“Allison! Are you coming or not?” Sasha called from the front door of Allison’s house.

“I’m on my way! Just let me quickly grab my purse!” Allison answered back as she snatched her bag from the coffee table and checked to make sure that she had everything that she would need for the day.

“Cell phone, wallet, make-up, keys...” Allison checked off. She nodded. Good, everything was there. She quickly grabbed her coat and pulled it on as she headed out the door to catch up with Sasha. Allison’s bright red hair blew across her face as the crisp autumn wind howled past.

“Because of your delay we might get caught in traffic,” Sasha noted as she nudged her best friend in a teasing manner. Allison rolled her eyes.

“I have a strange feeling that we’ll survive,” she replied as she got into the passenger seat of Sasha’s silver BMW.

The two of them had been planning this day for a long time. With their hectic work schedules constantly colliding and changing, they had had to reschedule several times, but now they were finally doing it.

Mall day.

The only good thing about working almost all of the time was the money that they now had to spend on stuff that looks nice but that they’ll probably only wear once before it gets lost in the wash. Oh well, that was half the fun.

Sasha and Allison were both 26 years old, and had been best friends ever since they could remember. They were neighbours since the very beginning and had always had a special bond throughout grade school, through college, and now.

Sasha honked the horn furiously.

“C’mon! Go!” she screamed, “It’s green for God’s sake! Where did you get your licence?!” she asked in an irritated tone as the car in front of them finally started to go. “Good boy! You found the gas peddle! Good for you!!” Sasha said as she applauded and then pulled up herself. Allison laughed.

“Only you Sasha...” Allison muttered.

“Hey! No! Did you see that? The light was green for a good five minutes before that chick decided to finally get her ass in gear and move up!” Sasha explained. Allison laughed some more.

“She’s a new driver; did you not see the N? Give her a break,”

“Nobody ever gave me a break when I was a new driver!” Sasha huffed, “It was always, you’re going to fast, you’re going to slow, and you’re tailgating, blah, blah, and blah!”

“What happened to you this morning? Did you fall out of bed onto some legos or something? Girl, you need to lighten up,” Allison joked. Sasha laughed.

“You’re right, sorry. Work has just been... ugh... I don’t even wanna talk about it. Let’s just enjoy ourselves today alright?” Sasha told her. Allison smiled and nodded her head.

“Sure thing,” she agreed. They were both in a much happier mood as they continued to drive towards the mall.

About 20 minutes later, they arrived and were out walking about.

“Alright, where to first Miss Mallory?” Allison asked. Sasha looked around and brought her hand to her chin, as if in deep thought.

“American Eagle,” she replied, “And then Forever 21, Pacsun, Sephora, Dynamite, Victoria’s Secret, Coach-“

“Okay, um... why not just say all of them?” Allison laughed. Sasha laughed as well as she scanned the area for the first store.

“American Eagle is right over there, onwards!” she exclaimed as she pointed towards the store and strutted over. Allison laughed and was walking right next to her. An hour went by before they finally exited the store.

“I’m never going in there again,” Allison muttered. Sasha laughed.

“And why not?” she asked, “I liked it.”

“Because you were flirting with all of the clerks!” Allison exclaimed. Sasha grinned mischievously as she looked back in the store’s direction.

“And what’s so wrong with having a little flirty fun?” she asked. Allison rolled her eyes.

“There’s nothing wrong with it, but we came here to shop, not to pick up hot guys,” Allison replied. Sasha frowned.

“Why can’t we do both?” she whined. Allison chuckled.

“Let’s head into Coach,” Allison suggested as she led the way to the next store.

By the end of the day, the two of them each had their arms full of numerous shopping bags filled with clothes, accessories, shoes, make-up, handbags... everything.

“I think we’re set for awhile,” Allison commented. Sasha smiled.

“Definitely!” she replied as she set her bags down next to her car and pulled her keys out of her pocket.

“Good thing there’s still two months until Christmas, ‘cause I have no more money left!” Allison giggled. Sasha laughed too.

“Thank God! If Christmas was coming soon we’d be screwed!” Sasha noted. They both laughed. Sasha flipped out her keys and her eyes widened. Her body froze.

“What is it Sash? What’s wrong?” Allison asked. Sasha slowly turned to face her friend, and held the key up. Allison’s mouth dropped.

“Alli... how is there a bite taken out of my key?” Sasha asked as she flipped the key around, examining it closer. Allison shrugged and tried to reply, but she was at a loss for words; completely speechless. How do you take a bite out of a key? She leaned in to examine it closer. Yes, it was definitely a bite; a perfect bite. That was odd, but she tried to shrug it off.

“I think I have your spare,” Allison finally managed to say as she pulled out her own keychain. She smiled when she realised that she did have Sasha’s spare, and there was no bite taken out of it. Sasha smiled as Allison handed her the key.

“Thanks Alli,” Sasha thanked as she unlocked the trunk and threw her bags in. Allison placed hers in the backseat. They both got into their seats. Sasha put the key in the ignition and turned it. The engine sputtered, and then faded off.

“Well that’s peculiar,” Sasha commented as she tried again. The engine nearly purred to life, but gave out again.

“What’s up with your car?” Allison asked. Sasha shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m not sure!” Sasha replied as she tried again, but once again, ended up with the same disappointing result. She let out an exasperated sigh as she dropped back in her seat. She looked at Allison. “I hope you know how to fix a car,” Sasha told her. Allison let out a snort.

“Girl, I hope you bought walking shoes, because I know diddly squat when it comes to cars,” Allison chuckled. Sasha groaned as she held her head in her hands.

“I can’t believe this,” she mumbled.

“Aw Sash, it ain’t that bad! Honestly! We’ll just call a cab,” Allison said.

“I left my phone at home,” Sasha told her.

“Don’t worry,” Allison assured her, “I brought mine,” she said as she searched through her bag. Sasha watched her impatiently as she continued to search. “I know I brought it...” Allison muttered as a few minutes went by. Suddenly, fed up with this game of hide and seek she was playing with her phone, she dumped all of the contents from her purse out onto the dash.

“I don’t see nothing,” Sasha noted.

“What the Hell?! I swear I had it before I left!” Allison exclaimed. Was she going crazy? She definitely had her phone this morning!

“Do you think that you might have lost it?” Sasha asked. Allison shook her head.

“No way! Not possible! I keep it in its own secure pocket! It has a strap and everything! It couldn’t just fall out!” Allison exclaimed.

It would have to be taken out.

“Well, obviously it is possible, because it isn’t there anymore,” Sasha replied. Allison let out a breath of hot air.

Well this was great. Their Mall Day was turning out to be a real success wasn’t it?

“I guess we could catch a bus?”  Allison suggested in the form of a question. She wasn’t sure how Sasha would feel about taking the bus. There was a brief silence between the two of them.

“Let’s go,” Sasha finally agreed as they got out of the car, grabbed their bags and went to the nearest bus stop. Just as the bus stop was in sight, the bus pulled away.

“No!” Allison screamed.

“Are you kidding me?” Sasha yelled.

“Do you know when the next bus comes?” Allison asked. Sasha shook her head.

“No, but there’s a schedule at the stop, let’s check,” Sasha informed her as they marched over to the schedule. Allison looked at it and then groaned.

“What?” Sasha asked.

“That was the last bus for tonight, the next one doesn’t come until 5am, we’re better off just walking home,” Allison told her. Sasha groaned and rolled her eyes. She let out a sigh.

“Then we might as well get a move on,” Sasha said as the two of them started walking down the road towards Allison’s house since it was closer. Sasha was just going to have to sleep over for the night.

As they walked down the dark road, they both continued to complain.

“Shouldn’t have worn these damned heels!” Sasha moaned as each step caused her immense pain. After walking around all day in them, her feet were already sore, but now having to walk the entire way home in them! The cramps in her feet were beginning to become unbearable.

“I just wish we hadn’t bought so much stuff,” Allison said with a groan as she regained her grip on the bags in her hands, “We’re the perfect targets right now to get mugged!”

“Don’t say that! You’re freaking me out!’ Sasha told her.

“I’m just saying!” Allison exclaimed.

“Well don’t just say, just walk!” Sasha ordered. Allison couldn’t help but laugh a bit at this. Her laughter soon faded when the air suddenly got colder, the wind picked up and it started to rain.

“Fantastic,” Sasha growled, “There goes the hard work I put into my make-up this morning.”

“Just our luck ain’t it? I should have expected it to rain! Hell! I’m surprised it isn’t hailing!” Allison exclaimed, now in a very bad mood.

