Dark Screams, Volume 1

by Dark Screams- Volume 1 (v5. 0) (epub)

  I started in horror. My God. Those two women had been chained together, too, just like Goliath and me. One of the women was probably in her twenties, with red hair and wearing a green silk dress. The other woman, forty or so, wore the uniform of a bus driver. Their faces were scratched, and their fingernails had been ripped from their fingers.

  “They fought a battle before they died.” I was so shocked I actually uttered the words aloud, forgetting that I was trying to remain invisible to my chain buddy. “Did they fight each other?”

  Goliath grunted loudly. The bodies interested him. Crouching down, he examined the steel collars, and fingered the padlocks that secured the chains as well as locking the collars in place. He slapped the face of the redhead, perhaps believing he could wake her.

  No way, I thought. She’s dead as a beached fish. That’s when the man paused with a thoughtful expression. He touched the collar on his own neck, grunting in a beastlike way (so far I hadn’t heard him say a single word). He seemed to be understanding that he was chained in the same way. In fact, he did something that sent ice blasting through my veins. His eyes focused on the chain links closest to his own throat, then he followed the chain with his gaze. Soon his eyes would track all along the chain until they found my face at the other end. What then? A smile and a friendly nod? Hardly. He’s likely to rip my face off. I’d seen how he’d mutilated his victim just minutes ago.

  He began to grunt with excitement as his eyes followed the links toward my face at the other end. Any minute now, he’s going to—

  “Hey, John! I found a screwdriver back here!”

  My eyes darted toward Nev. The pizza-delivery boy leaned out from the recess, brandishing a screwdriver with a long shaft.

  “John!” His yell combined dread and triumph. “I’ll throw the screwdriver to you. Kill the psycho. Stab him! Stab his eyes and face! Kill the bastard! Here! CATCH!”

  Nev tossed the screwdriver in my direction. What an absolutely useless, terrible throw. The screwdriver hit the concrete floor five feet from me, bounced once, and rolled over the edge of the channel into the river. My mouth dropped open in astonishment. The screwdriver had vanished.

  Nev groaned. “Oh, crap.”

  I expected Goliath to throw himself at me in nothing less than murderous fury. Instead, however, he sprinted toward the recess where Nev had been shackled. The chain snapped tight, and I nearly flew through the air after locomotive man in front of me. Wherever Goliath went I had to follow.

  I wonder if Nev regretted what he did. Or if he had the chance to curse himself for such an inept throw that sent the screwdriver into the river. Maybe such musing is academic, because Nev died quickly. Goliath punched him in the face. After the second punch, Nev begged for his life. The third punch slammed into the side of his head. No blood came out of his nose or his mouth, but a gush of crimson liquid spurted from the kid’s ears. A hemorrhage, I guess. Either way, he didn’t live long after that. His eyes went dull, the eyelids drooped, and he flopped down in the recess. Only the wrist shackles kept him upright. Goliath kicked Nev so hard in the chest that I heard the kid’s ribs give a loud SNAP! I don’t know how old Nev was when he died, but he couldn’t have been more than twenty.

  Katy had seen everything. Now she couldn’t stop herself. All self-control went. So overwhelming was her fear, she went berserk.

  Even that mighty Goliath paused to watch her in surprise as she tossed her head, flailed her arms, trying to break the manacles, and screamed as loud as she could. Despite everything, the man still hadn’t noticed me even though we were chained to each other. Once again, I realized that his psychotic mind considered me to be part of him, seeing as we were linked by those dozens of shining loops. In any event, he didn’t appear to see me as he gave a powerful grunt of excitement. This was followed by such a leering expression of desire as his eyes feasted on Katy’s beautiful face.

  I shouted, “No! Leave her alone! Don’t touch her!”

  He didn’t respond to my demands. The nightmare brute didn’t even seem to hear me, let alone realize that I was there at the end of his chain. Straightaway, he lumbered back to the river. Katy tossed her head, convulsing with terror when she saw that the murderer had locked his evil gaze on her. Grunts of excitement blurted from his lips.

