Chapter 8: Residence

Adrian turned around and clutched his steel pipe tight, only to notice that the voice behind him had no body to go with it, at least from what Adrian could see, which was admittedly not much. The voice was low and faint- the voice of a young man most likely. He tried to track down where it was coming from, and ended up successful when he noticed the door not too far away from him. The voice spoke again, which gave Adrian a clearer sign of the voice's location. "Hey, is someone there?"

Adrian stood up and walked over to the door, steel pipe in hand. "Yeah, who is that?" The man behind the door did not respond quickly. "Who's in there?" Again, no reply. "Are you alright?"

"I'll live for now," the man finally answered, "I'm stuck back here."

Adrian looked at the doorknob and tried to turn it- it refused to budge. "It won't work," the man said at the sound of the rattling doorknob, "I'd need the key to this door, but I don't have it with me."

Adrian nodded and looked at his steel pipe. "Anyway I can break through this door?"

"No," the man answered with a stressed out tone. "This is the storage room, so the inside is reinforced with steel."

Adrian glanced back at his pipe and shook his head. "Shit..." He hoped that where was some other way- as long as he wasn't asked to go get the key for the man, he'd be happy with getting the poor guy out of there. He simply didn't feel like chasing after a key at this point.

"If you could get the key from my house, I'd be very grateful." Adrian winced at the sound of the sentence.

'FUCK! No! Ugh, why me?!'

"Erm... depends on how far away your house is, sir." Adrian tried to reply as nice as he possibly could, but with monsters with wings and giant knives running around, Adrian wasn't very happy with heading back outside. Not in the least. He'd have been much happier being locked in that storage room- and he couldn't understand why anyone would want to leave it. "And don't you think you'd be safer in there anyway?"

The man stayed quiet for a moment before he gave his reply. "I would, but there's something out there in the store I need to get, it's important."

Adrian sighed. "What could be so important to risk going outside with all the monsters around?"

Adrian just realized how dumb he sounded. "...Monsters?" The man sounded a bit confused at that point.

"Yes," Ade replied slowly, "what would be worth coming out of there to go get?"

"You wouldn't understand."

Adrian's jaw dropped before he started to chuckle softly. "Apparently I wouldn't understand anything that goes on around here." He stood there quietly outside the door and thought to himself. He was trying desperately to come up with another idea to help the man out, but couldn't come up with anything. As a result, he sighed once again and his arms wavered. "How far away? I'll go get the key."

"Thanks, it's only about three blocks down the road Be sure to make a left on Levin street. It's a light blue house with a doghouse in the front yard." Adrian pulled out his map and looked at it- Bachman road was a bit more than just about three blocks. Quite the bit more- it was halfway across the map.

"You said Levin street, right?" Adrian asked, confused.

"Yes, that's right."

Adrian glared at the door before he looked at the pants pocket he was shoving the map back into.

'This stinks. This whole thing fucking stinks.'

"Please, just go and get it for me, it would mean a whole lot." Adrian gave it a moment of serious thought. He was very well against going out of his way. And yet, if he was in the man's position, he probably would feel like garbage if he was locked in somewhere as well.

"Fine," Adrian muttered, "fine, I'll go and get it."

"Thank you so much," the man said graciously, "I don't know how I'll be able to thank you. It should be right on the dresser in my bedroom."

Adrian shrugged and turned to leave, yelling back as he headed for the front door. "Don't mention it." Then, Adrian stopped and turned around, glancing back at the door. "Hey, just for the record, what's your name?" He didn't get an answer.

'Fucking imbecile...'

He turned and left the store.

Ade remained cautious as he stepped outside and looked both ways down the street. He still wasn't too thrilled about going outside at all with that monster that had been chasing him still out there lurking about, but if he ran into it he was at least confident enough he could outrun it. That didn't neccessarily mean he wanted to be put in that situation, however. He just wanted to find his brother, and now he found himself on a goose chase to help other people out. He didn't like it. However, it also meant he was going to move all the faster to get the key for the man as it would mean he'd be after his brother and out of that town all the sooner. And that was the only thing that mattered.

Ade pulled out his map once more and took a look at where he was. If he kept to a jog at least, he'd probably make it to the man's house in ten minutes- maybe even less. But with the possibility of more monsters being nearby, he didn't want to take his chances by blindly running into anything. The radio would help note if something was around, but not in what direction. The flashlight also cut through some of the darkness, but it wasn't nearly enough to see much farther than about ten paces in front of him.