“Shh!” Sasha hushed her, “Don’t give Mother Nature any ideas!” Allison groaned as they continued walking. Suddenly, they noticed a pair of headlights coming in their direction.

“We could hitch hike,” Allison suggested. Sasha laughed and shook her head.

“No way, I don’t trust anyone in this area,” Sasha said. Allison frowned, but knew that her friend was right. Very rarely would someone pick up two girls for the right reasons...

As the car passed them by, they were both saddened, but their misery was soon taken over by fear when the car pulled up a couple meters ahead of them. They both exchanged glances.

“Shoot, Sasha what do we do?” Allison asked in a whisper. Sasha shrugged her shoulders.

“How the Hell am I supposed to know?” she asked. As the two of them fought over what they were supposed to do; they didn’t realise the man in black who had stepped out of the car and was coming their way. Suddenly, Sasha felt a rope (or something like a rope) being pulled around her neck. She grabbed at it and tugged on it to keep it from getting her choked. Allison screamed at the top of her lungs. She started throwing her bags at the man, and hitting him with them as hard as she possibly could. She didn’t even realise that she was doing it! It just came to her naturally! She wasn’t about to let some guy come and choke her best friend!

Suddenly, the man pulled out an object from a belt around his waist. Unfortunately, Allison couldn’t make out what it was immediately. However, when he ran the object across Sasha’s cheek, she was able to figure out that it was a knife as dark liquid dripped from the wound. Sasha let out a wail as she tried to get free, kicking and elbowing the man as hard as she could. To Sasha’s surprise, the man let go of her, but only to stick his foot in front of her feet to trip her. Sasha fell to the ground with a thud. When she tried to scramble back to her feet, she was only kicked in the stomach; hard. She let out a helpless noise as she curled herself up into a ball.

The man shot Allison a sharp, threatening look. Allison couldn’t see his eyes, but she could still feel them piercing into her. Out of fear and shock, Allison didn’t move; she remained completely paralysed where she stood. All of a sudden, the man swatted at her, bringing his hand to the side of her head. Allison let out a yelp as the sharp pain of his nails digging into her skin registered into her brain. As soon as he had made contact with her, she knew that he couldn’t be human. At least, not only human. He had to be some sort of mutant, hybrid thing… A monster maybe. His nails were far too long, far too sharp; they could slice her up like knives; a human’s finger nails wouldn’t do that. Unless the person had a particularly good manicurist but, she highly doubted it. 

Allison nearly stumbled to the ground, but managed to stay up on her feet after the blow to the side of her head. She kind of regretted it, because now she would have to endure another beating. When Allison regained her senses, she looked at the man, and was shocked to see that he was just standing there, breathing heavily. His breaths were very audible, not to mention very scary.

Why isn’t he moving? Why isn’t he coming for me? Allison asked herself. Suddenly, she felt something crawl underneath the hem of her shirt, up her body and to her neck. She started freaking out, jumping around and swatting at whatever was crawling up her! She felt a nip at her skin before she felt a huge wave of pain as she began to become disoriented and dizzy. She found herself falling to her knees, and slowly crumbling down onto her stomach before everything went black

“W-what happened?” Allison asked when she regained consciousness. When she was answered by the silence, she decided to take a closer look around. She was in a room, not too small, not overly big; maybe the size of a room you’d have as a teenager. Although, unlike the room you might have had as a teenager, it definitely wasn’t pretty. The walls were a mixture of grey and brown. At the corners where each wall met, there were some black spots, which Allison assumed was some sort of mold. There were also splatters of red along the walls, ceiling and floor.

I’m just going to pretend that that’s paint… Allison said to herself in an attempt to ease her nerves. Finally, she noticed that Sasha was there next to her! Thank God! At least something was going somewhat right! She gasped when she noticed Sasha’s condition. She still had the huge cut on her cheek, which had now dried over and looked horrible. There was some dirt and rocks mixed in with the dried blood. It reminded Allison of a zombie. She was bruised up all over her arms, and there was some red showing through her shirt on her abdomen. With a closer examination, you could also make out a red mark around her neck from having been choked.

Seeing Sasha like that made her not want to know what she herself looked like. Allison tried to move, tried to get up, but quickly realised that her hands were tied with rope to a metal ring. Allison frowned as she blew some stray pieces of hair that had fallen into her face out of her view. All that she could do was wait; wait for something to happen.

Wait to die.

That’s what was running through her mind; death. She had no idea where she was. All she knew was that she was attacked by some guy with crazy long, insanely sharp nails.

How was that possible anyway? She had remembered telling herself that that couldn’t have been human. But if it wasn’t human, what was it? Vampire? Werewolf? No, this isn’t Twilight, this is reality…

Suddenly, Allison heard some hoarse coughing, and she quickly looked at Sasha, who was coughing and gagging like crazy.

“Sasha! You’re awake!” Allison exclaimed. Sasha looked at Allison, a little startled at the fact that she was there with her.

“Alli! You’re here! I thought that guy killed you back out on the street!” Sasha exclaimed with a dusty cough.

“I thought that he was going to kill me! I thought he had! Sash, do you know what’s going on?” Allison asked. Sasha shook her head.

“I have no idea,” Sasha replied, “All I know is that some guy beat the living daylight out of us.”

“But where are we now?” Allison asked as she looked around again, as if something would have changed since the last time she looked. As if there would be some sort of hint.

“Maybe we’re in the guys’ basement, maybe he’s going to rape us,” Sasha commented. Allison shot her a wide-eyed look. “What?” Sasha asked.

“Don’t. Say. That!” Allison exclaimed, “If you say it, it’ll happen!”

“Hey! I’m just saying! It adds up and you know damn well it does!” Sasha screamed.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to think it!” Allison yelled. Sasha groaned and rolled her eyes.

“We have to get out of here,” Sasha said.

“Well no kidding, but how?” Allison asked.

“You don’t,” replied a dark voice. Allison and Sasha both turned to face the voice, and saw the man from the street. In the light of the room, he looked perfectly normal. He looked like any other guy.

He had pale white skin, and dark hair. Jet black hair really. He was still in a black outfit. Covered from neck to toe. His eyes were so dark, so, so dark. There was practically no color difference regarding the pupil and the iris. It almost seemed as though he was taken out of a black or white 50’s film.

He has to be a vampire… Allison thought to herself as she eyed him carefully and closely.

“Who are you?” Sasha asked in a confident tone of voice. Allison was a little shocked at her confidence. If it had been her talking, her voice would be shaking like a leaf!

“It’s none of your concern who I am since you’ll be spending the rest of your days as my slaves here with me,” he replied as he paced in front of the two girls.

“I think that gives us all the more reason to know your name,” Sasha retorted.

“I told you it’s not important, you’ll be dead before it matters,” the man warned as he shrugged the matter away. Allison and Sasha exchanged glances.

“Dead?” they both asked together. The man laughed an evil laugh; the type of laughter that makes lightning crack and thunder boom.

“But of course! You didn’t think that I’d let you live did you?” he asked with a chuckle.

“But you just said we’d be spending the rest of our days with you!” Sasha exclaimed.

“You will, but you’ll be doing it dead,” he explained.

“So that’s it? You’re just going to kill us eh?” Sasha asked. The man chuckled.

“My, my, you are a chatty Kathy aren’t you? What’s you name darling?” he asked.

“Well it sure as Hell isn’t Kathy, or darling. Now answer my question,” Sasha demanded.

“You’ve got quite the attitude don’t you Miss Sasha Mallory?” asked the man. Allison and Sasha’s eyes widened. They exchanged glances. The man snickered, “Did you think I was stupid?” he asked as he continued to laugh.

“Just answer my question!’ Sasha yelled, trying to ignore the fact that he knew her name.

“The answer to your question is no, I won’t kill you,” the man answered.

“Well then who will?” Sasha asked. The man grinned wickedly.

“Yourselves,” he replied. Sasha let out a snort.

“I’m not about to commit suicide, no matter how much I hate you,” Sasha hissed. The man ignored her.

“You two will kill yourselves and then you’ll come crawling back to me…” he continued. Sasha laughed and rolled her eyes.

“Are you nuts? We’re dead, we can’t crawl,” Sasha informed him. The man moved closer to her, so that his face was only inches away from Sasha’s.

“Stupid human,” he spat, “And people wonder how I do this so easily,” he chuckled. He turned to face Allison.

“Now you my dear, with the vibrantly gorgeous red hair,” he began as he twirled a strand of Allison’s hair in between his fingers, which made her cringe. “You’ve been quite quiet. How are you?” he asked politely, but Allison wasn’t going to fall for him. She knew that he had horrible intentions, despite the fact that he was talking to them like they were best friends.

