Chapter 14: Running the Gauntlet

"It's being invaded by the Otherworld. By a world of someone's nightmarish delusions come to life."

To be honest, I didn't know how long I was out, nor where the Herd were. But what I did know, was that something horrible and terrifying was about to happen. Unfortunately, I was still trapped in the darkness, unable to see or feel anything. Although, I could hear a series of distorted familiar voices echoing around me. They didn't just belong to my prehistoric ice age idols.

"I hope my luck changes before Tails and I have to go to that party."

"You're only a young girl and you're out here, on a dangerous quest, by yourself. You should at least have someone looking after you, making sure that you're safe."

"She's dangerous, we don't know who she is!"

"You can't take them on your own, I'm going to help you!"

"You're not James."

"Leave, now."

A bright white light shone in my direction, almost blinding my eyes. Before I had a chance to find out what it's purpose was, I suddenly found myself being dragged towards it a very high speed, and I mean very. Just in a matter of seconds, I was drawn into it and the darkness around me eventually gave in to light. I blinked a large number of times in an effort to wake up. The Herd were in trouble, probably running around the dark and empty hallways and fighting off the nurses without me. I have to find them...

"Megan..."

Mum?!

"Megan..."

I swore that sounded a lot like her. I pulled myself up to my feet and began sprinting into what seemed to be...an endless abyss of white. "Hang on Mum, I'm coming!"

"Megan..."

Now she spoke in a really quiet manner, almost like a whisper. Millions of questions were flooding through my head, forcing another panic attack to take me over.

Oh no, no, no, no! F*ck!

Eventually, the light slowly faded away. I snapped my eyes open and gasped for breath, trying to pull myself together. My mother was nowhere to be found and it was almost like...she was fading away as she whispered my name. Instead of that white abyss I only just managed to escape from, I was in a very small room. There was only one door a few feet away, a broken mirror on the walls and a blood-stained cupboard blocking a ladder in front of me.

What the hell...?

Once again, I pulled myself up and with some effort, I staggered over to the cupboard, panting in agony as I did so. It seemed weird because I could recall screaming in pain and falling to the ground back on the second floor. My white shirt (my favourite white shirt) was now blood-stained in several different areas: torso, neckline and the arms. Quickly having a peek in the mirror to check the state I was currently in, my heart sank further.

Who did this...?!

Horrible bruises were dotted here and there on my temple, chin and neckline. To make things even worse, my hands were covered in a dark scarlet red at the fingers. If a stranger looked at me right now, they would have thought of me as an insane murdering psychopath and run away.

I sighed. "For god's sake..."

Suddenly the door opened and someone very familiar stepped in. Her blue eyes shone with relief as her lips curled up into a smile. Truth be told, I mistakenly thought it was Shira. But when I saw the pink-red top and blond hair, I stepped back, not wanting her to see my current condition. "Maria?"

The woman's smile brightened. "Thank goodness you're alright..."

"What are you doing here...?" I wanted to know. "I thought you were still out there in the town."

Hearing this, Maria shook her head and took a step forward. "No, I decided to come in here, because I wanted to find you.. Where are your friends?"

You were looking for me?!

"God knows where my friends are, I have no idea." I answered, wincing in pain as I finished my sentence.

Unfortunately, Maria saw this and took another step forward. I tried to shield myself away (as I didn't want to worry her), and accidentally gave away my condition.

Uuuuuuugh! Damn you Megan!

The reaction I got was a horrified gasp and a gentle hand cupping my right cheek. "What happened to you?!"

"I...I...I don't know what happened. I literally woke up, just a few seconds ago!" I sighed again. "I hope my friends are okay..."

Maria understood and thought of an idea. "How about I help you look for them? They're obviously somewhere in this dump, looking for you and if we don't manage to find them, I guess...we'll just have to leave."

Hearing this, my eyes instantly starting blazing with fire. "I'm not leaving without them, regardless of what happens."

My tone must have rang a warning bell to Maria, as she stepped back all of a sudden, taking her cupped hand away with her. "Look, I understand that you want look out for your friends, but we need to look out for ourselves too."

