TRAPPED (Remaster Coming Soon)

Chapter 14: Recollections

        When Max and Charlie reached the room with the message, they searched around for the bloody arrows. Charlie felt something was wrong, but she couldn't put a finger on it.
        "Hey, Max? What do you think Agostino has planned for us?" Charlie asked while still searching for an arrow.
        "I don't know. I hope it's nothing bad, though," he replied.
        Charlie soon found an arrow that led down another dark hallway on the right. The short hallway turned right and Charlie quickly realized something. They were above the first hallway they walked down to find the first fuse. They now had to move across a narrow ledge.
        Max was the first to walk down the edge. Charlie moved down it shortly after while holding onto Max's arm. When they reached the end of the ledge, they jumped across to another floor.
        Charlie gasped when she felt the wood break underneath her. She screamed as she fell, but Max quickly grabbed her arm to save her. He could also feel the wood giving out underneath him. Max groaned as he tried to pull Charlie up from the edge. He finally managed to pull her up just as the wood broke underneath him. He jumped back with Charlie in his arms and fell on his back.
        "Ugh, are you okay, Charlie?" Max asked while helping her up.
        Charlie nodded while dusting herself off.
        They turned to the room that they just jumped in and looked around. The room was full of beds that were flipped over. Two large, barred windows sat on the other side of the room. Rain still splattered against them, it seemed to be coming down harder than before. The windows let in small slivers of grey light, allowing the two friends to walk through the room without using their flashlights.
        On the right side of the room sat a small hallway that led to another room full of beds. There was a bloody arrow painted on the wall that pointed to the large room. The two friends walked into the room and saw more flipped beds. On the right of the room, there was another dark hallway and a bloody arrow that pointed to the left.
        They walked to the hallway and turned left. There was another hallway that went right again. A white candle sat on a small table and lit up another bloody arrow. It pointed down the hallway, so the two friends followed it. When they reached the end, they were greeted with another hallway that went right. This one was shorter though, and it went to another room. The other half of the hallway was blocked by a door that was boarded up, so they walked into the large room.
        The room was completely empty except for two large pillars that were on the sides. However, the pillars were starting to crumble. There was a single light that hung from the ceiling. It was on, but it was very dim, only lighting the first half of the room.
        Suddenly, the two friends heard quiet footsteps on the other side of the room. It sounded like the person was wearing shoes.
        "Hello?" Charlie called out to the darkness.
        There was no answer.
        A voice suddenly called out from the darkness. It was dark and sinister. "Finally, I've got you right where I want you." There was a quiet chuckle after that.
        Charlie recognized the voice and asked, "Agostino, what are you doing?"
        Soon after she asked that, Agostino walked out of the darkness with a sinister smirk on his face. His eyes were dark and cold. "I thought I'd take you for a stroll down memory lane," he said while holding one of his hands up. He was pointing at towards the dark half of the room like he was expecting something to walk out.
        "What?" Charlie asked in a fearful voice when she heard shuffling footsteps coming towards them.
        The footsteps were heavy and sounded big. There was also a dripping noise that sounded like water dripping onto the floor, except it sounded much thicker.
        Soon, a large figure appeared from the darkness. Charlie gasped and felt her heart drop.
        "Emily," Charlie said in a sad voice. She felt a warm tear roll down her face.
        It was Emily except much bigger and scarier. Half of her body was mutated while the other half remained the same. The half that was mutated was covered in a black substance that dripped from her deformed fingers. A long, black horn protruded from the side of her head that was mutated and her eye glowed red. One half of her mouth had sharp teeth and the same black substance that drooled out. She grew double her size and she had long claws on her mutated side.
        "Kill...me," Emily spoke in a raspy, hurt voice. She outstretched her mutated arm like she was begging for help.
        "What the hell? That's Emily!" Max said while slowly backing up with Charlie.
        "Or what's left of her," Charlie replied in a sad voice.
        "We need to get out of here," Max said while pulling Charlie towards the door they walked through.
