WIP, subject to change and grammar check
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-Chapter 6-
-Jessica-
"So the Sister just went nuts?" Jessica asked. She and Jacob were sitting underneath the shade of a large oak tree that was situated some distance away from the main grounds of Hope House. Jessica was sitting on her legs looking at Jacob, who was lying down flat on his back, his legs crossed, his head propped up slightly against the tree. Classes were over for the day and Jacob spent the rest of the afternoon with Jessica.
"Yeah, she flipped out. I didn't even know what I had been drawing, honestly."
"That's really bizarre."
"Tell me about it."
Jessica turned her body and leaned her back against the oak tree. She extended her legs and placed her hands on her lap, the lightness of her skin contrasting with the dark skirt. She closed her eyes as pieces of sunlight that escaped through the covering canopy of leaves caressed her face gently. Her hair hung softly over her left shoulder. After awhile, she finally spoke.
"Tell me about your dreams, Jacob. Please?"
"I don't know. They're pretty bad."
Jessica sat up and faced Jacob, her eyes pleading. "Aw, c'mon. You told Alexander about it."
"That was because I thought I was going to get into trouble!" Jacob said with a laugh, sitting up. Jessica placed her fists on her hips, trying to create a scornful look.
"You'd be in trouble if you don't tell me!"
Jacob threw up his hands and laughed. "All right, all right! I'll tell you. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Jacob spent the next half hour explain his nightmares in detail. He told Jessica everything, about the monster with the pyramid shaped helmet chasing, about him seeing Will hung in a cage, the crowd of hooded figures that gathered at Rosewater. Jacob looked at Jessica when he finished speaking, looking into her wide eyes. She seemed shaken by what Jacob had told her. He reached his hand over to take hers.
"Are you okay?"
"Oh, Jacob. No one should have such terrible dreams."
"Yeah, I agree."
"Why are they happening to you?"
"I don't know."
Jessica fell over against Jacob's arm, resting there quietly. She held tightly onto his hand.
"So what about that symbol? What did Alexander have to say about it?"
"Apparantly that was the symbol for a dark god. There was a splinter group within the religion, known as the cult of Samael. When they wanted to get people to follow their cause, they...well they forced them into it." Jacob felt Jessica shiver against his arm. "He said we really don't have to worry about it, considering that it happened many years ago."
"What happened to the cult?"
"Alexander said they dispersed soon after they were excommunicated."
Jessica furrowed her brow in thought. "Why would you be dreaming such a thing?"
"I don't really know. I still get figure out why I saw Will. Alexander said I was using him to add a sense of reality to the dream. Said that my brain constructed the whole thing. Honestly, I don't really by that. His screaming, his fear. It seemed all too real to me."
"Do you think it has something to do with his...change?"
"I don't know. Apart from his eyes, he seemed relatively the same before."
The two students sat quietly for several moments, thinking about Will, Jacob's nightmares and what Alexander had told him about the seal. Interrupting their period of silent contemplation, a loud bell sounded from the school, indicating that all students were to return to the campus for the mid-afternoon prayer and dinner. Jacob got to his feet, reaching for Jessica's hands, gripping them gently as he lifted her up from the ground. She brushed her hands over her skirt, casting away the dead blades of grass from her black skirt. She smiled at him before turning towards the direction of the school. Jessica noticed that Jacob was not walking alongside her. She turned around and found Jacob leaning against the oak tree, his breathing heavy, his forehead damp with sweat.
"Jacob?" Jessica asked as she walked over to him.
Jacob's voice was filled with strain. "Do...do you hear it?"
"Hear what, Jacob? Are you okay?"
Jacob fell to his knees, grunting. "A siren. A loud...painfully loud siren. Jessica, help me."
Jessica ran over to Jacob, gripping his shoulders as if to attempt to shake him out of his state while Jacob reached up and took her hand. The moment their hands connected, Jessica's ears were flooded by the piercing wail of the air raid siren. She fell to her knees, crying in pain as her vision blurred. The two students writhed on the ground as the wailing grew louder and more intense. It was not long before the both of them passed out.
Jessica's eyes fluttered open. She found herself lying face down on the soft, dry grass near the oak tree. As she pushed her self up, she felt a sharp pain in head. As she clasped her hands near her temples, she fell onto her back, breathing hard as she tried to manage the pain that slowly began to fade away. When the pain subsided, she looked over her surroundings, trying to figure out where she was. Instead of the warm, sunny afternoon she had been resting in, she was placed into a world of darkness. The area wasn't enveloped in total darkness, as the light posts outside of the Hope House grounds dimly lit the area. Jessica found it strange that she had been outside the building at night and wondered why no one bothered to take her inside. As she slowly got to her feet, Jessica noticed a figure standing near the entrance of Hope House. Brushing the blades of dead grass from her skirt, she carefully walked towards the figure. As she got closer, the person turned and faced her. It was Jacob.
