"THROUGH ME ONE GOES INTO THE TOWN OF WOE

THROUGH ME ONE GOES INTO ETERNAL PAIN

THROUGH ME AMONG THE PEOPLE THAT ARE LOST"

~ Dante Aligheri, Inferno

12!

The blood was still crawling towards him and pooling outward on the rusted, metal floor in front of the door. It snaked around rivets to reach his shoes, but William kept backing up. He couldn't tell if the iron that he was smelling was coming from the floor or the blood; possibly both, mixing together to form a sickening metallic scent that almost caused Will to retch. It was this that snapped Will out of a temporary fugue state to realize that this was all very real.

It still didn't make any sense. Will backed up from the encroaching blood and took a quick look around the room, searching for something that would look familiar. In the stories that he was told about this Other World, most of them ended in death, or at the very least, disfigurement. However, he remembered hearing about symbols or items that could be found that would act as keys to escape from this nightmarish place. He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. If he moved about in a panic, he felt that he wouldn't get anywhere. He needed to take back the control that he prided himself in always having. Opening his eyes again, the world was still the same, but he was expecting it to be.

Will moved closer to the wall, reaching out and feeling the cold metal on his fingertips. He felt great importance in getting all five of his senses acclimated to this infernal place. Taking a glance down at the ground, the blood had slowed its flow and started to gather in the area he'd previously stood. Will moved along the wall away from the door, closer to where the movie screen had been previously. The further he got from the door, the more rust and discoloration adorned the wall. He stopped his stride when he felt something come off the wall on his hand. Raising it up, he saw a red liquid run down his fingers into the palm of his hand. He didn't feel himself get cut, and a look towards the wall told him that the wall itself was starting to bleed. He shook out his hand to try and get the blood off him as he stepped away.

Clink.

The sound was faint, but it was enough to catch Will's attention. It was coming from where the emergency exit used to be in the room.

Clink…clink…

He moved closer to the sound, seeing that it was coming from one of the lights that were fixed and encased on the wall. It was closer to the size of a lantern and reminded him of the lights he saw in pictures of mines. The light had a singular crack that was branching off into smaller cracks, which were spreading across the glass until it formed some kind of sinister spiderweb in design. Suddenly, the spreading stopped, and it was silent again.

Will took another breath and turned his attention from the light. The moment he did, the bulb shattered, and glass exploded outward, sending Will sprawling and landing on all fours while shielding the back of his head. As the light source extinguished, Will began to hear more glass shattering, and he finally looked up to see that every lantern in the room was exploding one at a time. Each time it did, the room got darker and darker still, until every single light had exploded and plunged most of the room into a suffocating darkness. The only illumination was coming from the floor in the corner closest to him.

Still on his knees, Will looked at the corner. The light source was very faint and appeared to be lower than the floor level. He tried to get up, but noticed that his knees were very shaky, which slowed his progress.

"C'mon Will, get it together." He softly whispered to himself.

His voice carried a confidence that was not quite in his heart, but he willed himself to his feet, placing his hands on his knees to try and steady them. Slowly, he made his way to the source and discovered that it was coming from just slightly below the floor level, underneath a small grate that protruded slightly from the ground. It was a small flashlight that faced the wall, in the shape of a P. Of course, there was nothing to pry the grate up with, so the light was just taunting him.

With complete darkness surrounding him, Will kicked at the grate out of frustration, and was surprised that it came off rather easily. It clanged against the metal floor and scuttled away into the dark. All things considered, Will was very suspicious that the grate was loose, but light had been taken away from him. He reached down and grabbed the flashlight, tucking it into the breast pocket of his collared shirt. It gave him enough illumination to see about ten to fifteen feet in whichever direction he was looking. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Will took another quick look around to make sure there wasn't anything lurking in the dark nearby, but everything was the same as before the lights went out. He cautiously circumvented the blood and approached the front door, but there was no avoiding it if he wanted to get the door open. It was just blood, he said to himself as he took one step and then another, firmly standing in the puddle and pushing against the door handle. The handle didn't move, so he pushed against the door itself. It budged the slightest, so he put more weight against it. The door gave way even more this time. He exhaled and lowered his shoulders, throwing himself against the door.

