What Once Was
By: Mark J. Hadley
* * *
CHAPTER 4: "Despair"
“This can’t be happening,” Blossom said aloud to herself from where she sat on the dusty floor, her voice echoing in the almost complete darkness of the foyer. “This can’t be happening…this can’t be happening…” Bubbles was clutching onto her arm, just as afraid as she was. With the façade gone, they knew the truth: that the hotel had been abandoned for a while now, and that Harvey Fenton was just another one of the countless spirits who inhabited the ruins of this place…
The professor, in the meantime, had laid Buttercup carefully down on the ground, and was trying to pry the boards off from the front door. It was no good…they were bolted on tight. “I’ve got to find a crowbar or something,” the professor said. “There’s got to be something around with which I can break open the door…”
“No, it’s no good, Professor,” Blossom said, shaking her head. “They…won’t let us go…there’s no way out…”
Buttercup agreed, closing her eyes, “We’ve had it…i-it’s all over…”
“Wait!” Bubbles exclaimed, brightening up a little. “What about the other way out, the one Mr. Fenton mentioned? Can’t we get out that way?”
Everyone looked at her, and Blossom almost laughed, “You’re going to trust the word of a ghost?”
“He still thought he was a real person,” Bubbles pointed out. “Maybe he was telling the truth.”
The professor stopped tugging at the boards and thought about this. He said, “You know, Bubbles is right…I’ve noticed that the ghosts seem to be staying ‘in-character’, as it were. If the ghost of Mr. Fenton says there’s another way out, then there probably is.”
Blossom leapt back to her feet, “Then let’s look for it! The sooner we find it, the better!” She grabbed Bubbles’ arm, and started towards the door to the back room, pulling her along.
“Hold on! Don’t split up…wait for us,” the professor quickly said. He turned to pick up Buttercup, but gasped in shock…she was missing. He had left her at a certain spot on the ground, but now that spot was completely empty. Oh no, he thought, and quickly called out, “Buttercup? Where are you? Can you hear me?”
Blossom stopped, one hand on the doorknob and the other still holding onto Bubbles’. She turned back to the professor and said, “What? Where is she? She was right there, wasn’t…” The door she was standing next to swung open abruptly before she can finished, and with a scream from both of them, Blossom and Bubbles were pulled inside. The door slammed shut behind them, and the professor was horrified to hear the click of a door lock.
What do I do? the professor thought, now alone. I’ve got to look for them… He started off towards one of the lower halls, hoping to find a way around to where Blossom and Bubbles were, calling out, “Girls? Girls!!”
* * *
“I’m right here, Professor!” Buttercup shouted, but it was obvious he couldn’t hear her. She didn’t understand why they didn’t see her…she hadn’t moved from that spot. Yet, they stared directly at her, but saw nothing. Her leg still throbbed with pain, and she cried out, “I’m right here!” one last time, but the professor disappeared into one of the hallways, still unhearing.
All around her were the thick cobwebs of the foyer, in the almost absolute darkness. Normally, stuff like this didn’t bother her, but she shivered in fear. If they were able to do this to me, she thought, what else could they do? I don’t wanna find out! With lack of anything better to do, she flipped over onto her stomach and started crawling in the direction that the professor had run off.
“Stupid people,” a voice grumbled from behind her, causing her to freeze in terror, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Looking back slowly over her shoulder, she saw a tall man, with thick gray hair and a beard, dressed in simple jeans and a white t-shirt…except, both the jeans and the shirt were splattered with drops of blood. A large kitchen knife was in his hand, also dripping with blood. The man was pacing, and it looked like he was talking to himself, “Good fer nothin’…none of ‘em ever done anything fer you…waste o’ space, waste o’ air…”
Buttercup bit her lip, trying not to make a sound, as she resumed crawling silently, in hopes of not attracting his attention. He continued to rant to himself, and Buttercup didn’t look back, inching her way toward the hall, painstakingly slow. You can make it, she thought. Just don’t look back…keep going…
“YOU!” the man suddenly called out. Buttercup stopped crawling, tensing up…she heard the man’s heavy footfalls as he walked closer to her. “You know what I’m talkin’ about, dontcha? Y’understand they had t’die, all of ‘em!” Buttercup looked shakily back over her shoulder at him. He was standing over her now, waving the knife and his free hand in the air as though to accentuate what he was saying, “Well? Dontcha think so?!”
“I…” Buttercup said, but that’s all she could manage…she didn’t want to accidentally say anything to set this guy off…
“You people think yer all high an’ mighty!” he growled. “But I know how y’really are…worthless nothings!” He gritted his teeth and stared down at Buttercup, “Are y’listening ta me?”
