FUN FACT: Why're Waylan and Eddie so fit? Cuz they lift, bruh.
I'm so sorry I didn't update fast enough like I usually do. I was at my high school graduation, yay! On with the story!
"And you were there at the turn,
Waiting to let me know.
We're building it up,
To break it back down.
We're building it up,
To burn it down.
We can't wait,
To burn it to the ground."
- Linkin Park, "Burn It Down."
Dear Lisa,
I know this may sound... really crazy right now, but... I think I love Eddie.
I know what you're probably thinking of right now: my stupid Husband's got Stockholm Syndrome. Well, if that's going to be the only way to describe it, then perhaps I do. Still, it doesn't mean that I don't want to help him. This place has gotten to his head, making him believe that this is a safe sanctuary or haven from the world. He's already dealt with too much shit to even understand that this place has also victimized him, just like how the people did in his past. I had to make him realize it, but, I just pissed him off.
Wherever this guy is now, I'm not sure. All I know is that he wants to kill me. But I want to help him. I want to...
God, I'm risking my own life here. Helping a psychopath is suicide right now. I bet he hates me, too.
But, Lisa, I really want you to understand this. I love you and Eddie Gluskin alike. I was always there for you when your folks left you penniless and lost in the big city. Now, I'm going to help this lunatic find his sanity again. And if I don't make it out of here alive, I want you to always, always, always remember that I did my very best, and that I meant every word when I said I loved you at our wedding. Tell my boys that I love them so much, and that I'm sorry...
Probably not the most sentimental message I've written so far, but it would be my last.
As I snuck deeper into the dirtied halls of the Ward, I was trying to evade the rampant Groom and figure out what those noises were from the distance. From what I could tell, they were the heavy footsteps of more than just one man running about, and variants screaming something unintelligible before they fell silent. I had to stay in the shadows now, to try and not be spotted. Whatever was making those variants riled up and distressed was not something to go up against. I prayed it wasn't Chris Walker I'd run into.
But upon approaching a barricaded door, I peeked through the screen of its window box, and saw with alarm that it was the milita.
So, the radio did pick up on the call I was trying to make. The militia did respond to the alert going off in the asylum after all. I saw three men standing there, armed down to the bone with guns and indestructible armor. Their faces looked masked in gas-masks, but why? Upon standing where they were, I saw a dead body laying cold and stiff. The body looked of an elder man, balding at the top of his scalp. His face was distorted, unreadable. But what I could tell from afar, he was a dead variant, like the others.
I didn't want to approach. If that variant was dead, and those guys were standing there over him...
My paranoia was confirmed, when I heard the reign of bullets firing, and variants from afar were wailing out for help. The team of three left in a hurry, also going after any of the leftover patients within the dark hallways to eliminate them. I swore to myself as I tried my best to sneak through the shadows, overhearing the gunfire and men screaming.
"All teams authorized for deadly force. Repeat, all teams deadly force! Shoot anything that moves!" An order was blaring out of a static-radio from one of the armored men, when they luckily ran pass me as I hid behind a lone desk just near the intersection of the hall they entered. They took a hall just opposite of facing the one I was cowering in, and I let out a sigh of relief. But, fuck, if it wasn't my luckiest day...
Why was the militia ordered to kill anything that moved? These patients were innocent - despite their hostility. It wasn't their fault that the Morphogenic Engine had warped their minds into pure insanity. I thought they were going to rescue them. Unless... they were ordered to hide the secret of the Asylum's projects? To leave no evidence behind them, once this place was cleared? Shit. Now I was incredibly intent on escaping to expose them of their crooked ways.
The whole time I had dodge any military man's eye darting me, and how many times I was able to evade any gunman's sights, the only thing I could think of was fucking Eddie. That motherfucker - after I had wanted to save him, he wanted to kill me for it. I should have been full of spite towards him. Should have been wishing him dead while I thought of my missing family's faces as a glimmer of hope to help me escape. But no... my Mind's Eye could only see Eddie. That Groom finally had me around his finger, and I wasn't surprisingly minding it. I hit myself in the bruised forehead - Waylan, you fucking sicko. How could you even think that of yourself?
"Multiple officers down in sub-basement! Unknown assailant! We need EVAC and paramedics!" But before the female official on the other line could finish her status, she screamed and shouted helplessly as an abomination on the other line annihilated her and her team. I could hear her other teammates also screaming for God and help, being taken down by just one person. And there could be only one person that could do such violence in one sitting:
Chris Walker.
