Symbol of Terror

6c. - Ending: Free Bob

A/N: Only choose this part if you decided to free Bob, or you are done reading the part you chose initially.

The thick tentacles around Bob's form were hard to cut free, but Wade got him loose eventually due to the tentacles' tendency to retract when hurt or severed. Once free, Wade pulled him away from the strands and let him sit near the door.

"One down, one to go," Wade muttered, approaching Aaron. The pale face smiled at him as he sliced through the tentacles until the man fell from the wall, stumbling, but standing upright.

"Oh my-- thank you so much," he whispered, grinning weakly, before an expression of horror overcast his face. He bent over slightly, silent as Wade looked on, then suddenly dropped to the floor, whining in discomfort.

"Aaron?"

"I-I feel sick, my stomach hurts--"

"What even happened to him?" Bob said, standing weakly. Wade turned and shrugged. At that moment the man on the floor shrieked, rolled over once, then pushed himself off the ground, getting on his hands and knees, shaking violently. Retching twice, he vomited a thick black puddle of sludge, something wriggling in the liquid. The two others paused, Wade moving to his side, back facing the door, aiming to stab whatever was moving. After lunging down and impaling the thing, which made a hideous squeal, a trembling Aaron grabbed his wrist. Pain shot up Wade's arm, and he shook the grip off of him. Four, five small punctures were seen as he turned his arm over.

"Back off!" Bob shouted, catching Wade's attention. Aaron had gotten up on wobbly legs, hunched over, arms out as if to embrace him. He paused and groaned again, quickly taking his shirt off and leaning over further. A sound of something being torn issued from him, and a cascade of chunky black ooze spilled from his front. Bob looked horrified as Aaron continued towards him, the fluid dripping stickily off the thinner man. Tendrils were once again closing around Bob, grabbing his ankles and wrists and snaking inwards. He tried shaking out of it, but soon his entire body was covered in them, and the wiry things pulled him back to the wall. Wade was left speechless and confused. Aaron turned around to face him.

Two pairs of eyes, upper pair yellow, lower pair orange, stared with a black smile from pale gray skin. Claw-tipped hands hung loosely at his sides, and the lower part of his torso was ripped open, stomach and intestines vacated. The white bone of the spine was almost visible. Wade grimaced and backed away towards the door. Upon going to reach the doorknob, he was instead met with a fleshy mass. Aaron snickered, or what was left of him. There was no humanity in those four eyes.

BANG

A gunshot came from the room directly above them, followed by a thud. Both of them looked up, eyes wide.

"Ah, gave up that easily?" Aaron hissed, tentacles crawling across the ceiling and breaking through the material where the event approximately took place. The precision was frightening, because as the ceiling broke, a body trailed by blood from its head fell among the spidery tentacles, the shotgun landing on its chest. "Coward."

"No..." Wade said, staring at the corpse of Mark, "No no no... not now..."

The inhuman form of Aaron turned his attention back to Wade, and quickly set to doing what he had done to Bob a moment before. Blackness wove its way around his vision, but he didn't care. Sight was no longer useful if he was just as doomed as Bob and Mark.

Congratulations, you have received "Bad Ending: Harsh Business Dealt." When everything goes wrong, you definitely do feel like giving up. Feel free to read the other endings.