The murder card

Dear diary, hours of preparation went by fast, and midnight was just upon us, so we could not stall any longer. I felt heavily underprepared and I think I wasn’t the only one. This was thrown together to fast and now, I am sure it won’t go down as smoothly as hoped. In the darkness of the night and the light of street light, Quin and I observe their building, not wanting to go inside. We had to, no other choice was left. The coldness of air boosted us and awoke me from deep thoughts and so we went it. Others followed. Are we leading them to certain death? At that point, I was unsure. But still, it was better than just giving up. If faith so decides for us to fall, we will not fall easily. If I fall, I fall down fighting. Hope everyone thinks the same, especially skeptical Quin. She is greatly needed because of her knowledge. The moment I take my first step into the building, I am overwhelmed with dark chills, haunted by the lives lost in here. I get gut wrenching feeling more will be lost soon. I need to try my best to insure it won’t be me. I’m still not ready for death and I fear I might never be. Instantly it was known we have arrived, a small, not so loud alarm went off, informing everyone in the building. Guards came quickly, before anyone even said a word. They shoot two of our people right there on the spot. My heart starts to wildly racing of fear, that I might be next. The cuff the rest of us. “Where are the others?!” One of the guards yells at us. “Outside. Terrified to come in.” I answer, as brave as I could, even though I was well aware my voice was shaking. “Tell them to come in! We aren’t doing this outside, for everyone to see!” He yells back at me. I pretended to hesitate with his orders, but soon I gave the rest orders to go in. I could see fear in their eyes and terror when they saw the dead bodies. Out of intimidation, the guards shoot two more people. I cringe. Everyone was scared, scared that this might not work. In seconds, everyone gets cuffed and the guards look at our faces carefully. “One of you is missing.” The tall guard says. Rei, he means Rei. Of course they would know about him. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have gotten this far. “No, this is everyone.” I answer back, hoping he will believe my lie. He didn’t. “Don’t lie to me. Where is the guy?” He angrily asks. “I don’t know who you mean.” I bluntly answer back, which just made him madder. He struck my face, hard. For a moment I only see black and hear ringing in my ears. For a brief, very brief and short moment, I forget where I am. Then the pain of the blow caught up with my brain, reminding me of my situation. “Addilyn!” I hear Quin shriek in the near distance. Hold it together addilyn, just hold it together, I tell myself. “You better not pull of one of your funny tricks.” The guard who hit me threatens. “Or else?” Quin says back, now a little braver. I don’t know if she was pretending or was she really done with fear. He doesn’t answer back. Instead he informs his fellow guards, we have been caught. Soon, more of them come. We wait for Rei to trigger the fire alarm system, but so far, nothing has happened. Our faith was in his hands. The elevator dings. More guards come. Now our numbers were almost even, so I worry. Some of us won’t be able to defend themselves. How could they when they barely know how to use a gun. At least half of these people are in great trouble. I didn’t know how to help and before I could come up with a solution, the guard who struck me grabs me and Quin and takes us on the elevator., separated from the rest. She was keeping quiet, but I sure wasn’t. If I have to be forced like this, by him, I surely will make this difficult for him. “Where are we going?” I ask. He merely grunts in response. “I asked you a question.” Another displeased grunt followed in response. “You don’t get to ask question.” He eventually answers with a deep and raspy voice. I try breaking of my cuffs, knowing very well I can’t. He gets mad and struck me again. This time, I don’t hold back. I kick him hard, just below the knee. He stumbles, but that was probably just because of shock. Just as he tries to hit me again, the elevator doors open and we are just one floor above Ian. Alarm was beeping, we saw smoke. Rei did it. But luck was still not on our side, when the guard chose to ignore the smoke and the warning alarm. He was so big, bigger than Quin and I combined. Even she, who was tall looked small compared to him. Smoke was getting heavier, making it hard for us to breathe. Could this be real smoke? Real fire? It almost seemed to realistic. I couldn’t imagine Reis’ replica would be this good. The smoke was blurring my vision and my mind. We were walking down a long hallway and I could barely see my surrounding. We soon reach giant, steel door. The guard opens it, using his finger print. He throws us in a cold and steel room, with no ventilation and no escape. He locks the door, making it official we were in trouble. We try figuring out the escape, but there was none. There was nothing in there that could help us, nothing but us and smoke slowly creeping its way in. Quin starts to panic. I try to keep calm but how could I? We knew panic wouldn’t solve anything, but then again, not much will. “Rei? Rei can you hear us? Can anyone hear us?” I say, hoping someone could come help us. We nervously wait for response, hoping Rei hasn’t gotten caught. “What’s