"Copy that. We're sending back up. We're coming! Just hold on!" One of the men on my floor rushed with the others to the stairway leading to the basement.
Cruelly, I scoffed. Good luck against that Hulk-of-a-guy. I rolled my eyes, before moving quickly.
Wherever else these guys were coming from, seemed to have been degrading now. The basement would surely be full of them now. And whomever was below and abolishing the armored men and women were doing me a big favor on not being caught.
I pushed open a new door into an new room or area, seeming that I may have stepped foot onto the second floor of the entrance. I could see from the foyer that, out of the misty windows of the hall observing the first floor, there was a lobby. The exit out of this place was just a flight of stairs down. My mouth literally dropped. Holy shit, was this it? Did I find the way out?
Moving my feet fast, I ran downstairs to my only salvation. I could see the rays of dawn pouring into the lobby, through the opened double doors that looked kicked-in. A dawn of a new day, just straight out those doors. I held my breath for it, though. I wanted to make sure I was awake.
"... Mister Park?" A familiar voice called my last name from the lobby. As I ventured closer towards it, I spotted a miraculous sight just leaning against the door of the exit. It was Mister Blaire, the man that wanted me to wind-up dead within the Asylum and in its horrible secrets. Just seeing him now, leaning against the door, holding his side as if he were injured, I was more highly impressed that he survived for those long, agonizing eighteen hours in this asylum. Jut how was this man still alive? Rotten luck? Whatever got his lucky ass out of that living nightmare should be thanked and thanked one-hundred time over.
Blaire made a distressed grunt, eyes squinting as he weakly dealt with the shooting pain at his bloodied side. Who attacked him? The milita? No, that didn't sound right. Blaire likely told those guys to search the entire premise and kill every single patient. Whoever was trying to kill Blaire sadly didn't succeed in the dirty work. Shit, how I would have loved to see him dead.
"How the hell're you still alive?" He asked, through a discomforting chuckle. I should of been asking him the same thing. I didn't respond, unable to. I was seething on the inside, just by seeing that motherfucker's face. "... Let's make a deal, eh? ... Y-You help me, I help you."
Deal. So, even in this state, he was still capable of asking for deals? Fucker.
"You should be dead." I coldly responded to Blaire. "I don't make deals with deadmen."
Which then prompt the man to suddenly jump out at me with a pounce. A short-knife was hidden in the fold of his arm, unsheathing it to jab the sharpened edge straight into my belly. I felt the cold metal dig deep at my stomach, letting out an abrupt yelp of distress, before Blaire yanked the blade out and threw me backwards onto the floor. Shit, I should have known this guy would pull a fast one on me.
"No one can know!" Blaire roared, knife still in his hand, with his other hand holding his side, approaching fast. "No one!" Blaire dropped to one bent knee to grab at my throat. "Fucking DIE already!"
"You!" A familiar voice bolted towards us. "GET OFF OF HIM!"
It was Eddie, tackling Blaire off of me fast, both flying to the floor, feets away from where I was. I gasped out, scrambling to the heels of my palms, looking on at Eddie as he violently attacked Blaire.
"I remember you!" Eddie screamed in Blaire's face, holding the petrified man by the collar of his suit-jacket. "You... You made those scientists do horrible, HORRIBLE things to me!" A sharp jab at Blaire's face, square in the nose. "Tested, day-in and day-out! Shoved into a room to believe the therapists' fucking LIES! Telling me I'm being treated! But they raped me! They used me, like my family did!" He gripped the top of Blaire's hair and started slamming the back of his head against the solid, marble floor. Hard enough to make blood spurt from his cranium. "Liars! ALL OF THEM!"
But, Eddie wasn't done with him yet. As much as Blaire pled to live, Eddie wasn't hearing none of it. Instead, he dragged Blaire by his short hair to the middle of the floor, and proceeded to beat him with a baton he found laying on the broken floor. This was Eddie's final victor against the machine - recognizing himself, and destroying the one that lied and abused him. Blaire was just one of those men in Eddie's life that betrayed him, and he was having the glorious time to unleash every little thing he endured those years in the asylum.
"Stay awake!" Eddie barked, giving a savage grin to the caved in brow and broken face-bones piercing out Blaire's skin, blood pooling onto the floor. "I have so much to do to you!" Eddie dropped to his knees and wrapped both his hands around Blaire's throat to strangle him. Blaire's eyes widened - or tried to - and he tried speaking, but couldn't while his mouth was full of his teeth. "Suffocate... like you've done to me!"
