Ch 10, House of Anubis, opowiadania, Paragon & Osirian, Surviving Ouroboros
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Chapter 10: Rotting Hands
"I am going to kill you slowly and enjoy it," the voice promised coldly. The only light in the corridor came for the fiery sparks produced by her tormentor's knife scraping against the wall, as he walked towards her.
Turning left down the next corridor brought her to a dead end. It seemed that the faster she tried to run the slower she ran. No matter what she died it was as if the air was molasses. She could not breath, she was slowly suffocating as her lungs burned hellaciously within her chest.
She spun around in attempt to run down the other tunnel and instead came face to face with her nightmare.
"Did you really think that death would keep me from what was rightfully mine?" the Pharaoh mocked as he stepped towards her. His flesh was black and rotting in places, just as it had been the day he died. Pieces were sloughing from the grey muscles.
Before she could protest his touch, a rotting hand grabbed her by the neck and forced her up against a wall. Decaying lips inched closer to her tear stained face, as she struggled against the dead man with her all her might.
Spell after spell flashed through her mind and yet none took as her magic refused to surface.
Nina shot up in bed, her heart pounding ferociously from the nightmare.
"It's alright," Eddie assured as he appeared out of the darkness of her room, where he been watching her worriedly, and gently wrapped an arm around her. With his free arm he lifted the cover and slid into the bed next to her.
"What happened?" Nina asked as she look down at her scrapped up arms, "The last thing that I remember was that we were in the tunnels and-"
"You were bitten by an Ahti Scarab," he began, "From what I could glean from the clue you found, it starts the Trial of Fear. Anyway you passed out and I carried you back. The others are worried about you. Do you think you can manage classes today? 'Cause we can always tell Trudy that you're not feeling well, if it's too much."
Nina closed her eyes for a moment and was immediately transported back to wall with the dead Pharaoh, "NO! I-I don't want to be alone today. I-I'll go to classes, just let me grab a shower and get dressed. I'll meet you downstairs."
"Take your time you've still got a couple hours before breakfast even starts and Amber and the others are in my room with Fabian trying to figure out what's going on with the scarab," Eddie explained. With a kiss to her forehead he slid back out of the bed and left the room.
Knowing that she had a little more time than usual, Nina decided to indulge herself with a hot bath, in an attempt to soothe the aches that seem to rack her body.
It was, in a way, a method of therapy.
After locking the door, she stripped off her sweat-soaked sleepwear and stepped into the now full tub. With a deep sigh of relief, she allowed her tired body to sink into the relaxing heat of the water.
She could still feel the grasping feel of rotting skin on her body and so immediately set out to rectify the sensation. Thoroughly lathered, she scrubbed every inch of her body as she tried to concentrate on less morbid thoughts.
"I can make the pain stop," a voice whispered in her ear. Whipping towards the source of the sound, Nina found herself face to face with empty air.
'It's the trial, nothing more, it's the trial, nothing more. I can't let the fear get to me, it's the trial, nothing more,' she mentally chanted to herself.
Looking down into the now black water, Nina was confronted with the rotting face of the Pharaoh.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"It won't take much effort, all you have to do is STOP BREATHING!" the whisper suddenly morphed into a shouted demanded as the light bulb in the center of the ceiling shattered, raining shards of glass over her body.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH," she screamed loudly, unstopping as she realized that she could no longer move her arms within the water. It was like her body was frozen in place. She couldn't escape the monsters innumerable hands as what felt like several slimy, fingers wrapped around her limbs and throat, pulling her deeper and deeper into the thick black blood.
The lights over the vanity quickly followed their counterparts, as Nina tried desperately to escape the water as it turned to cement, the weight of the thickening liquid pulling her further under.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" she continued as the sludge began to cover her sinking face, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA GUH!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The piercing continuous scream echoed, throughout the entire house, waking up even the most lackadaisical boarders.
"Where is that infernal racket coming from?" Jerome demanded irritably as he joined his housemates as they congregated in the girls' corridors.
"Not sure, but seeing as everyone else is out here, I would say it is Nina is screaming in the bathroom," Mara explained as Victor backed the boys away from the door after handing Trudy the bathroom key.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH,"
"Christ above, she's a fucking banshee!" Joy complained as Trudy frantically tried and retried the key, only to find that it wouldn't open the lock.
"Victor! It's not unlocking! Are you sure this is the right key?" Trudy asked panicked as the scream continued.
"Move out of the way! I'll open the door," Eddie ordered as he pushed Trudy out of the way.
"MR. MILLER! You will NOT be barging into the girl's loo!" Victor admonished with a growl.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA GUH!"
Everyone in the hall stood stock still as the silence from the lack of screaming descended over them.
"It was probably just a spider," Jerome rolled his eyes, "Girls can be so dramatic."
Most of the girls in the hall turned and glared at him.
"Ms. Martin?" Victor called through the bathroom door, "Can you please unlock the door?"
Silence.
"Ms. Martin? Please stop this foolishness!" Victor demanded.
"MOVE!" Khai snarled, his voice nearly animalistic as he pulled a fist back, as if he were going to punch through Victor's head.
Dodging out of the way just in time to avoid the young man's fist, Victor was left wide eyes as the solid wooden door was blasted off its hinges and flat to the floor from a single punch.
