Soul Slayer: Reborn

Chapter 15 - All Efforts Watsed in a Blink of an Eye

Jasper scrambled through halls and burst open doors, each time his holler for Dia got louder and louder. Everything empty. He stood in the centre hall, panting as he gandered at the rows and rows of doors and corridors- any could lead to Dia.
Snap
Jasper's eyes darted up the spiralling staircase to the second floor. That's when he heard it again.
Snap... Cccrack
There was not a moment to loose. Jasper tried to push all ideas of what Trox could possibly be doing to her out of his mind, hot blood flowing through his veins as he followed the noise. The cracking continued but louder and more often, each time Jasper flinched with nausea. Why can't I hear her? If this is him hurting her then-
An unwarranted thought sprung in Jasper's head, the idea strong enough to make him shiver. He tried his best to dust it out his mind, but the idea that Dia was already dead lingered in his mind like a large spider stuck in your house which evaded capture.
He focuses on the task at hand and finally found the source of the noise as he stood with his back to a closed door. He couldn't even imagine what horrible contraption could be inside! Maybe that chair he would hear Dia mutter anxiously while she slept, or maybe monstrous tools of inhuman origin used to inflict the worst of torture. He took in a deep inhale and bit his lip. He could not hear Dia's voice... yet as he listened further in he could hear small and muffled sounds from what Jasper only assume was Trox as the cracking continued. He wasn't speaking... but he wasn't laughing either- though the sound did seem happy. He listened further with his ear to the door until realising that Trox was humming, no, singing along to some made up tune.
Crack. Cccrunch! Snap
As the horrid noise got louder, he didn't even stop singing.
Jasper had to stop him, he wouldn't care see himself chicken out now. He braved himself for a fight, clenched his whitened knuckles and pounced through like a wild leopard, breaking the door off its hinges, as he thundered."YOU LEAVE DIA ALONE! NOW!"

The room was empty. His voice echoed around the small room in parody. No lights were on, the curtains were drawn, Jasper even had to squint to make out any shapes. At the end of the room there was some sort of cushion, where Trox was sitting hunched over with his back to the soul slayer.
Snap.
Jasper heard Trox's tune turn into all out laughter- Trox's friendly demeanour was now replaced with some form of euphoric madness.
"Ohoho, Frosty, is that your voice I hear~?!" The snapping continued, Trox's voice was still muffled by now what sounded like munching. Jasper took another step closer, the man didn't seem to have any intent of moving from his hunched and twisted position as he threw something away into the corner of the room. Jasper wasn't sure what he was preoccupied with, yet the more he stayed in the room, the more he wished to leave.
There was a strange scent in the air, something distinct, metallic... repulsive. It was thick in the room and Jasper began to back away, hoping that whatever Trox was preoccupied with was more important than him.
Crack
"Oh, haha, don't run away now! That's not very polite is it, Frosty? You bust into my room, it at least deserves a hello, ehh!" Trox mumbled as if his mouth was full. Jasper was frozen like stone until his legs began to move forwards. Something about this force felt more pressurising than last time, it was like a firm grasp on his airways that controlled when and how long each breath would take. Jasper trod on something sharp which fractured underfoot.
Crack
He looked down, it made that same noise as before yet more... dry? The lack of light in the room made it difficult for Jasper to make out what it was, it sounded like rolling wooden sticks under his feet.
Snap. Crack. Crack.
Trox laid back on the cushion he was sitting on and recoiled from that hunched position. That was when Jasper could take a good look at him with his now adjusted eyes. He must have been wearing something different, as there were strange shapes along his back. His hair was matted too, his voice sounded more like a bark and his whole body looked bigger. That was until Jasper noticed that there was something else in the room with them. And it moved. It moved with Trox, it was like a long snake thing, less than a metre long along the floor. The snake thing coiled around Trox's lower back and stayed like that until he moved again as if the two were attached- yet the thing was very much alive. Trox licked a finger with a giggle before pointing at Jasper with it. Jasper leaned over to get a look of Trox's face, but the man darted out the way so his expression was concealed.
Snap. Snap cccrrack. Ssnap Snap Crack.
As Jasper shuffled about, the noise began again. Jasper tried in all his efforts to look down at whatever it was making the noise but the humour in Trox's erratic and devilish voice overpowered him. The snake-thing lugged over the floor.
"Hey- hey, you look at me, not at the floor, ok, uhuhu? Hahaha... oh Frosty, I would just love for you to stay here, but y'see: I prefer to eat alone. Haha, y'know why not, lemme be nice- you can just go: no fight, no control, no nothin'. Don't worry 'bout it, uhuhuh..."
And just like that, Jasper rushed out of Trox's presence and to the doorway faster than the speed of lightning. Yet something within him didn't sit right. It was too strange for Jasper to handle. He stayed there, quivering by the door as Trox hunched over once more and the familiar snapping continued before he began to sing out again in words Jasper couldn't understand. Jasper gulped down his fear.