This new development threw the steel factory into chaos as everyone began running for their lives, thinking they would be next.
Harlow wasn't even able to leave the 4th floor before all of these began, he thought he would have a chance to at least get to the ground floor before the killing began.
With his back facing Gerry, he quickly placed the paper he got from Gerry on the ground. He then brought out the silver bell and placed it next to the paper.
Ding!
The bell chimed immediately.
"Track them for me." Harlow requested from the bell.
Ding!
Harlow frowned after he heard the chime this time as if they were communicating.
"Greedy bastard, always trying to consume my soul."
Ding!
The bell spoke to him once again, making him curse before bringing out a pocket knife that he used to slit his wrist.
Surprisingly, not a drop of blood spilled out of the slit wrist, rather, it was as if the wound was being infected by some green fungus, causing the skin on his body to turn green, and the scars around his face began looking like intricately tattooed hieroglyphs. His yellow pupils became more prominent as they shone brilliantly.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gerry let out a few more shots before jumping over the ledge, leaving gravity to take him to the ground floor. He had already taken out 2 more cult members.
The steel millers were shouting as they scurried for their dear lives. Their shouts echoed and traveled out of the factory.
Thud!
Upon the spot where Gerry landed, the concrete floor caved in, leaving an imprint of his shoes on the floor. "Hurry up Harlow!!" Gerry took a quick glance at the handkerchief and began chasing his targets on the ground floor.
"That's enough!" After a few seconds, Harlow said to the bell and it chimed. If it weren't for the cloth covering most of Harlow's skin one would call him a monster just from the shade of green that was on his body. He picked up the bell and brought it close to his mouth before whispering-
"Hallucente!"
Ding!
Although he whispered, his voice was heard by everyone in the factory. Following that was a hymn from the bell that froze every normal person in the factory, giving the factory the same vibe you would get in a graveyard at night.
Bang!
With this new development, Gerry was able to aim at his target better and he was able to take another life. He paused to reload his gun and while doing so he looked around him, watching the people around him that were affected by Harlow's spell. If he wasn't aware of what was going on, he would think that they were all life-like statues.
"A scary artifact indeed. He must feel like hell at the moment." He commented…
Over on the 4th floor, Harlow was breathing heavily and his body sweating profusely. He grimaced in agony but held himself back from making any sound. He looked as if he was too weak to move.
Ding!
The silver bell chimed.
"Fuck!" Harlow grunted in response to the bell. "Just do it, but only for a short while." He added.
The silver bell began to light up and the image of a snake wrapping a skeleton slowly engraved itself on the body of the bell. At the same time, green scales started to appear on Harlow's palms as his fingernails turned to sharp claws. His shape became thinner as if his body was rapidly burning every fat that was in him.
The slit on his wrist quickly closed up.
Bang! Bang!
Harlow heard a few more shots coming from the ground floor. He picked the bell up and placed it in his inner pockets before taking in a deep breath, "I can smell my targets." His words came out, almost like a hiss.
He walked to the ledge and said, "The Blessed are all on the 3rd floor." Immediately after that, his figure vanished from the 4th floor.
Unknowingly to Harlow and Gerry, there were two anomalies. Both Matthew and Theodore were unaffected by the spell that Harlow cast...
"Ugh!" Matthew grunted as he propped himself up from the ground. He felt as if he had been drugged and had a bucket of cold water splashed on his body. His fingertips were cold and his stomach churned as if he hadn't eaten for a day or two.
This hunger he felt was a kind he was familiar with, he hadn't eaten much in the past few days because of the excitement of getting richer off stealing and selling the blueprints.
Matthew suddenly jumped up and checked his body for the blueprints instinctively. He was scared that after falling unconscious, Harlow could have looted whatever was valuable from him.
It was street mentality, yes, but a mentality that had helped him earn a few bucks from passed-out drunks on the side of the road. 'If they had money to get drunk, then they definitely had money to get stolen.' That was his rhetoric to his conscience whenever it chided him.
After confirming that the blueprints were still hidden in his clothes, Matthew sighed heavily, the anxiety that he felt before disappearing a little bit.
"Hold on, how did I get knocked out?" He suddenly began to wonder. He remembered hearing a melody, but he couldn't recall how it sounded or where it came from. "Was it that eerie bell?" He muttered.
He raised his hand to touch his cheek unconsciously, feeling that it was a bit colder than the rest of his face. "What's this?" He frowned when he felt some kind of liquid on his face. He caressed it with his fingers before bringing it closer to his nose for more inspection.
"The fuck! Saliva!?" Realization hit him. "That ugly bastard!" He bellowed as he stood up and angrily ran towards the unlocked door of the room.
Bang!
The loud explosion of a gunshot reached Matthew's ears, causing the rate at which his heart was beating to rise. Matthew paused and slowly backed away from the door, terrified of making any kind of noise that would direct a shooter his way.
Bang!
"What the fuck is happening here?" He whispered to himself as his anxiety hit the roof again.
"Check the dead bastards, one of them will have the blueprints on them." Matthew's ears went cold and for a moment, he couldn't hear the gunshots anymore. His mind went blank and his heartbeat spiked once again.
To Matthew, that was a familiar voice. He could tell that the person was furious with whoever stole the blueprints. "Massey," Matthew muttered. "I need to get out of here at all costs. Are they killing the workers wantonly? Those heartless devil worshippers! What's happening out there?" He wondered, agitated by the occasional shouts of agony and the sound of gunshots.
"Sir Kenneth will have our heads if those blueprints aren't retrieved!" Massey shouted again.
…
In a room not far away from Where Matthew was, Theodore was also listening in on what was happening outside the room. He awoke around the same time that Matthew did, and although he was also feeling nervous and scared for his life, he was more composed and well thought out compared to Matthew.
His goal was to also find a way to escape the steel factory in one piece.
'Whoever stole those blueprints must have a death wish.' He thought to himself as he slowly approached the exit. Theodore was sure that this chaos in the factory wasn't only because of some blueprints that were suddenly stolen, but also because of the devil worshippers that were the real cause of tonight's interrogation.
Theodore pried open the door a bit, peeping to see if the coast was clear.
'Wait, I thought I wasn't supposed to remember what happened during the interrogation, did that man's hypnotism fail, or am I just an exception?' Theodore wondered. He had a hard time believing that it was magic and then concluded that the only way that he could have been made unconscious that easily and painlessly was if Harlow had used a drug on him or had hypnotized him.
'I couldn't have been drugged right?' He debated a bit in his mind before settling for hypnotism.
Bang! Bang!
Two consecutive gunshots echoed out, bringing Theodore back to reality and scaring him back into the room.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Sounds like it's coming from the ground floor. It seems like a shoot out." He uttered as he placed his hand on his chest, trying to calm his breathing and mind down. "I can either wait until both sides run out of bullets, or until one side is killed completely, however…" Theodore started to think.
He started to think about the pros and cons. There was nothing to ascertain that they would run out of bullets anytime soon. And if one party succeeds in killing the other, there was nothing stopping them from checking the steel factory for someone that they had missed. None of the options felt right to him.
'I have to get out of here.' He said to himself once again.