A Dark Side to Everything

Chapter One

First, we must focus our attention on a certain North-Eastern Oregon small town antiques shop. This shop, Craig’s Antiques, is situated in La Grande(that is the name of the city). In this shop, looking through the book section, was fifteen year old Silas Selkirk.

“Dad, when can we leave?” Silas asked looking very very bored.

“As soon as I finish cleaning up” Mr.Selkirk replied, “oh Silas, will you go up to the attic and get those antique masks I just ordered?” Inwardly, Silas sighed, for he hated going up into the dark space of the attic.

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Thanks kid”

“Which ones do you want?”

“Um- just bring them all down ”

Silas started walking down the hallway, and when he came to a string hanging from the ceiling, he pulled on it. With a loud creak, the old wooden ladder folded down from the ceiling. Coughing from the dust, Silas climbed up the creaky ladder. The attic was cramped, and he normally avoided it. But Silas had to do what his father told him to do, so up the ladder he went. When he got into the attic, he fumbled around for the light switch. When he found the string he pulled down and the attic was filled with a soft yellow glow. Silas found the stack of boxes that contained the masks his father just ordered, Silas started collecting the masks his father had asked for. With an armload of Silas walked toward the attic opening. All of a sudden the light went out. 

“Dammit” he let loose an expletive. It was pitch black, Silas started fumbling around for a flashlight or something when he noticed the soft ultramarine glow, he glanced around and saw a mask laying separated from the others. Silas was entranced by the sight, the light from the mask cast ever changing shades of blue, on the walls. Silas was hypnotized. Silently he walked towards the it. The mask was hideous, is was a quarter face mask, it was blood red and was covered in stitches. He bent down to touch the it, then he noticed the shapes the light casted. At first they were just random shapes, then they took form. The shapes were hideous, Silas panicked, everywhere he looked the light threw more and more strange, hideous and deformed shapes. Silas was terrified now, the things were now becoming real, leering at him from the walls, long cruel claws fangs dripping with blood and saliva. Every time he looked at a different wall the things became more and more ghastly, eventually they became so horrendous he could only think of one word: Demonic. 

Mr.Selkirk was downstairs locking up and dusting off, when he heard a noise behind him he turned around with a start. Silas was behind him, with an armload of masks, 

“here you go” 

“Silas what’s wrong, what’s with your voice?”

What happened next Craig Selkirk would never forget(for the last thirty seconds of his life at least). One moment Silas was looking completely normal the next, Silas was looking at the most hideous thing he had ever seen. It was about seven feet tall, blood red, it had a leering face and a row of bones sprouting from its forearms. Its face was scarred and pock marked its eyes were completely black. It had large dripping fangs protruding from its mouth. Its arms were heavily muscled, they looked like baseballs that were stuffed into a sock. From its back sprouted large black wings, and in its right hand it held a wicked looking sword. 

“What did you do with my son?! What do you want monster?!” Craig shouted. It answered simply in a deep rasping voice: “your soul” then it closed in.

Mrs.Selkirk looked at her watch and tapped her foot in impatience, “your father and brother really should be here by now.”

“Mom, stop being impatient.” Annika Selkirk reasoned “why don’t we just walk over there and see what Dad and Silas are doing. And that is exactly what they did. With their shoes pulled on and their coats wrapped around them they set off. The walk took about five minutes since it was, about, three blocks away. In no time they were at the shop, 

“Strange” Mrs.Selkirk commented.

“What?” Annika questioned

“ The lights are on, and the door doesn’t appear to be locked”

“Let's go in then, shall we?” Holding the door open 

“Dad!?” 

“Craig, Silas where are you?”

Annika walked to the counter and looked over

“OH MY GOD!” She screamed. Mrs Selkirk rushed over

“What is i-” she cut off her question in midstream as she saw what Annika saw, Mr.Selkirk’s body was lying there. Half of his body was decayed and rotten, she could see his rib cage and his internal organs. His head looked burned and mutilated. His brain was exposed. 

“Call the police” the urgency that was in Mrs.Selkirk’s voice, almost seemed like a real physical thing. Annika ran over to the phone on the counter and, lifted the receiver. After punching in the number, and telling the dispatcher where they were, Annika walked over to her mom. 

“Mom, I-I don’t know what to say.”

Mrs.Selkirk took a shuddering breath, and collapsed sobbing into Annika’s arms.

