned and limped for an exit, any exit, and way of getting away from that thing. Another monster appeared from seemingly nowhere, followed by another: this one much faster with multiple legs. Travis dodged a swipe that would have decapitated him and leaped past another as It lunged for him. He finally made it to a door, but failed to avoid a swipe across his back from one of the monsters, the pain rocking its way through his body and melting the skin where the claws made contact. His entire visage was smothered with blood but he forced his way through the door and slammed it shut behind him, just in time to avoid an attack from the crawling beast as it leaped for him.

It took everything he had to climb the stairs, ripping his nails into the wood to drag himself upwards, the monsters clawing and screeching behind him. "Courtney…Court…" he moaned and was surprised by his own voice, a certain very low pitch unnerved him. His body was changing, and he knew he didn't have much time left. Enough to help Courtney, at least. He fell into a room atop the stairs and acted quickly, grabbing a piece of paper and scribbling down what she needed to know, what he couldn't tell her in person:

'Dear Courtney,

Those bastards are looking for me, but maybe this gives you a chance to escape.

To escape, you have to find the reliefs shaped like dog heads.

I saw one of the heads in the dissection room underground. Get it. It's the key out of here.'

He spluttered and vomited all over the page and when he brought his hand up to his throat he felt something move, rippling its way down into his chest. He turned the page over and wrote his final words:

'Something's wrong with me.

It must have been that shit they made me eat.

If I'm gonna die, I'd at least like to go out fighting.

I'm gonna get a hold of that shotgun I saw in the rec room and make them regret what they did to me.

You need to get out of here.

I love you, Courtney.

Love,

Travis'

Holding his stomach for fear of his intestines falling out, Travis resolved to get the shotgun and mow the entire family down until there was nothing left. He exited the room, his eye sight fading, his hands shaking and his spine feeling like it'd crack and snap into two, leaving him a blob on the floor. As he stumbled down the hallway and into the main hall everything went dim and he collapses to his knees. "Not…now…Courtney…" he cried out, his eyes crying tears of a black watery substance. "Well what do we have here?" the older man's voice echoed through the room. "Boy, you are pathetic" the older man appeared before him. "You put up a good fight, but you…" the older man raised a fist above Travis "are finished!" he said, punching Travis in the head and knocking him unconscious.

Travis awoke, a final time, in an enclosed and tight space, with no light whatsoever. He could barely move, only enough to shuffle from side to side and raise his arms slightly. "Help! Someone get me out of here!" he screamed, banging his fists against the steel repeatedly, clawing and scratching against the metal. Travis' screams would go unheard, trapped in a furnace, left to turn into yet another monster. "Don't worry" he heard the older man speak from outside the incinerator room. "My boy Lucas will take care of your darlin' wife. I hear he wants to play a few games with her!" the older man laughed, as Travis heard the furnace room door slam shut.

"Courtney!…Courtney!...Couuuurtney!..." his body slowly changed over time, the vomiting increased over time changing from blood to a black substance, his jaw would break apart and his skin peel away, revealing a black spongy mold located beneath. His body elongated, his bones snapping into fragments and his mouth ripping open, the pain forcing him to go unconscious for periods of time. Eventually his fingers broke away and he couldn't scratch at the metal any longer. His right arm split in two. The only thing that kept him going was Courtney, and because of that he remained alive and very aware for most of the transformation process.

Eventually after two days of agonizing pain, Travis submitted to the fact he was never escaping from the insane family's plantation, never going to see his wife or unborn baby, and his transformation into another nameless molded was complete. He would remain trapped within the furnace for many months, now completely converted but still aware, still trapped inside the creature that was once his body, still in pain. He remained this way until a man stumbled across him, and finally put him out of his misery for good.

Thanks everyone for the reviews and support! I really appreciate them. I loved Resident Evil 7 and the background so I decided to write short stories for characters mentioned in notes etc. The stories are longer than usual but some of the future ones I write will be much shorter! It might take me a while to update but I definitely will eventually so, again, thanks for the support! :)