Night Games Chapter 11

 Chapter 11...

CHAPTER 11

Earlier…

Hannah jumped as Ann tapped her on the shoulder. “Hey.” She rested her hand on her chest, willing her heart to slow down. “Ann, what is it? You scared the hell out of me.” They stood together in the hall between room B11 and the glass walled connecting hall, their flash light beams merely specks of light in the dark. For the first time since their arrival, Hannah noticed that she could not hear any noise from outside the building. Ann shrugged. “I’d rather be running around in the dark than sitting in that room with-“ Hannah shushed her mid-sentence. She craned her neck, listening intently. “Do you hear that?” Hannah asked.

Ann tilted her head and quieted her breathing. “No, I can’t hear anything but us.” “Right,” Hannah replied, “I can’t hear anything. It’s like they made the whole building soundproof or something. And it’s so dark, I can barely see you.” Ann looked again at the glass panels of the connecting hallway. Her pulse quickened as she watched the light outside flicker like a dying light bulb. “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit!” she hissed, “Hannah, tell me you see this.” She grabbed Hannah’s hand and pointed to the short hallway. Since their arrival it had been the only source of natural light within the building. Hannah took a step forward, clicking the “off” button on the flashlight at her side. The bluish hued luminescence coming in through the windows sputtered again. “Are there lights outside? There are lights outside, right?” “No, Hannah, that’s the moon. The moon is flickering, what the hell is going on?!” “Ann, turn off your flashlight.”

“No way! Have you lost your mind?! We won’t be able to see shit!” Ann cried, fear making her voice rise in pitch. “Just turn off your flashlight! Turn it off! If it blacks out completely we can turn them on but right now we need our night vision! Turn it off!” Ann turned off her flashlight with soft but audible “click” and blinked rapidly, feeling the ache of her pupils reacting to the sudden bouts of complete darkness. The flashes of darkness began to speed up slowly, like a film reel, and something began to shift in the blinking shadows at the opposite end of the hallway. A cloud of black smoke began to swim into the sputtering light of the connecting hallway. It jerked and shifted in the air, its smoky tendrils forming themselves into terrifyingly familiar shapes.

Instinct tugged at Hannah’s mind, begging her to run from the horror before her. She slapped blindly at Ann. She could not look away. “We have to go,” Hannah whispered, as much to herself as to Ann. “We have to go, L-Ann we have to go now, now, we have to go! Now!” Her whisper was peppered with a panicked squeak as the black cloud stretched out to form the vague shape of a man. Its “feet” padded noiselessly over the worn carpet as it floated inexorably towards them. It came to the end of the hallway and stopped, bending over in a lurch as if it had vomited, and suddenly it was gone.

The girls stood in utter silence. Too afraid to run, but unable to turn away, they stared at the now empty hallway. Hannah was jerked back to awareness at the sound of a sharp slap. She turned to see Ann rubbing her cheek. “Okay. I’m good, I’m good. This is happening, this isn’t a nightmare. It’s real.” Hannah nodded fervently in agreement, hoping that Ann had a plan. “We should-,” As she spoke, the light in the hallway blinked out once again. “Oh God, no!” Ann whispered, watching as the light winked on and off. The smoke man reappeared at the edge of the hall exactly as it had been when it disappeared. It lurched again, falling onto its vaporous hands and knees. It shook violently in the strobe light of the hallway, its motion seen only in short spurts by the terrified girls. It vomited with a deep-throated gurgle and thick liquid smoke sprayed from its head in all directions, coating the hallway in a viscous layer of darkness that swallowed what little light still filtered in from the moon outside.

Hannah flicked on her flashlight and shined the shaky beam on the shuddering monster in front of her. The light pushed back some of the thick black liquid from its body as though it had been sprayed with water. What was underneath made her gorge rise in her throat. Its body writhed with the distorted images of hundreds of distorted screaming faces, each with their eyes plucked from their skulls. Both girls screamed and ran from the sight, nearly tripping over one another as they tried to escape the thing behind them. They sprinted headlong into the nearest door and slammed it shut behind them.