Buttercup stayed silent for a moment, but then said, “I…I don’t…”
“Are y’lisetning?!” he yelled, suddenly swinging the knife. It clipped her on the cheek, and Buttercup cried out…it left a long, bleeding cut behind. In panic, she started crawling away as fast as she was able to, thinking, Don’t kill me oh god don’t kill me…
The man easily kept pace with her, still ranting, “Yer all the same, you people! Don’t wanna listen t’what’s wrong wit’ the world! Always gotta do yer own thing!” On the last word, he swing his knife again, cutting into her arm. Buttercup shrieked, and started to cry as she continued to crawl, her tears leaving a wet trail on the ground behind her. “You wanna keep doin’ yer own thing? Let the world go t’hell? Is that what y’want?”
Buttercup stammered, “N-no, please, I-I…”
The man roughly grabbed her and flipped her over, onto her back…Buttercup stared up at him in absolute horror as he gripped his knife tightly. He started to shout at her, swinging his knife at the same time and cutting into her somewhere on each word he stressed, “You’re not…gonna…keep on…doin’ this…y’people…all gotta…pay…!!” Buttercup screamed loudly, trying to struggle away, but it wasn’t doing any good. She couldn’t see out of one eye, as blood had trickled down from her forehead into it, but with her good eye, she could see him through a haze of tears, raising his knife above his head with both of his hands and shouting, “ALL O’ YOU ARE GONNA PAY!!” before thrusting the knife down…
* * *
Blossom and Bubbles picked themselves up off the ground, and Bubbles immediately ran back to the door they had just been pulled through, tugging on it. It was securely locked, “No! Professor, Buttercup!”
Grabbing her from behind, Blossom yanked her away from the door and said, “We can’t stay here…we’ve got to go, Bubbles!” She pointed at the hallway they were now in, which looked like the regular ones throughout the hotel, and said, “We’re just in one of the normal hallways, so they’ll find us…but if we don’t keep moving, we could be in trouble…”
“Okay,” Bubbles said, calming down, “Okay…wh-where to?”
“I think we should head…” Blossom started to say, but then was cut off by a low, animalistic growl in one direction of the hall. Turning to look, both of them saw something rounding the end of the hall, coming into the light. It was a large, black-furred wolf, trotting along slowly, but baring its teeth angrily at the two of them. Blossom finished her sentence, “…this way!!” and pulled Bubbles with her as she ran the other direction down the hall.
The wolf immediately started charging after them. The girls ran for their lives…at least they had a long lead on it. When they reached the end of the corridor, it split up in two separate directions. Reaching it at the same time, both of them started running in opposite directions. Blossom hesitated for a moment, realizing that they had inadvertently split up, and was about to run down Bubbles’ direction, when she realized that she didn’t have time…the wolf would be upon them any moment. She resumed sprinting down her own hallway.
Bubbles noticed that Blossom had gone the other way, and as she ran halfway down her own side of the hall, she looked over her shoulder at the intersection they had just come from. The wolf came into view, stopping and sniffing the air down each passage, then turned towards Bubbles and started running after her. With a shriek, Bubbles redoubled her efforts, running as fast as she possibly could.
She rounded the bend in the hallway and noticed an open door not far down, that read ‘H. FENTON’ on it. Darting to the door, she rushed inside…it looked like an office, and had several chairs and pieces of furniture, and a tile floor instead of carpet. Without a moment’s hesitation, she circled around the desk and quickly wedged herself underneath it. She clamped her hands over her mouth to stifle her own cries, but she wasn’t completely without sound…she was breathing heavily, both from her sprint, and in fear.
She waited and listened. Eventually, she heard the sound of something sniffing the air, and the pads of feet trotting by the door to the room. The foot sounds came to a halt, and Bubbles, clenched her eyes shut, trying to stay as quiet as she could, although she was trembling with fright, thinking, Don’t come in here please don’t find me go away please go away…
The sound of the wolf’s feet started up again, and she heard the claws clacking against the tiles of the office floor. Bubbles sweated, and kept her hands clasped over her mouth…it was all she could do to keep from making any sound, and prayed that the wolf wouldn’t find her. She heard the wolf sniffing the air. It grew louder, and Bubbles held her breath as she saw the tip of the wolf’s muzzle come into view at the edge of the desk’s opening, still sniffing…
Oh my god oh my god, Bubbles thought, tensing up and preparing to run if she was discovered. The wolf sniffed a few more times, then Bubbles heard a low growl erupt from his throat. That was the sign…she knew she had been found. With a cry, she leapt out from behind the desk, scrambling for a moment as she tried to go around the other side to make a break for the door. The wolf charged, butting into her headfirst. She tripped and landed on the ground, skidding a foot or so before coming to a stop next to a tall floor lamp.
