The fated day came. On that Wednesday morning, while the nursing home personnel helped the patients board the vehicles that would transport them or the ambulances took care of the more limited patients, the ghosts lamented that their only line for survival had been taken away. Sorrow and fear were the reigning emotions in this deathtrap, where they were forced to stay. It was just around ten in the morning when all the main personnel and patients were gone. Only some movers stayed behind, taking out the furniture and other stuff. Some technicians and mechanics worked fast to remove the generator from the building and load it onto a truck; the electricity was already down.
As if the building knew what was happening, right in the middle of the day, the walls started to screech and rumble stronger than ever. Some ghosts tried to test the invisible walls of their prison, only to find out that they were still as solid as ever. Maybe the fear of what was about to happen made everyone fall into the same mood and pattern of behavior. Everyone started to reminisce about the past, thinking for the first time in a long while about their deaths and the things they regretted or never came to fulfill.
Martin laughed to himself, remembering how he used to be a solid man of science; nothing like the afterlife, ghosts, gods, demons, or any supernatural mumbo-jumbo made sense to him. However, life proved him wrong once and again. He should have spent more time with his kids and his wife, worked a lot less, and maybe lived a lot more. In the end, all his supposed knowledge didn't amount to anything. Now faced by an imminent and ironic second death, he felt even more dumb and foolish than when he was alive.
Ramon was looking out the window. Although he already had time to process his internal turmoils in the years he spent as a ghost on the outside, he couldn't forget about the feeling of freedom of being a trucker. He never married or had kids that he knew of. His real love was his truck and the roads. From Spain to Germany in an 18-wheeler, stop at the local motel and maybe have some fun with the local girls, guys, or both. Eating was fun; truckers knew the best restaurants with the best food and the cheapest prices.
"I miss my truck." He said it with a face of sadness.
Shana was wondering what happened to her kids. Her last memory before dying was another car hitting hers. Her car rolled over itself a few times before she lost consciousness; most of her memory was a blur while she drifted between life and death. At the end, death won. She saw the paramedics trying to reanimate her corpse for a few seconds before the building pulled her soul away. At least her kids were not trapped in this hell; she wasn't sure, but her mother's instinct told her that her kids were alive and well. They had to be; that idea was her only bulwark against madness.
Willy was watching everyone around him; he could feel everyone's fear. If things got out of hand and the worst-case scenario came to pass, at least he wanted to be in control of the situation and see everyone else fall before him. Bad habits die hard, and being a sadistic asshole didn't die with his body at all. His was maybe the most extreme case of a hail Mary pass, but even if he failed, well, at least he had his fun, his face twisted in pain and some fear as the building noises increased.
Elizabeth was in a room, looking out the window. She had no idea what getting eaten by a muncher felt like, but if it was anything like the hell she went through when she was alive, she had to survive this new nightmare no matter the cost. She was thankful that, as a ghost, she had no physical reactions; by this time, she would have goosebumps all over her body and tremble in fear just from the memories. When she was alive, she was a beautiful young woman, and she knew it; she was proud of that. It was another time, a long time ago. She was so young and stupid. A very rich man became obsessed with her; he promised everything from the earth to the moon, and he delivered. She was showered with all kinds of gifts, pampered, and treated like a queen. With the permission of her parents and thinking she had a secured future and was on her way to an easy life, she got married. Her husband turned out to be a deranged monster, and in one of his alcohol, drugs, and lust-driven madness moments, he strangled her to death. Her marriage lasted just nine months. Nine months of hell, which she didn't want to remember, but those memories were still fresh in her mind: the strangled holds, the wound-up shirt around his fist, that alcohol stinking breath—if she didn't know better, she would swear she could still feel the pain of that belt.
Josue Santana was not the exception to the rule; like everyone else, he was also remembering his past. Maybe because he was an ambitious man, he found himself in this situation. Maybe his greed was the sin that condemned him to this punishment, was kind or ironic; he was the one that bought the building for cheap; he was the one to teach his son how to make a profit and how to cheat the system; cooking the books; avoiding taxes; paying bribes. Maybe now he was paying the price for his transgressions. However, he didn't care; he was greedy in life and was greedy in death. His fortune was safe and growing in his son Adrian's hands. He looked around the building with a smile. He made a good deal; the architect who made the building knew how to cut corners with cheap but sturdy materials;
Who cared if they were illegal? There was no doubt that William was an evil genius. Like if a stormy day finally cleared and the sun shone in the sky, clarity came to Josue's mind.
"Williams Argent Palau... crying Willy." Said Santana in a low voice.
He had to move fast; he didn't know how important this was or what repercussions it could have. He found John first, and together they got near Martin.
"Come, I remembered something important." Santana urged them to move as far as possible from the others.
"So, spit it out," Martin demanded.
"This building I bought it for cheap; I knew there was some shabby stuff in the construction, but you know, it was back in the day."
"Get to the point, will you?" Martin urged; they didn't have time to waste.
The sun was about to set on the horizon. The noises in the walls were stronger than ever; there was an attack incoming, no doubt about it.
"Right, right, the architect. This guy Willy; I knew I had seen him before; his full name is William Argent Palau; he is the architect who designed this building." John was surprised, but he didn't know what to do with the information.
