The Storyteller of Pain

by Loren Molloy

  “Someone... Please help me! Get me out of here!” Vincent screamed at the top of his lungs. He began kicking his feet against the steel locker door. Over and over again he kicked at the door and screamed for help. Suddenly, he heard a door open from somewhere. It had to be the door to the morgue. It slammed shut with such a loud bang. It was the heaviest door in the building. Vincent recognized it at once.

  “Help! I’m in here! Get me out!” He kept kicking at the locker door. He finally heard the sound of the morgue locker handle being jiggled and unlatched.

  “Oh thank goodness!” Vincent said as the locker door opened.

  Air and light came into the locker once again. Vincent took huge, deep, gulping breaths. The sound of maniacal giggling made Vincent look up and focus finally on who had released him from his metallic prison. Vincent froze in horror. If ogres were real, then there was one disgusting looking ogre standing in front of him, wearing a white lab coat. It was as tall as it was wide. It had the stench of rotten eggs and death on him. The smell wafted and overwhelmed Vincent like rotting garbage that had been left out in a heat wave. The smell almost made him throw up.

  The man-like creature had two very large bottom eye teeth that protruded over his upper lip. It was bald except for a few hairs sticking out of growths on the top of his head. His irises were a washed-out grey; the same color as a human’s when dead for a while. They were cloudy, murky, and lifeless. Where human’s eyes were white, this creature’s eyes were a yellow, almost mustard color.

  They were much like those of a person with severe jaundice. The man’s skin was as grey as his irises. He was still giggling in a most unnatural tone. He wiped his abnormally huge hands on the white lab coat leaving marks of blood in their place.

  “You’re next,” It said

  Vincent screamed, “No” as loudly as possible and tried to move, but couldn’t. The man began giggling again and turned. As he started to walk away, Vincent’s body followed behind him. He tried again to move but couldn’t. He had realized for the first time, he was stark naked, and even his necklace was missing. Only thing on his body was a toe tag.

  His body continued to move towards the morgue table. Vincent tried again and again to move. It was as if his entire body was paralyzed. The man-like creature stood in front of the examination table and with a flick of his finger gestured for Vincent’s body to be placed onto the table in front of him.

  Vincent felt the cold examination table against his back. The creature looked directly at Vincent for the first time. “Ever see an autopsy performed before, doctor?” The guttural voice asked him.

  Vincent’s eyes widened.

  “No huh? Well now you’ll get to experience it firsthand.” The creature picked up a scalpel.

  “First we begin with a Y incision which means we make a deep cut from the left shoulder to the center of your chest. Then we do the same with the right side. When those two lines meet, we cut straight down the middle in a single line until we get to your genitals. After that, we stretch open the flaps and get to take a peek inside.”

  “Noooo!” Vincent screamed

  “Oh yes. I’m absolutely certain that’s how it’s done. I just finished one, on one of the orderlies. For such a massive guy, he certainly didn’t last that long. All I got to do was the Y incision and pull out his intestines, and he was dead. I’m excited to see how long you survive. I’d like to get much farther this time, but alive or dead doesn’t really matter to me. It’s just more fun to do it while you mortals are alive. No matter. Your internal organs are delicious hot or cold. So let’s begin.” He cackled again.

  The ogre-like creature pushed the scalpel into his left shoulder right under his scapula. The pain and blood flowed from Vincent. The creature shuttered with sick pleasure and continued cutting down towards the center of Vincent’s breast bone. The blood was pouring out from the wound. The demon began licking and slurping it up off of Vincent. Its massive eyeteeth were covered in blood.

  “What delicious ambrosia!” It said after which it used its long, thin tongue, much as a snake has, and licked the blood from its enormous eye teeth. “Waste not want not, I always say!” The creature laughed heartily at his cleverness.“I love meat eaters. The high level of iron in your bloodstream always makes the blood extra decadent.”

