Chapter 2: A Voice Without Words
By X-treme X-taggano (backfire@subdimension.com)
My head...
Nothing made sense... I couldn't feel my arms or legs. All I could see was white... like a bedsheet was casted before my eyes. I tried to move, but I couldn't. I couldn't even tell if my heart was still beating.
I couldn't tell if I was alive.
If I wasn't, it was a funny hell I had been sent to... just a big void where I couldn't move or walk or speak. Maybe I was just passing through from our world to the next...
I suddenly ruled against the idea that I was dead. I was able to feel my fingers. I decided to toy with my muscles to see if they would actually do anything. I barely moved my finger up. That was a good sign. I wasn't paralyzed or in any type of critical condition. I guessed I'd have to take my movements one step at a time or I'd go on the brink of insanity.
It wasn't that much longer until I could finally feel all my limbs, but I didn't want to move. I didn't want to wake up. I didn't want to have find out where I had ended up. What about Cheryl? She needs me!
I opened my eyes slowly. They seemed to flutter a bit before they opened. When at last I could see again, I saw the same thing as when they were closed... pure white. Maybe I was dead...
No, I couldn't be dead. I saw the dash board to my car, and if I recall my theology correctly, cars don't have an afterlife. I placed my hand on my forehead, kneading it a bit. I was hoping this would somehow relieve some of the pain that throbbed in my head. I shook my head a bit. I was still alive. That was a good thing, I guessed. I placed my hand on the empty seat next to me to center my balance. I blinked a few times, wondering when my vision would focus.
Wait a minute... empty seat next to me?
Cheryl was gone!
I looked at the seat next to me. Cheryl wasn't there. Where had she gone? The door was opened. Maybe she had just left to go find help. I was, after all, unconscious. I didn't even know if it was the same day. Maybe I had been unconcious for a while now and Cheryl couldn't wait any longer.
I opened the door to the car and quickly stepped outside into this town. I started to wonder. How was it so cold in August? Snow was falling lightly. There was also thick fog, and a lot of it. I could barely see three feet in front of me. What was wrong with this weather? There was certainly no explanation for it off the top of my head.
It was also quiet . . . too quiet. Where was everyone? I looked at the buildings and stores ahead of me. There was no one in any of them. I looked into a car parked by the sidewalk. No one in there. The only sound that could be heard was a distant moaning of the wind. It was odd how much the wind portrayed the same sound as a human dying.
The color of this town seemed to be gray. The sun didn't shine in the sky, therefore rendering the town almost colorless. Everything in town seemed to look washed out. There was no color which actually seemed to fit the environment of this town quite well. No colors... no sound...
Suddenly, a sound emerged from the darkness of the distance. It sounded like footsteps. Perhaps there was a citizen here who could explain this phenomena. Or perhaps it was Cheryl. I looked into the distance, my eyes fully focused. Off in the distance was a human! She had short black hair, and wasn't that tall. She looked young.
Cheryl!
It had to be her! I would recognize that dress I bought her for her birthday any day! There she was, just standing there.
Goodness, she must be scared. I decided to slowly approach her, not wanting to risk scaring her off. A child of seven would be terrified in this type of situation any day, no matter how fearless they had seemed in the past. But this was my daughter! The slightest sound could almost give her a heart attack.
Maybe...If she heard my voice. Cheryl once told me she loved my voice because it kept her from being afraid. What a kid she was!
I cleared my throat lightly.
"Cheryl?" I said in the most warm voice I could.
But her reaction was completely different from what I expected. She started to take a few steps, not even turning to see who called her.
Now, Cheryl had been a brave child before, but . . . was she really brave enough to walk right on without even responding to her father's voice? It was like she heard me, but ignored me. Weirder still was the fact that no matter how brave a child could be, they certainly wouldn't have any type of courage in this situation. I myself couldn't find an ounce of it.
Cheryl wouldn't stop walking. Where was she going?
"Where are you going?" I asked, once again trying to sound comforting.
But Cheryl didn't stop. What was wrong with her? Cheryl just didn't want to stop walking. . . like a three year old taking her first steps to her mother. But what baffled me was the fact that she seemed so calm and unafraid . . . like she was in some kind of trance.
"Hey, wait! Stop!" I tried to tell her.
And then she ran.
Did I scare her? How could I be so stupid? Maybe she just didn't hear me the first times I called her name. And then I get careless and scare her away! The poor girl must've been terrified! I didn't waste a second to follow her. Didn't she have any common sense? True, she was scared, but she should've at least checked to see if it was me before running away.
But weirder still, it seemed like she was deliberately running from me. It almost seemed like she knew it was me, but decided to run from me. What could cause Cheryl to run from her father? I suddenly thought otherwise. Cheryl probably didn't know it was me. She probably thought I was some creature. Cheryl used to always ask me to check under her bed for monsters. I almost laughed at the idea of Cheryl thinking I was a monster.
But she didn't seem frightened. She wasn't screaming, and she was breathing normally. It also seemed like Cheryl knew this town and knew exactly where she was running to. She ran a few blocks before stopping for a few moments. I was panting hard when I stopped running. Where did Cheryl think she was going?
