Darkness Falls - Chapter 15: Instability
Caroline gasped when she saw the face of her attacker. It was Zero. But no longer the Zero that she had known.
His face was twisted into a demonic grin, his sabre held, ignited, in his left hand, right hand holding a crushed and mangled piece of wood. That was part of the ladder, she thought, her last fully coherent thought for a long time.
He struck at her, wood connecting harshly with the side of her head, causing her to cry out in pain and curl into the fetal position. Red, thick, red blood leaked between the fingers she had pressed up against the wound, matting down her hair and coating her hand.
He was trying to kill her. The mother-fucker was trying to kill her.
Caroline jerked her head up and shoved herself to the side just in time. With a feral yell, Zero had slashed down with his sabre and destroyed the rest of the ladder, swearing loudly at the fact that he had missed, that he hadn't killed her with that blow. That attack had been meant for her head, her body. Trying to ignore the fact of that for the moment, she forced herself to her feet to run, to find some where to go.
The room they were in, however, was small, circular, with a roped-off fire pit in the center. Ducking under the rope on one side and jumping over the other, Caroline began to slap the wall, praying she would find something, anything that would help her out of here.
She stepped down on something, and sharp, shooting, burning pains wrapped around her foot, forcing her to bite down hard on her lower lip to keep from crying out. Not that Zero didn't already know where she was, but what was the point of advertising it. Reaching down, she yanked at the source of her torture and pulled it up, sending fresh waves of pain up and down her leg.
It was a mask. A goddamned eye-fucking-mask. Twin spikes protruded backwards from the eye-holes, obviously meant to gouge the eyes out of whoever wore it.
That, or stab holes into their feet.
"You're gona die now!"
Caroline hadn't meant to do it. It was all purely reflex, reflexes and instincts that all humans had, though most never needed to use them. Hearing the crazed man come charging up behind her, she whipped around, slashing out with the mask. With the spikes.
Zero howled in pain as the one spike caught his left cheek, biting and tearing away at the pseudo-flesh covering it. The other spike buried itself deep into his eye, staying there.
From his fingers the sabre slipped, falling and clattering onto the dirt floor. He never noticed. The pain was too much to bear.
Caroline backed away from his, terror and utter disgust clawing at her. She had just ripped his eye out. Ripped his face open. So intent was she on that fact that she never even noticed that she had backed through the wall.
There had been a door behind her. An open door. Unconsciously letting out a sigh of relief, she turned and ran as best she could, right foot slipping and stumbling as each step sent a fresh throb of pain through her, blood erasing all traction. Run, slip, run, slip, run, slip, run, slip… The thought became automatic, an insipid, mesmerizing thought. The pain almost seemed to fade as she ran, the thought a focus point. Just focus on that, not on the pain, not on what she had done.
The camera. God-fucking-damnit, she had lost the camera again. For a moment, she slowed her pace, tempted to go back and get it. She had stopped him once before, she could do it again. Claw his other eye out, like that mask was meant for…
It felt like fire had engulfed her foot. Biting back another scream of pain, Caroline ran again, ran and ignored everything, even where she was going.
She couldn't see; she was blind right now. Blind blind blind blindblindblindblind-
Get a hold of yourself!
Shaking her head, she tried to concentrate on the task at hand. The task… she needed the camera. But she couldn't get it, no. No no no… Mafuyu and Tanya were supposed to help her. But where-
"Wait a second." Caroline actually stopped this time; her heart pounding in her chest and her breath coming out ragged, ripping at her throat. She didn't have the camera, Iris did. Why did she think that? Why was she so sure that she was the one with it?
"Oh god…" The words came out more like a moan than anything, her knees collapsing beneath her, jarring her hard against the ground. Something wrapped tightly around her throat, around her wrists, around her ankles, wrapping and pulling, and, with a sickening 'hiss', the sent of burned flesh filled the air, the pressure gone. With even looking, she knew that her wounds, her marks were more prominent now.
Oh god oh god oh god
"Calm down!" Her hoarse voice filled the room, high pitched and panicked. Eyes widening, she pulled herself to her feet, realizing the folly of what she had just done.
Zero might have been injured, might have been blinded in one eye, but he was still out there. That meant he could hear her. That meant he could find her.
Oh god oh god oh god
She was now limping, foot dragging along the ground, pains coming with every bump, every rock she found. There was no wall on either side, only a sharp drop. Accidentally, she kicked a stone down there. She never heard it hit the bottom.
She heard rope though. Rope grinding, grinding, grinding against something, against something, against someone. Rope grinding, burning against someone's skin, someone's throat.
"If I had listened to my mom…" Licking her lips, Caroline grinned crazily. "If I had, I wouldn't be here. They're evil; they'll steal your soul. If I had listened, I wouldn't be here."
But she had. She couldn't change that.
Run. Run, limp. Run, limp, grind. Run, limp, grind.
And then there was no place for her to go. She was in another large, circular room. She could tell that by the hallowed echoes all around her. Groaning her defeat, she sank to her knees, resisting the incredibly tempting urge to burst into tears.
That wouldn't help anyone. And that wouldn't help her.
Caroline wasn't sure how long she sat there, staring down at her hands, at the darkness that surrounded them.
Long enough for Zero to quit screaming about his eye and come after her.
It was like letting a bull into a china shop, she realized when she reflected on it later. He had his sabre, and in the harsh, pale green light, she could see the blood oozing from his eye, and the flesh hanging off his face at odd angles. One of the spikes, the one she had jammed into his cheek, was still there, most likely stuck in his bone, or the metal bone-like structure.
Seeing her, he charged forward, sabre held high, ready to slice her head clean off her shoulders. Shoving herself backwards, Caroline pulled herself to her feet and ducked underneath his arm, running behind him, slipping on her own blood, and falling forward, sliding and skinning her knees and elbows. Covering her head with her hands, she squeezed her eyes shut, preparing the blow to her head, neck, back, somewhere, the blow that would kill her.
It never came.
Cautiously opening her eyes and raising her head, she flipped herself over and looked at Zero, trying to figure out what he was doing.
The sabre was still in his hands, but he wasn't paying any attention to it. It hung limply, his fingers barely still gripping it. He was staring up at something, a horrified expression on his face. Looking up, Caroline gasped, catching sight of what he saw.
Alia, X, Tanya, and Mafuyu were all literally stuck into the wall, their upper bodies and shoulders showing through, heads rolling around limply.
Iris was there, too.