Unbreakable

[TheLordOfAwesome]

((Lucas Abernathy continued from ][))

Rain drummed loudly on the pane of glass separating the building's interior from the outside, Lucas glanced out the water soaked window to the cityscape just beyond the horizon. Never in his life had he seen a downpour this bad. It was coming down in what looks like sheets, sweeping the city in a westward pattern. It made him thankful that he was inside away from the elements, even more thankful the event hadn't been canceled due to the weather. He grew tired of simply staring out the window and return his attention to rest of the room.

He found himself standing in an massive opulent room that held an almost otherworldly quality in its architecture that he couldn't quite place. On the walls of the room were various paintings, each depicting a scene of horror and violence, truly embodying the essence of panic, terror, fear and hysteria. One painting in particular drew his attention, causing him to approach it. It was of a girl, her face crudely marked out with black lines in a 'X' shape, lying on the ground her throat slashed and a bullet wound in her abdomen. Figures stood around her but their features were too out of focus to truly make out who they were.

He had no idea why this piece captured his attention, but it seemed that the other attendants of this event were not as interested. In fact, they seem to be creating as much space between them and it as possible. He looked to them but he couldn't tell if they were looking back, their faces seemingly obscured by smoke or shadows. They merely stood back, milling about and having muted conversations with one another. However, he couldn't help but get this sense that he was being watched, judged, despite being unable to see their expressions. It was something that made him uneasy.

He took a step towards them and they seemed to move a step away. Another step, away further. No matter how many steps he took he never got closer to them. He began running but he still couldn't get close enough to speak with anyone. He began to shout at them, but the words felt muted even to himself.

"Excuse me, sir." a voice said from behind him. He turned to see who was speaking. Before him was a man, no taller than him, wearing a suit with a spiderweb pattern sown into it, wearing a mask that gave him a very insectoid appearance, with mandibles instead of a jaw. "The shows about to start." The masked man said, a buzzing undertone to his voice. Despite however, they sounded familiar but he couldn't place why. "If you would follow me."

Numbly Lucas followed the man as lead him through the twisting and turning halls of the building. They approached a pair of doors and the man push them open, revealing a pair of balcony seats over looking a theater. Lucas walked in and took a seat as the large screen of the theater came to life with a film leader counting down. The man in the mask took the seat next to Lucas and stared off into the distance.

As the countdown reached 1, the lights dimmed and the film begin to play. The film opened with a shot of a dead body. A chill went through Lucas as he began to realize the body was the same as the one in that painting from earlier, only the face wasn't marked out.

He knew this person.

It was Beryl.

She was dead.

The shot continued to linger on the dead body and he could hear the distant sound of someone crying. He wasn't sure where it was coming from, whether from the movie or form some unseen viewer, but it hardly matter as he stared into Beryl's open, lifeless eyes on the screen.

The sound of a door opening echoed from the theater chamber and a voice from unseen speakers spoke.

"...then after the baby the vampire eats the parents." the voice was his own and the words remarkably familiar. "So what do you think?"

"Well I suppose.." Beryl's voice came through the speakers. Why did it hurt so much to hear her voice? He blinked and when he opened his eyes he was somewhere else. The auditorium at school, but it was in a state of disrepair. It had holes in the room and the downpour of rain found its way into the building, soaking the seats and the stage. The screen screen remained though, this time showing something else. It was shot from the inside of a stabled, a POV shot Lucas surmised as the camera frantically looked around.

"I do care greatly for the sheer concept of a more.. how is it, Bonnie and Clyde, the villain's love affair is what we as the audience cheer for?" The voice of Beryl came from the side of him, which caught his attention.

He turned to look at her and she was there, alive and well.

"The scene could be more powerful? Imagine the parent being attacked first, then.. there's a certain lull in the action, a false denouement as the injured parent watches the vampire act.. friendly to their child, warm, compassionate, playful. Kiss on the cute little baby's forehead, then." Beryl mutely clapped her hands together. "Gnash, chomp. What goes first, the face, expose the brain and cave the skull... Either way."

Why did this all sound so familiar to him?

Beryl frowned and titled her head.

"What?" he asked her.

"You look afraid." She said, her voice joined by another familiar voice with a buzzing undertone. "Don't be afraid."

"What would I be afraid of?"

"What's there not to be afraid of?" Her voice being replaced by the other voice. "Fear and horror had always been favorite subjects of mine, and doing some looking around it became rather clear to me that most choices people make are based, in some capacity, on fears."

There was a clash of thunder and the screen in the room went dark.

"Fear of being alone makes people seek out romantic attachments..." She said.

Another clash of thunder and the rain turned red.

"Fear of death makes people go to the doctor..."

Another clash and a slit on her throat appeared and blood began to gush out.

"So on and so forth."

Lucas followed the blood as it trailed down her chest and to the floor where the water had turn into blood and was steadily rising. The flood of blood reached his ankles, then his knees and only continued to rise. Lucas began to panic and tried to rise from his seat to get away from the blood but found he couldn't move as the rising liquid reach his chest.

"Don't be afraid." the buzzing voice said. Lucas looked up to see the masked man had replaced Beryl, his mask cracking and falling off bit by bit. As the blood reached his neck the mask fell of a he could see a familiar face just as the ocean of red submerged him.

Lucas found himself sinking into a deep, seemingly endless ocean of darkness with no light to be found.

"I wouldn't want to wake up," Beryl's voice came back, soft and soothing. "But unfortunately, you must."

And then Lucas woke up screaming.

((Lucas Abernathy continued in Who Can Stay The Bottles Of Heaven?))