Arrhythmia
By
destroy
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Part. III
A bleached photograph glowed pale from the beam of my flashlight. A young couple smiled back at me. I figured that these two were gone by now, perhaps the owners of this coffeehouse. Their remains probably lay crumbled beneath my feet…with her.
And it's times like this that my memories go backwards and she inhabits my mind. Mother. My soul will never forget, but I hated to remember the last days.
I was younger then. I watched the ground swallow her. The sun didn't even grace us with its presence one last time. The ravens pointed their beaks and laughed loudly at my grief. And when I spoke to her, she didn't reply. I stood alone on the cold swollen ground, walked back into a new unknown world. When I looked for her, my sides were always empty. My innocence rested with her, my happiness gave up. Nobody held my hand after that, and for the following years I would always head home alone. God was never with me, and I will never forgive him for what was stolen.
I softly set the photograph down and continued my search of the room. Rose still slept soundly.
Dust covered each crevice in the building and invaded my airway. Empty coffee cans, hollowed out biscuit-trays, monochrome dead love; there was nothing of use in here. I retook my seat, waiting for the walls to collapse and Rose to awaken.
-
Outside of the window a figure shuffled by. Its slimy human form swayed from side to side, black acid dripping and burning holes into the street. Purple veins lined the limbs like the roads on a map. Its blind instinct searched for us. I held my breath as it passed.
Rose shifted in her seat and slowly raised her head from the table. Her fatigued eyes focalized and glanced at me in a shocked then relieved look. Without saying anything, she rubbed the slumber from her face and headed towards the door.
She was impossible. I knew there was nothing I could say to stop her, so I cut her off at the door, pushing her to the side.
I slid the broken wood open enough to check left from right. The creature continued down the road. I looked back at her. It was easy to lose my patience with this woman. She gazed back at me, a look of annoyance on her face. She softly tried fighting me aside to squeeze through the opening. Releasing my grip on the door, I placed my hand on her chest and roughly shoved her against the wall. Her back freed the bindings of the cracked wallpaper and dust blew out from behind her spine. Terror and hurt crossed her expression.
"You need to be alive to find your daughter."
She didn't say anything.
I remembered the acid burning holes into the street. I imagined the same acid burning holes through my flesh. This was an evil I didn't wish to meddle with.
I sighed.
"When we get outside, we're going to run."
I wrapped my fingers around her arm.
-
Taking a deep breath, I pulled the door completely open and charged outside pulling Rose along with me. The deceptive landscape bounced before us as our steps beat the ground. I looked behind us as we got going and saw wads of these things trotting behind. My legs pumped as hard as they would take me, Rose tried to keep up.
Time was gone, how far away was yesterday? The further we ran, the closer our death seemed.
The previous demon was now in our line of sight. Our breathing was in unison. My throat burned. As we passed the creature, it inhaled deeply and purged a stream of poison in our direction. Rose screamed at the sound and halted. The pit-pat of the drops hitting the street rang, along with the sizzle of the dying concrete. She was hit in the leg. I could smell her skin singe.
"COME ON!"
I carried on forward, nearly detaching her limbs from their sockets. She was once again hysterical and I felt the same. I could feel her trembling beneath my fingers. This nightmare went on limitlessly in my head. I didn't nearly have enough ammo to take all of them down. Did we need to run forever? My stamina overpowered me and Rose was being dragged on the asphalt by now, blood trickling from her thigh.
-
Our sanctuary was a narrow back street. The gray cinder-blocks closed us in from the wickedness just a few feet away. We had managed to squeeze through the slender space between the abandoned store-houses. A rusted steel-wire fence to my right prevented us from crawling in deeper.
The toxic substance blistered on the bottom of my heels. The quad was tight and our bodies compacted against each other. She heaved below me. Adrenaline pulsed through my vessels; I couldn't express what I was feeling.
Dark mucus-like fluid adhered to the strands of Rose's hair burning the tips into a dull blonde. Tiny rips polka-dotted throughout her cardigan, the aftermath of the venom spray. We were still alive. Her hot breath inhaled and exhaled onto my face. This woman proved to me that we were here. She was sane and even if she was stubborn, she was all I had.
She stood peeking down the alleyway at the monsters that kept dragging by. Tears still flowed from her eyes but she wept silently. The physical and emotional damage must've been overwhelming. Here we hid, terrified of the obscure. The small wound on her leg still bubbled, though not as harshly.
-
I pinched her hair between my fingers removing the last of the phlegm. She turned to look at me. Her eyes glittered in the dead light, her dirty lips quivered.
"I'm afraid."
She whispered sadly.
She spoke what was evident. I've been afraid before. Afraid to walk home alone, to sleep alone. This was a new terror, and though I would've given anything to see my mother again my own cowardice had me wanting to live.
"I can't…I can't do this." She continued.
My brain fumbled for decent words to say. Her child-like fright had me ready to cry. Why was I feeling this way? A connection flowed from her to me, but I saw nothing, only felt it.
I wet my dry lips and spoke.
"It'll be…"
From the corner of my eye, I saw one peer from the edge of the wall. Rose's whispers shifted. I quickly placed my hand over her mouth before she could scream. It turned its head from side to side, sensing us but not yet finding us. Its face inches away. Her torso shook violently against me, giving off movement. Instinct found me, I hugged her. I pulled her body closer to mine, hand still clamped over her lips. She clung back for her own protection, hiding her eyes on my shoulder.
I had no doubt in my mind that we would be spotted. This thing will angle its head and hit us full force with its liquid fire. I would watch Rose burn while I helplessly waited my turn. Closing my eyes, I held her tighter. Though my mind was adrift with soon being greeted with my mother, I gained comfort in having something to hold onto. The familiar sense of security I had been stripped of came rushing back to my senses. I could faintly remember now the feeling of having someone there. And I wasn't going to let go.
I could feel the town watching us; the fog without a face.
Not knowing what else to do, I stood there telling myself lie after lie.
We'll make it. We'll do something that has never been done. This will be remembered.
I imagined us escaping. Maybe I could show Rose a real sky, the blossoms. We could travel away. There she would be comforted. Maybe then I could tell her that everything was going to be alright. And it would be true. But as it was the town didn't like us. We were only prey. I didn't want to end up like one of these. I shut my eyes tighter. I envisioned nothing. My memory was pulled tight around the blade that was Silent Hill. As soon as I felt relief, my hope sank like a stone in the ocean.
I couldn't even depend on my dreams.
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A/n - Reviews are always appreciated. Part IV to be added shortly.