Symbol of Terror

4.

"The stuff keeps 'em alive, isn't that cool? They don't need food!" Mark said, throwing his arms up in a magnificent gesture. Wade was far from impressed, being more perplexed and-- and-- he couldn't admit what else he felt. He just couldn't bring himself to say it, even to his own mind.

"What is..." he said, staring back at the face of Aaron, buried in the thin black tentacles, continually whispering 'Help,' pathetically and smiling as if it was his last hope. Again, Wade couldn't muster up personal courage to say how he felt about this. He felt tears pricking at the corners of his eyes as he swallowed hard. "Where's Bob?"

Mark crouched to the floor, touching the ground. Several more snaking strands crawled away from a far corner towards the two, showing the large form of Bob, dark veins penetrating his skin as well. Wade was beginning to feel uneasy at how dead to everything he seemed, blankly staring. He didn't want to be in here anymore.

"I'm gonna leave," Wade said as he began to back up. As soon as he turned to run out the door, Mark bolted to it first, slamming it shut.

"I'm not done," he said darkly, narrowing his vivid eyes. Filled with unexpected anger, Wade threw a punch at Mark, knocking the man aside and freeing the doorknob. He opened the door and was met with a heavy kick to the back, and was swiftly grabbed and pulled by the torso back into the room. "What did I just say..?" an unearthly voice hissed from Mark's mouth. An arm was locked around the neck of a nearly fallen Wade, and a fist brushed against his cheek, seeming to be covered in black tentacles.

"MARK!" he yelled desperately, trying to pry his arm off. He couldn't do it, no matter how much bigger he was than Mark. Some sort of strength overpowered his friend, something supernatural and evil. What did Mark say it was..? He suddenly remembered. "ANTIMONOS! STOP IT, SHOW YOURSELF!"

To his surprise, he was released. The freedom felt good, and he fell back first onto the floor, paying no mind to the web-like black strands all around. He looked to his left to see Mark standing there, glaring down at the vulnerable body.

"You want to see me?" the same grim voice spoke from the man's mouth, "Fine. Be willing, though. Mark handled it well the first time, although that's when I possessed him. You'll have to hallucinate."

"Al-- Alright..." Wade said, instantly regretting asking Antimonos to be revealed. He sat up to see one of Mark's feet set towards him, the other foot on the dividing line of black, three or four tentacles crawling to him. One of them slithered onto Wade's foot, followed by the others. Wade shivered as the tentacles traveled up his pant leg. They stopped around his shin, and began to burrow into his leg. He cringed and shouted in unpleasant surprise as they dug, feeling the tendrils moving under his skin and crawling deeper. He moved his leg to no avail, as other tentacle-things had locked around the leg, keeping it in place. Soon, his vision blurred, and he fell back again. Colored dots waved around at a distance, seeming to travel through the walls into his line of sight. He swore he was hovering above the ground and felt a surge of happiness. Laughing childishly, he looked around amusedly. A thud rang through his ears, making the hovering stop. "Hellooo... Who's there?" he sang out playfully.

"Wade," a distorted grumble came from his front. A tall mass of moving dark particles caught his eye, and as it moved slowly towards him, a sound like the buzzing of many bees became louder and louder. Wade stared at the blob, radiating black and buzzing, and felt fear creeping into his heart. He could finally admit that he was beyond frightened.

"No! I told you not to hurt him!" a voice like Mark's yelled, muffled by the static. The mass of particles leaned over Wade's face, ignoring the exclamation.

"Sssssatisfied..?" it hissed into the scared man's face, and soon became a whirlwind of minuscule parts flying through the air, buzzing with more intensity. Wade began to sob and cringe like a child, and screamed as he shut his eyes and covered his face with his hands and rolled over.

A moment later, there was no noise or blob or anything. Even the tendrils in his leg were gone, save a bit of blood-soaked pant-leg from the entry wounds. However, while he noticed he was propped against a wall, one of his hands had the thin tentacles wrapped around it tightly. He tried to force it loose, but heard mumbling across the room, making him pause to listen.

"You're a funny one, aren't you?" Mark's voice said to the near-corpse of Bob sitting in the corner. The dark human form was crouched close to him, a pathetic scene in black and white. "Cute. Remind me not to kill you. Might forget anyways, so no use, really. Oh well."

Wade bit his lip in anxiety. The form of Mark took Bob's arm, and, presumably using that knife he found, carved something considerably deep into the skin. From what Wade could see, it was a line down his arm, then two diagonally across it.

"Later..." Mark said mysteriously, standing up, a lone drop of blood dripping off the knife and splattering onto the ground beside him. He turned to Wade, the piercing yellow making eye contact with him, and he walked to him. "So what's new?"

"Nothing much, kinda trapped," Wade said, mildly exasperated. Mark chuckled at the comment and left him to attend to the face of Aaron stuck on the wall.

"Aaron, wake up," Mark whispered, poking the face with his knife, making the sad form flinch violently and let out a long whimper.

"No..." Aaron whined in a high pitch, head rolling to the side. Mark began to laugh hysterically for a moment before resetting his countenance.

"You're doing okay, okay... You've got a tough job, holding the little things until they're ready... Ah, as long as this is connected to you, you can't feel a thing from the neck down..."

Wade wondered what he was going on about.

"Oh, you're gonna hurt in a day or so--" Mark suddenly cut himself off, facial features sobering. He whipped around to glare at Wade, who flinched when they looked at each other. "You listening?"

"Um... You're a few feet away from me..." Wade said hesitantly. Mark narrowed his eyes, muttered an expletive, and glared at the knife in his hand.

"Ah, Wade," he said, walking over to him and crouching, "I need to put you to use. Otherwise you'll just rot here."

Wade didn't like the sound of that.

"I was gonna have you have Aaron's job, but I think you and Bob both fit the aftermath of that," he smirked.

"What's... that?" Wade asked.

"Being eaten alive, slowly, by some of my kind," Mark said, then grinned, teeth no longer white, but black, shiny, and sharp. Wade raised his eyebrows, then grimaced in repulsion at the idea the thing controlling Mark juxtaposed. "It's not so bad, you just have to wait till Aaron's gone, and then--"

"Hey, close your eyes for a second," Wade said quickly, which Mark obeyed surprisingly fast.

"Wade-- thank you by the way-- I am so sorry," Mark said sorrowfully, "Antimonos lied, it's still bent on establishing itself and killing everyone in its way."

"Mark, it's okay--"

"I hate seeing myself torture you guys so much, oh my gosh--"

"Mark, you--"

"I-- I just--"

"Mark, your hand's bleeding!" Wade shouted, making the closed-eyed figure stop talking. He held the handle of the knife in one hand, but gripped the blade tightly in the other, both hands trembling. He dropped the knife, a thin splatter of blood following it. He felt along his palm, flinching at the pain.

"I-I didn't know I was doing that..."

"Try not to hurt yourself, okay?"

"I can't guarantee that. Who knows what Antimonos is gonna do to me? It's already made me kidnap you guys and force ugly eel things down Aaron's throat..."

"Are those eel things..?"

"Yes, they're the things that'll eat you alive, not after tearing Aaron apart--" Mark was cut off by his own groaning in misery, then continued, "You need to use that knife to cut you, him, and Bob out, Aaron'll throw up the eels and no one gets hurt. But before that, burn that tattoo Antimonos put on me. Catch it by surprise. Please, soon."

Wade promised to do it, then Mark opened his eyes again, shook his head to recalibrate, and exited the room.