"Oh, please, gods no." Montague muttered as he stared at the vat of disgusting blood. Some of the blood was fresh, some of it was coagulated in thick layers. The smell was nigh unbearable, especially mixed with the nearby carcasses. Montague watched the mass of blood, wondering if anybody was insane enough to actually hide there. But he already knew the answer.
As he thought that, a large mass started rising from the blood, but it rapidly stopped. It was quickly apparent that 'It' was the top of a head, but everybody was in too much shock to react. The head tilted itself back slightly, and Its eyes opened.
It had only peeked out enough to reveal the eyes and nose. Everything underneath was still completely obscured by the thick blood. Its eyes stared at the men, more specifically, at Montague. They watched each other and Montague slowly took a step back despite having the complete advantage.
It started rising out of the thick blood, the blood absolutely slathering It. It looked towards the group of men and lifted Its arms out of the blood. While never once breaking eye contact, It grabbed the metal grate above Its head and lifted itself.
As It revealed itself, the animal blood dripped, slopped, and sloshed down Its body. Chunks of coagulated blood stuck to It, especially Its hair. Their muscles flexed slightly as they pulled themselves up, and blood squeezed out from between their fingers and fell back into the vat.
It pulled themselves out of the bloody container and stood tall as the blood streamed down them. The eye contacted between It and Montague had yet been broken. A cold sweat was breaking out down Montague's back and on along his forehead.
As Montague gazed into Its eyes, he observed an unnatural eagerness. He saw a certain manic property to the eyes yet hidden underneath a feigned calmness. As the two watched each other, It slowly began smiling, bestowing upon the world an unnatural grin. A grin so lost in hysterical frenzy that it couldn't be possible.
As the grin slowly spread across Its face, Montague finally understood Elinor's words to be true.
"I believe that Mr. Whittemore will die before the day is out…" She had said.
In the moment, he had thought she was spouting complete bullshit, but no, now he knew. As soon as he saw that grin, he knew that he would finally be seeing his last day in this world. He had been shot dozens of times, stabbed and slashed more times than he could count. He had been tortured, been in line for execution, he had even survived travelling to the scorched continent.
But today would be his last. He of course wanted to live, so he did what any man would do in the face of overwhelming dread and death. They turn and run. They abandon all thoughts of fighting and only retain those of fleeing.
The others in the room were too paralyzed to even react to the sight before them. They couldn't comprehend the madness that would drive a man to hide in a place like that. They couldn't comprehend the madness that would unleash that manic smile after leaving that pit of death. They just couldn't understand, so much so that their bodies froze.
As Montague turned and began running, It finally broke Its stare and turned towards a guard. It reached into the guard's jacket and pulled out a sharp knife. It did a what seemed like a simple flick with barely any movement, but in the next moment, a fountain of blood spurted out from the throats of the guards.
Despite rapidly bleeding to death, the guards all stood frozen. Their arms were unable to reach up towards their throats, despite them commanding their bodies to. There was a disconnect between their brains and their bodies as one of them already knew their fate and the other wanted to resist.
It then looked towards the fleeing Montague who was fumbling to open the door and It slowly started approaching him. It ignored the carrion at Its feet and was steady in their pace.
Montague finally managed to yank the door open and flee, sweat trickling down his face. It reached the door and firmly shut it behind themselves, trapping all of the men bleeding out into the drains like the animals they were.
Montague fled through the facility but as if cursed, he never made it far without fumbling something. Every time he looked behind him, he'd notice the same bloody monster trailing behind with a slightly cocked head. Their crescent eyes and grinning mouth creating a horrifying amalgamation of ecstasy.
Montague rushed even more and burst into a room without even noticing it was a bathroom. Once inside, he instantly realized his mistake and knew there wasn't another way for him to leave. Montague slammed the door shut and likewise slammed his body against it. When he did so, nothing happened.
Until that is a massive forced pounded upon the door and nearly knocked Montague down. Montague "The Indominable" Whittemore, however, rammed himself back to his original spot and wedged himself between the floor and door.
Another pound came, this time only knocking Montague slightly. Then another which achieved the same result. For a while, nothing happened. There was no pounding, no sounds, nothing.
Montague took a deep gulp and then he heard it. A deep chuckled paired with a set of footsteps leading away from the door. The chuckle got further and further away until Montague could no longer hear it.
Montague waited by the door for minutes, and despite not doing any physical activity for a while, besides blocking the door, sweat trickled down from his entire body more fiercely than ever before. Should he run? What if it was a trap and that thing was waiting right outside of the door? What should he do?!
Montague gripped his grey hair and began tearing at it in frustration. Then he suddenly stopped. He thought about it deeply and started calming his mind down. The footsteps had definitely left him, it wasn't as simple as the noise, he had felt the incredibly subtle vibrations leave too. The slight force that one made when walking had definitely appeared and left. Combined with the chuckle, that freak of nature had left!
