The Grounds Keeper

Chapter 5 The Horror Wore Black

As he woke after what felt like only a few minutes, he sat up in the bed, he felt drowsy but to his surprise fine otherwise, he checked his body for the countless bruises he should have. He bent his broken leg tenderly to find it fully healed, he laughed in amazement, damage like that would have taken the best part of 11 months and constant physiotherapy to heal, and even then it would always be weak. Yet he felt as good as he did only that morning. Even better in fact, the delayed muscle soreness of his walk of 500 flights seemed to be gone. He checked his student Id, to his shock it was 5pm of the same day. In only 5 hours his body healed to this extent. He could hardly believe it. He almost leaped from the bed with a laugh of disbelief. And hopped on the once damaged foot several times to test it. He looked down at his clothing which he expected to be bedraggled and covered in gore yet it was crisp as when he received them in the morning. The robes somehow self-repaired and cleaned. It was unbelievable. He exited the room and landed at the back of the infirmary in the healing hall laying atop one of the many beds

He made to leave, but his body wouldn't budge, a gentle tremor seemed to shake him, and a high pitch noise could be heard growing to the right of him, Eathon strained mightily to turn his head, the effort was exhausting, as if it was made of steel, he could make out someone approaching from the corridor, a figure clad all in black, his long trench coat fluttered upwards around him hovering as if it were lighter than the air around it. Eathon began to feel the springs of the bed creak as his body was pushed into them by some external force, the closer the figure seemed to get the more pressure seemed to be exerted around the atmosphere, Eathon's eyes felt strained.

Another few steps revealed long strange hair that shimmered silver in the dull light of the sunset, Eathon began to see the figure was no man, she reached the first set of beds and the harsh screech of metal amplified, both beds either side of her crumbled like aluminum cans crushed into a mess of wires, foam and feathers no larger than a soccer ball the fluttering feathers surrounding her in a haze, Eathon's gut felt nauseous as a steady pressure pushed down on his organs, his jaw no longer had the strength to open as his teeth clenched hard straining the muscles in his face shooting pain to his temples, closer and closer she approached, bed after bed crumbled and the large Stain glass windows exploded in a barrage of fingernail sized glistening shards of brilliance that hovered in the air as though caught in a rather slow windstorm.

The menacing glare of those purple eyes that were streaked with a glimmer of star like silver dust were terrible to behold, a face pale as death with purple veins visible under almost translucent skin, lips blue and thin, an unattached look off disgust on her face.

Eathon's teeth clenched hard, harder in fact than any muscles could possibly do so, he felt his teeth sink into his gums gushing blood from the gaps, flooding his mouth, and his bones seemed to push into the cartilage of his joints compressing in the worse pain he had ever felt. Closer she came, her height now displayed in all its intimidating splendor, she must have been 190cm tall and the wild hair orbiting her head gave an even grander illusion of height. Her physique was trim, almost gaunt, long arms and legs clad in stylized blackened steel plate armor that overlapped into a dragon scale motif, her button up black shirt covered by a breastplate of the same dark steel connected in the center by what looked like a design of a human spine, her spiked shoulder pads made her appear broad and intimidating.

And she wasn't walking at all, simply hovering forward a few centimeters off the ground, arms spread out, clawed gauntlet like gloved hands spread to either side of her in a comfortable gesture. Eathon's eyes shook and felt dry and sore yet he couldn't close his eye lids, she wanted him to see this happening, feel the terror as she crept closer, feel his body fall apart under her unwavering scrutiny, he had a feeling she could have popped his head like a pimple had she so desired but wanted him to feel the agony she could subject him to. The pain he felt reached a crescendo as his eardrums burst with a loud implosion and blood shot from his ears, then all at once the pressure lifted, however the paralysis of his body remained.

All he wanted to do was howl and scream and thrash in pain, but he was forced to watch tears streaming from his eyes as another figure stood his back facing him, he appeared to be wearing jeans and a white shirt and his hair was entirely unkempt, yet an aura of power seemed to radiate from him. There was an audible scoff from the terrible woman, and a dark flash from around her body as she faded into darkness. The man turned to reveal a cross shaped scar that was in the place of his face, his dull emotionless eyes emanated boredom, his lips parted to reveal sharp teeth in a humorless smile, he said something that Eathon with his damaged hearing couldn't make out, placed his hands in his pocket and held what looked like a zipper from a jacket, slotted it into the empty space in front of him and unzipped a doorway to somewhere else climbing through and zipping it back up. Finally the pressure lifted and Eathon was allowed to finally howl. A team of people ran in lead by Michelle whose eyes widened in shock.

"You four hold him down quickly!"

Eathon felt strong hands grasp him as he thrashed about; Michelle pulled out a syringe and in a flash stabbed it into his neck. He immediately felt the effects as he slumped unconscious