Ten Years Later

As a forensics investigator, Annika Selkirk had seen her share of gritty, bloody crime scenes. Stabbings, shootings, hangings, she’d seen it all, but nothing like this. Lately Annika had been on a series of scenes that were the bloodiest ever. The first one was a week ago, someone had been taking a hike, when, as they walked past a barn, they had heard blood curdling screams. They went to investigate. Not a smart idea. When the police arrived, the hiker was an insane gibbering mess, the only understandable thing she was saying was, “Hell is coming to earth, and Heaven won’t be there to stop it.” Later in the day she was taken to the Saint Dymphna Home for the Insane and Criminally Insecure. That was the first one, After that there was about a murder each day, and each time the person investigating would go insane, and be found muttering the same thing. The victim of the murder was usually found pinned to a pentagram that was painted on the wall or on the ground. The one Annika was at currently was one of the grittiest crime scenes yet. Annika was currently inspecting the victim’s body. She was a 27 year old blonde, extremely gorgeous, aquamarine eyes. Her body was slender and shapely her upper torso muscular. From the waist down her legs were slender yet muscular, clearly she worked out her hips were curvy and firm. After Annika documented all of this she sat down on a nearby chair and, amidst the hustle and bustle of the crime scene, she started to cry. Lydia had been her best friend since Silas had died, then she and Lydia had an argument and Annika never got to apologise. Chief Investigator Alexej Axwell walked up yo Annika and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Can I talk to you” he asked

“Sure”

“The Victim ha-”

“The victim has a name” Annika cut in teresely. “Her name is Lydia”

“Yes well, we still have to call her the victim” Alexej said

“How can you say that about your own wife?!” Annika shrieked “I’m just as sad as you are, but I’m not denying it by simply calling her ‘the victim!’” 

“She is still the victim of a crime” Alexej replied coldly “Yes she was my wife, but I’m not denying it. Your job here is done, I suggest you leave before your hurt someone.” 

“Fine” Annika shoved the documented observations into Alexej’s hand, then she stormed off to her car. Annika drove off down the street towards the edge of town, as she drove past a lamplight she saw a man standing under the light in a long trench coat, she looked at him and felt for a moment a jolt of fear. Then nothing. Annika thought it was weird, then she shoved it to the back of her mind. There are more important things to do than worry about a guy, under a street light. She told herself and drove off, into the distance. The thing in the trench coat that Annika had called a man smiled, all according to plan it thought the pentagram worked, and everything else was falling into place. The world is almost ready to be cleansed.

Chapter Two

The old mansion was built in the middle of nowhere. It had been built by an eccentric billionaire at the turn of the century, he was always fearful of being robbed or his house being intruded. So he had built in all sorts of safeguards, perfect to keep someone out. Or in.

Annika was running through the halls of a house, she could hear something behind her, she came to a t in the hallway, and whatever it was, was getting closer. In a moment of decision she decided to turn left. Dead end. “Wrong turn sweetie” the voice came out of nowhere, it sounded like a nine year old girl, “He he he he” a giggle came from behind her. Annika spun around, There was nothing but a wall, “He he he” more sounds of laughter, then a gravely deep voice came from behind her “wake up Annika, nothing is for certain, is this hall real? Are you real? I am the only one, are you sure that you are you?” Annika started crying but couldn’t say anything. She felt a stirring at her feet she looked down. A pool of what appeared to be blood was moving around her feet and Annika could see her reflection in it, but where her eyes should be there were only black pits, the reflection had long black stringy hair and was pale and emaciated. Annika could not stop staring at it, then the reflection reached out. “Wake up” it hissed. Annika woke with a start her chest pounding, it was only a dream she reassured herself.She glanced over at her alarm clock 9:30 she had only been asleep for an hour, Annika pulled the sheets over her head. It was useless though the dream had unsettled her, she tossed and turned but finally she couldn’t take it anymore. Annika got up and slipped on a bathrobe and her slippers and padded down to the kitchen, she opened her pantry, went inside and pulled out the coffee beans. Annika walked over to the coffee grinder and poured some beans in and flipped the switch, while the grinder was crushing the beans Annika walked over to her book shelf and took down the dream journal her father had given her. Annika read her father’s messy handwriting: To My precious lamb, always remember God made you special and he loves you no matter what. Annika traced the letters next to those words, From your loving father, Alexej Selkirk. Tears pooled in her eyes, Annika’s father died last year under mysterious circumstances. Annika’s father had left her and her mother very little but he had left her she held close to her heart.THUNK. A noise interrupted Annika’s thoughts “hello” she called, tentatively she closed the journal and started toward the kitchen. With her heart beating she looked into the kitchen, there was a man standing with his back to Annika; “M-m-may I-I help you?” She stammered, as the man turned around the long black cloak swished around his ankles, Annika was horrified. Covered in all black the man was like a demon straight from the pit of hell, a blood red mask covered three quarters of his face; the mask itself was covered in stitches and where the eye should be, there was a black pit. The part of his face the mask was not covering was just a mass of scars, and a single bloodshot eye; the noise Annika heard earlier was the man dropping what appeared to be a can of spray paint; in his other had was a whip that looked like it was on fire. Annika turned to run but encountered a wall that had not been there fifteen seconds earlier, “WHAT DO YOU WANT!?” Annika screamed, the man said nothing and kept walking forward; Annika clawed at the wall “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHAT DO YOU WANT?!” It was at that moment that Annika had what she would call in later years a vision. Everything went black and she saw the man for who he really was, she saw walking toward her the most horrendous being she had ever encountered, so ghastly in fact she couldn’t even describe the hideousness of it; but it was permanently seared in her memory. 

