Hellspawn

It was a bright, sunny day for the small town of Silverpool, England. It was quite warm out, too, for the time of year that it was. It was on September 8th that the Silverpool Police department got the call, from one Fiona Belli. In a remote area miles outside of town, Old Castle Belli was... haunted, for lack of a better word. She told them stories of clones and monsters and alchemy, how all of the residents were now dead, and how her parents had crashed while on their way there. This was the most exciting call they'd gotten in a long time, as far-fetched as her claim was. None of the officers actually believed it, of course, but it certainly gave them something to talk about on an otherwise slow day at the office.

The officer who'd taken the call, James Marshall, was sitting at his desk, telling the others about how television and today's culture were warping the minds of the youth.

"It was probably some girl whose friends dared her to go check out the castle, and she heard a noise or saw someone. She probably just made up everything else. Or maybe it's just some punk playin' a trick on us."

"I've seen one of the guys who live there," piped in another officer, Officer Daniels, from the other side of the room. "Name's... uh... Riccardo or somethin'. He comes around every once in a while to get supplies and things. Didn't seem like a bad chap to me. Just... never talked to him... and I never saw his face."

"Well... we've still gotta inform the sheriff and send someone to check it out," said Marshall, leaning back in his chair. "Standard procedure. Listen... is Agent Weston in today? He makes for a good errand boy."

"Yeah, I saw him earlier," said Daniels, "He should be at his desk. He didn't look too busy."

Marshall got up and walked out toward Weston's office, thinking "Wonder what he's gonna think?"

She opened her eyes. Green, all around her. Some sort of liquid... which meant she was drowning. But she was breathing. She could feel the liquid entering her lungs, and leaving, just like air. She couldn't move. Her limbs weren't responding. She looked around in a disoriented malaise at her strange surroundings. A green light, a brighter green than everything around her, shone straight above her. Now that she'd had time to calm down, she had started feeling things touching her back. She was finally able to move her fingers a little... she felt them brush against glass. Was this some sort of holding tank? With some difficulty, she managed to raise her hand and put it flat on the glass. When she looked hard, she could tell that there was some sort of room out there. But still, she couldn't move her body. She slowly moved her hand around to her back... but quickly jerked it back when she felt it.

There was a tube sticking into her back! She touched it again. There was more than one, she realized as her hand brushed against a second, then a third. She started to panic. What the hell was going on? She didn't know where she was, or even who she was. Now that her feeling was coming back, she felt one more growing sensation: pain. Dull at first, but growing worse. Every part of her body ached, and a stabbing pain gradually increased where the tubes were entering her flesh. She had to get out. Now.

She raised her hand, made a fist, and, enduring the growing pain in her arm, attempted to hit the glass. The liquid, whatever it was, had a thicker consistency than water, and her fist ineffectively bounced off the glass and made a dull thump. She couldn't escape. She was trapped in this thing. She frantically tried to kick and punch at the glass, but to no avail. She took a deep breath of the sickening liquid, then reached behind her and yanked one of the tubes out of her body.

She screamed. Pain exploded in her brain. Black mist clouded her vision, threatening to steal her consciousness. But she fought it, and slowly the pain receded. She felt around to the hole in her back. The tubes were inserted pretty deep. But... What did they do? Behind her, a deep red clouded the liquid, her own blood. Whatever she was in, it was stinging the now open wound immensely. Suddenly, she saw the green light turn bright red. After a few seconds, the liquid began to drain out of the tank through a hole that slid open at the bottom.

It went down slowly at first, and then started to disappear faster. Slowly, it sank down to her head, then past her face. She tried to take another breath... but she couldn't. She couldn't breathe the air anymore. It was like she was drowning... but without water. Quickly, she plunged her face into the fast-draining liquid and inhaled deeply, then exhaled. She came back up, and watched in horror as the last of the liquid trickled into the hole.

The glass suddenly slid away, and fresh air rushed into the chamber. She felt movement under her skin, and the other two tubes ripped themselves out of her back, causing her pain the likes of which she had never felt. She tried to walk outside, but tripped and fell as she desperately tried to breathe. She clutched at her throat, realizing with horror that she would die soon without oxygen. She tried one more time to gasp for air, and then she choked. She coughed, and liquid flew out of her mouth. She couldn't stop, and kept coughing up that nasty green substance as she lay on the floor in pain. Finally, she took a deep, ragged breath of air and laid there on the stone floor, soaking wet and sobbing, helpless and stranded in a place she'd never been before.