Shudders

Chapter 18 - The Sleepover pt. 2

    Ki knew his other portal could be seen by the humans, so he carefully maneuvered it around and out of sight behind a crate full of burnt metal.

    One of the men pointed at the wall and argued that they have to fix it too. The wall had Ki's claws marks etched deep into the metal with some wires being exposed. It needed to be replaced but for some reason, the other guy disagreed. His reason being that they needed permission from the higher ups to open the wall. This caught Ki's attention. He saw another crate closer to the two and quickly maneuvered his little portal across the room between a woman's legs, past a man on break, and behind a crate with new metal boards sticking out.

"We need permission before we can tackle this part. This area of the room is sensitive."

"Well we can't just leave it like this! Besides, the demons are on the other side of the room. We aren't risking anything with opening this up!"

    The first man grumbled and started making his way out of the cell. "I'm gonna go get the right authority to open that wall. Don't touch it till I get back!"

    When the man was gone, the second guy rolled his eyes and went to open it anyways. First, he took some tool to lift one side of the metal then went to a random area on the wall and did some quick tapping that Ki couldn't keep up with. After that, the wall clicked and opened up, the metal wall scraping off as this unknown door slid inside the rest of the wall.

    Ki's eyes widened. This was how those Scientist bastards got in! He moved his portal once the man walked away to retrieve some pliers. The small portal zoomed into the mystery room before it could be seen.

    It entered a white hallway that turned both ways, left and right. Ki's portal looked right and the hall extended far down, maybe there were other cells connected to this mystery hall like his was. The portal turned left and it was met with the same sight. Ki looked down at the floor and noticed some railway-like tracks on the floor. 

    He chose to go down the left hallway and made sure that no one was around. Hopefully, he was able to explore enough before his distance limit wore out.

    As the portal traveled down the hall, Ki's idea of other cells being connected was true. He passed by other doors that led to cells with labels painted on the walls. T4, H7, Y12, and so on. As he passed a few, he could even hear some sounds of the demons who occupied those cells.

    He saw a door on the right wall come up and pushed his portal towards it. That's when the burning sensation in his hands started to happen, he was close to his limit.

    Ignoring the pain, Ki moved the portal to the window on the door and saw something he never would have thought to see. A large room with giant metal-like contraptions that lined up in rows with wires and some sort of cold steam emitting from them. Those Scientists he remembered being tortured by were walking around with clipboards and observing whatever was inside those giant box things. There were guards who wore more advanced armor than the two guards Angel and Davis and even masks that had some sort of filter on, similar to the Scientists. Ki watched as one Scientist tapped one of the boxes and wrote down something on their clipboard before doing the same to the next. What were they doing?

    A loud noise behind him made the demon jump. He turned his portal to face down the hall and saw a group of Scientists walking out from one of the cells.

    He quickly found a vent in the wall behind him and hurried over to slip his portal inside. He waited for them to pass by and debated if he should just cancel the portal, he's seen enough to tell Akai about. Maybe he found a new way out.

    The sound of wheels grinding on metal was heard then the sound of low growls. It got closer and closer until Ki could hear the Scientists speak through their speakers in their suits. He caught sight of wheels in those tracks on the floor and moved his portal enough to see a platform with a demon chained down to it. They stopped in front of the door and one of the Scientists went to mess with a touchscreen lock on the side. Ki was able to observe the demon long enough to tell that it was under heavy sedation. The demon was fully animal-like with large claws, a huge snout, multiple eyes that oozed some sort of phlegm, and greenish grey skin with some splats of black blood around his claws and mouth. 

    The door finally opened and the platform turned to enter. The platform rolled into the room and the Scientists followed close behind with some guards. When the door closed, Ki checked to see if the coast was clear and moved his portal back to the window.

    What he saw was... horrifying.

    About five guards stepped back from the platform and allowed the Scientists to take samples of the demon. Pieces of its skin, blood, the phlegm, an eyeball, everything they could get their creepy hands on. They placed all the samples into small vacuum sealed bags and went to put them in a container on a table. One of the Scientists waved a hand at the guards and they all lined up in a row with their guns raised.

    Ki's heart stopped as he watched them open fire on the unconscious demon, never stopping for a second. The bullets ripped into the demon's flesh and tore deep into his body to the point where there was no coming back from. Ki almost canceled his portal on accident from how shocked he was.

    The guards stopped shooting when the Scientists told them to stop. They lowered their guns and allowed the Scientists to take control of the demon once again. They pulled the platform over to a container that was luckily in Ki's sight. One of them went to a panel and must've pressed a button that made a door to a container open up. They positioned the platform to face the container and pushed one end up so the deceased demon went tumbling inside, its black blood smeared across the metal being the only remnant of what happened. It fell hard into the container with a sort of splash, clear liquid flying up from its impact. The Scientists then resealed the container and walked away while one remained at the panel to read whatever was showing up on it. After confirming something, the guards from before proceeded to wheel the container deeper into the room and out of sight. The portal backed away slowly from the window as Ki kept his eyes on the Scientists. His eyes looked up and he mistakenly caught a glimpse of two words etched into the wall in glowing red lights.

'The Hold.'

    Ki canceled his portal. He's seen enough.

    He stared into his now empty hands as he tried to comprehend what he had just witnessed. They killed that demon and put it into some metal box filled with a strange liquid then too if off somewhere. He remembered the week (Y/N) started working here and that she had mentioned someplace called 'The Hold'. He didn't think much of it because it just sounded like a timeout place for when demons got in trouble. But seeing it with his own eyes, he thought entirely different now.

'But they killed it. What were those containers filled with liquid for?' He brainstormed but he couldn't think of any good explanation. He couldn't ask (Y/N), she'll know that he snooped into areas he wasn't supposed to be in.

    This was gonna be on his mind for a while...