This is a beta, so I apologize in advance for spelling-grammar gone wrong. Also for the long time to work on this. I'm typing via tablet, heh.
"You're gone, and I gotta stay
High, all the time,
To keep you off my mind.
High, all the time,
To keep you off my mind.
High, all my life,
To forget that I'm missing you."
- "Stay High," Tove Lo.
The stench of blood and rotted flesh hit me like a gush of Northern winds from the Mid-West. God, it smelt horrible. But I needed to go back.
From what I could remember from the stretch of the asylum's layout, the Male Ward was much closer to the main exit of the entire building, meaning that I would have to hurry towards the ward and get through. But when I had found the linked-door into the Male Ward, I discovered that it was locked by key. Of-fucking-course it would be locked. It would be just too easy for me to escape without facing my mistakes, right?
I found another hallway into the vocational block, seeing that it was pitched in darkness. I took out my camcorder and turned on the night-vision to scour through the blackness and discover two more batteries and a written note left behind a dead man lingering in a small supply closet. It didn't seem to be anything that mentioned importance, so I saved the read for later. But from what I could seriously think about at the very moment, as I ventured closer into the base of the block, was Eddie.
I would of loved to have blamed my masculine desires for physical contact, but then I would be lying to myself as well. What I did back there to Eddie was pure, minor manipulation, to make him give in and let me 'love him.' I know I shouldn't have done that to him - playing with love and feelings as if they were a disposable plastic toy, but... But, what else was there to do? I couldn't let him harm me, more than he already did. He plowed my face into the wall, he kicked me while I was down, and he even tried to slice me in half with a buzzsaw. I didn't know what form of 'love' he was picturing, but it was likely pure imagination.
"Okay... key now, huh?" I told myself, as I made my way through a cluttered kitchen area, eclipsed in darkness.
I climbed through a pried-open air vent, passing by a dead body of a nurse it seemed, as his head was lodged through a different closed air vent, blood spewed from large, deepened slices in his head. But seeing dead men like him now, it was perfectly normal. As grotesque as it sounds, I wasn't phased by the sight... Not until I saw the gymnasium...
"That... fucking whore of a Mother! She betrayed me, just the rest of them did to me!"
Eddie's breaths were heavy, as he marched through the composting halls and plastic rooms, slamming his fists into walls he was about to pass up. Every innocent dry-wall had a fistful of Eddie's rampant and destructive emotions. All those punches meant for just one measily person that ripped his heart straight out of his chest. After even being smashed in the face by a brick - that left a hefty reminder at his deformed side - Eddie still couldn't find himself hating his Darling. His love, Waylan. He cussed at himself.
"Darling..." Eddie whimpered in the darkness, standing in the middle of a pitch-black room alone, holding his red, irritated knuckles in one hand.
Yes, he knew that he should hate that slut now. He should be full of spite and rage, after what that whore did in tricking his feelings. He should have had the urge to strangle that crazy bitch until her head popped off! But... Eddie couldn't help but cry out for Waylan again. His unmoving heart behind the rust and bloodied grime was thumping for love, attention, and that gluttonous desire and need for his traitorous Bride to come back to him. Eddie rubbed his forehead with a frustrated hand, breathing in heavily with his large eyes closed.
In years, no one had held him like that.
The way those two were in that small room, next to the broken window, Eddie embraced Waylan, as he hadn't done during those hideous years behind a cell door and spongey room. He had completely forgotten what it was like to hold a person so close. How warm it felt to be in welcomed arms. And he felt Waylan hug him back - he did! - and just kept him wrapped in the pain-free state. Eddie could remember showering Waylan with kisses and tears, with his chest ready to burst open and his heart in his throat. Eddie wanted that feeling again, but, not with just anyone. No. He wanted Waylan back, to trap and love him all over again. And keep him.
'Eddie,' a voice suddenly spoke out. It sounded distant, as if it were out the room.
The Groom looked up at the doorway with hope. "Darling?" He called back.
'Eddie, why're you talking like that? You gay or something?' The voice became clearer within his plugged ears. And the voice was nowhere close to resemble Waylan's. Instead, this voice was low, husky and tired. All the characteristics that made Eddie's eyes widen with horror, and run for his life.
Oh, God... It was Uncle's voice.
'Where ya going, Eddie? Don't ya wanna say hello to yer Uncle?' That voice wickedly mocked Eddie, as he hid behind a torn-up couch like a child again. 'Come here, boy. Let Uncle hug ya, just like... last time, huh? Yer Daddy said it was okay!' Eddie panicked, feeling his breaths becoming short and fast, as he could just feel that invisible force of his Uncle nearing the very couch he was hiding behind. 'Darling, huh...? Well, where is he?' His Uncle's voice, drenched in anticipation and want, drew closer and closer...
