Chapter 9 - THE DEPTHS
Content Warning
Visceral Violence / Gore / Abuse
Ian leaned back in his rickety chair which creaked and groaned under his weight.
The older man sighed and stretched to get the knot out of his back. He had to take better care of himself, he wasn’t young and spry anymore. He couldn’t just sit hunched over a desk all day without consequences.
Consequences. There was that word again. It had plagued him his entire life. The consequences of his past had followed him his entire existence and undoubtedly put him on his current path. And where had it led him? To being locked up in his current abode, surrounded by the stench of death and regrets.
Ian got up and walked around the room for a bit. His eyes were tired and his glasses were beginning to dig into the ridge of his nose. He had been staring at his books for what felt like an eternity and he didn’t feel like he was any closer to solving the issue.
Perhaps all he needed was rest. Perhaps he just needed to close his eyes for a bit and…
A loud but distant otherworldly roar pierced the silence of his dank, subterranean dwelling. He had heard it before but now it was louder…and closer. And soon it was followed by more frantic screams. Human screams.
Ian felt his heart flutter with worry. Someone was in danger. But what could he do? He was just a feeble old man. What could he do?
Alba and Nikolai snuck down the first floor corridor of the West Wing, the sounds of death and mayhem growing ever more distant and muffled behind them.
The corridor was dark and damp with large portions of the linoleum floor being covered in water. The walls were heavily damaged in various places as if something large had repeatedly smashed or clawed into them. There were also frequent signs of conflict and death, with blood stains splattering numerous surfaces and quite a few larger pools of viscera mingling with the water. But, alarmingly, no signs of any bodies.
The two passed through the shadows in absolute silence. In fact the silence that surrounded them was entirely deafening. And that only served to make them more alert.
As they snuck past one open room they beheld a surgery room where on a metal table lay a human cadaver. But it had been changed and blackened, as if its flesh had been scorched or somehow hardened. The corpse's torso had been cut and pried open and from this cavity numerous tendrils and sinew seemed to emerge and cling to the nearby walls, ceiling and furniture, like some eldritch webbing. But it, luckily, remained motionless.
This seemed to repeat itself as each subsequent room revealed more unfathomable terrors. Corpses being fused into walls or frozen in poses and expressions of extreme pain. These rooms offered a vague window into the horrors that took place here.
They eventually emerged into a large hall filled with various autopsy tables, separated by stained screens, most of which had been knocked down or torn apart. The hall was also quite heavily damaged and stained with numerous splatters of blood. However, none of the autopsy tables held any cadavers.
Nikolai pointed towards a doorless opening on the other side of the hall.
“That’s where the body chute is.” he whispered.
Alba nodded, too afraid to voice a proper response.
They skulked their way through the hall, weaving their path between the numerous tables. The smell of rot was nauseating and all encompassing. Alba struggled with holding her breath and almost threw up a couple of times, even though her stomach was completely empty at this point.
A sudden loud crash made the two of them stop dead in their tracks. The sound had echoed from a ways away, but soon they heard the familiar pitter patter of feet approaching, accompanied by the growing sound of growls and snarls.
Nikolai gave Alba a silent look and they quickly darted behind two tables to hide.
Beyond they could hear a small horde of feral creatures enter the hall, run across and depart into the corridor they had just come from.
It was unclear if they were operating off some sense of smell or perhaps they had simply seen the two of them make their way through the security door. But what quickly became painfully clear was that when the hoard wouldn’t find them there they’d simply return here. The two of them were running out of time.
Alba looked at Nikolai and he motioned for her to follow him. But then, his expression dropped as his eyes found something past her. Alba turned around to look at the northern side of the hall where there was a large recessed opening in which they could see a set of sinks and lockers lining the walls.
But what now caught their attention was when a large and darkened shape that seemed to lean up against one of the walls began to move. Its shape was strange, almost like a gigantic balloon that reached all the way up to the ceiling. As it moved from the wall they could see what looked like veins and a thin membrane that still clung to the wall, breaking and detaching. And out from under the shape they saw multiple appendages.
