The Ivy Walls

Chapter 16

"When are we gonna find him!?" Gwen was exasperated. "Surely we should have run into at least one other person in here! Even a monster should have run into us! But Nope! Nothing, not a single thing!" She was still ranting, even after Teddi's small outburst. 

The group continued walking, seeming to be just dust floating in the wind, since all they could do was walk around. "Well I'm pretty happy that we haven't had any run-ins with any monsters." Teddi replied in a flat tone. "Yeah but I'm going insane just hanging out with the same two people." Gwen whined. "Oh, thanks, I knew I had the 'go insane' type of effect on people." Mickey retorted with a sarcastic smirk. 

A chilling sound echoed around the walls, bouncing between the three. The group paused. Unsure of whether or not they were hearing things. "Wa-was that?" Mickey started, but Gwen finished his sentence for him. "Dale... screaming.", "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go find him!" Teddi took off in the direction of the sound. The rest of the group quickly followed suit.

They rounded many corners for what seemed like hours, Dale's screams continued. They ran past a cluster of ivy vines on the wall, but quickly did a double take. Dale's screams were the loudest there. Teddi moved the the ivy out the way, confirming it. She had seen a door. 

Mickey gasped when she revealed the door, hiding behind the ivy.  They pulled the ivy down and tossed it to one side. Gwen slowly brushed her hand against the cold metal handle. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Everyone's anxiety was through the roof. She fully wrapped her hand around the door handle and cautiously pushed it down to open it.

The handle moved with a slight squeak and a loud click, causing the whole group to cringe, losing all hope for their element of surprise. Luckily the door was unlocked. She slowly opened the door, so they could savour the last bit of stealth they had. The door creaked open with a loud whine, once again making the whole group wince, hoping the monsters weren't nearby.

Gwen was the first to enter the room, then Teddi crept in, then Mickey cautiously stepped in, leaving the door wide open in case they needed a quick escape. Gwen gasped when she saw Dale, or more, what was left of him. Teddi and Mickey just gaped in shock. The three spun around as they heard a loud crash come from the door.

They whirled around to see Jesse, Owen and Fin standing in the doorway, panting heavily. Teddi puffed out her cheeks and turned red with anger. "YOU! YOU SAID YOU DIDN'T WANT TO SAVE DALE! NOW HERE YOU ARE! IN ALL YOUR GLORY, TO SAVE THE FUCKING DAY!" She yelled, not caring if the monsters heard her. She was fuming. They hadn't heard from him since the day he left. She though he was dead or worse! But there he stood, without a single scratch on him.

Jesse was about to say a witty comeback, but stopped as soon as he saw Dale, he went pale. "HOLY SHIT! DALE!" He ran over to Dale, who was just barely conscious. The best Dale could muster was a slight groan. He was missing his two pinky fingers, they were cut off, three of his toes were gone too, he was covered in cuts and bruises. He had a broken nose and blood was running down his face,, causing him to keep one eye shut to prevent any blood from dripping into his eye. He was looking slightly more tanned from the electric shocks he was put through.

As Jesse came closer to him, Dale seemed to struggle more and more. Just as Jesse realised Dale was trying to warn him, a thick black tentacle slammed him into the wall behind him, along with the rest of the group. His eyes filled with tears at the impact, even though it didn't even hurt all that much.

"Trying to escape again Dale? And you even brought your circus clown friends along for the ride. How lucky am I." Luther said with a sneer. "L-Luther, p-p-please don't do- don't do this." Dale stuttered, not sure whether it was because of the pain of the fear, "PLEASE!" He yelled in one last attempt to stop Luther from doing what he already knew was coming.

"Mm, tsk tsk tsk. Too little too late boy." He replied, venom laced in every word. "You need to learn your LESSON!" Luther yelled the last word as he pushed down the lever on max power, sending massive jolts of electricity throughout Dale's body. He let out a deafening scream, internally begging for it to be over. Electricity bolts ran over him, showing the shear power.

Once Luther had finally stopped holding down the lever, Dale felt like he could breath again. "DALE!" Jesse, Teddi and Fin yelled in unison, fear drowning out all of their other thoughts. Owen, Mickey and Gwen were struggling to break free from the slimy tentacle.

Sarah, Luther's demon-daughter walked in right as Owen broke free. He looked at her and at the knife in his hand. In a split-second decision, he pounced at her and held the knife against her throat, threatening to behead her if Luther took one wrong move. 

"Now demon! If you want to see her another day, you listen TO ME!" He threatened. "I can tell she's your daughter, it's easy to put one and one together. I can also tell you care a lot about her, and if you don't meet our demands, you will watch her die." He finished.

Luther sighed, "Really I prefer the name Luther rather then 'demon'. Surely we can settle this like gentleman. A simple trade should do, no?" He walked over to Dale and unclipped his restraints. "The boy for my daughter, Sarah." He said, holding up the now unconscious Dale with ease. "IF YOU THINK-" Jesse was cut off by Owen. He glared at Jesse then looked back at Luther.

"Hm, since you took such great care of our friend Dale here, I think it's only best for us to return the favour," Owen replied, and with a swift hand movement, he had stabbed Sarah in the stomach and was back to holding the knife against her throat, "Y'know, since we are settling this evenly, like gentlemen, of course." He had an evil sneer plastered onto his face. He seemed to be scaring the monsters. The tables had completely turned.

Luther scoffed and shoved Dale's limp body back into the chair. "Fine! I'll fix him! But it you so much as hurt another hair on her head, I will kill him and then all of you!" He placed his hand on Dale's forehead and slowly began healing Dale's injuries. One by one, his fingers and toes seemed to grow back, the large gashes all over his body slowly closed up and the massive bruises lashed across his skin were disappearing. 

"I can fix these cuts and bruises, but I cannot fix the scarring it will leave behind. His eye is also very damaged, there is no way for certain, if it will work again." Luther mentioned as he proceeded to bandage up Dale's eye and his hands and feet. "I must also bandage his hands and feet to make sure his new fingers and toes become accustomed to being used again." He explained as he finished.

Luther turned on his heels as a thought sprung to mind. "You know what, I have an offer for you." He mentioned, with an uncomfortably warm smile. 

"Why don't we make an alliance?"

Chapter 16 is done and dusted! Hell yes! Thank you so much for continuing to read this crappy story. See ya next Chapter!

Word Count: 1303