I’m not sure what I was even thinking. That thing hardly ever resembled a human to begin with. The entity that I thought had been a simple corpse began writhing its way up, its skin comparable in appearance to an amalgamation of thousands of tiny, shifting, brownish-grey cells, while its limbs were strung together by thick, pulsing veins.
Its face began morphing, eventually taking on the appearance of a human. Not just a regular person, though. A really good-looking one. It was as if somebody stitched the head of a runway model onto a giant, deformed alien.
“What’s the threat level on that thing? Pretty weak, right?” I asked Kaz, hoping to hear “one” or “two”.
“That might be a five. Or six.”
I cursed under my breath.
“Like moths drawn to a candle…” the demon-model began speaking. “Humanity goes out of its way to seek pure beauty, disturbing my beautiful slumber in the process. But they don’t deserve to bask in the presence of this beauty. The paragon of aesthetics - Kalos, will now exterminate you disgusting mongrels.”
We’re the disgusting ones? I thought to myself.
But before we could actually say anything, he rushed forward, a large, ghastly hand outstretched. One strike from him likely would’ve scrambled my organs. Luckily, Kaz intercepted him before that could happen, drilling his fist into Kalos’s chest. The impact sent him flying into a wall, but also managed to tear apart the skin on Kaz’s knuckles in the process.
“God-damn it!” he said, shaking his hand. “What the hell is your body made out of? It doesn’t end with you freaks, does it?”
Kalos chuckled as he dislodged himself from the wall. There was now a deep hole in his chest, but he didn’t seem to mind it too much.
“Lucky you didn’t aim for my face,’’ he said. “You scum would’ve been begging me for death-“
He was interrupted by another punch from Kaz, but managed to block it with both arms this time. That one was undoubtedly headed for his face.
“Pretty good reflexes,” Kaz said. “I love it when they start rambling.”
Kalos grimaced in anger. “You’re gonna regret being so smug. Sub-humans should know their place. I could obliterate you fools right now, but I’ll leave the dirty work to Trent.”
He spat on the ground in front of us before storming out of the room. I breathed a sigh of relief in response.
“Could you have taken him?” I asked out of curiosity.
“Maybe,” he responded. “But let's not call that lucky. We might have to deal with him later.”
That whole situation had taken up about five minutes. We couldn’t afford to waste any more time, immediately darting out of the room right after.
“What’re we gonna do?” I asked him as we ran.
“We’re gonna brave it outside. When we get there, just close your eyes and keep running like hell.”
From beyond the walls of the school, I could hear a chorus of witch-like shrieks, along with bursts of high-pitched maniacal laughter. Safe to say, my options were pretty shitty. It was either face whatever the hell lay outside or deal with the mysterious but apparently devastating ‘Judas’. I believe they call that going up shit creek without a paddle. Except the water is acid. And the boat is just a rotting horse carcass.
As we got closer to one of the exit doors (still blanketed in the purple smoke, mind you), the floors began rumbling below us. Kaz was right. There was no end to this incomprehensible nightmare.
A shadow began casting itself from one of adjacent corridors ahead, getting exponentially larger with every second. We skidded to a stop before making contact with whatever the hell was coming.
A monstrously-sized canine scraped the walls and ceilings as it crashed into our path. I suppose canine would’ve been the best way to describe the thing. It hardly resembled any Earthly creature at all, but it ran on four legs and stuck out its tongue a lot.
A tongue…. covered in additional mouths lined with spike-like teeth. A tongue dripping fluid that dissolved the floor beneath. Charcoal-black fur with red eyes blinking all over. Bones shaped like saws located at every joint. Four larger eyes on its head that jutted outwards, twisting and turning to scope out the environment.
I could hear Kaz chuckle in utter disbelief. “Ha… there boy.” He muttered.
There was also a person riding atop the bizarre beast. He was a pale skinny, naked fellow with disheveled hair and wild eyes.
“My boy’s hungry, isn’t he?” the psychopath talked to his apparent “pet” in a manner comparable to the way a suburban mom would talk to her cat. “Look Brando!” he said, pointing towards us with a bony, shaking finger. “Walking food!”