It was a creature and it was moving in their direction, very slowly.
Alba and Nikolai quickly and quietly crawled across the floor towards the body chute while keeping their eyes on the shape.
It lumbered out of the recess and stumbled into a few tables, bending and breaking them in the process. It didn’t seem to have a head or any eyes that they could see but it writhed and oozed some vile liquid. But from what they could tell it hadn’t seen them yet.
The two of them crawled through the doorless opening and found themselves in an L-shaped room with another doorless opening on the other side. Nikolai quickly pulled out the keys and inserted them in the lock above the chute. The lumbering monstrosity was now moving closer to them but still seemed unaware. Nikolai twisted the key and heard the faint sound of the chute unlocking.
Alba began silently motioning with her hands, trying to remind Nikolai despite this nerve wracking situation, that they couldn’t leave yet. They still hadn’t found Luna.
Forgetting himself in his excitement and desperation to leave and completely oblivious to Alba’s attempts at communication, Nikolai quickly yanked on the chute but was horrified to find that it only moved a couple of inches and made a terribly loud screech as it did. It seemed the chute had rusted shut.
Suddenly they heard a loud but muffled groan and soon the gigantic monstrosity began pushing its way into the L-shaped room. Now that it was close enough for them to get a good close look they were revolted by what they saw. For the creature that was now squeezing through the opening was in fact not just one singular entity. In actuality it was some sort of disgusting conglomerate of numerous cadavers. All of them fused with one another and connected by a network of veins. The creature walked around on dozens of legs and arms and the sounds it made came from all the heads writhing and moaning in unison.
Alba and Nikolai watched in horror as it approached them and they screamed in panic as they turned on their heels and ran towards the other opening. They had no idea where they were running to, just anywhere but here.
As the monstrosity pushed itself through the confined space, the two of them quickly ran out the other doorless opening. But as they did they ran into something. Nikolai tried to dart past but Alba ran right into it. As she reeled back she was surprised to find her (almost) identical mirror image. Her twin, her other half.
For a split second Alba wasn’t sure if she was seeing things. Had she finally lost it? Had the Fellhaven Royal Hospital finally broken her?
Standing in front of her was someone who looked quite like her sister. Pearly white skin and hair, black eyes with crimson irises and covered from head to toe in blood. For this split second moment that seemed to stretch for an eternity the two stumbled back from one another, their eyes locking in disbelief.
In this wrinkle in time, Alba had forgotten all about the terrors behind her and the potential horrors awaiting her. Instead all she could do was stare at her twin sister, wondering if any of this was real.
Then Luna reached out and touched her shoulder and she could feel her touch. Her actual touch. It was familiar and comforting and real! It was truly her. She’d found them. She’d found her way back to her and now they’d both escape together.
Past her sister she heard Nikolai’s distant voice shouting out to her, but he seemed so distant, so inconsequential compared to her sister finally being with her.
Luna tightened her grip on Abla’s shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. Or so she thought. But then she saw the glint of something red.
“Luna no!” Nikolai screamed.
Luna pulled her sister towards her and plunged her crimson dagger into her gut. Alba gasped in pain and shock, locking eyes with her sister once more. As the tears welled up she now could no longer recognize the look in Luna’s eyes.
She didn’t even know why she’d seemed so normal to her at first. Perhaps she’d just been so desperate to find her, for things to go back to what they used to be, that she’d become blind to the truth. For what she saw in Luna’s eyes now was nothing but deranged frenzy.
Luna pulled the knife out and plunged it back into her sister's stomach. And again and again, rapidly over only a couple of seconds.
Nikolai turned and ran towards them. He wasn’t acting on any kind of strategy or logic. He simply acted.
The boy smacked the blunt end of his cleaver into the side of Luna’s head, knocking her into the wall with immense force. Alba stumbled backwards, clutching her stomach. He could already see entrails beginning to spill out of her stab wounds.
