Fractured (15 page)

It was like they were already dead.

“I hear a noise,” Bash mumbled. She sat up, turning her head from side to side as if she was trying to hear better. “Like...some sort of...scraping?”

“There’s nothing, Bash,” Seth said tiredly. There was a note in his voice, one that Scott knew well from when they were kids. It was his “quit doing what you’re doing or there’ll be some hell to pay” voice.

“No...” Bash said, a bit stronger now. Lily’s hand slipped from hers as she slowly got to her feet. “I’m definitely hearing something.”

“Bash...” Seth said.

“Hush,” she said. She waved distractedly towards him as she felt her way around the wall. “It...it sounds like scraping in the walls.”

Scott stopped breathing momentarily, straining to hear whatever it was that Bash thought she was hearing. He only heard the pulse in his ears, slightly faster than normal.

Seth must have been doing the same thing too, because he had paused and tilted his head. He finally shook it and got to his feet.

“Bash, I can’t hear anything,” he told her. He reached out and touched her. She whirled on him, her face pallid.

“You can’t hear that?” she whispered loudly.

“No.”

“But...” She paused, listening again. “You can’t
hear
that, Seth?” She sounded incredulous. Her fingers splayed against the wall. “It sounds like there’s something in the walls...”

“Make her stop,” a voice called out.

Scott looked over and saw that Maria was the one who had spoken. Her arms were wrapped about her knees, and she glared directly at them.

“Maria,” Bash said, sounding wounded.

Scott saw malice in Maria’s eyes, which scared him. Maria wasn’t a friend to them anymore. She had crossed over and joined the other group that accused Bash and Lily of causing this.

“She’s driving me fucking crazy,” Maria muttered. Her hands flew to her head, grabbing fistfuls of her hair. She scrunched her eyes shut and rocked herself back and forth. “She’s driving me fucking crazy,” she repeated.

“Maria,” Bash offered, “you need to calm down.”

“Oh,
me
calm down?” Maria spat. “You’re the one who’s fucking talking about noises in the wall!”

“I think she should shut up too,” a man retorted gruffly. “She’s annoying me.”

There were other grumbles of assent from some of the others. They shifted unhappily.

Scott swallowed uncomfortably. This wasn’t going very well. Both Maria and Bash were riling up an already scared bunch of people. He knew from watching horror movies that when people were nervous, they did things like revolt. Or something terrible like that.

He made eye contact with Seth, who nodded slowly once. His older brother moved to Bash’s side and wrapped an arm around her.

“Sit down, Bash,” he said, “and we’ll figure it out.”

“You don’t believe me, do you?” Bash asked him, accusation tinging her voice. She pulled away from him. “You don’t believe me.”

“Bash...”

“Seth!” she cried, panicked. “
There is something scratching in the walls
!”

Suddenly, there was a loud crash. The fluorescent light bulbs in the ceiling burst with a popping noise, plunging the break room into darkness. Several people screamed. Others wailed in fear.

Scott nearly shat his pants.

“What the hell?” he yelled. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the shooting pain that went up his arm. Adrenaline fueled him, so he barely noticed it. He hurried next to Bash and Seth, not wanting to be alone in the dark.

Now he did hear a scraping sound, only it wasn’t in the walls. It was in the room with all of them. It was a scuttling sound, and seemed to be moving along the ceiling.

“What the fuck?” Seth muttered under his breath. He seemed to not be as scared as Scott. Yet.

Something brushed past Scott and he screeched in terror, which set off some of the others. Someone had the sense to turn on the flashlight on their phone and shine it in the direction of the noise.

And screamed.

Scott wished they hadn’t shined a light over there. He couldn’t tell what it was.
It
was the only word for what he saw. It was a blackened...thing...that had its four limbs on the wall, actually
on the wall
, like a spider waiting for something to fly into its web. Ash fell off it, showing char-grilled skin and red, oozing, flesh underneath. The monster perched beside Lily’s body, almost protectively. It reached one blackened stump and tenderly, reverently touched Lily.

What the hell?

The thing moved with jerky movements as it plodded down the wall to settle over Lily. The round head lolled around bonelessly, like its neck was broken.

They were all too shocked and scared to move until Seth spoke.

“Shit,” Seth breathed, his voice weak with disbelief. “
Oh my God
.”

It took Scott a moment to realize what Seth had meant. He looked at the thing again, harder this time. Someone screamed, and he realized it was Maria.

Then it hit him like the entire hotel had been dropped on him.

“
Holy fuck
,” he whispered in shock. “Rick?”

Someone else screamed.

A tongue with sticky, congealing saliva snaked its way out of the lipless mouth, too long to be human. Glassy, bloodshot blue eyes regarded him as the head lolled to give the creature a vantage viewpoint.
Rick’s
eyes.

Rick was still alive. Somehow. Only he was a char-grilled corpse, crab-walking along walls like a spider.

Scott shook his head in disbelief. There was no way this was happening. He tore his eyes away from the thing that was Rick to see a very pale, shaken Maria staring at it.

She swayed next to Scott for a moment. She was reaching out to Rick, like she was waffling between wanting to run to him and wanting to run away and scream.

“
Rick
?” she breathed. “Is it really you?”

The thing didn’t answer, but its eyes turned onto her, staring at her with a supernatural intensity. A strangled gasp escaped her throat.

“What’s happening?” Bash whispered, leaning into Seth. He was holding onto her with a vicelike grip, and Scott could tell that was the only reason she hadn’t already rushed back to Lily’s side. Her hand was in his, white-knuckled. Her sightless eyes were roaming around, as if she was trying to see what was happening.

