“It doesn't matter,” Jack said, “Just move as fast as you can.”
They rushed through the corridor Ren had come from. The foul stench of decay stayed close behind them, steadily creeping in the darkness.
Loyd, who was barely conscious, groaned as they arrived at the small opening to the stairwell.
“Hey.” Jack said, shaking Loyd awake. “You have to squeeze into a small space, and then walk up some stairs. Do you think you can do that?”
Loyd nodded slowly and looked warily at the narrow passage.
Ren went in first, then turned back and grabbed onto Loyd's arm, helping to pull him into the crevice. Loyd was thin enough that he easily fit.
Squeezing himself into the stairwell, Jack barely fit, but out of desperation he was surprised how thin he became and passed through.
The metal dagger clinked right behind Jack and the stench filled the air. The creature wheezed heavily and drooled out gobs of that foul liquid. Suddenly the dagger slashed against the wall where Jack had stood and the blade sparked from the impact.
Jack shined his light at the creature but it refused to enter the stairwell. Snarling, it paced back and forth.
Pushing himself past the last of the tight stones, Jack lept up the stairwell.
Chapter 12
Jack continued up the stairs, helping Loyd along, until they finally made it back to the top. Stepping into the building, into familiar territory, Jack closed shut the tall metal door silently hoping to never go back there.
Rain battered down on top the metal roof. Streams of water dripped in various places and soaked into the bare wood floor. Jack and Ren carried the exhausted Loyd and placed him on the only decent piece of soft carpet, and leaned him against the warped counter. Mekel was at the red painted door trying to remove the junk that blocked it off but stopped as soon as he saw them and quickly came over to help.
“What happened?” Mekel examined Loyd's wound. “So it was a wild animal? This looks like a claw mark.”
“Yeah it was, or something like that.” Jack glanced briefly at Ren. “I don't really know because it was so dark down there.”
“I checked all around and all the boards are tightly secured.” Mekel's face was solemn and worried, as if he had aged a few years. His suit's top part was halfway pulled down and tied around his waist. Sweat seeped through his white shirt on his back, his chest, and his arm pits. Pointing at the red door Mekel continued, “I believe the only exit is the red door that's blocked, which is probably why it's blocked.”
Loyd moved his head and then licked his dry lips. “Hello?” He said softly.
Mekel knelt at Loyd's side, “Yeah we're here, just hang in there.” Mekel looked at Jack. “There might be some water in the office. Either that or we can collect some from the water dripping down.”
Stepping into the office, Jack shined his light around, looking for water. But he wasn't in the office, he was back in the house from before, and he once again stood in front of the long dining table with the woman standing at the other end. Tears streamed down her face and dripped onto the table.
“So it's done?” She sobbed. “Is it finally over?”
“Yes.” Jack looked down at his hands, smeared with blood. “We've secured our future.”
“Did she suffer?” Her words trailed off into uncontrollable crying.
“Does it matter?” Jack said. “I did exactly what needed to be done.”
The woman vanished into the darkness and Jack was back in the office.
Mekel's light brown leather notebook lied on the desk in front of him. Jack picked it up and flipped through the pages. Scrawled into it's pages with a dark red ink were drawings of symbols similar to those etched on the door, along with strange letters and diagrams of contraptions.
Ren entered the office, stomping on the wood floor and startling Jack.
“Did you find water?” Ren stopped at the doorway.
Jack was too deep in thought and didn't reply. Blood rushed to his head and his stomach muscles tightened. Is Mekel behind any of this? What the fuck is this place?
Ren glanced at the open notebook in Jack's hand. “Is that Mekel's?” He asked. “I saw him scribbling into it while you guys worked.” Ren walked over and peered down into it. “That's strange, it's like those symbols on the door.”
Jack abruptly closed it. “Mekel had better give some answers.” Jack spoke through his clenched teeth as he tried to move past Ren.
But Ren blocked the way, pushing up against Jack's chest.
“Who are you going to get answers from?” Ren asked with his eyes fixated on Jack.
