It sure has been a while, Sorry for keeping you all waiting for so long. If you are unaware of what has been going on, you should check out my previous posts;
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8.
The lights flickered in the dull-lit room I was in.
Getting up slowly, I took out a marker that was almost out of ink and put another tally on the wall. It’s been almost 9 days here. I haven’t eaten since the other day when we finished our ration supplies.
I groaned as I stood up, the hole in my chest hurting more than ever. I thought of how Chloe was doing; Was she alright? Was she even alive? Hell if I know, she’s probably doing better than me right now.
Emily was sitting next to Cody, eyes emptied of hope.
“He still hasn’t…” I started.
“We should have taken our chance when those things were quiet the other day”. She mumbled.
“Yea but you gave him a couple more days”. I said, trying to not make her feel as bad.
“AND HE STILL ISN’T AWAKE”! She yelled at me.
“Woah, you don’t wanna attract more of those things here, calm down”. I said, looking at the barricaded window.
“Who cares, there are already a bunch of them at the door and probably outside anyway”. She began.
“I should have just let him rot here…” She said, her eyes staring into the distance.
I was silent before we both heard the wooden barricades cracking under the monsters trying to break in.
“Shit”. I said, quickly moving to push back against the barricades.
Emily was shocked, seeing hands reaching through the barricades.
Emily suddenly grabbed Cody and dragged him near me, serving as something to slow down the destruction of the barricades.
“Emily what are you-“ I asked but was cut off as she grabbed me, and made a dash for the window. We braced ourselves as we slammed through the barricades several times, wearing it down.
Hands grabbed through the barricades, slowly reaching out for us. Some stopped and grabbed at Cody, tearing chunks of flesh out of his slumped arms.
Emily turned back in horror, unable to look away but I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I grabbed her and slammed into the barricades again and again…Until the barricades gave away and we fell out of the window.
I landed hard on the ground and Emily landed in a couple bushes. I gritted my teeth, limping over to help her out of the bushes she was entangled in.
We kept running, we knew where to go and we weren’t far away…but were we even ready to try taking down George Rintoro?
After what seemed like an hour of running, we were surprised no monsters were coming after us…but that’s probably because St. George was only a couple blocks away.
“I expected this place to be teeming with monsters”. Emily said bluntly, ignoring the elephant in the room.
“Maybe they aren’t all best buds with each other” I said sarcastically.
“Do you think they fear him”? She pondered.
“Probably”. I said bluntly.
We looked up at St. George’s, the doors only a couple feet from us. I took a deep breath and opened the door, surprised to see the place looked exactly the same except…deserted by anyone and anything. The desks were gone, the doors were gone, it was really just walls and doorways with a staircase every once in a while.
We searched the building, nothing to be found. Did we look in the wrong place? No. This place had to be meaningful in some way, it had to be…we couldn’t have made it all the way here…for nothing.
I entered the rooms where my co-worker used to be held in, nothing was there.
I checked the room where my last patient had been…still empty.
I punched the wall in frustration. Why was there nothing here? Why did we think it would be so easy?
I looked to Emily who was deeply inspecting each room, a look of confusion on her face.
“What is it”? I asked, desperate for something of any importance.
“Theres drops of blood leading somewhere” She said, hoping there was some lead she found.
We ran quickly, headed to the office when we entered, hoping for anything to help us…sadly, we had hit the bullseye.
We ran into the room to see George in the back, too focused on scratching at his empty eye sockets.
“What the hell-“ Emily said accidentally.
George turned his head to us, standing up and smiling at us.
“I know all the secrets this book holds” He whispers in a gravelly voice, pressing his bloody fingers at the book in his hand.
I ran forward, the book almost in my grasp before I heard George whisper something, before a tendril shot from the book, hooking me to the ceiling.
“Emily get the book”! I yelled but she was already on it; She ducked as tendrils shot toward her but as she reached towards the book a red-like pulse exploded outward, sending her crashing into the wall.
I pulled out my knife and cut the tendril with some effort, landing on the ground a couple feet from George.
“You’re gonna kill me with that”? He chuckled before chanting something under his breath.
I gritted my teeth; running at George, knife ready to stab him.
I slammed the knife into the hand not holding the book, pinning his hand to the wall.
