Reign of Blood

Chapter Twenty

In Darkness we Find

It was a longer walk that she thought to reach the door at the end of the corridor. She was suddenly feeling very claustrophobic; as if the rows and rows of bars were slowly creeping in toward her, being dragged along by the deep shadows. She swallowed hard, choking back her fear, and reached for the doorknob. She paused. Flashed of what had happened to Richard last time he carelessly grabbed a doorknob flooded her mind. There had been something on the other side, something that could somehow almost reach through the metal and latch onto his flesh, crawling through his insides.

The thought made Amy shudder. She had a gun, she reminded herself. Yeah, a lot of good that had done Richard against that ghost.

Pushing these thoughts to the back of her mind, Amy clenched her fingers around the cold metal doorknob. Nothing had been waiting, watching her through the keyhole. Slowly she turned the door. It creaked loudly on rusted hinges. Amy had to use more force than she had expected, the door didn't seem to want to budge. As soon as she had pushed it open a crack she squeezed through, leaving it open in case she panicked and needed to run back to Kris and Richard. They had plenty of guns. Kris would come running if Amy screamed, armed with shotguns. If the door was open, maybe she could hear her if it got too bad...

Amy dragged her feet along the ground that seemed to be made of damp clumps of dirt. The floor squished under her feet, a thick red substance gushing out at the edges of her shoes with every step. She swallowed bile threatening to force its way up her throat, clutched the gun in her hands, her finger ready on the trigger. The smell in this hallways was terrible, the disgusting smell of the long dead. A musty, old, rotting smell that stung her nostrils and throat.

A sound behind her mad her heart skip a beat. Footsteps...? No. It couldn't be. Kris would never leave her post with Richard unless something went wrong. And even if she did, she would certainly tell Amy that it was her who was behind her. Wouldn't want to be shot by a panicking teenager.

Amy stopped walking. There were no footsteps. She forced herself to relax and keep walking. Within a few seconds they were back, the footsteps trying to imitate her own steps and synchronize the sound. Amy came to a halt again. The squishing footsteps behind her did, too.

Amy was too terrified to even make a sound, let alone call for Kris to come help her. There was a door to her immediate left. Slowly, she reached her hand out to the doorknob, much less scared of a ghost than a monster a few steps behind her who could rip her to shreds if it wanted. She grabbed the doorknob and began to pull the door open slowly.

Whatever was behind her caught on that she was trying to escape. The walking steps turned into a sprint, and Amy just barely had enough time to slide into the crack and pull the door shut before something slammed into it, scratching with nails to try and pry the door back open. Amy switched the lock with a loud clank. The creature on the other side was hissing and screaming, banging fists on the door. Her voice pierced Amy's ears, even muffled through the door it was a horrendous sound.

Amy backed away and within a few seconds the monster gave up, it's disgusting sounds fading out. Hopefully Amy didn't just let that thing in with Richard and Kris by leaving the door to their corridor open... God she hoped not.

As Amy walked further into the room, she realized she recognized everything... The room she was in was a mirror image of the room she had just left; it was a long hall, a lineup of cells on each wall. The only difference here was that different cells were open, different ones closed. As her heart slowly calmed down and the blood stopped pounded in her ears, Amy held her breath, not sure if she was hearing a sound, or if she had finally lost it. A few seconds passed, and the sound continued. She let out her breath. There was definitely something in here.

She walked slowly, gun ready, eyes scanning every cell as she passed. The further she walked down the hall, the louder the sound became. It sounded like... a low, buzzing noise, almost like music...

A cell to her right made her stop dead in her tracks. "Seth!" Amy yelled, running over to the bars and grabbing them with her free hand. There, shrouded in shadows in the middle of the cell, was Seth. He was on his knees, arms tied behind his back. There was a chain hanging from the cieling that was bound tightly to both his wrists, pulling them upwards. The awkward position of his arms bent backwards looked painful, and caused his back to bend foreword so his face was pushed against the floor. He looked completely helpless; as if even moving an inch would tear something in his shoulders. "Seth!" Amy called to him again, but he didn't respond. It was then she figured out where the strange noise was coming from.

