And they plead for their lives...

Trying to repent for a lifetime of sin...

And they lie, their eyes telling me the truth...

Their souls are dark with the evil that weighs them down...

And that weight drags them into the lake of fire...

They all must feel the cleansing fire of hell...

They all must pay...

They all must die...

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"So how did you get here, Ali?"

"Huh?"

It had been roughly four hours since Henry had found Alicia. They had explored what they thought was most of the school since then. They had decided not to go through the basement door because of the noises they'd heard, nor through a couple of the classrooms because of the shuffling they could hear. They had, however, found some torches in an empty classroom. Also, Henry had found a large sledgehammer in the shop classroom, as well as a fire axe. The axe swung from Alicia's hands as she pondered the question.

"Well," she started, "I remember listening to Mr Reynolds droning on. I think I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was here in the school. It was foggy though. Then when the darkness came, I felt the air get heavier and I passed out. When I woke up again, there was a candle next to me. I looked around for a bit before I stumbled into one of those monsters. When I got away, I found an empty classroom, locked myself in and cried myself to sleep. Then when I woke again, I found you."

Henry listened, taking it all in. So they'd both fallen asleep and wound up here. "Odd," he thought, "Maybe it has something to do with Mr Reynolds. Maybe this is all a dream. No, it's all too real to be a dream. But how are we going to get back?"

As Henry walked on thinking, he caught Alicia staring at him from out of the corner of his eye.

"What's wrong, Ali?"

"Huh?" she asked, startled. "Oh... nothing." she said, looking away, obviously embarrassed at being caught.

"It didn't look like nothing."

"Don't worry."

"We're in the middle of god knows where, in pitch black darkness except for the torches, surrounded by monsters and you're telling me not to worry?"

"Look at us, Hen. We have torches, weapons and a little first aid. Why should we worry about one of those little monsters?"

"One of those little monster put a hole in my back, Al. Or didn't you see that?"

"Shhh"

"Shhh what?"

"No, seriously Hen. Shut up and listen."

Henry abandoned their argument for a second to listen to their surroundings. They were near the end of the hallway and they could hear shuffling coming from around the corner, as well as a scraping sound of something heavy. Bringing the sledgehammer up, he readied himself for another four legged creature to appear. But before it could show itself, there was a loud groan followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. Alicia and Henry stood poised for action but had a confused look on their faces. Henry began to walk over to investigate but before he could turn the corner, what looked like half a creature flew past his head. Henry stood transfixed. "What could do such a thing?" he thought.

The answer turned the corner and stopped half a metre in front of him. He was now looking into the chest of a 9 foot tall beast. It had the body of a built male person and wore what looked like a butchers apron as a loincloth and a large, metal, pyramid like helmet. But as immense as this creature was, it wasn't that which scared Henry. His eyes had moved from the monsters physique and now rested on the weapon it was dragging behind it. What looked like a 10 feet long butchers knife was the scraping noise that they had heard. It was the weapon this creature now dragged behind it, freshly stained with the blood of the monster it had just killed.

Henrys skin turned a pale white colour. Holding the other half of the four legged monster, the new beast swung the knife at Henry. Catching his wits, Henry ducked under the swing, the knife passing over where his neck would have been. Henry swung the hammer, hitting the creature in the knee. Unfazed, the creature swung the half-monster at Henry. This shot connected, sending Henry sprawling next to Alicia, who still had the look of fear plastered on her face.

As Henry lay dazed, he felt the knife scraping along the ground in their direction. "What are we supposed to do against this beast?" he thought.

He looked for Alicia. She was still standing there with the same look still on her face. He always loved her face, her eyes an amazingly brilliant green, perched perfectly about her button nose with her lips that could turn into a smile anyone could fall for.

Noticing that the beast was still closing in, he shook out of his little daydream and yelled the first thing he could think of:

"THROW THE AXE, ALICIA!!!"

She too snapped back into reality. While she wasn't at all convinced, she threw her fire axe as hard as she could. What Henry assumed was a scream echoed in it's helmet as the axe head sunk into the beasts arm until only the handle stuck out. Alicia helped Henry to his feet and they both ran, trying to put as much distance between them and whatever that thing with the knife was. As he looked back, he saw the thing had dropped the knife and was tearing the axe out of its arm. As the axe tore free, it turned to look at the pair running away. It hurled the axe back in their direction.

Taking a sharp step sideways, Henry bumped Alicia out of the way before diving to the floor himself. As he fell, the axe flew past Henrys head, slicing his shoulder on the way past. Henry cried out in pain as the axe exploded into the wall, completely shattering and leaving a large crater in the wall. As he turned to face the creature, it turned around to pick up the knife. Then, all he could make out was the beast turning back to look at him, raising its free arm to point at him before dissolving into embers. As it disappeared, light also began to shine through the windows until the beast was completely gone and there was a grey, foggy light shining through. He was marked by the creature, the cut on his shoulder a burning reminder that the beast would be looking for him next time it went dark. He heard a groan from a nearby classroom. He knew that he was going to get blasted by Alicia for pushing her out of the way, even if it had saved her life.

Looking into the room, he found Alicia trying to get back up. Looking around, she asked, "What happened?"

"He's gone," Henry replied.

"That thing with the giant knife?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Henry?"

"Yeah, 'licia?"

"Hug?"

"Yeah."

As they hugged, Henry felt the exhaustion that had wreaked his body. He was happy with the rest. But he knew the darkness was going to come again. And when it did, they'd have to be prepared.