“My favourite part,” he said.
Realising what was about to happen, Mario scuttled back, nearly slipping in the slime.
The other beam silently slimmed and vanished, leaving Mario and Kerry in total darkness.
“There’s something in here with us!” Kerry insisted.
“It’s these people you can hear.”
He paused, listening. No metallic squeal had come from the grate covering the ventilation duct. Confident it hadn’t been opened, Mario crept over to Kerry, using her ragged gasps as a guide. He reached out and brushed her.
She yelped and shrank back.
“It’s me,” he hissed, drawing closer. “Listen. You know where we are, don’t you?”
“N-No,” she said. Her body shook.
“I think this is the pleasure room, or at least one of them.” He swallowed. “Which means someone has to come in here and do the…pleasuring. You remember, don’t you?”
Silence.
“Don’t you?” he said again.
“Y-Yes.” She tensed and grabbed his hand. “There it was again!”
Mario reached up between them with the lighter. He lit a flame.
Kerry’s tear-streaked and startled face came into view. She leaned in close, lips brushing his ear.
“Can’t…you…hear it?” she whispered.
Mario opened his mouth to reply.
In the dark, something made a sound like licking lips.
Mario’s fingers tightened around Kerry’s hand, his muscles pumped rigid.
“I heard it,” he whispered.
Behind them, the unseen guest moved across the room. It made a wet, smacking sound on the sticky floor.
“What is it?” said Kerry.
Mario held the lighter out. The feeble light failed to reveal the intruder. He flicked out the flame and stepped away from Kerry.
She pulled him back. “Wait!”
Mario stopped.
“Don’t…leave me. Not in here,” said Kerry.
The slurping noises had progressed to the opposite wall, close to the pleasure room holes.
Move! Get your cock out the hole and let some light in. I need to see who came in here!
Mario closed his eyes, irrelevant in the dark.
The girl in the white blouse and miniskirt smiled back.
It’s happening again.
The young girl, returned from his first visit to the pleasure room, winked in his mind and lowered her hand to the top button of her blouse.
“Stop it,” Mario said. He rubbed his temple with the ball of his hand.
Keeping her eyes locked on his, the girl pouted and proceeded to pop the button open. Slowly, she moved her fingers farther down the increased triangle of pale skin and clasped the next button.
“Stop it,” he said again. “I…I know you’re not in here!”
The girl frowned before offering a playful smile.
Mario clutched Kerry’s hand tighter.
“You’re…here?” he said, more to himself. “You’re…real?”
Kerry moaned.
The slick sounds across the floor had increased. Wet noises surrounded the couple.
Another button down, the girl spread her blouse wide, revealing a modest cleavage held within a pure white bra of lace. She played with the tops of her breasts, watching Mario.
The guests, still blocking out the light, groaned and sighed. A girl gasped in delight.
“Get…out of…my…head,” said Mario, straining.
The girl remained in his mind, teasing…beckoning…
Mario opened his eyes and fumbled with the lighter.
The sounds drew closer.
“Kerry?”
She cried out. “Oh…God! Mmmm!”
It’s happening to her, too.
He flicked on the lighter and turned back to Kerry.
Her head tilted to one side, and her eyes were closed. Deep breaths billowed her nostrils. Mouth closed, she bit her lip.
Mario lowered his gaze to her chest.
She cupped her left breast, squeezing and rubbing with urgency.
“Oh,” she sighed. “Oh…fuck!”
Mario’s eyelids fluttered, and despite his fight, lowered completely.
The girl undid the final button, and Mario gasped at her flat stomach and delicate tattoo of a rose wrapped in barbed wire just above her hip. She hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her skirt and winked once more.
“No!” Mario roared and forced his eyes open.
The squelching sounds leaked from the darkness. It lingered below their chests like swamp water.
For a moment, Kerry became the dream girl, writhing and tempting. The urge pulled Mario with a gravity of lust.