Khai vaulted through the doorway and nearly cried out himself, as he saw Amneris' face inches below the water level of the bath tub, a slow stream of bubbles trailing from her mouth.
"Oh god!" Trudy cried out as she reached the edge of the tub. Working together they lifted her out of the tub, wrapping her with a towel that had been sitting on the toilet, probably waiting to be used by Nina when she got out of the bath.
"Is she breathing?" Trudy asked as she looked at her young charge's death white skin.
"Yes, she's breathing," Eddie sighed with relief. She'd only stopped screaming twenty seconds before he'd pulled her from the tub.
The female occupants of the house were crowded around the doorless entry, as Victor ushered the boys down the stairs, and away from the naked Ms. Martin.
"What happened?" Mara whispered horrified as she and Joy saw the shattered light bulbs. What was even more concerning were the numerous, large hand-shaped bruises that were appearing on every visible inch of their unconscious friends throat, arms and ankles.
"Not sure, she was unconscious in the tub when we got – OH MY," Trudy exclaimed.
Before the house mother could finish her explanation, she saw that Nina has opened her eyes and was staring blankly towards the bathtub.
"Nina? Sweetie? Are you alright?" Trudy asked slowly, hoping not to startle the poor girl.
"Khai? I don't want to die, Khai," she whispered dully, as if she were talking about something as plebeian as the weather. Her eyes never left the tub, or more specifically the faucet, which was still dripping, "He tried to kill me. I don't want to die, Khai. Don't let him kill me, not again. Never again, Khai. Please."
"Shhh, it's alright. You're fine," Eddie tried to reassure her as she continued to stare at the dripping faucet.
"Nina? Sweetheart, can you tell me what happened?" Trudy tried carefully, she'd never had to deal with anything like this before.
"He wants to kill me, he's angry that I tricked him, he's so angry. He told me to stop breathing. That I belong to him and that he'll be back to take what's his.- Ungh. OW my head! Where am I? What happened?" Nina asked as she sat up and found herself wrapped in a towel on the bathroom floor, next to a broken door and surrounded by Eddie, Trudy and the other girls.
The last thing she remembered was being pushed by rotting hands into cement. Shuddering at the thought, she tried to stand up and nearly fell back into the tub.
Stopping she stared at the faucet of the bath again. It was rhythmically dripping, fat drops of red liquid into the lukewarm bath.
"Is that…blood?" Amber spoke up from where she was standing with a speechless Patricia.
Before anyone could answer, Eddie reached into the water and yanked the plug from the drain.
"Probably just rust," he answered, "Let's get Nina back to her room, so she can get ready for school."
Trudy had tried protesting. Insisting that Nina should stay home and rest after her ordeal. Nina quickly countered this, saying that she was fine and that she had only slipped in the tub.
Before the house mother could protest more, the girl in question had hurried from the house with her book bag, and was quickly followed by several of her house mates.
As they were walking across the lawn, Nina found herself confront by her worried friends.
"What the hell happened?" Patricia asked as she walked alongside her friend, "Anything to do with the bug thing Amber and Alfie were going on about last night?"
Nina merely nodded, she was still shaken by the hallucination, if that was what if really was.
"Was it a nightmare?" Amber asked, "I saw a HUGE spider once, it was like the size of my face, and I had a nightmare about it crawling on me. Was it like that?"
The ridiculous innocent association brought the traumatized Paragon out of her daze, "No, Amber it wasn't like that at all. I thought Fabian explained this too you guys."
"He tried, we didn't understand a word he said," Alfie announced, earning a humph from the annoyed Fabian. The usually meek boy had been withdrawn since he had broken up with his girlfriend, especially since she was now openly in a relationship with his best friend.
"I told you, Nina was bitten by the Ahti Scarab, which injects a potent and continuous venom that contains a neurotoxin that stimulates the amygdala. In turn the amygdala releases a chemical that is similar in molecular structure and has the same physiological reaction as an improper dosage of Lysergic acid diethylamide. It is rumored to be created and controlled by Ahti the Egyptian goddess of fear. What about that wasn't clear?" Fabian reiterated irritably.
The entirety of Sibuna merely stopped and stared at him as if he had grown another head.
"All of it," Eddie announced as he shook his head to remove the webs of confusion, "Anyway, to put it in layman's terms, Nina got bitten by a bug that burrowed under her skin and isn't going to die for six days. For those six days she's going to be having hallucinations as if she were on a bad acid trip."
The previously confused group murmured their understanding as they continued their walk towards the school.
"That's what I JUST said!" Fabian exclaimed, nearly twitching.
"No, you said the Ati Scab has pot venom that has a newrowtoxin that stemates the amigy thingy and that is has a structure with a reaction like Listerine death and is made by a fear goddess," Amber replied, "Eddie said that Nina got bit by a drug bug and is seeing scary things. That's much easier to understand."
Everyone stared at Amber this time, "How about we just get to class, you guys are bad enough without missing out on anymore education," Fabian grumbled as he walked ahead of them.
Intriguing.
Intriguing was the best was to describe the events in the girls bathroom this morning.
Jerome once again found himself confronted by yet another weird occurrence. What really cinched his decision to follow the new mystery was that the strange occurrence had happened to one of the people he knew to be involved in the group that was responsible for his loss of memory.
Even if it was the last thing he did, he would find out what they were up to as well as recovering the lost time.
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