"NO!" Eddie screamed, fighting back against that horrible voice. He stood up fast and shoved the couch forward with all his might, swinging the piece of sturdy furniture over onto its headrest and arms. He screamed more at himself, clamping his hands over his ears to draw out the voices. Rid of the ghosts from his past. As much as he persisted, those male voices were running around him fast, laughing, pointing, grinning. Touching. "DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME, DAD!" Eddie bellowed, swinging his arms fast at the air. "NO, DON'T-! THE OTHERS KNOW! THEY-" They were laughing.
'Who're gonna tell, Eddie? Hm? Your teachers don't believe delinquents like you. Neither does Ma.' Father's words broke Eddie's heart, as the figure moved in closer. 'No one believes ya. Yer just a... fucking lunatic!' He spat laughter straight in the Groom's face, teeth sharp and eyes yellowing, just like a pack of rabid wolves surrounding the fallen, lone prey.
"Leave me be...!" Eddie cried, shrinking down to a crouching form on the floor. "Oh, God... Where are you, darling...?!" All he could do was cry for Waylan's voice and face. He thought of Waylan's arms again, how he was clasped and held like a boy again...
Ka-thump!
A sound, not too far, thundered in the gymnasium, as if something had been tipped over or accidentally pushed. The spirits surrounding Eddie overheard the noise, and immediately evaporated into the darkness with hisses and growls. Eddie was left alone to figure out the noise, unafraid of reality's noises, instead of fictional ones. He stood up fast and ushered to the doorway of the haunted room, into the light of the spotlights that shone bright, white lights into a long-room that was set and decored like a ceremonial altar.
And when he looked into the room...
"UNGRATEFUL SLUT!" Eddie screamed, seeing Waylan standing at the altar, prying the Male Ward's key out of a standing dead man's stiff hand. Eddie flinched, his heart racing, so vigorously wanting to harm Waylan. "You're like all the others!" Tears were still pouring from the recent event of phantoms and delusions, yet he continued to chase after his darling, still wailing slurs and insults at him. "You belong with the rest of them! Lying whore! Filthy tramp!"
God, how did he find me?! I thought he was through with me!
At least I had found the key to the Male Ward. Now I could make a grand escape out of this living Hell. Eddie blocked the way out of the makeshift altar room, so I ran towards a narrow space that was squeezed tight with tall, cluttered piece of furniture. I managed through, evading a fuming Eddie for just moments. I had no time to lose! I needed to get the fuck out! I had to pull myself into the tight space and move a giant, iron cage out of the way of another exit I luckily discovered, pushing fast as I could before Eddie would reappear.
Once the heap of junk was out of the way, I swung open the door fast and ran into the hallway, with the camcorder's night vision flipped on to navigate through. When I reached a barricaded hallway, blocked by a long table, Eddie's glowing white demon eyes came out from the corner, his teeth flashing and snarling as he ran at me with unquestionable speed. I shrieked, turning fast to run through a random door, only to find that it was nothing but a clustered dead-end. Fuck, I trapped my own self in!
"All of you, whores! Judging with your swinish eyes!" He patronized on, trying to trap me in the room, slamming the door shut behind him. "You made me love you!"
"You said you were done with me, Eddie!" I retorted boldly, knowing fully well I may have struck yet another nerve. "Leave me alone!"
I jumped over a table to keep my distance, and Eddie went on the other side, huffing and seething. And just as predicted, both of us were running around the table. I was running, he was chasing. Kind of like what a sibling rivalry does, when the big Sister is chasing her little obnoxious Brother around a table for invading her diary. It was so stupid, it almost made me laugh at myself, how many times he tried to grab at my back with his opened hand. I swear, I thought I heard Eddie bark out a short laugh, too.
But the 'fun' came to a quick end when I jumped over the table again and bolted for the closed door. Eddie did the same, only when I got out the room, I slammed the door in his face, slowing him down some. I immediately hurried for the gymnasium again, ignoring the bodies hanging above my head, attached to the high ceiling with too many ropes holding them up like wet laundry. Blood dripped from the naked dead corpses, filling up the entire echoey hall with iron and death.
But I managed to get to the same air vent that got me into the gym, climbing up fast before Eddie could leech his hand at my ankle.
"I WON'T SHOW MERCY ON YOU!" Eddie roared, before running off elsewhere. I didn't know where...
Not until I found the Male Ward door again, unlocking it with the key, with the flood of relief soon to fade away when Eddie shoved me into the closed door.