Adrian bit his bottom lip and tried as hard as he could not to yell. The situation he was in was eating away at his mind, and making him crazier and angrier than he was before. All he wanted was his brother back- even when he didn't know why he was wanted in such a place anyway. But whatever reason it was, it most likely wasn't enough to condemn him to such a town, if that's what you could even call it.

The first name for it that hit Adrian was a haunted house. One of those big haunted houses in those amusement parks and local fairs that towns had every now and then. They never ceased to freak Adrian out, even though he knew that the stories behind those haunted houses were never true. But this wasn't a harmless haunted house in an amusement park he could just leave anytime he wanted. Things out there were actually trying to kill him, and if his brother was still alive which he prayed he was, he surely wasn't going to be seen with a smile on his face.

Ade was only a couple blocks away from the house now as he kept glancing between the road ahead of him and the map in his left hand. His jogging made it tough to read the map exactly, but he wasn't about to stop just to make sure he was headed the right way. As long as he could make out where he was and where he was headed, it was more than enough for him. And then for some reason, he stopped. He could have sworn he heard something. He shined his flashlight around him in a circle, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. He continued running, but stopped only a few paces later- he heard it again. It was almost like a mixture of metal scraping against metal, and the sound of a dying animal. Adrian wasn't about to look around to see what it was, though, and he quickly went right back to running. If there really was a noise from something nearby, chances were likely that he wouldn't want to see what it was anyway.

He turned onto Levin street just as he was told to, and he spotted the doghouse on his left, not too far down the street. He walked up the front steps and tried turning the doorknob on the front door- locked.

"Ya know, if I can't get into this fucking house..." Adrian placed his steel pipe against the railing to the right of him and slammed his shoulder against the door once, hoping it would jar open. It didn't work. He tried a second time, and got the same result. He shook his head and ran down the steps and headed all the way back into the street. He then rubbed his hands together, got in a three point stance, and charged the door with all the speed he had in him, hopped up all five front steps in one leap and slammed against the door a third time. It made a very loud noise, that was for sure, but the door still refused to budge.

"FUCK!" Adrian clutched his left shoulder and howled out in pain. "Open sesame, for fuck's sake!" He kicked at the door with his right foot relentlessly, more so out of anger than to get the door open, but quickly stopped himself. The radio in his shirt pocket crackled to life. And a low growl sounded not too far behind that.

He turned his head and felt himself back up into the front door when he noticed something creep out from the doghouse. Big floppy ears, drool dripping out onto the grass, a heavy breathing noise and dropped jaw to reveal two perfect rows of jaws- the perfect resemblance of a dog.. but that was where the resemblance ended.

The rest of its body crawled out into view, and revealed a mass of pink flesh rather than fur. It stood up on its four legs and revealed the frame of a dog, but the lack of fur and the gleam in its eyes made it something much more than that. And in an explicable movement, the foul beast stood up on its hind legs and on its hind legs alone, it began to slowly walk towards the front steps.

Adrian turned around, and with reckless abandon he slammed into the front door over and over again. He grabbed his steel pipe and slammed it into the door repeatedly, causing splinters of wood to fly about in every direction. Adrian looked like a lumberjack trying to chop down a tree as he ruthlessly slammed the pipe again and again into the door, until he began to form a small dent which soon became a small hole. He glanced behind him and watched the dog climb one of the steps, and then another. Adrian quickly stuck his arm into the hole which as good as it was, was not big enough to fit his arm, forcing his arm to scrape agonizingly against shards of wood. He broke the skin in numerous places.

"Dammit! Dammit, godfuckingdammit!" He reached around for the lock, but his hand could not find it. The dog let out a growl as the radio whined and screamed white noise.

'Jesus, I'm gonna fucking diiie-'

He then turned his head and grabbed his steel pipe once more with his free hand, and swung as hard as he could with the slack his snared arm would give him, which was just enough to smack the demon dog square in the face. He swung it back the other way, and it hit the dog once more in the torso. And then he pushed the dog backwards with a jab to its neck, and it could do nothing but sprawl backwards across the paved path to the front steps. Adrian shook his head and snapped his eyes shut from the pain his left arm was in from the wood that was cutting into it. His hand continued to feel about for the lock as the dog slowly got up onto all fours and snarled with a sense of annoyance before it then started to run in a wide circle, which ended in it racing for Adrian at the steps- at the exact the same time as Adrian's hand finally gripped the steel bolt keeping him from getting inside the house.