But then, an incredible sound of ringing pierced our ears. Only mine and Eddie's, though. The noise sounded static, but etched in an intensifying screech that caused us to cover our ears in order to block the noise. Everything around us silenced, except for that ringing. Eddie was screaming, but I couldn't hear him. My ears felt ready to pop, as the noise escalated to where my lungs felt blocked, and my breaths were short. I began to scream when my back started burning with fiery pain, forcing me to back out fast until I hit the closest wall with my back. My mind was buzzing as everything was moving too fast, causing me to shake my head feverishly.
Eddie backed off of Blaire, running to me. But before he reached me, black smoke filled up the room. My heart nearly burst out of my chest when I saw an outline of a man's body materialize out of the floor, moving towards Blaire. It was Walrider! My mind kept telling me I was just seeing things, that it was all the Morphogenic Engine's effects, but... how could I be, when Blaire was kicking and trying to scream when he saw the same thing?
Just as Eddie collapsed next to me on the floor, the black smoke grabbed at Blaire, lifting him up into the air and started throwing him around like a ragdoll, while the man screamed and questioned how it got out. The ringing continued, even while the Walrider forcably merged into Blaire's body to begin tearing him apart, ripping him shread to shread, until he blew up into meaty bits and grime, blood raining down right on me and Eddie. The ringing stopped abruptly when the ghost vanished, dying down like a thunderstorm...
Holy shit.
"Holy shit," I only manage out, eyes never blinking.
My heart was still rapidly beating, and my body was trembling. I flinched when I suddenly felt Eddie move from my side to the front of me, hugging me. I could feel that he was trembling, for the first time in years. His breathing hitched, just as overwhelmed as me. Fuck, why would this place...?
"I don't want to let you go." Eddie suddenly sobbed, leaning in to press his face against the middle of my collarbone, body close and snugged to mine, arms circled around my back. "That ringing... I knew it was the Walrider. I-I thought he was going to kill us. I needed to be by your side..." He sighed out shakily, rubbing his closed eyes on my shirt. "I don't hate you, Waylan. I love you."
My mind was still shattered, but I found my arms wrapping around this psycho, holding him tight. How weird - he was more built than me, but he fitted in my arms so well, as I laid my head on top of his. I listened as the lobby went silent, the world holding its breath for the last time, until it finally exhaled with me. The sound of a pigeon's cooing made me lift my head and look on at the opened doors.
"Eddie... let's go." I petted the man's shoulder. "Let's leave, forever."
"Where... Where to?" He asked of me, afraid to look at the outside too soon.
"Anywhere. Wherever you want to go." I promised him.
The first steps out of Hell took my breath away. The sunburst upon our weary forms floored with life again. Eddie held my hand tightly, as we limped through the crowded driveway of armed vehicles, towards the stone steps down to salvation. He was absolutely silent, looking at the green grass, taking in the colors of flowers, and breathing fresh air. I felt him entwine his fingers with mine, unable to let go. I held on tight to his as well, as we hurried towards the gated entrance of the asylum.
As we walked along the driveway towards an abandoned red jeep, Eddie looked behind him, right at that asylum. He stared for the longest time, soaking in everything he could remember about that place. How the sun shone down onto it, yet its darkness couldn't be exhiled. Everything torturous and agonizing, all the tests and lies that scarred him... he was literally able to walk away now.
"M-My vows..." Eddie blinked, still staring at the massive architecture. "Waylan... I remember my vows..."
I took a moment to adjust my brain. "Eddie?" I asked of him to continue.
When we were at the side of the jeep, Eddie smiled at me, with those eyes glassy full of utmost sadness and happiness at the same time. He held both my shaky hands in his. "I do remember you from that laboratory, and I knew you had to be my savior. I knew I had to protect you from the bad, as you have tried for me. I want us to be happy forever. I know I'm not the best, and I'm not the perfect man I want to be, but... When we are bound together, in this twisted fate... I will love you, for the rest of my life. I will protect you. We started together - let's end together."
My heart broke for the second time in hours. A burst of tears prickled at my eyes and began pouring. I made a throaty whine, keeping my lips shut, as I covered my face with my hand.
I realized now just how much I really did love this man. How he saved me, as I saved him, and how I've pried him out of the darkness.
"Let's get out of here, Eddie. And never come back."
Eddie smiled fondly and nodded once, before walking around to the passenger side of the jeep to hop in.
We were bound, and alive.