Chapter 9 - Laura

A/N: Thank you for all of the favorites, follows, and reviews!

Pearl: Thank you so much! :D Hearing that makes me feel better. ^^; I'm always concerned that I'm making them OOC...Hopefully, that's not the case this chapter. ^^

BTW, I drew myself a picture (because I'm a total nerdy fangirl) for my story...Because I needed a new reference for Alice, I chose Julie Mcniven. :) Literally, I was watching Supernatural and I saw her and I just paused it. Then, I was like "That's her!" ^^ So, I'm extremely happy.

Here it is on deviantART: art/Down-the-Rabbit-Hole-524102092

ALSO: (another moment of self promotion) I'm writing a new story called 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World', which I've been working on since December. So...you should check it out. I guess. If you want. It's not like I'm holding a knife to your throat or anything and saying, "do it now."

So, on with the chapter!

I spoke to my therapist again today, just like every other Friday, however I chose to come clean about what really happened. I know I shouldn't have…I probably just put his life in danger right along with mine; either way, he didn't seem to take it too seriously. That's probably for the best…If Mobius found out, I don't even want to know what they would do.

I'm terrified. There are people that have been snooping around my apartment while I'm gone – I'm sure of it. I come home and something doesn't feel right, like I'm not alone. They're looking for something…someone, maybe? I don't know.

I think I'm going to have to run.

After yet another moment of 'potentially finding some sort of companionship' ripped from me by Ruvik, I wasn't at all willing to stick around. I was in a never-ending hallway lined with doors on all sides; the sight was making me disoriented as it seemed to stretch and shrink in the distance. Metal scraped against metal behind me. Spinning around, I was greeted by the detective who looked visibly relieved upon seeing me.

"Thank God," he sighed, running to catch up to me. "Are you alright? What happened to you?"

"Ruvik," I replied dully. "I'm fine, though." I hugged my arms around myself.

He nodded. "Good."

"So, you got that last one filled without me, I see," I said with a smirk. He returned a small grin with a breath of a chuckle.

"C'mon, we should get going." He momentarily placed a hand on my shoulder, causing an intense heat to flood my cheeks and creep up the back of my neck. I looked down at my feet and bit my lip to hide an embarassed smile. He brushed past me to walk in front, allowing me to feel just how sweat drenched he was too. In that moment, I decided the first thing I would do once I got out of STEM was get a shower.

"So, Ruvik told me some things about what's going on," I relayed, while following behind.

Despite having his back turned, I could see him tense at my mentioning our meeting. He reminded me of a cat with the fur of its back bristled. "What sort of things?" he asked.

I unfolded my hands, prepared to get into a lengthy explanation over what was divulged to me. "From what I gathered, he said that we're all connected to this machine that – "

Sebastian just stopped.

"What's wrong?" I asked, growing concerned that maybe he spotted something up ahead. My brows furrowed. He clutched his head, doubling over in agony and letting out a groan. "Sebastian, talk to me," I called. I didn't know what to do. Hesitantly, I raised a hand to reach for his shoulder, but stopped as soon as he began to slowly turn around. Red, throbbing veins bulged from his face. His once amber eyes were now a pale shade of grey, the whites of his eyes had turned a deep red hue. Blood trickled from them, some even dripping down his chin. His tanned skin was now ashy, almost decaying in appearance. Glowing, puss filled sacs grew, protruding from the veins. He growled, a deranged smile plastered across his face as he let out a maniacal laugh.

"You should have listened, Ali," he growled.

I pulled out my gun, eyes wide and almost paralyzed with fear. Taking steps back, I aimed at him with shaky hands. He pulled out his shotgun. "Sebastian, stop!" I shouted. "Don't make me do this!"

"Oh, it's too late for that. You should never have though you could trust us, and now you'll have to pay for that mistake." He aimed straight for my head.

I fired at his leg.

He bellowed a cry of pain, cursing me as he clutched his leg. I stood there, wide eyed – completely in shock that I had actually done it. My hands continued to shake, heart racing as the adrenaline coursed through my veins. He raised his gun again.

I ran, pushing him into the wall as I dashed past; he let out a gruff "oomph." I just kept sprinting, hoping that he wouldn't shoot. Suddenly, Ruvik appeared further down the hallway -waiting for my approach. I slowed my pace, head dashing in the direction of each man that I stood between.

I had a choice to make, and it definitely wasn't an easy one. Do I continue running and accept Ruvik's help, or turn around and face Sebastian? I took one last look behind me – the shotgun was raised, ready to fire at any second. At that moment, I found myself running to Ruvik, arms wide open as if I were about to embrace him. We collided.

