Hush

Ace: The man in the jar

After collecting Hush together Ace looked around, the abominations from the walls and the door lay like slaughtered disfigured humans, their skin almost paper white oozed deep crimson from the beatings with the crowbar. Ace took a moment to look upon their faceless faces, no eyes, no nose, only oversized jaws full of razor sharp teeth. Their bodies partially formed or disfigured lacked any strength from the waist down. All their muscle was in the arms and the dangerous claws that were tinged a slight green around the tips. He shuddered, remembering his last encounter with what he had called the Birthing Wall, remembering being the target of their attack and running to the far end of the corridor in which he had came up the stairs only to find they had disappeared, leaving nothing but a dead end. He had curled into a ball in the corner awaiting to be mercilessly killed when Akira had dragged him through a secret door and saved him.

'Iron burns them, it melts their flesh.' She had said as she stood holding an iron rod, 'if they can sense iron they will not hurt you, they will disappear into the shadows. They are Fae.'

Ace had been terrified, he vowed to live the rest of his days in that room if it meant he didn't have to face them beings again. He had heard stories of the Fae but always they were pretty, sadistic sometimes but never like the vile creatures he had seen.

'In this shack,' Akira had said, 'they live on the upper floor, they will keep you from going to the Bellows. The Shadow Master uses them as guard dogs.'

'And this room?' Ace had asked. 'What is this, how did you know it was here?'

Akira smiled, it was a wonderful sight to see. 'This is a secret room where it always changes. I came through here by accident through that window, which leads to a different part of another cottage.'

'So it was luck that you found me?' He asked her suspiciously.

Her smile brightened. 'Not exactly, I come on behalf of the Shadow Master, he has an offer for you, anyway this room was always here, you just never seen it because it blends with the walls, you need to know where to look.'

Ace allowed his mind to return to the present. He pushed open the door to that very room. He pulled on the pull switch for the light, and a dim glow lit up the room. Carrying Hush and the crowbar he walked in with eyes wary, scanning the room for anything dangerous. All was silent, nothing stirred.

He closed the door behind him, locking it with the key in the lock. He walked toward the desk in the far corner of the room and placed each piece of Jack's bear down carefully.

'How on earth am I going to fix you?' Ace said more to himself.

He rummaged through the desk draws looking for anything that might be of use to put Hush back together, hopefully some simple cotton thread, but among the aged papers and abandoned stationary, there was nothing helpful to him.

A sound from the other side of the room made Ace stop and look up from the bottom drawer, he looked around the room. In the furthest opposite corner in the dark of shadows was a tank, the light above his head to dim to reveal that part of the room, he closed the drawer slowly, and discreetly grabbed his crowbar for protection as he headed with caution towards where the sound had come from.

Another noise, much like the sound of someone clearing their throat, followed by a slight cough. He repositioned his grip on the bar, now held ready to swing. His eyes strained as he stopped to glare into the darkest part of the room.

There was indeed a tank in the corner, or rather a curiously large jar, in which wires and tubes wrapped around and entered from the top and sides. Curious, Ace stepped closer, not sure what he was looking at as he took in the strange lab like creation.