CAPTURED

Chapter 6: A Tongue Fit for Lies

      Just fifteen minutes ago, Charlie was peacefully walking down hallways searching for any clues she could use to find her long lost friend, Maxwell. But now she is frantically sprinting down hallways searching for a good place to hide.
      The two deranged patients who were slowly closing the gap between them and Charlie were shouting disgusting things at her. The angry, but somehow charming, patients were not two different physical beings, but they were two different emotional beings. They were two different people inside of one strong body.
      "C'mon, girlie, we'll be gentle...if you obey. We just want to have some fun with you." The first voice of the patient was a deep, sexy voice that basically all girls craved.
      Charlie, who finally managed to find a hiding place, sat in the shadows with a small hand covering her mouth. She was attempting to silence her breathing but found that it was only making it louder. She removed her hand and placed it against her side, feeling the cold concrete floor rub against her. Soon, that wasn't the only thing that would be rubbing against her if they discover her hiding place. Charlie almost cried out loud when she heard the second voice of the patient ring out.
      "Shut up, fool! We aren't here to get laid! We're here to kill! Find the girl and kill her!" The second voice sounded like a typical villain's voice. It was loud, obnoxious, and scratchy.
      Charlie scuttled back against the wall hoping that they wouldn't be able to see her underneath the small desk she was hiding under.
      The man with the two personalities stepped into the small storage room she was in. He took a few steps toward the desk and then stopped. He swiveled his head around the room a few times before screaming at the other man inside of him.
      "See what your disgusting thoughts did?! We lost the girl!" He stomped his foot against the concrete floor, his bare foot making a loud slapping noise every time he did so.
      "Hey, you know you wanted it, too," the deep voice replied with a chuckling breath.
      The second voice sighed dramatically while simultaneously stepping out of the storage room.
      Charlie waited for the conflicting voices to fade and then quietly slipped out from under the desk, releasing a small sigh from her dry mouth. She then stepped out of the storage room unaware of the man peeking from around the corner of the hallway they ran from. She dusted herself off and began to walk the opposite way.
      The man who was purring with delight, silently approached the naive girl and slithered an arm around her body.
      "Hey, girlie." It was the deep voice.
      Before Charlie could react, the man forced his other hand against her mouth, effectively muffling her vibrating screams.
      Charlie screamed into her giant hand and struggled to get out of his tight grip. She violently kicked her legs around hoping to kick him in his shin or another area where the sun don't shine. But nothing worked on the tough man.
      The man chuckled into her ear and dragged her into the storage room, closing and locking the door behind him. He pushed her onto the wooden desk, straddling himself in between her legs.
      Charlie shivered when she felt his groin rub against her own body, but still continued to fight back.
      "Relax, girlie, this won't hurt a bit," he purred while rubbing himself against her inner thighs.
      Charlie screeched again before yanking her leg back and shoving it in between his legs. She kicked up causing the man to scream in pain.
      He pulled himself back and fell into the wall, sending the shelf above his head falling. The shelf slammed against his skull and the man yelled again.
      Charlie pushed herself off of the wooden desk and ran down the hallway. She approached a small wooden door and grappled the handle, but it was locked.
      "Open, damn it!" She screamed at the door that wouldn't budge.
      She pounded her fist against it a few times, but stopped when she heard a voice call out from behind it.
      "My, my, why are you in such a hurry?" The voice was male.
      "Just open the damn door! I'm being chased!"
      "Now, just wait a minute. I need to ask you the password."
      "Password?! Are you shittin' me?!" Charlie screamed at the unknown man.
      The man chuckled before saying, "I'm only joking. Come on in."
      Charlie pushed against the door as the man was opening it, causing her to fly into the room. She skidded across the floor and stopped, not even bothering to look up at the stranger.
      "Well, look at you. All weak and tired out," there was a pause and then a small gasp, "Oh, you're a patient, too. Perfect."
      The man yanked Charlie up by the arm and gave her a grin that wasn't so pleasant. His face was full of scars, one half was shrouded in black scales, the other half was a super pale and ugly human face. He wore a medical mask that rested against the bottom of his chin while long strands of thin, black hair fell to his shoulders. The skin on his body was also deformed. He wore tattered black scrubs that were drenched in blood and tattered shoes. Half of his body was scaly, the other half that same pale white.
      "Why don't you have a seat here?" He said.
      The man chuckled quietly and tossed Charlie into a rusty wheelchair while wrapping a long leather strap around her stomach. He pulled it to the other side of the wheelchair and tightened it, causing Charlie to gasp.
      He moved over to the wooden door and slammed it shut, immediately locking it afterwards. He moved back over to the wheelchair and flipped it around, silently pushing Charlie down the long hallway.
      The rusty wheelchair gave out long squeaks that sounded like a helpless mouse. Occasionally, it would skip a squeak, but would soon start up again when one of the wheels ran over a deformed piece of wood.