Even in his state of rage, Jack noticed that Ren's countenance had changed suddenly. No longer having a gentle, passive expression, Ren now wore the face of contempt.
“Mekel.” Jack said irritated and again tried to move past Ren.
Ren pushed back once more.
“Who's Mekel?” Now smirking, Ren continued to stare at Jack, something solely meant for intimidation.
“Mekel who's in the other room? Who do you think? What the hell is this?” Jack yelled. “Get out of my way now!”
Ren shoved Jack back into the desk hard enough that Jack fell to one knee. Even though Ren was a skinny guy, he overwhelmed Jack with a surprising hidden strength.
“Damn, you are crazier than I thought.” An awkward smile cracked across Ren's face. “There's nobody out there.” Ren snatched the notebook from Jack's hand and waved it around.
“OooOooOoo.” Ren teased Jack. “I got your notebook. What are you going to do about it?”
“Give it back.” Jack grunted as he got back on his feet. More blood rushed to his head infuriating him further. “And that's not my notebook, that's Mekel's goddammit.”
“Seriously.” Ren dropped his arms to his sides as an adult would with an unruly child. “You're going to play dumb with me?”
Jack was done talking. He lifted his clenched fists up and tilted his head forward, ready to attack. Ren pushed on a nearby file cabinet and rotated it away from the wall revealing a hidden tunnel.
“If you want it, come and get it!” Ren darted into the passageway.
Jack lunged at Ren and tried grabbing onto his collar but his fingers were too tight with anger that they simply punched at Ren's jacket. Ren vanished from sight and Jack hesitated for a moment at the entrance. The dark tunnel peered back, chilling his bones. There was something in the darkness. No, not something in it, it was the darkness.
Hanging at the edges of the tunnel was a barrier of eternal night, clawing ravenously at the beam from his flashlight. The perfect shadow incarnate, swaying like a dark cloak that draped the shoulders of death itself.
Just as soon as it appeared, the darkness subsided, vanishing back into the void without a trace, as if it had been the figment of an exhausted mind. Jack rubbed his eyes and tried to control his fear with silent curses about how fucked up this night has been. Possibilities rushed through his mind about what to do next.
Loyd shouldn't be left alone with Mekel because he may have something to do with all this, but if I go back to Loyd, Ren will definitely get away. And even if I did go back to Loyd, where could we go, we were trapped in here and there could be a secret way out that Ren knows. Catching Ren and retrieving that notebook is probably the best chance I have at figuring this out.
With that final thought in his mind, Jack ducked into the passageway and into the grasping shadows.
Chapter 13
Jack made his way through a winding small hallway, which then opened up to wider hallways and taller ceilings. The darkness was as thick as the stuffy mildew air. Along the sides were prison cells, similar to the ones before but this time the walls, floor, and ceiling were made of bricks rather than stones and the prison bars were newer and not decrepit. Hidden corners were everywhere and Jack began to believe he may have passed Ren somewhere. But Ren had been right in front of Jack, so there was no way he could hav
e disappeared like this, he had to be somewhere.
Disrupting Jack's fearful thoughts was a breaking noise, like hard plastic smashing against the bricks, echoing from a short distance away and around a corner. Becoming as quiet as he could, Jack shined his light away from where the noise came from. No sense in giving away his position.
Jack approached the corner with caution. A child's song box played a tune, which seemed familiar, but he focused on getting the jump on Ren. Jack leaped around the corner and into an open prison cell, but there was no one there.
The song box lied on the floor ringing out it's chime.
It's the same tune the little girl was humming from before. He remembered. Jack closed the song box with his foot, turning it off.
Behind Jack, the cell door slammed shut, rattling the metal frame. Jack spun around in terror.
“Gotcha!” Ren said with a big grin on his face, standing on the other side of the bars. He began running the notebook back and forth along the bars as if teasing a wild animal.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jack yelled.
“I'm doing what you did to her.” Ren yelled back.
