The Strange Case of the Jackson Building

Chapter 28 - Disorder

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Disorder

The attic was as dark and damp as it had been the last time she'd been there. The stench of putrid flesh and fresh blood was even stronger. Even with all her urgency, Petra had to take a moment to cover her nose and suppress a gag.

Lighting up the small room with her lighter, she frantically searched for a way out or a hiding place. With relief, she found it. The door was open. The small door that had been locked before, the one with all the Biblical writings in it, this time it was open.

Her survival instincts begged her to go inside, to live for a few more seconds, but her mind screamed that it probably was a bad idea.

The thing was coming, it had reached the sixth floor and was now calmly going up the last flight of stairs. It knew there was no way out, knew she was cornered and so had lost the urgency. It was tasting the sweet excitement of anticipation.

But Petra, well aware of her upcoming demise, still refused to be defeated. She refused to give up after all the struggle and fighting for so long.

So, she got in and locked the door behind her.

As soon as she turned around, she wished she hadn't. What she saw was nothing short of a true house of horrors, a real spectacle of gore. The horrible smell was so much worse there, she couldn't avoid another gag. Using her lighter again, Petra studied the room.

The walls were painted in blood and the floor... it was covered in it too, some fresh, some dry, there were bones everywhere from different body parts and limbs, some with muscle and flesh still attached. Bits and pieces of different human organs laid around, and fingernails, hairs, teeth were randomly scattered.

Petra was in shock, paralyzed, unable to take her eyes off the disturbing scene.

In one of the corners, there was a pile of torn and ripped clothes and she gasped when she recognized Harry's broken glasses, one of Eli's shoes and the same shirt she'd seen Gwen wearing at the boys' home.

It was pure horror. And it made everything so real.

In the other corner, she saw the remains of what could've been Kyle's guitar and, on the floor, at her feet, a long lock of Gwen's beautiful, bloody hair.

She couldn't take it anymore. Petra threw up. And then, still trembling, still hurting, she wept. Petra cried as hard as her frail, beaten, weakened body allowed.

Recognizing the items, the hair... They had belonged to people. People she'd known and cared about. Friends. People that had been alive and died a painful, undeserved, excruciating death, their only crime was choosing to live there, completely unaware of their incoming tragic and cursed fate.

And soon she would join them.

The merciless creature was already there, on the other side of the door. She knew it because she could hear the damned footsteps.

No!

There was no way she would die there and in that way.

No!

She wouldn't become one more stain of blood, one more lock of hair, one more forgotten disappearance, one more restless piece of devoured humanity forever doomed to walk that building.

No.

The beast slammed the door, which was frail and old and wouldn't last for long. Petra ran towards the pile of clothes and objects and, with the spray can and lighter, set it on fire. It took a few attempts for it to grow, but she eventually created a flame strong enough to last and burn. Not yet satisfied, she repeated the process throughout the whole chamber of horrors, setting fire to anything she could: old books and portraits, children's toys, Kyle's guitar, a blanket. It wasn't long before the flames had reached the wooden floor, spreading through it, consuming it, as hungry as the beast.