I woke up the next morning to ready myself for work when Angel grabbed my hand and pulled me back to bed.
“Look, I know it’s your birthday, but we still have responsibilities. I can’t just up and not go,” I reasoned with her only to be stared at with a fiery gaze of determination. “What’s got into you? What’s that look for?” I asked as she handed me my phone and demanded I call in sick. “Geez, alright I guess, Johnson will probably figure out why I’m not there.” And like that I was roped out of work for the day. We both didn’t wake up until around nine am after drifting back to sleep. We had breakfast in the kitchen while Dad ate toast, he was dressed and ready for work. I know it may be hard to believe but he works in real estate, a steady ten to five job with weekends off. Sophia was scrambling across the lounge room trying to tie her hair up properly all while squeezing into a short but practical looking dress that she struggled to zip up from behind. She carried an apron over her shoulder while she was hastily readying herself. Angel gave her a hand while I stood in the doorway between the two rooms.
“You got a job, did you, Sophia?” I asked her, barely awake still.
“Yes, I’m the head chef at the Pavilion Night Club.”
“Why are you getting ready now, then?”
“It has a restaurant that’s open through the day. What can I say? They loved my cooking; it pays well too.”
“That’s great, Mama. I’m glad you found something you enjoy that makes use of your talents,” Angel said cheerfully as she fixed Sophia’s long black hair. Our parents understood why we were taking the day off and didn’t really say anything. Nami on the other hand was overjoyed when she found out after she stumbled into the room with bed-ragged hair and wearing a long thin shirt that seemed a bit much for a little girl and showed off more than we needed to see. Once she came to her senses a bit, she wanted to impress us, so she started making a cake. Angel and I sat at the table, drinking coffee while enjoying each other’s company. Nami made a mess of the kitchen once Dad left for work; though the process wasn’t pretty for the benches and the pantries, the cake inside a tin ready to go into the oven looked reasonable enough and when it was done, its aroma was strong but appetising. We helped her clean up while the cake cooled and then she shooed us out the room while she iced and decorated it.
“We help her and she boots us out, kids these days, am I right?” I complained without really meaning a single word.
“She just wants it to be a surprise. She’s so cute when she’s serious, sort of like you.”
“Yeah I guess,” I responded slightly flustered.
We sat in the lounge room for only a moment until we heard Nami whining and sulking. We peered around the doorway to see Celia licking some of the fresh icing from her finger while Kitten fidgeted with the child’s hair, so she couldn’t stop them.
“You make great cake, little girl. I guess I should be calling you little sister instead from now on,” Celia teased while enjoying the icing.
“I’m not that smaller than you! Hands off the cake, it’s for Angel’s birthday.”
“Fine whatever. I’m sick of everyone lately anyway. I thought I could talk to you and maybe, just maybe, have a little fun.”
Nami went from annoyed and bratty to innocent and adorable to manipulate her. Celia could see right through her and her patience already began to run thin.
“Cut the crap,” she scolded her.
“I’ll behave,” she replied, submissively.
After a few minutes of silence while they watched her finish icing the cake, she came out and said it.
“So, you two are—” But before she could say another word, Celia hushed her with her hand over her mouth after dashing across the room.
“It’s not like that we’re just really close is all,” she answered rapidly.
“Yeah sure, sure.”
Without realising, Celia shook her by the shoulders as she panicked trying to convince her otherwise. Kitten nodded quietly in the background disproving her hastened rant under a face of red and sweat. I looked to my side to see Angel had disappeared; she decided to act. She pulled Nami into her arms and stared at Celia with an intimidating gaze that made the heart tremble and the soul quiver in fear. Celia stuttered at the realisation she had been freaking out and it was plain to see she felt like she was being punished for it.
“Woah, what’s with your eyes? I’m sorry. I-I went too far, just stop looking at me like that.”
“A-Angel, you’re going to ruin it! Wait outside please!” Nami then forced her outside. I could tell seeing her that way had also made her uneasy, but it was her pride that was the main culprit behind her behaviour. She sat next to me against the wall and looked at the ground aimlessly. I put my arm around her and brought her close.
“Never thought I’d see the day when someone pissed you off.”
“I feel kind of, really bad.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure she understood you were just being protective. It’s your birthday, enjoy yourself a little okay?”