“Did what to her? Who are you talking about?”
“Shut up!” Ren screamed. He hit the cage with the notebook. “You shut up! You took her from me and this is where you kept her.”
“I don't know who you're talking about?” Jack said, lowering his voice and putting his hands up. “If you let me out we can talk about this.”
“The girl, my little girl you took.” Ren's voice trailed off and became tearful. He shook his head. “Why did you take her? Huh? What did you do with her? What did you do with her body?”
“Hey, hey!” Jack said. “Calm down, This is all one big mistake.”
Ren laughed. “You are really unbelievable. Even after all this time. You know that the cops went over every inch of this land looking for her, but they never found her body. They only found her stuff and the blood, all that blood. We couldn't even have a proper burial.”
Jack looked at Ren silently, remembering the vision of the little girl from before. Ren lifted up the notebook and threw it between the bars, hitting Jack in the chest. Falling to the floor, the journal flopped open and revealed pages with the strange symbols.
“Did you do some weird ritual with her?” Ren said, almost crying. “Please just tell me, I need to know.”
Jack looked down at the notebook, shining his flashlight at it. “I don't know anything about this.” He said softly, shaking his head.
Ren backed off from the bars and paced.
“Wait, wait, just listen to me for a second.” Jack continued. “This notepad doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Mekel.”
“Oh no, not this Mekel character again.” Ren complained, throwing his hands in the air. “You keep mentioning Mekel. Mekel is a figment of your imagination. Mekel isn't real. There's no such person!” Ren rubbed his forehead in irritation.
“What?” Jack furrowed his eyebrows.
“They wanted to execute you.” Ren nodded his head and his lip quivered. “Yeah, that's right, but I couldn't let you off that easily. That's why I planned your escape from jail, and now I have you exactly where I want you. You made this place to hold all your victims, including my little girl. I don't care about all the others you took, but you will tell me about her, one way or another.”
“Look, look, I came here in a van, with Mekel and Loyd.” Jack said. “Loyd! He needs help right now, he's upstairs bleeding out from a wound in his leg. He's just a young man with his whole life ahead of him.”
“Who's Loyd?” Ren said in exasperated disbelief. “Oh please, not another imaginary person of yours.” Ren pointed his light at Jack's eyes.
“Loyd, the young guy who works for me.” Jack said. “He came with me to this place tonight.”
“Tonight?” Ren shook his head. “You just came here tonight?”
“Yes.” Jack said, his breath exhausted.
Ren leaned in close to the bars. “You've been here for about five years dummy.”
“What? That's not true.”
“It is true. Man, you know what.” Ren sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “You can go ahead and be crazy all you want. But I'm leaving you in this cage for as long as it takes. Until you tell me the truth about my daughter. I mean, just look at your clothes, they're all ragged and worn out. You've been sitting here rotting away.”
Ren kicked the bars, rattling them and the sound echoed down the corridor. Water dripped from cracks in the ceiling at a steady pace.
“It's really pouring tonight.” Ren said. “Almost as much tears you've caused families to cry. Maybe it'll flood so that your miserable existence would end.” Ren walked away and vanished around the corner.
“Hey!” Jack yelled. “Don't leave me in here.” Breathing heavy, he looked down at his tattered work suit. Holes were worn through at his knees and elbows.
Looking around his cell, there was a small mattress heavily stained and flattened with age, pushed into the corner.
The flashlight flickered as darkness crept into the cell. That terrible darkness now encircling him, cold and withering. Water dripped from the ceiling and small puddles formed.
Staring at the metal bars locking him in this cage, Jack's heart pounded, matching the rhythm of the water drips.
Chapter 14
Frustrated and confused, thoughts spun through Jack's mind. Loyd lied upstairs badly wounded, the ghostly little girl, the visions of the woman in the house, the foul mutilated creature, and this basement with winding corridors. Underneath this whirlwind of thoughts, a nagging feeling pulled at him, that something was missing; a thought, a memory, maybe an item. A feeling he had since the very start of the night, back in the van on the road, but pushed to the back of his head.
