The Time

Chapter twenty five

Blood spewed across the room. Some hit the walls. Some hit Virtue's precious painting.
He swore from somewhere behind me before whispering, "We go back upstairs. We barakade the room. We protect Milo and Destiny."
I nodded in agreement, not wanting the sound of my voice to attract the creature. Then Velvet's screaming stopped and his attention was on us anyway.
"Shit." Virtue breathed before fulling stepping before me and talking to me for the first time in a voice of pure quiet seriousness and desperation. "Go. Protect Destiny. Milo can look after himself but make sure nothing happens to either of them. Please. I'll hold it off but look after Des. Make sure Milo doesn't do anything stupid. Look after them. Please."
"I promise, but-"
But before I could argue, he was already running off to meet Smiler and I found myself running back to Des and to Milo, ready to fulfill my vow.

Sprinting up the spiral steps back to the lab, I found Des nervously waiting at the door for me while Quin continued to work.
"I'm almost there." Milo said beneath a creased brow, concentrating too hard to look up from the task at hand.
"Where's Virtue?" Destiny suddenly questioned, stepping towards me with the face of a scared child.
Because that's what he was really. And he didn't need to hear what I had to say next, but he had to.
Taking a breath and meeting that strong blue eyed gaze, I informed him, "He stayed behind to hold Smiler off."
Even Quin looked up now, frowning, "What?"
"No..." Des begged. "No, he can't!"
And before I knew what was happening, he took off out of the laboratory door and down the old winding stone steps. I, of course, then shot down after him, managing to pull my friend back before he could run into the dining room and to his friend. From where we'd stopped however, you could still see in. And what I saw, the last I saw of Jones Virtue, was him turn at Destiny's cry in time for the creature's clawed fist to rip through his back and out his bell, clawing out his once beating heart when his first retracted.

It was almost impossible to tear Destiny away from the scene. He was taller than me and maybe stronger but I knew that if I didn't drag him away, Smiler would kill us too. It hurt to watch him like this though and it hurt to see someone die in such a violent manor no matter how little I'd known him. And I had no way to know whether Virtue would come back.
Eventually, Destiny collapsed into me and I managed to pull him back to the lab. When we got there, Milo took in the sobbing form of Destiny and the solom look on my face.
"Jones?" He asked, looking like he was about to maube shed a tear himself.
I shook my head and after a moment, the look passed and he returned to his work.

It was some time later that I heard a scrambling noise up the stairs followed by a vicious scratching at the door.
"He's here..." Des' voice trembled but I didn't need to be told.
"You ready?" I asked Milo, avoiding all talk of Jones.
"Yeah. Just about." He replied, suddenly turning and thrusting a Dirty Harry looking gun in my direction. "Shoot him with this. The bullets should kill him. But make sure you hit him in the heart - otherwise it won't work."
I took the weapon, giving a solom nod, before breathing, "You two get away. And if you hear him coming, don't look back. Don't stop. Don't give up. And don't come back for me."
"No, you could die!" Des pleased.
I couldn't let the kid lose another person and, if I killed Smiler, he wouldn't have to.
I smirked in a falsely reassuring manor, "You need to have more faith in me! And any anyway... This isn't my first time."
He smiled at that. Just a little smile. And then I found myself wrapped in one of his suffocating hugs before Des was dragged away from me and I knew that with Milo, he'd be safe.

Turning, I checked the chamber and clicked back the hammer of the gun. Two bullets. Milo had a lot of faith in me. Or maybe he didn't if he thought I needed more than one? Either way, once I thought he and Destiny should be safe, I walked to the door and waited. Smiler was still outside and suddenly, for the first time, I heard him- it talk.
"Your friend died screaming. I know you saw. Did you like it?"
The voice was nasaly and gravely and raspy. And I flinched and cringed at the sound of it as it set my teeth on edge. But I didn't dare reply. Of course I had some sarcastic remarks, but I didn't want to humour it.
"I'd like to do the same to you. Or worse. Would you like that? I know I would." It hissed with a whine. "I know you're there. I can still taste you. Your blood. Salty. Thick. Warm. I just ripped into two people but your blood is the sweetest by far..."
He tittered a laugh which morphed and contorted into a musically insane huff of psychotic laughter which strongly resembled that of the one made by the ride he was linked to. I found it strange that it could talk - seeing something so inhuman doing something so... Human. But that's what it had once been, so was it so strange?
"Come on pretty pretty, I'm sure I could make you into a real... Smiler!"
It cackled a laugh again and I tore open the door and lunged at it, the two of us rolling down stairs and into oblivion. I kept my hand on the gun the whole way down though, not ready to go through a 'the hero dropped his gun at the supremely critical moment loses the fight to the bad guy' cliché.

Smiler snapped and snarled in my face and when we stopped rolling with a crash, I used the momentum to kick it off me and heard it fall away, continuing to tumble into space. And then I shot to my feet with a pained groan and stood to attention, all senses poised for attack. But it didn't come. Instead that nasal voice just echoed round the curving steps up to me.
"Pretty pretty, playing your cards? But you're all out of aces!"
Then more insane laughter.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure I got one Ace left." I smirked though didn't let the humour enter my voice, keeping it level as I indulged the creature by replying.
Now his only reply was nails on the cool stone wall. But with the echoes, I couldn't tell if he was getting further away or...

CLOSER!

He sprung from the ceiling like a soft pink spiderman and I felt his nails plunge into my left thigh and his teeth clamp onto my shoulder. But the gun was still between me and him and even as I wailed in pain which threatened to overcome my rational thoughts, I knew pulling the trigger now might be the best and only chance I got.
We'd played our game and now it was time to draw the Ace.

Click. POW.

The kick of the gun drove my injured shoulder back into the edge of a sharp stone step already slick with my blood. My head also ricocheted off another step and I almost blacked out from the force and fresh pain. I stayed conscious though, my vision skittering a little. I would stay defiant to the end.

Grabbing the smooth wooden bannister which ran up the length of the spiral stone staircase, I yanked myself up, grunting and almost crying out again from the pressure.
Somewhere bellow me there came a distant mewling sound. The creature was alive - barely. But I'd shot it in the heart, hadn't I?
Closer inspection told me that yes, my aim had been true; the noise was of Smiler returning to the man he'd ones been. Bones cracked. The body morphed and twisted. Skin like putty stretched and reformed. Hair sprouted and features became more defined.
And it was in this moment that my rage for what Milo Quin had done to this man - however willing a participant he was - had returned. Those huge black/brown eyes. That soft sickly pale skin. That wild yet short thick black hair. Those nervous pink lips. That twitching form. Those wide shoulder and contrasting narrow hips. Those tiny feet. That mole by his right shoulder. Those careful small but strong hands. That squashed button nose. Those cured caterpillar eyebrows. That specifically rounded yet defined jaw. That soft small squishy little body. Those muscular arms. That scar on his outstretched thumb.

I knew him. Goddamn did I know him.