"Take your time.... hehehehe.... The coming darkness can wait just a little longer."
The unseen elderly woman on the other side of the door begins singing. Or chanting. Its hard to be sure as its in another language.
Carlotta steps closer to Kenny so she can whisper. "Got another plan? Cause we can't stand out here forever..."
Carlotta steps closer to Kenny so she can whisper. "Got another plan? Cause we can't stand out here forever..."
"I think we should rush in, throw spice in the old b1tch's face and start stabbing."
Carlotta takes a deep breath "...Okay, lets do it we don't have a lot of choices."
Carlotta counts to three to prepare Kenny and then tries to kick the door inward so that she has her stabbing hand free.
Carlotta kicks the door and it flies open, suggesting, among other things, that it had not been locked.
The room beyond seems to be lit by candles along the wall. The most immediate feature is a figure in a rocking chair in the middle of the dim room.
Kenny scans the room for threats and if he sees none he will advance on the chair.
Carlotta sticks close to Kenny, ready to stab away.
The room is sparsely decorated and lit with candles. The floor is carpeted, it looks to be red plush in the candlelight. On the left wall there is a small table with papers and books and a small bookcase. On the right wall there are a couple of sitting chairs, and a cabinet with a sound system. In the middle of the room, an old oriental lady in a simple dress sits rocking slowly, her gray hair falling down over her shoulders. As the door opens she turns her head at an angle as if to better hear the investigators. She keeps her eyes closed and barely moves her lips as she talks.
"Come, come. Don't be squeamish. Take your knifes. Slit my throat. Take the keys. Hehehe."
Strangely, the back wall of the room isn't there. The room ends and immediatelly becomes a cavernous maw of darkness, as if the room is attached to a cave.
The monkey does not want to go into the room.
Carlotta stands uncertainly in the doorway, not sure that going in is the best course of action. She whispers to Kenny: "What if there's something in the cave back there?"
Carlotta stands uncertainly in the doorway, not sure that going in is the best course of action. She whispers to Kenny: "What if there's something in the cave back there?"
"What else can we do?" Kenny wishes that Avery were still here with his guns. He reaches into his pocket and holds a handful of spice with his other hand he grips the knife tightly as he steps forward.
Nothing happens as Kenny enters the room except the old woman laughs dryly at his discomfort. "Not scared of wicked old woman, no? Too old to fight you. Kill me you will or die maybe? No? Yes?"
The monkey chitters angrily from the hall.
"Kenny...we can't just kill her...she's an old woman. And she's not even trying to attack us. It wouldn't even be self defense, and she is a human, we could be convicted for chrissakes!"
"Kenny...we can't just kill her...she's an old woman. And she's not even trying to attack us. It wouldn't even be self defense, and she is a human, we could be convicted for chrissakes!"
"Are you crazy? She is down here with those women chained in the other room. They are eating them, Carlotta! This &*)%$ is probably the family matron. There is no way she is not guilty as sin. We have to get out of here. I doub't the police will ever even get down here."
Kenny leaves unspoken the fact that He and Carlotta are unlikely to ever see the outside world again either. He advances on the old woman but can't stop looking at the gaping hole behind her.
"Certainly, eating those girls we've been doing, yes," cackles the old woman, "Men aren't as tender. And the customers like tender meat. Heehee." She twists her head toward Carlotta, her white, sightless eyes staring unblinkingly. Her voice is suddenly serious, "Of course you're going to kill me girl. Because otherwise you won't be leaving here alive. So kill me and free the darkness. Stop this talking. I think I hear my son and his wives coming. The key is inside me and cut it out you must if you wish to free them."
In the yawning cavernous chamber beyond the edge of the room, it feels as if there is suddenly something there, watching, waiting. The candles flicker as if a wind is blowing from the darkness but neither of the reporters can feel any breeze.
The woman smiles suddenly and Carlotta sees that she has a full mouth of teeth, each of them filed to a nasty looking point.
Carlotta nods at Kenny, knowing he's right even though she doesn't want to admit it. When the woman speaks she pales even more if its possible. "Why are you so eager to die? What are we goign to free when we kill you? Your son and his wives? Where is the key??"
"I swallowed the key!"
The woman cackles, obviously insane. She once more closes her sightless eyes and sits back, relaxing.
Then a moment later her demeanor is much different.
