Silence

Chapter 5

I woke up to the same smell that was there the night before. It made it harder for me to get out of bed, but the growling of a nearby creature had woken me up. Now sitting up, I rubbed my eyes and looked around the room. The vines with purple flowers were still there, and I already knew they were the source of the smell.

They had grown so quickly in front of me, it was so hard to think that they were actual plants. Wait. What if it wasn't an actual plant, but some sort of creature I didn't know about? The thought danced in my head for a few minutes, before another creature sounded. I needed to get moving.

I opened the door and headed out, being careful not to get ambushed by any wandering creatures. I was going out to map out the rest of the building and decided to explore the third floor some more. I headed up the stairs and went down the familiar halls.

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"You've come back," a voice said behind me, making me turn around swinging my ax on instinct. It was caught by a familiar pail hand, I looked up and it was Blackened. His head was tilted slightly to the side as if questioning my motives.

"Didn't she tell you not to come here?" he asked.

I nodded slightly, pulling my ax away from him, but keeping it ready in case he decided to kill me.

"Yet you decided to do it, anyway," he stayed quiet for some time, then looked ahead. "I wonder why she finds you so special. She usually ignores everyone else."

I looked at him, confused, but he wasn't paying attention to me. He instead began stalking towards me, I raised my ax preparing to swing at him in case he decided to attack. Instead, he made a chuckling sound and stopped.

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you, I've already said that. Follow me, nothing will attack you if they see me."

He resumed his walk, expecting me to follow. I stayed still for a second, thinking it over. If he attacked me, even with my weapons I wouldn't really have a chance, but the voice wasn't saying anything so I decided I could trust him.

He was walking down the halls and the further we got the fewer vines I saw, then the walls were beginning to be covered in a black tar substance. The same substance I found mixed in with Screecher's blood.

"I apologize for the mess, it gets hard to stay tidy when you're focused on staying alive," the Blackened said.

He must have seen the look on my face when I stepped on the tar. I pushed my hair back, embarrassed to have offended him. I decided to focus on where we were headed, and what creatures I saw.

As he said, nothing decided to attack us, but every once in a while I would hear a snarl, or growl coming from a creature I couldn't see. I did see the occasional black creature covered in tar, staring at us with white blank eyes. Some had tar pouring off of them, others seemed to be completely smooth.

He then stopped.

"You should have your little toys ready, these little pests act too fast for me to be able to stop them."

I did as he said and readied my ax, prepared to go on swinging. He prepared to push open a larger metal door, but just before he could a temporarily forgotten female voice piped up.

"You know you shouldn't bring her here," she said. "She could be killed, she isn't familiar with this half of the asylum."

He snarled at the voice. "What? So you want her to stay in you half? Where everything is all happy and nice?" he reasoned back, then chuckled as if it was some sort of joke. "I've seen her in danger more times than you think, nothing is going to attack her while I'm here."