She nodded and kissed me on the cheek without saying anything. Nami called us back into the kitchen a moment later to face a well-decorated cake covered in strawberries and white icing. It was lined with nineteen candles burning faintly. Nami then threw her arms around Angel wishing her a happy birthday. She tied her incredibly long hair back to blow out the candles. Kitten picked up on this inconvenience almost instantly.
“Hey, your hair’s pretty long,” she stated anxiously.
“Well yeah I guess it is.”
“I did hair dressing for a course in high school, so I could cut your hair. It could be a present for you if you want.”
Angel happily agreed to her offer for some time later in the day. As we all sat around the table and enjoyed the cake, winds roared outside, and the sunshine of the early morning vanished behind a wall of ominous clouds. Thunder crashed and bellowed amidst the clouds. Nami poked her head outside the window to see the darkened sky only to jump and smash her back against the top of the frame as a sudden strike of lightning illuminated the sky around the city. Angel dragged the girl to her side and closed the window.
“Probably best we stay inside and wait for the storm to pass,” I suggested while looking down to face Nami. We put some of the cake we had left over in the fridge and as we were cleaning up, Angel dropped a plate from being startled by a sundering roar of thunder. We all looked to her as she stared at the broken plate.
“Oh oops, don’t worry I’ll clean it up,” she grabbed a dustpan and bent down to sweep it up when suddenly her forehead dribbled blood onto the floor.
“Woah, are you okay?” Celia asked in a worried tone.
Angel put her hand to her forehead to try to stop the bleeding, but it just leaked onto the other side through her fingers. I grabbed her other hand and quickly rushed her to the bathroom.
“She’s fine; some glass must have chipped her forehead is all,” I rushed an excuse before I disappeared down the hall with her. I spent the next hour in the bathroom holding a cloth to her head waiting for the open wound to close itself."
“I don’t know why I’m like this. I’m trying not to worry anyone, but I suppose I have to slip up sometimes,” she said while looking deep into my eyes with her blood red eyes.
“I just wish I could fix this; no one should spend their birthday behind a closed door licking their wounds.”
She rested her pale cold hand against my face and smiled as blood dripped down her face from accidently loosening the cloth from the wound. I rushed my hand back on it immediately after noticing.
“With you taking care of me, it’s really not that bad…never leave me, okay?” The way she said it I felt like I didn’t have any other choice. I let out a sigh and washed the blood from her face; the wound had closed. I started to calm down.
“I’m not going anywhere; if I did, you’d be someone else’s problem…I can’t have that now, can I?” I held her chin up with the edge of my enclosed hand and she bit down as I went to move it away. She looked at me with a mischievous smile in silence and I gave her my hand, but she fell and pulled me into the bath with her.
“What are you doing?” I asked as she climbed over me.
“Brings back memories, doesn’t it?”
“Not without this it doesn’t,” I kicked the tap and freezing cold water drenched the both of us. She gasped while I laughed hysterically. A fresh pair of clothes and a flooded bathroom later we went down stairs to check up on Nami. She was eating some more of the cake out of stress and it was kind of painful to watch. “That’s enough cake for you; eating like that I’m surprised you keep your figure.”
“Huh, oh, I, ah I mean it tastes so good is all,” she responded as if she didn’t even notice she was eating more of it. Angel covered her mouth while trying not giggle. “What? What’s so funny?” she asked as bits of cream were wiped from her mouth.
“You’re just so cute. I might have to eat you instead next time we have cake,” Angel said with her eyes pulsing with lust.
“Please don’t look at me like that; you look so hungry, it makes me nervous.”
Kitten walked into the room with a pair of scissors in hand and a spray bottle in the other. I decided to go up to my room and take a few moments to rest while Angel had her hair done, but it was only a few minutes until there was a knock on my door.
“I’m coming in,” Celia entered my room which was a shock since she hadn’t been in there since we were kids.
“What’s up?” I asked calmly trying to hide how surprised I really was. She showed me her hands, she unwrapped them to reveal her scars. I felt bad for her and somewhat guilty.
“I think I hate Sophia…” she said softly while bandaging them back up. I placed my hand over them to stop her.
“They’re healed; you don’t have to wrap them anymore.”
She then suddenly slapped me across the face and stared me down without another word from her mouth but her eyes watered, barely holding back her tears as she sat down on my bed next to me. My face stung and jaw throbbed from the pain. I wasn’t angry though and despite being able to remember how sore I felt, I also remembered that it didn’t bother me in the slightest. I was more worried for her sake.