Hannah jumped from the door to grab a moldy loveseat tipped on its side in the corner of the room. “Ann, move! See if there is anything else we can use!” She heaved her body against the loveseat, her arms shaking with exhaustion, and pushed it in front of the door. Ann frantically checked the room and bathroom for other furniture, but found none. She came back to find Hannah seated on the loveseat with her head in her hands. “It isn’t even chasing us,” she said through her palms, “I can’t hear anything out there. It’s like it didn’t happen.” She sniffed and wiped tears and snot from her face. “Am I going crazy?” she asked, looking at Ann with pleading eyes.

Ann sighed. A sudden calm had stolen over her, and she relaxed on the loveseat next to Hannah. “No. You aren’t going crazy. I saw… it… too. We both saw it. It happened, and we’ll have to deal with it later, but for now we just need to get our shit together and think.” She shifted in her seat, bringing her right leg underneath her and turning to face Hannah. “What time is it?” Hannah shrugged. “No idea. My phone is in the car. I didn’t want it going off during a shoot and messing up the scary mood.” Her face contorted into a grimace and fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. Ann hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry. It’s going to be okay. Like you said, you can’t hear anything from the hallway. So it isn’t chasing us, and it isn’t going to break down the door and eat us. We’re safe for now.” Hannah pulled away from Ann and smiled, saying, “I know, I just… I know. I’m good. Let’s find a way out of here.”

They stood and brushed the dust from their pants. Hannah looked at Ann and giggled. “What?” Ann asked. Hannah shook her head. “I’m sorry, it looks a little like you’re farting dust, it’s funny.” Ann smirked and wiggled her behind, sending little waves of dust to the floor. Hannah laughed aloud and wiped the last of the tears from her face. They nodded to each other and surveyed the room. Aside from the loveseat with two new rear-shaped prints on the cushions and the two by fours nailed into the frame of the only window, the room was empty. Hannah walked over to the window and pulled on the boards. “Man, these are solid,” she said with a grunt. “You don’t think we’re going to have to just wait here until sunrise, do you?”

Ann sighed. “I don’t know. I’m tired of all this, honestly. I kind of wish he’d just find us and get it over with.” Hannah did a double take. “’He’? You mean that thing we saw? You have to be joking. I’ll pry the boards from the window with my bare hands before I let anything like that touch me.” Ann plopped down in the center of the room, facing the bathroom door with her hands in her lap. “I’m really tired. I just want to sit here until morning.” Hannah stepped into the darkness of the bathroom. “Well I don’t. I don’t want to stay in this building another minute if I –ngh- if I can avoid it!” She said, her voice echoing from the tile shower. “Damn, this window’s nailed shut too.” “Yeah, it’s no use,” Ann said. She lay down on her side as Hannah stepped through the bathroom door. “What are you talking about?” Hannah asked. “Just…” Ann yawned. “Just let him take you. It’s easier, after all. He’s going to find us, just relax and let it happen.” Hannah squinted. In the light that came through the cracks in the boarded up window, she could see that Ann’s nose was bleeding. 

Before she could reply, a sound from behind her made her freeze. It was Sean’s voice. “Hannah, just let him find you,” the voice said. As she turned to look a cold hand grasped her ankle. “Oh God, no!” More hands snaked out from the dark, grabbing her thighs, arms, hips, and neck. “Ann, help! Help me!” She gripped the door frame and pulled against the hands, her body lurching forward momentarily, but her fingers soon slipped from the rotting wood. She saw Ann lying motionless on the floor, blood streaming from her nose and mouth, and screamed as she was dragged into the shadow. The door slammed shut in front of her, shaking dust from the edges of the frame. “Try to relax,” Ann said again, tracing shapes in the dust on the floor, “It hurts less when you don’t struggle.” Hannah’s choked screams emanated from the closed door as it rattled in its frame. Ann smiled, rested her head on her hands, and closed her eyes.