Stay With Me

Every step felt like Masaru was wading through knee-deep mud. His throat was burning at its edges, as though he himself was screaming. Clawed, invisible fingers lined with chipped nails pulled at his insides. Tears burned across his face with a scorching malice.

The eyes were waiting for him.

Something was very wrong.

Whoever she was, her screams had devolved into hysterical terror that was rattling the very walls.

Masaru reached the hallway corner and could see that Room 109’s door was ajar. Unrelenting, malicious screams radiated from the partial opening. Vibrant crimson light poured out, painting the carpet and wall in glowing fury. The eyes basked in the glow and beckoned Masaru forward.

He knew he had to keep going. Whatever awaited, it felt as though the eyes wanted him to see. He wondered if they wanted him to stop what was about to happen.

Instinct and self-preservation fell away, and Masaru dug his way forward as every inch of his skin began to burn with the sensation of being pricked by thousands of invisible needles. Sickness lurched from his stomach and hung in his throat. The screams were deafening now.

He reached the door, and the eyes faded. Shaking, drenched fingers slowly extended to the waiting wood. Before he pushed, he removed his right shoe and slid it in the doorway’s crack, guaranteeing that it wouldn’t close on its own. Once his wedge was in place, his palm pressed onto the door.

Screams exploded like winds, pushing the door back against him. But he continued to push, slowly grimacing as he leveled his shoulder into the barricade. After a grunt of exertion, his feet planted, and the door slowly opened.

That was when he saw her.

Red currents dripped from her wrist. Vomit as dark as ink bubbled and spewed from her mouth, sending chunks of undigested food onto her grey gown as strings of bile drooped from wrinkled lips. Convulsions shook her aged body as her head twitched and arced towards the ceiling.

It was the old woman from the window.

Behind her, the hand bed’s mattress was burning.

A small but concerning flame was building on the fabric of the comforter, casting hateful yellow and orange highlights along her body’s edges as she continued to scream in terror and hate.

“No!!” Masaru shouted as he rushed forward.

Every flicker of firelight glinted across the mural's eyes, which never looked away from Masaru or the woman.

His hands reached for her just as her gaze lowered to see him. When she looked down, he saw that both eyes were fully red. Every vessel in the whites of her eyes had ruptured, spilling crimson across their domain and down from her lids.

Then she realized he was there, and she let out another scream that gathered into a sound stronger than any passing train Masaru had ever heard. His teeth bared in pain as his eyes narrowed.

Panicked hands rushed upwards to push him away as her voice devolved into a lost, manic howl. Nails clawed at skin. Slaps struck bone. Masaru screamed as he ripped himself from her grasp.

The flame was building now.

Smoke began to billow.

It reached the smoke detector, and an alarm triggered.

Horns screeched and melded with her cries, until Masaru heard nothing but the forsaken harbingers of Hell calling out for him as he tore his jacket from his body to pat the flame away.

But it was too late. The sprinklers activated.

Pipes muttered warnings of what was to come. Rattles sounded out as the ceiling lurched to life and prepared its release. Nozzles sputtered then moaned in awakening, as the former safety system ejaculated its cursed offering. Vile, long stagnant fluids ruptured from the heads, sending their ink-like, clumpy, putrid secretions down into the room.

Masaru screamed out once more as the wretched, fetid water soaked him. Scents from deathly realms coated them both as they each cried out.

Delirium took hold, and Masaru once again reached for her, but she screamed in terror and began to climb into the bed of flame that was not yet extinguished.

“STOP!!!” Masaru screamed.

Teeth sank into his outstretched hand. Wild, red eyes glared at him as she shouted and tried to free himself. Her bite was too strong. Pain cut up his wrist and into his elbow, but he continued to pull. If she wouldn’t release, this would have to be how he got her from the bed.

Then her gaze shifted to the mural eyes, and a new fear ensnared her. His hand was freed as she once again began to weep, raising her hands to shield herself from the eyes. More fluids sprayed down, sending gags of revulsion into Masaru’s seizing stomach.