      When the wheelchair reached the end of the hallway, it turned right into a medium sized room. The man then pushed Charlie left into a shorter hallway and then entered a large room filled with multiple beds that were all taken by patients.
      Charlie managed to get a look at a few of the men. Some appeared to be dead, but then gave a little twitch before going completely still again. Some were really dead, their limp bodies resting on a blood soaked mattress that occasionally leaked blood onto the floor. Large stab wounds were either in their stomachs or chest indicating that they were stabbed by something big.
      The man pushed Charlie into a small room on the right and parked the wheelchair in the middle of the room. The stench inside the room was unbearable.
      "We are finally here, my friend," the man said in a plain voice.
      "Now, before we continue, I just have to examine you real fast."
      This made Charlie uncomfortable.
      "What are you going to do?" Charlie asked with a shaky voice.
      The man ignored her and rolled a metal cart out of the corner of the room. He brought it over to the wheelchair, revealing a set of tools that were most likely used for his torture.
      On the cart was a pair of bloody pliers, a bloody saw, and of course a huge bloody knife.
      The man began to speak as he reached for his first tool, the knife, "You're probably wondering what my name is," there was a slight pause as the man used a paper towel that was surprisingly clean to wipe the excess blood off of the knife, "well, my name is Martin."
      Charlie didn't have any words for this so-called Martin. She just stared at his knife and watched the fresh blood slowly drip from the tip of the knife.
      He continued, "I used to be a doctor here until they used me in their sick experiments. But now I work for the Father."
      This puzzled Charlie. "What are you talking about?"
      "No questions right now. I must cleanse your filthy blood," he replied in a stern voice.
      "What? What are you going to do?"
      "I said no questions!"
      Martin then approached Charlie with the somewhat clean knife and tightly gripped her arm with his wrinkly, pale hand. Charlie tried to pull away, but he was too strong.
      "Now be still if you want this to work out," he said.
      Charlie wriggled around and used her other hand to try and push his off, but he didn't budge. Martin was surprisingly strong for such a skinny man.
      Martin began to bring the knife up to Charlie's pinned arm, causing her to cry out. Adrenaline kicked in and her strength increased, but Martin was still too strong for her.
      His eyes shined with concentration as he pressed the tip of the cold knife against her skin.
      Charlie began to scream.
      Martin ignored her as he made a small cut just in the crook of her elbow where one of her bright blue veins sat. Charlie cried out in pain when she felt her skin break apart. Metallic blood flowed out of the slice and began to run down her arm, occasionally dripping onto the dirty floor.
      Martin then grabbed a glass tube from the metal cart and pressed it against her arm forcing more blood to gush out of the slice.
      The warm blood dripped into the tube and slowly filled it up. Martin waited for it to fill up halfway before wiping the blood off of her arm and carefully resting the tube in a small tube holder.
      "Perfect," he whispered while staring at the blood filled tube.
      Charlie grimaced and held her arm. Blood began to seep through her fingers.
      "What the hell is your problem?!" Charlie screamed at Martin while tightly gripping her injured arm.
      "Oh, calm down. That wasn't so bad. I must now give this to the Father so he can inspect it and cleanse it. Once he's done, I will bring you to him where you must drink it. It will clear any evil you have inside of you," the man explained in a calm voice.
      "Oh, you crazy bitch," Charlie whispered under her breath with tears streaming down her face.
      Without saying another word, Martin then grabbed the metal cart and quickly strode out of the room, leaving Charlie alone with nothing to defend herself with. She cried and stared at her arm, preparing to rip the leather strap off of her body.
      Once she gained enough strength, Charlie moved her normal arm to the side of the wheelchair where the strap was messily tied. She easily pulled it out of the knot and yanked it away from her. She pulled herself out of the wheelchair and rested against the wall in front of her.
      Charlie knew her time was limited before that freak came back to drag her to some other freak, so she hurried out of the small room and made her way into the bigger room. She saw the patients, some dead some alive, and wandered over to the other side. She carefully eyed the patients out of the corner of her eye, but soon realized they were all strapped to the beds.
      When Charlie reached the back of the room, she discovered three large windows lined up on the wall. Of course they were all barred up. That's the way windows were built in crazy places like this.
      Sometimes, Charlie thought about climbing out of a window, hoping that it would be high enough to jump out of, but those thoughts disappeared when she thought of Max. Poor Max was still missing and Charlie was beginning to think he was dead, but then she remembered what that guy told her.
"He's held in a prison underneath while being watched by a guardian and its master." She remembered hearing everything he said and wondered what it meant.
      Suddenly, Charlie was ripped out of her thoughts when a deep scream rang out. She turned around and saw one of the patients violently lashing the bed around almost tipping it over.
