Look at what you've done.
Ariella's words echoed in his head and the increasing cacophony of screaming thoughts was so deafeningly loud he couldn't hear anything else. Jack shook his head vigorously. No, no, no, this wasn't what he wanted! He just wanted to grant Lacie's final wish, he just wanted to make her happy, he just wanted to be with her! It wasn't supposed to turn out like this…this wasn't what he had wanted to happen!
He remembered thinking the exact same thing when Alice's dead body fell to the floor. He hadn't wanted it to turn out like this.
Jack looked out at all the carnage, the brutal savagery the Baskerville's had wreaked upon the citizens of Sablier. The deaths of people he once knew, that was all his doing. He had caused this.
Something jarred loose within him. His hands trembled as he raised them over his face because he didn't want to see the gruesome display anymore. He didn't want this.
Jack took a small step back, then another, consumed by the realization that everything they had seen in this God forsaken place was of his doing. He didn't even hear Ariella scream when he stepped off the path, he only felt the softness of his palms on his eyelids and didn't see Ariella reach out for him. He didn't want to be here anymore. He just wanted to disappear. It would have been better if he had never existed at all…then everyone would still be alive.
"Oh Jack…what have you done?"
A shaky, frightened voice broke through Jacks panic. It couldn't have been Ariella speaking, she was never afraid. Not of the chains, not of him, not of anything. What could have gotten her so terrified? Jack let his hands drag down his face and fall to his sides to just hang there limply. He looked at Ariella and saw a look of pure terror on her face.
"I told you not to step off the path," she said.
She couldn't be serious, being so afraid over the Abyss's stupid rules at a time like this. All Jack could think about right now was the fact that he had caused so much destruction and chaos and death. He didn't care about the rules of the Abyss, he didn't care what Ariella had to say to him about the path, he didn't—
Something grabbed his ankle.
Jack looked down and saw a bloodied fleshy hand wrapped around his ankle, and attached to that was the body a dead man. The man stared up at Jack from its position of lying on the ground by his feet, and the corpse's cold, dead eyes were filled with hatred and vengeance. His jaw hung at an odd angle and his words were nothing more than drunken slurs, but Jack could make out that the zombie was mumbling "murderer" over and over again. Jack's face contorted in disgust and he kicked the dead man away.
He looked up and saw that the man wasn't the only undead in the vicinity. Every corpse around him was starting to wake up. They moved slowly, testing out their old limbs, and they all trampled and stepped on one another as they tried to get up. All of their eyes, if they even had them, were dark and angry. The collective mumbling of "murderer" soon grew to a deafening roar. Jack knew where they were all headed as they stumbled to get up. These were the poor souls he had killed in Sablier. They were out for revenge.
"Jack!" Ariella screamed.
Her scream broke Jack out of his stupor and he scrambled back onto the path.
"Run!" Ariella yelled.
Jack barely had time to process what was happening before Ariella grabbed his wrist and took off down the path. Jack tripped over his own feet trying to get his balance as he was dragged away, but he managed to catch up with Ariella. She was still holding his wrist while they ran and she turned to look back at him.
"Were almost at the end!" she yelled.
Jack looked forward to see a giant mountain of zombies piled on top of each other and just starting to wake up. They groaned mournfully, reaching out arms and legs to try and escape the pile. Jack could see their angry eyes crying tears of blood. And just like all the others, they chanted the single word "murderer."
An elaborate gold throne that was fit for a king sat atop the mountain of bodies, with a jeweled gold crown hung on the back. If he wasn't so terrified, Jack would've rolled his eyes at the symbolism.
"The crown is the key!" Ariella yelled at him.
"What?!" Jack shouted.
"The key to get out of here!" Ariella shouted and let go of his wrist, darting off the path and disappearing into the remaining purple fog.
Jack didn't have time to wonder about where she was going. He kept running and he focused in on the pile of zombies with growing apprehension. Getting chased by them just wasn't enough, of course he had to climb a whole mountain of them now. He was not looking forward to this.
Jack stopped in front of the mountain, just out of reach of the arms grasping for him. He looked behind himself with wide eyes, and was relieved to see that at least the other zombies that had been chasing him were far behind. It was a good thing they were incredibly slow, though this did nothing to decrease his fears. There were just so many of them.
A whole hoard of zombies out to get him and his only escape was to climb a mountain of bodies. Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place. Jack turned back around to look at the mound and cursed. It was a massive amount of zombies, but not all of them had woken up yet. The ones that had were stuck in the pile, weighed down by all the others on top of them. None had escaped yet. As long as they remained trapped, it wasn't likely they could do too much damage. They were too stupid to make any type of real attack anyway, even if he was going to be only a few inches away. At least, that's what Jack tried to tell himself. He needed to psych himself up for this.
