Woohoo :D I've been very inspired by Silent Hill lately :3
It was night and with everything dark, it was hard to see what was inside of the bureau. Malik sat down on the steps and waited for an apparition of Altair to show, or anything that would seem out of place. He figured that since the figure he had last seen had glowed crimson, he'd be able to see any disturbances against the black background. He would wait until he got too sleepy, then he would give up and go to bed.
Nothing showed. Figures.
Malik stood and was about to turn around until he saw something light up near the wall that was connected to the adjacent room. Malik froze and saw Altair sitting down on the floor with his back to the wall, holding an arm to his wounded abdomen that was stabbed and pouring out blood. He had a visage of desperation and appeared to have been crying out for help, then disappeared before anything else happened.
So it is true, Malik thought to himself. "You died, but you never left," he said in a quiet voice to no one. "Altair, if you are here, please show me some other sign that you're here. I just need to see if you and I can communicate with one another."
A few moments passed and nothing else happened. Maybe that was the only thing Malik would get from him?
"Altair, please. Show me that you are here."
Malik nearly jumped out of his skin as he heard a pot from the table be knocked off and crash onto the ground. There was a small yelp, and he saw that it was only the dog that was kept in the other rooms of the bureau, specifically in the back. The mutt was always there in the back where he could get fresh air from the windows, but no one ever opened the door unless if they were going to feed him or take him outside. Besides, he was a guard dog.
"Azeem?" Malik said. "What are you doing out here? Who let you out?" He bent down to the dog and could see that he had his tail between his legs. He started barking at the doorway and was retreating. "Altair?" Malik said and found himself taking a few steps back. He heard someone sprint up the stairs, which caused Azeem to go cowering behind a counter. Something came sprinting down again and a screeching, squealing noise was emitted.
Malik instinctively grabbed onto a knife and held it up as if to defend himself, but then he remembered that he wouldn't be able to hurt Altair anyways. "Listen," he began. "Altair, you need to leave. You're dead and are of no further use to anyone. Please, leave the bureau and go elsewhere. You don't belong here."
Azeem started barking again and he bolted past Malik and ran up the stairs. Malik decided that it was best if he followed the dog and did so promptly, closing the door behind himself once he was in his bedroom. Something was telling him that he didn't want to be down there at the moment, and he was pretty sure that Altair didn't want him there either.
The night was rather sleepless and then morning came, leaving the bureau leader rather tired. Malik decided that he could deal with it; it was just one night, anyway. It wouldn't do much harm.
Upon descending the stairs, he saw Yusef sitting down at a table with his arms crossed and a look of worry on his face.
"Yusef?" Malik said. "Your master hasn't come back yet?"
"No, he has been gone since yesterday."
Malik glanced at Azeem for a moment before saying, "And he did not tell you what he went off to do."
"I am beginning to get slightly worried, as I am sure that he wouldn't just go off onto a mission and not come back for extended periods of time."
Malik thought for a moment. "We will give him some more time to see if he returns."
"Master, if it is alright of me to ask…are you alright?"
"What do you mean?"
"I thought that I heard talking last night. And the voice was talking to Altair."
Malik was quiet for a moment. "Listen, Yusef. There is something that I must tell you, but you cannot tell it anyone else. That's an order."
"Yes, master."
"Altair may have died, but he did not leave the bureau."
Yusef gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
"At night, I've been hearing footsteps and other noises, and twice I've seen Altair in here. He came up into my room a couple nights ago and ran after me before he disappeared, and last night I saw him sitting by the wall, holding the wound that killed him. He also let out my dog, Azeem."
Yusef stared at him. "Master, if you need some time away those plants of yours, please, by all means, I would be most gracious in caring for them for a few days."
"Yusef, I am serious. It is not the plants. Altair is here, as a ghost or something. I will prove it to you tonight, but you must be ready to stay awake late into the night. Again, do not tell anyone about this."
Yusef nodded his head and said, "If you wish so."
"I do."
Malik and Yusef had been sitting at the table for hours after the sun went down. Things were getting awkward; the novice was convinced that Malik was crazy, and Malik was convinced that Altair might not show up, which would strengthen Yusef's belief.
Yusef stood and said, "I am sorry master, but I am getting quite tired. Maybe another time."
Malik stood up. "Fine," he said. "Do as you wish, but I am saying with all honestly; I told you the truth."
"And I believe you, master, but I-" he didn't get to finish his sentence as the entire bureau shook as if an earthquake was happening. The room suddenly lit up and the color from the walls and the floor literally peeled itself off to expose a more rusty color covered with mold. The tiled floor became a horribly discolored thing that looked as if it hadn't been clean in eons, and an entire wall of the bureau fell and crumbled to the ground.