"Jacob!" Jessica shouted as she ran up to his side. "What's going on? What happened just now?"
Jacob didn't say a word, he just stared at the young girl.
"Jacob? Are you okay? What happened? I heard sirens...."
"What are you doing here, Jessica?"
"What are you talking about?" Jessica asked, looking directly at him. "I go to Hope House too, you know."
"This isn't the Hope House you know of, Jessica. This is a nightmare. Why are you here? How did you get here?"
"What do you mean your nightmare...?"
"Don't you have eyes? Look around! We are surrounded by darkness. The only light is from these street lamps. Haven't you even looked at Hope House?"
Jessica turned her gaze away from Jacob and looked towards the building. Her mouth hung open a little as she looked at the dilapidated building in front of her. All of the windows showed some damage, some were boarded up with wooden planks, while others looked as if the glass had been blown out from the inside. Shards of glass littered areas below certain windows and the walls appeared to be really dirty and covered with a dark muck. The cobblestone path that led towards the building entrance was misshapen from the huge weeds that sprung from underneath the stones. Jessica took Jacob's arm, moving close to him.
"Jacob...why am I here?"
"I don't know, Jessica. I can't figure it out."
"I remember seeing you struggle before, you look like were sick. You asked about me hearing sirens. I tried to grab your shoulders but you took my hand. That's when I started to hear the sirens too—oh, Jacob. It was terrible, my skull...."
"...Felt like it was going to explode, right? That is what it was like my first time. I still don't understand how you got here. Maybe the contact we made had something to do with it."
"But Jacob," Jessica whispered. "How do we get out of here...?"
"I don't know...well, that's not true. I have an idea, but you really don't want to know."
"What Jacob? What—"
"Let's go inside. Maybe we can find something in there."
"Jacob," Jessica whispered. "I don't want to go in there...."
"You'd rather stay out here?"
Before Jessica could respond, Jacob started to move towards the large double oak doors that led to the Hope House lobby. Jessica clung tightly to Jacob's arm as he moved, determined to stay close to him in this mysterious place.
The lobby was nothing like they had seen before. Instead of the pristine, sterile white of the walls and linoleum floor, the entire area was covered in a dark muck. Both Jacob and Jessica slipped a couple times, their feet making contact with the slick substance. The area was dimly lit by desk lamps and the flickering florescent ceiling lights. With the exception of the hum coming from the ceiling lights and the soft thumping of shoes against the hard floor, the room was dead quiet. Jacob walked over towards a small counter near the entrance, using it to steady himself on the slippery floor. As soon as his hands came in contact with the counter, his hands felt damp. Lifting both palms in front of his face, he found that they were covered in blood. Breathing hard, he turned to Jessica and motioned her away from the desk. Wiping his bloody hands on his dark pants, he reluctantly peered over the other side of the counter.
Sitting in the swivel chair was a figure, it's head lying lifeless face down on the desk. Jacob couldn't discern any facial features the head had been sitting in a large pool of dark red fluid. From what he could see in the light, the head was still attached to the body but had no hair. Instead of normal looking skin, it appeared to be some sort of shiny substance, like some sort of skin-like plastic. Dotting the head were more dark blotches, darker than those found on the walls. As Jacob slowly moved his hand toward the side of the head to move it for a better look, he felt a tugging at his sleeve. Turning around, he looked at a white faced Jessica, her mouth and eyes open wide.
"Jessica? What is it?"
The girl pointed to the far side of the room. Jacob followed her gaze to the farthest wall of the lobby. He felt his stomach churn slightly, an odd feeling in his throat. As he suppressed a gag, he gazed at the wall. Strung up by thin wire was another figure with the same type of skin as the one behind the front counter. However, the figure was hung by his arms, its stomach appeared to have been eviscerated. Jacob heard Jessica gagging at the sight before them, Jacob tried with great difficulty to supress the bile rising his throat. He wheeled on Jessica.
"Don't look at it." He grabbed her close against him, tightening his grip as Jessica buried her face into the soft fabric of his shirt. Jacob looked around and couldn't understand why he didn't see these strange bodies when they walked in. The wall was empty when they came in. He felt Jessica's body tremble against.
"Jacob," she spoke, fear in her voice. "Did you see what those...those things are wearing? They're...."
