14
I covered my mouth with my hand in shock at what I had just done. I had sentenced complete strangers to death. But that thought immediately faded from my mind once I realized I was all alone in the hallway. My body jump started almost immediately, and I turned and took off down the hall. My body was in complete go mode as I ran down the all trying to put as much space between me and the Beast. I turned down the nearest hall until I saw a door with a staircase sign. I immediately pushed through it and was met with a new staircase. I looked up to see if I can find the ceiling to the top. Up meant a way out. I started to run up them. There were three flights. I was terrified, so terrified my mind was already telling me that he was going to find me and get me.
My body was growing sweaty as I continued to move. I lost my footing over one step and fell close to the top. I groaned some but got up and kept on going. Once I reached the top I pushed the door open and saw I was in a lobby. The lights were dark but the place looked completely safe. There were glass cages with stuffed animals inside and I slowly stepped closer into the hallway. I was at the top. Somewhere at the top. I looked around and began to speed walk to my left. I saw two doors with small glass windows at the top where light shined through them. But once I neared them, I immediately paused. The rain had stopped but what I could also see was a street and trees all around.
I was at the entrance of the zoo. I looked down at the doors to see there were no locks on them. I could just walk right through. I looked back up at the glass and immediately saw his reflection a few feet behind me. I was still, motionless as I could see the blood all over his body and face. I closed my eyes for a moment. I knew he could easily kill me if I even made a single step toward this door. It would either be fast and painless or slow and painful. I opened my eyes and saw his body rise and fall calmly. He was waiting, waiting to see what I would do. I took in a deep breath and then I exhaled and slowly let a light smile spread across my lips. Even though my face was shaking with overwhelming fear, I still had to try.
"You found me." I replied slowly turning to face him hoping my smile was convincing enough to look amused. "I guess our little game of hide and seek will never last long."
The Beast let out a low growl, still on edge, still unpredictable. I didn't know if he believed my lie, but I kept my frightened smile on my face as I slowly walked to him, the doors growing smaller and smaller in my mind, my freedom shrinking away. I drew closer to him and as I did, his eyes focused more on me as I stood directly in front of him. I gave a gentle exhale as I leaned in to him now, our foreheads brushing into one another. He responded by rubbing his head against mine and I closed my eyes taking in the affection. His hands rested on my shoulders, his fingers gently squeezing my flesh.
"They can't hurt you now." he said in a dark and fearful tone. I focused on his face and nodded.
"We go back." I replied and merely walked around him and headed back to the door. I was so close, and I had to do my best to not let my tears fall. I don't know what he did with the bodies of the men he killed, but I knew they were gone and that was because of me. I used them as a ploy to get out. I would think of what I had done for the rest of my life now.
A few hours passed and I was left sitting on my bed, legs crossed Ansel's book on my lap. I was just staring at the new sketch he had drawn. I wondered if he would come back and finish the drawing. The door opened, and I looked up to see Kevin returning, only this time he was in jeans and a denim shirt. He was pushing in the TV with one hand and had a box of pizza in the other.
"Hey there! You must be Teleya! Wooo wee Patricia told me about you and I must say you're as pretty as she said." he said in a thick southern accent. I sat back some warry of this obvious new personality.
"W-who are you are you?" I asked looking him over. He smiled big.
"Name's Luke! I figured it'd be nice to get to know me a little bit to take your mind off the day. Heard a big storm's coming and I thought maybe you'd like to watch a scary movie during said storm." he said now holding up the pizza box. "I brought some pizza too! You like all meat?" I was somewhat at a loss of words as he spoke and I just nodded. He nodded back, his smile still on his face.
"Oh good! Brought Texas Chainsaw massacre along with the new Halloween and Friday the 13th movie!" he exclaimed. I just watched as he sat the pizza box in my hands and then moved to hook up the TV and then the DVD player.
"Ladies choice. Which movie do you want to watch first?" he asked. I didn't want to watch anything really. I really wanted to just be left alone for the rest of the day, but I knew I wasn't getting any of that. But the pizza did smell really good.
"Um Friday the 13th sounds good." I replied and he chuckled some.
"No way! That's one of my favorite movies." he said. He opened the case, placed the DVD inside the DVD player and then pressed play. He moved over to me and just sat down on my bed beside me. I blinked rapidly, still stunned at how chill he was. He took the pizza box and opened it.
"Don't worry I won't get any pizza on your bed. Dennis would rip me a new one if I got your sheets dirty." he said. 'How would he even do that?' I thought to myself, but I remained quiet watching him take a slice of the large pizza. "Well dig in! The movie's startin'." I was brought away from my thoughts and just picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite. The box was from Silvio's pizza place. I wonder how far that was from the zoo.
The pizza was really good and I decided not to be too concerned about this new personality. He was nothing pure excitement and joy as the movie began. We ate through the pizza and watched the movie, the rumbling of the storm made this actually very nice. Even though Luke had already told me the ending of the movie which I already knew.
"I mean come on does Jason ever really die?" he asked his cheek full of pizza. "I mean the slashers rarely ever die in the movie even if you set them on fire or blow em up, you see them right at the end watching the survivors as they escape and boom you have a sequel or reboot coming up." I nodded slowly in thought of this.
"What's your favorite genre of movie?" I asked.
"Oh horror definitely. Then there's comedy, romance, then sci-fi. Hey you ever see signs! I love anything M. Night." he said, and I nodded.
"Yes. I thought Mel Gibson was good in that movie." I replied. He nodded.
"Yeah me too." he said and I gave a light smile and looked back to the TV. My mind however was going back to those two doors from earlier. I was so close to them, yet so far at the same time. I needed to escape, needed to figure out other ways out of this zoo. "So what do you think of all this?" I swallowed the piece of pizza in my mouth.
"Of what?" I asked. Luke looked at me and shrugged.
"Of us?" he asked. I looked down some at my lap and shrugged some.
"I don't know what to think." I replied honestly.
"What do you mean, don't you like us?" he asked curiously, and I nodded swiftly not wanting to have any of the personalities upset at me.
"I do it's just… staying cooped up in this room all the time can be a little…saddening." I replied. He picked up another slice of pizza and took a large bite of it nodding.
"I get that. I mean we get to go out and be in the sun whenever we want, and you have to stay down here all the time." he pointed out. Exactly what I just said sort of.
"Right." I replied.
"Well give Patricia some time. When you're completely trustworthy then you'll be able to come out with us. No questions asked." he said and I just nodded thinking that trust may not come for the longest time here. I don't think I could wait until they fully trusted me. Soon people will assume I'm dead and stop looking for me. I had to get out of here. We watched many more movies, each one Luke went into depth about the plots, spoiling them for me.
However, I didn't want to watch movies all day. I could only assume the afternoon was coming, and Hedwig came to visit finally.
"Luke got pizza! Hell yeah!" he said taking a slice and eating it. I smiled some glad to see him.
"Yeah we watched scary movies." I replied, and he winced.
"Oh I hate scary movies. They give me nightmares." he said. I nodded.
"Yeah some of them can be scary." I replied. "Hey, Dennis started some laundry that I should finish. Want to come with me to finish them?"
"Uh yeah!" he replied happily, and I smiled as he took the pizza box and we left the room. Maybe I could find my phone in the process.