The wolf rounded the edge of the desk, and Bubbles frantically grabbed hold of the floor lamp, pulling it over to try and block him off. As she held onto the bar from the lamp, the wolf lunged with its teeth, clamping onto the lamp instead. Bubbles screamed as the wolf tried to wrench it away, and held on for dear life. “Help!!” she shrieked. “Somebody help!!”
With a mighty shake of his jaws, the wolf flung the lamp aside…but since Bubbles was still hanging onto it, she was tossed through the air like a rag doll, through the open door of the office. She landed on her stomach, the wind knocked out of her from the fall…as she gasped for air and tried to get back up, a clawed foot slammed down on the back of her neck, pressing her against the ground again. She tried to scream again, but couldn’t, as the wolf opened his jaws and reached down towards her back…
* * *
Blossom reached the corner of her own hall and looked back…the wolf had chased after Bubbles, going down her section of the hall. Oh no, she thought. Bubbles! Oh god…I hope she’s all right…I’d better follow them, maybe between the two of us we can lose that wolf…
Before she had time to move, though, she felt something moving around her feet. Looking down, she saw spiders…hundreds of them, all shapes and sizes, crawling around her ankles on the floor of the hallway. With a cry, she staggered back against one of the doors, trying to get away, and the door behind her fell open. She stumbled inside…her hairbow fell off and landed in the hallway, and the door slammed shut. She had no idea where she was now, but noticed that there weren’t any spiders around her anymore, so she gave a sigh of relief.
Glancing around, she saw that she was just inside of another one of the hotel’s rooms. She felt the top of her head, realizing that her bow was gone, and moved over to the door, putting her ear up against it. She heard crawling sounds on the opposite side. I’d better not go out the same way I came in, she thought. Those spiders must still be out there. She started looking around for another way out, although this room didn’t have windows either.
Staring up at the ceiling, she spotted something that she thought looked like an air vent, and climbed up onto the bed to see if she could get to it from there. After a few hops, she found it was out of her reach. She started looking around the room for anything she could pile up to use as a stepladder.
At that moment, however, she noticed something along the top edges of the walls…it looked like blood was trickling down from them, slowly moving like a curtain down the sides of all the walls…the blood ran thin on a few spots, and formed pictures…awful pictures, of people dying in all kinds of different ways. Some were being stabbed, some were being crushed, or burned, or cut apart. Blossom just gaped at the images…she wanted to look away, but couldn’t.
It took her a moment to realize that the blood was starting to collect on the floor, and was slowly filling the room. She backed up against the headboard, watching as the level rose, and eventually passed over the top of the bed as well. It was all wet and sticky as it flowed up past her ankles…she climbed up the side of the headboard to stay out of it, but it was rising too fast. She shuddered with revulsion as it rose past her waist, up to her neck…
This isn’t real, none of this is real, she thought. She held her breath as it rose up to the halfway point on her head, and as she felt the taste of the blood against her lips, she started splashing around in a frenzy, trying to stay afloat, thinking, It’s real it’s real oh god it’s real I’m gonna die! She spotted the vent on the ceiling, and thought, My last chance…closing her eyes and still holding her breath, she started swimming towards it.
The level of the blood rose all the way up to the ceiling now…there was no more air, and no way to see where she was. She swam in the proper direction and felt along the ceiling, trying to find the vent, but she couldn’t find it. Where is it WHERE IS IT?! she thought hysterically…Oh god NO!! She couldn’t hold her breath another moment, and opened her mouth…blood flowed in, and she gagged, clasping her hands around her throat, thrashing around blindly…
* * *
The professor continued down the hall, shouting, “Girls? If you can hear me, say something! Girls!” It wasn’t doing any good…he heard nothing in reply. They can’t have gotten too far, he thought. I can run faster than them right now, so if I pick up the speed, maybe I can catch up to them…
He started jogging down the hallway, but only made it about twenty feet or so before his foot suddenly went through a portion of the ground, parts of it splintering away like it was made of old, rotted wood. Surprised, he fell forward, his leg sinking halfway up past his knee before striking the bottom, and he braced his fall with his hands. Ow…That’s odd, he thought…nothing looked wrong with the floor…
He started to pull his leg back out, when something grabbed it from below. He heard a voice groan, “…help me!…let me out!….” and the hands that were clamp tightly to his leg tugged harder at it, frantically trying to pull him down. The professor tried to pull his leg free, but whoever was holding it twisted hard with a tremendous *snap*.
“Arrgh!” the professor shouted, and pulled harder, finally getting his leg free from the hole. He rolled back on the ground clutching it, gritting his teeth. His leg was in bad shape, twisted at an unnatural angle. He started to pull himself away from the hole, when he noticed that it wasn’t even there anymore…it had vanished, replaced by solid ground, like it had never been there to begin with.
Weakly, he pulled himself up onto his good leg and limped down the hallway, focusing on his objective. I have to find the girls and get out, he thought…who knows what they’re going through right now? He struggled forward, pain shooting through his leg with every step, but he ignored it and continued on.