Then Annika snapped out of the ‘vision’. She was lying on the kitchen floor, there were long streaks of blood on the wall from where she tried to get out and her hands were bleeding; she stood up and reoriented herself. She was still in the kitchen but there was no way to get out, where there was originally a doorway there was now an imposing wall; then she saw it. On the floor in front of her in big crimson letters was: Eosfóros came to this house, now He will cleanse it. Those eleven words terrified Annika out of her mind, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, when she opened her eyes the words were gone and there was no wall and the doorway as where it should be; Annika was startled. Something was not right, i’m hallucinating, she told herself this can’t be real, but the words in front of her were very real. 

Alexej was startled out of his sleep by the phone ringing, “Lydia can yo-” he stopped, because he remembered everything that the day before; Alexej sighed and crawled out of the queen sized bed. “Hello?” Alexej said into the receiver

“Alexej, it’s Annika I need to talk to you.” Alexej glanced at the clock next to the phone. 8:38. 

“Okay, Where and when”

“As soon as possible”

The Café Dostoyevsky was a high end russian cafe, most people thought of it as a restaurant because of the food types it served, things like Blini, Borscht and Caravan but it was still called a café. Annika walked through the doors scanning the crowd and looking for Alexej, then she saw him

“Oh my God you’ll never believe what happened to me last night” 

“Calm down, just tell me what happened”

Annika took a deep breath, “so it started with a dream I had-” Then she found herself pouring out to Alexej what happened, the dream, getting up, the man, the mask and finally the writing on the floor. “Wow.” That was all Alexej could say, he sat there stunned. 

“And you’re sure that this- this thing you saw in your kitchen wasn’t, like part of your dream or something?”

“Damn it Alexej, I know what I saw, it wasn’t part of my dream and I can prove it to you.”

Their waiter walked up “Nalichnymi ili chekami?” check or cash? Alexej was proficient in several languages including Mandarin, Hindi, French and Russian

“Denezhnyye sredstva.” cash

“Ochen' khoroshiy ser” very good sir

The waiter walked off, Annika sipped at her glass of Caravan “so do you want to come over and see the evidence? Or do I have to drag you there on my own God damn it?!”

“Geez, Annika no need to get upset about it, I believe you let’s go over there now”

Annika set down her tea. Grabbed her purse and pulled out her keys. “Lets go.” Annika’s 1960 BMW 320i wasn’t brand new but she had always taken good care of it; Alexej was shocked to see the condition it was in. The paint was peeling, and it was covered in rust. “Annika , i’m astounded!”

“What?”

“Well, it’s just you always take such good care of your car. Now it looks like it just came out of a junkyard.”

“Um- Alexej, I don’t know what you’re seeing but this car is in mint condition.”

Annika turned toward Alexej, “are you alright? Alexej? Alexej?!”

