A/N: You guys... Writing this chapter gave me so many chills. Warning there is Torture in this chapter, including that of a child.
Elliot and I stepped from the Elevator and onto the cold concrete floor. Him leaning heavily against me for support so he would not topple over. Though it seemed he might be regaining a little bit of strength.
As soon as our feet were off of the elevator platform it closed and started rising up again. Leaving us in the long hallway to face an enemy whose face and name had been unknown to us for as long as they had been known.
For a long moment, the two of us stood against each other in the long hallway. Staring at the wall of darkness at the end that was waiting for us.
Just what exactly was on the other side? Would we face my framer immediately? Or would they make us wander through the dark hallways, our paranoia growing with each and every second?
I squeezed one of Elliot's large hands, and he squeezed mine back. Then we started limping onwards. There was nowhere else we could go. The elevator would not move for us.
With each step we took the closer the wall of darkness came, and the bigger it seemed to get, the more my anxiety rose. My heartbeat was so loud and fast that even Elliot heard it. Giving me another comforting squeeze with one of his paws.
My eyes were wide to catch anything I could as we entered through the wall of darkness. The concrete below us seemed to get considerably closer and a chill ran through me.
All of the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck were standing on end as goosebumps appeared all over me. I held onto Elliot as if he was a beacon of light in a cold sea of darkness. Unknown creatures lurking in the depths around us just waiting to gobble us up.
After walking for a minute in the long dark hallway we entered a decently sized room. There was a single flickering light that helped us see. There was nothing but more doorways in the abandoned room. The walls were white and grey with decay.
On the wall ahead of us was a single picture. As we approached I noticed that it was an old picture of Charlie Destiny and me from our freshman year in high school.
The three of us were in front of the school and we were all smiling brightly. My face had been furiously scratched out with something sharp and Destiny and Charlie both had red hearts around them.
I lowered my eyebrows with confusion. Staring at the picture in bewilderment. What... what on earth did this mean. I knew what me being scribbled out meant? But why did Destiny and Charlie have hearts around them?
I remember Destiny telling me that my framer had made her lie to the cops to get me arrested. In return, her mother would get to keep her life. Did they do something to Charlie too?
I continued to hold onto Elliot as we entered another room. This one had two pictures it it, each on a different wall. One was of me and Charlie after school one day. The other was of Destiny and I at a small cafe in town. Again in both pictures, my face had been cut out with red hearts around the others.
I was already on edge, but now I was completely freaked out. It all was so creepy, I did not understand what it meant. I looked up at Elliot and he blinked down at me with his half-lidded eyes.
I softened my gaze for him, and he almost seemed to smile. Just being in his hold made me feel so much safer. As if the boogeyman in the shadows could never touch me no matter how they tried.
I decided to go back to the previous room and try the other doorway that had been there. We just found the same thing there. More pictures of me and the other two. The same thing going on. My face scratched out and theirs with hearts.
The silence in each room only made everything so much worse. It was not like the silence in the dark forest. Here everything was completely dead and stagnant. As if Elliot and I were in a whole new dimension and nothing could ever penetrate the silence.
I so desperately wanted to say something to break it. But I did not want to just in case my framer did not know exactly where we were.
We went on to the next room in the labyrinth basement. This room had even more pictures. Only they were more personal. Pictures of each of our families. And us sleeping at night.
Again we hurried on. Each room had two doorways to go through, but no matter where we were there were always pictures of me and my old friends.
After probably the seventh room there was something different. Instead of any pictures, there was an old television that flickered on to static when we entered.
The two of us remained in the doorway. Looking at the device with large eyes and brows furrowed in confusion and shock. The television continued to flicker in static for a few seconds before a VCR next to it clicked and suddenly a video was playing.
No thoughts came to my mind as I watched the video play. I could focus on nothing else for a moment, not even the giant holding on next to me as a person came into focus.
The person was tied and gagged to a chair. They were screaming for help and mercy behind the gag, their words being muffled and incoherent.
tears streamed down their face as they sobbed and I recognized the person as Destiny's mother. My eyes widened in horror as a gloved hand came into view, stroking her face as the woman turned away with clenched eyes.
