A Collection Of Short Stories

Termination

“Hello?” Asrael calls out into the darkness that lies before him, receiving silence as his answer. The nervous hero takes a step back towards the doors behind him. Is this really worth the risk? Swallowing the forming lump in his throat, Asrael takes one last look back toward the still open doors of the abandoned hospital. “Well.. Here goes nothing I guess.” Hesitantly, he continues onward into the darkness, the only light to guide his way coming from the dim flashlight in his hands. Down the dreary halls he wanders, searching for something, though in reality not even he really knows why he’s here. Slowly and steadily Asrael goes, wandering by the empty wheelchairs, stretchers and blood stained dull white walls. Above the fluorescent lights gently hum, though produce no light. The power is on, yet the lights remain off. “This place is giving me the creeps..” The white haired young man says to himself, pondering if he should contact his partner. When he finally decides to do so, he leans down toward his radio. “Uh, hey Arsene?” He says into the radio pinned to his chest. “Yeah?” The gruff voice of his partner comes through clearly, echoing down the hallway and fading back into silence. “What are we looking for exactly..?” Asrael’s voice trembles ever so slightly as he continues through the dilapidated building. “Arsene?” He asks again when he gets no response. A crash then draws the hero’s attention away from his radio. “..Nevermind.” He says into the radio, not noticing the little green light that had turned red to signify interference. “Whoever’s there uh..” Asrael pauses at the double doors before him. ‘Intensive Care Unit’ is etched into their surface, rather than being displayed above it. “Come quietly!” Asrael calls out, placing a hand upon the door and pushing it open before swiftly entering before it closes. The site ahead is horrific. Bodies of all shapes and sizes litter the floor, blood stains the tile, walls, even the ceiling, the smell is atrocious. Quite literally the smell of death, of lost souls whose physical forms remain to permeate their stench throughout the ICU. “Jesus..” Asrael somehow musters up the courage to continue onward still, despite the horror of what lies ahead. Unlike before, the hallways don’t branch off into more wings and sections of the hospital, nor do there seem to be any rooms that branch off from this wing. It’s simply a hallway full of corpses that radiate the smell of death, all that leads toward one thing. A hole in the floor at the very end. Asrael, his morbid curiosity taking the best of him, peers down it to try and see what's down there. 

    The moment he does so, a black tendril like cable wraps around his body and yanks him forwards. Down the hole he falls into complete darkness. “Oh no, oh god..oh no..” Asrael’s voice trembles more as he slowly rises to his feet in the surrounding darkness. Suddenly a blinding light erupts through the dark, providing just enough light to see after the initial blast. “What the..” Asrael takes a reflexive step back. The source of the newfound light is a wall of screens of all shapes and sizes. Flat Screens, box televisions, computer monitors both old and new, all of them line the wall ahead and illuminate the room. All around are cables and wires that run up the walls and across the floors. A complicated web of connections that all lead back to the wall of screens ahead. “YOU ARE AN IDIOT! HA HA HA!” A chorus of voices along with a display of the spoken words begins as each screen fills with a smiley face. These faces replace even the words of their message, instead giving only their judging yet blank gaze to the hero before them. Asrael’s brow furrows at the insult thrown at him. Just as suddenly as the message began, it stopped. Leaving Asrael alone and confused in the darkness. “What the hell was that all about?” He questions, though he receives an unexpected answer. “Superiority.” From behind a computer generated voice speaks just one single word and Asrael is frozen where he stands. Before he can react, an icy hand is placed upon the back of the man's neck. “Stay still. This will be done soon.” The figure speaks more as Asrael begins to struggle. He’s finally released when he throws an elbow backwards into the attacker’s stomach. Or at least what Asrael assumes is their stomach. The second he’s released, Asrael turns around to face the figure ahead of him only to see one of the screens seemingly floating in front of him. “You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” Sharp pain courses through Asrael’s midsection, followed by a warm liquid that runs down his stomach. It becomes clear, even if he can’t see, that Asrael had been stabbed by the attacker. In one swift motion the young man is sent back out the way he came, crashing onto the filthy floor where he scrambles to get up. Ascending after him is a set of the same cables that pulled him in, though this time they position themselves around the hole and shortly after the screen-headed monster rises.