I want to thank all of you readers and viewers for this story! Thank you for sticking with me so far!
Henry awoke in his bed hours later. He just lay there in bed.
'Eileen. I'm so sorry! I wish that I had been faster! I'm so sorry!' Henry felt depressed. He had let Eileen down. She was probably dead by now.
He sighed and got up eventually. He had no idea what he was going to do. He finally decided to take his mind off of things and went into his living room. He went to his book case and pulled out his scrapbook of his family. He wanted to be carried away by thier sweet and loving memories. He wished that he could see them again even if it was for a short time.
Henry opened the book and immediately shut it closed.
"No! This isn't happening!"
He opened it again and confirmed his horror. The pictures in the album were no longer of his family. They were filled with pictures of the dead people he had seen. Only they were alive in these pictures and each looked like they were taken without permission.
There were two pictures of Cynthia. One had her yelling at a woman and the second one had her sneering at the camera.
Jasper had only one picture and he looked like he was about to scream.
Andrew had five pictures, each depicting how cruel he was to children and a mug shot of each.
Richard had two as well. In one he was flipping an old man off and the other he was smirking in his photo.
Henry continued and saw that there was only one picture of Eileen. She was smiling and looked happy. All of these pictures took up his two front pages. He turned the page and was even more horrified.
"What the Hell?" He flipped through the rest of his book and was even more agitated. There were thousands upon thousands of photos of him. Pictures of when he was a baby all the way up to now. There were pictures of him riding a bike when he was four, studying in his room when he was eighteen, him at birthday parties. All of them disturbed him, but one made him throw the book away from him and send him into a flurry of fear.
There, on the last page was a picture of him, sleeping in his bed. It looked rather recent.
"Someone must be getting in here. But how.....The hole!"
Henry grabbed his weapon and made for the bathroom. He opened the door and discovered that the hole had been sealed shut.
He frantically ran his hands over the circle as if he could open it with just his bare touch. "Nooo! Open up damn it!" At this point he was pounding on it with his fists until he felt something wet and knew it was his own blood. He sank to his knees, hands sliding down the wall. He felt tears fall down his face. What had he done to deserve this?
Henry didn't know how long he sat there, cursing himself. When he finally did get up, he made his way slowly into the living room again, his mind a total blank. Hs hands bled freely and yet he couldn't feel them. He turned and looked at his chaned up door. His reminder that he was a prisoner.
'A prisoner in Hell.'
He turned his head when something red caught his eye. There, under his door was a note and another plaquard. Henry quickly grabbed the letter and read through it. All it said was that the person who wrote it wished to warn Eileen as well.
'And we both failed.' Henry sighed and went into his storage chest to pull out some bandages, the stinging had finally caught up with him. As he was addressing his wound, the photographer wondered if he had any tools in his laundry room that could open his door. He was startled by this thought and wondered why he hadn't thought of it in the first place.
In less than a second he had thrown the door open and was staring at.....what was that?
Henry noticed a large stain like substance on his wall. He examined it and, after a few moments, realized that it looked like the plaquard that lay forgotten under his front door. There was a slight indention as well. Henry retrieved the plaquard and returned with it, examining them both. They were a perfect match. The only problem was, what now?
"The wall Reciever.....the wall..."
Henry felt something posses his arms. Willing him to put the plaquard in the wall. He tried to stop himself, but whatever it was was stronger than him. As soon as it went in, the wall collapsed upon itsself and formed four more indentions. Henry felt whatever it was leave him as if to say, now you do it. The brunette was stunned as writing appeared on the wall.
He read through it quickly and it formed a sort of riddle. He figured that he had to put the plaquards in thier rightful place. But why?
The brunette did as the riddle explained and he put them were he should. each of them brought back horrible memories. He silently vowed that he would find thier killer and put an end to them. The last plaquard, that belonged to Richard went in its slot and the wall collapsed again. It made another hole appear on the wall.
He quickly prepared himself for the battles ahead and grabbed his axe before making his way into the hole. He crawled and crawled for what seemed like an eternity before he reached that familiar light. He paused and wondered if he should just head back. The light that was soft before was now tinted slightly red. After a seconds hesitation, he stumbled forward into the light.
"Ah, you finally decided to join me Reciever. I thought that you were about to quit on me."
"What did Eileen ever do to you? Why would you hurt her? Answer me!"
"Miss Galvin has never done anything to me. It is her soul I am after. Yours will be collected much later."
Henry felt his anger rising. "So you just kill for the fun of it? Your a sick man! A sick and cowardly man!"
"And why do you say I am a coward?" The voice was taunting.
"Because you never show yourself to me!"
"Oh? You've seen me plenty of times. Shall I remind you of who I am?"
"Show yourself to me!"
"Fine. If that is what your heart desires."
And Henry's world went blank.
"Uugghnn....."
Henry's head was throbbing. He opened his eyes to dm lighting and a big silver light above him that wasn't in use. He slowly sat up and tried to gather his thoughts when a tinkling sound reached his ears. It was followed by a horrible squelching sound and he looked around for the source of the noise. The smell was just as horrible.
'Like rotting flesh...'
His thoughts were cut off as he found himself staring at a sillouette of a man behind a curtain. He gathered that he was in a hospital of sorts and that he was in the presence of someone he did not want to be near.
The man suddenly stood straight up, as if sensing that Henry was awake, and he peeked around the corner. When he saw Henry standing up he grinned and began walking toward him.
"Awake so soon Reciever? I thought that it would take you alot longer this time." The man said this while leering at Henry. It was a predetory gaze and it made the hairs on the back of the brunette's head stand up. He stumbled backward a bit as the man continued forward, revealing his true self. He was certainly taller than Henry and was quite muscular. The fact that he was covered in blood didn't help at all. In fact, it made him even more fierce looking.
