FOURTEEN - "DEAD BY DAWN!"
"Run!"
"Dead by dawn..."
Bloodied boots padding on the floor.
The choked gasps of a family unit.
The clanging of a rifle in untrained arms.
"Dead by dawn!"
The Monde Apartment complex was a light with an array of sounds never known to its decaying walls before. It had heard some bloodshed in its time, spilled between arguing lovers, seen a fight or two, but it had never truly witnessed even a morsel compared to what the Kandar demon had brought beneath its roof. Anguish, and suffering, and pain, and screams and an army of the dead. If hell had risen up from its place in the ground and found home upon the earth, then it was the 14th floor.
Typically, out of all the floors, those who lived on the 14th had always been the friendliest. They were neighbours, friends, even family in some instances. There was Gabe and his two younger brothers, Mr Fonda and his cat, Ellie and the kids, and Natalie and David. They'd always worked as a unit; Ellie would bake cookies for all the kids, Gabe was there to aid in everyone's worries, Mr Fonda was the resident handyman - despite his crankiness and complaints no task was ever too large, Natalie and David were the floors babysitters, always happy to take the kids to a movie or over to the park - anything to get them out of their parents hair, besides the two couldn't have kids of their own since the accident, so this had become the next best thing. They were unified in all aspects of life, and that night paid no difference. Only this time they were unified in death too.
Danny couldn't help but think back to those times at the sight of them all dead, torn apart and clawing their way towards him.
"Danny come on!" Beth pulled at his shirt, dragging him into the elevator.
The doors began to close as the four of them held their breath, Lyds raised the rifle, shaking, waiting, but the doors only reopened again.
"What the fuck... What do we do?"
"They're getting closer!"
"I can hold them off-"
"Are you fucking crazy?" Danny gripped her arm. "No!"
Perhaps she was crazy. At least that was the way Lyds felt, after so long, after three years of unrequited, and a whole night of torture, Lydia Greystone honestly felt insane. Because for the first time in her life, when she looked at Danny, she knew he'd been right about it all.
And those feelings hit her harder than Ellie's knees to her ribs. It winded her and almost made her lose grip of the gun.
Danny was right when he said they needed to stop lying to each other. He was right about a lot of things. Right about being twin flames and loving her and even right about stupid fucking Brian. He'd had it all pegged right from the start.
That wasn't all she knew either, for she understood she didn't have to hide anymore, not from the deadites and not from him, not when she'd spent the entire night baring her soul to him. She'd only ever bared her soul for him.
"Dead by dawn!"
And she'd just have to bare it a little more.
"Danny?"
The boy didn't answer, instead he tried ever so hard to pull her into him but the girl wouldn't move, she could only take aim as the deadites encroached.
"Danny!"
"Why won't it close?" Beth cried
Kassie however, was one step ahead as always, and climbing on her knees she tore her mothers keys from where they'd become lodged in the doors and just as suddenly as they'd thought the deadites had them, the elevator door slammed shut.
Finally! They were fucking shut.
"Jesus fuck!" Danny cursed. He didn't care for his best friends words he simply pulled her in around the neck and laid a chaste kiss to the top of her head.
"Where do we go from here?" He uttered once more, his back against the elevator wall.
Lyds didn't quite know what to say.
"W-What is that dripping? Is that blood?" Beth mumbled
"Why aren't we moving?" Kassie slammed on the buttons
"Oh my god..."
That was when they saw it, the blood flowing from within the walls, pouring in on them, filling the space so quickly that it reached their ankles. It was putrid and a deep viscous red, staining everything in its wake, and their bodies were no exception.
"Beth!"
"No way out! No way out!" The deadites called.
"Hold onto me!" Danny hissed, gripping one of the overhanging wires from the elevator ceiling the same way his Aunt and Kassie had.
"Danny!"
"I said hold on-"
"Danny!" L yelled.
He had to know. She had to be honest.
"What?"
"I-" She hesitated. It was now or never. "I only dated Brian to make you jealous!"
"What?"
"I wanted you! I-I think I always did."
"Lyds now isn't the time!"
"Auntie Beth!"
"No it is! Because if we're gonna drown then I need you to know-"
"It worked." He pulled himself up further, pulling her in. The blood was at their shoulders now. "More than worked!"
"Did you mean it? When you said you loved me?" Lyds finally asked.
Danny could only stare dumbfounded as the blood found it's way to his neck, and his mother and sister's hands began to creep in from the open ceiling grate. He wanted to tell Lyds, he wanted to spill everything there and then but he couldn't, there simply wasn't enough time, he understood, and so he wrapped his legs around her and pushed her above him as his head went under.
"Hold your breath!" He begged through a mouthful of blood.
And just like that, Lyds went under too.
Everything was red for a few short moments, not black as you'd expect, it wasn't as easy to close your eyes beneath the surface as you'd think, no, that was what Lyds found. Blood was thicker than water, quite literally and so every movement felt forced, every gasp for air was agonising, and the rush of the substance against her wounds was literal hellfire. That was, until the elevator chord broke and suddenly they were falling, falling so quickly with such force that they hit the ceiling first, then, with Danny still desperately trying to hold her up, they hit the floor just as they reached the basement level, and that was when the blackness came.
Unconsciousness actually.
"Danny?"
When the Greystone girl came back around, everything was quiet, there was no rushing of blood, no cries for help, no, no anything. There was just her, in a bloodied puddle with the same red in her eyes, hardly able to see. She sat up slowly, clutching her ribs and fought to rub the blood from her eyes, and to push it from her tastebuds; she spat what she could on the ground.
"Dan?" She whispered once more, finding him anywhere but right beside her.
He was nowhere.
Kassie, however was lay to the left of her, silent and unmoving, just as bloodied as she was.
"Kassie?" She called out. But there was no one to answer, and so she quickly dragged herself across the floor, as hastily as she could, until she finally had Kassie lay in her arms.
"You're not breathing..." The blonde mumbled in realisation, shaking her. "You're not breathing Kass. Kass? Kassie!"
She shook her and shook her, but there was nothing.
She beat on her chest, begging her heart to beat, but still, nothing.
She breathed air inside her lungs, but not even a cough was to be heard. Nothing.
"Come on Kass... come on." She cried woefully. "We still need you."
Suddenly, Beth, from where she lay in the corner, shot up from the ground, coughing and spluttering. She too was alive, but if they didn't figure something out soon, only the two of them would be left.
Danny missing, and Kassie dead.
"Lyds?" Beth called out weakly, the woman on her knees, shaking, covered head to toe in red.
"I don't know why she won't wake up." Lyds answered, holding back a sob. Kassie lay limp in her arms, and with every second her body felt heavier and heavier - another burden to bear.
Beth was crawling to her then, fast, taking Kassie into her own arms before the weight could grow too heavy.
"I tried! But she won't wake up - Beth she isn't waking up!"
"S'okay - Kassie? Kassie!"
"I tried-"
"Am I dead?" Kassie's weak voice suddenly mumbled, it seemed Beth had a magic touch.
"No. No you're not dead."
"Where's Danny?" Kassie asked.
Dead.
It was the burn of Kass's small grip on her wrist that drilled the idea into Lydia's head. Danny. In amongst losing Kassie she'd almost forgotten about him - how could she ever forget about him?
"I don't-"
Then, almost as if on queue, under dimly lit flickering lights, the never ending opening doors of the elevator shrieked open once more, and amidst the bloody pool upon its bloody floor, lay a beaten Danny Bixler shrouded against its even bloodier wall.
His head hung and eyes shut heavy.
How could she ever forget him?
"No."
No!
Dead?