It flew open and Will stumbled out into the hallway of the theater. Somehow, he managed to stay on his feet, but he was grimacing at the pain in his shoulder. He immediately tried to push that pain out of his mind and be wary of his surroundings, but it was nagging and most likely would for some time. While the structure of the theater's interior didn't seem to change too much, the hallway itself was similar to the room he just left. The floor was metallic, although it had remnants of maroon carpet strewn about and stuck in portions. No matter how slowly or quietly he tried to move around, every step he took bounced an echo between the walls of the narrow hallway. The original wallpaper was shredded and exposed the same kind of walls, except for a spot that was a light red, almost pinkish hue, that looked soft and appeared to be almost pulsing.

Will turned from right to left and back again slowly, so that his flashlight created a sweeping motion around the area. To the right was a pile of debris that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, and that happened to be where the lobby was. Across from him was the door to another theater room, and to his left, the hallway lead to more rooms. Whether the back door was still intact, he would have to find out the hard way.

Before he headed down the hallway though, he checked the pile of debris to see if it could have been moved like the door and the grating. Once he got close enough, he could see it was gigantic concrete slabs stacked on top of one another with pieces of rebar sticking out. It gave the appearance of a deadly version of that game that he had played last year where you had to take out small wooden blocks and stack them at the top. Better to check the other end before messing with this, he thought to himself.

He started back towards the hallway with the sound of his footsteps echoing to give warning to whatever he may find. The echoes were starting to get louder though, and one in particular caused him to stop his stride. Will listened closely and his suspicions were confirmed. His footsteps weren't the only things echoing through this place. And the echoes were starting to get closer, in timing and proximity to his location.

Will moved as silently as he could to the archway of the theater door. He concealed the light against the wall and peered around the corner. No longer were echoes heard, rather than actual footsteps, and they belonged to more than one set. He could also see that another light was coming into view, getting brighter and brighter and causing him to slip completely behind the archway. He patted himself down for something to defend himself with and found nothing. Flicking off his flashlight, he turned it around so that its end stuck out, preparing to club whomever was closing in on him. It was only when the section of hallway he was in grew bright that he prepared to jump out.

"Who's there? We know someone's there!"

A female voice tried to convey confidence, but with a hint of fear. Will thought about his options. He could go back inside the theater; however, he would be trapped if he did. By the footsteps, he guessed that there were three or four people out there.

"You better come out. We have a gun."

Another voice threatened him, though the threat put his mind at ease. He knew who that voice belonged to.

"Teddy?" Will questioned and stepped out of the archway.

He turned the flashlight back on and raised it to see his roommate standing there sporting a bewildered expression. A thirtysomething-year-old woman stood to his left holding a flashlight while a guy dressed as a movie theater usher stood to the right. The guy looked young enough that he was probably still in high school.

"Will?" Teddy asked in return, cracking a confused smile. "What the hell are you doing here? How long have you been here, where even is here?"

"I don't know," Will replied while looking between the three of them, "I haven't been here too long, probably less than twenty minutes. Dude, you never came home last night. Have you been here since then?"

"Last night? What are you talking about, I just went on a date, and…and…and I met this girl at the movies just like two or three hours ago I think," Teddy began to stammer and ramble, "the theater went dark, like all the lights went out and then when they came back on I was in this place. I just found these two like a half an hour ago."

"The same thing happened to me," the woman spoke up, blinking rapidly and clasping her right hand over her left to stop it from shaking, "everyone had vanished, even my daughter. Oh God, if she's around here somewhere I have to find her!"

Will swallowed hard. If Teddy only thinks he's been here a couple of hours at the most, then how long had he really been here? How come nobody noticed Teddy missing yesterday? Did his date get transported here too? Did they all just vanished from their seats and nobody bothered to notice?

Another thing that caught Will's attention was the tremor in the woman's hand. Coupled with rapid blinking, it could have simply meant that she was scared for herself and daughter's lives, or she was about to have a nervous breakdown. It could have also meant that she was on Pure. He flashed a light at the movie theater usher, who hadn't said anything. The usher was fixated on the pulsating wall just passed Will, who snapped his fingers in the kid's face. When the usher didn't respond, Will did it again and finally clapped his hands together.

"Huh!?" The kid let out a startled yelp.

"You on Pure?" Will asked the kid, which drew a worried look from the woman.

"What?" The kid responded while backing up a step. "No! I mean, yeah, but, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Yeah, what does that have to do with anything?" The woman asked before motioning the flashlight towards Will's shoes. "Oh my God is that blood? Whose blood is that?!"

"Calm down," Will said softly, raising his hands up in a non-threatening manner, "I was in that room, and blood just started seeping underneath the door. There's nobody in there, or around here."

