A/N: I've been trying to work on Chapter 10 for quite a while and I realized that it was becoming this large dump of words that I had to divide it. That is the reason why Chapter 9 is just going up. You can also blame writer's block. I just hope one day I'll be able to finish this. Now to the story!
Trust in Him
Chapter 9: Drowning in Sorrows
Teresa kept silent and braced herself to what Sam could say next. She just eyed the key in her hand until Sam spoke. "So you're telling me that this key you found could be of use here?" Teresa shrugged.
"I'm not sure." She said. "But this is our last chance to help Brian. We have to do it."
"No. It's YOUR last chance to help him." Sam pointed out. Since Christian had forced them to leave chained by the ankle in the middle of a dilapidated room, Teresa felt the need to go back and help him. They were close, best of friends since they have met each other. He helped her in a time of need and now was the time to pay him back. "It's your choice."
She took a deep breath and a moment of contemplation, and then she tossed the key into the ventilation shaft. They could hear the key making its way down by the sounds it made, hitting the sides of the shaft on the way.
"C'mon," Sam nudged Teresa and pointed to the double doors down the hall. "We have to get moving."
-TiH TiH TiH TiH-
It may have been time that strained his sense of thinking, but Brian felt like he was being watched. Hard to believe it may be, since that, he thought that the place he was in had the tiniest chance of catching the slightest of interest from any normal denizen of civilization. Maybe it was his mind playing tricks. He hasn't been alone this long, not ever. Even during his fiancé's death, either Keith or Grayson, or both of them, would knock at his door and check if he was alright. Now there was nobody checking up on him.
Amidst the darkness, he could still see the corners of the room where he saved Teresa, that other woman and the boastful loudmouth, who acted on rage because he had insulted his opinion, and freed Christian. He and Christian knew each other well enough to have that one feeling towards each other remain dormant for years, a feeling of hatred for each other.
"That son of a bitch made sure I was stuck here." He thought to himself. The broken pieces of the key that would have released the metal brace around his leg lay close to him. He tried to put it back together, but what was the point? It would never hold together long enough for it to work. "If he's still out there, I'll make sure he gets stuck here, whatever it takes."
He tried thinking of something to do when he heard a faint noise. Brian sat up, struggling to figure out what was making that sound. At first, it was a gentle tick, and then it became a bit louder each time. It sounded like metal bouncing off each other like a basketball being dribbled faster and faster. Then something fell out in front of him. He wasn't able to see what it was because of the immense darkness throughout the room, but he heard it clearly when bounced off the floor.
Then everything became silent once again. Brian waited for a few moments before moving, taking note of where the thing landed. He scrambled to his hands and knees and searched the floor when nothing happened. He was acting on pure desperation. If there was anything he can find, anything he can use, he would gladly do so. He randomly felt around the ground, hoping he was near enough the thing to take it in his hand. If it were out of his reach, then he was just wasting his time.
As he went on his search, he found himself pulling the chain that restrained him at the center of the room until he couldn't anymore. He swore under his breath and thought that he might have been wrong and that it could've bounced in another direction. Turning around, he checked carefully the floor, cautiously sweeping the ground with his forearm in the hopes of finding it quicker than his previous strategy. While he was going to his left, he felt something under his arm. It was an unusual tinge of coldness. He put his arm down once again and felt it again. It was a colder than the ground he had gotten used to for the past forty minutes.
He did this once more and finally put his hand above it. Brian took it in his hand cautiously, careful to avoid juggling it into the air. When he was sure that it was close to him, he felt around the edges until he figured out what it was. It didn't take him a long time to finally figure out that it was a key.
It took him less time to locate the keyhole on the metal brace around his ankle. He pushed the small key in and turned, the brace's weight around his ankle was loosened until he heard it land on the ground. A gasp of surprise left his lips, not even thinking that it would actually work. He kicked the brace away from him with the foot it once restrained and stood up. Brian began chuckling, then turned to laughing delightfully now that he was able to move unrestricted, but the cold grip of the collar around his neck reminded him that he wasn't quite free yet.
Then the sound of a door slowly swinging opening inwardly brought him back to reality, the light from the other side were almost bright as the sun. Brian's eyes had to readjust to the brightness that almost blinded him. He noticed that the door that opened wasn't the one the other used to exit the room. It was another route. He took a tentative step towards the door, first checking what awaited him outside the room. He could see a staircase leading upstairs with an arrow drawn in red paint on the wall pointing along the direction of the stairs with the word "Exit". There was something else waiting for him, a small table right before the staircase. What he found on the table was a note that read "For your eyes only" and two other objects of interest.