  The demon began to cut into Vincent’s right side same as he did on the left. The long, thin, dark green tongue slithered out of its mouth, lapping up the blood that escaped from the wound. The demon shuttered with arousal again.

  The pain was overwhelming and Vincent realized he had been screaming at the top of his lungs non-stop. This only seemed to excite the creature more. It proceeded to continue the Y-incision straight down towards his pelvic bone, slowly and methodically.

  “Oooh. Look at all that lovely red nectar you mortals are filled with,” the creature said licking and slurping it up.

  Using his massive hands, the demon pulled back the skin from Vincent’s body with a sick maniacal giggle. Vincent’s eyes traveled down towards the wounds and saw blood flowing freely from it. The demon put his massive bloody hands onto Vincent’s ribcage and pulled it apart with one sickening, loud crack, making the ribcage look like strange wings protruding from the chest.

  Vincent screamed out violently. No human being should see their own heart pumping nor their own lungs working. The creature poked at both and watched with joy as Vincent gasped at the feeling. The ogre-like demon licked his fingers again, before grabbing hold of the Vincent’s large intestines. He pulled them out and lay them onto the table next to Vincent, but didn’t detach them.

  “Maybe if I don’t rip them clear out of your body, you’ll live longer through the examination.” The vile creature pondered out loud, looking back towards the last victim beginning to rot in the corner.

  The demon then picked up the stomach and shook it. He flipped it on top of the lungs making it harder to breathe. Vincent was losing consciousness. The room was beginning to get fuzzy. Vincent was awoken by the most excruciating pain imaginable.

  “Oh goody, you’re alive. Just in time to die!” The creature exclaimed. He had ripped out the man’s liver and was chewing on it. The demon swallowed what was left of it and then pulled out the man’s kidneys.

  “Yum. Yum. Yummy!” The demon was perched on the examination table hovering above Vincent’s body like a large, carnivorous vulture, devouring the man’s organs.

  The last thing poor Vincent saw, before the light left his eyes, was the demon slurping up his small intestines like angel hair spaghetti.

  The demon looked up and saw Vincent had died as he swallowed the last bit of the small intestines. He said, “Oh goody, goody! I love eating a cold heart.”

  The demon proceeded to consume the man’s flesh, blood, and organs until there was nothing left but broken bones. He threw those onto the pile of rotting corpses in the corner. He then got onto the still bloody examination table and went to sleep, with a stomach extremely full of people.

  “Delicious mortals.” It mumbled as it smacked its lips before falling fast asleep.

  John couldn’t hear the game show host demon over the loudspeaker anymore. That worried him. He ran faster towards the room where he had last seen Lily. He still had salt as well as the brick dust in his pockets and figured if that foul demon was still in there, he wouldn’t waste a second this time. He’d throw them both at him and get Lily out of there. John wasn’t going to even think about the condition Lily would be in if she was still in that room after all this time had passed. He just kept running and thinking repeatedly, ‘Be okay.’

  When he finally made it to the room, he threw the door open with one hand ready to throw the salt and brick dust mixture with the other but the creature wasn’t in there. The room smelled so vile. He ran inside and saw a pile of corpses in one corner. The smell was definitely coming from them. He forced himself to look at them. They were completely unrecognizable except for their scraps of clothing that remained. To his relief
, he didn’t see anything that was reminiscent of Lily’s clothes.

  John ran straight from there to Lily’s office hoping she was in there, but sadly after knocking with no answer and kicking in the door, he found that the room was empty. He broke the lock on the closet and got as much of the supplies from the boxes as possible. He was taking no chances this time.

  As John left Lily’s office, he heard the howls of the Hell Hound and the screams of people, seeming to come from all directions around him. Where could Lily be? John thought as the sounds of screaming got even louder in his head.

  Horrible images flashed through his mind one terrifying image after another. Images of that vile male incubus forcing himself on her, flashed through his head making his stomach clench with fear and fury.