"School uniforms." Jacob had noticed the telltale colors of the Hope House uniforms, noting that they were both in the style for boys. The clothes were tattered a bit, but the style was discernable.
"What is going on here?" Jessica asked, sounding as if she was crying. "What is happening? Why me? Why us?"
Before Jacob could answer, he heard a low, moaning noise. Both Jacob and Jessica turned toward the source of the sound, gazing at the reception desk. Both of them froze as they saw the featureless head slowly rise from the inner desk. Jacob couldn't see any eyes, but the chill running down his spine told him that the creature was staring right at him. The creature slowly rose from the chair, it's movements jerky and clearly not human. The upper part of the body seemed to slither about in all directions. Normally Jacob would expect a person's spine to break if they tried that, but the creature continued to move and slither unnaturally. Jessica's eyes conveyed the feeling of pure terror. Her mind couldn't accept what her eyes presented her with. What was this horrible creature wearing a school uniform doing at this bizarre place. Why had she been brought here? Jessica's mind reeled at her situation. She looked at Jacob who had been speaking to her, his words taking a long time to register with her. "—got to move! We've got to get away!" Jessica jumped as she heard the loud sound of a door slamming shut. Jacob ran over towards the doors that led outside and pulled on the handle as hard as he could. When the door failed to pull open, Jacob frantically slammed his shoulder repeatedly against the wood, but the doors would not open.
Jacob rubbed the pain in his arm and looked back at the creature from behind the desk. It slowly began to make its way toward them. Jessica saw another door at the opposite side of the room next to the hanging body and motioned Jacob to follow her. Before they reached the door, they heard another moaning sound, this time it came from the hanging figure. Jessica screamed as the creature writhed violently in its place, as if it were struggling to break free. With a sickening tearing sound, Jacob saw a black fluid pour out from the creature's wrists as the wire cut through the blotchy skin. With it's arms free, the creature fell flat on the floor and continued to writhe. Jacob scanned the area about him and found a broke broom handle in one of the corners of the room. Grasping the handle tightly, he placed his body in front of Jessica and prepared to defend her from the creature. Jacob watched as the monster slowly began to rise on it's knees. When te monster faced him, Jacob trembled as the creature emitted a low sounding roar. It was this terrible noise that caused Jacob to wail the creature violently with the broken boom handle. Jacob had to keep his grip on the broom handle, as he beat the creature with such savage ness that he felt the handle begin to slip from his hand. Jacob continued to bash the handle against the monster, hearing the sickening sounds of bones breaking as he struck the creature repeatedly over the head. With a loud snap, the brrom handle snapped under the brutal attacks. The monster had fallen back on the floor from the initial blow to the head. With each swing of the handle, the creature shook violently.
It wasn't until the broom handle broke that the creature was still once again. Jacob turned to Jessica who had fled away from him, terrified by his actions. She knew that he had simply been defending her, but she couldn't stand the savagery. Jessica saw Jacob run towards her and gripped her arm. With a sudden force, he pulled her up to her feet. Jacob's face was so close to hers, his eyes lit by a violent fire from within. "Let's go! There's still one here!" Jacob was still carrying the broken broom handle, his hand covered in the dark fluid that splattered from each blow. Jessica allowed Jacob to take her away from the corner, running with him to the opposite door. She looked behind her and saw that the other creature continued to slither and jerk his upper torso around. It didn't appear to pursue them, it was as if it was stuck behind the desk...or did it see what Jacob had done? Was that why he still held the broom handle? When they reached the door, Jacob threw it wide open, throwing the young girl through the dark opening. Jacob turned to face the creature standing a distance away, his blotchy hand pointing the broken stick at the monster as if to threaten it if it came forward. When he was through the doorway, Jacob threw the stick on the ground and slammed the door behind him. Jessica screamed as she heard a loud screeching sound and the rushing of footsteps. Jacob threw his body against the door and grunted as the creature slammed itself against the door, obviously trying to force its way through. After several minutes of pounding, screeching and grunting, everything stopped suddenly, as if a light had been switched off. To be safe, Jacob held himself still against the door a few minutes after everything stopped.
When he was satisfied, he slowly pulled himself away and began to breathe very hard. Jessica came up to him and placed her hand on the boy's shoulders. He looked into her eyes. "Jessica, we have to find a way home. We've got to get out of here, somehow." Jacob straightened himself and looked around for another object to use as a weapon. He found a bent bed frame leaning against the wall to his right. Gripping one of the metal bars from the frame, he pulled it from the base as hard as he could, freeing the thin piece of metal. Gripping the bar tightly, he turned to face the long hallway, again dimly lit by light. He motioned Jessica behind him as they slowly made their way deeper into Hope House.