Casey groaned as he sat up and opened his eyes, his head was still throbbing from he hit it against the concrete floor of the basement. He looked around the room, everything was the same as he last saw it, boxes everywhere and the walls were covered in those weird vines, except now the smell of gun powder lingered in the air from when he attacked that monster. The shot gun that made him hit his head laid on it's side next to Casey on his right side, and the pistol was on his left, Casey tried to stand up but almost fell over from a sudden jolt of pain in his head, it defiantly wasn't the same kind of pain as when he got a concussion at age eighteen, a year before Mae left for colleague but it still hurt a lot. Casey took in some deep breaths and straightened himself standing up right now, he patted down his clothes getting the dust, dirt, that weird flesh/fungus like material that had accumulated on top of him when he was passed out off of him.
He then squatted down and picked up the pistol in his left hand, then the shot gun with his right. He wasn't sure if he'd keep using the shot gun or trade it out for a rifle he knew how to use, because he doubted that he had seen the last of that monster, Casey walked over to the metal gun cabinet which he had left wide open and grabbed a brown belt with a pistol holster on it, he stared at the rifles and decided that he had enough of that shot gun, he put the long black weapon back inside of the cabinet and grabbed a hunting rifle. As he grabbed the hunting rifle something caught his eyes, sitting next to the rifle Casey's hand was reaching for was his father's war rifle, an M16 rifle to be clear. Casey never used his father's rifle, and after the Vietnam War ended his father never used it again either. His father would take it out and clean it, make sure it works, but he wouldn't ever fire it, Casey all ways wanted to use it, ever since he was old enough to fire guns. He stared at the rifle his hand was hovering next to and the M16, he picked up the M16 and inspected it, it felt lighter then he thought it would.
He slung the M16 over his back and holstered the pistol on his hip, he tried to sling the M16 over his back in a cool way but instead the gun hit his back and made him lose his breath which also made his head throb more, he coughed slightly as he caught his breath and readjusted the M16 "I'm never going to do that again."
He grabbed a M16 magazine and loaded it into the gun which was still strapped over his shoulder, he took a moment to think about his... supplies?... yeah supplies, he had a simple pistol, a M16, three pistol magazines, one of which had already fired six shots, and only one M16 magazine. His pockets wouldn't fit more magazines and his head was still throbbing, first he remembered that his parents kept headache medicine in the bathroom which was on the second floor, and then he remembered that his dad had a duffel bag in his parent's bedroom. Casey crept up the stair leading to the first floor, he poked his head out of the basement door and looked around the hallway checking to see if the monster was still there, luckily it wasn't. He walked over to the stairs which was covered in vines to the point that he had to practically jump from spot to spot to avoid stepping on them, Casey didn't knew what they were and what they were made out of but he didn't ever want to touch them, after making his way up the stairs Casey had to decide, either go to the bathroom and get the headache meds, or head to his parent's room and get the duffel bag.
A sudden jolt of head pain made his decision for him, he walked over to the bathroom and found that, the door had been destroyed, wood chips were scattered across the floor of the bathroom. Casey walked into the bathroom and much like when he first entered Mae's room his nose was assaulted by the smell of rot, decay, death, and worst of all sewage, the smell of sewage seemed to be coming from the bath tub/shower, and the toilet. Casey covered his nose with his right arm and walked over to the sink, he pulled open the medical cabinet, inside of it was all sorts of oral hygiene tools, tooth brushes, tooth paste, half empty mouth wash, floss, tooth picks for some reason, and three hair brushes one for each of his family, all of them were covered in dust, what seemed to be cobwebs, and a small amount of that weird flesh/fungus stuff that the vines were made out of. And on the bottom shelf was the headache meds, Casey picked up the meds with his left hand and dusted it off with his hoodie, once he had dusted it off completely he held it up to his eyes and took a look at it's expiration date "June 3rd, 2017" Casey sighed "Thank god."
He put the bottle down on the small wooden stand next to the sink and took in deep breath before removing his right arm from his nose, he quickly unscrewed the cap of the medicine bottle and picked up two pills, he then quickly put his arm back over his nose and resumed breathing. Casey held the pills in his hands and took a moment to think, should he try and get some kind of liquid that wouldn't make him puke so that he could swallow them easier, or should he just pop em' in his mouth without any water. Casey sighed and walked out of the bathroom still holding the pills, he walked downstairs and headed towards the kitchen. It was extremely unsettling to see a dirty and neglected version of his kitchen, his mother made sure that it was all ways clean despite the fact she worked most of the week, he walked over to one of the used to be brown cabinets and opened it up, inside of the cabinet were cups, bowls, and plates Casey picked up a see through plastic cup and walked over to the kitchen sink, he hoped with all of his might that by some sort of miracle the water was still working and was completely purified... well as purified as tap water could be.