“I’ve been better,” she replied.

“What’s you name sweetheart? Do you want to tell me or am I just going to have to figure it out on my own?” he asked.

“What’s your name?” Allison fired back. The man’s face suddenly turned very serious.

“How many times did I explain to you two that it is of no importance?” he asked in an irritated tone.

“Tell me,” Allison ordered, “I want to know.” The man growled.

“If you must know, the name’s Michael,” he replied. The girls exchanged glances before Sasha let out a laugh.

“Michael? That doesn’t sound like the name of a killer to me,” Sasha commented. Michael laughed.

“That’s because I’m not a killer,”

“But you said-!”

“I said that you were going to kill yourselves!” Michael snapped, “I will not touch you. You will end up doing it all on your own,” Michael explained. The two girls fell silent. Allison eyed him more closely as he focused his attention back on Sasha for a minute. You could practically see the fire behind his eyes.

“Now Miss,” he began as he looked back at Allison, “Your name?” he asked.

“Allison,” she replied. Why hide it? He was obviously able to figure it out; he had done so with Sasha.

“Last name?” he asked.

“Iraheta,” she replied. Michael smiled a toothy grin; a toothy grin that didn’t show any sign of vampire fangs. So maybe he wasn’t a vampire…

“I like you much better than your friend,” Michael commented as he darted a menacing glare at Sasha. Sasha let out a snort.

“Most people do,” Sasha murmured. Allison couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at that.

“Silence!” Michael ordered. They both stopped laughing immediately. Michael had fire in his eyes, and his nostrils were flaring. He was clearly pissed off. But then again, he was the bad guy so he was probably always pissed off.

“Look buddy,” Sasha started, “How exactly are you going to make us kill ourselves?” Sasha asked. Michael at first seemed angry at the fact that she had spoken without his permission, but he mellowed out.

“I have my ways,” he replied mysteriously as he turned on the balls of his feet and started walking away.

“Wait!” Allison called out to him. Michael stopped.

“Yes?” he asked, not bothering to turn around and face her.

“What are you?” Allison asked, “You’re not human, there’s no way. There’s no way you’ll ever make me believe that you’re human. Tell me what you are,” Allison ordered. Michael remained completely still as his head started spin around on his body. Allison and Sasha’s eyes widened as his head ended up completely twisted around, having done a complete 180 turn, and his body stayed perfectly still facing the front.

“Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll figure it out,” he replied as his head snapped back to normal and then he faded into thin air, and soon enough he had completely disappeared. Allison and Sasha exchanged frightened glances.

“Well that was…”

“Screwed up?” Sasha finished, “Yeah it was,” she agreed.

“Well now what do we do? We’re still tied to these metal rings!” Allison exclaimed as she jiggled her hands, as if that would break them free. Suddenly, the ropes around their wrists transformed into snakes, and slithered off. Allison screamed at the touch of the snakes against her skin.

“Alli! Chill! It’s just a snake!” Sasha yelled to her as she massaged her wrists.

“Shut up Sasha! You know damn well I hate snakes!” Allison screamed as she jumped up, away from the reptiles.

“Why did they suddenly do that?” Sasha asked.

“What?” Allison asked, “Transform?” Sasha nodded.

“Yeah,”

“Because they weren’t really ropes,”

“Well, clearly. But why would he suddenly release us?” Sasha questioned. That question put the both of them into deep thought.

“Maybe because he wants us to venture off…” Allison suggested. They both exchanged worried glances and knew at that moment that they were both in for it; big time.

They both eyed the door very carefully. Neither of them were sure what to do at that moment. They could leave, and see if they could find a way to escape. That would be ideal. I mean, why shouldn’t they try to escape? There’s some crazy psycho who’s totally convinced that they’re going to end up killing themselves. If they don’t at least try then they’ll never get out of here! On the other hand, they’re on his turf. This is most likely his home; he probably knows every inch of this place. To add, he can disappear into thin air! That’s going to have a huge advantage! Plus, who knows what else is hidden in this house! Who knows what other tricks he has hidden up his sleeve!

“Maybe we should just stay in here,” Allison suggested. Sasha nodded.

“Yeah, I’m really not in the mood to be the stars of a horror movie,” Sasha agreed as they both sat down on the cold floor. They sat there for a good two minutes, just eyeing the door with curiosity. They were sure that at any moment something was going to pop out. Suddenly, the air in the room started to grow thick. Sasha and Allison both exchanged glances before they looked around some more in hopes of finding the cause of the sudden thickness in the air.  Soon enough, faint whispers and whistles were audible.

“Sasha, is that you?” Allison asked, knowing very well that it wasn’t her, but asked just to be positive. Sasha shook her head.

“N-no, I thought it was you,” Sasha stammered. The girls both got up from where they sat in the room. It unexpectedly grew colder in the room as the voices grew louder, and the outlines of some faces became clearer. The faces seemed to be made out of some sort of blue-ish grey smoke. Allison grabbed onto Sasha.

“Holy crap Sasha, what the Hell is going on?!” Allison panicked. Sasha grabbed onto Allison in return.

“How am I supposed to know?” she asked, “I’m just as in the dark as you are!” she reminded her. The two of them just stood there, feet frozen to where they were. The smoky faces got closer, and closer, whispering more jibberish.

Suddenly, the faces popped forward with loud screams, making the two girls scream in response. The faces continued to scream and holler at the top of their lungs! Shrieking as if it were the end of the world! They started snapping at Allison and Sasha’s faces, showing off their long, sharp teeth. Although Sasha and Allison both knew that these... faces... spirits even... would cause them no physical harm, having them there was scary as Hell! Their eyes pierced into them like daggers!

“Allison! Let’s get out of here!” Sasha cried as she grabbed Allison by the wrist, and reached for the door. She twisted and yanked on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. 

“Sash! Quickly!” Allison yelled as she covered her ears with her hands as the screaming from the spirits continued to crescendo.

“I’m trying but the damn handle won’t move!” Sasha screamed as she continued to shake and twist the doorknob. Allison waited a few more seconds, in hopes that the handle would bust open any second, but when the same unfortunate result was being attained, she decided to take action.

“Move!” Allison yelled as she grabbed Sasha by the shoulders and flung her out of the way. Allison took a deep breath and kicked the door as hard as she possible could! It shook a little upon impact. Allison tensed up and decided to take another shot at it. She kicked it again and her foot smashed through, getting caught in the door. She let out a yelp of pain as the splintering wood from the door dug into her ankle.

“Alli! You alright?” Sasha yelled to her as the spirits continued their song and continued to wrap themselves around them and snap at their bodies with their teeth. Sasha tried to ignore them. Right now, she had to be focused on her friend.

“Yeah I’m fine,” Allison told her, half lying, “My foot’s just caught in the- aah!” Allison screeched as her movements became more urgent.

“What? What is it?!” Sasha asked as she tried to help pull her friend’s leg out of the door.

“Something’s grabbing my foot!” she screamed. Sasha swore that Allison’s screams were louder than the ones the spirits were making. Sasha pulled harder and Allison’s foot came free, her ankle all scratched up and red from the blood that was seeping out of her cuts. It wasn’t that bad, no deep wounds, it was just going to sting for awhile.

As Allison’s foot exited the newly made hole, somebody’s arm came through, reached out in search of them. The girls both quickly scrambled away, holding onto each other tightly as they screamed at the top of their lungs, completely drowning out any other noises. Another arm appeared, followed by another one and they started breaking away more bits of the door, which allowed room for more arms to fit through. Soon enough, there was a giant hold in the door, and people started stepping through! But they weren’t just people, they were dead! They were zombies! Some had dislocated jaws, others had broken bones, and some had giant punctures all over their bodies. One guy didn’t even have any arms! They were just stubs! They all walked lethargically, tripping over their feet a little. Their arms were extended out to the two girls as they continued screaming.

Soon enough, Allison and Sasha found themselves being crammed into a corner. Sasha swatted the arms of the undead away.

“Back off! Shoo! Shoo!” She wailed helplessly. When one of the zombies grabbed her arm and pulled her closer, she started crying. Allison grabbed onto her friend and pulled her back.

“Sash! I’ve got you!” Allison assured her. Suddenly, Allison felt a pair of arms grab onto her shoulders and tear her away. She started to twist from side to decide to get out of the zombie’s grip, but they were a lot tougher than they may seem.

