The End is Near

The End is Near

Adela was making her way home from her morning kindergarten class. She skipped down the street, her light blue sailor dress blew around in the wind. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled into pigtails, tied with blue ribbons, that she done herself. That day in school she had made a little basket with yarn and a plastic container. Her teacher, Mrs. Rayne, had given her three pieces of candy to take home. Adela decided that today was the perfect day to take her little shortcut. Having discovered the small, narrow passage when her friend had pushed her into the tunnel, and decided it was a perfect shortcut. The narrow tunnel was overcast by branches and vines that let the sun shine through the gaps in the leaves. “The end is near.” Adela heard a grown man say. She stopped and searched for the source of the voice. Adela could not see any man through the leaves and she continued running, coming closer to the exit. Exiting the passage, Adela was blinded by the onrush of light. Adela kept running though she could hardly see. To her right she heard a car horn she turned towards the source of the sound. In front of her, a black SUV barreled forward on a collision course with Adela. She screamed in terror of being hit, simultaneously covering her face and coming to a stop. The force of the impact sent little Adela Beauregard flying through the wind filled air. Adela fell to the dark asphalt as like to a ragdoll. Her limbs were in strange positions. Pain surged through her body like wildfire. She clung to her seemingly last glimpse of sunlight. Then her whole world went dark.

“Erika!” Andrea yelled into the dead of night. Behind her the sound of a motorcycle quickly approached. She turned around to greet the rider. “Ian did you find her?” He shook his head. “Judging by your question, you haven’t either.” Ian inquired. “No, I’m getting worried. She’s never gone out this late before.” Ian nodded in agreement. “What if something bad happened to her?!” Andrea stifled a sob and slowly buried her face in her hands. Ian placed his hand on Andrea’s shoulder gently. Andrea raised her head to face Ian. Ian looked off towards the setting sun. “We will find her.” A cold look crossed Ian’s face. “We have to.”

Erika liked to wander off. Off into the dead of night, into the unknown darkness. That night she was wandering in the forest, pondering over her life. Her favorite stories were those of dark origin and twisted endings. One being ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. A story of a small girl who wandered into the dark forest to bring her grandmother treats. Erika especially like the part about Little Red eating her grandmother and not realizing it. She thought her flesh was steak, the blood was wine, it was so despicable and horrid, yet Erika loved it. Naturally she didn’t tell her family about her fascination, not that her parents cared. They were drunkards and she knew it. Her older brother and sister tried to deny it. Erika didn’t get that part. It was so blatantly obvious that even if you wanted to you couldn’t deny the fact. Suddenly Erika heard the voice of a little girl singing something she couldn’t quite make out. It came from the direction of the old abandoned hospital. Erika started running towards the hospital, hoping to find this girl. The hospital was five stories high, not including the basement. Erika stepped inside the worn building. White paint was peeling off of the walls. In some places the floor was rotting and could give way any second. She tread carefully along the abandoned corridors, occasionally peeking inside rooms with open doors. In one room there was a man that was cut clean in half. Blood surrounded the body, along with a swarm of flies. The stench coming from the corpse was almost too much to bare. However Erika was a brave girl and she knew that she couldn’t let anything distract her from finding the source of the singing. As she went through and searched the rooms she more horrible scenes, each more gruesome than the last. Finally Erika came to the last floor. She could clearly hear the song now. “Ring around the Rosie, pocket full of posies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” Erika was running now, she was so close to the little girl she could feel it. As she turned the corner a door creaked open right in front of her. She cautiously approached the doorway. She peeked into the room. There was a little girl standing in hospital clothing that was much too big for her tiny frame. She had long strawberry blonde hair that covered most of her face. In her left hand she held a headless teddy bear. Erika gathered her courage and stepped into the room. “Hi, my name’s Erika, what’s yours?” Erika asked the figure. “Did you come to play with me?” Asked the little girl. “Yes I did.” Erika smiled. “What’s your name?” “Adela.” “Well that’s a very pretty name, Adela.” The girl muttered something that Erika couldn’t understand. “Sorry, what did you say?” “Let’s play together.” Adela raised her head and grinned creepily at Erika. This didn’t disturb her though. “What would you like to play Adela?” “Let’s play doctor.” Adela raised her hand to Erika. She felt darkness flood into her body. Erika looked at the girl. Then her vision went black and she fell with a thud to the floor. When Erika woke up she was in another room, it felt cool so she assumed that she was in the basement. She had been strapped to a cold metal table with four inch leather straps. Erika knew struggling was pointless. Adela walked into the room with a surgical mask on and a scalpel in place of the teddy bear. With her tiny hands, Adela took the scalpel and made a shallow cut on Erika’s forearm. The pain made Erika yelp. “Do you want to know why this hospital was abandoned?” Adela’s voice was dark and menacing, unlike before. “It was me. I murdered people in my coma so they wouldn’t have to see it. The doctors didn’t know what to do with me so they left, or tried to. I wouldn’t let anyone leave the safety of the hospital.” Erika stared at the little girl in horror. How could she have killed everyone here? “I killed them because if they had lived, they would see much worse things. I knew what was to happen. Because I had a vision, a vision about the end. The fires burned violently, relentlessly throughout the world. Demons, Necromancers, and everything evil brought the dead to life for an unstoppable army. Floods drowned hundreds, thousands of innocent lives.” Adela took her scalpel and drew fire on Erika’s face, rushing water on her arms, and wrote undead all over her legs. “And then there were the volcanoes and massive landslides that would bury entire continents.” She drew a mountain with cracks all over it. Adela stabbed Erika near the bottom of her ribcage and cut down until her naval. Blood gushed from the wound. Adela stuck her hand inside and brought out Erika’s stomach. Her tiny hands crushed the organ, spilling acid all over the wounds. Erika screamed in utter agony. Tears ran down her cheeks. Adela proceeded to crush every single organ and ended with Erika’s heart. Erika let out the last sound that she would ever make, a call for help that no one could hear, a call made in vain.