  “Don’t hurt her!” I shouted.

  He didn’t even hear me. Instead, he surged onward, following the line of the watercourse upstream. I held the chain in my hands so that the force of being dragged so ferociously wouldn’t snap my neck. This battle tank in human form dragged me to where a pair of parallel iron girders spanned the river. I realized what my chain buddy intended. He’d use the girders as a bridge to cross to the other side. Katy, meanwhile, knew that she’d be the next victim. She stared at brute boy with absolute dread. Is he going to kill me like he killed Nev? I’m sure that’s what she was thinking. Or is he going to hurt me in other ways first?

  For the next ten seconds I had to concentrate on maintaining my balance as I followed Goliath across the girders. Here the roar of the rapids seemed more concentrated. The sound bore deep into my head. The air was colder, too, and that black water far more pungent—smelling as if it had flowed from a pit full of dead and rotten things.

  I scrambled up onto the far side of the river as Goliath raced toward the vulnerable woman that was chained to the machinery casing. She shouted for him to keep back. I yelled for him to stop. But Goliath knew what he wanted, and he wanted it now.

  Pipes emerged from the floor like iron tree trunks. I tried to cling on to them to prevent the man from reaching Katy. Every attempt to even slow him down ended in failure. He simply kept moving, dragging me along as if I was nothing more substantial than a paper cutout of a man. Then I saw an object leaning against one of the pipes. It appeared to be a discarded iron bracket that had once been fixed to a wall. In sheer desperation, I grabbed it.

  “John…oh my God.” She panted the words in terror. “John, please don’t let him hurt me.”

  This time I stopped allowing myself to be dragged. I ran toward Goliath. The chain dipped down between us as the tension left it. I sprinted up behind the killer, lifted the heavy bracket above my head, and swung it down as hard as I could. The deadweight of iron cracked against his skull. Momentum carried him forward, but his legs were buckling. He even glanced back at me in surprise, apparently noticing my existence for the first time.

  Down he went. THUD. He lay facedown on the floor. His eyes were closed and blood streamed from a gash in his scalp.

  “John, you did it! Thank God.”

  “Katy…I think I’ve killed him.”

  “Good!”

  “He’s not moving.” I crouched beside him. “I don’t think he’s breathing.”

  Katy recovered her composure. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Can you use that metal thing you hit him with to break the chain?”

  “I doubt it, but I might be able to force open the collar or the padlock.”

  “Do it, then! Hurry!”

  I moved in closer to Goliath. Blood pooled around his head. His skull leaked red stuff onto the concrete.

  “Who do you think he is…was?” I asked.

  Katy didn’t care. “Try snapping his collar. Go on, it’s not as if he’ll feel any pain, will he?”

  “This paper suit he’s wearing…they give those to crime suspects when their clothes have been taken away to be examined in a laboratory. Do you think he might have escaped from prison? What if he’s a famous serial killer? Or what if he was normal like us and he’s been injected with a drug that’s made him crazy?”

  “Please, John, get me out of this dungeon.”

  “He killed people down here.”

  “And we’d have been next.”

  “Katy, did you see the bodies of those two women? They were chained together at the neck like me and him. Do you think they were forced to fight each other?”

  “This isn’t the time for speculation. We need to focus on the living
—us!”

  “They must have been abducted, too. Could this be some kind of experiment?”

  “John, snap out of it! Once you get that collar off, come and free me. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  I set aside those troubling notions and got down to work, pushing the sharpest end of the metal bracket into the collar where it hinged at the back of Goliath’s neck. Perhaps the hinge is the weakest part? I might be able to break it and open the collar up. Then I’ll separate myself from this monster. Those thoughts poured through my head as I worked, levering, then twisting the bracket, trying to snap the hinge pin. I still worked at the collar when I noticed that something had changed.

  His eyes were now open. So he wasn’t dead after all. That killer of men twisted around in order to glare at me. He roared with fury. I climbed to my feet as he rose to his knees. I used the bracket as if it were a hammer, smashing it down onto the top of his skull. Once, twice, three times. It had no effect whatsoever. He got to his feet, all the time staring at me with total hatred.