“Celia…” She hushed me before I could say another word. I went to say something once more and she aggressively told me to shut up. I spoke regardless of that and asked her a question. “Why are you in here and not out there having fun?” She didn’t answer me and kept her eyes to the carpet. I gave her a few minutes and she decided to respond.
“I just miss when this house was quiet, when the most trouble it would ever come to see was my fault, nobody else’s. I-I think I hate this new family.”
“So, you came to confide in me. Celia, I know they’re a handful, but they’re good people. They may act up, but they’re there when you need them.”
“You say that but all they do is take. They live here and do nothing but flirt, scheme and keep me up at night. You and Dad do so much for them and say they’d do the same for you…I feel like they would just run away.”
“If that’s the case we’ll deal with it if it comes to that,” I said coldly. I don’t think Celia ever got over her feeling of loss when it comes to her hands; she still wraps them to this day, sadly, unable to come to terms with it.
Around one o’clock the storm showed no signs of letting up, water streamed down the windows and the roads were already almost submerged. We sat around trying our best to relax as the roars of thunder would make us jump at every crack. Amidst the storm we heard a knock on the front door. I opened it to see Sophia with an umbrella overhead and a shopping bag by her side. She skipped into the lounge room, her clothes were dripping wet, she shamelessly stripped out of them. Wearing only a small crop top and skin-tight shorts, she ran to the fridge and helped herself to some cake as well as cracking open a can of rum. A can for herself and she threw one to Angel who looked to her slightly confused.
“Mama? It’s barely past noon. It’s a little early for this isn’t it?” Sophia giggled to herself with a smitten expression on her face. She handed Angel her birthday present and hugged her tight.
“I love what you did with your hair, gorgeous; it suits you perfectly,” she complimented her while running her hands through her hair. Her long black hair was cut back to her shoulders and really shined for how dark it was around us. It was long as the day Angel and I had first met in the house. Looking at her from that moment to back then, it was hard to believe she was the same person. Sophia hugged her daughter tighter, clearly it wasn’t just Angel’s birthday that had her so giddy.
“I can’t keep it to myself any longer. Jason proposed!” She then chugged back the rest of her drink and then let out a breath of relief. I think it was the happiest any of us had ever seen her. Her giddy smile and her blushed face, even to the rushed pace of her voice made it obvious that she was unimaginably excited. Nami supported her mother completely and shared in her excitement. Angel and I tried our best to be happy for her, but to us it was extremely awkward. The thought of being step-siblings after becoming so close as lovers…it was painful for us to think about. Celia on the other hand didn’t hesitate to show her disapproval. She walked away with her arms crossed and averted her gaze from all of us.
“Disgusting,” she remarked as she left the room. I wasn’t sure if that was directed at just Sophia or at Angel and me.
“Oh, ah congratulations. I hope the two of you are very happy together…I got to go now. Um so yeah. See ya later,” Kitten nervously tried to squeeze her way out of the situation, only to come back inside from the pouring rain after she ran outside into it.
“Idiot,” I said bluntly as I handed her a towel. Kitten then went to Celia’s room for the rest of the day and ended up staying the night as the storm raged on.
Angel and her mother got blind drunk while I kept Nami entertained as well as stopped her from sneaking any cans to herself, which I found her trying to do several times throughout the night. I stayed sober and relaxed in my room while listening to Nami rave on about…I honestly can’t remember what she was going on about; it mustn’t have been that important for it not to stick, I guess. The next morning, I woke up with Angel sprawled out on top of me, the blankets were on the floor and she was fast asleep. I placed them over her and I went to hallway to go to the kitchen where Dad was sitting down at the table eating toast and drinking coffee.
“I didn’t see you last night all that much. I’m surprised you weren’t drinking with Angel,” he said to me in a calm manner, treating me like a normal human being rather than a troublemaker.
“Well I have work today, it’s not like I didn’t spend time with her yesterday. I just thought she’d want to have a chance to connect with her mother.”
“I see, that makes sense.” There was a brief silence between us while we had our breakfast.
“Sophia told us about you and her, how you’re getting married sometime soon.”
His face became cold, just talking about it made him nervous and no matter how I looked at it, it was a big move for him.
“Yeah, she said yes. I hadn’t felt so overjoyed in quite some time since, so it hit me pretty hard.”