Take her.
Take her now.
His erection throbbed, helped by sudden, pliant fingers that circled and pushed against his growing bulge. Already the pleasure was building.
“Yes,” Kerry screamed. “Oh God, yes!”
Face imposed over Kerry, the girl smiled in the golden, flickering light. She opened her mouth and ran her tongue across her pink lips.
Somehow Mario knew they tasted sweet, like the most succulent strawberry that had ever graced his palette. He longed to sample her delights. He craved it…
The fingers, cloaked by shadow, rubbed him in eagerness, responding to his every movement, every thought.
Mario lowered the lighter, and the flame illuminated his chest, his waist.
She’s here. She’s really here. I can feel her.
This can’t be an illusion.
Lower. The flame revealed something black, prodding Mario like a striking snake.
Kerry came, screaming in pleasure.
Mario screamed in terror.
The thing lurking by his knees pulsated and shifted position. The reflection of the flame licked across its shiny black hide. Mario jumped back, and its long, thin appendage poking from its top waved in the air after him.
“Fuck,” cried Mario, flopping back and landing on his rear with a thump. He held the lighter out like a talisman, hoping the thing of darkness feared the light.
The creature bobbed around on a small foot that looked more like a hand, fingers spread and pressed into the floor. Its body, round and bloated, quivered and fell still. Mario imagined it full of blood and pus and mucus. A small pinprick and it might pop, spilling filth across the floor. At the base of the probing limb, a yellow eye rolled in its socket. The light from the flame had reduced the pupil to a tiny, black dot.
Mario retched, still feeling the thing’s touch on his groin. The thought of standing so close to it, let alone the horror of coming into contact, sent chilly waves across his skin.
The girl had slipped from his thoughts as easily as she’d slipped from her blouse.
“Christ yes!” moaned Kerry.
Shaking, Mario slid his legs beneath him and rolled onto his knees. The thing’s probing length, which Mario realised was its snout, swept the air before it. Mario dared not take his eyes from it.
“K-Kerry?” he said.
She ignored him, lost in bliss.
The wet noises continued in the dark room. Mario thought with mounting fright that several of the creatures may be in the room.
“Kerry!”
“Fuck me!” she gasped.
The lighter, hot in Mario’s hand, guttered out.
Blind and groping once more, he attempted to strike the flame back into life, but burned his thumb. He cried out. The lighter fell from his hand and clattered on the floor.
No mental illusions or subtle suggestions this time; pure adrenaline-fuelled panic held Mario and tightened around his chest like a leather belt. With a whimper, he jumped to his feet, sensing those that dwelt in the dark approach.
To his side, the two other guests continued to moan and cry out, distant in their pleasure and oblivious to the drama.
Terror drove Mario’s foot out, and it clipped the creature, his toe prodding its membranous bo
dy. It felt like a giant, moving water balloon. Disgust shuddered through him, and he whipped his foot back. Hot tears rolled from his eyes, and his bottom lip trembled.
Kerry sighed again.
Mario screamed and pounced forwards. In his momentum, he kicked out hard.
As if made from tissue paper, the creature’s skin collapsed around Mario’s shoe. Its body popped in an explosion of warm, foul liquid that coated his leg.
Arms thrashing in the air, Mario managed to stay upright. His wet trousers clung to his leg like a second reeking skin.
Choking back vomit, he felt around for Kerry, trying to ignore the sounds that slid and sucked towards him.
“Kerry!”
Using her sighs of ecstasy as a beacon, he stepped closer. Brushing her with his fingers, he quickly grabbed her by the shoulder.
“Kerry!” he cried. “We have to-"
Something moist prodded the back of his other hand.
He shrieked and drove his foot down. The creature gave way as easily as the first, and air rushed up the moment it burst. It sounded like an egg breaking.
Mario swayed and, using Kerry for support, stayed up on the lubricated floor. Balance regained, he padded Kerry around the legs and groin. They were wet, but none of the creatures caressed her.