My knife suddenly melted into water and George slammed into me, his hand slamming my neck to the cold, hard floor. I struggled against his grip, trying to breathe as he kept me pinned. I suddenly dropped the facade, a smile forming on my face as I pulled out the gun I had and shot the hand George held the book in…But that smile faded quickly as the book remained in his hand which now dripped blood onto me.
A red aura formed around me and Emily as we were lifted and constrained in the air.
“Nice try”. He said, grinning with his blood red teeth.
“Damn you”. I muttered at him.
“Y’know, someone else had that same attitude. Wanna meet the guy that made this thing”? He asked us.
“What…” I was shocked as he used his telekinesis to break a wall to our left, revealing a secret room which had contained the creator of the book for several days. The creator resembled an old lady who had clearly not eaten or drank in days. She breathed heavily as she was dragged out into the room.
“Where’s the other ones”? George demanded.
“You Killed Them”. Emily said, her voice filled with hate.
“No…your fellow citizens did”. He said, laughing.
“What do you mean”. I asked.
“When I took over the city, I turned half the citizens into the bloodthirsty monsters you had to deal with”. George said as if it was obvious.
Me and Emily looked at him, Horrified.
“Why didn’t you just turn everyone into monsters except me”? I asked, confused.
“Well, that would take away all the fun, wouldn’t it? Why have only 1 person suffer when I could have half a city being torn apart by their neighbors”! George laughed maniacally.
“Now…lets get onto the main event”. George said in a serious tone.
He brought me closer to him with his telepathy and I felt my ears pop as the pressure of the telepathy was starting to hurt.
“Leave him alone”! Emily yelled at George.
George turned to Emily; “Fine, I’ll start with you”. He said angrily and started adding more and more pressure to the telepathy constraining her in the air, causing her to scream in pain.
“EMILY”! I yelled helplessly.
While everyone was distracted, The creator whispered something and the book started to float out of George’s hands.
George desperately grabbed at the book, right before it left his hands and turned to the creator, his face filled with rage.
“I won’t make this quick Urla”! He screamed at her.
Urla; the creator, screamed in agony as her body started ripping apart in front of us until she was barely alive, he then slammed her into the wall over and over slowly killing her after a couple minutes. Her twisted body of a grey robe and black hair with a light brown skin color was covered in blood and torn muscles. Her grey eyes stared up at the ceiling as she drew her last breath.
George then turned to Emily, a grin plastered on his face.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”!!! I screamed, fighting against the telepathic constraints.
Emily began to scream when suddenly Chloe appeared in the hallway, wearing a necklace that seemed to pulse with energy.
George stopped what he was doing and turned to Chloe as he heard her enter the room.
Emily recognized the necklace and looked shocked. “Y-You stole my necklace?!” She yelled at Chloe.
Chloe turned to Emily, sorrow filled her eyes. “I…I know what I did was wrong, Right before you left I stole your necklace to protect myself…but then I realized You probably would need that more than me…so I-I tried to return it but You were already gone! So I knew where you were going and I…I made my way here and looked for you. I heard you’re screaming nearby and….now i’m here”. She ranted.
Tears flooded Emily’s eyes as she took in what she said.
“What’s the necklace even do”? I asked.
“It gives the user telepathic powers…Powers that could have saved Cody…Powers that could have helped stop George before he killed Urla…” Emily said, hate in her eyes.
“I-I’m sorry I really am-“ Chloe said but was slammed into the wall by George.
“You will die like the rest” George says, laughing as Chloe struggled against his telepathic powers.
Chloe used her telepathy to push George into the wall, causing him to drop me and Emily from our restraints.
I grabbed my gun and shot some bullets at George to distract him and Chloe tried her best to restrain George from speaking.
“Emily get the book”! Chloe yelled but was suddenly punched in the face by Emily.
“EMILY WHAT ARE YOU DOING”?! I yelled but it was too late.
George broke free and constrained Chloe and Emily using all the telepathic strength he could muster. Chloe tried fighting against the telepathy but she couldn’t speak from the restraints and she and Emily began screaming as they were slowly being crushed by the pressure caused by George’s telepathic powers.
“I’ll kill them if you move” George said, smirking as he has the upper hand.
I stood there, not knowing what to do; if I moved Emily and Chloe would die and if I didn’t, George would probably kill me.