"One more! I try," a punch in my face, "and I try," another sharp punch at my jaw, "and you all betray me!" And with a powerful shove, Eddie forced me through the double doors, back into the gymnasium, landing on my back hard with a loud thud, coughing out saliva. Eddie loomed over me, circling around me fast to stand over my head, now with a long rope in both his hands. "You can hang, like the rest of them!" He strapped the rope around my throat, fastening the knot at the back of my neck.
Fuck.
Using the length of the rope, looped around a floor-hook, Eddie pulled hard with all his might, anchoring me up from the gym floor, off of my feet, and into the air. I kicked and choked out, with both my hands over the rope to prevent it from strangling me, or rubbing at my skin. The prevention made it harder for Eddie to lynch me, as I continued to struggle with as much power I had in me.
"Augh...! Heavier than you look!" Eddie struggled, as he continued hanging me up, with the rest of his dead loved ones. He clenched his teeth together hard as he gave one last, strong pull at my noose, and heard the familiar clank of the rope and hook locking down together. He grinned victoriously to himself as he looked up high to see his handiwork on me. I continued to kick and fight, but my hands were going weak around the rope now... "Goodbye, darling." He bidded cheerfully to me, before taking a few steps away.
'Look at that son-of-a-bitch flopping, like a fish outta water!' The familiar tone of Eddie's Father returned suddenly. Eddie stopped dead at his tracks. 'Lookie, Eddie! Young Harris ain't swimming for shit!' He barked out laughing, pointing and laughing at an invisible pond, at a young lad in the deep water. Eddie recognized the boy... 'You get in that water, boy, and I'll drown you myself!' Father threatened a young Eddie, as he forced his Son to watch his childhood friend drown. 'Fucking queer, just like you, huh, Eddie?'
"Don't call me that!" Eddie shouted at thin air. "Y-You made me-!"
Ka-clunk.
Eddie heard a noise from above, and saw the most impressive sight ever witnessed in his time of murdering.
Haha! Waylan, his love, managed to swing towards another body and hook onto it!
Once he was on the other corpse, Waylan was able to unloosen the rope around his neck and throw it off. Oh God, Eddie hadn't laughed so hard in years. Now Waylan was like a cat stuck up in a tree, unable to climb down or attempt to jump for it. He just held onto the bodies for dear life now, moving from one rotten corpse to the next, as if he were trying to find an easier route down.
And just as he wished, Waylan grappled onto another body, giving it too much weight to support, and the rope snapped.
Waylan went falling with the body, yelling as he did!
Luckily, the body broke his fall, follow by breaking its own spine in the process. Waylan let out a loud groan, feeling his mind gone dizzy, and his neck angrily firing up from the rope marks. Blood gushed out of the dead body's compound-fractured spine that sliced out its back. And suddenly, Waylan could hear that very corpse... wailing, behind the duffel-bagged mask.
"Aahhh! AAHHH!" The masked man screamed to the top of his dried lungs, kicking his tied feet and wriggling.
"Fuck! Oh, fuck! Jesus!" Waylan scrambled away from the body, literally ready for a heart-attack.
Eddie thundered at the two, with a pipe he grabbed off of the floor. He stamped his foot over the bellowing man's face, and proceeded to pulverize him with the very pipe, smashing down his face with iron and boot. Waylan could hear the bones in the man's face crunch and shatter, eyes popping out when Eddie planted his foot into his face. The duffel-bag turned from white to a bright, leaky crimson color. Waylan, petrified, moved backwards fast with his hands, feet pushing him back frantically to the stone wall of the gym, looking on at the bludgeoned man and his terrorist.
Once Eddie was satisfied with the man's last extinguish of breath releasing from his raspy throat, he grinned devilishly, and gave one last blow at the man's face, before dropping the dented pipe.
"Sweetheart," Eddie slowly turned around to Waylan, breathing heavily and snarled. His right-sleeve and waistcoat were painted in red, glistening in the dim lights of moon from the ceiling windows. As he accost his darling fast, Waylan planted himself against that wall, ill-prepared for anything. "Let me tell you something... quite interesting, that I've theorized long ago..." Eddie dropped to one bended knee and latched his hand around Waylan's jaw, pressing his head against the wall. His dilated eyes watched Waylan's eyes grow wide, and mouth locked shut. "When you love something, let it go. Well, I tried once, and you still got away." He brought his face closer to his darling's. "When it returns, put several blades into its head. I tried hanging you, instead, and THAT didn't work."
And then, Eddie's deformed grin stretched across his features. "And if it comes back... Hurt it." He clutched his fingers down at the reddening bruises of Waylan's noose marks, forcing out a strangled yell. "Abuse it. Torment it. Make it want you." He licked his lips when Waylan gasped, fired up now, as he felt his heart beating fast in lustful desire. He wasn't a woman yet, but... "Perhaps I can make a momentary exception." He told himself fast, before reaching for another debris from the floor.