I then realized that Cheryl had stopped in front of what looked like an block of houses. She seemed to look at me for a second. And for a second, I could almost swear she smiled. She then started running again.
By now I was really worried. Where did Cheryl think she was going? And the scariest part was that she knew I was following her. I was sure of it. She looked right at me and smiled. I once again started running. Exhausted or not, I couldn't let Cheryl go. She was all I had left in my life.
The street corner Cheryl ran down seemed to be a blur. It all looked the same to me. Maybe it was because I was tired and the this couldesac seemed to go on forever. It was almost like time had frozen in place. Everything was a collage of red and gray. The only clear thing I could see was Cheryl. She was still running. I know I've never been in perfect shape, but Cheryl was running faster then I'd ever seen her run. She was ahead of me by leaps and bounds. I was astonished. Was this really Cheryl? She seemed like someone else now.
No, it had to be Cheryl. I just knew it. It had to be her!
My mind suddenly focused on the road ahead of me after the crash of a gate echoed through the street. I stopped as fast as I could. Where did she go? I looked left and right, wondering where Cheryl could possibly have gone.
Suddenly, the glimpse of a gate caught the corner of my eye. . . that was it. She had to have gone through the gate. There was no other alternative. She couldn't have climbed the brick wall. It was too tall and there was no real way to keep a steady grip on the wall. And she certainly didn't turn around, or I would've seen it as clear as anything else. Besides, I heard the gate crash.
Stop thinking! Find Cheryl! That thought entered my head in a split second. I have to find her. And she had to have gone through the gate. I didn't have time to think for very long.
So, before I knew it, I put my hand on the doorhandle, stopping only to catch my breath for a second. I then turned the handle and open the gate.
Suddenly my stomach went into a knot. . .I realized then that a stream of blood was flowing to the gate. A very little bit of it spilled onto my shoe. Where was this blood coming from? I slowly moved my foot from the awful red liquid. My eyes slowly trailed up that stream. Suddenly, I saw the source of the blood.
My eyes widened with absolute terror. This seemed to be where someone kept his dog. Thick patches of grass surrounded an old doghouse. And there, in front of it, was one of the most gruesome images I had ever seen.
A mutilated dog. . .
Its thick intrales were bundled up in the center, with one part hanging off the side of the dog's rotting flesh. The remains didn't even hint that the dog had fur at one time. Only its pink, torn flesh shown, with many of its innards splashed out. It looked to me like someone did this on purpose . . . that the dog was deliberately attacked. I could barely even tell it was a dog.
My stomach cramped up even tighter at the gruesome scene. I slowly moved on, trying to keep the sight of the dog away from my view. That image was enough to make the toughest stomach curl and I certainly didn't have the toughest stomach in the world.
Right passed the remains in the back yard was an alleyway. I stared at it for a moment, stopping to think about how odd it was that an alleyway was in someone's back yard. Why the hell was there one here?
I once again took a deep breath. Harry, stop thinking. You need to find Cheryl. That thought once again entered my head. I was thinking more than I was concentrating. And right now. . . I just needed to focus. I needed to focus on saving Cheryl. It didn't matter if there was an alleyway in someone's back yard. . . Cheryl probably went in there. I quickly made my way into the alleyway.
There wasn't much in the alleyway. Just pipes and a set of stairs. I made my way through it, trying to keep my mind focused on Cheryl. Where was she? I hadn't seen her for a while, making me have my doubts of her being in her.
After running for what seemed to be an eternity, I found another gate. I found myself praying for no more mutilated animals passed it. I soon opened the gate and walked in.
Suddenly, a sound entered my head. I knew it was in my head, because it made it ache a little bit. And it wasn't a small sound in my head either. I could almost swear someone else could hear it. . . well, if someone else was there.
It sounded like a siren...
A siren trying to warn me of something...
And then it got darker. The light completely disapeared from the alleyway, leaving me in pitch blackness. What was happening? Why did it all of a sudden become dark? I reached into my pocket, trying to find something that could help me. Suddenly, my hand stumbled accross something. A lighter.
I normally didn't keep a lighter with me, but we were traveling here at night, and I kept one just in case something might happen on the road. It seemed almost ackward that I brought one. . . like it was fate that I had thought of it. I then starting running down the alleyway. I didn't know what to expect. Anything could happen at this rate.
My thoughts were shattered by a sudden creaking sound. It sounded
like a rusty wheel or something. I followed my ears around the corner to
the sound.
A wheel chair. Nothing unusual. Its wheel was still spinning,
though. I guess that didn't matter much. I ignored it and moved on.
I then, once again, stepped into an even bigger pool of blood.
What the hell was going on in this town? Every place I went to was drenched in blood. That was the second time in the past ten minutes I stepped into blood by accident, and any normal person knows it's not every day you just happen to walk along and realize your shoe was bloodstained.
And chances were, where there was blood, there was a corpse. . .
And I was completely accurate. Up ahead, to my surprise, was a table with a sheet on it. Under the sheet was the shape of a human body with blood pouring out of the chest area. I felt like vomiting, but tried to keep the thought out of my head. I wasn't curious enough to take off the sheet and look at the corpse anyways.