“Why are you doing this”?! I yelled at him desperately. “What did I do to you”?!!
“You didn’t do anything, you are just the current owner of the book”. George said simply.
“What…I don’t understand”. I said, confused.
“Remember when you acquired the book from your last patient? Well, when he was sent here, he died, and when the book’s owner dies or gives it to someone else, its ownership is changed to whoever gets their hands on the book”. George explained.
“But you have the book”. I said. “isn’t that enough for you”?! I asked.
“Tch, I don’t get the full power of this book until you give me ownership or die and I doubt you would give me ownership since i’m sure your friend told you all about what I would be able to do if I got ownership of the book”. George ranted, seemingly annoyed.
I don’t think talking will work much longer…
“How…How did you remain sane”? I asked, desperate for more time to think of an idea.
“Sane”?! he laughed hysterically. “I’m barely sane but i’ll let you in on how I’m still partially intact. The eyes…I ripped out my eyes to remain sane. The book tries persuading people to open the book but the thing that really drives people insane is the illusions…so ripping out my eyes was my best bet on not losing what sanity I still had”. He explained and I remembered the illusions and voices the book had given me.
“What about the tendrils”? I Asked.
“Tendrils?! Those only start growing if you haven’t opened the book in a really long time, like- you’d have to be stupid to not open it at that point…but I guess you fit that description don’t you Kyle”? George ranted.
“I’m done talking though, lets just end this”. George said bluntly and began to puppeteer Chloe and Emily.
Emily Rammed into me and tried digging her fingernails into my neck. I pushed her away but was slammed into the wall by Chloe’s telekinesis. I reached for my gun and shot blindly for the necklace, praying that I didn’t kill Chloe by accident.
A loud bang rang through the room as the necklace shattered, the bullet lodged into what remained of the broken necklace. Chloe lost her telekinetic powers and I was free from her grasp.
I made a mad dash for George and punched him in the face before he could say another spell. I grabbed the book and began tugging on it with all my might. George, unable to speak as his lip swelled and blood began to flood his mouth, tugged back, trying his best to keep the book in his grasp. Emily and Chloe got closer, running towards us, their fists outstretched for me.
I pushed George in the way as Chloe and Emily got closer, colliding with George and in shock and intense pain, Emily and Chloe were free from George’s constraints, leaving George in a bad situation.
I tugged desperately but George had the upper hand despite being in tremendous pain, he was slowly winning this tug of war. I thought I was about to lose my only chance of stopping George when Emily and Chloe began tugging at the book as well, turning the tides of what was a losing battle.
Eventually we ripped the book out of George’s hands and after a moment, George vomited up a ton of blood and collapsed on the floor, probably dead.
The whole city had the book’s curse reversed and all the buildings and remaining monsters were reversed to their previous state…the only problem was that most of the city was still destroyed and most of the city’s population was still killed. The book only reversed the cause not the effect.
About a month had passed before I decided to post this, signifying the end of all the chaos. The government covered up the destroyed city as a terrorist attack and there were no surviving witnesses except for the human turned monsters which forgot everything that had happened when they were instantly turned into monsters. Me, Chloe and Emily were the only witnesses who knew what had truly happened.
I had to move to a whole new city, Emily came with because her higher ups were not in the same city the whole incident happened in and it was luckily the city that I had planned on moving to before the incident happened anyways. Chloe…well..she left the group that Emily had made and moved back in with her Family. She kept in contact with us online…or atleast tried to; Emily refused to talk to her anymore since Chloe indirectly caused Emily to let Cody die and indirectly killed Urla, the creator of the book who probably could have helped Emily learn a lot of things.
And me? I don’t want to work as a therapist anymore…not after what happened last time. I’m just a cashier at a nearby store that pays decently.
Me and Emily searched for the book after the city returned to its former state but we could not find it. It’s like it disappeared into thin air.
As i type this out, i’m talking to Chloe in a video call. She has been taking a bigger interest in paranormal stuff and all that, but she isn’t getting anymore knowledge from Emily so she decided to just talk to me about what she has been learning online.
In the corner of my eye though, I made out a bookshelf near her bed that had a book that I swear I saw somewhere before…but It’s probably just my imagination, right…?