“Good for you,” I said in an exhausted tone as I got up from the table. I headed to work hoping for a chance to escape everything back home. When I arrived, I was welcomed into the office by Mr Smith, Johnson and Dan. Their white office shirts had sweat stains beneath their armpits and there were coffee mugs scattered over the benches.
“Hey guys, what’s going?” I asked curiously
“Mr Smith here became the new active CEO of the company yesterday after the old man retired. So, we thought we’d start off with some renovations around the office,” Dan said after he finished his coffee.
“The place is looking good, but how long have you all been at this?”
“A few hours,” Johnson answered firmly. “It’s only eight am, you’ve seriously been here before sun up?”
“I suppose we have been, but it’ll all be worth it once we’re finished. I intend to do great things with this company,” Rex spoke with more determination and drive in his voice than I had ever heard from him. I helped with the renovations for most of the day; it was a good chance to talk to each other while we all strived for a common goal. I told them how my father intended to marry Sophia and it brought a variety of responses. Johnson was happy for them, although he knew it bothered me. Dan was weirded out by it but tried not to overreact for my sake and Mr Smith expected as much from my father and took an interest in the news. It was definitely a kind of scandal; they kept it to themselves and just like that we went back to talking nonsense with each other. At the end of our shift, instead of walking home, Johnson had brought his car to help with the renovations, so I caught a ride home with him.
“Wade, are you feeling brave?” he asked me as I stared outside the car window.
“Yeah, I think I know where this is going. You want to go out of town and check out that old hospital again, don’t you?”
“Yes, I’m aware your father warned you away from it, but I think there’s more to uncover than what we saw.”
“Alright, long as we bring Angel; this is as much of her history than anybody else’s. She deserves to know everything.” It sounded as if I was demanding a lot from him, but I already knew he was fine with it. He nodded and when we got to my house, I dashed through the hallway to Angel inside my room. I explained everything to her and next thing we knew we were off to the hospital under the false pretences that we were going out to see a movie to our parents. It must have been suspicious though since I carried a backpack full of equipment I gathered from the shed in the backyard.
We arrived at the front of the ruined hospital and before we went inside, Johnson popped the trunk of his car. He pulled out a heavy double barrel shotgun that looked like something that could be used to hunt lions.
“What’s that Johnny?” I asked anxiously.
“Some insurance; it’s one of my projects I spent my time on in my youth.”
What the hell would you need something like that for? I shuddered as the thought crossed my mind.
“So, are we good to head inside?” Angel asked casually despite the cannon-sized shotgun in front of her and what it could be used to hunt was inside. She dressed for the occasion in some practical tights and a clingy shirt; she was aware tonight was going to be intense. We walked into the main lobby to be surrounded by complete darkness. Click. Our torches came on and brought light to the eerie room.
“And I thought it was creepy during the day. Where to first, Johnny?”
“Let’s head to the upper levels and we’ll work our way down from there.”
We found the stairwell and ascended it all the way to the entrance to the roof, which was locked and wrapped in chains. They were well made and were in fairly good condition. We made a note of it and moved on to investigate the top floor. Angel and I waited in place as Johnson peered around the corner of the stairwell wall with his shotgun resting beside him. He gave the all clear and we walked to the end of the hallway. Every step we took echoed around us; the air was stagnant and cold. Johnson tried the door to the left of us, the handle fell from it and the wood cracked as it crumbled to pieces. The inside of the room resembled something out of a nightmare. The walls pulsing with veins with red coursing through them. Johnson and I stared in horror and awe as the room seemed to breathe around us. Angel put out her hand to the veins on the wall and gently ran her hands down them.
“What do you think this is?” she asked as she stared at her hand, examining the residue that remained. Johnson pulled her away from the walls and he looked the room up and down thoroughly.
“Keep away from the walls; they feel like they could reach out and devour you at any moment,” he then opened a cupboard filled with organs, beating and pumping away. He slammed it shut and backed away. Angel searched the mush-filled drawers to find a bloodied note. The note said only one sentence. ‘This place is sick.’ She turned the note over to see that it was a photograph and gasped as she recognised the person in it. Her hands shook as I steadied them and looked at the photo for myself.
“That’s Anne, isn’t it, after she changed?” I said to her and she nodded as she wiped the photo clean with a sad expression in her eyes. The photo itself was a going away photo before her release from the hospital. She seemed happy enough with a smile on her face while making a peace sign over her eyes. In the dresser was also a book that Angel happened to recognise from the cover, but its contents were damaged and unreadable due to the slimy red mush that filled just about everywhere inside the room.
