Total darkness outside the elevator. You couldn't see your own hand in front of your face.
The familiar hospital smell of disinfectant hit them first, mixed with something sharp and nasty that burned the nose.
"Mr. Soren…"
Rose looked at him, voice tight with nerves.
"Relax."
Soren pulled a heavy-duty flashlight from inside his coat and handed it to her. With a quick flip of his wrist, the silver M1911 was back in his grip.
He stepped out of the elevator. Faint red light glowed in his pupils—demon blood perk. In this pitch black he could still see everything like it was broad daylight.
"You really are a demon…" Christabella muttered in his grip. Her body went rigid. She squeezed her eyes shut and started frantically making the sign of the cross in her head.
Click.
A weak beam of light cut on behind him.
Whatever rules ran this place were choking technology hard. The high-powered flashlight that should have lit up half a football field barely reached a few yards ahead.
Rose gripped it with both hands, sweeping the beam nervously while she stuck close to Soren's back.
The edges of the light stretched the shadows of scattered medical equipment into long, creepy fingers across the walls.
Exposed pipes overhead hid in the dark like snakes ready to strike.
The shift into the Otherworld had completely rewritten the hospital's layout.
In the movie Rose had wandered these halls for what felt like forever, turning left and right, hunting for the right room.
Here? Just one straight, pitch-black corridor stretching ahead like the open mouth of some giant beast.
"Huh… throw down a red carpet, slap on a suit, and this could pass for a VIP entrance."
Soren cracked a grin.
Locked patient-room doors lined both sides. Behind them came muffled cries of pain and the skin-crawling scrape of fingernails clawing at the wood.
Rusty gurneys sat here and there, covered in stained white sheets that clearly outlined human shapes underneath. Some of the sheets were soaked with dark, unidentifiable stains.
"Ugh… ughhh…"
A low, wet groan drifted out of the blackness ahead, followed by the sick sound of flesh dragging across the floor.
Soren's eyes lit up with interest. He knew exactly what was coming.
A naked, scorpion-like humanoid crawled out of the dark.
Its whole body hugged the ground. Both legs had been snapped backward and fused behind its head. It dragged itself forward on two arms.
The thing lifted its face. Barbed wire wrapped around its eyes, the spikes driven deep into the sockets.
The pain must have been insane—its mouth hung open the whole time, letting out constant, slurred moans.
A thick, purplish tongue flopped out, swinging like a pendulum with every movement.
Soren's face fell.
Damn. I was really hoping for one of those super-model nurses…
Colin.
Back in the day he'd been the janitor at Midwich Elementary. The creep who'd molested Alessa in the bathroom while the other kids bullied her.
"Lust blinds the eyes."
The words floated through Soren's mind as he stared at the ruined thing. Pure disgust.
Alessa's revenge was brutal, but damn if it wasn't perfect.
The barbed wire jammed into the eyes? Punishment for every time he'd spied on little girls.
The body twisted backward, forced to crawl on its arms? Made sure the part of him that had committed the crime scraped raw against the filthy floor with every single inch he moved.
Pure, poetic justice.
"Ugh?"
It must have caught the scent of living flesh. Colin's head stopped swinging. The dripping tongue flicked out like a snake tasting the air.
Next second the lumbering body shot forward with freakish speed.
"AAAHHH!"
Rose screamed and scrambled backward, tripping and landing hard on her ass. The flashlight beam whipped wildly around the corridor.
A shadow blurred through the dark.
In a blink Colin was right in front of Soren, leaping high, that disgusting tongue inches from his face.
"Gross."
Soren could smell the rot on its breath. He leaned back and drove his knee up hard.
CRACK!
Colin's jaw took the full force and snapped shut. The impact flipped the monster in mid-air and slammed it into the ceiling.
Splat.
A chunk of rotten meat got sheared off by the impact and dropped right next to Rose's foot.
She instinctively swung the flashlight down—
A thick, purplish half-tongue lay on the floor, still twitching.
"Ughhh—"
The sight hit her like a truck. Rose clamped both hands over her mouth.
Colin landed on its back like a flipped turtle, exposing the shredded, bloody mess that used to be its lower body.
It thrashed, trying to roll over, but a cold gun barrel was already pressed to its forehead.
Soren held the pistol one-handed, red eyes cold as he looked down at the former school predator.
"Next life, maybe try being… nah. Forget it."
"Scum like you belong in hell forever."
BANG!
Muzzle flash lit up the hallway for a split second.
Colin's body locked up.
Unlike the monsters in the Fog World that exploded into gore, this one instantly charred black.
Flames erupted from every inch of its skin.
In seconds it crumbled into a pile of gray ash.
Fight over.
The corridor fell silent again. Only the faint smell of gunpowder proved any of it had really happened.
Rose sat on the floor, chest heaving, brain completely blank.
She stared at the pile of ash, then up at the young Asian guy casually straightening his red coat like he'd just swatted a fly.
That nightmare monster that had made her want to scream and run… gone in seconds. The thing never even got a hit in.
In the dark, the crimson glow in Soren's eyes looked otherworldly—cold, powerful, like he stood above every living thing.
"Soren… Mr. Soren?"
Rose swallowed hard. "Is… is that thing dead?"
"Been dead for decades."
Soren's tone was flat. Seeing her still on the ground, he stepped over and offered his hand.
In the flashlight beam the hand looked clean, strong, and strangely out of place against all the blood and filth around them.
Rose grabbed it without thinking and let him pull her up. Her legs were still shaky.
Only now, standing face-to-face, did she really see his features clearly—and those eyes swirling with dark red light.
Those were not human eyes.
Her heart skipped. She blurted out, "Your eyes…"
"Mm?"
"Latest tech. Special contact lenses. Umbrella Corporation special. I'm a P.I.—comes in handy on the job. Makes total sense, right?"
He pointed at the corner of his eye like he was showing off some high-end gadget.
Rose: (⊙o⊙)
At this point her brain had given up on "reasonable." If Soren told her he was God, she'd probably just nod.
"Let's go."
Soren adjusted his grip on the now-silent Christabella and kept walking deeper into the hall.
Rose followed on shaky legs, still rattled.
The monster had terrified her.
But Soren terrified her even more.
She'd lived her whole life without ever seeing anyone this strong. This kind of power was way beyond anything she could understand.
Still, gripping the flashlight and checking the shadows, she felt a lot calmer.
When the scariest thing in the building was standing right beside you, everything else stopped feeling so bad.
Surprisingly, the rest of the walk was smooth.
No more doors burst open. No more monsters lunged out.
Soon a wooden door appeared at the very end of the corridor. Curtains covered the windows on both sides, but faint firelight flickered from inside.