Not yet.
His mind raced.
They’re coming.
The hairs on his body sprang up in readiness of the next hideous touch.
Kerry moaned, more like a sleeper than a lover. Mario shook her.
“Kerry, wake up!”
She fell, and her arms wrapped around him. Her chest pumped against his.
“Mario…?” she asked, groggy. “What…?”
He held her, every muscle in his body twitching in electric terror.
“There are…t-things in here,” he said, voice trembling. “They…they…”
Something brushed the back of his right leg, and he cried out.
“They’re everywhere,” he screamed.
“What are you…?” Kerry flinched. “Something’s touching me!”
Mario’s leg received another inquisitive stroke. He yelped and kicked back. The blow glanced, but the exploring snout fell away. Mario hoped he’d knocked the damn thing over.
Kerry held him tighter.
“I can hear them,” she squealed. “Help me!”
“I…I can’t,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut. Nothing touched him, but that would change in seconds if the others found him. They sounded so close in the darkness; their stench stung his nostrils. He heard one behind Kerry, snout rubbing on her pants.
“One’s touching me,” she cried. “Get it off!”
They cowered in the dark, clutching each other and listening to the creeping, wet circle close around them. Mario held his breath, waiting.
Click!
Mario opened his eyes. It had sounded like a key in a heavy lock.
“Mario!” Kerry screamed.
He pulled her to the side and lashed out with his foot. The creature collapsed in a rancid gush of thick slime.
“Mario,” Kerry grabbed his shoulder and shook it. “A door!”
Mario turned back and sure enough, on the far side of the room, a door slowly creaked open. He squinted in the light that flooded through. It revealed the decadent corridor beyond, the crimson walls and carpet had the depth of blood.
Mario nearly screamed in relief, but then focussed on the rest of the room. Between them and the door lurked a dozen of the squat monstrosities, shuffling around in the mucus. More emerged from the oval holes. The walls and floor glistened.
He covered his mouth.
At the wall by his side sat two of the creatures, about a metre apart. Above one, an erect penis was poked through one of the openings. A snout slipped over it, granting a long, slow suck. The guy on the other side cried out. The creature swallowed his cock once more.
The second horror had stabbed its snout up inside its cavity in the wall. From the high sounds of orgasm ringing out, Mario had a good idea of what it explored.
Kerry gagged and staggered a few steps back, her hand clamped over her nose and mouth.
“Come on,” said Mario and grabbed her hand. Careful not to slip, he dragged her across the room. They zigzagged between the black, ambling pustules.
Almost to the exit, Mario stopped and whipped Kerry ahead of him. She bolted through, nearly hitting the far wall of the corridor. Mario followed and slammed the door shut behind him. Releasing a cry, he spun and pressed his body against the thick, aged oak. It contained a sturdy, metal deadbolt, which he hammered shut. After a final scream, he leaned back against the door, his chest pumping. He barely registered the nervous twitch of his limbs, and the relentless, heavy pulse in his ears. The air smelled of fresh paint and varnish, rich and delicious. He relished each precious lungful like a man trapped in quicksand.
Kerry, also leaning back and panting, stared at him from across the narrow corridor.
“What the fuck is wrong with this place?” she gasped.
Mario slid down the wall, resting in a crouch and covering his face with his hands.
“I don’t know,” he moaned. “I just don’t know.”
He looked up, meeting Kerry’s eyes. Greasy smears covered the groin of her uniform. His stomach clenched.
“We…” He swallowed. “We have to get someone. The police. Anyone.”
Kerry tilted her head back.
“And what do you think they can do?” she said. “Fuck it, maybe someone tried. Maybe they were caught or went crazy before they had the chance. Can’t you feel it?” She stared at him. “The madness?”
Hands tightened into fists, Mario pushed them against his eyes.