'Come on, you bitch, move...'

Ade pushed it one way, but it did not move. He pushed it the other way, and it slid effortlessly off to the side. Adrian then grabbed the doorknob from inside the house and turned it, just as he felt the wind get knocked out of his body, and his arm being shoved into the hole so it was now up to his shoulder, all thanks to the dog that slammed into his side.

"Oww, shit!" The door eventually opened and Adrian swung inside, his arm dangling him from the door as he turned and was soon faced with a new problem- pulling out his arm so he could close the door. The dog had turned around to make another charge, giving Adrian the chance to take his time and slowly pull out his arm as painlessly as possible. It barked and howled at him before it made a beeline for the front steps, just as Adrian slid his now bloody left arm out of the door, grabbed the steel pipe outside, and pulled it in before slamming the door in the dog's face.

Adrian was safe for that moment but the dog refused to give in so quickly- it stuck its nose in the hole Adrian had made and it sniffed at him- almost as if it could point out the distinct smell the blood on his arm. Adrian winced and put the pipe down next to him, allowing himself to hold his bleeding arm- it was cut in several spots, none too deep to cause too much bleeding; more like slightly deep scratches than anything else. They were still hurting like a bitch, though.

The dog continued slamming its huge frame against the door in an attempt to knock the door down, but it was no use. However, in the event that it managed to be successful, Adrian grabbed his steel pipe and stood up, backing away from the door and heading into the kitchen where he tried to turn on the sink, but to no avail. "Stupid piece of junk."

He reached up and settled for the paper towels that hung above the sink. he carefully and gently wiped the blood off his arm and got a good look at the cuts along his arm, which still didn't look as bad as he had thought. He shrugged and grabbed his weapon before he headed back to the living room and slowly walked upstairs.

'Lemme just get this key and get the hell out of here..'

He made his way up and into the bedroom right next to him- the door was open, so he just walked on in and looked around. It looked like it could have been his bedroom, so he went looked around on the dresser like he was told, but to his surprise, he found no key.

"You gotta be kidding." He looked in the drawers as well, but it was no joke- the key wasn't there. Adrian checked the dressers in the other rooms. None of them had shown a sign of a key. "You gotta be shitting me!" He stormed downstairs and back to the front door and noticed that the dog was gone. He opened the door and looked around, and there he noticed the dog's head poked out of its doghouse. Adrian would have been thrilled to head right back to the store and break the storage room door down just so he could pound that man's head in, but not this time. He walked down the front stairs and approached the dog. It crawled about halfway out of its haven before Adrian had put a stop to that by slamming the steel pipe against the dog's head. It fell forward along the grass and growled out in pain, before Adrian angrily slammed the pipe into its skull once more, and with the sickening sound of bones breaking, the radio had quieted to a slight spark, before the noise turned into nothingness.

"Hey, did you get the key?" The man sounded thrilled to hear Adrian return, but Adrian wasn't close to sharing the same feelings for the person that sent him on the errand.

"What the fuck is your problem man?" Adrian yelled. "There wasn't a freakin' key anywhere in that house, and I almost got killed looking for it, you douche bag. So be happy, I don't have the key so I won't be able to open that door and bash your head in!"

"Bu... but..."

"Bash it, the fuck, in!"

The man didn't sound angry at Adrian's threats- instead sounding very saddened by them in fact. "It was there.. it had to be. Unless..."

Adrian's eyes narrowed as he stared at the door suspiciously. "Unless what?" Adrian asked.

"Unless... yes, she took it. She had to have."

Adrian sighed and leaned against the door- he was exhausted and definitely did not want to hear the man's story. "What are you talking about man?" The man ignored his question.

"There's a church on Bloch street. She should be there, and she probably has the key with her. It's a bronze key with the letters SR on it. Please, please just get it for me. I don't know how I can pay you back for this, but I'll try to. Please..." The man was pretty much begging Adrian to go and get it for him. But before Adrian said anything, he was going to check the map and see how far it was. He looked at Bloch street on his map, and tilted his head when he spotted it. The church he was talking about was the same church Raven marked down on the map for him to go. And he had a feeling it wasn't a simple coincidence.

He dared not tell the man this however, just gave a solemn reply, "I'll see what I can do." And with that, he didn't wait for the man to answer, he simply left the store and headed towards his destination. And if he found no key, he could care less. He just wanted to be on his way home, and he silently swore to himself he was taking his brother with him.