Henry turned for the door when laughter reached his ears.
"I thought I was a coward. It looks like you're the real coward here." It was a mocking tone and Henry would have said something but he became aware that his trusty axe was gone. It was either fight or flight, and Henry chose flight.
He slammed the doors open and threw himself out of the room and onto the floor. Pure terror gripped his entire being and he quickly looked at the blonde, who had stopped at his feet, clearly telling Henry that he could kill him right now and noone would stop him. Henry quickly sat up, trying to get to his feet, only to have the man crouch down before him. He was trapped and he closed his eyes, waiting for the killer blow that would end his life forever.
The man chuckled and grabbed Henry's chin, forcing him to look upward. "Henry look at me."
Henry still kept his eyes firmly shut. He wasn't going to give his killer the satisfaction of seeing his eyes filled with terror as he died.
"I said look at me!"
This time Henry felt something plunge into his leg and he opened his eyes startled and he cried out in pain. The man withdrew a scalpel from his leg and held it up to show Henry.
"That wasn't so hard now was it?" The man said, smirking and staring at Henry's eyes. "You have such beautiful eyes. They are full of life and innocence. Something that I once had, but no more." He trailed off and slammed his mouth onto the brunettes' in a bruising kiss. Henry pushed at him until he felt the small scalpel blade touch his throat in a warning sort of way, as if to say try and die.
Henry endured the kiss for what seemed like an eternity when the other finally pulled back. Blood was now smeared onto Henry's lips and Henry desperately wished that he could get the vile stuff off of him. But the blonde kept him firmly into his clutches.
"Not now Reciever. You will not die just yet. I have only one more death to go before it's your turn. And then your eyes shall remain dead and thier innocence gone. But for now, relish the fact that blood flows through your veins and that your heart still beats. When it is your turn, you shall have to give me your heart and give it to Mother."
With that he let Henry go and got up. He smiled at Henry and began to walk away. He reached the small corner the end of the little hall before he turned back to Henry.
"I'll make you a deal Henry. If you can keep Eileen alive, then I'll let you both go. If not, then I'm sad to say that I will keep my promise to Mother. Your axe is in the room that's just ahead of you."
And he left, giving Henry time to register what he said. He got up and went to the room that the man had indicated. Sure enough, his axe lay on the floor right below an x ray viewing board. Henry picked up his axe and looked at the pictures. He regonized them to be Eileen's.
"Eileen. Are you okay?"
An excruitating hour later found Henry inside the room staring at Eileen. He had gone through wheelchairs from Hell in the hallway and had been locked in a cage for almost half an hour before he even thought about trying the key.
Eileen was sleeping and groaning. She was all bandaged up and the sight of her made Henry feel even guiltier. He wished that he could have prevented this.
'I'll make you a deal Henry. If you can keep Eileen alive, then I'll let you both go. If not, then I'm sad to say that I will keep my promise to Mother.'
Those words kept repeating themselves through Henry's head like some sort of mantra. he pondered if the words were real or lies.
"Uugghnnn...."
Henry started and realized that Eileen was waking up. He got a little closer as Eileen opened her eyes. She looked at him and began to scream.
"Eileen! Eileen, relax!" Henry said, grabbing her so that she wouldn't fall off the bed and hurt herself even more.
She continued to sob until she looked at Henry. "Y-you're Henry from next door.....What're you doing here?"
Henry wasn't sure if telling her that a killer was keeping them trapped and trying to kill them for his mother. Or the fact that he was trapped in his apartment because of him.
"I don't....I don't know where to start." He said shrugging his shoulders. "There was this strage hole in my room...I saw people getting killed....all these wierd other worlds....And I saw you get attacked to...." He wasn't sure were to begin and was pretty sure he sounded crazy.
"What are you talking about? I'm suposed to believe that?" Eileen sounded as though this was all his fault.
"But it true! And there was a kid with you..."
Eileen looked away from him and stared at the floor. "I remember now. I was getting ready to go to my friend's party...The boy protected me from the man with the coat....I'm sorry I didn't believe you.....I guess there's something wrong with me...I just feel so scared."
Henry could relate to her fear. His was slightly increased as well.
It took a small amount of coaxing for Eileen to follow him. He gave her back her purse and they had proceeded toward the hole that Henry had found earlier.
He had to battle his way through monsters as soon as they left the room. It was like he was being challenged. Together, they battled thier way through until they reached the hole.
"Henry?" Eileen looked puzzled.
"Come on."
Henry went through the hole and pulled Eileen with him.
'No Reciever. Only you, not her!'
And Henry felt himself being yanked through the other side. He reached his laundry room and felt something smash across his head. He hit the floor and new no more.
Walter tsked as he drew Henry towards him. Really, he thought it would be that simple?
The blonde picked up the smaller male and flipped him over his shoulder as if he was nothing but paper. Opening the door, he heard thumping coming from the bathroom. He sighed and went to the bedroom to dump the male onto his bed, before making his way to the bathroom.
The sink doors were opening and closing of thier own accord. Walter debated on helping out Henry or not. After a moment he decided that he would and pulled a candle out of his pocket along with a lighter. He lit the candle and placed it in front of the sink where it burned down until nothing remained. As soon as it was gone, the doors stayed shut.
He hoped that Henry would figure it out for himself later. Now that the bigger portal was open the tormented spirits would keep slipping through.
Walter made his way back to Henry and laid down with him. Pulling him close and holding him, he lightly breathed in the brunette's unique scent. He always smelled of rain as it touched parched earth. Musky yet sweet.
"Oh Reciever, if only you knew the trouble I have been saving you from. I think I'm going to soft on you." He kissed his on the lips and held him closer. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall into a light sleep.