  Oh, yes, he saw me now. And he despised what he saw.

  Goliath snatched the bracket from my hand. I recoiled from him, panicky and ready to run. Though I couldn’t run far. I managed five paces before the chain snapped tight. The collar dug in deep, hurting my Adam’s apple.

  You’re in trouble now. I remember thinking those actual words. You hurt him, so he’s going to hurt you.

  He didn’t chase me. He simply gripped that iron bracket between his teeth, like an old-time pirate with a knife blade clamped in his mouth. After that, he pulled the chain hand over hand. A psycho fisherman hauling in his human catch…dear God, this was going to hurt…

  Katy yelled: “John! Kill him!”

  “How?” My throat hurt and I had to choke out the words. “What with?”

  “Think of something! He’ll kill us both!”

  How right that woman was. When I was close enough, he released the links, plucked the iron bracket from between his teeth, and swung at me as if using a scythe. I flinched back, and that chunk of iron missed my chin by a mere inch. I ducked down as he swung again. This time he came stomping toward me, swinging the heavy bracket with enough force to explode my skull if it struck its target.

  I tried dodging around the vertical pipes that soared upward out of the floor. In a helpless, despairing kind of way, I hoped the links would catch on a protrusion, or he’d somehow get the chain tangled, which would prevent him from murdering me. Yes, hopeless, futile…he just kept on coming. Meanwhile, Katy shrieked. She’d found real strength in her voice and the woman used that screech like it was some kind of sonic weapon.

  I was breathless, my legs turned weak and rubbery. The energy just bled out of my body. I couldn’t avoid him for long. Not when we were manacled neck to neck.

  Just when I thought the pitch of Katy’s screeches couldn’t go any higher, they did just that. Goliath stopped dead. Grimacing, he shook his head, while pressing the palm of one hand to an ear.

  Katy started yelling for help, hoping someone would come from outside the vault. The sound hurt the guy. He shook his head in the same way a dog does when it hears a whistle that’s so piercing that it causes the animal pain. All of a sudden, he stopped chasing me. He wanted rid of that awful sound. Once again, I found myself dragged behind loco-man as he lurched in the direction of Katy. He’d deal with her first. I knew that as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.

  Katy knew that she was his next target, too.

  “Oh, God. No…no, please, no.”

  Just thirty feet or so separated the woman from her executioner. Katy tried to break the chain that secured her to the metal housing of some machine or other; however, the links were far too strong to be broken by human hands. She couldn’t run away, she couldn’t fight him. But she knew she must do something other than wait for the metal bracket to smash her skull. Quickly, she scrambled up onto the metal casing, which was around five feet in height. What she hoped to gain from doing that I just didn’t know. The chain that shackled her to the box wasn’t a long one. Perhaps she hoped she could keep squirming around on top of that casing, and avoid him until help arrived from outside.

  Some hope. When Goliath approached, she lay down on the flat top of the box and kicked out at him. He tried grabbing her ankles. She kicked again. This time he caught hold, but she managed to wriggle free, leaving him with one of her shoes in his hand. He tossed the shoe into the river.

  Of course, I was dragged along by the man. I couldn’t avoid witnessing what he would do to this squirming, shouting victim. And he hated Katy’s screams. From the way he kept shaking his head and scowling, that piercing shriek tortured his eardrums.

  “John…John! Stop him. Don’t let him hurt me.”

  “How?”

  “Find a way!”

  “I’m so sorry, Katy. I’ve tried. The man’s unstoppable.”

  Goliath made another grab. She slipped free…just. But she was stuck up there on the metal box. Within seconds, he’d get hold of that creature that inflicted pain on him with its screams. Once he’d got a firm grip on her body, then…well…he could do whatever the hell he wanted to.

  Katy worked her way across the top of that block of metal. Meanwhile, the man circled around to the other side, where he could catch her.

  Katy shouted, “John! Now’s your chance!”

  “I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”

  “Yes, there is. Push him into the river!”

  “I’ll drown, too.”

