Chapter 5
Pride. Envy. Wrath. Sloth. Greed. Gluttony. Lust. These are the seven deadly sins. These are the sins for which there is no redemption. These are the sins that bring God to wrath. These are the sins for which you must be punished.
The touch of cold steel to his cheek jarred Aaron from unconsciousness. He shook his head to clear his vision, but winced as a small pain shot through it.
Shit, he thought, rubbing his head, what the hell happened?
He cautiously stood up, reaching a hand out to the wall to steady himself. A warm, pulsating sensation met his touch. He wrenched his hand back as his eyes finally focused. He glanced down at his hand, which was covered in blood, then looked up at the wall, where he found the source. The walls were bleeding. In fact the walls were living. It looked as if someone had decided to use skin instead of wallpaper. Aaron doubled over and vomited—and watched as his vomit fell into an abyss. He shut his eyes, unsure of which horror was less to endure. He stood up straight and slowly opened his eyes. He looked around at the pulsating walls trying to decide where he was. Aside from the abyss and the bleeding walls, he realized that he was still in Sam's refuge. He was still in the room. But Sam and Emily were not. In fact, they didn't seem to be anywhere at all.
Aaron stepped out into the hall in search of them, and was greeted with the same grotesque sight as he saw in the room. But he still didn't see the two girls. Something else did catch his eye though. The exit sign at the end of the hallway glowed brightly over an actual door. He approached incredulously, afraid that his eyes were once again playing tricks on him. But as his hand reached out it grasped a doorknob. He turned the knob almost triumphantly, pushed the door, and peered at what it opened into. He found himself staring back into the hallway—or at least it seemed to him. He was looking at an exact replica of the hall he was just in. Confusion set on his face, as he looked back into the same hallway. He slowly took in both paths, as if contemplating which way to go.
"Well, better to move forward than go back to the past," He sighed, and reached forward as he stepped through the door. He whipped his hand back as it brushed against the wall. The feel of it made him wretch, but he closed his eyes to center himself. They flew open as he felt the floor rumble. He turned towards the source and saw the hallway behind him falling apart. As it got closer, the hallway seemed to fall apart faster. Aaron brought his foot through the door and started to jog, keeping his eyes behind him. The hallway started falling apart faster, as if chasing him. He ran, the crumbling chasing him. As he turned again to look behind him, he tripped and fell hard on his back. He struggled to get back up, staring in horror as the hallway gave way inches in front of him. He closed his eyes, waiting—waiting for the sensation of falling forever.
His eyes flew open as he began to fell a very different sensation—a very sharp sensation. Of being pulled up. In front of him laid the hallway, perfectly fine—except for the fact that he was closed off from it by thick metal bars.
"W-what…" Aaron said incredulously, his face filled with confusion. But the quizzical look on his face left as he remembered how he had been 'saved'. He quickly whipped around, came face to face with a tall, slender blonde-haired guy, who looked about the same age as Aaron.
"Who the hell are you?" Aaron said sharply. He had been expecting one of the girls and the fact that it wasn't made him a bit irritated.
"Oh. You're awake. I thought you were either dead or asleep." They stood staring at each other for a while—an uncomfortably long while.
"Who the hell are you?" Aaron repeated, the intensity of his voice rising. The blonde guy just stared back his face scrunched in disbelief.
"Well, I would've gone with a 'thank you' or something along that lines but I'll just pretend that it was understood," the guy said sarcastically. He placed his hand out in a gesture of mock geniality. "David just happens to be who the hell I am. David Shaw." Aaron reached out his hand, a small feeling of fear in his gut, grabbed David's and they shook hands.
"My name's Aaron. Aaron Mort." He looked away nervously, dropping David's hand, as his eyes caught David's for a second. "Sorry if I was rude. I was just hoping that…that you were someone else."
David starred at Aaron for a second, a slight look of disbelief on his face, as if about to say something. But then he just shook his head and looked towards the other end of the hallway.
"We better get moving. Those…things…will come back." Aaron's attention instantly snapped towards David as the last words left David's mouth. Though he hadn't really expected it, he was hoping that he wouldn't have to deal with any of those monsters anymore. David turned and started walking down the hall. Aaron took one quick, long stride then fell in step behind David.
The two of them remained silent for a while. David seemed a bit unwilling to talk and Aaron never knew what to say. He just stared at the back of David's head. But the silence eventually began to get to him. He finally gave in and said the first thing that came to his head.
"Why are you here?" David jumped a bit at the sound of Aaron's voice. He stopped and turned around to face Aaron. He opened his mouth to respond, stopped for a second, then shrugged.
"I don't know…I think I remember something…" David trailed off, his eyes falling to the ground. Aaron stared at David's vacant face, dipping his head a bit to try to grab David's attention. David's eyes shot up to meet his, a slightly dumb look on his face.
"Maybe not. I guess I just don't know." David shrugged again, then turned and walked off towards the end of the hallway. Aaron stared after him incredulously, then shook his head, jogged up to David's side and fell in step with him once again.
Aaron slowly brought his eyes up to look at David. He couldn't figure out why but something about David was nagging at him—bothering him. But it was strange to him because David seemed like an incredibly likeable guy.
David's eyes twitched as if he were about to turn his gaze, and Aaron suddenly became conscious of the fact that he was staring. He quickly brought his eyes forward—and saw that they had reached the end of the hallway.
As Aaron stared up at the glowing red exit sign, a sensation of déjà vu came over him—and as he brought his eyes down to the wall in front of them he knew exactly why.
"It's not real. There's no door here." David mumbled. Aaron shook his head as his hand ran over the same false doorknob he had seen earlier.
"Why would someone draw a picture of a door on a wall and not put an actual door here?" Aaron speculated out loud.
"To hide something…but something that needs to be found." Aaron turned to stare at David, surprised by the foreboding tone of his voice.
A small movement behind them caught his attention. Aaron turned around and stared with fear as a monstrosity emerged from the darkness. Mostly it looked like a woman—a woman whose entire left side had been viciously removed. Its right arm hung loosely at its side, and it walked with an unnervingly quick shuffle. The most disturbing thing, however, was its head. Seemingly hanging by just a bit of sinew, it swung violently in every direction. But what frightened Aaron was that the face was incredibly human. Unlike the monsters he had faced before, this one had eyes, a nose, a mouth—a visage that Aaron could not look away from
Aaron instinctively grasped his wooden weapon—only to realize that he no longer had it in his hands. Frantically, he looked around for something to protect himself, but was only faced with the same disturbing sight he had seen when he first awoke in this world. He began looking for an escape path, and noticed that one of the doors that led to a room was slightly ajar. He looked up at David, who was still puzzling over the door, and made his plan of action. He grabbed David by the back of the shirt, and strode quickly past the monster to the door. As he threw the door all the way open, he took a glance over his shoulder—and almost screamed. The monster was opening its mouth unnaturally wide, revealing rows of sharp, jagged teeth, and preparing to lunge. Aaron brought his right arm forward, throwing David into the room, reached around to grab the inside doorknob, and turned, pulling himself into the room.
He began shutting the door, and breathing his sigh of relief, when the monster lunged and sunk its teeth into his arm.