Nikolai reached out to her as she collapsed to the floor and began frantically pulling her back. But Luna quickly got up to her feet and grabbed her sister’s leg with one hand and lifted her dagger with the other.
Luckily, at that moment, the conglomerate pushed itself into the corridor and reached for the closest thing to it, which was Luna. Numerous bloodstained arms and legs wrapped themselves around her and Nikolai could see the wheels rapidly turning in her head. She might have given into her bloodlust but she wasn’t animalistic like the other creatures they had encountered. Warlings seemed to maintain higher cognitive faculties when they succumbed to the frenzy.
So instead of continuing her attacks against her sister, she let go of Alba’s leg and instead turned her attention to the monster, stabbing and slashing it repeatedly. Nikolai stumbled back for a moment but then quickly dragged Alba away. He could hear her weak whimpering as she began to process what had happened to her.
“Hold on, I’m gonna get you someplace safe!” he said right as he looked down the hallway and saw two feral beasts emerging from an open doorway. “Shit!”
In a panic he veered off into a side room only to discover that it led to a downward stairwell. Nikolai had no interest in going deeper into the wing but he had no options.
“Hold on!” he said as he began dragging Alba down the stairs.
He could hear her crying out in pain but he couldn’t afford to stop now.
After a couple of near disastrous stumbles they reached the bottom of the stairs and were met with a long corridor with a singular security door at the end. Nikolai pulled Alba as swiftly as he could, hearing the monsters approaching behind them.
Soon they reached the door and Nikolai pulled out the keys but…they didn’t fit.
In a panic Nikolai looked back and saw the two feral creatures rapidly descend the stairs behind them. He was out of options.
He then quickly opened up his bag and pulled out the bloodshot which, luckily, contained a fresh vial in it. He then placed it against Alba’s neck and pulled the trigger.
“Just hold on, Alba.” he said as he took a couple of steps forward and activated his weapon.
The fleshy horror embedded in the weapon drew upon his blood, feeding itself and opening up as it did. The pain was always intense and somehow, no matter how many times he activated the weapon, he never got used to it.
The two creatures rushed down the cramped hallway, their eyes glowing in the dark as their hungry jaws drew ever closer. Nikolai got into position and waited.
As the first creature reached him and wildly swung its claws at him, Nikolai dodged backwards, causing the monster to hit nothing but air. Without the expected resistance from a successful strike the creature was sent stumbling and struggling to maintain balance. Which is when Nikolai seized his moment.
He darted forward and swung the open cleaver into its torso. The blade and spikes dug deep into its flesh but then the arcane element of the weapon kicked in and the blade, in some strange sense, ate its way through the creature. In a flash of red the weapon suddenly emerged out the other side, having cloven the creature in two.
But just as victory seemed assured the other monster darted around its bisected comrade and swung its claws at Nikolai. But this time he was unable to dash out of the way and the creature, in one swift motion, slashed open his throat. He felt an alarmingly copious amount of warm blood begin to spill out of him.
Again he swung his cleaver but this time with reckless abandon, striking only the bricked wall. The creature had ducked under his blow and now rushed in for a second strike. This time its claws pierced his chest and the two fell backwards, tumbling to the floor and Nikolai losing the grip on his weapon in the process.
The creature slashed away at him two more times, blood splattering them both in waves, and then it leaned in over the helpless boy and bit into his neck.
Nikolai clenched his fists and pummeled them into the creature’s temple but he had lost so much blood that he barely had any strength left in him.
“No!” he heard Alba call out.
The mortally wounded alabaster girl had gotten up, limped the five or so feet between them and reached out in some feeble attempt to help. The creature swung and slashed her right arm and the girl fell limply beside them.
In this moment of terror the two looked at one another, two victims stuck in a nightmare. Each step they took seemed to only inexorably lead them deeper into this death spiral of horrors. Was this how they were always destined to die? In a dirty basement, torn to shreds by a rabid monster?
Alba’s eyes wandered until she saw the creature’s leg, which was close enough for her to reach.
Determination filled her heart. She wasn’t going to die here. She refused to.