The gun fired.

I braced myself, expecting to feel an explosion of pain rip through me…but was met with only silence. My green eyes opened to find myself still clinging to Ruvik. He looked down at me with a hint of a satisfactory smile upon his lips. My head was pressed against his scarred chest, cold as ice. Still shaking, I pushed myself away from him. Too ashamed to even take a glance, I looked at the floor. As far as I could see, he had transported us to another place. The hall of doors was completely gone, replaced by a cement room. The deranged detective was no longer standing behind me threatening to kill me. My lips parted as I tried to find the words to say.

"I suppose I should thank you for that," I said while still staring at the ground.

He didn't respond. I hugged my arms around myself and let out a long sigh through my nostrils. He only continued to stare back, smile completely faded into his usual glower. I cleared my throat uncomfortably. With the silence becoming too much for me, I searched for something to say.

"Look,…Ruvik…," I began, but couldn't finish.

"They're not to be trusted," he said. "I've warned you before. As long as they are here, they are susceptible to corruption."

"I know," I whispered. I bit my lip and turned to face him full on. For a brief moment, we just stared at each other awkwardly. Relief slowly morphed into anger at all the pain he had caused me. My brows furrowed, trying to display my sincerity. "But like I said before, this changes nothing between us."

He merely stood there.

I gulped, questions coming to mind. I was beginning to question my own ability to maintain any sort of control in this world. "So, am I capable? Of turning into…that?" I whispered, eyes looking away uncomfortably.

He stiffened slightly. "Yes, however I'm preventing that from happening."

I gave an emotionless laugh. A small smile formed at my lips. "I guess that's two things that I should thank you for, then."

With that, he turned, walking toward the door on the other side of the room. I knew he was waiting for me to say something. If he truly wanted to leave, he could have just disappeared on sight.

"Wait." The word came out of me almost involuntarily.

He paused and slowly turned around. I walked closer, albeit timidly. Each step I made reverberated throughout the room. My eyes stayed focused on him, never leaving his. I would show him that I wasn't afraid, that he didn't have as much power over me as he would like to think. I attempted to make myself relax despite the circumstances. He wouldn't really hurt me, not for his own pleasure anyway. He had already proven that to me many times; but I couldn't help but feel ill at ease being in his presence. Everything about him just screamed evil – psychotic.

I stopped in front of him until we were only a foot away. I swallowed, eyes moving from his to every visible scar from head to toe. A pang of a strange emotion hit me once again, not near as strong as when I had been in his and Laura's rooms, but very similar. Not quite guilt, not quite anger, and not quite sadness. Almost a mix of them together. Every inch of his skin was covered with the reminder of what true hatred is, only a small portion revealing the man that he could have become. He might have even been handsome if not for the disfigurements. I could see that no matter how many years went by, they had never fully healed – and never would. I wondered how on earth he had survived so long while sustaining that much damage.

"Seriously,…thank you," I whispered.

His eyes lingered on mine before traveling all over – observing, calculating. They rested back on my face and remained. He gave a slow, obligatory nod before turning on his heels and vanishing from sight. My lips parted as I sucked in a breath. Now that I was alone, I needed to figure out where on earth I was. Giant, rusted saw blades were propped against the walls along with various other torture devices, traces of blood still sprinkled along the edges. I cringed and pulled out my gun, preparing myself for whatever was to come. Walking towards the door that Ruvik was about to exit through, I gulped; I almost didn't want to know what was on the other side if what resided in that room was any indication.

But I continued further down, nonetheless. Slowly opening the door, I found another room entirely made from cement; blood, guts, and other body parts and fluids flooded the floor in piles. I gagged and covered my nose at the rotten stench. I had hoped that I would never have to return to another room like this. On the other side, I could see a barred door, much like what would be in a jail cell. I dashed towards it, hopeful that it would lead to a less disgusting area. To my chagrin, it was padlocked. I muttered a curse and looked around for another exit. To my surprise, I had completely missed the ladder attached to the wall on the opposite side of the room. I ran for it, each step causing the disgusting mess to splash in all directions. Tightly, I gripped the rungs, heaving myself up towards the top.

As I ascended, I felt myself beginning to slip due to a mix of sweaty hands and blood soaked handles; fortunately, I quickly caught myself. Reaching the top of the ladder, I pushed open a grate and slid it across the tile floor. Finally, I climbed through, cursing myself for not working out near as much as I would like to say I did. Pressing my hands into the floor for support, I left behind bloody handprints. I stood to my feet, pulling out my gun. I was in some sort of an office type room painted a strange shade of green and off-white. In front of me was a desk built into the wall with a door to its left. Above the desk was a glass window covered in smudges.