The hand disappeared for a moment and I flinched as it came back a second later with a knife. Stabbing mercilessly into the woman's flesh as she screamed in pain. She struggled in her bindings but could not escape, her screams going unheard to anyone as she was tortured to death.
Her screams were so filled with pain, it was unlike anything I had ever witnessed before. It shook me down to my very soul. Making my hatred for this unknown person only grow all the more.
She died alone in a dark room with no one to hear her. The gloved hand stroked her bloody face again. Raged breathing could be heard as the camera shook slightly. Then it cut off and went back to static.
I did not realize my mouth had dropped open. I could not tear my eyes away from the old television. I felt nothing for a long solid minute. I remembered this woman from my childhood, she was always so loving and caring when Destiny and I would have sleepovers.
I heard Elliot huff next to me, leaning down to nuzzle the side of my face in a plea for me to come back to him. I slowly closed my eyes, letting a single tear fall down my cheek.
I turned my head so that our foreheads were together, our noses slightly knocking. I slowly opened my eyes and gazed into his worried ones. gave him a strong look. I would mourn for this woman later, for now we had to keep moving.
We continued on through more and more rooms. Rach with more pictures than the last. It was as if this maze of rooms would not end. As if were stuck in an eternal loop in purgatory.
I never let go of Elliot and we froze in another doorway as we came into another room with a static television. Or did we just go in a big circle and go back to the same room.
I knew the answer when another tape player clicked in and another video started. It was the same thing, but different. It focused on a person bound and gagged to a chair just like Destiny's mom. But the camera zoomed out and gave us a view of another bound person. It was a man and a woman.
I recognized these people too. These were Charlie's parents. I pressed my lips together as I stared at the TV with a glare. Tears blurring my vision as I watched the gloved hand reach out and stroke their faces. I could not tear my eyes away from the scene though I knew what was coming.
Just like the last one, a knife came out and gutted the mom as the dad watched and screamed in horror. He was forced to watch his wife die in agony before him and then he was next. his muffled screams sounding in the speakers.
Elliot bent down again, nuzzling his face to mine, his long black curls falling around me as he growled out. I snapped out of my angered trance, turning my face to his again and keeping it there as he led me out of the room before the tape finished.
My legs shook underneath me, and I let out a light sob. I knew these people, they did not deserve any of that. I kept my forehead to Elliot as we walked on.
I was so scared right now. I had been terrified out of my mind before, but nothing. Absolutely NOTHING like this before. Not even anything from the Asylum, or when the twins were chasing me.
We knew this person was waiting for us, and they were mentally torturing me by showing me people that I knew die horrible deaths.
We continued to move on and it was still the same. More and more pictures in every single room. My heart stopped as we came into another television room. Who was it going to be this time?
I gasped out in rage and sorrow as the video appeared on the screen. Two people again were tied to chairs. One was already dead in the corner, and one was tied and gagged to the floor, screaming in fear.
My parents were the ones in the chairs. My sister was dead from her broken neck in the corner, and my brother was tied and gagged at the floor.
Again, I could not move as I watched the gloved hand reach out and stroke each of their faces in turn. Including my dead sisters. My breathing got heavier and heavier, tears falling out of me like a waterfall as the knife came out and slit my parent's throats.
They whimpered as the life slowly drained out of them. Looking at each other, then at their son as they died in the chairs. The camera slowly turned towards my screaming brother as he struggled in his bindings, the unknown person getting closer and closer to them.
They stopped in front of him, looking slowly down at him for a long, long, long moment. My brother stopped screaming and struggling, looking up at the person with wide, tearful eyes.
Then, out of nowhere, he started being aggressively stabbed over and over again in the chest. Screaming in struggling out. I let out a cry of torture as I watched.
Suddenly, Elliot let go of me and charged over to the TV. Punching it with his fist and causing it to fall over and shatter. Stopping the gruesome and cruel video. I Gasped out sobs as I looked at the giant. He turned to me and whimpered as he saw my tormented state.
I took a step towards him, reaching my arm out so I could embrace him, and he did the same. That was when the hidden trapdoor at his feet sprung open and he fell into the darkness below.