        Agostino scowled and said, "Oh no, you're not allowed to leave just yet." He chuckled and then blocked the door with the same black substance that covered one half of Emily's body.
        Max tried to push through the liquid, but it was too thick and sticky. "Shit, we're trapped," he said.
        "That's right. The only way to leave is if you defeat your good ol' friend, Emily," Agostino said while patting Emily's non-mutated shoulder.
        Charlie growled and yelled, "You monster! We never should have listened to you!"
        Agostino cackled and said, "No one is allowed to know about Korbitron. We know that if you leave, you're going to tell everyone about it, so our only option is to kill you."
        Charlie screamed in anger and picked up a large rock that was sitting on the cracked floor. She chucked it at Agostino, but he easily dodged it.
        "Have fun, kiddos!" Agostino said while cackling and teleporting away.
        "Son of a bitch!" Charlie yelled. She felt her anger immediately fade and turn into fear when she heard Emily scream in a demonic voice.
        She hobbled over to the two friends and swung her giant, mutated arm at Charlie. Charlie yelped in pain when her arm slammed into her, sending her flying into the wall. Emily now had superhuman strength.
        She then walked over to Max and stared through him with her piercing red eye.
        "Emily?" Max asked in a fearful voice when she lifted her arm again.
        She grabbed Max by his arm and threw him against Charlie causing both of them to groan in pain. She limped over to them and lifted her arm high into the air, getting ready to bring it down on both of them. The two friends quickly rolled out of the way and then backed away from the creature that was once their friend.
        "What do we do?" Charlie asked hopelessly.
        "We have to...kill her," Max replied hesitantly.
        Charlie didn't want to, but she knew it had to be done if they wanted to get out of here. She pulled her pocket knife out of her pocket and raised it in front of her. Emily hissed and ran towards both of them with her long arms outstretched in front of her. She swung her black arm at Charlie, but she quickly ducked and then stabbed her knife into her shoulder.
        Emily just kept swinging her arms around like nothing happened causing her to unexpectedly hit Charlie in the face. She fell to the floor and dropped her pocket knife. The knife slid over to Max, so he picked it up and stared at Emily. She didn't know that he had the small knife in his hands.
        The creature crawled on top of Charlie and raised a claw to her throat. Charlie felt hopeless until she saw Max charging towards her with the knife in his hand. He jumped on Emily's back causing her to lash her arms and body around. She tried desperately to get Max off of her back, but she couldn't. Charlie watched Max stab the knife into Emily's neck multiple times causing her to finally fall to the floor face first.
        Emily stared up at Charlie with her blue and red eyes. She was gasping for breath and was trying to push herself up. Charlie suddenly had a flashback of the first time she witnessed Emily's death. She fell to her knees crying and held Emily's mutated hand.
        "Emily, I'm sorry. I'm sorry we couldn't save you," she said while crying. She hoped that Emily could still understand a bit.
        Emily just stared at Charlie. Charlie could see her red eye starting to fade and turn back to its normal icy blue color. She smiled and looked down at their hands that were still intertwined. The black substance from Emily ran down Charlie's hand and dripped onto the floor. She looked back up at Emily's face and quietly gasped when she saw a glistening tear rolling down the normal side of her face.
        "Emily..." Charlie was trying to speak, but she couldn't find the words.
        The black substance was starting to dry up and turn into ash. Emily's breathing was slowing down and Charlie knew this was going to be it.
        "Charlie," Emily suddenly blurted out in a quiet, raspy voice.
        Charlie suddenly felt happy. She really missed that voice of hers.
        Emily, using her last breath, whispered to Charlie, "Thank you." She suddenly went limp and her blue eyes no longer stared at Charlie. They were now staring up at the empty ceiling.
        Charlie felt another tear roll down her cheek. She slowly stood up and turned to Max who was standing directly behind her.
        "Charlie? Are you okay?" He asked while putting a warm hand on Charlie's shoulder. He also had a tear running down his cheek.
        Charlie nodded slowly while wiping the tear from her face. "Let's go," she whispered quietly to Max.