Suddenly, a man came running down the hall from the right. He kicked open the door, causing to me scream. I fired, narrowly missing him. The doorframe suffered the damage, splinters flying in all directions. His almond shaped eyes stared back wide-eyed behind black, thick-rimmed glasses. He quickly shut the door behind him, back pressed against it. He placed a finger over his lips and waved towards the ground, urging me to duck down. Hesitantly, I did as he commanded. I couldn't see what was on the other side of the door, however I could hear each heavy pat of its footsteps. Heavy breathing followed as it stopped right at the door.

We waited. Metal scraped. The breathing grew heavier.

Fortunately, a crashing noise in the distance saved us, causing the creature to scurry off towards the source.

"Woah, it's alright," the man reassured, raising his hands up in surrender.

Not even realizing until that moment that I still had my gun raised, I quickly lowered it. "My God! I'm sorry!" I squeaked, realizing I had almost killed another human being.

He sighed, peering out the window of the door. "It's…it's fine….you didn't hit me. That's the main thing." He ran his gloved fingers through his black hair.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He turned back around to face me, revealing blood splattered attire similar to Sebastian's. On his black vest was a pinned detective badge. "Joseph Oda. I work with the KCPD."

I perked up at the mention of the detective's workplace. "Alice Carroll. Do you know Sebastian?"

"We're partners. Have you seen him?" he asked, eyes filled with concern.

I nodded. "Yeah,…but we were separated a little while back," I said, glancing to the ground at the mention of his attack.

"Do you know where we are?" he asked, pushing his black glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

"Unfortunately, no." I reloaded my gun and stood to my feet. "Look, don't take this the wrong way but for both our sakes, it's best that I get away from you as soon as possible."

He frowned, standing to his feet as well. "Why do you say that?"

"I don't have time to explain, just trust me."

He shook his head, crossing his arms. "I can't let you do that. It's my job to protect and serve – it's kind of part of the job description." He pointed to the badge on his vest for emphasis.

I was tempted to roll my eyes, but contained myself. "I get that, it's just…we're both in danger."

"You're the only living person I've come in contact with since I last saw Seb. I think we should stick together."

I actually did roll my eyes that time. "Fine. Whatever." Even though I knew that he was just trying to help, I couldn't help but become slightly perturbed. However, a tiny part of me also gushed that a handsome man wanted to stick by my side.

He opened the door, heading out first with his handgun ready to fire. I followed behind him, copying his movements. "Stay close," he ordered while turning a corner. At the end of the hallway was a door to the stairwell, bright red letters spelled out the word 'exit' above it. We continued towards it. Just as we were about to reach the end, a door burst open – a haunted came out, growling and wielding a shotgun. It fired, blowing a hole in the wall to our left. Joseph cursed, shooting back with his pistol. I joined in, finishing the job between the two of us. We gathered the ammo and split it.

"Let's go," I said once the job was done. He nodded after checking the room it had come from, making sure that nothing still resided within. We hurried through the door, Joseph at the lead, and walked down the stairwell. It seemed to continue on forever, spiraling deeper into the earth. Our feet clanked against the metal steps. "I'm really starting to hate stairs," I grumbled, remembering how many times they had led me to not very pleasant experiences. Though he didn't respond, I could tell he was thinking the same exact thing.

"I see a door," he announced, pointing further down.

"Thank God," I muttered.

We entered into the basement level of the building. Steam and flames shot from metal pipes protruding from the high ceilings and walls, causing Joseph and I to have to dodge them with each blast. "What is this place?" he muttered. In the distance, a chain link cage rattled as a spider-like creature scrambled across it, descending from high above. It slowly stalked from its position and onto the metal walkway we stood on. We could only watch in horror.

The creature looked like a woman, an extremely large one at that. It crawled on the ground, multiple arms protruding from it's charred flesh. Long, black hair hung in its face. As it slowly approached, it let out heavy, almost labored sounding breaths – as if every movement was a monumental effort. Joseph and I continued to shoot at the creature, but our efforts were in vain. It absorbed the blasts without displaying any sort of effect. Finally, it reared back it's head, showing it's true face as it let out a gut wrenching shriek of agony.

"L-Laura?" I stammered, eyes growing large.

It looked at me as I spoke its name. Then it charged. Just at the right moment, Joseph shot at a barrel filled with gasoline, causing the container to burst into flames. Fire enveloped the Laura creature; it once again shrieked in agony. All I could do was stand there and stare as it burned before Joseph grabbed my arm and dragged me down a long corridor. The screaming stopped. I took a look behind me to find that it was charging at us as we dashed down the hallway. Through tiny glass windows on the pipes above us, I could see that flames flowed through like water. A large faucet extended from the ceiling; at its right was a lever. With no other option, I yanked myself from Joseph's grip and fired. Once again, the flames consumed her and she howled in anguish.

