The Undead

Chapter 8: Discovering the Truth

I was standing in a dark room, like completely pitch black. Well turns out it wasn't a room, it was the middle of the road, because a car skirted past me, trying not to hit me. I was standing in the middle of the highway, and I ran over to the edge of it and jumped off of it, landing in a forest like clearing. As I began to walk, my vision faltered and I began to hallucinate. A blond woman that I didn't recognize began to teleport around me....somehow. She only said the same thing over and over again. "Don't trust him"

I woke up in a bed that was similar to that of the safe house, but this time, the walls weren't green. They were a light orange. Odd. Tucker and Ashley were sitting beside my bed, and I sat up in the bed.
"My fucking head. Guess Josephine beat me so senseless that my body decided to just give out" I said. "How did I get here?" I then asked.
"You remember that monster that you saw outside of Clarice's shop? It came in, picked you up, brought you here and then just.....left" Ashley said.
"It just left? Why? Everything else in here has been trying to kill us and this big ass creature just....brings me here and decides it's not gonna waste its time? I don't know if I should be relieved or insulted" I said, swinging my feet off the bed and standing up. Despite me passing out, my condition didn't get any better. I was still sleep deprived, in a shit ton of pain, sweaty, and bleeding. Then there was a knock at the door. I opened it and was genuinely surprised at who I saw.

Michael.

"Mike! You're ok" I said, mixed with a flutter of happiness. I immediately hugged him.

Alright ok you know what? Let's just take a pause here. I know what you all are thinking, and if you're not thinking what I think you are, then I like you. As for the ones who are thinking what I think you are, let me just clarify: At the time, maybe I felt more strongly towards Michael, but I did NOT have a crush. This isn't high school. I've never had a crush on him, I never will. I'm searching for his missing wife. It would be fucked up if I had a crush on him while I'm literally looking for his wife who has been missing for 15 years. Me and him were good friends at this specific time. That's it. Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. Unpause.

"Yeah, I'm ok, Marcie" He said, smiling.
"What happened to you?" I asked him, talking about when he got taken from the security room.
"Mother Undead dragged me down here. I've been in here this whole time" He responded.
"Lucky. I've been running and running, with those two-" I said, pointing to Ashley and Tucker. "-this entire time. The council has been trying to kill us this entire time" I whined.
"Well hopefully not anymore. Come on, I gotta show you something" He said, before leaving the room. The three of us followed him. We were in some sort of Villa, and we walked past rooms and kitchens and bathrooms and all sorts of rooms. We passed this one door that was all by itself. It was boarded up with wooden planks. I didn't get to see much of the door, but I saw that it had a plaque that said "Glaciare Cubiculum". I recognized the language. It's Latin, but I don't remember what those words would translate to. Eventually, he led me to a hallway with a really large window.
"What do you think, savior?" He asked me.
"Honestly, it's not bad....wait what did you just call me?" I asked. The window opened, and I shit you not, there were hundreds of ghosts there, standing there. He led me to a door which opened up to that room. They all looked so....sad and scared. One of them grabbed my arm and pleaded to me. "Please, let us go home. Save us!"
"You have to let us out of here, please!" Another cried.
"I just wanna go home! When do we go home?!" A third sobbed.
Every ghost in here was filled with sorrow and sadness. A lot of them were already crying.
"I-I don't even know how to get out of here myself. I-" I stuttered. I didn't know what to say.
"We call them The Anguished. They think you can save them. They've all been in here for 15 years, unable to leave" Michael told me. That broke my heart. None of them have been able to go home or see their children, if they had any, in 15 years. All because I left the Undead Realm behind. This was all my fault.

I turned to Ashley and Tucker, and they had this sorrowful look on their faces. "You guys too?" I asked, my voice breaking. They nodded yes. I wanted to hug them both and never let go.
I looked back to the Anguished.
"I-.....I promise, I will find a way out of here and get all of you out. I swear" I said, placing my hand over one of theirs, tears falling out of my eyes and sliding down my cheek. I turned on my heel, and sprinted out of the room.
"Marcie, wait!" Michael called after me, but I didn't stop. I ran into the room I was in when I woke up and I collapsed onto my knees. I figured it out. Ellie's the voice I've been hearing in my head this whole time. She's been trying to talk to me. She's down here too. I didn't know whether she was dead or alive or anything. It's all so confusing! I pulled out the missing poster and threw it onto the floor.
"Where are you?! You've been talking to me this whole time, so TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE!!!" I yelled out, sobbing. I didn't close the door, so I slammed it shut and laid on the bed.
They're all trapped here, all because I turned off the light that I shone on this place. I left, which in turn made it so that they couldn't. This is all my fault.
But I remember seeing something on Michael's hand. A diagonal scar just underneath his middle finger. Let's hope it doesn't mean what I think it does.

Embarrassingly enough, I cried myself to sleep that night. I haven't done that since I was a little girl, but everything just overwhelmed me. I have to save them, all of them. I won't stop until I do.
I woke up to the sound of a female voice in my head, saying the words "Glaciare Cubiculum" over and over. That had to be Ellie. And that room had to be where she was at. I looked at a clock on the wall and saw that it was about 4 am, and decided to go snoop around and find out what was behind that door. But first....
I walked out of my room and went into Tucker and Ashley's room. I shook each of them awake. Ashley woke up peacefully, but Tucker woke up and swung on me. I ducked. "Woah, easy there, it's just me" I said, laughing a bit.
"Jesus, Marcie. Don't do that. " He said to me.
"Yeah, he's a pretty heavy sleeper. If you wake him up like that, it gets ugly" Ashley warned me.
"Noted. I won't do it like this next time. I'll do it much louder. But anyways, I need the two of you for a second. Remember that door that was boarded up? We're going to go break into it"
They both got on board and got up out of bed. I summoned the axe and walked out of their room, to the door. There was an odd blue glow coming from under the door. I cocked my arm back, and swung the axe at the wooden boards, breaking them off. I turned the handle but the door didn't move. Damn it, it's locked.
"Michael might have the keys. I'll go see if I can find them without waking him up" I told the two of them.
"He's not here. He left to go do something" Tucker informed me.
"Oh that's oddly convenient for me then" I said as walked away and went over to Michael's room. I saw them lying on a dresser and snatched the keys, rushing out of the room. I made my way over to the locked room and unlocked it. I shoved the door open, as it then decided to get jammed, but I got it open. I tripped over my own feet and tumbled down a flight of stairs and smacked the ground.
"Ow..." I whined. Tucker helped me to my feet and what I saw weirded me out. It was a basement of sorts, but there were electric current lines running along the floor, all seemingly pumping electricity into one object. It was also freezing cold down here. There was ice cold smoke being blown over that same object. Now I remember what that Latin thing stood for. Glaciare is Freeze and Cubiculum is room. It spelled out "Freezing Room". I recognized the object from when I used to surf the web as a kid for all kinds of science fiction bullshit. It was a cryogenic chamber, sitting up on a wall. I used the axe to generate fire and hovered it over the chamber.

Oh.

My.

God.

"Ellie?"