"What is happening?" Malik said and grabbed onto a knife. Yusef went closer to the rafiq with his eyes wide at the unexplainable transformation.
The rubble from the fallen wall liquidized and was absorbed into the ground and cleared a passageway for them to go through.
Malik took a few steps forward and noticed how the street that would have been behind the wall was just a narrow alleyway that went either left or right. When he stepped outside, he saw how it was raining and terribly dark. Without looking back at Yusef, he said, "Novice, go light a candle. And be quick." He looked left and right, but the darkness and the rain prevented him from seeing more than a few feet. However, he could see enough to know that the wall of the alleyway was made of stone and overgrown with vines.
Yusef came over to him and handed him the candle. Malik covered it with his hand to shield it from the rain and began to walk leftward.
"Master Malik," Yusef said. "I do believe that we should stay back here in the bureau. I don't know what's going on."
"Neither do I," Malik replied and continued to walk forward. The candlelight let him see the ground and he noticed how all sorts of junk was in the way, such as pieces of wood and trash.
They heard someone running from behind them and they quickly looked in the direction of the noise, and Altair came bolting past them.
"Hey, wait!" Malik said and chased after him, leaving Yusef no choice but to follow.
Altair turned right and Malik sped after him, but the assassin was always the faster man. Once he lost sight of him, he stopped in his tracks and realized that he had practically left Yusef behind.
"Malik, wait for me!" Yusef said and slowed down once he reached him. He caught his breath and said, "What were you chasing after?"
"You didn't see that?" Malik asked with a quizzical expression. "Altair just ran right past us."
"I did not see…" Yusef stopped mid-sentence and his eyes grew wide at something behind Malik.
"What? What are you looking at?" Malik said and turned around, and what he saw made his body straight and stiff. Someone had taken a body and mauled the corpse into a grotesque-looking fashion and nailed it up on a wall. The skin had been peeled off and the wet muscles were shiny, even in the darkness. Guts and flesh were strewn about in a messy fashion and the eyes were still wide open on the head.
The carcass started moving and the lidless eyes darted back and forth in a crazy fashion. The mutated fingers started to curl in and out as animalistic noises crept out of the decaying vocal cords.
Malik held his hand up to his mouth and took several steps back; there was no way anyone could have still been alive in that state, and yet this person apparently was.
Altair came racing past them again, but he also caught eye of the body on the wall and he paused momentarily to look at it. He didn't seem to notice- or even see -Malik and Yusef and he hurried off in a panic.
Yusef and Malik were very quiet for a few moments before they heard someone scream bloody murder. There was the sound of a metallic scraping noise coming from not too far away followed by a sound of a panicking person.
Altair looked at the creature before him. He had no weapons or anything to defend himself with, so his only option was to run. In this labyrinth of unfamiliar alleyways, he had gotten lost and had no clue where to go. Now he was cornered up against a wall and the frightening monster was closing in on him.
He turned around and faced the creature. Its legs were fused together, so its only option of movement was to crawl around the ground with it sharply-clawed hands. It had no face, save for a mouth with razor-sharp teeth and no lips, reaching literally ear-to-ear. And for something that had to crawl, it could move pretty darn quickly.
It curled itself into a ball before somehow managing to lunge at Altair. When he dodged, the assassin fled far away from it.
All he could think of was, "What's going on?" The last thing that he remembered was laying down in the bureau and falling asleep. When he had woken up, the stonework of the bureau was replaced by metal, and the doorframe into the room that Malik did his cartography in was just a jagged, rusted opening. At first he had thought that he was dreaming, that it was all just a nightmare. Only when a disturbingly disfigured human body arrive and attempt to kill him did he realize that he wasn't dreaming, and the pain he felt of the knife splitting open his arm was real enough.
He wanted to find Malik and return to the bureau, and he wanted to figure out what was going on. No one just wakes up and finds themselves in this…this…dimension where everything is absolutely frightening.
Altair rammed himself into a door and broke the lock, fumbling at the doorknob to slip inside of the building. A few lights on the inside allowed to see his surroundings, and he promptly shut the door. His heart was racing and his breathing was erratic with fear as his eyes scanned the room for anything moving. When he saw that he was alone, he went quiet and sneaked his way forward, being careful not to touch anything.
He tried to remember what had happened before falling asleep, but he just simply couldn't think of it. He remembered Malik being there and remembered him being worried, but he couldn't think of why. Maybe something had happened to him? Maybe he got hurt?
Everything was so silent that it was uncomfortable. The pitter-patter of the rain outside brought in some noise, but it was just rain. Falling water. Nothing significant right now. What he really needed was some form of a weapon; even a stick would suffice.
But he couldn't find anything useful enough.
Huzzah, I am going to have SO much writing this :D
I just love writing; it's so addicting :3