“That’s Anne’s journal, her second one. I saw her writing in it before I said my goodbyes,” she was mainly able to distinguish that it was hers from a faded signature inside the cover. “This could have the answers we need, Wade. I’ll do my best to restore it after we’re finished for the night.”
“Alright, Johnny. God, I hope this stuff doesn’t spread, it’s so gross just to touch,” I whined as I shook my hands clean of the gunk that dripped onto the vile floor.
“They must have moved Anne up here after I was dismissed from this place.”
“So it would seem, the top floor is where she was quarantined then. Stay on your toes; she probably wasn’t the only thing that they had locked away,” Johnson said as we exited the room and we entered the one beside it. The door opened with ease and stayed in one piece, but as we walked inside a pair of black boots dangled in our faces. We looked up to see one of the mysterious jet-black soldiers hanging from the ceiling with a rope hanging around his neck. This, however, was clearly not the source of his death since there were multiple gashes and cuts across his body; he was hacked to death. It wasn’t the first time I had seen a dead body; it wasn’t any easier for me though and just looking at the hanging corpse made me feel a sense of immediate danger. The decay and its scent forced its way into our senses. Angel coughed and struggled to breathe, and Johnson wasted no time in tying a handkerchief around his mouth to search the body. On its back was a backpack containing several items. A few cylinders of oxygen, a heavy chrome pistol, countless rounds of ammunition for both the pistol and the submachine gun hanging on the waist of the body and finally was a complicated looking piece of technology that sort of looked like a tablet, but with dials on the front of it.
“Hmm, it’s out of juice; from what I can tell, it’s a data-feed device. This could be useful,” Johnson mumbled to himself as he fidgeted with it. Crack. Creak. Then without warning the floor collapsed in on itself and we fell in the room below only to fall again as the ground caved in yet again. Next thing we knew we were back on the second floor inside another patient room. Johnson looked to the device to see it power on. It displayed various assortments of information; he found the mapping software to discover a detailed 3D digital map of the hospital.
“This map reads that we fell from room 409 to room 209. Sigh. The second floor is more active than the others. Keep close, this might become dangerous.”
Angel attempted to open the door to the hallway, but it wouldn’t budge so much as an inch.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as her heart sank to a startling conclusion.
“We’re locked inside, we can’t get out…” Her train of thought was derailed and realigned as we all stared back through the hole we fell through.
“Wade darling, you can climb pretty well can’t you?”
“Yeah, yeah. I know, I’m going. I’ll be back,” I answered knowing how exhausted I was going to be. I put my foot against the pile of rubble and reached for a spot where I could boost myself up to grab the ceiling. I had to leap, but I grabbed the edge of the hole and pulled myself through it. In the room were several half-devoured corpses, their faces chewed away to the point of bits of flesh clinging to the bone. It was a gruesome sight. I left the room and went down the stairwell. I heard roars and howls of the creatures from further down the hall coming from around the corner. I managed to walk to the door of room 209 without drawing any attention to myself. I looked at the red living substance that held and reinforced the door in place. It wasn’t something Johnson or I could kick down. I called to Angel with an idea in mind.
“Angel, can’t you do that thing? The teleporting or whatever?”
“I guess I could try that.” She then suddenly reappeared on the other side of the door beside me.
“Woah…Johnny we’ll be back to get you alright.”
“Don’t bother. Just meet up at the top of the stairwell facing the roof at two hours past midnight, I’ve found a way out.”
“Okay.” It was suspicious, but I put my trust in him.
We then suddenly heard growls from both sides of us and we froze up as we saw a giant monstrous beast at each end of the hallway. They both had big glowing red eyes; one was larger than the other. The smaller creature was unlike the ones I had seen far, it had a long arm made up of five powerful tendrils that grouped together. Its other hand was small, about the same size of a person’s, but it had sharp claws and its body was strong though it didn’t stand much taller than me. The other one was gigantic and was coated in patchy pitch-black fur and it had a jaw lined with several rows of sharp teeth. The monsters sprinted at insane speeds, but rather than attacking us they ignored us completely and fought with one another. The giant one bit down on the tendrilled creature’s shoulder and lugged up to it with its immense mass. The tendrilled creature didn’t even flinch and grabbed the beast by the neck with its small arm and dragged it from its shoulder. It let out a bellowing screeching roar and then Thud. It headbutted the black beast in the face and knocked it unconscious; blood leaked onto the ground from its head. The tendrilled beast then stared at us with its big red eyes and it gently touched us with its tendrilled arm which was smooth and cold. It felt our faces, our arms and we didn’t move a muscle as our bodies locked up in fear. Its tendril wrapped itself around our arms and it led us by them to the nurse’s wing. It looked at the floor inside the room and then suddenly headbutted it, destroying through to the kitchen below. It lowered us down and jumped down beside us. It roared again and fidgeted with a gas valve on the oven as if it wanted to use it. The beast then handed me a packet of frozen hash browns hidden in the back of the soggy foul freezer.