He turned the faucet on and for a little bit nothing happened, he heard the sound of the water trying to get out of the faucet but nothing was happening, when suddenly water poured out of it scaring Casey slightly. It looked normal, it had that white color that rushing water had, it smelled like regular old Possum Springs tap water, the only thing left to do was... taste it, Casey's stomach could tank loads of things, week old pudding, that gross beer Steve made once, some of Mae's worse puns, that one time Gregg was cheated on by some slim ball he had forgotten the name of, actual piss (really, REALLY long story) but he wasn't sure his stomach could take shit, mixed with piss, and what ever else was inside of the pipes. He took a couple of deep breaths and placed the cup under the faucet, once it was filled Casey turned off the sink and held the cup up to his eyes, it looked clear, nothing seemed to be floating in it so that was good, yet again the only thing left to do was to taste it Casey held it in front of his mouth breathing a little fast in fear "H- Hear we go... Bottoms up I guess."
He took a drink from the cup... and it tasted... alright, nothing really new, it tasted like tap water. But the fact that it didn't taste like shit, and that he hand't had anything to drink in awhile, maybe even a few hours, it tasted like honey. He chugged the rest of the water and quickly refilled it again, rinse and repeat a few times before Casey's surprise thirst subsided, Casey filled the cup one last time and popped the two pills into his mouth before he took another drink of water, the water and the pills rolled down his throat with ease. Casey headed back upstairs this time to get his father's duffel bag, he opened the door to his parent's room and walked in, their room was normal in size, a king sized bed sat in the middle of the room it's head board resting against the back wall, two night stands were on either side of the of the bed both of them had lamps on them, the one on his mother's side had a book on it, while the one on his father's side had also had a book, his mother's book was about a group of friends that solve a supernatural mystery while also dealing with both friendship based problems and familial problems, and his father's book was about a group of people forced together by a common enemy and they have to work together to stop said enemy while also dealing with... taboo subjects? yeah, taboo subjects.
Casey had read his mother's book once, he only got half way through it before he stopped, not because he didn't like the story, far from it, he stopped reading it because it made him depressed, all he could ever think about while reading it was "Why can't me and MY friends have an adventure like this? Why can't Possum Springs be as interesting as Peter's Hallow?"
Peter's Hallow was the name of the town the book was set in, but now that he was going on an adventure was it really worth it? He shrugged the depressing thoughts off and walked over to his parent's closet, he opened the closet door and despite it's name there wasn't any clothes inside of it, except for his mother's old brief case from when she was an accountant, and his father's brown duffel bag. Casey picked up the duffel bag a big smile all over his face, he ran down to the basement and started to fill it with ammo for the pistol and the M16, once he removed all of the ammo from the gun cabinet he closed it and then zipped the duffel bag up. Casey walked back upstairs and over to the front door, it was literally pitch black outside so it must've been nighttime, for some reason it almost seemed as if the inside of the house glowed on it's own, he jogged into the living room and over to a small table, he then opened up a drawer that was in the table, inside of the drawer was a flashlight that his family kept for emergencies. Casey turned the flashlight on and it looked like it didn't need it's batteries changed so he turned it off and walked back over to the front door, his hand rested on the door nob as he stared at the inky blackness that was nighttime in this weird world, he sighed and opened the door.
Casey stared into the darkness, the unnatural glow coming from inside of the house giving off some light that let him see slightly in front of him, he turned on the flashlight and started to walk towards the town along the side walk. He walked back into Towne Centre, he just aimlessly walked around that area of town for a while before reaching the legendary Video Outpost "Too" why was it legendary? well a few years ago, one of the cashier workers came into work hungover and wasn't paying much attention when they sold a ten year old kid a "suggestive" adult movie, the store received massive flak for this and even a lawsuit, at the end of it all the store smoothed everything over and fired the person that sold the movie to the kid, but the story was quickly fading into obscurity the only people remembering it clearly being Casey, Steve, the kid that bought the movie who was now from what Casey had heard a Valid Victorian in school, and one of Casey's ex girlfriends Stacy Newman a light brown, turquoise eyed deer who had a nasty habit of end all of her sentences like a question. He walked into the store being as cautious as he could, nothing, that gut full of shot gun led must've scared the monster off good, he walked into the store and an almost calming sight was seen by him, there wasn't a vine in sight, the store just looked dusty, neglected, and rundown, he turned off the flashlight as he walked into the store.
