Cecilia's Point of View
I ran as fast as I could down the strange hallway; ignoring every nurse and dog that jumped out at me. I made it to a door, and luckily, it was unlocked. I walked inside to find it was a patients holding room. I sat down on the bed and curled up with my guitar next to me. I closed my eyes and let the tears flow for a while. I didn't make any noise though; I didn't want anyone to find me.
Something strummed my guitar, and I opened my eyes to see Judgment in front of me. I looked over my shoulder to see if he had closed the door that I didn't hear him open; he did. I sat up and scooted over so he could sit next to me if he wanted to.
He did sit down next to me, like I thought he would, but what I didn't expect was when he pulled my head under his helmet.
"Why are you crying?" he asked; now that I could hear his voice, I pinned it as kavalierbariton.
"My family is gone." I told him grimly.
"I'm sorry." he said. It was dark under his helmet, but I could tell he meant it.
"It's fine; it wasn't your fault." I told him.
"Why were you yelling at that boy?"
"Because that's how we are. We yell; besides, he knew what was wrong, he just wanted me to get my thoughts out in the open; he does that sometimes.
"Why is your life dangling over your head?" he asked. Why must he bombard me with questions? I went a bit stiff as I answered him.
"Have you seen another you; well, I mean, another person with a pyramid shaped helmet?" I asked him. He shook his head, causing me to do the same. "Well, there is another person with a pyramid shaped helmet on their head. They came here with that girl, Evie. He wants to see her again, but he thinks she won't like him anymore; which is understandable, considering he tried to kill us…well tried to kill me at least. He said, 'She's describing me, but if you tell her that I'm who she's looking for, I'll kill you and your little gay friend; just like I killed the boy and his sister.'"
Judgment listened as I rambled, and when he responded, he kept his response short. "Well, come on."
"What? Where are we going? I asked him.
"We're going to help the girl see her friend." He told me.
He lifted his helmet over my head and held the door open for me. Then, we started to make our way back to our group.
When Judgment and I returned, we found a very confused Evie sitting next to Oliver and Josh. Josh saw me coming and shushed the group.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing…I really am sorry, Sissy."
"Yeah, me too. But can you do me a favor?" I asked.
"What?"
"Please put your shirt back on."
Josh looked down and smiled at his bare chest. He got up and came over to give me a hug. "Oh, I'm sorry, does it make you uncomfortable?"
"Josh, put a shirt on, or I swear to God, I will make it so you can never have children." I pushed him off me.
"You can't kick that hard." Josh told me as he went to go check his shirt for glass.
"Evie has a crowbar." I pointed out.
Oliver laughed as Josh shuddered. Evie got up and walked over to me.
"Where you being serious earlier about your little voice talking to you?" she asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Did…did it tell you anything about my friend?"
I hesitated before I answered; I pretended to be listening for the voice. "No, sorry." I reluctantly told her.
Judgment tapped my shoulder; I turned around to see him pointing to a door down the hall.
"What about it?" I asked.
He pulled me back under his helmet so he could answer, "Her friend is in there; I can feel it."
I ducked out from under his helmet and turned to Evie, "He says we should go through that door." I told her.
"Whoa, Sissy," Josh tormented, "I didn't know you moved that fast."
"Coming from you, who made out in a closet with a boy you just met." I retaliated.
Josh blushed. "One-nothing, Sissy, well played."
We made our way down the hall and Judgment held the door for us; Evie walked in first, then Josh, Oliver, and finally, Judgment and myself. We were greeted with several nurses, which Judgment quickly eliminated. Then there was a deep growling sound; several of those dog things appeared.
"Hellhounds," Oliver told us. "You have to hit them in their hearts."
As he said this, he shot it in its large grey growth on the hole in its chest. It yelped and ran away. Not as bad as the nurses, but they were strong when they pinned you down; I would know.