Jack gritted his teeth and reached out to the struggling zombies. Their arms grasped at him, tugging his coat and thrashing at his face, but Jack moved closer still. He winced when he grabbed a woman's shoulder because he could feel how cold it was even through the fabric of her blouse, and Jack hoisted himself up onto the mountain. He stepped on a man's face and it grumbled at him, but continued its chant.
"Sorry," Jack forced out. He felt like he was going to be sick again.
He continued climbing, trying to use their shoulders and arms as hand holds, but he couldn't avoid stepping on them. They kept reaching out for him and grabbing at his clothes and tugging at him. They grabbed his braid and pulled, and even though their grip was weak, his head was still pulled back and he almost toppled over. He had to be careful not to get pulled off the mountain.
The woman zombies had surprisingly sharp nails, he found out, as they kept scratching his face. Their long nails dragged down his cheeks and Jack could feel hot blood drip from the cuts. He could feel the blood from the zombies mortal wounds seep in through his Jacket and through his once pristine white shirt. It felt cold and sticky, and made his shirt cling to his chest and his stomach churn.
One zombie bit his calve and he gave it a good kick to the face.
Jack looked up while he was climbing—it was a slow process getting to the top—but at least he was almost there. He couldn't wait to be off of this terrible thing, and hopefully never have to encounter anything else like this ever again.
A female zombie dislodged herself from a spot near the top of the mountain and screeched as she jumped down at Jack with her arms thrashing wildly. Jack cursed and closed his eyes and pressed himself close to the mountain, hoping the woman would miss him. He felt the softness of the zombies flesh press against his own, the stickiness of their blood seeping in through his clothes, the stinging pain of the scratches they gave him while he was so close to them, but he kept himself pressed against them until he heard a thud on the ground. Jack unstuck himself from the mountain and cursed again, then looked down at the splattered corpse at the base of the mountain.
Jack was panting by the time he was able to grab onto the leg of the throne. He climbed up onto the throne and came to his knees in the seat to grab the crown off of the back. His body was shaky with fatigue and he had to swipe the blood off his brow to keep it from getting in his eyes, but as he stood up, he knew he was not climbing back down this awful mountain. No matter how dangerous it was, Jack didn't really care at the moment. He put a foot on the back of the throne and tilted it forward. It came crashing down onto the soft bodies of the awakening zombies and Jack stumbled a bit, but quickly regained his balance. The throne glided down the mountain, trampling over the zombies outstretched arms, and the gold was stained red with their blood.
The throne slid a ways out across the floor before Jack stepped off. He heard the mumblings of the zombie hoard behind him and he knew he didn't have much time to regain his balance before they came for him. So he took off running.
"Jack, come on!" Ariella called out to him.
Ariella stood in front of a huge wooden double door that was at least twice Jack's height. A marble bust sat atop a pedestal to the right. Jack ran up to Ariella and put his hands on his knees, panting.
"Where did you—" Jack said between breaths but was cut off by Ariella telling him to hurry up.
If I'm going to be doing all the dirty work, you could at least give me a break, Jack thought bitterly, before the thought was replaced by the need to get out of the zombie-infested room. Jack looked up at Ariella and she pointed to the bust.
"You need to put the crown on that to open the doors," Ariella explained.
Jack looked at the detailed bust and noticed it was almost an exact replica of himself. There was a gold placard on the pedestal that said "Hero of Sablier" but the word "hero" was deliberately scratched out. Jack let out a breathy laugh as he placed the crown on the marble head.
The outer edges of the door glowed with glossy white light and flashed brilliantly. Ariella tugged at the ornate doorknobs but the huge doors were too heavy for her small arms. She looked behind herself anxiously, seeing the hoard of zombies draw nearer. Jack shooed her from the front of the door and tried pulling on the door handles himself. His arms ached with exhaustion and he groaned with the effort, but he managed to open the doors enough for Ariella to slip through. Jack felt a tug at his coat as he went through the doors, but he closed them just in time before any of the zombies managed to get in. He and Ariella were both breathing heavily by the time they got through and Jack slumped to the ground in front of the door. He exhaled as he tilted his head back, hearing the thump as his head hit the wood. He closed his eyes while he tried to catch his breath, then looked sideways at Ariella, who sat next to him.
"I am NEVER doing that again," Jack grumbled.