“It wants me to cook?” I blurted out loud and the beast looked to me expectantly. I explained that the gas was leaking, and the oven wouldn’t work. Surprisingly the creature understood what I said although it was far from accepting of my words. Roar!!! Crunch! The beast punched the oven door and it buckled inwards. It held its small hand and licked it with a long green tongue. The creature drew its eyes back to the oven and then impulsively ripped it from the wall and threw it against the floor.
It has a personality, I’ll give it that much, I thought to myself. “Hey, hey. No need to get so upset, we can probably find a way to cook your food. There, there. It’s alright,” Angel spoke softly to the beast while rubbing its head. The monster calmed down and enjoyed the affection as its body relaxed. I wanted to avoid any physical contact with it as much as possible, but it coiled its tendrilled arm around my wrist and delicately brought my hand to the top of its head. Its skull was hard as stone and its skin gripped my hand as I caressed it. We all looked up to see all the lights in the hospital flash on at once. Roars bellowed as the light disturbed the beast living inside the hospital walls.
“Someone turned on the power. Johnny maybe? We should meet up with him soon, it’s getting to about that time. It’ll be hard to sneak past everything now that the lights are on.”
“One second, I’d feel bad if I just left this big guy like this.”
She popped the hash browns into the microwave and the creature let out a loud howl before devouring them all in a single bite. It then led us by the arm to one more spot before we had to go. It took us to the examination room and ripped up the floorboards, beneath was a tunnel that led into darkness. The creature disappeared into it only to emerge a moment later with a rose in its mouth as it ran on three of its limbs while the heavy tendril launched it several metres at time as it ran in strides. It presented the rose as what I guess to be a token of its gratitude or as an offering of friendship. Angel cheerfully accepted it and fixed the vibrant red rose to her hair. The beast howled once more before we said farewell to it as it dashed around the corner of the hallway outside.
“I wonder what all that was about? I’m glad it didn’t attack us, but it was still kind of weird of it to act in the way that it did,” I said as we walked up the stairwell.
“Not really, I think they’re like us in a lot of ways. I’m sure it was just lonely is all.”
“Yeah, but we were here to find clues of what happened here and about your past, not to screw around.”
“It was fooling around in dangerous places that lead you to meet me, wasn’t it?” she asked while smiling and the vibe she gave off went from innocent to mischievous and cunning. I nodded, and she pressed herself against me. I leant back against the stairwell wall. I closed my eyes as she took her shirt off and I held her as I kissed her. She took a deep breath, clutching tight at my shirt before bringing her lips back to mine.
“Wade.” The moment I heard my name we almost screamed until we saw it was only Johnson coming up the stairs. “Oh, it’s only you, Johnny; don’t scare us like that, man.”
“Giggle. I guess we got caught up in the moment,” Angel said as she threw her shirt on to cover herself.
“I hardly think this is the time or place for that and if I remember correctly, it was somewhere inside this stairwell that the affair between your parents took place…please show more self-control than those that came before you,” he lectured us with a flustered expression on his face.
“Sorry Johnny,” Angel apologised, knowing she was mainly the reason he was like this.
We followed him up the stairs while he lugged the heavy shotgun over his shoulder. His clothing was covered in blood that wasn’t his and his arms were lined with bruises barely showing beneath his blood-stained sleeves. We came to face the chained door leading out onto the roof. Johnson pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the padlock and unshackled the chains from the door. We walked out on to an open rooftop infested with the living red substance. In the centre of the red smeared breathing concrete was a large mound of the organic mass.