going on? Did it work?” We finally hear him talk and I feel a little bit relieved. I explain our situation. He tried to get the door opened, but nothing worked. We needed help from someone in the building and who was able. None was. Everyone was fighting their own battle and many died. Clock was ticking and every minute was getting harder than the one before it. It was getting more and more foggy in our cell, making it hard to breathe. Just then, we became sure that real fire is on the other side of the door. I touch the door and its burning hot. “Rei stop it! We’ll suffocate in here!” Quin yells. “I’m trying my best. We started a fire to try to melt the door but clearly it’s not working!” Rei nervously responds. I was starting to feel sick and coughing heavily. We both did. My body was getting smudged on the inside, making my lungs infested. I look over to Quin and see she’s not doing any better. This is it, this is what my bad feeling was warning me about. So this is how it ends for me? Trapped and slowly dying? No! It can’t be! Not now, not right now! I was barely breathing when I collapsed on the floor. I see Quin struggling, at least she was holding up better than me. Next thing I know, I see white crystal ceiling above my head. I feel my body, laying on the floor. “Am I dead? Is this afterlife?” I say confused, under my breath. I get up, trying to make sense of what’s going on around me. I see familiar faces staring at me. I look at my left and see Quin, alive and well. Well not so well, she’s looked better, but at least she’s breathing. “What happened?” I asked, with a sore throat and very raspy voice. “Rei sent us.” A dark skinned, very thin man answers me. “We heard you were trapped and we were the closest.” The other man who got us, answers. He held a human hand in his hand. He told me it was from one of the guards. “Of course, you needed the right finger prints to open the door.” I figure out. How very clever of them, I think to myself. I was still feeling foggy and raspy, but at least I was alive. I ask about Ian. He is still locked. “So I go get him.” I say, while stumbling up, barely standing still. “Are you sure you are able?” One of them asks me. “Yes of course.” I strongly reply. “If not, one of use can get him. Soon we help others.” The tall man replies. “No, it’s fine. I can handle it.” I say while trying to catch my breath. “Okay.” He says and turns towards Quin and his friend. “So four others are trapped downstairs and two are badly hurt. Quin can you handle that?” He asks and she quickly assures him. “So let’s go.” The shorter man says. We quickly go towards the elevator, luckily it was still working. “Good luck!” I hear Quin say, but before I could answer, the elevator doors close and I’m left standing alone. With the severed hand of unlucky guard in one hand a gun in another, I went on to find Ian. The floor still had smoke, which made it harder to see. Most of its lights went off, those who worked, flickered. I see flames burning in the distance. There were many rooms and I didn’t know where he was, so I started checking every one of them. Everything was quiet, like a soul never existed here. Everything was empty and dark, first few rooms were just long abandoned offices. I decide to try my luck with the room at the very end of hallway. It was different from the rest, being the only one with heavy, double door. As I am walking towards it, I hear a sound. Footsteps, behind me. I turn around but I don’t see anything. I wasn’t sure if the sound was real or just my mind playing tricks. I look around though smoked floor and see nothing. I get going towards the last room, with the biggest doors when I hear footsteps again. I turn around and see a figure, lurking, hiding in fiery remains. It was big, tall, muscular. I didn’t see clearly, but I was sure I just found Stan, who we thought was lost. “Stan?” I say, hoping he is okay, but something seemed different about him. He steps closer and see he is no longer the same man we all knew. What was standing before me was a monster, conducted from our worst nightmares. He was taller, much taller, four meters at least. His legs were no longer human. I couldn’t see them clearly, but to me, they looked like legs of a small dinosaur. His arms were more muscular than of any human on Earth. Through the smoke I was clearly able to see him yellow, snake like eyes, staring right at me. We lock eyes, and he lets out a gruesome roar, one that no human was capable of. He roars again, lowering his body, so our faces are at the same height. His mouth was open, filled with razor sharp teeth, which were dripping bloody saliva. Stench coming from his mouth was indescribably horrible and raw. He found another prey and that prey was me. Then I knew, his strong, loyal and caring personality was gone. His soul now matched his monstrous look. I slowly and carefully take a step back, tightly gripping my gun. Suddenly it felt small. He doesn’t move. Neither do I. Then I take another slow step back. Then another. He was still just staring at me. I grip my gun even tighter, so I am ready for a very likely attack. I wasn’t so close anymore, maybe three meters away.I step back even further when he lets out another horrifying and loud roar. He runs towards my direction, aiming for me. I start shooting at him, hoping I could hurt him badly. I just shoot and shoot. I get lucky. Bullets hit him hard enough he stops. I see green liquid