No, I always think of other people before myself, and it stays that way!

As much as I wanted to disagree, I knew that she was right. Besides, Maria was an adult and I was a kid, so it's always the adult who's the leader. I didn't want to full-on lash out at her and start a fight because for starters, I hated arguing with someone. Eventually, I calmed down and looked her in the eye. "Okay, but if anything horrible happens to my friends, I'm staying behind to help them."

Maria smiled at me, and I realised that I was slowly returning the gesture. Maybe, just maybe...if she doesn't get murdered, she could wind up being a good friend too. After all, it was nice to know that there are some kind-hearted people living in the world. "Megan." I said, after a moment of silence.

"What?" The older woman asked, with a hint of suprise lacing her tone.

"My name's Megan." I revealed. "I would have told you it earlier, but ... you know how that went so.. I guess positive things happening later could sometimes be a good thing, right?"

"I gotta agree with you on that, kid."

(Several hours later...)

After our meeting, we both stuck together and began the search through the Otherworld version of Brookhaven Hospital. So far, it wasn't particularly positive. A large number of doors on the second floor were either locked or shut tight, that irritated me a lot. But every time I tried to kick one down out of boiling frustration, Maria would just laugh with amusement and say: "This is what James used to do when he was frustrated."

She never told me anything else about him, and I didn't need to know. All I knew that he was just a crazy guy looking for his dead wife, confusing my new friend with her 24/7. Technically, that's all I wanted to know about him. Nothing else. To my great relief, there weren't any other nurses around. I guessed that Manny and the Herd managed to take them out on their own. I was worried for their safety and well-being, as I wanted neither of them or Maria to suffer the same fate as—

Shut up kid, it's time for you to move on. Don't think about your past failures...

"Are you okay?" Maria asked me, with concern lacing her tone.

I just gave her a brave smile, despite wincing in pain due to my wounds that I strangely got whilst I was knocked out. "I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me..."

Before we began our search, I quickly shoved the cupboard out of the ladder's way and climbed up with my friend in tow. Up in the loft, we claimed temporary ownership of a key to a strange door up on the third floor.

You must be thinking "What happened to the Herd?" at the moment, but I'll get that a little later on. The door that I mentioned was strange indeed, I asked Maria if she knew anything about it. She looked like she did, but didn't say anything. I guess, maybe...something happened the last time she was here with James. Who knows?

"Why don't we take the elevator up?" My friend suggested. Her tone indicated that she didn't particularly want to go along with it, but I decided not to push for answers. "We may find your friends up there..."

I grinned. "Alright then."

Although something deep down tells me that we won't...

So we both went in, and I pressed the button for the third floor. It was a really (and I mean really) long elevator ride, every so often I attempted to strike up a conversation and Maria would respond positively, but most of the time we remained in silence.

Once the doors slid open, we both walked out and I instantly started to check the doors on the patient wing. Unfortunately, like last time, they were either locked or shut tight.

"ARGH!" I yelled in frustration. "Can one of these goddamn doors at least be OPEN?!"

My anger then turned to relief as I saw Maria standing at a rather large one at the end of the hallway. I ran to it and one by one, we entered. The atmosphere was rather icy in this room. The walls were coloured in a greyish white and standing in the very centre, was a simple fridge.

Which too was shut tight.

I grabbed it's handle and struggled to pull it up, grunting as I did so. That handle was so heavy! Knowing what to do, I turned to Maria and gave her a look as if to say: "Please can you give me a hand here?"

She grinned. "When I was here with James, I teased him about being the big man who needed a little girl like me to help."

"You gonna do the same thing with me?" I wanted to know, taking care not to show that I was still frustrated.

"With you? Of course not." Was the answer I got.

Maria then came over and grabbed the handle with both hands and together, we managed to get the fridge door open. To be honest, I half expected to see lots of first-aid kits and health drinks inside, but the only thing in there was a simple ring.

"Huh, not very cute is it?" My friend said, as she picked it up from the cold fridge, handing it to me after a brief moment. "Here, you can have it."

