Red

by Adriano Silva

not figure out where the survivors were, but they also could not stay there for long, as Red would search every corner of the house and soon would find them, all together.

  Once they stabilized and tried to calm, sitting on the couches, Kazuo advanced towards Vanessa and the other girls, taking the gun and pointing to Jonas followers firmly and angered.

  Before anyone could question the attitude, the young man said:

  "You doped us, picked us up somehow in our camp, brought us here to turn into sacrifice of a madman who was dressed in doctor and now everyone can die at the hand of a doll with life ... I'm tired of this madness!

  I waited until now thinking it was a dream, a joke, anything about to end, so we could go home happy ... But as nothing happened, it is time for you to stand face to face with the thing outside.

  You are to blame for bringing us here, then you go out there to find the key and open the door to end this crazy game.

  And whoever stays will get a bullet to the chest! And this gun still has enough ammunition for each of you! ".

  Vanessa, Lisa and Linda were inert, shocked with such reasoning, then they looked at each other and did not have to say anything to have agreed with everything he said.

  Linda hit the room door switch and then the passage opened for them to leave, fearful, trembling.

  The four Jonas followers would have no choice but to go out and come face to face with fear.

  Once the passage closed behind them, they had to face the difficult decision of chosing the better way to search for the key.

  If they were in a group, as they were, and Red found them in the way, the four would die.

  It was up to them to separate and search the house, covering more ground and increasing the chance of most survivors.

  It was likely that one or more of them would die, but while one could be caught, another would be free to search a little more.

  Red’s Game.

  The first of Jonas assistants left the greenhouse, went straight, trembling, taking leave of the companions and going to the door behind the stairs of the hall as everyone scattered to different parts of the house.

  Behind the stairs were the doors leading to the library, large and full of books.

  He thought that, being so great, probably the old Jonas would not use the place to read, maybe even more to hide any treasure or house keys.

  Tim was the name of the survivor, a relatively young and greedy man.

  He was not bad at first, but loved the idea of getting out of poverty, which wasn’t such problem, but he worked towards dark paths and, when noticed, was already following Jonas and getting to know the most gruesome ways of getting what they wanted.

  When Jonas promised that he and the others would get the unimaginable after making sacrifices for the unknown, he had no problem helping capture the young people at the camping site.

  Now he entered the library, feeling the weight of his past mistakes, stepping slowly not to make any noise in case Red was ahead, between the cabinets full of books.

  Past the table and sofas for reading, Tim was trembling and looking at every corner, knowing that the beast might have been there or even be there, playing with him.

  Little by little, he walked to the deepest part, where were the least touched books, texts on the occult practices of the Jonas family and old reports made by them.

  This part was mainly touched by Jonas, and much of the texts were hard to understand, but would contain all information about the doll hunting them.

  In the library deeps, Tim now knew he had to seek the key between the books and, when tired, would opt for the second plan, which he had just created.

  Even without the key, if he could decipher the texts of Auro, it would be relatively simple to know the weakness of Red, which served to put an end to him or stop his madness.

  The search began to accelerate, become more urgent as the paranoid mind made the man think he heard sounds coming out there, possibly steps.

  Book by book, Tim began to lose his patience, letting books fall, looking inside them and on the shelves, hoping to find, at any time, a small metal object.

  When the hand went through the hidden writings, he completely discouraged to seek the key and preferred to spend time reading, shaking and sweating, seeking an explanation, a text that was not coded or an image to guide him.

  There was something moving, but it was not possible to know if I was close or not, he only felt that movement without knowing if anything would come through the door in the next second.

  Turning a few pages, there was the design of the macabre doll, with details of those iron bracelets that were attached to his arms.

  Tim peered drawings, sketches showing how the creature had a series of blades in those huge bracelets.

  They were like two toolboxes working at the doll’s will, carrying different kinds of cuts for each need.

  But as artisan, this trait was contained in it, part of its original nature, its ability to make the horror.

  The book didn’t tell the doll's reason to have those weapons always with him, and why the Auro haven’t tried to remove the bracelets when imprisoned Red in this foreign body.

  That moment, seeing those drawings was a time when Tim forgot the area around him, focusing on what he saw, trying to gather information.

  And finishing to look at those figures, before turning over another page, a voice came from behind his left shoulder:

  "Calm down, it will only be a little prick ...".

  The macabre tone of voice, echoing through the library.

  Red was behind Tim, beginning to hold his chest with one arm while the other was in his back, down the center of the trunk.

  There was the blade noise before Tim had time to react, then something went through his back to pierce and break the flesh forward, passing through him, as an injection, but the most painful of his life.

  It was a thick needle, immense, going through Tim’s body like a thin stake, causing too much pain to move, but still keeping him alive.

  Tim screamed like never before, feeling the hot, red liquid running down the leg.

  Still screaming, Red removed the needle, turned the man to him, still standing, then its huge bracelets prepared another two blades, thin as daggers, equal to the one used against Jonas.

  Red moved his arms like a swarm of bees going back and forth, piercing the flesh with speed as he counted each attack.

  When the count reached 13, Tim fell, still with a remnant of life, for all the attacks were in a matter of seconds.

  Pain threw the man in a permanent horror, like being hugged by a body of ice, freezing up to the center of the body.

  With the rest of consciousness that he had, Tim realized that Red had pierced his body and dodged vital points, avoiding immediate death, so he could feel what he was feeling and his cries alerted the others, echoing through the mansion.

  As his eyes began to lose vision, he could see before him, that macabre doll still there, watching everything and, as his life was fading, the holes, Red’s eyes, lit up as if containing a flame of ruby like color.

  Tim faded out, as the eyes of Red, who took the writings of Auro family and threw them on the blood spilled on the ground, destroying everything it had written there.

  The macabre figure, then, went to hunt in the other rooms.

  In the refuge, the young group intensified the silence and trembling after hearing the thunderous cry of the man who had just lost his life.

  Now it was them who felt increasingly paranoid, hearing movement beyond the secret passage, vibrations, something approaching, making Kazuo tighten his hand to the gun, trying to stop shaking.

  But was not yet for them to be the next case of horror.

  Red, after years without doing what he did best, felt the body different as he ended whith Tim, as if he became more intense, freer, stronger.

  For every person he hunted, he would be more ghost and less doll, what he wanted from the beginning, going back to be
ing who he was for centuries.

  A Jonas follower, Edgar had gone up the stairs looking for the key, for he believed that the object was in one of the towers, in the rooms where they put the group of young people, as the old Jonas liked to spend the night in those rooms admiring sky and horizon.

  While searching in the first room, he heard the cry of his companion, distant, but could not identify which one was nor the precise direction. But he knew he was far away from the death scene and could use some time to search around.

  Edgar was the most curious among others, having joined Jonas by curiosity and desire to sink into the most hidden side of reality.

  Like all cultists, he saw his work as a religion, a feat that would change his world and, perhaps, the world around him.

  It was now proven that everything would actually change, but never the way he wanted, or that anyone wanted.

  Edgar had not many options in addition to finding that little metallic object inside any drawer, behind any frame or under any decoration, but after much searching, was left for him to see the second tower, which had easy access, thanks to the bridge linking towers.

  Opening the door, he ran quickly to the other tower, slowing down in the middle of the bridge to see if he heard or saw any sign of the presence of his pursuer.

  Once slowed, he seemed to hear the sound of furniture being pulled , which made him turn backwards, trying to see someone coming from where he came from, since everything there was left out of place.

  Carefully, Edgar opened the door to the next tower, shivering, watching as everything was empty, with only four beds together, where young people