  “You won’t, John. Believe in yourself. You can do this. You can save us.”

  Goliath snatched the hem of her dress. He dragged her toward him, grunting with lusty excitement. His eyes blazed with anticipation.

  “John…please!”

  “Katy, listen. I’m John York. Remember my name!”

  Goliath had a firm grip on her dress now. He hauled Katy toward him. That’s when I finally understood that she’d deliberately maneuvered the big guy into this position. Right now, he was just a step away from the channel where the black liquid roared. I eased myself closer to Goliath. Katy chose that moment to kick out at the psycho’s face. I thought: Okay, it’s now or never. I threw myself out into the river, clutching the chain in both hands, and hoping that my weight would topple him off balance.

  I hit the piercingly cold water. The chain snapped tight, almost breaking my wrists. I opened my mouth to yell in pain, and the river slammed through my lips. That water felt as hard as a fist. I came to the surface as Goliath toppled in after me. His huge body made a tremendous splash. I tried to stand, but my feet didn’t hit bottom. By this time, both of us were trying to swim. He was also doing his best to punch my face to a bloody ruin. The force of the current, however, thankfully prevented him from landing blows with his usual bone-cracking power.

  Moments later, we slammed into the metal grille that acted as a filter before the river left the vault. Above us the claw hung open, like the jaws of a hungry monster. Those rows of vicious steel teeth could bite a killer whale in half.

  We were both pinned against the grille by the brutal force of that current. Black liquid churned and bubbled around the bars. That’s when Goliath decided to drown me. The next thing I knew a hand pressed down on top of my head and down I went. Even though he held me below the surface, I could still hear the roar of water. Bubbles erupted from my lips. I couldn’t hold my breath for much longer. I opened my eyes. The bright electric lamps shot their light down through the water and I made out a horizontal rail that ran in front of the grille. It seemed to be hinged. I could make out electric cabling. A sensor? Did this metal bar react in some way when there was a buildup of debris? The weight of branches and junk being forced against the device might then activate the claw-grab, which then scooped out material that would otherwise block the grille and cause a flood. Of course, I had no way of knowing for sure. All I did know was that my death was just seconds away.

  Go for it. It’s your last
chance. As Goliath held me down underwater, I managed to turn just enough to allow myself to kick the metal bar. It moved. That’s all I knew. If anything else happened up there in the vault, I couldn’t possibly know.

  My chest began to burn. Soon I’d release the air from my lungs, then I’d breathe the water in and drown—as inevitable and as final as that.

  I heard nothing. But suddenly the hand was gone. What’s more, the chain pulled tight, drawing me upward by my neck. To avoid being hanged I clung on to the links with both hands. I was being hauled clear of the water. At last I could see everything. The claw must have been activated when I kicked the sensor bar.

  Goliath had been seized by the claw. Steel teeth dug into his chest and back. Blood cascaded from a dozen wounds where the points of the claw had penetrated his skin. Cables retracted the device from the river, reeling it back up toward the ceiling. I went with it, hanging by my hands. I could see Goliath through the claw’s metalwork. He was dead, no doubt about it. That formidable bite of the machine had collapsed his chest, crushing his ribs. A shard of pink bone jutted out from the front of the coverall. His lifeless eyes stared at nothing.

  I looked back down at Katy as I swung from side to side on the chain. She was laughing with sheer relief and clapping her hands together.

  “You did it, John! You’ve saved our lives!”

  I’ve never seen such joy before on a human face.

  Then the lights went out. Everything crashed to black and I don’t remember anything else.

  —

  I didn’t remember anything else, that is, until I woke in the forest. Sunlight streamed down through the branches. Birds called loudly. I smelled the grass where my head rested on the ground. My hands went to my neck.

  “Oh, no.”

  The steel collar was still there. I felt the links of a chain with my fingertips. Straight away, I scrambled to my feet. I saw the chain running away in front of me into a patch of tall grass. I pulled at the chain, hoping it wouldn’t be connected to anything at the other end, or anyone. The links snapped tight. I groaned. Please, not again. Not Goliath. It can’t be. He’s dead.