House Of Echoed Screams (Completed)

Chapter 7: Reunion

     Everyone stood there, staring at the writing on the wall, until Becker weakly said, "Okay, I think we all need to get out of here, fast." Nikki would have agreed, but she was too horrified to speak. Out of all of Ryan's friends, Sean was the least annoying; enjoyable to be around, even, according to Nikki. She absolutely hated Ryan, and Becker had times when he acted like a huge jerk, especially when he's competing with Ryan, but Sean was actually considerate, and didn't hesitate to stand up for someone, and now he's dead. As everyone started filing out of the room and down the hall, Nikki took one last quick glance back at Sean's dead body, then followed everyone else out of the room.
     Becker took the lead, as usual, and Nikki was stuck in the very back, but so was Addie, so at least she had someone next to her that she liked to talk to. "I can't believe Sean went and got himself killed like that. What an idiot," Nikki said, not entirely convinced of what she was saying herself. Addie must not have noticed her self doubt, because she responded by saying, "Yeah, I know. He shouldn't have let you all split up like that in the first place, if you ask me. We should all stick together, despite how much we might hate each other. For instance, even though Ryan disagreed with Becker, that doesn't mean they should have split up; Ryan could be dead now, for all we know." Strangely, Addie seemed sad saying this. Nikki, however, had no problem smiling at this, and saying, "Well, good riddance, if you ask me. It would be a relief to be rid of him. Then, all I'd need is to learn that the two others in my house aren't my real parents." "Don't say that," Addie scolded Nikki. "You might say that now, but deep down, you know you really love them, and they secretly love you, even if they don't show it."
     Nikki thought about this for a moment, and thought that maybe Addie was right, but then thought better of it. Ryan's a soulless, heartless dick, and my parents, if you could call them that, aren't any better. Nikki decided that talking to Addie for any longer might create an argument, and that's the last thing Nikki wanted at this moment. Without saying anything, she does up her pace until she was at Lauren's side. "Hey," she said casually. "What do you think's gonna happen now?" Lauren seemed to be deep in thought, because she was staring straight ahead in Becker's general direction, then must have notice that Nikki was talking to her, because she suddenly blinked, rubbed her eyes, and said, "Honestly, I don't know. This place just keeps getting stranger and stranger, and I can't figure it out." Now Nikki was confused. "Figure what out?" Nikki turned to look straight at Lauren, but she was staring ahead again. Irritated, Nikki said, "Yeah, real subtle," sarcastically at Lauren, who must have heard that, because she turned a very dark shade of red. Nikki sighed. "I don't have time for this," she said.
    She was going to walk up and talk to Becker, but at the very same moment, the hallway opened up onto a large balcony overlooking the entrance hall. "That can't be right," Becker said. "We should have ended up in that living room." Be scratched his head, and Lauren said, "See? This is what I was talking about. This house clearly isn't normal; it changes, but I can't quite figure out the pattern." In the moment of silence that followed Lauren's statement, everyone heard a faint banging coming from the left side of the balcony. "You guys hear that, too," Nikki asked, and everyone mumbled, "Yeah." They all seemed reluctant to walk toward the sound, until Becker stepped forward, and said, "Look, that could be Ryan. We ought to at least check. Here," he said, as he strolled over to a suit of armor standing against the wall and grabbing the sword. "Now we have a weapon, in case it's something dangerous. Come on," he called, with a wave behind his back. Nikki started walking after him followed by everyone else.
     When they reached the source of the noise, Nikki noticed that it was coming from a door shut tight with a chair propped against the handle. Becker carefully stepped forward and removed the chair. There was another exceptionally loud "BANG", and the door flew open, revealing a mutilated, deformed, bloody corpse slowly limping toward them. Becker let out a scream, and swung at it. Cutting it clean in half. To be sure that it wouldn't get up, he hacked at it another four times, then turned around, leaning against his sword, and said, " Whew, there. That's that taken care of." Everyone would have cheered, but they were instead all to horrified to speak, at least until Lauren said, "Becker, your leg..." Becker looked down, and saw that one of the arms of the corpse was trying to crawl up his leg like a spider. He picked up his sword again, slashed down in panic, and screamed.
     He did manage to cut the arm in half, but the sword had apparently gone too far, and he had accidentally cut off his little toe as well. Now, blood was gushing out of his severed toe on both ends, and he dropped his sword, clenching his wounded foot in his hands, repeatedly muttering, "Fuck," over and over again. All of a sudden, another door burst open further down the balcony, but what stepped out of it was not another corpse, but instead, it was Ryan, followed by a tall rugged man who seemed to be about eighteen. He was holding a flashlight, and was wearing a backpack. This man noticed Becker, shouted, "Hold on, I've got something for that," and ran over here. Nikki completely ignored him though, and instead rushed forward to Ryan. After what they had just been through, she was so happy to see him.
     She ran up to him, gave him a hug, which he returned awkwardly, and said, "I missed you so much. You wouldn't believe what we just went through." She let go of him, took a step back, and looked up at him. Suddenly, she remembered about everyone else. Nikki turned around, and saw the man wrapping Becker's foot into a cast, and asked, "Who is that guy?" Ryan looked over at him, and said, "Oh, that guy, that's Damion. He travelled the world as a kid, looking for the world's most dangerous places, until he arrived here. He's been in this place for about a year, and probably has the best chance of surviving out of all of us, so we'd better keep him close." They walked over to the rest of the group, and Addie said, "Alright, what do we do now?"