"If you prefer not to kill old blind woman, is much fine with me. No one lives forever but why hasten the inevitable. I can wait my turn to dance with Stylthogop in the courtyards of the heavens. Ki minakosa Stylthogop na jihu sha necrus. Yes?"
"Perhaps you would rather talk? No?"
Kenny circles around to the woman's left and gestures for Carlotta to go around to the other side. He watches the woman's eyes to see if she shows signs of sight.
Attack 8 + whatever bonus for being behind her.
The woman does not move and Kenny sticks the knife in her back rather weakly.
"Aaargh!" she yells, in obvious pain.
Carlotta, standing in front of her gets a dreadful view of the face of a maniac. The woman grips the arms of her rocking chair and shouts out, "Deeper! Deeper!" Her tone is imperious.
Carlotta steadies herself and circles to the right of the old woman as Kenny indicated. However her cries 'deeper' are particularly unsettling to Carlotta and she drops her knife to the floor and flinches away from the old woman covering her face and whimpering.
After several more minutes of trembling Carlotta finally shakily picks up her knife and stands up moving farthe away from the woman as she does, hopefully putting her back to a wall. She stands there gripping her knife, eyes wide ad manic.
The monkey continues to remain in the dark hall, well away from the crazy blind woman and the creepy cavern in the back of her room.
Kenny jumps back a step when the woman implores him to stab deeper. His thoughts are nearly incoherent but for a desire to survive. In order to do so he rationalizes that he must silence her before her son arrives. He pulls the knife out again and grabs the woman under her chin in oder to slit her throat. At that moment he looks at Carlotta and sees the horror on her face and wonder if it is in response to the woman's actions or his own. With that he slices across the old woman's throat and fights back his own tears.
Kenny steps forward and his knife, extremely sharp as it is, slices easily into the woman's throat. The blood sprays out at first and then seeps, flowing black in the candlelight.
"It is done," the old blind woman whispers and Carlotta is shocked to see the woman's toothsome grin. She does not die right away, as if in some movie but instead remains in her seat, willing herself to stay upright as her life drains out. Then finally, her head slumps.
Almost as soon as her head drops, a warm air blows suddenly from the cave. The candles go out and the room is plunged into blackness. A shrill shrieking sound fills the whole room, as if the dead woman herself were screaming. Then all is quiet, except for some sort of sound in the depths of the blackness that is the cavern at the back of the room.
As Kenny slices the woman Carlotta flinches away and returns to her position on the floor, curled in a ball with her arms covering her head. At first she doesn't even here the shrieking coming from the cave, she mistakes it simply for her own screams.
Soon she stops screaming and replaces it merely with shaking and panting.
As Kenny slices the woman Carlotta flinches away and returns to her position on the floor, curled in a ball with her arms covering her head. At first she doesn't even here the shrieking coming from the cave, she mistakes it simply for her own screams.
Soon she stops screaming and replaces it merely with shaking and panting.
Kenny starts to say something but Carlotta's scream cut him short. He wonders if her terror stems from the blood from the woman's throat or because Kenny opened it. He can think of nothing to say and simply opens and closes his mouth over and over until Carlotta is quiet. The dryness in his throat reminds him of how long it has been since he had water. strange to think of that now.
The thought of cutting open the woman makes Kenny's mind reel. The necessity of it is beyond question but the image of the act leaves him cold. "Survival is paramount", he tells himself. "I will deal with all of this if we live."
Then the lights go out and Kenny finds himself rooted to the spot.
Carlotta makes no move and stays crouching in the corner holding tight to her knife. Soon she manages to quiet her breathing hoping that if she's quiet then she'll have a greater chance of survival.
"Carlotta? Are you okay?"
Kenny takes out his cellphone and uses the light from it. He hopes this makes it less frightening, considering what he is about to say.
"Carlotta, we need to free Kathleen and those other women. We need to get out of her alive. The old lady said she swallowed the key. We have to get the key so that we can rescue Kathleen and get ourselves out of here. I am going to need you to hold the light over here so I can get the key." Kenny leaves unsaid that he will have to cut open the old woman's stomach in order to get the key. He also does not say that their chances of getting the one-legged woman out successfully are miniscule. If he can avoid saying it then he can avoid thinking about it himself.
As kenny finishes his little speech, there is the sound of skittering that echoes up from the back of the room. It sounds like thousands of little legs. Accompanying it is another sound, the sound of air moving, like some great beast exhaling.
