Chapter Seventeen: A Toll for Sins Day Two; 8:45 a.m.
Aryus wakes up, finding himself to be in some kind of dungeon-like place. The walls are made of old, dirty cement bricks. Water fills the room for a few inches, and a stench of decay and mildew fills Aryus' nostrils. The sound of dripping and echos call out through his head. He sits up in the water-logged room. The room has nothing in it, aside from Aryus and a rusted metal door. Pulling himself up to his feet, Aryus goes over to the door and reaches for the handle.
The door opens to reveal a dark hall. The walls are the same as in the room, and the water covers the entire floor. The hall looks as if it goes on forever, until darkness swallows it. The walls seem completely empty aside from two other doors. Aryus steps forward and quietly shuts the door behind him. He checks himself over, to realize that he still has the pistol that the woman gave to him a while ago.
With the pistol in his hand, but no idea where he is, Aryus comes up to the first door, and opens it. Inside, he finds himself to be in front an elevator. there seems to also be a drainage hole, where all the water leads, away from the elevator. As he approaches the elevator, a strange laughing starts calling out in his head. A creepy, sinister giggling, that creates a strong sense of paranoia. Aryus looks around, finding nobody around to be laughing. He points his finger out to the button to call the elevator, and presses it. To his surprise, the light comes on, and the strange giggling ceases.
A loud creaking sound screeches from through the elevator doors, and a low grumbling signifies the elevator coming down. Aryus steps back a little bit from the elevator, and watches the display at the top, as the elevator comes closer. Finally the elevator stops. Dust crumbles from the ceiling, and a couple rocks drops into the water from the elevator. All sounds stop for a second, before the large elevator doors creak and pull open. The elevator opens to reveal blood painted all over inside of it, and several organs litter the walls and floor. Pins and needles hold some of the grotesque items to the walls. A heart, pinned right in the middle of the wall, appears to still be beating, pumping blood out onto the floor.
Frightened, Aryus runs back through the door into the hallway, and looks both ways. To his confusion, the door he had first come through has disappeared. The empty hallway has also changed, creating a very small, narrow, hall, with only two doors in it. Aryus looks back at the elevator, and just shakes his head, before entering the second door.
The chains stretch down toward the floor, painfully pulling at the ceiling. The air remains moist, but the air is filled with the vile stench of decay. Arms, legs, heads, bodies and several limbs are impaled by the chains, hanging out all over the large room. To either side, the room continues infinitely, with the chains giving it a disgusting decorative manner.
In the center, where the door is, the chains form a cleared path to a wall, only about twenty feet from the door. Sitting there, against the wall, in the inches of blood-filled water, is a man. He sits there, with his right knee up, and the other leg laid on the floor, in the dark liquid. One arm rests on top of the raised knee, and he leans slightly on the other one, on his thigh, with his hand submerged in the water. His large gloves, which look more like gauntlets, have stains of violet and crimson all over them. He wears large boots, with straps, wrapping themselves around his shins, and little more than a cloth is wrapped around his waist. His beared chest, appears very muscular, as well as his arms and legs. Two large pins protrude from the top of the man's lowered head. Dried blood has encrusted itself against his bald skull, leading from the two pins.
He remains sitting there, facing down. The door behind Aryus slowly, and quietly closes itself, locking the two men inside the room of atrocious scenery. A church bell rings out in the far distance. The bellman raises his head, facing Aryus, with his eyes closed. Aryus notices a series of strange things coming from the bellman's left eye. They look almost like blood floating in water, as they drift out from his face, swaying around eerily in the air.
The bellman's eyes open, revealing his lack for pupils once again. He gradually stands up, still staring at Aryus with a lack of an expression. Aryus just stands there, frozen, staring at the bellman. The two men stand there, just looking at eachother a moment. A heavy splash echos through the eternity of chains. The bellman steps forward again, coming closer to Aryus, to bring the space between them to a mere five feet. A loud crack fires out from the pistol as Aryus shoots the bellman, hitting him right in the forehead. The bellman's eyes shut themselves tightly, and his head held back a moment. The bellman's head brings itself back to a normal state, facing Aryus. The bellman drops down to his knees, about to fall to the floor. Aryus lowers the gun, and looks down at the bellman.
The pistol suddenly splashes in the water, as Aryus drops it. He clutches his stomach in a pained reflex. He takes on a surprised look and gasps. His mouth remains opened wide a moment as well as his eyes. Slowly, his mouth becomes closed, but his eyes remain widely opened. The bellman's eyes open. He removes his clutched fist from Aryus' stomach and reveals a knife, warm with blood. Aryus coughes, blood raising in the back of his throat. The bellman stnads back up onto his feet and wipes his head, which has yet to shed a single drop of blood. Aryus stands there, staring at his murderer, still clutching his bleeding stomach.
Quickly, the bellman grabs Aryus' shoulder, pulling him to the side and with his other hand, plunges one of the chains right through Aryus' opened stomach. Aryus grunts and coughes up more blood. The bellman grabs the end of the chain sticking out from Aryus' back, the broken ends of his spine sticking out from his body. The bellman pulls the chain through the priest's body and brings him to about half way through the whole chain. The chain is released, and the dead priest hangs there, amongst the several other bodies and limbs. A fresh corpse added to the collection...