Chapter Eleven: The Bellman Day one; 8:45 p.m.
The air remains stale and cold within the cement walls. Aryus lays there on his bed, asleep. He wakes up to find himself still staring at the ceiling. A noise then comes from the bars, of someone tapping them. When he looks over at them, he sees a hand reaching from the cell next to him, holding a notepad, and tapping on a bar with it. Aryus stands up, wondering when the person was brought to the cell, because it had been empty before. Upon standing up, the hand drops the notepad and retracts to the other cell. Aryus goes over to the corner and picks up the notepad.
Written on the cover of the notepad is "A way out". In it's pages, it reads an explanation of a kind of ritual that will get him out of the cell. Aryus is hesitant, but decides to try it.
Aryus takes off his shirt and soaks it in the sink, getting a corner of it drenched in water. He then takes it out and draws a circle on the floor, followed by a triangle. He sits in the middle holding the wet shirt, and draws an oval in the centre of the triangle. Immediately after drawing the oval, the room begins to shake. The symbol on the floor though, is somehow different, it remains still, but even the floor underneath it vibrates and warps. Aryus looks around in complete confusion. Everything around just keeps shaking back and forth, except for the symbol. Suddenly the lights go out and everything stops. Aryus stands up in the darkness and steps forward, not sure of what's going on. He walks in the direction of where the bars had been, but can't find them, he just keeps walking into darkness, like everything has vanished. He then stops, and shakes his wet shirt, before putting it back on. The lights flicker a bit and for the second that they were on, Aryus thought he found himself to be in the center of the prison, but the center of the prison didn't have flooring, which causes him to panic and run to the side. The lights come back on, and Aryus continues running, on air, but it stops a moment after, and drops him just out of reach of the railing.
He falls towards the floor, fifteen stories up. he lets out a scream as he plummets towards the ground, when the lights go out again. Aryus stands up, on what he's pretty sure is just air. Before he can even go anywhere, the lights come back on, and Aryus finds himself in the interrogation room. The cop is there with him, and sternly tells him to sit down. Completely lost, Aryus sits back down in a seat there.
"Now ... I have to go, but you can be sure that I'll be back." The officer tells Aryus, just before walking out, leaving him there alone. He sits there, looking around, not sure of what to do. He gets up and walks over to the door, and is about to open it, but isn't sure what he will find behind it. Without any more thoughts, Aryus grabs the handle and slowly opens the door. He finds himself to be right by the offices and cubicles. The place looks really dark and there's a strange blood-like substance spread all over everything there. It looks almost like rust, but is on everything. He steps out and finds no sign of anybody around. Even his shirt has dried somehow, though it was soaked a minute ago.
Coming out into the lobby, there still seems to be no one anywhere. "What about that guy in the cell?" He thinks to himself, heading to the doors to the prison. When he comes up to the large, automatic doors, they open wide, welcoming Aryus inside, but the prison seems very dark, and hard to see in. Aryus steps inside and the doors close behind him. He stands there a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the lack of light when the lights suddenly come on.
The entire prison seems to have gained a certain distasteful decorative manner to it. The blood-like rust is everywhere, as well as plain dried blood. The cells are now all filled with demonic people, of all ages. All the people have several pins, needles, and nails throughout their bodies. Another common trait amongst all of the people is that all of their eyes and mouths are sewn up. They all stand there in their cells, staring at Aryus.
"Good ... god ... " Aryus quietly exclaims with an expression of terrible shock. He looks around at the countless cells, all of them filled with these demonic kinds of people.
As his vision comes to the ground floor once again, he sees a man standing there in the very center of the prison.
It's a man wearing only a cloth, some boots, and gauntlets on his hands. Two of the common needles stick out of his bald head, where an eye with no pupil stares at him, the other concealed in darkness. A psychotic smile planted on his face gives him a creepy kind of edge. His large muscles seem to barely even strain to the large weight he carries. In his hands is a chain, attached to a gigantic bell. He stands there, staring at Aryus with a motionless body. Aryus remains there, frozen stiff. He back up to the doors behind him, but they don't open.
Upon detecting movement, the bellman starts walking towards Aryus, and starts spinning the bell in his hands. Aryus can't even think of any alternative, his focus is so strongly on the bellman coming toward him. He suddenly breaks into a desperate run towards the stairs up the prison. The bellman just stops a moment, watching him run.
Aryus comes to the steps and climbs them as quickly as possible, and just keeps running, thinking that the bellman can't attack him up there. Arms start reaching out through the bars, trying to grab Aryus, but the platform is wide enough for him to evade them. The bellman just stands there watching as Aryus tries to flee. Suddenly, he runs over to the wall, and jumps right up onto the platform from the ground. Aryus stops, dead in his tracks, when the man leaps up.
The bellman turns and gives a hefty swing into the platform, smashing a huge hole through it. He swings a few more times, before satisfied that there's no way it can be passed. He turns back to Aryus and starts walking again. Aryus starts backing up at the bellman's pace, in fear, for he has no weapon or any way of defending himself. Suddenly a vision flashes in front of Aryus of a "prisoner" throwing a knife at him. He instinctively ducks, as the knife flies by, over, him and onto the ground. Aryus immediately leaps over the rail, taking a harsh landing on the cement floor, but he manages up alright and runs to the knife, grabbing it and holding it up, though he knows that it will not be enough.
The bellman starts laughing loudly, echoing throughout the prison. He jumps over the rail, landing easily and continues laughing, while he paces gradually after Aryus. Aryus stands there, realizing that there is nowhere for him to run. The bellman comes up to two metres away from Aryus, when he stops and glares at him. Aryus gets another flash of the bellman swinging, and he jumps to the side, barely dodging the attack. The bellman gets furious and stops swinging wildly at him, missing every time, due to Aryus' premonitions. Eventually, Aryus jumps back a decent distance, and throws the knife at the bellman, striking him in the leg. The bellman just looks down at the blade sticking out of his thigh and looks back at Aryus, now even more angry. Aryus, takes the advantage of his distraction however and runs away, heading for the doors again.
The bellman quickly chases behind him, barely limping at all. Aryus comes up near the doors, and notices another door. He slams into the other door, forcing it open and continues through the building, heading outside. As he reaches the lobby, he looks back, finding that the bellman hasn't followed him. A sudden metallic thud rings out from the main doors, followed by a few other ones, before the bell smashes through the big automatic doors. The bellman looks through the small opening he made at Aryus, to see him charging out the door, and takes a few more swings to break a hole big enough to exit with. Aryus comes running out into the streets, which are now dark from night, but without looking around, he frantically heads down the street, heading towards what seems like a large building on the lake side, not looking back to see if the bellman is following him.