-TiH TiH TiH TiH-
Teresa was in no smiling mood. Her arms were covered in blood, scratched and scraped by barbwire and glass and threatened with death by the bomb around her neck. She knew that there was still more to come, one that would be meant for her, just like Brian, Christian and Albert, trials that tested their will. Only she and Sam remained unaddressed by the serial killer. Only time would tell when that would be, and time was running out.
Sam led her to a set of double doors down the hall after her making her decision. "C'mon." she said as they walked past a resting Albert, pushing the doors open into a dirtier hallway in comparison to the mess in the previous room. Teresa was close behind her, her pace a little slower than the other. Albert, on the other hand, was trying his best to keep up. He didn't exactly have enough energy to keep running around with the bullet wound in his shoulder. He looked pale, like a blank sheet of paper. Sweat ran down his temple into his bloodied shirt. He was getting colder and colder by the minute, and it didn't actually help that most of his blood was on his shirt.
As he hobbled along trying to keep up with the fast walking women, he could hear the two's conversation about the place they were at. "Does this place look familiar to you?" Sam asked.
"Look familiar? It feels familiar." Teresa answered as her eyes explored the hallway.
"What do you mean?"
"I work at a hospital. I've been a nurse for a few years now. Always wanted to help save lives, you know." She quickly checked behind her, seeing Albert behind them struggling with his pace. "You do know that feeling, right? You save lives by putting horrible people behind bars."
There was a pause, almost a hesitant second passed before Sam could reply. "You can say that."
"Well I know that feeling very well. It helps me sleep well at night." She looked at her forearms and shook her head. "We heal, that's why doctors and nurses are in high demand all over the world. We can help physically and mentally, but not emotionally." That last bit she had whispered to herself. Before Sam could ask what she had just said, they saw a door with another phrase written on it and a dark room with a much darker purpose.
Healing is part of the "Process"
Sam looked at the woman beside her. She knew that the next test was meant for her. Dread washed over her like a tidal wave. Teresa's bloodied hands shook, fear almost taking over. But she clenched her hands into fists and shook away the fear before barging inside.
The lights automatically activated themselves and revealed a room that was about twenty feet wall to wall, but the top lead to another floor and were blocked off by a clear glass wall, with the only way up was a ladder attached to the wall. There were two large openings high up on the walls, while another was made on their level. Above it had the phrase "Reach Out, Teresa" written in red with a small metal box on the wall.
"It looks like its big enough to put an arm through." Sam said after approaching the hole on the wall. Albert busted through the doors and flopped down on the floor with his back against the wall. He was breathing harder than a vacuum sucking up air at its highest setting and paler than paper. Sam ducked down so the hole was eye level with her. "I think there's something in here." Teresa walked over and bent down, looking towards the inside of the hole in front of them. The light behind them made it possible to see into the hole. Sam was right. There was something inside shaped like a tape player.
Then they heard pounding from above. What Teresa saw made her eyes widen in surprise and happiness. "Brian!" She could hear him shouting something that was almost muffled by the glass.
"Are you okay?" He yelled as loud as he can so they can all hear him. Their replies could barely be heard by Brian, who now was trying to stomp on the glass floor, but to no avail. "Stay put! I'll try to find a way to break this open!" Brian looked around the room and tried to find something. Problem was the room was virtually empty, save for the timer and a small fuse box on the wall. Seventeen minutes, it read and it continued to count down. He even looked behind the metal door for any object that could aid him and found nothing.
Teresa looked up to the glass and into the hole beside her. "I have to do it. I have to get that tape inside."
"How are you gonna do that?" Sam pointed out the size of the hole. "Even if you managed to get your hands on it you won't be able to pull it out."
"The vents," Albert gasped out as he tried to stand. He gestured for the rectangular gap on the floor and explained. "The hole probably reaches into the air vents. If you pull it, it might come out of that."
"It's worth a try." Teresa nodded and faced the wall. She slowly put her right hand out and slowly inched it inside. She was a little hesitant because of the previous test included reaching inside a space with razor wire and broken glass. She had managed to go past her elbow and was almost nearing her shoulder when she felt the player on the tip of her fingers. "There it is."
She felt the tape swinging in the small space, dangling from a thread almost like the key in the other test. She could feel something else too, but decided not to mind it as she tried to take the player into her palm. "Just fucking pull it out already." Albert said, seeing her struggle in this menial task only added to his pain.
Teresa rolled her eyes at his statement. The player eventually swung into her hand and she took hold of it like a child would to any piece of candy. "Got it." Then she pulled it down and released it so it fell down the vent and out onto the floor. Before she could feel relieved, something metallic clamped around her wrist, holding her in place, stuck to the wall.
She shrieked in surprise and tried to pull, but was only hurting herself. Brian heard her voice as a little meep, but looked down and wondered what was happening below. "Teresa! What's going on down there! Someone answer me!"