“Let go! Let go!” Sasha continued to scream; but the zombies weren’t ready to stop. More grabbed onto her and pulled her in closer, bringing her into the middle of the mob. Their touch was haunting. Their skin was rough and dry; it felt a bit like how sandpaper would feel if you rubbed it against yourself. Looking into their eyes was like looking into and endless pit; there was no color, only grey. Most of the time, you couldn’t tell where their noses and mouths were located, there was so much blood and ripped up flesh, it seemed to conceal it.

To both of the girls’ surprise, the zombies didn’t bite them and get them infected with their disease. All they did was drag them out of the room, away from the screaming spirits. As soon as they exited the room, the screaming stopped. It seemed as though the spirits just popped away as they left the room. The two girls found that to be quite interesting, but still found themselves screaming. Suddenly, one of the zombies smacked Allison across the face in an effort to get her to shut up, and ended up making his arm fall off! Allison just stared at the arm on the floor in horror. She whimpered a bit as they continued to be led down the hallway. The zombies then let them go and pushed them down a certain hall, as if to get them in the right direction.

Allison and Sasha exchanged glances and then looked back at the zombies, who were waving their arms at them, as if to tell them to get a move on. The two girls slowly turned their gaze down the hall. It looked creepy. There were strange portraits of strange people hung on the walls, and cobwebs dangling from the walls and ceiling. Neither of them really wanted to venture down there, but there didn’t seem to be an alternative. Allison looked over at Sasha and saw her friend shaking.

“Sash, you alright?” she questioned. Sasha nodded. “Girl, you’re shaking,” Allison told her. Sasha hugged herself tight in an effort to stop her trembling and looked at her friend with wide eyes.

“That was terrifying,” Sasha noted. Allison nodded in agreement.

“You’re telling me! I’m going to be having nightmares for the rest of my life about that! We just got attacked by zombies, Sasha! Zombies for God’s sake! How is that even possible?” Allison asked. Sasha shrugged.

“It shouldn’t be possible, zombies don’t exist. And the rest of your life might be shorter than you think according to our mentally insane kidnapper, Michael,” Sasha told her. Allison shook her head.

“What does that even mean? I don’t even think I understood what he was telling us when we talked to him earlier!”

“All I know is that he thinks we’re going to end up killing ourselves,” Sasha replied.

“That’s stupid! I’m not going to take my own life just because of this! I mean, yeah, I’m scared as Hell right now, but it’s not worth taking my life over!” Allison exclaimed. Sasha nodded in agreement.

“I know! He’s messed up in the head I’m telling you!” Sasha shouted. The two of them continued walking down the never ending hallway; their heels echoing off of the walls. They both were examining the portraits on the walls.

“Lots of pictures,” Allison commented. Sasha nodded.

“Yeah, who are these people anyway?” Sasha asked. Allison shrugged.

“How am I supposed to know? I’m not even sure I know who I am anymore after that encounter!” Allison replied. Sasha chuckled a bit, glad that she was finally given a reason to smile.

“Hey! This guy looks familiar, don’t you think?” Sasha asked as she stopped and stared at one of the pictures. Allison stopped and looked as well. She nodded.

“Yeah! He does! Didn’t he go missing a few months ago?” Allison asked. Sasha nodded.

“Yeah, he did didn’t he?” she answered.

“And this girl! She went missing only a week or so ago!” Allison exclaimed as she pointed at another picture.

“And this guy!”

“And him!”

“And her!”

“And her!”

“Allison... I think there’s a pattern here...” Sasha noted. The two of them exchanged worried glances.

“Sasha, do you think that this Michael guy has been kidnapping all of these people and erm, killing them?” Allison asked with a gulp. Sasha shrugged.

“Well considering the fact that this Michael dude is screwed up in the brain, I’d think so. After all, none of these people were ever found. None of them,” Sasha replied. Allison swallowed a big lump in her throat as they continued on down the hall way. After walking for about 30 seconds, they came to a dead end, and a scary sight.

“S-S-Sasha...” Allison stammered, “You do see what I see right?” she asked. Sasha nodded.

“Y-yes,” she confirmed.

“Sasha! This Michael guy has our pictures on this wall of... of... victims! Sasha, maybe we are going to die here!” Allison exclaimed in near tears as she shook her friend by her shoulders. Sasha held her still.

“Allison stop, think positive okay? We’re not going to die here alright? We’re going to be just fine. We’re going to get out safely and we’ll never have to see this Michael guy again. Understood? We’ll get out, go back to our normal lives, meet a guy, get married, have kids, our kids will have kids, and then we’ll die peacefully in our sleep! I promise,” Sasha assured her with a warm smile. Allison smiled back at her friend and nodded.

“I understand,” she replied.

But she didn’t believe it. Sasha couldn’t promise a thing. She had no idea what was in store for them. She had no idea how insane Michael really was. She had no idea how completely helpless they were. Little did they know, they were like little puppets on a string, and Michael was their puppeteer.

“Well, where do we go now?” Allison asked after a few minutes of standing there, eyeing their portraits carefully. Sasha looked around and then shrugged her shoulders.

“I dunno, we’re at a dead end. The only other way to go is back, and I’m pretty sure we have company waiting back there for us,” Sasha replied, referring to the zombies. Allison nodded in agreement as she too looked around for some sort of way to go.

“Well this is just stupid!” Allison finally screamed, “How does he expect us to do anything if there’s nowhere to even go?!”

“Don’t yell at me! I can’t change a damn thing and you know it!” Sasha yelled back. Allison took a deep, calming breath.

“Sorry, I’m just irritated,” Allison admitted. “Where the Hell are we supposed to go?!” she shouted. Suddenly, they felt a vibration in the floor.

“Way to go Alli, now you’ve done it,” Sasha told her as she rolled her eyes.

“Me?! What did I do?” Allison asked in an annoyed tone.

“You pissed off the spirits or whatever the Hell haunts this damn house! Now they’re making the floor shake!” Sasha shouted in response. Allison groaned, folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes. She quickly unfolded her arms as the shaking become more violent in an effort to steady herself.

“Okay seriously, what’s going on?” Allison asked.

“I said I don’t know!” Sasha yelled angrily as she too struggled to keep her balance. They looked down the hallway and saw pieces of the floor breaking away and crumbling like rock, revealing a dark hole.

“Goddamn! What the Hell is that?!” Allison screamed as she pointed at the dark hole. Sasha just stared at it with wide eyes, too shocked to answer her friend. As the floor continued to fall to pieces, the girls tried to get somewhere safe, but soon enough they found the floor beneath them crumbling down, and they went down, down, down into the tunnel with it.

Both Sasha and Allison started screaming at the top of their lungs uncontrollably as they tumbled down the seemingly endless black pit of doom. Suddenly, they both felt a warm liquid engulf their bodies. They both broke the surface, gasping for air. Neither of them could see a thing, the lighting was so dark. It was pitch black. Even a nocturnal animal would have trouble seeing through this stuff.

“Sasha? Sasha?! Girl where are you? Are you here?” Allison called as she took deep breaths and started shredding water to keep herself afloat. She tried to see if she could touch the bottom anywhere, but it was no use. They were in deep... well, whatever this was that they were in. Suddenly, Allison heard someone take a loud breath.

“Sasha!” Allison called again.

“Alli!” Sasha exclaimed, “Where are we! What’s happened?”

“Well, let’s just say I think we found the way out of that hallway...” Allison replied.

“No kidding! Seriously though; what’s going on? What are we in? Water?” Sasha asked.

“I don’t know,”

“Taste it!”

“I’m not gunna taste it! Are you nuts?!” Allison screamed. Sasha groaned.

“Fine, I’ll taste it,” Sasha replied. A few seconds later, Allison heard gagging.

“Sasha! Sasha! What are you doing? Are you choking? Are you drowning? Don’t die!” Allison screamed as she started swimming around in the liquid, trying to find her friend, but with no success.

“It’s not water!” Sasha replied.

“Well then what-“

“It’s blood!” Sasha screamed.

“Aaaah! What the Hell it is not! Don’t you dare lie to me Mallory!” Allison warned.

“Why are you the one screaming?! For all I know this blood could be HIV positive! I just tasted it! Maybe it has some sort of deadly disease... I’m going to die,”

“No! You can’t die! Michael said that we would end up killing ourselves!”

“But it was my choice to taste the blood!” Sasha exclaimed. There was a long silence. Allison didn’t want to admit it, but it did seem highly probably that Sasha would die. She had a point. Michael said that they would kill themselves and she did choose to taste the blood. Michael was nowhere around. On the other hand, he probably set this whole thing up, so maybe it wouldn’t count. Allison shook her head to rid herself of the possibility of her friend dying. They were going to be okay. She decided to change the topic.