Martin, on the other hand, was lost in his thoughts; a few ideas came into his mind. Too bad it was too late. The screams and wailing in the hallway announced the appearance of the Munchers. All the ghosts tried to run, but the bedrooms, the pantry, and all the rooms were wide open, and there was no living people to leech from. Martin and the other were looking towards Willy's room. Elizabeth was by his side.
"This is it." Said Willy. "Help me out; let's close this door."
"Sure" Elizabeth answered.
Willy extended his right hand, his index finger pointing at the door. While he was trying to use the energy he had collected from the living for years and throw it at the door, he felt a small push from behind. After that, he flew out of the room and crashed against the wall with enough strength to make some noise that even the living would be able to hear. Too bad the building was empty. After recovering from his surprise, he turned around and looked at the door of his room; it was closed. Elizabeth pushed him out at the last second.
"Treacherous bitch!" Willy yelled.
However, there was no time to deal with Elizabeth's betrayal; the munchers were coming, and they were fast. Willy ran away down the hall, while the munchers feasted on the rest of the ghosts. John, Martin, and Santana were surprised; if Willy was the architect, maybe he knew something the others didn't; however, it seemed like he got played by Elizabeth and was as fucked as everyone else.
Inside Willy's room, Elizabeth felt more at ease; she didn't like Willy at all. Something about him gave her the creeps, a mental nauseating feeling. Willy reminded her of her husband. There was no way in hell she was going to stay trapped in a room with such a guy for, god knows how long.
Willy ended up near Martin, John, and Santana; they were the ones further away from the other ghosts; some were shocked when they saw what happened to Willy. In the last few days, some of the ghosts went to Elizabeth for hope. She told them there was nothing she could do; at the end, she screamed at them:
"There is nothing I can do; we are all fucked!"
However, now she was safe in a locked room, while the others tried to survive; some tried to outrun the munchers or fight back to no avail. The munchers were having an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Ramon grew tired of it; he threw away all desire to survive and decided that, at least this time, he would go on his own terms. He ran towards the munchers like he was trying to make some momentum, something foolish, taking into consideration that he didn't have a physical body. When he was close enough, he launched a punch, and to his surprise, it landed. The muncher trembled like it was made of jelly. Ramon was surprised, and so were the ghosts that watched what just happened. Like if he were a boxer, Ramon raised his fist, got on his guard, and went for the next punch full of confidence. But this time it didn't work; his punch had no weight, no momentum, and no power.
"Fuck" was Ramon's last word.
The muncher's tentacle-like tongues wrapped around his body, dragging him closer. His screams started as soon as the muncher's many mouths tore him apart. The other two munchers were eating the other ghosts, and after eating enough, they started screaming in pain, tore themselves apart, and doubled in number. Now six munchers roamed the nursing home.
Shana lost the will to run, and while a muncher dashed towards her with its many legs, Shana prayed to God. She got eaten and screamed in agony like all the others before her.
The munchers only took a minute to eat everyone. Now the six munchers were coming towards the last four ghosts left. Slowly, Willy had made his way to the back of the group, and before they could react, a strange force pushed them all towards the munchers. John, Martin, and Josue tried their best to avoid the munchers tongues. It was a futile effort; they got eaten while screaming and cursing Willy's name.
Willy used the small amount of time he managed to buy, by sacrificing the others, to move towards his objective. He was a few centimeters away from a column that constituted a safe spot, and for as long as there was electricity in the street system, that place would be safe. A muncher tongue wrapped around his arm, Willy smiled. He used some of his energy, grabbed the tongue, pulled, dashed forward, and made it to his safe spot, dragging the muncher with him. Near the column, the muncher screamed in pain. Willy pulled with even more strength, dragging the monster closer. Slowly, the muncher started melting into Willy's body; his eyes turned black, and his face distorted in a painful expression.
The other munchers had finished their meal. They looked at Willy in confusion for a moment, but when the many heads in the monstrous blob started eating each other, they decided that Willy was a better meal. As soon as they got close to Willy and the column, they screamed in pain. Willy extended his hand, took a grab, and pulled them in. One after another, he absorbed all the munchers into himself. His face distorted in pain every time, but once he was done, he felt relieved and walked away from the column. His face lost that crying expression. His mouth twisted in a wicked grin. He had suffered for years; keeping those monsters inside him day after day was so painful; the lights, the electricity, the sun—it hurt so much. Only using some energy to create a blackout and letting those monsters out alleviated his suffering. As soon as the lights were out, he unloaded the monsters into the walls. Although every time he freed them, he had to fight to control them again. Luckily, hiding inside him was the only thing the monsters could do. When the lights came back, the monsters ran to the wall at the end of the hallway for refuge, attracted by the distribution of metal and electricity in the building. They fell for the trap every time. They circulated inside the walls until he used a small spark of energy to attract them and lock them down inside his ghostly body. He could do it all without raising any suspicion because no one wanted to be close to him. Crying Willy was a coward and a total asshole. He spent years and years collecting the energy of the living and the dead, all for this moment.
Unfortunately, Elizabeth tricked him, and he wasted a lot of energy, but there was still enough to complete his plans.
"That little bitch," he said, walking towards his room.