“It’s Rick,” Seth said, louder. Maria let out another sob and Bash looked over towards the noises. “H-how are you...Rick?” Seth asked.

The more adventurous people were crowding around behind Scott to watch the creature more closely. They felt like dark shapes at his back, crowding him, pushing him towards Rick. The world was spinning around him.

How is this possible?

“Rick...” Maria said. “Rick!” Her desire to celebrate Rick being alive won out over her fear as she rushed forward to embrace the creature, no matter how horrible it was.

The Rick thing flung Maria away from them with such force she hit the farthest wall and crumpled to the floor. She didn’t get up again.

More people screamed. Movement rustled behind Scott, and the flashlight passed away from Rick and Lily, throwing everything into darkness again.

Scott was screaming too.

Then, a voice issued from the depths of the darkness of the room, rasping and unearthly. That voice compelled everyone to stop moving and screaming. It held them fast, compelling them to hold still and listen to it.

“
No one touches Abyzou
,” it rasped. “
No one
.”

The voice reminded Scott of horror movies with exorcisms.

Bash was the first to speak. Maybe it was because everyone was stuck in darkness that they were scared, but Bash lived in the darkness. She seemed remarkably calm.

“Abyzou?” she asked. Her voice was soft but strong. “Who...who is Abyzou?” she asked.

“
Mistress of the Deep. Queen of demons.
You know her very well, Bathsheba.
”

That didn’t answer anything, it only opened up more questions. Someone was rustling behind Scott on the floor. “Someone give me the phone,” Seth was yelling, his voice panicked. “Someone give me that phone!”

“
You’re going to die here
,” the voice from Rick rasped.

“Why?” Bash dared to ask.

“Give me that phone!” Seth cried.

There was further movement that Scott couldn’t make out, but he was hoping that they’d find that phone soon. He hated the thought that he was stuck in the darkness with that...that
thing
. He was paralyzed with fear. He couldn’t move to help. He couldn’t move to run. He couldn’t do anything.

“
Because you are cursed, Bathsheba Martin. You saw that coming, though. You’re off your medicine, aren’t you?
”

Bash paused for a second, digesting what the creature was telling her. “What?” she finally asked.

A beam of light landed on Rick and Lily again. The thing that was once Rick screeched at the group of humans. It bared its teeth at them, crouching lower to protect Lily’s body. In the blink of an eye, it pulled Lily to it and dragged her up along the wall into a vent in the ceiling. Scratching and scuttling noises along the ceiling trailed in the thing’s departure.

Pandemonium broke out as people woke up from their stupor and reacted to what they had witnessed. Scott felt like his insides had been turned inside out.

Phones finally burst to life as people recovered enough to pull them out. The glow from the phones threw the room into a bluish, hazy light.

What had they just seen?

“Fuck this!” a guy screamed. Scott turned his head to see a man near the door. He was older, pale with terror. His eyes were wild, like he had gone crazy. He nearly threw aside the table they’d used to barricade the door. In his terror, he had strength that Seth had only seen once before in a man who was dying. “Fuck all y’all!” the man screamed. His hand reached for the doorknob.

“Don’t open that door!” Seth shouted. “You don’t know if it’s safe yet!” He took a warning step towards the man.

“FUCK YOU!” the man spat. “I’m getting out of here. I’m not going to have some...some
zombie
in the walls while we’re here. Outside has gotta be better than in here.”

He opened the door.

Sure enough, that unnatural hellfire engulfed him, spontaneously combusting the man into white hot plasma. The man’s horrible scream filled the room, combining with the panicked cries of everyone else. Scott was rooted to his spot, unable to take his eyes off the dying man.

Seth rushed forward, managing to kick the crumbling, burning man through the door to the outside, and shut the door, locking them in relative safety again. He slumped against the door, panting with the exertion and fear.

Scott stared at the space where the man had died. It had been
hours
since the fire had started in the kitchen. Hours. And it was still burning outside? The break room didn’t even have any smoke, so it was ludicrous that there was still fire surrounding them.

How the
fuck
is this all happening
?

Help wasn’t going to come. They were stuck in this weird, terrifying void where there were no rules. Only fire and death.

A hand landed on Scott’s shoulder. He involuntarily jumped and was about to scream when someone put a hand over his mouth.

“It’s me,” Seth whispered in his ear. Scott nearly passed out in relief. His eyes adjusted to the darkness enough to show the outline of his older brother’s face.

“Help me get Maria.” He sounded tired. They started walking toward her crumpled body. Scott hesitated, unsure whether or not he wanted to touch her still form.

“Do you think
—
”

“No,” Seth growled. “She’s not dead.”

“Where’s Lily?” Bash asked, her voice broken. She was at the empty spot where they had left her sister. She was feeling around, trying to locate Lily. Her face was sad, lost. “Where is she?”

Seth frowned over to her. “Take care of Maria,” he said to Scott. “I need to tell her that Rick took Lily.”

In the dim glow of the other mobile phones, Scott watched his older brother walk over to Bash and crouch next to her. They shared a few words, and she held up a hand to her mouth as her face melted. She buried her face into Seth’s chest, crying. He rocked her, trying to comfort her as the phones went out one-by-one. People sobbed in the darkness. Eventually, their eyes all adjusted and they were able to see. For the time being.

Scott looked down at Maria, unsure what to do. He was scared of what lay ahead. For him. For Maria. For all of them.

CHAPTER TEN