Alba reached out, grabbing the creature’s leg and in one swift motion she pulled herself towards the creature and bit into its ankle.
Foul and disgusting blood filled her mouth as she forced her consciousness into the monster’s mind. There she found herself in a tempest of madness and whispers. Hundreds of thousands of voices telling it to kill and rip and tear and feed, a writhing guidance from a distant place that filled its conscious and unconscious mind.
Much like before, she weaved her web and commanded the creature to attack…itself.
Nikolai, barely alive, watched the creature sit up and clutch its head. Like it was wracked with some immense pain. It roared and screamed and wailed in pain before it began tearing the flesh off of its face.
Clawing, tearing and snarling they both watched as the monster ripped itself apart until there wasn’t anything left of its head but a severely disfigured stump of a neck. It then fell backwards where it twitched and gurgled in its death throes.
Alba used the last remaining strength she had to pull herself up to Nikolai’s face. His skin had gone pale and his eyes just stared blankly up at the ceiling.
“Nikolai…we have to get up…please…” Alba whimpered.
“I’m sorry…” Nikolai whispered. “...I’m…sorry I…”
The silence that followed was heartbreaking. Alba laid her head on his chest and cried as her consciousness began to slip away.
How had she been so naive as to think that they’d be able to escape? The world wasn’t kind enough to people like them to offer such a boon. They were always destined to die in a gutter.
Alba limply searched for Nikolai’s hand and once she found it she held it as tightly as she could.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t…get you…back home…”
Darkness slowly enveloped her and she felt herself sink into nothingness. A cold, dark and welcoming void that pulled her down into its abyssal depths.
She faintly heard a metallic clank and the sound of a door opening but she didn’t have the strength to even process it. She faintly felt her body being moved and knew she was probably being eaten by some new horror that had found her. She didn’t care. She couldn’t feel anything any more.
A voice called her name, echoing through her senses like some distant siren’s song. Was it her sister? Had her twin finally found her to finish the job?
“Luna…” she heard herself say before everything went black.
Alba came to consciousness slowly, vaguely becoming aware of the fact that she lay on a cold metal table. She tried to open her eyes but the eyelids felt so, so heavy.
“Luna?” she mumbled.
Her throat was parched and dry and she began coughing.
“Oh good, you’re awake.” she heard someone say. “Here, drink this water.”
She felt a glass be placed up to her lips and then refreshing cold water fill her mouth. The sensation was heavenly.
She drank and coughed some more but her throat felt a lot better. She opened her eyes only to find herself lying on a sterile medical table in some darkened subterranean room. On a table next to her she saw Nikolai lying unconscious. His wounds had been bandaged and he was hooked up to a couple of blood vials through rubber hoses. She herself was also being fed blood intravenously and her stomach and arm had also been bandaged.
“How…” was all she managed to say.
She looked up and found an older man sitting on a wooden chair between the two tables.
His skin was pale and wrinkled and his light brown hair was combed neatly to the side. On his nose rested round glasses that reflected the nearby candle light. He was wearing a rather unremarkable shirt and pants with a warm looking sweater vest over that. His shoes were the finest article of clothing he wore as they were made of fine leather and seemed barely stained.
“It was touch and go there for a while.” said the man in a kind and inviting voice. “You two had sustained such grievous wounds that I wasn’t sure you’d make it. Luckily I found you just in time and also had a fair amount of blood to donate.”
Abla regarded the man with curiosity. She didn’t recognize him and he didn’t look like one of the staff.
“Where are we?” she asked, suspiciously.
The man looked up at brick walls, concrete ceiling and the metal pipes that hung above.
“We’re in my personal lab. Or…at least the last one I have left. I don’t think there’s much left of my former workplace up above.” said the man sadly.
“Who are you?” asked Alba.
The man looked at her and smiled warmly.
“I’m not surprised you don’t remember. The drugs have that unfortunate side effect. We’ve met before. Plenty of times, actually. I’m Doctor Ian Fletcher Brimwall. Pleasure to meet you, for the first time, yet again.”