“So, why are we here, Johnny?” I asked as I stared at a basically empty rooftop. He pointed to a room locked with yet another padlock, this time smashing it in with a hammer from out of his backpack. He walked over to a boiler inside with multiple valves and turned on a set few in a certain order. Leaving the first, third and fifth, but turning the other on and off. Hiss. The sound of steam erupting could be heard from below inside the hospital. I turned around to see the flesh mass slowly wriggling in place, Johnson walked out of the small room to face the situation. He kept us behind him with an arm raised to hold back our curiosity. The red mass split open to reveal an enormous creature covered in sharp metallic scales; it had intimidating yellow glowing eyes and its mouth leaked with strands of undeveloped flesh that grew with every passing second. It stared us down fearlessly and though it could only scarcely roar, it was enough to have Angel and me shaking in our shoes. Johnson stood silently, his eyes never leaving the creature’s gaze. It pulled its front legs from the flesh mass and it tried to stand. We slowly paced ourselves towards the stairwell. Moving, but without breaking eye contact with the creature. It then stood up on four legs and with a single giant claw it scooped us beneath its body.
Don’t panic…if it wanted to kill us it would have already. I thought to myself, trying to stay calm. Johnson came off as if he was in the same boat and Angel stared at the monster’s eyes as it sniffed her. It then nudged us into the stairwell with its giant metallic head. We went to walk away and as I looked back over my shoulder, I saw the giant creature leap off the side of the roof; there was a loud thud a second later. Angel asked me what the sound was, I didn’t answer and shrugged my shoulders, keeping what I saw to myself. Johnson told us to head back to the car while he made a final round of the hospital. He was acting suspicious that night, but it was better than to ask him about his methods. He was only doing what he thought was best. We finally made it back to the car and packed our equipment in the trunk. We could see the giant yellow glowing eyes of the monster staring at us from within the trees that surrounded the hospital. We had no idea what it wanted or why it watched us from afar when we would have been helpless against it.
We drove back home without looking back and we parked at the front of my house at around three in the morning. The door was unlocked for us and all the lights were off except for the bathroom light. Johnson used the shower so he wouldn’t come home to Sabrina covered in blood. He borrowed some of Dad’s clothes and stepped into the bathroom. Angel and I cleaned the kitchen, picking up empty rum cans and a layer or two of our parents’ clothes. I shuddered as sweat dripped onto the floor from them.
“I guess they went all out once we left, then again it doesn’t surprise me. It’s not every day you get engaged. I would have probably wanted to have a bit of fun too if I were in their shoes,” I said to Angel as I brewed some coffee for us.
“Wade…are you comfortable? With the way our parents are? I love my mother and Jason is a great guy, but don’t you feel sort of cheated?”
“What do you mean exactly?” I had an idea of what she meant, but I asked anyway.
“Like the thought that we’re part of this sick family, the step siblings are dating while their parents live a normal married life…I guess the future and that reality scares me deep down.”
“Me too. All the time, even before he proposed,” I said as I poured a cup of coffee for us each and sat down at the table with her. The hot coffee helped us relax and the dreary atmosphere we were subjected to over the day got to us a little less. A moment later we heard a loud scream from down the hall. We dashed over to the bathroom and it came from Nami, who was completely naked, wrapped in the shower curtains as the water ran cold on her from the showerhead. Johnson was sitting on a plastic stool as he dried his long brown hair; he was in a pair of shorts and tank top. Angel covered my eyes with one hand as we walked into the room while she tried to figure out what happened.
“Nami? What happened? Why are you up this late? Why are you naked?”
“I-I’m sorry! Just turn off the water! It’s so cold!” she begged while hanging in the curtains. Angel gave Johnson a nasty glare and her head began to bleed again. Out of impulse she removed her hand from my face to stop the blood. My eyes met with Nami’s and past how flustered and awkward I felt. I couldn’t hide my disappointment. She tried her best to cover herself as she blushed, unsure what to say.
“Really. This makes twice now. What the hell were you trying to do anyway? There’s no way he would have stripped you,” I said as I pointed to Johnson.
“I-I kind of wish he did…” she said softly and we all looked to her with our eyes wide open.
“You sure she’s ten years old? The way she acts and even how she looks…” I asked without thinking. Slap! Angel smacked me across the face.
“Wade! She shouldn’t be acting like this, even if she does look a little older.”
“She snuck into the shower with me while I was washing my hair; the curtains seemed like a fitting punishment. Equal reward, equal punishment. Isn’t that right little girl?”
“Johnny why’d you have to be thorough? These are going to take forever to untie and what do you mean equal reward? Nami, explain,” Angel demanded sternly.
“I-I don’t want to,” she said trying to hide a nervous grin.