He wasn't sure what his plan was, so he just walked around the store looking at the old movies, like the Death Chill trilogy and it's horrible fourth installment, and the almost comedic Swamp Husband, then there was the infamous VHS area of the store were the "suggestive" movie had come from, it was even complete with a small curtained off booth in the corner of the store, but the VHS area wasn't just for those kind of movies, there was also various documentaries, animated movies, and a few seasons of a used to be popular TV sitcom show. He heard the wind begin to howl as it blew into the store, it blew dust and cobwebs off of the shelves, movies, and counters, it made the curtain of the booth flap, Casey thought he could hear faint, almost distant whispering in his ears as the wind continued to howl, after a little while the wind started to circulate inside of the store like it was trying to create a movie tornado, a movie-nado. Casey was almost blow off of his feet by the wind which now seemed to be only inside of the store, he raised his hands up to shield his face from the cold, dry, and bitter wind. Suddenly the wind blew outside closing the door of the store as it left, for a second Casey could swear that he saw a pair of bright, white, glowing eyes in the darkness outside. He stood there in the store breathing heavily not quite sure what just happened, he took a look around the store, it looked clean. And just as he thought it looked clean the dust, and webs the wind had kicked up settled back down and caused Casey to both cough and sneeze, sometimes at the same time which burned like hell. He walked over to the front door of the store and looked outside, nothing was out there no monsters, no evil wind, nothing. He opened the door and walked outside turning his flashlight back on and took another quick look around that area of town, nothing still.
His head had stopped throbbing a little bit ago so the meds must've been working, Casey then yawned, he was tired and really exhausted from all of the stuff he did today, Casey walked over to Apartment Building 1063, he never stayed there before nor has he ever been inside of it but the building was the closest place with beds at the moment. He had to shove the door open due to it being covered in those vines, he was getting really sick of them, just like at Casey's house the inside of the building seemed to glow a pale blue, just barely bright enough to illuminate the interior but not bright enough to illuminate the outside, he took a look around the building's lobby the walls were blue with tan baseboards, over on the left side of the room was an elevator with an intercom next to it on it's right side, over on the right wall was a doorway leading to a stairwell. Casey doubted that the building had any power so he was going to have to take the stairs, but first he was going to have to grab a key so he could get into a room, he walked over to the front desk and vaulted over it, as he vaulted over the counter the duffel bag and the M16 smacked against the wooden counter making loads of noise, once he was standing on the other side of the counter he started to search for the keys which didn't take to long as there was a cardboard box tucked away inside of the counter, he pulled it out from under the counter and took a look inside, there was only one key to room, room 101. He slid the key into his pocket and stood up, as he stood up he saw dust get kicked up by something in the middle of the room in front of him.
Casey stared at the spot were the dust had been kicked up as he walked over to the stairwell, he was only able to open the door halfway before he was stopped by some vines on the other side, he shoved the door several times but nothing happened except make his shoulder hurt, he was tired and now agitated by this door, he took another look around the lobby and saw that there was a fire ax behind the counter, he ran over to the ax's glass container and broke it open the the butt end of the M16, he picked the ax up which was heavier then he expected and he ran back over to the half open door, Casey lifted the ax up into the air and quickly brought it down cutting the vines with one fell swoop, he let go of the ax and let it hit the ground, he didn't care if he was going to need it at some point in the future, right now he was tired and desperately wanted some sleep that wasn't caused when he hit his head against concrete. Casey climbed the flight of stairs growing more and more tired as he did, eventually he reached room 101 the room he'd be sleeping in for tonight, maybe even for the foreseeable future. Casey slid the key into the lock and twisted it, luckily nothing happened the key didn't brake, and the lock didn't stop half way, he pushed the door open with ease when compared to the other doors he'd opened today, he stepped into the room's living room which only had a dusty brown resting against the middle part of the back wall, a little beige rug in the middle of the room, and a TV sitting against the wall in front of the couch.
He took a few steps into the living room and dropped all of his things, the duffel bag, and the M16 onto the floor, his sleepy and delirious mind decided that he should turn on some lights so he flicked on the light switch next to the door and by some magical one in a million chance the lights flickered to life, over to his right was a small bedroom, which only had a bed, a nightstand sitting next to it with a lamp on top of it, over to his left was a cozy looking kitchen but right now he didn't care about the kitchen, he walked over to the bed, undid the gun holster belt and let it fall to the floor, he then flopped down onto the bed which kicked up some dust and caused Casey to sneeze. A few minutes latter Casey was laying under the covers of the bed, he was only wearing his underwear and his socks, his hoodie and pants were laying on the couch in the living room, he had turned off the lights after he undressed so the entire apartment room was pitch black, he stared up at the ceiling thinking about various different things that his sleepy mind wanted to.
Like: Why was I chosen to get tossed into that hole? What's with this world? What the eff was that monster? Man... I really want some blueberry pancakes right now. He yawned as he started to drift closer and closer to the land of dreams when his mind thought up some more things: I made so many promises that I didn't know I couldn't keep, like I promised Mae that I'd be there when she came home, I promised Gregg that I'd help him to finally find true love, I promised my parent's I'd finally find a job... I miss them, all... Will they miss me? Do they even know I'm gone? Will they find that cult? Why did his parents tell him to count sheep before he went to sleep when he was younger? Casey then closed his eyes and went to sleep. But directly above him were two white glowing dots hovering just a few inches away from his face, they glowed like white flames and they almost looked like eyes, but Casey was asleep so he couldn't see them and they had appeared when he went to sleep. And worse of all, the right wall of the bedroom started to elongate as the monster pushed through it, reaching for Casey with it's long, four fingered hands.