I scanned the room' it was big, but there wasn't another door. Where was Not-Judgment? The real Judgment made his way to the center of the room and pointed at the floor in front of him. Evie and I walked forwards and stood where he was pointing. We looked at each other and shrugged. I went to walk away, but there was a loud cracking sound, and the floor gave out from under us.
I woke up to Evie violently shaking me. I had to blink a few times for my vision to clear, but I could see we were in a different room. There was machinery everywhere and there was a red-ish glow to the room. I sat up and rubbed my head as I looked around me; I frowned to see my guitar had not been so lucky as to survive this fall; it was smashed to pieces. I picked up the neck of the guitar; the end was jagged so it could be an effective weapon.
"There is only one door down here," Evie explained, "and we've been waiting for you to wake up so we can go through it."
"We?" I asked. I looked behind us to see Judgment.
"So, are you good?" Evie seemed anxious about getting out of here.
I nodded as she helped me to my feet. Evie held her crowbar, I had my broken guitar, and Judgment had his blade; we could probably take on whatever was in the next room.
I was horribly mistaken.
Evie went in first; she was very anxious, you see. She wanted to get out of the little hole we were in. I went in after Judgment only to find that Not-Judgment was in the room as well. Oh, shit.
He looked at us, well looked at Evie really, before it started walking. It walked over, spear in hand, and reached for Evie's neck. She appeared to be acting on instinct, because she swung at its hand with her crowbar. The thing growled a bit, but continued forwards. I noticed Judgment was on the other side of the room, what the hell, and was motioning for me to join him. I crept out from behind Evie, feeling a wave of guilt wash over me for leaving her all alone.
I watched as it cornered her. I could see the confusion on her face as he dropped his spear. He had her back against the wall; I wanted to help her, but Judgment, protectively, held me back. Evie lifted her crowbar, about to hit him, but he pulled it out of her hands.
Defenseless, and cornered, Evie started to shake. It probably didn't help when Not-Judgment put his hands on her arms. He pulled her under his helmet and I watched her body go stiff. They stayed like that for a while. Evie's body relaxed, and I was really confused until she put her hands on his shoulders. Oh, they were making out. Josh owes me five bucks.
There was a tap on my shoulder, and I turned to see a very confused Judgment. I put a finger to my lips and pulled him through a different door; out of the room. Let them do their thing, we had to find Josh and Oliver anyways.
Once out of the room, Judgment pulled me under his helmet.
"What were they doing?" he asked me. He was just full of questions today, wasn't he?
"They were kissing. They must have been very good friends." I told him.
"What's that?"
"What's what?"
"Kissing."
I don't know why I blushed, but I did. "It's when two people's lips touch. It means they care about each other."
"Oh, so like this?" He asked; I felt his head get close to mine and our lips touched.
He leaned his head back and looked at me; well I assumed he was looking at me; it's dark under his helmet, I can't see.
"Yeah, like that."
I ducked out from Judgments helmet and was greeted by a long, tall, spiral staircase; how far down did we fall? I started to make my way up the staircase when I saw a little boy jumping his way down.
He had a hoodie on that covered the right side of his face. His pale blonde hair swooshed a bit as he jumped. I felt Judgment pulling on me as the boy got closer. He stood in front of me as the boy jumped down the last few stairs.
"Move!" the boy commanded Judgment. A growl was heard from underneath his helmet; it was quiet, but I could hear it. "I said move!"
The boy waved his hand as though he were swatting at a fly, and sent Judgment crashing into a wall; holy shit.
I heard Judgment groan as I turned back to face the kid.
He smiled at me and said, "She was right, you know; Christabella? You belong to the darkness now."
What the hell was this kid talking about?
"What are you talking about?"
"You belong to, no; you are one with the darkness now!"
"Your logic makes no sense…and how the hell did you do that hand thing?"
"God, you're slow. You belong to the darkness; alright? As in you ARE the darkness; yes? So those things will listen to you; okay?"