But, what if he hadn't? Then Montague was faced with doubt. What if he was wrong? That thing defied logic, who knows what It was thinking about when It left. Montague took a deep breath and took his back off of the door. He stood and with weak steps, he turned around. He gripped the door handle and was about to pull on it.
Clang!
Montague froze. That noise that he just heard. That distinct clattering of metal. That hadn't happened outside of the restroom.
Montague slowly turned his figure, afraid of what he would find. His heart started thudding in his chest. With each passing moment, it grew stronger and stronger until he felt it would tear itself out.
As he turned, he first noticed the metal vent that had been smashed in at the center lying on the floor. His eyes trailed up from there and he noticed the bloody horror watching him. It had the same face since the beginning, the maddening eyes and grin. Montague just couldn't handle it. His eyes began trembling and his heart started aching from the pounding sensation. His breath became haggard and his mouth dry.
He turned and pulled open the door only to find a pile of carcasses in front of him. Cows, humans, and pigs alike, all thrown without care into a pile. Montague turned and saw the thing still standing there, watching him. It hadn't moved since dropping from the ceiling. That smile, that damned smile was still etched upon its crimson face.
Montague turned back around and started clambering up the bodies of the dead. He would slip on their cold bodies and fall into the tiny crevices that resulted from the haphazard stacking. No matter how much he tried to climb the bodies, he found himself making no progress. He would rise up, only to fall back down again. Over and over without fail. Each time he turned back, It was still in the same position, watching him with a grin.
Montague started desperately clawing at the bodies and pulling himself up. But eventually, the bones of the skinned animals ripped his nails apart and he slowly fell down the pile to the floor with tears streaming from his eyes.
Montague, now back at the bottom of the pile, curled himself into a ball. His bleeding fingers clutched his trembling legs. His psyche was shattered as he tried to forget what was about to happen. But nothing ever did.
Eventually, through the tears, Montague managed to look up and saw It standing there.
Its smile no longer seemed horrifying, instead to Montague, it seemed benevolent. He slowly crawled his way over to It on all fours and once he reached It, It reached out and started caressing his hair. It started calming Montague and eventually Montague's heart stopped racing and his tears stopped flowing.
It reached down and lifted Montague up and guided him out of the bathroom. The two started walking back through the slaughterhouse and the entire time Montague followed It like a lost little child.
Eventually they reached a room with a closed door. It reached over and opened it, then they carefully escorted Montague inside. When they got inside Montague saw the carrion littering the floor. His heart started bounding slightly in his chest and tears threatened to start welling up once more. But It kneeled down and gave Montague a warm and reassuring smile.
It took Montague a moment, but his heart calmed itself once more and the two walked towards the center of the room, above a steel grate. There was a contraption near the grate and It helped Montague into it, placing an iron shackle around one of his legs.
Then Montague found himself hanging in the air from that singular leg. A pain spread throughout him, but once the warm and reassuring smile reached him, his pain was swept away. Montague, through his tired face, smiled brightly at It.
While hanging from his leg, he was slowly moved over the large grate where It removed Montague's shirt and began inspecting his chest. They then moved down and observed his neck. They gave another reassuring smile and with a quick movement Montague felt like he was gagging. He couldn't breathe as something began rushing out of him. With each pump of a heart whatever rushed out of him and into the drain increased.
Then he felt a remorseless hammering against his chest as his consciousness began fading. He felt sharp pains all around before a searing pain erupted from his chest, near his stomach, and went slowly to his head.
Then he died.
It began cutting open Montague's chest and pried open the now shattered ribcage with gritted teeth. He heard more cracks as the grin on his face seemingly widened beyond what was possible. Eventually It found itself inside Montague's ribcage and started cutting away through his organs.
"Stop." It heard a voice in the back of his head.
It had starting digging and shifting through Montague's chest.
"It." The voice returned, but It shrugged it off, disregarding it completely.
"Please." The voice began growing louder.
It started pulling out some of the organs It had cut through, a massive amount of blood drained out along with them.
"Please… it."
It reached into the chest and started cutting wildly. It pulled out a single organ delicately. They raised it up into the light and began admiring it.
"Please stop it…"
It gripped the organ and started tearing it in half using Its hands. Eventually, something akin to a wailing wisp appeared. It lifted it in Its hands and dropped the organ to the floor. Its eyes widened in amazement as it stared at the wisp.
"Please stop it, Leo." A weak voice said from behind It.
Leo froze and, in his hands, laid something he recognized easily. A soul. Leo looked in front of him to noticed Montague's lifeless corpse with a warm smile and tears mixed with blood in streaming down his face.
Leo took a step back inadvertently and dropped the soul in his hands into the vat of blood below. Leo hesitantly turned to see a crying Faust and a horrified Evelyn.
And oddly, Leo couldn't stop his hands from trembling.