In Their Eyes

-5-

   Darry wails. Lurching away from it, stumbling back. Alex does the same but not as badly.
   The body is moving under its bloody sheets. Twitching. Trying to breath. "Oh god!", Darry wails.
    "Darry? Alex?", Trish yells. "Oh god!!", Alex yells. Alex springs into action and darts towards it. Darry follows his actions.

   Both crashing to their knees. They start tearing at the sheet around its head.

    The sheet is being sucked in and out around the mouth now. Its gasping for air.
    Both are trying to tear the sheet. They try to get a grip on it. The body thrashes.
    Finally, they get their grip and rip the sheet. The sheet tears away. Both Alex and Darry stare in shock.

    Its a young man about their age. Deathly gray, mouth open in mute agony. Eyes wide. Blinking up at Darry.

   Darry can only stare in terror. He doesnt know what to do.

    The man tugs at the sheet around his stomach. Alex grabs the sheet and tears at it some more.
   He tears it the rest of the way down his body, stopping abruptly at his waist.
    The young man's bare body has incisions of ugly black stitches, all the way from the navel to the neck.

   Darry think he might be sick. Darry looks up into the wide eyes of the young man.

   'What in gods name did someone do to you?', Darry thought.

    Both boys stare into the eyes of the man. All feel hopeless.

    "Darry? Alex?", Trish says. "Trish...", Darry whispers back.

    The man's dry, blue lips are opening. The adams apple bobs as he tries to swallow.
    Darry, crazy with fear, leans down. His ear at the man's lips as they part again. "What?", Darry tries to listen to him.

    A whispered word come out of his mouth. Choked. Raspy. Unintelligible.

   "What did you say?", Darry asks.

   But no more sounds come. Nor breathing. Both boys stare wide-eyed, almost catatonic.

    They both back away from him slowly.

    "I am up here, goddammit. All alone, you guys. Now get your ass up here. Its getting dark.", Trish says.

   Her angry voice echos down. Both boys move to a puddle of light and look up at her.

   "Is she dead?", Trish asks. "He.", Alex says. "Come on, before that guy comes back!", Trish says.

    "Trish, we are gonna have to find a way out. The pipe isnt an option. Its too high up. We are under the church.
     We will fine a way out. What we need you to do is wait by the car.
     If you see him coming, you run. You get in that car and you drive to the nearest phone.

    I will take care of Darry. Hes in a lot of shock right now.", Alex says back to Trish.

   "What about you guys? I cant just leave you guys.", Trish says. "Just do as i say. Trust me.
     I will do everything in my power to protect Darry if he happens to come back.", Alex says.

    "Okay. Im trusting you, Alex. I swear to god. If he gets killed, im killing you. Literally.", Trish says.

   "I give you full permission to do so. Go wait by the car. If anything, lay on the horn and then take off.", Alex says.

   Trish agrees and goes back to her car. She waits for them and looks out for the truck.

Darry and Alex begin exploring the basement to try and find a way out. Everything is covered in cobwebs and spiderwebs.
Dust and dirt all over. A lot of old stuff. They see it as an old basement and everything just seems to be storage long forgotten, covered in dirt and webs.

Darry holds the flashlight as they explore. Darry then notices his shoes untied and figured he should at least tie his shoe.

He bends down and ties his shoe. Alex is looking at all the old junk on old tables.

At this time, something wet hits Darry's shoe. He looks at the wet spot for a moment.

Darry draws a breath. The smell is getting putrid.

In the same moment, the light Darry is carrying ascends. There are words over his head. An epitaph, spelled out in bones:

WHERE THERE'S A HELL, THERE'S A WAY

   Darry really gets the chills now. He doesnt wanna know if the bones are human or not.

    Arranged as they are, on a high arch that leads into a larger, darker subterranean room.

   He notices a hand sticking out of the wall. All the while, Alex is looking at all the junk laying around.
    Darry's light falls over the protruding limb. The skin on its splayed fingers looks petrified. 
    'Is that a human hand?', Darry thinks to himself. No question: the rest of the body is part of the wall.

   Skin leathered with age. Like some kind of human beef jerky. Teeth infected with termites.

   Head back, mouth open in a scream long gone silent. A body in a wall.

   But more light reveals more horror. A wall of bodies...

    "Oh god... oh god...", Darry says. Alex hears him. He turns to Darry. "Darry?", Alex says.

   Alex soon sees what Darry sees. A vast room ahead, a wall with dozens of these mounted corpses.

   Men and women of all ages. Body after body.

   Stitched together in a hideous tapestry. Large stitches. Identical to those just uncovered beneath that bloody sheet.

   Alex grabs the flashlight from Darry. Darry freezes in fear.

    Alex swings the light to the other side of the chamber. Another grotesque mural of the dead, extending deep into the darkness ahead.

    God knows how many bodies are down here.

   Darry takes a step forward, drawn by his own need to prove none of this can possibly be real.

   Some bodies are turned away. Skeletal heads looking back over their shoulders, petrified backsides showing more stitches.

   Several are as armless as the Venus DeMilo.

   Some missing other limbs. Head, feet, genitals, and the list goes on.

   Alex grabs Darry and turns him around. He cups Darry's face in his palms.
   He makes Darry look him in the eyes. Its at this moment Darry had noticed that Alex has two different eye colors.
   One is an emerald green. The other is a deep blue like the sky on a clear and sunny day. A nice blue and green. He didnt notice it before.

    "Hey, keep it together, Darry. Focus on me. Nothing else. Just me. We will be okay.

     We will get out and we will get to your parents' house.", Alex reassures Darry.

   Darry's growing repulsion moves him faster. Darry begins to feel like an ant as he realizes how big this place is.

   Deeper along the hideous walls, Darry turns abruptly. Two withered corpses in the tapestry.

   On the finger of one, a large ring. An old varsity ring. His beam reflecting off its dusty jeweled surface.
    Darry stares at it with unquestionable recognition. Alex sees and he too knows exactly what it is.

    Both look slowly to the corpse beside the first one. A girl? Once? Her incision is all around her neck. As if her head had been severed and then sewn back on.