"I understand what you're saying; but you're wrong. The nurses and those dogs attacked me!" I argued.
"Oh really?" the boy asked; then he whistled. A Hellhound came running down the stairs. "Tell it to sit."
"What, why?"
"Because if you don't, it will kill you."
"Um…sit?" I tried. The dog growled at me. I tried again with a more commanding voice, "Sit."
Well, I'll be damned; the dog sat. It looked up at me with its, freaky, glowing white eyes.
"Cool, but what about the nurses and other dogs?" I asked.
I wanted to ask the boy a lot of questions, actually; where is Lily? Can you teach me to do that mind fuck-hand trick? How the hell did you train these dogs? But when I looked for him, he was gone; lucky me.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and was relieved to see Judgment, undamaged.
"You okay?" I asked him; he nodded.
I watched him as he started to make his way up the staircase; his blade making an ear-piercing sound with each step he took. I whistled for the dog to follow me; sure enough, it did. I ran up the stair ahead of Judgment.
"I'll race you." I told him as the dog and I sprinted up the stairs.
Eighteen flights of stairs later, I saw Judgment waiting for me at the top. "How did you do that?" I asked astounded.
He shrugged and opened a door for me. I got a better grip on my broken guitar and proceeded through the door. The dog went in first and barked; well, I think it was a bark; it sounded more like a scream. Several nurses, I feel like I've said this already, were in our way. The dog barked again; all the nurses looked at us.
Bad dog.
They came at us with jerky movements, wielding several sharp objects. I hit one with my guitar, Judgment hit a few with his blade, and the dog tackled one to the ground; it looked up at me whilst sitting on the nurse. What was it doing?
"Are you going to kill it or not?" I asked it. The dog barked and proceeded to rip its throat out.
Good dog.
The dog came back to me and sat by my side. Judgment put his helmet over my head and said, "I think you've made a new friend."
I ducked out from under the helmet and looked at the dog. I've never really had a dog before; aren't you supposed to name them or something? It should mean something….Lucky; as in, I'm lucky this dog decided not to kill me. Yeah, that will work.
I looked at the dog and said, "I dub thee, Lucky." As I did this, I tapped his shoulders with my guitar.
I felt a very confused look coming from Judgment, but I ignored it. Lucky barked happily.
Lucky looked at the door, and a second later, we heard a gunshot. I looked over the severed remains of the nurses to see that one was holding a baseball bat; aluminum bat trumps broken guitar. I picked up the bat as I discarded the remaining piece of my lucky acoustic and headed for the door.
I opened it to find a hallway; the hallway that we were in before we fell in the hole. Josh and Oliver should be nearby, right?
Another gunshot was heard; yeah, they're close.
We walked in the direction of the shot until we came to another door; I swear to God, if I have to come up to anymore doors, I'll kill myself. We went into the room to find Josh and Oliver looking at some dead thing on the ground. Lucky barked and Oliver spun around to aim his gun at him.
"Don't shot my dog please." I told him.
"Your dog?" Josh and Oliver asked, not only accusingly, but simultaneously as well.
"His name is Lucky." I reported.
Josh shook his head whilst Oliver asked, "Where's Evie?"
"Oh, thank you, Oliver! Josh, you owe me five dollars." I was probably never going to get my money, because Josh is an ass when it comes to betting money, but I was right. So there.
"So…she's making out with something similar to Hell-spawn?" Oh, Josh; you and your similes.
"They looked like they knew each other pretty well; they could be adding to the Earth's population."
Something giggled behind us; we turned to see that boy again.
"Well, aren't you all having so much fun!" he exaggerated his words painfully. "We can't have that, now can we? What if I took you all and put you through your worst nightmares, hmm? That sounds like fun. Unfortunately, I only have enough energy left to play with one of you; so…."
The boy snapped his fingers and vanished; almost immediately after, Josh screamed and fell unconscious.