And then there erupted another sound, this time much louder then the mere squeaking of a wheel chair. It sounded. . . almost like a photocopier. It boomed through a chain link fence behind the table with the body. It sounded like it was getting louder and louder...
Like something was approaching.
I was terrified at the time. Up until now, I tried to think there was a logical explanation for everything I had seen. But now. . . there was no explanation for what I was experiencing.
Like it was a dream.
No, worse.
A nightmare...
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I wanted to turn and run. But something pushed me to go on. I had to save Cheryl, wherever she might be. And so I continued on, following the bloodstains on the floor. More sewage pipes followed followed over head. The chain link fence to my right added a smell of metal to the disgusting smell of the thick blood that defiled the ground. Insects flew around some larger puddles of blood. I was sure my shoe was getting a darker shade of red as I continued to run. I could swear I heard a light splash with every step I took, and it sickened me. It sickened me immensely.
I suddenly stopped. There was something ahead of me. It looked like a chunk of meat...
Human meat.
I slowly approached it. If this was every part of a human now, it could have fooled me. It was so dark . . so rotten. It looked as if all the blood had been drained out of it. That might explain all the blood in the alleyway, but how on earth was there so much blood from one chunk of human meat?
I suddenly realized . . . That wasn't the only piece.
There were several pieces up the alleyway. Some human must have been terribly mutilated. I couldn't point out the specific parts of the body that were scattered, but whatever they were, they were ugly and it all made me want to vomit.
My heart started pounded as I kneeled next to one of the pieces. I noticed what looked like knife wounds. This body was cut into pieces! I was almost sure of it now. What kind of human could tear another into this? If this was a murder, this was far worse than anything I had even heard of before.
My eyes slowly trailed up the the trail of blood and towards a chainlink fense wrapped with barbed wire. My heart stopped.
There, on the barbed wire, was a mutilated human body.
I looked at the wounds, closer to vomit than I had before. Who the hell did all this? Who could do all this? I saw the face on the body. It looked as if it had suffered in agony before it died. I could barely even tell it was a human other than the almost intact face and the figure. I could recognize its rib cage and its thick intestines hanging out like chains. Its torn flesh hung like torn tissue paper across its body. The wounds were definitely knife wounds.
But its arms were out like it was supposed to be nailed to a cross. I, being a firm believer in Christ, knew that position, as one word made its way to my head.
Crucified...
Suddenly, I heard what sounded like a laugh. It was a child's laugh. It wasn't Cheryl, I knew. It sounded to much like a young boy. I spun around quickly and held my match in the air. I looked on way, where the footsteps were approaching. I kept staring, my pulse so strong I felt as if my veins were going to burst forth from my body. I then saw it...
It looked like... a skinless kid.
With a knife...
Oh my God! There was a kid with a knife in front of me! I stared at him, wondering what to do. I was cornered. Whatever this skinless, one eyed monster, if that's the most mature term I can use, was... I had an idea it was here for me... I thought I could outrun it. It moved slowly. I jumped to my left and started to run. I ran right past the monsters...
Monsters?
There were two... three of them! I had no idea whatever this was, but it had friends. I was guess they were friends of murder. I ran past all three of them. I ran back up the alleyway from where I came . . . down that blood stained alley way. I turned around to see if those things were still following me. They moved slowly, but it appeared as if they were right behind me. I kept looking back while I ran, just to make sure they weren't stabbing distance close.
Suddenly, I crashed into something. I turned my head. What was it?
A . . . fence?!
Where the hell did this come from? I looked at it. This fence wasn't here before and it blocked my exit out! I couldn't escape from the hell I was in! I tried to climb it, but there was no way out. What was I to do? I couldn't die! I wasn't ready for it! I . . .
Than I felt a sharp pain on my back. It felt like a knife.
Those kids!
I screamed in pain as thick blood streamed down my back like a river. The back of my coat was torn open and could feel my muscles. They felt as if they had been torn apart. I turned around to try and fight back. I knew that was my only chance of survival. I had to use my limited combat abilities to fight off these things.
But as soon as I turned around, another knife dived into my flesh . . . into my stomach.
I groaned in pain and I felt even more blood spilling down both ends of my body. As soon as the kid removed the knife, I put my hand on my stomach. I swear I could see the stomach in my body spilling out. It sickened me almost as much as the pain I endeavered. Another knife struck my in the abdomen. I slowly felt the life flowing out of me. I couldn't stay awake.
I couldn't stay alive.
I couldn't stand up. I started to fall forwards, my blood spilling onto the pavement below me. I fell into a pool of it as I hit the ground. The splash it made sickened me, though I couldn't think straight.
I was dying.
I couldn't die! I had to save Cheryl! Cheryl needed me. How could my Father in heaven let me die now when I had a little girl to protect? I screamed again as another knife dove into my back, tearing through more of my muscle. My eyes fluttered shut. I couldn't hold on any longer.
Good bye, Cheryl . . .
I'm sorry.