  Images of the demon dog using her body as a chew toy flew into his mind. Then images of some of the extreme patients attacking her flew into his head. Oh, if the extreme patients got out of their section, she wouldn’t be able to protect herself from them with salt and brick dust. He heard Vincent’s voice say, ‘Different ammo for a different enemy. Oh Vincent, damn where are you man?’ John thought worried.

  A shrill scream of terror broke John from his thoughts. A smell of rotten eggs and decay filled the air as well as the screaming. John turned around to see a huge black mist forming behind him. A dense, black soot fog was manifesting in front of his eyes.

  The smell of decay and of rotting garbage was at an overwhelming level. Between the fear and the smell, John was sure he was going to throw up and clapped a hand over his nose and mouth. The black fog was so thick at this point, he couldn’t see the hallway behind it at all. A sound seemed to emerge from the fog itself. It was a horrible guttural growl. Worse than the growl from the demon dog. Worse than any animal he had ever heard.

  The dense dark fog seemed to manifest a thousand eyes, all glowing red. He was plastered in place with fear. A voice filled his mind with one statement.

  You’re Mine!

  Then all the red glowing eyes widened and one loud powerful roar filled the hallway and his mind. John clasped his hands to his skull in fear and pain. The fear from this was too overwhelming and forced his fight or flight instinct into action. He ran as fast as possible away from the smell, away from that roar, and away from that fog.

  He felt it right behind him. John wasn’t wasting time looking back. He just kept running as fast as possible. The screaming from people or entities was as unrelenting as was the foul smell of decay and rot. All he could think was ‘Run and keep running.’ He didn’t notice where he was running because it didn’t matter to him at that moment.

  Surviving was the only thought on his mind. As he turned a corner he crashed into Nurse Pergru, the massive Swede male nurse.

  “Run!” John screamed at him.

  The massive man latched onto his shoulders stopping him in his tracks.

  “Whoa. Run from what? There’s nothing behind you?” He asked looking confused.

  John turned his head and saw the man was right; no fog, no demonic black mist, not even a smell was with him any longer.

  “Oh thank goodness!” John almost collapsed with relief.

  “You’re ok now. I got you buddy! What were you running from anyhow?”

  “A horrible black mist that smelled like rotting corpses!” John exclaimed, panting and trying to catch his breath.

  “A black mist? Uh-huh! Ok well...” Nurse Pergru shrugged, looking at John like he was one of the patients instead of a sane man.

  “I’m serious! It was awful. This black mist became this black dense fog with what looked like a thousand glowing red eyes. It smelled like rotting bodies and rotting garbage all at once. It roared at me!” John said completely freaked out.

  “It had a thousand glowing red eyes... a fog roared at you? Oh brother, do you need a drink, or you should be cut off from drinking; one or the other,” He said in complete disbelief.

  “I’m serious!” John insisted, pissed.

  “Oh I know you are. That is what worries me. I don’t know what’s gotten into everyone. Why a flood has caused so many people into pure hysterics is beyond me! Even Doc Lily, who usually is the sanest person here, seems to have gone off her nut!”

  “Oh... you’ve seen Lily? Where is she? Is she ok?” John asked frantically

  “Yeah, I’ve seen her just a few minutes ago. She’s fine, besides being off her nut like everyone else seems to be. I left her with my secret stash of bourbon. Told her she could have as much as she wanted and to just sit and relax.”

  “Where? Where did you leave her?”

  “Relax Brother. I’ll take you to her and if there’s any left, you should probably have a large swig of it too!” Nurse Pergru laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.

  John sighed, “Yeah, that sounds like a fantastic idea.”

  As the two men walked down towards the basement, John noticed the building seemed suddenly quiet. The Hell Hounds stopped barking. The unnatural screaming had become silent. John suddenly felt as if he must have gone mad.

  “So where did you say Lily is?” John asked

  “So it’s true huh? You do have a thing for the Doc? I heard the rumor but couldn’t believe it,” Nurse Pregru said

  “What rumor?”

  “That you have this massive crush on the Doc; that ever since she got hurt and you had to go on protection detail, you’ve become obsessed with her.”