"Then where did the blood come from?" Teddy asked.

Everyone paused for a moment and looked around. Behind them, Will saw some blood streaks on the wall going in the direction that they came from. Before he could say anything, he saw the usher slowly moving towards the pulsating wall. Teddy and the woman don't notice, but the kid looks almost transfixed by the mass. He couldn't be sure, but it seemed like the wall was thicker than it was before.

"Hey, I don't know if you want to be touching that."

The usher either didn't hear Will or chose to ignore him. The woman looked at the wall with some disgust, but Teddy didn't even acknowledge what the usher was walking towards. He kept narrow eyes on Will.

"Why'd you ask about Pure?" asked Teddy. "Why aren't you as freaked out as the rest of us right now?"
"What?" Will tried to ask as incredulously as he could. "Not freaked out? You should have seen me in that room, I just…" he paused for a moment to gather himself, "…I'm trying my best to stay calm. Calm leads to rational, and there must be a rational explanation to all this."
"That doesn't explain why you mentioned Pure." Teddy noted.

Before the line of questioning expanded, their attention was caught by a loud shriek. The woman cried out and pointed at the wall, where the usher's hand was caught in the mass. He frantically tried to pull it out by placing his other hand on his wrist and yanking backwards, but he wasn't getting anywhere. Suddenly, a glob of the pinkish matter seemed to reach out to ensnare his other hand and pull it in. It was slowly sucking him in so that the matter was now up to his forearms.

"Help! Help me!" the kid screamed.

Teddy and Will rushed over to the kid, each grabbing him around one of his shoulders and trying to pull him out. The woman also scrambled over and tried pulling at his forearms. They couldn't move him and the substance lashed out at the woman, causing her to let go and back away to the far wall.

"Please help me!"

"What the hell is this shit?!" Teddy exclaimed while he and Will tried desperately to pull the kid away. The wall had swallowed the kid up to his forearms now, and tears started to well up in his eyes as he was slowly being sucked in. No matter how hard the two of them pulled, they couldn't get him free. Will began to look around and remembered the rebar sticking out from the debris that led to the lobby.

"You got him for a minute?"

"What?!" Teddy asked while shaking his head. "No! Not really!"

Will didn't reply. Instead he darted towards the debris pile. After a quick scan, he pulled at the piece that he deemed to be the loosest and the least likely to cause a concrete avalanche. He gave it a slight tug, and when he saw that it would come out easily, he yanked it free and hustled back over to the wall. The kid was now up to his elbows in the stuff.

Without warning, Will swung hard near the top of the wall, as to avoid the usher's actual arms. His action caused Teddy to flinch and temporarily let go. The rebar didn't break apart the wall, but rather the blob welcomed and grabbed the metal rod. Will yanked on the rod to try and pull it back out, harder and harder until he lost his grip and stumbled backwards into Teddy who was just getting up. As the two of them got up, the rod was sucked into the wall, and even more shocking was the shape that the mass was taking. It seemed to reach out with arms of its own now towards the kid, and before he could yell out again, it grabbed him on both sides of his head and pulled it in.

"Holy shit!" cried Teddy, as both he and Will rushed back to the kid, who could only frantically shrug his shoulders and scrape his feet against the ground. Will joined Teddy in pulling at the waist momentarily but stopped when he saw the mass begin to undergo a transformation.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Teddy yelled up towards Will, still trying to free the kid, "C'mon, help me pull!"

"Look." Will said while motioning to the wall.

Teddy snapped his attention to it, and like Will, stopped tugging at the kid when he saw that the wall was slowly changing to a darker color of red. It continuously grew darker until it was a shade of brown, but what's more, the substance no longer appeared to be spongy. The kid's thrashing grew weaker and weaker, and intervals farther apart as the wall appeared to harden before their very eyes. After a short time, the kid stopped moving altogether. It was as if the wall closed around his arms and his neck. There were no marks or indication of a struggle, or that they were forcible inserted. Will stepped forward to observe it, and with a moment of trepidation, used the back of his hand to feel how it had grown smooth and solid.

"Oh my God." Teddy mumbled to himself, his eyes wide and his mouth agape as he examined the wall with Will. "Oh my God! I mean, what the fuck?! What the fuck just happened?! Is he dead?"

Will looked back towards the body half-stuck in the wall. It wasn't moving. He didn't want to touch it, nor did he have to. The kid hung there, back on his heels. Will just nodded his head in response, hearing the woman let out a few frightened whimpers in the background.