“Keep talking okay, I want to find you,” Allison told her as she swam around. She almost vomited as she thought of the fact that she was swimming in a pool of blood. She wondered whose blood it was...

 Eventually, the two of them found each other and stayed in physical contact with one another other the whole time. They definitely didn’t want to lose each other now. Now would be a really inconvenient time for something like that to happen.

“Well now what? We’re in the dark in some pool of blood! Where the hell are we supposed to go?” Sasha asked.

“Maybe we should swim, try to find a wall,” Allison replied. Sasha shrugged.

“It’s better than just sitting here waiting to drown,” she replied as they started swimming in hopes of finding the perimeter of the pool. Suddenly, Sasha felt her fingertips touch something hard.

“I’ve found something!” Sasha replied. Allison extended her hands out and felt around. She smiled when she felt what Sasha was feeling.

“Great! We found a wall!” Allison exclaimed. The girls both cheered when suddenly, the wall collapsed and a huge wave surged forward, down another tunnel. They started screaming again and tried to hold on to one another but ended up losing their grip. They felt themselves go off some sort of cliff, and then they both hit a large metal grate. Allison could have sworn she heard her wrist crack. She covered her head as the blood continued to fall on top of her and falling through the grate. After a few minutes, the wave stopped, and the blood was gone. It was just her and Sasha sitting on top of the metal grate, soaked in red blood.

“Holy mother of God,” Sasha said as she stood up on shaky legs, “Allison?! Where are you?” Sasha asked. To their convenience, a bright light turned on and they looked at each other, ran up and hugged one another tightly. They gasped when they saw each other covered in the blood; it wasn’t a pretty sight.

“This is disgusting,” Allison commented.

“At least it matches your hair,” Sasha told her with a hint of a smile, trying to lighten up the mood and to be optimistic. Allison just gave her a this-isn’t-the-time-to-be-happy look. Unexpectedly, a loud voice boomed out from nowhere.

“Hello ladies,” said the voice. The girls both exchanged glances and groaned. They knew that voice all to well.

Michael.

“What do you want asshole!” Sasha cursed. Michael chuckled.

“Well that’s not a very nice way for someone to treat the person who’s controlling your fate now is it?” Michael snickered.

“You don’t control anything about me!” Sasha snapped.

“Oh but I do, you’re just too stupid to realise it!” Michael hissed.

“Look pal, get us out of here!” Allison shouted. The two girls both looked around searching in vain for Michael, half hoping and half not hoping that he was there.

“What? No please?” Michael asked. Allison groaned.

“Pl-“

“You haven’t given us any reason to use our manners with you,” Sasha retorted.

“Feisty aren’t you Miss Mallory?” Michael asked. He laughed at Sasha’s trash talking. “You darling are going to get nowhere if this is how you plan on acting for your entire stay here, which might I add isn’t much longer,” Michael told her.

“It ain’t gunna be much longer because we’re busting out of here!” Sasha retorted.

“Whatever butters your toast honey, you keep thinking that. Just beware, I’ve got more tricks up my sleeve, and you’ve already fallen for one...”

“The blood,” Allison whispered. The two of them exchanged nervous glances.

“Oh but you’ve fallen for one yourself Miss Iraheta! Just thought I’d mention that,” Michael told her. Suddenly, the place went dead silent.

“I-I-I-I... what?” Allison asked. They both looked at each other, paralysed from the shock before they pulled each other into a tight embrace, and braced themselves for what would happen next.

Although they truly had no idea what they were in for...

Allison was too shocked to speak. She had already made a mistake? What mistake could she have made? She hadn’t done anything yet! At all! She tried to forget about it, after all, Michael could just be telling her that to try and scare her. She looked at Sasha, who was scared half to death.

“I’m gunna die...”

“Okay, so maybe you tasted some blood, but it can’t be that bad!” Allison said, trying to comfort her friend but above all, failing miserably. Sasha shot Allison a menacing glare.

“Not that bad?! I tasted diseased blood!”

“Whoever said it was diseased!? Huh? Who!? Tell me! Tell me this instant!” Allison demanded. Sasha huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Well, nobody, but it was implied,” Sasha replied as she folded her arms across her chest. Allison shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“There’s no way we’re going to survive this with that attitude,” Allison told her as she turned her back to her.

“Well no kidding, Michael just said that,” Sasha replied. Allison groaned. She didn’t know why she was so irritated right now! Maybe it was just the fact that deep down she knew that she would never get out of here. Maybe it was the fact that there was some crazy psycho out to get them. Maybe it was the fact that she was going to die and spend her life as a dead person bowing down to Michael. Well, at least, that’s what Michael had said.

“Okay, we have to stop fighting,” Allison began as she spun back around to face her friend. “We’re never going to make it if we keep fighting like this,” Allison finished. Sasha looked at her and nodded.

“Agreed,” she said. They both smiled at each other and hugged again.

“Sorry, I’m just really stressed out right now,” Allison apologized.

“It’s okay, I understand why,” Sasha told her.

“Aw...” said a voice. The two girls both spun around and saw Michael standing there, holding his hands together, head tilted to the side, looking at them with a loving expression. “It’s so nice to see you two making up,” Michael continued. Sasha’s eyes turned to hatred as she lunged for him.

“You bastard!” she screamed as she reached for his throat. Suddenly, she found herself going right through him as the image of Michael flickered a bit and then went back to normal.

“Holy...” Allison gasped. Michael just laughed as the image disappeared and then reappeared on the other side of the room.

“Ah, ah, ah, I’m only on display. You can look but you can’t touch, sorry to disappoint you,” Michael apologized with a cackle.

“Why don’t you come out here and face me like a man?!” Sasha taunted. Michael only laughed harder.

“Because man is weak. Mutants are where it’s at,” Michael replied with a nod. Sasha rolled her eyes.

“Then come out and face me like a mutant,” Sasha retorted.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that darling. Not yet. You’ve got too much life in you still,” Michael replied.

“Well it’s not about to leave anytime soon,” Sasha spat sourly. Michael chuckled.

“If you say so,” Michael replied as his image disappeared. The girls both looked at each other. Allison was thankful to have Sasha there with her to do all of the trash talking, since she was no good at that kind of stuff.

“Well, I guess we can safely assume that he’s a mutant,” Allison commented, breaking the silence. Sasha nodded.

“I guess so,” she replied. Suddenly, a door appeared out of nowhere and slowly creaked open, revealing a dark hall. The girls peered down it.

“Well there’s no way in Hell I’m going down there,” Allison told her as she stepped away from the open door. Sasha laughed a bit and nodded.

“Agreed,” she said. Suddenly, they felt liquid on their feet, and saw blood rising up through the grate.

“It’s coming back up!” Allison screamed as the level of blood rose unexpectedly.

“What do we do?!” Sasha asked in a panic.

“Swim?” Allison suggested. Sasha shook her head.

“If we swim with the rising blood level we’ll only get caught at the top and drown!” Sasha exclaimed. Allison looked back down at the blood that had now risen to her knees.

“Well where else is there to go?!” she screamed. Sasha looked at the door and then back at Allison. She didn’t even wait for Allison to reply, it would be a waste of time. She just grabbed Allison by the wrist and ran like the devil to the hallway that was being flooded with blood itself. As soon as they entered the door slammed shut and no more blood entered.

“Well, we’re safe now,” Sasha commented, breathing heavily from the fright.

“No we’re not!” Allison screamed, “We’re in a dark hall that leads to who knows where! Obviously Michael set this up. He has this whole thing planned out you know that right? He made the blood come back up so that we’d be forced to go in here or drown!” she cried.

“Well I’m sorry but I’d rather be in here than floating in a pool of blood dead!” Sasha screamed. Allison groaned as she started walking down the hall.

“Well we might as well get a move on before Frankenstein shows up to lure us down,” Allison told her sarcastically. Sasha laughed a bit at her friend’s comment. She had to admit that that did seem pretty probable. They both walked down the long corridor. Each step echoed loudly. Suddenly, they heard screeching.

“What’s that?” Sasha asked. They both looked around.

“Bats!” Allison screamed as she ducked down and covered her head as a swarm of bats flew over head. A few of them landed on the two girls, grabbing their hair and tugging on it. They both screamed as they swatted at the bats. Soon enough, they got the message and flew off.

“Damn bats!” Sasha screamed angrily as she tried to fix her hair, although that really was the least of her problems.

“What’s next? A giant spider?” Allison asked.