flowing over the floor. That must be his blood now. I see his right arm is hurt and so is his right yellow eye. I quickly run towards the room at the end, before he attacks again. I quickly press the dead head on the plate as hard as I can. “Come on, come on.” I nervously say to myself, while looking back at what Stan is doing. Finally, doors open. I quickly slip in the room when I see Stan running towards me. I shoot, while I wait for the doors to close. He was close, very close. Finally, they close and I hear his massive body hit them, leaving a big dent in them. He tries breaking it, but it holds. I don’t know what I would have done if he did manage to get them down. I was safe from him at least for now, but still I was trapped. I look around and see I found myself in a massive room. Not even a room, more like a hall or a gym. It was dark, barely any light. I see human like figure, hiding in the corner. It must be Ian, who else could it be. I run towards the shadowy figure. He flinches and turns around. I was right, it was him, but in the worst shape I have ever seen him. His eyes were sunken in, so were his cheeks. His lips were chapped and dry, his skin, pale. He had dark bags under his bloody eyes. He was nothing more than skin and bones, a human on a verge of death. I kneel down and touch him. He flinches and lets out a sound of agony. He begs me not to touch him. Why, I ask. “I know you are not real.” He answers, frightened. As he answers me, he starts to cry. I hadn’t a clue on what they were doing to him, so I wasn’t sure what to say, to make him believe me. “Ian, of course it’s really me.” I answer back. “You pulled this trick before. I’m not falling for it again.” He answers with determination. He was delusional and I had no other choice but to drag him out of there. “Where are we going? Where are you taking me?” He was asking me while barely standing. He tried to fight back, but his body was to weak. He was barely conscious and he was only able to speak in gibberish. We reach the door, but because of Stan, we couldn’t just walk out of there. I sit Ian down, in a corner, next to the door, so if Stan bursts in the room, he won’t see him. At least not right away. I stand in front of the door, reloading my gun, ready for that thing, waiting outside. I open the door. Stan jumps in the room, roaring like a mead beast. I shoot and shoot, aiming for his eyes. His strong body falls down, but he is still moving, struggling to breathe. He appeared to no longer be a threat, but I shoot few bullets anyways. “Ian get up!” I yell. Confused he does and I drag us out of that dark room. I close the door, leaving Stan trapped, hoping it is no longer alive. We start to walk towards the elevator, when I heard a loud bang on the door. Stan was still alive and furious as he could be. Doors could give out any second, so we run, as fast as Ian could. I press the elevator button but it doesn’t come. I press it over and over again, more nervous every time. I hear Stan throwing itself on the door. They start to give in. “Come on, come on!” I say nervously. Finally, the elevator comes. Suddenly, I hear a loud thud. I look back and see Stan took down the door. He was bleeding, but that didn’t stop him. He charges towards us, but we were already in the elevator. I shot towards him, but nothing is stopping him. The elevator door close. It bends against the force of Stan’s weight. But we managed to escape. Now all we have to do is go through the lobby and we are out. I look at Ian and he is barely standing, mumbling something I could not understand. He was a shell of who he once was. Whatever they were doing to him, it got to him. I hug him tightly and he collapses in my arms. ”We are almost out.” I whisper in his ear. “I can’t do this anymore.” He quietly says back. We arrive but the door has trouble opening, so we struggle to get out. The lobby was empty, but still we rushed towards the exit. All of a sudden, I hear a woman’s voice. “Hold it!” I turn around and see Lola standing right in front of me. “You are not going anywhere.” She says with an angry, cold voice. We were so close, just a few more steps and we would be out. I thought about just running but I was sure that this time, they wouldn’t mind chasing us in the street. Right then I knew, there was only one option left. I was facing her, staring into her eyes. I could see the rage in them. I slowly take a step back. I quickly push him out through the shattered glass door and he rolls onto the street. The only way for Ian to get out was for me to surrender. He was why we came. They needed him more than they needed me. I knew I had no chance for escape, so I didn’t try. I didn’t resist when Lola’s guards roughly grabbed me. Why would I? I didn’t know what will happen to me, all I knew that it will not be good. I hear Lola say, “Get the boy”. But he was gone, nowhere to be seen. I don’t know how, he couldn’t have ran away, so someone must have been close, waiting for us. At least they have their leader back. I could see Ian getting away made her mad. “How?!” She yells at the guards, without getting an answer. Then she screams at me, for an explanation. “I don’t know!” I yell back. I won’t have her talk to me this way. My loud response was something she didn’t expect and certainly something she didn’t like. “Take her to my room. I’ll handle this.” She calmly but strictly orders her men. Chills run down my spine when I hear those words.