"I can't get it out. I can't get it out!" She was panicking. The task of getting the player had managed to lower her defense and the mechanism inside the hole had taken her by surprise. Even Sam was overtaken with worry that she didn't notice Albert hobbled his way towards them and took the tape off the floor.
"Will everyone shut up?" He intended to yell at the two, but he felt weak and his voice had failed him that it sounded like a whisper. He held up the tape and pressed the "Play" button.
"Hello Teresa. Being a nurse, you are required to help those in need. The only problem is you. You struggle to encourage yourself to help others. You have been drowning in your obsession. You have lost your way. Now I will give you a push in the right direction. To your side is a lever. It will move the glass ceiling above you and guide the others to safety, but for a price. A mechanism will also activate and crush your hand." Teresa's eyes widened and her mouth gaped. "You are hanging precariously between betrayal and rehabilitation. Is your hand equivalent to the lives you refuse to save? If you are not careful, you might drown in something else. Let the games begin."
As the last phrase was uttered, the various holes around the room started to spout a steady stream of water. Albert released the tape player from his hands and dropped down on the floor as the water slowly rose in levels as Teresa let out a piercing shriek.
"Help me out. Help me out!" Teresa shouted at the two. Sam didn't know what to do with herself that she started pulling Teresa out of the hole, even though it was ridiculous idea.
"I can't. That thing has you in real tight." Sam said, but Teresa continued to yell the same three words as if hoping to derail the sense of danger in her mind. Sam thought that climbing the ladder and banging on the glass would force it to move, but it would only waste her efforts.
Above them, Brian was banging on the glass underneath him with his fists. Each blow was harder than the last, but the glass floor took it all without even reacting. "Teresa!" he shouted through the glass. "Is everything alright in there?" There was no reply towards him. All he could see was water flowing through the holes and passing glances towards him.
As she continued to pull, the sight of the lever became more and more alluring that the thought of activating it entered her mind. Then she envisioned the pain she could feel. It made her stomach tighten and her head a little lighter than previously. The horror of inflicting such pain upon herself made her remember those patients back at the hospital with blood covered torsos and injuries such as broken bones and dismemberment. If it had hurt as much if it happened in an accident, then how much would she feel if she did it on purpose?
The water had already risen to her knees and it seemed that the holes were pumping out water with more force as time went on. Teresa could hear Sam shouting at her direction, but didn't hear her voice. Even the noise of flowing water seemed muted as she looked around. Everything slowed down as her mind tried to think. Would she risk her hand in order to live, but suffer from great pain, or stay where she was and let her actions kill three more people?
While she was contemplating her choice, someone else decided to make the choice for her. A bloodied hand bolted upwards and took the lever by the neck. Teresa's eyes darted to her side and the sight of the bloodied limb made her quickly look to its owner.
"Time's up." Albert whispered in a sinister tone just as he pulled down the lever, to Teresa's horror. The lights blacked out and were replaced by red lights. She pulled on her arm again and again while she could hear the machinery behind the wall operate upon its activation. She suddenly felt a cold, flat surface over and under her hand, only suddenly feel it move in. Then she felt the first bone cracking.
Extreme pain shot up her arm into her shoulder, causing her to twist underneath the pressure. As the vent walls inched closer and closer, as it slowly broke Teresa's hand bit by bit, the glass obstacle began to move. In exchange for this, the door behind Brian sealed itself shut. "What the hell!" Brian pulled on the door, but to no avail.
The glass above them had moved far enough for a person to fit. Sam climbed up the ladder in a hurry, helped up to her feet by Brian. "What the hell is going on down there?" he asked.
"The tape," she panted. "It said that she had to crush her hand so we could get out of there." The two could hear the screams of the nurse, feel the pure agony that she felt.
Below them, Albert smugly smirked as he tried to get up from the wall, amused by the sound of bones being broken into dust. Teresa's wails continued as the machine squeezed the muscles in her hand together, mashing them against the other layer violently. Once her bones have been crushed, she could feel her veins flatten. Blood came out of the veins, bursting through the tissue and veins, squirting out enough to drain most that were traveling through the hand.
When Teresa was unable to move her hand the machine had already stopped. Her hand had been fully flattened. The machine then began to retract the two crushers and freed her wrist. Teresa pulled her arm back from the hole so fast that she fell into the water.
As she sat on the flooding floor, she accidentally glanced at her crushed hand and it made her sick while the water continued to rise above her chest. Her stomach wrenched at the sight and almost threw up. Another sight she wasn't particularly drawn to was Albert climbing up the ladder. Sam was already at the top shouting at her to move. The glass ceiling had already been drawn back and the water levels rose as time passed.
