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It's just another day
the shame is gone
hard to believe
that I've let it go

Destiny can't replace my life
Scary shadows of my past
are alive

Destiny who cares
as it turns around
and I know that it descends
with a smile

-"Swamped" By: Lacuna Coil

How long is the night?

Chapter 9

Hospital of Horrors Part II

Leon turned around and saw nothing.

The noises grew louder and louder as they seemed to surround him and Ashley. They went from abnormal breathing to a clicking noise that someone could make in their throat.

"Where's it coming from? Ashley asked.

"Don't know."

The noises were so close that Leon was sure that it could be overhead. He looked up and saw nothing so he turned around and decided they would have to go down the unchecked hallway. It was their only chance against whatever was making the horrid noises.

Just as they took their first steps into the unknown, blood died hallway Leon heard a faint cracking noise. He didn't wait until it grew.

Ashley was pulled forward as Leon's grip enclosed around her wrist.

"Hey!"

"Hurry up and run god dammit!"

The walls cracked open and turned to dust as pieces of it fell to the ground.

Leon and Ashley dashed down the hallway, narrowly dodging flying doors that were flung violently off the walls towards them.

Chairs and stretchers shot like daggers into their direction.

"Get down!" Leon yelled.

The objects flung overhead and crashed against the wall up ahead.

Leon and Ashley quickly got back up and continued to run. The end of the hallway was coming up fast, but it was ripped away from his view when he was almost thrown to the ground.

Ashley had tripped over a bloody corpse and had fallen face first into the hard cement floor. She tried to pull herself up but something was weighing down on her legs.

One of the corpses had come to life and was slowly trying to make its way towards her head. She screamed and brought her free hand up that held the gun and placed it on the zombie's rotting head. She fired a shot into it.

Blood got all over her body, but before she had any time to react Leon had pulled her up and began running once more.

The thing that was following them had slowed down. The noises subsided too.

Leon and Ashley finally reached the end of the hallway. They were now faced with a decision of choosing two different sets of doors.

Leon chose the ones that had a red doorframe and went through them with Ashley close behind. They looked around and figured that they were in some kind of large cafeteria.

Silence engulfed them with unwelcome arms. Leon and Ashley looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary. They walked over to the kitchen at the back of the room and found nothing.

Now they were standing in the middle of the abandoned room. Leon and Ashley both had their guns out, ready to shoot anything.

Click, click, click, click.

Leon pointed his gun towards the door and waited for something to burst through them.

Click, click, click, click.

They both whirled around at the same time, but once again nothing was there.

Click, click, click, click.

The lights flickered and swayed as some unseen daft went by.

Click, click, click, click.

This time it came from the ceiling.

Silence.

Leon and Ashley pointed their guns to the ceiling, completely sure that this was where the creature was hiding.

Click.

They spun around.

Massive red eyes bore into them. Black blood seeped out of its arms and legs like an acidic liquid. On each hand ten fingers sprouted out instead of five. Its head was cocked to one side and seemed to be studying its prey.

Ashley began to tremble as it extended one of its grotesque arms and attempted to see if she was edible. She shut her eyes and prepared herself for an ugly death that would happen once it shoved her down its throat.

Smelling her obvious fear, it began to slowly inch its way closer.

Leon watched as the human shaped monster shuffled its way towards Ashley. He brought out his Broken Butterfly and fired one powerful blow to its head.

It looked at Leon with half of its face blown off. Then it began to make its way towards Leon.

Ten more rounds were fired at it, but it still continued to walk forward. Leon knew it wasn't a regenerator because a parasite would've popped out by now; after all he had shot off both its arms and head.

It became uninterested in Leon when Ashley fired at its legs, trying to blow them out. It slowly shuffled towards her again.

"Leave her alone!" Leon shouted

Suddenly it turned and grew another head, this one a parasite with huge red eyes that glared at him. It lifted an arm.

Leon felt a blast of energy hit him at full force in the stomach. He was thrown completely across the room. He felt his head spin as his body ricocheted off the wall and onto the ground.

The inhumane creature then focused on Ashley.

She fired her gun at the parasite head and felt her legs give out when something unseen to her eyes hit her in the knees. She looked up and only saw red eyes glaring at her.

Ashley's gun was thrown from her grasp and she was unable to reach it. She dug in her pocket for something, anything to use against the ugly thing.

Her hand came upon something round-like. She withdrew her hand and in it laid a flash grenade.

It was dim in the whole entire building so she guessed that the thing hadn't seen daylight, or bright light for a long time.

"Here goes nothing."

She tore the top off and hurled it at the creature. It screeched loudly and staggered backwards in pain from the deadly blinding light.

Ashley took this as her advantage and ran over to where Leon had been tossed like a sack of potatoes. She stopped once she realized that he wasn't there.

Something wet and dark fell onto her shoulder.

Turning around very slowly her eyes fell upon the creature that was now standing directly behind her. She wanted to scream so badly, but couldn't. Nothing was responding to her.

"Ashley get down!"

She ducked just in time as a bullet went into the creature and burst through its other side. It turned around and saw Leon, who was still in very much pain, aiming a gun at his head and ready to shoot.

Leon saw his eyes narrow and jumped to the side as an invisible blast of energy went by. He fired at the parasite, but it jumped onto the ceiling and was crawling towards him at a very fast pace.

Leon smirked and placed something unknown to the creature on the floor. It jumped down in front of Leon and exploded.

"What happened?" Ashley asked.

"Blew it up with one grenade. Picked one up at the shop. Guess it must have been really infected because it was nothing but a single parasite that had taken up an entire body."

"So what was up with the invisible attacks?"

"That has to be a fully evolved parasite, I'm guessing."

"I don't want to come across anymore of those."

"Heh."

Pounding at the doors caused them to turn around. They both realized that they were still stuck in a creepy old hospital and had to get out.

"What are we going to do about those other guys?"

Leon walked over to a vent that had a cold draft coming from it. He had spotted the thing when he had first gotten up from the creature's attack and had figured that it lead to the outside world.

"Lets go into the vent."

Leon boosted Ashley up on his shoulders and she took the metal covering off. Then she crawled into the tiny space and waited until Leon got up.

They came out into a stairwell. It wasn't outside but it was better than being cooped up in a dim hospital with zombies lurking around every corner.

Leon checked to make sure that it was safe. They walked up the stairs that came to a door. He opened it quietly with his hand and pushed it open as fast as he could once he saw the outside.

The air was gladly welcomed to their desperate lungs that had been polluted with the stench of rotting bodies. The darkening sky was a sight for sore eyes, even though it held just about the same amount of light as the hospital.

"Ready to go?"

"Sure am."

They slowly made their way to the bottom and went directly to the motorcycle. Leon started up the engine and Ashley hopped on.

The stars began to shine as the sun finally went down for the night.

Reviewer responses:

-Sorry but there are no reviewer responses for this chapter. I have to get off and I have no time for any.

Big thanks to:

Luna-Starr, Cyram, Jediferret, Dualzero, and Blaze the Bad!