What happened tonight? It started with Mekel.
Mekel had called Jack a few weeks ago wanting inside access to disgusting death scenes, mentioning something about a book. Seemed a likely story, similar to how the local newspaper got an interview about the business of 'cleaning up death', as the journalist put it which also became the title of the article.
Tonight, Jack had picked Mekel up at a hotel, a cheap one, not the type right off the highway but one further back, tucked between a burger joint and a storage facility. Then Jack swung by Loyd's place to pick him up.
What about Loyd, could he be trusted?
Jack only knew the kid for about a month. Can't remember ever seeing his folks, Loyd always stood on the corner of the street and waited to be picked up and put to work.
About a month ago he walked into the office with an application in hand, didn't have any references, but looked like a hard worker and seemed excited to start.
Disrupting Jack's thoughts, a little bit down the corridor was a light patter of feet. Someone, or something, headed this way.
Jack gripped his keys between his knuckles and prepared himself.
Holding a dim, flickering candle, a girl appeared just outside the cage. It was the little girl from before but she had aged a few years, being taller and with longer hair.
“You!” Jack said exasperated. “Who are you?”
“There's no time.” She said with a firm voice. She knelt to the floor, reached between the bars and snatched the journal. “You won't need this anymore.” She backed away before he could react.
“What is going on here? You can't possibly be the same girl from before.” Jack said.
“Please, daddy, I know you don't remember, but you need to save us. You need to finish it. Remember that the darkness lies. Catch.” She tossed something at Jack through the bars and Jack caught it. It was a old iron wrought key. Jack looked back at the girl but she was gone, no footsteps or any sound. Consumed by the darkness.
The key unlocked the bar doors and they slid open.
Rushing back the way he came, Jack remained cautious of all the corners by swinging his light back and
forth, though it barely penetrated the thick black air. There was no sign of Ren.
Did he come back this way?
Pushing the old dusty file cabinet out of his way, Jack crawled back into the office. The air felt different than it was before, as if it was settled and undisturbed. Rain beat on the metal roof like a thousand fingers tapping at it.
There was no sign of Loyd or Mekel, nor of any blood, sponges or buckets.
Suddenly swinging open, the front double metal doors shook as they hit against the walls. Rain gusted inside, sprinkling much of the room. The chain that held the doors was gone. Clutching his flashlight, Jack ventured outside.
Chapter 15
Rain poured over Jack, drenching him in a matter of seconds. Jack's boots sank into the muddy, sodden grass.
Good thing everything I'm wearing is waterproof.
The van was where he had left it, but it wasn't how he had left it. The windows on the passenger side were cracked and the side mirror was missing. Leaning crooked against the van was the sliding door that had fallen off it's track. The back was completely cleaned out.
Jack shined his light at the wheels, but they were gone. The van was propped up on concrete blocks.
Thunder boomed overhead and lightning flashed, revealing the surroundings for a moment. Nearby trees swayed in the wind and rain. The police car was still parked near the dilapidated shed that housed the generator.
Moving around to the front of the Van, Jack noticed that the hood was slightly ajar. Lifting the hood all the way up, Jack gasped. The engine was missing.
No, this isn't possible.
Doubt entered his thoughts like a cold chill. Jack slammed the hood down.
What if Ren told the truth?
Rain rolled down his face and it dripped off the tip of his nose, pouring in a steady stream. Thunder boomed once again, but no light flashed this time, snuffed out by the black clouds.
Jack couldn't believe it. He knew he came here just tonight. It wasn't possible that couldn't be true. He refused to believe his eyes. This was trickery of some sort.
The rain suddenly ceased falling down on top of him, but continued falling everywhere else. Something loomed just above him.
Pointing his flashlight upward, the rain revealed the creature's shape. A formless thing without features, a body, or a face. Just an outline of a shadowy behemoth darker than the night surrounding it. Like a shadow cast from a horrendous creature that couldn't be seen.