      "It's coming! It's following you! The thing is following you and it's gonna rip us all to shreds!" The patient screamed until the rest of the patients were wailing and sobbing while begging to be let out of this prison.
      "What's going on in here?" Martin suddenly appeared in the doorway from across the room.
      Charlie's mouth gaped open and she quickly slid underneath one of the beds before Martin could see her.
      She was now underneath the bed of the screaming patient.
      Martin's footsteps approached the bed and then stopped. His calm voice rang out, "Now, now, Jake. What did I tell you about screaming? This is the tenth time I've warned you."
      The patient lowered his voice and spoke again, his words slurring badly like he was drunk, "He's coming. He's going to kill us by ripping us apart. We're going to die!" His voice was again raised when he spoke his last sentence.
      Martin moved closer to him and gently placed a wrinkled hand on his bare, scarred chest.
      "That's where your wrong, Jake. We are going to stop it," he paused and took a deep breath through his nostrils while proceeding to raise his other hand up to his forehead, "But to end his madness, you must worship him and tell him that you mean no harm."
      Now Jake had both of his eyes closed, his scarred eyelids the only thing visible in his sockets. His breathing was now more shallow and calm and the rest of the patients grew silent.
      "Pray with me, Jake, and all worries will be lifted from you. Join us," Martin said in a more relaxed tone.
      The silent patient raised a hand to his forehead and pressed a single finger against his skin. Clearly, both of them were now praying together.
      "Oh, Great Dark Lord, grant us strength and keep us safe. Remember we mean you no harm and we only wish to be as powerful as you are. Grant this message to all of your guardians and tell them to protect us with all of their might," Martin finished his prayer with him tracing a strange foreign symbol on his chest, and without removing his hand from Jake, he used his free hand to trace the same symbol on his stomach.
      Both of their eyes opened.
      "We must make a sacrifice now," Martin said in a low voice.
      "Sacrifice? You aren't going to use me, are you?"
      "No, I'm going to use the girl."
      Martin then walked into the smaller room he thought Charlie was in, but was surprised to see she wasn't there.
      "Where is the girl?! The outsider?!" Martin screamed as he came charging out of the torture room. "Where's the girl, Jake?!" He screamed again and moved back over to Jake.
      Jake knew exactly where she was. "I don't know, Martin! I don't know!" He had panic in his voice.
      "You know where she is! You would have seen her walk out! Tell me where she is!" Martin moved even closer to his bed and began to shout in Jake's poor face.
      Jake grimaced and sunk his head into the mattress of the bed. "I really don't."
      Martin growled and turned around. "Does anyone know where the damn girl is?" He asked impatiently.
      But none of the patients were paying attention.
      Martin flipped back toward Jake and began to scream in his face again, "You know where the outside is!" His voice was now angry and aggressive.
      "Martin, please! Just let me out of these straps and we can look for her together!" Jake begged.
      Martin shook his head aggressively and began to speak in a low, menacing voice, "You have failed Him. A new sacrifice must be made now."
      "Please don—" Jake was cut off.
      "You have failed Him!"
      Martin suddenly pulled his huge knife out of the pocket in his tattered scrubs. He brought it down against Jake's chest and carved that symbol into him.
      Jake cried out in agony as his skin was slowly sliced apart.
      After Martin finished carving into him like a jack o' lantern, he whispered softly, "You don't deserve to see Him. Not with those eyes. The eyes of a liar."
      Martin gouged his eyes out.
      "The tongue in your mouth is only fit for lies. The tongue of a liar," Martin whispered again as he cut the small, pink tongue out of Jake's bleeding mouth.
      Jake's screams became slurs and gurgles and his voice finally faded. His limp body lay on the bed with blood flowing in streams from his chest, mouth, and eye sockets.
      From underneath the bed, Charlie could only hear what was happening and she quickly assumed that the patient was dead. She could see blood dripping down from the edges of the bed as some seeped through the rusty bed frame and dripped onto Charlie's skin. She shivered and tried to move away from the spots that were dripping.
      Martin then sighed audibly and turned himself around. "I must find the outsider before the Father finds out. Damn that girl," he said quietly.
      He quietly walked to the other side of the room and closed both doors, once again leaving Charlie alone with numerous patients that were beginning to wail again.
      Charlie carefully slid out from under the bed and pulled herself up to where Jake was laying. She stared at his mutilated body with small tears in the corners of her eyes and whispered, "Why did you do that, Jake? Why would you protect me if you don't even know me? I...I...Thank you."
      She then moved away from Jake and slowly approached the doors that were sitting on the other side of the room.
      Charlie slowly opened it, leaving just a tiny crack for her to peek out of, but quickly shut it again when she saw Martin checking underneath a bed in the short hallway she came from. She held her breath with her back pressed against the door.
      Charlie now had to sneak past the crazy torturer priest named Martin.