Reign of Blood

Chapter Ten

Call My Name

As Amy walked back down the hall once more, something was pulling her again, this time to the hall she had overlooked, the narrow hall leading to a small dead-end corridor with four doors lined up. Amy turned and walked down the hall. Someone was down here... She could hear them...

"Seth?" Amy tried to call out, but her twisted throat wouldn't allow anything but a squeak. As she neared the doors she noticed each had a small square window near the top. Slowly she stood on her toes, leaning in to look into the first of the four doors.

Nothing but an empty, small, padded room. It was dark inside, lit only by a single swinging light bulb hanging from the center of the ceiling. Back and forth it went, as if there were some unseen force pushing it gently. Amy backed up and walked to the next window, door number two.

Whatever was in these rooms was locked up, she reassured herself. As Amy looked at the window she noticed this one was fogged up, the window was almost completely white with opaque mist. She peered into the window, trying to squint through the blur. She tried to wipe her hand across the glass, but to no avail. It was foggy on the opposite side. She walked to the next window.

Door number three lead to empty room. The light bulb in this room had gone out, the only light was the small amount of dim light shining from outside the window which her head obstructed, casting a shadow on the floor and wall. It was then she noticed there was light coming from somewhere else, from the far left side of the padded wall. There were a few holes and tears in the padding, and a dim light shone through each.

Suddenly Amy gasped, there was something on the other side of the wall, something clawing and tearing, trying to get through. It had already managed to scratch holes in the drywall.

Amy backed up.

"Seth?" She called out a little louder. No response. She ran instinctively to the fourth and last window. What she saw made her cringe in disgust.

There in the small, padded room was countless, bloody, mutated... things... only countless because they all kept moving, crawling over top of each other, climbing the walls and devouring a few of the weakest ones. Blood was smeared over the window, soaked into the floor and walls. A few of them were clawing at the wall, digging a hole into it. Other joined, and now almost all of them were clawing at the wall, pulling out the insulation and ripping it to shreds. The sound of their claws slashing holes in the wall was loud and hearable even through the heavy metal doors.

Amy ran back to door number three. The monsters had ripped a small hole in the wall and flooded into the room as if their dam just broke, leaving bloody footprints and tearing apart this room just like the last.

Something caught Amy's eye. The window to door number two, the fog moved... She ran to the door, and pressed her face against the glass to try and see through it. Something was wrong. The fog didn't look like fog at all... it looked like... feathers...

Suddenly the wall of fog was swept away so fast Amy jumped back and landed on the floor. It wasn't the whiteness moving that scared her, it was what was in place of the fog that made her throw herself backwards. A face... A woman with menacing features, hair as black as night, stood directly in front of her, the only thing in between them a door. Panic overcame Amy.

She quickly jumped back to her feet, but when she looked at the window, the face was gone. She ran to the window again, and hesitantly looked through the window.

"Seth!" She screamed, banging her fist on the door to try and get his attention. He was lying on his back, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. Amy wrenched open the door, pulling the metal giant with all her strength.

She dropped her knees beside her fallen friend, shaking his shoulders to try and make him get up. He didn't move.

"Seth, what's wrong?" She tried to lean over him to force him to look her in the eyes. He stared through her.

A sound made her jump to her feet and whirl around to face the wall. Something was scratching, clawing, snarling, just beyond the padded wall. She turned back to Seth.

"Seth! Get up! We don't have much time!" She grabbed his shoulders again and made him sit up. His head hung down, he watched the floor. Amy yelled his name again, but nothing seemed to snap him out of his trance. The monsters were starting to get through the drywall, ripping small holes on their side of the wall, screaming, hissing, taunting her.

They're going to get us if we don't get out of here!

Amy made up her mind. She grabbed Seth under his arms that seemed to be strapped to his chest and heaved, dragging him slowly out of the room that could easily be each of their deaths. Seth lay as still and as limp as a dead fish.

Arms with sharp claws on the end were beginning to reach through the hole as Amy got Seth out of the room. She dropped him on the floor, his head hitting the ground with a loud thump.

Full bodies breached the wall as she struggled with the door once more, pushing it again with what little strength she had left from lugging Seth. The monsters poured in through the gap, the hole that could have barely fit a human through seemed to let in these creatures freely as they contorted their bodies to make themselves fit.

The door clanked shut with an echoing metallic sound as the monsters hissed and slashed in defeat, gobbling up each other in anger. Out of breath, Amy sat down beside him.

"...You shouldn't have done that..." He said in a deep, rough voice too harsh to be his own. Amy stared at his emotionless face, his empty eyes that refused to look at her. "...He should have died..." Suddenly Seth began to quiver slightly, as if trying to shake off chills. "...He should have died... He should have died!"

Amy didn't realize what she had done until she saw her open hand held up in the air, his head turned to the side from the force of the blow. Seth blinked a few times, his eyes coming back into focus.

"Seth! I'm so sorry!" Amy stammered, not knowing why she had hit him. Whatever the reason she was grateful, it seemed to bring him back to reality. He looked around with a confused, tired look on his face.

"...ow... my head..." For the first time since she found him he looked her directly in the eyes. Feeling a little bad for letting his head hit the ground so hard, she stared back, feeling her eyes swell up with tears again. Amy let herself fall over his chest and hugged him around the neck. She immediately backed away when she felt him wince in pain, his entire upper body tightening.

"What's wrong, Seth?" She asked, distracted by the monsters in the cell who had not stopped hissing and screeching. He didn't answer her, his eyes were shut tightly and his teeth clenched.

Slowly he relaxed, his breaths short and struggling, as if there was a huge weight on his chest. Like a protective mother Amy tried to slowly get him to sit up, her arm around his back. Cringing and gasping for air, he let her lift him so he was sitting upright.

Amy tried to move his reluctant arms to his sides, thinking if he loosened up he could breathe easier. She then saw why he hadn't moved them sooner.

"...What the hell...? Who did this, Seth?" She tried to force his arms to move even the slightest to give him more breathing space, but he was bound tightly. She ran her hand down his back until she found the knot, where the two long sleeves were tied together. She began to untie it. The knot proved to be more of a challenge than she thought

Amy hissed a curse under her breath. Seth didn't have enough breath to ask what was wrong. Amy tried to explain to him, without making her sound completely incompetent, that she couldn't untie him.

"It's ok... you've done enough..." Seth muttered, trying to get her to stop crying. "Thank... you..." But Amy didn't give up. She dug her nails into the knot, even tried using her teeth.

Eventually the knot gave in and loosened. Seth took in a deep breath, the first one in a while as Amy ripped of the straight jacket. She let him lay back down and catch his breath, for at this point, she needed to catch her own and calm down.

It was then she noticed his legs were bound together as well. A thick rope tied his ankles, all the way up to his knees together. Whoever did this didn't want him going anywhere.

The creatures were getting smarter. They now were spread out in every room, each of them crowed around the four small windows, their breath hot and steaming up the glass. The ear-piercing sound of their claws on the surface of the glass was deafening. It was like a thousand nails on chalkboards, each monster clawing, screeching, trying desperately to get out and taste human flesh...