“Did you hear that?” Andrea asked Ian. “Yeah, it sounded like Erika.” Ian looked off to where the blood-curtailing wale had come from. Realization spread across his face. “The abandoned hospital! Andrea hop on!” Andrea got onto Ian’s bike. Ian kick the bike to life. “Please be alright.” A tear blew off Ian’s face in the wind. They arrived at the hospital in about a minute. Andrea got off the bike, followed by Ian. “I got the upper floors, you get the basement.” Ian said. “Got it.” They ran into the rotting building and separated. Andrea cautiously walked through the empty corridors of the cold basement. She searched every room for Erika. In about the 14th room she looked in, Andrea spotted a lifeless figure lying on a table. The floor was covered in blood. Andrea slowly approached the corpse. Once she realized who it was Andrea let out a horrified scream.

Ian heard Andrea scream. He ran as fast as he could down the 5th floor hallway. He accidently stepped on a rotted part of the floor and fell through the next floors and ended up at the 2nd level. A piece of wood was in his left upper arm. He decided quickly to leave it there in fear of bleeding out before he could reach his sisters. Ian got to his feet and felt a surge of pain coming from his right ankle. “Why now?!” Ian ignored the pain and ran hurriedly to the basement. He ran and ran until he turned a corner and there was a beacon of light. Entering that room brought more fear than anything else Ian had ever done in his entire life. Andrea was crouched on the floor. Her eyes bulged with fear, tears fell silently down her cheeks. She was covering her ears like she was trying to deny something. On a metal table in the middle of the room laid the corpse of his little sister. Markings were cut into her skin. Her abdomen had been cut open. Every organ in her body was crushed. Her eyes were as wide as Andrea’s and also full of fear. On her chest, something was written. “The end is near.” Said the dark, menacing voice of a grown man. Ian turned around to face the source of the voice. Standing in front of him was a small skeleton, over its face was a surgical mask. It walked toward Ian. The figure showed a scalpel in its right hand. The thing stabbed Andrea in the head and she fell to the ground, dead. Ian stared with horror at the skeleton as it approached him. The scalpel punctured Ian’s flesh. Ian dropped down and his vision went completely dark.

END

Credit To – Kyoko Kobayashi