"Keep going!" I shouted to him. Making sure that I was with him, we both took off down the corridor. The creature was right on our tails. A fallen haunted lay just up ahead, a torch burned bright right beside it. "Grab the torch," I called to Joseph. Without hesitation he ripped it from the ground, whipping around and swiping at the creature. We quickened our pace while she was momentarily delayed.

"There's a vent up ahead," Joseph cried, pointing in the direction of it. Panting and out of breath, we sprinted in its direction. Joseph dived in, followed by me. We crawled as fast as we could. The Laura creature bellowed as it rammed into the walls around the vent.

Suddenly, I felt a large hand wrap around my ankle.

I screamed as it began to drag me out, nails clawing and scraping into the vent for some sort of hold. "Alice!" Joseph yelled before grabbing onto my hands, turning me into a game of tug of war. His hands slipped, and I was sent falling to the ground and back into the same predicament as before. I continued to claw and kick, hoping that something would make a difference, but to no avail. I was dragged completely out, flipped over on my back to where I was right underneath it. Laura's face – the one that I had always known to bear a sweet smile – now twisted and deformed, stared back at me with a look of utter hatred. I could only look back in horror as her gigantic, clawed hands prepared to smash my face in.

A gun shot fired.

It fell limp on top of me, the weight crushing me. I cried out in pain as I felt a snap in my ribs. Joseph came to my aid, yanking me out from underneath. Panting, I clutched my side – I knew that I had at least done some damage to it. Whether or not any ribs were broken would remain to be seen.

I looked down at the Laura creature, a mixture of sadness, fear, and disgust filling me. No matter the truth, I chose to believe that this wasn't truly her. The real Laura died in the fire. "Is she…dead?" I asked Joseph.

"I don't know. Let's go before something else happens," he commanded, urging me back towards the vent. Still clutching my side, I gingerly lowered into the vent, forcing myself to crawl despite the pain. He followed behind this time, lest I run into the same problem and end up not quite as lucky. "There's a light up ahead," he announced, peering just beyond me. Sure enough, he was correct. There was a cool blue light streaming in from in between the bars of the air vent just ahead of us. Sweat poured from my brow, every breath seeming like a struggle. The pain was excruciating. Finally, we reached the end.

"Can you push it open?" he asked. In response, I kicked and pushed, clutching my side and crying out in pain.

"No," I said through gritted teeth.

"I'll try." He moved to pass me. I attempted to flatten myself against the side of the vent for him to push past. Soon, he was on the other side of me. Without much effort on his part at all, he got the grate open. If not for the fact that I had more pressing matters to attend to, I would have huffed in annoyance. He stepped out, extending his arms towards me. "C'mon, I'll help you." I scooted myself toward him, thankful for his assistance. He gently took my hand, the other placed at my back while he helped me stand.

"We need to get something to help your side," he said mostly to himself while looking around.

"There's not much we can do," I explained through heavy breaths. "If we could just find something to wrap around it for support, that's probably the best thing."

"Maybe there's something around here that could work." He began leading me in the direction of a room further down the hallway.

Suddenly, A tall woman with chin-length, spiky brown hair and blue eyes came running past. Her heels clacked against the tile floor with each step. She firmly gripped a handgun, eyes darting in all directions in search of something – or someone. "Leslie!" she called. She stopped upon sight of Joseph, her eyes widening. "God, no," she breathed before turning and dashing further down the hallway.

"Hey!" I called after her, waving an arm to gain her attention but to no avail. I grumbled angrily, turning back to Joseph. "What was that about?"

He didn't respond.

"Joseph?"

A maniacal laugh escaped his lips. He twisted around to face me, appearance contorted by corruption just as Sebastian's was. I tried to back away, but his gentle grip tightened dangerously.

Not again…

There's a strange man outside my door. I'm pretending I'm not home.

God, help me.

A/N: If things haven't heated up enough for you yet, here you go, gosh dang it. First thing, sorry if there are mistakes, I only had one day to write this compared to the usual 2-3 week time period I seem to take... If there are, I would appreciate someone letting me know. And, sorry to end it on a cliffhanger, but (I'm not at all, I laugh at your misery) I couldn't help it. XD I just realized how evil I am to Alice,...do you think I'm being too rough on her? I assure you, I do it out of love...(maybe, idk.)

Hope y'all liked it! :) Now I'm off to go kick some butt because I've had too much caffeine and sugar.