Waylan lastly stared into Eddie's face, before being knocked out.
And when he came to, the once software guy found himself strapped down onto an operating bed, stark naked and exposed.
"Oh, fuck! Not this again!" Waylan shouted, immediately trying to fight out of the restraints on his wrists, but he realized that he was held in chains this time, not rope. The bed had iron posts this time, and not wooden. Shit, Eddie had wisely improvised. The only new thing now was that Waylan's legs were hoisted up by more chains, by the bends of his legs. Was Eddie planning to do a thorough operation on him this time? Going to use that machete on his stomach and genitals this time? Waylan continued to struggle, not wanting to find out.
From how the room was layered out, it looked like the walls and floor were draped and covered thickly in plastic, like how the other rooms in the underground lab were. A pit of dread flooded Waylan, just seeing how most of the plastic was stained and smudged in old blood. Shit - Eddie wasn't kidding this time. He was going to kill him-
"Finally awake, dear?" Eddie appeared out of nowhere, making Eddie jolt and freeze. "I was just testing out this drill," explained the Groom, taking out a power-drill from behind his back. "This'll get the job finished." He pressed on the trigger to the power-drill, making the wheeling needle roar out with too much horsepower, whining and buzzing as it spun.
"N-No, no!" Waylan fidgeted when Eddie sped-walk towards him with the drill. "Eddie, wait-!"
"No, no more waiting." Eddie climbed up onto the bed. "I want a girl. A girl! I want a girl, goddammit!"
'Do ya, Eddie?' Uncle asked his looney nephew. 'What's wrong with this guy, huh? The way he is?'
Eddie blinked a couple of times, staring straight through Waylan's face. "H-He's not a-!"
'Fucking needy brat,' Father shook his head at his Son. 'Always thinking you wanna girl. And fer what? To complete yourself?' He scoffed.
'Shameful boy,' Uncle husked against a chuckle. 'Men've been showing you kindness for a long time, Son, and you wanna be so goddamn greedy!'
... Greedy? Eddie?
That word stung deep in the distorted Groom's heart worse than a knife attack. Eddie remained frozen where he was, power-drill off, as his body hovered over Waylan's. His face was expressionless, unreadable. Waylan looked on at his terrorist and was caught in a blend of fear and confusion. Was Eddie having second thoughts? Waylan took careful, heavy breaths, too scared to even make a sound to disrupt the silence. Whatever made Eddie freeze was hope in the making, or maybe...
Thump.
Eddie dropped his face on Waylan's chest, suddenly shakily hard, as if he were having a seizure. Waylan panicked again, kicking his legs and pulling at the chains around his wrists. Shit, was Eddie having an attack?!
"Eddie-!" Waylan helplessly called out.
'You'd just wish someone else would understand ya! Ha!' Uncle shoved Eddie.
'No one gets it, 'cause no one'll hear it from yer own mouth, understand?!' Father threatened him.
'I know what you should do with the feller!' Uncle wickedly cackled. 'Come closer, Eddie-boy. Lemme tell ya.'
"No, no, no!" Eddie suddenly screamed to the top of his lungs. He dropped the power-drill, throwing both his hands over his ears. "Get out of my head! Don't make me harm my darling! I'm not like you... you vile, filthy people!"
'Liar!' Dad smacked Eddie across the face. He furiously pointed Eddie in the face. 'You stand there, calling ME a monster, but look at what YOU'RE doing, boy!' A finger pointed straight a growing pile of men's corpses, thrown and mutilated. 'You're fucking over these fellers, just like dear old Daddy!'
"I-It's different!" Eddie tried.
'Yer just like me and yer old-man, sonny.' Uncle mocked his nephew cruelly. 'It never takes long fer the abused to become the abuser, and yer a fucking classic, boy.'
"NO!" Eddie bellowed as loud as he could, lifting his head up to scream at the ceiling, at a man above called God.
Waylan froze to that scream, unable to seriously choose whether to panic for Eddie or for himself. Eddie's screech was powerful and piercing, to where he could have likely blown out Waylan's ear-drums. Waylan braced for it too late, now hearing ringing and buzzing blaring.
But it was not long until Eddie abruptly stopped, slapping his hand over his mouth. He sat, paralyzed, right where he was, clutching at his skin with his digits, as he slowly looked back down to Waylan. His darling. True love. Sweetheart. Victim.
"Darling...?" Eddie suddenly smiled in utmost satisfaction, leaning in closer to press his brow against Waylan's. "I promised that I would never let anyone harm our babies, correct?" He chuckled lowly, shoulders shaking. "... I would never hurt them... Oh, but... you, though...?" He exhaled shakily through his nostrils, eyes closed until he was smiling. "Let me show you what those people did to me."