“Alli! Shut up!” Sasha snapped, “He’ll take that as a challenge!” Sasha told her as she covered her friend’s mouth with her hand. Allison squirmed away from Sasha’s grip.

“Okay, okay, sorry!” Allison apologized in an irritated tone as they continued on down the hallway. They walked for 10 minutes before the complaining commenced.

“I’m hungry,”

“No, I’m hungry!”

“I’m starving!”

“Where do we find food in this damn place anyway?”

“We should have killed a bat and eaten it...”

 After walking and whining about their hunger for at least another 20 minutes, they saw a faint glow.

“Is that a light?” Sasha asked. Allison shrugged.

“I don’t know, but I sure hope that it’s sunlight!” Allison exclaimed as they both started running towards it. When they got to the end they both gasped at the site they saw. It was exactly what they were looking for. Exactly what their bodies craved. It was everything that they wanted at that moment...

Food.

It was almost too good to be true! There in front of them were piles and piles of food! Even if you were hungry enough to eat a whale, you still wouldn’t finish it all! Tall mountains of cupcakes and brownies were at one end of the room, there were hordes of fruit such as mangos, watermelon, oranges, bananas, apples... There was a plate of fried chicken, steak, smoked salmon and lamb... It was heaven. It was absolute heaven.

“Hey! Do you smell that?” Sasha asked as she sniffed the air. Allison sniffed the air and let the sweet smell of food invade her senses. Her eyes widened when she smelt what Sasha had smelled.

“Bacon...” they both sighed in unison as their mouths watered. They quickly came back to their senses and headed for the bacon, wanting to clear that all off first. When they found the bowl of bacon strips they dug their hands into it.

Unfortunately, it was too good to be true.

The bacon strips disintegrated into thousands of tiny spiders. The spiders jumped on the girls. Allison and Sasha both screamed, louder than they ever thought that they could as the spiders climbed down their clothes and all over their bodies. When they had brushed all of the spiders off, they looked around and saw that the rest of the food was also disintegrating into more spiders! It was like a giant ocean wave, only instead of water they were arachnids. They both founds themselves being devoured by the wave.

“Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!” Allison screamed.

“Aaaah! Get them off of me! I want them to disappear!” Sasha shouted.

They should have known better than to trust anything here. Did they really think that Michael would leave them mountains of food out of the kindness in his heart? Ha! He didn’t have kindness, or a heart for that matter!

Suddenly, the spiders all poofed away; leaving dust in their place. Allison and Sasha both looked around; confused. They were now waist deep in sand.

“Damn...” Sasha said. Allison huffed out a sigh of relief.

“At least they’re gone,” she said. They both nodded at each other.

“Alright, well I don’t want to stick around and wait to see if there’s a daddy spider,” Sasha explained as she tried to get out of the sand. She groaned as she tried to jump, but she remained where she was. She tried to spin, but still there was nothing.

“Alli... can you move?” Sasha asked. Allison shrugged and tried to move, but found that she couldn’t move either! She pulled and tugged and let out a grunt as she tried even harder, but she was stuck for good. It seems as though the sand had hardened into cement!

“Sasha... I think we’re stuck,” Allison told her as she shot a glance at her friend. Sasha rolled her eyes.

“No? Really? I wouldn’t have guessed!” she exclaimed sarcastically. Allison rolled her eyes at her friend’s attitude. She didn’t comment on it though, after all, she was annoyed too, so she understood where it was coming from.

At that moment, Michael appeared in front of them, smiling wickedly.

“Well hello there ladies, you’ve been here quite some time now haven’t you? I didn’t know that you wanted to stick around,” Michael told them with a cackle. Allison and Sasha both glared at Michael. He was so evil they couldn’t even comprehend it.

“Shut up freak,” Sasha hissed. At those words, Michael’s eyes widened. In a flash, he was less than a centimetre away from Sasha’s face.

“What did you say to me?” Michael asked, his eyes piercing into her soul. Sasha smirked wickedly.

“I told you to shut up,” she replied.

“And?” he asked.

“Freak,” Sasha added in a cocky tone. At that, Michael slapped her across the face; hard. It sounded like a fire cracker had just gone off. Sasha let out a loud wail.

“Hey!” Allison screamed. Michael shot her a death glare,  “You said that you wouldn’t touch us!”

“Well guess what sweet heart? I’m the bad guy, so I lie,”

“What?! So what does that mean? We’re not going to kill ourselves?” Sasha asked once she had calmed down.

“It means that you shouldn’t trust a word that I say,” Michael replied with a sly grin, “And Miss Mallory, I suggest you shut up for a minute because you’re really just killing yourself. You’re already on the train ride to death, you’re just speeding it up,” Michael informed her.

“I’m getting out of here alive whether you like it or,” Sasha hissed. Michael laughed.

“You still don’t get it do you?” Michael asked, “In my book, you’re already dead! You’re dying! Right now, your body is going through things that it shouldn’t. You’re dying. You’ll be dead before you know it,” Michael explained to her. Sasha just glared at him, but didn’t say anything. What else was there to say?

“Michael,” Allison began in a quiet voice. Michael looked at her and smiled.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Why do you have our pictures in your hallway?” Allison asked. Michael smiled wider and cackled.

“Those are my victims,” he replied.

“But why? Why do you do it?” Allison asked, trying to see if she could get any answers from him.

“Because I’m the bad guy!” Michael replied.

“But why are you the bad guy?! Why did you choose this life?” Allison asked. Michael shook his head at her.

“Reasons that I’ll tell you in due time,” Michael replied.

“Why not now?” Allison asked.

“Because!” Michael snapped, “I said so, and here, in my home, I’m in the boss. Understand?” Michael asked.

“I’m only curious,”

“And I’m only annoyed,” Michael retorted, “Now, if you’d let me get to what I was here to tell you...” Michael started.

“Just spit it out already!” Sasha yelled. Michael glared at her again, obviously irritated with her. It was clear that he wanted her dead. Now.

“I came here to give you a little heads up,” Michael began, “I thought it might be beneficial for you to know that what you are in right now isn’t just cement... it’s like a mutant... Slowly, it’ll eat away at your skin until you’re just muscle and bone, so unless you want to be skinless I suggest you find a way out of here quick,” Michael told them with a wink.

“Well how the hell are we supposed to get out of here! We’re trapped from the waist down!” Sasha screamed. Michael shrugged.

“Well it sure as Hell isn’t my problem now is it?” Michael asked with a chuckle as he walked off and then disappeared into thin air. It was like his signature move to do that.

Allison and Sasha exchanged worried glances.

They were screwed.

“God damn!” Sasha screamed as she balled her fists together and slammed them against the cement. She was going through a total break down. “We’re never getting out of here! There’s no use! We’re done for!” Sasha cried. Allison looked at her friend with soft eyes.

“Sasha, relax, there’s got to be a way out. Michael wouldn’t make it so that we can’t survive,

“And why wouldn’t he?!” Sasha snapped.

“Because this,” Allison began as she gestured all around her, “Us being here, it’s all just a game for him. He enjoys watching us suffer and then getting up and coming back for me. He likes it. It’s like a reality show for him,”

“Well it’s like Hell for me,” Sasha muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“It’s Hell for both of us, but there’s got to be a way out,” Allison said as she looked around, hoping for something. As she looked, her optimism quickly faded. There really was nothing to use! Nothing at all! It was just an empty room. No windows. No furniture. No nothing.

Suddenly, they heard a door open and heard footsteps walking along the cement. They both turned around and screamed.

“Get away! Get away!” Sasha screamed as she clawed at the zombie that was advancing towards them.

“Break its neck! Break its neck!” Allison told her.

“No!” screamed the zombie. Allison and Sasha were both taken aback. Did the zombie just... talk? No.... surely that must be some mistake! Zombies don’t talk! They moan! They groan! They walk around all slowly... but they most definitely don’t talk!

“W-what did you just say?” Allison asked. The zombie looked at her.

“Don’t hurt me, I’m here to help you,” she explained.

“How are you talking?” Sasha questioned, staring at the zombie girl with eyes as wide as saucers.

“Listen to me,” she began as she grabbed Sasha by the shoulders, “I’m not a zombie. I was one of Michael’s victims too... I tried to escape so many times but there was no use. I came to the conclusion that there was no way out of this house, but I didn’t want to endure any more pain, and I most definitely didn’t want to die. So, I camouflaged myself into this!” she exclaimed as she gestured at her own body.

“Wow...” Allison gasped. The woman blushed.

