After a while, Nathan was finally able to keep himself somewhat stable. The gash in his chest wasn't healed, but it felt so much better than before.
"I have to get this thing checked out, after I leave." He slowly began to move down the hallway keeping his stained hand on the wall. His mind was clouded with the thought of Clay, Yasmine, and any other person that could be hidden here. Why were they here anyways? Did they upset someone? Bri did talk about a man with power.
Threatening them…
Nathan watched as a multitude of doors began to echo through the hallway. Someone was coming, and fast. The injured man couldn't do much, but he still braced himself for whatever was to come.
"Nathan?" He opened his eyes to see Yasmine. One of her eyes was red and her clothes definitely looked as if they had seen better days. Her hair was still in braids, but messy ones at that. "Nathan, what are you doing here?" Her voice was raspy, almost as if she was tired. He wasn't better himself.
"I just woke up here? What about you?" He wrapped her arms around her as he spoke. "I thought you were dead." Yasmine began to go on about how they survived the horrific fire. But to him, nothing made sense. Janis? Pharaoh? Wasn't he dead? The hold in his body seemed to sore worse as he leaned back once more. "We need to get out of here. Where's Clay?"
He wished he didn't answer that question. Because the face she showed after his lips parted to ask. He lips curled to show something unruly. What happened to Clay? Wanting nothing to do with her, he slightly backed away. It was clear that she wasn't herself. The man's heart skipped a beat as he watched her smile widened. It came to the point where the edge of her lips wrapped itself around the back of her head. Her eyes went from her chill brown to a deep festering red.
"He's gone, Nate." Her teeth moved as he spoke. "He's dead." As "Yasmine's" Arm started to elongate, Nathan was already running as fast as he could. He tried to take his mind off the burning sensation purring in his shoulder, but the feeling wouldn't stop. Thoughts of places to hide echoed through his head as he realized the place seemed…familiar.
It was a school.
As he eventually made his way to the east side of the building. Lockers long and wide aligned themselves along the walls. And surprisingly…they were wide enough to fit him. Feeling desperate for an escape, he quickly parted open one of the loose doors and shoved himself inside.
"Breathe, just breathe." Nathan let out slight whispers as he saw the most horrific thing pass by him.
A demon, well what seems to be one. The main body looked like Yasmine, but the arms and legs… they stretched out as long as the eyes could see. As the beast shook the hallway, each and every locker received its own fair share of rocking. Still, the beast didn't seem to notice his presence. He waited a while before going out. But he felt as if something was watching him. His back, his neck…
Eyes.
Nathan's body jolted as he saw the glossed over eyes that stood so proudly over him. Because his back faced the corpse, he could see how rotten or decayed the thing was. All he saw was a name tag. Flies and leeches inhabited the face, but the tag was clear.
TALIN
Feeling himself becoming more woozy, he quickly moved the locker open to the world outside. Along with him leaving, the body also felt the need to fall into the light. The body had blue hair along with the clothing of a school girl. It was hard to tell what other facial features they had, the leeches and maggot had completely made their way through.
It looked drained. It looked drained of blood. Of everything. As he noticed the pale skin. He also noticed the absence of a torso or anything lower. The top half of the body was seemingly held up by the locker hook that hung ever so slightly in the back.
"So this was a school, huh?" He kicked the body one more time to make sure it was dead. He didn't need anymore things coming after him. Suddenly something else…snatched his mind. "Well that's interesting." His body struggled to stand up, yet did anyway from the sheer amount of adrenaline. In front of him was a door. It wasn't like the rest though. The door held a green light illuminating from the small window. Above the door it read two words
"Praise Un-way?" His eyes scanned the weird looking name plate as he contemplated entry. What type of teacher is named" Praise" anyways? It was just a set-up for people to despise your every move. Not to mention having to introduce yourself. Nathan weighed the pros and cons of entering the weirdly lit doorway. On one end, not having to deal with whatever Yasmine turned into. Seeing how the whole locker situation went. It was highly unlikely that it could open doors. Since he wasn't being the exact quietest. On another end…
Clay.
She said he was gone? Where was "gone?" Did she kill him? Did the mysterious guy kill him? Honestly, there were too many people to keep track of right now. When he first started this investigation, he thought it was simple. An old "killing people for revenge." type deal, but now… ghost, spirits, demons. It seems so… wrong. Feeling a yearning for everything to end, Nathan quickly grabbed the door handle and swung it open.
It was nothing like he expected.
What was assumed to be a classroom, looked more like a mad scientist lab than anything else. Huge tubes of different things float eerily in the middle of the room. The first few were simple things, like toy cars, dolls and any other thing you could find in a house. Later down the line came brains, organs, feet, hands, things that definitely showed that he shouldn't be here. What was this place? And where did they get this stuff? Nathan held his chest tighter than ever before. He felt as if someone was watching him. Someone smart enough to know how obvious their room was.
The sound of ringing quickly echoed through his ears as time went on. The ear piercing sound made waves as Nathan tried to see if anyone was watching him. Soon, he found himself placing his hands over his ears. Trying to do everything to silence the sound in his mind.
But it wouldn't stop.
"Dammit." The gruff in his voice stood out amongst everything. "Where is that coming from?" The man started to feel his legs giving up under him as he placed his hand on a wooden table to balance himself. He could feel his eyes moving. His heart started to speed up as he started to take control over his breathing. For some reason, it wasn't voluntary. It seemed that he needed to do everything to keep himself from passing out. He started to dig his fingers deeply into the soft wood before cursing to himself. What was this feeling? He placed his hand over the deep injury pulsing in his body. If he didn't find something to wrap his shoulder up, he would definitely get it infected.
"Nathan?" The sight of darkness shifting caused Nathan to suddenly gain his movement once again.
"Who's there?" He watched a familiar face start to shine from his unsaturated background. His eyes are still an oceanic blue. His hair still reflected light on his black hair, but the presence was nothing like it was before. When he first met him, his aura gave off a loving, yet cold vibe. Clayton looked as if he was just hurt covering years, and years of love and longing. Now… he was sinister. Whatever sustained itself in his mind made it to where years of hurt and pain, was replaced with anger and resentment.
Who even was he?
For years, Nathan has tried to break whatever was harboring on the other shoulder. From trying to be nice, sharing his own private stories, to even coming out in front of him. But nothing worked. It came to a point where Nathan believed he was a lost cause. He believed that Clay was destined to live his life miserable. With or without Yasmine.
"Clay, what's wrong with you?" He tried to walk forward, but was instantly held back by the feeling in his shoulder. "Clay, we have to get out of here. Yasmine… she" The feeling that once consumed him returned at full impact.
And what made him feel worse is the sight of his best friend smiling at his pain.
"Nathan." His words sound more and more slurred as the other's vision began to fade. He tried to keep his balance on the table from before, but his hand quickly missed it, causing him to fall towards the ground. "Nathan, I don't think you'll make it out."