“Nami!” she yelled at her. I hushed her, so she wouldn’t wake up the house. Especially Celia, who would have been furious to be woken up to see us like this.
“Fine, I’ll tell you. I managed to sneak in here after I saw him walk inside, I stripped down while he had his eyes closed from the shampoo. I couldn’t help myself and I ran my finger down his abs and that’s when he grabbed my wrist.”
“What the hell is going through your head, girl?” I asked in utter disbelief.
“Let her finish,” Johnson said with a serious gaze, trying to force away a faint smile on his face.
“He asked me what I was planning to do next and I stepped away from him, not sure to act on that. He offered me a choice, that I do whatever I wanted and be punished for it or that I walk away. I had already gone too far to back down at that point.”
Angel and I braced ourselves for the worst possible outcome imaginable. Johnson sat calmly on the stool with his eyes closed, waiting for her to go on.
“So, I pressed myself against him, it was only for a minute, but I never felt so—” Johnson yanked the shower curtains tighter and she let out a muffled scream as Angel rushed her hand to the child’s mouth. We all then turned around to see Dad staring at all of us.
“I don’t want to know,” he said bluntly and walked away. I followed him while Angel tried to free Nami. Johnson went home for the night. I worked on convincing Dad on what he saw wasn’t anything malicious as what he was thinking. He brushed me off and instead handed me another cup of coffee and told me to sit down as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“Son, it’s not you who needs to be explaining their actions, it’s me,” he said calmly.
“Huh? But I.”
“Hear me out alright. I know you went to the hospital tonight, there’s no point in denying it, but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. It’s about my engagement to Sophy and how I want to marry her. I know you’re not comfortable with it, I know both you and Angel are serious about what you have with each other,” he went on to explain his relationship in the past with Sophia, before he met my mother and how they became separated for a variety of reasons. Sinclair, Angel’s father, stole Sophia’s heart and Dad was forced to move on. It was regret that led both my father and Sophia into an affair with one another. Hearing all of this was a sucker punch to the stomach for me. I could understand why he would have wanted to make good on the mistakes of the past and come together with the woman he had loved all those years now that there was no obligation to stop him. I cared about his happiness, but I was still furious with him.
“Then what about me and Angel? What the hell are we meant to do? I don’t want her to be my sister. I want her to be my girlfriend.”
“We haven’t stopped thinking about that since we saw the two of you together. Sinclair owes me a great deal even after I stole his wife from him. I can give you a means to find a place where the two of you can belong without feeling this awkward and confused.”
I didn’t know what to say. I pondered inside my head if such a thing was even possible, that I was being offered a half-assed shoddy deal. I told him I had heard enough, that I would hear him out some other time. He went back to bed, respecting my decision. He staggered back down the hall; he must have been still a little drunk from earlier. On his way back through the hall I heard him talking to Nami.
“Why are you still awake, Nami?” he asked her gently.
“Sorry…” she replied softly. Angel walked inside the kitchen from the lounge room and she poked her head to peer down the hallway.
“Don’t be, I’m lucky to have you even after all this time. I’m not going to yell at you,” he was soft on her. Angel and I knew we were going to have to be strict on her in his place; we sighed simultaneously after coming to that realisation.
“Alright try to head to bed soon okay?” He walked away to throw up in the laundry sink.
I was wondering when the grog was going to hit him ha-ha-ha, I chuckled to myself. Nami walked into the kitchen with a towel around her neck, still damp from the cold water that drenched her from earlier. I made some hot chocolate for her and Angel sat beside her while stroking her head. “Are you feeling better from before?” I asked as I leant back against my chair with my feet on the table.
“Thanks for helping me tonight…sorry I did all that earlier,” she said to me after nodding. She then wished us a good night and went to walk away when Angel pulled the young girl back to her lap.
“Night Nami, sweet dreams,” she said and then kissed her on the forehead. Nami went silent and walked back to her room.
“That was surprisingly nice of you, considering you were yelling at her earlier.”
“She’s been through a lot. Of course, she’s going to act out here and there,” she was back to her innocent way of thinking and I was left shaking my head.
“If you call that acting out, then okay. Come on, let’s call it a night.”
We cleaned ourselves up and went to bed, so we could endure more of our exhausting life together. I don’t know how everything had turned out this way, but looking back on it from now, I was happy to be alive after our ordeal at the hospital and to come to somewhere where everyone cared about each other in their own way.