The candles fading light shown into the room to reveal a single occupant chained to the wall with shackles on its wrists and ankles. Pictures of concentration camp victims in couldn't be compared to the twisted, skin and bones figure. Discoloured flesh cleaved tightly to its frame and left a living skeleton; a monster who pulled and snarled the heavy chains taut with his struggles.
Despite his appearance, there were vestiges of a human being. The thing's eyes were wide and blue- blue like Greg's and in surprise, they were similar to Shawn's. It's hair was also a lot like Greg's; thick and blonde. It hung in snarled tendrils nearly to his shoulders.
Shawn leaned against the doorjamb and stared critically at the monster. I stayed in the corridor, unwilling to cross the threshold, the bitter taste of disbelief and fear in my mouth.
"Let me go," The monster bellowed, his hollow face contorted in rage. "Ethan!" He stopped as his eyes, so like Greg's, landed on me. He hissed and bared his teeth, long inhuman fangs that shone in the candle light.
A strange cry escaped my lips and I had to hide behind Shawn. This could not be real! Shawn seemed oblivious to the horror of the ghoul, very unaware of the monstrosity of its all as he introduced us like dinner guests. "Anya, this Michael, and Michael, I assume you know who Anya is?.
Michael. How could it be him? Greg's brother, who had gone missing for quiet good some time, not years, and it would have taken years for a person to turn into the walking skeleton before me. No, this had to be someone else.
Michael snarled a reply, his voice dry and raspy, "what are you upto now, Shawn? Damn Greg for saying we could trust you!"
"I am not up to anything Michael!" Shawn quickly responded. "She is here to see the killer of her fiancée!"
"Then tell her to have a good look. I'll kill her next! If it were not for her and you..."
"I'll never free you Michael, and you know it!" Shawn cut him off.
The monster's words left me uncertain. If he wasn't Michael then why did he mention his brother, Greg? Why did he as much as admit to have killed him? In the shape he was in, how could he even still talk, let alone pull on the chains with such inhuman strength?.
"I didn't say his brother was human, did I?"
But if not really human, what then?
"Even if I release you, what will Ethan do with you?". Shawn continued. "He will come for me", the demon hissed, a malevolent smile on his face, his thin lips pulled back from fangs.
"We shall see!" Shawn looked at me over his shoulder. "Have you seen enough?" I nodded, unable to speak. The thought of a brightly lit gas station full of reality seemed very far away.
We stepped out into the hallway and Shawn pulled the door after. "I apologize for the shocking introduction, but it seemed the best way to make you believe me". He stopped Suddenly, his body rigid, as if he was listening.
I strained, but I couldn't hear anything except Michael's sudden coarse laughter..
"I told you they would come for me!"
"God damn it!" Shawn cursed. "Shut up you fool creature!" He pulled me close enough to hiss into my left ear, "there is someone here. It maybe nothing but it could be Ethan. He might be here to find his son. You will stay here, do you get it?"
"No!" I cried helplessly. The insane scenario had descended into the depths of madness. If a coven of vampires were really attacking the house, how did Shawn and Michael know? I hadn't hear anything. Maybe Shawn was a lunatic, but I would rather be with him than alone in the damp corridor with that monster on the other side of the door.
I tried to explain that as Shown shoved what was left of the candle into my hand and pulled away from me to hurry towards the main room of the basement. I attempted to follow but as I reached the door when he slammed it in my face and locked it loudly.
The hallway seemed to shrink in on me. The darkness became a tangible object that could reach out and strangle my spine in a thin, chilling trickle. I backed against the stone wall and stared into the blackness, trying to ignore Michael's muffled cries.
The darkness became a tangible object that could reach out and strangle me at any moment. Fear choked me and sweat ran down my spine in a thin, chilling trickle. I backed against the stone wall and stared into the blackness trying to ignore Michael's muffled cries. I shuddered. If that thing had once been Greg's brother, then something had happened to him: something to make him not human, because he wasn't human anymore. I could feel that in the depths of my soul with a sickening certainty. My skin crawled at the thought of his nearness and my whole being cried out that he was something no one was ever meant to see, something never meant to walk the earth at all.
"Not real, not real, not at all!" I whispered to myself, screwing my eyes shut. I was just the sells marketer in their company, all I knew was to market the products produced by Rics Lab Tech. I wasn't a heroine in any of the produced horror movies, or in any book or whatsoever, but this one was real. My new manager, Mr Ivan was real, my apartment with the cool pink flowered curtains, was also real. Shawn and this fu*king tunnel, with the monster in the room and the smell of damp and earth and fear- none of the things looked real.
I opened my eyes, but the darkness was still there, held back by the trembling rays of light from my nub of candle. I looked desperately for some crack in the fading dream I was trapped in. I thought of Layla and her warning. And truly I confirmed that that was how people died.
Suddenly I remembered my phone. Sure, I shouldn't mention to the operator that there was a monster locked up not ten feet away from me, but that was okay. It really didn't matter what I said. I had heard enough of the police tapes on the news to know that I just needed to gurgle something that sounded like, "help"
I dug the phone from my pocket and smashed the button. I waited for the ringing to start, but nothing happened; there was only silence. Panic filled me up and I decided to hung up and redial. Nothing. And then I saw the symbol on the screen. The phone had no signal.
"You have to be jocking!" I nearly cried. "This cannot be happening. Oh my God. This...I mean this!"
A scraping sound interrupted the flow of my terrified words. I snapped my phone shut and bit my lip until I had a taste of blood. Some instinct told me that I must remain quiet. Even though it seemed impossible, this was real. The hallway, the creature, the sound; it was all terribly, incredibly real.
The scraping noise grew louder, and was soon followed by a crash as something heavy struck the floor. I slide down the corridor, my back pressed against the wall to keep as much distance between me and Michael's door as possible. I stopped, raised the candle and peered down the tunnel. A section of the ceiling had fallen in and, as I watched, a figure dropped down f
rom the newly formed hole.