“I’m still human, I’ve just covered myself up. I’m still waiting for the day that I can escape, but right now, I want to help you two,” she began as she pulled a hammer from her belt. She swung it over her shoulder and whacked the cement as hard as she could. It cracked. She swung at it again and again and again and again. In about an hour, she had gotten Sasha free from the cement. Sasha examined herself, thankful to see that she still had al of her skin.

“Oh my God,” she breathed, “Thank you so much!” she exclaimed as she gave the girl a hug. The girl quickly hugged her back and then handed Sasha her own hammer.

“Now help me get your friend out,” she told her. The both started to get Allison out, and in half on hour Allison was free. She was also thankful to see that her skin was all on her body. She hugged the girl as well.

“Thank you! You have no idea how much we appreciate this!” Allison thanked, tears streaming down the sides of her cheeks. The girl smiled.

“Don’t mention it, just don’t forget about me if you find a way out,” she told her with a smile. They all chuckled a bit.

“What’s your name?” Sasha asked.

“Olivia,” she replied.

“Olivia, do you know anything about Michael?” Allison asked, desperate to get some more answers. The more she knew, the better chance she had at getting out. Olivia shook her head.

“N-no, not really,” she replied as she bowed her head in disappointment; disappointed that she couldn’t be of any more help.

“Are you sure? Nothing at all?” Sasha asked again. Olivia sat there in thought for a minute.

“Well... there is one thing...” she began.

“What! What is it?” Allison asked eagerly, “Tell us! Please! We need to know every bit of information that we can get!”

“All I know,” Olivia started, “Is that he’s some sort of weird mutant freak. I’m sure you’ve already realised that by now though, but anyway, watch out for his hands,”

“His hands?” Allison and Sasha both questioned together as they exchanged confused glances. Olivia nodded.

“Yes, his hands,” she confirmed, “They like... open up... and this weird bug-like thing crawls out. It lives inside of his palms. Their bites cause severe pain and make you black out. He used it on me once,” Olivia shared. Allison gasped.

“Me too!” she exclaimed as she remembered when they first met Michael that night after the mall... She remembered it clear as day... The thing that had crawled up her shirt must have been that! She remembered the pain... the black out... What else could it possibly be?

They were about to start chatting about it some more, when the door flew open and a gust of heavy wind blew. They all squinted their eyes as they looked at the doorway. A frightened look crossed each of their faces when they realised that it was Michael.

“Oh Olivia!” he called in a sing song voice as he walked up to her. Olivia backed away slowly.

“Eeeugghh,” she moaned, trying to play the zombie roll. Michael only chuckled as he grabbed her face and forced her to keep eye contact with him.

“Drop the act darling, I know everything now,” he told her with a sinister cackle as he ran his long finger along her jaw line. Olivia gulped as fear crossed her face. “It’s shame that that’s how it is... I enjoyed having you as my zombie, but I’m afraid that you’ve betrayed my trust. I can’t have this happen again,”

“U-u-understood,” Olivia stammered. Michael laughed softly.

“No, no, no, sweetie. Did you not understand the part I said about trust? You betrayed me. I no longer trust you. I’m afraid you’ll have to... well... die,” Michael told her as he pulled out a knife and slowly cut along her collarbone.

That was enough for Sasha.

“Hey! Stop!” Sasha screamed as she ran up to Michael and grabbed him, trying to get him off of Olivia. Michael’s eyes turned to fire as he spun around, grabbed Sasha by the throat and pressed her against a wall.

“I’ve had enough of you and your games,” he hissed, “I was going to wait for you to die but you’re really giving me no choice,” he told her. Sasha’s eyes widened as he brought the blade to her throat and slit it open. Sasha dropped to her knees, black blood pouring out of her, and then crumpled onto her stomach as she lay there, motionless. Allison and Olivia both screamed. Michael quickly snapped back around and threw the knife directly at Olivia. Olivia flew back as the knife went right through her skull. She stumbled back into the wall and slowly collapsed onto the floor as she drew her last breath. Michael smiled as he pulled the knife from her head.

“You know, I think I’ll do that for now on,” Michael commented as he flipped the knife around in his hand and then put it back in his belt, “Aim at the head. There’s less blood, and that means less mess. I like that,” he replied with a sinister grin. He turned his head towards Allison.

“Got anything you’d like to say?” he asked. Allison gulped and shook her head. Michael chuckled. “That’s what I thought,” he said as he grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the room and down a long hallway.

Allison had no idea what was coming her way.

As Michael continued to lead her down the hallways and through the house, Allison soon zoned out, the thoughts of what had just happened overflowing in her head.

How could someone just... kill another person like that with such ease? As if nothing was wrong. How? How could he live with himself after that?

Visions of the murder replayed over and over in her mind, Michael slicing Sasha’s throat open, her dropping to her knees and then falling to the floor. The thought brought tears to her eyes, but she tried to wipe them away. If Michael saw her like that, he’d use her weakness to his advantage, and she knew it. He was ruthless. And now, the kindness that he had showed to them at the beginning (even if it was very small) was completely gone. If she gave him a reason (even a small one) he would kill her in the blink of an eye and it would be over. She was at his mercy. If he wanted her to walk, she would walk. If he wanted her to laugh, she would laugh. If he wanted her to walk around on all fours like a dog, she would walk around on all fours like a dog!

Needless to say, she was scared.

When she was snapped out of her thoughts, she looked up and noticed that she was in a large, dark room. Michael looked at her, smiled and took a bow.

“This is my liar,” he told her. Allison didn’t say anything. Just him being in the same room as her was frightening. He frowned and moved closer.

“I suggest that you try and be smarter than your friend, because look at what happened to her,” Michael advised with a sinister grin and an evil gleam in his eye. Allison glared at him darkly.

“You killed her,” she said coldly. Michael chuckled.

“I most certainly did,” he replied, “Olivia too. They deserved it,”

“Nobody deserves to be murdered,” Allison told him in that same dark voice.

“Really?” Michael asked, “Are you telling me that Bin Laden deserved to stay alive? What about John Wayne Gacy? Hmm? A killer and a rapist. Yeah, they deserved to live didn’t they?” Michael asked sarcastically as he rolled his eyes with a huff.

“But Sasha and Olivia weren’t murders or rapists. They were normal people living a normal life until you came along and ruined it!” Allison screamed, putting her fear into anger. Michael was taken aback by her sudden outburst.

“My, my Miss Iraheta, I haven’t heard you so loud all my life,” Michael gasped. Allison remained silent as they sized each other up.

“I want to go home,” Allison told him. Michael laughed.

“I’m afraid that that is not an option,” Michael explained.

“Please,” Allison began, as tears started to stream down her face. She was so overwhelmed right now, it was incomprehensible! “I just want to go home. I won’t tell anyone anything! I promise! Please!” Allison begged. Michael cocked his head to the side and put on a pouty face.

“Aw? Does little Allison wanna go home?” Michael asked in a childish voice. “Suck it up Princess, because you’re not leaving,” he spat.

“Well then tell me why you want me! Why do you want me here? Just to kill me? Just to watch me suffer?” Allison asked. Michael laughed.

“I don’t necessarily want you to suffer, I want society to suffer,” Michael explained.

“And what do I have to do with making society suffer?” Allison asked.

“Let me be the first to inform you that you’re victim 247 of my plan. My plan is to kill off enough people to make my own zombie army. They’ll flood every town, ever city, every country! You won’t be able to escape them. I’ll be the one controlling them. Soon enough, people will get desperate. They’ll do anything to escape this, and to do that, they’ll have to come crawling to me and just like that, looks who’s finally on top!” Michael exclaimed with a grin across his face.

“Why not just send one zombie off and start your apocalypse now instead of killing a bunch of people?” Allison asked. Michael smiled at her.

“Because my young Allison,” Michael began, “I want people to be more intimidated. I want them to realise that I’m ready to kill anyone at anytime. I don’t want them to think that all I have is a zombie army, because that is not the case.”

“You’re crazy...” Allison breathed. Michael smiled.

“I prefer mentally unique,” Michael countered as he walked off into the middle of the room. Allison took small steps, following him slowly.

“What are you?” Allison asked.

“I’m an evil genius of course!” Michael exclaimed.

“No, what kind of... species... are you?” Allison asked. Michal laughed.

“I’m my own species,” Michael replied.

“Elaborate for me,” Allison ordered, “Please,” she quickly added. Michael thought about it for a moment before he nodded.

“You know what? I like you Allison, it’s going to be sad to see you go, unlike your friend. Frankly, I had no problem killing her off,” Michael explained. Allison cringed at the memory and tried not to cry, but she could feel a few silent tears rolling down, “So how about you take a seat and let me explain to you everything about me, hmm?” Michael asked as a chaired moved itself underneath Allison’s legs and forced her to sit down. A chair pulled up for Michael as well as he sat down in front of Allison.