Alexej was staring at Annika with a pale frightened face, Annika’s face had melted away leaving only a skull for a face, her eye sockets were empty. Wildly Alexej looked around him; the sky had turned blood red, the land was now bare dirt. All around him were hideous monsters, he turned back to Annika, in Annika’s place was was a tall gaunt, bent figure covered in a black cloak. As it stretched out a black boney hand with long grimy nails, it spoke in his head. This is a vision of what is to come, now rise and try to stop Eosfóros Grey! There were a few other things that it said, but not in any understandable language, Alexej just understood what it meant. “Alexej- Alexej! Alexej snap out of it!” He felt a sharp sting on his cheek, Alexej opened his eyes. He was sitting on a gurney with a couple of paramedics at his side, “what happened?”

Annika answered “we were walking out to my car, when you looked at me and went all pale. Then you just collapsed, I called 9-1-1, and here we are. What happened?”

“Well, when we were talking I turned to look at you and all of a sudden something happened, I don’t know what to call it. A- a vision I guess, all the skin had fallen off your face and there was just a skull and you had no eyes. Then I looked around, the sky had turned red, and the grass was all dead and stuff; and- and-”. Alexej shuddered at the memory of the beings that had surrounded him, “these- these things surrounded me, then when I turned back to look at you in your place was this weird thing, it was a monster . It was tall and it was wearing a black cloak, and it said something to me, well it didn’t really say anything, but it looked at me and- and I just understood.” Alexej took the bottle of water one of the paramedics gave him, “Annika I don’t know what it was, but something is out there, and it wants you and me dead.”

Chapter Three 

“So-?” 

“I’m not sure we should be doing this.” The boy said nervously 

“Wow, you sure are a yellow bellied sap sucking chicken.”

“A what?”

“It’s a name I learned from my grandpa, it means that you’re scared”

“Well, I’m climbing so no, I’m not a yellowed bellied whatever thingy, gimme a boost up”

As the boy got over the fence he called “what are we doing again?”

“We’re seeing if the legends of Mr. Grey are true” the second one called back.

“And what are the legends again?”

“Ugh, do I have to tell for like the billionth and half time?”

“Yep.”

“Fine, Mr. Grey was a billionaire-” The kid stopped short as he climbed over the fence, then he dropped to the other side and joined his friend. “Mr. Grey was a billionaire at the turn of the century, and according to my parents he was extremely paranoid. He built this mansion and installed in all sorts of technology, oh and he was a genius he was goi-” the kids stopped short

The mansion was a châteauesque style with turrets and a large amount of windows, most of which were boarded up. Back when it was brand new, the mansion must've been magnificent. But now it looked old, and Time had not been kind to the stone giant. It was crumbling, ivy had grown rampant over the walls, the lawn had overtaken the driveway. The hedges had developed wildly and weeds had encroached on what looked to to be a magnificent garden. They could still see the tracks from last time someone had driven through the gravel, what used to be a garage was now a patch of dead grass with a dilapidated shack on it. The air around the building seemed to be darker, and greyer than the rest of the sky. It made the mansion look sinister, like there should be crows perched on the roof.

“So this is the famous Grey mansion?” the first boy asked.

“Yea, my dad says that it used to be well taken care of by the remaining staff, until the money ran out. Then all the staff were fired and it was left to rot.”

“Wow”

“I know, sad, right?”

“Yea.”

“Well enough of all this sentiment let's get going.” Both boys started their trek toward the house, “Shoot, we forgot the packs. I’ll go back and grab them.”

“Don’t leave me here!”

“Geez, Chris, you’re such a scaredy-cat.”

“Go piss in a hat George, I’ll stay just to prove I’m not scared ” George turned around and started the walk back to the fence. After a while, George started to worry I thought I would have reached the fence by now. Something off to the left caught George’s eye. It was a large rock with blood red letters in some foreign language, they looked like this: డㄟ൨५೪৯记धಮ. George touched the letters. A jolt of pain shot up his arm, it felt like fire and ice at the same time.

“George! George! GEOR-”

Oh my God, Chris! George thought with alarm. He turned back the way he came and started running, but something was wrong. He was running, but he wasn’t getting anywhere and the forest seemed to stretch out in front of him. All of a sudden, George was in the clearing in front of the house, and what he saw was not forgettable. Chris’ body was hovering about two feet off the ground with his midsection exposed, the ground below him was covered in blood. Standing over him was a gaunt figure in a blood red robe with a knife, “get away from him you bastard!” George shouted. The gaunt figure turned towards him, the face was shallow and black with sunken cheeks. Don’t interrupt the sacrifice, a voice said in George’s head. Back off, it warned. “No, you son of a bitch, get away from my friend.” Very well then. The cloak slipped off the figure’s shoulders. What happened next gave George nightmares for the rest of his life. The figure was about four and a half feet tall, pale and emaciated, and hunched its shoulders like it was carrying a heavy load. The thing’s eyes were pure white, and it had a mouth full of sharp teeth, almost looked as if it were a large version of Gollum from Lord of the Rings. It hissed something in a strange language. The thing lunged at George, he tried to side step but it was too fast for him to dodge, it grabbed his coat hood and started dragging him to where Chris was floating. George started to struggle. 