We didn’t actually stick around to hear what he said at the end, but I imagine that it would’ve been something like that. If we were running hard before, we were pushing ourselves to the brink now. Kaz was faster than me, of course. But I didn’t lag behind hard enough to warrant him carrying me or something. My daily 5 mile runs weren’t for nothing.
Eventually, we made it to a stairway, scrambling our way up with no room to spare. Brando’s head got stuck in the doorway as it tried to swallow us. I nearly had a heart attack when I turned around, only to see one its eyes following us up the stairs. Fortunately, Kaz punched it away.
When we got up, we were drenched in cold sweat. Kaz took off his mask (which was half-broken), revealing a blonde-haired blue-eyed guy likely in his late-20s underneath. Not really what I was expecting, to be honest.
He let out what sounded like a frustrated exhale as he ran his hands through his hair. “We’ve made some mistakes in our lives, haven't we?”
“What’d you mean?” I asked him.
He looked up at me, eyes squinted in disbelief. “Look at where the fuck we are. Where we voluntarily chose to be.”
At that moment, I had nothing to say in response. We rested for a few more moments before entering the corridor ahead of us. We couldn’t go back down, after all. Brando was still stuck. As soon as I stepped into the hall, I was met with a familiar sight.
Room 203
The door was now busted open, along with the surrounding walls. The purple light was as blinding as ever, and I tried my best not to stare too much. From inside, we could hear a cacophony of cries mixed with a deeper, chanting voice. It took me a second to realize that the cries definitely belonged to the remaining school-children. And one of them sounded awfully familiar.
“Alright,” Kaz said. “Just run right past the door. No looking. Full speed. We’ll find another way out.”
“But…” I began “The kids… they’re-“
“Don’t think about doing anything stupid.” Kaz interrupted me. “There’s no guarantee that we’ll even get out of here alive. Don't make this shit even more complicated than it is. We were both given tasks that we had no chance of succeeding in. It's not our fault. But now we need to run."
Obviously, he was right. But… I didn’t want him to be.
I rarely tell anybody the true reason why I decided to join law enforcement. It really wasn’t for any kind of recognition. Not so I could pretend to be some swashbuckling badass either, no matter how much I lied to myself about it. Certainly not for the pay.
It was because I had a strong resolve, spurred on by one fateful incident.
Back in my university days, I used to be part of a baseball club. One that held late matches that lasted well into the night. One of those nights, I was walking back to my apartment at around 1 AM, when I heard a cry that was quickly muffled coming from a Sedan parked on the side of the road.
As soon as I heard it, I stopped. Now, I was no hero. I still don’t think I am. Truly nobody special. I was just a simple person with simple ideals. Ones that I never had a reason to act on until that night.
Before that, I wouldn't have believed that I had it in me. We all fantasize about doing these things, but when the time comes to act, our rationality and self-preservation instincts bar us from doing so. But sometimes… raw passion and idealism manages to override everything.
Long story short, I shattered the Sedan’s tinted windows with my bat, before nearly bludgeoning a human trafficker’s head in. I'm sure it was something that the 13 year old girl being bound and gagged in the back couldn't have forgotten, but hey... it was hard for me to stop myself. And she'd already seen far worse.
Afterwards, the girl’s parents hugged me whilst bawling their eyes out. That was the first time in my life I felt genuinely fulfilled with myself. It was a good thing that I didn't kill the guy as well. They managed to interrogate the names of other traffickers involved and locations where the kidnapped were being held out of him.
I enrolled in the police academy a year later, after I’d graduated college.
Those memories flooded back into my mind at a rapid pace. A reminder of my resolve. The real reason why I was in this situation in the first place. It was true that I’d lost my passion over the stagnant years. But all it took was one push to bring it all back.
At that point, I was completely unarmed, save for two stun grenades and the Taser on my belt. But that didn't stop me from rushing right in. Never said I was smart, did I?
Kaz cursed at me from behind, running to catch up. Obviously, I had no idea what to expect upon entering that room. But there was only one detail that I needed to know.
There were kids in need of help.
---
Credits
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