Seth had his cd player on, covering both of his ears. The volume was turned up as loud as it would go, blasting some type of heavy metal. It wasn't very loud for Amy, but Seth's ears were probably bleeding by now it was so loud for him.

Amy called his name over and over, practically screaming it. He didn't move an inch. His music was so loud there was no way he could have heard her. He was breathing heavy, as if he had just ran a mile, but had asthma. In his crumpled position it was hard for him to breath, hard for him to get a good breath without his shoulders moving and dislocating them, or worse.

"Seth!" She couldn't understand why he didn't just stand up. That would relieve the stress on his arms and maybe he might have even been able to get out of the chains. But his legs were chained together, too. The same thick silver chains bound his ankles together, then tied his shins to his upper legs. He couldn't have moved an inch if he wanted to. "Seth!" Amy screamed one final time before giving up. In silence she could do nothing but watch his pain. He didn't even know she was there.

Suddenly Amy had an idea. Kris had joked about shooting off the chain around Richard's neck, but couldn't because it was too close to his ears, if anything. The chain binding Seth went all the way up to the ceiling. Plenty of leeway... Right?

As Amy pointed the gun at the chain that seemed suddenly thin she hoped a bullet could actually pierce the chain. It should be able to, but even when she stuck her arm through the bar she wasn't close enough to know if she could actually shoot it. It seemed a lot harder now. She knew the chain was thick, but to get it with a bullet? Amy had never held a gun in her hands before this day.

She closed her eyes and squeezed the trigger. Stupid, very stupid. She opened them a split second after the shot rang out. It was much louder than she had expected. Now she knew why Kris hadn't been eager to shoot so close to Richard's head.

Seth heard the bullet, Amy could tell from the way he tensed up even more, the terrified look on his face. His eyes were blindfolded, she couldn't tell until he had turned his head slightly. Great. The chain was still attached to the ceiling. All that she had managed to do was scare the shit out of him.

His sudden movement of his muscles looked painful, he cringed as if she had shot him. Shit! Had she accidentally shot him? "Seth!" Amy yelled. Now that he was listening for outside noise maybe he would hear her.

Amy fired again, and again. Still the chain was reluctant to be broken. A deep growl made Amy freeze, a cold chill running up and back down her spine. Her gunshots and screaming must have alerted it to her position. Was it the same monster that had been following her outside? God she hoped not. That thing showed actual signs of intelligence. Maybe it would know how to avoid a gun handled by an amateur.

Slowly Amy forced herself to look behind her, over her shoulder. Its a great way to die in horror movies, look before you act. Amy didn't know how exactly to act without getting killed anyways. Neither option sounded too great.

As she looked behind her she realized that the growls were coming from a cell. She let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. There was something a little comforting to know that the monster was on the other side of bars, in a cell. She turned back to Seth, planning on making as much noise as possible. The monsters knew where she was, anyways. If it was to either go out with bang or fizzle out, she would choose to go out screaming and shooting, taking as many monster with her as she could.

She banged the butt of the gun on the bars of Seth's cell, hoping that if he couldn't hear it, he would feel the vibrations. She whacked the gun into the cold steel so hard her hand was vibrating painfully along with the gun. She screamed Seth's name, trying to get his attention once more. She held the gun right and kept shooting, aiming as best as she could at the chains strung tightly from the ceiling. Seth was in enough pain, it was time she ended it.

Amy was as surprised as Seth to see the heavy metal chains fall limply with a low clanking of the links together and a thud as they hit him in the back. He let himself fall forward a little. Amy realized he had been straining his entire body to keep his arms in their sockets. He relaxed his muscles and fell into the fetal position on the floor of the cell. His arms were still behind his back; his legs chained tightly together and folded up into his chest. Amy had to get in there.

The gun had worked on the chain. She held it pointed at the lock as the snarls and hisses got louder behind her. She was aggravating all the residents of this cell block. Oh, well.

She squeezed the trigger, and to her astonishment, the lock flung open. Guns can fix anything.

Amy ran into the cell and immediately yanked the headphones and blindfold off of Seth.

Her scream filled the bare, empty halls and cells down the corridor. It drove the monsters mad; they shook at the closed bars and tried to break free. So much from that scream; the fear was intoxicating.