“George you’re okay now, George wake up.” George’s eyes flicked open, he was lying on a hospital bed in a white gown, his hands and legs were strapped to the bed with leather cuffs. Sitting next to him in a plastic chair was a lady in tan slacks and sports coat with a white shirt. “So, George, where’s Chris?”

“I want my parents.”

“George, I want you to listen. I’m Annika Selkirk. I’m a forensics investigator. We found you three weeks ago on the Grey property in a coma. According to your parents, you were with your best friend, Chris Banandale. But he was nowhere to be found, now I need you to tell me what happened that night.”

“Well, it started when George and I decided to go camping on the Grey property,” George found himself pouring out everything that happened that fateful night. After he had finished he looked over at Annika, “You do believe me don’t you?”

“Of course I do, George.” Annika opened her briefcase, and took out a recorder. “Now what I’m going to ask you to do is say what you just told me, but into this recorder.”

A few hours later

“Well thank you for your cooperation George, the LGPD appreciates it”

“I need you to do something for me.”

“What would you like me to do?” Annika posed the question

“I want you to take me to the Grey Property, I think there’s something you’d like to see.”

“What is it?”

“Just, take me back.”

A Couple Hours Later

Annika climbed out of the passenger seat in the car. Chief Investigator Alexej Devadas pulled the keys out of the ignition, and turned to look in the back seat. “George,” Chief Devadas said softly, “George, we’re here.” George stirred in the back seat and sat up. “wh- where are we?” He questioned. 

“We’re at the mansion, you said that you have something to show us.” Alexej said in a matter-of-fact tone. George hopped out of the car, “It’s over here.” George led the way to the rock.

Annika, George and Alexej start to walk through the woods; “so George, what exactly does this thing look like?” 

“Well, it’s literally just a rock, but it has these weird letters on it.”

“Then lead on.”

George, Annika, and Alexej finally reached the rock. “ See, it’s just a rock with weird red letters on it” George commented; Annika bent over to look at the rock, she reached out her hand and touched it. 

As soon as she touched it there was a flash of light and a force knocked her into the air. She hit the ground hard and had the air knocked out of her lungs. Annika opened her heavy eyelids, her whole body was in excruciating pain. She took a quick look around her, she was lying on a queen size bed. It was a canopy bed in a large room that looked to be from the Victorian era, she sat up and swung her feet off the edge of the bed. Annika realized she wasn’t clothed in her detective clothes anymore, she was wearing a dress from the same era that the bedroom was from, Confess your sins. Annika jumped at the noise. You are not wanted, you will bring ruin on us all!. 

The whispering was not only in her head but all around her as well, she looked around at the walls and all the furnishings “Hello?” She called out tentatively, “is anyone there? I need some help.” The whispering intensified, suddenly there was a vibrating all around her, it was a deep, throbbing sound, like sitting in front of a subwoofer that was fully turned up. Then nothing. Annika’s heart was racing, although there was nothing in the room that she could see, there was something that was making her heart race. Then the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, Annika tried not to think about it, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. 

He was watching Annika from the closet. He saw Annika try to turn the doorknob to get out of the room. He saw Annika start to panic. He smiled to himself. He would be waiting. Soon the pain would be gone, soon he would be able to do as he wanted to whomever he wanted, he only had to fill his purpose. The mask on Roman Pirie’s face shifted uncomfortably; it was time to go; The Half Mask was going to make a name for himself.

George woke up with a blinding headache, his eyes opened slowly to a soft yellow light. He tried to rub the blurriness out of his eyes but he couldn’t move his hands. He turned his head to investigate but the only thing he could see was something like a line that was wrapped around his hand. “Hello, George” a soft feminine voice said. 

“Who are you? Where am I?”

“”Why, George you should know who I am.” The voice was full of surprise and hurt. “It’s me, Annika Selkirk.”