He was alerted by a noise up ahead…it sounded like a familiar scream, but it was suddenly cut off with a *thud*. Bubbles! the professor thought, and limped faster, turning the corner. He gasped at what he saw…a large wolf was holding Bubbles down with its head bent over towards her back. Her eyes were clenched and she was trying to scream, but barely any sound came out, just a high-pitched whine. The wolf lifted its head and looked back at the professor, blood dripping from its jaws and growling.
Oh god, the professor thought. He looked at the wall and grabbed the nearest thing he could get his hands on, one of the lamps that lined the wall. Pulling it free, he flung it with his good arm as hard as he can. The lamp struck the wolf on the side of the head. The growling abruptly stopped, and it immediately bounded off down the hallway, whimpering, and disappearing from view.
The professor moved as fast as he could over to Bubbles…her back had been torn into a little, although it didn’t look too bad. Blood was still pooling around her, though, and she opened her eyes, lifting her head to look up at the professor. She stuck out her arm weakly, and in a strained voice, said, “P…profess….” before she passed out.
Biting his lip, he knelt down next to her, wincing for a moment from the pain in his leg, and ripped part of the bottom of his lab coat off. He wrapped it carefully around her body, making a makeshift bandage, then carefully picked her up, holding her under his arm. She was still unconscious, but she seemed like she’d be all right. I hope the other girls are okay, he thought…
He continued on down the hallway…even though it was the same direction the wolf had gone, he guessed that the wolf wouldn’t be there anymore. He was right…the halls looked completely empty. A second later, though, he spotted something by one of the doors…it was Blossom’s hairbow. As he got closer, he saw something else…blood coming from under the door.
That’s not Blossom’s, is it?! he thought. Without another moment, he hurried to the door and opened it. Immediately, a literal flood of blood poured out from the room, knocking him off his feet. He landed on his back, still cradling Bubbles to keep her safe. When the flood finally ceased, he looked up and saw that something else had washed out of the room: Blossom. She was lying face down, and coughing heavily.
“Blossom!” the professor exclaimed. “Are you all right?”
She coughed some more, spitting some blood up, and saw the professor. She wheezed, “…Professor…it’s you…!”
Nodding, the professor struggled back to his feet, trying to be careful not to slip on the blood that covered the floor. “Did you find Buttercup?”
Blossom noticed her hairbow on the ground in front of her and picked it back up putting it on her head. “No, I…” she said, but then stopped, staring at the professor and Bubbles. She saw his leg all bent out of shape, and the blood soaking through the cloth wrapped around Bubbles’ back. That’s…that’s… Blossom thought…The vision I saw before…but Buttercup was also…
She heard a short scream come from the end of the hall. The professor must have heard it too, because they both swiveled their heads around to face the sound. Where she wasn’t there before, Buttercup was lying up against the wall, covered with bleeding cuts. She was unmoving…for a horrifying moment, they thought she was dead, but then she slowly opened one eye, as if she had been expecting something. She clenched her eye shut again and groaned loudly in pain.
She’s…she’s covered with cuts, Blossom thought. Just like in the vision too! That means…the vision I saw…it really is all coming true…except for the one I saw of myself…but if the others came true…then I’m…no…no, I have to get out of here! I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!! Blossom jumped to her feet and took off down the hall, in too much of a panic to stop. “Blossom!” the professor called, but it was too late…she had already outdistanced them.
She ran non-stop down several hall lengths before finally resting against the wall to catch her breath. No, keep moving, she told herself. She gathered her strength and stepped forward…and suddenly, was pulled into the air, dangling upside down. She looked around in shock, and saw that she was dangling by her leg from a rope, like she had just stepped into a snare. Although she was stunned, she tried to reach up to untie the rope, but couldn’t from the angle she was at.
A man stepped around the corner…he had brown hair and a moustache, and he was wearing clothing that was camouflaged, like jungle wear. A rifle was strapped to his back, and a large knife was in a holder on the side of one of his boots. He pulled this knife out as he walked towards Blossom and said, “So, I finally caught ye…bleedin’ wolf, won’t be botherin’ anyone now.”
Blossom protested, “I-I’m not a wolf! I’m a person!” She continued to struggle, but the ropes held fast.
Her protests didn’t seem to do any good…the man’s pleased expression didn’t change at all, like he hadn’t heard her. He approached her, holding the knife out, and said, “The chief’s going to pay me for yer pelt, wolfie…but I’m sure ye won’t be needin’ it anymore.” The realization of what he was about to do hit Blossom, and she screamed desperately, hoping that someone would help her. Ignoring her screams, the man grabbed a hold of her long hair, and raised his knife…
TO BE CONTINUED…