“I’m different Allison,” Michael began.

No kidding, she thought to herself.

“I was always different and I knew it from the minute I was born. I’m a mutant darling, I was born like this. I was born with these long nails, I was born with a head that could turn 360 degrees. I was born with these...” Michael explained as he held his palms out and a spider-like bug crawled out. Only this definitely wasn’t a spider. Michael closed his hands and the hole that had once been there disappeared.

“Holy...” Allison breathed as she eyed his palms carefully.

“Anyway, I was teased, I was bullied. And because of what? Being different. My peers were scared of me. My teachers were scared of me. Even my parents were scared of me. Nobody wanted anything to do with me and I grew up as an outcast. I had to take my hate for my life out on something, and that’s when I made my first murder. Suddenly, the police wanted me, and that’s when I knew that I had to leave. I was then titled a freak, a psycho... I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that one bit. So, I swore to take my revenge, and here I am, 247 victims later,” Michael explained.

“You’re mad because they called you a psycho after you killed someone?!” Allison asked. Geez! She would have called him a psycho too!

“But it wasn’t because of the murder!” Michael boomed, “It was because of my... differences...” Michael hissed. Allison watched him closely as he examined himself all over, flashbacks of his past going through his mind. Soon enough, he snapped back into reality.

“Anyway,” Michael continued, “This has been a nice chat, but I really must hurry up this process and kill you off,” Michael told her as he stood up from his chair. Allison’s eyes widened. She tried to protest but nothing came out. The fear of being killed took her words away as Michael disappeared and left her in the room all by herself, sitting on the chair.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of rattling chains. She looked down and saw that the chair and sprung chains, and they had hooked onto her wrists and ankles. Where ever she would go, the chair would be coming with her. She wasn’t strapped down to the chair. She could still walk around, although it wasn’t exactly comfortable, nor was it convenient.

Suddenly, something flew through the air. Allison followed it and noticed that it was a sharp stake. She looked around and saw more shooting out from the ceiling. She quickly hit the deck and covered herself with the chair and covered her head as she screamed. More stakes were sent through the air.

I have to get out of here. I have to get out of here before I get killed... Don’t do it for me, do it for Sasha...

Do it for Sasha...

As the stakes continued to fly through the air, Allison started slowly crawling around on the floor, keeping the chair on top of her back making her look a bit like a turtle in order to protect herself. She felt a stake go through the chair and slightly pierce her back. She cringed.

I have to move faster.

She crawled at a quicker pace until she reached the window. She looked around and grabbed one of the stakes up off of the ground as she threw it at the window. The hole it made wasn’t that big. She went to reach for another one, but pulled her hand back when a stake was sent right towards her hand.

Looks like I’m going to have to make do with this hole... she thought as she quickly stood up and jumped through the window, breaking more glass onto her body. She started screaming at the pain she felt all over from the pieces of glass getting caught in her skin, in her flesh. When she hit the ground, she rolled around for a bit, the chair still attached to her and slowing her down. She moaned as she slowly lifted herself up. She looked at her body and cringed. There was so much blood... so many wounds... it was overwhelming. She almost felt as though she was going to die right there, but she kept herself composed. She looked around to see her surroundings.

She was no longer in the house. She had finally found the outside. That’s right. She was outside! She never thought she’d see the day! It was dark out, maybe midnight or something creepy like that. The moon was out, completely full and shinning brightly, illuminating the outside world for her. Surrounding the area, was a forest of tall, dark trees.

“Well I definitely don’t want to go in there...” she whispered quietly. She turned in the other direction and saw a lake. On the other side of the lake she could see city lights. She could see cars driving along roads. Her eyes widened, if that was the city there then that meant that she was close! She was practically free! Suddenly, another thought popped into her mind...

If the city was so close, that meant that Michael had always been close. He lived across the lake! To think that all of this time Allison had thought that this house had been abandoned or something, when in reality it was used as a torture device to imprison people. She eyed the house.

It’s bigger on the inside... she thought. She shook her head. What was she doing? Why was she talking about the size of the house! She had to leave! She had to get out of here! But how? She had already made the decision that she wasn’t going to go through the forest, that would be like handing herself back over to Michael’s mercy, and there was no way she wanted to do that. She looked back at the lake and noticed a small raft.

Without hesitation, she was running (or limping) towards the raft on the edge of the lake. She quickly stepped on, still dragging the chair around with her, and pushed away from shore with an oar that was conveniently left there for her. She smiled as she watched the house fade off in the distance.

That was it. She was free! She had escaped! She laughed to herself; and Michael said she wouldn’t be able to do it...

“Now if only I could get this damned chair off of me,” she said as she rattled the chains. Suddenly, she noticed a pair of cutters. She smiled as she started to slip off the chains from her ankles and wrists.

How convenient of there to be everything that I needed! The raft, the oar, the clippers! It was almost as though he had left them out for me, Allison thought. Suddenly her eyes widened.

Maybe that was because; he had.

As the fact sunk in, she started freaking out! She quickly threw the chair overboard along with the chains, grabbed the oar, and started paddling away as fast as she could, but she felt something from underneath the raft. She decided to pretend that it didn’t happen. She continued to row faster and faster. But before too long, the thing that was causing commotion underneath the raft couldn’t be ignored. It created large waves, and in a few seconds, capsized the raft and sent Allison flying though the air and into the water.

When she broke the surface, she immediately knew that the thing under the raft must have been Michael. Her suspicions were confirmed when he broke the surface as well about 10 meters away. Allison screamed at the top of her lungs as his dark eyes pierced into hers and he started swimming after her. Allison started swimming as well. She swam as fast and as hard as she could, looking back every so often to see where Michael was.

“Stop running Allison... there’s nothing to be afraid of...” he said to her in a soothing voice. It seemed as though he was all around her. His voice wrapped around her like a blanket. It was almost impossible to ignore, but she knew that she had to. She couldn’t let him get to her. Not now. Not when she was so close. She looked back again and then saw Michael gaining on her. She screamed again as she started splashing frantically, as if that would somehow make him stop.

She was so scared. She was swimming away from some killer! She knew damn well that she barely stood a chance. He was a mutant, he probably had some sort of mutant swimming power that she wasn’t aware of. Even if he didn’t it still wouldn’t matter. He could disappear and reappear wherever he wanted to at any moment if he wanted to! He had the major advantage.

Stop thinking like that, just think of being at home. Think of being safe, think of- Suddenly, her train of thoughts were cut off as Michael grabbed her ankle and pulled her towards him. She let out a blood curdling scream. Michael glared at her furiously. He was beyond pissed off.

“Did you really think that I would just leave a raft, an oar and a pair of clippers for your convenience so that you could escape? Ha! Please darling, I’m not that nice,” he cackled sinisterly.

“Please, let me go,” Allison sobbed in a tiny voice.

“You know what? I’m tired of you. I used to like you, but now you’re starting to really annoy me,” Michael told her. At those words, her eyes widened.

He was going to kill her, and she knew it. But what could she do? She had no power against this guy! No matter what she did he was going to win. He had her in his clutches and he wasn’t going to let her go.

I might as well make this hard for him... she said to herself as she punched him in the face. Michael screeched out in pain as he flew up from the water, still keeping his grip on Allison as he pulled her up into the air with him. Allison screamed at the height.

“You’re just as bad as your friend!” Michael hissed as he flew over the lake and towards the city. When he was above a busy road he looked at Allison. “Unfortunately, you’ll have to come to a swift end like she did,” Michael replied. Allison’s eyes widened.

“Please, no,” she begged. Michael laughed and shook his head.

“Sorry, maybe you’ll care to join me in the after life as one of my zombies, hmm?” he asked.

“Never,” Allison spat. Michael chuckled.

“Whatever, it really doesn’t matter because you have no choice,” Michael informed her as he let go of her. Allison shrieked loudly as she was sent hurdling down towards the earth and onto the highway of speeding cars.

Michael laughed loudly as he watched her body explode into thousands of different pieces, blood going everywhere. Cars screeched to a halt, running into each other, causing a huge accident. It was absolute mayhem, and Michael loved it. He frowned when he realised something...

“Now how is this going to work?” he asked himself, “I can’t have a zombie that’s blown into a million bits!” he exclaimed. He shrugged, “Oh well, I guess she won’t be joining me. Ah well, it was fun anyways,” he said as he headed deeper into the city to find his next victims.