“It’s always there,” he said. “Like background noise.” He waved his hands around his head in a cloud. “Right here. And every room, every goddamn room we go through turns it up.”
Kerry lifted up her head. “What did you say, Mario?”
He sighed. “The rooms-"
“No,” said Kerry and stepped to the middle of the corridor. “Background noise! Listen.”
Mario held his breath. With them both silent and still, he heard a distant thump thump thump of bass and vibration ripple through the wall.
“Music…” he said. “We must be close. Somehow we got down to the ground floor.”
Kerry flashed her white teeth in a snarl. “Fucked up building worked against these bastards. Its brought us back to the beginning!”
Clambering to his feet, Mario turned left and right and back again, straining to hear the music. The light throb seemed to come from all around. He noticed the chandeliers swayed slightly.
“Which way?”
Kerry also glanced both ways along the corridor. The spark of hope appeared to have burned away her fear. She looked alert again.
“There’s only so many doors we can try,” she said. “Let’s keep moving. But if we can’t see, we don’t go in. I’m pretty fucking sick of the dark.”
They headed right. The music sounded clearer; screeching guitar riffs and booming drums emerging with the heavy bass. Mario quickened.
“Ignore the doors,” he said, running past the first one. “Follow the music.”
Each step took them closer. The chandeliers danced in time, and the carpet pulsed.
“This is it,” he said.
The corridor ended in a wide, mahogany door, its surface adorned with delicate carvings.
They smashed to pieces as the door crashed open.
Mario and Kerry stopped, reaching for each other.
Music blared out from beyond: full on thrash metal. In time with the beat, an army of Stuarts filed into the corridor in step. Each sported the same intense grin, staring eyes and coiffure blond hair.
“Shit,” said Kerry, scrambling backwards.
The goliaths progressed up the corridor in two single lines. They halted suddenly and turned inwards.
From the open door, a wizened silhouette eme
rged from the flashing lights, and Worth leisurely strode between the ranks. He paused and straightened his jacket.
“Sir, Madam…” He bowed. “You’ve had your fun, but now we have the little matter of your futures to deal with. The management requests your company…”
Mario also stepped back. “Run, Kerry!”
“Well?” said Worth, and glared at his ranks.
The doppelgangers exchanged glances, their expressions set like marble.
“Do I have to spell everything out?” Worth sighed. “Fetch!”
16
The men proceeded up the corridor, hands opening and closing, eager for the grab. Their mannequin grins never faltered.
Mario and Kerry fled, feet pounding the soft carpet.
We were so close! Mario kept pace a few metres beyond Kerry; her uniform stiff and confining, slowing her down. She ran in jerky movements, arms unable to cut through the air and drive her on.
Mario glanced back. Their pursuers stalked with intense purpose, steady and unblinking. The two single lines strode with militia precision.
They passed the old oak door, which still held the black creatures on the other side, and rushed on.
“Try one of these doors,” cried Mario. “Lose them.”
Kerry stumbled, and Mario paused to snatch a handful of her jacket and pulled her on.
“Keep running,” she gasped. “No more doors.”
They pressed on, increasing the distance between them and the hunters. Still, the relentless beat of the march reverberated down the corridor. To Mario, it sounded like the rhythm of a machine, slowly chewing its way after them. No matter how far they ran, they would eventually tire, and the obstinate chase would swallow them up.
We have to choose one of the doors. Please let it be open.
Chest tight, and rivulets of sweat snaking from his armpits and brow, Mario slowed and stopped.
“Kerry…wait,” he panted.
She turned, jogging backwards.
“What’re you doing?” she said. “Keep moving!”
“This isn’t going to work,” he pleaded. “We need to lose them.”
Kerry also slackened her pace and stopped. She looked past him down the corridor.
“I can’t take much more of this,” she said. “Let the fuckers come.” Her head bowed, and her mouth dropped open, swallowing down air.
Come Into Darkness Page 14