Blood and Snow

Chapter Sixteen

"Hello?..." Belle's voice echoed in the empty corridor, "Is anyone here?..."

She was in the doorway to her office, looking down the dark hallway. The power wasn't working, and apparently, no one else was there. She took a hesitant step forward, wrapping a black trench coat around her like it was armor. She began to slowly walk down the hallway, goosebumps crawling up her spine. Looking through every opened door and window she passed, Belle eventually found a flashlight. She turned on the light and looked around the room, 'Isn't this Susie's office?'

"Susie?" Belle called. "Lillian? Missus Hersh?"

Belle looked out the doorway and into the office across the hall, noticing the shape of a noose hanging above the desk. 'That's not right.' She walked out of the room and into the hallway again. "Someone?" She tried, "Anyone? Please, is anybody here?"

Belle's voice echoed through the halls. 'Not a soul...' She thought miserably. Walking a bit faster, Belle tried making her way to Lillian's office. As she passed by the front entrance, she noticed that the door was blocked by metal bars. "... Lockdown?" Belle muttered to herself, feeling uneasy. She took a step towards the door, then stopped when she noticed the secretary's desk. The phone was hanging by it's cord over the side, she could hear the dial tone from where she was standing.

'This is getting more unsettling by the minute...' the lawyer thought with a shiver. Taking a breath to calm her nerves, she tasted something metallic in the air. Belle slowly, cautiously walked to the desk, pointing the flashlight at the spot where the secretary's chair was. "... Missus Hersh?..."

Belle saw what was behind the counter, and her face twisted into a look of horror. There was a pair of cracked glasses on the floor, next to a severed hand with a gold ring on it, both sitting in a large pool of blood. The sight made the lawyer give a horrified gasp. 'Something's wrong. What the hell happened here?' Belle backed away from the desk slowly, turning around and walking to Lillian's office. 'Surely, Lillian will be there. She's strong, nothing can hurt her...'

'... Right?'

The hair on the back of her neck was standing up as the feeling of being watched came over her. Finally spotting the door to Lillian's office in the distance, Belle began to pick up her pace. The blood splatter on the walls gave her more chills than she already had. Trying to brush them off, she reached for the door. Before she touched the knob, Belle froze. She had a sickening feeling in her stomach, and the metallic taste returned. Her nerves were screaming "Don't go in there!".

Not daring to take another breath, Belle grabbed the knob and twisted, opening the door at an agonizingly slow pace. "... Lillian?..." she whispered, hoping and praying to whatever force was out there that Lillian was in her office. The lawyer completely opened the door and looked inside the room, her stomach doing backflips as she saw what was in front of her.

Oh yeah, Lillian was in her office alright.

Just not in one piece.

Waterfalls of red liquid oozed off the sides of the desk as Lillian's corpse was laying on it. The woman's torso and abdominal areas were torn open, her broken ribs jutting out of her chest like stalagmites as her insides were ripped out of her and strewn about the room. Most of it rested on Lillian's body and desk, while some of it was on the floor or the wall. The look on Lillian's face, however, is what was truly horrifying about the scene. Her mouth was wide open, and her grey eyes were clouded over, looking up at the ceiling in agony.