Carlotta recalls seeing a light switch on the wall near the door.
Carlotta remains sitting quietly for several seconds after Kenny is done. Then in a small voice "I know."
Then, remembering the switch and hoping that it will show them whats in the back of the cave she jumps quickly to her feet and runs to the fall flipping the switch when she gets there.
The light in the center of the room's cieling, flickers for a moment and then comes on. There is a sound of skittering again, but this time it seems to be moving away from the back of the room, as if fleeing from the light.
The light does show that the back of the room ends and a cavernous floor begins, though the cavern's floor looks like it descends rather quickly away from the rear of the carpeted floor. On the left wall there is a small table with papers and books and a small bookcase. The table has a small drawer sit into the front of it. On the right wall there are a couple of sitting chairs, and a cabinet with a sound system. The woman sprawls on the floor, at the foot of her wooden rocker, her hair cascading around her and her blood seeping into the carpet.
Carlotta:
Carlotta glances all around the room and her eyes rest briefly on Kenny before quickly glancing away. She looks down at herself before continuing to scrutinize the room. She shakily walks over to the desk and looks at the papers and through the drawer hoping that the old woman was lying and that she will find the key there although she is tood disturbed to be of much use.
Search 1
Kenny looks to see if any of his fingers are free of blood. If so, he puts some saliva on one and then dips it into the spice and from there onto his upper lip. Hopefully, it will help counteract the smell he expects from the woman's stomach. It is something he learned when a friend showed him the inside of a slaughterhouse.
Without looking at Carlotta, Kenny pulls up the old woman's shirt and begins to cut a hole large enough for him to put his hand in and feel around for the keys. Mentally, he tries to distance himself from his actions. He imagines the police interviewing Kathleen and the other woman and that they will exonerate him and Carlotta.
Ugh, the blood on his hands is disgusting even before he has cut all the way though the wall of the stomach. Just keep cutting. So tough. Should be easier; she was old. Helpmehelpmehelpme.
Carlotta, in her confused and befuddled state does not notice the key in time. She instead finds hereself looking at the rather strange looking book with a red leather cover that is on the edge of the desk. The cover reads in golden arabic script, "nigerlibrinex." The leather cover has swirls stamped along its edge and there is a large black ribbon inserted into the pages.
It is only after Kenny is up to his hands in gore that she realizes a key was sitting in the desk drawer in plain sight. The key is a rather large key that lookes suitable for manacles and the like.
Kenny meanwhile finds nothing unexpected nor anything desireable.
There is a sound from deep in the caverns, as of something very large moving and again comes the skittering sound as of many insectoid feet. But nothing ventures into the light.
Kenny notices the Carlotta holding the key and nearly explodes at her, as if the blood on him is her fault. He masters himself and mearly coughs up some bile on the corpse.
He wipes his hand over his mouth then recoils as he realizes that he now has blood on his face. He wipes his mouth with his shirt and the stands.
"Let's get out of here as quick as we can. If that is not the key to the chains then we have to leave the women here. We'll set the kitchen on fire in that case and hope for the best."
Carlotta snatches the book and stuffs in in her bag before seeing the key. She turns arounds to face Kenny holding it in her hand. She is about to open her mouth to tell him when the image of him cutting the woman silences her.
When he notices her with the key all she can do is whisper "Kenny...I'm sorry."
She looks in fear at the back of the cavern and nods at Kenny's words before proceeding towards the door out, looking over her shoulder to make sure he's still with her.
As Kenny and Carlotta head towards the door, a guttural voice intones from somewhere in the depths of the cave. The words sound impossible to pronounce and the voice sounds horrible and deep, almost felt as much as heard.
"Ignthz dj QKLURLU!"
The lightbulb above explodes and the monkey outside in the hall shrieks in horror as the room is once more plunged into darkness. The sound of many skittering feet once more can be heard rushing towards the carpeted room.
Carlotta reaches blindly behind her hoping to catch hold of Kenny and breaks into a run towards the door. Once she and Kenny are outside she slams the door shut.
Carlotta drags Kenny from the dark room into the dark hallway by pure instinct. The monkey shrieks once as she steps on its tail, an earsplitting shriek, but nowhere near as unnerving as the sound of skittering feet that seem to be filling the room on the other side of the now closed door.