“I’m trying to help you!!!! Please stop!!!”

Enough rancid water had been released. The flame faded. The sprinklers stopped. Now only the screams remained.

Her eyes never looked away from the mural. But her panic gave Masaru enough time to desperately envelop her in his arms and drag her from that room. Black streaks smeared along the unblinking art as he pulled the woman from the bed and out the door in hopes of calming her.

To his great relief, it did.

As soon as they were out of the room, her terror turned to grief, and the screams returned to weeping. Hollow, exhausted, broken sobs sounded out as Masaru pulled her close for safety and fell into the hall.

His cheekbone struck the ground first, fully absorbing the concrete subfloor’s feedback. White flashes sprayed across his vision, and his eye rolled fully back in confusion.

Darkness arrived.

But he had to continue.

He had to get her from that room.

Squeezes on his arm told him that she was no longer fighting him, instead clinging to him like he was the only thing tethering her to this world. Warm blood flowed from her wrist and onto his sleeve.

“Hold on! H-Hold on! I’ll get you out of here!!” Masaru stammered as half of his vision vanished.

The hallway stretched for miles. None of the other sprinklers had activated. Everything else looked calm and normal. Rooms repeated themselves. Eminence from the track lighting felt cruel. They crawled for days and lifetimes and seconds.

Her grip began to soften.

Then the hallway opened up, and they collapsed into the lobby. Masaru let out a shout of pain as he once again absorbed the fall himself, carefully cradling her head as he collapsed.

Darkness consumed his unwell eye and began to spill over.

“No!! No! Stop!! Please stop!!!!” Masaru begged.

Lurching gags returned his focus to her as he felt her hand fall away from his arm.

Looking down at her revealed that her ruptured eyes were drooping closed as tension faded from her body. Violent spasms shook her body as her arms pulled in to cover herself. Bloody tears streaked her soiled face as every muscle began to shake with death throes.

“Oh shit. Oh gods. No. No, no, no…” Masaru whimpered as he slowly laid her onto the floor.

Choking sobs shook her chest as fading vision sent final, confusing signals into her mind. Drops of black spittle flung from her lips as she wept with weaker and weaker force.

Masaru’s hands raised to her mouth to part her lips, and she no longer fought him.

Horrified fingers dug into her mouth to scrape away the chunks of vomit and mass. He needed to clear her airway.

Breaths faded between every inhale and exhale. Weaker and weaker they became, until they were nothing more than a rattle.

“Stay with me, okay? Stay with me. You’re going to be okay. Everything’s going to be okay, he cried as his index finger hooked more chunks of unknown substance away.

But her breathing stopped.

A last, faint exhale forced its way from her lips as a final tear streaked her sunken cheek. Then she went limp.

PICK

Masaru paused to listen.

“Oh shit. Oh shit.”

Palms overlaid on her chest, and he began compressions. Then his lips met hers as he tried to push his own air into her lungs.

Fifteen chest presses.

Breathe.

Fifteen more.

Breathe.

Fifteen chest presses.

Breathe.

Fifteen more.

Breathe.

Fifteen chest presses.

Breathe.

Fifteen more.

Breathe.

Masaru was now also weeping as he tried to save the woman. But it didn’t work. The puddle of blood that had pooled at her wrist was simply too big.

She wasn’t responding.

Masaru continued trying to give her CPR for another ten minutes before he accepted defeat.

She was dead.

By the time dawn broke over the rooflines of the surrounding buildings, sirens were silently casting their own light onto the tiles and shingles. Within Warm Embraces, the corpse of the elderly woman was loaded into the stretcher to be taken away. Horrified, confused family members arrived with the police. Masaru was left traumatized, shocked, disgusted, and filthy as he was questioned, calmed, and ultimately thanked.

Those same police officers were there, and Masaru found himself staring at them without blinking as he imagined drowning all three of them in a vat of whatever disgusting water was now clinging to him.

As paperwork was filed and the body was rolled away, Masaru removed his cell phone and tried to call his office. Once more, no one answered.