The Last Winter

Saturday: Disturbed Occupants (35)

Nelia
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I hear a loud crash somewhere down the hall we just left.

The screening room.

The howler must've broken through the door!

The demonic high-pitched cry echoes off the walls, joined by other howls nearby. There's no telling how many are coming.

Nolan screams, and I almost knock right into him. Just a few meters ahead, a howler is staring at us from its eerie position on the ceiling of the hallway. It gives us a threatening hiss.

Michal lifts up his pistol, but I quickly jerk his arm down.

"Save it!" I snap, pushing him around another bend to the left. "We can run!"

We enter a narrow hallway with cell doors on either side. Rusty iron bars glint in the dim light, and I get the faint sense that we just stumbled into a prison.

"Maybe it's the psych ward--for those who are a danger to other patients," Nolan suggests.

"Who cares!" I say quickly, pushing him ahead of me. "We gotta go!"

The hall ends with some sort of office room. But with the echoing howls just behind us, I know we can't risk turning back. We have to get past the cells.

Oriana screams, and the terrifying sound of a howler screams with her.

"Oreo!" Nolan shouts, but he backs away when he sees the long gnarly hands appear from between the bars and grab my sister's neck.

She's pulled against the bars with a violent jerk. Fresh blood gushes out from her wound, and she gives a louder scream of agony.

I push Nolan out of the way as the sounds of howls fill the hall. Everywhere, iron bars rattle against their frames as the disturbed occupants awake from their slumber.

"Oreo, hold on!" Michal shouts, pulling on her arm, but the howler has a death grip on her neck and shoulder.

It pulls her just close enough to sink its teeth right in the same area she was bitten before.

"NO!" I cry out as my sister's scream pierces my ears.

I start hacking away with my kitchen knife, and to my utter relief, the creature let's go after two slashes.

Then Nolan screams, and I turn around just in time to see him lifted off of his feet and pulled back against the bars behind him.

The howler in the cell has its long bony fingers wrapped tightly around his throat. His scream is cut short as he quickly struggles for breath, his feet kicking in the air.

"NOLAN!" Michal cries out, again lifting his pistol.

I lower his arm just as fast. "Stop! You know you can't stop it with a bullet!"

Somewhere through the chorus of demonic howls and rattling bars, we hear the sounds of Nolan undeniably choking. He's digging his nails into the hands around his neck, struggling to tear himself free as he slams his heels against the bars. His face is flushing beet-red.

The howler right behind him is standing on two feet, its face just mere inches from Nolan's. A sadistic grin spreads across its thin lips, revealing rotten sharp teeth.

A claw reaches out to me from the next cell, but I quickly tear myself away.

"I need to get Oriana out of here!" I shout so I can be heard over the howls.

I shove my knife toward Michal to take, and then I quickly swoop low to get a hold of my sister's left arm, who is crumpled in a heap on the floor, trying not to be touched by the reaching howler hands. "Come on!" I tell her, but my grip slips on the fresh blood that is spilling from her open wound.