“What are you doing here, Ms. Selkirk?” George still couldn’t see the details of anything, his vision was still blurry. Then all of a sudden a dark shape loomed in front of his sight, “I’ve come to get you out of here. Why else would I be here?”

George’s vision suddenly cleared, he was chained to a wall with his arms stretched out on either side of him, in front of him was Annika. He looked around the room, he was in, what appeared to be, an old school room. All over the floor were books and upturned desks. On the floor were patches of a dark liquid which looked suspiciously like blood. At the front of the room, about 25 feet away, was a whiteboard with writing all over it. Annika pulled out a key and unlocked George’s chains, “Let's get out of here,” Annika grabbed George by the hand and led him out of the room. They entered into a long hallway covered on both sides by paintings. They were phenomenal. All of them showed exquisite detail, the colors were vibrant and fresh. 

But they were ugly at the same time. All of them showed scenes of death and destruction, the one immediately to George’s left, was a very detailed and graphic scene of a three beasts violating a woman. The things in the painting were beastial, with wings like a bat, and long cruel fangs and talons. They had either solid red eyes, or else completely black. George looked away “please, Ms.Selkirk can we get out of here? These paintings are awful.”

“Why George, why on Earth would you not want to enjoy the beauty of these paintings?”

“Ms. Selkirk, can you not see how bad they are?”

“Beauty is always subject to scrutiny.” George was suspicious, he had never seen Annika act like this. There was something about her that made George be wary of her. George turned quickly away from her and started the long walk down the hallway, “where are you going?” Annika called after him. “I’ve gotta get out of here” George threw the words over his shoulder “Ms. Selkirk, we don’t know how we got into this house, or how to get out. And from what I’ve heard, this place is like a rabbit warren, full of twists and dead ends. I’m scared because there is something about this mansion that doesn’t feel right.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to remedy that,” the words were no longer Annika’s George glanced over his shoulder. Annik was standing about twenty-five feet behind him, her eyes were glowing red, the hallway was filling with a black smoke that was shot through with glowing dark blue light. George quickly backpedaled, turning around he ran as fast as he could down the long dark hallway.  

Alexej woke to a chilling cold, with teeth chattering, and goosebumps on his arms he stood up and looked around. He was in a small enclosed room, although the roof was about ten feet above his head. There were metal shelves on all three sides of the freezer. On the shelves there were long figures,all of them were covered by black canvas tarps. Alexej zipped up his hoodie, steeled himself and uncovered one of the figures. What he saw was horrifying. Under the tarp was a human body. A frozen solid human body. He walked around and uncovered more More human bodies. All were frozen solid, but also in some state of decay. Alexej was chilled to the bone, on a hunch he checked all the other bodies. He was correct the last one he pulled off was the body of Lydia. Alexej clapped his hand over his mouth, choking back tears he carefully pulled the tarp back over the frozen body of his wife. Alexej slowly turned around to face the door, he took a deep breath “Alexej, Alexej!” The soft feminine voice made Alexej turn around. No, he thought that can’t be possible “How?! I just saw your body!?”  

“just calm down” 

“Annika I just saw your body, you can’t possibly be alive”

Roman chuckled to himself, everything was falling into place, Annika, George and, Alexej were right where they needed to be. He just needed to add some key elements and players. 

Chapter Four

George was out of breath, he had run from that thing that had claimed to be Annika until he run out of breath. Bent at the waist with his hands on his knees, George tried to catch his breath, “George” a soft croaky voice called “George, where are you?” The voice questioned in a soft sing song way. George threw a glance over his shoulder, at the end of the hallway there was a figure surrounded by black fog, it was slowly advancing down the long corridor, “George, come here.” He frantically looked around for some way to escape, to his left was a big antique oak door, with a black door knob and no windows. To his left was another hallway like the one he was in but that one was well lit. George chose the hallway. He was running with everything he had but his legs were starting to tire, as he ran from the thing his body started to feel like lead. He wrenched open a door that was to his right, he threw himself into the room and slammed the door shut. It was pitch black in the room, there was no light at all except for the light that was coming from under the door. George timidly put his ear to the door to see of he could hear if The Thing was coming. Nothing. George closed his eyes in relief, and took a deep breath. WHAM! A black spike broke through the door, George screamed “HOLY SHIT.” He turned and ran blindly stumbling into what felt to be a table, a chair and a kitchen island. Fumbling his way through the maze of object he finally found a metal door, he place his hand on the cool surface and pushed.