"I have to tell you," Teddy started, "that your whole calm demeanor throughout this whole thing, is really getting on my fucking nerves!"

Before Will could respond, a loud boom caught their attention. The woman pushed herself up along the wall to get back to her feet, eyes fixed on the pile of rubble. She pointed towards the pile, her hand shaking as small tremors took over her body. Will moved over to her and placed a hand on top of hers to try and get her to calm down. He heard the sound again and looked towards the rubble to see small pieces of concrete crumbling onto the floor. The three of them stood frozen in place, staring…waiting. For what seemed like an eternity, they stood and waited, but all was silent.

"Okay," Will said, looking back and forth between the two others, "we need to figure out…"

An explosion of cement and metal sent the three of them scrambling backwards. Chunks of the rubble scattered everywhere, and a piece of rebar soared by just over Teddy's head. For the amount of earth and mass that was piled up, something had easily disbursed it amongst the room. Will picked himself up faster than the other two, getting ready for some kind of monster to appear and attack them. All that was there was pure darkness, which unsettled Will even more.

"We should be going back the other way." Will stated while tugging at the two of them.

"We just came from that way, there's nothing but theaters and a maintenance closet." The woman replied. "That might be the way out!"

"It's not." Will retorted and started walking past them.

"How the hell do you know?!" Teddy demanded.

"Because her flashlight isn't penetrating that area."

Both Teddy and the woman turned back to the area. She scanned her flashlight over the area but couldn't make anything out. She gulped and took an uneasy step forward, followed by another, but no matter how close she got, her light was snuffed out by impenetrable darkness. She decided to back up by Teddy again, and as she did, something fell from the ceiling. They looked up and shone a light but were interrupted by a shrill scream coming from the dark. Whatever it was screamed again and sent their hairs on end. The floor ten feet in front of them suddenly split wide open with a horrific crack.

"Yeah I think back that way is the best idea right now. Run!"

Teddy sent out a warning scream as more of the floor started to split open, and the three of them starting sprinting down the hallway. The woman began to veer off to the room Will found himself in to start, so he grabbed her by the elbow and lead her away. They could hear the same sounds of the floor splitting but didn't dare to look back. Other theater's double doors passed by in a blur, until Will spied a single door off to the right. He began to make a faster break towards that one.

"That door's locked!" screamed the woman who trailed just behind.

Will paid no attention and picked up some more speed. Just like when he broke through the initial doors, he lowered that same shoulder, not breaking stride as he charged and smashed through the door, which swung open freely and sent him spilling onto the ground. The other two followed him through, and Teddy grabbed the door to slam it behind them, pressing back against it to block passage for whatever they were running from. Teddy panted out of breath, although he suddenly stopped, and his eyes went wide when he saw where they were.

"What…the…" Teddy began without finishing the thought.

Will got up slowly, holding his now definitely injured shoulder and looked around. They were outside, or at least it seemed like they were. In front of them was a wired fence about fifteen feet tall with sharp ends that looked like miniature scythes along the top. From where they stood, they could see the corners of the theater, and that the fence appeared to wrap all the way around it. Outside the wall was a darkness that rivaled the one they had seen inside, except for dim red lights off in the distance. They did little to illuminate the outside; instead it just cast an eerie glow. One of the lights had gone out, either by itself or by some other unseen force.

Looking around the building, something caught Will's eye farther down on the gray exterior wall. He walked along the wall to investigate.

"Hey, there's a space in the top!"

He heard the woman exclaim and Teddy said something that Will couldn't make it out. He was getting a feeling of déjà vu, like he had walked along this wall before, but never remembered going behind the movie theater for anything. Suddenly, it hit him. The dream the other night, where he was on the deserted campus. The school's theater hadn't looked quite right. It was this wall that he had seen, and the same graffiti was present now.

"Speak. I am the Crimson One."

The spray paint dripped from the letters and Will felt compelled to reach out and feel. It was thicker than spray paint should have been. A metallic sound caught his attention, and Will turned to see that the woman was climbing the fence to try and get out through the space at the top. She grabbed the top of the fence, carefully pulling up and sliding herself between the sharp protrusions.

"C'mon you two, we need to get the hell away from here!" the woman cried out while straddling the top of the fence.

With their attention diverted to each other, none of them saw what was coming. None of them were expecting what happened next. The scream was blood-curdling.