What Lies Beneath

Chapter Fifty: Escape

Bobby flung himself over a rack of bikes as he continued his frantic race to the house. He knew he needed to think logically and find a car, but the sense of urgency in his soul was growing with each passing breath. Time was running out; he could feel it.

The image of Joe's dead body was still fresh in his mind as he pushed through the panic that had overcome him. There was no time to think about the things he couldn't control. Joe's last days were spent trying to save these kids, and he would be damned if he let his friend down now. He was still miles away, but that didn't mean that he would be too late, not if he pushed himself harder. 

There was nothing to be done. The house already managed to do everything it could to try and stop the oncoming slaughter that it inadvertently set into motion, but it did not have hands to reach out into the physical world and stop Charlie. It could feel Sophie as she wandered through its halls in search of her soon to be dead friends.

Hatred seethed through every crack and hole that could be found within its walls. It had a plan, a plan that was supposed to bring it everything it wanted. Unfortunately, it never could calculate the overzealousness of humans. That was one of the things that pushed it to this point in the first place.

A woman in white paced through the halls cooing at the house. She could feel how upset it was, but she also knew something it didn't. While the house had plotted, so had she. There was no way she was going to let anything break free of what she had foreseen. All those trapped inside this fortress were needed to set the next chapter into motion. The house was simply a means to an end and soon it would end as well. 

Sophie ran through the charred remains of the house. In her haste she breathed in a foul scent that seemed to infect the air. The instant it hit her nose she knew what it was. When she had been away at boarding school during her early years there was an accident in the kitchen. One of the staff members she had gotten close to wasn't careful and started a grease fire. Before the situation could get under control, the fire spread and engulfed the poor worker. The cafeteria and the rooms around it carried the same smell as the one in the halls. The scent of burnt flesh. All Sophie could do was pray that it wasn't any of her friends, more importantly that it wasn't Wyatt.

Turning the corner Sophie found herself face to face with a pile of human remains. She didn't know whose they were, but with a closer examination she discovered that what was left of the body looked male. With that realization, Sophie's stomach dropped. How was this her life? She sent out as many silent prayers as her mind could muster begging and pleading with the Gods above. This couldn't be Wyatt, not kind sweet Wyatt who had held her as she cried.

The thought of him being dead took everything out of Sophie. Her body gave way to the gravity that came crashing down on her. The burnt wood under her was the only thing that let her know that what she was seeing was real. Tears flooded to her eyes and blurred the image of the charred husk of a person.

She knew that she still needed to find Karen and stop Charlie, but all of her thoughts were now focused on Wyatt's kind smile. All she wanted was to see him in front of her, eyes sparkling with joy and love. She couldn't leave him now, not after everything they had been through.

Sophie reached her trembling hand out to touch his blackened one. Where the feel of skin should have been, all she found was the texture of burnt paper that chipped away under her fingertips. With that one action, the body in front of her disintegrated into ash. Despair washed over Sophie. She couldn't stand to see someone she loved taken away in such an abrupt manner. Her tears turned into full sobs as she mourned the loss of yet another friend.

Wyatt watched helplessly, with his back pressed against the furniture that was placed in front of the door, as Karen search the room for an exit. He couldn't help but mentally kick himself for locking them in a room without an escape while a psychopath hacked at the door with an axe. Once again, he found himself wishing that he had listened to Sophie when she said they should just leave. True, he didn't have anywhere to go, but right at that moment he didn't really care. Anywhere was better than his current predicament.

With each jerk of Charlie's axe, Wyatt could feel the barrier he built shift. It was only a matter of time before he broke through and hacked them up into little pieces. There wasn't much he or anyone could do to change the fate that he had sentenced Karen and himself to. Tears brimmed the bottom of his eyes as his eyes followed Karen's frantic motions. He wished he had never stepped foot into this hell house. 

Karen's hands scanned the lined bookshelves for any sign of a hidden passageway. Old houses like these were supposed to be filled with secret tunnels. If it was any other day or situation, she would have laughed at such a thought. There wasn't any time for that now, she needed to find an escape before she and Wyatt were unrecognizable as people.

Beyond the door, Karen could hear Charlie's sadistic laughter ringing through the hole. Why had she come to this place? To block out the laughter and her thoughts, Karen began slinging the books off the shelf and on to the floor. There had to be a way out of this room. She was not going to die today.

When the last book hit the ground, Karen felt as if she could fall to the floor with it. There was nothing left for her to do. She had searched the entire room to no avail. The only other possible escape was through the window. With that thought fresh in her mind, she marched over to an overturned chair, picked it up, and hauled it closer to the window before chucking it at the glass.

Karen watched as the chair sailed through the air towards the glass. All of her hope of escaping rested on its warped wood and torn cushions. She didn't dare breathe for fear that one breath would alter the outcome. The smile that had spread across her face as she stared intently at the scene playing out before her, soon twisted into an expression of horror and dismay. Where the glass should have splintered and shattered under the weight and force of the chair, it merely bent. It was as if in that instant alone, the glass had turned itself into rubber. The chair recoiled off the rubberized glass and exploded midair sending shards of wood and chair stuffing flying through the room. Both Karen and Wyatt took to the floor covering their heads.

In the same moment that the chair bounced away from the window and exploded, Charlie burst through the door, axe at the ready. He, unlike his victims, was not fast enough when it came to protect himself against the sudden blast. Charlie shoved his body through the pile of furniture, his focus completely on Wyatt. It was only when his target hit the floor that Charlie looked up to see what all the commotion was. In the precise moment he lifted his head, he was pounded and sliced by pieces of the chair.

Charlie stumbled back trying to fight the unexpected onslaught of wood. Karen observed the terrifying scene from a crack between her arm and the floor. The axe fell to the floor with a loud thud allowing Charlie to defend himself with both hands.

When the attack was over, Charlie fell to his hands and knees, heavy pants escaping his chest. Crimson liquid bubbled out and spilled over his skin as he reached for his weapon once again. Upon rising from the floor, Karen and Wyatt watched in mystifying horror as their assailant removed a large piece of wood from his torso.

It was in that very second Karen knew that they were going to die.

READY FOR MORE? CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE: ENTOMBED WILL BE OUT TOMORROW!

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