  “I don’t think obsessed is the right word.”

  “Then what is?” Nurse Pergru turned and stared at John intently

  John heard this whisper in his mind, Don’t tell him the truth.

  “Protective of her, for sure... friends with her, yeah, but obsessed, Nah.” John tried his best at a nonchalant reaction.

  Nurse Pergru stared at him hard for several seconds, then laughed in a carefree way.

  “Yeah, I knew there was no way the Doc would be interested in you, not anything more than friendship that is,” Nurse Pergru said and began walking again

  It was obvious to John the man would have flown off the handle if he had known they were lovers and a couple. This is not the time to piss off the one man who knew where his girlfriend was.

  “A woman like that would only date another doctor. Someone like Doctor Page, not a low life security guard like you. I mean I have more of a chance with a woman like that than you do,” Nurse Pergru laughed maliciously.

  John remained quiet. He suddenly was more worried than before. Something was very wrong. He felt very afraid suddenly. Maybe it was the things Nurse Pergru said or maybe it was the way he had said it. His voice seemed off and so did his mannerisms. His face, when he stared at John, looked violent somehow. John realized it was the second time he had avoided saying exactly where Lily was, although they were continuing down towards the operation rooms and morgue. Oh why didn’t he have a gun with him? Why wouldn’t Nurse Pergru say where exactly Lily was?

  “Have you seen any of the other staff? I’ve lost track of most of them,” John asked trying to get some information for the huge male nurse.

  “You seemed to have lost track of all of them, even your precious Doctor Lily.” The nurse cackled.

  “Yeah, very true,” John said truly disheartened.

  “Yeah for a guy who’s protective of his dear friend, you sure have done a shit job of protecting her. It’s I, who knows where she is, and I who saved her from her frantic, terrified state. I’m not going to even ask how you could lose track of such a precious commodity when your answer will be ‘a terrifying black mist with eyes, growled at me and made me run like a scared little girl.’ Some guard you are,” Nurse Pergru said sardonically waving his hands mockingly.

  Once again John realized the man didn’t answer his question, just another slam of disrespect. No real information. No real answer to any of his questions.

  They were almost at the operation room that Doctor Page used. There was no way Lily would have gone in there. Not of her own free will. Not
after those horrible nightmares she had. Especially since they turned out to be true premonitions and definitely not after Doctor Page had tried what he had tried. She knew Charles was still alive somewhere. Lily would never have waited in that room, or even stepped foot into that vile place. Something was seriously wrong.

  John heard a woman’s petrified scream from inside the room.

  “LILY!” John exclaimed and threw open the door.

  The blood curdling screaming shook John to his core, so did the scene in front of him. There stood Dr. Page holding a woman’s cranium in one hand and a scalpel in the other. It was only the top portion of the woman’s skull in his hand. Her brain was fully exposed and the woman couldn’t stop screaming. There was creepy classical music playing on the record player and Charles was swinging the scalpel like a conductor’s baton, back and forth in front of the woman’s face. His eyes were closed in ecstasy, absorbed in the music and the delight of what he had just done. It was plainly written on the man’s face how much he enjoyed what he was doing.

  The horror of it all shocked John, but it wasn’t Lily. It was one of the female patients that he knew by sight but not by name. She was bound to the examination table. A metal brace had her head locked into position and leather straps held the rest of her to the table.

  “Here he is Doctor, just as you requested,” Nurse Pergru said.

  That jarred John awake from the horrific scene before him. “You lied!” John said turning towards Nurse Pergru.

  “Of course I did you idiot! Funny that’s exactly what Vincent said when I threw him naked into that morgue,” Nurse Pergru said with a sneer and a cruel chuckle.

  John tried to fight his way out of the room but he was no match for the massive Swede who took up the whole doorway. Nurse Pergru finally hit him over the head with one meaty fist, so hard John crashed to the floor. His vision swirled and he had to fight with all his might not to black out.