Despite not liking the look of the ring, I took it anyways. "Hm, thanks a lot."

As soon as I get back to my apartment, I'm dumping this somewhere...

Without hesitation, we left the room. The plan was simple; unlock the strange door, escape the hospital and find Manny and his family. We didn't manage to find them in the hallways so... I guessed that they probably went on, leaving me behind.

Once we reached the door, I couldn't help but take a good look at it. It showed a large drawing of a woman whose hand was 3D and sticking out. Maybe that's what the ring's purpose was. I slid the ring on and used the key to unlock the door. A clicking sound irrupted, indicating that it was now open.

Freeeeeedom! Yes!

I quickly reloaded my weapons, just in case if anything horrible happens. We had a bit of a long staircase to descend and Maria was shuddering as if she remembered something. Again, I didn't push her as I could tell that she did not want to talk about it.

As we descended further, something deep down told me that we were below the hospital's basement and a negative feeling began to arise in my stomach, telling me that someone was probably following us.

We soon reached a simple grey door at the very end, signalling that we were close to the exit. I gently placed my hand on the doorknob and after a moment of hesitation, turned it. The sight that greeted us was a REALLY long hallway weaving and turning corners here and there. Dried blood splattered the walls, giving us a sense of horror.

"Let's just get out of here..." Maria said, feeling just as frightened as I was.

"Okay..." I answered, gripping my pistol tightly.

The next few minutes were absolutely terrifying. As soon as we turned round the first corner, I heard a familiar laugh and turned round to find myself face to face with the man in the blue coat. He wasn't alone though, as an enormous masculine monster stood in front of him, draped in brown and wearing a huge pyramid on his head.

In fact, his name was...Pyramid Head.

"MARIA, RUN!" I screamed, firing a couple of bullets whilst she took off. The man laughed again as I sprinted off after my endangered friend.

No, no, no, no, no, F*CK NO!

I eventually managed to catch up with her and ended up in the lead, as we ran for our lives. Unfortunately, Pyramid Head was in hot pursuit and damn, he moved fast!

"Maria, we gotta move!" I screamed again, firing more bullets at the monster. We then ran and didn't look back, weaving and turning around corners until...

An elevator came into view...

"Hey, we're almost out! We're gonna make it!" I shouted reassuringly, hopefully managing to calm Maria down in some way.

Sprinting towards it, I had no idea that she was further behind, still running for her life. It was only when I reached the elevator that I found out. She was moaning in pain and agony, with tears streaming down her face. Pyramid Head and the man had caught up to her, whilst I desperately tried to keep the doors open, long enough.

"MEGAN!" She howled, knowing full well that she wasn't going to make it.

She did make it, but at the same time she didn't. It was too late. Her arm managed to get through the now closing doors as I tried to pry them open. Normally, they would have done so lightly, but it was different here. "C'MON, C'MON!"

In a flash, our attackers were right behind her and I heard the man's laugh echo all around us, this time he was cackling. I realised right there, that I was unable to save Maria, all I could do...was helplessly watch.

"MEGAN!"

I still tried doing what I was doing, losing most of my energy as I did so. I screamed out her name, cursed her murderers loudly and wrestled hard to keep the doors open. "NOOOOOO!"

The last thing I heard was Maria howling my name once more, before her hand turned to a bright white and fell lifeless. Looking down, I saw a drenched red spear coming through the gap. I screamed again as I watched her hand disappear, followed by her executioner's weapon.

Gasping for breath, I lost my balance and fell to the elevator floor with a hard thud. Fainted. My guilt was now more painful than ever. Not one, but two victims I failed to rescue. I struggled desperately to fight back the incoming tears which were threatening to spill. "Maria..., I...I'm so sorry..."

I couldn't do anything to help... Manny and the Herd have run off somewhere...

Elise, what should I do...?

Should I keep going and fight... Or should I give up and...

I'm going to reunite with the Herd, and afterwards...I'm going to find my mother...

It's the only thing I have left to hope for...