Arkham's Final Horror

Chapter 5

He hated the yellowed lights.

Austin hated the fact that they had to depend on their own generator that could not support the bright white lights he had become accustomed to.

He hated the sickly color it gave to the cold walls. As if his little sanctuary was ill. He had to remind himself that with a sickly color or not, walls were walls and kept out most things. And the only thing in this building that was of any threat was behind stone and iron.

But stone and iron doesn't hold everyone, does it Austin?

Austin shot up, shocked by the alien voice in his head. He looked around him, worried someone had seen him. As he realized no one was in the yellow-tinted room other than Jerry, Austin sat back in the worn faux leather chair. As his arms slid down the rutty material, until torn faux leather bit into his fingertips preceding the ragged material the faux leather usually covered.

He looked down at the arm of his chair, and saw something had scratched at the black material until it uncovered the crude material underneath. "Hey, did you do this?" Austin accused Jerry. But over the past couple of weeks Jerry had been even less reactive than before.

He simply stared at the black and white monitor.

The light from the screen shined brightly on the anterior of his face, jealously eating the yellow light around it, creating shadows around his neck and ears.

From this angle Austin couldn't see the image on the screen, just the thick convex glass of the outdated monitor.

He frowned and looked down at Jerry's armrest. The man was squeezing the bit of cushioning with unbridled force; there was even a perimeter of sweat surrounding his white-knuckled hands.

Austin's eyes slowly began to widen, as if trying to soak in more information to comprehend what was going on in front of him. Something was significant about this scene. Something that couldn't get through his head. He felt it, something about this scene, this whole situation was horribly wrong.

Jerry trying to squish his armrest into a stick, staring into the screen, the light of the prisoner's screen creating shadows on his neck, the flickering yellow lights, his lips moving, the laughter that filled the room, the alien substance digging under his fingernails, the screaming that swirled around his head, and finally the dark.

"There are, no rules."

The prisoner's friends are choking you Austin. You can't fight it. They have you surrounded. They'll have you for dinner, but not as a guest of honor. You'll be their little pet again Austin. Just like before. They have no eyes to see you cry, no ears to hear you beg, only mouths and claws to tear you apart. To squeeze the life out of you through your throat.

Look at the walls Austin. They're red with your blood. No, that's not Jerry squeezing the life out of you. It's the shadows. You see them growing as they clean your blood off the walls. DON'T TOUCH HIM AUSTIN. HE'S ONE OF THEM AUSTIN. YOU DON'T WANT TO BECOME ONE OF THEM AUSTIN. THEY'LL SUCK YOU INTO THEIR WORLD AUSTIN. Do you feel your heart pounding Austin? It's trying to keep the shadows from taking you Austin. YOU'LL NEVER GET OUT OF THIS ALIVE AU-

A clap of thunder rang through the room, momentarily chasing away the voracious shadows with a white light, the echo chasing away the thoughts that weren't his.

Austin's head snapped towards the door where Cash was standing with his gun drawn, disappearing and reappearing in the darkness.

Blood covering his whole right side. His left side hidden in shadows.

What was hiding there?

While Cash holstered his gun, Austin scrambled away in fear, his sweaty palms slipping across the linoleum in his desperation. The shadows must have touched Cash too! How many people had he killed to be covered in that much blood? His carnivorous mouth opened and shut grotesquely, revealing the inside of his mouth.

Austin didn't want his blood covering the walls of his mouth as it did these walls.

He didn't want to give into the shadows.

He didn't want to die.

He didn't want to be caught.

He didn't want to look down at his wet hand

and realize

that blood

is much darker red

than the red covering the walls.

Austin's eyes slowly made their way to the source: Jerry looking right at him, the exuberant smile of a child on his face. A thin sheen of blood over his lips, enlarging his smile, reflecting the bright red alert light flashing in the room. For a moment, Austin thought Jerry was silently gasping in his last breaths. But as Jerry's grin grew unnaturally wide, showing too many teeth, Austin realized he was silently laughing.

And the Arkham walls were absorbing the sound.

"Austin! Get your head together!" Cash grabbed him by the shoulders and forced Austin to look at him. "What happened in here?"

Austin shook his head, his mouth moving but unable to find his voice in the pit of his stomach.

Cash threw him aside, worthless, and went to the control panel Austin was supposed to be guarding. Austin watched him frantically press buttons and type in commands while yelling into the intercom.

Eventually the lights flickered on –the white lights that truly chased away the shadows –and Austin found himself free to move again.

He shook his head to get rid of the last of the panic, and rushed to Cash's aid. Not that he needed it, he was just waiting for the surveillance system to boot up.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon…"

"What happened?" Austin asked quietly, looking through the commands Cash typed into the computer.

"…a complete system shut down… he shut the power down, even the security system. Since we're using the backup generator as our primary source of power, everything went off line for about 20 seconds. Eventually the power switched to the emergency lights, but it didn't go back to the locks on the doors."

"Wait what does that mean?"

"This place is old and stupid. If power is offline for too long, the doors will open as a safety mechanism," Cash answered.

The echo of running footsteps echoed through the halls. Cash straightened up and placed his hand on his gun holster. "What the hell – oh shit..." one of the guards, a senior guard a couple years younger than Cash. His light brown hair was just starting to grey, the lines on his face just becoming distinct. He was somehow clean shaven despite basically living in the Asylum for the past 6 days.

"Apparently Jerry'd been workin' in this place too long…" Cash said regretfully.

"Shit… what happened?" the guard asked wistfully, unable to keep his eyes off the body on the floor. Austin refused to look at it again… and hear the laughter.

"He shut the power off for a few seconds… I found him choking the rookie."

The guard's eyes went wide and he looked up at Cash "Wait, he –"

"I'm checking the prisoner right now."

The guard rushed over to Cash's side and watched the screen's reboot screen as well.

This time, Austin's curiosity won him over. He got up off the floor, holding his hands in front of his chest as if in prayer. His fingers slid around each other anxiously. What would be worse at this moment?

Seeing him there?

Or not seeing him there?

He watched from between their arms. The system was still loading, but it was almost done. It had been creeping at an even pace.

96%

97%

98%

99%

The screen flashed white, then black.

ERROR

The guard leaned back away from the screen with his hand over his mouth. "Shit… is anyone down there?"

Cash's eyes widened. "I sent Jameson and Malloy down there." Cash grabbed the walkie-talkie from his sleeve. "One to thirteen and five. One to thirteen and five. Do you copy?"

Static.

"One to thirteen and five. One to thirteen and five! Do you copy!"

Static.

The guard's face paled. "You… he couldn't have…"

Cash looked at his fellow guard. "I think he did."

Austin watched their expressions. And a shiver ran down his spine.

He wasn't the only one scared of shadows now.

A/N: So finally decided to sit down and write something to actually upload. I'm a little rusty so forgive me. But I hope you all like it all the same!

So some explanation, when he's saying there's blood on the walls, it's actually a flashing red light that kicked in when the power went out. I'm sorry that the whole scene was extremely unclear... but if you haven't noticed Austin is fairly unstable. Especially since he's been locked in Arkham for the past few days. So most of the time when he talks about blood, it's the flashing red lights. Except after Cash shoots Jerry.