She forced herself up to her knees and crawled with her only hand, keeping the damaged one against her belly and trying to keep her head up. The water was cold, like it had felt the touch of winter and teetered on the same temperature for days, and the feeling of it around her flattened hand was almost a relief, but a sense of dread came creeping up when her studies as a nurse hinted to her that the water could infect her hand if it had been dirty.
Teresa grabbed onto the ladder and pulled herself to her feet. Above her was a snickering, but dying, Albert. He had difficulty climbing up the ladder because of the gunshot wound he had sustained. Teresa had already started climbing, but Albert saw this and tried to kick her off. "You're gonna die here bitch, whether you like it or not!"
When he tried kicking her off again, his footing slipped and he failed to recover, sending him off the ladder and into the water. The water coming out of the walls intensified its force, filling up the room faster than before. Albert struggled in the water as Teresa slowly, but surely, crept up the ladder.
"Move it, Teresa! C'mon!" Sam yelled. Her hand was outstretched towards the other girl, silently telling her to grab her hand. Brian, on the other hand tried to open the door. He pulled on it relentlessly, until his eyes saw the fuse box. It was on the other side of the room where the only thing between him and it was a gaping hole within it was a room filling up with water.
Brian put his back on the wall as flat as he can and began to shimmy to the other side. The timer beeped in tune to his slow steps. Fifteen minutes, it read. He looked up towards the timer and down, where Teresa struggled to climb just to check on her progress, as he shimmied. When he reached the far side of the wall, he opened the fuse box and saw a green button. He didn't know what it does and who it was meant for, but it was all he could do. Brian pressed the button and heard the door creak open. It gave him a feeling of relief, but that changed when he saw the glass floor move.
"The door opened, now the floor's closing." Brian realized. He hurried back, shimmying carefully to the ladder.
"C'mon! Give me your hand." Sam shouted. Teresa had managed to get high enough to reach Sam with the disfigured remains of her right hand. She tried to reach, but something wet and cold had grabbed her ankle from below, causing her to yell.
"You're not getting away that easily, bitch!" Albert yelled. He held on Teresa's leg and slowly pulled himself up step by step on the ladder. He was already up to his neck with water and it was in no hurry to rise past his nose. As Albert desperately pulled, Teresa tried to kick him off the ladder, a clear reversal of roles in comparison to their earlier scuffle.
She managed to land a few hits on Albert's shoulder, somewhat loosening his grip. While all of this as happening, Sam managed to grab Teresa's right arm to hold her steady. She turned her head and noticed that the glass floor was creeping towards her. "Help me get her up." She said, struggling to hold onto Teresa.
Bran shimmied back as fast as he can. Teresa managed to kick Albert's hand off of her leg, yet he managed to grab on one of the ladder steps. Teresa put her foot on his hand and heard Albert squirm. "This is for Diane." She whispered to Albert before stomping down on his head. Albert plummeted down the ladder once more, this time with a much bigger splash.
Brian dived down on the floor and caught Teresa's arm just as Sam's grip was beginning to slip. "Gotcha." The two pulled up Teresa into the room and set her down against the wall. Brian could see that Teresa was paler than usual and he could see why. Her right hand from the wrist up was mangled up, something reminiscent of a flat pancake but just as disgusting as and a lot messier than roadkill. It was disgusting and Teresa knew how that felt.
She was gasping, her eyes were swelling up with tears. After the whole scenario at the ladder happened, the adrenaline had stopped flowing in her veins. She had started to feel the pain on her hand. It was intense and she was sure she was about to pass out. Brian knew that Teresa couldn't handle this kind of pain.
As they attended to now crippled nurse, the glass floor behind them was moments away from sealing the bottom portion of the room. Then they heard a loud bang against the glass. Sam almost jumped a few feet into the air from the surprise.
"OPEN THIS FUCKING THING!" Albert cried from the other side. He had managed to climb up the ladder, but was too late. The glass wall above him had already latched itself to the wall. He was too late. There was nothing he could do to move it. The water level was up to his chest and he had nowhere else to go. He would inevitably drown.
He continued to smash his fist against the unflinching glass, but the three didn't do anything aside from watching him squirm.
"Let's go." Brian said. He lifted Teresa's only good arm and put it around the back of his neck, putting him a few centimeters from Teresa's pale cheeks. He was acting as her support in the case her legs suddenly give out on her. "We need to get you to a hospital." He told her.
"Funny," Sam muttered, doing the same as Brian, putting her neck underneath Teresa's armpit and helped her stand up with Brian. "I thought we were in one."
The irony had caught on with Teresa and she managed a short chuckle. The three trotted out of the room as the timer behind them displayed the remaining 10 minutes they have.
Well, that's the end of that chapter. Don't be afraid to leave some reviews. It encourages me to write more chapters.
